A qualitative study investigating the potential for collaborative relationships between clinical psychologists and self-help groups in the field of mental health, and comparing clinical psychologists' views about self-help groups with self-help group members' views about the professional care system

This study explores the potential for collaborative relationships between clinical psychologists and self-help group members in the field of mental health, comparing the views of each group in relation to the other and their preferred relationships. The participant group comprised: (a) 16 clinical psychologists working in adult mental health services, twelve with previous contact with self-help groups and four without any previous contact and (b) fourteen self-help group members from various self-help groups for adults experiencing personal or emotional difficulties. Face to face interviews were conducted using semi-structured interview schedules. These were designed for each group to understand in-depth their views in relation to the other and about entering into collaborative relationships. Grounded theory and thematic analysis were used to analyse the interviews. Both groups perceived benefits from a collaboration but envisaged problematic relationships. Tension emerged as a major issue and was expressed in various ways. Three major dimensions of tension were similarity versus difference, power versus equality and resources versus deprivation. Managing the resulting tensions poses threats for both groups in collaborative relationships, particularly to their identity. Findings suggest that both groups need to find ways of managing their genuine differences without introducing threats into the relationship or preventing the full potential of collaborative relationships from being realised. The study's findings are critically evaluated and directions for future research in the field are discussed. Implications for clinical practice are addressed

Prevalence and Factors Associated with Undernutrition among Exclusively Breastfeeding Women in Arba Minch Zuria District, Southern Ethiopia: A Cross-sectional Community-Based Study

BACKGROUND: In developing countries, women are generally vulnerable to undernutrition especially during lactation because of inadequate nutrient intake. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of underweight, associated factors and mean dietary intake of selected nutrients among lactating women in Arba Minch Zuriya districts, Gamo Gofa, EthiopiaMETHODS: Multistage cluster sampling technique was used to select 478 exclusively breastfeeding women. Data was collected by using structured questionnaire, and weight and height measurements. Mean intake of calories, calcium, iron, zinc and vitamin A was assessed by using 24-hour recall method on subsample of 73 subjects and compared against the Ethiopian and African food composition tables. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between various independent variables and maternal underweight.RESULTS: The prevalence of underweight was 17.4%. Maternal underweight significantly associated with short birth to pregnancy interval, high workload burden, household food insecurity, less access to nutrition information and low level of women educational status.CONCLUSIONS: A significant proportion of women suffered from undernutrition and the mean intake of calories, calcium and zinc were below the recommended level for lactating women. Hence, to improve nutritional status of lactating women, strategies should focus on nutrition counseling, improvement in women’s access to labour saving technologies and effective household food security interventions.

Estimating Surface Soil Moisture in Simulated AVIRIS Spectra

Soil albedo is influenced by many physical and chemical constituents, with moisture being the most influential on the spectra general shape and albedo (Stoner and Baumgardner, 1981). Without moisture, the intrinsic or matrix reflectance of dissimilar soils varies widely due to differences in surface roughness, particle and aggregate sizes, mineral types, including salts, and organic matter contents. The influence of moisture on soil reflectance can be isolated by comparing similar soils in a study of the effects that small differences in moisture content have on reflectance. However, without prior knowledge of the soil physical and chemical constituents within every pixel, it is nearly impossible to accurately attribute the reflectance variability in an image to moisture or to differences in the physical and chemical constituents in the soil. The effect of moisture on the spectra must be eliminated to use hyperspectral imagery for determining minerals and organic matter abundances of bare agricultural soils. Accurate soil mineral and organic matter abundance maps from air- and space-borne imagery can improve GIS models for precision farming prescription, and managing irrigation and salinity. Better models of soil moisture and reflectance will also improve the selection of soil endmembers for spectral mixture analysis

Calcium: A Nutrient Deserving a Special Issue

Interest in calcium has continued since the 1980s when its role in promoting bone growth and retention was established in clinical trials of children and postmenopausal women. The human nutrition functions now attributed to calcium have expanded beyond bone health to include other conditions such as body weight maintenance. While most efforts have been focused on the findings that dietary intakes are low, there are emerging data on safety concerns of excess amounts. This Special Issue on calcium nutrition, spanning the lifecycle from critically ill neonates through to older adults, has been written by some of the leading researchers in this field

Vitamin D Status of Older Adults of Diverse Ancestry Living in the Greater Toronto Area

Background: Physiological and lifestyle factors put older adults at an increased risk of vitamin D insufficiency and resulting negative health outcomes. Here we explore the vitamin D status in a sample of community dwelling older adults of diverse ancestry living in the Greater Toronto area (GTA). Methods: Two hundred and twenty-four (224) adults over 60 years of age were recruited from the Square One Older Adult Centre, in Mississauga, Ontario. Circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations were measured from dried blood spot cards. Dietary and supplemental intakes of vitamin D were assessed via questionnaires. Skin pigmentation was assessed quantitatively by measuring melanin levels using a reflectometer. Results: The mean 25(OH)D concentration in the total sample was 82.4 nmol/L. There were no statistically significant differences in serum 25(OH)D concentrations, supplemental or dietary vitamin D intakes between the three major ancestral groups (East Asians, Europeans and South Asians). Females had significantly higher 25(OH)D concentrations than males (84.5 nmol/L vs. 72.2 nmol/L, p = 0.012). The proportion of participants with 25(OH)D concentrations below 50 nmol/L and 75 nmol/L were 12.1%, and 38.8%, respectively. The mean daily supplemental intake of vitamin D was 917 IU/day. Vitamin D intake from supplements was the major factor determining 25(OH)D concentrations (p \u3c 0.001). Conclusions: Mean concentration of 25(OH)D in a sample of older adults of diverse ancestry living in the GTA exceeded 80 nmol/L, and there were no significant differences in 25(OH)D levels between ancestral groups. These results sharply contrast with our recent study focused on young adults of diverse ancestry living in the same geographic area, in which we found substantially lower 25(OH)D concentrations (mean 39.5 nmol/L), low supplemental vitamin D intake (114 IU/day), and significant differences in 25(OH)D levels between ancestral groups. High daily intake of supplemental vitamin D in this sample of older adults likely accounts for such disparate findings with respect to the young adult sample

Access to the Waterfront: Issues and Solutions Across the Nation

A tide of demographic and economic change is moving through coastal towns, harbors, and communities throughout the United States. As the various regions and states confront the resulting conflicts over access to beaches, shorelines, and waterways, they are recognizing the need to identify and share tools and solutions. In December 2006, Maine Sea Grant, with support from Hawaii Sea Grant and an advisory committee from the National Sea Grant network and Coastal Zone Management programs, surveyed over 140 extension professionals, coastal managers, and other individuals to characterize the scope of coastal access issues nationwide and the effects on coastal communities, and to inventory solutions and tools being implemented by Sea Grant and other programs. Viewed through the eyes of survey respondents, there are no exclusively regional trends—access to and from the coast is a challenge in communities from Alaska and Hawaii to California, Oregon, and Washington, along the Gulf Coast states, around the Florida peninsula, and up the entire East Coast to Maine. With nowhere to swim and nowhere to land, recreational, commercial, and industrial users of the coast are competing for access

Tackling unemployment in China: state capacity and governance issues

This paper considers China's state capacity and changing governance as revealed through its policies to tackle unemployment. Despite high levels of growth, economic restructuring has resulted in rising unemployment over the last decade. The Chinese state has been able to manage job losses from state enterprises, demonstrating some state capacity in relation to this sector and some persistent command economy governance mechanisms. However both design and implementation of policies to compensate and assist particular groups among the unemployed have been shaped by weak state capacity in several other areas. First, capacity to gather accurate employment data is limited, meaning local and central governments do not have a good understanding of the extent and nature of unemployment. Second, the sustainability of supposedly mandatory unemployment insurance schemes is threatened by poor capacity to enforce participation. Third, poor central state capacity to ensure local governments implement policies effectively leads to poor unemployment insurance fund capacity, resulting in provision for only a narrow segment of the unemployed and low quality employment services. Although the adoption of unemployment insurance (and its extension to employers and employees in the private sector), the introduction of a Labour Contract Law in 2007, and the delivery of employment services by private businesses indicate a shift towards the use of new governance mechanisms based on entitlement, contract and private sector delivery of public-sector goods, that shift is undermined by poor state capacity in relation to some of these new mechanisms

Maximizing the relationship of yield to site-specific management zones with object-oriented segmentation of hyperspectral images

Quick and low cost delineation of site-specific management zones (SSMZ) would improve applications of precision agriculture. In this study, a new method for delineating SSMZ using object-oriented segmentation of airborne imagery was demonstrated. Three remote sensing domains—spectral, spatial, and temporal- are exploited to improve the SSMZ relationship to yield. Common vegetation indices (VI), and first and second derivatives ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]) from twelve airborne hyperspectral images of a cotton field for one season [Formula: see text] were used as input layers for object-oriented segmentation. The optimal combination of VI, SSMZ size and crop phenological stage were used as input variables for SSMZ delineation, determined by maximizing the correlation to segmented yield monitor maps. Combining narrow band vegetation indices and object-oriented segmentation provided higher correlation between VI and yield at SSMZ scale than that at pixel scale by reducing multi-resource data noise. VI performance varied during the cotton growing season, providing better SSMZ delineation at the beginning and middle of the season (days after planting (DAP) 66–143).The optimal scale determined for SSMZ delineation was approximately 240 polygons for the study field, but the method also provided flexibility enabling the setting of practical scales for a given field. For a defined scale, the optimal single phenological stage for the study field was near July 11 (DAP 87) early in the growing season. SSMZs determined from multispectral VIs at a single stage were also satisfactory; compared to hyperspectral indices, temporal resolution of multi-spectral data seems more important for SSMZ delineation

Leaf spectral clusters as potential optical leaf functional types within California ecosystems

Our ability to measure and map plant function at multiple ecological scales is critical for understanding current and future changes in Earth's ecosystems and the global carbon budget. Conventional plant functional types (cPFTs) based on a few productivity-related traits have been previously used to simplify and represent major differences in global plant functions, but more recent research has directly focused on the use of functional trait information. Still, sampling limitations have constrained efforts to truly understand the variance and covariance of functional traits globally. Reflectance spectra offer a fast, repeatable, simultaneous measurement of a wide variety of leaf functional traits and could be used to optically define leaf functional types. To evaluate this concept, we measured leaf reflectance from a wide range of species in a diverse set of ecosystems across central and northern California, including observations from multiple individuals, sites, and seasons. Using principal components analysis, we analyzed spectral variation in relation to categorical attributes such as species and cPFTs, as well as to a set of functional trait metrics calculated from the spectra. We found the first three principal components (PCs) to be weakly related to categorical attributes and more strongly related to spectrally-derived functional metrics. Each PC was more strongly associated with different portions of the spectrum and contained different functional information. We applied a hybrid clustering algorithm to the PC coordinates of the observations to define potential optical leaf functional types. Twelve spectral clusters were identified, and these did not correspond directly to either single cPFTs or species. However, each cluster had a unique functional metric profile. Clusters represented both inter- and intra-species and cPFT functional differences driven by taxonomy, trait evolution and environmental responses, demonstrating their value as optical leaf functional types and the value of the clustering approach used here for defining optical types from leaf spectra. Our findings support the notion that cPFTs do not adequately capture differences in leaf function. They demonstrate that spectral measurements can be used to improve both the definition of PFTs as well as our knowledge regarding the covariance of functional traits within these classes

Contract cheating websites: An analysis of prices, services, and persuasive techniques

Background It was recently reported that almost 1000 students across universities in New South Wales were implicated in a scandal involving a “contract cheating” website that ghost-wrote assessment pieces for a fee1. Other universities are not immune to this problem, and reports of contract cheating site use are appearing across the country. Contract cheating has negative implications for Universities and society-at-large, as cheating students who successfully graduate may pursue jobs as underqualified workers. Aims To better understand the phenomenon of contract cheating by examining the services offered and the persuasive techniques used by contract cheating websites. Design and Methods We conducted an environmental scan of contract cheating sites and compiled a list of the sites that are most frequently returned in site-related searches. We studied these sites for product coverage, domain ownerships, pricing structures, and persuasive techniques. Results We found assignment purchase was readily available at affordable prices in multiple formats and subjects. We also established a strong relationship between assignment cost and delivery time. The sites use a range of persuasive techniques, including assurances of quality and rapid provision of personalised support to users. Conclusions Contract cheating sites use a sophisticated business model that combines support, availability, and rapid production of products that appear to be personalised. They prey on the vulnerabilities of students and it is possible that naïve students may not even realise that using the sites is classed as cheating under university rules. Universities need to establish counter measures that include preventive education for both students and academics to discourage this form of cheating. References 1. Visentin, L. (2015). MyMaster essay cheating scandal: More than 70 university students face suspension. Sydney Morning Herald. [online] Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mymaster-essay-cheating-scandal-more-than-70-university-students-face-suspension-20150312-1425oe.html [Accessed 2 Jun. 2016] 2. Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2006). Eliminating the successor to plagiarism? Identifying the usage of contract cheating sites Proceedings of the Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education, The University of Queensland, Sept 28th to 30th, 2016, page X, ISBN Number 978-0-9871834-4-6