Adult attachment style across individuals and role-relationships: Avoidance is relationship-specific, but anxiety shows greater generalizability

A generalisability study examined the hypotheses that avoidant attachment, reflecting the representation of others, should be more relationship-specific (vary across relationships more than across individuals), while attachment anxiety, reflecting self-representation, should be more generalisable across a person’s relationships. College students responded to 6-item questionnaire measures of these variables for 5 relationships (mother, father, best same-gender friend, romantic partner or best opposite-gender friend, other close person), on 3 (N = 120) or 2 (N = 77) occasions separated by a few weeks. Results supported the hypotheses, with the person variance component being larger than the relationship-specific component for anxiety, and the opposite happening for avoidance. Anxiety therefore seems not to be as relationship-specific as previous research suggested. Possible reasons for discrepancies between the current and previous studies are discussed

Towards Combining Individual and Collaborative Work Spaces under a Unified E-Portfolio

Proceedings of: 11th International Conference on Computational Science and Applications (ICCSA 2011). Santander, Spain, June 20-23, 2011E-portfolios in learning environments have been attributed numerous benefits and their presence has been steadily increasing. And so has the variety of environments in which a student participates. Collaborative learning requires communication and resource sharing among team members. Students may participate in multiple teams throughout a long period of time, sometimes even simultaneously. Conventional eportfolios are oriented toward showcasing individual achievements, but they need to also equally reflect collaborative achievements. The approach described in this paper has the objective of offering students an e-portfolio as a local folder their personal computer containing a combined view of their individual and collaborative work spaces. The content of this folder can be synchronized with a remote server thus achieving resource sharing and publication of a clearly identified set of resources.Work partially funded by the Learn3 project, “Plan Nacional de I+D+I TIN2008- 05163/TSI”, the Consejo Social - Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, the Acción Integrada Ref. DE2009-0051, and the “Emadrid: Investigación y desarrollo de tecnologías para el e-learning en la Comunidad de Madrid” project (S2009/TIC-1650).Publicad

Young women with a disorder of sex development: learning to share information with health professionals, friends and intimate partners about bodily differences and infertility

Aim: To understand the experiences of young women with a disorder of sex development when sharing information about their body with healthcare professionals, friends and intimate partners. Background: Disorders of sex development are lifelong conditions that create bodily difference such as absence of reproductive organs which can impact on young women's fertility and sexual experiences. Design: Interpretive phenomenological analysis with thirteen young women (14-19 years old) with a disorder of sex development. Methods: The young women chose to participate in either a face-to-face semi-structured interview or to complete a paper diary between 2011-2012. Results: A superordinate theme focusing on the meaning bodily differences held for these young women is presented through three themes: self-awareness and communicating this to others; actualizing intimacy; and expressing meaning of altered fertility to self or professionals or partners. During early adolescence, the young women were guarded and reticent about sharing personal information about their disorder of sex development but as they moved towards adulthood, some of the young women learnt to engage in conversations with more confidence. Frustrations about their bodily differences and the limitations of their bodies were talked about as factors which limited physical spontaneity, impacted on their perceived sexual fulfilment and challenged the development or sustainability of close friendships or intimate partnerships. The young women wanted empathic, sensitive support from knowledgeable health professionals to help them understand their bodies. Conclusion: Attachment and a 'sense of being' were the concepts that were closely linked to the young women's development of a secure identity

Attachment Styles Within the Coach-Athlete Dyad: Preliminary Investigation and Assessment Development

The present preliminary study aimed to develop and examine the psychometric properties of a new sport-specific self-report instrument designed to assess athletes’ and coaches’ attachment styles. The development and initial validation comprised three main phases. In Phase 1, a pool of items was generated based on pre-existing self-report attachment instruments, modified to reflect a coach and an athlete’s style of attachment. In Phase 2, the content validity of the items was assessed by a panel of experts. A final scale was developed and administered to 405 coaches and 298 athletes (N = 703 participants). In Phase 3, confirmatory factor analysis of the obtained data was conducted to determine the final items of the Coach-Athlete Attachment Scale (CAAS). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed acceptable goodness of fit indexes for a 3-first order factor model as well as a 2-first order factor model for both the athlete and the coach data, respectively. A secure attachment style positively predicted relationship satisfaction, while an insecure attachment style was a negative predictor of relationship satisfaction. The CAAS revealed initial psychometric properties of content, factorial, and predictive validity, as well as reliability

Autotrophic denitrification of nitrate rich wastewater in fluidized bed reactors using pyrite and elemental sulfur as electron donors

This study compared denitrification performances and microbial communities in fluidized bed reactors (FBRs) carrying out autotrophic denitrification using elemental sulfur (S0) and pyrite (FeS2) as electron donors. The reactors were operated for 220 days with nitrate loading rates varying between 23 and 200 mg N-NO 3 − /L ⋅ d and HRT between 48 and 4 h. The highest denitrification rates achieved were 142.2 and 184.4 mg N-NO 3 − /L ⋅ d in pyrite and sulfur FBRs, respectively. Pyrite-driven denitrification produced less SO 4 2 − and no buffer addition was needed to regulate the pH. The sulfur FBR needed instead CaCO3 to maintain the pH neutral and consequentially more sludge was produced (CaSO4 precipitation). The active community of pyrite-based systems was investigated and Azospira sp., Ferruginibacter sp., Rhodococcus sp. and Pseudomonas sp. were the predominant genera, while Thiobacillus sp. and Sulfurovum sp. dominated the active community in the sulfur FBR. However, Thiobacillus sp. became more dominant when operating at elevated nitrogen loading rate. Patterns of diversity and microbial community assembly were assessed and revealed three distinct stages of microbial community succession which corresponded with the operation of a period of high influent nitrate concentration (13 5 mg N-NO 3 − /L). It is proposed that a high degree of functional redundancy in the initial microbial communities may have helped both reactors to respond better to such high influent nitrate concentration

Biofilm carrier type affects biogenic sulfur-driven denitrification performance and microbial community dynamics in moving-bed biofilm reactors

Autotrophic denitrification with biosulfur (ADBIOS) provides a sustainable technological solution for biological nitrogen removal from wastewater driven by biogenic S0, derived from biogas desulfurization. In this study, the effect of different biofilm carriers (conventional AnoxK™ 1 and Z-200 with a pre-defined maximum biofilm thickness) on ADBIOS performance and microbiomics was investigated in duplicate moving bed-biofilm reactors (MBBRs). The MBBRs were operated parallelly in continuous mode for 309 days, whilst gradually decreasing the hydraulic retention time (HRT) from 72 to 21 h, and biosulfur was either pumped in suspension (days 92–223) or supplied in powder form. Highest nitrate removal rates were approximately 225 (±11) mg/L·d and 180 (±7) mg NO3−-N/L·d in the MBBRs operated with K1 and Z-200 carriers, respectively. Despite having the same protected surface area for biofilm development in each MBBR, the biomass attached onto the K1 carrier was 4.8-fold more than that on the Z-200 carrier, with part of the biogenic S0 kept in the biofilm. The microbial communities of K1 and Z-200 biofilms could also be considered similar at cDNA level in terms of abundance (R = 0.953 with p = 0.042). A relatively stable microbial community was formed on K1 carriers, while the active portion of the microbial community varied significantly over time in the MBBRs using Z-200 carriers

A 14-year experience with kidney transplantation.

Between November, 1962 and August, 1975, 668 kidney transplants were done in 556 consecutive patients at Denver, Colorado. The Denver experience has been divided into 7 periods of time, according to the conditions of care during each period. The results in related transplantation have changed little during the decade beginning in 1966. The results in unrelated transplantation have not materially changed since 1968. The long-term patient survival after related transplantation has been better than after cadaver transplantation. The results of transplantation in 57 children ages 3 to 18 years have been slightly better than the results of adult transplantation. The outcome of kidney transplantation and the feasibility of improving this therapy with present techniques are limited by our inability to accurately match each patient with the immunologically best donor and by our inability to precisely control the immune system of the recipient. Rejection is still the main reason for graft loss, and sepsis remains the main cause of patient mortality. More specific and less toxic means of achieving graft acceptance are needed before a higher level of patient service can be realized. However, even with the tools now available, thousands of recipients throughout the world have been returned to useful lives

Early origins of lung disease: Towards an interdisciplinary approach

The prenatal and perinatal environments can have profound effects on the development of chronic inflammatory diseases. However, mechanistic insight into how the early-life microenvironment can impact upon development of the lung and immune system and consequent initiation and progression of respiratory diseases is still emerging. Recent studies investigating the developmental origins of lung diseases have started to delineate the effects of early-life changes in the lung, environmental exposures and immune maturation on the development of childhood and adult lung diseases. While the influencing factors have been described and studied in mostly animal models, it remains challenging to pinpoint exactly which factors and at which time point are detrimental in lung development leading to respiratory disease later in life. To advance our understanding of early origins of chronic lung disease and to allow for proper dissemination and application of this knowledge, we propose four major focus areas: 1) policy and education; 2) clinical assessment; 3) basic and translational research; and 4) infrastructure and tools, and discuss future directions for advancement. This review is a follow-up of the discussions at the European Respiratory Society Research Seminar “Early origins of lung disease: towards an interdisciplinary approach” (Lisbon, Portugal, November 2019)