Predictors of psychological adjustment after bereavement.

Background: The impact of spousal bereavement on mental health varies among the widowed. More information is needed on factors influencing bereavement outcome. Method: We conducted a cross-sectional study on a sample of 216 widowed individuals. Initial non-response was high, with only 8% of all approached persons participating in the study. The influence of demographic and psychosocial predictors on four general outcome measures (depression, anxiety, somatization, and quality of life) and one loss-related outcome (complicated grief) was studied by means of backward linear regression analysis. Further analyses were performed to explore the possibility of a buffer effect. Results: Depressive symptomatology was best predicted by: age, duration of widowhood, perceived non-supportiveness, physical disorders, and mastery. The other outcome measures were predicted by the same predictors supplemented by gender and education. Mastery interacted with the number of physical disorders while perceived social support interacted with duration of widowhood and age. Conclusions: Enhancement of mastery should probably be one of the components of effective support for widowed individuals most vulnerable to psychiatric complications. The widowed could furthermore benefit from social support. Obviously, these suggestions need to be further examined in longitudinal research with more representative samples. © 2006 International Psychogeriatric Association

effectiviteit en werkzame mechanismen

This report reviews empirical evidence for the effectiveness of four police strategies as well as the conditions under which these strategies reach their effect.In deze researchsynthese is gezocht naar resultaten uit empirisch onderzoek over de effectiviteit van vier verschillende politiestrategieën, alsmede de omstandigheden waaronder deze strategieën effectief zijn. De volgende onderzoeksvragen komen in deze studie aan de orde: Wat is de actuele stand van de kennis over de effectiviteit van Comunity Policing? Wat is de actuele stand van de kennis over de effectiviteit van Third Party Policing? Wat is de actuele stand van de kennis over de effectiviteit van Hotspot policing? Wat is de actuele stand van de kennis over de effectiviteit van Problem Oriented Policing? Onder welke omstandigheden (of in welke context) worden de resultaten van effectieve politiestrategieën bereikt? Onder welke omstandigheden (of in welke context) blijft het effect van effectieve politiestrategieën uit? INHOUD: 1. Inleiding 2. Methode 3. Evidente politiestrategieën 4. Omstandigheden 5. Conclusies en suggesties voor vervolgonderzoe

Procesevaluatie van de gedragsinterventie Stay-a-way

Stay-a-way is a Dutch cognitive-behavioural intervention designed to help young offenders who have substance use problems. Before it can be determined whether the intended behavioural changes are achieved in Stay-a-way, a process evaluation is necessary to ensure that the intervention was delivered as intended.Stay-a-way richt zich op het motiveren tot vermindering van het middelengebruik, vergroten van het inzicht ten aanzien van middelengebruik en delictgedrag, en het voorkomen van middelenafhankelijkheid bij jongeren met een verhoogd risico daartoe. Het uiteindelijke doel is het verkleinen van de kans op recidive. Het programma is in juni 2011 erkend door de Erkenningscommissie Gedragsinterventies Justitie. Stay-a-way is bedoeld voor delinquenten van 12 tot en met 18 jaar, met een midden of hoog dynamisch risicoprofiel (DRP), en bij wie sprake is van (risico op) middelenmisbruik of -afhankelijkheid. In deze procesevaluatie wordt onderzocht of het programma Stay-a-way wordt uitgevoerd zoals beoogd in de programmahandleidingen. Daarnaast wordt nagegaan wat achterliggende oorzaken zijn van eventuele problemen in de uitvoering en welke verbeteringen in de implementatie dan wel interventie zelf gewenst zijn. Tot slot wordt op basis van het behalen van de procesevaluatie nagegaan in hoeverre een doeltreffendheidstudie - in termen van het behalen van programmadoelen - uitvoerbaar zal zijn

The effects of integrative reminiscence on depressive symptomatology and mastery of older adults.

A quasi-experimental (non-randomized) study was conducted to study the effects of a new intervention The story of your life that combines integrative reminiscence with narrative therapy. The program consists of seven sessions of two hours and one follow-up session after 8 weeks. It is directed at community-dwelling people of 55 years and older with mild to moderate depressive symptoms. After the intervention the participants showed significantly less depressive symptoms and higher mastery, also in comparison with a waiting-list control group. Demographic factors and initial levels of depressive symptomatology and mastery were not found to moderate the effects. The effects were maintained at 3 months after completion of the intervention. Although the new program was positively evaluated by the majority of the participants there is room for improvement. Adaptations should be made, and evaluated in a randomised controlled trial

Changing the classroom climate to lower the threshold for child abuse and neglect self-disclosure: a non-randomized cluster controlled trial

Health and self-regulatio

Evolutionary Trace Annotation Server: automated enzyme function prediction in protein structures using 3D templates

Summary:The Evolutionary Trace Annotation (ETA) Server predicts enzymatic activity. ETA starts with a structure of unknown function, such as those from structural genomics, and with no prior knowledge of its mechanism uses the phylogenetic Evolutionary Trace (ET) method to extract key functional residues and propose a function-associated 3D motif, called a 3D template. ETA then searches previously annotated structures for geometric template matches that suggest molecular and thus functional mimicry. In order to maximize the predictive value of these matches, ETA next applies distinctive specificity filters—evolutionary similarity, function plurality and match reciprocity. In large scale controls on enzymes, prediction coverage is 43% but the positive predictive value rises to 92%, thus minimizing false annotations. Users may modify any search parameter, including the template. ETA thus expands the ET suite for protein structure annotation, and can contribute to the annotation efforts of metaservers

Earthworm activity and availability for meadow birds is restricted in intensively managed grasslands

Earthworms are an important prey for the endangered meadow birds of northwest Europe. Although intensive grassland management with high manure inputs generally promotes earthworm abundance, it may reduce the effective food availability for meadow birds through desiccation of the topsoil, which causes earthworms to remain deeper in the soil. We studied the response of Red Worm Lumbricus rubellus, a detritivore, and Grey Worm Aporrectodea caliginosa, a geophage, to soil moisture profiles in the field and under experimental conditions. Surfacing earthworms were counted weekly in eight intensively managed grasslands (treated with high inputs of slurry by slit injection) with variable groundwater tables in the Netherlands. At each count, soil penetration resistance, soil moisture tension and groundwater level were measured, while air temperature and humidity were obtained from a nearby weather station. The response to variation in the vertical distribution of soil moisture was also experimentally studied in the two earthworm species. In the field, earthworms’ surfacing activity at night was negatively associated with soil moisture tension and positively by relative air humidity. Surprisingly, there was no effect of groundwater level; an important management variable in meadow bird conservation. Under experimental conditions, both L. rubellus and A. caliginosa moved to deeper soil layers (&gt;20 cm) in drier soil moisture treatments, avoiding the upper layer when moisture levels dropped below 30%. Synthesis and applications. We propose that in intensively managed grasslands with slurry application, topsoil desiccation reduces earthworm availability for meadow birds. This can be counteracted by keeping soil moisture tensions of the top soil above −15 kPa. We suggest that the late raising of groundwater tables in spring and the disturbance of the soil by slit injection of slurry increase topsoil desiccation. This decreases earthworm availability when it matters most for breeding meadow birds. Meadow bird conservation will benefit from revised manure application strategies that promote earthworm activity near or at the soil surface.</p

Family group decision-making for children at risk of abuse or neglect:A systematic review

Background: Capturing the scale of child maltreatment is difficult, but few wouldargue that it is anything less than a global problem which can affect victims’ healthand wellbeing throughout their life. Systems of detection, investigation and inter-vention for maltreated children are the subject of continued review and debate.Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of the formal use of family group decisionmaking (FGDM) in terms of child safety, permanence (of child's living situation), child and family wellbeing, and client satisfaction with the decisionmaking process. Search Methods: Both published and unpublished manuscripts were considered eligible for this review. Library staff from Scholarly Information (Brownless Biomedical Library)University of Melbourne, conducted 14 systematic bibliographic searches. Reviewers also checked the reference lists of all relevant articles obtained, and reference lists from previously published reviews. Researchers also handsearched 10 relevant journals. Selection Criteria: Study samples of children and young people, aged 0–18 years, who have been the subject of a child maltreatment investigation, were eligible for this review. Studies had to have used random assignment to create treatment and control groups; or,parallel cohorts in which groups were assessed at the same point in time. Any form ofFGDM, used in the course of a child maltreatment investigation or service, was considered an eligible intervention if it involved: a concerted effort to convene family, extended family, and community members; and professionals; and involved a planned meeting with the intention of working collaboratively to develop a plan for the safetywellbeing of children; with a focus on familycentred decisionmaking.Data Collection and Analysis: Two review authors independently extracted the necessary data from each study report, using the software application Covidence. Covi-dence highlighted discrepancies between data extracted by separate reviewers, further analysis was conducted until a consensus was reached on what data were to be included in the review. Two authors also independently conducted analyses of study bias. Main Results: Eighteen eligible study reports were found, providing findings from15 studies, involving 18 study samples. Four were randomised controlled trials(RCTs; N = 941) the remainder employed quasiexperimental designs with parallel cohorts. Three of the quasiexperimental studies used prospective evaluations of non-randomly assigned comparison groups (N = 4,368); the rest analysed preexisting survey data, child protection case files or court data (N = 91,786). The total number of children studied was 97,095. The longest postintervention followup period w as 3 years. Only four studies were conducted outside the United States; two in Canada and one in Sweden and one in the Netherlands. The review authors judged there to be a moderate or high risk of bias, in most of the bias categories considered. Only one study referenced a study protocol. Eleven of the fifteen studies were found to have a high likelihood of selection bias (73%). Baseline imbalance bias was deemed to be unlikely in just two studies, and highly likely in nine (60%). Confounding variables were judged to be highly likely in four studies (27%), and contamination bias was judged highly likely in five studies (33%). Researcher allegiance was rated as a high risk in three studies (20%)where the authors argued for the benefits of FGDM within the article, but without supporting references to an appropriate evidence base. Bias from differential diagnostic activity, and funding source bias, were less evident across the evidence reviewed. This review combines findings for eight FGDM outcome measures. Findings from RCTs were available for four outcomes, but none of these, combined in metaanalysis or otherwise, were statistically significant. Combining findings from the quasiexperiment al studies provided one statistically significant finding, for the reunification of families, favouring FGDM. Ten effect sizes, from nine quasiexperimental studies, were synthesised to examine effects on the reunification of children with their family or the effect on maintaining inhome care; in short, the effect FGDM has on keeping families together. There was a high level of heterogeneity between the studies (I2=92%). The overall effect, based on the combination of these studies was positive, small, but statistically significant: odds ratio (OR), 1.69 (confidence interval [CI], 1.03, 2.78). Holinshead's(2017) RCT also measured the maintenance on inhomecareandreportedasimilarresult: OR, 1.54 (CI, −0.19, 0.66) not statistically significant. The overall effect for continued maltreatment from metaanalysis of five quasiexperimental studies, favoured the FGDM group, but was not statistically significant: OR, 0.73 (CI, 0.48, 1.11).The overall combined effect for continued maltreatment, reported in RCTs, favoured the control group. But it was not statistically significant: OR, 1.29 (CI, 0.85, 1.98). Five effect sizes, from nonrandomised studies, were synthesised to examine the effect of FGDM on the number of kinship placements. The overall positive effect based on the combination of these studies was negligible: OR, 1.31 (CI, 0.94, 1.82). Metaanalysis was not possible with other outcomes. FGDM's role in expediting case processing and case closures was investigated in six studies, three of which reported findings favouring FGDM, and three which favoured the comparison group. Children's placement stability was reported in two studies: an RCT's findings favoured the control, while a quasiexperimental study's findings favoured FGDM. Three studies reported findings for service user satisfaction: one had only 30 participants, one reported a statistically significant positive effect for FGDM, the other found no difference between FGDM and a control. Engagement with support services was reported in two studies; neither reported statistically significant finding