Effects of Parental Modeling on the Development of Panic-Relevant Escape and Avoidance among Adolescents: An Experimental Study Using a Biological Challenge Procedure

Escape and avoidance behaviors play a prominent role in the maintenance of panic-spectrum difficulties and may also be implicated in the development of such problems. Although the current state of the literature regarding the etiology of these emotion-regulation strategies is relatively underdeveloped, it appears that learning experiences involving parental modeling of such behaviors may be instrumental in the development of panic-relevant escape and avoidance. Given that no tests of such a conceptualization exist at this time, the current study proposed an initial experimental examination of whether parental modeling of defensive reactivity during a well-established biological challenge could impact panic-relevant escape and avoidance among adolescents. Random assignment, stratified by adolescent gender, was utilized to assign 50 adolescents to observe their parents either: a) complete participation in a 3-min voluntary hyperventilation exercise (no escape modeling group); or b) prematurely terminate a similar procedure (escape modeling group). It was predicted that adolescents who observed their parents prematurely terminate participation in the biological challenge would evidence greater escape and avoidance of panic-relevant sensations compared to adolescents who observed their parents complete participation in the same biological challenge. Results were partially consistent with hypotheses. Relative to adolescents in the no escape modeling group, adolescents in the escape modeling group demonstrated a stronger escape response, but not a stronger avoidance response, in relation to the voluntary hyperventilation exercise. Although preliminary, these results suggest that parental behaviors may play an important role in the development of panic-relevant defensive reactivity

THE EFFECT OF POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS ON LIVER TUMOR PROMOTION: A ROLE FOR KUPFFER CELLS?

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are ubiquitious lipophilic environmental pollutants. At least some of the PCB congeners and mixtures are hepatic tumor promoters. The mechanisms are not fully understood and might be multifactorial Besides being the most abundant congener in the environment, 2,2,4,4,5,5-hexachlorobiphenyl (PCB-153), has been previously shown to increase hepatocyte proliferation 48h after exposure in rats. The goal of this study was to determine whether hepatic Kupffer cells are important in the promoting activity of PCBs. The hypothesis of this study was that modulation of Kupffer cell activity by PCBs may contribute to PCB-induced liver tumor promotion. The experimental approach consisted on three in vivo models (tumor promotion model and two short term exposure models) and one in vitro model. In the tumor promotion model, glycine inactivation of Kupffer cells did not significantly influence the promoting activity of PCB-77 (3,3,4,4-tetrachlorobiphenyl) or PCB-153. For the short term exposure model, we investigated the effect of Kupffer cell inactivation by glycine and the effect of Kupffer cell depletion on PCB-153s impact on hepatocyte proliferation. The oil used as a vehicle had no significant effect on any of the end points considered. Inhibition of Kupffer cells with glycine or the absence of Kupffer cells did not affect cell proliferation or NF-B activation after PCB treatment compared to the control. In vitro, PCB-153 increased DNA binding activity of NF-B in Kupffer cells but did not significantly increase the TNF- concentration in the medium. In conclusion, PCB-153 increased the number of preneoplastic foci per liver in the casein group but had no significant effect on cell proliferation, and Kupffer cells do not seem to play a role in hepatocyte proliferation

The Relation of Managerial Communication - Public Management Conflicts and Crisis

Being a basic function of management, communication is a process of transforming the information as symbolic messages between two or several individuals, some with the status of transmitter and others with the status of receiver, by means of some specific channels. Over time, the concept of communication has experienced several very different meanings. In literature, the exact meaning of the concept of communication is still the topic of some lively debates, and the perspectives addressed and the methods are particularly varied

The Existence of Disagreements in Organisational Entities - Source of the Occurrence of Conflicts at Work

The organisational entity as a whole can provide the context in which high levels of motivation can be reached, by providing incentives and rewards, satisfaction in work and possibilities to learn and develop. To do this, it is necessary to understand the motivational process in organisational entities, which leads to eliminating the possibilities of occurrence of conflicts in these organisations. The idea that many conflicts are part of the life of modern organisations is admitted increasingly more nowadays. The division of labour and the specialisation of tasks create distinct and complex entities at the level of organisation

Measuring recovery capital for people recovering from alcohol and drug addiction:A systematic review

Background: Recovery capital (RC) theory provides a biopsychosocial framework for identifying and measuring strengths and barriers that can be targeted to support recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. This systematic review analyzed and synthesized all quantitative approaches that have been used to measured recovery capital RC in the recent literaturesince 2016.Method: Systematic database searches were conducted in three databases to identifyThe reviewed studies were published from 2016 to 2023, . Eligible studiesand explicitly stated they measured RC recovery capital in participants recovering from alcohol and/or drug addiction. Studies focusing on other forms of addiction were excluded.Results: Sixty-nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Forty-six studies (66.7%) used one of the ten identified RC recovery capital questionnaires, and twenty-five studies (36.2%) used a measurement approach other than one of the ten RC recovery capital questionnaires. The ten RC recovery capital questionnaires are primarily developed for adult populations across clinical and community recovery settings, and between them measuredwere identified to measure altogether 41 separate RC recovery capital constructs. They, and are generally considered valid and reliable measures of RCrecovery capital. Nevertheless, a strong evidence base on the psychometric properties across diverse populations and settings is still needs to be established for all RC these questionnaires. Conclusion: The development of RC recovery capital questionnaires has been a significant advance in the addiction recovery field, in alignment with the modern emerging recovery-oriented approach to addiction recovery care. Additionally, the non-RC recovery capital questionnaire-based approaches to RC recovery capital measurement have an important place in the field. They could be used alongside RC recovery capital questionnaires to test RC theory, and in contexts where the application of the RC questionnaires is not feasible, such as analyses of data from online recovery forums

Modeling Recovery Housing Retention and Program Outcomes by Justice Involvement among Residents in Virginia, USA:An Observational Study

Living in recovery housing can improve addiction recovery and desistance outcomes. This study examined whether retention in recovery housing and types of discharge outcomes (completed, “neutral,” and “negative” outcomes) differed for clients with recent criminal legal system (CLS) involvement. Using data from 101 recovery residences certified by the Virginia Association of Recovery Residences based on 1,978 individuals completing the REC-CAP assessment, competing risk analyses (cumulative incidence function, restricted mean survival time, and restricted mean time lost) followed by the marginalization of effects were implemented to examine program outcomes at final discharge. Residents with recent CLS involvement were more likely to be discharged for positive reasons (successful completion of their goals) and premature/negative reasons (e.g., disciplinary releases) than for neutral reasons. Findings indicate that retention for 6–18 months is essential to establish and maintain positive discharge outcomes, and interventions should be developed to enhance retention in recovery residents with recent justice involvement.</p

Biofluid Diagnostics by FTIR Spectroscopy: A Platform Technology for Cancer Detection

Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) has been largely employed by scientific researchers to improve diagnosis and treatment of cancer, using various biofluids and tissues. The technology has proved to be easy to use, rapid and cost-effective for analysis on human blood serum to discriminate between cancer versus healthy control samples. The high sensitivity and specificity achievable during samples classification aided by machine learning algorithms, offers an opportunity to transform cancer referral pathways, as it has been demonstrated in a unique and recent prospective clinical validation study on brain tumours. We herein highlight the importance of early detection in cancer research using FTIR, discussing the technique, the suitability of serum for analysis and previous studies, with special focus on pre-clinical factors and clinical translation requirements and development

Fingerprinting microbiomes towards screening for microbial antibiotic resistance

There is an increasing need to investigate microbiomes in their entirety in a variety of contexts ranging from environmental to human health scenarios. This requirement is becoming increasingly important with emergence of antibiotic resistance. In general, more conventional approaches are too expensive and/or time-consuming and often predicated on prior knowledge of the microorganisms one wishes to study. Herein, we propose the use of biospectroscopy tools as relatively high-throughput, non-destructive approaches to profile microbiomes under study. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) or Raman spectroscopy both generate fingerprint spectra of biological material and such spectra can readily be subsequently classed according to biochemical changes in the microbiota, such as emergence of antibiotic resistance. FTIR spectroscopy techniques generally can only be applied to desiccated material whereas Raman approaches can be applied to more hydrated samples. The ability to readily fingerprint microbiomes could lend itself to new approaches in determining microbial behaviours and emergence of antibiotic resistance