Exploring the Effectiveness of a Prevocational Seminar on Self-Efficacy and Work Motivation among Adults Residing in an Inpatient Mental Health Facility

Objective: This study examined a work-related intervention designed to assist people with serious mental illness (SMI) in overcoming employment barriers. Methods: A pre- post-test experimental design was used to investigate the effects of a 10-session, prevocational seminar on self-efficacy and work motivation among adults with SMI residing in an inpatient psychiatric facility. Three one-way ANCOVAs were applied to analyze post-test results for the dependent measures. Findings: Although significant findings were not found regarding the effectiveness of the prevocational seminar on self-efficacy, other interesting discoveries were made. One noteworthy outcome was persons with SMI wanted to work but experienced barriers, including discrimination, decreased motivation, and work disincentives that impeded their return to employment. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Vocational rehabilitation (VR) counselors continue to face challenges in their efforts to increase employment among persons with SMI. The results from the present study underscore the need for skills training and innovative VR strategies to mitigate barriers to employment among persons with SMI

Association Between Hispanic Parents’ Attitudes and Knowledge Regarding Obesity and Their Children’s Body Mass Index

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 13.7 million children experience obesity nationally and Hispanic children display the highest occurrences of obesity for all racial/ethnic groups (Hales et al., 2020). Because parents have a significant influence on their children’s overall health, we were interested in examining whether parents’ attitudes and knowledge about obesity impacted their child’s body mass index (BMI) for their age. We surveyed 210 adult Hispanic parents whose children were receiving general healthcare services at a pediatric medical clinic located near the U.S.-Mexico border. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the estimation between the independent variables (knowledge about obesity, socioeconomic status, education, physical activity, dietary habits, medical history, age, and gender) and the dependent variable (attitudes toward obesity). Specifically, the study examined the relationship between Hispanic children’s BMI-for-age and their parents’ attitudes toward obesity, and the relationship between Hispanic children’s BMI-for-age and their parents’ knowledge regarding obesity-related risks. The results indicated the level of physical activity, dietary habits, and level of knowledge were predictive of Hispanic parents’ attitudes toward obesity. Implications of the study and recommendations for researchers, educators, and counselors to minimize the obesity epidemic are provided

Distinguishability of Gaussian states in quantum cryptography using postselection

We consider the distinguishability of Gaussian states from the viewpoint of continuous-variable quantum cryptography using postselection. Specifically, we use the probability of error to distinguish between two pure coherent (squeezed) and two particular mixed symmetric coherent (squeezed) states where each mixed state is an incoherent mixture of two pure coherent (squeezed) states with equal and opposite displacements in the conjugate quadrature. We show that the two mixed symmetric Gaussian states (where the various components have the same real part) never give an eavesdropper more information than the two pure Gaussian states. Furthermore, when considering the distinguishability of squeezed states, we show that varying the amount of squeezing leads to a “squeezing” and “antisqueezing” of the net information rates

Coulomb singularities in scattering wave functions of spin-orbit-coupled states

We report on our analysis of the Coulomb singularity problem in the frame of the coupled channel scattering theory including spin-orbit interaction. We assume that the coupling between the partial wave components involves orbital angular momenta such that $\Delta l = 0, \pm 2$. In these conditions, the two radial functions, components of a partial wave associated to two values of the angular momentum $l$, satisfy a system of two second-order ordinary differential equations. We examine the difficulties arising in the analysis of the behavior of the regular solutions near the origin because of this coupling. First, we demonstrate that for a singularity of the first kind in the potential, one of the solutions is not amenable to a power series expansion. The use of the Lippmann-Schwinger equations confirms this fact: a logarithmic divergence arises at the second iteration. To overcome this difficulty, we introduce two auxilliary functions which, together with the two radial functions, satisfy a system of four first-order differential equations. The reduction of the order of the differential system enables us to use a matrix-based approach, which generalizes the standard Frobenius method. We illustrate our analysis with numerical calculations of coupled scattering wave functions in a solid-state system

Finite-temperature Fermi-edge singularity in tunneling studied using random telegraph signals

We show that random telegraph signals in metal-oxide-silicon transistors at millikelvin temperatures provide a powerful means of investigating tunneling between a two-dimensional electron gas and a single defect state. The tunneling rate shows a peak when the defect level lines up with the Fermi energy, in excellent agreement with theory of the Fermi-edge singularity at finite temperature. This theory also indicates that defect levels are the origin of the dissipative two-state systems observed previously in similar devices.Comment: 5 pages, REVTEX, 3 postscript figures included with epsfi

Aortic Complications Associated With Pregnancy in Marfan Syndrome: The NHLBI National Registry of Genetically Triggered Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms and Cardiovascular Conditions (GenTAC)

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139073/1/jah31693.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139073/2/jah31693_am.pd

Non Linear Current Response of a Many-Level Tunneling System: Higher Harmonics Generation

The fully nonlinear response of a many-level tunneling system to a strong alternating field of high frequency $\omega$ is studied in terms of the Schwinger-Keldysh nonequilibrium Green functions. The nonlinear time dependent tunneling current $I(t)$ is calculated exactly and its resonance structure is elucidated. In particular, it is shown that under certain reasonable conditions on the physical parameters, the Fourier component $I_{n}$ is sharply peaked at $n=\frac {\Delta E} {\hbar \omega}$, where $\Delta E$ is the spacing between two levels. This frequency multiplication results from the highly nonlinear process of $n$ photon absorption (or emission) by the tunneling system. It is also conjectured that this effect (which so far is studied mainly in the context of nonlinear optics) might be experimentally feasible.Comment: 28 pages, LaTex, 7 figures are available upon request from [email protected], submitted to Phys.Rev.

Bicuspid and unicuspid aortic valves: Different phenotypes of the same disease? Insight from the GenTAC Registry

BackgroundUnicuspid aortic valve (UAV) is a rare disorder, often difficult to distinguish from bicuspid aortic valve (BAV). BAV and UAV share valve pathology such as the presence of a raphe, leaflet fusion, aortic stenosis, aortic regurgitation, and/or ascending aortic dilatation, but a comprehensive echocardiographic comparison of patients with UAV and BAV has not been previously performed.MethodsWe investigated UAV and BAV patients at an early stage of disease included in GenTAC, a national registry of genetically related aortic aneurysms and associated cardiac conditions. Clinical and echocardiographic data from the GenTAC Registry were compared between 17 patients with UAV and 17 matched‐controls with BAV.ResultsBaseline characteristics including demographics, clinical findings including family history of BAV and aortic aneurysm/coarctation, and echocardiographic variables were similar between BAV and UAV patients; aortic stenosis was more common and more severe in patients with UAV. This was evidenced by higher mean and peak gradient, smaller aortic valve area, and more advanced valvular degeneration (all P < .05). There were no significant differences in aortic dimensions, with a similar pattern of enlargement of the ascending aorta.ConclusionsThe similar baseline characteristics with more accelerated aortic valve degeneration and stenosis suggest that UAV represents an extreme in the spectrum of BAV syndromes. Therefore, it is reasonable to consider application of recommendations for the management of patients with BAV to those with the rarer UAV.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139976/1/chd12520.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139976/2/chd12520_am.pd

Cardiovascular Outcomes in Aortopathy: GenTAC Registry of Genetically Triggered Aortic Aneurysms and Related Conditions.

BACKGROUND: The GenTAC (Genetically Triggered Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm and Cardiovascular Conditions) Registry enrolled patients with genetic aortopathies between 2007 and 2016. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to compare age distribution and probability of elective surgery for proximal aortic aneurysm, any dissection surgery, and cardiovascular mortality among aortopathy etiologies. METHODS: The GenTAC study had a retrospective/prospective design. Participants with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) with aneurysm (n = 879), Marfan syndrome (MFS) (n = 861), nonsyndromic heritable thoracic aortic disease (nsHTAD) (n = 378), Turner syndrome (TS) (n = 298), vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (vEDS) (n = 149), and Loeys-Dietz syndrome (LDS) (n = 121) were analyzed. RESULTS: The 25% probability of elective proximal aortic aneurysm surgery was 30 years for LDS (95% CI: 18-37 years), followed by MFS (34 years; 95% CI: 32-36 years), nsHTAD (52 years; 95% CI: 48-56 years), and BAV (55 years; 95% CI: 53-58 years). Any dissection surgery 25% probability was highest in LDS (38 years; 95% CI: 33-53 years) followed by MFS (51 years; 95% CI: 46-57 years) and nsHTAD (54 years; 95% CI: 51-61 years). BAV experienced the largest relative frequency of elective surgery to any dissection surgery (254/33 = 7.7), compared with MFS (273/112 = 2.4), LDS (35/16 = 2.2), or nsHTAD (82/76 = 1.1). With MFS as the reference population, risk of any dissection surgery or cardiovascular mortality was lowest in BAV patients (HR: 0.13; 95% CI: 0.08-0.18; HR: 0.13; 95%: CI: 0.06-0.27, respectively). The greatest risk of mortality was seen in patients with vEDS. CONCLUSIONS: Marfan and LDS cohorts demonstrate age and event profiles congruent with the current understanding of syndromic aortopathies. BAV events weigh toward elective replacement with relatively few dissection surgeries. Nonsyndromic HTAD patients experience near equal probability of dissection vs prophylactic surgery, possibly because of failure of early diagnosis

3B11-N, a monoclonal antibody against MERS-CoV, reduces lung pathology in rhesus monkeys following intratracheal inoculation of MERS-CoV Jordan-n3/2012

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was identified in 2012 as the causative agent of a severe, lethal respiratory disease occurring across several countries in the Middle East. To date there have been over 1,600 laboratory confirmed cases of MERS-CoV in 26 countries with a case fatality rate of 36%. Given the endemic region, it is possible that MERS-CoV could spread during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, necessitating countermeasure development. In this report, we describe the clinical and radiographic changes of rhesus monkeys following infection with 5×106 PFU MERS-CoV Jordan-n3/2012. Two groups of NHPs were treated with either a human anti-MERS monoclonal antibody 3B11-N or E410-N, an anti-HIV antibody. MERS-CoV Jordan-n3/2012 infection resulted in quantifiable changes by computed tomography, but limited other clinical signs of disease. 3B11-N treated subjects developed significantly reduced lung pathology when compared to infected, untreated subjects, indicating that this antibody may be a suitable MERS-CoV treatment