Journals
2009 EN
Jason Leonard A. · Pokorny Steven B. · Adams Monica
+3 more
This study evaluated the effects of tobacco Purchase, Use and Possession (PUP) laws on student perceptions of adolescent tobacco use within towns and schools. Twenty‐four towns were randomly assigned into two conditions, the experimental condition (E PUP) involved efforts to increase both PUP law enforcement and reduce minors' access to commercial sources of tobacco, whereas the control condition (C) focused only on efforts to reduce minors' access to commercial sources of tobacco. A hierarchical linear modeling analytical approach was selected due to the multilevel data and nested design. The present study found that over time, youth in the experimental PUP condition observed less youth tobacco usage at school and in their town, and perceived lower rates of tobacco among their peers at school and among friends than youth in the control condition. The findings suggest that PUP law enforcement might be used to strengthen community norms against youth tobacco use.
Journals
2009 EN
Kathlene Tracy · Lawrence S. Brown · Steven Kritz
+9 more
Substance abuse treatment programs are an important platform for delivery of services for infectious diseases associated with drug and alcohol use. However, important components of infectious disease care are not universally provided. Clinician training often focuses on information about infectious diseases and less attention is paid to provider opinions and attitudes that may be barriers to providing infectious diseases services. In a national multi-site trial conducted by the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN), we investigated the relationship between clinician opinions and the delivery of services for human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C virus, and sexually transmitted infections in substance abuse treatment settings. Survey data were collected from 1,723 clinicians at 269 CTN treatment programs. Clinician opinion was found to be significantly related to infectious disease service delivery. Implications for training are discussed.
Journals
2009 EN
James A. Inciardi · Hilary L. Surratt · Theodore J. Cicero
+3 more
A variety of surveys and studies are examined in an effort to better understand the scope of prescription drug diversion and to determine whether there are consistent patterns of diversion among various populations of prescription drug abusers. Data are drawn from the RADARS System, the National Survey of Drug Use and Health, the Delaware School Survey, and a series of quantitative and qualitative studies conducted in Miami, Florida. The data suggest that the major sources of diversion include drug dealers, friends and relatives, smugglers, pain patients, and the elderly, but these vary by the population being targeted. In all of the studies examined, the use of the Internet as a source for prescription drugs is insignificant. Little is known about where drug dealers are obtaining their supplies, and as such, prescription drug diversion is a "black box" requiring concentrated, systematic study.
Journals
2009 EN
Tyrus Berry · Steven Heilman · Robert S. Strichartz
We present a new method to approximate the Neumann spectrum of a Laplacian on a fractal K in the plane as a renormalized limit of the Neumann spectra of the standard Laplacian on a sequence of domains that approximate K from the outside. The method allows a numerical approximation of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for lower portions of the spectrum. We present experimental evidence that the method works by looking at examples in which the spectrum of the fractal Laplacian is known (the unit interval and the Sierpiński gasket). We also present a speculative description of the spectrum on the standard Sierpiński carpet, where existence of a self-similar Laplacian is known, and also on nonsymmetric and random carpets and the octagasket, where existence of a self-similar Laplacian is not known. At present we have no explanation as to why the method should work. Nevertheless, we are able to prove some new results about the structure of the spectrum involving "miniaturization" of eigenfunctions that we discovered by examining the experimental results obtained using our method.
Journals
2009 EN
Sofia B. Ahmed · Rhonda Bentley–Lewis · Norman K. Hollenberg
+2 more
To compare existing glomerular filtration rate (GFR) prediction equations with the gold standard, inulin clearance, in pregnancy.
Journals
2009 EN
Laura J. Lawton · Margaret J. Daniels
Resident non-participation is a major contemporary issue for the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (Udvar-Hazy Center), a recently opened companion facility to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall. The current study investigates the motivations and characteristics of local non-visitors. Residents from three surrounding counties comprised the study population and, as part of the larger study, responded to statements pertaining to reasons for non-visitation to the Udvar-Hazy Center, derived and modified for a museum context from the leisure constraints literature. Analysis of non-visitors, about one-half of the sample, resulted in the identification of relatively homogenous minimally-constrained, awareness-constrained, time-constrained, and access-constrained clusters. Managerial implications of these findings are considered.Griffith Business School, Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel ManagementFull Tex
Journals
2009 EN
PRIOR STEVEN J. · MCKENZIE MICHAEL J. · JOSEPH LYNDON J.
+4 more
Objective: Reduced capillarization in hemiparetic skeletal muscle of chronic stroke patients can limit insulin, glucose, and oxygen supply to muscle, thereby contributing to impaired glucose metabolism and cardiovascular deconditioning. We hypothesized that compared to sedentary controls, stroke subjects have reduced skeletal muscle capillarization that is associated with glucose intolerance and reduced peak oxygen consumption (Vo 2peak ). Methods: Twelve chronic stroke subjects (ages, 62.1±2.8 years), and matched sedentary controls with impaired ( n =12) or normal ( n =12) glucose tolerance underwent oral glucose tolerance tests, exercise tests, and vastus lateralis biopsies. Results: Stroke subjects had lower capillarization in hemiparetic muscle than in nonparetic muscle and normal glucose tolerant controls (∼22 and ∼28%, respectively; P <0.05) and had similar bilateral capillarization, compared to controls with impaired glucose tolerance. Capillary density in hemiparetic muscle inversely correlated with 120‐minute glucose ( r =−0.70, P <0.01) and glucose area under the curve ( r =−0.78, P <0.01). Vo 2peak was ∼40% lower in stroke subjects, compared to controls ( P <0.001), but did not correlate with capillarization ( P =n.s.). Conclusions: Hemiparetic muscle capillarization is reduced after stroke, and reduced capillarization is associated with glucose intolerance in stroke and control subjects. Interventions to increase skeletal muscle capillarization may prove beneficial for improving glucose metabolism in chronic stroke patients.
Journals
2009 EN
WILLIAMS BLAIR A. · CURRIE R. WILLIAM · MORRIS STEVEN F.
Objective: We examined the molecular mediators of postoperative choke‐vessel growth. Our focus was the possible overlap between choke‐vessel growth and arteriogenesis. Methods: A rat perforator flap model, encompassing four vascular territories, was used. Flaps were surgically elevated, re‐inset, and allowed to survive for one, three, five, or seven days. Tissue samples for Western and histological analyses were collected from the choke zone along the dorsal midline. Tissue from territories linked by the choke zone was analyzed to distinguish between global and local effects. The proteins examined included CD11b, ICAM‐1, and MMP‐2, three markers associated with arteriogenesis, as well as Hsp70 and vascular endothelial growth factor, markers of physiological stress and hypoxia/ischemia. Results: Arteriogenesis markers, as shown by Western analysis, increased at three and five days after flap elevation, and the increase was localized by immunohistochemistry to the growing arteries and veins. The marker of physiological stress increased at Days 5 and 7. The hypoxia‐ischemia marker did not increase in the choke zone. Conclusions: The growth of choke arteries and veins proceeds in an inflammatory environment that resembles arteriogenesis. Ischemia did not appear to play a role in choke‐vessel changes.
Journals
2009 EN
Woolard Jeanette · Bevan Heather s. · Harper Steven J.
+1 more
The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family of proteins regulates blood flow, growth, and function in both normal physiology and disease processes. VEGF‐A is alternatively spliced to form multiple isoforms, in two subfamilies, that have specific, novel functions. Alternative splicing of exons 5–7 of the VEGF gene generates forms with differing bioavailability and activities, whereas alternative splice‐site selection in exon 8 generates proangiogenic, termed VEGF xxx , or antiangiogenic proteins, termed VEGF xxx b. Despite its name, emerging roles for VEGF isoforms on cell types other than endothelium have now been identified. Although VEGF‐A has conventionally been considered to be a family of proangiogenic, propermeability vasodilators, the identification of effects on nonendothelial cells, and the discovery of the antiangiogenic subfamily of splice isoforms, has added further complexity to their regulation of microvascular function. The distally spliced antiangiogenic isoforms are expressed in normal human tissue, but downregulated in angiogenic diseases, such as cancer and proliferative retinopathy, and in developmental pathologies, such as Denys Drash syndrome and preeclampsia. Here, we examine the molecular diversity of VEGF‐A as a regulator of its biological activity and compare the role of the pro‐ and antiangiogenic VEGF‐A splice isoforms in both normal and pathophysiological processes.
Journals
2009 EN
Rita Hamilton · Steven W. Brown · Lance L. Goetz
+1 more
Pseudomeningocele is most commonly the result of a rent in the meninges during spine surgery. Noniatrogenic causes exist but are rare. Pseudomeningoceles may heal spontaneously, but they may also slowly enlarge. They rarely present as a mass within the abdomen. The objective of this study was to present the first case report of hydronephrosis secondary to lumbar pseudomeningocele.