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Military personnel experience many stressors during deployments that can lead to symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, not all military personnel who are exposed to deployment stressors develop PTSD symptoms. Recent research has explored factors that contribute to military personnel resilience, a multifaceted and multidetermined construct, as a means to mitigate and prevent PTSD symptoms. Much of this research has focused on the effects of individual-level factors (e.g., use of coping strategies like humor, the morale of individual unit members), with some research focusing on unit-level factors (e.g., the cohesiveness of a unit). However, there is little research exploring how these factors relate to each other in mitigating or reducing PTSD symptoms. In this study, we examined the association between deployment stressors, perceived unit cohesion, morale, humor, and PTSD symptoms in a sample of 20,901 active-duty military personnel using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that perceived unit cohesion, humor, and morale were positively associated with each other and negatively associated with PTSD symptoms over and above the effect of deployment stressors. These findings highlight the influence of resilience factors on PTSD symptoms beyond their substantial overlap and have implications for future research as well as the potential development of interventions for military personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose To describe maternal behaviors occurring before infant regulated or dysregulated behavior at three times in early infancy and examine behavioral patterns over time with their prematurely born infants. Design and Methods Video recordings of 37 dyads were coded on infant regulated and dysregulated behaviors following maternal soothing and stimulating behaviors. Results At each time, infants showed more regulation after maternal soothing than after maternal stimulating. Further study is merited. Practice Implications Knowing infant regulation and dysregulation following categories of maternal behavior could help mothers anticipate infant regulatory or dysregulatory behavior in response to their own behavior and identify supportive caregiving strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study examined potential predictors of nurses' intentions to work during the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic. Methods: A questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 1,200 nurses chosen from all RNs and LPNs registered with the Maine State Board of Nursing during the second wave of the flu pandemic. Results: Of the 735 respondents, 90% initially indicated that they intended to work during a flu pandemic. Respondents were significantly more likely to work if provided with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) but significantly less likely without adequate PPE or if they feared family members could become ill with pandemic flu. They were also significantly less likely to work if assigned to direct care of a flu patient; if a colleague were quarantined for or died of pandemic flu; if they feared their own family members might die of pandemic flu; if they themselves were ill for any reason; if a family member or loved one were sick at home and needed care; if they lacked a written family protection plan; or if certain incentives were offered: antiviral medication or vaccine for nurse and family, double pay, or free room and board at work. About 7% of RNs reported that they would not be willing to work during a flu pandemic, regardless of incentives or other factors. An inverse relationship was found between the perceived level of threat posed by a flu pandemic and nurses' willingness to work. Conclusions: To maintain an adequate nursing workforce during a flu pandemic, employers should ensure that policies and procedures include providing adequate PPE for nurses and safeguarding the health of nurses and their families.The level of perceived threat is likely to affect the proportion of nurses willing to work. Some nurses will not work during a flu pandemic no matter what protections and incentives are offered; efforts intended to force or entice all nurses to work are unlikely to succeed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Exercise is known to reduce disability and improve quality of life in people with Parkinson disease (PD). Although barriers to exercise have been studied in older adults, barriers in people with chronic progressive neurological diseases, such as PD, are not well defined. Objective. The purpose of this study was to identify perceived barriers to exercise in people with PD. Design. The study had a cross-sectional design. Methods. People who had PD, dwelled in the community, and were at stage 2.4 on the Hoehn and Yahr scale participated in this cross-sectional study (N=260; mean age=67.7 years). Participants were divided into an exercise group (n=l64) and a nonexercise group (n=96). Participants self-administered the barriers subscale of the Physical Fitness and Exercise Activity Levels of Older Adults Scale, endorsing or denying specific barriers to exercise participation. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to examine the contribution of each barrier to exercise behavior, and odds ratios were reported. Results. Three barriers were retained in the multivariate regression model. The nonexercise group had significantly greater odds of endorsing low outcome expectation (ie, the participants did not expect to derive benefit from exercise) (odds ratio [OR] = 3.93, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.08-7.42), lack of time (OR=3-36, 95% CI= 1.55-7.29), and fear of falling (OR=2.35, 95% CI=1.17-4.71) than the exercise group. Limitations. The cross-sectional nature of this study limited the ability to make causal inferences. Conclusions. Low outcome expectation from exercise, lack of time to exercise, and fear of falling appear to be important perceived barriers to engaging in exercise in people who have PD, are ambulatory, and dwell in the community. These may be important issues for physical therapists to target in people who have PD and do not exercise regularly. The efficacy of intervention strategies to facilitate exercise adherence in people with PD requires further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test a coding system, the Maternal–Infant Synchrony Scale (MISS), for assessing synchrony of feeding interaction between a mother and her preterm infant. The secondary aim was to describe mother and preterm infant synchrony during feeding and the change over time. Methods: A descriptive, longitudinal design using data collected during an earlier study was employed, using a sample dataset from 10 mother–infant dyads that completed three data collection points. The Noldus Observer XT 8.0 (Noldus Information Technology b.v., 2006) was used for data review and coding. The MISS was created from pilot data and definitions further refined. The frequency of occurrence for select behaviors and the percentage of time behaviors occurred during the feeding and the changes in behaviors over the three observations periods were calculated. Results: The synchrony tool developed in this study demonstrates that changes occur in mother and infant behavior over time. Mothers were attentive and focused during feedings and monitored their infants’ sucking intently but there was little interaction between the dyad. Infant attempts at interaction were greater than the mother attempts to engage her infant. The influence of infant maturation on feeding behaviors was evident across observations. Conclusion: This study revealed behaviors that are descriptive of the interaction and can be used to develop interventions that would support the developing relationship. Use of the MISS with a larger sample size and a cohort of healthy, term newborns is needed to establish the MISS as a valid and reliable measure of synchrony. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The increasing need for sophisticated surveillance systems and the move to a digital infrastructure has transformed surveillance into a large scale data analysis and management challenge. Smart surveillance systems use automatic image understanding techniques to extract information from the surveillance data. While the majority of the research and commercial systems have focused on the information extraction aspect of the challenge, very few systems have explored the use of extracted information in the search, retrieval, data management and investigation context. The IBM smart surveillance system (S3) is one of the few advanced surveillance systems which provides not only the capability to automatically monitor a scene but also the capability to manage the surveillance data, perform event based retrieval, receive real time event alerts thru standard web infrastructure and extract long term statistical patterns of activity. The IBM S3 is easily customized to fit the requirements of different applications by using an open-standards based architecture for surveillance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Generating valid estimates of dietary glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) has been a challenge in nutritional epidemiology. The methodologic issues may have contributed to the wide variation of GI/GL associations with health outcomes observed in existing literature. We describe a standardized methodology for assigning GI values to items in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) nutrient database using the new International Tables to develop research-driven, systematic procedures and strategies to estimate dietary GI/GL exposures of a nationally representative population sample. Nutrient databases for NHANES 2003-2006 contain information on 3,155 unique foods derived from the US Department of Agriculture National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference versions 18 and 20. Assignment of GI values were made to a subset of 2,078 carbohydrate-containing foods using systematic food item matching procedures applied to 2008 international GI tables and online data sources. Matching protocols indicated that 45.4% of foods had identical matches with existing data sources, 31.9% had similar matches, 2.5% derived GI values calculated with the formula for combination foods, 13.6% were assigned a default GI value based on low carbohydrate content, and 6.7% of GI values were based on data extrapolation. Most GI values were derived from international sources; 36.1% were from North American product information. To confirm data assignments, dietary GI and GL intakes of the NHANES 2003-2006 adult participants were estimated from two 24-hour recalls and compared with published studies. Among the 3,689 men and 4,112 women studied, mean dietary GI was 56.2 (men 56.9, women 55.5), mean dietary GL was 138.1 (men 162.1, women 116.4); the distribution of dietary GI was approximately normal. Estimates of population GI and GL compare favorably with other published literature. This methodology of adding GI values to an existing population nutrient database utilized systematic matching protocols and the latest comprehensive data sources on food composition. The database can be applied in clinical and survey research settings where there is interest in estimating individual and population dietary exposures and relating them to health outcomes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: To determine whether sampled food blogs provide nutritionally balanced recipes. Methods: Two entree recipes per season, per year (2010-2011) were selected from 6 highly ranked food blogs (n = 96). Food Processor Nutrition and Fitness software was used to analyze sodium, saturated fat, and energy content. Analysis was separated by protein type (vegetarian, poultry, red meat, and seafood). Results: Recipes met energy recommendations but were excessive in saturated fat and sodium. Vegetarian and seafood recipes were significantly lower in risk nutrients compared with red meat and poultry recipes. Red meat recipes were not significantly different from poultry recipes for risk nutrients studied; poultry recipes were higher in sodium and energy compared with red meat recipes. Conclusions and Implications: The public should be aware of the nutritional limitations of popular food blogs; dietitians could assist in modifying blog recipes for individuals and partner with bloggers to improve the nutritional profile of recipes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]