A Brief Decisional Balance Intervention Increases Motivation and Behavior Regarding Condom Use in High-risk Heterosexual College Men

Male college students constitute one of a number of at-risk populations susceptible to receiving and transferring sexually transmitted infections. Interventions designed to increase condom use have produced mixed results, but increasing motivation to use condoms may decrease risky sexual behavior. The current study examined the decisional balance, a component of Motivational Interviewing (MI), as an intervention to promote condom use. A total of 41 college men at-risk for negative outcomes from both unsafe sex and drinking participated. They reported both infrequent condom use and heavy drinking. Immediately following a decisional balance on condom use, three separate measures of motivation to change condom use increased. Further, participants reported increases in actual condom use at a 30-day follow-up. Participants did not alter their drinking behavior or their motivation to decrease problematic alcohol use. The findings provide preliminary support for the efficacy of a brief decisional balance intervention to increase safer-sex motivation and behaviors, but similar designs with true control groups receiving assessment only and larger numbers of participants are required before they can be generalized to the greater population of college students. College health professionals might adopt similar brief motivational enhancement interventions with the decisional balance to promote safer sex among at-risk college students

A Group Motivational Interviewing Intervention Reduces Drinking and Alcohol-Related Negative Consequences in Adjudicated College Women

College students who violate campus alcohol policies (adjudicated students) are at high risk for experiencing negative alcohol-related consequences and for undermining campus life. Further, college women may be especially at risk due to differential intoxication effects and sexual consequences experienced mainly by female students. Research on interventions for adjudicated students, especially adjudicated females, has been limited. One hundred and fifteen college women who received a sanction for violating campus alcohol policies participated in the study. The two hour group intervention focused on female-specific reasons for drinking and included decisional balance, goal setting and other exercises. Participants completed follow-up surveys for 12 weeks following the intervention and answered questions regarding alcohol consumption and alcohol-related negative consequences. Findings support the use of an MI-based intervention to reduce both alcohol consumption and consequences among adjudicated females. Specifically, alcohol use was reduced by 29.9% and negative consequences were reduced by 35.87% from pre-intervention to 3-month follow up. Further, the intervention appeared to successfully initiate change in the heaviest drinkers, as women who drank at risky levels reduced alcohol consumption to a greater extent than women who drank at moderate levels

Sigma 54-Regulated Transcription Is Associated with Membrane Reorganization and Type III Secretion Effectors during Conversion to Infectious Forms of Chlamydia trachomatis

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Chlamydia bacteria are obligate intracellular organisms with a phylum-defining biphasic developmental cycle that is intrinsically linked to its ability to cause disease. The progression of the chlamydial developmental cycle is regulated by the temporal expression of genes predominantly controlled by RNA polymerase sigma (σ) factors. Sigma 54 (σ54) is one of three sigma factors encoded by Chlamydia for which the role and regulon are unknown. CtcC is part of a two-component signal transduction system that is requisite for σ54 transcriptional activation. CtcC activation of σ54 requires phosphorylation, which relieves inhibition by the CtcC regulatory domain and enables ATP hydrolysis by the ATPase domain. Prior studies with CtcC homologs in other organisms have shown that expression of the ATPase domain alone can activate σ54 transcription. Biochemical analysis of CtcC ATPase domain supported the idea of ATP hydrolysis occurring in the absence of the regulatory domain, as well as the presence of an active-site residue essential for ATPase activity (E242). Using recently developed genetic approaches in Chlamydia to induce expression of the CtcC ATPase domain, a transcriptional profile was determined that is expected to reflect the σ54 regulon. Computational evaluation revealed that the majority of the differentially expressed genes were preceded by highly conserved σ54 promoter elements. Reporter gene analyses using these putative σ54 promoters reinforced the accuracy of the model of the proposed regulon. Investigation of the gene products included in this regulon supports the idea that σ54 controls expression of genes that are critical for conversion of Chlamydia from replicative reticulate bodies into infectious elementary bodies.NIH T32 GM008545AI126785NIH (AI126785)P20GM113117P20GM10363

A Randomized Motivational Enhancement Prevention Group Reduces Drinking and Alcohol Consequences in First-Year College Women

Alcohol consumption among college students has become an increasing problem that requires attention from college administrators, staff, and researchers. Despite the physiological differences between men and women, college women are drinking at increasingly risky rates, placing them at increased risk for negative consequences. The current study tested a group motivational enhancement approach to the prevention of heavy drinking among 1st-year college women. Using a randomized design, the authors assigned participants either to a group that received a single-session motivational enhancement intervention to reduce risky drinking that focused partly on women’s specific reasons for drinking (n =126) or to an assessment-only control group (n =94). Results indicated that, relative to the control group participants, intervention participants drank fewer drinks per week, drank fewer drinks at peak consumption events, and had fewer alcohol-related consequences over a 10-week follow-up. Further, the intervention, which targeted women’s reasons for drinking, was more effective in reducing consumption for participants with high social and enhancement motivations for drinking

Remote Hand Pump Monitoring in Africa

Millions of communities in developing countries rely on hand pumps installed by various non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Studies have shown that these pumps are often broken with significant delays before maintenance people arrive. During the last few years, the Intelligent Water Project (IWP), in cooperation with World Vision and AlignedWorks has successfully produced sensor units, installed on each water pump to provide state of operation information, which proves the feasibility of remote monitoring through a real-time web-based database. Currently, we are working to demonstrate reliability, improve accuracy, and prepare for production on a larger scale to expand the impact to more communities all over Africa. Recently we have been moving toward this goal by producing all necessary documentation to manufacture our system and prove its functionality with quality control procedures. This involves creating drawings of each component and assembly and using these along with complete manufacturing, quality control check, and installation instructions.https://mosaic.messiah.edu/engr2020/1009/thumbnail.jp

Correcting Misperceptions and Reducing Risky Drinking through a Student-Designed Poster Campaign

A letter to the editor is presented focusing on correcting misperceptions and reducing risky drinking through a student-designed poster campaign

The differential impact of relational health on alcohol consumption and consequences in first year college women

The Relational Health Indices (RHI) is a relatively new measure that assesses the strength of relationships. It has been found that relational health has a protective factor for women, such that it enhances positive experiences and limits negative ones. The current study is the first to use the RHI to examine the effect of relational health on alcohol consumption and alcohol consequences. First year college women were given questionnaires assessing relational health, drinking motives, and alcohol use in their first few months at a mid-sized, private university. Due to the social nature of college settings, it was predicted that relational health would moderate the relationship between motives and alcohol consumption. Further, due to the protective factor of relational health, it was predicted that relational health would attenuate the relationship between drinking and negative consequences. These hypotheses were supported. Relational health, moderated the relationship between both social and coping drinking motives and drinking, such that women with strong relational health towards their peers and community who also had high social and coping motives, drank more than those with weaker relationships. Paradoxically, relational health also moderated the relationship between drinking and consequences such that heavy drinking women with strong relational health experienced fewer negative consequences than women with weaker relational health. Results indicate that although relational health is associated with an increase in alcohol consumption, it may also serve as a protective factor for alcohol-related negative consequences. Future research and interventions may seek to de-link the relational health-drinking connection in the college student environment

Stress Preconditioning of Spreading Depression in the Locust CNS

Cortical spreading depression (CSD) is closely associated with important pathologies including stroke, seizures and migraine. The mechanisms underlying SD in its various forms are still incompletely understood. Here we describe SD-like events in an invertebrate model, the ventilatory central pattern generator (CPG) of locusts. Using K+ -sensitive microelectrodes, we measured extracellular K+ concentration ([K+]o) in the metathoracic neuropile of the CPG while monitoring CPG output electromyographically from muscle 161 in the second abdominal segment to investigate the role K+ in failure of neural circuit operation induced by various stressors. Failure of ventilation in response to different stressors (hyperthermia, anoxia, ATP depletion, Na+/K+ ATPase impairment, K+ injection) was associated with a disturbance of CNS ion homeostasis that shares the characteristics of CSD and SD-like events in vertebrates. Hyperthermic failure was preconditioned by prior heat shock (3 h, 45°C) and induced-thermotolerance was associated with an increase in the rate of clearance of extracellular K+ that was not linked to changes in ATP levels or total Na+/K+ ATPase activity. Our findings suggest that SD-like events in locusts are adaptive to terminate neural network operation and conserve energy during stress and that they can be preconditioned by experience. We propose that they share mechanisms with CSD in mammals suggesting a common evolutionary origin

Design and feasibility testing of a novel group intervention for young women who binge drink in groups

BackgroundYoung women frequently drink alcohol in groups and binge drinking within these natural drinking groups is common. This study describes the design of a theoretically and empirically based group intervention to reduce binge drinking among young women. It also evaluates their engagement with the intervention and the acceptability of the study methods.MethodsFriendship groups of women aged 18–35 years, who had two or more episodes of binge drinking (>6 UK units on one occasion; 48g of alcohol) in the previous 30 days, were recruited from the community. A face-to-face group intervention, based on the Health Action Process Approach, was delivered over three sessions. Components of the intervention were woven around fun activities, such as making alcohol free cocktails. Women were followed up four months after the intervention was delivered. Results The target of 24 groups (comprising 97 women) was recruited. The common pattern of drinking was infrequent, heavy drinking (mean consumption on the heaviest drinking day was UK 18.1 units). Process evaluation revealed that the intervention was delivered with high fidelity and acceptability of the study methods was high. The women engaged positively with intervention components and made group decisions about cutting down. Twenty two groups set goals to reduce their drinking, and these were translated into action plans. Retention of individuals at follow up was 87%.ConclusionsThis study successfully recruited groups of young women whose patterns of drinking place them at high risk of acute harm. This novel approach to delivering an alcohol intervention has potential to reduce binge drinking among young women. The high levels of engagement with key steps in the behavior change process suggests that the group intervention should be tested in a full randomised controlled trial

Transposon Mutagenesis in Chlamydia trachomatis Identifies CT339 as a ComEC Homolog Important for DNA Uptake and Lateral Gene Transfer

Transposon mutagenesis is a widely applied and powerful genetic tool for the discovery of genes associated with selected phenotypes. Chlamydia trachomatis is a clinically significant, obligate intracellular bacterium for which many conventional genetic tools and capabilities have been developed only recently. This report describes the successful development and application of a Himar transposon mutagenesis system for generating single-insertion mutant clones of C. trachomatis. This system was used to generate a pool of 105 transposon mutant clones that included insertions in genes encoding flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-dependent monooxygenase (C. trachomatis 148 [ct148]), deubiquitinase (ct868), and competence-associated (ct339) proteins. A subset of Tn mutant clones was evaluated for growth differences under cell culture conditions, revealing that most phenocopied the parental strain; however, some strains displayed subtle and yet significant differences in infectious progeny production and inclusion sizes. Bacterial burden studies in mice also supported the idea that a FAD-dependent monooxygenase (ct148) and a deubiquitinase (ct868) were important for these infections. The ct339 gene encodes a hypothetical protein with limited sequence similarity to the DNA-uptake protein ComEC. A transposon insertion in ct339 rendered the mutant incapable of DNA acquisition during recombination experiments. This observation, along with in situ structural analysis, supports the idea that this protein is playing a role in the fundamental process of lateral gene transfer similar to that of ComEC. In all, the development of the Himar transposon system for Chlamydia provides an effective genetic tool for further discovery of genes that are important for basic biology and pathogenesis aspects.S.D.L., Z.E.D., K.S.H., S.B., R.J.S., and P.S.H. were funded by NIH (AI126785)J.W. and P.S.H. were supported by NIH AI125929. P.S.H. was also supported by P20GM113117Support for genomic sequencing was supplemented by P20GM10363