Cardiac MRI Segmentation Using Mutual Context Information from Left and Right Ventricle

In this paper, we propose a graphcut method to segment the cardiac right ventricle (RV) and left ventricle (LV) by using context information from each other. Contextual information is very helpful in medical image segmentation because the relative arrangement of different organs is the same. In addition to the conventional log-likelihood penalty, we also include a “context penalty” that captures the geometric relationship between the RV and LV. Contextual information for the RV is obtained by learning its geometrical relationship with respect to the LV. Similarly, RV provides geometrical context information for LV segmentation. The smoothness cost is formulated as a function of the learned context which helps in accurate labeling of pixels. Experimental results on real patient datasets from the STACOM database show the efficacy of our method in accurately segmenting the LV and RV. We also conduct experiments on simulated datasets to investigate our method’s robustness to noise and inaccurate segmentations.     

The children’s optimism and humor training program in South Korea

The Optimism and Humor Training Program (OHTP) developed to increase optimism and adaptive use of humor for elementry students. Two sixth grade classrooms participated, and the program was implemented in one class (n?=?23) over 8 weeks. The effectiveness of the program was tested by Analysis of Covariance. The results indicate that children who participated in the OHTP showed an increase in optimism, use of adaptive humor, and more adaptability in school.     

Psychoanalytic Intervention with Children

By taking a social psychological approach, this article seeks to offer an alternative perspective to the traditional psychoanalytic studies of Freud and Ferenczi's close personal and professional relationship, and the rift that occurred in the early 1930s. It is suggested that the socially constructed, divergent roles that these two men fulfilled in the psychoanalysis movement deeply influenced the dynamics of their relationship. It is further proposed that the ever-present, conflicted political interdependence that characterized Freud's and Ferenczi's home countries (Austria and Hungary, respectively) may have affected them differently, and contributed to their divergent attitudes towards power and other issues relevant to the development of psychoanalytic theory and technique, as well as how they related to one another personally.     

The art-gallery as a resource for recovery for people who have experienced psychosis

Dominant personal and community narratives of psychosis can often be experienced as oppressive and stigmatising. An important aspect of recovery may be overcoming this internalised, self-depreciating story. This intervention sought to understand whether an art gallery-based group facilitated modification of the dominant narrative of psychosis in the participants’ personal narratives, promoted recovery, wellbeing, and a subjective sense of social inclusion. The narratives of mental health and gallery staff were included to investigate the modification of the dominant narrative in their personal narratives. People with an experience of psychosis participated in a gallery-based group where they reflected on paintings related to their life experiences. Participant interviews at the conclusion of the group were subjected to literary and social context narrative analysis. The findings suggested that some individuals used art-related concepts to modify the dominant narrative within their personal narrative. A community narrative regarding a different staff–client relationship, characterised by validation, commonality, friendship and genuineness, emerged within the group. The intervention was depicted as promoting recovery and wellbeing, mainly through achievement, and described as more successfully addressing bonding social capital than bridging social capital. Art gallery-based interventions show some promise to provide a safe haven where people with a psychosis can engage in a recovery-oriented approach to mental health care, where a different staff–client relationship could occur, away from the demands and possible stigma of mental health services.     

Personal characteristics and school contextual variables associated with student self-determination in Spanish context

Background: Most theoretical models of self-determination suggest that both environmental and personal factors influence the development of self-determination. The design and implementation of interventions must be conducted with foreknowledge of such mediating and moderating factors if the intervention is to be successful.

Methods: The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which several personal factors and school characteristics affect and explain students’ self-determination. A total of 232 students with intellectual disability from Spain participated. Their self-determination level was assessed by the ARC-INICO Scale.

Results: Students with moderate levels of intellectual disability obtained significantly lower scores on self-determination than their peers with mild intellectual disability. There were significant differences in relation to the level of support needs and their experience with transition programs. The level of support needs was a significant predictor.

Conclusion: These findings contribute to current research in this field and practical implications were discussed.     

Dopamine and noradrenaline efflux in the rat prefrontal cortex after classical aversive conditioning to an auditory cue

We used bilateral microdialysis in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) of awake, freely moving rats to study aversive conditioning to an auditory cue in the controlled environment of the Skinner box. The presentation of the explicit conditioned stimuli (CS), previously associated with foot shocks, caused increased dopamine (DA) and noradrenaline (NA) efflux. This conditioned response was dependent on the immediate pairing of the two stimuli; in the pseudoconditioned group that received an equal number of both stimuli, but in an unpaired fashion, no conditioned increases in efflux were observed.     

Pharmacokinetic analysis

Pharmacokinetic analysis is an experimentally determined theory of how a drug behaves when in vivo. Volume of distribution, clearance and terminal half-life are defined. Compartmental modelling is introduced and some relevant graphs are described in this article. Applications of this theory in anaesthesia are considered.     

Characterising infant and young child feeding practices and the consumption of poultry products in rural Tanzania: A mixed methods approach

Suboptimal breastfeeding practices, early initiation of complementary feeding, and monotonous cereal‐based diets have been implicated as contributors to continuing high rates of child undernutrition in sub‐Saharan Africa. Nutrition‐sensitive interventions, including agricultural programs that increase access to nutrient‐rich vegetables, legumes, and animal‐source foods, have the potential to achieve sustainable improvements in children's diets. In the quest to evaluate the efficacy of such programs in improving growth and development in the first 2 years of life, there is a role for mixed methods research to better understand existing infant and young child feeding practices. This analysis forms part of a longitudinal study assessing the impact of improvements to poultry health and crop production on diets and growth of 503 randomly selected children from eight rural communities in Manyoni District in central Tanzania. Using an explanatory sequential design, the quantitative phase of data collection was conducted between May 2014 and May 2016, comprising six monthly structured questionnaires, four monthly household‐level documentation of chicken and egg consumption, and fortnightly records of children's breastfeeding status. The subsequent qualitative phase involved in‐depth interviews with a subset of 39 mothers in October 2016. Breastfeeding was almost universal (96.8%) and of long duration (mean = 21.7 months, SD = 3.6), but early initiation of complementary feeding was also common (74.4%; mean = 4.0 months, SD = 1.8), overwhelmingly driven by maternal perceptions of insufficient milk supply (95.0%). Chicken and eggs were infrequently eaten, but close associations between maternal and child consumption patterns (p < .001) suggest the potential for strategies that increase household‐level consumption to bring nutritional benefits to young children.     

Beyond Parenting Practices: Family Context and the Treatment of Pediatric Obesity*

Abstract: Many family‐based treatments for pediatric obesity teach specific parenting practices related to weight management. Although youth in these programs show increases in positive health behaviors and reductions in the extent to which they are overweight, most remain overweight after treatment. A recent trend is to create tailored programs for subgroups of families. We examine the possibility of tailoring based on family context, highlighting 3 aspects of family context that have been studied in relation to pediatric obesity: parenting style, family stress, and family emotional climate. We argue that family context may moderate treatment outcomes by altering the effectiveness of health‐related parenting practices and discuss the implications of this argument for designing and evaluating tailored programs.     

The determinants of health: structure, context and agency

Abstract The concept of social structure is one of the main building blocks of the social sciences, but it lacks any precise technical definition within general sociological theory. This paper reviews the way in which the concept has been deployed within medical sociology, arguing that in recent times it has been used primarily as a frame for the sociological interpretation of health inequalities and their social determinants. It goes on to examine the contribution that medical sociologists have made to the debate over health inequalities, giving particular attention to contributions to Sociology of Health and Illness. These have often provided a focus for discussions outside or critical of the mainstream debates that have been driven primarily by epidemiologists. The paper reviews some of the main points of criticism of epidemiological approaches, focusing in particular on the methodological constraints that limit the capacity of epidemiologists to develop more theoretically satisfactory accounts of the inter‐relationships of social structure, context and agency in their impact on health and well being. Some recent examples from the Journal of more theoretically innovative and analytically fine‐grained approaches to understanding the impact of social structure on health are then explored. The paper concludes with an argument for a more historically‐informed analysis of the relationships between social structure and health, using the knowledgeable narratives of people in places as a window onto those relationships.