Delineating and diagnosing depression and anxiety in the presence of a medical condition, such as diabetes, is complicated by the presence of overlapping symptoms that, therefore, are etiologically ambiguous. These overlapping symptoms include feelings of fatigue, concentration difficulties, restlessness, changes in appetite, irritability and autonomic arousal. The difficulty in understanding these overlapping symptoms has been proposed to lead to an underdiagnosis of depression and anxiety disorders among adults with diabetes, which is problematic given that such disorders are associated with poorer health outcomes. The goal of the current study is to test whether or not these overlapping symptoms are affected by the presence of diabetes by comparing structural models of these symptoms in adults with diabetes versus those free of major medical conditions. Participants include 226 adults with diabetes and 379 adults free of diabetes who completed a series of questionnaires assessing symptoms of depression, anxiety and health status. In addition, for adults with diabetes, the most recent hemoglobin A1c lab result was collected from patient medical records. Results indicate that overlapping symptoms were strongly related to mood for adults with and without diabetes. In conclusion, it is recommended that when these overlapping symptoms are present in adults with diabetes, depression and anxiety should be considered as possible contributors to their presence.

<div>In 1972, visual arts giftedness was recognized as an aspect of giftedness that needed to be nurtured and developed (Marland, 1972). However, students with gifts and talents in visual arts continued to be overlooked in the field of gifted education. Addressing these gaps in the field of gifted art education, I conducted a mixed methods study to examine the issues. The quantitative part of the study consisted of developing a survey instrument, Perceptions about Art Giftedness, and conducting an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to investigate construct validity of the instrument. The initial instrument consisted of 23 items. Due to the focus of the study and the specificity of the survey, it was necessary to be selective in recruiting the participants. The inclusion criteria are: (a) they must be art teachers in an arts school or a public school that serves middle or high school grade levels; and/or (b) they must be teaching visual arts or fine arts. A total of 150 participants completed the survey. For the qualitative part of the study, I contacted the participants who completed the survey and asked if they were willing to be interviewed (n=11). Since this was an exploratory study, I began with the qualitative analysis. Three major themes were developed from the qualitative analysis: (a) attitudes and behaviors aligned with Art, (b) attitudes and behaviors aligned with giftedness, and (c) the participants’ use of the selection process and the limitations. These themes highlighted how differently art teachers perceived visual art giftedness from the common understanding about giftedness and the importance of creative behaviors in art giftedness. Additionally, these art teachers also commented on the similarities between visual arts giftedness and conventional understanding of giftedness. They shared examples of characteristics, such as being self-directed and able to work independently that they observed among their gifted art students. From the quantitative analysis, the EFA results indicated a two-factor model with Factor 1 had a Cronbach's Alpha of .89 and Factor 2 has a Cronbach's Alpha of .91, suggesting that they were reliable estimates of the data’s internal consistency. After examining the factor loading for the items, four items were eliminated due cross-loading and low communalities. Of the 19 items were retained, 10 items (.467 to .895) loaded onto Factor 1 and nine items (-.451 to -.937) loaded onto Factor 2. After examining the items for each of the factor and based on the results from the qualitative analysis, new descriptors were developed. Factor 1 (dispositions towards creative giftedness) consisted of items focusing the artistic attitudes and behaviors demonstrated by students who were gifted in visual arts. Factor 2 (dispositions towards conventional giftedness) contained items focusing on attitudes and behaviors that were traditionally associated with giftedness. In summation, results from qualitative and quantitative analysis helped to illustrate how participants were looking for characteristics in gifted visual arts students that goes beyond those highlighted by researchers in gifted education. The participants were not only focused on creative behaviors when identifying gifted art students, but they were also looking for conventional gifted characteristics; such as self-directedness, independence, and task commitment. The participants recognized that for students with gifts and talents in visual arts to develop their potential, they would need to possess both sets of characteristics. Interestingly, although there was consensus among the participants about the characteristics and behaviors observed in gifted art students, there was no agreement among them when asked about specific art making skills.</div>

No description available.

This study responds to the globally increasing rate of caesarean section, and specifically to the very high rate of elective caesarean section among Taiwanese mothers as evidence suggests that such elective caesareans pose potential health risks for mothers and babies. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a multi-component instrument based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to better understand Taiwanese pregnant women's decisions regarding their childbirth delivery options (spontaneous vaginal delivery or elective caesarean section). The study was a four-phased mixed method design. First, the TPB guided item development and instrument drafting. Second, pretesting and instrument refinement used cognitive interviewing with a small sample of Taiwanese pregnant women. Third, the instrument was administered to 310 such women to examine psychometric properties of the component scales. Fourth, the phase 3 instrument was re-administered to 30 women to estimate item stability. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were used to assess construct validity of the multi-item, multi-component measurement model with LISREL 9.1. Based on the TPB, the 52-item self-administered Childbirth Delivery Options Questionnaire (CDOQ) was developed to measure three components: intention regarding delivery options, attitudes toward delivery options, and perceptions of significant others' (partner, mother, and mother-in-law) feelings about delivery options. Respondents from phase two thought that the items on the CDOQ were easy to read and comprehend; they reported favorably on the wording and formatting. Preliminary item analysis revealed that the items referring to dangerousness of delivery options did not function as intended and were dropped because they did not differentiate between the two delivery options, leaving 36 items. Test-retest reliability indicated that responses to each item were positively correlated and those referring to spontaneous vaginal delivery were more stable than those referring to elective caesarean section. Corrected item-to-total correlations and expected change in Cronbach's alpha if item deleted revealed that four items might form a measure of general social norms associated with the Taiwanese culture. The Cronbach's alphas for the components of the CDOQ ranged from .55 to .89. The measurement model incorporating the design features of the CDOQ fitted the data well using the CFA. Because serious problems with multicollinearity and suppression were revealed, Beckstead's (2012) criterion-irrelevant-variance-omitted (CIVO) regression method was used to untangle the suppressor effects when predicting intention from the other components of the CDOQ. The results indicated that attitude and partner's feelings were significant and explained the bulk of the variance in intentions. The TPB-based instrument developed here will be of considerable use to maternal-child health researchers. The findings of this study suggest that decisions regarding delivery options may be modified by interventions geared toward pregnant women's attitudes within family- and cultural-centered prenatal programs.

Attributional style is hypothesised to causally contribute to depression vulnerability through influencing both emotional response and rumination following life events. Consistent with this hypothesis, Peters et al. (2011) found that training individuals towards a pessimistic attributional style, characterised by internal-stable attributions for negative events and external-unstable attributions for positive events, resulted in greater negative mood and emotional reactivity to perceived failure, relative to training a resilient attributional style characterized by the reverse pattern of attributions. To date, however, the relative contribution of the internal-external and stable-unstable dimensions, their interaction, and their application to positive or negative events upon influencing emotional response and, by theoretical extension, risk for depression, remains unresolved. To resolve this question, 80 participants received training manipulating attributional style along four dimensions (i.e., internal versus external attributions for negative events; internal versus external attributions for positive events; stable versus unstable attributions for negative events; stable versus unstable attributions for positive events) in a 24 orthogonal factorial design. Participants then completed a perceived failure induction task. Measures of emotion and state rumination were completed pre-manipulation, post- manipulation, and post-induction. The internality dimension for positive and, separately, negative events influenced both immediate emotional response and emotional reactivity. Stable attributions for negative events increased negative emotional response and moderated the effect of internal attributions for negative events: internal attributions to negative resulted in greater emotional reactivity relative to external attributions, but only in the context of stable attributions for negative events. Both internal and stable dimensions also had independent effects. These findings identifying the active components driving the effect of attributional style upon emotional reactivity suggest slight revisions and refinements to attribution models of depression vulnerability. Furthermore, it provides further evidence that attributional style can be modified and furthers understanding of how CBM-attribution training could be developed as a potential intervention for the treatment of depression.

Today's arid and semi-arid zones of the Mediterranean are affected by desertification, resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities such as overcultivation, overgrazing and deforestation. Afforestation programs are one of the most effective means in preventing desertification. For many years Libya has had afforestation programs in order to restore degraded land and in response to rapid desert encroachment in the north east of Libya, in the area called the Jabal Akhdar (Green Mountain), which has been investigated in this study. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relative roles of exotic compared to native tree species in preventing desertification and enhancing degraded land restoration in the Jabal Akhdar. The effect of environmental factors on exotic compared to native tree species have been assessed by observations on growth and reproductive success of the species, including variables of stocking rate, trunk diameter, tree height, crown diameter, tree coverage, natural mortality, felling and seedling regeneration, as well as calculated variables, derived from these measurements. The effects of methods and age of afforestation on the promotion of biological diversity have been investigated using the Shannon-Wiener diversity index. The effects of tree species on soil depth have also been investigated. Multivariate statistical analyses of site, species and environmental data, using both cluster analyses and factor analyses have been performed, with the aim of determining what is influencing the species, crops or differentiating between the sites, based on soil depth, angle of slope, altitude, rainfall and air temperature values. Pinus halepensis showed success in its growth and regeneration, particularly at higher altitudes and steeper slopes. Cupressus sempervirens was successful in growth and regeneration in the mountains. The exotic Eucalyptus gomphocephala was very successful in its growth, but did not regenerate well, while the exotic Acacia cyanophylla trees had a failure of both growth and regeneration. E. gomphocephala species appeared to favour relativley the flatter (non-mountain) sites, while A. Cyanophylla appeared to favour relativly the mountain sites. All the species responded positively to greater rainfall and deep soil, but they differed in where they were most likely to be successful. Environmental factors such as climate, terrain and soil are the main determinants of species distribution in the study area, in addition to their impact on the growth of the main trees. There appeared not to be any relationship between biodiversity and whether the main trees were native or exotic, and only P. halepensis showed any negative effect on the abundance of shrubs. There was greater diversity of trees and shrubs generally at the younger sites than the old sites. The present study emphasises the current mismanagement of planted forests, particularly with overgrazing contributing to desertification, through preventing tree growth and eliminating most sapling regeneration. This study concludes by making recommendations for more effective choice of tree species to plant, and for subsequent management to improve afforestation programmes in the Jabal Akhdar area.

Research on smoking has to a great deal been conducted within a public health or a medical context, or focused on policy making. Fewer studies have taken their point of departure in a social sciences context, and still fewer have analysed why individuals start and cease to smoke, and how and why smoking patterns on an aggregate level change over time and vary between different population groups. The aim of this dissertation is to analyse changes in the Swedish tobacco consumption with special emphasis at elucidating the decrease in smoking during the past half-century from different angels. Thus, the first paper explore if and how changes in smoking patterns can be understood and explained with reference to Sweden’s development as a welfare state, and in relation to socio-demographic and socio-economic circumstances. The second paper focuses on the long-term pathways to smoking cessation, by discerning several distinct trajectories from smoker to non-smoker. The third paper analyses gender differences with regard to reasons to smoke, experiences of smoking, and central elements in the cessation process. Finally, in the fourth paper, the issue of to what extent smoking cessation can be described as a process of identity change is explored.   Smoking initiation and cessation vary by socio-demographic and socio-economic factors, and the rapid decrease in smoking has resulted in a rather vulnerable group of smokers in these aspects. The results also indicate that the cessation process is complex, with personal and structural factors interacting in the long-term process, leading to multiple pathways to a smoke-free life. Moreover, they point to gender differences in reasons to smoke and to quit, and in strategies to quit smoking. In addition, identity change seems to be important in remaining smoke-free. The stated inequality in gender and class points in the direction that structural changes and social policies might be of need to decrease smoking even further. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Submitted. Paper 3: Accepted. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p> / Women, Health and Substance use

Today's arid and semi-arid zones of the Mediterranean are affected by desertification, resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities such as overcultivation, overgrazing and deforestation. Afforestation programs are one of the most effective means in preventing desertification. For many years Libya has had afforestation programs in order to restore degraded land and in response to rapid desert encroachment in the north east of Libya, in the area called the Jabal Akhdar (Green Mountain), which has been investigated in this study. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relative roles of exotic compared to native tree species in preventing desertification and enhancing degraded land restoration in the Jabal Akhdar. The effect of environmental factors on exotic compared to native tree species have been assessed by observations on growth and reproductive success of the species, including variables of stocking rate, trunk diameter, tree height, crown diameter, tree coverage, natural mortality, felling and seedling regeneration, as well as calculated variables, derived from these measurements. The effects of methods and age of afforestation on the promotion of biological diversity have been investigated using the Shannon-Wiener diversity index. The effects of tree species on soil depth have also been investigated. Multivariate statistical analyses of site, species and environmental data, using both cluster analyses and factor analyses have been performed, with the aim of determining what is influencing the species, crops or differentiating between the sites, based on soil depth, angle of slope, altitude, rainfall and air temperature values. Pinus halepensis showed success in its growth and regeneration, particularly at higher altitudes and steeper slopes. Cupressus sempervirens was successful in growth and regeneration in the mountains. The exotic Eucalyptus gomphocephala was very successful in its growth, but did not regenerate well, while the exotic Acacia cyanophylla trees had a failure of both growth and regeneration. E. gomphocephala species appeared to favour relativley the flatter (non-mountain) sites, while A. Cyanophylla appeared to favour relativly the mountain sites. All the species responded positively to greater rainfall and deep soil, but they differed in where they were most likely to be successful. Environmental factors such as climate, terrain and soil are the main determinants of species distribution in the study area, in addition to their impact on the growth of the main trees. There appeared not to be any relationship between biodiversity and whether the main trees were native or exotic, and only P. halepensis showed any negative effect on the abundance of shrubs. There was greater diversity of trees and shrubs generally at the younger sites than the old sites. The present study emphasises the current mismanagement of planted forests, particularly with overgrazing contributing to desertification, through preventing tree growth and eliminating most sapling regeneration. This study concludes by making recommendations for more effective choice of tree species to plant, and for subsequent management to improve afforestation programmes in the Jabal Akhdar area. / The Libyan Higher Education Ministry

Le terme « psychopathie » s’accompagne souvent de l’image du dangereux prédateur. Pourtant, les recherches soulignent son aspect dimensionnel, sous-entendant qu’il existe plusieurs types sous-cliniques de psychopathies, dont la psychopathie adaptée. Plusieurs auteurs révèlent les avantages que peut présenter la manifestation de certains traits de personnalité communs à la psychopathie à l’égard de la réussite professionnelle. Une méthodologie quantitative est suivie afin d’explorer les différentes relations entre quatre concepts mesurés par des formulaires autorévélés, c’est-à-dire observer les manières dont les tactiques d’influence, les habiletés politiques et les traits psychopathiques influencent la réussite professionnelle. L’échantillon est constitué de 896 participants, dont la majorité est féminine, provenant du monde des affaires. Pour débuter, une série d’analyses factorielles a été réalisée sur trois modélisations du TriPM. Selon les chiffres de résultats du MAP et de la PA, cinq facteurs suffisent à l’évaluation de la psychopathie. Le 5 FM a des indices d’ajustement acceptable. Les résultats de régression font ressortir le leadership comme fort prédicteur de la réussite objective, de la réussite subjective et de la réussite globale. Il en va de même pour les habiletés de réseautage qui sont aussi de forts prédicteurs à la réussite subjective, à la satisfaction en emploi et à la réussite globale. Aussi, les hommes sont plus susceptibles que les femmes d’atteindre la réussite professionnelle. En fait, tous les traits psychopathiques, à l’exception du leadership, présentent des relations positives avec l’insuccès en emploi. En conséquence, seuls les habiletés de réseautage et le leadership peuvent annoncer la réussite professionnelle. / The term “psychopathy” is often followed by the image of a dangerous predator. However, research emphasizes its dimensional aspect, implying that there are several subclinical variants of psychopathy, such as successful psychopathy. Several authors reveal the advantages that the manifestation of certain personality traits common to psychopathy can have on career success. A quantitative methodology is used to explore the various relationships between four concepts which are measured by self-report forms by observing the diverse ways in which influential tactics, political skills, and psychopathic traits affect career success. The sample consists of 896 participants, the majority of whom are women, from the business world. First, a series of factor analyses was carried out on three TriPM models. According to the results of the MAP and the PA, five factors are sufficient for the evaluation of psychopathy. The 5 FM has acceptable fit induces. The regression results highlight leadership as a strong predictor of objective success, subjective success, and overall success. The same is true for networking skills, which are also strong predictors of subjective success, job satisfaction and overall success. Also, men are more likely than women to achieve career success. In fact, all psychopathic traits, with the exception of leadership, have positive relationships with job failure. As a result, only networking skills and leadership can herald professional success.

Contexte. Les infractions à caractère sexuel ont fortement augmenté dans les dernières années et les personnes mineures en sont les principales victimes. Un grand intérêt est accordé aux distorsions cognitives dans le champ de la recherche en délinquance sexuelle. Cependant, très peu d’études se sont intéressées aux dimensions mesurées par l’un des instruments les plus utilisés : l’échelle de cognitions Molest (ÉCM ; Bumby, 1996). Peu d’études se sont également intéressées au lien entre les distorsions cognitives et la carrière criminelle des auteurs d’infractions à caractère sexuel sur personnes mineures (AICSM). Objectif. L’objectif du présent mémoire est d’explorer les dimensions mesurées par l’ÉCM et les comparer aux résultats d’études précédentes. Il est aussi question d’étudier le lien entre les distorsions cognitives mesurées par l’ÉCM et la carrière criminelle des AICSM. Méthodes. L’échantillon est composé de 1232 hommes adultes AICSM étant suivis au Centre d’intervention en délinquance sexuelle (CIDS) de Laval. Les participants ont tous complété l’ÉCM lors de leur suivi au centre. Résultats. Les résultats indiquent que quatre dimensions émergent de l’ÉCM et que certaines distorsions cognitives telles que mesurées par cet instrument sont liées aux différents paramètres de carrière criminelle des individus composant l’échantillon, incluant la récidive violente et sexuelle. / Background. Sexual offenses have increased sharply in recent years and minors are the main victims. There is considerable interest in cognitive distortions in the field of sexual offending research. However, very few studies have focused on the dimensions measured by one of the most widely used instruments: the MOLEST Cognitions Scale (Bumby, 1996). Few studies have also looked at the link between cognitive distortions and the criminal careers of people who have sexually offended against a minor (PSOM). Objective. The objective of the present study is to explore the dimensions measured by the MOLEST scale and compare them with the results of previous studies. It also investigates the relationship between cognitive distortions measured by the MOLEST scale and PSOMs’ criminal careers. Methods. The sample consisted of 1,232 adult men who sexually offended on a minor and were being treated at the Intervention centre in sexual delinquency (ICSD) in Quebec (Canada). All participants completed the MOLEST cognition scale during their treatment at the ICSD. Results. Findings indicate that four dimensions emerge from the MOLEST scale, and that certain cognitive distortions as measured by this instrument are related to the different criminal career parameters of sample, including violent and sexual recidivism.