University of Houston - Clear Lake

Childhood maltreatment has been associated with a myriad of challenges in later life, including difficulties related to cognitive processing, emotional regulation, social-behavioral functioning, and academic achievement. The current study investigated how childhood maltreatment may affect college students by examining the interrelationship of important variables known to be associated with maltreatment: trait mindfulness and rumination. Data was collected via convenience sampling. Self-report measures of childhood maltreatment, ruminative thoughts, and trait mindfulness were completed by college students attending a midsize, public, regional, four-year university in the southeastern United States. Data from a total of 374 participants were included in the analyses. Findings provide evidence that rumination may mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and trait mindfulness. In addition, results indicated that negative forms of ruminative thought, both depressive and maladaptive, partially accounted for the relationship between childhood maltreatment and trait mindfulness. Adaptive rumination was not found to be a significant mediator in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and trait mindfulness. These findings may be useful for colleges and universities in considerations for providing a tiered system of support for students with maltreatment histories who experience ruminative thoughts. Addressing ruminative thoughts may help improve important life functions of those students.

Scholarly and practitioner interest in authentic leadership has grown at an accelerating rate over the last decade, resulting in a proliferation of publications across diverse social science disciplines. Accompanying this interest has been criticism of authentic leadership theory and the methods used to explore it. We conducted a systematic review of 303 scholarly articles published from 2010 to 2023 to critically assess the conceptual and empirical strengths and limitations of this literature and map the nomological network of the authentic leadership construct. Results indicate that much of the extant research does not follow best practices in terms of research design and analysis. Based on the findings obtained, an agenda for advancing authentic leadership theory and research that embraces a signaling theory perspective is proposed.

Herein for synthesis of Fe-doped NiCo2O4 nanospinel oxides ((NiFexCo2−xO4 (x ≤ 0.10), Fe→NiCo NSOs)) under ambient condition, method of a facile gas liquid diffusion was employed. Mossbauer spectroscopy, SEM together with EDX, XRD, TEM and VSM techniques have been used to determine the hyperfine interactions, morphology, structure, composition and magnetic characteristics of the products respectively. XRD and EDX analyses approved the absence of any secondary phase. Their crystallite is within 11–19 nm range. The products’ flower like morphology was proved by SEM analysis. Magnetic features of Fe→NiCo (x ≤ 0.10) NSOs are elucidated by the examination of magnetization vs. field curves conducted at both low (10 K) and high (300 K, RT) temperatures. This analysis reveals that these nanostructures manifest paramagnetic performance at RT and transition to a ferromagnetic essence at 10 K. Magnetization shows fluctuations with growing doping content. The obtained SQR (squareness ratio) values tend toward vanishing at RT and approach zero at 10 K, indicating that even at lower temperatures, Fe→NiCo (x ≤ 0.10) NSOs do not exhibit complete alignment like single domain ferromagnets. These findings emphasize the feasibility of tailoring the specific magnetic properties of Co-Ni NSOs through the precise modulation of Fe concentration. The Mössbauer spectra composed of two doublets.

The potential harms related to interventions for adults with suicide-related risk, particularly hospitalization, have been well documented. Much less work has focused on the potential harms related to interventions with youth struggling with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Young people are most likely to receive mental health services in schools, which are recognized as meaningful sites for effective suicide prevention work. However, no overviews have conceptualized the potential harms to youth when schools engage in ineffective suicide prevention efforts. In this article, we discuss three prominent overlapping areas of potential harms: (1) privacy-related, (2) relationship-related, and (3) mental health-related. We then discuss key factors thought to influence the development and maintenance of these potential harms. We conclude by noting ways in which school-based mental health providers may attempt to reduce unintentional harms in this area, with an overarching goal of helping support school mental health providers and the youth they serve.

The attention-based view contends that executives possess limited attentional capabilities that must be carefully allocated across different strategic issues. Although many scholars contend that narrow strategic attention breadth leads to better performance, others argue that broad strategic attention breadth may be more beneficial due to better opportunity scanning. We posit that the relationship between strategic attention breadth and performance will be inverted U-shaped, where strategic attention breadth is positively related to firm performance up to an optimal point, after which firms will see declining benefits due to executive cognitive overload. Furthermore, we propose that executives’ assessment of strategic opportunities will be influenced by the firm’s corporate social responsibility perspective, as the firm’s environmental and ethical commitment may mitigate executive blind spots and enhance opportunity selection. We support our hypotheses with multiple measures of firm performance and a content analysis of annual reports corresponding to a 5-year longitudinal sample of 2,245 S&P 500 firms.

Nursing homes (NHs) have long struggled with nurse shortages, leading to a greater reliance on agency nurses. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of NH ownership on agency nurse utilization. Data were derived from multiple sources, including the Payroll-Based Journal and NH Five-Star Facility Quality Reporting System (n: 38,550 years: 2020-2022). A 2-part logistic regression model with 2-way fixed effects (state and year) was used to assess the association of ownership and agency nurse utilization. Model 1 compared facilities with and without agency nurse use, while Model 2 focused on NHs using agency nurses, examining high utilization (top 10%). The dependent variables were agency nurse utilization ratios for registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and certified nursing assistants (CNAs). The primary independent variable was ownership/chain affiliation: for-profit chain (FPC), for-profit independent (FPI), not-for-profit chain (NFPC), and not-for-profit independent (NFPI). Model 1 showed that NFPC facilities had higher odds of using agency RNs (OR = 1.65), LPNs (OR = 1.53), and CNAs (OR = 1.38) compared to NFPI facilities (all P < .001), while FPC facilities also had increased odds for RNs (OR = 1.43), LPNs (OR = 1.30), and CNAs (OR = 1.15) (all P < .001). Model 2 indicated that NFPC, FPC, and FPI facilities were more likely to be high utilizers (top 10%) of agency nurses, with NFPC facilities having the highest odds across all categories. Pairwise comparisons showed that NFPC had the highest utilization of agency RNs and LPNs compared to other ownership groups. These results highlight the significant impact of NH ownership on staffing practices, suggesting that ownership type influences agency nurse utilization.

Aversive indecisiveness is a trait-like, threat-based cognitive style associated with decision-making that is correlated with risks for and symptoms of anxiety and depression. By contrast, procrastination is the intentional delay of making a decision or pursuing a course of action despite expecting negative outcomes. In past research, the terms indecisiveness and procrastination have been used interchangeably contrary to the operationalization and nomological networks of these constructs. In this investigation, the distinction between aversive indecisiveness and procrastination was assessed and it was expected that items marking these constructs would load on distinct latent factors. It was also expected that aversive indecisiveness and procrastination would be more strongly associated with variables from their respective nomological networks. In an online survey, 500 (n = 355 women) undergraduate participants completed measures assessing aversive indecisiveness, procrastination, and other variables from their respective nomological networks. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that aversive indecisiveness, decisional procrastination, and implemental procrastination loaded on separate latent factors, with no significant cross-loadings, and sharing only a modest amount of variance. Aversive indecisiveness was more strongly predictive of neuroticism, Intolerance of Uncertainty, general distress, worry, and avoidance than procrastination. In contrast, procrastination was more strongly predictive of conscientiousness and self-discipline than aversive indecisiveness. Both aversive indecisiveness and procrastination were equally correlated with anxious arousal, anhedonic depression, and emotionally driven impulsivity. Implications for future research of the measurement and explication of indecisiveness are discussed.

In consortium applications, multiple organizations collaborate on a common goal. The complex consortium structure makes it a significant challenge to achieve the goals of both secure collaboration and preserving each organization's data confidentiality. Existing security architectures are insufficient to tackle the above challenge. This paper proposes ConsortiumSec, a blockchain-based two-layer distributed security architecture. ConsortiumSec leverages disruptive blockchain technologies to systematically address the security issues in consortium applications, including consortium membership management, access control, secure storage, governance policy management, and privacy preservation. The Hyperledger Fabric-based prototype implementation demonstrates the proposed architecture not only integrates the organization's existing security mechanisms but also ensures a secure collaborative environment. The case study based on a real-world consortium application demonstrates the effectiveness of ConsortiumSec.

Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive neoplasm that originates from the mesothelial cells lining the parietal peritoneum or visceral peritoneum and extensively spreads within the abdominal cavity. It is a rare malignancy characterized by an insidious onset and poor prognosis. We present the case of a 79-year-old Caucasian male who experienced escalating abdominal pain for six weeks and acute abdominal distension. His medical history was significant for hypertension, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), hypercholesterolemia, and prior coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). The patient had a 30-pack-year smoking history and worked as a plumber and roofer until retirement. We also confirmed with the patient that he has never been diagnosed with asbestosis. He reported no family history of mesothelioma or related conditions. A computed tomography (CT) scan revealed a prior sternotomy, mild pleural calcifications, mild hepatic steatosis, diffuse peritoneal ascites, diffuse omental edema, and pelvic phleboliths. MPM was confirmed through histopathological examination, which revealed atypical mesothelial cells with high nucleus-to-cytoplasm ratios, prominent nucleoli, and irregular nuclear membranes. It also revealed tumor cells positive for p53, calretinin, WT1, and podoplanin (D2-40). This case highlights the importance of considering MPM in the differential diagnosis for patients with ascites and possible asbestos exposure, particularly with respect to occupational hazards, as it is a rare manifestation of the disease.

The student check‐up (SCU) is a brief school‐based motivational interviewing intervention developed to promote academic‐related behavioral changes and to increase accessibility to mental health services. Despite published randomized controlled trials demonstrating SCU's effectiveness in promoting student self‐efficacy in academic efforts, the SCU's impact on student grade outcome has been inconsistent across studies. This study examines whether student participants' written statements that represent change talk and sustain talk predict differences in post‐treatment grade outcomes and whether these effects are moderated by students' pre‐treatment academic achievement. In addition, we examine whether change and sustain statements mediate the relationship between study sites and grade outcomes. A two‐level linear regression controlling for pre‐treatment grades indicated that as the frequency of change statements increases, students' post‐treatment grades in English Language Arts decrease ( B = −0.62, p = .03), suggesting that “the more” is not always “the merrier” when it comes to evoking change statements related to academic goals that require multiple behavioral changes for attainment.