4,576 research outputs found
Campus & alumni news
Boston University Medicine was published by the Boston University Medical Campus, and presented stories on events and topics of interest to members of the BU Medical Campus community. It followed the discontinued publication Centerscope as Boston University Medicine from 1991-2005, and was continued as Campus & Alumni News from 2006-2013 before returning to the title Boston University Medicine from 2014-present
The Influence of a Culturally Informed Suicide Prevention Training on School Mental Health Professionalsâ Beliefs
Youth suicide is a significant public health concern in the United States, and students from culturally minoritized groups may be at higher risk of suicidality and suicide ideation. As key stakeholders in comprehensive suicide prevention efforts, school mental health professionals need targeted professional development to help them address the mental health needs of all their students. The study aimed to pilot the Culturally Responsive Suicide Prevention in Schools (CRSPiS) professional development session and evaluate its impact on school mental health professionalsâ beliefs about the influence of culture on suicidal thoughts, behaviors, communication, and response. A pre-and post-training design was used. Professionals attended the pilot of a structured 3-hour professional development session. Immediately after the training school mental health professionals who participated in the CRSPiS session reported stronger beliefs in the influence of culture on suicide ideation and response. Participantsâ beliefs did not vary by previous hours of suicide training and years of experience. CRSPiS training may help improve professionalsâ ability to respond to suicide and conduct assessments in culturally relevant ways
Pilot of âFamilies for Healthâ : community-based family intervention for obesity
Objective - To develop and evaluate âFamilies for Healthâ - a new community based family intervention for childhood obesity.
Design â Programme development, pilot study and evaluation using intention-to-treat analysis.
Setting â Coventry, England
Participants â 27 overweight or obese children aged 7-13 years (18 girls, 9 boys) and their parents, from 21 families.
Intervention â âFamilies for Healthâ is a 12 week programme with parallel groups for parents and children, addressing parenting, lifestyle change and social & emotional development.
Main Outcome Measures â Primary: change in baseline BMI z-score at end of programme (3 months) and 9 month follow-up. Attendance, drop-out, parentsâ perception of programme, childâs quality of life and self esteem, parental mental health, parent-child relationships and lifestyle changes were also measured. Results: Attendance rate was 62%, with 18 of the 27 (67%) children completing the
programme. For the 22 children with follow-up data (including 4 drop-outs), BMI z-score was reduced by -0.18 (95%CI -0.30 to -0.05) at end of programme and by -0.21 (-0.35 to -0.07) at 9 months. Statistically significant improvements were observed in childrenâs quality of life and lifestyle (reduced sedentary behaviour, increased steps and reduced exposure to unhealthy foods), child-parent relationships and parentsâ mental health. Fruit and vegetable consumption, participation in moderate/vigorous exercise and childrenâs self-esteem did not change significantly. Topics on parenting skills, activity
and food were rated as helpful and were used with confidence by the majority of parents.
Conclusions
Families for Health is a promising new childhood obesity intervention. Definitive evaluation of its clinical effectiveness by randomised controlled trial is now required
Corporate Fitness Members' Perceptions of the Environment and Their Intrinsic Motivation
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of employees' perceptions of the motivational climate in their corporate fitness center to their intrinsic motivation toward exercise, and their perceptions of their employer's concern for their health behaviors. Members of corporate fitness centers (N = 143) in the Midsouthern region of the US were invited to complete a survey with the following measures: 1) the Perceived Motivational Climate in Exercise Questionnaire (i.e., task- and ego-involving scales), 2) Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (four subscales), and 3) Valued by Employer Scale. Regression analysis revealed that perceptions of a task-involving climate were positively related to employees' interest/enjoyment, perceived competence, effort/importance with regard to exercise, and their sense of feeling valued by their employer. The PMCEQ can be a valuable tool in the exercise psychology literature to measure employees' perceptions of their fitness center environment
Testosterone and Group Size in Cliff Swallows: Testing the âChallenge Hypothesisâ in a Colonial Bird
The âchallenge hypothesisâ states that increases in testosterone levels of male animals during the breeding season are directly related to the extent of intrasexual competition for resources or mates that they experience. Although often tested in territorial species, the challenge hypothesis has not been evaluated for colonial animals that live in groups of different sizes and that thus experience different intensities of intrasexual competition. We measured circulating testosterone levels of male and female cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) in southwestern Nebraska, where these birds nest in colonies of widely different sizes. Males had significantly higher testosterone levels than females, as expected. For males especially, there was a seasonal rise in testosterone levels early in the nesting cycle, corresponding to the period when birds were establishing nest ownership and egg laying, and then a fall as they switched to parental duties. Testosterone levels varied significantly with colony size; for both sexes, birds in larger colonies had higher levels of testosterone than those in smaller colonies when controlling for date. Age and body mass were not related to testosterone levels. Higher levels of testosterone for birds of both sexes in larger colonies probably reflect greater com-petition for matings, often extra pair, in the more social nesting situations. The results support the predictions of the challenge hypothesis
Testosterone and Group Size in Cliff Swallows: Testing the âChallenge Hypothesisâ in a Colonial Bird
The âchallenge hypothesisâ states that increases in testosterone levels of male animals during the breeding season are directly related to the extent of intrasexual competition for resources or mates that they experience. Although often tested in territorial species, the challenge hypothesis has not been evaluated for colonial animals that live in groups of different sizes and that thus experience different intensities of intrasexual competition. We measured circulating testosterone levels of male and female cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) in southwestern Nebraska, where these birds nest in colonies of widely different sizes. Males had significantly higher testosterone levels than females, as expected. For males especially, there was a seasonal rise in testosterone levels early in the nesting cycle, corresponding to the period when birds were establishing nest ownership and egg laying, and then a fall as they switched to parental duties. Testosterone levels varied significantly with colony size; for both sexes, birds in larger colonies had higher levels of testosterone than those in smaller colonies when controlling for date. Age and body mass were not related to testosterone levels. Higher levels of testosterone for birds of both sexes in larger colonies probably reflect greater com-petition for matings, often extra pair, in the more social nesting situations. The results support the predictions of the challenge hypothesis
Glucocorticoid Hormone Levels Increase with Group Size and Parasite Load in Cliff Swallows
Animals often cope with adverse events by releasing glucocorticoid hormones, which in turn promote increased energy assimilation. In captive animals, crowding also leads to increased glucocorticoid activity, probably because of increased levels of social competition. We investigated how group size and ectoparasite infestations affected endogenous levels of the glucocorticoid hormone, corticosterone, in colonial cliff swallows, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, in southwestern Nebraska, USA. Parasites were removed from some colonies by fumigating nests. Baseline levels of corticosterone in breeding adults varied significantly with whether parasites were present, colony size (measured by total number of active nests at a site), and nesting stage. Across all analyses, birds from fumigated colonies averaged significantly lower baseline levels of corticosterone. These levels in adults increased with colony size at nonfumigated sites, especially during the period when nestlings were being fed, but no relation or the opposite one was found for birds in fumigated colonies. Baseline corticosterone levels were unrelated to sex, age, body weight, or testosterone levels in adults. Corticosterone concentrations tended to increase during a bad-weather event when food was scarce. Patterns in nestling and recently fledged juveniles were consistent with those in adults. The increased baseline levels of corticosterone in birds of larger colonies appear related to the larger number of parasites there. Higher levels of corticosterone probably facilitate increased allocation of time and energy to foraging and greater energy assimilation during challenging events such as bad weather, parasitism by blood-feeding bugs in large colonies, and the period when young are becoming independent of their parents
Effects of Endogenous Steroid Hormone Levels on Annual Survival in Cliff Swallows
The hormone corticosterone is an important part of animalsâ response to environmental stress, modulating short-term adaptive changes in behavior and physiology. The hormone testosterone is also critical, especially for males, in regulating the expression of sexual behavior and parental care. These hormones can have costly consequences, however, and within populations individuals show variation in endogenous levels of both corticosterone and testosterone. We studied how annual survival varied as a function of natural levels of these hormones in colonially breeding Cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) in southwestern Nebraska, USA, in 2000â2003. We sampled hormone levels of birds caught at colonies and using markârecapture, monitored their survival through subsequent years in the study area. Maximum-likelihood estimation and model fitting (with program MARK) revealed that birds sampled for corticosterone in colonies of all sizes late in the season had curvilinear survival; individuals with very low and very high levels of corticosterone had lower survival than those with intermediate levels. Annual survival of birds sampled earlier in the season, however, generally declined with increasing corticosterone level. More birds than expected, given the survival functions, had the very low corticosterone levels in nonfumigated colonies later in the year, suggesting perhaps a compensatory benefit unrelated to survival for very low corticosterone levels. In a more limited analysis, testosterone appeared to have little effect on annual survival, although some evidence suggested that females with endogenous testosterone levels below the mean for a given date might have survived better
Effects of Endogenous Steroid Hormone Levels on Annual Survival in Cliff Swallows
The hormone corticosterone is an important part of animalsâ response to environmental stress, modulating short-term adaptive changes in behavior and physiology. The hormone testosterone is also critical, especially for males, in regulating the expression of sexual behavior and parental care. These hormones can have costly consequences, however, and within populations individuals show variation in endogenous levels of both corticosterone and testosterone. We studied how annual survival varied as a function of natural levels of these hormones in colonially breeding Cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) in southwestern Nebraska, USA, in 2000â2003. We sampled hormone levels of birds caught at colonies and using markârecapture, monitored their survival through subsequent years in the study area. Maximum-likelihood estimation and model fitting (with program MARK) revealed that birds sampled for corticosterone in colonies of all sizes late in the season had curvilinear survival; individuals with very low and very high levels of corticosterone had lower survival than those with intermediate levels. Annual survival of birds sampled earlier in the season, however, generally declined with increasing corticosterone level. More birds than expected, given the survival functions, had the very low corticosterone levels in nonfumigated colonies later in the year, suggesting perhaps a compensatory benefit unrelated to survival for very low corticosterone levels. In a more limited analysis, testosterone appeared to have little effect on annual survival, although some evidence suggested that females with endogenous testosterone levels below the mean for a given date might have survived better
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