Women: The Ignored Majority

The major thrust of psychiatric rehabilitation is to provide skill development and supports enabling individuals to function in their roles of choice. The model thus contains an underlying assumption that meaningful life roles are “chosen” roles. It therefore may tend to overlook the impact on persons’ lives of the roles that they are given. These given or ascribed roles include those based on gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class. Self-definitions, behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, and values are all likely to be structured within such social roles, which can also serve as important social identities (Oyserman & Markus, 1993). In spite of increased awareness of gender as an issue, in current Western culture, gendered roles are those for which there are, perhaps, the least latitude. Yet, as we shall show, the field of psychiatric rehabilitation has paid little attention to the subject of gender differences. We reviewed the 1992-93 volumes of the Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal and found that only 15 out of a total of 21 studies, which reported information on individuals who were recipients of psychiatric rehabilitation services, presented the gender composition 171 of the study sample at all. Furthermore, of these articles, less than half (N = 6) tested for gender differences (40%). Thus, only 28% of the articles could inform their readers about whether men and women differed on the study results. It seems likely that when differences between women and men are not even examined, the result is likely to be a service model that is theoretically androgenous, but in actuality male-biased. Again, the psychiatric rehabilitation literature on service approaches bears this out. The primary domain considered in services is vocational. There has been some consideration of the generic topic of rehabilitation in housing choices. However, those domains where women are considered to occupy primary roles, e.g., the family, parenting, and interpersonal relationships (Miller & Stiver, 1993), have received scant attention (Oyserman, Mowbray & Zemencuk, 1996). This lack of concern for possible gender differences in psychiatric rehabilitation overall and especially to those issues of primary concern to women, is not unique to this field, but may be seen to reflect the perspective of the entire psychiatric/mental health establishment. For decades, feminist scholars and advocates have decried sex bias in the treatment system. Early research by Braverman et al. (1970) established the negative perceptions of women held by clinicians and the double bind in which women were placed, in that the expected characteristics of a “healthy” adult varied markedly from those for an adult female. Similarly, Chesler (1972) contended that because gendered roles were so proscriptive of mental health, women were in double jeopardy; those who overconformed to female sex roles were likely to be viewed as mentally ill as well as those who violated “appropriate” gendered role expectations. Additionally, clinical and practice research has found gender biases in diagnosis (Loring & Powell, 1988) and in treatment, which serve to demean women (as dependent, passive, seductive, hysterical, etc.), foster traditional and limited sex roles, and respond to women patients as sex objects (Hankin, 1990). An awareness of how such biases might affect services to women with long-term psychiatric disabilities is of more recent origin. Test and Berlin (1981) were apparently the first to point out that the “chronically mentally ill are regarded as almost genderless ...” (p. 136). Although the research literature was limited, their review was able to identify the existence of significant gender differences in numerous domains of life functioning: instrumental roles, social and sexual roles, marital and family roles, and physical health. Several authors have elaborated on the problems raised in Test and Berlin’s pivotal article (e.g., Bachrach, 1984; Bachrach, 1985, Bachrach & Nadelson, 1988). However, systematic attention to gender differences is still clearly lacking. For example, a 20-year metaevaluation of published treatment effectiveness studies involving aftercare services (Feis, cited in Mowbray & Benedek, 1988) found that 22% of studies did not indicate the gender composition of their sample and another 15% contained all male subjects. Over all the studies which did report gender ratios, there was a predominance of male participants (54.8%). A more recent review of 1992 issues of the American Journal of Psychiatry found that while a large proportion ( 84%) reported on the gender composition of their samples, less than half (46/99) tested for gender differences. Considering the significance of the topic of gender differences and the state of our practice ignoring women’s special needs, more writing, discussion, and training are clearly mandated concerning psychiatric rehabilitation for women. In this article, we will review the most recent literature concerning women with long-term, severe mental illness. The review has been organized to cover the major topics earlier identified by Test and Berlin (1981) regarding role functioning. We will begin with a summary of gender differences in the target population on demographics and clinical characteristics. We end our review with a discussion of ways to improve both the treatment and knowledge bases

Zhx2 (Zinc Fingers and Homeoboxes 2) Regulates Major Urinary Protein Gene Expression in the Mouse Liver

The mouse major urinary proteins (Mups) are encoded by a large family of highly related genes clustered on chromosome 4. Mups, synthesized primarily and abundantly in the liver and secreted through the kidneys, exhibit male-biased expression. Mups bind a variety of volatile ligands; these ligands, and Mup proteins themselves, influence numerous behavioral traits. Although urinary Mup protein levels vary between inbred mouse strains, this difference is most pronounced in BALB/cJ mice, which have dramatically low urinary Mup levels; this BALB/cJ trait had been mapped to a locus on chromosome 15. We previously identified Zhx2 (zinc fingers and homeoboxes 2) as a regulator of numerous liver-enriched genes. Zhx2 is located on chromosome 15, and a natural hypomorphic mutation in the BALB/cJ Zhx2 allele dramatically reduces Zhx2 expression. Based on these data, we hypothesized that reduced Zhx2 levels are responsible for lower Mup expression in BALB/cJ mice. Using both transgenic and knock-out mice along with in vitro assays, our data show that Zhx2 binds Mup promoters and is required for high levels of Mup expression in the adult liver. In contrast to previously identified Zhx2 targets that appear to be repressed by Zhx2, Mup genes are positively regulated by Zhx2. These data identify Zhx2 as a novel regulator of Mup expression and indicate that Zhx2 activates as well as represses expression of target genes

Experimental Observation of Resonance Effects in Intensely Irradiated Atomic Clusters

We have resolved the expansion of intensely irradiated atomic clusters on a femtosecond time scale. These data show evidence for resonant heating, similar to resonance absorption, in spherical cluster plasmas

Nondestructive monitoring of ageing of Alkali resistant Glass fiber reinforced cement (GRC)

Glass fiber reinforced cement (GRC) is a composite material made of portland cement mortar and alkali resistant (AR) fibers. AR fibers are added to portland cement to give the material additional flexural strength and toughness. However, ageing deteriorates the fibers and as a result the improvement in the mechanical properties resulted from the fiber addition disappears as the structure becomes old. The aim of this paper is monitoring GRC ageing by nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques. Two different NDE techniques (1) nonlinear impact resonant acoustic spectroscopy analysis and (2) propagating ultrasonic guided waves are used for this purpose. Both techniques revealed a reduction of the nonlinear behavior in the GRC material with ageing. Specimens are then loaded to failure to obtain their strength and stiffness. Compared to the un-aged specimens, the aged specimens are found to exhibit more linear behavior, have more stiffness but less toughness. Finally, undisturbed fragments on the fracture surface from mechanical tests are inspected under the electron microscope, to understand the fundamental mechanisms that cause the change in the GRC behavior with ageing.The authors want to acknowledge the financial support of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion MICINN, Spain, and FEDER funding (Ondacem Project: BIA 2010-19933) and BES-2011-044624. Also thanks to PAID-02-11 Program from Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Eiras Fernández, JN.; Kundu, T.; Bonilla Salvador, MM.; Paya Bernabeu, JJ. (2013). Nondestructive monitoring of ageing of Alkali resistant Glass fiber reinforced cement (GRC). Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation - NDT and E International. 32:300-314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-013-0183-yS30031432Bentur, A., Fibre, M.S.: Reinforced Cementitious Composites, 2nd edn. Taylor and Francis, New York (2007)Purnell, P., Short, N.R., Page, C.L.: A static fatigue model for the durability of glass fibre reinforced cement. J. 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Enhanced ionization in small rare gas clusters

A detailed theoretical investigation of rare gas atom clusters under intense short laser pulses reveals that the mechanism of energy absorption is akin to {\it enhanced ionization} first discovered for diatomic molecules. The phenomenon is robust under changes of the atomic element (neon, argon, krypton, xenon), the number of atoms in the cluster (16 to 30 atoms have been studied) and the fluency of the laser pulse. In contrast to molecules it does not dissappear for circular polarization. We develop an analytical model relating the pulse length for maximum ionization to characteristic parameters of the cluster

Multimodal analysis of GRC ageing process using Nonlinear Impact Resonance acoustic Spectroscopy

Glass fibre Reinforced Cement (GRC) is a composite material composed of Portland cement mortar with low w/c (water/cement) ratio and high proportion of glass fibres. This material suffers from the ageing process by losing its strength with time because of its exposure to severe weather conditions. Ageing process damages the fibre surface and decreases the mechanical properties of the structural components made of this material. It reduces the elastic modulus and toughness of GRC. Fracture toughness is traditionally measured by four point bending tests. In a previous study by the authors it was observed that ageing related deterioration or damage of GRC could be monitored by Non Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques such as Non-linear Impact Resonance Acoustic Spectroscopy (NIRAS) and other ultrasonic techniques. The scope of this paper is to corroborate previous investigations and offer early damage detection capability by generating more experimental data points by optimizing location of the point of strike and thus generating more resonance vibration modes in NIRAS tests.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion MICINN, Spain, and FEDER funding (Ondacem Project: BIA 2010-19933).Genovés Gómez, V.; Riestra García-San Miguel, C.; Borrachero Rosado, MV.; Eiras Fernández, JN.; Kundu, T.; Paya Bernabeu, JJ. (2015). Multimodal analysis of GRC ageing process using Nonlinear Impact Resonance acoustic Spectroscopy. Composites Part B: Engineering. 76:105-111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2015.02.020S1051117

Aerodynamic analysis via foreground segmentation

Results from wind-tunnel testing of athletes cannot always be repeated on the track, but reducing aerodynamic drag is critical for racing. Drag force is highly correlated with an athlete's frontal area, so in this paper we describe a system to segment an athlete from the very challenging background found in a standard racing environment. Given an accurate segmentation, a front-on view, and the athlete's position (for scaling), one can effectively count the pixels and thereby measure the moving area. The method described does not rely on alteration of the track lighting, background, or athlete's appearance. An image-matting algorithm more used in the film industry is combined with an innovative model-based pre-process to allow the whole measurement to be automated. Area results have better than one percent error compared to handextracted measurements over a representative period, while frame-by-frame measurements capture expected cyclic variation. A near real-time implementation permits rapid iteration of aerodynamic experiments during training

Simulation of ultra-fast dynamics effects in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering of gas-phase water

Resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering maps for the water molecule are simulated by combining quantum chemical calculations of X-ray spectroscopy with ab initio molecular dynamics. The resonant inelastic scattering intensity is computed using the Kramers–Heisenberg formalism, which accounts for channel interference and polarization anisotropy. Algebraic diagrammatic construction and density functional theory-based approaches for the calculation of the X-ray transition energies and transition dipole moments of the absorption and emission processes are explored. Conformational sampling of both ground and core-excited intermediate states allows the effects of ultrafast dynamics on the computed maps to be studied. Overall, it is shown how resonant inelastic scattering maps can be simulated with a computationally efficient protocol that can be extended to investigate larger systems

A new model for non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae middle ear infection in the Junbo mutant mouse

Acute otitis media, inflammation of the middle ear, is the most common bacterial infection in children and, as a consequence, is the most common reason for antimicrobial prescription to this age group. There is currently no effective vaccine for the principal pathogen involved, non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi). The most frequently used and widely accepted experimental animal model of middle ear infection is in chinchillas, but mice and gerbils have also been used. We have established a robust model of middle ear infection by NTHi in the Junbo mouse, a mutant mouse line that spontaneously develops chronic middle ear inflammation in specific pathogen-free conditions. The heterozygote Junbo mouse (Jbo/+) bears a mutation in a gene (Evi1, also known as Mecom) that plays a role in host innate immune regulation; pre-existing middle ear inflammation promotes NTHi middle ear infection. A single intranasal inoculation with NTHi produces high rates (up to 90%) of middle ear infection and bacterial titres (104-105 colony-forming units/µl) in bulla fluids. Bacteria are cleared from the majority of middle ears between day 21 and 35 post-inoculation but remain in approximately 20% of middle ears at least up to day 56 post-infection. The expression of Toll-like receptor-dependent response cytokine genes is elevated in the middle ear of the Jbo/+ mouse following NTHi infection. The translational potential of the Junbo model for studying antimicrobial intervention regimens was shown using a 3 day course of azithromycin to clear NTHi infection, and its potential use in vaccine development studies was shown by demonstrating protection in mice immunized with killed homologous, but not heterologous, NTHi bacteria