Non-estrogen-based treatments for menopausal symptoms

The British Menopause Society Council is committed to provide up-to-date authoritative reviews to aid health professionals to inform and advise women about key issues in postreproductive health. This guidance refers to non-estrogen-based treatments for menopausal symptoms, such as hot flushes, symptoms of urogenital atrophy and lack of sexual desire. Treatment of choice should be based on up to-date information and targeted to individual women's needs. Non-hormonal strategies may be useful for women with estrogen-dependent disease such as breast cancer.     

A Comparison Study of Low Trauma Disclosure Participants and Their Partners in Army Couples

Intimate partner relationships provide unique conditions for examining how the interpersonal and/or systemic impact of trauma exposure and post-trauma responses can impact both the primary and secondary trauma survivors and the interpersonal dynamics of the couple. The current study explored qualitative and quantitative data from low trauma disclosure individuals (n?=?15) and their partners to understand the experiences of low trauma disclosure to spouses in a sample of Army couples. Contrary to the original hypothesis, the results indicated mixed trauma disclosure partners seemed to be functioning at lower individual and relationship functioning levels than the low or high trauma disclosure partners. Implications for practice and future research also are described.     

Blurring the boundaries: Using Gamergate to examine “real” and symbolic violence against women in contemporary gaming culture

Recent controversies in gaming culture (i.e., Gamergate) highlight the lack of attention devoted to discussions of actual violence women experience in gaming. Rather, the focus is often situated on in‐game violence; however, we must extend discussions of in‐game violence and increased aggression to account for the “real world,” violent, realities of women as gamers, developers, and even critics of the medium. As such, we provide context with a brief introduction to the events of Gamergate. We then discuss the connections between the continued marginalization of women both in video games and in “real life.” Drawing from a range of sociological and ludological research, especially Bourdieu and Wacquant's conceptualization of symbolic violence, we examine the normalization of violence towards women in gaming culture. We conclude with considerations for future work involving symbolic violence and other conceptualizations of violence. This focus allows for a more impactful consideration as to why and how codified simulated violence affects marginalized members of communities. Using symbolic violence to connect trends within games to the lived experiences of women in gaming communities binds virtual experiences to “real” ones.     

Exploring Gender and Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Effects of Child Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse (CSA) has been linked to a number of adverse effects including hypersexuality (HYP), substance use (SUB), suicidality (SUI), and depression (DEP). Despite a plethora of research on CSA, little is known about how it affects adolescents and the cultural factors that influence their coping styles. This study was founded on social-cultural coping theory and the model of traumagenic dynamics of sexual abuse, suggesting that CSA consequences lead to maladaptive coping mechanisms influenced by sociocultural factors. Using archival data, loglinear analysis was conducted to examine gender differences within racial/ethnic groups in HYP, SUI, DEP, and SUB among adolescent survivors of CSA in a National sample of 13,583 male and female high school students. The purpose of the study was to identify differences in the effects of CSA as manifested by variations of maladaptive coping across racial/ethnic groups and gender. Boys were significantly more likely to use substances, while girls were more likely to experience depressive symptoms and suicidality. Notably, this study did not reveal any significant racial/ethnic differences in adolescent coping. These findings can inform treatment planning and interventions for adolescents who may present with DEP, SUI, SUB, or risky sexual behaviors, but may have underlying trauma from CSA. This study contributes to the knowledge base about the processes that take place within adolescent CSA survivors, shedding light on cultural nuances among adolescent coping and informing culturally competent practice.     

Southern Culture and Aggravated Assault: Exploring the Generality of the Southern Cultural of Violence

Numerous studies have investigated the Southern culture of violence (SCOV). In particular, prior analyses have focused on white argument-based homicide in rural areas, a context in which the SCOV should be most prominent. Initial analyses examined dichotomous regional indicators (South/non-South) and often neglected to control for structural disadvantage. Recent research developed a summary based measure of Southern cultural influence that consolidates regional, ethnic, and religious characteristics. Unfortunately, a lack of available data on the underlying circumstances of different forms of violence has hindered our ability to assess the generality of the Southern cultural tolerance of violence. The current study addresses this limitation by using NIBRS data to assess the influence of a composite measure of Southern culture on variation in white argument-based aggravated assault. Analyses of county-level data support the generalizability of the Southern cultural influence to non-lethal forms of argument-based violence.     

The social and economic impacts of drought

Although the environmental and economic impacts of drought have been widely studied, few large‐scale studies have examined the broader social impacts of drought. To fill this knowledge gap, the Australian Institute of Family Studies undertook the Regional and Rural Families Survey in 2007, when a significant part of Australia was experiencing a severe drought. This paper analyses that survey to measure the extent to which drought affects a range of economic, health and social outcomes. Drought is found to have a substantial negative economic and health impact on farmers and others employed in the agricultural sector. There is some evidence that groups that are not employed in agriculture are adversely affected, with a widespread loss of services in drought‐affected areas and some marginal labour market groups (e.g. carers) experiencing poor employment outcomes in a drought‐affected local economy. Policymakers need to take these impacts into account in designing effective responses to future droughts.     

Training Needs of Administrators in the Nonprofit Sector: What Are They and How Should We Address Them?

In increasing numbers, academic programs across the country are exploring how they can best meet the needs of nonprofit organizations. To better support the debate and decision‐making processes of such programs, the author contributes information on training drawn from nearly six hundred nonprofit administrators, exploring variables that may influence the needs and examining the format for training most desired by those administrators.     

EXPRESSED STUDENT ATTITUDE TOWARD CONVENTIONAL VERSUS COMPUTER SUPPLEMENTED INSTRUCTION

This paper describes studies concerning computer supplemented exercises using an exponentially weighted moving average forecast simulator. Student attitudes toward the concepts school, lecture method of teaching, the computer supplementary exercises, and the value of the computer are examined. The fact that students perceive the computer as the vehicle for bringing more realistic problems to the classroom suggests that the future “mix” of pedagogical approaches will include more computer supplemented instruction.     

A Method for Analyzing Disease-Specific Mortality with Missing Cause of Death Information

In this paper, we examine a method for analyzing competing risks data where the failure type of interest is missing or incomplete, but where there is an intermediate event, and only patients who experience the intermediate event can die of the cause of interest. In some applications, a method called “log-rank subtraction” has been applied to these problems. There has been no systematic study of this methodology, though. We investigate the statistical properties of the method and further propose a modified method by including a weight function in the construction of the test statistic to correct for potential biases. A class of tests is then proposed for comparing the disease-specific mortality in the two groups. The tests are based on comparing the difference of weighted log-rank scores for the failure type of interest. We derive the asymptotic properties for the modified test procedure. Simulation studies indicate that the tests are unbiased and have reasonable power. The results are also illustrated with data from a breast cancer study.