Psychosocial Determinants of Insomnia in Adolescents: Roles of Mental Health, Behavioral Health, and Social Environment

The theoretical explanation of human problems is derived from the complex interplay of psychological, social, economic, political, and physical factors. Aims: This study examined the roles of behavioral health (i.e., alcohol abuse and suicidality) and social environment (i.e., family support, school connectedness, and favorable neighborhood) and mental health [i.e., depression, anxiety, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)] in predicting insomnia in adolescents in an ecological perspective. Methods: Approximately 6445 high school students in Taiwan were administered an anonymous self-report survey. Hierarchical multiple regression was performed to examine how multidimensional social environment, behavioral health, and mental health factors were associated with insomnia in adolescents. Results: The prevalence rate of insomnia in the sample was 30%. The results indicated that alcohol abuse (β = 0.04), suicidality (β = 0.06), depression (β = 0.29), anxiety (β = 0.14), and ADHD (β = 0.11) were positively associated with insomnia (p \u3c 0.001), whereas family support (β = −0.06), school connectedness (β = −0.05), and favorable neighborhood (β = −0.10) were negatively associated with insomnia (p \u3c 0.001). Sex did not predict insomnia, but age was positively associated with insomnia (β = 0.09, p \u3c 0.001). Among all predictors of insomnia in the study, mental health factors, especially depression, play a major role on insomnia among adolescents, and is as much important as social environment factors. Conclusion: This study demonstrated how both psychosocial variables (social environment and behavioral health) and psychological symptoms were associated with insomnia in adolescents when the demographic variables (sex and age) were controlled and provided valuable information and evidence for clinicians, social workers, and health professionals who provide support to adolescents with insomnia. Applying an ecological approach in practice can aid in understanding at individual, family, school, and community levels and in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of their interactions with each other. Implications: This perspective enables practitioners in effectively treating problems and addressing the needs of the various levels, including the individual, family, school, and the broader community. Thus, prevention and intervention of insomnia in adolescents should focus on multidimensional risk and protective factors, including mental health, behavioral health, and social environment, in the context of an ecological system

Development and Validation of the Parents\u27 Perceived Self-Efficacy to Manage Children\u27s Internet Use Scale for Parents of Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Background and aims: This study developed and validated the Parents’ Perceived Self-Efficacy to Manage Children’s Internet Use Scale (PSMIS) in the parents of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methods: In total, 231 parents of children with ADHD were invited to complete the PSMIS, followed by the Chen Internet Addiction Scale and the short version of Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham, Version IV Scale – Chinese version for analyzing Internet addiction severity and ADHD symptoms, respectively. Results: The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the four-factor structure of the 18-item PSMIS. The significant difference in the levels of parents’ perceived self-efficacy between the parents of children with and without Internet addiction supported the criterion-related validity of the PSMIS. The internal consistency and 1-month test–retest reliability were acceptable. Conclusion: The results indicate that the PSMIS has acceptable validity and reliability and can be used for measuring parents’ perceived self-efficacy to manage children’s Internet use among parents of children with ADHD

Positive Example Learning for Content-Based Recommendations: A Cost-Sensitive Learning-Based Approach

Existing supervised learning techniques can support product recommendations but are ineffective in scenarios characterized by single-class learning; i.e., training samples consisted of some positive examples and a much greater number of unlabeled examples. To address the limitations inherent in existing single-class learning techniques, we develop COst-sensitive Learning-based Positive Example Learning (COLPEL), which constructs an automated classifier from a singleclass training sample. Our method employs cost-proportionate rejection sampling to derive, from unlabeled examples, a subset likely to feature negative examples, according to the respective misclassification costs. COLPEL follows a committee machine strategy, thereby constructing a set of automated classifiers used together to reduce probable biases common to a single classifier. We use customers’ book ratings from the Amazon.com Web site to evaluate COLPEL, with PNB and PEBL as benchmarks. Our results show that COLPEL outperforms both PNB and PEBL, as measured by its accuracy, positive F1 score, and negative F1 score

Crystallization of Adenylylsulfate Reductase from Desulfovibrio gigas: A Strategy Based on Controlled Protein Oligomerization

Adenylylsulfate reductase (adenosine 5′-phosphosulfate reductase, APS reductase or APSR, E.C.1.8.99.2) catalyzes the conversion of APS to sulfite in dissimilatory sulfate reduction. APSR was isolated and purified directly from massive anaerobically grown Desulfovibrio gigas, a strict anaerobe, for structure and function investigation. Oligomerization of APSR to form dimers–α_2β_2, tetramers–α_4β_4, hexamers–α_6β_6, and larger oligomers was observed during purification of the protein. Dynamic light scattering and ultracentrifugation revealed that the addition of adenosine monophosphate (AMP) or adenosine 5′-phosphosulfate (APS) disrupts the oligomerization, indicating that AMP or APS binding to the APSR dissociates the inactive hexamers into functional dimers. Treatment of APSR with β-mercaptoethanol decreased the enzyme size from a hexamer to a dimer, probably by disrupting the disulfide Cys156—Cys162 toward the C-terminus of the β-subunit. Alignment of the APSR sequences from D. gigas and A. fulgidus revealed the largest differences in this region of the β-subunit, with the D. gigas APSR containing 16 additional amino acids with the Cys156—Cys162 disulfide. Studies in a pH gradient showed that the diameter of the APSR decreased progressively with acidic pH. To crystallize the APSR for structure determination, we optimized conditions to generate a homogeneous and stable form of APSR by combining dynamic light scattering, ultracentrifugation, and electron paramagnetic resonance methods to analyze the various oligomeric states of the enzyme in varied environments

Development and validation of the Parents’ Perceived Self-Efficacy to Manage Children’s Internet Use Scale for parents of adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Background and aims This study developed and validated the Parents’ Perceived Self-Efficacy to Manage Children’s Internet Use Scale (PSMIS) in the parents of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methods In total, 231 parents of children with ADHD were invited to complete the PSMIS, followed by the Chen Internet Addiction Scale and the short version of Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham, Version IV Scale – Chinese version for analyzing Internet addiction severity and ADHD symptoms, respectively. Results The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the four-factor structure of the 18-item PSMIS. The significant difference in the levels of parents’ perceived self-efficacy between the parents of children with and without Internet addiction supported the criterion-related validity of the PSMIS. The internal consistency and 1-month test–retest reliability were acceptable. Conclusion The results indicate that the PSMIS has acceptable validity and reliability and can be used for measuring parents’ perceived self-efficacy to manage children’s Internet use among parents of children with ADHD

On existence, optimality and asymptotic stability of the Kalman filter with partially observed inputs

For linear stochastic time-varying systems, we investigate the properties of the Kalman filter with partially observed inputs. We first establish the existence condition of a general linear filter when the unknown inputs are partially observed. Then we examine the optimality of the Kalman filter with partially observed inputs. Finally, on the basis of the established existence condition and optimality result, we investigate asymptotic stability of the filter for the corresponding time-invariant systems. It is shown that the results on existence and asymptotic stability obtained in this paper provide a unified approach to accommodating a variety of filtering scenarios as its special cases, including the classical Kalman filter and state estimation with unknown inputs

Pharmacological, psychological, and non-invasive brain stimulation interventions for treating depression after stroke

Background Depression is an important morbidity associated with stroke that impacts on recovery yet often undetected or inadequately treated. This is an update and expansion of a Cochrane Review first published in 2004 and updated in 2008. Objectives Primary objective • To determine whether pharmacological therapy, non‐invasive brain stimulation, psychological therapy, or combinations of these interventions reduce the prevalence of diagnosable depression after stroke Secondary objectives • To determine whether pharmacological therapy, non‐invasive brain stimulation, psychological therapy, or combinations of these interventions reduce levels of depressive symptoms, improve physical and neurological function and health‐related quality of life, and reduce dependency after stroke • To assess the safety of and adherence to such treatments Search methods We searched the Specialised Registers of Cochrane Stroke and Cochrane Depression Anxiety and Neurosis (last searched August 2018), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; 2018, Issue 1), in the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE (1966 to August 2018), Embase (1980 to August 2018), the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Alllied Health Literature (CINAHL) (1982 to August 2018), PsycINFO (1967 to August 2018), and Web of Science (2002 to August 2018). We also searched reference lists, clinical trial registers (World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) to August 2018; ClinicalTrials.gov to August 2018), and conference proceedings, and we contacted study authors. Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials comparing (1) pharmacological interventions with placebo; (2) one of various forms of non‐invasive brain stimulation with sham stimulation or usual care; (3) one of various forms of psychological therapy with usual care and/or attention control; (4) pharmacological intervention and various forms of psychological therapy with pharmacological intervention and usual care and/or attention control; (5) non‐invasive brain stimulation and pharmacological intervention with pharmacological intervention and sham stimulation or usual care; (6) pharmacological intervention and one of various forms of psychological therapy with placebo and psychological therapy; (7) pharmacological intervention and non‐invasive brain stimulation with placebo plus non‐invasive brain stimulation; (8) non‐invasive brain stimulation and one of various forms of psychological therapy versus non‐invasive brain stimulation plus usual care and/or attention control; and (9) non‐invasive brain stimulation and one of various forms of psychological therapy versus sham brain stimulation or usual care plus psychological therapy, with the intention of treating depression after stroke. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently selected studies, assessed risk of bias, and extracted data from all included studies. We calculated mean difference (MD) or standardised mean difference (SMD) for continuous data, and risk ratio (RR) for dichotomous data, with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We assessed heterogeneity using the I² statistic and certainty of the evidence according to GRADE. Main results We included 49 trials (56 comparisons) with 3342 participants. Data were available for: (1) pharmacological interventions with placebo (with 20 pharmacological comparisons); (2) one of various forms of non‐invasive brain stimulation with sham stimulation or usual care (with eight non‐invasive brain stimulation comparisons); (3) one of various forms of psychological therapy with usual care and/or attention control (with 16 psychological therapy comparisons); (4) pharmacological intervention and various forms of psychological therapy with pharmacological intervention and usual care and/or attention control (with two comparisons); and (5) non‐invasive brain stimulation and pharmacological intervention with pharmacological intervention and sham stimulation or usual care (with 10 comparisons). We found no trials for the following comparisons: (6) pharmacological intervention and various forms of psychological therapy interventions versus placebo and psychological therapy; (7) pharmacological intervention and non‐invasive brain stimulation versus placebo plus non‐invasive brain stimulation; (8) non‐invasive brain stimulation and one of various forms of psychological therapy versus non‐invasive brain stimulation plus usual care and/or attention control; and (9) non‐invasive brain stimulation and one of various forms of psychological therapy versus sham brain stimulation or usual care plus psychological therapy. Treatment effects observed: very low‐certainty evidence from eight trials suggests that pharmacological interventions decreased the number of people meeting study criteria for depression (RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.88; 1025 participants) at end of treatment, and very low‐certainty evidence from six trials suggests that pharmacological interventions decreased the number of people with less than 50% reduction in depression scale scores at end of treatment (RR 0.47, 95% CI 0.32 to 0.69; 511 participants) compared to placebo. No trials of non‐invasive brain stimulation reported on meeting study criteria for depression at end of treatment. Only one trial of non‐invasive brain stimulation reported on the outcome <50% reduction in depression scale scores; thus, we were unable to perform a meta‐analysis for this outcome. Very low‐certainty evidence from six trials suggests that psychological therapy decreased the number of people meeting the study criteria for depression at end of treatment (RR 0.77, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.95; 521 participants) compared to usual care/attention control. No trials of combination therapies reported on the number of people meeting the study criteria for depression at end of treatment. Only one trial of combination (non‐invasive brain stimulation and pharmacological intervention) therapy reported <50% reduction in depression scale scores at end of treatment. Thus, we were unable to perform a meta‐analysis for this outcome. Five trials reported adverse events related to the central nervous system (CNS) and noted significant harm in the pharmacological interventions group (RR 1.55, 95% CI 1.12 to 2.15; 488 participants; very low‐certainty evidence). Four trials found significant gastrointestinal adverse events in the pharmacological interventions group (RR 1.62, 95% CI 1.19 to 2.19; 473 participants; very low‐certainty evidence) compared to the placebo group. No significant deaths or adverse events were found in the psychological therapy group compared to the usual care/attention control group. Non‐invasive brain stimulation interventions and combination therapies resulted in no deaths. Authors' conclusions Very low‐certainty evidence suggests that pharmacological or psychological therapies can reduce the prevalence of depression. This very low‐certainty evidence suggests that pharmacological therapy, psychological therapy, non‐invasive brain stimulation, and combined interventions can reduce depressive symptoms. Pharmacological intervention was associated with adverse events related to the CNS and the gastrointestinal tract. More research is required before recommendations can be made about the routine use of such treatments

Higgs-pair Production and Decay in Simplest Little Higgs Model

In the framework of the simplest little Higgs model (SLHM), we study the production of a pair of neutral CP-even Higgs bosons at the LHC. First, we examine the production rate and find that it can be significantly larger than the SM prediction. Then we investigate the decays of the Higgs-pair and find that for a low Higgs mass their dominant decay mode is hh->\eta\eta\eta\eta (\eta is a CP-odd scalar) while hh->b\bar{b}\eta\eta and hh->\eta\eta WW may also have sizable ratios. Finally, we comparatively study the rates of pp-> hh -> b\bar{b}\tau^+ \tau^-, pp->hh->b\bar{b}\gamma\gamma, and pp->hh->WWWW in the SLHM and the littlest Higgs models (LHT). We find that for a light Higgs, compared with the SM predictions, all the three rates can be sizably enhanced in the LHT but severely suppressed in the SLHM; while for an intermediately heavy Higgs, both the LHT and SLHM can enhance sizably the SM predictions.Comment: Version in Nucl. Phys.