Strength of female mate preferences in temperature manipulation study supports the signal reliability hypothesis.

Both sexually selected traits and mate preferences for these traits can be context dependent, yet how variation in preferred traits could select for context dependent preferences has rarely been examined. The signal reliability hypothesis predicts that mate preferences vary across contexts (e.g.

Developing schools' capacities to respond to community crisis: the Tennessee initiative.

Topic: The development and implementation of a statewide initiative addressing mental health issues within schools postcrisis.

Purpose: The potential for a community crisis occurs every day. After a crisis, schools are practical, logical, and effective places to help students recover from a tragedy.

Impact of chronic conditions on quality of life in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Background: Although studies suggest that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has a significant impact on an individual's health-related quality of life, the added weight of other health conditions and comorbidities has not been investigated. The purpose of this study was to expand on prior research by taking into account the impact of other chronic health conditions on the health-related quality of life of individuals with IBD, and to develop a model to help clinicians understand the relative impact of various predictors of their patients' physical and mental health-related quality of life.

Methods: 615 patients from the gastroenterology outpatient practice of a large, urban university hospital received a self-administered survey including questions about their health conditions, the severity of their bowel symptoms, and their health-related quality of life (measured using the SF-36 instrument).

Asthma management programs in managed care organizations.

The aim of this work was to investigate how managed care organizations (MCOs) currently approach asthma treatment and management and to determine factors affecting asthma outcomes. A Web-based survey was administered to a national sample of 351 medical directors of MCOs to investigate the asthma management program components in their organizations as well as gaps and barriers in the management of patients with asthma. All 134 (38.

Impact of appropriate pharmaceutical therapy for chronic conditions on direct medical costs and workplace productivity: a review of the literature.

This paper presents the findings of a literature review investigating the economic impact of appropriate pharmaceutical therapy in treating four prevalent chronic conditions - asthma, diabetes, heart failure, and migraine. The goal of the review was to identify high-quality studies examining the extent to which appropriate pharmaceutical therapy impacts overall medical expenditure (direct costs) and workplace productivity (indirect costs). The working hypothesis in conducting the review was that the costs of pharmaceuticals for the selected chronic conditions are offset by savings in direct and indirect costs in other areas.