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One of the primary means of communicating with a baby is through touch. Nurturing physical touch promotes healthy physiological development in social mammals, including humans. Physiology influences wellbeing and psychosocial functioning. The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections among early life positive and negative touch and wellbeing and sociomoral development. In study 1, mothers of preschoolers ( n = 156) reported their attitudes toward positive/negative touch and on their children’s wellbeing and sociomoral outcomes, illustrating moderate to strong positive correlations between positive touch attitudes and children’s sociomoral capacities and orientations and negative correlations with psychopathology. In study 2, we used an existing longitudinal dataset, with at-risk mothers ( n = 682) and their children to test touch effects on moral capacities and social behaviors in early life. Results demonstrated moderate to strong relationships between positive/negative touch and concurrent child behavioral regulation and positive correlations between low corporal punishment and child sociomoral outcomes. In a third study with adults ( n = 607), we found significant mediation processes connecting retrospective reports of childhood touch to adult moral orientation through attachment security, mental health, and moral capacities. In general across studies, more affectionate touch and less punishing touch were positively associated with wellbeing and development of moral capacities and engaged moral orientation.

IntroductionDespite positive health outcomes associated with advance care planning (ACP), little research has investigated the impact of ACP in surgical populations. Our goal is to evaluate how an ACP intervention video impacts the patient centredness and ACP of the patient-surgeon conversation during the presurgical consent visit. We hypothesise that patients who view the intervention will engage in a more patient-centred communication with their surgeons compared with patients who view a control video.Methods and analysisRandomised controlled superiority trial of an ACP video with two study arms (intervention ACP video and control video) and four visits (baseline, presurgical consent, postoperative 1 week and postoperative 1 month). Surgeons, patients, principal investigator and analysts are blinded to the randomisation assignment.SettingSingle, academic, inner city and tertiary care hospital. Data collection began July 16, 2015 and continues to March 2017.ParticipantsPatients recruited from nine surgical oncology clinics who are undergoing major cancer surgery.InterventionsIn the intervention arm, patients view a patient preparedness video developed through extensive engagement with patients, surgeons and other stakeholders. Patients randomised to the control arm viewed an informational video about the hospital surgical programme.Main outcomes and measuresPrimary Outcome: Patient centredness and ACP of patient-surgeon conversations during the presurgical consent visit as measured through the Roter Interaction Analysis System. Secondary outcomes: patient Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale score; patient goals of care; patient, companion and surgeon satisfaction; video helpfulness; medical decision maker designation; and the frequency patients watch the video. Intent-to-treat analysis will be used to assess the impact of video assignment on outcomes. Sensitivity analyses will assess whether there are differential effects contingent on patient or surgeon characteristics.Ethics and disseminationThis study has been approved by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine institutional review board and is registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02489799, First received: July 1, 2015).Trial registration numberclinicaltrials.gov, NCT02489799.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of a sample of Hong Kong principals and teachers of the extent to which quality management (QM) has been effectively implemented in primary schools. The features of QM improvement implemented in Hong Kong primary schools include: values and duties, systems and teams(ST) resources and changes(RC) and meeting pupil needs and empowering staff.Design methodology approach - A quantitative, survey questionnaire was adopted in this study. A total of 322 respondents (83 principals and 239 teachers) out of 83 primary schools responded to the questionnaire.Findings - The finding shows that all four features of QM are perceived as being implemented in Hong Kong primary schools. There are significant differences between the perceptions of principals and teachers towards \"value and duties\", \"ST\", \"RC\" of QM. However, there is no significant difference between the perceptions of principles and teachers towards \"meeting pupil needs and empowering staff\" of QM.Originality value - This paper is a first step towards extending the theory and practice of QM to principals and teachers in Hong Kong primary schools.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the IT professionals in a Hong Kong public transport company have a general perception of influence of the organisational defensive patterns on learning of ICT; and whether skilled incompetence, organisational defensive routines and fancy footwork are positively associated with each other in IT group of a transport company.Design methodology approach - This paper investigated the influence of organisational defensive patterns by means of a survey of 171 IT professionals at a Hong Kong public transport company. Each selected employee completed a questionnaire that asked them to indicate the influence of the organisational defensive patterns (skilled incompetence, organisational defensive routines and fancy footwork) on the learning of ICT in their organisation.Findings - The employees indicated that skilled incompetence, organisational defensive routines and fancy footwork had influence on the learning of ICT. The findings show that the IT professionals in a Hong Kong transport company have the general perception of influence of skilled incompetence, defensive routines and fancy footwork on learning of ICT. The findings also indicate that skilled incompetence, defensive routines and fancy footwork are positively associated with each other in IT group of the transport company.Originality value - This article is a first step towards extending the theory and practice of organisational defensive patterns to IT group of a transport company.

In 2016, the Population Council's Project SOAR and the Stigma Index partners (UNAIDS, GNP+, ICW), with PEPFAR funding from the Office of HIV/AIDS Research of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), undertook a process to update the Stigma Index to more fully capture the experiences of key populations living with HIV, as well as to respond to changes in global treatment guidelines, and to better understand the persistent barriers to HIV testing and treatment. Based on lessons learned from implementation in over 90 countries, stakeholders made a number of specific suggestions that were incorporated into the updated Stigma Index, including: adding a separate section with specific questions to measure stigma experienced by key populations; ensuring background demographic questions would enable analysis of stigma and discrimination by sub‐population; integrating a validated two‐part gender identity question into the demographics section; separating gender identity from sexual orientation in questions and responses; utilizing existing surveys and scales for measuring stigma and discrimination in key populations ; and narrowing the timeframe to the past 12 months to better capture changes over time. Funding Support for the Stigma Index update through the Population Council's Project SOAR (Cooperative Agreement AID‐OAA‐A‐14‐00060) was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEFPAR) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Some past studies find that older students have more confidence in using technology for learning than younger students but some other studies find the opposite result. However, it is found that there are a few researches studying on the age difference in the perception of using technology for learning in Hong Kong. Therefore, the aim of the study is to examine the age difference of confidence in using technology for learning in the Hong Kong higher educational institutions. In this study, it employed a survey methodology to collect a total of 211 questionnaires from one of the universities in Hong Kong. The findings show that older students had more confidence in using technology for learning than younger students. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

The purpose of this study is twofold. Firstly, engineering students’ motivation in using technology for learning in one of Hong Kong universities is investigated. Secondly, new research model about students’ perception in using technology for learning is developed. Survey was employed and the questionnaires were distributed to targeted university under study. 211 questionnaires were collected. The major findings of this study are that (i) Confidence was positively related to Relevance; (ii) Satisfaction was positively related to Confidence; (iii) Relevance was positively correlated with Satisfaction; (iv) Interest is positively related to Relevance; (v) Perceived personal ability is positively associated with Confidence; (vi) Confidence is positively associated with perseverance; (vii) Confidence, is negatively associated with anxiety; and (viii) Satisfaction is positively associated with social influence.

Condom use remains a mainstay of HIV prevention programs around the world. However, data characterizing economic determinants of condom use among female sex workers (FSW) are limited, including in Senegal. We recruited 718 FSWs via respondent-driven sampling. Bivariate and multivariable regressions were conducted to assess the associations between economic variables and condom use at last sex. Paying rent (aRR: 1.07, 95%CI 1.01–1.13) was positively associated with condom use at last sex with new clients. No statistically significant associations were found between condom use and financial responsibility for dependent children, having additional source of income, sharing sex work earnings, or the ability to borrow from other FSWs, regardless of sexual partner types. The relationship between economic marginalization and consistent condom use among sex workers is complex reinforcing the need for behavioral economic research and prevention to be integrated into HIV prevention and treatment research and programs.

While still an understudied area, there is a growing body of studies highlighting epidemiologic data on men who have sex with men (MSM) in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) which challenge the attitudes of complacency and irrelevancy among donors and country governments that are uncomfortable in addressing key populations (KPs). While some of the past inaction may be explained by ignorance, new data document highly elevated and sustained HIV prevalence that is seemingly isolated from recent overall declines in prevalence. The articles in this series highlight new studies which focus on the stark epidemiologic burden in countries from concentrated, mixed and generalized epidemic settings. The issue includes research from West, Central, East and Southern Africa and explores the pervasive impact of stigma and discrimination as critical barriers to confronting the HIV epidemic among MSM and the intersecting stigma and marginalization found between living with HIV and sexual minority status. Interventions to remove barriers to service access, including those aimed at training providers and mobilizing communities even within stigmatized peri‐urban settings, are featured in this issue, which further demonstrates the immediate need for comprehensive action to address HIV among MSM in all countries in the region, regardless of epidemic classification.