HIV Knowledge and Perceived Risk Among Black Men and Women Who Are Incarcerated in Kentucky.

In the United States, Black men and women who are incarcerated bear a disproportionate and inequitable burden of HIV infection. While HIV knowledge does not consistently predict HIV risk behaviors, HIV knowledge can inform one's perceptions of their risk for HIV. We examined gender differences in HIV knowledge and perceived risk of contracting HIV (N = 424) among Black men and women who were incarcerated and nearing community reentry from seven prisons in Kentucky. Our results demonstrated that women reported greater levels of HIV knowledge and perceived greater risk for contracting HIV than their male counterparts. Implications for HIV prevention interventions are discussed.

In vitro modelling of rat mucosal mast cell function in Trichinella spiralis infection.

Intestinal infection with the parasitic nematode, Trichinella spiralis, provides a robust context for the study of mucosal mast cell function. In rats, mucosal mast cells are exposed to parasites during the earliest stage of infection, affording an opportunity for mast cells to contribute to an innate response to infection. During secondary infection, degranulation of rat mucosal mast cells coincides with expulsion of challenge larvae from the intestine. The goal of this study was to evaluate the rat bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMC) and the rat basophilic leukaemia cell line (RBL-2H3) as models for mucosal mast cells, using parasite glycoproteins and antibody reagents that have been tested extensively in rats in vivo. We found that BMMC displayed a more robust mucosal phenotype. Although T. spiralis glycoproteins bound to mast cell surfaces in the absence of antibodies, they did not stimulate degranulation, nor did they inhibit degranulation triggered by immune complexes. Parasite glycoproteins complexed with specific monoclonal IgGs provoked release of rat mast cell protease II (RMCPII) and ß-hexosaminidase from both cell types in a manner that replicated results observed previously in passively immunized rats. Our results document that RBL-2H3 cells and BMMC model rat mucosal mast cells in the contexts of innate and adaptive responses to T. spiralis.

Beliefs, sense of control and treatment outcome in post-traumatic stress disorder.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have shown that maladaptive beliefs relate to treatment outcome. METHOD: In a randomized controlled study, 87 patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) had exposure therapy alone or cognitive restructuring alone, or both combined, or relaxation. Independent blind assessors assessed patients at pre-, mid- and post-treatment and at follow-up; at those times patients rated cognitive, behavioural and emotional aspects of their disorder. RESULTS: Baseline beliefs about mistrust, helplessness, meaninglessness and unjustness of the world related to baseline PTSD symptoms but did not predict treatment outcome, though improvement in certain beliefs correlated with more symptom improvement. Several 'key' beliefs changed after, and none before, symptoms improved. At post-treatment, sense of control and attribution of gains to personal efforts predicted maintenance of gains at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Baseline beliefs and improvement in beliefs did not predict outcome. Post-treatment sense of control/internal attribution predicted maintenance of gains at follow-up. How much sense of control is produced by or causes improvement deserves testing.

Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder by exposure and/or cognitive restructuring: a controlled study.

BACKGROUND: Unanswered questions from controlled studies of posttraumatic stress disorder concern the value of cognitive restructuring alone without prolonged exposure therapy and whether its combination with prolonged exposure is enhancing. METHODS: In a controlled study, 87 patients with posttraumatic stress disorder of at least 6 months' duration were randomly assigned to have 10 sessions of 1 of 4 treatments: prolonged exposure (imaginal and live) alone; cognitive restructuring alone; combined prolonged exposure and cognitive restructuring; or relaxation without prolonged exposure or cognitive restructuring. RESULTS: Integrity of audiotaped treatment sessions was satisfactory when rated by an assessor unaware of the treatment assignment. Seventy-seven patients completed treatment. The pattern of results was similar regardless of rater, statistical method, measure, occasion, and therapist. Exposure and cognitive restructuring, singly or combined, improved posttraumatic stress disorder markedly on a broad front. Gains continued to 6-month follow-up and were significantly greater than the moderate improvement from relaxation. CONCLUSION: Both prolonged exposure and cognitive restructuring were each therapeutic on their own, were not mutually enhancing when combined, and were each superior to relaxation.

Attitudes towards emotional expression and post-traumatic stress in survivors of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster.

The relationship between self-reported attitudes towards emotional expression, assessed at three years after the accident, and post-traumatic symptoms, assessed at five years after the accident, was investigated in 37 survivors of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster. It was found that lower scores on the attitudes towards emotional expression scale, indicating more negative attitudes (e.g. 'I think getting emotional is a sign of weakness') were associated with higher symptom scores. This association remained even when retrospectively assessed perceptions of helplessness during the disaster and symptoms assessed at three years were partialled out. Implications for therapeutic intervention are discussed.

Crisis support following the Herald of Free-Enterprise disaster: a longitudinal perspective.

Crisis support was assessed with survivors of the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry sinking at 3 and 6 years postdisaster. It was found that reported levels of support received from family and friends decreased over the first 3 years after the event but increased over the subsequent 3 years. In addition, higher retrospective ratings of crisis support received in the immediate aftermath of the disaster were found to predict lower levels of posttraumatic symptomatology as assessed by the Impact of Event Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory at a later period. The results replicate earlier findings following the Jupiter Cruise ship disaster and are thought to have implications for the assessment and treatment of survivors at high risk of disturbance.

Chronic emotional processing in survivors of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster: the relationship of intrusion and avoidance at 3 years to distress at 5 years.

Thirty-seven survivors completed the Impact of Event Scale (IES), a measure of intrusive and avoidant activity, at around 3 yr following the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between scores on the IES to scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y1) at around 5 yr subsequent to the event. Higher scores on the IES were able to predict higher scores on the BDI and the STAI-Y1 over and above scores on the 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) which was also administered at around 3 yr on from the event. Implications for cognitive-behaviour therapy are discussed.

Consumers as community support providers: issues created by role innovation.

Using data from a CSP-funded research demonstration project designed to expand vocational services offered by case management teams serving people with serious mental illness, this paper examines the issues created by employing consumers as peer support specialists for the project. Roles and benefits of these positions are analyzed. Challenges experienced by specialists created by serving peers, the structure of the position, the mental health system and the community, and personal issues are analyzed using data from focus groups and the project's management information system. Implications for consumer role definition, supports for role effectiveness, and the structuring of these types of positions are discussed.

A strengths perspective: an ethnographic study of homeless women with children.

Homeless women with children have been one of the fastest growing homeless subpopulations during the past decade. However, research in this area has paid scant attention to the needs of these homeless families. The ethnographic study of homeless women with children described in this article captures the prevailing strengths of this population. The women's strengths were identified in seeking housing, caring for children, and remaining connected to social contacts to keep their families together. The authors suggest that ethnography provides guideposts for social workers as they search for practice models.

Information processing in post-traumatic stress disorder.

Previous research has established that patients suffering from anxiety disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), exhibit a cognitive bias that selectively favours the processing of threat material. This information processing bias has frequently been demonstrated by subjects' performance on the Stroop colour-naming task. The current experiment investigated the selective processing of threat information in people with PTSD using a modified Stroop procedure. Subjects were 13 ferry disaster survivors with high PTSD symptomatology, 20 survivors of the same disaster with low PTSD symptomatology, and 12 non-traumatized control subjects. All were asked to colour-name five types of words: ferry disaster words, general threat words, neutral semantically-unrelated words, neutral semantically-related words, and positive words. The disaster survivors with high levels of PTSD symptomatology evidenced a significantly longer response latency for colour-naming disaster-related words than for other word types. The results of the low-PTSD survivors and non-traumatized controls showed no significant difference between response latencies for general threat words and disaster word, although all 3 groups showed increased latencies for threat words compared with neutral words. The mechanisms proposed to underlie this response pattern are discussed, and clinical implications are considered.

Hepatic cyst associated with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome.

A solitary hepatic cyst, associated with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, is described. To our knowledge, this association has not been previously reported. A developmental anomaly or hamartomatous nature of this lesion is suggested. Knowledge of this association may be helpful in the clinical diagnosis of this benign entity.

Improved radial maze performance induced by the benzodiazepine antagonist ZK 93 426 in lesioned and alcohol-treated rats.

Effects of the benzodiazepine receptor antagonist ZK 93 426 were examined in two groups of rats with long lasting radial maze impairments caused by either ibotenic acid lesions to cholinergic forebrain projections or 28 weeks of alcohol treatment. Animals were trained on the 8-arm radial maze prior to ibotenic acid treatment or following chronic alcohol treatment. Spatial and associative working and reference memory were investigated in parallel. Lesioned rats showed high error rates in all aspects of memory, but particularly in spatial working memory, whilst error rates in alcohol-treated rats were low and uniform. ZK 93 426 improved performance in both experiments. In lesioned rats working memory errors were selectively decreased, in line with evidence that ZK 93 426 enhances attention. However in alcohol-treated rats both reference and working memory errors were reduced to control level, suggesting that these animals primarily showed a mild attentional deficit. Alcohol treatment and lesions were both found to reduce cortical choline acetyltransferase activity, but in view of the non-specificity of alcohol or ibotenic acid to cholinergic neurons and the wide distribution of the GABA-BZ receptor complex, interactions of ZK 93 426 with other systems cannot be ruled out.

The West Indian family: treatment challenges.

The authors discuss the culture-specific problems faced by West Indian immigrants who received treatment at the East Brooklyn Prevention Program. The characteristics, patterns, and functioning of this population must be identified before effective treatment can occur.

Comparative Study of the Stomacher and the Waring Blender for Homogenization of High-Fat Dairy Foods 1.

There were no differences between conventional aerobic plate counts on high-fat dairy food products after homogenization 2 min in either a Stomacher 400 or a Semi-Micro Waring blender.

The effect of fluorescein conjugation on Fc-dependent properties of rabbit antibody.

Conjugation of rabbit antibody with fluorescein isothiocyanate results in loss of the ability of that antibody to fix complement, mediate passive cutaneous anaphylaxis, or participate in cytophilic binding to macrophage surfaces. Fluorescein, perhaps because of molecular size or configuration, is a more potent suppressor of Fc function than are other reagents previously studied in this regard.

Distribution of cytophilic and anti-macrophage antibody on the macrophage surface.

The binding of cytophilic antibody to the macrophage surface results in patterns of distribution similar to those obtained when specific anti-macrophage antibody is used. These patterns are (a) diffuse circumferential binding at 4 degrees C, and (b) capping at 37 degrees C. The non-random distribution of the cytophilic antibody suggests that it binds to certain well-defined sites on the macrophage membrane.