Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Adolescent Daughters' Substance Use, and Father Residence in Minority Families.

Maternal depression has been linked to substance use in adolescents, but the mechanisms of the relationship between maternal depression and adolescent substance use are less clear. Specifically, previous literature has overlooked the role of fathers as a potential protective or exacerbating factor in buffering this relationship. The goal of this study was to investigate the association between maternal depressive symptoms and adolescent substance use, exploring father's residential status as a moderator for adolescents living with a mother with depressive symptoms.

Development of a Participatory Health Communication Intervention: An Ecological Approach to Reducing Rural Information Inequality and Health Disparities.

A strong and diverse communication infrastructure is essential for communication to improve health. When that infrastructure is weak, health information fails to reach appropriate audiences; this is a component of information inequality that contributes to health disparities. Approaches to addressing information inequality have either focused on individual-level barriers or exclusively on changing the information environment.

Risk factors and direct medical cost of early versus late unplanned readmissions among diabetes patients at a tertiary hospital in Singapore.

Objective: To examine the risk factors and direct medical costs associated with early (≤30 days) versus late (31-180 days) unplanned readmissions among patients with type 2 diabetes in Singapore.

Methods: Risk factors and associated costs among diabetes patients were investigated using electronic medical records from a local tertiary care hospital from 2010 to 2012. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify risk factors associated with early and late unplanned readmissions while a generalized linear model was used to estimate the direct medical cost.

A prospective observational cohort study of exposure to womb-like sounds to stabilize breathing and cardiovascular patterns in preterm neonates.

Purpose: We exposed premature infants to womb-like sounds to evaluate such exposure on breathing and cardiovascular patterns. We hypothesized that these sounds would reduce apnea and intermittent hypoxemia, enhance parasympathetic outflow, and improve cardiovascular patterns.

Methods: A total of 20 cases and 5 control infants at ≤32-36 weeks corrected gestational age participated in a prospective observational cohort study.

Pseudoamniotic Band Syndrome Post Fetal Thoracoamniotic Shunting for Bilateral Hydrothorax.

Introduction: Pseudoamniotic band syndrome (PABS) occurs iatrogenically after fetal surgery or amniocentesis due to chorioamniotic membrane separation. Separation of the amnion from the chorion can expand to form fibrous amniotic bands that can envelope fetal limbs or the umbilical cord, with consequences ranging from limb constriction to fetal demise.

Case Report: We report a case of bilateral fetal pleural effusions at 27 weeks' gestation treated by bilateral thoracoamniotic shunts.

Evaluation of an Audio-Visual Novela to Improve Beliefs, Attitudes and Knowledge toward Dementia: A Mixed-Methods Approach.

Objectives: Dementia is a clinical syndrome characterized by progressive degeneration in cognitive ability that limits the capacity for independent living. Interventions are needed to target the medical, social, psychological, and knowledge needs of caregivers and patients. This study used a mixed methods approach to evaluate the effectiveness of a dementia novela presented in an audio-visual format in improving dementia attitudes, beliefs and knowledge.

Impact of a Hypnotically-Based Intervention on Pain and Fear in Women Undergoing Labor.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a hypnotically-based intervention for pain and fear in women undergoing labor who are about to receive an epidural catheter. A group of 155 women received interventions that included either (a) patient rocking, gentle touching, and hypnotic communication or (b) patient rocking, gentle touching, and standard communication. The authors found that the hypnotic communication intervention was more effective than the standard communication intervention for reducing both pain intensity and fear.

Teasing in younger and older children with microtia before and after ear reconstruction.

This study prospectively measured teasing and emotional adjustment before and after ear reconstruction in younger and older children with microtia. Participants with isolated microtia (n = 28) were divided into two groups by age at surgery, with a younger group aged 3-5 years (n = 13) with a mean age of 4.0 (0.

Transdiagnostic processes linking anxiety symptoms and substance use problems among adolescents.

Numerous anxiety syndromes co-occur with substance use problems in adolescents, though the mechanisms underlying these comorbidities are not well understood. There are 3 transdiagnostic processes-anxiety sensitivity (fear of anxiety-related sensations), distress tolerance (capacity to withstand emotional distress), and negative urgency (propensity to respond impulsively to negative emotion)-that have been implicated in various anxiety and substance use problems. To examine whether anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, and negative urgency statistically mediated relations between symptoms of 3 different anxiety disorders (social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and panic disorders) and alcohol and cannabis use problems, cross-sectional analysis of high school students in Los Angeles (N = 3002) was assessed via paper and pencil questionnaires.

On the Mathematical Relationship Between Latent Change Score and Autoregressive Cross-Lagged Factor Approaches: Cautions for Inferring Causal Relationship Between Variables.

The present paper focuses on the relationship between latent change score (LCS) and autoregressive cross-lagged (ARCL) factor models in longitudinal designs. These models originated from different theoretical traditions for different analytic purposes, yet they share similar mathematical forms. In this paper, we elucidate the mathematical relationship between these models and show that the LCS model is reduced to the ARCL model when fixed effects are assumed in the slope factor scores.

Sequential Temporal Dependencies in Associations Between Symptoms of Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: An Application of Bivariate Latent Difference Score Structural Equation Modeling.

Depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are highly comorbid conditions that may arise following exposure to psychological trauma. This study examined their temporal sequencing and mutual influence using bivariate latent difference score structural equation modeling. Longitudinal data from 182 emergency room patients revealed level of depression symptom severity to be positively associated with changes in PTSD intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal over 3 time intervals, beginning shortly after the traumatic event.

Diagnostics for Determining Influential Species in the Chemical Mass Balance Receptor Model.

The chemical mass balance (CMB) model can be applied to estimate the amount of airborne particulate matter (PM) coming from various sources given the ambient chemical composition of the particles measured at the receptor and the chemical composition of the source emissions. Of considerable practical importance is the identification of those chemical species that have a large effect on either the source contributions or errors estimated by the CMB model. This paper details a study of a number of influential diagnostics for application of the CMB software.

Techniques for High-Quality Ambient Coarse Particle Mass Measurements.

Several recent studies have shown associations between ambient concentrations of particle mass (PM) and rates of morbidity and mortality in the general population. These studies have raised the issue of quality of coarse mass (CM, PM between 2.5 and 10 µm) data used for these purposes.