Adolescent Substance Use and Occupational Therapy Interventions: A Rapid Systematic Review

Indiana University Purdue University IndianapolisThis rapid systematic review analyzes the evidence for substance use reduction through therapeutic interventions and activities in adolescents between the ages of 13-25, along with the potential for implementation in the field of occupational therapy. Adolescents with substance use disorders (SUDs) often have specific challenges regarding their family interactions, cultural beliefs, school engagement, and community support. It can be difficult for adolescents with SUDs to successfully navigate their ever changing lives, as they may also present with comorbid psychiatric conditions. It is noted that throughout this review, many interventions were the first of their kind and focused on targeting adolescents within the contexts of their environment. Many studies utilized specific techniques aimed at improving adolescents’ intrinsic beliefs regarding their substance use. Overall, low to moderate evidence was found for the effectiveness of various interventions to reduce adolescent substance use. More exhaustive research is needed to evaluate the usefulness of these interventions, as many were done in very specific settings with very individualized populations. Moreover, occupational therapists should be cautious before implementation into practice, as none of the studies evaluated explicitly examined the role of occupational therapy. More investigation is required to determine how these interventions can be applied to the field of occupational therapy.Occupational Therap

The covariation of acoustic features of infant cries and autonomic state

The evolution of the autonomic nervous system provides an organizing principle to interpret the adaptive significance of physiological systems in promoting social behavior and responding to social challenges. This phylogenetic shift in neural regulation of the autonomic nervous system in mammals has produced a neuroanatomically integrated social engagement system, including neural mechanisms that regulate both cardiac vagal tone and muscles involved in vocalization. Mammalian vocalizations are part of a conspecific social communication system, with several mammalian species modulating acoustic features of vocalizations to signal affective state. Prosody, defined by variations in rhythm and pitch, is a feature of mammalian vocalizations that communicate emotion and affective state. While the covariation between physiological state and the acoustic frequencies of vocalizations is neurophysiologically based, few studies have investigated the covariation between vocal prosody and autonomic state. In response to this paucity of scientific evidence, the current study explored the utility of vocal prosody as a sensitive index of autonomic activity in human infants during the Still Face challenge. Overall, significant correlations were observed between several acoustic features of the infant vocalizations and autonomic state, demonstrating an association between shorter heart period and reductions in heart period and respiratory sinus arrhythmia following the challenge with the dampening of the modulation of acoustic features (fundamental frequency, variance, 50% bandwidth, and duration) that are perceived as prosody

Impacto da utilização da plataforma de treino cognitivo online primerCOG no funcionamento cognitivo, nas atividades de vida diária e na qualidade de vida de idosos com DCL

Introdução: O envelhecimento da população verificado nos países desenvolvidos constitui, simultaneamente, uma oportunidade e uma ameaça para a sociedade, com as demências a representarem um elevado custo para o indivíduo e suas famílias. A primerCOG é uma plataforma online que pretende contribuir para um envelhecimento saudável através da estimulação, manutenção, monitorização e reabilitação cognitiva de adultos idosos saudáveis e com patologias neurodegenerativas. O objetivo deste estudo é analisar o impacto da utilização da plataforma de treino cognitivo online primerCOG no funcionamento cognitivo, nas atividades de vida diária e na qualidade de vida de idosos com DCL. Metodologia: O grupo experimental composto por 8 idosos (5 mulheres) com DCL realizou um programa de treino cognitivo com a plataforma primerCOG, de 16 sessões, bissemanais. Por sua vez, o grupo de controlo, composto também por 8 idosos (5 mulheres) e emparelhado por idade; sexo; nível de escolaridade; pontuação no MoCA e cotação na GDS, com o grupo experimental, realizou um programa, mais uma vez, bissemanal, mas cuja atividade foi a visualização e discussão de filmes. Resultados: Os resultados obtidos demonstraram: uma melhoria estatisticamente significativa da atenção seletiva, funcionamento executivo, memória verbal, capacidade de aprendizagem e do funcionamento cognitivo global, após o programa de treino, no grupo experimental. Relativamente à funcionalidade nas atividades de vida diária, não se verificaram diferenças estatisticamente significativas. Por fim, verificou-se uma melhoria da qualidade de vida global; funcionamento sensorial; autonomia; qualidade de vida nas atividades passadas, presentes e futuras; intimidade e componente família/ vida familiar. O grupo de controlo, por sua vez, apresentou um aumento da sintomatologia depressiva. Conclusão: A plataforma de treino cognitivo primerCOG parece demonstrar eficácia, promovendo uma melhoria do funcionamento cognitivo e da qualidade de vida dos idosos com DCL, bem como permitindo a manutenção da sua funcionalidade e sintomatologia depressiva

Association studies of up to 1.2 million individuals yield new insights into the genetic etiology of tobacco and alcohol use.

Tobacco and alcohol use are leading causes of mortality that influence risk for many complex diseases and disorders1. They are heritable2,3 and etiologically related4,5 behaviors that have been resistant to gene discovery efforts6-11. In sample sizes up to 1.2 million individuals, we discovered 566 genetic variants in 406 loci associated with multiple stages of tobacco use (initiation, cessation, and heaviness) as well as alcohol use, with 150 loci evidencing pleiotropic association. Smoking phenotypes were positively genetically correlated with many health conditions, whereas alcohol use was negatively correlated with these conditions, such that increased genetic risk for alcohol use is associated with lower disease risk. We report evidence for the involvement of many systems in tobacco and alcohol use, including genes involved in nicotinic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission. The results provide a solid starting point to evaluate the effects of these loci in model organisms and more precise substance use measures

Association studies of up to 1.2 million individuals yield new insights into the genetic etiology of tobacco and alcohol use

Tobacco and alcohol use are leading causes of mortality that influence risk for many complex diseases and disorders 1 . They are heritable 2,3 and etiologically related 4,5 behaviors that have been resistant to gene discovery efforts 6–11 . In sample sizes up to 1.2 million individuals, we discovered 566 genetic variants in 406 loci associated with multiple stages of tobacco use (initiation, cessation, and heaviness) as well as alcohol use, with 150 loci evidencing pleiotropic association. Smoking phenotypes were positively genetically correlated with many health conditions, whereas alcohol use was negatively correlated with these conditions, such that increased genetic risk for alcohol use is associated with lower disease risk. We report evidence for the involvement of many systems in tobacco and alcohol use, including genes involved in nicotinic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission. The results provide a solid starting point to evaluate the effects of these loci in model organisms and more precise substance use measures

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Influência dos ingredientes do sabão líquido no environmental stress cracking (ESC) de embalagens rígidas de polietileno de alta densidade

TCC (graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Engenharia de Materiais.Neste trabalho foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica abordando a interação entre as principais matérias-primas de um sabão líquido para roupas com a embalagem de polietileno de alta densidade (PEAD). Na formulação de um sabão líquido (substituição, acréscimo ou decréscimo de algum ingrediente), é necessário entender se possíveis interações entre o produto e a embalagem causarão perda de resistência mecânica, que pode induzir o mecanismo de Environmental Stress Cracking (ESC). Com base neste contexto, este trabalho tem como objetivo entender a fundo as interações entre o sabão líquido e a embalagem de PEAD e na correlação química entre a estrutura das moléculas dos ingredientes no mecanismo de Stress Cracking em embalagens rígidas de PEAD. Esse entendimento pode simplicar o processo de desenvolvimento de fórmulas e embalagens, diminuindo a quantidade de testes e fornecendo uma abordagem técnica para os resultados obtidos. Verificou-se que os ingredientes surfactante e perfume são os os mais críticos para induzir o mecanismo de Stress Cracking nas embalagens, além disso, observou-se que a polaridade é umas das propriedades mais imporantantes para a ocorrência de interações. Parâmetros como LogP/LogKow relacionados à polaridade podem podem auxiliar a prever antecipadamente essas falhas

Team 4: Exploring Sharing Behaviors

from Scythe : Proceedings and Bulletin of the International Data Farming Community, Issue 2 Workshop 14The U.S. DoD (OASD/NII) Command and Control Research Program (CCRP) has sponsored the design and development of a software environment for conducting human-in-the-loop experiments focused on information- and social-domain phenomena. This experiment has come to be know as the ELICIT Experiment (Experimental Laboratory for Investigating Collaboration, Information-sharing, & Trust). Over the course of several Project Albert International Workshops, EBR has strived to create and improve a simulation version of the experiment. Utilizing the NetLogo agent-based modeling environment, we have built upon prior work, augmenting the model to more explicitly represent cognitive and collaborative processes. During this week, Ms. Danielle Martin, Tony Costa, Karina Malvaez-Buenrostro, and Fidencio Vargas-Davila, have worked to study how sharing behaviors such as posting, direct sharing, hoarding, and processing affect an organization’s performance in solving a simple cognitive task