State body dissatisfaction and social interactions : an experience sampling study

To date, there has been limited empirical scrutiny of the correlates and consequences of day-to-day state body dissatisfaction fluctuations within naturalistic contexts. We used ecological momentary assessment (a form of naturalistic observation) to evaluate whether state body dissatisfaction was concurrently and/or prospectively associated with occurrence and quality of social interactions. Women (N = 121), aged 18 to 40, completed a brief trait-based survey and then nominated a 7-day period within which to receive seven text messages daily, at random intervals, prompting them to complete measures of body dissatisfaction at that moment. If they were currently or had recently engaged in social interactions, they were also asked to fill out questions rating the quality of these interactions (operationalized in terms of enjoyment of, and control in, the interaction). Findings suggest that the relationship between state body dissatisfaction and aspects of social interactions is complex and may vary over time. Cross-sectionally, state body dissatisfaction and social interaction quality were negatively associated. Prospectively, however, body dissatisfaction predicted subsequent avoidance of social interactions. Interestingly, when women chose to avoid social interactions, their body dissatisfaction worsened, yet when they did engage in social interactions, they reported improved body satisfaction. Importantly, the links between state body dissatisfaction and social interactions may be moderated by body mass index and trait body satisfaction levels. Potential mechanisms underlying the association between state body dissatisfaction and quality and quantity of social interactions are discussed, and future research avenues are proposed to further understand their inter-relation.

Non-government communications and conflict management: the experience of Iraqi Arab tribes

This chapter engages with tribal involvement in conflict management practices since 2003 and seeks to explain the role of this social structure in conflict management.

Patient comfort in the intensive care unit : a multicentre, binational point prevalence study of analgesia, sedation and delirium management

Objective: To measure the prevalence of assessment and management practices for analgesia, sedation and delirium in patients in Australian and New Zealand intensive care units.
Materials and Methods: We developed survey items from a modified Delphi panel and included them in a binational, point prevalence study. We used a standard case report form to capture retrospective patient data on management of analgesia, sedation and delirium at the end of a 4-hour period on the study day. Other data were collected during independent assessment of patient status and medication requirements.
Results: Data were collected on 569 patients in 41 ICUs. Pain assessment was documented in the 4 hours before study observation in 46% of patients. Of 319 assessable patients, 16% had moderate pain and 6% had severe pain. Routine sedation assessment using a scale was recorded in 63% of intubated and ventilated patients. When assessed, 38% were alert and calm, or drowsy and rousable, 22% were lightly to moderately sedated, 31% were deeply sedated (66% of these had a documented indication), and 9% were agitated or restless. Sedatives were titrated to a target level in 42% of patients. Routine assessment of delirium occurred in 3%, and at study assessment 9% had delirium. Wrist or arm restraints were used for 7% of patients.
Conclusions: Only two-thirds of sedated patients had their sedation levels formally assessed, half had pain assessed and very few had formal assessment of delirium. Our description of current practices, and other observational data, may help in planning further research in this area.

A prospective analysis of pain experience, beliefs and attitudes, and pain management in a cohort of Danish surgical patients.

Background: 

Sustainability analysis and resource management for wireless mesh networks with renewable energy supplies

 There is a growing interest in the use of renewable energy sources to power wireless networks in order to mitigate the detrimental effects of conventional energy production or to enable deployment in off-grid locations. However, renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, are by nature unstable in their availability and capacity. The dynamics of energy supply hence impose new challenges for network planning and resource management. In this paper, the sustainable performance of a wireless mesh network powered by renewable energy sources is studied. To address the intermittently available capacity of the energy supply, adaptive resource management and admission control schemes are proposed. Specifically, the goal is to maximize the energy sustainability of the network, or equivalently, to minimize the failure probability that the mesh access points (APs) deplete their energy and go out of service due to the unreliable energy supply. To this end, the energy buffer of a mesh AP is modeled as a G/G/1(/N) queue with arbitrary patterns of energy charging and discharging. Diffusion approximation is applied to analyze the transient evolution of the queue length and the energy depletion duration. Based on the analysis, an adaptive resource management scheme is proposed to balance traffic loads across the mesh network according to the energy adequacy at different mesh APs. A distributed admission control strategy to guarantee high resource utilization and to improve energy sustainability is presented. By considering the first and second order statistics of the energy charging and discharging processes at each mesh AP, it is demonstrated that the proposed schemes outperform some existing state-of-the-art solutions.