Do neighborhoods matter differently for movers and non-movers? Analysis of weight gain in the longitudinal dallas heart study.

The few available population-based longitudinal studies examining the link between change in neighborhood condition and weight change to date have only examined neighborhood changes generated by residential mobility. Applying a difference-in-difference analytic framework to data from the Dallas Heart Study (DHS), a multi-ethnic, population-based cohort in Dallas County, TX, we evaluated the relationship between changes in neighborhood condition and weight change for both movers and non-movers over an approximate seven-year follow-up period. We employed a novel measure of neighborhood condition based on property appraisal data to capture temporally consistent measures of change in neighborhood condition regardless of residential mobility.

Economic Preferences and Obesity among a Low-Income African American Community.

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the US, with a significantly higher fraction of African Americans who are obese than whites. Yet there is little understanding of why some individuals become obese while others do not. We conduct a lab-in-field experiment in a low-income African American community to investigate whether risk and time preferences play a role in the tendency to become obese.

Theorizing Foreshadowed Death Narratives: Examining the Impact of Character Death on Narrative Processing and Skin Self-Exam Intentions.

Narratives are common in health campaigns and interventions, with many depicting individuals battling a particular illness or disease. Past research has focused primarily on the form and effects of survivor stories, but considerably less attention has been devoted to stories in which 1 or more of the central characters passes away. The goal of the current study was to compare the relative persuasive impact of survivor and death narratives in influencing skin prevention behaviors and to test narrative mediators that might explicate underlying mechanisms of effect.

Who Is Food Insecure? Implications for Targeted Recruitment and Outreach, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2010.

Introduction: Food insecurity is negatively associated with health; however, health needs may differ among people participating in food assistance programs. Our objectives were to characterize differences in health among people receiving different types of food assistance and summarize strategies for targeted recruitment and outreach of various food insecure populations.

Methods: We examined health status, behaviors, and health care access associated with food insecurity and receipt of food assistance among US adults aged 20 years or older using data from participants (N = 16,934) of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005 through 2010.

When it comes to securing patient health information from breaches, your best medicine is a dose of prevention: A cybersecurity risk assessment checklist.

Background: Health care stakeholders are concerned about the growing risk of protecting sensitive patient health information from breaches. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has identified cyber attacks as an emerging concern, and regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) have increased security requirements and are enforcing compliance through stiff financial penalties.

Purposes: The purpose of this study is to describe health care breaches of protected information, analyze the hazards and vulnerabilities of reported breach cases, and prescribe best practices of managing risk through security controls and countermeasures.

Property Values as a Measure of Neighborhoods: An Application of Hedonic Price Theory.

Background: Researchers measuring relationships between neighborhoods and health have begun using property appraisal data as a source of information about neighborhoods. Economists have developed a rich tool kit to understand how neighborhood characteristics are quantified in appraisal values. This tool kit principally relies on hedonic (implicit) price models and has much to offer regarding the interpretation and operationalization of property appraisal data-derived neighborhood measures, which goes beyond the use of appraisal data as a measure of neighborhood socioeconomic status.

Can Genetic Analysis of Putative Blood Alzheimer's Disease Biomarkers Lead to Identification of Susceptibility Loci?

Although 24 Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk loci have been reliably identified, a large portion of the predicted heritability for AD remains unexplained. It is expected that additional loci of small effect will be identified with an increased sample size. However, the cost of a significant increase in Case-Control sample size is prohibitive.

Multiple Comorbidities and Interest in Research Participation Among Clients of a Nonprofit Food Distribution Site.

Background: Persons accessing food from nonprofit distribution sites face numerous challenges and typically have significant unmet health needs. However, given limited and intermittent healthcare system engagement, this vulnerable population is underrepresented in clinical research. We sought to better understand the health needs of a nonclinical population to inform future research and interventions.

The Association Between Sensemaking During Physician Team Rounds and Hospitalized Patients' Outcomes.

Background: Sensemaking is the social act of assigning meaning to ambiguous events. It is recognized as a means to achieve high reliability. We sought to assess sensemaking in daily patient care through examining how inpatient teams round and discuss patients.

Change in Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Weight Gain: Dallas Heart Study.

Introduction: Despite a proposed connection between neighborhood environment and obesity, few longitudinal studies have examined the relationship between change in neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation, as defined by moving between neighborhoods, and change in body weight. The purpose of this study is to examine the longitudinal relationship between moving to more socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods and weight gain as a cardiovascular risk factor.

Methods: Weight (kilograms) was measured in the Dallas Heart Study (DHS), a multiethnic cohort aged 18-65 years, at baseline (2000-2002) and 7-year follow-up (2007-2009, N=1,835).

Utilizing lean tools to improve value and reduce outpatient wait times in an Indian hospital.

Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate how lean tools were applied to some unique issues of providing healthcare in a developing country where many patients face challenges not found in developed countries. The challenges provide insight into how lean tools can be utilized to provide similar results across the world.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on a qualitative case study carried out by a master's student implementing lean at a hospital in India.

Geospatial and Contextual Approaches to Energy Balance and Health.

In the past 15 years, a major research enterprise has emerged that is aimed at understanding associations between geographic and contextual features of the environment (especially the built environment) and elements of human energy balance, including diet, weight, and physical activity. Here we highlight aspects of this research area with a particular focus on research and opportunities in the United States as an example. We address four main areas: 1) The importance of valid and comparable data concerning behavior across geographies, 2) The ongoing need to identify and explore new environmental variables, 3) The challenge of identifying the causally relevant context, and 4) The pressing need for stronger study designs and analytical methods.

Neighborhood effects in a behavioral randomized controlled trial.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of interventions intended to modify health behaviors may be influenced by neighborhood effects which can impede unbiased estimation of intervention effects. Examining a RCT designed to increase colorectal cancer (CRC) screening (N=5628), we found statistically significant neighborhood effects: average CRC test use among neighboring study participants was significantly and positively associated with individual patient's CRC test use. This potentially important spatially-varying covariate has not previously been considered in a RCT.

Practicing what we preach in humanistic and positive psychology.

Comments on the article "The humanistic psychology-positive psychology divide: Contrasts in philosophical foundations" by Waterman (see record 2013-12501-001). With a largely backward glance cast toward humanistic psychology's early successes, Waterman's article concluded by turning toward positive psychology's "vibrant" future and pointed to irreconcilable differences that would limit further dialogue between the two fields. From the current authors' perspective, such an assessment results in premature closure on the relationship between the two subdisciplines, as we in the humanistic tradition continue to appreciate and place our trust in the power of dialogue.

Resoundings of the flesh: Caring for others by way of "second person" perspectivity.

In bringing ourselves to the encounter with the experience of others, we bring our bodies with us-and, in doing so, we are able to resonate not only intellectually but also empathically with the other's experiences and expressions (which are given to us both verbally and nonverbally). In remaining faithful to our foundations in phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas), we shall talk about taking notice of others from within the relational "exchange" and reflect upon what, precisely, are the experientially given "affairs" to which Husserl invited us to return. Our interest begins with the other's "first person" experience, but since we cannot access this directly, we must rely on the resonance we find within ourselves, within our own lived bodies, when we are addressed by the other, whether in word or in gesture.

Identification and characterization of mitochondrial targeting sequence of human apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1.

Dually targeted mitochondrial proteins usually possess an unconventional mitochondrial targeting sequence (MTS), which makes them difficult to predict by current bioinformatics approaches. Human apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease (APE1) plays a central role in the cellular response to oxidative stress. It is a dually targeted protein preferentially residing in the nucleus with conditional distribution in the mitochondria.

Out of the ghetto: integrating Catholics into mainstream psychology in the United States after World War II.

The American Catholic Psychological Association (ACPA) was a voluntary association that formed and then transformed itself during a distinctive period of American history. Socially, American Catholics were primed to emerge from what they called their "ghetto," as this formerly largely immigrant group began to enter the economic and social mainstream. Institutions of higher education and psychology were recipients, moreover, of federal funding in the wake of World War II, and some of this money flowed to Catholic institutions.

Historical intersections of psychology, religion, and politics in national contexts.

Various types of psychology have come into existence in and have been interacting with a plurality of contexts, contexts that have been radically varying in different states or nations. One important factor in the development of psychology has been the multiple relationships to the Christian religion, whether understood as an institution, a worldview, or a form of personal spirituality. The articles in this issue focus on the intertwinements between institutional religion and national political structures and on their influence on developing forms of psychology in four different national contexts: Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

An encounter between psychology and religion: humanistic psychology and the Immaculate Heart of Mary nuns.

In the 1960s, humanistic psychology changed the relationship between psychology and religion by actively asserting the value of individual experience and self-expression. This was particularly evident in the encounter group movement. Beginning in 1967, Carl Rogers conducted a series of encounter groups, in order to promote "self-directed change in an educational system," for the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a religious order in California running an educational system.

Pathogen control in complex fluids with water-coupled excimer lamps at 282 and 308 nm.

Water-coupled excimer lamp systems have been developed to inactivate microorganisms within complex, low-optical quality, fluids. Monochromatic lamps were selected to minimize UV-B and UV-C absorption within the carrier fluids while maximizing deposition within specific chemical targets. Fundamentals, system scaling and power supply design are discussed.

Competing reactions of secondary alcohols with sodium hypochlorite promoted by phase-transfer catalysis.

With aqueous hypochlorite and a phase transfer catalyst, secondary alcohols undergo hitherto unreported free radical reactions that compete with and effectively limit traditional ketone syntheses. Product mixture profiles are determined by reactant ratios, organic cosolvent, and availability of oxygen to the system. Under argon, over half of substrate alcohols, PhCH(OH)R, are converted to benzaldehyde and free radical products through beta-scission of intermediate alkyl hypochlorites.

Phospholipid binding and the activation of group IA secreted phospholipase A2.

Equilibrium dialysis was used to study the binding of two nonhydrolyzable, short chain phospholipid analogues to the secreted group IA phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)), which has been shown to contain several phospholipid binding sites that dramatically affect activity. This study provides new insight into how these activations occur. One analogue contained a phosphorylethanolamine (DiC(6)SNPE) headgroup, while the other contained a phosphorylcholine (DiC(6)SNPC) headgroup.