Contracting, prompting, and reinforcing substance use disorder continuing care: A randomized clinical trial.

Although continuing care is strongly related to positive treatment outcomes for substance use disorder (SUD), participation rates are low and few effective interventions are available. In a randomized clinical trial with 150 participants (97% men), 75 graduates of a residential Veterans Affairs Medical Center SUD program who received an aftercare contract, attendance prompts, and reinforcers (CPR) were compared to 75 graduates who received standard treatment (STX). Among CPR participants, 55% completed at least 3 months of aftercare, compared to 36% in STX. Similarly, CPR participants remained in treatment longer than those in STX (5.5 vs. 4.4 months). Additionally, CPR participants were more likely to be abstinent compared to STX (57% vs. 37%) after 1 year. The CPR intervention offers a practical means to improve adherence among individuals in SUD treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

No Direct Postconditioning Effect of Poloxamer 188 on Mitochondrial Function after Ischemia Reperfusion Injury in Rat Isolated Hearts

Myocardial infarction is a leading cause for morbidity and mortality worldwide. The only viable treatment for the ischemic insult is timely reperfusion, which further exacerbates myocardial injury. Maintaining mitochondrial function is crucial in preserving cardiomyocyte function in ischemia reperfusion (IR) injury. Poloxamer (P) 188 has been shown to improve cardiac IR injury by improving cellular and mitochondrial function. The aim of this study was to show if P188 postconditioning has direct protective effects on mitochondrial function in the heart. Langendorff prepared rat hearts were subjected to IR injury ex-vivo and reperfused for 10 min with 1 mM P188 vs. vehicle. Cardiac mitochondria were isolated with 1 mM P188 vs. 1 mM polyethylene glycol (PEG) vs. vehicle by differential centrifugation. Mitochondrial function was assessed by adenosine triphosphate synthesis, oxygen consumption, and calcium retention capacity. Mitochondrial function decreased significantly after ischemia and showed mild improvement with reperfusion. P188 did not improve mitochondrial function in the ex-vivo heart, and neither further P188 nor PEG induced direct mitochondrial protection after IR injury in this model.     

Value of T-wave direction with lead III ST-segment depression in acute anterior wall myocardial infarction: electrocardiographic prediction of a "wrapped" left anterior descending artery

BACKGROUND: Lead III ST-segment depression during acute anterior wall myocardial infarction (AMI) has been attributed to reciprocal changes. However, the value of the T-wave direction (positive or negative) in predicting the site of obstruction and type of the left anterior descending (LAD) artery is not clear and has not been studied before. HYPOTHESIS: The aim of the study was to assess retrospectively the correlation between two patterns of lead III ST-segment depression, and type of LAD artery and its level of obstruction during first AMI. METHODS: The study group consisted of 48 consecutive patients, admitted to the coronary care unit for first AMI, who showed ST-segment elevation in lead a VL and ST-segment depression in lead III on admission 12-lead electrocardiogram. The patients were divided by T-wave direction into Group 1 (n = 31), negative T wave, and Group 2 (n = 17), positive T wave. The coronary angiogram was evaluated for type of LAD ("wrapped", i.e., surrounding the apex or not), site of obstruction (pre- or postdiagonal branch), and other significant coronary artery obstructions. RESULTS: Mean lead III ST-segment depression was 1.99 +/- 1.32 mm in Group 1 and 1.13 +/- 0.74 mm in Group 2 (p = 0.004); mean ST-segment elevation in a VL was 1.35 +/- 0.84 mm and 1.23 +/- 0.5 mm, respectively (p = 0.5). A wrapped LAD was found in 12 patients (38.7%) in Group 1 and in 13 in Group 2 (76.4%) (p = 0.02). The sensitivity of lead III ST-segment depression with positive T wave to predict a wrapped LAD was 52%, and the specificity was 82% with a positive predictive value of 76%. On angiography, 25 patients (80%) in Group 1 and 13 (76%) in Group 2 had prediagonal occlusion of the LAD (p = 0.77). No significant difference between groups was found for right and circumflex coronary artery involvement or incidence of multivessel disease. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of lead III ST-segment depression with positive T wave associated with ST-segment elevation in a VL in the early course of AMI can serve as an early electrocardiographic marker of prediagonal occlusion of a "wrapped" LAD.     

Influence of inoculum and climatic factors on the severity of Fusarium head blight in German spring and winter barley

Fusarium head blight (FHB) of small cereals is a disease of global importance with regard to economic losses and mycotoxin contamination harmful to human and animal health. In Germany, FHB is predominantly associated with wheat and F. graminearum is recognised as the major causal agent of the disease, but little is known about FHB of barley. Monitoring of the natural occurrence of FHB on Bavarian barley revealed differences for individual Fusarium spp. in incidence and severity of grain infection between years and between spring and winter barley. Parallel measurement of fungal DNA content in grain and mycotoxin content suggested the importance of F. graminearum in winter barley and of F. langsethiae in spring barley for FHB. The infection success of these two species was associated with certain weather conditions and barley flowering time. Inoculation experiments in the field revealed different effects of five Fusarium spp. on symptom formation, grain yield and mycotoxin production. A significant association between fungal infection of grain and mycotoxin content was observed following natural or artificial infection with the type B trichothecene producer F. culmorum, but not with the type A trichothecene-producing species F. langsethiae and F. sporotrichioides. Trichothecene type A toxin contamination also occurred in the absence of significant damage to grain and did not necessarily promote fungal colonisation.     

Utility of Multivariate Analysis in Modeling the Effects of Raw Material Properties and Operating Parameters on Granule and Ribbon Properties Prepared in Roller Compaction

This article aimed to model the effects of raw material properties and roller compactor operating parameters (OPs) on the properties of roller compacted ribbons and granules with the aid of principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) projection. A database of raw material properties was established through extensive physical and mechanical characterization of several microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and lactose grades and their blends. A design of experiment (DoE) was used for ribbon production. PLS models constructed with only OP-modeled roller compaction (RC) responded poorly. Inclusion of raw material properties markedly improved the goodness of fit (R²?=?.897) and model predictability (Q²?=?0.72).     

The effect of dietary supplementation with eicosapentaenoic acid on the phospholipid and fatty acid composition of erythrocytes of marmoset

Adult male marmoset monkeys were fed eicosapentaenoic acid (20∶5n−3) as the ethyl ester in diets containing either 32% (reference diet, no added cholesterol) or 7% (atherogenic diet with 0.2% added cholesterol) linoleic acid (18∶2n−6) for 30 wk. No changes were seen in the level of phosphatidylcholine (PC) or phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) but minor changes were observed in both the sphingomyelin (SPM) and phosphatidylinositol plus phosphatidylserine (PI+PS) fractions of erythrocyte lipids. The extent of total n−3 fatty acid incorporation into membrane lipids was higher in atherogenic diets (polyunsaturated/monounsaturated/saturated (P/M/S) ratio 0.2∶0.6∶1.0) than reference diets (P/M/S ratio 1∶1∶1) and this was true for both PE (33.4±1.0%vs 24.3±1.1%) and PC (9.3±0.5%vs 4.9±0.3%). Although suitable controls for cholesterol effects were not included in the study, earlier results obtained with marmosets lead us to believe such effects were probably small. Regardless of basic diet (atherogenic, reference), 20∶5n−3 was preferentially incorporated into PE (10.8±0.2%, 6.0±0.02%) while smaller amounts were incorporated into PC (6.9±0.4%, 3.2±0.2%). The major n−3 polyunsaturated fatty acid found in PE in response to dietary 20∶5n−3 was the elongation metabolite 22∶5n−3 in both the atherogenic (17.7±0.7%) and reference (14.3±1.0%) dietary groups; 22∶6n−3 levels were less affected by diet (4.7±0.3% and 3.9±0.2%, respectively). The results can be interpreted to indicate an inverse relationship between the amount of dietary 18∶2n−6 and incorporation of 20∶5n−3 into erythrocyte membrane phospholipids regardless of whether the major dietary n−3 fatty acid was α-linolenate (18∶3n−3) or 20∶5n−3. This interpretation is supported by theoretical calculations.     

Civil engineers' managerial roles and needs: report of survey

Attitudes to the monetary risks associated with business decisions are thought to vary in response to at least three identifiable stimuli: the amount of money involved, background economic conditions and the framing of the decision. This paper reports a study of peoples' attitude to risk before and after a real turning point in the real business cycle. This work sheds light on the extent to which (i) risk attitudes remain robust when economic conditions change, (ii) risk attitude is influenced by whether the choice problem is concerned with losses or with gains, and (iii) risk attitude may be subordinated to some other dominating objective.     

Odor-driven attractor dynamics in the antennal lobe allow for simple and rapid olfactory pattern classification

The antennal lobe plays a central role for odor processing in insects, as demonstrated by electrophysiological and imaging experiments. Here we analyze the detailed temporal evolution of glomerular activity patterns in the antennal lobe of honeybees. We represent these spatiotemporal patterns as trajectories in a multidimensional space, where each dimension accounts for the activity of one glomerulus. Our data show that the trajectories reach odor-specific steady states (attractors) that correspond to stable activity patterns at about 1 second after stimulus onset. As revealed by a detailed mathematical investigation, the trajectories are characterized by different phases: response onset, steady-state plateau, response offset, and periods of spontaneous activity. An analysis based on support-vector machines quantifies the odor specificity of the attractors and the optimal time needed for odor discrimination. The results support the hypothesis of a spatial olfactory code in the antennal lobe and suggest a perceptron-like readout mechanism that is biologically implemented in a downstream network, such as the mushroom body.     

Rasch measurement in the assessment of amytrophic lateral sclerosis patients

This paper examines the sensitivity to change over time of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Assessment Questionnaire (ALSAQ-40). Individuals' health status change was assessed by means of the Rasch-based Reliable Change Index (RCI) for ALSAQ-40 questionnaires completed on two occasions, three months apart. In addition, at follow-up respondents indicated how much change they had experienced since baseline via dimension-specific self reported transition questions. 764 individuals returned questionnaires at baseline and follow-up. For all dimensions, of respondents defined by the RCI as worse, a majority rated themselves as worse. However, on two dimensions over 60% of the respondents who rated themselves as being worse were defined as unchanged by the RCI. As with effect size smaller RCI cut-off points might be needed for subjects with ALS. This study confirms that the ALSAQ-40 is a valid and responsive disease specific health related quality of life instrument for use in studies of patients with ALS or other motor neuron diseases.