Top Ten Questions Male Sexual Abuse Survivors Want to Know from Health Care Research

Sexual abuse is an often overlooked public health issue for boys and men. Given its prevalence and well-documented connection to mental and physical health disorders, the relevance of male survivor input and engagement in health care research is profound. Using a community-based participatory research design, an in-person focus group with male survivors of sexual abuse and researchers was conducted. This paper describes the top ten research questions male sexual abuse survivors would like to have answered. Survivors were most interested in knowing how sexual abuse and assault impact men’s emotional and sexual functioning, what factors are involved in preventing and treating sexual assault-related emotional distress, and what can be done to prevent sexual abuse of boys and men. The fact that some of the questions survivors expressed an interest in knowing about have actually previously been investigated by researchers suggests a disconnect in translating evidence-based findings. Clinical and research implications include designing outreach interventions and gender-specific psychoeducation to increase engagement and access to care for men.     

The use of religion in coping with grief among bereaved Malay Muslim parents

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of religion on bereaved parents after the death of a child. Literature had attempted to understand how religiosity may influence parental grief both in positive and negative ways. However, this area is scarcely explored in the Malaysian context. This qualitative study involved 11 bereaved parents who lost their children due to accidents (n?=?9) and homicide (n?=?2). Open-ended questions that focused on the importance, activities, and role of religion in the grieving process among Malay parents were asked. According to the thematic analysis, some of the main themes found were that the bereaved parents described religion as a beneficial mechanism in helping them to adapt with their losses through various responses that indicated the perception that religion as a guidance. However, other than the positive impact, religiosity can also lead the bereaved parents to experience negative effects of using religion as a coping strategy. The influence of culture is prevalent in the current study as the theme of mystical belief and paranormal experiences were also reported. This study provides some professional implication from the possible use of religion in intervention.     

Gender differences in STEM undergraduates' vocational interests: People–thing orientation and goal affordances

This study addressed why women have greater representation in some STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields compared to others by linking two theoretical approaches, people–thing orientation (PO, TO) and role congruity theory, which emphasizes occupation goal affordances associated with traditionally feminine and masculine roles. Vocational interest and goal affordance ratings (having a positive social impact, family, and occupation status) for occupations characterized as working with people or things were assessed in 1848 students (42% female; 81% white non-Hispanic) majoring in biology (gender balanced), non-biology STEM (male-dominated), and female-dominated health fields. Participant PO and TO interests were also collected. Results indicated that non-biology STEM majors showed lower PO and higher TO interests than biology and health majors. Non-biology STEM majors also endorsed PO and TO interests at similar levels, but the other two major groups indicated higher PO than TO. People Jobs were perceived to more likely afford goals related to family and positive social impact; whereas Thing Jobs were perceived to more likely afford status goals. Interest in People Jobs was similar for women in both STEM major groups. Female non-biology STEM majors were equally interested in People and Thing Jobs; whereas biology majors preferred People Jobs. PO, TO, and goal affordance ratings independently predicted interest in People and Thing Jobs, and gender accounted for very little additional variance. Taken together, the findings point to the importance of using both person–thing orientation and role congruity theory when explaining varied gender representations in different STEM fields.     

Cholinergic neurons mediate CaMKII-dependent enhancement of courtship suppression

In Drosophila, calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) activity is crucial in associative courtship conditioning for both memory formation and suppression of courtship during training with a mated female. We have previously shown that increasing levels of constitutively active CaMKII, but not calcium-dependent CaMKII, in a subset of neurons can decrease the initial level of courtship and enhance the rate of suppression of courtship in response to a mated female. In this study, we demonstrate that a subpopulation of noncholinergic, nondopaminergic, non-GABAergic neurons can cause CaMKII-dependent reductions in initial courtship, but only cholinergic neurons enhance training-dependent suppression. These data suggest that processing of pheromonal signals in two subpopulations of neurons, likely antennal lobe projection neurons, is critical for behavioral plasticity.     

Eye movements of young and older adults while reading with distraction

The authors used eye-tracking technology to examine young and older adults' online performance in the reading in distraction paradigm. Participants read target sentences and answered comprehension questions following each sentence. In some sentences, single-word distracters were presented in either italic or red font. Distracters could be related or unrelated to the target text. Online measures, including probability of fixation, fixation duration, and number of fixations to distracting text, revealed no age differences in text processing. However, young adults did have an advantage over older adults in overall reading time and text comprehension. These results provide no support for an inhibition deficit account of age differences in the reading in distraction paradigm, but are consistent with J. Dywan and W. E. Murphy's (1996) suggestion that older adults are less able than the young to distinguish target and distracter information held in working memory.     

An analysis of U.S. parachuting fatalities: 2000-2004

Between 2000 and 2004, 125 recreational parachuting fatalities were reported in the USA. Each was categorized using a previously reported taxonomy. While patterns of skydiving fatality were largely unchanged since the last such analysis of fatalities from 1993-1999, some variations were noted. As in previous analyses, most of the recent skydiving fatalities were the direct result of human error. Some examples of commonplace human error fatalities were turning low to the ground resulting in a hard landing, accidentally colliding with other skydivers resulting in entangled parachutes, and failure to deploy the reserve parachute correctly in the event of malfunctioning main parachute.     

Treatment of cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis

Cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis is an increasingly recognized entity. This article reviews the cognitive impairment of multiple sclerosis, its prevalence, its relationship to different types of multiple sclerosis, and its contribution to long-term functional prognosis. The discussion also focuses on the key elements of cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis which distinguish it from other forms of cognitive impairment. Therapeutic interventions potentially effective for the cognitive impairment of multiple sclerosis are reviewed including the effects of disease modifying therapies and the use of physical and cognitive interventions.