Associations Between Cannabis Use, Medication Status And Panic-Anxiety Disorder Symptoms Among Us Adults

The existing body of literature focuses on the onset of panic disorders or other side effects as an association with cannabis use, but does little to address how possible concomitant cannabis use affects symptom presentation in already-diagnosed patients. The present project aims to take a closer look at adults with a lifetime history of DSM-5 diagnosed anxiety disorders, their prescribed (non-cannabis) medication use, cannabis use frequency, and associated symptom severity. In general, we find that cannabis use is associated with higher panic-anxiety symptom severity across panic disorder without agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and people with combined anxious-distress diagnoses, after controlling for prescription medication status and professional help seeking. However, the difference between users and non-users is often small and not necessarily clinically relevant: only 1 or 2 symptoms. Worth noting is that we found no dose-response relationship for frequency of cannabis use. Being an infrequent user is not significantly different than being a daily user in terms of unique symptom presentation. This means that increasingly higher cannabis use does not necessarily induce increasingly more severe anxiety or distress. Rather, it seems that once an individual’s cannabis use crosses over a certain threshold, symptom presentation increases. For some disorders, this is an all-or-none phenomenon; any cannabis use is associated with more severe symptoms than staying abstinent. For others, only daily users present with higher symptoms than non-users. The sole divergence to this conclusion is that panic without agoraphobia patients who use infrequently seem to have more severe symptoms than non-users and daily users

Positive Connection Leads to Student Success

This study focuses on the impact of positive adult connections on high school students’ success. The data is from of one southern Maine high school with a population of 1,050 students. The data includes overall school-wide results of student connectedness, as well as in-depth results from nine student interviews. The researcher’s intent was to demonstrate the need for continued mentoring efforts for high school students. It does appear from this study that adult mentoring programs have a positive effect on student success. The study also indicates that further research regarding the impact of student mentoring programs in high schools is warranted and could be used to help refine or strengthen such programs. The Windham High School administration team is interested in bettering the current advisory program. The data from this study will help inform such improvements. Dedicatio

Courses for Horses, The In-Side Track, Part II

At the 2013 NBEA conference we introduced and presented our paper “Courses for Horses, Making Change Stick in the Workplace” and we laid out the framework for our systemic cybernetically informed process model to enable organizations to achieve second order change (Alanson, 1971) or “change that sticks”. We also addressed issues of language (Koestler, 1979) and currency (Llopis, 2012)

The Trump Branding Machine

The 2016 presidential election is like no other. The Donald Trump campaign has thrown all traditional and conventional wisdom of campaigning out of the window. The use of social media and creation of special events drives the Donald Trump branding machine – with little funding from the usual sources – one important one being the GOP coffers. Although we have had celebrity leaders in politics the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and even a president, Ronald Regan – we have never seen such a blatant celebrity approach to seeking the presidency of the United States. An estimated $3 billion worth of media coverage without an advertising dollar spent tells us we have something to learn from the Trump branding machine. (Schroeder, 2016

Courses for Horses: A Systematic Approach to Making Change Stick in the Workplace

In this paper, we will argue that systems theory is more accessible and acceptable in the development and sustaining of change in the workplace. Consideration and attention must be given to the importance of finding a common language and using the same currency

The Branding of Fake News and its Economic Consequences

In our 2016 Northeast Business and Economics Association paper, “The Trump Branding Machine,” we pointed out that the Trump Presidential campaign was unlike any we have ever witnessed. Donald Trump is now the President of the United States of America. This paper examines some of the extra and unusual dimensions he brings to the office of the Presidency, the White House and the public consciousness. (Vitale/Sutcliffe, 2016) Trump’s Presidency has raised the level of political awareness – whether it is dividing or unifying. These conversations point to heightened levels of consciousness as it relates to political discourse within industry, classroom, and just about everywhere else

How the Internet Ate the World!

We often think of branding in association with products, personalities and organizations. And of course the internet is one of the major tools used to achieve this. The internet and social media have opened up a whole universe of applications. And already the critics are lining up to remind us that there is sinister potential in the monolithic wealth it has created. So much so some believe that this phenomenon is going to devour the world! Our paper looks at this from a number of different perspectives and we believe there is some real potential here to go beyond the usual orthodoxies and consider how it may well be useful. We seldom think of the value of branding in association to concepts like immigration. Whilst we mostly believe that the digital world of the internet is a powerful and useful resource to aid and support many endeavors, we seldom think of how consuming and potentially negative these applications can be

Determinants of General Practitioners' Wages in England

We analyse the determinants of annual net income and wages (annual net income/hours) of general practitioners (GPs) using a unique, anonymised, non-disclosive dataset derived from tax returns for 21,657 GPs in England for the financial year 2002/3. The average GP had a gross income of £189,300, incurred expenses of £115,600, and earned an annual net income of £73,700. The mean wage was £35 per hour. Net income and wages depended on gender, experience, list size, partnership size, whether or not the GP worked in a dispensing practice, whether or not they worked in a Primary Medical Service (PMS) practice, and the characteristics of the local population (limiting long term illness rate, proportion from ethnic minorities, population density, Index of Multiple Deprivation 2000). The findings have implications for discrimination by GP gender and country of qualification, economies of scale by practice size, incentives for competition for patients, compensating differentials for local population characteristics, and the attractiveness of PMS versus General Medical Services contracts.Physician, family. General practitioner. Income. Wages. Contract.

Modified expression of alternative oxidase in transgenic tomato and petunia affects the level of tomato spotted wilt virus resistance

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Tomato spotted wilt virus </it>(TSWV) has a very wide host range, and is transmitted in a persistent manner by several species of thrips. These characteristics make this virus difficult to control. We show here that the over-expression of the mitochondrial alternative oxidase (AOX) in tomato and petunia is related to TSWV resistance.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The open reading frame and full-length sequence of the tomato AOX gene <it>LeAox1au </it>were cloned and introduced into tomato 'Healani' and petunia 'Sheer Madness' using <it>Agrobacterium</it>-mediated transformation. Highly expressed AOX transgenic tomato and petunia plants were selfed and transgenic R1 seedlings from 10 tomato lines and 12 petunia lines were used for bioassay. For each assayed line, 22 to 32 tomato R1 progeny in three replications and 39 to 128 petunia progeny in 13 replications were challenged with TSWV. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays showed that the TSWV levels in transgenic tomato line FKT4-1 was significantly lower than that of wild-type controls after challenge with TSWV. In addition, transgenic petunia line FKP10 showed significantly less lesion number and smaller lesion size than non-transgenic controls after inoculation by TSWV.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In all assayed transgenic tomato lines, a higher percentage of transgenic progeny had lower TSWV levels than non-transgenic plants after challenge with TSWV, and the significantly increased resistant levels of tomato and petunia lines identified in this study indicate that altered expression levels of AOX in tomato and petunia can affect the levels of TSWV resistance.</p

Time Under the Curve: Assessing the Impact of Regional Lead Treatment Center Home Visit on the Length of Exposure in Lead Poisoned Children

A high proportion of Connecticut residents are at risk of health effects due to lead exposure, especially children under the age of six. The Yale Regional Lead Treatment Center (YRLTC) assists families of children with blood lead levels (BLL) exceeding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maximum BLL of 5 µg/dL. YRLTC incorporates home visits of lead-exposed children living in Southern Connecticut to mitigate lead poisoning by emphasizing public health initiatives and social work, rather than using a clinic-only approach. This project aimed to evaluate the merits of this new interdisciplinary approach and its tangible effects on health outcomes. Key informant interviews provided perspectives on the value and themes of home visits. Questions focused on physiological measures of lead poisoning and cognitive development, patient interactions during home visits as well as legal, and logistical challenges to lead abatement. The team also shadowed home visits in order to understand the intervention.https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ysph_pbchrr/1029/thumbnail.jp