<p> <b>Background:</b> Childhood obesity is highly prevalent among the fast-growing Latino communities. Promoting physical activity (PA) is a major measure to obesity prevention. American youth's PA levels have declined over the years and most youth are not meeting the current national PA recommendations. From a Social-Ecological Model (SEM) perspective, PA level is influenced by multi-level factors including the environment. Research has shown that many environmental factors, such as crime, inaccessible parks, and community disintegration are PA barriers in low socio-economic status (SES) minority communities. Stray dogs were found to be a PA barrier while domestic dogs appear a PA facilitator. Latina youth in low SES communities may be particularly vulnerable to such environmental factors as they may be at a higher risk of being chased by unleashed dogs, thus preventing outdoor PA. Currently, there is limited research investigating how dogs affect PA levels among Latina youth. The current study examined how dogs affect Latina youth's PA level in the low-SES neighborhoods of the South and West sides of San Antonio, TX. </p><p> <b>Methods:</b> Using a triangulation approach, this study involved focus groups with Latina youth and their parents, in-depth interviews with key community informants and extraction of 2009-2012 stray dog and pet violation records from the City of San Antonio Animal Care Services (CoSA ACS). Nine focus groups were conducted with 31 parents and 15 Latina youth. In-depth interviews were conducted with 6 community informants. Inductive content analyses were performed on qualitative data from the focus group and in-depth interview transcripts using Atlas.ti. Descriptive statistics was conducted on the stray dog and pet violation records, along with GIS mapping. </p><p> <b>Results:</b> Participants were aware of the obesity problem among youth and perceived that low PA level is a key contributing factor. Although responsible pet ownership was viewed as a strategy to promote PA, stray dogs were identified as a key barrier to PA in these low SES neighborhoods. ACS's record showed that among the 21,000 stray dogs picked up from the 10 Council Districts in the city each year, 60% were from the targeted research areas, i.e., the three Districts San Antonio's Southwest side. Local community members and leaders believed that more should be done to address stray dog problem and promote PA among youth, including public education programs for pet responsibility, free or low cost veterinarian services and a needs for resources to enhance the city's animal control services capacity. </p><p> <b>Conclusions:</b> While responsible pet ownership facilitates PA, stray dogs were perceived as a PA barrier among Latina adolescents in low-SES communities in San Antonio. Collaborative efforts are needed to address stray dogs in San Antonio. Potential solutions include building community partnerships, increasing community education on pet responsibility, providing affordable spay and neuter services, and advocating for increasing animal control resources. Future research is needed to quantitatively determine the relationship of stray dog density and PA levels in Latino communities. Intervention research is also needed to study the effect of domestic dogs on PA level among Latina youth.</p>

<p> This research introduced and studied a new response style construct, co-distraction. Co-distraction refers to diversion of attention from emotional problems to a neutral or pleasant stimulus within a dyadic relationship. It is characterized by discussing or engaging in neutral or pleasant activities, mutual encouragement to discuss or engage in neutral or pleasant activities, and a focus on positive feelings. It was hypothesized that co-distraction would serve a protective function by relating positively to friendship quality and negatively to depression and anxiety. </p><p> Participants were undergraduate college students who were recruited and tested online. They completed questionnaires measuring rumination, distraction, co-rumination, co-distraction, depression, anxiety, and friendship quality. In describing co-rumination, co-distraction, and friendship quality, participants reported on their relationship with their closest same-sex friend. Due to large differences in sample sizes between males (<i>N</i> = 40) and females (<i>N</i> = 138) as well as previously found gender differences on response style and emotional distress variables, the genders were studied separately in statistical analyses. </p><p> Results for co-distraction were as follows: (a) co-distraction scores had high reliability (alpha = .93), (b) co-distraction was positively correlated with positive friendship quality for females but not for males; (c) co-distraction was unrelated to emotional distress for both genders; and (d) it correlated positively with distraction and co-rumination for both genders. As predicted, rumination correlated positively with depression and anxiety, whereas distraction correlated negatively with anxiety for males only. Unexpectedly, co-rumination correlated negatively with one measure of depression for males and was unrelated to emotional distress for females. Distraction was positively correlated with co-rumination for males but was unrelated to co-rumination for females. All told, results were partly consistent with response styles theory. </p><p> In general, predicted gender differences were not obtained, and many results ran counter to expectation. The findings were discussed in light of the sample's highly diverse composition, and they emphasize the importance of taking into account culture when studying associations between response styles and outcomes of emotional distress and friendship quality. Implications for theory and for psychotherapy practice with depressed and anxious clients were discussed. Limitations and directions for future research were considered. </p>

Tuberculosis (TB) was thought to be safely in decline in the United States in the mid 1980's as the number of cases dropped by 74% between 1953 and 1985. A wake-up call was issued in 1986 as an increase in TB incidence which could not be accounted for was reported. This upward trend has continued. At of the end of 1992, the CDC estimated that 39,000 more cases of TB had developed over the previous decade than if the declining trend present in the early 1980's had continued. This turnaround in TB is well correlated with the rise of the HIV epidemic. The severely depressed immune systems associated with HIV make individuals infected with the virus more likely to develop active TB than those who are not infected. Whereas susceptibles to HIV are generally confined to high risk groups such as homosexuals or intravenous drug users, this is not the case with TB. It may be that the development of the HIV epidemic has somehow tipped the balance in favor of a continued rise in TB within the United States. The purpose of this work is to investigate through the use of mathematical models the magnitude and duration of the effect which the HIV epidemic may have on TB. Deterministic and stochastic models are developed which reflect the transmission dynamics of both TB and HIV, and the relative merits of these models are discussed. The deterministic models are then linked together to form a model for the combined spread of both diseases. A numerical study is performed to investigate the influence of certain key parameters. The effect which HIV will have on the general population is found to be dependent on the contact structure between the general population and the HIV risk groups as well as a possible shift in the dynamics associated with TB transmission. The development of a TB epidemic within the HIV risk groups is also considered.

No description available.

This study describes the mortality from injuries in the Cree communities of northern Quebec for the period 1982-91. Comparison of different data sources for the completeness of ascertainment of injury mortality showed that no single source of information provided a complete count of deaths. Coroners' reports provided some details on the circumstances of fatal events but would gain usefulness if police and coroners employed a more structured approach to the collection of information on the circumstances of injury deaths. Circumstances of deaths were obtained from mortality interviews with relatives of victims. Drownings were the most common cause of injury death. Groups at high risk of drowning were adult males during boating and snowmobile transport for hunting and toddlers not supervised during their play near the water. None of the victims had worn a personal flotation device. Motor vehicle fatalities affected adult males and were often associated with acute alcohol ingestion. Few victims wore safety belts. Suicides affected mostly males. Half of the suicides resulted from gunshot wounds and 70 percent of victims had ingested alcohol prior to the event. Detailed information on the determinants of injury mortality should help in establishing injury prevention strategies.

A historical cohort of 3014 individuals who sustained a whiplash injury resulting from a motor vehicle accident in Quebec in 1987 was assembled and followed up to six years using data obtained from the computerised databases of the province's universal automobile insurance plan. The prognostic factors that were found to be associated with the time to recovery from whiplash were gender, age, number of dependents, marital status, accident severity, vehicle type, seatbelt use, and the presence of multiple injuries. Factors that were predictive of the risk of recurrence of symptoms were age, number of dependents, and accident severity. None of the prognostic factors studied were found to be useful predictors of the amount of medically-related costs reimbursed by the insurance plan. / The results of this study will be used in a future study involving more numerous and precise medical prognostic factors to assess their role in the management of whiplash patients.

The human health risk associated with exposure to pesticide formulations applied to New Brunswick forests was examined for 31 sites of cancer, using measures of exposure based on the proximity of non-city population centers to spray areas. / Two organochlorine and two organophosphate exposure indices were developed by using maps of areas sprayed each year during the period 1952 to 1976. These data were analyzed in relation to cancer incidence rates during the period 1977-l980 for 254 New Brunswick municipalities. / Follow-up case-control studies of the cancer sites considered does not seem to be a matter of high priority at present. However, continued surveillance and data analysis involving more recent data is needed, particularly in the case of organophosphate formulations, due to the relatively short interval between exposure and outcome ascertainment for this exposure.

This dissertation develops a meaning oriented model of the relationship between culture and the subjective experience of psychosis, by analyzing interviews and other ethnographic data collected over the course of a 12 month fieldwork in Istanbul, Turkey. The theoretic framework for the study is introduced on the basis of detailed discussions of the notion of schizophrenia, the questions of Turkey and Turkish identity, and the basic theories of semiotics. Derived from the theoretic framework, four principles are then proposed as fundamental features of the relationship between culture, meaning systems, subjectivity and psychosis, as follows. (1) the inseparability of the notions of subject, culture, and meaning system.(2) the simultaneous synchronicity and diachnoricity of sign systems. (3) the heteroglossic nature of private associative networks and narratives. (4) the conglomerate composition of subjective autobiographical narratives. Based on these principles, an analytic approach is then developed and applied towards in-depth cultural semiotic analyses of data collected from interviews with three psychotic inpatients, their families and their clinicians. The results of the analyses demonstrate strong evidence for an interrelational model of culture, meaning, subjectivity and psychosis, as well as a fundamental presence of diachronic modality in patterns of association and networks of meaning in patients' discursive efforts to re-establish psychic wholeness and self-identity. Based on these findings and in reference to the earlier theoretical principles, the results are formalized to conclude three principal modes of 'continuity': (1) the mutual continuity of private experience and collective meaning, which reflects the importance of understanding private psychological and subjective phenomena as contextualizated processes always embedded within collective systems of meaning and power, such as culture and politics. (2) the continuity of psychotic and non-psychotic modes of subjectivity, which further highlights the embeddedness of psychotic models of experience and behavior in local systems of meaning and power. (3) the continuity of systems in time, which highlights the temporal dimension of private and collective modes of experience, and thus emphasizes the significance of considering not only private life histories, but also local historical and political trajectories in clinical and intellectual assessment of subjective and psychological experiences such as psychosis.

Mental illness is characterized by alterations in thinking, mood and behavior and is associated with significant distress and impaired functioning. Many mental illnesses and medications used in their treatment, can in some way impair fitness-to-drive. / This thesis comprises two independent but complementary articles. In the first article, the authors review the most recent literature on fitness-to-drive amongst individuals with mental illness, including those using psychotropic medications. In the second article, the authors assess current attitudes, practices, and knowledge of Canadian psychiatrists concerning driving safety amongst individuals with mental illness using a nation wide cross-sectional survey based on a random sample of practicing Canadian psychiatrists.

Background: The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), orbito-frontal cortex (OFC) and basal ganglia have been implicated in the neurobiology of pathological aggression. They are thought to be the structures involved in top-down regulation of impulses from the limbic system. This study aimed at identifying neuroanatomical correlates of impulsive aggression in healthy children. Methods: Data from 193 representative 6-18 year-old healthy children were obtained from the NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development after a blinded quality control (1). Cortical thickness and subcortical volumes were obtained with automated software. Aggression levels were measured with the Aggressive Behavior scale (AGG) of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). AGG scores were regressed against cortical thickness and basal ganglia volumes using first and second-order linear models while controlling for age, gender, scanner site and total brain volume. 'Gender by AGG' interactions were analyzed. Whole brain random field theory corrections for multiple comparisons were implemented.Results: There were positive associations between bilateral striatal volumes and AGG scores (right: r=0.238, p=0.001; left: r=0.188, p=0.01). A significant association was found with right ACC and subgenual ACC cortical thickness in a second-order linear model (p < 0.05, corrected). High AGG scores were associated with a relatively thin right ACC cortex. An 'AGG by gender' interaction trend was found in bilateral OFC and ACC associations with AGG scores. Conclusion: This study shows the existence of relationships between impulsive aggression in healthy children and the structure of the striatum and right ACC. It also suggests the existence of gender specific patterns of association in OFC/ACC grey matter. These results may guide research on oppositional-defiant and conduct disorders.KEYWORDS: Aggression, Cortical Thickness, Anterior Cingulate Cortex, Orbito-Frontal Cortex, Striatum, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) / Contexte: Le cortex cingulaire antérieur (CCA), le cortex orbito-frontal (COF) et les noyaux gris centraux ont été identifiés dans les recherches sur la neurobiologie de l'agressivité pathologique. Ces structures seraient impliquées dans la régulation 'top-down' des impulsions produites dans le système limbique. Le but de cette étude était d'identifier les corrélations neuroanatomiques de l'agressivité impulsive chez les enfants en santé ayant un développement normal. Méthodologie: Les données de 193 sujets de 6 à 18 ans ont été obtenues de l'étude NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development après un contrôle visuel de qualité des données (1). L'épaisseur corticale et les volumes sous-corticaux ont été obtenus avec des programmes automatisés. Le niveau d'agressivité a été mesuré avec l'échelle de comportements agressifs (AGG) obtenue du questionnaire Child Behavior Checklist. Les scores de AGG ont été analysés en régression linéaire avec l'épaisseur corticale et le volume des noyaux gris centraux en utilisant des modèles de premier et de deuxième ordre, et en contrôlant pour les effets de l'âge, du sexe, du numéro de scanner et du volume cérébral total. L'interaction 'AGG X sexe' a aussi été analysée. Une correction statistique de type random field theory pour comparaisons multiples a été appliquée aux résultats.Résultats: Une association positive a été trouvée entre les scores de AGG et le volume du striatum bilatéralement (droite: r=0.238, p=0.001; gauche: r=0.188, p=0.01). Une association significative était aussi présente entre AGG et l'épaisseur corticale du CCA droit et du CCA sous-géniculé droit dans un modèle linéaire de deuxième ordre (p < 0.05, corrigé). Les scores AGG élevés étaient associés à un CCA droit relativement mince. Une tendance d'association entre l'épaisseur corticale et l'interaction 'AGG X sexe' a aussi été trouvée dans le COF et le CCA bilatéralement. Conclusion: Cette étude démontre l'existence d'une relation entre l'agressivité impulsive chez les enfants en santé et la structure anatomique du striatum, ainsi que du CCA droit. Elle suggère également l'existence de patterns d'associations spécifiques au sexe dans la matière grise du COF et du CCA. Ces résultats pourraient guider la recherche clinique sur le trouble oppositionnel avec provocation et le trouble des conduites. MOTS CLÉS: Agressivité, Épaisseur corticale, Cortex cingulaire antérieur, Cortex orbito-frontal, Striatum, Imagerie par résonance magnétique (IRM)