A Randomized Depression Prevention Trial Comparing Interpersonal Psychotherapy—Adolescent Skills Training To Group Counseling In Schools

Given the rise in depression disorders in adolescence, it is important to develop and study depression prevention programs for this age group. The current study examined the efficacy of Interpersonal Psychotherapy-Adolescent Skills Training (IPT-AST), a group prevention program for adolescent depression, in comparison to group programs that are typically delivered in school settings. In this indicated prevention trial, 186 adolescents with elevated depression symptoms were randomized to receive IPT-AST delivered by research staff or group counseling (GC) delivered by school counselors. Hierarchical linear modeling examined differences in rates of change in depressive symptoms and overall functioning from baseline to the 6-month follow-up assessment. Cox regression compared rates of depression diagnoses. Adolescents in IPT-AST showed significantly greater improvements in self-reported depressive symptoms and evaluator-rated overall functioning than GC adolescents from baseline to the 6-month follow-up. However, there were no significant differences between the two conditions in onset of depression diagnoses. Although both intervention conditions demonstrated significant improvements in depressive symptoms and overall functioning, results indicate that IPT-AST has modest benefits over groups run by school counselors which were matched on frequency and duration of sessions. In particular, IPT-AST outperformed GC in reduction of depressive symptoms and improvements in overall functioning. These findings point to the clinical utility of this depression prevention program, at least in the short-term. Additional follow-up is needed to determine the long-term effects of IPT-AST, relative to GC, particularly in preventing depression onset

San Francisco Bay Area KIPP Schools: A Study of Early Implementation

Measures how well five San Francisco Bay Area schools have implemented the goals of the Knowledge Is Power Program during the first year of a three-year initiative to prepare underserved urban youth for college

Acceptability and effectiveness of opportunistic referral of smokers to telephone cessation advice from a nurse: a randomised trial in Australian general practice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>GPs often lack time to provide intensive cessation advice for patients who smoke. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of opportunistic referral of smokers by their GP for telephone cessation counselling by a trained nurse.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Adult smokers (n = 318) attending 30 GPs in South Western Sydney, Australia were randomly allocated to usual care or referral to a telephone-based program comprising assessment and stage-based behavioural advice, written information and follow-up delivered by a nurse. Self-reported point prevalence abstinence at six and 12 months was compared between groups. Characteristics of patients who accepted and completed the intervention were investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 169 smokers randomised to the intervention, 76 (45%) consented to referral. Compared with smokers in 'pre-contemplation', those further along the stage-of-change continuum were significantly more likely to consent (p = 0.003). Those further along the continuum also were significantly more likely to complete all four calls of the intervention (OR 2.6, 95% CI: 0.8–8.1 and OR 8.6, 95% CI: 1.7–44.4 for 'contemplation' and 'preparation' respectively). At six months, there was no significant difference between groups in point prevalence abstinence (intention to treat) (9% versus 8%, p = 0.7). There was no evidence of differential intervention effectiveness by baseline stage-of-change (p = 0.6) or patient sex (p = 0.5). At 12 months, point prevalence abstinence in the intervention and control groups was 8% and 6% respectively (p = 0.6).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Acceptance of opportunistic referral for nurse delivered telephone cessation advice was low. This trial did not demonstrate improved quit rates following the intervention. Future research efforts might better focus support for those patients who are motivated to quit.</p> <p>Australian Clinical Trials Registry number</p> <p>ACTRN012607000091404</p

Deconstructing active region AR10961 using STEREO, HINODE, TRACE and SOHO

Active region 10961 was observed over a five day period (2007 July 2-6) by instrumentation on-board STEREO, Hinode, TRACE and SOHO. As it progressed from Sun centre to the solar limb a comprehensive analysis of the EUV, X-ray and magnetic field data reveals clearly observable changes in the global nature of the region. Temperature analyses undertaken using STEREO EUVI double filter ratios and XRT single and combined filter ratios demonstrate an overall cooling of the region from between 1.6 - 3.0 MK to 1.0 - 2.0 MK over the five days. Similarly, Hinode EIS density measurements show a corresponding increase in density of 27%. Moss, cool (1 MK) outer loop areas and hotter core loop regions were examined and compared with potential magnetic field extrapolations from SOHO MDI magnetogram data. In particular it was found that the potential field model was able to predict the structure of the hotter X-ray loops and that the larger cool loops seen in 171 Angstrom images appeared to follow the separatrix surfaces. The reasons behind the high density moss regions only observed on one side of the active region are examined further

Synovial cell metabolism and chronic inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis

Metabolomic studies of body fluids show that immune-mediated inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are associated with metabolic disruption. This is likely to reflect the increased bioenergetic and biosynthetic demands of sustained inflammation and changes to nutrient and oxygen availability in damaged tissue. The synovial membrane lining layer is the principle site of inflammation in RA. Here the resident cells are the fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) and the synovial tissue macrophages (STM), which are transformed toward overproduction of enzymes which degrade cartilage and bone, and cytokines which promote immune cell infiltration. Recent studies have shown metabolic changes in both FLS and macrophages from RA patients and these may be therapeutically targetable. However, as the origins and subset specific functions of synoviocytes are poorly understood and the signaling modules which control metabolic deviation in RA synovial cells are yet to be explored, significant additional research is needed to translate these findings toward clinical application. Furthermore, in many inflamed tissues, different cell types can forge metabolic collaborations through solute carriers (SLC) in their membranes, to meet a high demand for energy or biomolecules. Such relationships are likely to exist in the synovium and are yet to be explored. Finally, it is not yet known whether metabolic change is a consequence of disease or if primary changes to cellular metabolism might underlie or contribute to early stage disease pathogenesis. This article collates what is known about metabolism in synovial tissue cells and highlights future research directions in this area

Preschool Children’s Processing of Events during Verb Learning: Is the Focus on People (Faces) or Their Actions (Hands)?

Verbs are central to the syntactic structure of sentences, and, thus, important for learning one’s native language. This study examined how children visually inspect events as they hear, and do not hear, a new verb. Specifically, there is evidence that children may focus on the agent of the action or may prioritize attention to the action being performed; to date, little evidence is available. This study used an eye tracker to track 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds’ looking to the agent (i.e., face) vs. action (i.e., hands) while viewing events linked to a new verb as well as distractor events. A Tobii X30 eye tracker recorded children’s fixations to AOIs (head/face and hands) as they watched three target events and two distractor events in different orders during the learning phase, and pointed to one of two events in two test trials. This was repeated for a second novel verb. Pointing results show that children in all age groups were able to learn and extend the new verbs to new events at test. Additionally, across age groups, when viewing target events, children increased their looking to the hands (where the action is taking place) as those trials progressed and decreased their looking to the agents’ face, which is less informative for learning a new verb’s meaning. In contrast, when viewing distractor events, children decreased their looking to hands over trials and maintained their attention to the face. In summary, children’s visual attention to agents’ faces and hands differed depending on whether the events cooccurred with the new verb. These results are important as this is the first study to show this pattern of visual attention during verb learning, and, thus, these results help reveal underlying attentional strategies children may use when learning verbs

Block-structured, equal-workload, multi-grid-nesting interface for the Boussinesq wave model FUNWAVE-TVD (Total Variation Diminishing)

We describe the development of a block-structured, equal-CPU-load (central processing unit), multi-grid-nesting interface for the Boussinesq wave model FUNWAVE-TVD (Fully Nonlinear Boussinesq Wave Model with Total Variation Diminishing Solver). The new model framework does not interfere with the core solver, and thus the core program, FUNWAVE-TVD, is still a standalone model used for a single grid. The nesting interface manages the time sequencing and two-way nesting processes between the parent grid and child grid with grid refinement in a hierarchical manner. Workload balance in the MPI-based (message passing interface) parallelization is handled by an equal-load scheme. A strategy of shared array allocation is applied for data management that allows for a large number of nested grids without creating additional memory allocations. Four model tests are conducted to verify the nesting algorithm with assessments of model accuracy and the robustness in the application in modeling transoceanic tsunamis and coastal effects

Dissection of Melanogenesis with Small Molecules Identifies Prohibitin as a Regulator

SummaryBioactive compounds can be used to selectively modulate gene function. We utilized a chemical genetic approach to dissect the mammalian pigmentation pathway and identify protein regulators. We screened a tagged library of 1170 small molecules in a cell-based assay and discovered a class of pigment-enhancing chemicals. From this class we characterized the small molecule melanogenin. Using melanogenin bound to an affinity matrix and amino acid sequencing, we identified the mitochondrial protein, prohibitin, as an intracellular binding target. Studies employing siRNA demonstrate that prohibitin is required for melanogenin to exert its propigmentary effects and reveal an unsuspected functional role for this protein in melanin induction. This represents a mechanism by which propigmentary signals are transduced and ultimately provides a potential target for the treatment of pigmentary disorders