Health care for the whole person: Research update.

Quality health care must be informed by the best available scientific knowledge. This article offers research evidence supporting "health care for the whole person." We present an integrative biopsychosocial framework that can serve as a useful foundation for translational research endeavors and the development, evaluation, and dissemination of evidence-based health and mental health interventions. Pain and depression are used as exemplars of the biopsychosocial model. Empirical support for mental health interventions in primary care settings is highlighted, with particular emphasis on the treatment of depression across the life span. Research, practice, and policy implications based on the extant evidence base for health care for the whole person are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aqueous and Mineral Intrinsic Bioremediation Assessment: Natural Attenuation

An approach to evaluating intrinsic bioremediation, aqueous and mineral intrinsic biodegradation assessment (AMIBA) is described. AMIBA is based on the microbial reduction of Fe3+ and SO42?, forming reduced Fe and S mineral species in amounts stoichiometrically equivalent to the contaminant mass oxidized by microbial processes. Mineral data from sediment cores are emphasized rather than the aqueous data used in existing protocols. AMIBA was demonstrated at Westover Air Force Base, Chicopee, Massachusetts. Over 300 times more reduced Fe2+ was in mineral form, compared to aqueous. The distribution of mineral Fe3+ and Fe2+ marked the historic extent of the plume, confirming plume retreat. Aqueous SO42? reduction resulted in the deposition of equivalent amounts of iron sulfide minerals near the source area. The total mass of fuel degraded by intrinsic bioremediation and the rate of source depletion was estimated. Thus, the past and future performance of intrinsic bioremediation was assessed using one sampling event rather than relying on protracted monitoring, as is the current practice.     

Understanding and Interpreting Baseline Perceptions of Sustainability in Construction among Civil Engineers in the United States

The highly influential Brundtland report released in 1987 was the first document to define the three pillars of modern sustainable development as environmental, social, and economic. The Rio Summit in 1992, the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, and the Johannesburg Meeting in 2002 followed up with primary focus on the needs of society and the environment. Economic issues were secondary at these meetings. This movement was the beginning of what has been passed down to the construction industry as sustainable construction. Within the industry, however, confusion reigns, and attitudes toward sustainable construction vary wildly. Understanding perceptions of sustainability in the industry would help to navigate a path towards a common understanding of the issues, to reach a point from which a reasoned dialogue could ensue concerning the relative merits of different approaches to sustainability and to sustainable construction itself. To understand perceptions of sustainability in the construction industry, a survey of close to 200 practitioners was conducted between July and Sept. 2006. Its results are described and analyzed in this article. Some conclusions are made and recommendations are suggested based on this analysis. In particular, it is clear that a persistent and broad-based effort will be required to introduce sustainability effectively to the profession.     

Use of inpatient mental health services by members of ethnic minority groups.

National data on psychiatric hospitalization point to marked ethnic-related differences. Blacks and Native Americans are considerably more likely than Whites to be hospitalized; Blacks are more likely than Whites to be admitted as schizophrenic and less likely to be diagnosed as having an affective disorder; Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders are less likely than Whites to be admitted, but remain for a lengthier stay, at least in state and county mental hospitals. Differences are clearcut, but they ignore a major source of care: psychiatric hospitalization in placements other than psychiatric units and hospitals. Explanations for observed minority-White differences in hospitalization can be evaluated only partially or not at all: Such explanations included ethnic-related differences in socioeconomic standing and in the prevalence of major psychopathology; differential stigma, or capacity to tolerate or support a dysfunctional significant other; access and use of alternative services; and bias in the behavior of gatekeepers, especially practitioners assigning diagnostic labels and making involuntary commitment decisions. More research is needed to help explain these striking differences in utilization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Federal civil rights policy and mental health treatment access for persons with limited english proficiency.

As noted in the supplement to the U.S. Surgeon General's report on mental health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001), overcoming language access barriers associated with limited English proficiency (LEP) should help to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in mental health care access and quality. Federal policy requires remedial action to overcome language barriers: Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Medicaid and other federally funded programs must provide assistance to LEP persons. Some state-level public and mental health authorities have responded by instituting "threshold language" policies. The history and terms of federal civil rights policy, and of threshold-language-policy-inspired initiatives, should be understood by everyone concerned with overcoming ethnic disparities in mental health services use. Concerned parties should promote implementation of required measures for language assistance and help to evaluate their implementation and effectiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new turbidimetric approach to measuring polyethylene short chain branching distributions

A new instrument to analyze the short chain branching distribution of polyethylenes has been described. Turbidity analysis of ethylene/α-olefin copolymers by turbidity fractionation analysis can provide short chain branching distribution information that is similar to CRYSTAF and TREF. In these experiments, the turbidity of a polymer solution is monitored while changing its temperature at a controlled rate. The turbidimetric response is to the precipitation or dissolution of the crystallized polymer at a given temperature. With an approach similar to CRYSTAF, the differential of the turbidity profile provides valuable SCBD information for polymers with broad and narrow compositions such as Ziegler-Natta LLDPE and homogeneous polymers catalyzed by single-site catalysts.     

Alteration of memory in the reduction of children's distress during repeated aversive medical procedures.

The present study sought to reduce children's distress during aversive medical procedures using a brief cost-effective intervention aimed at reframing memory. Fifty children diagnosed with leukemia (25 treatment, 25 attention control, aged 3–18) were observed as they underwent 3 consecutive lumbar punctures (LPs; baseline, postintervention, and follow-up). Self-report, physiological, and observable distress measures were collected before and after each LP. At posttreatment, children in the intervention group showed reductions in anticipatory physiological and self-report ratings relative to the control group. At follow-up, these effects generalized to reductions in procedural distress. These results suggest that (a) a simple memory-based intervention is efficacious at reducing children's distress and (b) benefits from this intervention are maintained over 1 week even without continued intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of Stochastic Global Optimization Methods to Estimate Neural Network Weights

Training a neural network is a difficult optimization problem because of numerous local minima. Many global search algorithms have been used to train neural networks. However, local search algorithms are more efficient with computational resources, and therefore numerous random restarts with a local algorithm may be more effective than a global algorithm. This study uses Monte-Carlo simulations to determine the efficiency of a local search algorithm relative to nine stochastic global algorithms when using a neural network on function approximation problems. The computational requirements of the global algorithms are several times higher than the local algorithm and there is little gain in using the global algorithms to train neural networks. Since the global algorithms only marginally outperform the local algorithm in obtaining a lower local minimum and they require more computational resources, the results in this study indicate that with respect to the specific algorithms and function approximation problems studied, there is little evidence to show that a global algorithm should be used over a more traditional local optimization routine for training neural networks. Further, neural networks should not be estimated from a single set of starting values whether a global or local optimization method is used.