Ambulatory assessment of physiological arousal, emotion, and alcohol use

Research examining whether negative affect leads to drinking has produced mixed results (Greeley and Oei, 1999; Sher and Grekin, 2007). The current project enlisted participants (n=43) oversampled for affective instability, arguably making them at higher risk for negative affect-driven alcohol consumption. The goals of this study were to 1) validate an ambulatory device for measuring electrodermal activity (EDA) and to 2) examine the relations between emotion, EDA, and alcohol use in real-time. Multiple self-reports of emotion, alcohol use, and behavior were obtained from participants each day over the course of one week using electronic diaries. EDA was assessed continuously during waking hours. The results suggested that ambulatory measurement of EDA is feasible, and agreement between ambulatory measures and traditional laboratory measures was moderate to high for number of skin conductance responses per minute. Skin conductance level was less consistent across measures. With regard to ambulatory findings, high negative affect and high arousal states during the day were generally related to decreased likelihood of same-day drinking and decreased estimated blood alcohol concentration, while positive affect was related to increased likelihood of drinking. Hostility and number of skin conductance responses interacted, such that low hostility and low arousal was related to greater amounts of alcohol consumed. In sum, negative affect and arousal were related to alcohol use in real-time, but effects were small and both were generally protective against alcohol consumption at the day-level. This study helps to clarify the role of arousal in affect-related drinking, while also adding to accumulating evidence that suggests negative affect-related drinking may not be an immediate coping response. Positive-affect drinking may be most relevant in early stages of alcohol use, even in an emotionally dysregulated sample

Beyond pain management: A primer for providing quality end-of-life care

Providing excellent care for a dying patient is something all patients deserve. Hospices and palliative care centers exist in many areas to aid primary care physicians and patients through this difficult time. It is important to remember that most patients want to prepare for death, if at all possible. Everyone does this in his or her own way, but oftentimes concern about pain and symptom management interfere with this very involved and valuable process. Being prepared to treat these symptoms as well as addressing your patient\u27s emotional needs is imperative. Referral to a hospice, if possible, will only strengthen the support available to the patient, the family, and you, the primary care physician. In the end, there is much that we have to offer a dying patient. Efforts should not stop because the illness cannot be cured. So much can happen to someone in the window of time between terminal diagnosis and death. Making this period one in which a person is as mentally clear, physically comfortable, and symptom free for as long as possible is a goal that is worthy of our efforts

NASA Space Biology Plant Research for 2010-2020

The U.S. National Research Council (NRC) recently published "Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era" (http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record id=13048), and NASA completed a Space Biology Science Plan to develop a strategy for implementing its recommendations ( http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/library/esmd documents.html). The most important recommendations of the NRC report on plant biology in space were that NASA should: (1) investigate the roles of microbial-plant systems in long-term bioregenerative life support systems, and (2) establish a robust spaceflight program of research analyzing plant growth and physiological responses to the multiple stimuli encountered in spaceflight environments. These efforts should take advantage of recently emerged analytical technologies (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) and apply modern cellular and molecular approaches in the development of a vigorous flight-based and ground-based research program. This talk will describe NASA's strategy and plans for implementing these NRC Plant Space Biology recommendations. New research capabilities for Plant Biology, optimized by providing state-of-the-art automated technology and analytical techniques to maximize scientific return, will be described. Flight experiments will use the most appropriate platform to achieve science results (e.g., ISS, free flyers, sub-orbital flights) and NASA will work closely with its international partners and other U.S. agencies to achieve its objectives. One of NASA's highest priorities in Space Biology is the development research capabilities for use on the International Space Station and other flight platforms for studying multiple generations of large plants. NASA will issue recurring NASA Research Announcements (NRAs) that include a rapid turn-around model to more fully engage the biology community in designing experiments to respond to the NRC recommendations. In doing so, NASA's Space Biology research will optimize ISS research utilization, develop and demonstrate technology and hardware that will enable new science, and contribute to the base of fundamental knowledge that will facilitate development of new tools for human space exploration and Earth applications. By taking these steps, NASA will energize the Space Biology user community and advance our knowledge of the effect of the space flight environment on living systems

Vestibular afferent responses to linear accelerations in the alert squirrel monkey

The spontaneous activity of 40 otolith afferents and 44 canal afferents was recorded in 4 alert, intact squirrel monkeys. Polarization vectors and response properties of otolith afferents were determined during static re-orientations relative to gravity and during Earth-horizontal, sinusoidal, linear oscillations. Canal afferents were tested for sensitivity to linear accelerations. For regular otolith afferents, a significant correlation between upright discharge rate and sensitivity to dynamic acceleration in the horizontal plane was observed. This correlation was not present in irregular units. The sensitivity of otolith afferents to both static tilts and dynamic linear acceleration was much greater in irregularly discharging units than in regularly discharging units. The spontaneous activity and static and dynamic response properties of regularly discharging otolith afferents were similar to those reported in barbiturate-anesthetized squirrel monkeys. Irregular afferents also had similar dynamic response properties when compared to anesthetized monkeys. However, this sample of irregular afferents in alert animals had higher resting discharge rates and greater sensitivity to static tilts. The majority of otolith polarization vectors were oriented near the horizontal in the plane of the utricular maculae; however, directions of maximum sensitivity were different during dynamic and static testing. Canal afferents were not sensitive to static tilts or linear oscillations of the head

GeneLab for ISLSWG Partner Use

GeneLab Strategic Plan goals for the GeneLab project for the International Space Life Science Working Group

A new method for improving Wi-Fi based indoor positioning accuracy

Wi-Fi and smartphone based positioning technologies are play-ing a more and more important role in Location Based Service (LBS) indus-tries due to the rapid development of the smartphone market. However, the low positioning accuracy of these technologies is still an issue for indoor positioning. To address this problem, a new method for improving the in-door positioning accuracy was developed. The new method initially used the Nearest Neighbor (NN) algorithm of the fingerprinting method to iden-tify the initial position estimate of the smartphone user. Then two distance correction values in two roughly perpendicular directions were calculated by the pass loss model based on the two signal strength indicator (RSSI) values observed. The errors from the path loss model were eliminated through differencing two model-derived distances from the same access point. The new method was tested and the results were compared and as-sessed against that of the commercial Ekahau RTLS system and the NN algorithm. The preliminary results showed that the positioning accuracy has been improved consistently after the new method was applied and the root mean square accuracy was improved to 3.4 m from 3.8 m of the NN algorithm

A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial of \u3cem\u3eN\u3c/em\u3e-Acetylcysteine for Cannabis Use Disorder in Adults

Background—Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is a prevalent and impairing condition, and established psychosocial treatments convey limited efficacy. In light of recent findings supporting the efficacy of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for CUD in adolescents, the objective of this trial was to evaluate its efficacy in adults. Methods—In a 12-week double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial, treatment-seeking adults ages 18–50 with CUD (N=302), enrolled across six National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network-affiliated clinical sites, were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to a 12-week course of NAC 1200 mg (n=153) or placebo (n=149) twice daily. All participants received contingency management (CM) and medical management. The primary efficacy measure was the odds of negative urine cannabinoid tests during treatment, compared between NAC and placebo participants. Results—There was not statistically significant evidence that the NAC and placebo groups differed in cannabis abstinence (odds ratio = 1.00, 95% confidence interval 0.63 – 1.59; p=0.984). Overall, 22.3% of urine cannabinoid tests in the NAC group were negative, compared with 22.4% in the placebo group. Many participants were medication non-adherent; exploratory analysis within medication-adherent subgroups revealed no significant differential abstinence outcomes by treatment group. Conclusions—In contrast with prior findings in adolescents, there is no evidence that NAC 1200 mg twice daily plus CM is differentially efficacious for CUD in adults when compared to placebo plus CM. This discrepant finding between adolescents and adults with CUD may have been influenced by differences in development, cannabis use profiles, responses to embedded behavioral treatment, medication adherence, and other factors