Experiential-Based Research Depicting Humanistic Survival after Violent Victimization & Traumatization Exploring Human Resilience, Spirituality, Meditation & Expressive Writing

Unattended trauma-induced stressors resulting from incidents of violent victimization can escalate into mental health challenges, including trauma-related and substance-abuse disorders, which most often co-occur in a debilitating manner. Therefore, it is essential to conduct ongoing exploratory research on cognitive-based approaches (e.g., spirituality), psychological adaptations (e.g., human resilience), and trauma-informed approaches (e.g., meditation, expressive writing), which serve to reduce or offset the adverse impact of trauma. Twelve women who experienced victimization and traumatization but did not seek professional mental-health intervention were interviewed; six had been abused as children and eight as adults. Some did not contact or follow through with reports to the police either because they faced pressure to drop charges or because they were children when abused. Some also reported a lack of family intervention and support. Most reported withdrawing, secluding, and isolating themselves while benefitting from constructive coping activities that they could engage in alone (e.g., reflective journaling, prayer, and meditation), in addition to them reportedly engaging in structured support groups at church or in the community that could teach them about coping and leaving abusers. Spirituality also helped participants find new meaning regarding self-revaluating established relationships, in addition to helping them move positively forward. Some also mentioned that counseling could likely help them effectively cope futuristically, but they had not sought counseling because they thought they were not good at talking about feelings or they had negative perceptions of therapy. Key messages for survival were to be cautious and not remain in violent and abusive situations. Key messages for coping were to stay strong, address victimization and traumatization, and strive for love and happiness

What is the glue that holds work and family life together? Perceptions of work and family balance among working New Hampshire parents

Using a mixed methods research approach, the current study used data gathered from the Survey of New Hampshire Working Families to assess participants\u27 perceptions of work and family balance. As part of the survey, parents were asked to report the one thing, the glue, that holds work and family life together. Participant responses were analyzed qualitatively using content analysis. As a result, seven glue themes emerged: 1) partner support, 2) work flexibility, 3) support of family, 4) personal strengths, 5) children, 6) income, and 7) religion. Additional research questions were created with the hope of revealing demographic trends among specific glue themes. Implications derived from the findings greatly benefit the work-family field, as they provide employers, policy makers, and researchers, with a better understanding of what working New Hampshire parents need to achieve work and family balance

Who Runs the World? An Analysis of the Internal Dynamics of International Organizations and Their Impact on the Ability of Women to Attain High-Level Leadership Positions

This study asks how do the internal dynamics of international organizations (IOs) affect the ability of women to attain high-ranking professional positions within international secretariats? To answer this question, theoretical understandings of the autonomy of IOs and the influence of their staff members as leaders are employed, arguing that individuals that comprise the internal bureaucracies of IOs are independent and influential in determining the policies, processes, and performance of their organization. In reviewing the relevant literature regarding IOs, gender, and leadership, this research identifies three key internal dynamics that jointly interact to influence the ability of women to attain-high level leadership positions: sociocultural dynamics (which include an IO’s organizational culture) and institutional mechanisms (which include an IO’s organizational structure and internal gender equality policies). This paper hypothesizes that an increased presence of gender-relevant internal dynamics in an IO will yield a greater ability of women to attain high-ranking professional positions. This study isolates the effect of institutional dynamics on the ability of women to attain high-level leadership positions, and to do so, conducts comparative case studies across four UN System organizations (UNFPA, UNDP, UNIDO and UNRWA). Given many IOs with organizational cultures open to female empowerment still lack a significant number of women in leadership positions and that many IOs approach gender equality efforts through their structures and internal gender equality policies, it is critical to understand if institutional mechanisms are independently effective on the ability of women to attain high-level leadership positions. To analyze whether or not institutional mechanisms are influential in allowing women to attain such positions separate from the influence of organizational culture, the case studies control for organizational culture by ensuring all case studies possess organizational cultures open to female empowerment. This coding data for organizational structure and internal gender equality policies is synthesized with original interviews conducted with staff members at each of the case study organizations. In analyzing the coding and interview data for each IO’s organizational structure, it is evident that organizational structure alone does not sufficiently explain the variation in the dependent variable and that organizational structure cannot be isolated from the influence of organizational culture. An IO’s internal gender equality policies were found to be more significant in influencing the ability of women to attain high-level leadership positions, but this dynamic was also deeply embedded in an interactive effect with organizational culture. Thus, despite the methodological attempt to independently analyze the influence of institutional dynamics from the influence of organizational culture, on the ability of women to attain high-ranking professional positions within an IO, this research has illustrated that the interactive effect across these mechanisms cannot be isolated. This study fills a hole in the existing literature by analyzing the nexus of gender, leadership, IO and public administration scholarship and encourages future research to continue expanding understandings of gender in IO leadership

Understanding Differences between CORE and CACREP Counselors-in-Training Perceptions of Self-Efficacy

An examination of differences in perceptions of self-efficacy between students in CORE-accredited rehabilitation counseling programs and students in CACREP -accredited clinical mental health counseling programs enrolled in practicum/internship classes is absent in the literature. Results indicated there was not a significant difference (p = .05) between the total self-efficacy scores between both treatment groups (CORE and CACREP). Further, there was not a significant difference between helping skills, session management, and counseling challenging situations scores for both treatment groups (CORE and CACREP). Predictors of self-efficacy for CACREP participants consisted of prior work experience in a field other than helping. Predictors of self-efficacy for CORE participants were gender

Biodistribution of the recombinant fusion protein linking coagulation factor IX with albumin (rIX-FP) in rats

AbstractIntroductionThe recombinant fusion protein linking coagulation factor IX with albumin (rIX-FP) is undergoing clinical trials for prophylaxis and on-demand treatment of haemophilia B patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the pharmacokinetics, whole-body and knee joint distribution of rIX-FP following intravenous administration to rats, compared with a marketed, non-fused rFIX and recombinant human albumin.Material and Methods[3H]-rIX-FP, [3H]-rFIX or [3H]-albumin were administered to rats followed by quantitative whole-body autoradiography over 24 or 240hours, and the tissue distribution as well as elimination of radioactivity were measured.ResultsElimination of all radioactivity derived from the three proteins was shown to occur primarily via the urine. The tissue distribution of [3H]-rIX-FP and [3H]-rFIX (but not of [3H]-albumin) was comparable, both penetrating predominantly into bone, and well-perfused tissues, suggesting that the rIX moiety determines the distribution pattern of rIX-FP, while the albumin moity is responsible for the prolonged plasma and tissue retention. Detailed knee-joint analysis indicated rapid presence of [3H]-rIX-FP and [3H]-rFIX in synovial and mineralised bone tissue, mostly localised to the zone of calcified cartilage. Longest retention times were observed in the bone marrow and the endosteum of long bones. Intriguingly, [3H]-rIX-FP- and [3H]-albumin-derived radioactive signals were detectable up to 240hours, while [3H]-rFIX-derived radioactivity rapidly declined after 1hour post-dosing correlating to the extended plasma half-life of [3H]-rIX-FP.ConclusionThe prolonged plasma and tissue retention of rIX-FP achieved by albumin fusion may allow a reduction in dosing frequency leading to increased therapeutic compliance and convenience

A comparison of three methods for estimating call densities of migrating bowhead whales using passive acoustic monitoring

TAM thanks partial support by Centro de Estatistica e Aplicações, Universidade de Lisboa (funded by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, through the project UID/MAT/00006/2013).Various methods for estimating animal density from visual data, including distance sampling (DS) and spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR), have recently been adapted for estimating call density using passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) data, e.g., recordings of animal calls. Here we summarize three methods available for passive acoustic density estimation: plot sampling, DS, and SECR. The first two require distances from the sensors to calling animals (which are obtained by triangulating calls matched among sensors), but SECR only requires matching (not localizing) calls among sensors. We compare via simulation what biases can arise when assumptions underlying these methods are violated. We use insights gleaned from the simulation to compare the performance of the methods when applied to a case study: bowhead whale call data collected from arrays of directional acoustic sensors at five sites in the Beaufort Sea during the fall migration 2007–2014. Call detections were manually extracted from the recordings by human observers simultaneously scanning spectrograms of recordings from a given site. The large discrepancies between estimates derived using SECR and the other two methods were likely caused primarily by the manual detection procedure leading to non-independent detections among sensors, while errors in estimated distances between detected calls and sensors also contributed to the observed patterns. Our study is among the first to provide a direct comparison of the three methods applied to PAM data and highlights the importance that all assumptions of an analysis method need to be met for correct inference.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Plasticity in the foraging behavior of male Southern Rockhopper Penguins (Eudyptes chrysocome) during incubation in the Falkland/Malvinas Islands

Environmental changes often affect the persistence of species or populations at different spatial and temporal scales. Thus, species must either adapt to these changes or experience negative impacts at the individual or population levels. Southern Rockhopper Penguins Eudyptes chrysocome are distributed throughout the Southern Ocean and have experienced substantial declines in the past which were linked to various anthropogenic and environmental factors. The aim of this study was to investigate the foraging behavior of male Southern Rockhopper Penguins at Berkeley Sound, East Falkland, Falkland/Malvinas Islands, during incubation, a period at-sea which is crucial for replenishing body condition between two extended fasting periods ashore. Thus, birds are forced to forage efficiently during that time to balance their energy demands. We linked their at-sea distribution and foraging behavior to satellite-derived sea surface temperatures and temperature-depth profiles which were recorded by devices attached to the birds. While Southern Rockhopper Penguins usually travel several hundreds of km out into the open sea on multiple-day trips during incubation, we found in our study that most birds foraged close inshore, less than 9 km away from their colony, and regularly returned to their breeding site. We propose that this behavior occurred in response to the close proximity of the 8 °C SST isotherm and the vertical stratification of the waters therein. Also, while usually feeding pelagically in open waters, there are strong indications that Southern Rockhopper Penguins performed benthic or, at least, near-bottom dives to catch their prey during these short trips. The consequences of this behavioral plasticity in response to variations in sea temperatures and inferred prey availability are discussed, especially with regard to predicted global climate change

Identification of nicotine-seeking and avoiding larval zebrafish using a new three-choice behavioral assay

IntroductionNicotine dependence is one of the main causes of preventable diseases in the United States. Nicotine-seeking and avoidance behavioral assays in larval zebrafish could be used for identifying potential new pharmacotherapeutics in an early phase of drug discovery and could facilitate the identification of genes and genomic variations associated with nicotine-seeking and avoidance behavior.MethodsA new three-choice behavioral assay has been developed for the identification of nicotine-seeking and avoiding larval zebrafish. The three choices are represented by three compartments of a gradient maze. Video-recording and subsequent quantitative analysis of the swimming track was carried out using EthovisionXT (Noldus).ResultsThree behavioral phenotypes could be identified. Nicotine-seeking larval zebrafish occupied nicotine compartments for longer periods and entered the nicotine-containing compartments most frequently. Nicotine-avoiders spent most of the cumulative time in the water compartment or entered the water compartment most frequently. Non-seekers remained in the center compartment for most of the time. In the gradient maze, about 20–30% of larval zebrafish had a preference for low nicotine concentrations whereas nicotine avoidance was stronger at higher nicotine concentrations. Lower concentrations of nicotine (0.63 μM, 6.3 μM) resulted in higher percentages of nicotine seekers whereas high nicotine concentrations (63 μM, 630 µM) resulted in higher percentages of nicotine avoiders. Pre-treatment of larval zebrafish with nicotine slightly increased the percentage of nicotine avoiders at lower nicotine concentrations. Treatment with varenicline strongly increased the percentage of nicotine avoiders at lower nicotine concentrations.ConclusionThe results show that larval zebrafish have individual preferences for nicotine that could change with drug treatment. The three-choice gradient maze assay for larval zebrafish provides a new testing paradigm for studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms of nicotine action and the discovery of potential new pharmacotherapeutics for the treatment of smoking cessation