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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created unprecedented disruption in health care delivery around the world. In an effort to prevent hospital-acquired COVID-19 infections, most hospitals have severely curtailed elective surgery, performing only surgeries if the patient's survival or permanent function would be compromised by a delay in surgery. As hospitals emerge from the pandemic, it will be necessary to progressively increase surgical activity at a time when hospitals continue to care for COVID-19 patients. In an attempt to mitigate the risk of nosocomial infection, we have created a patient care pathway designed to minimize risk of exposure of patients coming into the hospital for scheduled procedures. The COVID-minimal surgery pathway is a predetermined patient flow, which dictates the locations, personnel, and materials that come in contact with our cancer surgery population, designed to minimize risk for virus transmission. We outline the approach that allowed a large academic medical center to create a COVID-minimal cancer surgery pathway within 7 days of initiating discussions. Although the pathway represents a combination of recommended practices, there are no data to support its efficacy. We share the pathway concept and our experience so that others wishing to similarly align staff and resources toward the protection of patients may have an easier time navigating the process.

The ability to decide advantageously among options that vary in both their risks and rewards is critical for survival and well-being. Previous work shows that some forms of risky decision-making are robustly modulated by monoamine signaling, but it is less clear how monoamine signaling modulates decision-making under risk of explicit punishment. The goal of these experiments was to determine how this form of decision-making is modulated by dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine signaling, using a task in which rats choose between a small, 'safe' food reward and a large food reward associated with variable risks of punishment. Preference for the large, risky reward (risk-taking) was reduced by administration of a D2/3 dopamine receptor agonist (bromocriptine) and a selective D2 agonist (sumanirole). The selective D3 agonist PD128907 appeared to attenuate reward discrimination abilities but did not affect risk-taking per se. In contrast, drugs targeting serotonergic and noradrenergic signaling had few if any effects on choice behavior. These data suggest that in contrast to other forms of risky decision-making, decision-making under risk of punishment is selectively modulated by dopamine signaling, predominantly through D2 receptors.

Bacterial pneumonia is a leading cause of death late after burn injury due to the severe immune dysfunction that follows this traumatic injury. The Mechanistic/Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) pathway drives many effector functions of innate immune cells required for bacterial clearance. Studies have demonstrated alterations in multiple cellular processes in patients and animal models following burn injury in which mTOR is a central component. Goals of this study were to (1) investigate the importance of mTOR signaling in antimicrobial activity by neutrophils and (2) therapeutically target mTOR to promote normalization of the immune response. We utilized a murine model of 20% total body surface area burn and the mTOR-specific inhibitor rapamycin. Burn injury led to innate immune hyperresponsiveness in the lung including recruitment of neutrophils with greater ex vivo oxidative activity compared with neutrophils from sham-injured mice. Elevated oxidative function correlated with improved clearance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, despite down-regulated expression of the bacterial-sensing TLR molecules. Rapamycin administration reversed the burn injury-induced lung innate immune hyperresponsiveness and inhibited enhanced bacterial clearance in burn mice compared with untreated burn mice, resulting in significantly higher mortality. Neutrophil ex vivo oxidative burst was decreased by rapamycin treatment. These data indicate that (1) neutrophil function within the lung is more important than recruitment for bacterial clearance following burn injury and (2) mTOR inhibition significantly impacts innate immune hyperresponsiveness, including neutrophil effector function, allowing normalization of the immune response late after burn injury.

This essay listens to aurality in conjunction with the visual classification of racialized bodies in neoliberal citizenship through what I term “sonic cultural citizenship.” Through a close listeni...

Chronic administration of cocaine can cause pronounced and enduring cognitive alterations such as increases in impulsive choice. Chronic cocaine can also result in enhanced dopamine (DA) release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in response to reward-related cues. It is possible that this enhanced DA release in the NAc is a mechanism by which cocaine increases impulsive choice. To date, however, the specific role of DA in the NAc in impulsive choice is unclear. To begin to address this, rats received acute microinjections of the indirect DA agonist amphetamine directly into the NAc prior to testing in a delay discounting task in which rats chose between a small, immediate and a large, delayed food reward. When delays to the large reward increased within test sessions, amphetamine increased choice of the large reward. When delays decreased within test sessions, however, amphetamine decreased choice of the large reward. These findings suggest that, rather than specifically mediating impulsive choice, DA neurotransmission in the NAc is necessary for flexible adaptation of choice strategies in the presence of shifting reward contingencies. These results further indicate that enhancements in NAc DA release likely do not account for lasting increases in impulsive choice caused by chronic cocaine.

Although body mass index is positively associated with bone mineral density, suggesting obesity is protective against fracture, elderly obese individuals experience greater fracture risk at certain sites than non-obese peers, suggesting bone structural or material changes contribute to fragility. Diet-induced obesity rodent studies have reported detrimental changes to bone microstructure and some apparent-level material properties, but tissue-level material changes are not well understood. Because adipose tissue is highly vascularized, and bone remodeling depends critically on functional vascular supply, concurrent effects on osteovascular perfusion and structure may provide insight about obesity-related bone fragility. This study aimed to determine the effects of obesity on both tissue-level bone properties and osteovascular properties that could negatively impact bone strength. Five-week-old male C57Bl/6J mice were fed either high fat diet (HFD) or control fat diet (CFD) for 17 weeks and received daily treadmill exercise or remained sedentary for eight weeks at ages 14-22 weeks. HFD negatively affected femur bending strength, with 18% lower yield load than CFD. Although HFD negatively altered cancellous microstructure in the distal femur, with 32% lower bone volume fraction than CFD, it did not affect cortical bone geometry in the femoral metaphysis or diaphysis. HFD caused increased carbonate substitution but had no effect on other composition metrics or apparent- or tissue-level material properties in the femoral diaphysis. Exercise did not affect bone strength or microstructure but increased endosteal mineralizing surface in the tibial diaphysis, mineral crystallinity and mineral-to-matrix ratio in the femur, and blood supply to the proximal tibial metaphysis. HFD did not affect blood supply in the tibia or 2D osteovascular structure in the distal femoral metaphysis, indicating that HFD negatively affects cancellous bone without affecting osteovasculature. This study reveals that HFD negatively affected cancellous microstructure without affecting osteovascular structure, and whole-bone strength without altering cortical geometry or material properties.

BACKGROUND:To understand the role of fetal spine position in determining a fetal head position at the time of birth and modality of delivery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a multicenter prospective observational study. Fetal occiput and spine position were evaluated by intrapartum ultrasound. Eighty-six women were eligible for inclusion in the study. Occiput rotational movements and modality of delivery in relation to the fetal spine position were investigated. RESULTS: At the beginning of labor, fetal occiput was in a posterior position in 52.3% of cases and, in 81.5% of cases the spine was in an anterior transverse position. At birth, occiput and spine were both in an anterior position in 90.4% of cases. The rate of cesarean sections in the SP group was significantly higher than the rate in the SAT group (50% vs. 8%, p < 0.0007). Instead, the rate of vaginal deliveries without intervention in the SP group was significantly lower than the rate in the SA group (14% vs. 71%, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Fetal spine position could have an important role in determining fetal occiput position at birth. Spine position might play a crucial role in the outcome of delivery.

Entrapments of whales in sea ice occur occasionally in the Arctic and often last several weeks or months, resulting in emaciation or death of whales. These events provide a unique opportunity for investigating the physiological response to a prolonged or chronic stress in an otherwise healthy population of marine mammals. By measuring cortisol in blubber, a peripheral tissue, we expect to see a reflection of long-term or chronic stress rather than short-term or acute stress. Adipose tissue should be less subject to rapid changes compared to blood cortisol, reflecting stressors experienced over a longer period of time, and should not be affected by potential stress associated with sampling. We measured blubber cortisol of 29 beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) entrapped in November 2006 in Husky Lakes basin and 26 whales from the same population (Eastern Beaufort Sea) during regular seasonal harvests in July of 2006 and 2007. Mean cortisol concentrations (±SEM) were seven times higher in blubber from entrapped whales (1.76 ± 0.32 ng/g wet weight) compared to whales from regular seasonal harvests (0.26 ± 0.042 ng/g wet weight) and appeared to increase with whale age. Our results provide a measure of blubber cortisol from a prolonged stress and demonstrate blubber cortisol as a useful indicator of longer-term exposure to stress in beluga whales.

Cortisol concentrations in a variety of biological tissues have been used to obtain short-term to long-term estimates of activation of the physiological stress response. In recent years, blubber has been demonstrated to be a good candidate tissue from which to extract steroid hormones, but no method for extracting cortisol from blubber of any marine mammal has been published and the effects of sample storage and variation in blubber depth on cortisol concentrations are unknown. The objectives of this study were to identify a method for extracting cortisol from blubber in beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) and to evaluate the concentration of hormones in relation to blubber depth and degradation from long-term storage using samples collected and archived over the past 30 years. Cortisol was extracted from blubber of beluga whales by modifying an existing progesterone-blubber extraction method. Cortisol concentrations were lower in degraded samples, but time in storage did not affect cortisol after controlling for sample quality. Cortisol concentrations increased with blubber depth, with highest concentrations in blubber closest to the muscle. These results show that although cortisol in blubber samples collected and archived prior to extraction may be degraded, high quality samples without visible degradation after long-term storage can still yield useful measures of cortisol. Additionally, sample depth should be controlled for during sample collection. These findings provide necessary information for developing accurate sampling protocols for extracting cortisol from blubber of marine mammals, including sampling by biopsy dart.

The ability to make advantageous decisions under circumstances in which there is a risk of adverse consequences is an important component of adaptive behavior; however, extremes in risk taking (either high or low) can be maladaptive and are characteristic of a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. To better understand the contributions of various affective and cognitive factors to risky decision making, cohorts of male Long-Evans rats were trained in a “Risky Decision making Task” (RDT), in which they made discrete trial choices between a small, “safe” food reward and a large, “risky” food reward accompanied by varying probabilities of footshock. Experiment 1 evaluated the relative contributions of the affective stimuli (i.e., punishment vs. reward) to RDT performance by parametrically varying the magnitudes of the footshock and large reward. Varying the shock magnitude had a significant impact on choice of the large, “risky” reward, such that greater magnitudes were associated with reduced choice of the large reward. In contrast, varying the large, “risky” reward magnitude had minimal influence on reward choice. Experiment 2 compared individual variability in RDT performance with performance in an attentional set shifting task (assessing cognitive flexibility), a delayed response task (assessing working memory), and a delay discounting task (assessing impulsive choice). Rats characterized as risk averse in the RDT made more perseverative errors on the set shifting task than did their risk taking counterparts, whereas RDT performance was not related to working memory abilities or impulsive choice. In addition, rats that showed greater delay discounting (greater impulsive choice) showed corresponding poorer performance in the working memory task. Together, these results suggest that reward-related decision making under risk of punishment is more strongly influenced by the punishment than by the reward, and that risky and impulsive decision making are associated with distinct components of executive function.

Impulsivity is associated with various psychopathologies, and elevated impulsivity is typically disadvantageous. This manuscript reviews recent investigations into the neurobiology of impulsivity using human imaging techniques and animal models. Both human imaging and preclinical pharmacological manipulations have yielded important insights into the neurobiological underpinnings of impulsivity. A more thorough understanding of the complex neurobiology underlying aspects of impulsivity may provide insight into new treatment options that target elevated impulsivity and psychopathologies such as addictions.

We revisit long-term politically active citizens at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the wake of ongoing environmental and nuclear crises in Japan to better understand how long-term citizen participation focused on environmental disasters might be fostered and sustained. In our qualitative study of 31 long-term antinuclear activists, we examine the confluence of psychological and sociopolitical dimensions of active citizenship for over 3 decades. Psychological dimensions include moral obligations and civic-mindedness, emotions, such as anger, stress, and deepened convictions, and the importance of social solidarity and silent supporters. Sociopolitical dimensions include the lack of social power, the importance of formal groups, and strong leadership. Additionally, we compare first-time active citizens with those with prior political experience and argue that at least 2 types of active citizens may exist: those who are intrinsically inspired and those who are motivated by a direct threat. Implications for promoting increased active citizenship around environmental and technological crises are discussed.

To assess the scope of analyses of social power in community psychology (CP), we examined articles published in the American Journal of Community Psychology and Journal of Community Psychology from their inception in 1973 through 2010 for reference to the concept “power.” We discovered two historical points, 30 years apart, where power gained attention: early in the development of the field as it moved away from individualized notions of mental health and more recently as attention has shifted toward psycho-political considerations. Despite the belief that power has been neglected in favor of its linguistic relative, “empowerment,” we found that scholarship spanned ecological levels, including individual (e.g., empowerment, referent power, and citizen participation), group (e.g., communities and organizations/institutions), and structural (e.g., macro concepts and marginalized statuses) analyses. By synthesizing scholarship on power in CP, we can provide a foundation from which to expand the field and effect social change.

In response to the national conversation about the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration in recent years, we created an online partnership between students in concurrent border studies courses at our two campuses: a public Hispanic-serving institution in South Texas and a private, small liberal arts college in Michigan. We explored whether and how the tensions between privileged and disadvantaged students documented in the traditional classroom would manifest online, and how we could use virtual technologies most effectively to structure transformative learning, defined as recognition and articulation of the structural and cultural systems that frame individual experience and meaning-making, across difference. As we document in this essay, tensions around racial, class, and educational inequality did occur in our partnership. Yet these tensions were crucial in creating the conditions for transformative learning because they generated “disorienting dilemmas” that challenged students’ assumptions and knowledge...

Intertemporal decision-making refers to choices among options that vary in both magnitude and delay to arrival (e.g., choices between a small, immediate reward vs a large, delayed reward). An individual’s preference for immediate over delayed rewards depends in part on the degree to which delays reduce (discount) the rewards’ subjective value, and is considered to be one dimension of impulsivity (“impulsive choice”). A large body of literature has demonstrated elevated levels of impulsive choice in chronic cocaine users. This chapter begins by reviewing this literature in terms of the direction of causality in the relationship between cocaine use and impulsive choice (whether high levels of impulsive choice are a predisposing factor for or a consequence of cocaine use). The chapter goes on to discuss research in animal models that has begun to address these causal relationships, as well as neural mechanisms that may underlie these relationships.

Exposure to tobacco smoke during pregnancy is associated with a range of adverse outcomes in offspring, including cognitive deficits and increased incidence of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, but there is a considerable controversy with regard to the causal role of tobacco smoke in these outcomes. To determine whether developmental exposure to the primary psychoactive ingredient in tobacco smoke, nicotine, may cause long-lasting behavioral alterations analogous to those in attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent a chronic neonatal nicotine administration regimen, which models third-trimester human exposure. Male rat pups were administered nicotine (6 mg/kg/day) by oral gastric intubation on postnatal days 1-7. In adulthood, rats were tested in two decision-making tasks (risky decision-making and delay discounting) as well as in free-operant responding for food reward and the elevated plus maze. Chronic neonatal nicotine attenuated weight gain during nicotine exposure, but there were no effects on performance in the decision-making task, and only a modest decrease in arm entries in the elevated plus maze in one subgroup of rats. These data are consistent with previous findings that developmental nicotine exposure has no effect on delay discounting, and they extend these findings to risky decision-making as well. They further suggest that at least some neurocognitive alterations associated with prenatal tobacco smoke exposure in humans may be due to genetic or other environmental factors, including non-nicotine components of tobacco smoke.

Current energy debates are often framed in terms of the extent to which energy sources may mitigate global climate change (GCC) and facilitate energy independence (EI). However, little is understood about whether and how attitudes towards GCC and EI influence attitudes toward energy sources. Our study included 277 undergraduate students enrolled in introductory psychology classes at a large, Southeastern university. As hypothesized, results from ordinal and binary logistic regression analyses revealed that the likelihood participants would support the use of solar, wind, coal or nuclear energy decreased as a function of their belief that an energy source contributed to GCC. The belief that an energy source contributed to EI increased participants’ likelihood of support. Results suggest that beliefs about GCC and EI are important to determining support for energy sources and will likely contribute to effective marketing strategies and efforts to implement more environmentally-sustainable behavior and energy policy.

Most individuals can accurately assess the risks and rewards associated with choice alternatives and decide accordingly; however, drug users often display maladaptive decision-making, such that choices are biased toward excessively risky options.The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a range of drugs of abuse on risky decision-making.Male Long-Evans rats were trained in the Risky Decision-Making Task, in which they chose between two levers, one which produced a small, "safe" food reward and the other which produced a large, "risky" food reward. The large reward was accompanied by the risk of a mild footshock, the probability of which increased over the course of each test session (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%).Nicotine (0.6 mg/kg) and amphetamine (1.5 mg/kg) caused a significant decrease in choice of the large risky reward (decreased risk taking). Diazepam (1.0 mg/kg) caused a significant increase in choice of the large risky reward (increased risk taking), whereas morphine (3.0 mg/kg) caused only a trend toward increased choice of the large risky reward. Ethanol had no effect on choice behavior.These results show that acute administration of drugs of abuse can modulate risk taking in a drug-specific manner, either increasing or decreasing preference for highly rewarding, but risky, options.

This paper examines public participation and the role of community psychology in an emerging environmental dispute relevant to global climate change (GCC)-whether nuclear power represents a "green" solution. From a dialectical position, we explore the nuclear debate as it is linked to GCC, and more specifically, how participation in related federally-mandated processes may be shaped by power. We present qualitative data from public meetings in two nuclear communities and analyze these data through a lens of social power and environmental justice, including an examination of nukespeak and telepolitical appeals to highlight the complexity of the issues, how the appearance of successful participation may be deceptive, and how consensus may be manipulated. We argue that CP should consider GCC to be one of the most significant social problems of our time and make every effort to be involved in the search for truly "green" solutions.

Nuclear energy has received substantial recent attention, marketed as a ‘green’ solution to global climate change (GCC) with calls for new reactors. However, considerable debate exists about whether it represents a viable solution to GCC. Given the complexity and urgency of the issue, a full and balanced debate is desirable. Since media play an important role in shaping public perception, we examined print media coverage of proposed reactors in Georgia—one site in the southeastern United States, which has been the focus of such proposals. We analysed the content of editorials and news articles from two local newspapers—the Augusta Chronicle and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The former exclusively published pro-nuclear opinion pieces whereas the latter published a mix of pro- and anti-nuclear opinions. The majority of news articles in both newspapers generally presented balanced arguments. Pro- and anti-nuclear arguments most often reflected economic and environmental benefits and risks, whereas informational text primarily detailed regulatory processes and financing. Findings suggested that informational text was not necessarily ‘neutral’, sometimes masking covert pro- and anti-nuclear content. Implications for how findings might shape public opinion and strategies for shaping media and extending public deliberation are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cocaine use is associated with high levels of impulsive choice (preference for immediate over delayed rewards), but it is not clear whether cocaine use causes elevated impulsive choice, or whether elevated impulsive choice is solely a predisposing factor for cocaine use. This study examined the effects of prior cocaine self-administration on rats performing a delay discounting task commonly used to measure impulsive choice. Male Long-Evans rats were implanted with intravenous catheters, and following recovery, were trained to self-administer 30 mg/kg/day cocaine HCl (approx. 0.5 mg/kg/infusion) for 14 consecutive days (a control group received yoked intravenous saline infusions). Following three weeks of withdrawal, all rats were food-restricted and began training on the delay discounting task in standard operant chambers. On each trial, rats were given a choice between two levers. A press on one lever delivered a small food reward immediately, and a press on the other delivered a large food reward after a variable delay period. Rats that self-administered cocaine displayed greater impulsive choice (enhanced preference for the small immediate over the large delayed reward, as reflected by shorter indifference points) compared to controls, but were no different from controls on a "probabilistic discounting" task in which they chose between small certain and large uncertain rewards. These data suggest that self-administered cocaine can cause lasting elevations in impulsive choice, and that the high levels of impulsive choice observed in human cocaine users may be due in part to long-term effects of cocaine on brain function.

We assessed the benefits of employing microthemes—short in-class writing assignments designed to facilitate active learning—as pedagogical tools in psychology courses. Students in target course sections completed 10 in-class microthemes during a semester. We designed the microthemes to serve as active learning assignments that would enhance student learning and long-term retention, as well as strengthen students' writing skills. The instructors provided feedback to students on the content and writing quality of each microtheme. Students reported that the microthemes were effective and engaging learning tools. A comparison of essay and multiple-choice scores for students in target versus control course sections suggested the effectiveness of the microthemes for student learning, retention, and writing development.

Drug addicted individuals demonstrate high levels of impulsive choice, characterized by preference for small immediate over larger but delayed rewards. Although the causal relationship between chronic drug use and elevated impulsive choice in humans has been unclear, a small but growing body of literature over the past decade has shown that chronic drug administration in animal models can cause increases in impulsive choice, suggesting that a similar causal relationship may exist in human drug users. This article reviews this literature, with a particular focus on the effects of chronic cocaine administration, which have been most thoroughly characterized. The potential mechanisms of these effects are described in terms of drug-induced neural alterations in ventral striatal and prefrontal cortical brain systems. Some implications of this research for pharmacological treatment of drug-induced increases in impulsive choice are discussed, along with suggestions for future research in this area.

Resume La psychologie communautaire est une branche appliquee de la psychologie qui a vu le jour grâce a la conjoncture d’evenements sociaux importants et de reformes politiques aux Etats-Unis comme au Canada. Cet article vise a dresser un portrait de l’historique respectif de la psychologie communautaire pour ces deux pays et de situer quelques elements cles a la base de sa creation. Par le recours a la presentation de projets d’actions et de recherches communautaires recenses dans la litterature, cet article tend a rendre compte des domaines d’application et champs d’action divers de cette discipline, qui est aujourd’hui tres active en Amerique du Nord.

Qualitative case study findings are presented. We examined whether public participation in a hazardous waste dispute manifested in ways consistent with theories of social power; particularly whether participatory processes or participants' experiences of them were consistent with the three-dimensional view of power (Gaventa, Power and powerlessness: quiescence and rebellion in an appalacian valley, 1980; Lukes, Power: A radical view, 1974; Parenti, Power and the powerless, 1978). Findings from four data sources collected over 3 years revealed that participatory processes manifested in ways consistent with theories of power, and participants' experiences reflected this. Results illustrated how participation was limited and how citizen influence could be manipulated via control of resources, barriers to participation, agenda setting, and shaping conceptions about what participation was possible. Implications for community research and policy related to participation in hazardous waste disputes are discussed.

You have your beautiful homes filled with many treasures, ordered households where courtesy reigns; food of the best, served graciously. ... I say this: Seek the Americano officials who have influence and invite them to your homes and entertainments. Show them that we have much to give them in culture, that we are not the ignorant people they take us to be, that to remain as we are will neither harm nor be a disgrace to their union of states. They are far too well acquainted with the lowest of the Mexicans and not at all with the best. Jovita Gonzalez, Caballero: A Historical Romance Novel1

School violence has received unprecedented attention in recent years, particularly since the infamous events unfolded in Littleton, Colorado at Columbine High School. For many Americans, such events were not imagined possible while for others, they confirmed the need for urgent and careful examination of the nature and scope of school violence. It appears, however, that school violence research has been relegated to the individual level of analysis. In this introduction to the special issue about the environmental and contextual factors related to school violence, the authors examine what we know about school violence, how school violence has been addressed, and argue that environmental factors must be part of research and intervention in this area. Finally, the contributions of the articles included in this special issue are discussed.

This article examines women who have been antinuclear activists at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant for two decades. Qualitative interviews focus on their perceived transformations over time that are based on gender and everyday experiences. They perceive gender as both a barrier and a facilitator to activism, even after 20 years. Women describe their technological education as one strategy to overcome the barrier of gender. On the other hand, they consider the gendered role of motherhood as a primary catalyst for action. In addition, they discuss individual everyday experiences focused on the health concerns for family members that influenced their political activity. Over time, women linked personal transformations with increased political understanding and involvement.

Articles about women's issues published in the American Journal of Community Psychology and Journal of Community Psychology, from their inception in 1973 through 2000 were examined for feminist content. Feminism was defined as including consciousness of gender issues, gender-stratified power imbalances, and contextual analyses of gender. We identified 89 articles with feminist content. All 89 feminist articles were examined to identify themes of gender consciousness and intersecting identities. Within the theme of gender consciousness, we identified articles that addressed power asymmetries, the link between individuals and environments, contextual analyses, and a focus on competencies. Within the theme of intersecting identities, we identified articles that addressed race, class, sexual orientation, and disabilities. We discuss the trend toward more feminist research and explore ways create a feminist subdiscipline within the field of community psychology. Finally, we discuss recommendations for future feminist scholarship in the field. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 31: 189–209, 2003.

Historically, sexor gender-related differences in addictions have been understudied. When neglected, both sexes may not receive the full benefit of medical research. Although hormone fluctuations in women are rarely investigated with respect to treatments, levels of estrogen and progesterone may have large impacts on the efficacies of behavioral or pharmaceutical interventions (1–7). The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been advocating for investigating gender-related differences and hormonal influences (8), including with respect to impulse control and its contributions to addictions. Despite the importance of studying sex differences, the standard integration of sex-difference considerations, including in preclinical research using cell lines and animals, has yet to occur. Sex differences are present in personality traits and behaviors, such as impulsivity, that have been associated with addictions (both substance and non-substance). Impulsivity has been defined as a tendency to act with little foresight or little consideration of future consequences (9, 10). Impulsivity is a complex construct that may be separated into specific factors; two main domains that can be measured in the laboratory include impulsive action and impulsive choice (11). Both impulsive action and choice have been associated with drug use, in both a predictive fashion and as a result of drug use (12, 13). Work investigating sex differences in impulsive action in both animals and humans has shown mixed results (14). The mixed findings may in part relate to sex hormones, with females displaying fluctuating levels of impulsivity dependent on cycle phase and estrogen levels (14). Impulsive choice has been measured in the laboratory using delay-discounting tasks (13, 15–17). While multiple studies suggest that men may be more impulsive than women, careful investigation of specific facets suggest otherwise. Women may display greater discounting rates than men (i.e., greater choice impulsivity); however, reward type is relevant as men have been found to discount real money more rapidly than women, with women discounting hypothetical rewards more rapidly than men (18). Among adolescents, female smokers appear more impulsive than male smokers, but male control subjects appear more impulsive than female control subjects (19). Consistent with findings from Kirby and Marakovic (18); Heyman and Gibb (20) found that female smokers also tend to discount the value of hypothetical rewards more rapidly than do males. Among heavy drinkers, women exhibit poorer inhibitory control than men (21, 22). A study investigating the neural correlates of impulsivity in non-abusing individuals who were family-history positive for alcohol abuse found that those who are family-history positive show greater recruitment of brain regions involved in addiction, inhibitory control, and executive function compared to those without family histories of alcoholism; however, this effect was driven by males (23). Had gender differences not been built into the experimental design, such a finding would not have been identified. Although there exist strong associations between drug use and impulsivity in both humans and animals, with impulsivity increasing the propensity for drug use and vice-versa (12, 13, 24, 25), few studies have investigated sex differences, particularly in preclinical work. The possible roles for cycle phase or circulating hormones in delay-discounting-task performance warrant further study. Impulsivity and behavioral performance in impulsivity tasks does not always differ between men and women; however, that does not mean that both sexes are achieving similar performance in the same way. Even when men and women perform comparably in inhibitory tasks, different neurobiologies may underlie the behaviors. For example, in a recent study of genderrelated differences in neural factors associated with performance of the stop-signal task, men tended to show more activation in the lentiform nucleus, parahippocampal gyrus, posterior and anterior cingulate cortices, middle and medial frontal cortices, and thalamus, compared to women, despite similar performance on the task (26). In general, men and women display different brain connectivity patterns, both in adolescence and adulthood. One study found that men show greater within-hemispheric connectivity and women show greater acrosshemispheric activity, suggesting that male brains may be better suited to facilitate connectivity between perception and coordinated action, whereas female brains may be better suited to facilitate communication between analytical and intuitive processes (27). As neurobiological differences in males and females start in early stages of development (28, 29), it may be difficult to

Contains fulltext : 142484.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Impulsivity critically relates to many psychiatric disorders. Given the multifaceted construct that impulsivity represents, defining core aspects of impulsivity is vital for the assessment and understanding of clinical conditions. Choice impulsivity (CI), involving the preferential selection of smaller sooner rewards over larger later rewards, represents one important type of impulsivity. The International Society for Research on Impulsivity (InSRI) convened to discuss the definition and assessment of CI and provide recommendations regarding measurement across species. Commonly used preclinical and clinical CI behavioral tasks are described, and considerations for each task are provided to guide CI task selection. Differences in assessment of CI (self-report, behavioral) and calculating CI indices (e.g., area-under-the-curve, indifference point, and steepness of discounting curve) are discussed along with properties of specific behavioral tasks used in preclinical and clinical settings. The InSRI group recommends inclusion of measures of CI in human studies examining impulsivity. Animal studies examining impulsivity should also include assessments of CI and these measures should be harmonized in accordance with human studies of the disorders being modeled in the preclinical investigations. The choice of specific CI measures to be included should be based on the goals of the study and existing preclinical and clinical literature using established CI measures. 17 p.

Cocaine use is associated with high levels of impulsive choice (greater discounting of delayed rewards) in humans, but the cause/effect relationships between cocaine use and impulsive choice are not fully understood. In previous work, we found that both experimenter- and self-administration of fixed quantities of cocaine caused lasting increases in impulsive choice in rats. The present study extended these findings by taking into account baseline impulsive choice prior to self-administration, and by allowing rats free access to cocaine. Male Long-Evans rats were trained in a delay discounting task in which they made discrete-trial choices between small immediate and large delayed food rewards. Half of the rats were then implanted with intravenous catheters and, following recovery, allowed to self-administer cocaine HCl (1.0 mg/kg/infusion) in 6 hour sessions over 14 days. Control rats orally self-administered a sucrose solution under similar conditions. Upon completion of self-administration training, rats remained abstinent for 3 weeks before retesting in the delay discounting task. Cocaine and control groups did not differ prior to self-administration, but afterward, the cocaine group showed greater impulsive choice (fewer choices of large, delayed rewards) than controls. Additional analyses revealed that the effects of cocaine on impulsive choice were intake-dependent; rats classified as “low intake” did not differ from controls, whereas rats classified as “high intake” were significantly more impulsive than both controls and their pre-cocaine baseline. These findings are consistent with the idea that cocaine-induced, pharmacologically based neural adaptations promote the development of impulsive decision making.

Articles published in both the American Journal of Community Psychology and Journal of Community Psychology, from their inception in 1973 through 1997, were content analyzed for women relevance, diversity, feminism, and historical change. Overall, 9.8% of the articles reviewed ($of1$N = 2,178) were considered women relevant, 4% recognized diversity among women, and 3% were considered feminist. There was an average yearly increase in women-relevant and feminist articles from 7.3 pre-1990 to 11.2 post-1990, and 1.6 pre-1990 to 4.6 post-1990, respectively. Overall, mental health and motherhood were the most addressed content areas. Among feminist articles, gender roles and violence against women were most salient. Race and SES were the most noted issues of diversity in both women-relevant and feminist articles. While an increase in feminist publications by both journals is promising, stereotypes of women and other oppressed groups continue to be perpetuated.

Cocaine-dependent individuals demonstrate neural and behavioral differences compared to healthy comparison subjects when performing the Stroop color-word interference test. Stroop measures also relate to treatment outcome for cocaine dependence. Intrinsic connectivity analyses assess the extent to which task-related regional brain activations are related to each other in the absence of defining a priori regions of interest.This study examined 1) the extent to which cocaine-dependent and non-addicted individuals differed on measures of intrinsic connectivity during fMRI Stroop performance; and 2) the relationships between fMRI Stroop intrinsic connectivity and treatment outcome in cocaine dependence.Sixteen treatment-seeking cocaine-dependent patients and matched non-addicted comparison subjects completed an fMRI Stroop task. Between-group differences in intrinsic connectivity were assessed and related to self-reported and urine-toxicology-based cocaine-abstinence measures.Cocaine-dependent patients vs. comparison subjects showed less intrinsic connectivity in cortical and subcortical regions. When adjusting for individual degree of intrinsic connectivity, cocaine-dependent vs. comparison subjects showed relatively greater intrinsic connectivity in the ventral striatum, putamen, inferior frontal gyrus, anterior insula, thalamus and substantia nigra. Non-mean-adjusted intrinsic-connectivity measures in the midbrain, thalamus, ventral striatum, substantia nigra, insula and hippocampus negatively correlated with measures of cocaine abstinence.The diminished intrinsic connectivity in cocaine-dependent vs. comparison subjects suggests poorer communication across brain regions during cognitive-control processes. In mean-adjusted analyses, the cocaine-dependent group displayed relatively greater Stroop-related connectivity in regions implicated in motivational processes in addictions. The relationships between treatment outcomes and connectivity in the midbrain and basal ganglia suggest that connectivity represents a potential treatment target.

Poor decision making and elevated risk taking, particularly during adolescence, have been strongly linked to drug use; however the causal relationships among these factors are not well understood. To address these relationships, a rat model (the Risky Decision-making Task; RDT) was used to determine whether individual differences in risk taking during adolescence predict later propensity for cocaine self-administration and/or whether cocaine self-administration causes alterations in risk taking. In addition, the RDT was used to determine how risk taking is modulated by dopamine signaling, particularly in the striatum. Results from these experiments indicated that greater risk taking during adolescence predicted greater intake of cocaine during acquisition of self-administration in adulthood, and that adult cocaine self-administration in turn caused elevated risk taking that was present following 6 weeks of abstinence. Greater adolescent risk taking was associated with lower striatal D2 receptor mRNA expression, and pharmacological activation of D2/3 receptors in the ventral, but not dorsal, striatum induced a decrease in risk taking. These findings indicate that the relationship between elevated risk taking and cocaine self-administration is bi-directional, and that low striatal D2 receptor expression may represent a predisposing factor for both maladaptive decision making and cocaine use. Furthermore, these findings suggest that striatal D2 receptors represent a therapeutic target for attenuating maladaptive decision making when choices include risk of adverse consequences.

This study, was designed to determine the effectiveness of counterattitudinal advocacy in overcoming beginning students' erroneous beliefs about psychological phenomena. Introductory psychology students (N = 71) either wrote an essay (counterattitudinal advocacy) or read an essay supporting a scientifically acceptable position contrary to one of their beliefs. Writing a counterattitudinal essay was more effective in changing students' beliefs than either reading such an essay or learning about the topic through Standard pedagogical techniques. The method of delivering instructional materials (lecture vs. text vs. both lecture and text) made no significant difference in the elimination of erroneous beliefs.

Lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage is a common clinical problem for which multiple diagnostic tests and therapeutic interventions have been developed but no optimal approach has been established. We reviewed 107 consecutive patients admitted to the Massachusetts General Hospital for management of acute lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage to determine the effectiveness of diagnostic and management technologies, with particular attention to urgent colonoscopy. Colonoscopy yielded a diagnosis in 90% of patients, provided the opportunity for successful therapy in 9 of 13 patients (69%), and shortened hospital stay. Angiography performed after a scan positive for bleeding was often diagnostic, and angiography provided the means for successful therapy in 5 of 10 patients (50%). Barium enema and sigmoidoscopy had lower clinical yields. Although roles exist for other technologies, colonoscopy is the most convenient and effective first test in the evaluation of patients with significant lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Diagnostic yield, therapeutic opportunity, and cost effectiveness are maximized in early studies.

Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease is an autosomal dominant syndrome that, due to loss of tumor suppressor gene function, predisposes affected individuals to various benign and malignant tumors including renal cell cancer. In contrast, lymphomas are a varied group of clonal diseases arising from a lymphocyte progenitor and can affect any site of the lymphatic system. We present the case of a 56 year old female with Von Hippel-Lindau disease and clear cell renal carcinoma (CCRC), who developed a nasopharyngeal mass with cervical and submandibular lymphadenopathy subsequently proven to be a Non Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). Though the association between VHL and renal cell cancer is significant, a mechanism linking these two diseases has previously been unknown. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a patient presenting with coexistent VHL and NHL. In an effort to explain this rarity, we propose that a defective VHL allele may serve as a possible link between VHL and RCC, thus leading to an environment that would favour the development of a malignant clone, our patient’s NHL.

Many psychiatric disorders are characterized by abnormal risky decision-making and dysregulated dopamine receptor expression. The current study was designed to determine how different dopamine receptor subtypes modulate risk-taking in young adult rats, using a “Risky Decision-making Task” that involves choices between small “safe” rewards and large “risky” rewards accompanied by adverse consequences. Rats showed considerable, stable individual differences in risk preference in the task, which were not related to multiple measures of reward motivation, anxiety, or pain sensitivity. Systemic activation of D2-like receptors robustly attenuated risk-taking, whereas drugs acting on D1-like receptors had no effect. Systemic amphetamine also reduced risk-taking, an effect which was attenuated by D2-like (but not D1-like) receptor blockade. Dopamine receptor mRNA expression was evaluated in a separate cohort of drug-naive rats characterized in the task. D1 mRNA expression in both nucleus accumbens shell and insular cortex was positively associated with risk-taking, while D2 mRNA expression in orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal cortex predicted risk preference in opposing nonlinear patterns. Additionally, lower levels of D2 mRNA in dorsal striatum were associated with greater risk-taking. These data strongly implicate dopamine signaling in prefrontal cortical-striatal circuitry in modulating decision-making processes involving integration of reward information with risks of adverse consequences.

Impaired decision-making in aging can directly impact factors (financial security, health care) that are critical to maintaining quality of life and independence at advanced ages. Naturalistic rodent models mimic human aging in other cognitive domains, and afford the opportunity to parse the effects of age on discrete aspects of decision-making in a manner relatively uncontaminated by experiential factors. Young adult (5–7 months) and aged (23–25 months) male F344 rats were trained on a probability discounting task in which they made discrete-trial choices between a small certain reward (one food pellet) and a large but uncertain reward (two food pellets with varying probabilities of delivery ranging from 100 to 0%). Young rats chose the large reward when it was associated with a high probability of delivery and shifted to the small but certain reward as probability of the large reward decreased. As a group, aged rats performed comparably to young, but there was significantly greater variance among aged rats. One subgroup of aged rats showed strong preference for the small certain reward. This preference was maintained under conditions in which large reward delivery was also certain, suggesting decreased sensitivity to reward magnitude. In contrast, another subgroup of aged rats showed strong preference for the large reward at low probabilities of delivery. Interestingly, this subgroup also showed elevated preference for probabilistic rewards when reward magnitudes were equalized. Previous findings using this same aged study population described strongly attenuated discounting of delayed rewards with age, together suggesting that a subgroup of aged rats may have deficits associated with accounting for reward costs (i.e., delay or probability). These deficits in cost-accounting were dissociable from the age-related differences in sensitivity to reward magnitude, suggesting that aging influences multiple, distinct mechanisms that can impact cost–benefit decision-making.

Objective To quantify the effect of levothyroxine dose on risk of fractures in older adults. Design Nested case-control study. Setting Population based health databases, Ontario, Canada. Participants Adults aged 70 or more prescribed levothyroxine between 1 April 2002 and 31 March 2007 and followed for fractures until 31 March 2008. Cases were cohort members admitted to hospital for any fracture, matched with up to five controls from within the cohort who had not yet had a fracture. Main outcome measure Primary outcome was fracture (wrist or forearm, shoulder or upper arm, thoracic spine, lumbar spine and pelvis, hip or femur, or lower leg or ankle) in relation to levothyroxine use (current, recent past, remote). Risk among current users was compared between those prescribed high, medium, and low cumulative levothyroxine doses in the year before fracture. Results Of 213 511 prevalent levothyroxine users identified, 22 236 (10.4%) experienced a fracture over a mean 3.8 years of follow-up, 18 108 (88%) of whom were women. Compared with remote levothyroxine use, current use was associated with a significantly higher risk of fracture (adjusted odds ratio 1.88, 95% confidence interval 1.71 to 2.05), despite adjustment for numerous risk factors. Among current users, high and medium cumulative doses (>0.093 mg/day and 0.044-0.093 mg/day) were associated with a significantly increased risk of fracture compared with low cumulative doses (

Community narratives are increasingly important as people move towards an ecologically sustainable society. Global climate change is a multi-faceted problem with multiple stakeholders. The voices of affected communities must be heard as we make decisions of global significance. We document the narratives of long-term anti-nuclear activists near the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant who speak out in the dawn of a nuclear renaissance/relapse. While nuclear power is marketed as a “green” solution to global warming, their narratives reveal three areas for consideration; (1) significant problems with nuclear technology, (2) lessons “not” learned from the TMI disaster, and (3) hopes for a sustainable future. Nuclear waste, untrustworthy officials and economic issues were among the problems cited. Deceptive shaping of public opinion, nuclear illiteracy, and an aging anti-nuclear movement were reasons cited for the lessons not learned. However, many remain optimistic and envision increased participation to create an ecologically-balanced world.