Prevalence of Burn Pit Associated Symptoms Among US Veterans Who Utilize Non-Veteran's Affairs Private Healthcare.

OBJECTIVE: Do the 3.5 million US veterans, who primarily utilize private healthcare, have similar burn pit exposure and disease compared to the VA Burn Pit registry? METHODS: This is an online volunteer survey of Gulf War and Post-9/11 veterans. RESULTS: Burn pit exposure had significantly higher odds of extremity numbness, aching pain and burning, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung disease, constrictive bronchiolitis, pleuritis, and pulmonary fibrosis. Chi-square did not reveal a difference in burn pit exposure and cancer diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate increased risk of neurological symptoms associated with burn pit exposure, which are not covered in the 2022 federal Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act. Additional data will allow for the continued review and consideration for future medical benefits.

Medical Students' Communication Preferences for the Ideal Surgical Educator.

OBJECTIVE: Medical students have expectations and preferences for how they are taught by clinical surgical educators. The goal of this study was to (a) determine medical students' prioritizations of ideal teaching behaviors and characteristics for surgical educators, and (b) delineate which teaching behaviors and characteristics were considered to be less important for surgical education. DESIGN: Using a necessity (low) and luxury (high) budget allocation methodology to build their ideal surgical educator, MSIII and MSIV students (N = 82) completed a survey to prioritize and invest in 10 effective teaching behaviors and characteristics identified in the instructional communication literature (assertiveness, responsiveness, clarity, relevance, competence, character, caring, immediacy, humor, and disclosure). RESULTS: Repeated-measures ANOVAs indicated MSIII and MSIV students invested significantly more of their teaching budget allocations for their ideal surgical educator into instructor clarity, competence, relevance, responsiveness, and caring, both within a (low) necessity budget (F[5.83, 472.17] = 24.09, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.23) and (high) luxury budget (F(7.65, 619.76) = 67.56, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.46). Using paired t-tests, comparisons of repeated investments in low and high budget allocations revealed that students invested slightly more of a percentage of funds in instructor immediacy (+2.62%; t(81) = 2.90, p = 0.005; d = 0.32) and disclosure (+1.44%; t(81) = 3.26, p = 0.002; d = 0.36), indicating they viewed these teaching behaviors more as luxury components of surgical education rather than necessities, but these behaviors were significantly less important than their ideal prioritizations of instructor clarity, competence, relevance, responsiveness, and caring. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicated that medical students want a surgical educator who is largely a rhetorical educator; that is, a surgical specialist who clearly communicates expertise and relevant content that students can apply to their careers as future surgeons. However, a relational component was viewed as ideal by students as students also preferred surgical educators to be sensitive and sympathetic to their academic needs.

Workplace Bullying and Work Engagement: A Self-Determination Model.

This study modeled motivational mechanisms that explain the negative effects of workplace bullying on work engagement. Guided by self-determination theory, workplace bullying was predicted to decrease worker engagement indirectly, due to the denial of employees' basic psychological needs and their intrinsic motivation to work. From a sample of 243 full-time employees, serial multiple mediation models revealed that the indirect relationships between workplace bullying and work engagement (i.e., vigor, dedication, absorption) were serially mediated by basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation to work. In support of self-determination theory, this study revealed that workplace bullying indirectly disengages employees from their work by denying them of their autonomy and relatedness needs and thwarting their motivation to perform work in a fulfilling way.

Sex differences in instructional dissent.

This study examined sex differences in students' expression of instructional dissent and the role that an instructor's sex plays in spurring this dissent. Participants were 446 undergraduate students (M age = 20.1 yr., SD = 2.8; 148 men, 290 women, 8 unreported) who completed the Instructional Dissent Scale (IDS) and provided demographic information. Results indicated small effects for student sex and instructor sex on IDS scores. Female students reported communicating more expressive dissent than male students, whereas male students reported communicating more rhetorical dissent and vengeful dissent than female students. Students also directed vengeful dissent more towards male instructors than female instructors.

Is basic personality related to violent and non-violent video game play and preferences?

Based on the uses and gratifications perspective, personality was expected to relate to violent video game play frequency and game preferences. Participants completed measures of personality and frequency of violent video game play, and identified their most frequently played video games. Results indicate that individuals higher in openness but lower in agreeableness played violent video games more frequently. In addition, more open and extroverted but less agreeable and neurotic individuals generally preferred to play video games that are more violent. Results suggest personality may be more predictive of violent video game use than traditional media use, though the predictive personality dimensions may be consistent across media types.

Love styles and desire for closeness in romantic relationships.

This study investigated differences in love styles (i.e., eros, ludus, storge, pragma, agape, mania) associated with the romantic desire for closeness. Participants were 197 undergraduate students (M age = 19.8 yr., SD = 1.9; 92 men, 104 women) currently in a romantic relationship who completed a survey assessing their love styles and current desire for closeness with their partner (i.e., desired less closeness, the same level of closeness, or more closeness). Results indicated small significant differences in individuals' preferences for closeness with the eros and ludus love styles. Specifically, individuals who desired less closeness scored lower on eros love and higher on ludus love than partners who reported an ideal level of closeness or who desired more closeness.

Affective orientation and eating behavior: two studies of emotional, restrained, and external eating decisions.

Recent work on how emotions guide decisions stimulated two studies on relationships among emotional, restrained, and external antecedents of eating behavior and Affective Orientation. In Study 1 were 195 undergraduate students who completed the Affective Orientation-15 scale (Booth-Butterfield & Booth-Butterfield, 1996) and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Higher scores of trait Affective Orientation were associated with more emotional and restrained eating. Women scored higher on Affective Orientation than men and were more likely to engage in emotional and restrained eating. Study 2 replicated the research with 79 employed adults (M age=38 yr.). Results were similar in that Affective Orientation scores were related positively to similar eating patterns, and women scored higher than men on the psychosocial variables.

A study of grouphate in a course on small group communication.

This study explored the relationship between grouphate and cohesion, consensus, relational satisfaction, affective learning, and cognitive learning. Participants were 83 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory course on small group communication. Participants completed the Grouphate scale, the Classroom Cohesion scale, the Consensus scale, the Relational Satisfaction scale, three subscales of the Instructional Affect Assessment Instrument, and the Cognitive Learning Loss measure. Mean grouphate significantly increased during the semester, and negative correlations were found between scores for grouphate and cohesion (-.50), consensus (-.45), relational satisfaction (-.58), attitude toward the behaviors recommended in the course (-.23), the likelihood of developing an appreciation for the course content (-.33), and cognitive learning (-.32). Results may imply that students' grouphate is not associated with prosocial outcomes of the group work in this course.