A Comparison of Perceived Stress Levels and Coping Styles of Junior and Senior Students in Nursing And Social Work Programs

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a difference in the perceived stress levels and the coping styles of junior and senior students in nursing and social work programs. The study used a descriptive comparative approach and was non[1]experimental. Research questions were developed to guide this research. The population for this research included all junior and senior nursing and social work students preparing for or in clinical courses at a selected university. The sample consisted of 89 nursing students and 33 social work students. Data was obtained through self-reported survey procedures. The researcher visited appropriate classrooms identified by faculty. Participants were given a packet with three instruments. The first instrument was a demographic tool developed by the researcher. Perceived stress levels were measured by Cohen\u27s Perceived Stress Scale. Coping styles were identified by the Moos Coping Responses Inventory. Responses indicated that social work students have significantly higher perceived stress levels than nursing students. Nursing students identified more reliance on approach coping responses, while social work students identified more reliance on avoidance coping responses. No significant differences were identified between the two groups based on age, gender, marital status, employment status or class

Experienced stressors and coping strategies among Iranian nursing students

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>College students are prone to stress due to the transitional nature of college life. High levels of stress are believed to affect students' health and academic functions. If the stress is not dealt with effectively, feelings of loneliness, nervousness, sleeplessness and worrying may result. Effective coping strategies facilitate the return to a balanced state, reducing the negative effects of stress.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed to determine sources of stress and coping strategies in nursing students studying at the Iran Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery. All undergraduate nursing students enrolled in years 1-4 during academic year 2004-2005 were included in this study, with a total of 366 questionnaires fully completed by the students. The Student Stress Survey and the Adolescent Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences Inventory (ACOPE) were used for data collection.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Most students reported "finding new friends" (76.2%), "working with people they did not know" (63.4%) as interpersonal sources of stress, "new responsibilities" (72.1%), "started college" (65.8%) as intrapersonal sources of stress more than others. The most frequent academic source of stress was "increased class workload" (66.9%) and the most frequent environmental sources of stress were being "placed in unfamiliar situations" (64.2%) and "waiting in long lines" (60.4%). Interpersonal and environmental sources of stress were reported more frequently than intrapersonal and academic sources. Mean interpersonal (P=0.04) and environmental (P=0.04) sources of stress were significantly greater in first year than in fourth year students. Among coping strategies in 12 areas, the family problem solving strategies, "trying to reason with parents and compromise" (73%) and "going along with family rules" (68%) were used "often or always" by most students. To cope with engaging in demanding activity, students often or always used "trying to figure out how to deal with problems" (66.4%) and "trying to improve themselves" (64.5%). The self-reliance strategy, "trying to make their own decisions" (62%); the social support strategies, "apologizing to people" (59.6%), "trying to help other people solve their problems" (56.3%), and "trying to keep up friendships or make new friends" (54.4%); the spiritual strategy, "praying" (65.8%); the seeking diversions strategy, "listening to music" (57.7%), the relaxing strategy "day dreaming" (52.5%), and the effort to "be close with someone cares about you" (50.5%) were each used "often or always" by a majority of students. Most students reported that the avoiding strategies "smoking" (93.7%) and "drinking beer or wine" (92.9%), the ventilating strategies "saying mean things to people" and "swearing" (85.8%), the professional support strategies "getting professional counseling" (74.6%) and "talking to a teacher or counselor" (67.2%) and the humorous strategy "joking and keeping a sense of humor" (51.9%) were used "seldom or never".</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>First year nursing students are exposed to a variety of stressors. Establishing a student support system during the first year and improving it throughout nursing school is necessary to equip nursing students with effective coping skills. Efforts should include counseling helpers and their teachers, strategies that can be called upon in these students' future nursing careers.</p

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries.

This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA's activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors

2013 Review and Update of the Genetic Counseling Practice Based Competencies by a Task Force of the Accreditation Council for Genetic Counseling

The first practice based competencies (PBCs) for the field of genetic counseling were adopted by the American Board of Genetic Counseling (ABGC), 1996. Since that time, there has been significant growth in established and new work settings (clinical and non‐clinical) and changes in service delivery models and the roles of genetic counselors. These changes prompted the ABGC to appoint a PBC Task Force in 2011 to review the PBCs with respect to their current relevance and to revise and update them as necessary. There are four domains in the revised PBCs: (I) Genetics Expertise and Analysis (II) Interpersonal, Psychosocial and Counseling Skills (III) Education and (IV) Professional Development and Practice. There are 22 competencies, each clarified with learning objectives or samples of activities and skills; a glossary is included. New competencies were added that address genomics, genetic testing and genetic counselors’ roles in risk assessment, education, supervision, conducting research and presenting research options to patients. With PBCs serving as the pre‐defined abilities or outcomes of training, graduating genetic counselors will be well prepared to enter the field with a minimum level of skills and abilities. A description of the Task Force’s work, key changes and the 2013 PBCs are presented herein.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147172/1/jgc40868.pd

<i>Gaia</i> Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties

Context. At about 1000 days after the launch of Gaia we present the first Gaia data release, Gaia DR1, consisting of astrometry and photometry for over 1 billion sources brighter than magnitude 20.7. Aims. A summary of Gaia DR1 is presented along with illustrations of the scientific quality of the data, followed by a discussion of the limitations due to the preliminary nature of this release. Methods. The raw data collected by Gaia during the first 14 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) and turned into an astrometric and photometric catalogue. Results. Gaia DR1 consists of three components: a primary astrometric data set which contains the positions, parallaxes, and mean proper motions for about 2 million of the brightest stars in common with the HIPPARCOS and Tycho-2 catalogues – a realisation of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) – and a secondary astrometric data set containing the positions for an additional 1.1 billion sources. The second component is the photometric data set, consisting of mean G-band magnitudes for all sources. The G-band light curves and the characteristics of ∼3000 Cepheid and RR-Lyrae stars, observed at high cadence around the south ecliptic pole, form the third component. For the primary astrometric data set the typical uncertainty is about 0.3 mas for the positions and parallaxes, and about 1 mas yr−1 for the proper motions. A systematic component of ∼0.3 mas should be added to the parallax uncertainties. For the subset of ∼94 000 HIPPARCOS stars in the primary data set, the proper motions are much more precise at about 0.06 mas yr−1. For the secondary astrometric data set, the typical uncertainty of the positions is ∼10 mas. The median uncertainties on the mean G-band magnitudes range from the mmag level to ∼0.03 mag over the magnitude range 5 to 20.7. Conclusions. Gaia DR1 is an important milestone ahead of the next Gaia data release, which will feature five-parameter astrometry for all sources. Extensive validation shows that Gaia DR1 represents a major advance in the mapping of the heavens and the availability of basic stellar data that underpin observational astrophysics. Nevertheless, the very preliminary nature of this first Gaia data release does lead to a number of important limitations to the data quality which should be carefully considered before drawing conclusions from the data

A Hubble Space Telescope Survey for Resolved Companions of Planetary-Nebula Nuclei

We report results of an HST "snapshot" survey aimed at finding resolved binary companions of the central stars of Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe). Using WF/PC and WFPC2, we searched the fields of 113 PNe for stars whose close proximity to the central star suggests a physical association. We find 10 binary nuclei that are very likely to be physically associated, and another six that are possible binary associations. By correcting for interstellar extinction and placing the central stars' companions on the main sequence, we derive distances to the objects, and thereby significantly increase the number of PNe with reliable distances. Comparison of our derived distances with those obtained from various statistical methods shows that all of the latter have systematically overestimated the distances, by factors ranging up to a factor of two or more. We show that this error is most likely due to the fact that the properties of our PNe with binary nuclei are systematically different from those of PNe used heretofore to calibrate statistical methods. Specifically, our PNe tend to have lower surface brightnesses at the same physical radius than the traditional calibration objects. This difference may arise from a selection effect: the PNe in our survey are typically nearby, old nebulae, whereas most of the objects that calibrate statistical techniques are low-latitude, high-surface-brightness, and more distant nebulae. As a result, the statistical methods that seem to work well with samples of distant PNe, e.g., those in the Galactic bulge or external galaxies, may not be applicable to the more diverse population of local PNe.Comment: 37 text pages, 17 table pages, 9 figures. Accepted by Astronomical Journal for June 1999 issu

Gaia Early Data Release 3. Summary of the contents and survey properties

Context. We present the early installment of the third Gaia data release, Gaia EDR3, consisting of astrometry and photometry for 1.8 billion sources brighter than magnitude 21, complemented with the list of radial velocities from Gaia DR2. Aims: A summary of the contents of Gaia EDR3 is presented, accompanied by a discussion on the differences with respect to Gaia DR2 and an overview of the main limitations which are present in the survey. Recommendations are made on the responsible use of Gaia EDR3 results. Methods: The raw data collected with the Gaia instruments during the first 34 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium and turned into this early third data release, which represents a major advance with respect to Gaia DR2 in terms of astrometric and photometric precision, accuracy, and homogeneity. Results: Gaia EDR3 contains celestial positions and the apparent brightness in G for approximately 1.8 billion sources. For 1.5 billion of those sources, parallaxes, proper motions, and the (GBP − GRP) colour are also available. The passbands for G, GBP, and GRP are provided as part of the release. For ease of use, the 7 million radial velocities from Gaia DR2 are included in this release, after the removal of a small number of spurious values. New radial velocities will appear as part of Gaia DR3. Finally, Gaia EDR3 represents an updated materialisation of the celestial reference frame (CRF) in the optical, the Gaia-CRF3, which is based solely on extragalactic sources. The creation of the source list for Gaia EDR3 includes enhancements that make it more robust with respect to high proper motion stars, and the disturbing effects of spurious and partially resolved sources. The source list is largely the same as that for Gaia DR2, but it does feature new sources and there are some notable changes. The source list will not change for Gaia DR3. Conclusions: Gaia EDR3 represents a significant advance over Gaia DR2, with parallax precisions increased by 30 per cent, proper motion precisions increased by a factor of 2, and the systematic errors in the astrometry suppressed by 30-40% for the parallaxes and by a factor ~2.5 for the proper motions. The photometry also features increased precision, but above all much better homogeneity across colour, magnitude, and celestial position. A single passband for G, GBP, and GRP is valid over the entire magnitude and colour range, with no systematics above the 1% leve

Gaia Early Data Release 3. The Galactic anticentre

Aims: We aim to demonstrate the scientific potential of the Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) for the study of different aspects of the Milky Way structure and evolution and we provide, at the same time, a description of several practical aspects of the data and examples of their usage. Methods: We used astrometric positions, proper motions, parallaxes, and photometry from EDR3 to select different populations and components and to calculate the distances and velocities in the direction of the anticentre. In this direction, the Gaia astrometric data alone enable the calculation of the vertical and azimuthal velocities; also, the extinction is relatively low compared to other directions in the Galactic plane. We then explore the disturbances of the current disc, the spatial and kinematical distributions of early accreted versus in situ stars, the structures in the outer parts of the disc, and the orbits of open clusters Berkeley 29 and Saurer 1. Results: With the improved astrometry and photometry of EDR3, we find that: (i) the dynamics of the Galactic disc are very complex with oscillations in the median rotation and vertical velocities as a function of radius, vertical asymmetries, and new correlations, including a bimodality with disc stars with large angular momentum moving vertically upwards from below the plane, and disc stars with slightly lower angular momentum moving preferentially downwards; (ii) we resolve the kinematic substructure (diagonal ridges) in the outer parts of the disc for the first time; (iii) the red sequence that has been associated with the proto-Galactic disc that was present at the time of the merger with Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage is currently radially concentrated up to around 14 kpc, while the blue sequence that has been associated with debris of the satellite extends beyond that; (iv) there are density structures in the outer disc, both above and below the plane, most probably related to Monoceros, the Anticentre Stream, and TriAnd, for which the Gaia data allow an exhaustive selection of candidate member stars and dynamical study; and (v) the open clusters Berkeley 29 and Saurer 1, despite being located at large distances from the Galactic centre, are on nearly circular disc-like orbits. Conclusions: Even with our simple preliminary exploration of the Gaia EDR3, we demonstrate how, once again, these data from the European Space Agency are crucial for our understanding of the different pieces of our Galaxy and their connection to its global structure and history. Movie is available at https://www.aanda.or

Correlations of Gene Expression with Blood Lead Levels in Children with Autism Compared to Typically Developing Controls

The objective of this study was to examine the correlation between gene expression and lead (Pb) levels in blood in children with autism (AU, n = 37) compared to typically developing controls (TD, n = 15). We postulated that, though lead levels did not differ between the groups, AU children might metabolize lead differently compared to TD children. RNA was isolated from blood and processed on Affymetrix microarrays. Separate analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) corrected for age and gender were performed for TD, AU, and all subjects (AU + TD). To reduce false positives, only genes that overlapped these three ANCOVAs were considered. Thus, 48 probe sets correlated with lead levels in both AU and TD subjects and were significantly different between the groups (p(Diagnosis × log2 Pb) < 0.05). These genes were related mainly to immune and inflammatory processes, including MHC Class II family members and CD74. A large number (n = 791) of probe sets correlated (P ≤ 0.05) with lead levels in TD but not in AU subjects; and many probe sets (n = 162) correlated (P ≤ 0.05) with lead levels in AU but not in TD subjects. Only 30 probe sets correlated (P ≤ 0.05) with lead levels in a similar manner in the AU and TD groups. These data show that AU and TD children display different associations between transcript levels and low levels of lead. We postulate that this may relate to the underlying genetic differences between the two groups, though other explanations cannot be excluded

Obesity and brain structure in schizophrenia - ENIGMA study in 3021 individuals

Schizophrenia is frequently associated with obesity, which is linked with neurostructural alterations. Yet, we do not understand how the brain correlates of obesity map onto the brain changes in schizophrenia. We obtained MRI-derived brain cortical and subcortical measures and body mass index (BMI) from 1260 individuals with schizophrenia and 1761 controls from 12 independent research sites within the ENIGMA-Schizophrenia Working Group. We jointly modeled the statistical effects of schizophrenia and BMI using mixed effects. BMI was additively associated with structure of many of the same brain regions as schizophrenia, but the cortical and subcortical alterations in schizophrenia were more widespread and pronounced. Both BMI and schizophrenia were primarily associated with changes in cortical thickness, with fewer correlates in surface area. While, BMI was negatively associated with cortical thickness, the significant associations between BMI and surface area or subcortical volumes were positive. Lastly, the brain correlates of obesity were replicated among large studies and closely resembled neurostructural changes in major depressive disorders. We confirmed widespread associations between BMI and brain structure in individuals with schizophrenia. People with both obesity and schizophrenia showed more pronounced brain alterations than people with only one of these conditions. Obesity appears to be a relevant factor which could account for heterogeneity of brain imaging findings and for differences in brain imaging outcomes among people with schizophrenia