Piloting a ward anger rating scale for older adults with mental health problems

Aggression, including physical assault, is a significant problem in providing services for older people with mental health problems. A range of bio-psycho-social correlates of aggressive behaviour have been explored in this client group, but little attention has been given to the role of anger as an activator of aggression, despite its demonstrated predictive association with aggression in other clinical populations. In this pilot study, a staff-rated anger measure was administered to 27 inpatients in a specialist service for older people with mental health problems. The Anger Index was found to have high internal consistency and inter-rater reliability, and it showed robust concurrent and discriminant validity with comparison measures completed by independent raters. Higher anger scores were associated with organic diagnoses, history of aggression, and hospital assault data. The potential role of anger in the activation of aggression, the utility of anger assessment in the evaluation of risk, and the value of therapeutic approaches for aggression problems in older adult patients are discussed

Strengthening Ontario\u27s System of Housing for People with Serious Mental Illness

This article describes recent work to support recommendations for improving Ontario’s system of housing for people with serious mental illness. This multifaceted project engaged stakeholders in discussions concerning strategies for improving the system based on (a) values that underlie housing programs, (b) evidence of effective housing practices, (c) the current status of the system, and (d) international practices for monitoring community mental health systems. Stakeholders reviewed summaries of the work and discussed implications for improving the provincial system of housing and supports. Recommendations are made for improving the system, focusing on both regional and provincial level actions

Comparative Genomics of a Parthenogenesis-Inducing Wolbachia Symbiont.

Wolbachia is an intracellular symbiont of invertebrates responsible for inducing a wide variety of phenotypes in its host. These host-Wolbachia relationships span the continuum from reproductive parasitism to obligate mutualism, and provide a unique system to study genomic changes associated with the evolution of symbiosis. We present the genome sequence from a parthenogenesis-inducing Wolbachia strain (wTpre) infecting the minute parasitoid wasp Trichogramma pretiosum The wTpre genome is the most complete parthenogenesis-inducing Wolbachia genome available to date. We used comparative genomics across 16 Wolbachia strains, representing five supergroups, to identify a core Wolbachia genome of 496 sets of orthologous genes. Only 14 of these sets are unique to Wolbachia when compared to other bacteria from the Rickettsiales. We show that the B supergroup of Wolbachia, of which wTpre is a member, contains a significantly higher number of ankyrin repeat-containing genes than other supergroups. In the wTpre genome, there is evidence for truncation of the protein coding sequences in 20% of ORFs, mostly as a result of frameshift mutations. The wTpre strain represents a conversion from cytoplasmic incompatibility to a parthenogenesis-inducing lifestyle, and is required for reproduction in the Trichogramma host it infects. We hypothesize that the large number of coding frame truncations has accompanied the change in reproductive mode of the wTpre strain

A social, economic, and intellectual history of Fall River, Massachusetts

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Academic Law Review Writing

Simple words tend to produce concrete, understandable images

Beyond Collective Efficacy: New Brief Measures to Assess the Outer Layers of the Social Ecology

Abstract Introduction: Community support can be a valuable interpersonal resource anywhere, yet past research has largely been focused on adults in urban neighborhoods. Because communities are no longer solely defined by a shared physicality, we offer psychometric data on three new measures to assess other communal resources: informal community support, support for community youth, and workplace integration. Methods: Participants (N=1706) from a largely rural, low-income Southern region completed a computer-assisted questionnaire as part of a larger study on character development and personal strength. Ages range from 11 to 70 years old (M=29.3 years; SD=12.3 years); 63% of participants are female. Results: Internal consistency was good for our 3 new measures, .70 to .86 and each scale comprised a single factor in exploratory factor analyses. Correlations with collective efficacy (convergent validity) were all positive and significant and range from .18 to .57. Correlations with measures of subjective well-being range from .21 to .29, and correlations with mental and physical health outcomes ranged from .14 to .23. Implications: Studying communities in addition to individuals and families can potentially shed light on the variety of ways in which community ties can foster well-being and resilience. The three new measures presented here assess important but understudied aspects of communities

The identity of the individual in the book of psalms

The aim of the thesis is to discover the identity of the individual in each of the ninety-three psalms in which an "I" occurs and to assign each of these psalms to a context in the cultic religion of ancient Israel. After the introduction, which explores briefly the current state of the debate and explains the methodology adopted here, the thesis falls into two halves: Part I examines the two questions in psalm studies which are most closely related to the question of the "I" in the psalms namely the identity, or several identities, of the: antagonists in the psalms and the meaning of the various terms translated "poor". This lays the foundation for the examination and classification of the psalms of the individual in Part II. These psalms are discussed in the three divisions of royal psalms, psalms of the private person and psalms which are best assigned to the cultic ministers (the cultic prophets, wisdom teachers and temple poets). Within this main division a further classification is attempted on the basis of the situation which appears to underly the use of these psalms in temple worship. In the case of the royal psalms, this leads to an examination of the royal ritual and a new reconstruction of this ritual is put forward. The thesis concludes that just under half of the individual psalms were written for the king's use; about a third of the remainder were intended to be used in the cult by private persons and the remaining psalms are the work of, and intended to be delivered by, the ministers of Israel's cult