Twenty-four obese women were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 group treatments: behavioral choice treatment (BCT) or traditional behavioral treatment (TBT). BCT uses decision theory to promote moderate behavior change that can be comfortably, and therefore permanently, maintained. Groups completed a moderate-intensity walking program and obtained feedback from computerized eating dairies. The TBT group evidenced greater weight loss at posttreatment. However, the TBT group also evidenced a trend to regain weight, whereas the BCT group continued a slow weight loss during follow-up. Exercise followed a similar pattern. Both groups decreased in restraint and increased in self-esteem.

Abstract:Military veterans and their families belong to a unique subculture. Several studies have identified the need for helping professionals to attain military cultural competence in order to practice more effectively. In order to address this need, a Midwestern state created a military culture certificate program (MCCP). The process of developing this program is described. Eighty-two participants of the MCCP completed a pretest survey assessing their knowledge, awareness, and self-confidence in working with this population. The majority of the participants had experience working with this population already, and their survey scores indicated moderate knowledge and moderate to high levels of overall self-efficacy. Pre-test scores indicated ten areas (six in knowledge and four in self-efficacy) that may deserve increased focus for programs and trainings on military culture. While the MCCP appeared to be generally effective, findings suggest that convenient adjunctive methods of obtaining information to enhance military cultural competence would also be helpful.

IntroducitonIntimate Partner violence (IPV) against women is a problem that unfortunately plagues all societies. The World Health Organization [1] survey estimates that as many as 69% of women in the world can be impacted by IPV. It can have significant psychological, physical, social, economic, and spiritual implications that can negatively affect future generations, social relationships, and productive capacity [2,3]. Many factors intersect with situations of partner violence to either enhance survivor resilience or to further complicate IPV situations [4,5].Religion is one of the factors that play an especially important role when it comes to situations of IPV. When studying IPV it is important understand the interplay between IPV and the multiple dimensional roles religion plays while intersecting with other dimensions of culture. No religion condones IPV and this behavior disrespects religious teachings that promote and peace and harmony. Yet many IPV perpetrators use religion as another weapon of abuse. As Marie Fortune [6], one of the pioneering faith leaders acting against domestic violence said: …abusers …misuse and distort scripture to justify their choice to harm another person because they have power over that person. It is very easy to misuse and distort sacred texts. All you have to do is to lift something out of context with no understanding or appreciation of its history and meaning and use it to justify your personal beliefs. When you combine that with a blatant disregard for the fundamental teaching of the faith tradition, you end up with a perverse, dangerous distortion which can fuel hatred and violence in direct contradiction to the teaching of the faith".Muslims, a religiously, culturally, nationally and socioeconomically diverse faith-based populace, bear no exception in escaping this dilemma [7][8][9]. Many abusers use religion and culture as an excuse to justify their actions despite obvious evidence opposing this behavior.Yet, like in many faith communities, it is only in the recent past receiving attention as a major concern in North America and globally. Some scholars suggest that the global Muslim community is in the early stages of considering IPV as a social problem of criminal nature [10][11][12]. This is also evident in the fact that no empirical articles written in English were found on this issue prior to the 1990s. Like many faith communities, the subject of IPV in Muslims communities generally tends to remain a taboo; there is either general reluctance or denial that IPV exists [10,13,14]. It may remain a topic hidden within many families and, once again, this guarded nature is reflected in the limited availability of research on this issue within the professional literature [8,15]. However, the works of a few activists, academics and grassroots level agencies have helped shed light on the gravity of this global issue in more recent times [8,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. These advocates, as part of an emerging movement, are revealing that IPV is a major problem afflicting Mus...

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Research has been conducted supporting a Social Information Processing (McFall, 1982) conceptualization of intimate partner violence perpetration (Holtzworth-Munroe & Hutchinson, 1993;Nedegaard & Sbrocco, 2014). However, it has also been suggested that several transitory factors can influence the individual steps of this model (Crick & Dodge, 1994;McFall, 1989; Lemerise & Aresenio, 2000). One possible transitory factor is impulsivity. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of impulsivity on the perceived ability and utility of abusive behaviors among abusive men. Thirty-two abusive men, thirty-two maritally distressed, nonabusive men, and thirty-two maritally satisfied, nonabusive men were asked to complete a decision-making questionnaire where the subjective expected utilities (SEUs) and perceived ability ratings for specific behaviors were calculated using Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT). One-way ANOVAs revealed low impulsive abusers rated the SEUs of abusive behaviors significantly higher than any other group. Interestingly, non-impulsive abusers also rated their perceived ability to carry out healthy behaviors lower than all other groups. These findings suggest that there may continue to be value in conceptualizing abusive behavior within an impulsive/reactive and proactive/instrumental context. These findings suggest that abusive men who are low -impulsive may be at greater risk of choosing abusive behaviors in marital conflict situations.

Domestic Violence programs are often mandated to treat perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV), yet ways to improve the effectiveness of these programs are needed. One possibility is to provide a more comprehensive assessment and screening so that group facilitators can be better prepared to serve their clientele from the very beginning of treatment. To that end, the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) was administered to 154 IPV perpetrators as part of pre-treatment assessment for group treatment programs. After the treatment groups were finished, Interviews were conducted with group facilitators to determine if the facilitators of groups for men who engage in IPV perceived the PAI as an effective pre-treatment assessment tool. The majority of the program facilitators believed the PAI to be a useful tool and discussed various ways they were able to use the results in a positive manner. Those who did not find it useful were likely not to take the time to use the PAI at all, indicating there was not enough time because of the arduous nature of the job. The PAI protocols collected from program participants are also presented and compared to those currently published in the literature for this population. PAI profiles for this group differed from the comparison groups in two ways. Within the clinical scales, this group scored higher than the community norms and the published norms for men engaging in IPV on negative relations, antisocial behaviors and alcohol problems. On the validity scales, they had a significantly higher number of invalid profiles, mainly due to higher levels of positive impression management.

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It is indisputable the significant contribution that David Sugarbaker has made to the thoracic surgery domain, which included serving as the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons' 94 th President. Following graduation from Cornell University Medical College in New York and internship at what later became Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dr Sugarbaker was awarded a two-year National Institute of Health Research Fellowship to study benign esophageal diseases at Harvard Medical School. After completing his residency at Toronto General Hospital, he returned to Brigham and Women Hospital at the age of 35 to serve as the Chief of Thoracic Surgery. Since then, he has been instrumental in the training over 80 residents, many of whom would become established experts in their respective subspecialties, as well as establishing Brigham and Women's thoracic division to be one of the best in the world. Nicknamed 'Mr Mesothelioma', Dr Sugarbaker has devoted much of his career to improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of malignant pleural mesothelioma, and has established multimodal surgical and oncological treatment options as the gold standard. As Director of Esophageal Surgical Services at the Baylor College of Medicine, Dr Shawn Groth has dedicated his professional life to studying and treating esophageal and thoracic cancers. In addition, after training at institutions such