2995 research outputs found
Sort by
Behavioral Health in Rural America: Understanding Citizen Perceptions and Willingness to Respond to Community Needs
No full textAmid nationwide efforts to address behavioral health needs, rural communities often face unique challenges and a lack of resources. This study presents a bottom-up approach used by one rural community in the Midwest to respond to their needs regarding mental health and substance use. A survey instrument was developed from interviews with community stakeholders and disseminated in both online and paper formats. The survey sought to understand citizen perspectives regarding quality of life, barriers to treatment, and willingness to engage in efforts to address the community’s needs. Data from 1,303 respondents (71.5% women, 54.7% income <$42,000) were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square analyses. Results indicate that cost of treatment, shame, and lack of privacy were a barrier for most citizens’ treatment-seeking behavior. In addition, many citizens were willing to engage in strategies to address the community’s needs, including increased county spending, forming a neighborhood watch, and donating money. Differences associated with gender and income emerged across perceptions and willingness to support efforts. Implications for community efforts are discussed
Combined Aerobic and Resistance Training Increases Stretch- Shortening Cycle Potentiation and Walking Economy in Postmenopausal Women
No full textPurpose: Secondary analyses were performed to test whether combined aerobic and resistance training altered walking economy (i.e., net oxygen uptake) and/or stretch-shortening cycle potentiation (SSCP). A further objective was to determine if walking economy and SSCP were related before or after training. Methods: Ninety-two postmenopausal women were enrolled wherein 76 completed 16 weeks of supervised aerobic and resistance training. Participants were randomized to one of three training groups based on frequencies: (a) 1 d⋅wk ( = 23); (b) 2 d⋅wk ( = 30) or; (c) 3 d⋅wk ( = 23). Following assessments were performed at baseline and post-training. Indirect calorimetry was used to measure maximal oxygen uptake (VO) and walking economy (submaximal VO – resting VO = net VO) during a graded exercise test and steady-state treadmill task, respectively. SSCP was determined by measuring the difference between a concentric (CO) and counter-movement (CM) leg press throw. Results: VO, walking economy, CO and CM velocity were significantly improved (p < 0.05) for all training groups, however; no time by group interactions were observed. Paired t-tests revealed participants exercise training 2 d⋅wk exhibited a significant time effect for SSCP (+0.04 ± 0.09 ms; = 0.03). At baseline, multiple linear regression showed a negative relationship between walking net VO and SSCP ( = −0.22; < 0.04) adjusted for relative proportion of VO. No such relationship was found post-training. Conclusion: Among older postmenopausal women, our results indicate that irrespective of frequency of training, 16 weeks of combined aerobic and resistance exercise training increased ease of walking and economy. Additionally, only participants exercising 2 d⋅wk exhibited significant improvement in SSCP
Searching for CPT violation with neutral-meson oscillations
No full textA general technique is presented for treating CPT violation in neutral-meson oscillations. The effective field theory for a complex scalar with CPT-violating operators of arbitrary mass dimension is incorporated in the formalism for the propagation and mixing of neutral mesons. Observable effects are discussed, and first measurements of CPT-violating operators of dimension five are extracted from existing experimental results
Coherent joint emulation of Earth System Model temperature-precipitation realizations: fldgen v2.0
No full textEarth System Models (ESMs) are excellent tools for quantifying many aspects of future climate dynamics but are too computationally expensive to produce large collections of scenarios for downstream users of ESM data. In particular, many researchers focused on the impacts of climate change require large collections of ESM runs to rigorously study the impacts to both human and natural systems of low-frequency high-importance events, such as multi-year droughts. Climate model emulators provide an effective mechanism for filling this gap, reproducing many aspects of ESMs rapidly but with lower precision. The fldgen v1.0 R package quickly generates thousands of realizations of gridded temperature fields by randomizing the residuals of pattern scaling temperature output from any single ESM, retaining the spatial and temporal variance and covariance structures of the input data at a low computational cost. The fldgen v2.0 R package described here extends this capability to produce joint realizations of multiple variables, with a focus on temperature and precipitation in an open source software package available for community use (https://github.com/jgcri/fldgen). This substantially improves the fldgen package by removing the requirement that the ESM variables be normally distributed, and will enable researchers to quickly generate covarying temperature and precipitation data that are synthetic but faithful to the characteristics of the original ESM
Using Customer Service Dialogues for Satisfaction Analysis with Context-Assisted Multiple Instance Learning
No full textCustomers ask questions and customer service staffs answer their questions, which is the basic service model via multi-turn customer service (CS) dialogues on E-commerce platforms. Existing studies fail to provide comprehensive service satisfaction analysis, namely satisfaction polarity classification (e.g., well satisfied, met and unsatisfied) and sentimental utterance identification (e.g., positive, neutral and negative). In this paper, we conduct a pilot study on the task of service satisfaction analysis (SSA) based on multi-turn CS dialogues. We propose an extensible Context-Assisted Multiple Instance Learning (CAMIL) model to predict the sentiments of all the customer utterances and then aggregate those sentiments into service satisfaction polarity. After that, we propose a novel Context Clue Matching Mechanism (CCMM) to enhance the representations of all customer utterances with their matched context clues, i.e., sentiment and reasoning clues. We construct two CS dialogue datasets from a top E-commerce platform. Extensive experimental results are presented and contrasted against a few previous models to demonstrate the efficacy of our model
Addressing Challenges to the Reliable, Large-Scale Implementation of Effective School Health Education
No full textThe long-held priority of teaching young people the knowledge and skills needed for healthy living has recently been diminished in many preK-12 schools. Driven by federal and state priorities, laws, and policies associated with high-stakes testing, instruction in untested subjects has been reduced or eliminated in most schools in order to devote more attention to tested subjects, like reading, math, writing, and science. This article proposes a pathway to ensure that all children are able to learn what society knows about health. To that end, four challenges to the reliable, large-scale implementation of effective school health education are identified: (1) establishing school health education as an undeniable social and cultural priority through improved advocacy; (2) strengthening educational institutions’ capacities to reliably deliver large-scale, high-quality, school-based health education; (3) collaboratively coordinating efforts of health-promoting governmental and nongovernmental organizations that generate thought leadership for school health education; and (4) creating multidisciplinary research capacities for solving problems associated with the implementation of reliable, large-scale, effective school health education. By implementing specific strategies associated with each challenge, health educators can promote the social and system-level conditions required to support, elevate, and ensure delivery of effective health education to every student in every school every year
Quality Assurance in Teaching K-12 Health Education: Paving a New Path Forward
No full textTo be effective, school health instruction should be taught by health educators who have graduated from accredited health education teacher education programs and are certified in health education. Unfortunately, the nation has failed to ensure that all those who teach health in schools are well prepared. States vary in the required coursework for health teachers in terms of initial licensure and continuing education for licensure renewal; most elementary teachers are not required to receive preparation in health education; health education and physical education are often viewed as synonymous disciplines; support for in-service education of health teachers is often lacking; and more research is needed in professional preparation and development of school health educators. This article provides a call to action in five areas to strengthen both the professional preparation and professional development of school health educators. Given that education is a social determinant of health, public health educators must become stronger allies in supporting school health to promote health equity. Public health practitioners can advocate to state and community school decision makers for comprehensive school health education taught by teachers with appropriate professional preparation and certification in health education. Public health faculty can educate their students about the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child framework and effective strategies for its implementation, and seek rigorous professional preparation and certification and accreditation standards for their school teacher preparation programs. National health and education organizations can call for new leadership and investments in health education teacher preparation and development for a brighter future
Is Behavioral Activation (BA) More Effective than Cognitive Therapy (CT) in Severe Depression? A Reanalysis of a Landmark Trial
No full textA landmark study (Jacobson et al., JCCP, 64:295–304, 1996) suggested that behavioral activation (BA) is as effective as cognitive therapy (CT) in the treatment of major depression. A conceptual replication supported the efficacy of BA and suggested BA is more effective than CT for severe depression (Dimidjian et al., JCCP, 74:658–670, 2006), though these findings have never been replicated. Outcome data from the participants in the BA and CT condition of the Jacobson et al. (JCCP, 64:295–304, 1996) trial were analyzed with the same analytic approach used by Dimidjian et al. (JCCP, 74:658–670, 2006). The sample was stratified on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) as higher-severity (HRSD ≥ 20) and lower-severity (HRSD ≤ 19). Treatment differences in change over time on the HRSD, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), as well as response (≥ 50% change) and remission on each scale, were examined. Tests of moderation with severity as a categorical or continuous variable were conducted, and we explored the effect of severity by treatment on relapse. The results of Dimidjian et al. (JCCP, 74:658–670, Dimidjian et al. 2006) were not replicated. Tests of moderation with severity as a continuously measured variable (with the BDI or HRSD) also failed to find that BA was more effective than CT for more severe depression. No differences by severity emerged over the follow-up period. BA and CT may be roughly equivalent in the treatment of mild, moderate, and severe depression
FLAG Review 2019
No full textWe review lattice results related to pion, kaon, D-meson, B-meson, and nucleon physics with the aim of making them easily accessible to the nuclear and particle physics communities. More specifically, we report on the determination of the light-quark masses, the form factor +(0) arising in the semileptonic → transition at zero momentum transfer, as well as the decay constant ratio / and its consequences for the CKM matrix elements and . Furthermore, we describe the results obtained on the lattice for some of the low-energy constants of (2)×(2) and (3)×(3) Chiral Perturbation Theory. We review the determination of the parameter of neutral kaon mixing as well as the additional four B parameters that arise in theories of physics beyond the Standard Model. For the heavy-quark sector, we provide results for and as well as those for D- and B-meson decay constants, form factors, and mixing parameters. These are the heavy-quark quantities most relevant for the determination of CKM matrix elements and the global CKM unitarity-triangle fit. We review the status of lattice determinations of the strong coupling constant . Finally, in this review we have added a new section reviewing results for nucleon matrix elements of the axial, scalar and tensor bilinears, both isovector and flavor diagonal
Ultrastructural localization of cannabinoid CB1 and mGluR5 receptors in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala
No full textStimulation of the postsynaptic metabotropic glutamate receptor mGluR5 triggers retrograde signaling of endocannabinoids that activate presynaptic cannabinoid CB1 receptors on juxtaposing axon terminals. To better understand the synaptic structure that supports mGluR5 mediation of CB1 activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA), we examined electron microscopic dual immunolabeling of these receptors in the prelimbic PFC (prPFC) and BLA of adult male rats. CB1 immunoreactivity was detected in axon terminals that were typically large, complex, and contained dense-core and clear synaptic vesicles. Of terminals forming discernible synaptic specializations, 95% were symmetric inhibitory-type in the prPFC and 90% were inhibitory in the BLA. CB1-immunoreactive terminals frequently contacted dendrites containing mGluR5 adjacent to unlabeled terminals forming excitatory-type synapses. Because most CB1-containing terminals form inhibitory-type synapses, the unlabeled axon terminals forming asymmetric synapses are the likely source of the mGluR5 ligand glutamate. In the prPFC, serial section analysis revealed that GABAergic CB1-containing axon terminals targeted dendrites adjacent to glutamatergic axon terminals, often near dendritic bifurcations. These observations provide ultrastructural evidence that cortical CB1 receptors are strategically positioned for integration of synaptic signaling in response to stimulation of postsynaptic mGluR5 receptors and facilitation of heterosynaptic communication between multiple neurons