22385130
An update on the Florida State Twin Registry.
The Florida State Twin Registry began in 2002 through a pilot study of personality disorders and executive cognitive functioning in adult twins. Since 2006, the registry has grown substantially as part of the Learning Disability Research Center at Florida State University that recently began its second funding cycle through the National Institute of Child Health and Development. An update on the Florida State Twin Registry sample, focus, and measures is provided, as well as future directions.
30994161
Sex differences, assortative mating, and cultural transmission effects on adolescent delinquency: a twin family study.
The twin study literature contains inconsistencies regarding both the estimates of genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental influence on delinquency and sex differences in the etiological influences on delinquency. Additionally, little is known about assortative mating and cultural transmission effects on delinquency. The present study was aimed at examining the etiology of delinquency in adolescence and examining assortative mating and transmission effects. To this end, we applied the social homogamy structural equation model to self-reported delinquency data from 486 families with 17-year-old male and female twins. We expected stronger shared environmental influences on delinquency among girls than boys and stronger environmental than genetic effects on adolescent delinquency in general. The results indicated nonsignificant sex differences in the estimates of genetic and environmental influences on delinquency. The best-fitting model suggested that 18 %, 56 %, and 26% of the variance in delinquency among both boys and girls is associated with additive genetic, nonshared environmental, and shared environmental factors, respectively. This finding was consistent with our expectation that environmental factors play an important role in adolescent delinquency. Parental cultural effects accounted for a small part of the transmission of delinquency within families while assortative mating was, in part, accounted for by cultural and social background factors. Future work should focus on identifying important environmental factors related to delinquency.
11148995
Electrodermal reactivity and its association to substance use disorders.
Poor electrodermal response modulation is associated with substance use disorders, but the specificity of the relationship has not been tested. To test this, 112 college students were assessed for psychiatric symptoms using structured interviews and for ability to modulate skin conductance responses to 2-s 92- or 110-dB white noise blasts that varied in temporal predictability. Twenty-eight good and 28 poor modulators were compared on symptoms of alcohol and illicit drug use disorders, personality disorders (antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic), social and specific phobia, and depression. As expected, poor modulators had significantly more symptoms of substance use disorders than good modulators. Groups did not differ in symptoms of anxiety disorder, depression, or personality disorders marked by disinhibition. Poor electrodermal response modulation may reflect a biological risk factor for substance use disorders in particular.
33016184
Stability of driving fear acquisition pathways over one year.
The present study was conducted in response to increasing concerns about the potential unreliability of retrospective accounts in assessing the origins of fears and phobias. Some investigators [e.g. Menzies, R.G., & Clarke, J.C. (1993). The etiology of fear of heights and its relationship to severity and individual response patterns. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 355-365; Kirkby, K.C., Menzies, R.G., Daniels, B.A., & Smith, K.L. (1995). Aetiology of spider phobia: Classificatory differences between two origins instruments. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, 955-958; King, N.J., Gullone, E., & Ollendick, T.H. (1998). Etiology of childhood phobias: current status of Rachman's three pathways theory. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 297-309.] have questioned the reliability of retrospective reports at a single assessment point, although the test-retest reliability of such accounts has yet to be examined. The aim of the present study was to conduct a one-year follow-up of the subclinical driving-fearful sample studied by Taylor and Deane [Taylor, J. E., & Deane, F. P. (1999). Acquisition and severity of driving-related fears. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, 435-449.] to primarily investigate, the stability of fear onset ascriptions and fear severity over time. 85 respondents completed a questionnaire which assessed fear origins, anxiety response patterns, and additional fear-relevant events occurring over the year. The results suggest that retrospective accounts of fear onset may be quite unstable over time, although this instability does not clearly appear to be related to intervening events, and limitations of the study make these results inconclusive. Fear-relevant negative thinking worsened over time, while physiological reactions and general anxiety remained relatively stable. The theoretical, methodological and clinical implications of the findings are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.
32957442
Approach to sustainable primary health care service delivery for rural and remote South Australia.
We describe the operation of four University Teaching Practices established by the South Australian Centre for Rural and Remote Health (SACRRH) and the Adelaide University Department of General Practice. These practices were established in response to the acknowledged difficulty in recruiting and retaining GPs in rural South Australia. The practices are co-located with a hospital or accident and emergency service and community based nurses and allied health professionals. They provide integrated health care and multidisciplinary health care student placements in a learning environment where students experience rural multidisciplinary practice and country life. The study found that although the sites differed in significant ways, they all provided integrated care and effective placements for students. This style of health care delivery is flexible and broadly applicable. Sustainability is achieved through financially viability, attracting and retaining health care professionals and the development of electronic information systems, to support integrated practice.
36044044
What does the Driving and Riding Avoidance Scale (DRAS) measure?
Driving anxiety can have a significant impact on everyday functioning and usually results in some kind of avoidance behaviour. The Driving and Riding Avoidance Scale (DRAS; Stewart, A. E., & St. Peter, C. C. (2004). Driving and riding avoidance following motor vehicle crashes in a non-clinical sample: psychometric properties of a new measure. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42, 859-879) shows promise in the self-report assessment of the degree of such avoidance. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of the DRAS in a sample of 301 university students. Internal consistency for the DRAS was 0.89 and temporal stability over two months was 0.71. The factor structure of the DRAS supported the use of the general and traffic avoidance subscales but not the weather and riding avoidance subscales in the present non-clinical sample. However, a significant limitation of the DRAS is that it does not assess the reasons for driving avoidance, and is therefore not a measure of avoidance that is due to driving anxiety. Some items may be rated highly for practical reasons, such as avoidance because of increasing fuel and other costs associated with driving. Modified instructions for the DRAS should ensure that it measures anxiety-related avoidance behaviour.
32831734
A Role for Communities in Primary Prevention of Chronic Illness? Case Studies in Regional Australia
In regional Australia “communities of place,” defined as bounded geographic locations with a local society, undertake community-wide primary prevention programs. In helping to prevent chronic illness, communities provide valuable resources to the health system. To understand the role of community–health sector partnerships for primary prevention and the community contextual factors that affect them, we studied eight partnerships. We used an embedded multiple case study design and collected data through interviews, nonparticipant observation, and document analysis. These data were analyzed using a typology of community–health sector partnerships and community interaction theory to frame the key community contextual factors that affected partnerships. The dominant factor affecting all partnerships was the presence of a collective commitment that communities brought to making the community a better place through developing health. We call this a communitarian approach. Additional research to investigate factors influencing a communitarian approach and the role it plays in partnerships is required.
11981798
The theory of velocity selective neural recording: a study based on simulation
This paper describes the improvements to the theory of velocity selective recording and some simulation results. In this method, activity in different groups of axons is discriminated by their propagation velocity. A multi-electrode cuff and an array of amplifiers produce multiple neural signals; if artificial delays are inserted and the signals are added, the activity in axons of the matched velocity are emphasized. We call this intrinsic velocity selective recording. However, simulation shows that interpreting the time signals is then not straight-forward and the selectivity Qv is low. New theory shows that bandpass filters improve the selectivity and explains why this is true in the time domain. A simulation study investigates the limits on the available velocity selectivity both with and without additive noise and with reasonable sampling rates and analogue-to-digital conversion parameters. Bandpass filters can improve the selectivity by factors up to 7 but this depends on the speed of the action potential and the signal-to-noise ratio.