Implementation Science and Fidelity Measurement: A Test of the 3-5-7 Model™

Children and youths engaged with the child welfare system can experience grief and loss as a result of trauma, broken relationships, and inadequate attachments. Interventionists are often challenged to implement effective strategies that help youths to reestablish trusting relationships and to promote overall psychological well-being. A 5-year federal demonstration project funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau, guided by an implementation science model, sought to increase well-being in youths age 12–21 who were involved in the child welfare system. The 3-5-7 Model™, a strengths-based approach that empowers children, youths, and families to engage in grieving and integrating significant relationships, was studied. A fidelity system was created in order to test the model. Important lessons about implementation science guided the work of the demonstration project. Although definitive conclusions could not be reached, several indicators of psychological well-being were found to be associated with high levels of fidelity to the 3-5-7 ModelTM. Suggestions for future research are offered

Effect of dietary patterns differing in carbohydrate and fat content on blood lipidand glucose profiles based on weight-loss success of breast-cancer survivors

INTRODUCTION: Healthy body weight is an important factor for prevention of breast cancer recurrence. Yet, weight loss and weight gain are not currently included in clinical-practice guidelines for posttreatment of breast cancer. The work reported addresses one of the questions that must be considered in recommending weight loss to patients: does it matter what diet plan is used, a question of particular importance because breast cancer treatment can increase risk for cardiovascular disease. METHODS: Women who completed treatment for breast cancer were enrolled in a nonrandomized, controlled study investigating effects of weight loss achieved by using two dietary patterns at the extremes of macronutrient composition, although both diet arms were equivalent in protein: high fat, low carbohydrate versus low fat, high carbohydrate. A nonintervention group served as the control arm; women were assigned to intervention arms based on dietary preferences. During the 6-month weight-loss program, which was menu and recipe defined, participants had monthly clinical visits at which anthropometric data were collected and fasting blood was obtained for safety monitoring for plasma lipid profiles and fasting glucose. Results from 142 participants are reported. RESULTS: Adverse effects on fasting blood lipids or glucose were not observed in either dietary arm. A decrease in fasting glucose was observed with progressive weight loss and was greater in participants who lost more weight, but the effect was not statistically significant, even though it was observed across both diet groups (P = 0.21). Beneficial effects of weight loss on cholesterol (4.7%; P = 0.001), triglycerides (21.8%; P = 0.01), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (5.8%; P = 0.06) were observed in both groups. For cholesterol (P = 0.07) and LDL cholesterol (P = 0.13), greater reduction trends were seen on the low-fat diet pattern; whereas, for triglycerides (P = 0.01) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (P = 0.08), a decrease or increase, respectively, was greater on the low-carbohydrate diet pattern. CONCLUSIONS: Because an individual's dietary preferences can affect dietary adherence and weight-loss success, the lack of evidence of a negative effect of dietary pattern on biomarkers associated with cardiovascular risk is an important consideration in the development of breast cancer practice guidelines for physicians who recommend that their patients lose weight. Whether dietary pattern affects biomarkers that predict long-term survival is a primary question in this ongoing clinical trial

Tres medici, duo athei? The Physician as Atheist and the Medicalization of the Soul

Until recently, examinations of the ‘mind-body problem’ in historical context paid only cursory attention to its specifically medical dimension, if at all. At best, some ‘folk physiology’ was entertained, usually to laugh at it (the pineal gland, animal spirits). Conversely, historians of neuroscience or of artificial intelligence (Jeannerod 1985, Dupuy 2000) often present figures like La Mettrie as heroic early cases of ‘naturalization’, giving an experimental basis to materialism: their symmetrically inverse mistake is to take professions of medical authority too literally (although there are genuine cases where all of the above does coalesce – where ‘actors’ categories mysteriously transcend historiographic projections –, such as Hieronymus Gaub’s reflections on the ‘regimen of the mind’ in the mid-eighteenth century, or, more theoretically, Guillaume Lamy’s Epicurean-inflected Anatomical Discourses on the Soul, eighty years earlier). Contrary to the denial of the relevance of medicine in early modern philosophy, as regards issues such as the body-soul (then body-mind) relation among others, it seems patently difficult to separate medical theory, medically nourished philosophical speculation, and metaphysics. This is the case, whether in Descartes, Gaub, the ‘animist’ Georg-Ernest Stahl, or materialists such as Guillaume Lamy and La Mettrie: medicine, or rather ‘a certain idea of medicine’, is everywhere. Here I focus on the motif of a radical medicine – a medical precursor of the Radical Enlightenment (Israel 2001, 2006, 2007), symbolized negatively by the slogan, tres medici, duo athei, or ‘where there are three doctors, there are two atheists’, i.e. medicine as a basis for atheism. This theme runs through various works of medical or medico-theological propaganda: Thomas Browne’s 1643 De religio medici begins with Browne regretting rumors of doctors being atheists as the “general scandal of my Profession”; Germain de Bezançon’s 1677 Les médecins à la censure works hard at rebutting the saying, “Bon Physicien, mauvais chrétien.” But these are examples of the fear of a radical medicine – a medicine that denies the existence of an immortal soul, or even defends materialism and atheism. Are there positive statements of this doctrine? Indeed, attacks on it are much more common than statements identifying with it, like medical versions of natural theology in general. In fact, just as there were theologically motivated medical works, there were also medically motivated works of radical or heretical theology, like William Coward’s Second Thoughts on the Human Soul (Coward 1702, building on Overton 1644), which engaged in polemics concerning the nature of the soul – mortal or immortal? (Thomson 2008). Parallel to the mortalist trend, but flowing into a common genre of radical, medico-materialist texts (sometimes anonymous, such as L’Âme Matérielle, from the 1720s) are at least two other strands of radical medicine: a post-Cartesian focus on medicina mentis and the nature of the mind (Henricus Regius, Hieronymus Gaub, Antoine Le Camus), and an Epicurean medicine, in which mind and body are organismically united, with an additional hedonistic component, notably in Lamy, Mandeville and La Mettrie (Wright 1991, Wolfe and van Esveld 2014). The focus on a medicine of the mind (Corneanu, ms. 2013) is obviously connected to a ‘medicalization of the soul’: there was a body-soul problem in and for medicine, a sort of medicalized ‘pneumatology’. Radical medicine is located somewhere in between the early forms of ‘naturalization’ or ‘medicalization’ of the soul and the pose of scientific neutrality that is characteristic of early nineteenth-century medicine (as in Cabanis, Bichat or Bernard): it is a short-lived episode. I seek to reconstruct this intellectual figure, in which mortalist, post-Cartesian and Epicurean strands intersect and sometimes come together. I suggest that medically influenced materialism in the Radical Enlightenment (e.g. in the later French cases, La Mettrie, Ménuret and Diderot), is different from later, more experimentally focused and more quantitatively oriented forms of medical materialism, precisely because of its radical dimension. This radical medicine often insists on vitality, as opposed to “anatomie cadavérique”: it is vital and hedonistic, a medicine concerned with maintaining bodily pleasure.Until recently, examinations of the 'mind-body problem' in historical context paid only cursory attention to its specifically medical dimension, if at all. At best, some 'folk physiology' was entertained, usually to laugh at it (the pineal gland, animal spirits). Conversely, historians of neuroscience or of artificial intelligence (Jeannerod M, The brain machine. The development of neurophysiological thought, trans. D. Urion, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1985; Dupuy J-P, The mechanization of the mind: on the origins of cognitive science, trans. M.B. DeBevoise, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2000) often present figures like La Mettrie as heroic early cases of 'naturalization', giving an experimental basis to materialism: their symmetrically inverse mistake is to take professions of medical authority too literally (although there are genuine cases where all of the above does coalesce where 'actors' categories mysteriously transcend historiographic projections -, such as Hieronymus Gaub's reflections on the 'regimen of the mind' in the mid-eighteenth century, or, more theoretically, Guillaume Lamy's Epicurean-inflected Anatomical Discourses on the Soul, eighty years earlier). Contrary to the denial of the relevance of medicine in early modern philosophy, as regards issues such as the body-soul (then body-mind) relation among others, it seems patently difficult to separate medical theory, medically nourished philosophical speculation, and metaphysics. This is the case, whether in Descartes, Gaub, the 'animist' Georg-Ernest Stahl, or materialists such as Guillaume Lamy and La Mettrie: medicine, or rather 'a certain idea of medicine', is everywhere.Here I focus on the motif of a radical medicine - a medical precursor of the Radical Enlightenment (Israel J, Radical enlightenment. Philosophy and the making of modernity, 1650-1750, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001; Israel J, Enlightenment contested. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006, Israel J, Enlightenment, radical enlightenment and the "medical revolution" of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In: Grell OP, Cunningham A (ed) Medicine and religion in enlightenment Europe. Ashgate, Aldershot, pp 5-28, 2007), symbolized negatively by the slogan, tres medici, duo athei, or 'where there are three doctors, there are two atheists', i.e. medicine as a basis for atheism. This theme runs through various works of medical or medico-theological propaganda: Thomas Browne's 1643 De religio medici begins with Browne regretting rumors of doctors being atheists as the "general scandal of my Profession"; Germain de Bezancon's 1677 Les medecins a la censure works hard at rebutting the saying, "Bon Physicien, mauvais chretien." But these are examples of the fear of a radical medicine - a medicine that denies the existence of an immortal soul, or even defends materialism and atheism. Are there positive statements of this doctrine? Indeed, attacks on it are much more common than statements identifying with it, like medical versions of natural theology in general.In fact, just as there were theologically motivated medical works, there were also medically motivated works of radical or heretical theology, like William Coward's Second Thoughts on the Human Soul (Coward W, Second thoughts on the human soul. R. Basset, London, 1702, building on Overton 1644), which engaged in polemics concerning the nature of the soul - mortal or immortal? (Thomson A, Bodies of thought: science, religion, and the soul in the early enlightenment. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008). Parallel to the mortalist trend, but flowing into a common genre of radical, medico-materialist texts (sometimes anonymous, such as L'Ame Materielle, from the 1720s) are at least two other strands of radical medicine: a post-Cartesian focus on medicina mentis and the nature of the mind (Henricus Regius, Hieronymus Gaub, Antoine Le Camus), and an Epicurean medicine, in which mind and body are organismically united, with an additional hedonistic component, notably in Lamy, Mandeville and La Mettrie (Wright JP, Locke, Willis, and the seventeenth-century epicurean soul. In: Osler MJ (ed) Atoms, Pneuma, and Tranquillity: Epicurean and stoic themes in European thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 239-258, 1991; Wolfe CT, van Esveld M, The material soul: strategies for naturalising the soul in an early modern epicurean context. In: Kambaskovic D (ed) Conjunctions: body, soul and mind from Plato to the enlightenment. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 371-421, 2014). The focus on a medicine of the mind (Corneanu, (ms. 2013), The care of the whole man: medicine and theology in the late renaissance, 2013) is obviously connected to a 'medicalization of the soul': there was a body-soul problem in and for medicine, a sort of medicalized 'pneumatology'. Radical medicine is located somewhere in between the early forms of 'naturalization' or 'medicalization' of the soul and the pose of scientific neutrality that is characteristic of early nineteenth-century medicine (as in Cabanis, Bichat or Bernard): it is a short-lived episode. I seek to reconstruct this intellectual figure, in which mortalist, post-Cartesian and Epicurean strands intersect and sometimes come together. I suggest that medically influenced materialism in the Radical Enlightenment (e.g. in the later French cases, La Mettrie, Menuret and Diderot), is different from later, more experimentally focused and more quantitatively oriented forms of medical materialism, precisely because of its radical dimension. This radical medicine often insists on vitality, as opposed to "anatomie cadaverique": it is vital and hedonistic, a medicine concerned with maintaining bodily pleasure

Chemical Evolution of Dwarf Spheroidal and Blue Compact Galaxies

We studied the chemical evolution of Dwarf Spheroidal (dSph) and Blue Compact Galaxies (BCGs) by means of comparison between the predictions of chemical evolution models and several observed abundance ratios. Detailed models with up to date nucleosynthesis taking into account the role played by supernovae of different types (II, Ia) were developed for both types of galaxies allowing us to follow the evolution of several chemical elements. The models are specified by the prescriptions of the star formation (SF) and galactic wind efficiencies chosen to reproduce the main features of these galaxies. We also investigated a possible connection in the evolution of dSph and BCGs and compared the predictions of the models to the abundance ratios observed in Damped Lyman alpha Systems (DLAs). The main conclusions are: i) the observed distribution of [alpha/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] in dSph is mainly a result of the SF rate coupled with the wind efficiency; ii) a low SF efficiency and a high wind efficiency are required to reproduce the observational data for dSph; iii) the low gas content of these galaxies is the result of the combined action of gas consumption by SF and gas removal by galactic winds; iv) the BCGs abundance ratios are reproduced by models with 2 to 7 bursts of SF with low efficiencies ; v) the low values of N/O observed in BCGs are the natural result of a bursting SF; vi) a connection between dSph and BCGs in an unified evolutionary scenario is unlikely; vii) the models for the dSph and BCGs imply different formation scenarios for the DLAs; viii) a suitable amount of primary N produced in massive stars can be perhaps an explanation for the low plateau in the [N/$\alpha$] distribution observed in DLAs, if real.Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

UVUDF: Ultraviolet Imaging of the Hubble Ultradeep Field with Wide-field Camera 3

We present an overview of a 90-orbit Hubble Space Telescope treasury program to obtain near ultraviolet imaging of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field using the Wide Field Camera 3 UVIS detector with the F225W, F275W, and F336W filters. This survey is designed to: (i) Investigate the episode of peak star formation activity in galaxies at 1<z<2.5; (ii) Probe the evolution of massive galaxies by resolving sub-galactic units (clumps); (iii) Examine the escape fraction of ionizing radiation from galaxies at z~2-3; (iv) Greatly improve the reliability of photometric redshift estimates; and (v) Measure the star formation rate efficiency of neutral atomic-dominated hydrogen gas at z~1-3. In this overview paper, we describe the survey details and data reduction challenges, including both the necessity of specialized calibrations and the effects of charge transfer inefficiency. We provide a stark demonstration of the effects of charge transfer inefficiency on resultant data products, which when uncorrected, result in uncertain photometry, elongation of morphology in the readout direction, and loss of faint sources far from the readout. We agree with the STScI recommendation that future UVIS observations that require very sensitive measurements use the instrument's capability to add background light through a "post-flash". Preliminary results on number counts of UV-selected galaxies and morphology of galaxies at z~1 are presented. We find that the number density of UV dropouts at redshifts 1.7, 2.1, and 2.7 is largely consistent with the number predicted by published luminosity functions. We also confirm that the image mosaics have sufficient sensitivity and resolution to support the analysis of the evolution of star-forming clumps, reaching 28-29th magnitude depth at 5 sigma in a 0.2 arcsecond radius aperture depending on filter and observing epoch.Comment: Accepted A

The material soul: Strategies for naturalising the soul in an early modern epicurean context

We usually portray the early modern period as one characterised by the ‘birth of subjectivity’ with Luther and Descartes as two alternate representatives of this radical break with the past, each ushering in the new era in which ‘I’ am the locus of judgements about the world. A sub-narrative called ‘the mind-body problem’ recounts how Cartesian dualism, responding to the new promise of a mechanistic science of nature, “split off” the world of the soul/mind/self from the world of extended, physical substance—a split which has preoccupied the philosophy of mind up until the present day. We would like to call attention to a different constellation of texts—neither a robust ‘tradition’ nor an isolated ‘episode’, somewhere in between—which have in common their indebtedness to, and promotion of an embodied, Epicurean approach to the soul. These texts follow the evocative hint given in Lucretius’ De rerum natura that ‘the soul is to the body as scent is to incense’ (in an anonymous early modern French version). They neither assert the autonomy of the soul, nor the dualism of body and soul, nor again a sheer physicalism in which ‘intentional’ properties are reduced to the basic properties of matter. Rather, to borrow the title of one of these treatises (L’Âme Matérielle), they seek to articulate the concept of a material soul. We reconstruct the intellectual development of a corporeal, mortal and ultimately material soul, in between medicine, natural philosophy and metaphysics, including discussions of Malebranche and Willis, but focusing primarily on texts including the 1675 Discours anatomiques by the Epicurean physician Guillaume Lamy; the anonymous manuscript from circa 1725 entitled L’Âme Matérielle, which is essentially a compendium of texts from the later seventeenth century (Malebranche, Bayle) along with excerpts from Lucretius; and materialist writings such Julien Offray de La Mettrie’s L’Homme-Machine (1748), in order to articulate this concept of a ‘material soul’ with its implications for notions of embodiment, materialism and selfhood

Observations of glyoxal and formaldehyde as metrics for the anthropogenic impact on rural photochemistry

We present simultaneous fast, in-situ measurements of formaldehyde and glyoxal from two rural campaigns, BEARPEX 2009 and BEACHON-ROCS, both located in Pinus Ponderosa forests with emissions dominated by biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Despite considerable variability in the formaldehyde and glyoxal concentrations, the ratio of glyoxal to formaldehyde, R&lt;sub&gt;GF&lt;/sub&gt;, displayed a very regular diurnal cycle over nearly 2 weeks of measurements. The only deviations in R&lt;sub&gt;GF&lt;/sub&gt; were toward higher values and were the result of a biomass burning event during BEARPEX 2009 and very fresh anthropogenic influence during BEACHON-ROCS. Other rapid changes in glyoxal and formaldehyde concentrations have hardly any affect on R&lt;sub&gt;GF&lt;/sub&gt; and could reflect transitions between low and high NO regimes. The trend of increased R&lt;sub&gt;GF&lt;/sub&gt; from both anthropogenic reactive VOC mixtures and biomass burning compared to biogenic reactive VOC mixtures is robust due to the short timescales over which the observed changes in R&lt;sub&gt;GF&lt;/sub&gt; occurred. Satellite retrievals, which suggest higher R&lt;sub&gt;GF&lt;/sub&gt; for biogenic areas, are in contrast to our observed trends. It remains important to address this discrepancy, especially in view of the importance of satellite retrievals and in situ measurements for model comparison. In addition, we propose that R&lt;sub&gt;GF&lt;/sub&gt; represents a useful metric for biogenic or anthropogenic reactive VOC mixtures and, in combination with absolute concentrations of glyoxal and formaldehyde, furthermore represents a useful metric for the extent of anthropogenic influence on overall reactive VOC processing via NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt;. In particular, R&lt;sub&gt;GF&lt;/sub&gt; yields information about not simply the VOCs dominating reactivity in an airmass, but the VOC processing itself that is directly coupled to ozone and secondary organic aerosol production

Missing peroxy radical sources within a summertime ponderosa pine forest

Organic peroxy (RO₂) and hydroperoxy (HO₂) radicals are key intermediates in the photochemical processes that generate ozone, secondary organic aerosol and reactive nitrogen reservoirs throughout the troposphere. In regions with ample biogenic hydrocarbons, the richness and complexity of peroxy radical chemistry presents a significant challenge to current-generation models, especially given the scarcity of measurements in such environments. We present peroxy radical observations acquired within a ponderosa pine forest during the summer 2010 Bio-hydro-atmosphere interactions of Energy, Aerosols, Carbon, H₂O, Organics and Nitrogen – Rocky Mountain Organic Carbon Study (BEACHON-ROCS). Total peroxy radical mixing ratios reach as high as 180 pptv (parts per trillion by volume) and are among the highest yet recorded. Using the comprehensive measurement suite to constrain a near-explicit 0-D box model, we investigate the sources, sinks and distribution of peroxy radicals below the forest canopy. The base chemical mechanism underestimates total peroxy radicals by as much as a factor of 3. Since primary reaction partners for peroxy radicals are either measured (NO) or underpredicted (HO₂ and RO₂, i.e., self-reaction), missing sources are the most likely explanation for this result. A close comparison of model output with observations reveals at least two distinct source signatures. The first missing source, characterized by a sharp midday maximum and a strong dependence on solar radiation, is consistent with photolytic production of HO₂. The diel profile of the second missing source peaks in the afternoon and suggests a process that generates RO₂ independently of sun-driven photochemistry, such as ozonolysis of reactive hydrocarbons. The maximum magnitudes of these missing sources (~120 and 50 pptv min⁻¹, respectively) are consistent with previous observations alluding to unexpectedly intense oxidation within forests. We conclude that a similar mechanism may underlie many such observations

Gas Accretion and Galactic Chemical Evolution: Theory and Observations

This chapter reviews how galactic inflows influence galaxy metallicity. The goal is to discuss predictions from theoretical models, but particular emphasis is placed on the insights that result from using models to interpret observations. Even as the classical G-dwarf problem endures in the latest round of observational confirmation, a rich and tantalizing new phenomenology of relationships between $M_*$, $Z$, SFR, and gas fraction is emerging both in observations and in theoretical models. A consensus interpretation is emerging in which star-forming galaxies do most of their growing in a quiescent way that balances gas inflows and gas processing, and metal dilution with enrichment. Models that explicitly invoke this idea via equilibrium conditions can be used to infer inflow rates from observations, while models that do not assume equilibrium growth tend to recover it self-consistently. Mergers are an overall subdominant mechanism for delivering fresh gas to galaxies, but they trigger radial flows of previously-accreted gas that flatten radial gas-phase metallicity gradients and temporarily suppress central metallicities. Radial gradients are generically expected to be steep at early times and then flattened by mergers and enriched inflows of recycled gas at late times. However, further theoretical work is required in order to understand how to interpret observations. Likewise, more observational work is needed in order to understand how metallicity gradients evolve to high redshifts.Comment: Invited review to appear in Gas Accretion onto Galaxies, Astrophysics and Space Science Library, eds. A. J. Fox & R. Dav\'e, to be published by Springer. 29 pages, 2 figure