Scarcity mindset among schoolteachers: how resource scarcity negatively impacts teachers' cognition and behaviors

A recent line of research investigates the negative cognitive effects - known as the scarcity mindset - that arise when people face a lack of resources. We expand on this research and show that these cognitive effects are present among Swedish schoolteachers facing a scarcity of time and social resources at work. From an initial interview study we developed novel survey scales to measure teachers' subjective assessments of available resources and the extent of their scarcity mindset. We then related resource scarcity of time and social resources to the scarcity mindset using structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis in a survey study with a sample of Swedish schoolteachers. This research provides valuable insights for addressing resource constrained work environments in schools and contributes to the broader psychological research on cognitive effects resulting from resource scarcity.

Should Trust Be Stressed? General Trust and Proactive Coping as Buffers to Perceived Stress

Stress is becoming an increasingly important public health concern. Assuming that individual levels of trust and coping can buffer psychological stress, we explore validated measures of general trust [General Trust Scale (GTS)], proactive coping [Proactive Coping Inventory (PCI)], jointly with personality [Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to experience (HEXACO)], and intolerance of uncertainty (IUS), as predictors of perceived stress [Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)]. Data were collected from Qualtrics research panels using quota sampling to obtain two representative American community samples. The assumed alleviating effects of GTS and PCI on PSS remained but were attenuated when modeled jointly with HEXACO, IUS, and socio-economic background variables [socioeconomic status (SES)] in hierarchical regressions. In Study 1 (N = 1,213), SES explained 19% and HEXACO explained 29% of the variance in PSS. Introducing IUS and GTS added significant but small portions of explained variance. In Study 2 (N = 1,090), after controlling for SES which explained 18% of the variance, IUS explained an additional 18% of the variance in PSS. Adding GTS to the model showed modest contributions whereas PCI added 9% of explained variance in the final hierarchical step. The findings highlight that GTS and PCI remain important variables even after controlling well-known factors such as personality and ability to tolerate uncertainty. However, given the weak effects of GTS, to consider trust as a remedy for stress may be of limited use in clinical practice since it could potentially be explained largely as a proxy for a beneficial combination of personality, coping, and socioeconomic background.

General practitioners' accounts of how to facilitate consultations with toddlers - an interview study

OBJECTIVE

To describe general practitioners' (GPs') accounts of how to facilitate consultations with children aged 1-2 years.

DESIGN

A qualitative study based on focus group interviews.

SETTING AND SUBJECTS

Five focus group interviews were conducted with a total of 25 GPs at Swedish primary health care (PHC) centres. The GPs regularly invited toddlers to consultations.

RESULT

The GPs' accounts of how to facilitate consultations with toddlers revealed descriptions of making efforts to instil confidence in the situation to enable the consultation. Toddlers in need of health care always visit the GP with adults such as their parents, guardians or other relatives. Therefore, the GP directs efforts towards the adults and the child more or less simultaneously, as they both need to rely on the GP. The GPs describe how they instil confidence in the adults by establishing a mutual understanding that the consultation is necessary to secure the child's health. Regarding the child, the GP instils confidence by establishing a relationship in order to approach the child and accomplish bodily examinations.

CONCLUSION

The result shows that GPs' encounters with children in consultations are two-sided. The GP needs to conduct bodily examinations to secure the child's health and development, but to do so he/she needs to establish purposeful relationships with the adults and the child by instilling confidence. This indicates that establishing relationships in the consultation is significant, and a way to achieve a child-centred consultation. KEY POINTS Research regarding GPs' encounters with toddlers in consultation is limited, even though toddlers frequently visit PHC. • GPs make efforts to instil confidence by establishing mutual understanding with parents and a relationship with the child. • Establishing purposeful relationships with both the child and parent is significant in enabling the consultation. • Establishing a relationship with the child overrides conducting the bodily examination, to promote the child's feeling of ease and allow a child-centred consultation.

The Prevalence and Quantification of Atherosclerosis in an Elderly Population Assessed by Whole-Body Magnetic Resonance Angiography

OBJECTIVE

The principal aim of the present study was to explore the feasibility of using whole-body magnetic resonance angiography to assess atherosclerosis in different vascular territories in a cohort of elderly.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Three hundred six 70-year-old subjects (145 women, 161 men) recruited from a population-based cohort study (Prospective Investigation of the Vasculature in Uppsala Seniors, ie, the PIVUS study) underwent 1.5-T whole-body magnetic resonance angiography with gadodiamide. The arteries were divided into 26 segments. In total, 7956 vessel segments were evaluated with 7900 segments (99.3%) possible to evaluate. Of these, 7186 segments (91%) were normal. Luminal narrowing of > or = 50% was observed in 9 (1.5%) of the renal arteries, 12 (1.8%) of the carotid arteries, in 31 segments (1.1%) of the pelvic/upper leg territories, and in 136 segments (6.2%) of territories in the lower leg. Approximately one-third of the sample had no vascular abnormalities, one-third had stenoses of < 50%, and the remainder had stenoses > or = 50% or occlusions. Six subjects (2%) had aortic aneurysms. In subjects without evident vascular disease, 26% had significant vascular abnormalities.

CONCLUSIONS

Whole-body magnetic resonance angiography performed with a clinical scanner can be used for quantifying atherosclerosis in different vascular territories in a single examination in an elderly population.

Goal Conflicts in Political Decisionmaking: A Survey of Municipality Politicians' Views of Road Pricing

An ongoing discussion concerns road-pricing schemes as measures to abate traffic congestion and air pollution in metropolitan areas. If such measures are to be effective, road-pricing fees must be set sufficiently high However, municipalities are likely to have other goals besides reducing car use, such as upholding fairness among citizens and financial goals such as creating revenues. If conflicts prove to exist between different goals, road-pricing schemes are not likely to achieve the environmental goal. To investigate the degree to which these goal conflicts exist, members of the local governments in the three major metropolitan areas of Sweden responded to a survey questionnaire. In the questionnaire they rated a number of principles guiding the setting of road-pricing fees hypothesized to correspond to the three goals. The results showed that, for the political majority, the hypothesized goal conflicts existed in that no single goal was optimized. It is concluded that in particular fairness may prevent road pricing achieving the environmental goal.

High-resolution carotid artery MRA. Comparison with fast dynamic acquistion and duplex ultrasound scanning

PURPOSE

To determine whether the diagnostic accuracy of contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA) of the carotid arteries is improved by using a slow-injection, high-resolution technique.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

In 22 patients suspected to have internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis at duplex ultrasound scanning (DUS), CE-MRA was performed both with a fast, dynamic (8 s/phase) and with a slower, high-resolution technique (scan time 2:20 min).

RESULTS

There was conformity between the CE-MRA techniques regarding the degree of stenosis in 34/40 extracranial ICAs. In 3/6 discrepant cases, short occlusions were seen with the fast dynamic technique, whereas both the high-resolution CE-MRA technique and DUS showed patent vessels. There was an overall tendency toward higher stenosis grading with the dynamic technique. Overlying veins could be removed on a workstation in all high-resolution examinations.

CONCLUSION

The high-resolution carotid CE-MRA technique proposed herein seems to improve the diagnostic accuracy, at least for differentiation between high-grade stenoses and occlusions.

High-resolution magnetic resonance coronary angiography of the entire heart using a new blood-pool agent, NC100150 injection: comparison with invasive x-ray angiography in pigs

Recent developments of novel magnetic resonance intravascular contrast agents with low T1 in blood and a long intravascular half-life will rapidly position magnetic resonance coronary angiography (MRCA) at the threshold of clinical application. This article describes the use of one such intravascular contrast agent for noninvasive coronary angiography and comparison with routine invasive x-ray angiography. Six domestic farm pigs with an artificial stenoses at the left circumflex were studied. NC100150 Injection, a new ultra-small superparmagnetic iron oxide (Nycomed Amersham Imaging, Oslo, Norway), was injected using a dose of 5.0 mg Fe/kg body weight. Scanning was done using a 1.5-T Gyroscan ACS-NT. A high-resolution electrocardiogram-triggered scan covering the entire heart was applied. Navigator echoes were used for respiratory triggering. In all animals the location of the stenoses detected with MRCA correlated well with x-ray angiography. The correlation factor between the grade of stenoses determined by MRCA and x-ray angiography was 0.993. MRCA using NC100150 Injection can depict the major coronary arteries and branches well. Decreases in vessel caliber detected by MRCA correlate well with x-ray angiography. The use of such intravascular contrast agents show great promise for clinical applications for noninvasive detection of coronary artery disease in humans.

Pre-clinical results with Clariscan (NC100150 Injection); experience from different disease models

A superparamagnetic nanoparticle (NC100150 Injection) was investigated in two different animal models; renal perfusion in pigs and tumour imaging in mice. In the pig model, qualitative first-pass perfusion maps following a bolus injection of NC100150 Injection enabled good visualisation of hypoperfused regions of the renal cortex following partial ligation of the renal artery. High temporal resolution was found to be essential to accurately capture the first passage of the contrast agent through the kidney due to the very rapid blood flow in normal renal cortex. In the tumour model (LS174T cells implanted in nude mice), NC100150 Injection was found to cause a gradual (over 60 min) signal increase on T1-w images in part of the tumours which was attributed to contrast agent leakage from the vascular space to the extravascular space in areas of increased capillary permeability. This observation is consistent with previous reports on the molecular cut-off size for vascular extraction for this tumour cell line. The specific enhancement of tumour tissue suggest potential utility of NC100150 Injection as an angiogenesis marker.

A targeted contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging of thrombus: implications of spatial resolution

A preparation of ultra-small superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) particles coupled to an RGD peptide (RGD-USPIO) was investigated as an MR contrast agent, targeted to activated platelets, in both ex vivo and in vivo thrombus models. Thrombus visualization ex vivo was compared using RGD-USPIO and a non-targeted UPSIO. The influence of thrombus visualization on thrombus exposure time to RGD-USPIO (ex vivo) and on the spatial resolution of the MR image (ex vivo and in vivo) was assessed. RGD-USPIO resulted in better thrombus visualization than non-targeted USPIO ex vivo, and maximum enhancement was achieved after approximately one hour exposure time of the thrombus to RGD-USPIO. The ability to visualize the clots was highly dependent on the spatial resolution of the image. In vivo, an in-plane resolution of less than 0.2 x 0.2 mm(2) was required for good clot visualization after contrast enhancement. It is concluded that the achievable resolution and sensitivity is a potential limitation to the usefulness of active vascular targeting in MRI.

Effect of NC100150 injection on the (1)H NMR linewidth of human whole blood ex vivo: dependency on blood oxygen tension

The linewidth of the (1)H NMR signal (7.05 T) of human whole blood titrated with a superparamagnetic contrast agent (NC100150 injection) was evaluated at different blood oxygen tensions. In deoxygenated blood and low contrast agent concentrations, NC100150 injection caused a decrease in linewidth. After reaching a minimum, the linewidth increased as the concentration of NC100150 injection increased. At the concentration corresponding to the minimum linewidth, the magnetization of the extracellular space containing the NC100150 injection was equal to that of the paramagnetic (deoxygenated hemoglobin) intracellular space. The minimum linewidth is therefore consistent with a complete elimination of the local microscopic susceptibility effect, the major cause of linebroadening. Additionally, phantom studies were performed at 1.5 T, confirming that the contrast enhancement of NC100150 injection in blood is dependent on oxygen tension. The data suggest that NC100150 injection may be useful in differentiating vessels with varying relative oxygen tensions.

Contrast-enhanced coronary MRA

Coronary angiography with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has long been a goal for bringing cardiac MRI into clinical use for diagnosis of coronary artery disease. In this paper, the fundamental problems of respiratory and cardiac motion, signal-to-noise ratio, and contrast-to-noise ratio are discussed in reference to implications for coronary imaging strategies. Various methods that have been proposed to improve signal-to-noise and contrast-to-noise ratios in MR coronary imaging are presented with an emphasis on the role of T1-shortening contrast agents, both extracellular and intravascular. Although much progress has been made in recent years in techniques for imaging the coronary arteries, ultimate clinical success remains unproved. Success will depend on synergistic developments in MR acquisition techniques, respiratory compensation methods, post-processing techniques, and contrast agents to develop a workable solution for reliable coronary imaging across a wide range of patients. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 1999;10:703-708.

Characterization of t1 relaxation and blood-myocardial contrast enhancement of NC100150 injection in cardiac MRI

A new ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (Clariscan; NC100150 Injection) was studied in domestic farm pigs. The T1 effects were characterized for blood and myocardium and the blood-myocardial contrast was measured in T1-weighted cine images. The contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were measured at baseline and contrast doses of 1 and 5 mg Fe/kg body weight (bw) at end diastole and late systole. The T1 values for blood and myocardium were reduced by 97 and 43%, respectively, from baseline to 5 mg Fe/kg bw. The CNR was significantly improved with contrast at end diastole and late systole. The maximum improvement shown was 202% at 5 mg Fe/kg bw in late systole. The percent SNR enhancement was significantly higher in blood than myocardium at late systole. NC100150 Injection is an effective T1 shortening agent and can be used to improve blood-myocardial contrast in cine images of the heart. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 1999;10:784-789.

Pulmonary magnetic resonance angiography

Early attempts to image the pulmonary vasculature with spin-echo magnetic resonance (MR) imaging were hampered by severe image degradation related to respiratory and cardiac pulsation artifact, susceptibility at interfaces between lung parenchyma and vessel wall, and poor contrast between flowing blood and intravascular filling defects of emboli. With the development of gradient-echo MR angiographic techniques some of these limitations were overcome; however, the need for multiple breath-holds and the frequent occurrence of flow-related artifacts that could simulate pulmonary emboli diminished their clinical utility. With the development of contrast-enhanced MR angiography, many of the limitations of earlier techniques were addressed. Images of both lungs with high signal-to-noise ratios and high contrast between flowing blood and pulmonary emboli could be acquired in a single breath-hold, during "first-pass" imaging with extracellular contrast agents in the coronal plane. However, subsegmental vessels could not be assessed with this approach. The technique has been refined further by imaging each lung separately in the sagittal plane; this offers higher resolution and total lung coverage and requires a shorter breath-hold. Finally, several investigators have reported preliminary data on imaging of the pulmonary vasculature with blood pool agents, exploiting respiratory triggering or navigator echoes to eliminate the need for breath-holding for the detection of pulmonary emboli.

Pulmonary MR angiography with ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide particles as a blood pool agent and a navigator echo for respiratory gating: pilot study

In nine healthy adult volunteers, pulmonary magnetic resonance angiography was performed with the blood pool agent NC100150 injection combined with respiratory gating with a navigator echo. With increasing doses of the contrast agent, higher signal intensities and vessel branch order visualization were achieved. No motion artifacts were seen. The blood pool agent NC100150 injection in combination with respiratory navigator gating permitted acquisition of high-quality MR angiograms of the pulmonary vasculature during continuous breathing.

Abdominal vessel enhancement with an ultrasmall, superparamagnetic iron oxide blood pool agent: evaluation of dose and echo time dependence at different field strengths

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES

The purpose of the study was to determine the dose and echo time dependence of abdominal vessel enhancement at magnetic resonance (MR) imaging after injection of a blood pool contrast agent at two field strengths.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Sixteen healthy volunteers received NC100150 Injection at three dose levels (1.0 mg, 2.5 mg, and 4.0 mg of iron per kilogram of body weight). Images of the aorta and inferior vena cava (IVC) were obtained at 0.5 or 1.5 T. Four sequences with varying echo times were used with each subject. Signal intensities were recorded from the aorta, IVC, vessel vicinity, air, and a marker outside the patient. Contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs) were calculated for the vessels. Aortic delineation was subjectively evaluated.

RESULTS

Images with the highest mean vessel signal intensities, subjectively assessed as satisfactory for aortic delineation, were obtained with 2.5-4.0 mg of iron per kilogram of body weight at both field strengths. The highest CNR was found with 4.0 mg of iron per kilogram of body weight at 1.5 T. An increase in echo time caused larger signal intensity loss at larger dose levels. The signal intensity from the IVC was higher than that of the aorta at all dose levels, echo times, and field strengths.

CONCLUSION

NC100150 Injection is an efficient T1-reducing agent at both 0.5 and 1.5 T. A positive dose response for CNR of the aorta and IVC was seen at 1.5 T.

Benefit of T1 reduction for magnetic resonance coronary angiography: a numerical simulation and phantom study

Contrast agents have dramatically improved magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) of the abdominal and peripheral arteries. The imaging technique for these applications is usually a steady-state acquisition, for which the relationship between T1 in blood and the MR signal is well known. However, in electrocardiography-triggered angiography with limited acquisition windows, this relationship is more complex. Therefore the purpose of this work is to define the relationship between the T1 in blood and the MR signal amplitude in three-dimensional magnetic resonance coronary angiography (3D-MRCA). Simulations were performed using equations describing the MR signal in both steady-state and triggered acquisition schemes. Triggered acquisition schemes use flip-angle sweeps to maintain a constant signal during the acquisition. In this study, the effect of the flip angle sweep was calculated as a function of T1. The results show that the effect of T1 shortening in contrast-enhanced 3D-MRCA differs substantially from that in conventional contrast-enhanced MRA. The triggered acquisition allows unsaturated blood to enter the volume between the acquisitions and thereby gives a much higher signal at long T1s than does steady-state acquisition. Therefore, to gain a benefit in signal amplitude with contrast agents for 3D-MRCA using gradient-echo sequences, the T1 in blood may have to be as low as 50 msec. In addition, when using a prepulse to null myocardium, the results indicate the need for a large difference in T1 between blood and myocardium to avoid signal loss in blood.

Correlation between dose rate and T1 in blood at Gd-enhanced MR angiography

PURPOSE

To determine the correlation between dose rate and T1 in blood at Gd-enhanced MR angiography (MRA).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A test dose of contrast agent was used to calculate the time delay between injection and arrival in the abdominal aorta. The dose rate was expressed as ml.kg b.w.-1.s-1. The correlation between dose rate and T1 was determined by varying the dose rate while keeping the scanning and infusion times constant. The signal intensity in the abdominal aorta was measured during the first pass of Gd and compared with markers of known T1 values.

RESULTS

A correlation between dose rate and T1 in blood was obtained.

CONCLUSION

A Gd dose rate of 0.01 ml.kg b.w.-1.s-1 gives a T1 in blood of 100 ms. This can be used to calculate the optimal pulse sequence for contrast-enhanced MRA.