Using new markets tax credits to mitigate the impact of foreclosures on communities

The author presents an overview of what is being done and offers community development practitioners’ ideas about how to refine and strengthen the federal program. One example: change the program to allow a separate, additional allocation of tax credits for the purchase and resale of foreclosed property in low-income areas.Foreclosure

Psychosoziale Auswirkungen von Brandverletzungen bei Erwachsenen : Assessmentinstrumente und pflegerische Interventionen im stationären Setting

Darstellung Thema: Brandverletzungen hinterlassen bleibende physische Veränderungen und verursachen ausserdem psychosoziale Veränderungen. Pflegefachpersonen müssen psychosoziale Auswirkungen kennen, um diese im Alltag zu erkennen und geeignete pflegerische Interventionen ergreifen zu können. Fragestellung/ Zielsetzung: Diese Bachelorarbeit beschäftigt sich mit folgender Fragestellung: Mit welchen psychosozialen Auswirkungen sind erwachsene Brandverletzte konfrontiert und wie können Pflegefachpersonen diese im stationären Setting erkennen? Ziel ist eine Auflistung von psychosozialen Auswirkungen, Beobachtungsschwerpunkten und möglichen pflegerischen Interventionen. Methode: Eine systematisierte Literaturrecherche wurde in fünf Datenbanken durchgeführt. Die eingeschlossene Literatur wurde zusammengefasst, gewürdigt und die Güte und Evidenz eingeschätzt. Informationen aus der Praxis wurden ebenfalls mit eingeschlossen, alle Resultate synthetisiert und ein Merkblatt erstellt. Ergebnisse: Die psychosozialen Auswirkungen von Brandverletzungen liessen sich in Probleme (Schmerzen, Fatigue, Körperbildstörungen, Verminderungen von Selbstwert und Wohlbefinden, Schlafstörungen, negative Emotionen, Verschlechterungen zwischenmenschlicher Beziehungen, Sexualität und Arbeitsstatus), Bewältigungsstrategien (Spiritualität/ Religion, Reframing, Schuldzuweisungen, Erzählen, Humor) und positive Auswirkungen (Hoffnung, Selbstreflexion, posttraumatisches Wachstum) aufteilen. Beobachtungsschwerpunkte wurden keine erwähnt, dafür eine Übersicht an Assessmentinstrumenten erstellt. Schlussfolgerungen: Brandverletzte sind mit diversen psychosozialen Auswirkungen konfrontiert. Es besteht noch Forschungsbedarf im Gebiet psychosozialer Auswirkungen von Brandverletzungen, vor allem im Bereich der Isolation aufgrund einer Infektion, Sexualität, posttraumatisches Wachstum, Beobachtungsschwerpunkten und Interventionen

Equivalence of Narcissistic Personality Inventory constructs and correlates across scoring approaches and response formats

The prevalent scoring practice for the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) ignores the forced-choice nature of the items. The aim of this study was to investigate whether findings based on NPI scores reported in previous research can be confirmed when the forced-choice nature of the NPI’s original response format is appropriately modeled, and when NPI items are presented in different response formats (true/false or rating scale). The relationships between NPI facets and various criteria were robust across scoring approaches (mean score vs. model-based), but were only partly robust across response formats. In addition, the scoring approaches and response formats achieved equivalent measurements of the vanity facet and in part of the leadership facet, but differed with respect to the entitlement facet

Intermittent Reduction in Ocean Heat Transport Into the Getz Ice Shelf Cavity During Strong Wind Events

The flow of warm water toward the western Getz Ice Shelf along the Siple Trough, West Antarctica, is intermittently disrupted during short events of Winter Water deepening. Here we show, using mooring records, that these 5–10 days-long events reduced the heat transport toward the ice shelf cavity by 25% in the winter of 2016. The events coincide with strong easterly winds and polynya opening in the region, but the Winter Water deepening is controlled by non-local coastal Ekman downwelling rather than polynya-related surface fluxes. The thermocline depth anomalies are forced by Ekman downwelling at the northern coast of Siple Island and propagate to the ice front as a coastal trapped wave. During the events, the flow at depth does no longer continue along isobaths into the ice shelf cavity but aligns with the ice front.publishedVersio

Neonatal intensive care parent satisfaction: a multicenter study translating and validating the Italian EMPATHIC-N questionnaire

Background: In Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs), parent satisfaction and their experiences are fundamental to assess clinical practice and improve the quality of care delivered to infants and parents. Recently, a specific instrument, the EMpowerment of PArents in THe Intensive Care-Neonatology (EMPATHIC-N), has been developed in the Netherlands. This instrument investigated different domains of care in NICUs from a family-centered care perspective. In Italy, no rigorous instruments are available to evaluate parent satisfaction and experiences in NICU with family-centered care. The aim of this study was to translate and validate the EMPATHIC-N instrument into Italian language measuring parent satisfaction. Methods: A psychometric study was conducted in nine Italian NICUs. The hospitals were allocated across Italy: four in the North, four in Central region, one in the South. Parents whose infants were discharged from the Units were enrolled. Parents whose infants died were excluded. Results: Back-forward translation was conducted. Twelve parents reviewed the instrument to assess the cultural adaptation; none of the items fell below the cut-off of 80% agreement. A total of 186 parents of infants who were discharged from nine NICUs were invited to participate and 162 parents responded and returned the questionnaire (87%). The mean scores of the individual items varied between 4.3 and 5.9. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed and all factor loadings were statistically significant with the exception of item ‘Our cultural background was taken into account’. The items related to overall satisfaction showed a higher trend with mean values of 5.8 and 5.9. The Cronbach’s alpha’s (at domain level 0.73-0.92) and corrected item-total scale correlations revealed high reliability estimates. Conclusions: The Italian EMPATHIC-N showed to be a valid and reliable instrument measuring parent satisfaction in NICUs from a family-centered care perspective. Indeed, it had good psychometric properties, validity, and reliability. Furthermore, this instrument is fundamental for further research and internationally benchmarking

Sleep disturbances in primary aldosteronism are associated to depressive symptoms - Could specific mineralocorticoidreceptors be a common pathway?

Symptoms of depression and anxiety are frequent in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) and are supposed to be independent risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). As patients with PA have an increased cardiovascular risk compared to patients with essential hypertension, sleep disturbances, which often accompany depressive and anxiety symptoms, may be an additional contributor to the cardiometabolic consequences of PA. To clarify this possible link we investigated 132 patients with PA at baseline and after one year after initiation of treatment either by adrenalectomy (ADX) or mineralocorticoid-receptor-antagonist (MRA). Sleep disturbances and daytime sleepiness were assessed with Pittsburg sleep Inventory (PSQI) and Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS). Patients with PA showed pathological scores for sleep disturbances at baseline according to PSQI, with females being more affected (8.1 vs. 5.7 p < 0.001), which was significantly improved after initiation of specific treatment (p = 0.002). For ESS we found scores within the normal range, but higher than the general population, which significantly improved at follow-up (p < 0.001). The intensity of sleep disturbances was highly correlated with scores of anxiety and depression at baseline and follow-up. However, clinical and biochemical markers of PA (e.g. aldosterone, blood pressure) and metabolic markers did not show a consistent association with sleep changes. The degree of improvement in PSQI was significantly associated with the improvement of brief patients health questionnaire (PHQD) (p = 0.0151). Sleep disturbances seem not to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular and metabolic problems in PA. They are strongly associated to depressive symptoms and maybe mediated by the same mineralocorticoid receptor circuits

Using time perception to explore implicit sensitivity to emotional stimuli in autism spectrum disorder

Establishing whether implicit responses to emotional cues are intact in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is fundamental to ascertaining why their emotional understanding is compromised. We used a temporal bisection task to assess for responsiveness to face and wildlife images that varied in emotional salience. There were no significant differences between an adult ASD and comparison group, with both showing implicit overestimation of emotional stimuli. Further, there was no correlation between overestimation of emotional stimuli and autistic traits in undergraduate students. These data do not suggest a fundamental insensitivity to the arousing content of emotional images in ASD, or in individuals with a high degree of autistic traits. The findings have implications for understanding how emotional stimuli are processed in ASD