The aim of the investigation was to search the current literature (from April 2005 to December 2012) and determine the effectiveness of orthodontic tooth movement using the Invisalign system. With changes in attachments implemented within the past few years, a more recent appraisal of the available literature is of value. It is expected that this systematic review will provide a more up-to-date understanding of the treatment effects (efficacy in tooth movement and stability) of the Invisalign system. Additionally, an evaluation of the indications and case selection using Invisalign will be conducted A computerized search was conducted using PubMed, Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) Reviews Database (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews), Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Science Direct, and Thomsen's ISI Web of Science. Inclusion criteria that were to be satisfied by the literature search results were publications in English and human clinical trials. Studies not pertaining to the question of clinical effectiveness of Invisalign were selected for exclusion. Case reports, book chapters, and review papers were considered separately for analysis and contribution to the general information gathering in the systematic review. Book chapters were excluded. Quality assessment was performed on the studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The quality and design of the study was considered. Of the studies that passed the quality assessment stage, a thorough evaluation was completed. Summaries of the included articles were prepared and information regarding study design, subjects, treatment times, and outcomes were organized in tabulated form. Appraisal of the included studies was performed using the 2010 CONSORT statement and 2009 ADA Clinical Recommendations Handbook. Overall, of the 271 studies reviewed (Stage I), 23 were selected for further review (Stage II). Ultimately, 10 studies were included in the systematic review (Stage III). In summary, after thorough analysis of the studies, it has been shown that Invisalign is an effective appliance for minor space closure, lingual constriction, and correction of anterior rotations and marginal ridge height discrepancies. However, Invisalign lacks the ability to correct anteroposterior discrepancies, occlusal contacts, extrusion, and rotations greater than 15 degrees. While the achieved and predicted tooth movement discrepancy was very minimal, it was found that overbite must be overcorrected. / Oral Biology

Self-efficacy and treatment adherence reduce substance dependence. Yoga has been suggested as an adjunct to substance dependence treatment to enhance outcomes. This study was designed to assess yoga as a moderator of substance abuse treatment effectiveness, as indicated by the Exercise Self-Efficacy survey and Treatment Effectiveness Assessment scores. This study was guided by self-efficacy theory and used a nonequivalent quasi-experimental design to evaluate self-efficacy changes and treatment effectiveness. A drug treatment program that did not incorporate yoga as an adjunct to treatment was compared to another treatment program that did. Convenience sampling strategy was utilized to recruit 100 voluntary yoga and nonyoga participants from each substance abuse treatment facility in urban south central and southwestern United States. Independent one-way t tests, linear regression, and a nonparametric test were performed to determine yoga adherence effect on substance abuse treatment effectiveness. The results demonstrated no significant difference with respect to treatment effectiveness for either the yoga or nonyoga treatment groups. This study contributes to positive social change by showing that yoga exercise is not, contrary to earlier suggestions, effective at reducing substance addiction severity. While this study furthers the advance and understanding of the impact of yoga exercise, it demonstrated no increase in treatment effectiveness, suggesting that other areas of research should be pursued to identify adjuncts to improve substance abuse treatment.

No description available.

Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are one of the recommended prevention therapy for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the clinical guidelines. Two types (tissue and non-tissue) of ACE inhibitors are available with huge cost difference but the comparative treatment benefit and risk between them are unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the comparative treatment effectiveness and safety between tissue and non-tissue ACE inhibitors among elderly patients after AMI. This is a retrospective cohort study with intention to treatment design using Medicare service claims files from 2007 to 2009 with Medicare beneficiaries 65 years or older after the index AMI hospitalization and who survived to discharge between January 1 2008 to December 31 2008 and received ACE inhibitors (N=34,679). Risk adjustment and instrumental variable (IV) analyses were used to investigate comparative treatment effectiveness including AMI, stroke, heart failure requiring hospitalization, all-cause mortality and a composite of the endpoints during the follow-up and the comparative treatment safety - a composite of hyperkalemia and acute renal failure requiring hospitalization during the follow-up. Both the risk adjustment and IV analyses showed no significant differences between tissue and non-tissue ACE inhibitors for the investigated outcomes of the comparative treatment effectiveness and safety in the study cohort. However, subgroup analyses from the IV models showed that tissue ACE inhibitors as compared to non-tissue ACE inhibitors increased the hazard risk by approximately 30% to 60% (p < 0.05) for heart failure requiring hospitalization among the patients with heart failure and reduced hazard risk by approximately 30% to 40% (p <0.05) for AMI among patients without heart failure. In conclusion, though this study did not find significant difference between tissue and non-tissue ACE inhibitors for the comparative treatment effectiveness and safety in the study cohort, considerable comparative treatment effectiveness may exist in the subgroup of patients with and without heart failure in the elderly patients after AMI.

This thesis is focused to the comparison of two wastewater treatment systems - constructed wetlands and mechanical-biological wastewater treatment plant. The main goal of the theses is to compare two types of wastewater treatment systems and to evaluate hypothesis that constructed wetlands are cheaper and more efficient than mechanical-biological wastewater treatment plant. To be able to compare two various wastewater treatment systems 18 (9 constructed wetlands and 9 mechanical-biological plants, three size groups of both types of plants) wastewater treatment plant were chosen and compared. The treatment effectiveness, investment and operating costs, advantages and disadvantages of both the systems were compared. The information about all individual systems was obtained from the local municipalities, operators and partially from the Ministry of Environment of CR. Obtained data involved treatment technology, amount of annual treated water, building data and capital and operating costs. In some waste water treatment plant (WWTP) the water samples were taken and the analyses of chosen parameters (not measured in WWTP) were done. Once in 2010 year the samples of water, sediments and sludges were taken and the analyses of heavy metals was done. For assessment of operational problems in constructed...

Emerging research highlights the role of self-regulation in the treatment of sexual offenders. Safe Offender Strategies (SOS) is a manualized sex offender treatment program that emphasizes the role of self-regulation and self-regulatory skills development in sex offender treatment, particularly for offenders with serious mental illness and intellectual/developmental disabilities. The current study involves 156 adult male sexual offenders in an inpatient psychiatric setting who received SOS treatment for a period ranging from 6 months to 1 year. Participants’ baseline and treatment data were obtained from archival medical records describing 1 year pre-treatment and up to 2 years of treatment participation. Dependent variables included monthly count rates of verbal and physical aggression and contact and noncontact sexual offending, as well as sexual deviancy attitudes, self-regulatory ability, and cooperation with treatment and supervision, as measured by the Sex Offender Treatment Intervention and Progress Scale (SOTIPS). Data were examined via paired-samples t tests, regression, and multilevel modeling, examining the impact of overall percentage of SOS groups attended over time, comparing participants’ baseline measures to data from 2 years of treatment. The impact of predicted risk was also evaluated. Significant treatment dose effects were identified for improvements in aggression, sexual offending, and indicators of treatment compliance and change. These findings suggest that the skills-based, self-regulation approach utilized in SOS may be effective in improving clients’ aggressive and sexual behaviors, attitudes toward their offenses and treatment, and self-regulatory ability over time. Implications for further research and treatment generalizability are discussed.

Maternal depression has a negative impact on child development and the parent-child relationship (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1999). The purpose of this study was to determine the treatment effectiveness of Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) with mothers identified with high levels of depressive symptoms in comparison with mothers with low levels of depressive symptoms and their children with behavior problems. The treatment effectiveness of PCIT was measured by pre- to post-treatment changes in the quality of parent-child relationship and reductions in child behavior problems, maternal depression, and parental stress. Subjects were 23 mothers identified with low levels of depressive symptoms and 26 mothers identified with high levels of depressive symptoms and their children. Findings showed there were improvements at post-treatment for both groups in child behavior problems, the quality of the parent-child relationship, maternal depressive symptoms, and parent stress levels. Mothers in the high depressive symptoms group reported achieving greater treatment gains when compared to the mothers in the low symptom group.

No description available.

No description available.

Este estudo teve como objetivo investigar os efeitos da intervenção aquática em crianças com características de Transtorno do Desenvolvimento da Coordenação (TDC). Mais especificamente, investigar estes efeitos no desempenho motor, nas atividades da vida diária (AVD´s) e nas atividades da vida escolar (AVE´s); e compará-los com os efeitos da intervenção terrestre. A amostra foi composta de 66 crianças estudantes do ensino fundamental (27 meninas e 39 meninos), entre 6 e 10 anos de idade. As crianças com características de TDC (N = 47) constituíram os grupos: controle (TDC-C; N=12), de intervenção aquática (TDC-A; N=19) e de intervenção terrestre (TDC-T; N=16). Foi formado também um grupo controle com crianças de desenvolvimento típico (DT-C; N=19). Os grupos experimentais foram submetidos a intervenções específicas (meio terrestre ou meio aquático) durante 4 meses, com três aulas semanais de 60 minutos de duração, totalizando 50 sessões. Ambas as intervenções abordaram três temas: Habilidades de Estabilização, Habilidades de Locomoção e Habilidades de Manipulação. A variável dependente desempenho motor (escore total do MABC2 e escore Z) foi avaliada em quatro pontos no tempo Pré-teste, Pós, 3m-Pós e 6m-Pós - enquanto as variáveis dependentes AVDs e AVEs em três pontos no tempo Pré-teste, Pós e 6m-Pós. Os resultados referentes ao escore total do MABC2 revelaram diferença entre os grupos TDC-T e TDC-C, favorável ao primeiro, e entre o Pré-teste e os demais tempos, sem distinção de grupo. Mas somente para os grupos experimentais (TDC-A e TDC-T) o tamanho dos efeitos entre os tempos foi de grande magnitude, o que confere significância funcional às intervenções. Por sua vez, a análise do escore Z revelou diferença entre o grupo TDC-C e os grupos TDC-A e TDC-T, seis meses após a finalização das intervenções. Este resultado mostra que somente o desempenho motor dos grupos experimentais se aproximou da referência para crianças de desenvolvimento típico. A análise dos escores totais do Questionário de Pais e do Questionário de Professores mostrou que as intervenções aquática e terrestre favoreceram as AVDs e as AVEs. Os resultados revelaram ainda, que não houve diferença significante entre os grupos experimentais (TDC-A e TDC-T) nas variáveis dependentes deste estudo. Estes resultados permitem concluir que: a) a intervenção aquática favorece o desempenho motor, as AVDs e as AVEs de crianças com características de TDC; e, b) esses efeitos favoráveis da intervenção aquática não diferem daqueles da intervenção terrestre. Em suma, pode-se concluir que a intervenção motora, independentemente do meio ambiente em que ocorre, aquático ou terrestre, é altamente recomendada para as crianças com características de TDC, pois possibilita desempenho semelhante ao de crianças com desenvolvimento típico. A partir destes resultados e conclusões, estudos futuros devem ser desenvolvidos com o objetivo, por exemplo, de investigar os efeitos da intervenção aquática em relação às habilidades especificas a cada uma das subseções do teste MABC2 / This study aimed to investigate the effects of the aquatic intervention in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) characteristics. More specifically, to investigate these effects in motor performance, daily life activities (DLAs) and school life activities (SLAs), and compare them with terrestrial intervention effects. The sample consisted of 66 elementary school students (27 girls and 39 boys) aged between 6 and 10 years. Children having DCD characteristics (N = 47) constituted the groups: control (DCD-C; N = 12), aquatic intervention (DCD-A; N = 19) and terrestrial intervention (DCD-T; N = 16). A control group of children with typical development (TD-C; N = 19) was also formed. The experimental groups underwent specific intervention programs (terrestrial or aquatic) for four months, with three weekly classes lasting 60 minutes, totalling 50 sessions. Both programs addressed three themes: Stabilization skills, locomotor skills and manipulative skills. The dependent variable motor performance (MABC2 total score and Z score) was assessed at four points in time - Pre-test, Post, 3m-Post and 6m-Post - while the dependent variables DLAs and SLAs at three points in time - Pre-test, post and 6m-post. The results for the total MABC2 score revealed differences between DCD-T and DCD-C, favorable to the former and between the pre test and the other times, irrespective of group. But only for the experimental groups (DCD-A and DCD-T) the effect size between the times was large, which confers interventions functional significance. In turn, the Z-score analysis revealed difference between DCD-C group in relation to DCD-A and DCD-T groups six months after the completion of interventions. This result shows that only the experimental groups motor performance approached the typically developing children benchmark. The analysis of the Parent Questionnaire and the Teacher Questionnaire total scores showed that aquatic and terrestrial interventions favored DLAs and SLAs. The results also revealed that there was no significant difference between the experimental groups (DCD-A and DCD-T) in these study dependent variables. These results allow coming to the conclusion that: a) the aquatic intervention favors motor performance, the DLAs and the SLAs of the children with DCD characteristics; and, b) these favorable effects of aquatic intervention did not differ from those of terrestrial intervention. In short, it can be concluded that motor intervention, regardless of the environment in which it occurs, aquatic or terrestrial, is highly recommended for children with DCD characteristics, as it allows similar performance to that of children with typical development. From these results and conclusions, future studies should be developed with the aim, for example, to investigate the effects of aquatic intervention in relation to the specific skills of each of the MABC2 test subsections