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Personality style, cortisol secretion and the inflammatory response to trauma exposure in a cohort of South African metro police cadets: a prospective, longitudinal study
No full textLiterature investigating trauma exposure, Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and
cortisol secretion has produced conflicting results with regard to whether cortisol is
increased or decreased. With trauma there is also a pro- inflammatory response which
is intimately linked with the hypothalamic pituitary axis (HPA). The police population can
offer useful information in this regard as they represent a sample that will undergo
exposure to traumatic events as part of their normal duties. In South Africa few studies
have examined biological correlates of the traumatic stress response in the police
population.
This study sought to determine whether correlations exist between cortisol and the
inflammatory response in terms of the cytokines Interleukin 6 (IL6) and Tumour Necrosis
Factor (TNF) in response to trauma exposure in a cohort of newly enrolled metro police
officers, previously naïve to the duty related trauma exposure. Personality styles were
assessed, as coping skills and personality have been suggested as factors determining
responses to trauma.
The study participants were followed up for one year with repeated measures analysis of
urine, blood, and saliva cortisol as well as blood cytokine determination every 3 months.
Measures for PTSD [the Clinician Administered Scale for Posttraumatic stress disorder
(CAPS) and the revised version of the Impact of Event Scale (IES-R)] as well as for
depression [the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D)] were undertaken.
145 new recruits volunteered for the study, of which 120 completed all 5 visits. There
were slightly more females than males in the sample and almost 50% of the sample admitted to alcohol abuse. Trauma exposure on entry into the police force was
remarkably high with 99% having been exposed to at least one traumatic event in their
lives. The majority (61.1 %) had been exposed to more than one traumatic event. There
was evidence for the influence of prior trauma on responses to current traumatic events.
MVA’s were very common, both duty and non duty related. Certain traumas were
associated with greater changes in scores for PTSD and depression in relation to
baseline. Over the 5 visits, only a third submitted valid 24 hour urine samples. Of these,
the profile of the entire group indicated that 24 hour urine cortisol tended to initially
decrease, and then increase with time. Saliva and blood cortisol, which were more
reliably measured, tended to decrease with time.
Scores for depression and post traumatic stress disorder were generally low in response
to duty related traumatic events, and tended to decrease over time. However, the
prevalence of lifetime PTSD as measured by the CAPS was high.
There was a strong linear correlation between TNF and IL6. Results indicate a
proinflammatory response, particularly with regard to IL6. There were no significant
correlations between blood cortisol and HAM-D and between blood cortisol and CAPS
(lifetime). There was an inverse relationship between CAPS (current scores) and blood
cortisol. Cortisol and IES-R scores were significant at visit 3 (inverse relationship). For
saliva, there were no significant associations with any of the variables for PTSD and
depression.
For personality styles, aggressive and antisocial clinical patterns were associated with
lower current CAPS scores, while schizoid clinical pattern and the severe syndrome
scale of thought disorder showed an association with lower lifetime CAPS score. For the
IES-R, only narcissistic clinical pattern was associated with lower scores. A further analysis of those with low (less than 25% of the median) and high (greater than 25% of
the median) cortisol responses was undertaken.
The results indicate a similar trend to some studies showing lowered cortisol levels with
chronic trauma exposure, but this did not correlate with sufficiently high scores for PTSD
as measured by the CAPS. Similarly, proinflammatory cytokine increases are evident
with trauma exposure, but not with scores for PTSD and depression. There were more
variables significantly associated with the low cortisol responders than the high cortisol
responders; with a suggestion of cumulative trauma exposure correlating with low
cortisol response and a corresponding pro inflammatory response in terms of IL6.
The results are discussed with a view to assisting the metro police force with recruitment
and counseling strategies and important future research is recommended
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Coping strategies employed by public psychiatric healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in southern Gauteng, South Africa.
No full textDispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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