Does Natural Mentoring Matter? A Multilevel Meta-analysis on the Association Between Natural Mentoring and Youth Outcomes.

In this meta-analytic review, we examined the relation between natural mentoring and youth outcomes in four domains: academic and vocational functioning, social-emotional development, physical health, and psychosocial problems. Natural mentoring relationships are thought to foster positive youth development and buffer against the risks associated with the tumultuous years of adolescence. Two separate meta-analyses were conducted on the presence of a natural mentor and the quality of the natural mentoring relationship, including thirty studies from 1992 to present. The findings indicated that the presence of a natural mentor was significantly associated with positive youth outcomes (r = .106). A larger effect size was found for the quality of the natural mentoring relationship in terms of relatedness, social support, and autonomy support (r = .208). The largest effect sizes were found for social-emotional development and academic and vocational functioning. Risk-status (e.g., teenage mothers, homeless youth, youth in foster care, and youth of alcoholic parents) did not moderate the relation between presence and quality of natural mentoring relationships and youth outcomes, which may indicate that natural mentors are generally beneficial for all youth regardless of risk-status. Implications for theory and practice concerning the quality of the natural mentoring relationship are discussed.

Safety and Tolerability of Nebulized Amoxicillin-Clavulanic Acid in Patients with COPD (STONAC 1 and STONAC 2).

The safety and tolerability of nebulized amoxicillin clavulanic acid were determined in patients with stable COPD and during severe exacerbations of COPD. Nine stable COPD patients received doses ranging from 50:10 mg up to 300:60 mg amoxicillin clavulanic acid and eight patients hospitalised for a COPD exacerbation received fixed doses 200/40 mg twice daily. Safety was evaluated by spirometry before and after inhalation. Tolerability was evaluated by questionnaire. Plasma and expectorated sputum samples were assayed for amoxicillin content. Seventeen patients underwent in total 100 nebulizations with amoxicillin clavulanic acid. In this safety and tolerability study no clinically relevant deteriorations in FEV1 were observed. Nebulized amoxicillin clavulanic acid produces sputum concentrations well above the Minimal Inhibiting Concentration of 90% for potential pathogenic micro-organisms, with low concentrations in the central compartment (low systemic exposure). Based on spirometry and reported side effects, inhalation of nebulized amoxicillin clavulanic acid seems to be safe and well tolerated, both in stable patients with COPD as in those experiencing a severe exacerbation. Levels of amoxicillin were adequate.

Determination of membrane protein structure by rotational resonance NMR: bacteriorhodopsin.

Rotationally resonant magnetization exchange, a new nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique for measuring internuclear distances between like spins in solids, was used to determine the distance between the C-8 and C-18 carbons of retinal in two model compounds and in the membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin. Magnetization transfer between inequivalent spins with an isotropic shift separation, delta, is driven by magic angle spinning at a speed omega r that matches the rotational resonance condition delta = n omega r, where n is a small integer. The distances measured in this way for both the 6-s-cis- and 6-s-trans-retinoic acid model compounds agreed well with crystallographically known distances. In bacteriorhodopsin the exchange trajectory between C-8 and C-18 was in good agreement with the internuclear distance for a 6-s-trans configuration [4.2 angstroms (A)] and inconsistent with that for a 6-s-cis configuration (3.1 A). The results illustrate that rotational resonance can be used for structural studies in membrane proteins and in other situations where diffraction and solution NMR techniques yield limited information.

[Word patterns in the LIM (Life-line Interview Method) / life story]. / Op zoek naar woordpatronen in het LIM / Levensverhaal.

In this exploratory study, life story data on the word patterns in the LIM (Life-line Interview Method) are reported for 98 men and women, almost equally divided over a younger (18-30), a middle-aged (31-55) and an older (56-84) age group. All respondents tell about their past in great detail, but have a short view of the future. In terms of word frequency are memories (past) and expectations (future) in the proportion of about five to one. As expected, older persons need more words for telling their past story than younger people; word counts of the future life story, however, do not yield in any difference between young, middle-aged and older men and women. In general, the word frequency for memories of negative and positive life events is in the proportion of about three to two. The significance of the LIM word patterns for practical interventions (reminiscence, life-review) is discussed briefly.

Perception of dental and other individual problems: adolescents versus young adults.

The importance of dental problems in comparison with general health problems and psychological problems was judged by 642 adolescents. The methods used were paired comparison and direct ranking of nine stimuli. Adolescents were quite consistent in their choices. The agreement within the group was statistically significant. Adolescents judged dental problems as less important than general health problems and as more important than psychological problems. The correlation between the methods of paired comparison and direct ranking was high. The results were compared retrospectively with findings from a study of 51 older subjects. Adolescents and adults did not differ much from each other except for the ordering of the nine problems. Adults ranked dental problems as the least important.

Defensive dental behaviour: illusion or reality?

Defensive medicine or defensive behaviour of physicians is considered a major problem in contemporary health care. It seems reasonable to assume that defensive behaviour also occurs in dental practice, although so far very little has been published in the dental literature on this subject. The main objective of this study was to investigate whether defensive behaviour occurs in dentistry. As a survey study 38 dentists were interviewed: 30 men and 8 women, mainly general dental practitioners with an average of 20.9 years in practice. The results of this pilot-study indicate that it is very likely that defensive behaviour occurs in dental practice, despite the fact that there is hardly any evidence of fear for malpractice claims and lawsuits among the respondents. The majority of the dentists interviewed stated that they carried out some treatments at their patient's request although they did not believe the treatment to be necessary from a professional point of view. A motive for deliberately refraining from treatment is lack of dental motivation by the patient and poor oral hygiene. According to some respondents patients are sometimes referred unnecessarily to specialists. Also 'difficult' patients run the risk of unwarranted referral to specialists, and, moreover referrals because of insurance reasons are mentioned. The financial situation of the patient and the defensive behaviour of dental practitioners seem to be closely connected.

Importance of dental problems according to 12- to 16-year-old children.

The willingness to take preventive action is partly determined by the perceived importance of the disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of age, sex, education, and ethnicity to the importance of dental and other health problems by 12- to 16-year-old children. The children (361 boys, 272 girls) attending Dutch schools were asked a series of questions requiring a choice by students as to the more important problems in a given pair of conditions. Conditions included systemic, dental, and psychological problems. Nervousness was the least important problem and hearing disability the most of the nine ranked. Having full dentures was ranked third, bad teeth fifth, and toothache sixth of the nine from least (first) to most important (ninth). Age, sex, education, and ethnicity showed no relationship to importance of problems alone or in aggregate.

[Defensive behavior? Also in dentistry?]. / Defensief handelen? Ook in de tandheelkunde?

The objective of this pilot-study was to investigate if defensive behaviour of dental practitioners occurs just as in the general practice of family physicians. On the basis of a survey, developed in the Department of General Practice of the University of Amsterdam, 38 dentists (mainly general-practitioners with an average of 20.9 years in practice), were interviewed. The dentists mention defensive practices, but the reasons are unrelated to fear of law-suits. They recommend unnecessary treatments, based on the wishes of their patients. The financial situation of the patient and defensive behaviour are closely related. The respondents avoid to give treatments because of dentally unmotivated patients or deviant behaviour of their visitors. Unnecessary referrals to specialists are also cited. Defensive behaviour was found to play a role in 3.5% of all patient encounters.

Excess drug prescriptions during influenza and RSV seasons in the Netherlands: potential implications for extended influenza vaccination.

Influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections are responsible for considerable morbidity, mortality and health-care resource use. For the Netherlands, we estimated age and risk-group specific numbers of antibiotics, otologicals and cardiovascular prescriptions per 10,000 person-years during periods with elevated activity of influenza or RSV, and compared these with peri-season rates. Data were taken from the University of Groningen in-house prescription database (www.iadb.nl) and virological surveillance for the period 1998-2006. During influenza and RSV periods excess antibiotic prescriptions were estimated for all age groups. In the age groups 0-1 and 2-4 years, excess antibiotic prescriptions during periods with elevated RSV activity (65% and 59% of peri-seasonal rates) exceeded the surpluses estimated during the influenza-activity periods (24% and 34% of peri-seasonal rates) while for otologicals excess prescriptions were higher for influenza (22% and 27%) than for RSV (14% and 17%). Among persons of 50 years and older, notably those without medical high-risk conditions, excess prescriptions for cardiovascular medications were estimated during the influenza periods at approximately 10% (this was also already seen in persons aged 45-49). Our results may have implications for influenza vaccination policies. In particular, extension of influenza vaccination to groups of non-elderly adults and young children may lower excess prescriptions during these influenza periods for all three types of drug prescriptions investigated.

Deuterium solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance studies of methyl group dynamics in bacteriorhodopsin and retinal model compounds: evidence for a 6-s-trans chromophore in the protein.

Solid-state deuterium NMR spectroscopy is used to examine the dynamic behavior of 18-CD3 methyl groups in microcrystalline 6-s-cis-retinoic acid (triclinic) and 6-s-trans-retinoic acid (monoclinic) model compounds, as well as in the membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin (bR), regenerated with CD3-labeled retinal. Temperature dependent quadrupolar echo line shapes and T1 anisotropy measurements were used to characterize activation energies for 3-fold hopping motion of the methyl groups. These data provide supporting evidence that the conformation of the retinal chromophore in bR is 6-s-trans. The 6-s-cis conformer is characterized by strong eclipsing interactions between the 8-C proton and the 18-C methyl group protons; the 18-CD3 group shows an activation energy barrier for methyl 3-fold hopping of 14.5 +/- 1 kJ/mol. In contrast, the 18-CD3 group in the 6-s-trans isomer shows a considerably lower activation energy barrier of 5 +/- 1 kJ/mol. In bR, it is possible to obtain an approximate activation energy of 9 kJ/mol. This data is inconsistent with a 6-s-cis conformer but is consistent with the existence of a 6-s-trans-retinal Schiff base in bR with some interaction with the protein matrix. These results suggest that methyl rotor motions can be used to probe the van der Waals contact between a ligand and a protein binding pocket. The 6-s-trans conformer of the [16,17-(CD3)2]retinal in frozen hexane exhibits a major kinetic component with an activation energy barrier of of 14 -/+ 2 kJ/mol.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)