1,101 research outputs found
Factors associated with alcohol reduction in harmful and hazardous drinkers following alcohol brief intervention in Scotland: a qualitative enquiry
Background: Alcohol Brief Intervention (ABI) uses a motivational counselling approach to support individuals to
reduce excessive alcohol consumption. There is growing evidence on ABIâs use within various health care settings,
although how they work and which components enhance success is largely unknown. This paper reports on the
qualitative part of a mixed methods study. It explores enablers and barriers associated with alcohol reduction
following an ABI. It focuses on alcoholâs place within participantsâ lives and their personal perspectives on reducing
consumption. There are a number of randomised controlled trials in this field though few ABI studies have
addressed the experiences of hazardous/harmful drinkers. This study examines factors associated with alcohol
reduction in harmful/hazardous drinkers following ABI.
Methods: This qualitative study was underpinned by a realist evaluation approach and involved semistructured
interviews with ten harmful or hazardous alcohol drinkers. Participants (n = 10) were from the
intervention arm of a randomised controlled trial (n = 124). All had received ABI, a 20 min motivational
counselling interview, six months previously, and had reduced their alcohol consumption. Interviews were
recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed.
Results: Participants described their views on alcohol, itsâ place in their lives, their personal perspectives on
reducing their consumption and future aspirations.
Conclusions: The findings provide an insight into participantsâ views on alcohol, ABI, and the barriers and enablers
to change. Participants described a cost benefit analysis, with some conscious consideration of the advantages and
disadvantages of reducing intake or abstaining from alcohol. Findings suggest that, whilst hospital admission can act
as a catalyst, encouraging individuals to reflect on their alcohol consumption through ABI may consolidate this, turning
this reflective moment into action. Sustainability may be enhanced by the presence of a âsignificant otherâ who
encourages and experiences benefit. In addition having a purpose or structure with activities linked to employment
and/or social and leisure pursuits offers the potential to enhance and sustain reduced alcohol consumption.
Trial registration: Trial registration number TRN NCT00982306 September 22nd 200
Health surveillance of deployed military personnel occasionally leads to unexpected findings
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be caused by life threatening illness, such as cancer and coronary events. The study by Forbes et al. made the unexpected finding that military personnel evacuation with medical illness have similar rates of PTSD to those evacuated with combat injuries. It may be that the illness acts as a nonspecific stressor that interacts with combat exposures to increase the risk of PTSD. Conversely, the inflammatory consequence of systemic illness may augment the effects to traumatic stress and facilitate the immunological abnormalities that are now being associated with PTSD and depression. The impact of the stress on cytokine systems and their role in the onset of PTSD demands further investigation. Military personnel evacuated due to physical illness require similar screening and monitoring for the risk of PTSD to those injured who are already known to be at high risk.Alexander C McFarlan
Neural processing of criticism and positive comments from relatives in individuals with schizotypal personality traits
Objectives. High negative expressed emotion by family members towards schizophrenia patients increases the risk of subsequent relapse. The study aimed to determine whether individuals with high schizotypy (HS) and low schizotypy (LS) would differ in activation of brain areas involved in cognitive control when listening to relative criticism
Stretching the Rules: Monocentric Chromosomes with Multiple Centromere Domains
The centromere is a functional chromosome domain that is essential for faithful chromosome segregation during cell division and that can be reliably identified by the presence of the centromere-specific histone H3 variant CenH3. In monocentric chromosomes, the centromere is characterized by a single CenH3-containing region within a morphologically distinct primary constriction. This region usually spans up to a few Mbp composed mainly of centromere-specific satellite DNA common to all chromosomes of a given species. In holocentric chromosomes, there is no primary constriction; the centromere is composed of many CenH3 loci distributed along the entire length of a chromosome. Using correlative fluorescence light microscopy and high-resolution electron microscopy, we show that pea (Pisum sativum) chromosomes exhibit remarkably long primary constrictions that contain 3-5 explicit CenH3-containing regions, a novelty in centromere organization. In addition, we estimate that the size of the chromosome segment delimited by two outermost domains varies between 69 Mbp and 107 Mbp, several factors larger than any known centromere length. These domains are almost entirely composed of repetitive DNA sequences belonging to 13 distinct families of satellite DNA and one family of centromeric retrotransposons, all of which are unevenly distributed among pea chromosomes. We present the centromeres of Pisum as novel ``meta-polycentric'' functional domains. Our results demonstrate that the organization and DNA composition of functional centromere domains can be far more complex than previously thought, do not require single repetitive elements, and do not require single centromere domains in order to segregate properly. Based on these findings, we propose Pisum as a useful model for investigation of centromere architecture and the still poorly understood role of repetitive DNA in centromere evolution, determination, and function
Methamphetamine Use, Transmission Risk Behavior and Internet Use Among HIV-Infected Patients in Medical Care, San Francisco, 2008
Methamphetamine use is associated with adverse health outcomes and HIV incidence. Few studies have assessed methamphetamine use, sexual behavior and Internet use among HIV-infected patients. Surveys were administered to a sample of HIV-infected patients seeking medical care in a San Francisco county hospital and university-based clinic. In 2008, 35% of homosexual participants, 26% of heterosexual participants and 11% of female participants reported methamphetamine use in the past year. Of participants, 29% reported using the Internet to find sex partners; Internet-users versus non-Internet-users reported a higher median number of sex partners in 6Â months (4 vs. 1), were more likely to report unprotected sex (32 vs. 10%), and higher rates of methamphetamine use in the past 12Â months (48 vs. 24%). Given the association among methamphetamine use, increased sex partners and Internet use, the Internet may present a new and effective medium for interventions to reduce methamphetamine-associated sexual risk behavior
Sexual behavior and awareness of Chinese university students in transition with implied risk of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection: A cross-sectional study
BACKGROUND: The vulnerability of young people to HIV and the recent emergence of the HIV epidemic in China have made it urgent to assess and update the HIV/STD risk profile of Chinese young people. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire survey with cross-sectional design was conducted among 22,493 undergraduate students in two universities in Ningbo, China. Bivariate trend analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to compare sexual behaviors and awareness between grades. RESULTS: Of respondents, 17.6% of males and 8.6% of females reported being sexually active. Condom was reported never/rarely used by 35% of sexually active students in both genders in the previous year. Pregnancy and induced abortion had each been experienced by about 10% of sexually active female students and the female partners of male students, and about 1.5% of sexually active students of both genders reported being diagnosed with an STD. Multivariate analysis revealed that students in lower grades, compared to those in higher grades, were more likely to have become sexually active before university, to have become aware of sex before high school, and to have been exposed to pornographic media before the age of 17 years, and for sexually active respondents of both genders, to have engaged in sex without using a condom. CONCLUSION: Sexual behaviors of Chinese university students are poorly protected and sexual behaviors and awareness may have been undergoing rapid change, becoming active earlier and more risky. If this trend continues, vulnerable sexual network will grow among them that allow more expansion of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV
Potential conservation of circadian clock proteins in the phylum Nematoda as revealed by bioinformatic searches
Although several circadian rhythms have been described in C. elegans, its molecular clock remains elusive. In this work we employed a novel bioinformatic approach, applying probabilistic methodologies, to search for circadian clock proteins of several of the best studied circadian model organisms of different taxa (Mus musculus, Drosophila melanogaster, Neurospora crassa, Arabidopsis thaliana and Synechoccocus elongatus) in the proteomes of C. elegans and other members of the phylum Nematoda. With this approach we found that the Nematoda contain proteins most related to the core and accessory proteins of the insect and mammalian clocks, which provide new insights into the nematode clock and the evolution of the circadian system.Fil: Romanowski, AndrĂ©s. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Oficina de CoordinaciĂłn Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones BioquĂmicas de Buenos Aires. FundaciĂłn Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones BioquĂmicas de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y TecnologĂa. Laboratorio de CronobiologĂa; ArgentinaFil: Garavaglia, MatĂas Javier. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y TecnologĂa. Laboratorio de Ing.genĂ©tica y Biolog.molecular y Celular. Area Virus de Insectos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; ArgentinaFil: Goya, MarĂa Eugenia. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y TecnologĂa. Laboratorio de CronobiologĂa; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; ArgentinaFil: Ghiringhelli, Pablo Daniel. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y TecnologĂa. Laboratorio de Ing.genĂ©tica y Biolog.molecular y Celular. Area Virus de Insectos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; ArgentinaFil: Golombek, Diego Andres. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y TecnologĂa. Laboratorio de CronobiologĂa; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; Argentin
Automated Home-Cage Behavioural Phenotyping of Mice
Neurobehavioral analysis of mouse phenotypes requires the monitoring of mouse behavior over long
periods of time. Here, we describe a trainable computer vision system enabling the automated analysis
of complex mouse behaviors. We provide software and an extensive manually annotated video
database used for training and testing the system. Our system performs on par with human scoring, as
measured from ground-truth manual annotations of thousands of clips of freely behaving mice. As a
validation of the system, we characterized the home-cage behaviors of two standard inbred and two
non-standard mouse strains. From this data we were able to predict in a blind test the strain identity of
individual animals with high accuracy. Our video-based software will complement existing sensor
based automated approaches and enable an adaptable, comprehensive, high-throughput, fine-grained,
automated analysis of mouse behavior.McGovern Institute for Brain ResearchCalifornia Institute of Technology. Broad Fellows Program in Brain CircuitryNational Science Council (China) (TMS-094-1-A032
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