Covering traumatic news stories: Factors associated with post‐traumatic stress disorder among journalists

The current study examined personal and environmental factors that placed 167 U.S. journalists from diverse media organizations at risk for post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after covering work‐related traumatic stories. These factors included exposure to traumatic stressors in their personal lives, work‐related traumatic stressors, and general organizational stressors. Further, personality attributes and coping styles associated with risk and resiliency were examined. Regression analyses identified avoidant emotional coping, higher levels of perceived organizational stressors, intensity of exposure to work‐related traumatic stressors, and personal trauma history as statistically significant risk factors for PTSD. The results provide empirical support for the negative impact of organizational stressors and avoidant emotional coping on journalists covering trauma‐related stories. Understanding the organizational climate journalists are working in, as well as the manner in which journalists manage work‐related stressors, is important in the development of a more comprehensive model of who may develop work‐related PTSD symptoms. Opportunities for news organizations to reduce PTSD risk among journalists are discussed.     

Attachment avoidance,but not anxiety,minimizes the joys of caregiving

Perhaps unlike other social roles that people may hold, caring for children offers opportunities for both immense joy and incredible frustration. Yet what predicts how parents will feel during caregiving experiences? In the current study, we examined parents’ (N = 152) positive emotion, negative emotion, and felt meaning during caregiving using the Day Reconstruction Method. In addition, we tested attachment anxiety and avoidance as predictors of parents’ emotion during caregiving relative to their other daily experiences. We found that attachment avoidance was associated with elevated negative emotion and reduced positive emotion and meaning in life across the entire day, whereas attachment anxiety was associated with elevated negative emotion and marginally greater meaning in life, but not positive emotion, across the entire day. Furthermore, caregiving was associated with greater positive emotion and meaning, but not negative emotion, compared to parents’ other daily activities. Finally, attachment avoidance, but not anxiety, was associated with lower levels of positive emotion, negative emotion, and felt meaning during caregiving compared to other daily activities. These findings are consistent with other evidence that attachment avoidance is associated with deactivation of emotion in close relationships and suggest that attachment avoidance minimizes the joys of parenting.     

Escherichia coli producing CTX-M beta-lactamases in food animals in Hong Kong

A study was conducted to evaluate the occurrence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs)-producing Escherichia coli from fecal samples of healthy food animals in Hong Kong. Rectal or cloacal swabs were obtained from cattle, pigs, chicken, ducks, geese, and pigeons in slaughterhouses or wholesale markets over a 5- month period in 2002. Antibiotic-containing medium was used for selective isolation of potentially ESBL-producing E. coli. Of 734 samples analyzed, six (2%) from pigs, three (3.1%) from cattle, and one (3%) from pigeons had E. coli strains with the ESBL phenotype. The ESBL content for the 10 isolates include CTXM- 3 (n = 4), CTX-M-13 (n = 3), CTX-M-14 (n = 2), and CTX-M-24 (n = 1). In five isolates, the bla (CTX-M) gene was encoded on transferable plasmids (60 or 90 kb), and the gene was found to transfer to E. coli (J53 or JP995) with frequencies of 10(7) to 10(3) per donor cells. The ten isolates had five distinct pulsotypes with some clonal spread. However, the isolates from the different kinds of animals were not clonally related. These findings imply that bacteria of animal origins may serve as reservoirs of some ESBL genes.     

中医教育应坚持继承为本的方针

依据中医教育的基本特点,提出了中医教育应以继承为本的观点,认为中医教育只有坚持这个方针才能不断向社会输送大批中医专门人才,进而对继承性中医教育提出独到的见解.     

A Survey of Bedside Ultrasound Use by Emergency Physicians in California

Objective. The purpose of this study was to investigate the current practice of emergency physician–performed bedside ultrasound examinations in California and to assess differences between academic and community practice. Methods. We queried all emergency departments (EDs) in California to determine whether bedside ultrasound was used by emergency physicians. Among EDs that were using bedside ultrasound, we administered a survey to assess use patterns, credentialing criteria, and quality assurance (QA) programs. Results. We contacted all eligible EDs (n = 293) by telephone and had a 100% response rate for our primary question: 101 EDs (34%) reported use of bedside ultrasound. Of these 101 EDs, 97 (96%) responded to the secondary survey, showing the following: (1) 48% of physicians at each site were credentialed to use ultrasound in at least 1 modality; (2) 70% of EDs used American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) criteria for credentialing guidelines; and (3) 33% had an ultrasound QA program. Comparing practice settings, 68% of academic departments used bedside ultrasound compared with 29% of community departments (difference, 39%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 23% to 54%; P < .0001). In academic departments, a mean of 60% of physicians were credentialed, compared with 41% in community EDs (difference, 19%; 95% CI, 2.5% to 35%; P = .036). Conclusions. Most California EDs do not use bedside ultrasound. Although most EDs using ultrasound report that they follow ACEP emergency ultrasound guidelines, most do not have a QA program as recommended by these guidelines. Compared with community EDs, academic EDs are more likely to use bedside ultrasound, have physicians credentialed in ultrasound use, and have QA programs.     

Immunoglobulin concentrations in newborn infants associated with intrauterine growth retardation

Immunoglobulin G, A, and M (IgG, IgA and IgM) levels were measured in paired maternal and cord serum samples from 18 pregnancies with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) and 55 with normal growth (adequate-for-gestational-age pregnancies) delivered vaginally at 36 weeks' gestation or later. Cord blood levels of IgG, IgA, and IgM in IUGR infants were found significantly lower than those in infants with adequate-for-gestational-age growth. Lower Lower levels of cord IgG in IUGR may be due to a defect in the active transport of IgG across the placenta. Lower levels of cord IgM and IgA suggest an impairment of synthesis of immunoglobulins in the IUGR infants. There was no difference in cord immunoglobulin concentrations between infants with intrapartum fetal heart rate (FHR) decelerations and those without FHR decelerations in either the IUGR or the adequate-for-gestational-age group. No difference was observed in maternal immunoglobulin concentrations among the study groups.