Patterns of Walking Among Employed,Urban Canadians: Variations by Commuting Mode,Time of Day,and Days of the Week

This paper illustrates the facility of time-use files to enhance the understanding of behavioral components of commuting. It draws on data from Statistics Canada’s most recent national General Social Survey (2010) to substantiate prior research on the extent that use of public transit for commuting to work is accompanied in people’s days by a greater amount of walking. By verifying alternative explanations for this relationship, the paper explores more thoroughly how walking fits into the daily lives of employed persons in large urban areas. Results show that travel by car comprises upwards of 80 per cent of trips regardless of the hour of the day, while public transportation is used mostly to get to and from paid work. Although walking generally accompanies such transit commutes and is shown to fit sequentially into transit’s temporal patterns, walking spreads out more evenly across the day than transit use and helps complete other trip purposes. The weekday walking pattern extends to weekend days to a surprisingly similar extent, confirming that transit is but one of numerous generators of walking trips. Statistically significant relationships link minutes walked to household income, access to a car, and main mode used for commuting. However, the pre-eminence of commuting by car raises questions about the effective priorities and constraints underlying choice of main commuting mode. More detailed characterization of transit access and subjective questions in time-use surveys could facilitate greater insight into the rationales of the subgroup choosing public transit and walking more frequently and for longer duration.     

The role of individual differences,response profiles,and treatment consonance in anxiety disorders

The importance of individual differences, response profiles, and treatment consonance in anxiety-disorders clinical research is reviewed. Anxiety-disorders assessment, synchrony, and concordance phenomena are examined within the framework of the tripartite model. Issues regarding response stereotypy, response specificity, and etiological vs. current response typologies are discussed. Interactions of varying response profiles with different treatment modalities are addressed, in terms of both previous and prospective studies. A preliminary classification schema is offered, for illustrative purposes, with empirical support for the differential outcome of anxiety patients receiving consonant vs. nonconsonant response profile × treatment type pairings. Hypotheses are presented regarding predicted effects of consonant vs. nonconsonant subject-treatment interactions. Recommendations for programmatic research are offered to accelerate scientific inquiry into the role of individual differences and response profiles in anxiety-disorders assessment, treatment, and research.Preparation of this paper was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH 36299.     

Temporal stability of self-report measures in agoraphobia research

Forty subjects, meeting DSM-III criteria for agoraphobia completed, on two occasions, a comprehensive assessment battery. Measures encompassed anxiety, phobia, depression and general symptomatology dimensions of functioning, and consisted of instruments widely employed as outcome measures in agoraphobia research. The test-retest time periods were divided into 4-, 10- and 16-week intervals to ascertain their temporal stability, an often ignored parameter of reliability. The results indicate that agoraphobia, anxiety, depression and general symptomatology measures were temporally stable. However, test-retest reliabilities of the scales' subscores were generally inferior to those of the total score. The findings are discussed, with recommendations for more programmatic psychometric research in the assessment of anxiety disorders.     

Prognostic utility of Locus of Control in treatment of agoraphobia

The purpose of the present study was to examine the prognostic utility of the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale with agoraphobics undergoing behavioral and pharmacological treatments. Fifty subjects meeting DSM-III criteria for agoraphobia, completed the instrument at pre- and post-assessments. Despite marked pre-post improvements, the scale was found to be lacking in discriminative power and clinical sensitivity to detect these changes. However, the scale was found to have utility as a prognostic index of post-treatment levels of improvement, with ‘externality’ being strongly associated with improvement. These findings and related issues are discussed.     

Reformed and Radically Orthodox?: Participatory Metaphysics,Reformed Scholasticism and Radical Orthodoxy's Critique of Modernity

Radical Orthodoxy locates the intellectual roots of secular modernity in the attenuation of Thomistic participatory metaphysics in the late medieval period. John Milbank implicates Reformational theologies in this unintentionally secularizing movement. I examine seventeenth‐century Reformed scholastic Stephen Charnock, contending that he articulates an account of participatory metaphysics similar to Thomas Aquinas, and even further, fails to exhibit the negative trends which Milbank and Catherine Pickstock associate with Scotus and the via moderna. This analysis of Charnock calls into question the location of Reformed theology in Radical Orthodoxy's genealogy of secular modernity, and opens up possibilities for rapprochement between Reformed theology and Radical Orthodoxy.     

Genetic Counseling and Testing for FSHD (Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy) in the Israeli Population

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), is a dominantly inherited, late onset, progressive disease. At present, no treatment or prevention of symptoms are available. There is considerable clinical variability, even within families. The gene whose defect causes FSHD has not been identified, but molecular diagnosis can be made by analyzing D4Z4 repeat length on chromosome 4q35. The results can support or rule out the clinical diagnosis of FSHD, but there are also "gray zone", non-conclusive results. During the years 2000-6, 66 individuals (including 7 asymptomatic individuals), were tested in our institute for D4Z4 repeat number. In 77% of the cases the results were conclusive: two thirds of them supported a diagnosis of FSHD while in a third this diagnosis was ruled out. In 23% the results were in the gray zone. Cognitive involvement was rare, occurring only when the D4Z4 repeat size was very small (<15 kb). Maximal utilization of the existing molecular test for FSHD demands detailed clinical and family pedigree information. We recommend that comprehensive genetic counseling always be given before and after molecular testing for FSHD, in addition to the neurological follow-up. Presymptomatic testing should only be offered when complete molecular evaluation can be offered, including 4qA and 4qB variant analysis.