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From Tramp to Traveller: V.S. Naipaul Mirrors Immigrant Experiences in In a Free State
Get PDFThere is a scene in ‘One out of Many’ in In A Free State where Santosh, a character from the foothills of Himalaya, looks at himself in the mirror and realises that he is an individual. He takes the step of breaking away from his employer and seeks his own identity in the big city of Washington DC. What does the mirror stand for in the the scene? Is the mirror symptomatic of colonial subservience, or economic servility, or caste demarcations that he must transcend to achieve individuality? Or is the mirror the medium to bridge the gaps between tradition and modernity, community and individuality, faith and rationality? Ironically, Lewis Carroll uses the mirror in Through the Looking Glass to invert the everyday world and reflect on reality. The article compares the text to Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass in a bid to read Naipaul’s mirroring of immigrant experiences by presenting various personas from and in different parts of the world. Their immigrant experiences differ in specifics but all of them sense alienation from their environment and their communities. The same is reflected in the narrator’s experiences in the Prologue and the Epilogue with the tramp and the traveller being eternally alienated from their fellow travellers
A qualitative exploration of barriers and facilitatorsto adherence to an online self-help intervention for cancer-related distress
Get PDFThis author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (March 2017) in accordance with the publisher’s copyright policyObjective
This study qualitatively explored barriers and facilitators of adherence to an online psychological intervention for cancer-related distress.
Methods
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 adults with cancer, randomised to receive either a 6-week intervention (n = 8) or attention control (n = 5) as part of a larger RCT. Transcripts were coded for themes and subthemes, and recruitment ceased when saturation of themes occurred.
Results
Adherence overall was high: six participants completed all six modules, three completed five modules, two completed four modules, one completed one module, and one did not access the program. The total numbers of barriers (n = 19) and facilitators (n = 17) identified were equivalent and were categorised into five overarching themes: illness factors, psychological factors, personal factors, intervention factors and computer factors. However, the prevalence with which themes were discussed differed: illness factors (specifically cancer treatment side effects) were the main reported barrier to adherence; intervention factors (email reminders, program satisfaction, ease of use, program content) were the most common facilitators.
Conclusion
While some factors were cited as both facilitating and barring adherence, and therefore reflective of personal preferences and circumstances, a number of recommendations were derived regarding (i) the best timing for online interventions and (ii) the need for multi-platform programs
A latent genetic subtype of major depression identified by whole-exome genotyping data in a Mexican-American cohort
Get PDFThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.Identifying data-driven subtypes of major depressive disorder (MDD) is an important topic of psychiatric research. Currently, MDD subtypes are based on clinically defined depression symptom patterns. Although a few data-driven attempts have been made to identify more homogenous subgroups within MDD, other studies have not focused on using human genetic data for MDD subtyping. Here we used a computational strategy to identify MDD subtypes based on single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping data from MDD cases and controls using Hamming distance and cluster analysis. We examined a cohort of Mexican-American participants from Los Angeles, including MDD patients (n=203) and healthy controls (n=196). The results in cluster trees indicate that a significant latent subtype exists in the Mexican-American MDD group. The individuals in this hidden subtype have increased common genetic substrates related to major depression and they also have more anxiety and less middle insomnia, depersonalization and derealisation, and paranoid symptoms. Advances in this line of research to validate this strategy in other patient groups of different ethnicities will have the potential to eventually be translated to clinical practice, with the tantalising possibility that in the future it may be possible to refine MDD diagnosis based on genetic data
Parent engagement and attendance in PEACH™ QLD – an up-scaled parent-led childhood obesity program
Get PDFThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background
Parenting, Eating and Activity for Child Health (PEACH™) is a multicomponent treatment program delivered over ten group sessions to parents of overweight/obese primary school-aged children. It has been shown to be efficacious in an RCT and was recently translated to a large-scale community intervention funded by the Queensland (Australia) Government. Engagement (enrolment and attendance) was critical to achieving program outcomes and was challenging. The purpose of the present study was to examine sample characteristics and mediating factors that potentially influenced program attendance.
Methods
Data collected from parents who attended at least one PEACH™ Queensland session delivered between October 2013 and October 2015 (47 programs implemented in 29 discrete sites), was used in preliminary descriptive analyses of sample characteristics and multilevel single linear regression analyses. Mediation analysis examined associations between socio-demographic and parent characteristics and attendance at group sessions and potential mediation by child and parent factors.
Results
365/467 (78%) enrolled families (92% mothers) including 411/519 (79%) children (55% girls, mean age 9 ± 2 years) attended at least one session (mean 5.6 ± 3.2). A majority of families (69%) self-referred to the program. Program attendance was greater in: advantaged (5.9 ± 3.1 sessions) vs disadvantaged families (5.4 ± 3.4 sessions) (p < 0.05); partnered (6.1 ± 3.1 sessions) vs un-partnered parents (5.0 ± 3.1 sessions) (p < 0.01); higher educated (6.1 ± 3.0 sessions) vs lower educated parents (5.1 ± 3.3 sessions) (p = 0.02); and self-referral (6.1 ± 3.1) vs professional referral (4.7 ± 3.3) (p < 0.001). Child (age, gender, pre-program healthy eating) and parent (perceptions of child weight, self-efficacy) factors did not mediate these relationships.
Conclusions
To promote reach and effectiveness of up-scaled programs, it is important to identify ways to engage less advantaged families who carry higher child obesity risk. Understanding differences in referral source and parent readiness for change may assist in tailoring program content. The influence of program-level factors (e.g. facilitator and setting characteristics) should be investigated as possible alternative mediators to program engagement
Culture, social networks and HIV vulnerability among men who have sex with men in Indonesia
Get PDFThis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.The current study aimed to explore cultural and social network influence on HIV vulnerability among Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) population in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. A qualitative inquiry employing in-depth one-on-one interviews was carried out with 24 MSM participants in July 2015. Data were analysed using a framework analysis and guided by the Social Networks Theory (SNT) as a conceptual framework. Findings indicated that prohibitive cultural perspectives and norms against same-sex marriage made them to conceal their sexual orientation and thus secretively engaging in unprotected sex that increased their predisposition to HIV transmission. The prohibitive cultures were also instrumental in the formation of MSM sexual networks that provided supportive environment for HIV-risky sexual practices among network partners. These findings provide information that can be used to improve HIV/AIDS service practices and policies. However, further studies with large numbers of MSM would be needed to improve the understanding of other HIV vulnerability determinants, the unique needs of MSM, and what and how programs could be conducted to reduce HIV vulnerability among MSM population
Fibroblasts derived from oesophageal adenocarcinoma differ in DNA methylation profile from normal oesophageal fibroblasts
Get PDFOpen Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) is increasing in incidence and has a poor prognosis. Tumour derived fibroblasts (TDFs) differ functionally from normal fibroblasts (NDFs), and play a pivotal role in cancer. Many of the differences persist through subculture. We measured the DNA methylation profiles of 10 TDFs from OAC with 12 NDF from normal oesophageal mucosa using Infinium HumanMethylation450 Beadchips and found they differed in multidimensional scaling analysis. We identified 4,856 differentially methylated CpGs (DMCs, adjusted p 0.15), of which 3,243 (66.8%) were hypomethylated in TDFs compared to NDFs. Hypermethylated DMCs were enriched at transcription start sites (TSSs) and in CpG islands, and depleted in transcriptional enhancers. Gene ontology analysis of genes with DMCs at TSSs revealed an enrichment of genes involved in development, morphogenesis, migration, adhesion, regulation of processes and response to stimuli. Alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) is a marker of activated fibroblasts and a poor prognostic indicator in OAC. Hypomethylated DMCs were observed at the TSS of transcript variant 2 of α-SMA, which correlated with an increase in α-SMA protein expression. These data suggest that DNA methylation may contribute to the maintenance of the TDF phenotype
School Belongingness and Coping with Victimisation in Bullied and Non-bullied Students: A Discriminant Analysis Approach
Get PDFAll rights reserved © 2017, Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand. Reproduced with permission of the publisher.Documented evidence has raised public and professional concern regarding the prevalence of victimisation in schools and the established immediate and long-term adverse consequences it has on many aspects of the development of adolescents. The purpose of our research was a) to examine the frequency of self-reported victimisation b) to investigate the victimisation coping strategies c) to examine possible gender and age effects and d) to identify differences between bullied and non-bullied students with regard to coping strategies and school belongingness. Eight hundred sixty students (860), aged 12 to 16, from 15 public secondary schools of Greece participated in the study. Gender proved a stronger differentiating factor than age in reporting being victimised, in coping with victimisation and in perceived school belongingness. Being a boy and feeling rejected in school puts individuals at high risk for being victimised. These results are in line with ecological approaches to school bullying phenomena
Three Times to Greece? — New Zealand State Attitudes and Public Projection about Greek Politics during the 1940s
Get PDFAll rights reserved © 2017, Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand. Reproduced with permission of the publisher.During the 1940s the Pacific Dominion of New Zealand either sent or was faced with the possibility of despatching army formations to Greece no less than three times. The specific contexts were very different. However, it was the same Labour government of Peter Fraser in every instance. The military was under the leadership of Lieutenant General Bernard Freyberg for two of them. Fraser and Freyberg were dominant personalities in directing the war effort. This essay uses the trigger of actual/possible military expedition as a vehicle to illustrate changing attitudes of the Dominion’s military-political leadership to the complexity of Greek politics. The period under examination was also a time when the New Zealand state elite and wider community were first making expressions about a “special relationship” (MFAT, “Greece”) between the Dominion and the Mediterranean country
Impulsivity Moderates the Effect of Approach Bias Modification on Healthy Food Consumption
Get PDF© 2017 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 24 month embargo from date of publication (June 2017) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyThe study aimed to modify approach bias for healthy and unhealthy food and to determine its effect on subsequent food consumption. In addition, we investigated the potential moderating role of impulsivity in the effect of approach bias re-training on food consumption. Participants were 200 undergraduate women (17–26 years) who were randomly allocated to one of five conditions of an approach-avoidance task varying in the training of an approach bias for healthy food, unhealthy food, and non-food cues in a single session of 10 min. Outcome variables were approach bias for healthy and unhealthy food and the proportion of healthy relative to unhealthy snack food consumed. As predicted, approach bias for healthy food significantly increased in the ‘avoid unhealthy food/approach healthy food’ condition. Importantly, the effect of training on snack consumption was moderated by trait impulsivity. Participants high in impulsivity consumed a greater proportion of healthy snack food following the ‘avoid unhealthy food/approach healthy food’ training. This finding supports the suggestion that automatic processing of appetitive cues has a greater influence on consumption behaviour in individuals with poor self-regulatory control