Balancing Belief : The Resolution of Belief Dilemmas

Societies create their own worlds and, once created, these worlds have to be maintained. In particular, the plausibility of these worlds has to be legitimized for each new generation. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an instrument that will measure how Christians maintain the plausibility of their religious world. I have constructed a survey that will explore the social matrix encompassing a person’s religious beliefs, the actual beliefs themselves, and the extent to which they are certain of these beliefs. To determine how Christians maintain the plausibility of their religious beliefs in an increasingly secularized world, I have borrowed the modes of belief dilemma resolution developed by Robert Abelson (Abelson 1959). These modes are: denial, bolstering, differentiation, and transcendence. In addition, I have created “dilemmas of belief” with responses reflecting each of these modes of resolution

Dissertations in CACREP-Accredited Counseling Doctoral Programs: An Initial Investigation

Faculty in 38 CACREP-accredited doctoral programs in the US described their dissertation products over the last three years, composition of their dissertation committees, and their satisfaction ratings with dissertation products and processes. Results indicated traditional dissertation formats were predominant. Over half (54%) of completed dissertations were quantitative and 40% were qualitative. Committees typically included two or three counselor educators and at least one outside faculty member. Faculty were modestly satisfied with dissertations, citing the need for more rigor and consistency of standards. Higher satisfaction was related to committee composition as well as the use of a variety of research methods

Syrian Refugees and the Digital Passage to Europe: Smartphone Infrastructures and Affordances

This research examines the role of smartphones in refugees’ journeys. It traces the risks and possibilities afforded by smartphones for facilitating information, communication, and migration flows in the digital passage to Europe. For the Syrian and Iraqi refugee respondents in this France-based qualitative study, smartphones are lifelines, as important as water and food. They afford the planning, navigation, and documentation of journeys, enabling regular contact with family, friends, smugglers, and those who help them. However, refugees are simultaneously exposed to new forms of exploitation and surveillance with smartphones as migrations are financialised by smugglers and criminalized by European policies, and the digital passage is dependent on a contingent range of sociotechnical and material assemblages. Through an infrastructural lens, we capture the dialectical dynamics of opportunity and vulnerability, and the forms of resilience and solidarity, that arise as forced migration and digital connectivity coincide

The p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase as a central nervous system drug discovery target

Protein kinases are critical modulators of a variety of cellular signal transduction pathways, and abnormal phosphorylation events can be a cause or contributor to disease progression in a variety of disorders. This has led to the emergence of protein kinases as an important new class of drug targets for small molecule therapeutics. A serine/threonine protein kinase, p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), is an established therapeutic target for peripheral inflammatory disorders because of its critical role in regulation of proinflammatory cytokine production. There is increasing evidence that p38α MAPK is also an important regulator of proinflammatory cytokine levels in the central nervous system, raising the possibility that the kinase may be a drug discovery target for central nervous system disorders where cytokine overproduction contributes to disease progression. Development of bioavailable, central nervous system-penetrant p38α MAPK inhibitors provides the required foundation for drug discovery campaigns targeting p38α MAPK in neurodegenerative disorders

The Impact of Metaphor on Clinical Hypothesis Formation and Perceived Supervisor Characteristics

An analogue methodology was used to examine clinical hypothesis formation and perceived supervisor characteristics when metaphorical or literal language was used by a counselor supervisor

The intentional use of metaphor in counseling supervision

In this multiple case study, the intentional use of metaphor in supervision was examined to determine its impact on (1) supervisees’ recall of supervision events, (2) supervisees’ perceptions of the effectiveness of supervision, and (3) supervisees’ ability to conceptualize clinical situations

Quadratic regression analysis for gene discovery and pattern recognition for non-cyclic short time-course microarray experiments

BACKGROUND: Cluster analyses are used to analyze microarray time-course data for gene discovery and pattern recognition. However, in general, these methods do not take advantage of the fact that time is a continuous variable, and existing clustering methods often group biologically unrelated genes together. RESULTS: We propose a quadratic regression method for identification of differentially expressed genes and classification of genes based on their temporal expression profiles for non-cyclic short time-course microarray data. This method treats time as a continuous variable, therefore preserves actual time information. We applied this method to a microarray time-course study of gene expression at short time intervals following deafferentation of olfactory receptor neurons. Nine regression patterns have been identified and shown to fit gene expression profiles better than k-means clusters. EASE analysis identified over-represented functional groups in each regression pattern and each k-means cluster, which further demonstrated that the regression method provided more biologically meaningful classifications of gene expression profiles than the k-means clustering method. Comparison with Peddada et al.'s order-restricted inference method showed that our method provides a different perspective on the temporal gene profiles. Reliability study indicates that regression patterns have the highest reliabilities. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that the proposed quadratic regression method improves gene discovery and pattern recognition for non-cyclic short time-course microarray data. With a freely accessible Excel macro, investigators can readily apply this method to their microarray data

Evaluating a Modular Decision Support Application For Colorectal Cancer Screening

BACKGROUND: There is a need for health information technology evaluation that goes beyond randomized controlled trials to include consideration of usability, cognition, feedback from representative users, and impact on efficiency, data quality, and clinical workflow. This article presents an evaluation illustrating one approach to this need using the Decision-Centered Design framework. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate, through a Decision-Centered Design framework, the ability of the Screening and Surveillance App to support primary care clinicians in tracking and managing colorectal cancer testing. METHODS: We leveraged two evaluation formats, online and in-person, to obtain feedback from a range primary care clinicians and obtain comparative data. Both the online and in-person evaluations used mock patient data to simulate challenging patient scenarios. Primary care clinicians responded to a series of colorectal cancer-related questions about each patient and made recommendations for screening. We collected data on performance, perceived workload, and usability. Key elements of Decision-Centered Design include evaluation in the context of realistic, challenging scenarios and measures designed to explore impact on cognitive performance. RESULTS: Comparison of means revealed increases in accuracy, efficiency, and usability and decreases in perceived mental effort and workload when using the Screening and Surveillance App. CONCLUSION: The results speak to the benefits of using the Decision-Centered Design approach in the analysis, design, and evaluation of Health Information Technology. Furthermore, the Screening and Surveillance App shows promise for filling decision support gaps in current electronic health records

Persuasive health educational materials for colorectal cancer screening

This paper describes an effort to design and evaluate persuasive educational materials for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Although CRC screening is highly effective, screening rates in the US remain low. Educational materials represent one strategy for educating patients about screening options and increasing openness to screening. We developed a one-page brochure, leveraging factual information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and national guidelines, and strategies for persuasion from the human factors and behavioral economics literatures. We evaluated the resulting brochure with adults over the age of 50. Findings suggest that the educational brochure increases knowledge of CRC and screening options, and increases openness to screening. Furthermore, no significant difference was found between the new one-page brochure and an existing multi-page Screen for Life brochure recommended by the CDC. We interpret these findings as indication that the more practical and potentially less intimidating one-page brochure is as effective as the existing multi-page Screen for Life brochure