Political Participation and Quality of Life

Theoretical literatures on procedural utility and the psychological benefits of political participation suggest that people who participate in political activities will be more satisfied with their lives because of the resulting feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Individual-level data from Latin America show—in one dataset under study but not in another—a positive and statistically significant relationship between voting and life satisfaction. Variation in desire to vote as measured in Costa Rica, however, suggests that the causal arrow may run from happiness to voting. The use of multilevel models further reveals a consistent—but untheorized—cross-country negative relationship between enforced compulsory voting and happiness. Only preliminary results are found regarding the relationship between some other forms of political participation and life satisfaction.

Patient centered infertility care: The health care provider’s perspective

This study describes what health care providers (HCPs) of fertility services perceive their patients to value most, as well as HCPs’ self-evaluation in provision of patient centered infertility care (PCIC). The Patient Centeredness Questionnaire Infertility (PCQ-I) was administered to all clinic staff and completed by approximately 60%. Mean scores and standard deviations were calculated for each dimension as well as for the global score. HCPs ranked staff communication as the highest of the dimensions and accessibility of care as the lowest, respectively indicating areas of strength and weakness. Degree of variance within scoring was used as a marker of consistency of assessment. Ranking of staff competence was the most uniform and ranking of accessibility the most varied, suggesting HCPs are confident in assessing patients’ perceptions of competence, but not with respect to accessibility. Staff communication was thought to be the most important dimension of PCIC for patients, based on the correlation with global score, while care organization was thought to be the least important, showing the lowest correlation with the global satisfaction score. This is the first study to describe North American HCPs’ perceptions of PCIC. This information will inform further professional development in provision of quality PCIC

“Comparing Pennsylvania and Texas Law on Ownership and Marital Rights: Common Law v. Community Property - Impact on Oil and Gas Leasing”

As Texas exploration and production companies transition into Pennsylvania, industry professionals must recognize the differing legal landscape of Pennsylvania common law. It is within this context that this article highlights the major distinctions between the marital property systems employed by Pennsylvania and Texas. Failure to understand these legal variances could result in numerous title problems relating to spousal ownership. Properly classifying the nature of the subject property is paramount because property ownership ultimately determines both the proper lessor of an oil, gas, and mineral lease and the manner in which royalties are paid. The two states\u27 similarities and differences are outlined in the following three sub-topics: marital property systems, spousal protections, and intestate succession. Each sub-topic begins with a discussion and analysis of Texas law, followed by a discussion and analysis of Pennsylvania law, and concludes with practical considerations

Antimicrobial-Induced DNA Damage and Genomic Instability in Microbial Pathogens

Combatting infectious disease is a critical global health concern and involves tackling both emerging infectious agents and newly–drug resistant strains of previously curable pathogens. The widespread and inappropriate use of antimicrobial agents has increased the frequency of resistance among human pathogens, including bacteria, fungi, and protozoan parasites, and threatened to undermine the efficacy of all existing antimicrobial drugs. Whereas lethal doses of antimicrobials may select for preexisting resistant microbes, there is increasing interest in uncovering the cellular consequences of sublethal antimicrobial exposure on the development of antimicrobial resistance. There are numerous circumstances under which microbial organisms are exposed to low doses of antimicrobials, including in patients, in livestock animals, and in the environment. Sublethal antimicrobial exposure can trigger DNA damage and genomic instability across the diversity of microbial pathogens, including bacterial and fungal species.Banting Postdoctoral Fellowshi

Risk Communication in Thailand: A Case Study in Rayong Province

This project investigates communication strategies used to convey petrochemical pollution, HIV/AIDS, and motorcycle accident risks in Rayong, Thailand. Our goal was to characterize risk communication in Rayong to provide suggestions for improving risk communication in Rayong and Thailand. We accomplished this goal through interviews with government officials, civil-societies, academic researchers, and Rayong province residents. We identified successful strategies from other countries to develop recommendations, which we present regarding improving information flows, tailoring of information, collaboration among stakeholders, and building trust

Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS): Psychometric Properties in a Clinical Sample in the United Kingdom

© 2021 Baron I, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.Background: Routine Outcome monitoring has become a principle element in the transformation of mental health services for children and young people in the UK and promoted by the CYP Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) program. Collecting data on the outcome of therapeutic interventions is a required element of the mental health data set within NHS settings. The Revised Child’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) has been identified as a useful tool based on the normative studies of US populations. There has, however, been no evaluation of RCADS for a UK population. Because of the data available, the current study provides an initial assessment of the validity and reliability of the RCADS in a United Kingdom (UK) clinical sample. Children had been referred to a community mental health and emotional wellbeing service for children and young people presenting with mild to moderate difficulties, in the East of England. Methods: A sample of 1920 CYP (equivalent numbers of boys and girls, aged 7.9 to 18 years), completed the RCADS as part of routine assessment. Parents also completed the RCADS-P for comparison. Tests of normality, internal consistency, factor analysis and correlation were conducted on child and parent raw scores. Results: The current study identified the psychometric properties of RCADS for a UK clinical sample. RCADS showed a simple structure where all six variables loaded highly on the one factor of Separation Anxiety. RCADS showed good internal consistency with positive and highly significant correlations between subscales as well as between child and parents reports. Conclusions: All six subscales were found to be necessary part of RCADS. Indications are that RCADS shows promising clinical utility as a valid and reliable measure for assessing children with Anxiety and Depression in the UK. Future research needs to include a confirmatory factor analysis and assessment of a reliable clinical cut off-score for a UK clinical population.Peer reviewe

Food for Thought: A look at food insecurity at the University of Minnesota

Faculty advisor: Renee RosenThis research was supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Fingerprinting IEEE 802.15.4 Devices with Commodity Radios

We present a reliable method of PHY-layer fingerprinting of IEEE 802.15.4-conformant nodes with commodity digital radio chips widely used in building inexpensive IEEE 802.15.4-conformant devices. Typically, PHY-layer fingerprinting requires software-defined radios that cost orders of magnitude more than the chips they can fingerprint; our method does not require a software-defined radio and uses the same inexpensive chips. For mission-critical systems relying on 802.15.4 devices, defense-in-depth is thus necessary. Device fingerprinting has long been an important defensive tool; reducing its cost raises its utility for defenders. We investigate new methods of fingerprinting 802.15.4 devices by exploring techniques to differentiate between multiple 802.15.4-conformant radio-hardware manufactures and firmware distributions, and point out the implications of these results for WIDS, both with respect to WIDS evasion techniques and countering such evasion

Quest to Learn

The design for Quest to Learn, an innovative school in New York City that offers a “game-like” approach to learning. Quest to Learn, an innovative school for grades 6 to 12 in New York City, grew out of the idea that gaming and game design offer a promising new paradigm for curriculum and learning. The designers of Quest to Learn developed an approach to learning that draws from what games do best: drop kids into inquiry-based, complex problem spaces that are built to help players understand how they are doing, what they need to work on, and where to go next. Content is not treated as dry information but as a living resource; students are encouraged to interact with the larger world in ways that feel relevant, exciting, and empowering. Quest to Learn opened in the fall of 2009 with 76 sixth graders. In their first semester, these students learned—among other things—to convert fractions into decimals in order to break a piece of code found in a library book; to use atlases and read maps to create a location guide for a reality television series; and to create video tutorials for a hapless group of fictional inventors. This research and development document outlines the learning framework for the school, making the original design available to others in the field. Elements in development include a detailed curriculum map, a budget, and samples of student and teacher handbooks