Choosing a physician depends on how you want to feel: The role of ideal affect in health-related decision making

When given a choice, how do people decide which physician to select? Although significant research has demonstrated that how people actually feel (their “actual affect”) influences their health care preferences, how people ideally want to feel (their “ideal affect”) may play an even greater role. Specifically, we predicted that people trust physicians whose affective characteristics match their ideal affect, which leads people to prefer those physicians more. Consistent with this prediction, the more participants wanted to feel high arousal positive states on average ([ideal HAP]; e.g., excited), the more likely they were to select a HAP-focused physician. Similarly, the more people wanted to feel low arousal positive states on average ([ideal LAP]; e.g., calm), the more likely they were to select a LAP-focused physician. Also as predicted, these links were mediated by perceived physician trustworthiness. Notably, while participants’ ideal affect predicted physician preference, actual affect (how much people actually felt HAP and LAP on average) did not. These findings suggest that people base even serious decisions on how they want to feel and highlight the importance of considering ideal affect in models of decision making, person perception, and patient physician communication

CJCheck Stage 1: development and testing of a checklist for reporting community juries – Delphi process and analysis of studies published in 1996–2015

Background Opportunities for community members to actively participate in policy development are increasing. Community/citizen's juries (CJs) are a deliberative democratic process aimed to illicit informed community perspectives on difficult topics. But how comprehensive these processes are reported in peer-reviewed literature is unknown. Adequate reporting of methodology enables others to judge process quality, compare outcomes, facilitate critical reflection and potentially repeat a process. We aimed to identify important elements for reporting CJs, to develop an initial checklist and to review published health and health policy CJs to examine reporting standards. Design Using the literature and expertise from CJ researchers and policy advisors, a list of important CJ reporting items was suggested and further refined. We then reviewed published CJs within the health literature and used the checklist to assess the comprehensiveness of reporting. Results CJCheck was developed and examined reporting of CJ planning, juror information, procedures and scheduling. We screened 1711 studies and extracted data from 38. No studies fully reported the checklist items. The item most consistently reported was juror numbers (92%, 35/38), while least reported was the availability of expert presentations (5%, 2/38). Recruitment strategies were described in 66% of studies (25/38); however, the frequency and timing of deliberations was inadequately described (29%, 11/38). Conclusions Currently CJ publications in health and health policy literature are inadequately reported, hampering their use in policy making. We propose broadening the CJCheck by creating a reporting standards template in collaboration with international CJ researchers, policy advisors and consumer representatives to ensure standardized, systematic and transparent reporting.RT was supported by a NHMRC Screening and Test Evaluation Program (STEP) Grant (#633033). RS was supported by a Bond University Vice Chancellor’s Research Grant Scheme. CD, SMC and LR received funding support from NHMRC Project Grant (#1023197). CD received funding support from a NHMRC Project Grant (#1083079). SMC is funded through NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (#1032963). JMS was funded by an Australian National Preventive Health Agency Fellowship (20STR2013F) and an NHMRC Capacity Building Grant (565501)

Assessing Coastal Plain Risk Indices for Subsurface Phosphorus Loss

Phosphorus (P) Index evaluations are critical to advancing nutrient management planning in the United States. However, most assessments until now have focused on the risks of P losses in surface runoff. In artificially drained agroecosystems of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, subsurface flow is the predominant mode of P transport, but its representation in most P Indices is often inadequate. We explored methods to evaluate the subsurface P risk routines of five P Indices from Delaware, Maryland (two), Virginia, and North Carolina using available water quality and soils datasets. Relationships between subsurface P risk scores and published dissolved P loads in leachate (Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina) and ditch drainage (Maryland) were directionally correct and often statistically significant, yet the brevity of the observation periods (weeks to several years) and the limited number of sampling locations precluded a more robust assessment of each P Index. Given the paucity of measured P loss data, we then showed that soil water extractable P concentrations at depths corresponding with the seasonal high water table (WEPWT) could serve as a realistic proxy for subsurface P losses in ditch drainage. The associations between WEPWT and subsurface P risk ratings reasonably mirrored those obtained with sparser water quality data. As such, WEPWT is seen as a valuable metric that offers interim insight into the directionality of subsurface P risk scores when water quality data are inaccessible. In the long term, improved monitoring and modeling of subsurface P losses clearly should enhance the rigor of future P Index appraisals

The Iowa Homemaker vol.7, no.6

The Place of the Child by Anna E. Richardson, page 1 Liver for My Hotspur by Jeanette Beyer McCay, page 2 Christmas Problems for the Home Economics Class by Marcia E. Turner, page 3 Taking the Drudgery Out of Ironing Day by Edith Carse, page 4 Home Life in Uruguay by Frances Thomas, page 5 Girls’ 4-H Page, page 6 Looking Ahead in the State Association by Vera L. Mintle, page 8 Do We Need Help in Household Buying? by Frances A. Sims, page 10 Who’s There and Where by Dr. Lillian B. Storms, page 1

Bridging Alone: Religious Conservatism, Marital Homogamy, and Voluntary Association Membership

This study characterizes social insularity of religiously conservative American married couples by examining patterns of voluntary associationmembership. Constructing a dataset of 3938 marital dyads from the second wave of the National Survey of Families and Households, the author investigates whether conservative religious homogamy encourages membership in religious voluntary groups and discourages membership in secular voluntary groups. Results indicate that couples’ shared affiliation with conservative denominations, paired with beliefs in biblical authority and inerrancy, increases the likelihood of religious group membership for husbands and wives and reduces the likelihood of secular group membership for wives, but not for husbands. The social insularity of conservative religious groups appears to be reinforced by homogamy—particularly by wives who share faith with husbands

Pericyte Migration: A Novel Mechanism of Pericyte Loss in Experimental Diabetic Retinopathy

OBJECTIVE— The mechanism underlying pericyte loss during incipient diabetic retinopathy remains controversial. Hyperglycemia induces angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) transcription, which modulates capillary pericyte coverage. In this study, we assessed loss of pericyte subgroups and the contribution of Ang-2 to pericyte migration

Bacterial microevolution and the Pangenome

The comparison of multiple genome sequences sampled from a bacterial population reveals considerable diversity in both the core and the accessory parts of the pangenome. This diversity can be analysed in terms of microevolutionary events that took place since the genomes shared a common ancestor, especially deletion, duplication, and recombination. We review the basic modelling ingredients used implicitly or explicitly when performing such a pangenome analysis. In particular, we describe a basic neutral phylogenetic framework of bacterial pangenome microevolution, which is not incompatible with evaluating the role of natural selection. We survey the different ways in which pangenome data is summarised in order to be included in microevolutionary models, as well as the main methodological approaches that have been proposed to reconstruct pangenome microevolutionary history

The microscope for the Beagle 2 lander on ESA's Mars Express

The microscope for the Beagle 2 lander on Mars Express will provide 4 µm per pixel images of rock and soil samples. The instrument is described and test results are presented