Grumpy Cat On Hump Day: Animals\u27 Effects On Mind, Body, and Spirit--And What We Ought to Do About It

How ought we to live? It is the Jesuit question, the question that guides our classes and our lives, the question we must answer to fulfill our call to become men and women in service of others. Throughout our Jesuit education, we often hear the question How ought we to live? We also often hear cura personalis. We eventually learn that how we ought to live inextricably ties to how we ought to nurture our minds, bodies, and spirits. We can help our students meet this goal by allowing them to implement cura personalis in their daily lives that is, in and through school-sponsored housing. One way we can help students to achieve cura personalis is by allowing them to own pets pets that can nurture their minds, bodies, and spirits. Human-animal interaction (HAI) has long been the subject of psychological research. The effects of animals on the mind are well known: research has consistently shown that HAI relaxes humans. The effects of animals on the body are equally as well known: research has shown that HAI confers several health benefits, including decreased blood pressure especially in pet owners. However, although years of correlational and anecdotal research suggest that animals increase empathy and compassion, I found no experimental studies that assessed animals\u27 effects on these emotions. In the Honors in Neuroscience portion of my thesis, I used a combination of EEGs and empathy and compassion surveys to assess how both consistent and inconsistent HAI impacted empathy and compassion. 1 also tested participants one full week and three full weeks after the initial interaction to see how long these effects lasted. I found that consistent, but not inconsistent, HAI increases: empathic concern, compassionate love of humanity, and compassionate love of specific close others. The combination of my research and previous research on HAI shows that consistent HAI such as that provided by pet ownership nurtures cur a personalis. When asking How ought we to live? we are also challenged to ask the costs. Attempting to answer the At what cost? question, in my own study I assessed the effects of consistent and inconsistent petting on rats\u27 anxiety. I found that consistent HAI does not increase rats\u27 anxiety and that it may benefit the animals by decreasing their anxiety (findings consistent with previous research). This then implies that students can achieve cura personalis while serving another (a pet). I therefore propose that we allow animals to live in designated areas of Regis-sponsored housing (one section of Residence Village), basing my proposal on the successful implementation of pet-friendly policies at other colleges. Implementation of this proposal will allow students to live how they ought to live not just in the future, but today

Women Struggle to Reach the Top: Gender Disparities in the Workplace

Abstract The study examined the degree to which gender role expectations, anticipated role conflict and same-gendered role models are related to women’s career centrality. It was predicted that women who adhere more to male norms than female norms will indicate more career centrality than women who adhere more to female norms; women who anticipate less work-family conflict will indicate more career centrality; women will identify female role models more often than male role models; and women who identify female role models will report those individuals to have a higher degree of impact on their career centrality. There were 97 students male (19) and female (78) from a single private, Midwestern liberal arts college that participated. Participants completed a survey, in which they responded to items measuring their adherence to male and female norms, items measuring their anticipation of work-family conflict in their future career, one item measuring the degree of impact their identified role model had on their career centrality, and items measuring their career centrality. Findings, revealed women identify female role models more often than they do male role models. The results also reveal a strong positive relationship between reported role model impact and career centrality. Finally, the current study revealed a positive relationship between male norm adherence and career centrality

Overcoming Barriers to Health and Wellbeing : Community Assets in North East Essex

The Overcoming Barriers to Health and Wellbeing report presents research carried out by Public Health and Social Science researchers at Anglia Ruskin University. Colchester Borough Council commissioned this independent study with funding from the North East Essex Health and Wellbeing Alliance. The aim of the research is to provide Local Authorities and health and wellbeing commissioners with insight into the public health benefits of community assets from the perspective of citizens who access them in their local communities. This report provides an evidence-based rationale for the support of community assets to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes of citizens in North East Essex. There is a focus on populations considered to be at increased risk of poor health and wellbeing outcomes, and on addressing populations in places where there are areas of comparative social deprivation in the context of growing health inequalities in the region

Conducting a cross-sectional study examining prevalence of mental health issues in conflict-affected adults attending primary care in Northern Sri Lanka: Challenges and lessons-learned

The country of Sri Lanka underwent a Civil War from 1983-2009 which resulted in approximately half a million people displaced from their homes. The Northern Province of the country was particularly affected by the conflict. Research suggests that the experience of living in a conflict setting can affect people’s mental health resulting in depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other issues. Treatment of these mental health disorders is then made more difficult in low-resource settings where there is a lack of specialised care available, such as psychiatrists and psychologists. Before this study, the prevalence of mental health disorders in post-conflict Northern Province was unknown and therefore it was unclear how many people required help. As the Northern Province has a strong primary care system, we decided to explore if people went to their GP to seek help for mental health disorders. To accomplish this, we decided to use a cross-sectional survey to take a snapshot of how many people attended primary care facilities with potential mental health disorders. We included both males and females over the age of 18 who were displaced during the conflict. We found high rates of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, somatoform symptoms, and psychosis with hypomania among our participants. These results indicate that there are many people attending primary care facilities who require treatment. Our findings are being used to train GPs in the region to identify and manage mental health disorders to ensure people who need help are able to access it

Challenges and lessons learned in re-filming the WHO mhGAP training videos for Sri Lankan context - a qualitative study

Background : Understanding and addressing the unmet mental health needs burden in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka is the subject of the COMGAP-S two-phase study. Phase Two involves the implementation of the World Health Organization's mental health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) in primary healthcare settings. As part of the contextual adaptation of mhGAP, eleven of the videos provided in the mhGAP training package have been re-filmed by a local team. We investigated the challenges, barriers and good practices of this adaptation effort from the point of view of team participants. Methods: 12 persons from the adaptation team, including students of medicine and drama, doctors, drama lecturers and professionals, consented to in-depth individual interviews following an open-ended topic guide with a member of the COMGAP-S study team. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated as necessary, and subjected to thematic analysis. Results: The majority of participants perceived the process positively and had pride in their involvement. Expectations, opportunities, and exposure were discussed as stemming from the video production. The main challenges derived from the analysis were lack of discussion around budgeting, logistical difficulties, struggles with team cooperation, and creative differences. Issues around exact translation into the local Tamil dialect and modelling around mental health were emphasised by the majority of participants. Potential uses for the videos were identified beyond the current study and recommendations included setting out clear guidance around available funding and role allocation, and increasing the flexibility in adapting the material. Conclusions: This study illustrated details of the adaptation of existing video materials to facilitate locally-based training for non-specialists on mhGAP curricula. With this, we have added to the knowledge base on conducting cultural and language adaptations and our findings indicate participants felt adapting the mhGAP films to local context was vital to ensuring training materials were culturally appropriate and valid

Communication skills training in undergraduate medicine.

Good communication with patients is now recognised as the cornerstone in effective medical practice. Medical students do not automatically acquire the art of good communication through clinical training. A new course to promote the development of communication skills at undergraduate level is described. The course was provided at the juncture between pre-clinical and clinical training. Course evaluation illustrated the value of the course as perceived by students themselves and highlighted the areas of greatest need for students in communication skills training

Communication skills training in undergraduate medicine: attitudes and attitude change.

The importance of communication skills training in undergraduate medical education is now widely accepted. However little is known about student attitudes towards their own communication skills and whether their attitudes changes as a result of participating in communication skills courses. The aim of the present study was to identify these attitudes prior to commencing such a course and to further evaluate changes in these attitudes on completion of the course. Results demonstrated an improvement in perceived confidence regarding a number of specific communication skills. The study provides further evidence of the value of such courses in undergraduate medical training

Molecular dissection of the domain architecture and catalytic activities of human PrimPol

PrimPol is a primase–polymerase involved in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA replication in eukaryotic cells. Although PrimPol is predicted to possess an archaeo-eukaryotic primase and a UL52-like zinc finger domain, the role of these domains has not been established. Here, we report that the proposed zinc finger domain of human PrimPol binds zinc ions and is essential for maintaining primase activity. Although apparently dispensable for its polymerase activity, the zinc finger also regulates the processivity and fidelity of PrimPol's extension activities. When the zinc finger is disrupted, PrimPol becomes more promutagenic, has an altered translesion synthesis spectrum and is capable of faithfully bypassing cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer photolesions. PrimPol's polymerase domain binds to both single- and double-stranded DNA, whilst the zinc finger domain binds only to single-stranded DNA. We additionally report that although PrimPol's primase activity is required to restore wild-type replication fork rates in irradiated PrimPol−/− cells, polymerase activity is sufficient to maintain regular replisome progression in unperturbed cells. Together, these findings provide the first analysis of the molecular architecture of PrimPol, describing the activities associated with, and interplay between, its functional domains and defining the requirement for its primase and polymerase activities during nuclear DNA replication