Length-length and weight-length relationships of seven deep-water fishes in the Gulf of Mexico

Regression coefficients for equations of the form Y = a + bX were estimated for total length (TL) and whole weight (W) as a function of standard length (SL) and fork length (FL) and vice versa for seven deep-water fishes. All lengths were measured in millimeters and all weights in grams. There was a significant correlation between weight and length and the types of length measurements for all species. However, the amount of variation explained by each regression varied among species. Weight-length regressions were less precise than length-length regression, as they generally are, because weights of small fish measured at sea are more inaccurate than those of large fish.Marine Scienc

On the Classical String Solutions and String/Field Theory Duality

We classify almost all classical string configurations, considered in the framework of the semi-classical limit of the string/gauge theory duality. Then, we describe a procedure for obtaining the conserved quantities and the exact classical string solutions in general string theory backgrounds, when the string embedding coordinates depend non-linearly on the worldsheet time parameter.Comment: LaTeX, 15 pages, no figures; V2: some typos corrected; V3: no corrections, to appear in JHE

Belligerent Mothers and the Power of Feminine Speech in _The Owl and the Nightingale_

The Middle English poem The Owl and the Nightingale famously records the dispute between a hostile Nightingale and a bellicose Owl. Within that dialogue the birds reproduce themselves in word and egg, in rhetoric and body. Their digressions on bodies and scatology and on childbearing and childrearing become fertilizer that expands maternal authority into public, intellectual discourse. In addition to calling forth their own communicative powers, both characters aggressively recount narratives best known from the work of Marie de France, a voice feminist scholars have successfully restored to the canon, to condemn their foe. In this light, I argue, The Owl and the Nightingale encourages feminist labor when it recounts a woman’s writing without acknowledging her authorship and material feminist analysis when it puts such an artful dispute in the voices of vividly embodied avian mothers

Discrimination, Depression, and Anxiety as Predictors of Well-Being in a Sample of Latinx Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Background: Latinxs—those who identify as Hispanic or Latino/Latina—are currently the largest ethnic minority in the US. Compared to European Americans, Latinxs are at a greater risk for developing diabetes and anxiety disorders. They also experience significant stress due to discrimination, and are more likely to develop poor mental health as a result. Aim: Given the challenges faced by Latinxs, this study seeks to assess discrimination, depression, and anxiety as predictors of well-being in Latinx patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Secondary analysis was conducted using data from the Community Health Educators Assisting Latinos Manage Stress and Diabetes (CALMS-D) study. In CALMS-D, participants who self-identified as Latino/Latina or Hispanic and had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes for at least 6 months (n = 121) were recruited from a clinic in Hartford, Connecticut, US. Participants were predominately women (74%) with ages ranging from 21 to 86 years old (M = 61). Interviews were conducted in Spanish or English based on the participant’s preference, and responses were collected using REDCap, an internet-based survey tool. Interviews included items on exercise habits and perceived health, and scales measuring chronic discrimination (Everyday Discrimination Scale; EDS), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire; PHQ-8), anxiety (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System; PROMIS), and well-being (World Health Organisation Well-Being Index; WHO-5). Results: A four-step hierarchical regression model was employed with well-being as the dependent variable. After controlling for gender, age, and income in Model 1, results from Model 2 revealed more frequent exercise (β = .10, p = .01) and better perceived health (β = .20, p < .01) were each associated with greater well-being. These effects remained significant after the addition of discrimination in Model 3, which itself demonstrated a unique effect (β = -.22, p = .02), as more frequent discrimination was associated with reduced well-being. Finally, depression and anxiety were introduced in Model 4, R2 = .62, F(8, 109) = 22.4, p < .01. Taken as a set, the eight predictors in Model 4 explained significantly more variance in well-being than the six predictors in Model 3, R2change = .28, Fchange (2, 109) = 39.8, p < .01. Interestingly, Model 4 revealed not only that elevated symptoms of depression (β = -.27, p < .01) and anxiety (β = -.39, p < .01) were strongly and uniquely associated with reduced well-being when controlling for all other predictors, but the effects for perceived health (β = .06, p = .33) and discrimination (β = .04, p = .58) were substantially reduced and no longer significant. Conclusions: More frequent exercise, greater perceived health, and fewer instances of chronic discrimination were associated with greater well-being in a Latinx sample with type 2 diabetes. However, further analysis revealed that elevated depression and anxiety were not only the strongest unique predictors of diminished well-being, but may also account for the relationship between perceived health and discrimination and well-being

Emergency Preparedness Competencies Among Nurses in Northwest Arkansas

Despite years of training and experience, evidence suggests nurses report wide gaps in emergency competencies and disaster preparedness. Further, nurses report low levels of familiarity in competencies related to planning for disasters, implementing disaster guidelines, and assessing patients exposed to biological and chemical agents. This research sought to establish the self-reported level of emergency preparedness competencies of nurses in Northwest Arkansas, an area that faces a diverse set of potential disasters ranging from nuclear accidents to pandemic disease. Additionally, differences between of the level of preparedness by education level or work specialty were studied. The results are alarming in that the scores indicate a significant weakness in nurses’ emergency preparedness knowledge, regardless of education or work specialty. It is of great concern that nurses have low levels of familiarity with disaster response concepts. This research is congruent with extant literature demonstrating that nurses across the United States lack sufficient knowledge in the arena of emergency preparedness. In the event of a disaster, the community would be detrimentally impacted by this lack of vital knowledge, potentially degrading patient outcomes. The results of this survey, as well as previous research, demonstrate the need to improve the education of nurses so they may meet the demands of the population in the most urgent of situations

Discrimination, Depression, and Anxiety as Predictors of Well-Being in a Sample of Latinx Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Background: Latinxs—those who identify as Hispanic or Latino/Latina—are currently the largest ethnic minority in the US. Compared to European Americans, Latinxs are at a greater risk for developing diabetes and anxiety disorders. They also experience significant stress due to discrimination, and are more likely to develop poor mental health as a result. Aim: Given the challenges faced by Latinxs, this study seeks to assess discrimination, depression, and anxiety as predictors of well-being in Latinx patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Secondary analysis was conducted using data from the Community Health Educators Assisting Latinos Manage Stress and Diabetes (CALMS-D) study. In CALMS-D, participants who self-identified as Latino/Latina or Hispanic and had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes for at least 6 months (n = 121) were recruited from a clinic in Hartford, Connecticut, US. Participants were predominately women (74%) with ages ranging from 21 to 86 years old (M = 61). Interviews were conducted in Spanish or English based on the participant’s preference, and responses were collected using REDCap, an internet-based survey tool. Interviews included items on exercise habits and perceived health, and scales measuring chronic discrimination (Everyday Discrimination Scale; EDS), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire; PHQ-8), anxiety (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System; PROMIS), and well-being (World Health Organisation Well-Being Index; WHO-5). Results: A four-step hierarchical regression model was employed with well-being as the dependent variable. After controlling for gender, age, and income in Model 1, results from Model 2 revealed more frequent exercise (β = .10, p = .01) and better perceived health (β = .20, p < .01) were each associated with greater well-being. These effects remained significant after the addition of discrimination in Model 3, which itself demonstrated a unique effect (β = -.22, p = .02), as more frequent discrimination was associated with reduced well-being. Finally, depression and anxiety were introduced in Model 4, R2 = .62, F(8, 109) = 22.4, p < .01. Taken as a set, the eight predictors in Model 4 explained significantly more variance in well-being than the six predictors in Model 3, R2change = .28, Fchange (2, 109) = 39.8, p < .01. Interestingly, Model 4 revealed not only that elevated symptoms of depression (β = -.27, p < .01) and anxiety (β = -.39, p < .01) were strongly and uniquely associated with reduced well-being when controlling for all other predictors, but the effects for perceived health (β = .06, p = .33) and discrimination (β = .04, p = .58) were substantially reduced and no longer significant. Conclusions: More frequent exercise, greater perceived health, and fewer instances of chronic discrimination were associated with greater well-being in a Latinx sample with type 2 diabetes. However, further analysis revealed that elevated depression and anxiety were not only the strongest unique predictors of diminished well-being, but may also account for the relationship between perceived health and discrimination and well-being