Expressing dual concern in criticism for wrongdoing: The persuasive power of criticizing with care

To call attention to and motivate action on ethical issues in business or society, messengers often criticize groups for wrongdoing and ask these groups to change their behavior. When criticizing target groups, messengers frequently identify and express concern about harm caused to a victim group, and in the process address a target group by criticizing them for causing this harm and imploring them to change. However, we find that when messengers criticize a target group for causing harm to a victim group in this way—expressing singular concern for the victim group—members of the target group infer, often incorrectly, that the messenger views the target group as less moral and unworthy of concern. This inferred lack of moral concern reduces criticism acceptance and prompts backlash from the target group. To address this problem, we introduce dual concern messaging—messages that simultaneously communicate that a target group causes harm to a victim group and express concern for the target group. A series of several experiments demonstrate that dual concern messages reduce inferences that a critical messenger lacks moral concern for the criticized target group, increase the persuasiveness of the criticism among members of the target group, and reduce backlash from consumers against a corporate messenger. When pursuing justice for victims of a target group, dual concern messages that communicate concern for the victim group as well as the target group are more effective in fostering openness toward criticism, rather than defensiveness, in a target group, thus setting the stage for change

Introduction and Validation of the American Urological Association Basic Laparoscopic Urologic Surgery Skills Curriculum

Abstract Background and Purpose: The Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS?) skills curriculum has validity evidence supporting use for assessing laparoscopic skills for general surgeons. As charged by the American Urological Association (AUA) Laparoscopy, Robotic, and New Surgical Technology Committee, we sought to develop and validate a urology-specific FLS, referred to as the Basic Laparoscopic Urologic Surgery (BLUS?) skills curriculum. The psychomotor component consists of three existing FLS tasks and one new clip-applying task. Materials and Methods: An animate renal artery model was designed for a clip-applying skills task. We assessed the acceptability and construct validity of using BLUS for basic laparoscopic skills assessment for urologists. A cohort of practicing urologists, fellows, residents, and medical students completed the tasks at the AUA Annual Meetings in 2010 and 2011. Results: All exercises were acceptable and demonstrated excellent face and content validity (>4.5/5 on a five-point Likert scale). Practicing clinical urologists (N=81) outperformed residents and medical students (N=35) in time to completion of circle cut (P3 laparoscopic procedures per week were faster at the peg-transfer exercise (P3 procedures (0.57) per week (P<0.01). Conclusions: All exercises including the novel clip-applying model demonstrated good acceptability and evidence of construct validity (face, content, concurrent and convergent validity) for assessment of basic laparoscopic skill for urologic surgeons.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98447/1/end%2E2011%2E0414.pd

The impact of air pollution on interstitial lung disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

IntroductionThere is a growing body of evidence suggesting a causal relationship between interstitial lung disease (ILD) and air pollution, both for the development of the disease, and driving disease progression. We aim to provide a comprehensive literature review of the association between air pollution, and ILD, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).MethodsWe systematically searched from six online database. Two independent authors (DL and CF) selected studies and critically appraised the risk of bias using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Findings are presented through a narrative synthesis and meta-analysis. Meta-analyses were performed exclusively when there was a minimum of three studies examining identical pollutant-health outcome pairs, all evaluating equivalent increments in pollutant concentration, using a random effects model.Results24 observational studies conducted in 13 countries or regions were identified. Pollutants under investigation encompassed ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Particulate matter with diameters of 10 micrometers or less (PM10) and 2.5 micrometers or less (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). We conducted meta-analyses to assess the estimated Risk Ratios (RRs) for acute exacerbations (AE)-IPF in relation to exposure to every 10 μg/m3 increment in air pollutant concentrations, including O3, NO2, PM10, and PM2.5. The meta-analysis revealed a significant association between the increased risk of AE-IPF in PM2.5, yielding RR 1.94 (95% CI 1.30–2.90; p = 0.001). Findings across all the included studies suggest that increased exposure to air pollutants may be linked to a range of health issues in individuals with ILDs.ConclusionA scarcity of available studies on the air pollutants and ILD relationship underscores the imperative for further comprehensive research in this domain. The available data suggest that reducing levels of PM2.5 in the atmosphere could potentially reduce AE frequency and severity in ILD patients

Borders, Barriers, and Breakthroughs in the Cascadia Corridor

This project focused on dilemmas of political biogeography through a case study of wildlife conservation and management efforts in the transboundary Cascadia region. Our team examined the interface of political science and biogeography, or “political biogeography,” through its manifestations in the evolving opportunities and barriers to regional wildlife conservation in the shared terrestrial ecosystems of British Columbia and Washington. Our research combined content analysis of policy documents and semi-structured stakeholder interviews and questionnaires

Borders, Barriers, and Breakthroughs in the Cascadia Corridor

This project focused on dilemmas of political biogeography through a case study of wildlife conservation and management efforts in the transboundary Cascadia region. Our team examined the interface of political science and biogeography, or “political biogeography,” through its manifestations in the evolving opportunities and barriers to regional wildlife conservation in the shared terrestrial ecosystems of British Columbia and Washington. Our research combined content analysis of policy documents and semi-structured stakeholder interviews and questionnaires. We also produced a series of maps and GIS data layers that provide useful spatial information about the wildlife commons in the Cascadia region. The results of the content analysis and surveys present a picture of uneven management with fragmentation on both sides of the border and as a result, very few efforts in civic ecosystem management. In short, the Cascadia wildlife corridor needs some CPR, or the resource, institutional, and stakeholder characteristics that have been identified as essential to the successful management of Common Pool Resources (CPR). Our research leads to several policy prescriptions including: (1) communication efforts that begin to establish a geographic identity for the Cascadia wildlife corridor; (2) participatory efforts that foster civic environmentalism; and (3) institutional governance building at multiple scales

Identification of a novel gene regulating amygdala-mediated fear extinction.

Recent years have seen advances in our understanding of the neural circuits associated with trauma-related disorders, and the development of relevant assays for these behaviors in rodents. Although inherited factors are known to influence individual differences in risk for these disorders, it has been difficult to identify specific genes that moderate circuit functions to affect trauma-related behaviors. Here, we exploited robust inbred mouse strain differences in Pavlovian fear extinction to uncover quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with this trait. We found these strain differences to be resistant to developmental cross-fostering and associated with anatomical variation in basolateral amygdala (BLA) perineuronal nets, which are developmentally implicated in extinction. Next, by profiling extinction-driven BLA expression of QTL-linked genes, we nominated Ppid (peptidylprolyl isomerase D, a member of the tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) protein family) as an extinction-related candidate gene. We then showed that Ppid was enriched in excitatory and inhibitory BLA neuronal populations, but at lower levels in the extinction-impaired mouse strain. Using a virus-based approach to directly regulate Ppid function, we demonstrated that downregulating BLA-Ppid impaired extinction, while upregulating BLA-Ppid facilitated extinction and altered in vivo neuronal extinction encoding. Next, we showed that Ppid colocalized with the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in BLA neurons and found that the extinction-facilitating effects of Ppid upregulation were blocked by a GR antagonist. Collectively, our results identify Ppid as a novel gene involved in regulating extinction via functional actions in the BLA, with possible implications for understanding genetic and pathophysiological mechanisms underlying risk for trauma-related disorders

Evolutionary consequences of feedbacks between within-host competition and disease control

Lay Summary: Competition often occurs among diverse parasites within a single host, but control efforts could change its strength. We examined how the interplay between competition and control could shape the evolution of parasite traits like drug resistance and disease severity

A presynaptic endosomal trafficking pathway controls synaptic growth signaling

Association of Nwk with SNX16 promotes down-regulation of synaptic growth signaling at the interface between early and recycling endosomes

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

Integrating Clinical Probability into the Diagnostic Approach to Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: An International Working Group Perspective

Background. When considering the diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), experienced clinicians integrate clinical features that help to differentiate IPF from other fibrosing interstitial lung diseases, thus generating a “pre-test” probability of IPF. The aim of this international working group perspective was to summarize these features using a tabulated approach similar to chest HRCT and histopathologic patterns reported in the international guidelines for the diagnosis of IPF, and to help formally incorporate these clinical likelihoods into diagnostic reasoning to facilitate the diagnosis of IPF. Methods. The committee group identified factors that influence the clinical likelihood of a diagnosis of IPF, which was categorized as a pre-test clinical probability of IPF into “high” (70-100%), “intermediate” (30-70%), or “low” (0-30%). After integration of radiological and histopathological features, the post-test probability of diagnosis was categorized into “definite” (90-100%), “high confidence” (70-89%), “low confidence” (51-69%), or “low” (0-50%) probability of IPF. Findings. A conceptual Bayesian framework was created, integrating the clinical likelihood of IPF (“pre-test probability of IPF”) with the HRCT pattern, the histopathology pattern when available, and/or the pattern of observed disease behavior into a “post-test probability of IPF”. The diagnostic probability of IPF was expressed using an adapted diagnostic ontology for fibrotic interstitial lung diseases. Interpretation. The present approach will help incorporate the clinical judgement into the diagnosis of IPF, thus facilitating the application of IPF diagnostic guidelines and, ultimately improving diagnostic confidence and reducing the need for invasive diagnostic techniques