Combat Social Work During the Surge in Iraq

The military has long recognized the short-term psychiatric effects of war upon soldiers, a significant factor for combat operational readiness and strength (NATO, 2008). Currently referred to as combat stress reaction or combat operational stress reaction (COSR), the condition has debilitating, immediate effects as well as long-term consequences for soldiers and military units. For the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, commanders expected psychiatric casualties rates equaling physical ones, stemming from the intensity and duration of these conflicts, nonlinear nature of the battlefields, unit morale, and soldier experiences and preparedness. For these recent wars, the concept of behavioral health, combat stress, and its military importance has dramatically changed, as have the protocols dictating the delivery of preventive and restorative combat behavioral health care. This article outlines the conceptual foundation of modern combat stress control, protocols, and the efforts of one social worker–led combat stress prevention team, forward deployed to a small base in a volatile area of Baghdad during the height of the surge in 2006–2007.     

Randomized controlled trial of the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with undergraduate university students

Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with college students. Participants: College students (aged 18–23) from a large Midwest US university who volunteered for a randomized controlled trial during the 2015 spring semester. Methods: College students were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 64) or a control (n = 65) group. Intervention participants received three 45-minute RCI sessions over subsequent weeks. All participants completed pre- and post-intervention assessments at the beginning of Week 1 and end of Week 3. Student resilience, coping, hope, stress, depression, and anxiety were assessed. Results. RCI participants reported significantly more hope and less stress and depression from Week 1 to Week 3 compared with control participants. Results for resilience also approached statistical significance. Effect sizes were small to moderate. Conclusions: This study found preliminary evidence that RCI is an effective resilience intervention for use with college students.     

Three Approaches to Understanding Self-Help Groups

With the increasing importance of self-help groups, professionals need to augment their understanding of how groups work in order to help clients make effective use of them. Three conceptual frameworks-social networks, social learning and cognitive theory-explain the basic psychosocial processes of self-help groups. Practice implications indicate how clients can benefit from self-help groups and suggest how professionals might enable their clients to realize the full benefits of participation in them.     

Psychologically and biochemically assessed stress in a follow-up study of long-term unemployed

Abstract

It has been suggested that psychological stress is one of the reasons for the high morbidity among unemployed people in Western countries. The same may apply to the well-documented high mortality. It would be expected that increased levels of biological stress would be found in these people. In the present study a sample of 310 long-term unemployed people from Norway was followed for 2 years. Psychologcal stress was assessed by medical examination and by the psychometric tests GHQ-28 and HSCL-30, the latter compared with a reference population of employed people. Serum levels of cortisol, prolactin and testosterone, together with immunoglobulins IgA, IgG and IgM, were compared with working controls. The unemployed had a high level of psychological distress at the first examination, the sanie for men and women. At the 2-year follow up distress was reduced by re-employment. This fits the ‘causation hypothesis' which explains the high distress level as caused by unemployment. The other direction of causation, ‘the selection hypothesis', assuming that distressed persons have an increased chance of continuous unemployment, was also confirmed in the present study. As for biological stress, significant differences were not found between the unemployment, the re-employed and the working controls.     

Measurement of the subjective work environment

Abstract

This paper considers the various issues that frame the development and use of measures of the subjective work environment. It begins by questioning the role of the work environment in determining occupational health, and explores the possible mechanisms by which that environment might exert its influence. It concludes that one of the important final common pathways is psycho-physiological in nature, and is rooted in individual perception and cognition and the experience of stress. Important for this model are the concepts of mediation and moderation. The measurement of the subjective work environment has often been idiosyncratic to the study in hand, and there are few well-established measures in common use. It is argued that researchers should be careful when deciding not to use established measures and effectively ‘invent’ their own. In developing new measures, decisions have to be made concerning the nature of the measure along with its ‘granularity’ and complexity. It is also argued that it is important that researchers should follow good psychometric practice in the development of those measures. Suggestions for ‘good practice’ are discussed. Attention is drawn to the issues of reliability and validity, and this paper discusses the role of triangulation in the planning and execution of data collection and analysis. The paper ends by reviewing the recommendations made towards the development and use of measures of the subjective work environment.     

Influence of Late Life Stressors on the Decisions of Older Women to Relocate into Congregate Senior Housing

Late-life stressors often require individuals to make substantial alterations in behavior and lifestyle and can affect their overall health and well-being. Relocation is a significant life stress, regardless of age. The primary aim of this study is to elucidate the push-pull factors associated with moving into congregate senior housing. The secondary aim is to investigate the decision-making processes and stresses associated with moving into a congregate living environment. Interviews were conducted with 26 women who were new residents in congregate senior housing. Relocation, as expected, was considered to be stressful, although individual differences were found among perceptions of relocation stresses. Women who had made the decision to relocate on their own showed evidence of better psychosocial well-being at the time of the move. One-quarter of the sample chose to move to provide care to another person. As the options for senior housing continue to evolve and the number of adults reaching advanced age continues to increase, it is important to understand the factors that contribute to successful adaptation. This knowledge will enable facility administrators to implement programs and procedures to assist incoming residents with acclimating to their new homes.     

中国粮食价格形成机制逆市场化的逻辑:观念的局限与体制的制约

近十年来,中国粮食价格形成机制日益逆市场化,并最终固化为以政府定价为核心.这种逆市场化的价格形成机制,在短期内增强粮食产能和助力农民增收的同时,也在中长期内导致中国粮食生产、流通、进口、库存、加工、消费的全面扭曲.文章着重从观念和体制角度,探讨了中国粮食价格形成机制逆市场化的内在逻辑:观念的局限主要在于不信任市场,对粮食供求形势过分紧张,过度强调粮食总产量,而静态化思维、历史记忆、惯性判断及前期经验又强化了以上观念;体制的制约主要在于独大且难以监控的单一政府储备主体与叠床架屋的涉粮行政管理体制.中国粮食价格形成机制逆市场化,源于落伍的观念与体制的制约之间的相互强化,因而,中国粮食价格形成机制改革,必须同时转变观念与加快体制调整.     

行业特色大学人文社科类教师职业压力及缓解对策

作为高等教育重要的构成部分,行业特色大学具有自己特殊的地位。随着行业特色大学分配制度、人事制度等相关改革的深入,行业特色大学中的人文社科类教师面临着一些特定的职业压力。这种压力往往与行业特色大学特殊的工作环境以及学校对人文社科类教师采取的政策相关。对于行业特色大学而言,应该立足于学校自身的行业特色,了解和分析人文社科类教师的职业压力情况,采取有针对性的措施,缓解或消除其职业压力,使之更好地从事教学与研究工作。同时,对人文社科类教师自身而言,寻找适当的职业压力自我疏解通道也是必要的。     

输送黏性介质时叶轮出口角对泵性能的影响

为了研究离心泵在输送黏性介质时,叶轮出口角对泵性能的影响,采用FLUENT软件,对2种不同叶轮出口角的 离心泵,分别在清水和5种不同黏性的油性介质下,进行数值模拟分析,预测离心泵在各工况下的水力性能。结果表明： 输送介质为清水时,增大出口角能提高扬程但会降低水力效率;介质运动黏度介于10. 80~ 65. 00 mm2／s时,增加叶轮出 口角能同时提高扬程和效率;介质运动黏度≥65. 00 1111112/S时,增加出口角不能改善其水力性能。文章研究结果能改善 离心泵的水力设计方法,确保泵的高效运行。     

Estimation for Birnbaum–Saunders Distribution in Simple Step Stress–accelerated Life Test with Type-II Censoring

This paper develops the Bayesian estimation for the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution based on Type-II censoring in the simple step stress–accelerated life test with power law accelerated form. Maximum likelihood estimates are obtained and Gibbs sampling procedure is used to get the Bayesian estimates for shape parameter of Birnbaum–Saunders distribution and parameters of power law–accelerated model. Asymptotic normality method and Markov Chain Monte Carlo method are employed to construct the corresponding confidence interval and highest posterior density interval at different confidence level, respectively. At last, the results are compared by using Monte Carlo simulations, and a numerical example is analyzed for illustration.