Moral disengagement as a self-regulatory process in sexual harassment perpetration at work: A preliminary conceptualisation.

Sexual harassment is recognized as a widespread form of aggressive behavior with severe consequences for victims and organizations. Yet, contemporary research and theory focusing on the motives and cognition of sexual harassment perpetrators continues to be sparse and underdeveloped. This review examines the motivations that underlie sexual harassment and the self-exonerating cognitions and behavioral techniques employed by perpetrators of sexual harassment. In this paper, we emphasize the need to understand the cognitive processes that disinhibit motivated individuals to sexually harass. Utilizing social cognitive theory as a foundation, we propose that cognitive mechanisms of moral disengagement are likely to have an important etiological role in the facilitation and reinforcement of sexually harassing behavior. A preliminary conceptual framework is presented, suggesting novel ways in which each of the various moral disengagement mechanisms may contribute to sexual harassment perpetration.N/

Current understandings of sex-based harassment and stalking perpetration

Sex-based harassment and stalking are highly prevalent forms of interpersonal aggression that often result in an array of detrimental and severe impacts for victims. In this chapter, we examine some of the common challenges associated with defining and legislating against sex-based harassment and stalking, as well as considering existing classifications of behaviour and perpetrator motivations. In doing so, our aim is to highlight the complex nature of these forms of interpersonal aggression and the difficulties associated with ascertaining boundaries between ‘reasonable’ and ‘unreasonable’ behaviour. We proceed to discuss the importance of appropriately targeted evidence-based educational campaigns to increase public awareness and understanding regarding the reality of sex-based harassment and stalking. Our conclusion is that increased education will enable greater recognition of the diverse behaviours that constitute sex-based harassment and stalking, so that people are better able to identify both their own and others’ victimisation experiences

Wikipedia as an encyclopaedia of life

In his 2003 essay E O Wilson outlined his vision for an “encyclopaedia of life” comprising “an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth”, each page containing “the scientific name of the species, a pictorial or genomic presentation of the primary type specimen on which its name is based, and a summary of its diagnostic traits.” Although the “quiet revolution” in biodiversity informatics has generated numerous online resources, including some directly inspired by Wilson's essay (e.g., "http://ispecies.org":http://ispecies.org, "http://www.eol.org":http://www.eol.org), we are still some way from the goal of having available online all relevant information about a species, such as its taxonomy, evolutionary history, genomics, morphology, ecology, and behaviour. While the biodiversity community has been developing a plethora of databases, some with overlapping goals and duplicated content, Wikipedia has been slowly growing to the point where it now has over 100,000 pages on biological taxa. My goal in this essay is to explore the idea that, largely independent of the efforts of biodiversity informatics and well-funded international efforts, Wikipedia ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) has emerged as potentially the best platform for fulfilling E O Wilson’s vision

Adaptation of the DEMQOL-Proxy for routine use in care homes: a cross sectional study of the reliability and validity of DEMQOL-CH

Objective: To investigate the routine use of a measure of quality of life (QoL) in care homes and assess its psychometric properties when used by care staff Design: A cross-sectional two-phase study. Setting and participants: Data were collected from care staff in seven care homes in East Sussex, England. Method: Phase 1: The ability of care staff from two care homes to use the DEMQOL-Proxy without interviewer-administration was assessed using agreement analysis between a selfand interviewer-administered version of the instrument. Based on these findings, DEMQOLProxy was adapted into a new version, DEMQOL-CH, for use as a self-administered instrument in care homes. We assessed agreement between the new DEMQOL-CH and DEMQOL-Proxy to ensure DEMQOL-CH was used correctly. Phase 2: A preliminary assessment of the psychometric properties of DEMQOL-CH when used routinely was completed in a further five care homes. Results: Phase 1: Nineteen care staff from two care homes completed QoL measurements for residents. Systematic error was identified when staff self-completed the DEMQOL-Proxy without an interviewer. We modified the DEMQOL-Proxy to create DEMQOL-CH; this reduced the error, producing a version that could be used more accurately by care staff. Phase 2: Eleven care staff from five care homes rated resident QoL routinely. DEMQOL-CH showed acceptable psychometric properties with satisfactory reliability and validity and a clear factor structure. Conclusions: The research presents positive preliminary data on the acceptability, feasibility and performance of routine QoL measurement in care homes using an adapted version of DEMQOL-Proxy, the DEMQOL-CH. Results provide evidence to support the concept that routine measurement of QoL may be possible in care homes. Research is needed to refine and test the methodology and instrument further, and to explore the potential for benefits to residents, staff, and care homes in larger and more representative populations

Psychometric properties and feasibility of use of dementia specific quality of life instruments for use in care settings: a systematic review

Background: Over 400,000 people live in care home settings in the UK. One way of understanding and improving the quality of care provided is by measuring and understanding the quality of life (QoL) of those living in care homes. This review aimed to identify and examine the psychometric properties including feasibility of use of dementia-specific QoL measures developed or validated for use in care settings. Design: Systematic review. Methods: Instruments were identified using four electronic databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and CINAHL) and lateral search techniques. Searches were conducted in January 2017. Studies which reported on the development and/or validation of dementia specific QoL instruments for use in care settings written in English were eligible for inclusion. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the COSMIN checklist. Feasibility was assessed using a checklist developed specifically for the review. Results: Six hundred and sixteen articles were identified in the initial search. After de-duplication, screening and further lateral searches were performed, 25 studies reporting on 9 dementia-specific QoL instruments for use in care home settings were included in the review. Limited evidence was available on the psychometric properties of many instruments identified. Higher-quality instruments were not easily accessible or had low feasibility of use. Conclusions: Few high-quality instruments of QoL validated for use in care home settings are readily or freely available. This review highlights the need to develop a well-validated measure of QoL for use within care homes that is also feasible and accessible

Tuning magnetic frustration on the diamond lattice of the A-site magnetic spinels CoAl2−x_{2-x}Gax_xO4_4: Lattice expansion and site disorder

The spinels CoB$_2$O$_4$ with magnetic Co$^{2+}$ ions on the diamond lattice A site can be frustrated because of competing near-neighbor ($J_1$) and next-near neighbor ($J_2$) interactions. Here we describe attempts to tune the relative strengths of these interactions by substitution on the non-magnetic B-site. The system we employ is CoAl$_{2-x}$Ga$_x$O$_4$, where Al is systematically replaced by the larger Ga, ostensibly on the B site. As expected, Ga substitution expands the lattice, resulting in Co atoms on the A-site being pushed further from one other and thereby weakening magnetic interactions. In addition, Ga distributes between the B and the A site in a concentration dependent manner displacing an increasing amount of Co from the A site with increasing $x$. This increased inversion, which is confirmed by neutron diffraction studies carried out at room temperature, affects magnetic ordering very significantly, and changes the nature of the ground state. Modeling of the magnetic coupling illustrates the complexity that arises from the cation site disorder.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure

The Grammar of the Reporting of Qualitative Research

The utility of research has been discussed in many arenas and for many reasons over the past few years. Given that most research is disseminated via reports and papers, the medium through which research is used has also been under scrutiny. Often, the quality of reporting has been criticised. This is particularly evident in health-related areas where many reporting guidelines have been developed. While some of this debate has surfaced in social science disciplines, there has not been the same level of activity in developing guidelines. One exception is REPOSE - developed for use in educational research. The authors of these guidelines found that some aspects of research were inadequately reported and that authors’ guidance given by journals does not, in the main, specify how the research itself should be reported

The social functioning in dementia scale (SF-DEM): exploratory factor analysis and psychometric properties in mild, moderate, and severe dementia

Introduction: The psychometric properties of the social functioning in dementia scale over different dementia severities are unknown. Methods: We interviewed 299 family carers of people with mild, moderate, or severe dementia from two UK research sites; examined acceptability (completion rates); conducted exploratory factor analysis; and tested each factor's internal consistency and construct validity. Results: Of 299, 285 (95.3%) carers completed questionnaires. Factor analysis indicated three distinct factors with acceptable internal consistency: spending time with other people, correlating with overall social function (r = 0.56, P <.001) and activities of daily living (r = −0.48, P <.001); communicating with other people correlating with activities of daily living (r = −0.66, P <.001); and sensitivity to other people correlating with quality of life (r = 0.35, P <.001) and inversely with neuropsychiatric symptoms (r = −0.45, P <.001). The three factors' correlations with other domains were similar across all dementia severities. Discussion: The social functioning in dementia scale carer version measures three social functioning domains and has satisfactory psychometric properties in all severities of dementia

Phylogenetic-based propagation of functional annotations within the Gene Ontology consortium

The goal of the Gene Ontology (GO) project is to provide a uniform way to describe the functions of gene products from organisms across all kingdoms of life and thereby enable analysis of genomic data. Protein annotations are either based on experiments or predicted from protein sequences. Since most sequences have not been experimentally characterized, most available annotations need to be based on predictions. To make as accurate inferences as possible, the GO Consortium's Reference Genome Project is using an explicit evolutionary framework to infer annotations of proteins from a broad set of genomes from experimental annotations in a semi-automated manner. Most components in the pipeline, such as selection of sequences, building multiple sequence alignments and phylogenetic trees, retrieving experimental annotations and depositing inferred annotations, are fully automated. However, the most crucial step in our pipeline relies on software-assisted curation by an expert biologist. This curation tool, Phylogenetic Annotation and INference Tool (PAINT) helps curators to infer annotations among members of a protein family. PAINT allows curators to make precise assertions as to when functions were gained and lost during evolution and record the evidence (e.g. experimentally supported GO annotations and phylogenetic information including orthology) for those assertions. In this article, we describe how we use PAINT to infer protein function in a phylogenetic context with emphasis on its strengths, limitations and guidelines. We also discuss specific examples showing how PAINT annotations compare with those generated by other highly used homology-based methods