Caseload factors predictive of family abuse and neglect treatment outcomes.

Background: In child welfare, caseloads are frequently far higher than optimal. Not all cases are created equal; however, little is known about which combination and interaction of factors make caseloads more challenging and impact child and family outcomes.

Objective: This study aims to identify which case, provider, and organizational factors most strongly differentiate between families with favorable and less-than-positive treatment outcomes.

Do Brief Lab-Based Interventions Decrease Coercive Conflict Within Couples and Parent-Child Dyads?

Coercive conflicts between parents and children and between couples are implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of psychological and physical health problems. Despite its seeming importance to population health, there are no widely available, easy-to-use methods with demonstrated efficacy to engage coercive conflict and reduce it. Identifying and testing potentially efficacious and disseminable micro-interventions (i.

Predictors of Crosscutting Patterns of Psychological Health and Family Maltreatment.

Introduction: Psychological problems and family maltreatment are significant public health problems. Although research focuses almost exclusively on either individual psychological problems or family maltreatment, there is substantial co-occurrence of these problems. Similarly, intervention services are often "siloed": individuals with mental health needs are referred for mental health services, individuals with family conflict are referred for family-based treatment, etc.

"Self-report measures of coercive process in couple and parent-child dyads": Correction.

Reports an error in "Self-report measures of coercive process in couple and parent-child dyads" by Danielle M. Mitnick, Michael F. Lorber, Amy M.

Evaluation of Two Approaches for Responding to Allegations of Family Maltreatment in the U.S. Army: Coordinated Community Response Impacts and Costs.

Introduction: The U.S. Air Force (USAF) conducted a program of research to develop and disseminate reliable and valid criteria for partner and child maltreatment (comprising abuse [physical, emotional/psychological, and sexual] and neglect).

Self-report measures of coercive process in couple and parent-child dyads.

One of the most influential behavioral models of family conflict is G. R. Patterson's (1982) coercive family process theory.

Randomized, Double-Blind, Crossover, Clinical-End-Point Pilot Study to Examine the Use of Exhaled Nitric Oxide as a Bioassay for Dose Separation of Inhaled Fluticasone Propionate.

This was a randomized, double-blind, crossover, clinical-end-point pilot study examining the hypothesis that inhaled fluticasone propionate decreases exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) concentrations within a week of beginning treatment and shows evidence of dose separation across the marketed dose range. Subjects had a ≥6-month history of asthma and screening eNO ≥60 parts per billion. At the start of each treatment period, eNO was ≥55 parts per billion, and forced expiratory volume in 1 second was ≥50% predicted.

Sibling teenage pregnancy and clinic-referred girls' condom use: The protective role of maternal monitoring.

Younger sisters of teenage parents have elevated rates of engaging in unprotected sex. This may result from changes in parenting behavior after a sibling becomes pregnant or impregnates a partner, and be particularly pronounced for girls seeking mental health treatment. The current study examines condom use over time in 211 African-American girls recruited from outpatient psychiatric clinics.

Economic Hardship, Parent Positive Communication and Mental Health in Urban Adolescents Seeking Outpatient Psychiatric Care.

Economic hardship and poor parenting behaviors are associated with increased risk for mental health problems in community adolescents. However, less is known about the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) and parenting behaviors on youth at elevated risk for mental health problems, such as teens seeking outpatient psychiatric care. This study examined whether family SES and parent positive communication were directly and indirectly associated with mental health symptoms six months later in urban teens seeking outpatient treatment, after accounting for baseline levels of symptoms.

Punishment Insensitivity in Early Childhood: A Developmental, Dimensional Approach.

Impairment in learning from punishment ("punishment insensitivity") is an established feature of severe antisocial behavior in adults and youth but it has not been well studied as a developmental phenomenon. In early childhood, differentiating a normal: abnormal spectrum of punishment insensitivity is key for distinguishing normative misbehavior from atypical manifestations. This study employed a novel measure, the Multidimensional Assessment Profile of Disruptive Behavior (MAP-DB), to examine the distribution, dimensionality, and external validity of punishment insensitivity in a large, demographically diverse community sample of preschoolers (3-5 years) recruited from pediatric clinics (N = 1,855).

18F-RB390: innovative ligand for imaging the T877A androgen receptor mutant in prostate cancer via positron emission tomography (PET).

Background: Detecting prostate cancer before spreading or predicting a favorable therapy are challenging issues for impacting patient's survival. Presently, 2-[(18) F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose ((18) F-FDG) and/or (18) F-fluorocholine ((18) F-FCH) are the generally used PET-tracers in oncology yet do not emphasize the T877A androgen receptor (AR) mutation being exclusively present in cancerous tissue and escaping androgen deprivation treatment.

Methods: We designed and synthesized fluorinated 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) derivatives to target T877A-AR.

Risking it for love: romantic relationships and early pubertal development confer risk for later disruptive behavior disorders in African-American girls receiving psychiatric care.

Disruptive behavior problems (DBP) represent a growing concern for young women (e.g., Snyder and Sickmund, 2006), but gender-specific investigations have been traditionally underrepresented in this area.

Gender differences in the effects of community violence on mental health outcomes in a sample of low-income youth receiving psychiatric care.

Previous research suggests that community violence impacts mental health outcomes, but much of this research has not (a) distinguished between different types of community violence, (b) examined gender differences, and (c) focused on youth living in urban poverty. The current study addresses these questions. Participants were 306 youth (23 % girls) and one parent/guardian receiving outpatient psychiatric services for disruptive behavior disorders in a large urban city.

Free energy landscape of G-protein coupled receptors, explored by accelerated molecular dynamics.

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) mediate cellular responses to various hormones and neurotransmitters and are important targets for treating a wide spectrum of diseases. They are known to adopt multiple conformational states (e.g.

Advancing a multidimensional, developmental spectrum approach to preschool disruptive behavior.

Objective: Dimensional approaches are gaining scientific traction. However, their potential for elucidating developmental aspects of psychopathology has not been fully realized. The goal of this article is to apply a multidimensional, developmental framework to model the normal-abnormal spectrum of preschool disruptive behavior.

Mapping of allosteric druggable sites in activation-associated conformers of the M2 muscarinic receptor.

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are key cellular signaling proteins and have been targeted by approximately 30-40% of marketed drugs for treating many human diseases including cancer and heart failure. Recently, we directly observed activation of the M2 muscarinic receptor through long-timescale accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD) simulation, which revealed distinct inactive, intermediate and active conformers of the receptor. Here, FTMAP is applied to search for 'hot spots' in these activation-associated conformers using a library of 16 organic probe molecules that represent fragments of potential drugs.

Activation and dynamic network of the M2 muscarinic receptor.

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) mediate cellular responses to various hormones and neurotransmitters and are important targets for treating a wide spectrum of diseases. Although significant advances have been made in structural studies of GPCRs, details of their activation mechanism remain unclear. The X-ray crystal structure of the M2 muscarinic receptor, a key GPCR that regulates human heart rate and contractile forces of cardiomyocytes, was determined recently in an inactive antagonist-bound state.

Effects of histidine protonation and rotameric states on virtual screening of M. tuberculosis RmlC.

While it is well established that protonation and tautomeric states of ligands can significantly affect the results of virtual screening, such effects of ionizable residues of protein receptors are less well understood. In this study, we focus on histidine protonation and rotameric states and their impact on virtual screening of Mycobacterium tuberculosis enzyme RmlC. Depending on the net charge and the location of proton(s), a histidine can adopt three states: HIP (+1 charged, both δ- and ε-nitrogens protonated), HID (neutral, δ-nitrogen protonated), and HIE (neutral, ε-nitrogen protonated).

Structure-based network analysis of an evolved G protein-coupled receptor homodimer interface.

Crystallographic structures and experimental assays of human CXC chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) provide strong evidence for the capacity to homodimerize, potentially as a means of allosteric regulation. Even so, how this homodimer forms and its biological significance has yet to be fully characterized. By applying principles from network analysis, sequence-based approaches such as statistical coupling analysis to determine coevolutionary residues, can be used in conjunction with molecular dynamics simulations to identify residues relevant to dimerization.

Socialization of Early Prosocial Behavior: Parents' Talk about Emotions is Associated with Sharing and Helping in Toddlers.

What role does socialization play in the origins of prosocial behavior? We examined one potential socialization mechanism, parents' discourse about others' emotions with very young children in whom prosocial behavior is still nascent. Two studies are reported, one of sharing in 18- and 24-month-olds (n = 29), and one of instrumental and empathy-based helping in 18- and 30-month-olds (n = 62). In both studies, parents read age-appropriate picture books to their children and the content and structure of their emotion-related and internal state discourse were coded.

Mine or yours? Development of sharing in toddlers in relation to ownership understanding.

To examine early developments in other-oriented resource sharing, fifty-one 18- and 24-month-old children were administered 6 tasks with toys or food that could be shared with an adult playmate who had none. On each task the playmate communicated her desire for the items in a series of progressively more explicit cues. Twenty-four-month-olds shared frequently and spontaneously.

Rational prediction with molecular dynamics for hit identification.

Although the motions of proteins are fundamental for their function, for pragmatic reasons, the consideration of protein elasticity has traditionally been neglected in drug discovery and design. This review details protein motion, its relevance to biomolecular interactions and how it can be sampled using molecular dynamics simulations. Within this context, two major areas of research in structure-based prediction that can benefit from considering protein flexibility, binding site detection and molecular docking, are discussed.

Identification of potential small molecule binding pockets on Rho family GTPases.

Rho GTPases are conformational switches that control a wide variety of signaling pathways critical for eukaryotic cell development and proliferation. They represent attractive targets for drug design as their aberrant function and deregulated activity is associated with many human diseases including cancer. Extensive high-resolution structures (>100) and recent mutagenesis studies have laid the foundation for the design of new structure-based chemotherapeutic strategies.