A Comparison of the Effects of Highly Structured, Partially Structured, and Non-Structured Human Relations Training for Married Couples on the Dependent Variables of Communication, Marital Adjustment, and Personal Adjustment

This study compared the effects of three treatment approaches to training married couples in communication skills on the dependent variables of marital communication, marital adjustment, and the personality characteristics of extraversion/introversion and stability/instability. The initial focus of the study was to determine whether any of the treatment programs--a highly structured (T3), a partially structured (T1 ) or a non-structured (T 2) program -- were superior to any other or to the control group in affecting change in the participants level of communication or in their marital or personal adjustment. The structured programs were derived from the human relations training programs of Carkhuff as well as Rappaport and Harrell's Behavior Exchange Model of conjoint marriage counseling, and adapted for use in a short-term group training procedure. The unstructured training utilized the client-centered approach to couple counseling as developed by Rogers. The number of activities and amount of time spent on each exercise was more rigidly set in the highly structured training than in the partially structured approach. The twenty-four training programs were conducted by two doctoral students in counseling over a seven-week period. A pretest/ post-test, control group experimental design was employed in the research; the data were analyzed using the analysis of covariance statistic, with pre-test scores as the covariate. It was concluded that, although the present study did not produce evidence for the efficacy of one treatment modality over another, some support for the efficacy of the newly designed treatment T2 was provided with suggestions for further research. Recommendations include the matching of couples on age, level of education, and length of marriage when treatments are being compared. Other suggestions include the consideration, in short-term marriage counseling, of pre-therapy selection variables such as level of motivation for change, preparation for the group experience, level of maladjustment, and length of marriage

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Guiding Management with Careful Assessment of Comorbid Mental and Physical Illness

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common and serious psychiatric condition in the civilian and veteran population. The lifetime prevalence of PTSD in the Canadian general population is 9.2%, which, surprisingly, is not significantly different from the 7.2% lifetime prevalence rate within the Canadian Regular Forces. In Canadian veterans pensioned with a medical condition the 1-month prevalence was 10.3%. Given the serious functional impairment and impaired quality of life associated with PTSD, careful assessment and treatment of PTSD is warranted. Due to the complex clinical presentation of PTSD, which can include symptoms across the continuum from adjustment disorder and subthreshold PTSD to “full-blown” PTSD, this issue of Mood and Anxiety Disorders Rounds is confined to a general overview of the psychiatric management of PTSD with comorbid psychiatric conditions. Despite the challenges researchers face in conducting studies on the effectiveness of treatment of this disorder, if evidence-based practices are utilized using established guidelines, remission can be achieved in 30%–50% of PTSD cases

The Star-Spangled Girl

In this uproarious comedy, we are introduced to Andy and Norman, producers of a protest magazine. Sophie, an Olympic swimmer and all-American girl who just moved into the apartment next door, pays the young men a good-neighbor visit. From that moment on, Norman is hopelessly smitten. His love for Sophie becomes an obsession, and he literally drives her crazy by ignoring her rejection and constantly interfering in her life. Meanwhile, Andy is preoccupied with fending off creditors and charming the landlady to avoid being evicted for not paying the rent. The situation is eventually resolved through a series of hilarious happenings set forth with the masterly skill and inventiveness that are the hallmarks of Neil Simon.https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/theatre_productions/1011/thumbnail.jp

Levelling up health in the early years: a cost-analysis of infant feeding and healthcare

Background: Although breastfeeding is recommended as the optimal form of nutrition in the first six months, it is not sustained as the predominant mode of feeding infants in Scotland. This study estimated the impact of infant feeding choices on primary and secondary healthcare service costs in a 13-year birth cohort. Method: Using linked administrative datasets, in a retrospective cohort design of 502,948 singletons born in Scotland between 1997 and 2009, we estimated the cost of GP consultations and hospital admissions by area deprivation and mode of infant feeding up to 6–8 weeks for ten common childhood conditions from birth to 27 months. Additionally, we calculated the potential healthcare savings if all infants in the cohort had been exclusively breastfed at 6–8 weeks. Discounting of 1.5% was applied following current health economic conventions and 2009/10 used as the base year. Results: Over the study period, the estimated cost of hospital admissions in the cohort was £111 million and £2 million for the 2% subset of the cohort with primary care records. Within each quintile of deprivation, exclusively breastfed infants used fewer healthcare services and incurred lower costs compared to infants fed (any) formula milk. At least £10 million of healthcare costs may have been avoided if formula-fed infants had been exclusively breastfed within the first 6–8 weeks of birth. Conclusions: This study using a representative birth cohort demonstrates how breastmilk can promote equitable child health by reducing childhood illness and healthcare utilisation in the early years

Proteins associated with pancreatic cancer survival in patients with resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly lethal disease with a dismal prognosis. However, while most patients die within the first year of diagnosis, very rarely, a few patients can survive for >10 years. Better understanding the molecular characteristics of the pancreatic adenocarcinomas from these very-long-term survivors (VLTS) may provide clues for personalized medicine and improve current pancreatic cancer treatment. To extend our previous investigation, we examined the proteomes of individual pancreas tumor tissues from a group of VLTS patients (survival ≥10 years) and short-term survival patients (STS, survival <14 months). With a given analytical sensitivity, the protein profile of each pancreatic tumor tissue was compared to reveal the proteome alterations that may be associated with pancreatic cancer survival. Pathway analysis of the differential proteins identified suggested that MYC, IGF1R and p53 were the top three upstream regulators for the STS-associated proteins, and VEGFA, APOE and TGFβ-1 were the top three upstream regulators for the VLTS-associated proteins. Immunohistochemistry analysis using an independent cohort of 145 PDAC confirmed that the higher abundance of ribosomal protein S8 (RPS8) and prolargin (PRELP) were correlated with STS and VLTS, respectively. Multivariate Cox analysis indicated that 'High-RPS8 and Low-PRELP' was significantly associated with shorter survival time (HR=2.69, 95% CI 1.46-4.92, P=0.001). In addition, galectin-1, a previously identified protein with its abundance aversely associated with pancreatic cancer survival, was further evaluated for its significance in cancer-associated fibroblasts. Knockdown of galectin-1 in pancreatic cancer-associated fibroblasts dramatically reduced cell migration and invasion. The results from our study suggested that PRELP, LGALS1 and RPS8 might be significant prognostic factors, and RPS8 and LGALS1 could be potential therapeutic targets to improve pancreatic cancer survival if further validated

Detection of foot-and-mouth disease virus in milk samples by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction: Optimisation and evaluation of a high-throughput screening method with potential for disease surveillance

This study aimed to evaluate the utility of milk as a non-invasive sample type for the surveillance of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), a highly contagious viral disease of cloven-hooved animals. Four milking Jersey cows were infected via direct-contact with two non-milking Jersey cows that had been previously inoculated with FMD virus (FMDV: isolate O/UKG/34/2001). Milk and blood were collected throughout the course of infection to compare two high-throughput real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) protocols with different RT-PCR chemistries. Using both methods, FMDV was detected in milk by rRT-PCR one to two days before the presentation of characteristic foot lesions, similar to detection by virus isolation. Furthermore, rRT-PCR detection from milk was extended, up to 28 days post contact (dpc), compared to detection by virus isolation (up to 14 dpc). Additionally, the detection of FMDV in milk by rRT-PCR was possible for 18 days longer than detection by the same method in serum samples. FMDV was also detected with both rRT-PCR methods in milk samples collected during the UK 2007 outbreak. Dilution studies were undertaken using milk from the field and experimentally-infected animals, where for one sample it was possible to detect FMDV at 10 . Based on the peak C values detected in this study, these findings indicate that it could be possible to identify one acutely-infected milking cow in a typical-sized dairy herd (100-1000 individuals) using milk from bulk tanks or milk tankers. These results motivate further studies using milk in FMD-endemic countries for FMD surveillance

The effects of personal relevance and repetition on persuasive processing

Past research has suggested that familiarity with amessage, brought about by repetition, can increase (Cacioppo & Petty, 1989) or decrease (Garcia–Marques & Mackie, 2001) analytic (systematic) processing of that message. Two experiments attempted to resolve these contradictory findings by examining how personal relevance may moderate the impact of familiarity on processing. Experiment 1 manipulated repetition and personal relevance and found that message repetition increased analytic processing (as reflected by greater persuasion following strong vs.weak arguments) under high relevance conditions and decreased analytic processing when relevance was low. In Experiment 2, both repetition and relevance were manipulated in different ways, but results again showed that repetition reduced analytic processing under low relevance conditions and that perceived familiarity mediated this outcome. Implications of these findings are discussed

Human Bocavirus Infection, Canada

Human Bocavirus was detected in 18 (1.5%) of 1,209 respiratory specimens collected in 2003 and 2004 in Canada. The main symptoms of affected patients were cough (78%), fever (67%), and sore throat (44%). Nine patients were hospitalized; of these, 8 (89%) were <5 years of age