Targeting hyperarousal: Mantram Repetition Program for PTSD in US veterans.

Background: Hyperarousal appears to play an important role in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, but current evidence-based treatments appear to address this symptom type less effectively than the other symptom clusters. The Mantram Repetition Program (MRP) is a meditation-based intervention that has previously been shown to improve symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and may be especially helpful for hyperarousal. If MRP is an effective tool for decreasing this often treatment-resistant symptom cluster, it may become an important clinical tool. Objective: The goal of this secondary analysis was to examine the effect of the MRP on hyperarousal and other PTSD symptom clusters and to examine hyperarousal as a mediator of treatment response. Method: Secondary analyses were conducted on data from a randomized controlled trial in which Veterans with PTSD (n = 173) were assigned to the MRP or a non-specific psychotherapy control and assessed pre-treatment, post-treatment and 8 weeks after treatment completion. The impact of the interventions on PTSD symptom clusters was examined, and time-lagged hierarchical linear modelling was applied to examine alternative mediation models. Results: All PTSD symptom clusters improved in both treatments. MRP led to greater reductions in hyperarousal at post-treatment (Hedge's g = 0.57) and follow-up (Hedge's g = 0.52), and in numbing at post-treatment (Hedge's g = 0.47). Hyperarousal mediated reductions in the composite of the other PTSD symptom clusters. Although the reverse model was significant as well, the effect was weaker in this direction. Conclusion: Interventions focused on the management of hyperarousal may play an important role in recovery from PTSD. The MRP appears efficacious in reducing hyperarousal, and thereby impacting other PTSD symptom clusters, as one pathway to facilitating recovery

Triangulating Horizontal Inequality: Towards Improved Conflict Analysis.

Does economic inequality cause civil war? Deviating from individualist measures of inequality such as the Gini coefficient, recent studies have found a statistical link between group-level inequalities and conflict onset. Yet, this connection remains controversial, not least because of the difficulties associated with conceptualizing and measuring group-level differences in development. In an effort to overcome weaknesses afflicting specific methods of measurement, we introduce a new composite indicator that exploits the strengths of three sources of data. The first step of our method combines geocoded data from the G-Econ project with night lights emissions data from satellites. In a second step, we bring together the combined spatial values with survey estimates in order to arrive at an improved measure of group-level inequality that is both more accurate and robust than any one of the component measures. We evaluate the effect of the combined indicator and its components on the onset of civil violence. As expected, the combined index yields stronger results as more information becomes available, thus confirming the initial hypothesis that horizontal economic inequality does drive conflict in the case of groups that are relatively poorer compared to the country average. Furthermore, these findings appear to be considerably more robust than those relying on a single data source.Swiss National Science FoundationAlexander von Humboldt Foundatio

Resources for Workplace Diversity: An Annotated Practitioner Guide to Information

[Excerpt] We are pleased to offer this updated edition of Resources for Workplace Diversity: An Annotated Practitioner Guide to Information, a unique offering of The Workplace Diversity Network. Our goal is to assemble a selected, annotated list of compelling and useful resources available to help diversity practitioners create organizations that are diverse and productive. As a working group, we agreed that useful resources would include newly published books as well as historic, seminal works that provide insight and illumination irrelevant of their age. In the updated edition, we’ve expanded existing sections, added new ones and referenced online access where possible. Designed with practitioner needs in mind, Resources for Workplace Diversity is meant to be an evolving document, one that will grow according to the needs and recommendations of its users. To capture the advantage of networking, we invite you to suggest additional resources that you have found to be valuable

Structural and molecular characteristics of axons in the long head of the biceps tendon

The innervation of the long head of the biceps tendon (LHBT) is not sufficiently documented. This is a drawback since pathologies of the LHBT are a major source of shoulder pain. Thus, the study aimed to characterize structurally and molecularly nervous elements of the LHBT. The proximal part of 11 LHBTs was harvested intraoperatively. There were 8 female and 3 male specimens. Age ranged from 66 to 86 years. For structural analyses, nervous elements were viewed in the transmission electron microscope. For molecular characterization, we used general neuronal markers including antibodies against neurofilament and protein gene product 9.5 (PGP9.5) as well as specific neuronal markers including antibodies against myelin basic protein (MBP), calcitonin gene-related product (CGRP), substance P (SP), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), and growth-associated protein 43 (GAP43). Anti-neurofilament and anti-PGP9.5 visualized the overall innervation. Anti-MBP visualized myelination, anti-CGRP and anti-SP nociceptive fibers, anti-TH sympathetic nerve fibers, and anti-GAP43 nerve fibers during development and regeneration. Immunolabeled sections were analyzed in the confocal laser scanning microscope. We show that the LHBT contains unmyelinated as well as myelinated nerve fibers which group in nerve fascicles and follow blood vessels. Manny myelinated and unmyelinated axons exhibit molecular features of nociceptive nerve fibers. Another subpopulation of unmyelinated axons exhibits molecular characteristics of sympathetic nerve fibers. Unmyelinated sympathetic fibers and unmyelinated nociceptive fibers express proteins that are found during development and regeneration. Present findings support the hypothesis that ingrowth of nociceptive fibers are the source of chronic tendon pain