Using a computer simulation for teaching communication skills: A blinded multisite mixed methods randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: To assess advanced communication skills among second-year medical students exposed either to a computer simulation (MPathic-VR) featuring virtual humans, or to a multimedia computer-based learning module, and to understand each group's experiences and learning preferences.

Methods: A single-blinded, mixed methods, randomized, multisite trial compared MPathic-VR (N=210) to computer-based learning (N=211). Primary outcomes: communication scores during repeat interactions with MPathic-VR's intercultural and interprofessional communication scenarios and scores on a subsequent advanced communication skills objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).

Autonomy and Firefighting: Perceived Competence and Stress.

Objective: In workplace settings, autonomy is implicated in employee motivation as well as supervisor autonomy support. As a profession of risk, firefighters may experience greater levels of stress.

Methods: A self-determination paradigm was applied to the firefighter workplace.

A Comparison of Composite Reliability Estimators: Coefficient Omega Confidence Intervals in the Current Literature.

Coefficient omega and alpha are both measures of the composite reliability for a set of items. Unlike coefficient alpha, coefficient omega remains unbiased with congeneric items with uncorrelated errors. Despite this ability, coefficient omega is not as widely used and cited in the literature as coefficient alpha.

Burning Out Faculty at Doctoral Research Universities.

The present study examined the importance of time allocation, pressure and support variables together as determinants of faculty burnout. Using a large sample of university faculty (N = 1439), we were able to show that time allocation variables and perceived pressure contribute to faculty burnout. As expected, decreased social support, family, sleep and leisure time were related to higher levels of burnout.

Emotional Distress, Alcohol Use, and Bidirectional Partner Violence Among Lesbian Women.

This study examined the relationship between emotional distress (defined as depression, brooding, and negative affect), alcohol outcomes, and bidirectional intimate partner violence among lesbian women. Results lend support to the self-medication hypothesis, which predicts that lesbian women who experience more emotional distress are more likely to drink to cope, and in turn report more alcohol use, problem drinking, and alcohol-related problems. These alcohol outcomes were, in turn, associated with bidirectional partner violence (BPV).

Predictors of perpetration of men's same-sex partner violence.

This study examined alcohol consumption, internalized homophobia, and outness as related to men's (N = 107) reports of the perpetration of violence against a same-sex partner. Higher typical weekly alcohol consumption, higher levels of internalized homophobia, and less outness (e.g.

Assessment of Parent Orientation towards Autonomy vs. Control in Promoting Children's Healthy Eating and Exercise.

Background: Self-determination theory has been widely applied to understanding individuals' health-related behaviors such as eating healthy foods and exercising. Different reasons for engagement are associated with varying levels of personal agency or autonomy. Authority figures in the environment can be supportive of autonomy or, in contrast, controlling.

Drinking buddies and their prospective influence on alcohol outcomes: alcohol expectancies as a mediator.

The process by which peers or the social network influence individual alcohol use, particularly among adults, remains a necessary area of research. The purpose of the present study was to examine the longitudinal influence of "drinking buddies" on alcohol outcomes (i.e.

Predictors of physician use of inpatient electronic health records.

Objectives: To predict adoption (80% rate of use) of an electronic health record (EHR) by admitting physicians using a heuristic model.

Methods: Administrative data collected for 326 physicians who admitted at least 10 patients to 3 hospitals during the 6 months following EHR activation represented more than 80% of the total admissions. Functions evaluated included computerized physician order entry (CPOE), electronic history and physical (EH and P), and electronic discharge summary (EDS).

The social constructions of unwanted pregnancy and abortion in Lima, Peru.

Although modern contraceptive use in Peru has increased, many women still face unwanted or unplanned pregnancies and abortions remain high despite the illegality of elective pregnancy termination. To improve understanding of how men and women make reproductive decisions, we conducted this study in Lima. Fifty-two 18-37 year old low- and middle-income women and men participated in in-depth interviews and focus groups.

Comparing self-reported ethnicity to genetic background measures in the context of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).

Background: Questions remain regarding the utility of self-reported ethnicity (SRE) in genetic and epidemiologic research. It is not clear whether conditioning on SRE provides adequate protection from inflated type I error rates due to population stratification and admixture. We address this question using data obtained from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), which enrolled individuals from 4 self-reported ethnic groups.

Most common single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with rheumatoid arthritis in persons of European ancestry confer risk of rheumatoid arthritis in African Americans.

Objective: Large-scale genetic association studies have identified >20 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk alleles among individuals of European ancestry. The influence of these risk alleles has not been comprehensively studied in African Americans. We therefore sought to examine whether these validated RA risk alleles are associated with RA risk in an African American population.

Drosophila as a model for epilepsy: bss is a gain-of-function mutation in the para sodium channel gene that leads to seizures.

We report the identification of bang senseless (bss), a Drosophila melanogaster mutant exhibiting seizure-like behaviors, as an allele of the paralytic (para) voltage-gated Na(+) (Na(V)) channel gene. Mutants are more prone to seizure episodes than normal flies because of a lowered seizure threshold. The bss phenotypes are due to a missense mutation in a segment previously implicated in inactivation, termed the "paddle motif" of the Na(V) fourth homology domain.

An examination of the association of selected toxic metals with total and central obesity indices: NHANES 99-02.

It is conceivable that toxic metals contribute to obesity by influencing various aspects of metabolism, such as by substituting for essential micronutrients and vital metals, or by inducing oxidative stress. Deficiency of the essential metal zinc decreases adiposity in humans and rodent models, whereas deficiencies of chromium, copper, iron, and magnesium increases adiposity. This study utilized the NHANES 99-02 data to explore the association between waist circumference and body mass index with the body burdens of selected toxic metals (barium, cadmium, cobalt, cesium, molybdenum, lead, antimony, thallium, and tungsten).

Endocrine disruptors and obesity: an examination of selected persistent organic pollutants in the NHANES 1999-2002 data.

Recent evidence suggests that endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may cause perturbations in endogenous hormonal regulation that predispose to weight gain. Using data from NHANES (1999-2002), we investigated the association between body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and selected persistent organic pollutants (POPs) via multiple linear regressions. Consistent interaction was found between gender, ln oxychlordane and ln p,p' DDT.

The Case for Examining and Treating the Combined Effects of Parental Drug Use and Interparental Violence on Children in their Homes.

This review examines what have been, to this point, generally two divergent lines of research: (a) effects of parental drug abuse on children, and (b) effects of children's exposure to interparental violence. A small, but growing body of literature has documented the robust relationship between drug use and intimate partner violence. Despite awareness of the interrelationship, little attention has been paid to the combined effect of these deleterious parent behaviors on children in these homes.

The use of plasmodes as a supplement to simulations: A simple example evaluating individual admixture estimation methodologies.

With the advent of powerful computers, simulation studies are becoming an important tool in statistical methodology research. However, computer simulations of a specific process are only as good as our understanding of the underlying mechanisms. An attractive supplement to simulations is the use of plasmode datasets.

Missing data in randomized clinical trials for weight loss: scope of the problem, state of the field, and performance of statistical methods.

Background: Dropouts and missing data are nearly-ubiquitous in obesity randomized controlled trails, threatening validity and generalizability of conclusions. Herein, we meta-analytically evaluate the extent of missing data, the frequency with which various analytic methods are employed to accommodate dropouts, and the performance of multiple statistical methods.

Methodology/principal Findings: We searched PubMed and Cochrane databases (2000-2006) for articles published in English and manually searched bibliographic references.

Multiple imputation to correct for measurement error in admixture estimates in genetic structured association testing.

Objectives: Structured association tests (SAT), like any statistical model, assumes that all variables are measured without error. Measurement error can bias parameter estimates and confound residual variance in linear models. It has been shown that admixture estimates can be contaminated with measurement error causing SAT models to suffer from the same afflictions.

An African ancestry-specific allele of CTLA4 confers protection against rheumatoid arthritis in African Americans.

Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated protein 4 (CTLA4) is a negative regulator of T-cell proliferation. Polymorphisms in CTLA4 have been inconsistently associated with susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in populations of European ancestry but have not been examined in African Americans. The prevalence of RA in most populations of European and Asian ancestry is approximately 1.

Review and evaluation of methods correcting for population stratification with a focus on underlying statistical principles.

When two or more populations have been separated by geographic or cultural boundaries for many generations, drift, spontaneous mutations, differential selection pressures and other factors may lead to allele frequency differences among populations. If these 'parental' populations subsequently come together and begin inter-mating, disequilibrium among linked markers may span a greater genetic distance than it typically does among populations under panmixia [see glossary]. This extended disequilibrium can make association studies highly effective and more economical than disequilibrium mapping in panmictic populations since less marker loci are needed to detect regions of the genome that harbor phenotype-influencing loci.

Commonality of functional annotation: a method for prioritization of candidate genes from genome-wide linkage studies.

Linkage studies of complex traits frequently yield multiple linkage regions covering hundreds of genes. Testing each candidate gene from every region is prohibitively expensive and computational methods that simplify this process would benefit genetic research. We present a new method based on commonality of functional annotation (CFA) that aids dissection of complex traits for which multiple causal genes act in a single pathway or process.

The HLA-DRB1 shared epitope is associated with susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis in African Americans through European genetic admixture.

Objective: To determine whether shared epitope (SE)-containing HLA-DRB1 alleles are associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in African Americans and whether their presence is associated with higher degrees of global (genome-wide) genetic admixture from the European population.

Methods: In this multicenter cohort study, African Americans with early RA and matched control subjects were analyzed. In addition to measurement of serum anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies and HLA-DRB1 genotyping, a panel of >1,200 ancestry-informative markers was analyzed in patients with RA and control subjects, to estimate the proportion of European ancestry.