Metamodal Coupling of Vibrotactile and Auditory Speech Processing Systems through Matched Stimulus Representations.

It has been postulated that the brain is organized by "metamodal," sensory-independent cortical modules capable of performing tasks (e.g., word recognition) in both "standard" and novel sensory modalities.

Anxiety in the face of the first wave of the spread of COVID-19 in Israel: Psychosocial determinants of a "Panic-to-complacency-continuum".

Background And Methods: Based on an established ongoing prospective-longitudinal study examining anxiety in response to COVID-19, a representative sample of 1018 Jewish-Israeli adults were recruited online. A baseline assessment was employed two days prior to the first spread of COVID-19, followed by six weekly assessments. Three classes of general anxiety and virus-specific anxiety were identified: (1) "Panic" (a very high and stable anxiety throughout the spread), (2) "Complacency" (a very low and stable anxiety throughout the spread), and (3) "Threat-Sensitivity" (a linear increase, plateauing at the 5th wave).

Effects of Parental Acceptance-Rejection on Children's Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors: A Longitudinal, Multicultural Study.

Background: Grounded in interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory, this study assessed children's (N=1,315) perceptions of maternal and paternal acceptance-rejection in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States) as predictors of children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors across ages 7-14 years.

Methods: Parenting behaviors were measured using children's reports on the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire. Child externalizing and internalizing behaviors were measured using mother, father, and child reports on the Achenbach System of Empirically-Based Assessment.

Mapping the road to elimination: a 5-year evaluation of implementation strategies associated with hepatitis C treatment in the veterans health administration.

Background: While few countries and healthcare systems are on track to meet the World Health Organization's hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination goals, the US Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has been a leader in these efforts. We aimed to determine which implementation strategies were associated with successful national viral elimination implementation within the VHA.

Methods: We conducted a five-year, longitudinal cohort study of the VHA Hepatic Innovation Team (HIT) Collaborative between October 2015 and September 2019.

Deep Learning Algorithms for Interpretation of Upper Extremity Radiographs: Laterality and Technologist Initial Labels as Confounding Factors.

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) trained to identify abnormalities on upper extremity radiographs achieved an AUC of 0.844 with a frequent emphasis on radiograph laterality and/or technologist labels for decision-making. Covering the labels increased the AUC to 0.

Change in Caregivers' Attitudes and Use of Corporal Punishment Following a Legal Ban: A Multi-Country Longitudinal Comparison.

We examined whether a policy banning corporal punishment enacted in Kenya in 2010 is associated with changes in Kenyan caregivers' use of corporal punishment and beliefs in its effectiveness and normativeness, and compared to caregivers in six countries without bans in the same period. Using a longitudinal study with six waves of panel data (2008-2016), mothers ( = 1086) in Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Thailand, and United States reported household use of corporal punishment and beliefs about its effectiveness and normativeness. Random intercept models and multi-group piecewise growth curve models indicated that the proportion of corporal punishment behaviors used by the Kenyan caregivers decreased post-ban at a significantly different rate compared to the caregivers in other countries in the same period.

Changes in General and Virus-Specific Anxiety During the Spread of COVID-19 in Israel: A 7-Wave Longitudinal Study.

We compared 3 hypothetical trajectories of change in both general and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-specific anxiety during the first wave of the spread in the state of Israel: panic (very high anxiety, either from the outset or rapidly increasing), complacency (stable and low anxiety), and threat-sensitive (a moderate, linear increase compatible with the increase in threat). A representative sample of 1,018 Jewish-Israeli adults was recruited online. A baseline assessment commenced 2 days prior to the identification of the first case, followed by 6 weekly assessments.

Cross-Cultural Associations of Four Parenting Behaviors With Child Flourishing: Examining Cultural Specificity and Commonality in Cultural Normativeness and Intergenerational Transmission Processes.

Families from nine countries (N = 1,338) were interviewed annually seven times (M child = 7-15) to test specificity and commonality in parenting behaviors associated with child flourishing and moderation of associations by normativeness of parenting. Participants included 1,338 children (M = 8.59 years, SD = 0.

Longitudinal Trajectories of Four Domains of Parenting in Relation to Adolescent Age and Puberty in Nine Countries.

Children, mothers, and fathers in 12 ethnic and regional groups in nine countries (N = 1,338 families) were interviewed annually for 8 years (M child = 8-16 years) to model four domains of parenting as a function of child age, puberty, or both. Latent growth curve models revealed that for boys and girls, parents decrease their warmth, behavioral control, rules/limit-setting, and knowledge solicitation in conjunction with children's age and pubertal status as children develop from ages 8 to 16 across a range of diverse contexts, with steeper declines after age 11 or 12 in three of the four parenting domains. National, ethnic, and regional differences and similarities in the trajectories as a function of age and puberty are discussed.

Getting to implementation: a protocol for a Hybrid III stepped wedge cluster randomized evaluation of using data-driven implementation strategies to improve cirrhosis care for Veterans.

Background: Cirrhosis is a rapidly increasing cause of global mortality. To improve cirrhosis care, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) developed the Hepatic Innovation Team (HIT) Collaborative to support VA Medical Centers (VAMCs) to deliver evidence-based cirrhosis care. This randomized HIT program evaluation aims to develop and assess a novel approach for choosing and applying implementation strategies to improve the quality of cirrhosis care.

Opportunities and peer support for aggression and delinquency during adolescence in nine countries.

This study tested culture-general and culture-specific aspects of adolescent developmental processes by focusing on opportunities and peer support for aggressive and delinquent behavior, which could help account for cultural similarities and differences in problem behavior during adolescence. Adolescents from 12 cultural groups in 9 countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States) provided data at ages 12, 14, and 15. Variance in opportunities and peer support for aggression and delinquency, as well as aggressive and delinquent behavior, was greater within than between cultures.

Cost analysis of a randomized trial of Getting to Outcomes implementation support for a teen pregnancy prevention program offered in Boys and Girls Clubs in Alabama and Georgia.

Implementation support can improve outcomes of evidence-based programs (EBP) for adolescents, but with a cost. To assist in determining whether this cost is worthwhile, this study estimated the cost of adding Getting To Outcomes© (GTO) implementation support to a teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection prevention EBP called Making Proud Choices (MPC) in 32 Boys and Girls Clubs (BGCs) in Alabama and Georgia. Enhancing Quality Interventions Promoting Healthy Sexuality (EQUIPS) was a 2-year, cluster-randomized controlled trial comparing MPC with MPC + GTO.

From shape to meaning: Evidence for multiple fast feedforward hierarchies of concept processing in the human brain.

A number of fMRI studies have provided support for the existence of multiple concept representations in areas of the brain such as the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL). However, the interaction among different conceptual representations remains unclear. To better understand the dynamics of how the brain extracts meaning from sensory stimuli, we conducted a human high-density electroencephalography (EEG) study in which we first trained participants to associate pseudowords with various animal and tool concepts.

Effects of Parental Warmth and Behavioral Control on Adolescent Externalizing and Internalizing Trajectories Across Cultures.

We investigated the effects of parental warmth and behavioral control on externalizing and internalizing symptom trajectories from ages 8 to 14 in 1,298 adolescents from 12 cultural groups. We did not find that single universal trajectories characterized adolescent externalizing and internalizing symptoms across cultures, but instead found significant heterogeneity in starting points and rates of change in both externalizing and internalizing symptoms across cultures. Some similarities did emerge.

Sustaining an Evidence-Based Program Over Time: Moderators of Sustainability and the Role of the Getting to Outcomes® Implementation Support Intervention.

Problematic rates of alcohol, e-cigarette, and other drug use among US adolescents highlight the need for effective implementation of evidence-based programs (EBPs), yet schools and community organizations have great difficulty implementing and sustaining EBPs. Although a growing number of studies show that implementation support interventions can improve EBP implementation, the literature on how to improve sustainability through implementation support is limited. This randomized controlled trial advances the literature by testing the effects of one such implementation intervention-Getting To Outcomes (GTO)-on sustainability of CHOICE, an after-school EBP for preventing substance use among middle-school students.

Cross-cultural effects of parent warmth and control on aggression and rule-breaking from ages 8 to 13.

We investigated whether bidirectional associations between parental warmth and behavioral control and child aggression and rule-breaking behavior emerged in 12 cultural groups. Study participants included 1,298 children (M = 8.29 years, standard deviation [SD] = 0.

Cross-Cultural Examination of Links between Parent-Adolescent Communication and Adolescent Psychological Problems in 12 Cultural Groups.

Internalizing and externalizing problems increase during adolescence. However, these problems may be mitigated by adequate parenting, including effective parent-adolescent communication. The ways in which parent-driven (i.

Connectivity differences between Gulf War Illness (GWI) phenotypes during a test of attention.

One quarter of veterans returning from the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War have developed Gulf War Illness (GWI) with chronic pain, fatigue, cognitive and gastrointestinal dysfunction. Exertion leads to characteristic, delayed onset exacerbations that are not relieved by sleep. We have modeled exertional exhaustion by comparing magnetic resonance images from before and after submaximal exercise.

Examining effects of mother and father warmth and control on child externalizing and internalizing problems from age 8 to 13 in nine countries.

This study used data from 12 cultural groups in 9 countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and United States; N = 1,315) to investigate bidirectional associations between parental warmth and control, and child externalizing and internalizing behaviors. In addition, the extent to which these associations held across mothers and fathers and across cultures with differing normative levels of parent warmth and control were examined. Mothers, fathers, and children completed measures when children were ages 8 to 13.

Cost Analysis of a Randomized Trial of Getting to Outcomes Implementation Support of CHOICE in Boys and Girls Clubs in Southern California.

Costs of supporting prevention program implementation are not well known. This study estimates the societal costs of implementing CHOICE, a voluntary after-school alcohol and other drug prevention program for adolescents, in Boys and Girls Clubs (BGCs) across Southern California with and without an implementation support system called Getting To Outcomes© (GTO). This article uses micro-costing methods to estimate the cost of the CHOICE program and GTO support.

External environment and internal state in relation to life-history behavioural profiles of adolescents in nine countries.

The external environment has traditionally been considered as the primary driver of animal life history (LH). Recent research suggests that animals' internal state is also involved, especially in forming LH behavioural phenotypes. The present study investigated how these two factors interact in formulating LH in humans.

Differential cardiovascular responses to cutaneous afferent subtypes in a nociceptive intersegmental spinal reflex.

Electrical stimulation to segmental dorsal cutaneous nerves (DCNs) activates a nociceptive sensorimotor reflex and the same afferent stimulation also evokes blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) responses in rats. To investigate the relationship between those cardiovascular responses and the activation of nociceptive afferents, we analyzed BP and HR responses to electrical stimulations at each DCN from T6 to L1 at 0.5 mA to activate A-fiber alone or 5 mA to activate both A- and C-fibers at different frequencies.

Central Plasticity of Cutaneous Afferents Is Associated with Nociceptive Hyperreflexia after Spinal Cord Injury in Rats.

Electrical stimulations of dorsal cutaneous nerves (DCNs) at each lumbothoracic spinal level produce the bilateral cutaneus trunci muscle (CTM) reflex responses which consist of two temporal components: an early and late responses purportedly mediated by A and C fibers, respectively. We have previously reported central projections of DCN A and C fibers and demonstrated that different projection patterns of those afferent types contributed to the somatotopic organization of CTM reflex responses. Unilateral hemisection spinal cord injury (SCI) was made at T10 spinal segments to investigate the plasticity of early and late CTM responses 6 weeks after injury.

Examining the internalizing pathway to substance use frequency in 10 cultural groups.

Use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs (i.e., substance use) is a leading cause of global health burden for 10-to-24-year-olds, according to the World Health Organization's index of number of years of life lost, leading international health organizations to prioritize the prevention of substance use before it escalates in adolescence.

Examining effects of parent warmth and control on internalizing behavior clusters from age 8 to 12 in 12 cultural groups in nine countries.

Background: Studies of U.S. and European samples demonstrate that parental warmth and behavioral control predict child internalizing behaviors and vice versa.