632 research outputs found
Breaking the Bonds of Isolation: Can Home-Based Education Increase Social Support Levels?
Historically, Extension educators have used home-based education to teach people. Studies have suggested that emotional connectedness between the individual and home visitor can reduce isolation, build social support, and increase resources (Green & Rodgers, 2001). The study reported here investigated the influence of a home-based parent education program on perceived social support levels of 122 parents involved in a treatment or control group. Analysis showed that post-test scores for the treatment group were significantly better than the control group. The results suggest that home-based education can be a way for Extension educators to increase social support for clientele
Approach to Establishing an Infrastructure for Delivering Third-Party-Reimbursable Community-Based Health Education
Entities that seek to provide quality community-based health education need sustainable funding to maintain their efforts. With dwindling funding sources, it has become important to have diverse financial support for program stability. A promising new practice for expanding funding involves partnering with third-party payers. Michigan State University Extension created a multistep approach to prepare organizations to receive third-party payments. This approach includes (a) assessing readiness, need, and capacity; (b) conducting organizational preparation; (c) conducting staff preparation; and (d) formalizing partnerships. The result is the creation of an infrastructure that allows for partnering with varied funding sources for sustainable community-based health education programming
Sleep Education for Elders Program (SLEEP): Promising Pilot Results of a Virtual, Health Educator-Led, Community-Delivered Sleep Behavior Change Intervention
Purpose: Sleep problems pose serious public health concerns, and evidence suggests that the problem is worsening. Both sufficient sleep quantity and quality are needed for optimal health, particularly among older adults, but access to sleep care can be difficult. This study examined the efficacy of a six-week sleep behavior change program designed for older adults that was delivered virtually by health educators.
Participants and Methods: This quasi-experimental pilot study (intervention n = 22; control n = 31) explored the effects of the Sleep Education for Elders Program (SLEEP) on sleep outcomes, which included: 1) sleep quality, measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); 2) sleep duration, extracted from the PSQI; 3) insomnia symptoms, measured by the Insomnia Severity Index; 4) sleep hygiene behaviors, obtained from the Sleep Hygiene Index; and 5) excessive daytime sleepiness, measured by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale.
Results: After SLEEP, the intervention group experienced significantly improved sleep quality (p \u3c 0.001), a reduction in maladaptive sleep hygiene behaviors (p = 0.007), and reduced daytime sleepiness (p \u3c 0.027) compared to the control group. Effect sizes for all five sleep measures were medium or large. In the intervention group, all changes were judged to be clinically meaningful (≥ 0.5 SD) except for improvements in daytime sleepiness.
Conclusion: These data support the efficacy of a group-based, virtual behavior change intervention in improving sleep outcomes among older adults
Enhancing self-regulation as a strategy for obesity prevention in Head Start preschoolers: the growing healthy study
Abstract
Background
Nearly one in five 4-year-old children in the United States are obese, with low-income children almost twice as likely to be obese as their middle/upper-income peers. Few obesity prevention programs for low-income preschoolers and their parents have been rigorously tested, and effects are modest. We are testing a novel obesity prevention program for low-income preschoolers built on the premise that children who are better able to self-regulate in the face of psychosocial stressors may be less likely to eat impulsively in response to stress. Enhancing behavioral self-regulation skills in low-income children may be a unique and important intervention approach to prevent childhood obesity.
Methods/design
The Growing Healthy study is a randomized controlled trial evaluating two obesity prevention interventions in 600 low-income preschoolers attending Head Start, a federally-funded preschool program for low-income children. Interventions are delivered by community-based, nutrition-education staff partnering with Head Start. The first intervention (n = 200), Preschool Obesity Prevention Series (POPS), addresses evidence-based obesity prevention behaviors for preschool-aged children and their parents. The second intervention (n = 200) comprises POPS in combination with the Incredible Years Series (IYS), an evidence-based approach to improving self-regulation among preschool-aged children. The comparison condition (n = 200) is Usual Head Start Exposure. We hypothesize that POPS will yield positive effects compared to Usual Head Start, and that the combined intervention (POPS + IYS) addressing behaviors well-known to be associated with obesity risk, as well as self-regulatory capacity, will be most effective in preventing excessive increases in child adiposity indices (body mass index, skinfold thickness). We will evaluate additional child outcomes using parent and teacher reports and direct assessments of food-related self-regulation. We will also gather process data on intervention implementation, including fidelity, attendance, engagement, and satisfaction.
Discussion
The Growing Healthy study will shed light on associations between self-regulation skills and obesity risk in low-income preschoolers. If the project is effective in preventing obesity, results can also provide critical insights into how best to deliver obesity prevention programming to parents and children in a community-based setting like Head Start in order to promote better health among at-risk children.
Trial registration number
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01398358http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112539/1/12889_2012_Article_4758.pd
Cross- lagged associations between behaviour problems and obesity in head start preschoolers
Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155893/1/ijpo12627_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155893/2/ijpo12627.pd
Coping with environmental eukaryotes; identification of pseudomonas syringae genes during the interaction with alternative hosts or predators
Understanding the molecular mechanisms underpinning the ecological success of plant
pathogens is critical to develop strategies for controlling diseases and protecting crops. Recent
observations have shown that plant pathogenic bacteria, particularly Pseudomonas, exist in a range of
natural environments away from their natural plant host e.g., water courses, soil, non-host plants.
This exposes them to a variety of eukaryotic predators such as nematodes, insects and amoebae
present in the environment. Nematodes and amoeba in particular are bacterial predators while
insect herbivores may act as indirect predators, ingesting bacteria on plant tissue. We therefore
postulated that bacteria are probably under selective pressure to avoid or survive predation and have
therefore developed appropriate coping mechanisms. We tested the hypothesis that plant pathogenic
Pseudomonas syringae are able to cope with predation pressure and found that three pathovars show
weak, but significant resistance or toxicity. To identify the gene systems that contribute to resistance
or toxicity we applied a heterologous screening technique, called Rapid Virulence Annotation (RVA),
for anti-predation and toxicity mechanisms. Three cosmid libraries for P. syringae pv. aesculi, pv. tomato
and pv. phaseolicola, of approximately 2000 cosmids each, were screened in the susceptible/non-toxic
bacterium Escherichia coli against nematode, amoebae and an insect. A number of potential conserved
and unique genes were identified which included genes encoding haemolysins, biofilm formation,
motility and adhesion. These data provide the first multi-pathovar comparative insight to how
plant pathogens cope with different predation pressures and infection of an insect gut and provide a
foundation for further study into the function of selected genes and their role in ecological success
Using Rheo-Small-Angle Neutron Scattering to Understand How Functionalised Dipeptides Form Gels
We explore the use of rheo-small-angle neutron scattering as a method to collect structural information from neutron scattering simultaneously with rheology to understand how low-molecular-weight hydrogels form and behave under shear. We examine three different gelling hydrogel systems to assess what structures are formed and how these influence the rheology. Furthermore, we probe what is happening to the network during syneresis and why the gels do not recover after an applied strain. All this information is vital when considering gels for applications such as 3D-printing and injection
CfA3: 185 Type Ia Supernova Light Curves from the CfA
We present multi-band photometry of 185 type-Ia supernovae (SN Ia), with over
11500 observations. These were acquired between 2001 and 2008 at the F. L.
Whipple Observatory of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).
This sample contains the largest number of homogeneously-observed and reduced
nearby SN Ia (z < 0.08) published to date. It more than doubles the nearby
sample, bringing SN Ia cosmology to the point where systematic uncertainties
dominate. Our natural system photometry has a precision of 0.02 mag or better
in BVRIr'i' and roughly 0.04 mag in U for points brighter than 17.5 mag. We
also estimate a systematic uncertainty of 0.03 mag in our SN Ia standard system
BVRIr'i' photometry and 0.07 mag for U. Comparisons of our standard system
photometry with published SN Ia light curves and comparison stars, where
available for the same SN, reveal agreement at the level of a few hundredths
mag in most cases. We find that 1991bg-like SN Ia are sufficiently distinct
from other SN Ia in their color and light-curve-shape/luminosity relation that
they should be treated separately in light-curve/distance fitter training
samples. The CfA3 sample will contribute to the development of better
light-curve/distance fitters, particularly in the few dozen cases where
near-infrared photometry has been obtained and, together, can help disentangle
host-galaxy reddening from intrinsic supernova color, reducing the systematic
uncertainty in SN Ia distances due to dust.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal. Minor changes from last
version. Light curves, comparison star photometry, and passband tables are
available at http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/supernova/CfA3
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Mitochondrial iron chelation ameliorates cigarette-smoke induced bronchitis and emphysema in mice
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is linked to both cigarette smoking and genetic determinants. We have previously identified iron-responsive element binding protein 2 (IRP2) as an important COPD susceptibility gene, with IRP2 protein increased in the lungs of individuals with COPD. Here we demonstrate that mice deficient in Irp2 were protected from cigarette smoke (CS)-induced experimental COPD. By integrating RIP-Seq, RNA-Seq, gene expression and functional enrichment clustering analysis, we identified IRP2 as a regulator of mitochondrial function in the lung. IRP2 increased mitochondrial iron loading and cytochrome c oxidase (COX), which led to mitochondrial dysfunction and subsequent experimental COPD. Frataxin-deficient mice with higher mitochondrial iron loading had impaired airway mucociliary clearance (MCC) and higher pulmonary inflammation at baseline, whereas synthesis of cytochrome c oxidase (Sco2)-deficient mice with reduced COX were protected from CS-induced pulmonary inflammation and impairment of MCC. Mice treated with a mitochondrial iron chelator or mice fed a low-iron diet were protected from CS-induced COPD. Mitochondrial iron chelation also alleviated CS-impairment of MCC, CS-induced pulmonary inflammation and CS-associated lung injury in mice with established COPD, suggesting a critical functional role and potential therapeutic intervention for the mitochondrial-iron axis in COPD
Addressing climate change with behavioral science:A global intervention tournament in 63 countries
Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions' effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior-several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people's initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors.</p
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