Entertainment-Education To Increase Self-Efficacy And Reduce Counterarguing: HIV/AIDS Prevention And African Americans

The present study sought to expand current understandings of how and why participants identify with television characters, as well as how this identification is related to self-efficacy and safe sex intentions regarding HIV prevention. Based on the Entertainment Overcoming Resistance Model, it was expected that when viewers identify with characters in a media program, they would be less likely to counterargue or reject the HIV prevention Hkmessage, but more likely to have greater intentions and self-efficacy in modeling the behaviors shown in the program. This study also sought to understand whether these outcomes may be influenced by the gender of the participant. This study also examined ways of applying the EORM model to African American audiences. The levels of HIV/AIDS among African Americans make the need for prevention strategies for this specific community critical. This study sought a greater understanding of cultural influences, such as medical distrust. Medical distrust has been previously shown to influence responses of African American participants to health information messages. The African American sitcom One on One was chosen to show as a model of HIV prevention discussion and testing. The study included 142 participants. Following a pre-session survey, participants viewed the stimulus and responded to an online survey. Results showed that participants identified with the male and female lead characters in the program. A paired t-test revealed that females were more likely to identify with the female lead than they were with the male lead character. Medical distrust was related to greater counterarguing and lower self-efficacy to perform HIV prevention behaviors. Counterarguing against the message was low overall. Medical distrust did interact with identification in the prediction of counterarguing. However, counterarguing was not associated with less safe sex intentions. Identification with the characters in the program was related to greater self-efficacy for male participants. Self-efficacy was also related to greater safe sex intentions. Although identification was related to counterarguing and self-efficacy, these outcomes are also related to what aspects of the character viewers identify with and how they relate to the content of the media message

An Apple a Day? Adult Food Stamp Eligibility and Health Care Utilization among Immigrants

In this study, we document the effect of food stamp access on adult health care utilization. While the Food Stamp Program provides one of the largest safety nets in the United States today, the universal nature of the program across geographic areas and over time limits the potential for quasi-experimental analysis. To circumvent this, we use variation in documented immigrants’ eligibility for food stamps across states and over time due to welfare reform in 1996. Our estimates indicate that access to food stamps reduced physician visits. Additionally, we find that for single women, food stamps increased the affordability of specialty health care. These findings have important implications for cost-benefit analyses of the Food Stamp Program, as reductions in health care utilization because of food stamps may offset some of the program’s impact on the overall government budget owing to the existence of government-provided health insurance programs such as Medicaid

PMI: A Delta Psi(m) Independent Pharmacological Regulator of Mitophagy

Mitophagy is central to mitochondrial and cellular homeostasis and operates via the PINK1/Parkin pathway targeting mitochondria devoid of membrane potential (ΔΨm) to autophagosomes. Although mitophagy is recognized as a fundamental cellular process, selective pharmacologic modulators of mitophagy are almost nonexistent. We developed a compound that increases the expression and signaling of the autophagic adaptor molecule P62/SQSTM1 and forces mitochondria into autophagy. The compound, P62-mediated mitophagy inducer (PMI), activates mitophagy without recruiting Parkin or collapsing ΔΨm and retains activity in cells devoid of a fully functional PINK1/Parkin pathway. PMI drives mitochondria to a process of quality control without compromising the bio-energetic competence of the whole network while exposing just those organelles to be recycled. Thus, PMI circumvents the toxicity and some of the nonspecific effects associated with the abrupt dissipation of ΔΨm by ionophores routinely used to induce mitophagy and represents a prototype pharmacological tool to investigate the molecular mechanisms of mitophagy

A role for TSPO in mitochondrial Ca2+ homeostasis and redox stress signaling

The 18 kDa translocator protein TSPO localizes on the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM). Systematically overexpressed at sites of neuroinflammation it is adopted as a biomarker of brain conditions. TSPO inhibits the autophagic removal of mitochondria by limiting PARK2-mediated mitochondrial ubiquitination via a peri-organelle accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Here we describe that TSPO deregulates mitochondrial Ca2+ signaling leading to a parallel increase in the cytosolic Ca2+ pools that activate the Ca2+-dependent NADPH oxidase (NOX) thereby increasing ROS. The inhibition of mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake by TSPO is a consequence of the phosphorylation of the voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC1) by the protein kinase A (PKA), which is recruited to the mitochondria, in complex with the Acyl-CoA binding domain containing 3 (ACBD3). Notably, the neurotransmitter glutamate, which contributes neuronal toxicity in age-dependent conditions, triggers this TSPO-dependent mechanism of cell signaling leading to cellular demise. TSPO is therefore proposed as a novel OMM-based pathway to control intracellular Ca2+ dynamics and redox transients in neuronal cytotoxicity

Women's Experiences of Preeclampsia: Australian Action on Preeclampsia Survey of Women and Their Confidants

Introduction. The experience of normal pregnancy is often disrupted for women with preeclampsia (PE). Materials and Methods. Postal survey of the 112 members of the consumer group, Australian Action on Pre-Eclampsia (AAPEC). Results. Surveys were returned by 68 women (61% response rate) and from 64 (57%) partners, close relatives or friends. Respondents reported experiencing pre-eclampsia (n = 53), eclampsia (n = 5), and/or Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, and Low Platelets (HELLP syndrome) (n = 26). Many women had no knowledge of PE prior to diagnosis (77%) and, once diagnosed, did not appreciate how serious or life threatening it was (50%). Women wanted access to information about PE. Their experience contributed substantial anxiety towards future pregnancies. Partners/friends/relatives expressed fear for the woman and/or her baby and had no prior understanding of PE. Conclusions. The PE experience had a substantial effect on women, their confidants, and their babies and affected their approach to future pregnancies. Access to information about PE was viewed as very important

Physical inactivity and its predictors among adolescents in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional comparison between cities with and without a Healthy Cities Program.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of insufficient physical activity and excessive screen time among adolescents living in cities participating in the Healthy Cities Program (HCP) and cities not running the program in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. METHODS: We surveyed 1133 adolescents from the Qassim region using systematic random sampling between April and September 2017. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the predictors of insufficient levels of PA and excessive screen time. RESULTS: The prevalence of <60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity/day was 82.4% and <3 days of vigorous intensity physical activity/week among adolescents was 59%. There was no significant association between living in healthy cities (HCPs) and insufficient levels of physical activity. The odds of excessive screen time were higher in HCPs than in cities not running the program (NHCPs) (OR: 1.49). The odds of insufficient daily PA (OR: 2.19) are higher among girls than boys. Increasing age is positively associated with insufficient weekly PA (OR: 1.19). The prevalence of excessive recreational screen time is 84.6% with higher odds in HCPs than in NHCPs (OR: 1.51). CONCLUSION: Our findings report a lack of evidence of any impact of the HCP on adolescents' physical activity behaviors. This outcome warrants a further in-depth evaluation of the process and outcomes of the HCP in Saudi Arabia

Heights of one- and two-sided congruence lattices of semigroups

The height of a poset $P$ is the supremum of the cardinalities of chains in $P$. The exact formula for the height of the subgroup lattice of the symmetric group $\mathcal{S}_n$ is known, as is an accurate asymptotic formula for the height of the subsemigroup lattice of the full transformation monoid $\mathcal{T}_n$. Motivated by the related question of determining the heights of the lattices of left- and right congruences of $\mathcal{T}_n$, we develop a general method for computing the heights of lattices of both one- and two-sided congruences for semigroups. We apply this theory to obtain exact height formulae for several monoids of transformations, matrices and partitions, including: the full transformation monoid $\mathcal{T}_n$, the partial transformation monoid $\mathcal{PT}_n$, the symmetric inverse monoid $\mathcal{I}_n$, the monoid of order-preserving transformations $\mathcal{O}_n$, the full matrix monoid $\mathcal{M}(n,q)$, the partition monoid $\mathcal{P}_n$, the Brauer monoid $\mathcal{B}_n$ and the Temperley-Lieb monoid $\mathcal{TL}_n$

Phosphodiesterases Regulate BAY 41-2272-Induced VASP Phosphorylation in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

BAY 41-2272 (BAY), a stimulator of soluble guanylyl cyclase, increases cyclic nucleotides and inhibits proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). In this study, we elucidated mechanisms of action of BAY in its regulation of vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) with an emphasis on VSMC phosphodiesterases (PDEs). BAY alone increased phosphorylation of VASPSer239 and VASPSer157, respective indicators of PKG and PKA signaling. IBMX, a non-selective inhibitor of PDEs, had no effect on BAY-induced phosphorylation at VASPSer239 but inhibited phosphorylation at VASPSer157. Selective inhibitors of PDE3 or PDE4 attenuated BAY-mediated increases at VASPSer239 and VASPSer157, whereas PDE5 inhibition potentiated BAY-mediated increases only at VASPSer157. In comparison, 8Br-cGMP increased phosphorylation at VASPSer239 and VASPSer157 which were not affected by selective PDE inhibitors. In the presence of 8Br-cAMP, inhibition of either PDE4 or PDE5 decreased VASPSer239 phosphorylation and inhibition of PDE3 increased phosphorylation at VASPSer239, while inhibition of PDE3 or PDE4 increased and PDE5 inhibition had no effect on VASPSer157 phosphorylation. These findings demonstrate that BAY operates via cAMP and cGMP along with regulation by PDEs to phosphorylate VASP in VSMCs and that the mechanism of action of BAY in VSMCs is different from that of direct cyclic nucleotide analogs with respect to VASP phosphorylation and the involvement of PDEs. Given a role for VASP as a critical cytoskeletal protein, these findings provide evidence for BAY as a regulator of VSMC growth and a potential therapeutic agent against vasculoproliferative disorders