Automated E-mail Messaging as a Tool for Improving Quit Rates in an Internet Smoking Cessation Intervention

Objective: The aim of this study waS to determine whether an automated e-mail messaging system that sent individually timed educational messages (ITEMs) increased the effectiveness of an INternet smoiking cessation intervention. Design: Using two consecutive series of particiapnts, the authors compared two Web-based style smoking cessation interventions a single-poin-in-time educational intervention and an enhanced intervention that also sent ITEMs timed to participants\u27 quit efforts. outcomes were compared in 199 participants receiving the one-time intervention and 286 receiving ITEMs. Measurements: Demographic factors, number of cigarettes smoked, nicotine additiction, depressive symptoms, and confidence in ability to quit were measure at entry. Twenty-four-hour quit attempts and seven-day point-prevalence of abstinence (nonrespondents assumed to smoke) were measured 30 days after each subject\u27s self-selected quit date. Results: The one-time and ITEMs groups differed in some demographics and some relapse risk factors but not in factors associated with 30-day quit rates. ITEMs appeared to increase the rate at which individuals set quit rates (97% vs. 91%, p = 0.005) and, among the respondents to follow-up quezstionnaires (n = 145), the rate of reported 24-hour quit efforts (83% vs. 54%, p = 0.001). The 30day intent-to-treat quit rates were higher in the ITEMs group: 7.5% vs. 13.6%, p - 0.035. In mulitvariate analyses controlling for differences between groups, receiving ITEMs was associated with an increase in the odds ratio for quitting of 2.6 (95% confidence interval = 1.3-5.3). Conclusion: ITEMs sent on strategic days in smokers\u27 quit efforts enhanced early success with smoking cessation relative to a single-point-in-time Web intervention. The effect appears to be mediated by ITEMs\u27 causing smokers to plan and undertake quit efforts more frequently

A Prospective Study of Religiousness and Psychological Distress among Female Survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

This prospective study examined the pathways by which religious involvement affected the postdisaster psychological functioning of women who survived Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The participants were 386 low-income, predominantly Black, single mothers. The women were enrolled in the study before the hurricane, providing a rare opportunity to document changes in mental health from before to after the storm, and to assess the protective role of religious involvement over time. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that, controlling for level of exposure to the hurricanes, pre-disaster physical health, age, and number of children, predisaster religiousness predicted higher levels of post-disaster (1) social resources and (2) optimism and sense of purpose. The latter, but not the former, was associated with better post-disaster psychological outcome. Mediation analysis confirmed the mediating role of optimism and sense of purpose

Ground Systems Development Environment (GSDE) interface requirements analysis

A set of procedural and functional requirements are presented for the interface between software development environments and software integration and test systems used for space station ground systems software. The requirements focus on the need for centralized configuration management of software as it is transitioned from development to formal, target based testing. This concludes the GSDE Interface Requirements study. A summary is presented of findings concerning the interface itself, possible interface and prototyping directions for further study, and results of the investigation of the Cronus distributed applications environment

Negative religious coping styles predict greater depressive symptoms and less life satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to identify negative religious coping methods that have an association with depressive symptoms and life satisfaction among cancer patients. This study was based on Pargament’s (1997) framework of positive and negative religious coping styles that specify how an individual makes use of religion to understand and deal with stressors. The sample included 179 predominantly White, Christian, female patients with stage II through IV cancer. We used a cross-sectional design with self-report measures to examine punishing God reappraisal and spiritual discontent as they relate to depressive symptoms and satisfaction with life. We hypothesized that both negative religious coping styles would predict greater depressive symptoms and less life satisfaction. Controlling for sex, age, education level, and family income level, a standard multiple regression showed that both punishing God reappraisal and spiritual discontent predicted greater levels of depressive symptoms (R-squared = .19, p \u3c .001); however, only punishing God reappraisal predicted less life satisfaction (R- squared = .21, p \u3c .001). These findings suggest that some types of religious coping can have a negative association with well-being among cancer patients. Therapists, nurses, and clergy members who identify patients who use negative religious coping styles may offer additional support to these patients to enhance their well-being

Barrett-Crane spin foam model from generalized BF-type action for gravity

We study a generalized action for gravity as a constrained BF theory, and its relationship with the Plebanski action. We analyse the discretization of the constraints and the spin foam quantization of the theory, showing that it leads naturally to the Barrett-Crane spin foam model for quantum gravity. Our analysis holds true in both the Euclidean and Lorentzian formulation.Comment: 15 pages, revtex; a sign corrected (area spectrum); some of these results were presented in a preliminary form in gr-qc/0103081; v2: improved presentation of the results, some changes in the text; to appear in Phys. Rev.

Reduced Sampling for Construction of Quadratic Response Surface Approximations Using Adaptive Experimental Design

The purpose of this paper is to reduce the computational complexity per step from O(n^2) to O(n) for optimization based on quadratic surrogates, where n is the number of design variables. Applying nonlinear optimization strategies directly to complex multidisciplinary systems can be prohibitively expensive when the complexity of the simulation codes is large. Increasingly, response surface approximations, and specifically quadratic approximations, are being integrated with nonlinear optimizers in order to reduce the CPU time required for the optimization of complex multidisciplinary systems. For evaluation by the optimizer, response surface approximations provide a computationally inexpensive lower fidelity representation of the system performance. The curse of dimensionality is a major drawback in the implementation of these approximations as the amount of required data grows quadratically with the number n of design variables in the problem. In this paper a novel technique to reduce the magnitude of the sampling from O(n^2) to O(n) is presented. The technique uses prior information to approximate the eigenvectors of the Hessian matrix of the response surface approximation and only requires the eigenvalues to be computed by response surface techniques. The technique is implemented in a sequential approximate optimization algorithm and applied to engineering problems of variable size and characteristics. Results demonstrate that a reduction in the data required per step from O(n^2) to O(n) points can be accomplished without significantly compromising the performance of the optimization algorithm. A reduction in the time (number of system analyses) required per step from O(n^2) to O(n) is significant, even more so as n increases. The novelty lies in how only O(n) system analyses can be used to approximate a Hessian matrix whose estimation normally requires O(n^2) system analyses

The LRRK2 Variant E193K Prevents Mitochondrial Fission Upon MPP+ Treatment by Altering LRRK2 Binding to DRP1

Mutations in leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 gene (LRRK2) are associated with familial and sporadic Parkinson\u27s disease (PD). LRRK2 is a complex protein that consists of multiple domains, including 13 putative armadillo-type repeats at the N-terminus. In this study, we analyzed the functional and molecular consequences of a novel variant, E193K, identified in an Italian family. E193K substitution does not influence LRRK2 kinase activity. Instead it affects LRRK2 biochemical properties, such as phosphorylation at Ser935 and affinity for 14-3-3epsilon. Primary fibroblasts obtained from an E193K carrier demonstrated increased cellular toxicity and abnormal mitochondrial fission upon 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium treatment. We found that E193K alters LRRK2 binding to DRP1, a crucial mediator of mitochondrial fission. Our data support a role for LRRK2 as a scaffolding protein influencing mitochondrial fission

cDNA cloning, expression and fibrin(ogen)olytic activity of two low-molecular weight snake venom metalloproteinases

Two cDNA clones, AplVMP1 and AplVMP2, were isolated from a snake (Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma) venom gland cDNA library. The full-length cDNA sequence of AplVMP1 with a calculated molecular mass of 46.61 kDa is 1,233 bp in length. AplVMP1 encodes PI class metalloproteinase with an open reading frame of 411 amino acid residues that includes signal peptide, pro-domain and metalloproteinase domains. The full-length cDNA of the AplVMP2 (1,371bp) has a calculated molecular mass of 51.16 kDa and encodes PII class metalloproteinase. The open reading frame of AplVMP2 with a 457 amino acid residues is composed of signal peptide, pro-domain, metalloproteinase and disintegrin domains. AplVMP1 and AplVMP2 showed 85% and 93% amino acid identical to PI class enzyme Agkistrodon contortrix laticinctus ACLPREF and PII class enzyme Agkistrodon piscivorus piscivorus piscivostatin, respectively. When expressed in E.coli, most of recombinant proteins of AplVMP1 and AplVMP2 were in insoluble inclusion bodies, with soluble yields of 0.7 mg/l and 0.4 mg/l bacterial culture, respectively. Both affinity purified recombinant proteins show proteolytic activity on fibrinogen, although having an activity lower than that of crude A.p.leucostoma venom. Proteolytic activities of AplVMP1 and AplVMP2 were completely abolished after incubation with a final concentration of 100 μm of EDTA or 1,10-phenanthroline. Both AplVMP1 and AplVMP2 were active in a fibrin-agars plate but devoid of hemorrhagic activity when injected (up to 50 μg) subcutaneously into mice, and had no capacity to inhibit platelet aggregation

Homotopy methods for constraint relaxation in unilevel reliability based design optimization

Reliability based design optimization is a methodology for finding optimized designs that are characterized with a low probability of failure. The main ob jective in reliability based design optimization is to minimize a merit function while satisfying the reliability constraints. The reliability constraints are constraints on the probability of failure corre- sponding to each of the failure modes of the system or a single constraint on the system probability of failure. The probability of failure is usually estimated by performing a relia- bility analysis. During the last few years, a variety of different techniques have been devel- oped for reliability based design optimization. Traditionally, these have been formulated as a double-loop (nested) optimization problem. The upper level optimization loop gen- erally involves optimizing a merit function sub ject to reliability constraints and the lower level optimization loop(s) compute the probabilities of failure corresponding to the failure mode(s) that govern the system failure. This formulation is, by nature, computationally intensive. A new efficient unilevel formulation for reliability based design optimization was developed by the authors in earlier studies. In this formulation, the lower level optimiza- tion (evaluation of reliability constraints in the double loop formulation) was replaced by its corresponding first order Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) necessary optimality conditions at the upper level optimization. It was shown that the unilevel formulation is computation- ally equivalent to solving the original nested optimization if the lower level optimization is solved by numerically satisfying the KKT conditions (which is typically the case), and the two formulations are mathematically equivalent under constraint qualification and general- ized convexity assumptions. In the unilevel formulation, the KKT conditions of the inner optimization for each probabilistic constraint evaluation are imposed at the system level as equality constraints. Most commercial optimizers are usually numerically unreliable when applied to problems accompanied by many equality constraints. In this investigation an optimization framework for reliability based design using the unilevel formulation is de- veloped. Homotopy methods are used for constraint relaxation and to obtain a relaxed feasible design. A series of optimization problems are solved as the relaxed optimization problem is transformed via a homotopy to the original problem. A heuristic scheme is employed in this paper to update the homotopy parameter. The proposed algorithm is illustrated with example problems

Perceptions and understanding of research situations as a function of consent form characteristics and experimenter instructions

Two studies examined how research methodology affected participant behaviors. Study 1 tested (a) consent form perspective (1st, 2nd, or 3rd person) and (b) information on participants’ right to sue upon perceptions of coercion, ability to recall consent information, and performance on experimental tasks. Unexpectedly, participants who received instructions without the right to sue information had significantly better recall of their research rights. Study 2 manipulated (a) consent form complexity (presence or absence of jargon) and (b) the detail of verbal instructions (simple, elaborate); participants who received a consent form with simpler language spent more time on a difficult task, and participants in the elaborate instruction condition recalled more details. Together, these studies suggest (a) explaining the right to sue may actually be counterproductive; (b) providing a more detailed explanation may help participants remember procedural details; and (c) using jargon may decrease task performance