A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Getting Our Hearts Right Program and the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program in a Sample of Iranian Couples.

For several decades, to enhance relationship quality, marriage and relationship education (MRE) programs have focused on teaching communication skills and conflict management. However, new explanations reveal that the effectiveness of communication skills in MRE programs may largely depend on virtues. Through a randomized controlled trial (RCT), the present study examined the effectiveness of the Getting Our Hearts Right Program (GOHR; a virtue-based approach) and the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP; a skill-based approach).

Enzyme Catalyzed Formation of CoA Adducts of Fluorinated Hexanoic Acid Analogues using a Long-Chain acyl-CoA Synthetase from sp. Strain NB4-1Y.

Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large family of anthropogenic fluorinated chemicals of increasing environmental concern. Over recent years, numerous microbial communities have been found to be capable of metabolizing some polyfluoroalkyl substances, generating a range of low-molecular-weight PFAS metabolites. One proposed pathway for the microbial breakdown of fluorinated carboxylates includes β-oxidation, this pathway is initiated by the formation of a CoA adduct.

Schema Modes, Trauma, and Disordered Eating.

Maladaptive schema modes may mediate between trauma and disordered eating, however there is little relevant evidence. This study aimed to predict disordered eating from modes, trauma, and age and gender. Also, to re-examine the factor structure of the Schema Mode Inventory for Eating Disorders, using an online cross-sectional survey of 612 volunteer participants aged 18 to 65, recruited from online eating disorder support groups, including people with and without diagnosed eating disorders.

"I Spent Most of Freshers in my Room"-A Qualitative Study of the Social Experiences of University Students on the Autistic Spectrum.

Autistic university students face extra challenges in both their academic and social life. Barriers to socialising appear to be less well understood and supported by universities than academic requirements. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten autistic university students to explore their social experiences.

Sinecatechins ointment as a potential novel treatment for usual type vulval intraepithelial neoplasia: a single-centre double-blind randomised control study.

Objective: To compare the safety and efficacy of 10% sinecatechins (Veregen ) ointment against placebo in the treatment of usual type vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (uVIN).

Design: A Phase II double-blind randomised control trial.

Setting: A tertiary gynaecological oncology referral centre.

A runoff trading system to meet watershed-level stormwater reduction goals with parcel-level green infrastructure installation.

Green infrastructure (GI) has been recommended widely to reduce runoff from the built environment. However, reliance on public land for GI implementation could cause a heavy financial burden on local governments. Although economic incentives and market-based mechanisms may encourage public participation in managing stormwater by installing GI on private parcels, a runoff trading market has not been fully developed in practice.

Introducing early and structured rehabilitation in critical care: A quality improvement project.

Objectives: To assess the potential impact of introducing an already established and effective programme of rehabilitation within a critical care unit in a different organisation.

Design: Fifteen-month prospective before/after quality improvement project.

Setting: Seven-bed mixed dependency critical care unit.

Development of a scenario-based stormwater management planning support system for reducing combined sewer overflows (CSOs).

Using combined sewer systems to handle excess stormwater runoff is common in older urban areas. Combined sewer overflow (CSO) events occur when hydraulic capacity is exceeded, and untreated wastewater discharges to surface waters. As urban population density increases, and more demand is placed on infrastructure, CSO events happen more often and cause serious environmental problems and public-health risks.

Amaze: a double-blind, multicentre randomised controlled trial to investigate the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of adding an ablation device-based maze procedure as an adjunct to routine cardiac surgery for patients with pre-existing atrial fibrillation.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) can be treated using a maze procedure during planned cardiac surgery, but the effect on clinical patient outcomes, and the cost-effectiveness compared with surgery alone, are uncertain.

Objectives: To determine whether or not the maze procedure is safe, improves clinical and patient outcomes and is cost-effective for the NHS in patients with AF.

Design: Multicentre, Phase III, pragmatic, double-blind, parallel-arm randomised controlled trial.

The role of trees in urban stormwater management.

Urban impervious surfaces convert precipitation to stormwater runoff, which causes water quality and quantity problems. While traditional stormwater management has relied on gray infrastructure such as piped conveyances to collect and convey stormwater to wastewater treatment facilities or into surface waters, cities are exploring green infrastructure to manage stormwater at its source. Decentralized green infrastructure leverages the capabilities of soil and vegetation to infiltrate, redistribute, and otherwise store stormwater volume, with the potential to realize ancillary environmental, social, and economic benefits.

Co-morbidity burden in Parkinson's disease: Comparison with controls and its influence on prognosis.

Background: Many aspects of co-morbidity burden in Parkinson's disease (PD) are unclear, but it may be an important predictor of prognosis or confounder of associations in epidemiological studies.

Objectives: To determine how best to assess co-morbidity burden in PD, to compare with matched controls, and investigate its association with prognostic outcomes.

Methods: Data from an incident, community-based cohort with prospective follow-up (the PINE study) were used (198 patients with PD and 151 controls).

A simple and efficient micrografting method for stably transformed Nicotiana attenuata plants to examine shoot-root signaling.

To adjust their development to the environment, plants rely on specific signals that travel from shoot to root and vice versa. Here we describe an efficient micrografting protocol for Nicotiana attenuata, a useful tool for identifying these signals and understanding their functions. Additionally we analyzed transcript accumulation profiles of scions and rootstocks of grafts performed with wild-type and stably transformed N.

A voltage-gated H+ channel underlying pH homeostasis in calcifying coccolithophores.

Marine coccolithophorid phytoplankton are major producers of biogenic calcite, playing a significant role in the global carbon cycle. Predicting the impacts of ocean acidification on coccolithophore calcification has received much recent attention and requires improved knowledge of cellular calcification mechanisms. Uniquely amongst calcifying organisms, coccolithophores produce calcified scales (coccoliths) in an intracellular compartment and secrete them to the cell surface, requiring large transcellular ionic fluxes to support calcification.

Guidance should end mystery of learning difficulties.

The recently launched RCN guidance on dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia (news August 18) provides managers with concise explanations and information on making practical accommodation in the workplace for staff with specific learning difficulties (SpLDs).

Measures of expressions of love.

This study developed scales for Chapman's five expressions of love: quality time, receiving gifts, words of affirmation, physical touch, and acts of service (two dimensions). A total of 338 student respondents were surveyed resulting in 321 usable surveys (95%). Of this total, 177 were women and 144 men, with a median age of 24 yr.

Circulating levels of MCP-1 and eotaxin are not associated with presence of atherosclerosis or previous myocardial infarction.

The chemokines are a family of signalling proteins that participate in regulation of the immune system and have been implicated in the pathogenesis of vascular diseases. Deleting the gene encoding the chemokine MCP-1 in mouse models of atherosclerosis reduces lipid lesion formation and circulating chemokines are upregulated in man immediately following myocardial infarction (MI) or coronary angioplasty. We have therefore investigated whether circulating levels of two chemokines (MCP-1 and eotaxin) differ between subjects with and without atherosclerosis.

Iron blocks the accumulation and activity of tetracyclines in bacteria.

The apparent sensitivities of several bacterial pathogens to tetracyclines varied by up to 128-fold with the medium content of Fe, but not of other metals. The effect of Fe was independent of superoxide dismutase activity and of intracellular Fe, but accumulation of tetracyclines was blocked in high-Fe medium. Thus, synergistic suppression of bacterial growth in the presence of a low Fe concentration and tetracyclines arises because of elevated antibiotic accumulation.

Elemental propagation of calcium signals in response-specific patterns determined by environmental stimulus strength.

Plant cells can respond qualitatively and quantitatively to a wide range of environmental signals. Ca(2+) is used as an intracellular signal for volume regulation in response to external osmotic changes. We show here that the spatiotemporal patterns of hypo-osmotically induced Ca(2+) signals vary dramatically with stimulus strength in embryonic cells of the marine alga Fucus.

Terminal core values associated with adolescent problem behaviors.

This study investigated the relationship of terminal core values to delinquency, substance use, and sexual behavior in a sample of 544 high school students. Students were classified according to their dominant value, and comparisons were made in regard to thirty-one indicators of delinquency, substance use, and sexual activity. As predicted by social control and strain theories, groups valuing fun/enjoyment and security were strongly identified with delinquency and substance use.

Pulmonary giant cell carcinoma: pathological entity or morphological phenotype?

Aims: To evaluate the morphological spectrum and clinical significance of giant cell carcinoma and to assess the frequency of tumour giant cell production in a consecutive series of primary (non-giant cell) lung tumours.

Methods And Results: Forty-six cases of giant cell carcinoma of the lung were collated from two centres over a 12-year period. Giant cell carcinoma was found to be associated with areas of clear cell carcinoma, spindle cell carcinoma and showed trophoblastic differentiation (syncytiotrophoblastic giant cells and beta-human chorionic gonadotrophin immunopositivity) in 57%, 34% and 26% cases, respectively.

Mesothelioma-binding antibodies: thrombomodulin, OV 632 and HBME-1 and their use in the diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma.

The aim of this study was to examine the expression of three putative mesothelioma-binding antibodies, thrombomodulin, OV 632 and HBME-1 in 42 malignant mesotheliomas (27 pleural and 15 peritoneal) and 32 pulmonary adenocarcinomas. Evaluation of their use in differentiating between the mesotheliomas and pulmonary adenocarcinomas was assessed. Thrombomodulin was expressed by 22 of 42 (52%) mesotheliomas but was seen in eight of 12 pure epithelial-type mesotheliomas of the pleura and in all four papillary epithelial peritoneal mesotheliomas.

A comparative immunohistochemical study of malignant mesothelioma and renal cell carcinoma: the diagnostic utility of Leu-M1, Ber EP4, Tamm-Horsfall protein and thrombomodulin.

Metastatic renal cell carcinoma has occasionally been reported to mimic malignant pleural mesothelioma. Morphologically, histochemically and immunohistochemically, similarities in the two tumours exist making their differentiation difficult, particularly in biopsy specimens. The aim of this study was to make a comparative immunohistochemical analysis of the two tumours by use of a panel of four antibodies (Leu M1; Ber EP4; thrombomodulin and Tamm-Horsfall protein).

Selected values, perceived control, and reasons for choice.

The present study related terminal core values measured by the List of Values and perceived control with reasons for an exercise program. Data (N = 531) were derived from a national sample of treadmill owners. Principal components analysis confirmed Veroff, Douvan, and Kulka's five categories for the nine values; however, the hierarchy of needs previously postulated in the list was not substantiated.