Bennettcramer3294

Women who used e-cigarettes were more likely than women who used conventional cigarettes or no tobacco/NRT to report symptoms of depression. Women who used e-cigarettes and women who used conventional cigarettes were more likely than women who used no tobacco/NRT to report a history of severe mental health conditions, alcohol use during pregnancy, and marijuana or other drug use during preconception. Conclusions In this sample, 4% of women used e-cigarettes during preconception and/or pregnancy and most also used conventional cigarettes. Increased efforts by providers to screen for tobacco (including use of e-cigarette) and polysubstance use and to provide cessation services could improve outcomes of mothers and children.Although progress has been made to show the role of raw flaxseed and flaxseed extracts in health promotion, identification of mechanism(s) of action and molecule(s) underpinning beneficial effects largely remain unknown. The present study evaluated the efficacy of an aqueous flaxseed extract (AFE) to correct alloxan-induced diabetes in mice. Mice were divided into five groups one nondiabetic (negative control) and four diabetic. Diabetic mice were treated with AFE, gallic acid (GA) (major component of AFE), insulin (positive control), or remained untreated (positive control). Oral administration of AFE strongly improved serum glucose, oral glucose tolerance, insulin tolerance, body weight, and polyphagia in diabetic mice. AFE was effective in controlling lipid peroxidation (thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances) and antioxidant enzymes (glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase) in liver and kidney, which undergo diabetes-related complications due to hyperglycemia. These results demonstrated that GA alone was sufficient to account for the beneficial health effects of AFE against diabetes.Purpose The language processing of Mandarin-accented English (MAE) by older hearing-impaired (OHI), older normally hearing (NH), and younger NH listeners was explored. We examined whether OHI adults have more difficulty than NH listeners in recognizing and adapting to MAE speech productions after receiving brief training with the accent. Method Talker-independent adaptation was evaluated in an exposure training study design. selleck chemicals Listeners were trained either by four MAE talkers or four Australian English talkers (control group) before listening to sentences presented by a novel MAE talker. Speech recognition for both the training sentences and the experimental sentences were compared between listener groups and between the training accents. Results Listeners in all three groups (OHI, older NH, younger NH) who had been trained by the MAE talkers showed higher odds of speech recognition than listeners trained by the Australian English talkers. The OHI listeners adapted to MAE to the same degree as the NH groups despite returning lower overall odds of recognizing MAE speech. Conclusions Older listeners with mild-to-moderate hearing loss were able to benefit as much from brief exposure to MAE as did the NH groups. This encouraging result suggests that OHI listeners have access to and can exploit the information present in a relatively brief sample of accented speech and generalize their learning to a novel MAE talker.Purpose Toddlers with late language emergence have difficulty acquiring an object vocabulary that is well defined by shape early in development. Without object words, subsequent language growth is delayed. The current study tested an intervention scaffold that highlights object shape during word teaching so that toddlers with late language emergence may establish themselves in the early stages of object word learning. Method Four toddlers with late language emergence participated in a brief dose of two interventions that differed only in semantic scaffold-a co-speech shape gesture or a co-speech indicator gesture. Co-speech refers to the word model and gesture occurring simultaneously. Shape gestures explicitly conveyed object form, whereas indicator gestures directed attention to the object. A single-subject experimental design tracked naming of taught objects and untaught exemplars. The study compared the mean number of phonemes produced in names between conditions. Results The four participants (a) extended more names to novel exemplars, (b) named more exemplar types, and (c) named more exemplar tokens when learned with shape gestures than with indicating gestures. The shape gesture advantage was confirmed with "percentage of nonoverlapping data" analysis. Not only did the shape gesture increase naming over the indicator gesture but more sounds were also mapped on average in the shape condition. Conclusion The current study used a semantic approach to the word learning problem in toddlers with late language emergence. We conclude that co-speech shape gestures led to semantic enrichment and facilitated phonological binding of the word representation. Future experiments should focus on a component analysis in parent-implemented interventions for greater carryover in the child's natural environment (i.e., external validity).Objectives Because medical, midwifery and law students in Ghana constitute the next generation of health care and legal practitioners, this study aimed to evaluate their attitudes towards abortion and their perceptions of the decision-making capacity of pregnant adolescents.Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey among 340 medical, midwifery and law students. A pretested and validated questionnaire was used to collect relevant data on respondents' sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes towards abortion and the perceived capacity and rationality of pregnant adolescents' decisions. The χ2 test of independency and Fischer's exact test were used where appropriate.Results We retained 331 completed questionnaires for analysis. Respondents' mean age was 21.0 ± 2.9 years and the majority (95.5%) were of the Christian faith. Women made up 77.9% (n = 258) of the sample. Most students (70.1%) were strongly in favour of abortion if it was for health reasons. More than three-quarters (78.0%) of the students strongly disagreed on the use of abortion for the purposes of sex selection. Most respondents (89.0%) were not in favour of legislation to make abortion available on request for pregnant adolescents, with medical students expressing a more negative attitude compared with law and midwifery students (p  less then  0.001). Over half of the midwifery students (52.6%) believed that adolescents should have full decision-making capacity regarding their pregnancy outcome, compared with law and medical students (p  less then  0.001).Conclusion Tensions between adolescent reproductive autonomy, the accepted culture of third party involvement (parents and partners), and the current abortion law may require keen reflection if an improvement in access to safe abortion services is envisioned.Purpose To understand the factors that affect the management of people after serious injury in urban and regional settings, beyond hospital discharge from the perspectives of allied health professionals (AHPs).Materials and methods An exploratory qualitative study of AHPs caring for people with serious injuries post-hospital discharge in urban and regional areas of Victoria, Australia was completed. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews were undertaken with AHPs and thematically analysed.Results Allied health professionals in urban and regional settings reported the benefits of a multi-disciplinary team to deliver high-quality care. However, a number of barriers to service delivery were identified that impacted on their ability to meet the needs of patients. These included insufficient psychological services, a shortage of available carers and an unmet need for external clinical support in regional areas. Communication between AHPs and other services, and care co-ordination of post-discharge services, was al.Purpose Service providers are adopting the "F-words" in practice as a strengths-based approach to childhood disability. This study aimed to gain insight into service providers' uses of the "F-words", associated barriers, and knowledge translation strategies needed to support implementation.Methods Service providers were invited to participate in an interview after completing an online survey on their clinical implementation of the "F-words". Content analysis provided insight into use of the "F-words" and perceived barriers; and to identify knowledge translation strategies to facilitate implementation.Results Twenty-one service providers from nine countries participated in interviews. Applications of the "F-words" included its use as a conceptual framework, directly in practice, and in teaching/training. Barriers included conflicting attitudes, insufficient funding, language, and misalignment with organizational/government priorities. To support the adoption of the "F-words", participants recommended knowledgert implementation and overcome perceived barriers, service providers recommended using four knowledge translation strategies (i) local opinion leaders; (ii) linkage and exchange; (iii) educational outreach/meetings; and (iv) the distribution of educational materials.Service providers and researchers must partner together to tailor knowledge translation strategies to the local context in order to address the needs and priorities of service providers' specific settings and bridge the gap between research evidence and practice.Purpose To translate and validate the modified fatigue impact scale into Arabic (MFIS-A) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).Methods A total of 116 patients with relapsing remitting MS and 59 healthy participants were recruited. Fifty patients filled the MFIS-A twice with one week difference. Reliability was assessed by measuring Cronbach's α and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The MFIS-A was correlated with the fatigue severity scale (FSS), the vitality domain of the Short Form 36 (SF-36V), the fatigue visual analogue scale (VAS-F), and the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) to assess validity. Dimensionality of the MFIS-A was investigated. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was done and specificity and sensitivity were calculated.Results Factor analysis (based on 116 patients) revealed that the MFIS-A consists of two subscales the physical/social and the cognitive subscales. The MFIS-A showed excellent test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.920) and internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.968). The minimal detectable change with 95% confidence interval was 14.68 (32.0%). The MFIS-A showed strong positive correlation with FSS and BDI-II, moderate positive correlation with VAS-F, negative moderate correlation with SF-36V, and weak correlation with EDSS. The MFIS-A differentiated healthy participants from patients with 79.3% sensitivity and 89.8% specificity.Conclusions The MFIS-A showed good validity and reliability indicating its usefulness as an assessment measure for patients with MS.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONMFIS-A is a valid and reliable tool for fatigue evaluation for patients with relapsing remitting MS.The optimal cutoff scores of the total MFIS-A, the physical/social, and cognitive subscales which indicate fatigue are 35.5, 18.5, and 15.5, respectively.Changes of 14.68 or more points may indicate a clinically important change (a true change) in fatigue in patients with MS.