"Weathering a hidden storm" : an application of Andersen's behavioral model of health, and health services use for those with diagnosable anxiety disorder

"Weathering a Hidden Storm": An App~ication of Andersen's Behaviora~ Mode~ of Hea~th, and Hea~th Services Use for Those With Diagnosab~e Anxiety Disorder Research has primarily focused on depression and mood disorders, but little research has been devoted to an examination of mental health services use amongst those with diagnosable anxiety disorder (Wittchen et al., 2002; Bergeron et al., 2005). This study examined the possible predicting factors for mental health services utilization amongst those with identifiable anxiety disorder in the Canadian population. The methods used for this study was the application of Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Services Use, where predisposing, need and enabling 111 characteristics were regressed on the dependent variable of mental health services use. This study used the Canadian Community Health Survey (cycle 1.2: Mental Health and Well- Being) in a secondary data analysis. Several multiple logistics models predicted the likelihood to seek and use mental health services. Predisposing characteristics of gender and age, Enabling characteristics of education and geographical location, and those with co-occurring mood disorders were at the greatest increased likelihood to seek and use mental health services.

Role Differences in the Perception of Injustice

The current dissertation examined role differences in the perception of injustice; specifically, differences in how victims and offenders respond to a situation that they both agree is unfair. Past research has demonstrated that role affects reactions to transgressions and injustice, including recall of transgressions, and attributions of blame and responsibility (e.g., Baumeister, Stillwell, & Wotman, 1990; Mikula, Athenstaedt, Heschgl, & Heimgartner, 1998). However, to date, little work has examined role differences in perceptions of why an event is perceived as unfair (i.e., how an injustice is framed) or how justice should be restored. These were the perceptions I focused on in the present thesis. I also examined potential concerns that may motivate victims' and offenders' justice reactions, as well as the potential interaction between role and relationship quality in predicting justice reactions. In Studies 1 and 2, several of the predicted role differences in concerns were found; however, these did not lead to the expected differences in framing and restoration. In Study 1, using a vignette methodology, I found differences primarily in how victims and offenders believed justice should be restored. Overall, the significant role effects showed an accommodating response pattern (e.g., offenders proposed punishment more than did victims and neutral observers, whereas victims recommended minimal compensation more than did offenders and neutral observers), inconsistent with previous research and my hypotheses. Study 2, which employed a sample of romantic couples, substantiated the accommodating pattern found in Study 1. Study 3, which sampled a broader range of relationships, also showed i \ examples of accommodating reactions. In addition, Study 3 provided some support for the hypothesized interaction between role and relationship quality, such that responses were more accommodating as relationship quality increased. For example, offenders more strongly endorsed methods of restoration such as offender apology and recognition of the relationship with increasing relationship quality. Overall, the results from this dissertation support the general notion that victims and offenders respond to injustice differently, and, in-line with previous research on other justice-related responses (e.g., Mikula et at, 1998), suggest that victims and offenders show an other-serving, accommodating tendency in justice reactions when relationship quality is high.

Dispositional Forgiveness and Health in Romantic Relationships: An Exploration of Sex Differences, Actor Effects, and Partner Effects

The individual and dyadic associations between dispositional forgiveness of self, others, and situations and mental and physical health in individuals involved in romantic relationships were examined. Sex differences in the relationship between dispositional forgiveness and health were examined. Sex differences in the dyadic relationship between forgiveness and health were also examined. The dispositional forgiveness scores of 297 partners involved in a romantic relationship were used to predict their own as well as their partners' physical and mental health. Both members of the relationship separately completed an Internet-based questionnaire assessing personality traits, relationship variables, and physical and mental health. The couple was provided with monetary compensation. Analyses revealed that women's dispositional forgiveness of self, others, and situations were positively associated with their own physical and mental health. Similarly, men's dispositional forgiveness of self, others, and situations were positively associated with their own mental and physical health. At the individual level, there were no sex differences in the relationship between dispositional forgiveness and health, nor were there sex differences in men and women's reports of dispositional forgiveness. Analyses revealed that men's forgiveness of others and situations were positively associated with their female partners' mental health. There were no partner effects for women or for physical health. The implications of these results for research in the forgiveness-health literature and research on forgiveness in romantic relationships were discussed as were directions for future research.

Individual Differences in Global/Local Processing Bias and the Attentional Blink

When the second of two targets (T2) is presented temporally close to the first target (T1) in rapid serial visual presentation, accuracy to detect/identify T2 is markedly reduced as compared to longer target separations. This is known as the attentional blink (AB), and is thought to reflect a limitation of selective attention. While most individuals show an AB, research has demonstrated that individuals are variously susceptible to this effect. To explain these differences, Dale and Arnell (2010) examined whether dispositional differences in attentional breadth, as measured by the Navon letter task, could predict individual AB magnitude. They found that individuals who showed a natural bias toward the broad, global level of Navon letter stimuli were less susceptible to the AB as compared to individuals who showed a natural bias toward the detailed, local aspects of Navon letter stimuli. This suggests that individuals who naturally broaden their attention can overcome the AB. However, it was unclear how stable these individual differences were over time, and whether a variety of global/local tasks could predict AB performance. As such, the purpose of this dissertation was to investigate, through four empirical studies, the nature of individual differences in both global/local bias and the AB, and how these differences in attentional breadth can modulate AB performance. Study 1 was designed to examine the stability of dispositional global/local biases over time, as well as the relationships among three different global/local processing measures. Study 2 examined the stability of individual differences in the AB, as well as the relationship among two distinct AB tasks. Study 3 examined whether the three distinct global/local tasks used in Study 1 could predict performance on the two AB tasks from Study 2. Finally, Study 4 explored whether individual differences in global/local bias could be manipulated by exposing participants to high/low spatial frequencies and Navon stimuli. In Study 1, I showed that dispositional differences in global/local bias were reliable over a period of at least a week, demonstrating that these individual biases may be trait-like. However, the three tasks that purportedly measure global/local bias were unrelated to each other, suggesting that they measure unique aspects of global/local processing. In Study 2, I found that individual variation in AB performance was also reliable over a period of at least a week, and that the two AB task versions were correlated. Study 3 showed that dispositional global/local biases, as measured by the three tasks from Study 1, predicted AB magnitude, such that individuals who were naturally globally biased had smaller ABs. Finally, in Study 4 I demonstrated that these dispositional global/local biases are resistant to both spatial frequency and Navon letter manipulations, indicating that these differences are robust and intractable. Overall, the results of the four studies in this dissertation help clarify the role of individual differences in attentional breadth in selective attention.

The electromyographic threshold in children: Differences in neuromuscular activation during progressive exercise between boys and men

The electromyographic threshold (EMGTh), defined as an upward inflexion in the rising EMG signal during progressive exercise, is thought to reflect the onset of increased type-II MU recruitment. The study’s objective was to compare the relative exercise intensity at which the EMGTh occurs in boys vs. men. Participants included 21 men (23.4±4.1 yrs) and 23 boys (11.1±1.1 yrs). Ramped cycle-ergometry was conducted to volitional exhaustion with surface EMG recorded from the vastus lateralis muscles. The EMGTh was mathematically determined using a composite of both legs. EMGTh was detected in 95.2% of the men and in 78.3% of the boys (χ2(1, n=44) =2.69, p =.10). The boys’ EMGTh was significantly higher than the men’s (86.4±9.6 vs. 79.7±10.0% of peak power-output at exhaustion; p <.05). These findings suggest that boys activate their type-II MUs to a lesser extent than men during progressive exercise and support the hypothesis of differential child–adult MU activation.

Personality traits and individual differences predict changes in postural control under conditions of height-induced postural threat

This thesis explored whether individual characteristics could predict changes in postural control in young adults under conditions of height-induced postural threat. Eighty-two young adults completed questionnaires to assess trait anxiety, trait movement reinvestment, physical risk-taking, and previous experience with height-related activities. Tests of static (quiet standing) and anticipatory (rise to toes) postural control were completed under conditions of low and high postural threat manipulated through changes in surface height. Individual characteristics were able to significantly predict changes in static, but not anticipatory postural control. Trait movement reinvestment and physical risk-taking were the most influential predictors. Evidence was provided that changes in fear and physiological arousal mediated the relationship between physical risk-taking and changes in static postural control. These results suggest that individual characteristics shape the postural strategy employed under threatening conditions and may be important for clinicians to consider during balance assessment and treatment protocols.

Genetic and Electrophysiological Correlates of Self-Regulation in Adolescence

Self-regulation is considered a powerful predictor of behavioral and mental health outcomes during adolescence and emerging adulthood. In this dissertation I address some electrophysiological and genetic correlates of this important skill set in a series of four studies. Across all studies event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded as participants responded to tones presented in attended and unattended channels in an auditory selective attention task. In Study 1, examining these ERPs in relation to parental reports on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) revealed that an early frontal positivity (EFP) elicited by to-be-ignored/unattended tones was larger in those with poorer self-regulation. As is traditionally found, N1 amplitudes were more negative for the to-be-attended rather than unattended tones. Additionally, N1 latencies to unattended tones correlated with parent-ratings on the BRIEF, where shorter latencies predicted better self-regulation. In Study 2 I tested a model of the associations between selfregulation scores and allelic variations in monoamine neurotransmitter genes, and their concurrent links to ERP markers of attentional control. Allelic variations in dopaminerelated genes predicted both my ERP markers and self-regulatory variables, and played a moderating role in the association between the two. In Study 3 I examined whether training in Integra Mindfulness Martial Arts, an intervention program which trains elements of self-regulation, would lead to improvement in ERP markers of attentional control and parent-report BRIEF scores in a group of adolescents with self-regulatory difficulties. I found that those in the treatment group amplified their processing of attended relative to unattended stimuli over time, and reduced their levels of problematic behaviour whereas those in the waitlist control group showed little to no change on both of these metrics. In Study 4 I examined potential associations between self-regulation and attentional control in a group of emerging adults. Both event-related spectral perturbations (ERSPs) and intertrial coherence (ITC) in the alpha and theta range predicted individual differences in self-regulation. Across the four studies I was able to conclude that real-world self-regulation is indeed associated with the neural markers of attentional control. Targeted interventions focusing on attentional control may improve self-regulation in those experiencing difficulties in this regard.

Transferring Results of Behavioral Research to Industry to Improve Animal Welfare on the Farm, Ranch and the Slaughter Plant

The article focuses on three results of the study: "(1)Communicate your results outside the research. Write articles in popular and industry magazines. Speak at producer meetings and develop websites that can be used to transfer research results into practice. (2) Choose places (e.g. farms or plants) that have managers who believe in your research, and be prepared to spend a lot of time with the first place that uses your findings. (3) to fail. (4) Do not allow your technology to get tied up in patent disputes."

Memorandum respecting differences between the approximate and the final estimate

Memorandum respecting differences between the approximate and the final estimate (3 ¼ pages, handwritten), n.d.

Second copy of the memorandum respecting differences between the approximate and final estimate but this one has “memorandum of extras of Brown and McDonall contract” written on the outer page

Second copy of the memorandum respecting differences between the approximate and final estimate but this one has “memorandum of extras of Brown and McDonall contract” written on the outer page (3 pages, handwritten), n.d.

Contraintes de liquidite sur les marches financiers, information asymetrique et differences institutionnelles entre pays.

Rapport de recherche

Explication des differences des epargnes japonaises et americaines dans un cadre d'analyse ricardien.

Rapport de recherche

Labor Market Institutions and Gender Differences in Wage Inequality.

In this paper, we present graphical and quantitative evidence on the important role played by changes in labor market institutions on the rise in wage inequality in the United States during the 1980s. We show that the decline in the real value of the minimium wage and in the rate of unionization explains over a third of the rise in inequality among men.

Differences in atrial fibrillation properties under vagal nerve stimulation versus atrial tachycardia remodeling

Fond : Le substrat de fibrillation auriculaire (FA) vagale et celui secondaire à remodelage par tachycardie auriculaire (RTA) partagent beaucoup des caractéristiques : période réfractaire efficace (PRE) réduite, hétérogénéité accrue de PRE et quelques mécanismes moléculaires communs. Cette étude a comparé les 2 substrats à une abréviation comparable de PRE. Méthodes : Chez chacun de 6 chiens de groupe de stimulation vagal (SV), les paramètres de stimulation cervicale bilatérale de nerves vagaux ont été ajustés pour produire la même PRE moyenne (calculé à 8 sites des oreillettes gauche et droite) avec 6 chiens de groupe de RTA assorti à sexe et poids. Des paramètres électrophysiologiques, la durée moyenne de la fibrillation auriculaire (DAF) et les fréquences dominantes (FD) locales ont étés calculés. Résultats : En dépit des PREs assorties (SV: 80±12msec contre RTA: 79±12msec) la DAF était plus longue (*), l’hétérogénéité de conduction était plus élevée (*), la FD était plus rapide (*) et la variabilité de FD plus grande (*) chez les chiens SV. Les zones de maximum FD qui reflètent les zones d’origine de FA étaient à côté de ganglions autonomes chez les chiens SV. Conclusions : Pour un PRE atriale comparable, la FA secondaire à SV est plus rapide et plus persistante que la FA avec un substrat de RTA. Ces résultats sont consistants avec des modèles de travail suggérant que l'hyperpolarisation SV-induite contribue de façon important à la stabilisation et à l'accélération des rotors qui maintiennent la FA. La similitude de la distribution de FD du groupe vagal avec la distribution des lésions d’ablation après cartographie des électrogrammes atriales fragmentés suggère des nouvelles techniques d’ablation. La distribution des FD entre le SV et le RTA fournit de nouvelles idées au sujet de possible rémodelage neuroreceptorial et indique des différences importantes entre ces substrats de FA superficiellement semblables.

Les habiletés olfactives des aveugles de naissance : organisation anatomo-fonctionnelle et aspects comportementaux

La littérature décrit certains phénomènes de réorganisation physiologique et fonctionnelle dans le cerveau des aveugles de naissance, notamment en ce qui a trait au traitement de l’information tactile et auditive. Cependant, le système olfactif des aveugles n’a reçu que très peu d’attention de la part des chercheurs. Le but de cette étude est donc de comprendre comment les aveugles traitent l’information olfactive au niveau comportemental et d’investiguer les substrats neuronaux impliqués dans ce processus. Puisque, en règle générale, les aveugles utilisent leurs sens résiduels de façon compensatoire et que le système olfactif est extrêmement plastique, des changements au niveau de l’organisation anatomo-fonctionnelle pourraient en résulter. Par le biais de méthodes psychophysiques et d’imagerie cérébrale (Imagerie par Résonance Magnétique fonctionnelle-IRMf), nous avons investigué les substrats anatomo-fonctionnels sollicités par des stimuli olfactifs. Nous avons trouvé que les aveugles ont un seuil de détection plus bas que les voyants, mais que leur capacité à discriminer et identifier des odeurs est similaire au groupe contrôle. Ils ont aussi plus conscience de l’environnement olfactif. Les résultats d’imagerie révèlent un signal BOLD plus intense dans le cortex orbitofrontal droit, le thalamus, l’hippocampe droit et le cortex occipital lors de l’exécution d’une tâche de détection d’odeur. Nous concluons que les individus aveugles se fient d’avantage à leur sens de l’odorat que les voyants afin d’évoluer dans leur environnement physique et social. Cette étude démontre pour la première fois que le cortex visuel des aveugles peut être recruté par des stimuli olfactifs, ce qui prouve que cette région assume des fonctions multimodales.