Scholarship Reconsidered, Scholarship Assessed: What Boyer\u27s Report Means for Communication

Introduction to the Special Topic

Influencing side-effects to medicinal treatments : a systematic review of brief psychological interventions

Background: Nocebo effects contribute to a large proportion of the non-specific side-effects attributed to medications and are mainly generated through negative expectations. Previous reviews show that interventions designed to change participants' expectations have a small effect on pain experience. They are also effective in reducing side-effects caused by exposure to sham medications. To date, there has been no review of the influence of such interventions on symptoms attributed to real medicinal treatments. Objective: To review studies using a randomized controlled design testing the effect of brief psychological interventions compared to usual practice on the side-effect experience to medicinal treatments in healthy volunteers and patients. Methods: We searched Web of Science, Scopus, Medline, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, and Cochrane CENTRAL using search terms for randomized controlled trials along with “nocebo,” “placebo effect,” “medication,” “side-effects,” and associated terms. Studies were eligible if they studied a human population, used an active medicine, delivered a brief psychological intervention intended to influence side-effect reporting compared to usual care or no intervention, and used a randomized controlled design. Because of the heterogeneity of the literature we used a narrative synthesis and assessed evidence quality using the GRADE approach. Results: Our database search and supplementary search of the reference sections of included studies retrieved 50,140 citations. After screening, full text review and manual reference searches, 27 studies were included. The quality of the studies and evidence was judged to be low. The strongest and most consistent effect came from omitting side-effect information, although surprisingly de-emphasizing side-effects did not affect side-effect reporting. Other techniques, including priming, distraction, and altering the perception of branding, produced mixed results. Conclusion: Brief psychological interventions can influence side-effect reporting to active medications. Research is currently investigating new ways to de-emphasize side-effects whilst still upholding informed consent, but larger confirmatory trials with suitable control groups are needed. The literature in this area would be improved by more detailed reporting of studies

What College Students Should Know and Be Able to Do

This article discusses the issue of college students\u27 communications skill and knowledge. The end of the 20th century provides educators and administrators with an opportunity to reflect on how well they have accomplished their goals. The communication discipline, since its beginning, has been concerned with skill achievement and knowledge generation. But not until the latter part of the century have scholars and national associations attempted to identify and agree upon what it is that students should know and be able to do. These efforts reflect maturity of the discipline and generation of a body of knowledge that allows such conclusions with increased certainty. We have recently written about the nature and importance of communication skills training and knowledge development at the college level, arguing that instruction should be required for all college students. College students need to develop skills, accumulate knowledge, and increase motivation to communicate in effective and appropriate ways. Basic skills are best taught by communication faculty, whereas advanced skills might be taught jointly with faculty from the major discipline. College and community college graduates need to be able to communicate effectively

Designed for Disease: The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes

Examines the link between a community's retail food environment -- the ratio of fast-food outlets and convenience stores to grocery stores and produce vendors, with income level as a factor -- and the prevalence of adult obesity and diabetes

Maine County Justice Data Reports

All data included in the criminal justice highlights and the corresponding charts and tables was derived from the 2008 Maine Crime and Justice Data Book and the Maine Department of Public Safety and the Maine Department of Corrections Juvenile Recidivism Report

Key Culture-general Interactional Skills for Military Personnel

AbstractThere is increasing awareness in the U.S. Department of Defense and across the service branches that members of a twenty-first century military need to be able to communicate effectively with adversaries as well as allies, strangers as well as partners in multinational operations. We argue it is preferable to provide training that will be “culture-general,” preparing military personnel to succeed wherever they are deployed. Drawing on prior research findings and new field research at Army and Marine Corps role play-based training sites, this paper outlines interactional skills that are useful in any cross-cultural situation, but have particular utility in military contexts, across various cultures, languages, and contexts. We discuss three overarching sets of skills that aid military personnel in achieving more successful communication with counterparts from a different background: (1) observing and adapting to unfamiliar norms, (2) building rapport, and (3) recovering from trouble in interaction

Diagnosing Cysts With Correlation Coefficient Images From 2‐Dimensional Freehand Elastography

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135592/1/jum20072691201.pd

Changes in mumps virus neurovirulence phenotype associated with quasispecies heterogeneity

AbstractMumps virus is a highly neurotropic virus with evidence of central nervous system invasion (CNS) in approximately half of all cases of infection. In countries where live attenuated mumps virus vaccines were introduced, the number of mumps cases declined dramatically; however, recently, the safety of some vaccine strains has been questioned. For example, one of the most widely used vaccines, the Urabe AM9 strain, was causally associated with meningitis, leading to the withdrawal of this product from the market in several countries. This highlights the need for a better understanding of the attenuation process and the identification of markers of attenuation. To this end, we further attenuated the Urabe AM9 strain by serial passage in cell culture and compared the complete nucleotide sequences of the parental and passaged viruses. Interestingly, despite a dramatic decrease in virus virulence (as assayed in rats), the only genomic changes were in the form of changes in the level of genetic heterogeneity at specific genome sites, i.e., either selection of one nucleotide variant at positions where the starting material exhibited nucleotide heterogeneity or the evolution of an additional nucleotide to create a heterogenic site. This finding suggests that changes in the level of genetic heterogeneity at specific genome sites can have profound neurovirulence phenotypic consequences and, therefore, caution should be exercised when evaluating genetic markers of virulence or attenuation based only on a consensus sequence