Scaling Up Family Therapy in Fragile, Conflict-Affected States.

This article discusses the design and delivery of two international family therapy-focused mental health and psychosocial support training projects, one in a fragile state and one in a post-conflict state. The training projects took place in Southeast Asia and the Middle East/North Africa. Each was funded, supported, and implemented by local, regional, and international stakeholders, and delivered as part of a broader humanitarian agenda to develop human resource capacity to work with families affected by atrocities.

Transverse forces in skeletal muscle with massage-like loading in a rabbit model.

Background: The objective of this study was to quantify the transverse forces in skeletal muscle subjected to constant compressive massage-like loading (MLL) following eccentric exercise (ECC).

Methods: Twenty-eight New Zealand White rabbits were used for this two-part study. For all testing, a customized electromechanical device was utilized to apply a constant compressive force MLL to the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle and the resultant transverse forces were quantified.

Leptin, adiponectin, and heart rate variability among police officers.

Objectives: Police officers have a high prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Reduced heart rate variability (HRV) is known to increase CVD risk. Leptin and adiponectin may be related to CVD health.

Association of a dietary inflammatory index with inflammatory indices and metabolic syndrome among police officers.

Objectives: To determine whether the dietary inflammatory index (DII) is associated with inflammatory or metabolic biomarkers and metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) among police officers.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress study were derived from saliva and fasting blood samples, anthropometric measurements, long-term shiftwork histories, and demographic, stress/depression, and food frequency questionnaires (FFQs). Metabolic syndrome was defined using standard criteria.

Isospin character of low-lying pygmy dipole states in 208Pb via inelastic scattering of 17O ions.

The properties of pygmy dipole states in 208Pb were investigated using the 208Pb(17O, 17O'γ) reaction at 340 MeV and measuring the γ decay with high resolution with the AGATA demonstrator array. Cross sections and angular distributions of the emitted γ rays and of the scattered particles were measured. The results are compared with (γ, γ') and (p, p') data.

Associations of stressful life events and social strain with incident cardiovascular disease in the Women's Health Initiative.

Background: Epidemiologic studies have yielded mixed findings on the association of psychosocial stressors with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. In this study, we examined associations of stressful life events (SLE) and social strain with incident coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke (overall, and for hemorrhagic and ischemic strokes) independent of sociodemographic characteristics, and we evaluated whether these relationships were explained by traditional behavioral and biological risk factors.

Methods And Results: Data from approximately 82 000 Women's Health Initiative Observational Study participants were used for the SLE and social strain analyses, respectively.

Expanding Worldview: Australian Nursing Students' Experience of Cultural Immersion in India.

Abstract Increasing cultural diversity and a sense of global community has necessitated the introduction of cultural competence in the education of health care providers. Some institutions have utilized cultural immersion programs to address this need of cultural competence. Studies have not yet described what this experience is for Australian nursing students.

Geriatric core competencies for family medicine curriculum and enhanced skills: care of elderly.

Background: There is a growing mandate for Family Medicine residency programs to directly assess residents' clinical competence in Care of the Elderly (COE). The objectives of this paper are to describe the development and implementation of incremental core competencies for Postgraduate Year (PGY)-I Integrated Geriatrics Family Medicine, PGY-II Geriatrics Rotation Family Medicine, and PGY-III Enhanced Skills COE for COE Diploma residents at a Canadian University.

Methods: Iterative expert panel process for the development of the core competencies, with a pre-defined process for implementation of the core competencies.

Assessment of cardiovascular disease risk factors in the coastal region of South Carolina.

Objective: To assess risk factors for cardiovascular disease, barriers to health care, and desired health care education topics for Hispanics in the coastal region of South Carolina known as the Lowcountry.

Methods: 174 Hispanic adults were surveyed at visits at the Mexican consulate using a novel interview instrument. The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors was compared to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), an annual telephone survey, to evaluate the validity of the survey instrument.

Toward a computational theory of conscious processing.

The study of the mechanisms of conscious processing has become a productive area of cognitive neuroscience. Here we review some of the recent behavioral and neuroscience data, with the specific goal of constraining present and future theories of the computations underlying conscious processing. Experimental findings imply that most of the brain's computations can be performed in a non-conscious mode, but that conscious perception is characterized by an amplification, global propagation and integration of brain signals.

Prevalence of obesity by occupation among US workers: the National Health Interview Survey 2004-2011.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of obesity and the change of prevalence of obesity between 2004-2007 and 2008-20011 by occupation among US workers in the National Health Interview Survey.

Methods: Self-reported weight and height were collected and used to assess obesity (body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m). Gender-, race/ethnicity-, and occupation-specific prevalence of obesity were calculated.

Police Work Absence: An Analysis of Stress and Resiliency.

Police work is a high stress occupation and stress has been implicated in work absence. The present study examined (1) associations between specific types of police stress and work absences, (2) distinctions between "voluntary" (1-day) and "involuntary" (> 3-days) absences; and (3) the modifying effect of resiliency. Officers (n=337) from the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress study were included in the present study.

Mortality of a Police Cohort: 1950-2005.

Background: The authors conducted a retrospective cohort mortality study on police officers from 1950-2005.

Methods: Standardized Mortality Ratio (SMR) analyses were conducted separately for white male (n=2761), black (n=286), and female (n=259) officers.

Results: Mortality from all causes of death combined for white male officers was significantly higher than expected (SMR=1.

Decoding the dynamics of action, intention, and error detection for conscious and subliminal stimuli.

How do we detect our own errors, even before we receive any external feedback? One model hypothesizes that error detection results from the confrontation of two signals: a fast and unconscious motor code, based on a direct sensory-motor pathway; and a slower conscious intention code that computes the required response given the stimulus and task instructions. To test this theory and assess how the chain of cognitive processes leading to error detection is modulated by consciousness, we applied multivariate decoding methods to single-trial magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography data. Human participants performed a fast bimanual number comparison task on masked digits presented at threshold, such that about half of them remained unseen.

Fibroblast growth factor-2 isoform (low molecular weight/18 kDa) overexpression in preosteoblast cells promotes bone regeneration in critical size calvarial defects in male mice.

Repair of bone defects remains a significant clinical problem. Bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) is US Food and Drug Administration-approved for fracture healing but is expensive and has associated morbidity. Studies have shown that targeted overexpression of the 18-kDa low-molecular-weight fibroblast growth factor 2 isoform (LMW) by the osteoblastic lineage of transgenic mice increased bone mass.

Conformational sensitivity of conjugated poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(amidoamine) molecules to cations adducted upon electrospray ionization - a mass spectrometry, ion mobility and molecular modeling study.

Tandem mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry experiments were performed on multiply charged molecules formed upon conjugation of a poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer with a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) linear polymer to evidence any conformational modification as a function of their charge state (2+ to 4+) and of the adducted cation (H(+)vs Li(+)). Experimental findings were rationalized by molecular dynamics simulations. The G0 PAMAM head-group could accommodate up to three protons, with protonated terminal amine group enclosed in a pseudo 18-crown-6 ring formed by the PEO segment.

Catalytic effect of cesium cation adduct formation on the decarboxylation of carboxylate ions in the gas phase.

The effect of Cs(+) ligation on the decarboxylation of malonic acids (unsubstituted and methyl-, dimethyl-, ethyl-, and phenyl-substituted) in their carboxylate form was studied in the gas phase using tandem mass spectrometry. The study is based on the comparison of the decarboxylation of the bare monoanion (hydrogen malonates) and of the cesium adduct of the cesium salt (Cs(+) [cesium hydrogen malonates]) under collisional activation. Energy-resolved dissociation curves of the negative and positive ions exhibit major differences.

Temporary intramolecular generation of pyridine carbenes in metal-free three-component C-H bond functionalisation/aryl-transfer reactions.

Nucleophilic addition of pyridines to benzyne generates zwitterionic adducts that evolve by a rapid intramolecular proton shift to produce the corresponding pyridine carbenes, N-phenyl pyrid-2-ylidenes. In the presence of electrophilic ketones (isatin derivatives), the pyridylidenes can further react by an original bis-arylation reaction of the carbonyl compounds involving a formal pyridine C-H bond functionalisation. The overall transformation is an unprecedented three-component reaction featuring a carbene intermediate.

MALDI of synthetic polymers with labile end-groups.

Mass spectrometry is increasingly used in the field of synthetic polymers as a fast and accurate technique for end-group analysis. More particularly, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) has gained much popularity because it allows quite simple mass spectra to be obtained, displaying a single distribution for each polymeric species present in the sample, in contrast to electrospray ionization (ESI) which readily promotes multiple charging for most polymers. A soft ionization process, ensuring the integrity of the species upon transfer into gas phase ions, is however mandatory for polymer end-group analysis since information about the chain terminations mainly rely on the m/z values measured for polymer adducts.

Association between shiftwork and glomerular filtration rate in police officers.

Objective: To investigate associations between shiftwork and glomerular filtration rate among white/Hispanic (n = 273) and African American (n = 81) police officers.

Methods: Analysis of variance/analysis of variance was utilized to compare mean values of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) across shiftwork categories.

Results: Shiftwork was significantly associated with eGFR among white/Hispanic officers only: day (88.

Associations between insulin and heart rate variability in police officers.

Objective: Low heart rate variability (HRV) has been linked to cardiovascular disease. Our objective was to examine the cross-sectional association between insulin and HRV.

Methods: Insulin levels were measured in 355 nondiabetic officers from the BCOPS study, following a 12 h fast.

Associations of objectively measured and self-reported sleep duration with carotid artery intima media thickness among police officers.

Background: We aimed to examine the association of objectively measured and self-reported sleep duration with carotid artery intima media thickness (IMT) among 257 police officers, a group at high risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods: Sleep duration was estimated using actigraphic data and through self-reports. The mean maximum IMT was the average of the largest 12 values scanned bilaterally from three angles of the near and far wall of the common carotid, bulb, and internal carotid artery.

Occupational and genetic risk factors for osteoarthritis: a review.

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a multifactorial disease with strong genetic and occupational components. Although published studies have described several risk factors for OA, very few studies have investigated the occupational and genetic factors that contribute to this debilitating condition.

Objective: To describe occupational and genetic factors that may contribute to the risk of developing (OA).