A Clinical Trial to Test the Feasibility of a Telehealth Psychoeducational Intervention for Persons With Schizophrenia and Their Families: Intervention and 3-Month Findings.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of a telehealth psychoeducation intervention for persons with schizophrenia and their family members. Study Design: Randomized controlled trial. Participants: 30 persons with schizophrenia and 21 family members or other informal support persons. Interventions: Web-based psychoeducation program that provided online group therapy and education. Main Outcome Measures: Measures for persons with schizophrenia included perceived stress and perceived social support; for family members, they included disease-related distress and perceived social support. Results: At 3 months, participants with schizophrenia in the intervention group reported lower perceived stress (p = .04) and showed a trend for a higher perceived level of social support (p = .06). Conclusions: The findings demonstrate the feasibility and impact of providing telehealth-based psychosocial treatments, including online therapy groups, to persons with schizophrenia and their families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Olive oil traceability by means of chemical and sensory analyses: A comparison with SSR biomolecular profiles

The relationship between genetic diversity and phenotype in olive, instrumental to improve the efficacy of olive clonal selection, is still far from being fully understood. This work reports on a comparison made between plant SSR genetic data and quality of monovarietal olive oils. Nine monovarietal oils produced by selected genotypes were characterised under chemical and sensory profiles. Fatty acid compositions were determined to evaluate quantitative differences among oils; some fatty acids are actually highly correlated with the genetic matrix, and PCA of fatty acids composition explains 85.53% variability. Moreover some oils characterised by high levels of oleic acid appeared interesting from a nutritional standpoint. Organoleptic profiles evidenced differences especially for the attributes defined as “pleasant flavours”; oils obtained by different genetic matrices were characterised by different flavour intensities of tomato or artichoke, almond or aromatic herbs, correspondence analysis among sensory pleasant attributes and olive oil samples explaining 91.68% variability.     

Chemical Profiling of Bosana Virgin Olive Oils Produced in Different Areas of Sardinia

In a 3-year study, the chemical compositions of extra virgin olive oils (EVOO) of Bosana variety deriving from three different growing areas in Northern Sardinia were characterized, together with the pedo-climatic conditions of the three different growing areas, to gauge any differences at the chemical level. The main chemical differences in the oils from the three-studied areas were recorded in the fatty acid profiles [palmitic, oleic, and linoleic acid; sum of saturated (SFA), monounsaturated (MUFA), and polyunsaturated (PUFA) fatty acids]: these dissimilarities were ascribable to the environmental characteristics of the Alghero area, while others analytical parameters such as tocopherols, pigments, phenolic, and volatile compounds were not affected by production area. Fatty acids profile revealed a clear relation with temperature at a mesoclimate level, allowing a clusterization of the production areas. Our study provided evidences that pedo-climatic factors affect the quality of EVOO; in particular, in the case of Bosana cultivar the acidic fraction resulted one of the main traits differentiating the olive growing areas.     

Occurrence of thyroid autoimmunity and dysfunction throughout a nine-month follow-up in patients undergoing interferon-beta therapy for multiple sclerosis

Thyroid autoimmunity and dysfunction are a well known side effect of IFN alpha therapy for viral hepatitis and tumors, while the IFN beta effects on the thyroid gland in neurological patients have not been studied. The aim of this longitudinal study was to look for the appearance of thyroid autoimmunity as well as for the occurrence of overt thyroid disease in the patients affected by multiple sclerosis (MS) treated with IFN beta 1b. Eight patients (4 males, 4 females) undergoing r-IFN beta 1b treatment (8 M.U. every other day for 9 months) for relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis entered the study. We have analyzed thyroid function parameters and auto antibody levels before and after 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9 months of therapy. None of them referred to familiar thyroid pathology or presented clinically overt thyroid disease except for one patient (case 4) who showed TPO-Ab pretreatment positivity and another (case 8) who was in therapy with Levothyroxine 100 microg/die for multinodular goiter. The number of patients with appearance of thyroid antibodies has slowly increased, until the third month of therapy with 3 patients out of 7 positive for TPO-Ab. The only case of overt thyroid dysfunction reported by us appeared after nine months of therapy and consisted of a hypothyroidism. Our data suggest that short-term interferon beta treatment is able to induce thyroid autoimmunity (42.8%) and dysfunction (12.5%).     

Temperature dependence of pure CsI: scintillation light yield and decay time

The temperature dependence of the light emission for pure CsI crystals has been measured with photomultipliers, and photodiodes with wavelength shifters from 80–300 K. The light yield at 80 K is N_γ=50,000±5000 photons/MeV. This number was deduced from the number of electron–hole pairs produced in the photodiode, N_eh=39,600±1200. The light yield at room temperature is lower by a factor of 15.8±1.0, giving 3200±400 photons/MeV. Decay times were measured with a photomultiplier. At room temperature two fast decay components were observed with decay times of 6±1 and 28±2 ns. Below 180 K only one component is observed and at 80 K the decay time is 1015±17 ns.     

Designing websites for persons with cognitive deficits: Design and usability of a psychoeducational intervention for persons with severe mental illness.

The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of the design elements that influence the ability of persons with severe mental illness (SMI) and cognitive deficits to use a website, and to use this knowledge to design a web-based telehealth application to deliver a psychoeducation program to persons with schizophrenia and their families. Usability testing was conducted with 98 persons with SMI. First, individual website design elements were tested. Based on these results, theoretical website design models were used to create several alternative websites. These designs were tested for their ability to facilitate use by persons with SMI. The final website design is presented. The results indicate that commonly prescribed design models and guidelines produce websites that are poorly suited and confusing to persons with SMI. Our findings suggest an alternative model that should be considered when designing websites and other telehealth interventions for this population. Implications for future studies addressing the characteristics of accessible designs for persons with SMI and cognitive deficits are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)