A multilevel intervention in pediatric primary care for youth tobacco control: Outcomes of implementing an Ask, Advise, and Connect model.

Multilevel interventions in healthcare settings (e.g. Ask, Advise, and Connect; AAC) can reduce tobacco product use among adult patients: their effectiveness in pediatric practice is largely unknown.

Factors Associated With Disordered Eating Behavior Among Adolescent Girls: Screening and Education.

Introduction/objectives: An unhealthy relationship with food can lead to disordered eating in adolescence, highlighting the importance of screening. This study describes the frequency of disordered eating behavior among female adolescents, as well as associated characteristics and health behaviors.

Methods: Data are from a multidimensional risk factor screening survey administered at a university medical center's adolescent clinic from 2016 to 2018.

Enhanced Delivery of Neuroactive Drugs via Nasal Delivery with a Self-Healing Supramolecular Gel.

This paper reports the use of a self-assembling hydrogel as a delivery vehicle for the Parkinson's disease drug l-DOPA. Based on a two-component combination of an l-glutamine amide derivative and benzaldehyde, this gel has very soft rheological properties and self-healing characteristics. It is demonstrated that the gel can be formulated to encapsulate l-DOPA.

Catalytic Gels for a Prebiotically Relevant Asymmetric Aldol Reaction in Water: From Organocatalyst Design to Hydrogel Discovery and Back Again.

This paper reports an investigation into organocatalytic hydrogels as prebiotically relevant systems. Gels are interesting prebiotic reaction media, combining heterogeneous and homogeneous characteristics with a structurally organized active "solid-like" catalyst separated from the surrounding environment, yet in intimate contact with the solution phase and readily accessible via "liquid-like" diffusion. A simple self-assembling glutamine amide derivative was initially found to catalyze a model aldol reaction between cyclohexanone and 4-nitrobenzaldehyde, but it did not maintain its gel structure during reaction.

Adolescent Beliefs About Hookah and Hookah Tobacco Use and Implications for Preventing Use.

Introduction: Hookah tobacco use is popular among youths and there is evidence that perceived risks and normative beliefs are associated with hookah use. The aim of this study was to further examine associations between perceived risks of hookah use, normative beliefs, and lifetime hookah use among youths.

Methods: Participants were adolescents aged 12 to 17 years (n = 257, mean [standard deviation] age, 14.

The effects of framed messages for engaging adolescents with online smoking prevention interventions.

Messages emphasizing the harms of smoking (loss-framed) or the benefits of not smoking (gain-framed) may be effective for engaging adolescents with tobacco prevention resources. This novel approach could help to close a gap in tobacco prevention intervention delivery in the pediatric primary care setting. To examine the effects of framed messages for engaging adolescents with an evidence-based smoking prevention website, adolescents ages 12 to 17 presenting for primary care well-visits were recruited for a three-arm experiment.

A Qualitative Study of Adolescent Perceptions of Electronic Cigarettes and Their Marketing: Implications for Prevention and Policy.

This study examined youths' perceptions of electronic cigarettes ("e-cigarettes"), sources of e-cigarettes exposure, and preferred sources of e-cigarette health information. Participants ( = 25, age 15.0 years) recruited during primary care visits completed an in-depth qualitative interview assessing these topics.

Correlates of Sun Safety Practices in a Racially and Ethnically Diverse Sample of Adolescents: Implications for Skin Cancer Prevention Interventions.

To guide skin cancer preventive interventions, this study examined correlates of sun safety behaviors in a racially and ethnically diverse sample of 407 adolescents completing a self-report survey at the time of their pediatric wellness visit. Adolescents regularly practiced few sun safety behaviors, and greater interest in cancer prevention was associated with more sun safety behaviors, ever smoking cigarettes was associated with fewer sun safety behaviors, and nonwhite minority adolescents practiced fewer sun safety behaviors than non-Hispanic whites. Clinical preventive interventions to increase sun safety practices among adolescents of all racial and ethnic backgrounds could be integrated into general cancer prevention education, including combining skin cancer prevention with antismoking counseling.

Systemic levels of neuropeptide Y and dipeptidyl peptidase activity in patients with Ewing sarcoma--associations with tumor phenotype and survival.

Background: Ewing sarcoma (ES) is driven by fusion of the Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 gene (EWSR1) with an E26 transformation-specific (ETS) transcription factor (EWS-ETS), most often the Friend leukemia integration 1 transcription factor (FLI1). Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is an EWS-FLI1 transcriptional target; it is highly expressed in ES and exerts opposing effects, ranging from ES cell death to angiogenesis and cancer stem cell propagation. The functions of NPY are regulated by dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPPIV), a hypoxia-inducible enzyme that cleaves the peptide and activates its growth-promoting actions.

Pediatric to adult transition: a quality improvement model for primary care.

Purpose: To examine the relationship between quality improvement activities with pediatric and adult primary care practices and improvements in transition from pediatric to adult care.

Methods: This was a time-series comparative study of changes in pediatric and adult practices involving five large pediatric and adult academic health centers in the District of Columbia. Using the Health Care Transition Index (pediatric and adult versions), we examined improvements in specific indicators of transition performance, including development of an office transition policy, provider knowledge and skills related to transition, identification of transitioning youth, transition preparation of youth, transition planning, and transfer of care.

Trait hostility and hostile interpretation biases in daily smokers: associations with reasons for smoking, motivation to quit, and early smoking lapse.

Hostility has emerged as an important predictor of smoking cessation difficulties, though the mechanisms underlying the hostility and smoking relationship are poorly understood. Further, research has yet to explore relations between hostile interpretation biases and different aspects of smoking behavior. In the present study, current daily smokers (N = 106) were administered measures of smoking characteristics, smoking motivation, reasons for quitting, hostility, and hostile interpretation bias.

Effect of anger and trait forgiveness on cardiovascular risk in young adult females.

High trait anger is linked to adverse cardiovascular outcomes. A potential antidote to the cardiotoxic influence of anger is trait forgiveness (TF), as it has shown associations with improved blood pressure (BP) and cardiovagal tone regulation in cardiac patients. However, it has yet to be determined if anger and forgiveness independently predict cardiovascular parameters.

Multiple facets of problematic anger among regular smokers: exploring associations with smoking motives and cessation difficulties.

Introduction: Research has implicated problematic anger in multiple smoking outcomes, including nicotine dependence and difficulties with cessation. However, the mechanisms underlying the role of anger in smoking behavior and cessation difficulties remain unclear. The current study examined associations between different facets of anger with smoking motives, problematic symptoms during past quit attempts, reasons for quitting, and perceived barriers to cessation.

The effects of nicotine on intrusive memories in nonsmokers.

Correlational research suggests that smoking increases risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), though such research by nature cannot rule out third variable explanations for this relationship. The present study used an analogue trauma film design to experimentally test the effects of nicotine on the occurrence of intrusive memories. Fifty-four healthy nonsmokers were randomly assigned to ingest either a nicotine or placebo lozenge before viewing a film depicting motor vehicle accidents.

Effects of interpretation training on hostile attribution bias and reactivity to interpersonal insult.

Research suggests that individuals high in anger have a bias for attributing hostile intentions to ambiguous situations. The current study tested whether this interpretation bias can be altered to influence anger reactivity to an interpersonal insult using a single-session cognitive bias modification program. One hundred thirty-five undergraduate students were randomized to receive positive training, negative training, or a control condition.

Priming of courageous behavior: contrast effects in spider fearful women.

Objective: Recently, researchers have called for therapeutic applications of behavioral primes (Shalev & Bargh, 2011). We evaluated whether courageous approach behavior might be facilitated through priming in a sample of spider fearful women.

Method: Undergraduate student women reporting elevated spider fear (N = 33, Age mean = 18.

Delineating a relationship between problematic anger and cigarette smoking: a population-based study.

Background: Research implicates a potentially important relationship between anger and smoking, though extant work suffers from a number of limitations, including the absence of controls for psychiatric comorbidity and the use of treatment-seeking samples. The current study sought to examine the unique associations between problematic anger and smoking behavior in a large representative sample.

Methods: Participants included 5,692 adults from the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication, a nationally representative survey.

Patterns and correlates of multiple risk factors for adult-onset cancer among adolescents(1).

The authors investigated patterns and correlates of multiple cancer risk factors (MCRFs) among adolescents. Baseline data from an intervention efficacy trial were analyzed to examine patterns of co-occurring MCRFs and sociodemographic and theoretical (e.g.

Distress tolerance and obsessions: an integrative analysis.

Background: Recent research implicates a potential relationship between poor distress tolerance (DT) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and obsessions in particular, though this evidence has been largely indirect. We sought to examine the incremental and specific associations between DT and obsessions using multiple methodologies.

Methods: We conducted three separate studies using independent nonclinical samples (total N=558) that involved cross-sectional (Study 1) and prospective self-report designs (Study 2), as well as the use of an in vivo neutralization task (Study 3).

Correlates of adherence to a telephone-based multiple health behavior change cancer preventive intervention for teens: the Healthy for Life Program (HELP).

This study examined factors associated with teens' adherence to a multiple health behavior cancer preventive intervention. Analyses identified predictors of trial enrollment, run-in completion, and adherence (intervention initiation, number of sessions completed). Of 104 teens screened, 73% (n = 76) were trial eligible.

Termination of washing compulsions: a problem of internal reference criteria or 'not just right' experience?

Recent research suggests that obsessive-compulsive washers are more likely than individuals without washing compulsions to use conscious, internal reference criteria when deciding when to terminate compulsions (Wahl, Salkovskis, & Cotter, 2008). An alternative view is that they possess tendencies towards non-cognitive, automatic 'not just right' experiences (NJREs) that influence compulsion duration. The current study sought to investigate the latter explanation using valid behavioral tasks.

Posttraumatic stress disorder and cannabis use in a nationally representative sample.

The present study examined the relations between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and cannabis use in a large representative survey of adults (N = 5,672) from the United States (Kessler et al., 2004). After adjusting for sociodemographic variables (i.