Wastewater-based epidemiology for comprehensive communitywide exposome surveillance: A gradient of metals exposure.

Community wastewater surveillance is an established means to measure health threats. Exposure to toxic metals as one of the key environmental contaminants has been attracting public health attention as exposure can be related to contamination across air, water, and soil as well as associated with individual factors. This research uses Jefferson County, Kentucky, as an urban exposome case study to analyze sub-county metal concentrations in wastewater as a possible indicator of community toxicant exposure risk, and to test the feasibility of using wastewater to identify potential community areas of elevated metals exposure.

Split-bolus single-pass CT for vascular complications in acute pancreatitis: assessment of radiation dose and multi-phasic contrast enhancement compared to single-bolus multi-pass CT.

Aim: To assess vascular contrast enhancement and radiation dose of split-bolus single-pass computed tomography (CT) compared to single-bolus multi-pass CT for acquiring a multi-phasic study.

Materials And Methods: Patients who underwent CT for acute pancreatitis were included retrospectively. Thirty consecutive patients scanned with a split-bolus protocol were compared to 30 consecutive patients scanned with a single-bolus protocol.

Insomnia symptoms and short sleep duration predict trajectory of mental health symptoms.

Objectives: We evaluated whether insomnia symptoms and short or long sleep duration, alone or in combination, are robustly associated with subsequent trajectory of mental health symptoms.

Methods: Participants were 2598 individuals (15 to 94 years of age) with elevated mental health symptoms at baseline (2013-14). Associations of baseline insomnia symptoms and sleep duration with two-year trajectory of mental health were estimated and adjusted for multiple potential confounders.

Adjunctive Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia in men with depression: A randomised controlled trial.

Objective: Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia is efficacious for insomnia, and post hoc analyses suggest mood improvements. We undertook the first clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia on depressive symptoms as an adjunct to guideline-based treatment of depressive disorders.

Methods: Older men undergoing psychiatrist-coordinated treatment for major depressive disorder or dysthymia and who had significant insomnia symptoms were randomised to either adjunctive Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (Sleep Healthy Using The Internet) or online sleep psychoeducation.

The relationship between depression and cognitive function in adults with cardiovascular risk: Evidence from a randomised attention-controlled trial.

Background And Aim: This study assessed the association between depressive symptom severity and cognition in middle-to-older aged adults with mild-to-moderate depression and cardiovascular risk factors using an online test battery (CogState) and whether changes in depressive symptoms over 3 months were associated with changes in cognition.

Methods: Participants (mean age = 57.8) with cardiovascular risk and mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms completed measures of psychomotor speed, learning, and executive function prior to (n = 445)_and after (n = 334) online depression or attention control interventions.

The association of insomnia with future mental illness: is it just residual symptoms?

Objectives: To evaluate whether the prospective association between insomnia and mental illness in the general population remained after controlling for multiple confounders, or whether this represented partly remitted prior mental illness.

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: Australian general population.

Associations of objective and subjective sleep disturbance with cognitive function in older men with comorbid depression and insomnia.

Objectives: To examine whether poor objective and subjective sleep quality are differentially associated with cognitive function.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Participants were recruited from primary and secondary care, and directly from the community, in Sydney, Australia.

Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to Examine Barriers to Healthcare Access for Hispanic and Latino Immigrants in the U.S. South.

Geographic barriers to accessing timely and appropriate primary health care services have been identified as significant social determinants of health that contribute to the growing health inequities among Hispanic and Latino immigrants in the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine the geographic factors that serve as barriers to healthcare access for Hispanic and Latino immigrants in the southern community of Louisville, Kentucky. Accessibility to healthcare services was examined using spatial analysis techniques, a Geographic Information System and geographic data from the U.

Accuracy of self-reported sleep parameters compared with actigraphy in young people with mental ill-health.

Objectives: Validation of self-report assessment of habitual sleep duration and onset time in young people with mental ill-health.

Design: Validation sample.

Setting: Specialized early intervention centers for young people in Sydney, Australia.

Practical implications of pre-employment nurse assessments.

Hiring nurses is a difficult task that can have serious repercussions for medical facilities. If nurses without proper skills are hired, patients can suffer from insufficient quality of care and potentially life-threatening conditions. Nurse applicants' technical knowledge is extremely important to avoid negative outcomes; however, there are soft skills that factor into their success, such as bedside manner, personality, communication, and decision making.

Using Lancaster's mid-P correction to the Fisher's exact test for adverse impact analyses.

Adverse impact is often assessed by evaluating whether the success rates for 2 groups on a selection procedure are significantly different. Although various statistical methods have been used to analyze adverse impact data, Fisher's exact test (FET) has been widely adopted, especially when sample sizes are small. In recent years, however, the statistical field has expressed concern regarding the default use of the FET and has proposed several alternative tests.

Soil-skin adherence from carpet: use of a mechanical chamber to control contact parameters.

A computer-controlled mechanical chamber was used to control the contact between carpet samples laden with soil, and human cadaver skin and cotton sheet samples for the measurement of mass soil transfer. Mass soil transfers were converted to adherence factors (mg/cm2) for use in models that estimate dermal exposure to contaminants found in soil media. The contact parameters of pressure (10 to 50 kPa) and time (10 to 50 sec) were varied for 369 experiments of mass soil transfer, where two soil types (play sand and lawn soil) and two soil sizes (< 139.

Treatment for combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder: two-year follow-up.

This study reports on outcomes 2 years following completion of specialist veteran posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment programs in 2,223 (reduced to 1,508 at 24 months) consecutive admissions. Self-report measures of PTSD, anxiety, depression, anger, alcohol use, and general functioning were obtained at admission, 6, 12, and 24 months after admission. Significant improvements were demonstrated at 6 months, with smaller gains continuing through to 24-month assessment.

Proteolytic cleavage of Livin (ML-IAP) in apoptotic melanoma cells potentially mediated by a non-canonical caspase.

Background: Several inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) are cleaved during apoptosis. Studies of the melanoma-associated IAP (ML-IAP) Livin, using recombinant molecules, have implicated both caspases 3/7 and the serine protease Omi/HtrA2 in its proteolytic cleavage.

Objective: To characterize the apoptotic cleavage of Livin in melanocytic cells, and evaluate the role of known proteases.

Activation of dual apoptotic pathways in human melanocytes and protection by survivin.

Apoptosis resistance in melanoma is a primary cause of treatment failure. Apoptotic pathways in melanocytes, from which melanoma arises, are poorly characterized. Human melanocytes were susceptible to apoptosis following exposure to UV radiation (UVB, 24-48 hours), 4-tert-butylphenol (4-TBP, 1-4 hours), and cisplatin (24-48 hours).

Problem gambling in Australian PTSD treatment-seeking veterans.

This study explored gambling among Australian veterans entering posttraumatic stress treatment programs (n = 153). Twenty-eight percent reached the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) criteria for probable problem gambling, as did 17% on the DSM-IV gambling scale (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Almost all problem gamblers reported gambling to escape problems in other areas of their lives.

Patterns of treatment response in chronic posttraumatic stress disorder: an application of latent growth mixture modeling.

This study attempts to differentiate groups of individuals who exhibit different patterns of recovery following treatment for chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and describes these groups in terms of relevant characteristics at program intake. A sample of 2,219 Vietnam veterans who had completed a 12-week treatment program was followed up at 6, 12, and 24 months post admission using self-report measures. With change in PTSD symptoms over time as the focus, latent growth mixture modeling was used to assign individual veterans to subgroups.

Clinical presentations and treatment outcomes of peacekeeper veterans with PTSD: preliminary findings.

Objective: Despite evidence of potential psychiatric sequelae following peacekeeping operations, no data have appeared on treatment outcome for this population. This study examined intake and treatment outcome data for a group of peacekeepers with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Method: Participants were 63 Australian Vietnam veterans and 66 Australian peacekeepers attending specialized PTSD treatment units.

A concise measure of anger in combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder.

There is a need for a brief specific measure of anger for use in assessment of posttraumatic mental health problems. One unpublished short scale is the Dimensions of Anger Reactions (DAR; R. Novaco, 1975).

Novel application of a fibrin cell block method to evaluate melanocytic cell populations.

Confirming melanocytic lineage and purity is important for experiments using cultured human melanocytes. The objective of this study was to develop a simple, reliable method to evaluate and archive cultured melanocytic cells. Melanocytes were isolated from adult skin biopsies or from neonatal foreskins using standard culturing methods.