The genus Sipha Passerini (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in North America

Five species of the aphid genus Sipha Passerini (Hemiptera: Aphididae) are reported in North America and are reviewed herein. Of these species, three are adventive species and include: Sipha elegans del Guercio, Sipha glyceriae (Kaltenbach), and Sipha maydis Passerini. Sipha maydis was discovered in California in 2007 and now has been found in Georgia. The genus also includes two native species: Sipha agropyronensis (Gillette) and Sipha flava (Forbes). Sipha maydis can be distinguished easily from all the other species in the genus that occur in North America because it is black. All the species except S. agropyronensis have been implicated in damage to crop plants. A key to the apterae and alatae of Sipha found in North America is included

Motivational Interviewing with Adolescents and Young Adults for Drug-related Problems

This article reviews studies of brief motivational interviewing (MI) interventions applied to adolescents (ages 13 to 18 years) and young adults )ages 19 to 25 years) using alcohol or other psychoactive substances. An overview of the principles of MI is provided followed by a review of 17 clinical studies reported in the literature. This review revealed mixed findings for the efficacy of brief MI among these populations. However, in 29% of the studies (5 of 17), there was a clear advantage of the brief MI demonstrated compared to standard care or other programming. Components common to successful brief MI interventions included one-on-one sessions and feedback on substance use compared to norms. Interviewer empathy has been shown to be a key component in studies with adults, but this was not measured in a standardized manner across the current studies. The studies reviewed here indicate that brief MI might be effective among these populations, but the key components necessary for successful MI interventions have not been fully identified

Impulsivity, Impulsive and Reflective Processes and the Development of Alcohol Use and Misuse in Adolescents and Young Adults

This paper contrasts dual-process and personality approaches in the prediction of addictive behaviors and related risk behaviors. In dual-process models, behavior is described as the joint outcome of qualitatively different “impulsive” (or associative) and “reflective” processes. There are important individual differences regarding both types of processes, and the relative strength of both in a specific situation is influenced by prior behavior and state variables (e.g., fatigue, alcohol use). From this perspective, a specific behavior (e.g., alcohol misuse) can be predicted by the combined indices of the behavior-related impulsive processes (e.g., associations with alcohol), and reflective processes, including the ability to refrain from a motivationally salient action. Personality approaches have reported that general traits such as impulsivity predict addictive behaviors. Here we contrast these two approaches, with supplementary analyses on four datasets. We hypothesized that trait impulsivity can predict specific risky behaviors, but that its predictive power disappears once specific behavior-related associations, indicators of executive functioning, and their interaction are entered into the equation. In all four studies the observed interaction between specific associations and executive control (EC) was robust: trait impulsivity did not diminish the prediction of alcohol use by the interaction. Trait impulsivity was not always related to alcohol use, and when it was, the predictive power disappeared after entering the interaction between behavior-specific associations and EC in one study, but not in the other. These findings are interpreted in relation to the validity of the measurements used, which leads to a more refined hypothesis

Content Analysis of Drug Offenders\u27 Sketches on the Draw-an-Event Test for Risky Sexual Situations

Objectives: To evaluate the utility of the Draw-an-Event Test for risky sexual situations (DET-RS), a nonverbal memory-based assessment tool used for productions of spontaneous content associated with risky sex. Methods: Traditional holistic coding analysis of 298 drug offenders\u27 content productions. Results: Content analyses of DET-RS sketches provided increased understanding of substance use and other context preceding risky sexual situations with different types of sex partners. None of the sketches including drugs depleted condoms, only one of the sketches with alcohol included a condom, and only 2 sketches mentioned sexually transmitted diseases. Conclusions: The DET-RS is a useful research tool for generating nonverbal context-specific stimuli associated with risky sexual situations

Sweetened Drink and Snacking Cues in Adolescents. A Study Using Ecological Momentary Assessment

The objective of this study was to identify physical, social, and intrapersonal cues that were associated with the consumption of sweetened beverages and sweet and salty snacks among adolescents from lower SES neighborhoods. Students were recruited from high schools with a minimum level of 25% free or reduced cost lunches. Using ecological momentary assessment, participants (N=158) were trained to answer brief questionnaires on handheld PDA devices: (a) each time they ate or drank, (b) when prompted randomly, and (c) once each evening. Data were collected over 7days for each participant. Participants reported their location (e.g., school grounds, home), mood, social environment, activities (e.g., watching TV, texting), cravings, food cues (e.g., saw a snack), and food choices. Results showed that having unhealthy snacks or sweet drinks among adolescents was associated with being at school, being with friends, feeling lonely or bored, craving a drink or snack, and being exposed to food cues. Surprisingly, sweet drink consumption was associated with exercising. Watching TV was associated with consuming sweet snacks but not with salty snacks or sweet drinks. These findings identify important environmental and intrapersonal cues to poor snacking choices that may be applied to interventions designed to disrupt these food-related, cue-behavior linked habits

Probable fatal drug interaction between intravenous fenretinide, ceftriaxone, and acetaminophen: a case report from a New Approaches to Neuroblastoma (NANT) Phase I study

Background: Patients with relapsed/refractory stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma were enrolled on a phase I study (NANT2004-03) of intravenous fenretinide emulsion. Pharmacokinetic samples were collected during and after the infusion, and the levels were measured using an HPLC system. A likely case of a fatal drug interaction between fenretinide, ceftriaxone, and acetaminophen is described, including the pharmacokinetics of fenretinide, laboratory data, and post-mortem autopsy in a pediatric neuroblastoma patient treated on this study. Case presentation: On Day 4 of a scheduled 5-day-infusion of intravenous fenretinide, the patient developed a fever, acetaminophen was started, ceftriaxone initiated for possible bacteremia, and fenretinide level doubled from 56 to 110 μM. Over the next three days, although blood cultures remained negative, the patient’s condition deteriorated rapidly. Acute liver failure was diagnosed on Day 7, and the patient expired on Day 20 of fulminant hepatic failure with associated renal, cardiac, and hemorrhagic/coagulation toxicities. Autopsy showed extensive hemorrhagic necrosis of the liver, marked bile duct proliferation, and abundant hemosiderin, consistent with cholestasis and drug toxicity. Conclusions: After extensive review of patient data, the clinical course, and the literature, we conclude that observed hepatic toxicity was likely due to a drug interaction between fenretinide and concomitant ceftriaxone and acetaminophen. None of the other 16 patients treated on this study experienced significant hepatic toxicity. Although the prevalence of cholestasis with ceftriaxone usage is relatively high, the potential drug interaction with these concomitant medications has not been previously reported. Concomitant use of fenretinide, ceftriaxone, and acetaminophen should be avoided

A Framework for the Specificity of Addictions

Research over the last two decades suggests that a wide range of substance and behavioral addictions may serve similar functions. Yet, co-occurrence of addictions has only been reported among a minority of addicts. “Addiction specificity” pertains to a phenomenon in which one pattern of addictive behaviors may be acquired whereas another is not. This paper presents the PACE model as a framework which might help explain addiction specificity. Pragmatics, attraction, communication, and expectation (PACE) variables are described, which may help give some direction to future research needs in this arena

Toward Large-Area Sub-Arcsecond X-Ray Telescopes II

In order to advance significantly scientific objectives, future x-ray astronomy missions will likely call for x-ray telescopes with large aperture areas (approx. = 3 sq m) and fine angular resolution (approx. = 1"). Achieving such performance is programmatically and technologically challenging due to the mass and envelope constraints of space-borne telescopes and to the need for densely nested grazing-incidence optics. Such an x-ray telescope will require precision fabrication, alignment, mounting, and assembly of large areas (approx. = 600 sq m) of lightweight (approx. = 2 kg/sq m areal density) high-quality mirrors, at an acceptable cost (approx. = 1 M$/sq m of mirror surface area). This paper reviews relevant programmatic and technological issues, as well as possible approaches for addressing these issues-including direct fabrication of monocrystalline silicon mirrors, active (in-space adjustable) figure correction of replicated mirrors, static post-fabrication correction using ion implantation, differential erosion or deposition, and coating-stress manipulation of thin substrates

The case for strategic international alliances to harness nutritional genomics for public and personal health

Nutrigenomics is the study of how constituents of the diet interact with genes, and their products, to alter phenotype and, conversely, how genes and their products metabolise these constituents into nutrients, antinutrients, and bioactive compounds. Results from molecular and genetic epidemiological studies indicate that dietary unbalance can alter gene-nutrient interactions in ways that increase the risk of developing chronic disease. The interplay of human genetic variation and environmental factors will make identifying causative genes and nutrients a formidable, but not intractable, challenge. We provide specific recommendations for how to best meet this challenge and discuss the need for new methodologies and the use of comprehensive analyses of nutrient-genotype interactions involving large and diverse populations. The objective of the present paper is to stimulate discourse and collaboration among nutrigenomic researchers and stakeholders, a process that will lead to an increase in global health and wellness by reducing health disparities in developed and developing countrie