Preventing Post - Treatment Relapse among African American Adolescents and Young Adult Marijuana Users through Effective Treatment Interventions: A Proposed Intervention for Metro-Atlanta

INTRODUCTION: Marijuana use, although illegal in the majority of states, is increasingly becoming acceptable for use in the United States. There are dangerous public health consequences associated with marijuana use—including: impaired driving, loss of productivity in workplaces and school settings, as well as mental health impacts. In Atlanta, the majority of residents (54.0%) are African American. Emergency room use is double for African American Fulton County residents compared to their Caucasian counterparts and approximately 1/5 of the total population receiving public health treatment identify marijuana as the primary drug of use, with 57% of those being African Americans. Despite these statistics, the availability of treatment and prevention programs targeting African Americans using marijuana is negligible.AIM: The purpose of this study is to synthesize evidence-based approaches to substance use treatment so that effective components of previous research can be incorporated into an innovative marijuana prevention program to increase post-treatment abstinence targeting a segment of the population that has not been a significant focus in intervention research. METHODS: A review of scientific literature was conducted to identify and appraise evidence based approaches to substance use among young adults. First, the student researcher examined programs targeting marijuana use. Second, the search was expanded to substance use in general. The student researcher identified the population, intervention, control arm, and outcomes of various studies focusing on substance use prevention in a variety of settings. With this appraisal, the most effective components are suggested for a marijuana specific program which could be offered to African-American young adults, as no current programs in Georgia were found. RESULTS: Substance abuse intervention approaches targeting young adult populations were identified. Programs are delivered in a variety of settings: family, school, and community. Evidence supports that cognitive behavioral training, motivational enhancement training, and contingency management are the most effective approaches targeting substance use among young adults. A program that integrates components of each approach would be ideal for targeting African American young adults using marijuana in Metro-Atlanta and assisting them to maintain abstinence post-treatment. DISCUSSION: The results from this study emphasize key program elements that can address marijuana addiction among African American young adults in Metro-Atlanta. As marijuana acceptance increases, the need for prevention programs becomes more urgent. This study’s results can assist program planners in understanding the most strategic interventions that would optimize return on investment when addressing a largely silent public health threat: marijuana use among Africa American young adults in Metro-Atlanta

Parents....an Invaluable Link to Student Success

Research demonstrates the strong correlation between parental involvement and student achievement. This research, which involves studies that highlight the outcomes of parental involvement, will be presented. In addition, examples of parental involvement from tiers 1, 2, and 3 in the various PBIS systems in northwest Georgia will be given. Haralson County Schools will provide specific examples on how they have included not only parents, but also community stakeholders in their quest to increase participation. They will discuss specific strategies on how to engage parent/community stakeholders on a limited budget. Participants will walk away with ideas and strategies that have been successful in seven PBIS systems in northwest Georgia

A family of proteins with gamma-adaptin and VHS domains that facilitate trafficking between the trans-Golgi network and the vacuole/lysosome.

We have cloned and characterized members of a novel family of proteins, the GGAs. These proteins contain an NH(2)-terminal VHS domain, one or two coiled-coil domains, and a COOH-terminal domain homologous to the COOH-terminal "ear" domain of gamma-adaptin. However, unlike gamma-adaptin, the GGAs are not associated with clathrin-coated vesicles or with any of the components of the AP-1 complex. GGA1 and GGA2 are also not associated with each other, although they colocalize on perinuclear membranes. Immunogold EM shows that these membranes correspond to trans elements of the Golgi stack and the TGN. GST pulldown experiments indicate that the GGA COOH-terminal domains bind to a subset of the proteins that bind to the gamma-adaptin COOH-terminal domain. In yeast there are two GGA genes. Deleting both of these genes results in missorting of the vacuolar enzyme carboxypeptidase Y, and the cells also have a defective vacuolar morphology phenotype. These results indicate that the function of the GGAs is to facilitate the trafficking of proteins between the TGN and the vacuole, or its mammalian equivalent, the lysosome

Exponentially Increasing Incidences of Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma in Europe Correlate with Low Personal Annual UV Doses and Suggests 2 Major Risk Factors

For several decades the incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) steadily increased in fair-skinned, indoor-working people around the world. Scientists think poor tanning ability resulting in sunburns initiate CMM, but they do not understand why the incidence continues to increase despite the increased use of sunscreens and formulations offering more protection. This paradox, along with lower incidences of CMM in outdoor workers, although they have significantly higher annual UV doses than indoor workers have, perplexes scientists. We found a temporal exponential increase in the CMM incidence indicating second-order reaction kinetics revealing the existence of 2 major risk factors. From epidemiology studies, we know one major risk factor for getting CMM is poor tanning ability and we now propose the other major risk factor may be the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) because clinicians find β HPVs in over half the biopsies. Moreover, we uncovered yet another paradox; the increasing CMM incidences significantly correlate with decreasing personal annual UV dose, a proxy for low vitamin D3 levels. We also discovered the incidence of CMM significantly increased with decreasing personal annual UV dose from 1960, when it was almost insignificant, to 2000. UV and other DNA-damaging agents can activate viruses, and UV-induced cytokines can hide HPV from immune surveillance, which may explain why CMM also occurs in anatomical locations where the sun does not shine. Thus, we propose the 2 major risk factors for getting CMM are intermittent UV exposures that result in low cutaneous levels of vitamin D3 and possibly viral infection

Role of clathrin in dense core vesicle biogenesis

The dense-core vesicles (DCVs) of neuroendocrine cells are a rich source of bioactive molecules such as peptides, hormones, and neurotransmitters, but relatively little is known about how they are formed. Using fractionation profiling, a method that combines subcellular fractionation with mass spectrometry, we identified ∼1200 proteins in PC12 cell vesicle-enriched fractions, with DCV-associated proteins showing distinct profiles from proteins associated with other types of vesicles. To investigate the role of clathrin in DCV biogenesis, we stably transduced PC12 cells with an inducible shRNA targeting clathrin heavy chain, resulting in ∼85% protein loss. DCVs could still be observed in the cells by electron microscopy, but mature profiles were ∼4-fold less abundant than in mock-treated cells. By quantitative mass spectrometry, DCV-associated proteins were found to be reduced ∼2-fold in clathrin-depleted cells as a whole and ∼5-fold in vesicle-enriched fractions. Our combined datasets enabled us to identify new candidate DCV components. Secretion assays revealed that clathrin depletion causes a near-complete block in secretagogue-induced exocytosis. Taken together, our data indicate that clathrin has a function in DCV biogenesis beyond its established role in removing unwanted proteins from the immature vesicle.This work was funded by grants from the Wellcome Trust: 086598 (to M.S.R.), 100140 (Wellcome Trust Strategic Award), and 093026 (for the FEI Tecnai G2 Spirit BioTWIN transmission EM); and by a National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases grant (R01DK102496) to A.B

Neighborhoods of trees in circular orderings

In phylogenetics, a common strategy used to construct an evolutionary tree for a set of species X is to search in the space of all such trees for one that optimizes some given score function (such as the minimum evolution, parsimony or likelihood score). As this can be computationally intensive, it was recently proposed to restrict such searches to the set of all those trees that are compatible with some circular ordering of the set X. To inform the design of efficient algorithms to perform such searches, it is therefore of interest to find bounds for the number of trees compatible with a fixed ordering in the neighborhood of a tree that is determined by certain tree operations commonly used to search for trees: the nearest neighbor interchange (nni), the subtree prune and regraft (spr) and the tree bisection and reconnection (tbr) operations. We show that the size of such a neighborhood of a binary tree associated with the nni operation is independent of the tree’s topology, but that this is not the case for the spr and tbr operations. We also give tight upper and lower bounds for the size of the neighborhood of a binary tree for the spr and tbr operations and characterize those trees for which these bounds are attained

How do acupuncture practitioners use pattern identification – An international web-based survey?

© 2019 Elsevier GmbH Introduction: Training and practice of Traditional East Asian Medicine (TEAM) varies globally although similar diagnostic methods are used based on patients presenting signs and symptoms. These methods assist in determining disease patterns and treatment principles. The use of diagnostic principles and pattern identification (PI) was explored in this survey of TEAM practice across different countries. Methods: A web-based survey was disseminated to acupuncture professional membership organisations in UK, Australia, Italy, Korea and China using a Survey Monkey link between December 2015 and September 2017. Results: The 618 fully completed responses were available for comparison (UK 66, Australia 106, China 87, Italy 226, Korea 133). Demographic characteristics varied; UK practitioners were more likely to be female (71%) compared to the other countries (51-59%), Koreans tended to be under 40yrs (80%), compared to elsewhere (14-27%). Korean, UK and Australian respondents had fewer practitioners with biomedical training, 95% of the Italians had a biomedical qualification. TEAM diagnostic methods were more likely practised in the UK and Australian samples ( > 90%) but were lowest for the Italian sample (78%). TCM differential diagnosis was the predominant type of PI. PI was rated essential by 85% of Chinese practitioners, versus 32% Koreans, 45% Italians, 67% UK and 68% Australian respondents. Conclusion: This first international survey about acupuncturists use of PI demonstrated wide variation. The sample was limited to certain countries and relied on dissemination by specific professional bodies and participants completing an electronic questionnaire which may have affected responses but provides a platform for future studies

Giant Cell Arteritis and COVID-19: Similarities and Discriminators. A Systematic Literature Review

OBJECTIVE: To identify shared and distinct features of giant cell arteritis (GCA) and Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to reduce diagnostic error that could cause delays in correct treatment. METHODS: Two systematic literature reviews determined the frequency of clinical features of GCA and COVID-19 in published reports. Frequencies in each disease were summarised using median and range. RESULTS: Headache was common in GCA but was also observed in COVID-19 (66% for GCA, 10% for COVID-19). Jaw claudication or visual loss (43% and 26% in GCA, respectively) were not reported in COVID-19. Both diseases featured fatigue (38% for GCA, 43% for COVID-19) and elevated inflammatory markers (CRP elevated in 100% of GCA, 66% of COVID-19), but platelet count was elevated in 47% of GCA but 4% of COVID-19. Cough and fever were commonly reported in COVID-19 and less frequently in GCA (cough, 63% for COVID-19 versus 12% for GCA; fever, 83% for COVID-19 versus 27% for GCA). Gastrointestinal upset was occasionally reported in COVID-19 (8%), rarely in GCA (4%). Lymphopenia was more common in COVID-19 than GCA (53% in COVID-19, 2% in GCA). Alteration of smell and taste been described in GCA but their frequency is unclear. CONCLUSION: Overlapping features of GCA and COVID-19 include headache, fever, elevated CRP and cough. Jaw claudication, visual loss, platelet count and lymphocyte count may be more discriminatory. Physicians should be aware of the possibility of diagnostic confusion. We have designed a simple checklist to aid evidence-based evaluation of patients with suspected GCA

The decay of optical emission from the Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 970228

We present the R_c band light curve of the optical transient (OT) associated with GRB970228, based on re-evaluation of existing photometry. Data obtained until April 1997 suggested a slowing down of the decay of the optical brightness. However, the HST observations in September 1997 show that the light curve of the point source is well represented by a single power law, with a ``dip'', about a week after the burst occured. The exponent of the power law decay is $\alpha$ = --1.10 $\pm$ 0.04. As the point source weakened it also became redder.Comment: 5 pages, latex, to appear in Gamma-Ray Bursts, 4-th Huntsville Symposium, eds Meegan, Preece, Koshu