Young women attending university are at substantial risk for being sexually assaulted, primarily by male acquaintances, but effective strategies to reduce this risk remain elusive.
We randomly ...assigned first-year female students at three universities in Canada to the Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act Sexual Assault Resistance program (resistance group) or to a session providing access to brochures on sexual assault, as was common university practice (control group). The resistance program consists of four 3-hour units in which information is provided and skills are taught and practiced, with the goal of being able to assess risk from acquaintances, overcome emotional barriers in acknowledging danger, and engage in effective verbal and physical self-defense. The primary outcome was completed rape, as measured by the Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Victimization, during 1 year of follow-up.
A total of 451 women were assigned to the resistance group and 442 women to the control group. Of the women assigned to the resistance group, 91% attended at least three of the four units. The 1-year risk of completed rape was significantly lower in the resistance group than in the control group (5.2% vs. 9.8%; relative risk reduction, 46.3% 95% confidence interval, 6.8 to 69.1; P=0.02). The 1-year risk of attempted rape was also significantly lower in the resistance group (3.4% vs. 9.3%, P<0.001).
A rigorously designed and executed sexual assault resistance program was successful in decreasing the occurrence of rape, attempted rape, and other forms of victimization among first-year university women. (Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the University of Windsor; SARE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01338428.).
Ubiquitin-positive, tau- and α-synuclein-negative inclusions are hallmarks of frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitin-positive inclusions and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Although the ...identity of the ubiquitinated protein specific to either disorder was unknown, we showed that TDP-43 is the major disease protein in both disorders. Pathologic TDP-43 was hyper-phosphorylated, ubiquitinated, and cleaved to generate C-terminal fragments and was recovered only from affected central nervous system regions, including hippocampus, neocortex, and spinal cord. TDP-43 represents the common pathologic substrate linking these neurodegenerative disorders.
Nasal high-flow therapy is an alternative to nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) as a means of respiratory support for newborn infants. The efficacy of high-flow therapy in nontertiary ...special care nurseries is unknown.
We performed a multicenter, randomized, noninferiority trial involving newborn infants (<24 hours of age; gestational age, ≥31 weeks) in special care nurseries in Australia. Newborn infants with respiratory distress and a birth weight of at least 1200 g were assigned to treatment with either high-flow therapy or CPAP. The primary outcome was treatment failure within 72 hours after randomization. Infants in whom high-flow therapy failed could receive CPAP. Noninferiority was determined by calculating the absolute difference in the risk of the primary outcome, with a noninferiority margin of 10 percentage points.
A total of 754 infants (mean gestational age, 36.9 weeks, and mean birth weight, 2909 g) were included in the primary intention-to-treat analysis. Treatment failure occurred in 78 of 381 infants (20.5%) in the high-flow group and in 38 of 373 infants (10.2%) in the CPAP group (risk difference, 10.3 percentage points; 95% confidence interval CI, 5.2 to 15.4). In a secondary per-protocol analysis, treatment failure occurred in 49 of 339 infants (14.5%) in the high-flow group and in 27 of 338 infants (8.0%) in the CPAP group (risk difference, 6.5 percentage points; 95% CI, 1.7 to 11.2). The incidences of mechanical ventilation, transfer to a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit, and adverse events did not differ significantly between the groups.
Nasal high-flow therapy was not shown to be noninferior to CPAP and resulted in a significantly higher incidence of treatment failure than CPAP when used in nontertiary special care nurseries as early respiratory support for newborn infants with respiratory distress. (Funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and Monash University; HUNTER Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry number, ACTRN12614001203640.).
We report the secondary outcomes and longevity of efficacy from a randomized controlled trial that evaluated a novel sexual assault resistance program designed for first-year women university ...students. Participants (N = 893) were randomly assigned to receive the Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) program or a selection of brochures (control). Perception of personal risk, self-defense self-efficacy, and rape myth acceptance was assessed at baseline; 1-week postintervention; and 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-month postrandomization. Risk detection was assessed at 1 week, 6 months, and 12 months. Sexual assault experience and knowledge of effective resistance strategies were assessed at all follow-ups. The EAAA program produced significant increases in women’s perception of personal risk, self-defense self-efficacy, and knowledge of effective (forceful verbal and physical) resistance strategies; the program also produced decreases in general rape myth acceptance and woman blaming over the entire 24-month follow-up period. Risk detection was significantly improved for the intervention group at post-test. The program significantly reduced the risk of completed and attempted rape, attempted coercion, and nonconsensual sexual contact over the entire follow-up period, yielding reductions between 30% and 64% at 2 years. The EAAA program produces long-lasting changes in secondary outcomes and in the incidence of sexual assault experienced by women students. Universities can reduce the harm and the negative health consequences that young women experience as a result of campus sexual assault by implementing this program. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index.
Social norm transgressions are assumed to be at the root of numerous substantial negative outcomes for transgressors. There is a prevailing notion among lay people and scholars that transgressing ...social norms can negatively impact one's mental health. The present research aimed to examine this assumption, focusing on clinically relevant outcomes such as anxiety and depression. The present research further aimed to examine a social cognitive process for these outcomes in the form of fear of negative evaluations as a result of one's norm transgressing behavior. Specifically, it examined whether it is negative evaluations about ourselves or about those close to us that mediates the effect of social norm transgressions, and whether those may vary as a function of culture. Results of the present research, including a study with a community sample (
= 410), suggest a positive association between social norm transgressions and psychological distress. Results also suggest that increased fear of negative evaluation mediates that association but does so differently for people from more collectivistic cultures and people from less collectivistic cultures. For people from more collectivistic cultures increased fear of negative evaluation of close others may mediate the association between social norm transgressions and psychological distress. However, for people from less collectivistic cultures that association may be mediated by increased fear of negative evaluation of oneself. Implications for research on consequences of social norm transgressions and cross-cultural differences in perceptions of such consequences are discussed as are practical implications for motivating social norm adherence and the maintenance of constructive social norms.
The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) project has been conducting a photometric survey of transiting planets orbiting bright stars for over 10 years. The KELT images have a pixel scale of ...∼23″ pixel−1-very similar to that of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)-as well as a large point-spread function, and the KELT reduction pipeline uses a weighted photometric aperture with radius 3′. At this angular scale, multiple stars are typically blended in the photometric apertures. In order to identify false positives and confirm transiting exoplanets, we have assembled a follow-up network (KELT-FUN) to conduct imaging with spatial resolution, cadence, and photometric precision higher than the KELT telescopes, as well as spectroscopic observations of the candidate host stars. The KELT-FUN team has followed-up over 1600 planet candidates since 2011, resulting in more than 20 planet discoveries. Excluding ∼450 false alarms of non-astrophysical origin (i.e., instrumental noise or systematics), we present an all-sky catalog of the 1128 bright stars (6 < V < 13) that show transit-like features in the KELT light curves, but which were subsequently determined to be astrophysical false positives (FPs) after photometric and/or spectroscopic follow-up observations. The KELT-FUN team continues to pursue KELT and other planet candidates and will eventually follow up certain classes of TESS candidates. The KELT FP catalog will help minimize the duplication of follow-up observations by current and future transit surveys such as TESS.
Social rejection is a powerful negative emotional experience, yet rejected people often appear stoic and unmoved. That is, their macroexpressions of emotion are not accurate reflections of their ...emotional states. Yet, there is reason to believe that rejected people exhibit involuntary microexpressions of negative emotion. We contrasted people's macroexpressions of emotion with their microexpressions subsequent to an acceptance or rejection experience. Observers coded microexpressions after being trained with the Micro Expression Training Tool. Rejected participants expressed more sad and angry microexpressions than did accepted participants. This research demonstrates that socially rejected people display negative microexpressions that are detectable by observers trained in the Micro Expression Training Tool.
• Although tannins have been an important focus of studies of plant–animal interactions, traditional tannin analyses cannot differentiate between the diversity of structures present in plants. This ...has limited our understanding of how different mixtures of these widespread secondary metabolites contribute to variation in biological activity.
• We used UPLC-MS/MS to determine the concentration and broad composition of tannins and polyphenols in 628 eucalypt (Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora) samples, and related these to three in vitro functional measures believed to influence herbivore defence: protein precipitation capacity, oxidative activity at high pH and capacity to reduce in vitro nitrogen (N) digestibility.
• Protein precipitation capacity was most strongly correlated with concentrations of procyanidin subunits in proanthocyanidins (PAs), and late-eluting ellagitannins. Capacity to reduce in vitro N digestibility was affected most by the subunit composition and mean degree of polymerisation (mDP) of PAs. Finally, concentrations of ellagitannins and prodelphinidin subunits of PAs were the strongest determinants of oxidative activity.
• The results illustrate why measures of total tannins rarely correlate with animal feeding responses. However, they also confirm that the analytical techniques utilised here could allow researchers to understand how variation in tannins influence the ecology of individuals and populations of herbivores, and, ultimately, other ecosystem processes.
During times of macroeconomic instability, the prospect of personal financial deficiency becomes a pervasive concern. This research examined the psychological consequences of contemplating ...threatening economic futures. In two experiments, we tested whether economic threat undermined the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for competence and autonomy. In Experiment 1, Canadian university students primed with an economic threat (compared with a threat‐neutral topic) reported feeling less competent and autonomous. In Experiment 2, American adults primed with an economic threat reported less competence and autonomy compared to both those primed with (a) a noneconomic threat and (b) a threat‐neutral topic. Participants under economic threat also reported lower well‐being compared with threat‐neutral participants. This effect was mediated by self‐perceived competence and autonomy.
Bicultural individuals generally maintain their heritage cultures and live in accordance with mainstream culture with relative ease. However, when the two cultures hold incompatible values, beliefs, ...and social norms over what is considered appropriate, bicultural individuals may face unique challenges. One such challenge is potentially experiencing rejection from their families for transgressing their heritage cultural norms, which can cause psychological distress. The present study explored the association of familial rejection for transgressing heritage cultural norms and psychological distress in situations where those norms are incompatible with mainstream Canadian norms, and the role that Canadian group identification plays. Results revealed that familial rejection for transgressing heritage cultural norms may be associated with psychological distress; however, that association can be attenuated for those who strongly identify as Canadian. Results of the present study provide empirical support for the widely held but untested assumption that bicultural individuals’ experiences of familial rejection for transgressing heritage cultural norms is associated with psychological distress. Additionally, results of the present study suggest that Canadian group identification can assist bicultural Canadians to better cope when their familial relationships are threatened as a result of their heritage cultural norm transgressions.
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