Self-reported substance use among high school students with and without learning difficulties

A total of 197 Year 9 and 10 students, 74 of whom had learning difficulties (LD), from two high schools in Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, Australia, self-reported their substance use. Seventeen substances, including two fictitious ones to detect over-reporting, were presented to participants for them to indicate their current usage, ex-usage, or non-usage. The findings revealed that participants were most likely to use alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. A series of Chi-square (chi(2)) analyses found that male students with LD and female students without LD were at greatest risk of substance use, overall. These findings are discussed in the light of the previous limited research pertaining to substance use amongst students with LD

Social networking and the social and emotional wellbeing of adolescents in Australia

Technology and social networking tools and sites are changing the way young people build and maintain their social connections with others (Boyd & Ellison, 2008). This study utilised a new measure, The Self in a Social Context, Virtual Connectedness subscale (SSC-VC subscale), to examine the effects of social networking tools and sites on social and emotional wellbeing among 1,037 Australian young people aged 11-18 years. A maximum likelihood factor analysis identified three strong factors: Fit In ( = .81), Public Self ( = .79) and Connected Self ( = .83). Significant main effects were revealed for the number of times students checked their Facebook F(12, 2415) = 13.8, p < .001, and for gender, F(3, 913) = 10.8, p < .001, but no interaction effect was found. Univariate tests also revealed a significant difference for Frequency of checking Facebook, F(4, 915), = 4.98, and for Gender, F(1, 915), = 46.92, p < .001 on the dependent variable of Emotional Difficulties. These findings suggest that social networking sites, though used differently by males and females, provide an important forum for building social connections across groups

EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MILITARY SERVICE, OCCUPATION, RESILIENCE, AND SUCCESSFUL AGING FOR OLDER U.S. MLITARY VETERANS: A MIXED METHODS STUDY

Participation in occupation during military service can have a long-term impact on the health, well-being and successful aging of older U.S. military veterans. The aging literature has shown that older U.S. military veterans may be more resilient and aging more successfully than the general older adult population. Within occupational science, little is known about the occupational participation and successful aging of older U.S. military veterans. The purpose of this transformative sequential explanatory mixed methods study was to examine the relationships between military service, occupational participation, resilience and successful aging in older U.S. military veterans. First, these relationships were examined using cross-sectional survey assessments. The study sample was comprised of majority older U.S. Marine Corps veterans. Survey results showed occupational participation, may foster resilience among older veterans. Results also indicated that older female veterans may be aging more successful than their male counterparts. This study also substantiates prior evidence that older veterans tend to appraise their military experience as positive despite exposure to combat and aging with service-connected disabilities. Qualitative life history calendar interviews were then completed to shed light on the mechanisms behind the broad patterns identified by the quantitative results. Findings from the qualitative phase highlighted the positive long-term impact of military service through the inclusion of older veterans’ first-person perspectives. Three primary themes were identified: (1) Family Ties, (2) Military Identity, and (3) Resilience. Findings showcased the role of military social bonds, the salience of military identity for Marine Corps and Navy veterans, and the process of resilience in understanding the impact of participation in military service on the life course. Integrated findings contribute to the scant literature on the occupations of older U.S. military veterans as occupational beings and can inform future research and interventions aimed at enhancing the occupational participation, resilience, and successful aging of this population.Doctor of Philosoph

Annotating a corpus of clinical text records for learning to recognize symptoms automatically

We report on a research effort to create a corpus of clinical free text records enriched with annotation for symptoms of a particular disease (ovarian cancer). We describe the original data, the annotation procedure and the resulting corpus. The data (approximately 192K words) was annotated by three clinicians and a procedure was devised to resolve disagreements. We are using the corpus to investigate the amount of symptom-related information in clinical records that is not coded, and to develop techniques for recognizing these symptoms automatically in unseen text

Perspectives on Pits of the Western Stemmed Tradition : An Analysis on the Contents of Feature 59 at the Cooper’s Ferry Site

Excavation of a pit feature designated as Feature 59 (F59) from the Cooper’s Ferry site (10IH73) in western Idaho offers a unique opportunity to explore more about the Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) and how people used pits in the Far West. In this thesis, an analysis is conducted on the contents from within F59. These contents include the skeleton of a wolverine (Gulo gulo) specimen found at the bottom of F59 in association with one WST projectile point. Furthermore, a biface, unifaces, blades, cores, modified flakes, and debitage as well as other fragmented faunal remains were excavated from F59 as well. A radiocarbon assay taken from a rib of the wolverine suggests an age of 9,620 ±30 radiocarbon years before present. Conducting analyses on F59 and its contents will further knowledge regarding how people used pits in prehistory at the Cooper’s Ferry site while also furthering research on domestic lifeways of the WST

Engineering intracellular active transport systems as in vivo biomolecular tools.

Active transport systems provide essential functions in terms of cell physiology and metastasis. These systems, however, are also co-opted by invading viruses, enabling directed transport of the virus to and from the cell's nucleus (i.e., the site of virus replication). Based on this concept, fundamentally new approaches for interrogating and manipulating the inner workings of living cells may be achievable by co-opting Nature's active transport systems as an in vivo biomolecular tool. The overall goal of this project was to investigate the ability to engineer kinesin-based transport systems for in vivo applications, specifically the collection of effector proteins (e.g., transcriptional regulators) within single cells. In the first part of this project, a chimeric fusion protein consisting of kinesin and a single chain variable fragment (scFv) of an antibody was successfully produced through a recombinant expression system. The kinesin-scFv retained both catalytic and antigenic functionality, enabling selective capture and transport of target antigens. The incorporation of a rabbit IgG-specific scFv into the kinesin established a generalized system for functionalizing kinesin with a wide range of target-selective antibodies raised in rabbits. The second objective was to develop methods of isolating the intact microtubule network from live cells as a platform for evaluating kinesin-based transport within the cytoskeletal architecture of a cell. Successful isolation of intact microtubule networks from two distinct cell types was demonstrated using glutaraldehyde and methanol fixation methods. This work provides a platform for inferring the ability of kinesin-scFv to function in vivo, and may also serve as a three-dimensional scaffold for evaluating and exploiting kinesin-based transport for nanotechnological applications. Overall, the technology developed in this project represents a first-step in engineering active transport system for in vivo applications. Further development could potentially enable selective capture of intracellular antigens, targeted delivery of therapeutic agents, or disruption of the transport systems and consequently the infection and pathogenesis cycle of biothreat agents

Genome-wide analysis of the PreA/PreB (QseB/QseC) regulon of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The <it>Salmonella </it>PreA/PreB two-component system (TCS) is an ortholog of the QseBC TCS of <it>Escherichia coli</it>. In both <it>Salmonella </it>and <it>E. coli</it>, this system has been shown to affect motility and virulence in response to quorum-sensing and hormonal signals, and to affect the transcription of the <it>Salmonella enterica </it>serovar Typhimurium (<it>S</it>. Typhimurium) <it>pmrAB </it>operon, which encodes an important virulence-associated TCS.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To determine the PreA/PreB regulon in <it>S</it>. Typhimurium, we performed DNA microarrays comparing the wild type strain and various <it>preA </it>and/or <it>preB </it>mutants in the presence of ectopically expressed <it>preA </it>(<it>qseB</it>). These data confirmed our previous findings of the negative effect of PreB on PreA gene regulation and identified candidate PreA-regulated genes. A proportion of the activated loci were previously identified as PmrA-activated genes (<it>yibD</it>, <it>pmrAB</it>, <it>cptA</it>, etc.) or were genes located in the local region around <it>preA</it>, including the <it>preAB </it>operon. The transcriptional units were defined in this local region by RT-PCR, suggesting three PreA activated operons composed of <it>preA-preB</it>, <it>mdaB-ygiN</it>, and <it>ygiW</it>-STM3175. Several putative virulence-related phenotypes were examined for <it>preAB </it>mutants, resulting in the observation of a host cell invasion and slight virulence defect of a <it>preAB </it>mutant. Contrary to previous reports on this TCS, we were unable to show a PreA/PreB-dependent effect of the quorum-sensing signal AI-2 or of epinephrine on <it>S</it>. Typhimurium with regard to bacterial motility.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This work further characterizes this unorthadox OmpR/EnvZ class TCS and provides novel candidate regulated genes for further study. This first in-depth study of the PreA/PreB regulatory system phenotypes and regulation suggests significant comparative differences to the reported function of the orthologous QseB/QseC in <it>E. coli</it>.</p

Clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy for treatment-resistant depression in primary care: the CoBalT randomised controlled trial

Background: Only one-third of patients with depression respond fully to treatment with antidepressant medication. However, there is little robust evidence to guide the management of those whose symptoms are 'treatment resistant'.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Objective: The CoBalT trial examined the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as an adjunct to usual care (including pharmacotherapy) for primary care patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) compared with usual care alone.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Design: Pragmatic, multicentre individually randomised controlled trial with follow-up at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. A subset took part in a qualitative study investigating views and experiences of CBT, reasons for completing/not completing therapy, and usual care for TRD.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Setting: General practices in Bristol, Exeter and Glasgow, and surrounding areas.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Participants: Patients aged 18-75 years who had TRD [on antidepressants for 6 weeks, had adhered to medication, Beck Depression Inventory, 2nd version (BDI-II) score of 14 and fulfilled the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth edition criteria for depression]. Individuals were excluded who (1) had bipolar disorder/psychosis or major alcohol/substance abuse problems; (2) were unable to complete the questionnaires; or (3) were pregnant, as were those currently receiving CBT/other psychotherapy/secondary care for depression, or who had received CBT in the past 3 years.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Interventions: Participants were randomised, using a computer-generated code, to usual care or CBT (12-18 sessions) in addition to usual care.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was 'response', defined as 50% reduction in depressive symptoms (BDI-II score) at 6 months compared with baseline. Secondary outcomes included BDI-II score as a continuous variable, remission of symptoms (BDI-II score of &lt; 10), quality of life, anxiety and antidepressant use at 6 and 12 months. Data on health and social care use, personal costs, and time off work were collected at 6 and 12 months. Costs from these three perspectives were reported using a cost-consequence analysis. A cost-utility analysis compared health and social care costs with quality adjusted life-years.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Results: A total of 469 patients were randomised (intervention: n = 234; usual care: n = 235), with 422 participants (90%) and 396 (84%) followed up at 6 and 12 months. Ninety-five participants (46.1%) in the intervention group met criteria for 'response' at 6 months compared with 46 (21.6%) in the usual-care group {odds ratio [OR] 3.26 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.10 to 5.06], p &lt; 0.001}. In repeated measures analyses using data from 6 and 12 months, the OR for 'response' was 2.89 (95% CI 2.03 to 4.10, p &lt; 0.001) and for a secondary 'remission' outcome (BDI-II score of &lt; 10) 2.74 (95% CI 1.82 to 4.13, p &lt; 0.001). The mean cost of CBT per participant was £910, the incremental health and social care cost £850, the incremental QALY gain 0.057 and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio £14,911. Forty participants were interviewed. Patients described CBT as challenging but helping them to manage their depression; listed social, emotional and practical reasons for not completing treatment; and described usual care as mainly taking medication.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Conclusions: Among patients who have not responded to antidepressants, augmenting usual care with CBT is effective in reducing depressive symptoms, and these effects, including outcomes reflecting remission, are maintained over 12 months. The intervention was cost-effective based on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence threshold. Patients may experience CBT as difficult but effective. Further research should evaluate long-term effectiveness, as this would have major implications for the recommended treatment of depression.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt

Yeast Pro- and Paraprobiotics Have the Capability to Bind Pathogenic Bacteria Associated With Animal Disease

Live yeast probiotics and yeast cell wall components (paraprobiotics) may serve as an alternative to the use of antibiotics in prevention and treatment of infections caused by pathogenic bacteria. Probiotics and paraprobiotics can bind directly to pathogens, which limits binding of the pathogens to the intestinal cells and also facilitates removal from the host. However, knowledge of bacterial binding, specificity, and/or capability is limited with regard to probiotics or paraprobiotics. The goal of this study was to characterize the qualitative and quantitative nature of two Saccharomyces cerevisiae probiotics and three S. cerevisiae paraprobiotics to adhere to thirteen different pathogenic bacteria using scanning electron miscroscopy and filtration assays. On average, the yeast probiotics (LYA and LYB) exhibited overall greater (P \u3c 0.05) adhesion to the pathogenic bacteria tested (41% and 34%) in comparison to paraprobiotics (23%, 21%, and 22%), though variations were observed between pathogens tested. The ability of Salmonella and Listeriato utilize components of the yeast as a nutrient source was also tested. Bacteria were cultured in media with limited carbon and supplemented with cell free extracts of the probiotics and paraprobiotics. Salmonella exhibited growth, indicating these pathogens could utilize the yeast lysates as a carbon source. Listeria monocytogenes had limited growth in only one of the lysates tested. Together, these data indicate that the interaction between probiotics and paraprobiotics occurs in a strain dependent mechanism. Administration of probiotics and paraprobiotics as therapeutics therefore needs to be specific against the bacterial pathogen target