Supporting the Writing Productivity of Biomedical Graduate Students: An Integrated, Structured Writing Intervention.

Writing is a critical skill for graduate students, but few studies in the literature describe how it is supported in the training of biomedical graduate students. The Initiative for Maximizing Student Development program at Loma Linda University aims to develop this important skill in its students through an integrated, structured writing intervention. Specifically, the program hired a writing specialist who taught writing seminars, facilitated writing and publishing workshops, and mentored students in one-on-one writing conferences.

Friendship chemistry: An examination of underlying factors.

Interpersonal chemistry refers to a connection between two individuals that exists upon first meeting. The goal of the current study is to identify beliefs about the underlying components of friendship chemistry. Individuals respond to an online Friendship Chemistry Questionnaire containing items that are derived from interdependence theory and the friendship formation literature.

The effects of simultaneous exercise and psychotherapy on depressive symptoms in inpatient, psychiatric older adults.

Context: Depression is the leading cause of early death, affecting 15% of Americans older than 65 y and costing $43 billion each year. The current mental health service system for seniors, particularly for the population hospitalized in acute inpatient psychiatric units, is fragmented because of poor funding and a shift to a transitory health care paradigm, leading to inadequate treatment modalities, questionable quality of care, and lack of research demonstrating the superiority of a particular treatment. These issues are likely to lead to a public health crisis in the coming years.

Underrepresented minority high school and college students report STEM-pipeline sustaining gains after participating in the Loma Linda University Summer Health Disparities Research Program.

An urgent need exists for graduate and professional schools to establish evidence-based STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) pipeline programs to increase the diversity of the biomedical workforce. An untapped yet promising pool of willing participants are capable high school students that have a strong STEM interest but may lack the skills and the guided mentoring needed to succeed in competitive STEM fields. This study evaluates and compares the impact of the Loma Linda University (LLU) Summer Health Disparities Research Program on high school (HS) and undergraduate (UG) student participants.

Does Insurance Matter? Implementing Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Two Groups of Youth Engaged in Deliberate Self-harm.

This paper presents the outcomes of a Dialectical Behavior Treatment (DBT) program, implemented in intensive outpatient care with two groups of adolescents (n = 55 and n = 45), ages 12-18, who engaged in deliberate self-harm (DSH) but had different insurance/funding sources and risk backgrounds. This pre-post study examined variability in clinical functioning and treatment utilization between the two groups and investigated moderating risk factors. Findings support DBT's effectiveness in improving clinical functioning for youth with DSH regardless of insurance type.

Relationship between children's sleep and mental health in mothers of children with and without autism.

The study employed 90 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) who were matched to 90 typically developing children on age, gender, and ethnicity. Using structural equation modeling, maternal sleep and maternal stress mediated the relationship between children's sleep and mothers' mental health for mothers of children with and without ASDs. Mothers of children with ASDs reported more problems related to children's sleep, their own sleep, greater stress, and poorer mental health; however, children's sleep and maternal sleep were more closely related to maternal stress for mothers of typically developing children.

Pain experience in children with advanced cancer.

Background: It is important for health care professionals to understand the pain experience in children with advanced cancer. There has been increased attention to this topic, but systematic studies are limited.

Objective: To examine pain symptoms and management in children with advanced cancer using child self-report and nurse documentation.

Parenting Intervention to Reduce Attention and Behavior Difficulties in Preschoolers: A CUIDAR Evaluation Study.

In this study, we evaluated CUIDAR, a program that provides community-based 10-week parent training to reduce attention and behavior problems in preschool children. We recruited 154 predominantly low-income and Latino preschoolers and their parents to participate in this evaluation study. We collected data prior to and immediately following intervention and one year later.

Childhood sexual abuse severity reconsidered: a factor structure of CSA characteristics.

To address the lack of empirically grounded measures of childhood sexual abuse severity, a survey of self-report items was developed following a thorough review of the childhood sexual abuse literature. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted using data collected from a convenience sample of college students that included 275 females and males with a history of childhood sexual abuse. The solution produced seven factors interpreted as the following: (a) less intrusive forms of childhood sexual abuse (e.

The reliability and validity of the English and Spanish Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD and Normal behavior rating scales in a preschool sample: continuum measures of hyperactivity and inattention.

Objective: To evaluate the reliability and validity of the English and Spanish versions of the Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD-symptom and Normal-behavior (SWAN) rating scale.

Method: Parents of preschoolers completed both a SWAN and the well-established Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) on two separate occasions over a span of 3 months; instruments were in the primary language of the family (English or Spanish).

Results: Psychometric properties for the English and Spanish versions of the SWAN were adequate, with high internal consistency and moderate test-retest reliability.

Symptoms in children with advanced cancer: child and nurse reports.

Background: Systematic studies on the specific symptom experience in children with advanced cancer are limited.

Objective: The objective of the study was to examine the common symptoms and to explore commonly occurring symptoms over time.

Methods: A prospective and longitudinal study design was used.

A cultural research approach to instrument development: the case of breast and cervical cancer screening among Latino and Anglo women.

To illustrate the implementation of a bottom-up approach to the study of culture in health disparities, this article describes the development of a cultural cancer screening scale (CCSS) using mixed methodologies. The aim was to identify cultural factors relevant to breast and cervical cancer screening, develop an instrument to assess them and examine its preliminary psychometric properties among Latin American (Latino) and non-Latino White (Anglo) women in Southern California. Seventy-eight Latino and Anglo women participated in semi-structured interviews, which were content coded based on Triandis' methods for the analysis of subjective culture.

Recovery of putative pathogens from paper point sampling at different depths of periodontal lesions.

Background: The aim of this study was to compare the recovery of three putative periodontal pathogens from periodontal lesions in samples using paper points inserted to different depths of the lesions.

Methods: Twenty 6-8 mm deep periodontal lesions with bleeding on probing were studied. Microbial samples were obtained using paper points inserted to three different depths of the lesions: orifice of lesion; 2 mm into the lesion; and to the base of lesion.

Bone density assessments of dental implant sites: 3. Bone quality evaluation during osteotomy and implant placement.

Purpose: In previous publications of this series of studies on human cadaver jaws, bone densities were assessed and compared using subjective evaluation, conventional computed tomography (CT), and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). The aim of this study was to compare subjective bone quality during osteotomy and implant insertion resistance torque to noninvasive subjective and objective radiographic bone density assessments.

Materials And Methods: Forty-two designated implant sites were selected.

MR spectroscopy: predicting long-term neuropsychological outcome following pediatric TBI.

Purpose: To identify useful acute indicators of long-term neurocognitive outcome beyond clinical variables for children and adolescents treated for a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Materials And Methods: The efficacy of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) acquired 6+/-4 days after TBI in 20 children/adolescents in predicting intellectual and neuropsychological functioning one to four years post injury was assessed. Short echo-time single voxel MRS (SVS) from normal-appearing brain was compared to intermediate echo-time multivoxel MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) from normal-appearing and visibly-injured brain acquired through the level of the corpus callosum (CC).

Assessing alexithymia in French-speaking samples: psychometric properties of the Observer Alexithymia Scale-French translation.

In the present study, we evaluated the psychometric properties of the Observer Alexithymia Scale-French translation (OAS-F), a 33-item, observer-rated alexithymia measure. The scale, accessible to lay and professional raters, taps everyday expressions of alexithymia. French university students (N = 159) were asked to rate a person they knew well or ask an acquaintance to rate them.

Susceptibility weighted imaging: neuropsychologic outcome and pediatric head injury.

Traumatic brain injury is among the most frequent pediatric neurologic disorders in the United States, affecting multiple aspects of neuropsychologic functioning. This study assessed the efficacy of susceptibility weighted imaging as a predictor of long-term neuropsychologic functioning after pediatric brain injury compared with magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging. Susceptibility weighted imaging is a relatively new method that is considered superior to traditional magnetic resonance imaging sequences for detecting hemorrhagic diffuse axonal injury.

Bone density assessments of dental implant sites: 2. Quantitative cone-beam computerized tomography.

Purpose: Bone density was evaluated in designated implant sites using a novel volumetric computerized tomographic device. Those measurements were then compared with traditional quantitative computerized axial tomography and subjective bone density evaluation.

Materials And Methods: Sixty-three potential sites for implant placement in jaws from 9 human cadavers were used.

Ability of examiners to estimate the pain experienced by patients from probing during initial periodontal examination.

Background: The aims of the present study were to identify the level of pain experienced by patients from probing during periodontal examination, and to determine to what extent the examining periodontist and the dental assistant could estimate the degree of pain experienced by the patients.

Methods: For each of three periodontists, 20 patients referred for periodontal diagnosis and treatment were selected. The periodontist carried out his examination, which included probing at six sites per tooth.

Pain experienced by patients during periodontal recall examination using thinner versus thicker probes.

Background: The aim of the present study, performed during periodontal recall visits, was to compare the levels of pain experienced by patients during periodontal probing using probes with tip diameters of either 0.40 mm or 0.63 mm.

An assessment of HIV/AIDS risk in higher education students in Yerevan, Armenia.

Armenia's current sociopolitical and economic instability and the alarming HIV incidence rates in neighboring countries amplify its risk for a national epidemic. The goals of this study were to assess HIV/AIDS knowledge and risk behaviors among higher education students in Yerevan. Knowledge of HIV transmission through sexual intercourse was markedly higher than that on intravenous transmission and prevailing myths; however, HIV/AIDS knowledge was not related to risk behaviors.

Pain experienced by patients during periodontal maintenance.

Background: The aims of this study were to determine: 1) the degree of pain experienced by patients during probing and debridement; 2) whether the treating hygienists could estimate the degree of pain experienced by the patients; and 3) whether the patients' pain responses could be predicted by factors such as the patients' age, gender, number of residual periodontal lesions, and answers to a questionnaire on dental anxiety.

Methods: Prior to periodontal maintenance procedures, two groups of 20 adult patients to be treated by two hygienists completed an anxiety questionnaire. Subsequently, measurements of probing depths were performed, followed by pain ratings by each patient using a visual analog scale (VAS).

Bone density assessments of dental implant sites: 1. Quantitative computed tomography.

Purpose: This study was designed to evaluate variations of bone density in designated implant sites using quantitative computed tomography (QCT) and to compare the QCT measurements to subjective evaluation of bone density.

Materials And Method: Sixty-two designated implant sites in jaws of 9 human cadavers were used. Indicator rods, 2 mm in diameter, were placed in all sites.

Concurrent validity of two observer-rated alexithymia measures.

The purposes of the present study were to evaluate 1) the correspondence between two observer-rated alexithymia measures, the Observer Alexithymia Scale and the modified Beth Israel Hospital Psychosomatic Questionnaire (BIQ) and 2) the psychometric properties of both instruments. Clinical and counseling psychologists (N=131) used the two instruments to rate outpatients with various psychiatric diagnoses. Correspondence was excellent; the correlation between the two scales was 0.

Probing bone level measurements for determination of the depths of Class II furcation defects.

Background: Probing bone measurements as an alternative to open bone measurements to evaluate regenerative procedures in furcation defects do not seem to be used as yet. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the reliability of probing bone measurements in such defects.

Methods: Fifteen patients scheduled for surgical treatment of a total of 30 mandibular molars with buccal or lingual Class II furcation defects were studied.