Dementia and Caregiver Stress: An Application of the Reconceptualized Uncertainty in Illness Theory.

The Reconceptualized Uncertainty in Illness Theory (RUIT) was used to investigate antecedents to, appraisals of, and ways of coping with stressful caregiving. Four focus groups with caregivers (8 males and 16 females) of relatives with dementia were conducted; 15 cared for their parents and the remainder cared for their spouses. They were recruited from an adult care center and other community settings in a metropolitan area in New England.

Financial Health and Mental Health Among Clients of a Community Mental Health Center: Making the Connections.

Objectives: This study evaluated financial challenges, satisfaction with financial-management supports, and interest in additional or alternative supports among clients of a mental health center.

Methods: Six focus groups were held with 39 clients of an urban community mental health center who reported having difficulty with their finances. Five focus groups were held with direct-care staff who provided services to the clients.

Lower Wingate Test Power Outcomes From "All-Out" Pretest Pedaling Cadence Compared With Moderate Cadence.

The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of different pretest pedaling cadences on power outcomes obtained during the Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT). Vigorously exercising adult men (n = 14, 24.9 ± 1.

Promoting collaboration and cultural competence for physician assistant and physical therapist students: A cross-cultural decentralized interprofessional education (IPE) model.

Purpose: As the United States health care model progresses towards medical teams and the country's population continues to diversify, the need for health professional education programs to develop and implement culturally specific interprofessional education (IPE) becomes increasingly imperative. A wide range of models exists for delivering and implementing IPE in health education, but none have included the cultural components that are vital in educating the health professional.

Methods: A cross-cultural decentralized IPE model for physician assistant (PA) and physical therapy (PT) students was developed.

Do Adult Medicaid Enrollees Prefer Going to Their Primary Care Provider's Clinic Rather Than Emergency Department (ED) for Low Acuity Conditions?

Background: The rates of annual visits for adult Medicaid enrollees to the emergency department (ED) are increasing. Many programs throughout the country are focused on engaging patients in the use of their primary care providers (PCP) rather than the ED for low acuity conditions. It is unclear, however, the proportion of patients who are willing to use primary care services rather than the ED if they are given the choice.

Is Personality a System? Stability, Process and Plasticity.

The nomothetic thrust of personality research has been the subject of some significant recent criticism. One major problem is the failure in much personality research to sufficiently scrutinize its methods and its background beliefs. This produces conceptual schematizations of personality that do not sufficiently take into account the disunity and plasticity that affects what is construed as personality; it also underplays the necessity of more fully theorizing the network of infrapsychic and transpersonal systems, processes, structures, templates, interfaces, flows of stimuli, qualities of embodiment and contingencies that dynamically manifest as personality.

Fluctuation-driven selection at criticality in a frustrated magnetic system: the case of multiple-k partial order on the pyrochlore lattice.

We study the problem of partially ordered phases with periodically arranged disordered (paramagnetic) sites on the pyrochlore lattice, a network of corner-sharing tetrahedra. The periodicity of these phases is characterized by one or more wave vectors k={1/21/21/2}. Starting from a general microscopic Hamiltonian including anisotropic nearest-neighbor exchange, long-range dipolar interactions, and second- and third-nearest neighbor exchange, we use standard mean-field theory (SMFT) to identify an extended range of interaction parameters that support partially ordered phases.

Cancer prevention and therapy through the modulation of the tumor microenvironment.

Cancer arises in the context of an in vivo tumor microenvironment. This microenvironment is both a cause and consequence of tumorigenesis. Tumor and host cells co-evolve dynamically through indirect and direct cellular interactions, eliciting multiscale effects on many biological programs, including cellular proliferation, growth, and metabolism, as well as angiogenesis and hypoxia and innate and adaptive immunity.

Prenatal ethanol increases ethanol intake throughout adolescence, alters ethanol-mediated aversive learning, and affects μ but not δ or κ opioid receptor mRNA expression.

Animal models of prenatal ethanol exposure (PEE) have indicated a facilitatory effect of PEE on adolescent ethanol intake, but few studies have assessed the effects of moderate PEE throughout adolescence. The mechanisms underlying this facilitatory effect remain largely unknown. In the present study, we analysed ethanol intake in male and female Wistar rats with or without PEE (2.

Late Miocene hominin teeth from the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project area, Afar, Ethiopia.

Since 2000, significant collections of Latest Miocene hominin fossils have been recovered from Chad, Kenya, and Ethiopia. These fossils have provided a better understanding of earliest hominin biology and context. Here, we describe five hominin teeth from two periods (ca.

Endogenous opioids as substrates for ethanol intake in the neonatal rat: The impact of prenatal ethanol exposure on the opioid family in the early postnatal period.

Background: Despite considerable knowledge that prenatal ethanol exposure can lead to devastating effects on the developing fetus, alcohol consumption by pregnant women remains strikingly prevalent. Both clinical and basic research has suggested that, in addition to possible physical, behavioral, and cognitive deficits, gestational exposure to alcohol may lead to an increased risk for the development of later alcohol-related use and abuse disorders. The current work sought to characterize alterations in endogenous opioid signaling peptides and gene expression produced by ethanol exposure during the last days of gestation.

Adolescents' and Young Adults' Perceptions of Electronic Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation: A Focus Group Study.

Introduction: Research has shown that adults perceive that electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are effective for smoking cessation, yet little is known about adolescents and young adults' perceptions of e-cigarettes for quitting cigarette smoking. This study describes middle, high school, and college students' beliefs about, and experiences with, e-cigarettes for cigarette smoking cessation.

Methods: We conducted 18 focus groups (n = 127) with male and female cigarette smokers and nonsmokers in 2 public colleges, 2 high schools, and 1 middle school in Connecticut between November 2012 and April 2013.

Can low-level ethanol exposure during pregnancy influence maternal care? An investigation using two strains of rat across two generations.

Gestational alcohol use is well documented as detrimental to both maternal and fetal health, producing an increase in offspring's tendency for alcoholism, as well as in behavioral and neuropsychological disorders. In both rodents and in humans, parental care can influence the development of offspring physiology and behavior. Animal studies that have investigated gestational alcohol use on parental care and/or their interaction mostly employ heavy alcohol use and single strains.

Change in the hedonic value of an aversive stimulus in the presence of a pre-exposed odor.

Rats exhibit a sensitive period from the time of birth until postnatal day 10 during which they develop preferences for odors even if those odors are paired with a moderately aversive stimulus. It is still unknown whether pre-exposure to an odor produces alterations on intake responses of basic tastants, and on other patterns that indicate a change in the hedonic value of reward, such as nipple grasping behavior. The current study assessed the effect of pre-exposure to an odor immediately after birth on intake responses of appetitive and aversive tastants.

Phonological complexity in school-aged children who stutter and exhibit a language disorder.

Purpose: The Index of Phonological Complexity and the Word Complexity Measure are two measures of the phonological complexity of a word. Other phonological measures such as phonological neighborhood density have been used to compare stuttered versus fluent words. It appears that in preschoolers who stutter, the length and complexity of the utterance is more influential than the phonetic features of the stuttered word.

Improving sleep-wake disturbances in patients with cancer.

Patients with cancer tend to suffer sleep-wake disturbances at a higher rate than the general population. Insomnia and fatigue should be regarded as a significant patient safety issue, as poor sleep can elevate patients' risks of falls, motor vehicle accidents, and acute infectious illnesses. To alleviate those risks, oncology nurses should be familiar with effective evidence-based practices for assessing and improving patients' sleep quality.

A multimodal communication program for aphasia during inpatient rehabilitation: A case study.

Background: Communication is essential for successful rehabilitation, yet few aphasia treatments have been investigated during the acute stroke phase. Alternative modality use including gesturing, writing, or drawing has been shown to increase communicative effectiveness in people with chronic aphasia. Instruction in alternative modality use during acute stroke may increase patient communication and participation, therefore resulting in fewer adverse situations and improved rehabilitation outcomes.

Physiological responses related to increased grain yield under drought in the first biotechnology-derived drought-tolerant maize.

Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays L.) is highly susceptible to drought stress.

Rats' choices with token stimuli in concurrent variable-interval schedules.

Four rats responded on concurrent variable-interval schedules that delivered token stimuli (stimulus lights arranged vertically above each of two side levers). During exchange periods, each token could be exchanged for one food pellet by responding on a center lever, with one response required for each pellet delivery. In different conditions, the exchange requirements (number of tokens that had to be earned before they could be exchanged for food) varied between one and four for the two response levers.

Seeing to hear? Patterns of gaze to speaking faces in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Using eye-tracking methodology, gaze to a speaking face was compared in a group of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and a group with typical development (TD). Patterns of gaze were observed under three conditions: audiovisual (AV) speech in auditory noise, visual only speech and an AV non-face, non-speech control. Children with ASD looked less to the face of the speaker and fixated less on the speakers' mouth than TD controls.

An efficient extrapolation to the (T)/CBS limit.

We extrapolate to the perturbative triples (T)/complete basis set (CBS) limit using double ζ basis sets without polarization functions (Wesleyan-1-Triples-2ζ or "Wes1T-2Z") and triple ζ basis sets with a single level of polarization functions (Wesleyan-1-Triples-3ζ or "Wes1T-3Z"). These basis sets were optimized for 102 species representing the first two rows of the Periodic Table. The species include the entire set of neutral atoms, positive and negative atomic ions, as well as several homonuclear diatomic molecules, hydrides, rare gas dimers, polar molecules, such as oxides and fluorides, and a few transition states.

Relationships between Child Emotional and Behavioral Symptoms and Caregiver Strain and Parenting Stress.

Children with emotional and behavioral disturbance often have difficulties in multiple symptom domains. This study investigates the relationships between child symptoms and caregiver strain and parenting stress among 177 youth and their caregivers participating in a school-based system of care. Youth were grouped by symptom domain and included those with low scores on both internalizing and externalizing symptoms, those with only high internalizing symptoms, those with only high externalizing symptoms, and those with high symptoms levels in both internalizing and externalizing domains.

Glutamate and choline levels predict individual differences in reading ability in emergent readers.

Reading disability is a brain-based difficulty in acquiring fluent reading skills that affects significant numbers of children. Although neuroanatomical and neurofunctional networks involved in typical and atypical reading are increasingly well characterized, the underlying neurochemical bases of individual differences in reading development are virtually unknown. The current study is the first to examine neurochemistry in children during the critical period in which the neurocircuits that support skilled reading are still developing.