Predicting Length of Stay and Outcome in Long-Term Residential Treatment of Male Alcoholics

The purposes of this study were: (1) to determine which characteristics of male alcoholics are related to treatment success and length of stay in long-term treatment, and (2) to assess the efficacy of predicting outcome and length of stay on the basis of patient characteristics, The study was performed post hoc on 265 patients discharged from a 6- to 12-month residential alcoholism program on the grounds of a state hospital. After an extensive literature review, 19 predictor variables were selected which were most consistently related to outcome and length of stay in previous studies of shorter rehabilitation programs. Data for predictor variables were obtained from psychological testing, admission interview notes, anamneses, and symptom ratings, Treatment outcome at 6-month follow-up was assessed dichotomously (success - failure) and numerically (number of abstinence and social adjustment criteria met) based on questionnaire responses and second-hand information. Sample size varied across analyses, as cases were deleted for missing data. Compared to patients who failed to benefit, treatment successes were less antisocial (p \u3c .01) and reported fewer alcoholic withdrawal symptoms (p \u3c .05, n = 131). The results also suggest that successes were less angry than failures (this variable reached significance in the analyses which were given the most consideration, and showed consistent trends in other analyses). Patient characteristics unrelated to treatment outcome were age, socioeconomic status, social stability, number of arrests, age at onset of drinking problem, problematic drinking by patients\u27 parents, length of longest previous period of sobriety, number of previous alcoholism treatments, previous regular A.A. attendance, overall mental health, neuroticism, depression, obsessive compulsive traits, latent schizophrenia, IQ, and defensiveness. A four-variable discriminant function produced 70.23% correct classification of outcome (r = .34, p \u3c .01, n = 131), but the 33.3% false negative rate raises a question about using the function as an acceptance criterion. The pattern of results implies that the longterm program fosters social integration, but does not overcome the effects of severe personality disorders or physical addictions. Only IQ was related to length of stay, with more intelligent subjects remaining in treatment longer (p \u3c .05, n = 233). Weak but statistically significant prediction of length of stay was obtained with a nine-variable regression equation (r = .34, p \u3c .01, n = 199)

Influence of Clinicians\u27 and Clients\u27 Religion on Diagnosis of Mental Illness

Theorists propose that because psychodiagnosis is not a completely objective procedure, it is influenced by sociocultural values. It was hypothesized that religion might be one aspect of sociocultural values which influences psychodiagnosis. The present study sought to determine, by using a clinical analogue design, whether psychologists\u27 formal diagnoses of clients are biased by their present religious affiliations and activity levels, their religious upbringing (assessed by their fathers\u27 and mothers\u27 religious affiliations and activity levels), the clients\u27 religious affiliations and activity levels, or interactions between psychologist and client religious variables. Questionnaires were sent to 228 psychologists licensed to practice in Utah, inviting them to participate in the study. Items eliciting the psychologists\u27 religious characteristics were disguised amidst irrelevant items on the questionnaire. Respondents were sent four case reports which were varied on the religious affiliation (LOS vs. Other) and activity level (Active vs. Inactive) of the fictitious clients. The reports included identifying data, referral reason, background information, behavior observations, psychological test interpretations, and summary. Subjects diagnosed the reports according to the typology of the American Psychiatric Association\u27s DSM-II. Usable data were obtained from 60 psychologists. The cases elicited a wide variety of diagnostic labels. Data were arranged in 56 frequency count tables (14 hypotheses on each of the four cases), and were analyzed with the chi-square test, with alpha = .05. Two significant relationships between religious variables and diagnosis were found. Because of the number of analyses performed, these were viewed as chance findings. In addition, the distributions of diagnoses in eight categories across all four cases were visually inspected according to the religious affiliations of the clinicians making the diagnoses and the clients being diagnosed. This procedure also failed to produce evidence of religious bias. It was concluded that formal diagnoses of clients made by psychologists in Utah are not influenced by psychologist or client religion, or by interactions between the two, when diagnoses are compressed into broad categories

A polymer coated cicaprost-eluting stent increases neointima formation and impairs vessel function in the rabbit iliac artery

Drug-eluting stents have been successful in reducing in-stent restenosis but are not suitable for all lesion types and have been implicated in causing late stent thrombosis due to incomplete regeneration of the endothelial cell layer. In this study we implanted stents coated with cicaprost, a prostacyclin analogue with a long plasma half-life and antiproliferative effects on vascular smooth muscle cells, into the iliac arteries of rabbits. At 28-day follow-up we compared neointima formation within the stented vessels and vascular function in adjacent vessels, to assess if cicaprost could reduce restenosis without impairing vessel function. Arteries implanted with cicaprost eluting stents had significantly more neointima compared to bare metal stents. In adjacent segments of artery, endothelium-dependent relaxation was impaired by the cicaprost-eluting stent but vasodilation to an endothelium-independent vasodilator was maintained. We conclude that the presence of the polymer and sub-optimal release of cicaprost from the stent may be responsible for the increased neointma and impaired functional recovery of the endothelium observed. Further experiments should be aimed at optimising release of cicaprost and exploring different stent polymer coatings

A polymer coated cicaprost-eluting stent increases neointima formation and impairs vessel function in the rabbit iliac artery

Drug-eluting stents have been successful in reducing in-stent restenosis but are not suitable for all lesion types and have been implicated in causing late stent thrombosis due to incomplete regeneration of the endothelial cell layer. In this study we implanted stents coated with cicaprost, a prostacyclin analogue with a long plasma half-life and antiproliferative effects on vascular smooth muscle cells, into the iliac arteries of rabbits. At 28 day follow-up we compared neointima formation within the stented vessels and vascular function in adjacent vessels, to assess if cicaprost could reduce restenosis without impairing vessel function. Arteries implanted with cicaprost eluting stents had significantly more neointima compared to bare metal stents. In adjacent segments of artery, endothelium-dependent relaxation was impaired by the cicaprost-eluting stent but vasodilation to an endothelium-independent vasodilator was maintained. We conclude that the presence of the polymer and sub-optimal release of cicaprost from the stent may be responsible for the increased neointma and impaired functional recovery of the endothelium observed. Further experiments should be aimed at optimising release of cicaprost and exploring different stent polymer coatings

The application of deep eutectic solvent ionic liquids for environmentally-friendly dissolution and recovery of precious metals

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: The application of deep eutectic solvent ionic liquids for environmentally-friendly dissolution and recovery of precious metals journaltitle: Minerals Engineering articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2015.09.026 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The Planning Execution Monitoring Architecture

The Planning Execution Monitoring (PEM) architecture is a design concept for developing autonomous cockpit command and control software. The PEM architecture is designed to reduce the operations costs in the space transportation system through the use of automation while improving safety and operability of the system. Specifically, the PEM autonomous framework enables automatic performance of many vehicle operations that would typically be performed by a human. Also, this framework supports varying levels of autonomous control, ranging from fully automatic to fully manual control. The PEM autonomous framework interfaces with the core flight software to perform flight procedures. It can either assist human operators in performing procedures or autonomously execute routine cockpit procedures based on the operational context. Most importantly, the PEM autonomous framework promotes and simplifies the capture, verification, and validation of the flight operations knowledge. Through a hierarchical decomposition of the domain knowledge, the vehicle command and control capabilities are divided into manageable functional "chunks" that can be captured and verified separately. These functional units, each of which has the responsibility to manage part of the vehicle command and control, are modular, re-usable, and extensible. Also, the functional units are self-contained and have the ability to plan and execute the necessary steps for accomplishing a task based upon the current mission state and available resources. The PEM architecture has potential for application outside the realm of spaceflight, including management of complex industrial processes, nuclear control, and control of complex vehicles such as submarines or unmanned air vehicles

A Complex Extracellular Sphingomyelinase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Inhibits Angiogenesis by Selective Cytotoxicity to Endothelial Cells

The hemolytic phospholipase C (PlcHR) expressed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the original member of a Phosphoesterase Superfamily, which includes phosphorylcholine-specific phospholipases C (PC-PLC) produced by frank and opportunistic pathogens. PlcHR, but not all its family members, is also a potent sphingomyelinase (SMase). Data presented herein indicate that picomolar (pM) concentrations of PlcHR are selectively lethal to endothelial cells (EC). An RGD motif of PlcHR contributes to this selectivity. Peptides containing an RGD motif (i.e., GRGDS), but not control peptides (i.e., GDGRS), block the effects of PlcHR on calcium signaling and cytotoxicity to EC. Moreover, RGD variants of PlcHR (e.g., RGE, KGD) are significantly reduced in their binding and toxicity, but retain the enzymatic activity of the wild type PlcHR. PlcHR also inhibits several EC-dependent in vitro assays (i.e., EC migration, EC invasion, and EC tubule formation), which represent key processes involved in angiogenesis (i.e., formation of new blood vessels from existing vasculature). Finally, the impact of PlcHR in an in vivo model of angiogenesis in transgenic zebrafish, and ones treated with an antisense morpholino to knock down a key blood cell regulator, were evaluated because in vitro assays cannot fully represent the complex processes of angiogenesis. As little as 2 ng/embryo of PlcHR was lethal to ∼50% of EGFP-labeled EC at 6 h after injection of embryos at 48 hpf (hours post-fertilization). An active site mutant of PlcHR (Thr178Ala) exhibited 120-fold reduced inhibitory activity in the EC invasion assay, and 20 ng/embryo elicited no detectable inhibitory activity in the zebrafish model. Taken together, these observations are pertinent to the distinctive vasculitis and poor wound healing associated with P. aeruginosa sepsis and suggest that the potent antiangiogenic properties of PlcHR are worthy of further investigation for the treatment of diseases where angiogenesis contributes pathological conditions (e.g., vascularization of tumors, diabetic retinopathy)

A blinded, randomized, controlled trial assessing conservative management strategies for frozen shoulder

BACKGROUND: There is little evidence for the optimal form of nonoperative treatment in the management of frozen shoulder. This study assesses the efficacy of current physiotherapy strategies. METHODS: All primary care referrals of frozen shoulder to our physiotherapy department were included during a 12-month period. Of these referrals, 17% met the inclusion criteria for primary idiopathic frozen shoulder. The 75 patients were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: group exercise class, individual physiotherapy, and home exercises alone. A single independent physiotherapist, who was blinded to the treatment groups, made all assessments. Range of motion, Constant score, Oxford Shoulder Score, Short Form 36, and Hospital Anxiety and Disability Scale (HADS) outcome measures were performed at baseline, 6 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year. RESULTS: The exercise class group improved from a mean Constant score of 39.8 at baseline to 71.4 at 6 weeks and 88.1 at 1 year. There was a significant improvement in shoulder symptoms on Oxford and Constant scores (P < .001). This improvement was greater than with individual physiotherapy or home exercises alone (P < .001). The improvement in range of motion was significantly greater in both physiotherapy groups over home exercises (P < .001). HADS scores significantly improved during the course of treatment (P < .001). The improvement in HADS anxiety score was significantly greater in both physiotherapy intervention groups than in home exercises alone. CONCLUSIONS: A hospital-based exercise class can produce a rapid recovery from a frozen shoulder with a minimum number of visits to the hospital and is more effective than individual physiotherapy or a home exercise program

Fiber Four-Wave Mixing Source for Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering Microscopy

We present a fiber-format picosecond light source for coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy. Pulses from an Yb-doped fiber amplifier are frequency-converted by four-wave mixing in normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber to produce a synchronized two-color picosecond pulse train. We show that seeding the four-wave mixing process overcomes the deleterious effects of group-velocity mismatch and allows efficient conversion into narrow frequency bands. The source generates more than 160 mW of nearly-transform-limited pulses tunable from 775 to 815 nm. High-quality coherent Raman images of animal tissues and cells acquired with this source are presented.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog