Does Positive Reframing Lead to Better Coping Styles: Examining the effects of two different writing prompts on self-reported stress of caregivers of people with Dementia.

The challenges caregivers face are often overwhelmingly mentally and physically stressful, and layered in is the grief that comes with watching a loved one slip away (Ornstein, Gaugler, Devanand, Scarmeas, Zhu, & Stern, 2013). The purpose of my study will be to examine if utilizing expressive writing (EW) can benefit caregivers of older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), before a patient might progress to dementia. I hypothesize that EW during early stage decline will be more beneficial than later since it is may be an easier time to use this skill, before caregivers are in the most demanding phases of providing care for their loved one. In this study the caregivers’ stress and coping skill were assessed before and after the EW intervention. Caregivers were provided with journals (either online or paper) in which they were instructed to write for twenty minutes a day for three consecutive days. They were given instructions according to current EW strategies for writing about their feelings and experiences related to their caregiving role. Participants are randomly assigned to one of two conditions: 1) writing about the negative and positive emotions felt as a caregiver or 2) writing only about the positive emotions experienced. After the end of their intervention participants\u27 journal entries were analyzed using a linguistic word count program (LIWC) to test hypotheses regarding benefits of varied EW strategies and stage of cognitive decline. Those following the positive emotion focus showed a trend in the alleviation of dysfunctional coping mechanism. This finding suggests that future research should focus on the impact of positive emotion focus and healthier coping styles

Introduction to the Banks of Social Capital, the creation of a new institution or how to release the power of mass collaboration

As the focus on social capital and information technology intensifies in today’s connected world, a deeper understanding of how to harness these two trends is increasingly important. This paper describes how the creation of a new kind of institution could potentially endorse the difficult role of enhancing collaboration between economic agents. Firstly, we will widely describe what a Bank of Social Capital, or BoSC, should look like and the way it operates. Special attention will be further dedicated to its main tool and responsibility: The Virtuous Bond. That is through the fair attribution of this score that the BoSC could exploit that elusive form of capital which is Social Capital. The last part details more pragmatically how exactly this institution would operate and the variables that project holders must fulfil to access the funds. Through this perspective, our study is based on a wide spectrum of fields of research from a collection of interdisciplinary assumptions from Economic behaviour to Technologic and Informatics. It consists mostly of a synthesis work and will try to answer the fundamental question: How can we release the potential of mass collaboration?Visto que hoje em dia o mundo está cada vez mais interligado através de um foco especial no capital social e na informação tecnológica, é extremamente importante obter um conhecimento mais profundo sobre como explorar e utilizar estas duas tendências. Esta dissertação descreve como é que a criação de um novo modelo de instituição poderá apoiar e suportar o processo complicado de aprimorar a colaboração entre agentes económicos. Primeiro, será descrito como é que um Banco de Capital Social (BosC) deve funcionar. Posteriormente, será dada uma atenção especial à sua principal ferramenta e responsabilidade: a “Virtuous Bond”. Esta instituição, BosC, poderá explorar este tipo de capital social através da atribuição e distribuição justa deste tipo de ferramenta, a “Virtuous Bond”. A última parte desta dissertação descreve de uma maneira mais pragmática como é que esta instituição deverá operar e quais as variáveis e requerimentos que os detentores de projetos deveram preencher de modo a ter acesso aos fundos desta instituição. Nesta perspetiva, este estudo baseia-se num vasto espectro de campos de pesquisa através da análise de suposições interdisciplinares desde Comportamento Económico até Tecnologia e Informática. Consiste maioritariamente num trabalho sintetizado que visa responder a uma pergunta fundamental: Como é que podemos potenciar a colaboração em massa

Identification of Entity References in Hospital Discharge Letters

Proceedings of the 16th Nordic Conference of Computational Linguistics NODALIDA-2007. Editors: Joakim Nivre, Heiki-Jaan Kaalep, Kadri Muischnek and Mare Koit. University of Tartu, Tartu, 2007. ISBN 978-9985-4-0513-0 (online) ISBN 978-9985-4-0514-7 (CD-ROM) pp. 329-332

The "good" councelor : guidance councelors' wellbeing at work

At the time of conducting this study, the Finnish upper secondary schools were facing a major change in the school system. Universities were changing their admission system, and a reform in upper secondary education resulted in a new curriculum for the school year 2021, five years after the current curriculum was put into use in 2016. Guidance counseling has gained a more prominent role in the curriculum and individual counseling and development has become increasingly emphasized. The proportion of upper secondary school teachers who often experience stress has risen from 14% to 17% between 2017 and 2019, and previous research indicates that guidance counselors are at risk of burnout. Stressors have been discovered to be lack of timely resources, lack of role clarity and a large workload. The purpose of this study is to investigate the Finnish guidance counselors’ well-being at work, and how they experience their workload. This is explored on the basis of the variables job satisfaction, satisfaction regarding job duties, social support, time resources, access to further training, experienced challenge and experienced stress. The data was collected with an electronic questionnaire sent out to the guidance counselors in Swedish speaking upper secondary schools in Finland, a total of N = 42. The questionnaire was answered by a total of N = 22, all of which were analyzed in the study. The program IBM SPSS 25 was used in the processing and analysis of the data. All group comparisons are performed with nonparametric tests: Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis test by ranks and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. The results showed that the guidance counsellors generally experienced a high level of job satisfaction. Symptoms of stress or perceived burnout had a negative correlation with several factors: job satisfaction, perceived social support, timely resources at hand, and a higher experience of stress and challenge. Work experience was also significant for job satisfaction. Despite this, the guidance counselors with experiences of stress or burnout reported a high job satisfaction.Vid tiden för genomförande av denna studie stod gymnasierna inför en stor förändring i skolsystemet. Högskolornas betygsantagning steg i kraft, och en reform inom gymnasieutbildningen resulterade i en ny gymnasielag med efterföljande ny läroplan för läsåret 2021, fem år efter att den nuvarande läroplanen togs i bruk 2016. Studiehandledning har fått en mer prominent roll i läroplanerna och individuell handledning samt studerandes personliga utveckling har betonats allt mer. Andelen gymnasielärare som upplever stress ofta har stigit från 14% till 17% mellan åren 2017 och 2019 och tidigare forskning tyder på att studiehandledare är i riskgruppen att drabbas av utbrändhet. Tidsbrist, otydlighet i arbetsbilden och en omfattande mängd arbetsuppgifter har visat sig vara faktorer som inverkar på stress. Undersökningen går ut på att granska studiehandledarnas välmående i arbete och hur de upplever sin arbetsbelastning. Detta undersöks utgående från variablerna arbetstillfredsställelse, tillfredsställelse för arbetsuppgifter, stöd, tidsmässiga resurser, tillgång till fortbildning, utmaning och belastning. Materialet samlades in med en elektronisk enkät som skickades ut till Svenskfinlands studiehandledare, totalt N = 42. Enkäten besvarades av totalt N = 22, av vilka alla analyserades i studien. Vid bearbetning och analysering av studiens data användes programmet IBM SPSS 25. Alla gruppjämförelser är genomförda med nonparametriska test: Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis test och Spearmans rangkorrelationskoefficient. I resultaten framgick det att studiehandledarna generellt upplever en hög arbetstillfredsställelse. Symptom på stress eller upplevd utbrändhet inverkade negativt på flera faktorer: tillfredsställelse för arbetsuppgifter, upplevt stöd, upplevelsen av tidsmässiga resurser samt på upplevelsen av belastning och utmaning. Arbetserfarenhet var också signifikant för tillfredsställelse för arbetsuppgifter. Trots detta anmälde även studiehandledarna med erfarenheter av stress eller utbrändhet en hög arbetstillfredsställelse

Distribution and hormonal regulation of membrane progesterone receptors β and γ in ciliated epithelial cells of mouse and human fallopian tubes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The controlled beating of cilia of the fallopian tube plays an important role in facilitating the meeting of gametes and subsequently transporting the fertilized egg to its implantation site. Rapid effects of progesterone on ciliary beat frequency have been reported in the fallopian tubes of cows, but the identity of the receptors mediating this non-genomic action of progesterone is not known. We recently identified a member of the non-genomic membrane progesterone receptor family, mPR gamma, as a candidate for mediating these actions of progesterone. Here, we investigated the possible presence of a related receptor, mPR beta, in the fallopian tubes of mice and women as well as the possible hormonal regulation of mPR beta and gamma.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Western blot and immunohistochemistry with specific antibodies were used to characterize the expression and cellular localization of the mPRs in mouse and human tissues. Taqman (Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction) assays were used to quantify mRNA levels in the fallopian tubes of two different mouse models after injections with different hormones and specific antagonists.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the fallopian tubes of both mouse and human, the expression of mPR beta and mPR gamma proteins was exclusively found in the ciliated cells. Whereas mPR beta was found on the cilia, mPR gamma was localized at the base of the same ciliated cells, as previously reported. In gonadotropin-primed mice, both mPRs genes were down-regulated after an injection with progesterone. Treatment with estradiol rapidly down-regulated the level of mPR beta mRNA and protein in immature mice. The mPR gamma protein was down-regulated around the time of ovulation in cycling women, similar to the regulation observed in mice stimulated to ovulate via gonadotropin injections.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our findings show the presence and hormonal regulation of two distinct mPRs associated with the cilia of the fallopian tubes in both mice and women. It is hypothesized that these receptors are involved in the control of ciliary movement and, thus, gamete transport in the fallopian tubes of mammals.</p

Biology of advanced uveal melanoma and next steps for clinical therapeutics

Uveal melanoma is the most common intraocular malignancy although it is a rare subset of all melanomas. Uveal melanoma has distinct biology relative to cutaneous melanoma, with widely divergent patient outcomes. Patients diagnosed with a primary uveal melanoma can be stratified for risk of metastasis by cytogenetics or gene expression profiling, with approximately half of patients developing metastatic disease, predominately hepatic in location, over a 15-yr period. Historically, no systemic therapy has been associated with a clear clinical benefit for patients with advanced disease, and median survival remains poor. Here, as a joint effort between the Melanoma Research Foundation's ocular melanoma initiative, CURE OM and the National Cancer Institute, the current understanding of the molecular and immunobiology of uveal melanoma is reviewed, and on-going laboratory research into the disease is highlighted. Finally, recent investigations relevant to clinical management via targeted and immunotherpies are reviewed, and next steps in the development of clinical therapeutics are discussed