Nurturing care assets for food security: a community asset mapping approach.

Background: Zip codes classified by the Food Insecurity Index with moderate and high food insecurity (FI) risk can be a threat to the health and well-being of children during the first 1,000 days (from pregnancy to 2 years). The presence of nurturing care assets (i.e.

Listening Sessions to Shape the Innovative NIH ComPASS Common Fund Program to Advance Health Equity.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recognized the need for a research program to address the underlying structural factors that impact health. To inform the development of the NIH Common Fund Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS) Program, NIH obtained input through community listening sessions. Through its design, ComPASS recognizes the essential role of community organizations as the lead in addressing persistent structural and social challenges to accelerate progress toward advancing health equity.

No Effect of Coenzyme Q10 on Cognitive Function, Psychological Symptoms, and Health-related Outcomes in Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder: Results of a Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

Background: Cognitive impairments, negative symptoms, affective symptoms, and low energy are highly prevalent features of schizophrenia. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been hypothesized as one of the numerous factors to underlie the manifestation of these symptoms. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) has a role in the treatment of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

How Ethnicity, Expression, and Study Design Influence First Impressions of Approachability.

Over two studies, participants (total N = 642) rated a community sample of photographs of Black, East Asian, and White males who were smiling or portraying a neutral expression to see how participant ethnicity, target ethnicity, and target expression influence judgments of approachability (i.e., trustworthiness, friendliness, and threat).

How do adolescent girls and boys perceive symptoms suggestive of endometriosis among their peers? Findings from focus group discussions in New York City.

Objective: Symptoms of endometriosis, including pelvic pain, back and nerve pain, and gastrointestinal pain, often begin in adolescence. Yet, research on the experience of these debilitating symptoms among young people is scarce. Of particular concern is the influence of adolescent girls' social context.

A Comparison of Health Professionals' and Patients' Views of the Importance of Outcomes of Bariatric Surgery.

Background: A comprehensive evaluation of bariatric surgery is required to inform decision-making. This will include measures of benefit and risk. It is possible that stakeholders involved with surgery value these outcomes differently, although this has not previously been explored.

I am AmeriBritSouthAfrican-Zambian: Multidimensional remote acculturation and well-being among urban Zambian adolescents.

One impact of globalisation is that adolescents today are frequently exposed to the values, attitudes and norms of other nations without leaving their own backyards. This may lead to remote acculturation-cultural and psychological changes experienced by non-migrant individuals having indirect and/or intermittent contact with a geographically separate culture. Using quantitative and qualitative data, we examined multidimensional remote acculturation among 83 urban Zambian adolescents who are routinely exposed to U.

The Patient Journey to Gastric Band Surgery: A Qualitative Exploration.

Aims: This study explored the views and experiences of obese people preparing to undergo laparoscopic gastric banding (LAGB) leading up to the time of surgery.

Background: Weight loss surgery (WLS) is the most successful intervention available for the treatment of morbid obesity, and LAGB is among the most commonly used procedures in bariatric surgery. So far, the patient experience of deciding to undergo LAGB has been explored rarely and predominantly retrospectively.

An investigation of the associations between contingent self-worth and aspirations among Iranian university students.

This study investigated the novel associations between intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations and internal and external domains of contingent self-worth among a sample of 502 Iranian university students. We found a meaningful pattern showing that intrinsic aspirations were positively associated with internal domains, whereas extrinsic aspirations were positively associated with external domains. Our survey data also suggested that the factor structure of the Aspiration Index, as well as the factor structure of the Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale in our Iranian sample were consistent with factor structures of foreign samples.

Living with a Gastric Band: A Qualitative Study.

Unlabelled: Gastric banding is an established and effective form of weightloss surgery. Semi-structured interviews explored the experiences of gastric banding of twenty purposively recruited patients one year after surgery. Data was analysed using thematic analysis.

Recruitment of the left hemispheric emotional attention neural network in risk for and protection from depression.

Background: Family history of major depressive disorder (MDD) increases individuals' vulnerability to depression and alters the way depression manifests itself. Emotion processing and attention shifting are functions altered by MDD and family history of the disease; therefore, it is important to recognize the neural correlates of these functions in association with both factors.

Methods: Our study determines neural correlates of emotion processing and attention shifting for healthy individuals and patients with MDD with and without family history of depression.

Early life adversity is associated with brain changes in subjects at family risk for depression.

Objective: The interplay of genetic and early environmental factors is recognized as an important factor in the aetiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of the present study was to examine whether reduced volume of hippocampus and frontal brain regions involved in emotional regulation are already present in unaffected healthy individuals at genetic risk of suffering MDD and to investigate whether early life adversity is a relevant factor interacting with these reduced brain structures.

Method: Twenty unaffected first-degree relatives of patients with MDD (FHP: family history positive) and 20 healthy controls (FHN: family history negative) underwent high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging.

The role of public schools in HIV prevention: perspectives from African Americans in the rural South.

Though African-American youth in the South are at high risk for HIV infection, abstinence until marriage education continues to be the only option in some public schools. Using community-based participatory research methods, we conducted 11 focus groups with African-American adults and youth in a rural community in North Carolina with high rates of HIV infection with marked racial disparities. Focus group discussions explored participant views on contributors to the elevated rates of HIV and resources available to reduce transmission.

Effects of early-life adversity on white matter diffusivity changes in patients at risk for major depression.

Background: Relatives of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and people who experienced early-life adversity are at risk for MDD. The aim of our study was to investigate whether unaffected first-degree healthy relatives (UHRs) of patients with MDD show changes in white matter fibre connections compared with healthy controls and whether there are interactions between early-life adversity and these microstructural changes.

Methods: Unaffected, healthy first-degree relatives of patients with MDD and healthy controls without any family history for a psychiatric disease underwent high angular resolution diffusion imaging with 61 diffusion directions.

Extrinsic value orientation and affective forecasting: overestimating the rewards, underestimating the costs.

We examined affective forecasting errors as a possible explanation of the perennial appeal of extrinsic values and goals. Study 1 found that although people relatively higher in extrinsic (money, fame, image) compared to intrinsic (growth, intimacy, community) value orientation (REVO) are less happy, they nevertheless believe that attaining extrinsic goals offers a strong potential route to happiness. Study 2's longitudinal experimental design randomly assigned participants to pursue either 3 extrinsic or 3 intrinsic goals over 4 weeks, and REVO again predicted stronger forecasts regarding extrinsic goals.

Evaluating nurses' implementation of an infant-feeding counseling protocol for HIV-infected mothers: The Ban Study in Lilongwe, Malawi.

A process evaluation of nurses' implementation of an infant-feeding counseling protocol was conducted for the Breastfeeding, Antiretroviral and Nutrition (BAN) Study, a prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV clinical trial in Lilongwe, Malawi. Six trained nurses counseled HIV-infected mothers to exclusively breastfeed for 24 weeks postpartum and to stop breastfeeding within an additional four weeks. Implementation data were collected via direct observations of 123 infant feeding counseling sessions (30 antenatal and 93 postnatal) and interviews with each nurse.

Beauty salons: a promising health promotion setting for reaching and promoting health among African American women.

African American women suffer disproportionately from a wide range of health disparities. This article clarifies how beauty salons can be mobilized at all levels of the social-ecological framework to address disparities in health among African American women. The North Carolina BEAUTY and Health Project is a randomized, controlled intervention trial that takes into account the unique and multilevel features of the beauty salon setting with interventions that address owners, customers, stylists; interactions between customers and stylists; and the salon environment.

The gender ratio imbalance and its relationship to risk of HIV/AIDS among African American women at historically black colleges and universities.

African American women are at increased risk of HIV transmission through heterosexual contact. HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death among African American women between 25 to 34 years of age, and many of these women were likely infected while in college. Four focus groups were conducted with African American students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in order to learn about the college dating environment and how it influenced women's risk of HIV infection.

Differences between international recommendations on breastfeeding in the presence of HIV and the attitudes and counselling messages of health workers in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Background: To prevent postnatal transmission of HIV in settings where safe alternatives to breastfeeding are unavailable, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding followed by early, rapid cessation of breastfeeding. Only limited data are available on the attitudes of health workers toward this recommendation and the impact of these attitudes on infant feeding counselling messages given to mothers.

Methods: As part of the Breastfeeding, Antiretroviral, and Nutrition (BAN) clinical trial, we carried out an in-depth qualitative study of the attitudes, beliefs, and counselling messages of 19 health workers in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Using community-based participatory research methods to reach women with health messages: results from the North Carolina BEAUTY and Health Pilot Project.

This pilot study used a community-based participatory research approach to recruit and train five licensed cosmetologists from two beauty salons to deliver health promotion messages to their customers. Stylists attended a 4-hr workshop to develop skills for delivering targeted health messages. Educational displays in the salons reinforced these messages.

Preparation of kinase-biased compounds in the search for lead inhibitors of kinase targets.

This work describes the preparation of approximately 13,000 compounds for rapid identification of hits in high-throughput screening (HTS). These compounds were designed as potential serine/threonine or tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The library consists of various scaffolds, e.

Survival and Activity of lux-Marked Aeromonas salmonicida in Seawater.

The fish pathogen Aeromonas salmonicida was chromosomally marked with genes encoding bacterial luciferase, luxAB, isolated from Vibrio fischeri, resulting in constitutive luciferase production. During exponential growth in liquid batch culture, luminescence was directly proportional to biomass concentration, and luminometry provided a lower detection limit of approximately 10(sup3) cells ml(sup-1), 1 order of magnitude more sensitive than enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay detection. In sterile seawater at 4(deg)C, lux-marked A.

Esophageal manometry and radionuclide emptying in chronic alcoholics.

Eighteen asymptomatic alcoholics, half with neuropathy, were studied within 3 days of drinking to evaluate the frequency, nature, and underlying causes of esophageal dysmotility. Ten were restudied after a month of sobriety. The mean lower esophageal sphincter pressure and esophageal contraction amplitude in alcoholics were significantly higher than controls.