Apr. 2, 2013 ? Studying volcanos can be hazardous work, both for researchers and aircraft. To penetrate such dangerous airspace, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), especially those with electric engines that ingest little contaminated air, are an emerging and effective way to gather crucial data about volcanic ash and gases.
Last month, a team of NASA researchers deployed three repurposed military UAVs with special instruments into and above the noxious sulfur dioxide plume of Costa Rica's active Turrialba volcano, near San Jose. The project was designed to improve the remote-sensing capability of satellites, including satellite data research products such as maps of the concentration and distribution of volcanic gases. It was also designed to improve computer models of how and where volcanic plumes will travel.
Led by principal investigator David Pieri of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., the team launched 10 flights of the remote controlled UAVs into the volcanic plume and above the rim of Turrialba's 10,500-foot (3,200-meter) summit crater between March 11 and 14.
The small, twin electric engine Dragon Eye UAVs were acquired by researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., from the United States Marine Corps. Weighing less than six pounds (2.2 kilograms) each and with a wingspan of 3.75 feet (1.1 meters), they have visible and infrared video cameras and can carry a one-pound instrument payload for up to an hour within a volcanic plume. The researchers equipped them with sulfur dioxide and particle sensors and automatic atmospheric sampling bottles keyed to measure sulfur dioxide concentration.
During the flights, the team coordinated its data gathering with NASA's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft, allowing scientists to compare sulfur dioxide concentration measurements from the satellite with measurements taken from within the plume.
Scientists believe computer models derived from this study will contribute to safeguarding the National and International Airspace System, and will also improve global climate predictions and mitigate environmental hazards (e.g., sulfur dioxide volcanic smog, or "vog") for people who live near volcanoes.
A key constituent of such models is the intensity and character of the volcanic activity located near the eruption vent. For instance, knowing the height of ash and gas concentrations, and temperatures over the vent during an eruption are important initial factors for any model that predicts the direction of the volcanic plume.
"It is very difficult to gather data from within volcanic eruption columns and plumes because updraft wind speeds are very high and high ash concentrations can quickly destroy aircraft engines," said Pieri. "Such flight environments can be very dangerous to manned aircraft. Volcanic eruption plumes may stretch for miles from a summit vent, and detached ash clouds can drift hundreds to thousands of miles from an eruption site."
The project supports NASA's ASTER mission as well as JPL's planned Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) satellite mission by improving satellite data-based retrievals of gases and solid aerosols associated with volcanic activity, as well as volcanic emission transport models. HyspIRI will study the world's ecosystems and provide critical information on natural disasters such as volcanoes, assessing their pre-eruptive behavior and the likelihood of future eruptions.
For more information, read the full Ames feature at: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/earthmonth/volcanic-plume-uavs.html . For more on NASA's Airborne Science Program, visit: http://airbornescience.nasa.gov/ . For more on HyspIRI, visit: http://hyspiri.jpl.nasa.gov/ . For more on ASTER, visit: http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ .
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc, getting a headstart on the annual tradition of April Fools' pranks, released a YouTube clip on Sunday declaring that the world's most popular video website will shut down at the stroke of midnight.
The three-minute video intended as a gag - a montage of clips and cameos from viral video stars like David Devore from "David after the dentist" - describes how the website will wind down as some 30,000 technicians begin to trawl through 150,000 clips, to select the world's best video.
The winner gets a $500 stipend, a clip-on MP3 player - and becomes the sole video to be featured on YouTube when the website relaunches in 2023.
"Gangnam Style has the same chance of winning as a video with 40 views of a man feeding bread to a duck," YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar pronounced, referring to the viral sensation from Korean pop artist PSY that's now the most-viewed video on the site.
Google's video also features intense discussions between judges, who hotly debate the merits of everything from Citizen Kane to "epic skateboard fail". While clearly tongue-in-cheek, several YouTube viewers appeared stricken or dumbfounded, while others expressed sadness and regret in attached comments.
Plus, The Host lacks soul, and Temptation wasn't screened -- guess the Tomatometer!
Also opening this week in limited release:
Room 237, a documentary that presents a number of fascinating interpretations of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, is Certified Fresh at 95 percent.
Blancanieves, a silent take on Snow White set in 1920s Spain, is at 88 percent.
Violeta Went to Heaven, a biopic of Chilean folk singer Violeta Parra, is at 83 percent.
Renoir, a historical drama about the relationship between painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his son, director Jean Renoir, is at 79 percent.
Wrong, a dramedy about a man whose life takes a number of strange turns as he looks for his missing dog, is at 77 percent.
The Place Beyond The Pines, starring Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper in a drama with three interconnected stories about the fates of two families over the course of 15 years, is at 76 percent (check out director Derek Cianfrance's Five Favorite Films here).
Welcome to the Punch, starring James McAvoy and Mark Strong in a thriller about a detective who uncovers a conspiracy while trailing a master criminal, is at 55 percent.
Mental, starring Toni Collette and Liev Schreiber in a comedy about a woman tasked with taking care of five children when their mother is institutionalized, is at 44 percent.
Family Weekend, starring Kristin Chenoweth and Matthew Modine in a comedy about a a high-achieving teenager who takes her parents hostage to protest their indifference to her life, is at 25 percent (check out Chenoweth's Five Favorite Films here).
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Mar. 28, 2013 ? A new study conducted by The Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, N.M., shows that neuroimaging data can predict the likelihood of whether a criminal will reoffend following release from prison.
The paper, which is to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied impulsive and antisocial behavior and centered on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that deals with regulating behavior and impulsivity.
The study demonstrated that inmates with relatively low anterior cingulate activity were twice as likely to reoffend than inmates with high-brain activity in this region.
"These findings have incredibly significant ramifications for the future of how our society deals with criminal justice and offenders," said Dr. Kent A. Kiehl, who was senior author on the study and is director of mobile imaging at MRN and an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico. "Not only does this study give us a tool to predict which criminals may reoffend and which ones will not reoffend, it also provides a path forward for steering offenders into more effective targeted therapies to reduce the risk of future criminal activity."
The study looked at 96 adult male criminal offenders aged 20-52 who volunteered to participate in research studies. This study population was followed over a period of up to four years after inmates were released from prison.
"These results point the way toward a promising method of neuroprediction with great practical potential in the legal system," said Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Philosophy Department and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, who collaborated on the study. "Much more work needs to be done, but this line of research could help to make our criminal justice system more effective."
The study used the Mind Research Network's Mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) System to collect neuroimaging data as the inmate volunteers completed a series of mental tests.
"People who reoffended were much more likely to have lower activity in the anterior cingulate cortices than those who had higher functioning ACCs," Kiehl said. "This means we can see on an MRI a part of the brain that might not be working correctly -- giving us a look into who is more likely to demonstrate impulsive and anti-social behavior that leads to re-arrest."
The anterior cingulate cortex of the brain is "associated with error processing, conflict monitoring, response selection, and avoidance learning," according to the paper. People who have this area of the brain damaged have been "shown to produce changes in disinhibition, apathy, and aggressiveness. Indeed, ACC-damaged patients have been classed in the 'acquired psychopathic personality' genre."
Kiehl says he is working on developing treatments that increase activity within the ACC to attempt to treat the high-risk offenders.
The four-year study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and pilot funds by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project. The study was conducted in collaboration with the New Mexico Corrections Department.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
E. Aharoni, G. M. Vincent, C. L. Harenski, V. D. Calhoun, W. Sinnott-Armstrong, M. S. Gazzaniga, K. A. Kiehl. Neuroprediction of future rearrest. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1219302110
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Cold cities less sustainable than warm cities, research suggestsPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Bishop michael.bishop@iop.org 01-179-301-032 Institute of Physics
Living in colder climates in the US is more energy demanding than living in warmer climates.
This is according to Dr Michael Sivak at the University of Michigan, who has published new research today, 28 March, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters.
Dr Sivak has calculated that climate control in the coldest large metropolitan area in the country Minneapolis is about three-and-a-half times more energy demanding than in the warmest large metropolitan area Miami.
Dr Sivak calculated this difference in energy demand using three parameters: the number of heating or cooling degree days in each area; the efficiencies of heating and cooling appliances; and the efficiencies of power-generating plants.
Not included in the analysis were the energy used to extract fuels from the ground, the losses during energy transmission, and energy costs.
"It has been taken for a fact that living in the warm regions of the US is less sustainable than living in the cold regions, based partly on the perceived energy needs for climate control; however, the present findings suggest a re-examination of the relative sustainability of living in warm versus cold climates."
Heating degree days (HDDs) and cooling degree days (CDDs) are climatological measures that are designed to reflect the demand for energy needed to heat or cool a building. They are calculated by comparing the mean daily outdoor temperature with 18C.
A day with a mean temperature of 10C would have 8 HDDs and no CDDs, as the temperature is 8C below 18C. Analogously, a day with a mean temperature of 23C would have 5 CDDs and no HDDs.
Based on a previous study, Dr Sivak showed that Minneapolis has 4376 heating degree days a year compared to 2423 cooling degree days in Miami.
In the study, Dr Sivak used a single measure for the efficiency of heating and cooling appliances, as most are currently rated using different measures so they cannot be directly compared. His calculations showed that a typical air conditioner is about four times more energy efficient than a typical furnace.
"In simple terms, it takes less energy to cool a room down by one degree than it does to heat it up by one degree," said Dr Sivak.
Grouping together climatology, the efficiency of heating and cooling appliances, and the efficiency of power-generating plants, Dr Sivak showed that Minneapolis was substantially more energy demanding than Miami.
"In the US, the energy consumption for air conditioning is of general concern but the required energy to heat is often taken for granted. Focus should also be turned to the opposite end of the scale living in cold climates such as in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Rochester, Buffalo and Chicago is more energy demanding, and therefore less sustainable from this point of view, than living in warm climates such as in Miami, Phoenix, Tampa, Orlando and Las Vegas," Dr Sivak concluded.
###
From Thursday 28 March, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014050/article
Notes to Editors
Contact
1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or to contact the researcher, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032
E-mail: Michael.Bishop@iop.org
IOP Publishing Journalist Area
2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area (http://journalists.iop.org/journalistLogin) gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.
Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.
To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.
Air conditioning versus heating: climate control is more energy demanding in Minneapolis than in Miami
3. The published version of the paper "Air conditioning versus heating: climate control is more energy demanding in Minneapolis than in Miami" (Michael Sivak 2013 Environ. Res. Lett. 8 014050) will be freely available online from Thursday 28 March at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014050/article.
Environmental Research Letters
4. Environmental Research Letters covers all of environmental science, providing a coherent and integrated approach including research articles, perspectives and editorials.
IOP Publishing
5. IOP Publishing provides publications through which leading-edge scientific research is distributed worldwide. IOP Publishing is central to the Institute of Physics (IOP), a not-for-profit society. Any financial surplus earned by IOP Publishing goes to support science through the activities of IOP. Beyond our traditional journals programme, we make high-value scientific information easily accessible through an ever-evolving portfolio of community websites, magazines, conference proceedings and a multitude of electronic services. Focused on making the most of new technologies, we're continually improving our electronic interfaces to make it easier for researchers to find exactly what they need, when they need it, in the format that suits them best. Go to http://ioppublishing.org/
The Institute of Physics
6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of around 50,000 members, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Cold cities less sustainable than warm cities, research suggestsPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Bishop michael.bishop@iop.org 01-179-301-032 Institute of Physics
Living in colder climates in the US is more energy demanding than living in warmer climates.
This is according to Dr Michael Sivak at the University of Michigan, who has published new research today, 28 March, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters.
Dr Sivak has calculated that climate control in the coldest large metropolitan area in the country Minneapolis is about three-and-a-half times more energy demanding than in the warmest large metropolitan area Miami.
Dr Sivak calculated this difference in energy demand using three parameters: the number of heating or cooling degree days in each area; the efficiencies of heating and cooling appliances; and the efficiencies of power-generating plants.
Not included in the analysis were the energy used to extract fuels from the ground, the losses during energy transmission, and energy costs.
"It has been taken for a fact that living in the warm regions of the US is less sustainable than living in the cold regions, based partly on the perceived energy needs for climate control; however, the present findings suggest a re-examination of the relative sustainability of living in warm versus cold climates."
Heating degree days (HDDs) and cooling degree days (CDDs) are climatological measures that are designed to reflect the demand for energy needed to heat or cool a building. They are calculated by comparing the mean daily outdoor temperature with 18C.
A day with a mean temperature of 10C would have 8 HDDs and no CDDs, as the temperature is 8C below 18C. Analogously, a day with a mean temperature of 23C would have 5 CDDs and no HDDs.
Based on a previous study, Dr Sivak showed that Minneapolis has 4376 heating degree days a year compared to 2423 cooling degree days in Miami.
In the study, Dr Sivak used a single measure for the efficiency of heating and cooling appliances, as most are currently rated using different measures so they cannot be directly compared. His calculations showed that a typical air conditioner is about four times more energy efficient than a typical furnace.
"In simple terms, it takes less energy to cool a room down by one degree than it does to heat it up by one degree," said Dr Sivak.
Grouping together climatology, the efficiency of heating and cooling appliances, and the efficiency of power-generating plants, Dr Sivak showed that Minneapolis was substantially more energy demanding than Miami.
"In the US, the energy consumption for air conditioning is of general concern but the required energy to heat is often taken for granted. Focus should also be turned to the opposite end of the scale living in cold climates such as in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Rochester, Buffalo and Chicago is more energy demanding, and therefore less sustainable from this point of view, than living in warm climates such as in Miami, Phoenix, Tampa, Orlando and Las Vegas," Dr Sivak concluded.
###
From Thursday 28 March, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014050/article
Notes to Editors
Contact
1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or to contact the researcher, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032
E-mail: Michael.Bishop@iop.org
IOP Publishing Journalist Area
2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area (http://journalists.iop.org/journalistLogin) gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.
Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.
To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.
Air conditioning versus heating: climate control is more energy demanding in Minneapolis than in Miami
3. The published version of the paper "Air conditioning versus heating: climate control is more energy demanding in Minneapolis than in Miami" (Michael Sivak 2013 Environ. Res. Lett. 8 014050) will be freely available online from Thursday 28 March at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014050/article.
Environmental Research Letters
4. Environmental Research Letters covers all of environmental science, providing a coherent and integrated approach including research articles, perspectives and editorials.
IOP Publishing
5. IOP Publishing provides publications through which leading-edge scientific research is distributed worldwide. IOP Publishing is central to the Institute of Physics (IOP), a not-for-profit society. Any financial surplus earned by IOP Publishing goes to support science through the activities of IOP. Beyond our traditional journals programme, we make high-value scientific information easily accessible through an ever-evolving portfolio of community websites, magazines, conference proceedings and a multitude of electronic services. Focused on making the most of new technologies, we're continually improving our electronic interfaces to make it easier for researchers to find exactly what they need, when they need it, in the format that suits them best. Go to http://ioppublishing.org/
The Institute of Physics
6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of around 50,000 members, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Never in Louisiana?s history has our state?s child welfare system been more highly regulated. Never has so much significant change occurred in such a compressed period of time than during the last 18 months.
I?ll summarize it like this: We now have federal regulations being interpreted by state regulations to create a coordinated system of behavioral health care from four state departments? funding mixed with federal funds which are being managed by a state-based subsidiary of a public corporation traded on Wall Street. (I think that?s correct.)
Louisiana?s Coordinated System of Care (CSoC) is one year old this month. Created by an Executive Order issued by Governor Jindal on March 3, 2011, CSoC became operational when Magellan of Louisiana began acting as the State Management Organization on March 1, 2012.
CSoC (pronounced ?sea sock?) is a managed behavioral health care system for Louisiana?s children who are in out-of-home placements or who are at risk of being placed out of their homes. Louisiana?s Coordinated System of Care (CSoC) is a cross-departmental project of the Office of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Children and Family Services, the Department of Health and Hospitals and the Department of Education to organize a coordinated network of broad, effective services for Louisiana?s at risk children and youth with significant behavioral health challenges or related disorder.
The cross-departmental nature of CSoC is chiefly related to funding. State General Fund dollars from each of the four state departments were pooled and used as a pot to pull down untapped Medicaid dollars at a ratio of 1:3. One state dollar brings down 3 additional Medicaid dollars.
Of course, anytime federal dollars are pulled into a state, those federal dollars have significant strings attached. When Louisiana converted to a federally-funded child welfare system, those federal strings required significant changes.
One imposed change was the creation of two new DHH-licensed levels of residential care: Treatment Group Homes (TGH) and Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities (PRTF). Mercer, a consulting firm which helped DHH design Louisiana?s CSoC, determined that Louisiana needs 340 PRTF beds and 250 PRTF beds.
Because each of our residential programs cares for more than 16 children, the Methodist Children?s Homes in Louisiana were required to become licensed as Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities. A PRTF license is not a hospital license. We continue operations as residential facilities with additional staff to provide for medical care and residential psychiatric care.
This is probably the best place to insert the chart I have created which demonstrates the levels of out-of-home care (Click the image for a larger view):
Notice the third step. That?s the PRTF step. Then notice that the second and fourth steps on either side are missing. There is no step for Longer Term Psychiatric Hospitalization. There is no step for Treatment Group Homes. This diagram describes the current status of the array of services available for children in Louisiana.
Let?s start with the Longer Term Psychiatric Hospitalization. To my knowledge, there are only a small number of these beds in Louisiana. 40 is the last official number I heard reported during a meeting in Baton Rouge in late 2010. I?ll assume the number of these beds today is still close enough to 40 to call it 40. I assume there are times when 40 beds are sufficient. There will also be times when 40 beds in the entire state are not enough for children who have longer term psychiatric hospitalization needs.
In terms of numbers, the most significant missing step is the absence of Treatment Group Homes. Louisiana reports it needs 340. There can be no more than 8 children in a single group home. Louisiana needs at least 42.5 treatment group homes spread across the state. Today, after a year of CSoC, there is only one Treatment Group Home. Parker House is the Volunteers of America?s TGH in Baton Rouge for boys under 13. (I commend the staff of VOA and Parker House for their work to license a Treatment Group Home. It was not an easy road.)
At Methodist we have reviewed the Treatment Group Home materials and we do not believe we can provide Treatment Group Home services. I?ll share some of the reasons we and others are unable to provide Treatment Group Home services.
1. Federal regulations dictate what a children?s home can do now that CSoC is at work. We have four houses on our Ruston campus that would make great Treatment Group Homes. However, because we have PRTF beds on the same property, all our beds on the property must be PRTF beds. Remember, because we have more than 16 children in care, we must be licensed as a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility.
2. The TGH minimum licensing standards require a Treatment Group Home be located in a neighborhood. Finding a suitable, existing house which meets the licensing requirements will be like finding a needle in a haystack. Homes built for families will not serve as great Treatment Group Homes. For example, few families require 8 bedrooms. If a provider builds their own house with 8 bedrooms it will be nearly impossible to sell in the future because, again, few families require 8 bedrooms.
3. I wrote earlier that it was initially reported that CSoC would bring $3 federal dollars into Louisiana for each $1 of State General Funds Louisiana tossed into the common pot. That?s a significant amount! I don?t believe it has worked out that way, though. Reimbursement rates for services are now lower than the cost of providing the service. The per diem payment for Non-Medical Group Homes is less than the rate providers received before CSoC was created. Several providers have crashed into their financial wall this past year because the current reimbursement rates do not support the costs of care. The Treatment Group Home reimbursement rate is low.
4. There are adolescent group home providers in Louisiana who have the experience and the heart to become Treatment Group Home providers. Unfortunately, CSoC does not pay for the start-up costs of making the transition from the former DCFS Child Residential license to the new DHH Treatment Group Home license. The cost of additional staff who must be hired prior to receiving the TGH license, the cost of licenses for evidence-based treatment practices, and the cost of accreditation are all financial burdens group home providers must shoulder to become Treatment Group Homes. Unfortunately, the per diem reimbursement rate is too low to allow a provider to ever recoup the startup costs. Figuratively speaking, a new TGH provider will start out in a hole and never climb out.
I?ll stop there because this is growing a bit long.
Scroll up and click on the chart again. Louisiana?s children need access to the two missing steps on the staircase of services. It?s a big step down from care in a psychiatric residential treatment facility to care in a non-medical group home. Some children require longer term psychiatric hospitalization because of significant mental illness.
CSoC still has important gaps to fill ? the sooner the better.
Mar. 26, 2013 ? A new study indicates that a simple saliva test could be an effective tool in predicting violent behavior.
The pilot study, led by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and published this week online in the journal Psychiatric Quarterly, suggests a link between salivary concentrations of certain hormones and aggression.
Researchers, led by Drew Barzman, MD, a child and adolescent forensic psychiatrist at Cincinnati Children's, collected saliva samples from 17 boys ages 7-9 admitted to the hospital for psychiatric care to identify which children were most likely to show aggression and violence. The samples, collected three times in one day shortly after admission, were tested for levels of three hormones: testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and cortisol. The severity and frequency of aggression correlated with the levels of these hormones.
Barzman's team focused on rapid, real-time assessment of violence among child and adolescent inpatients, a common problem in psychiatric units. But he believes a fast and accurate saliva test could eventually have several other applications.
"We believe salivary hormone testing has the potential to help doctors monitor which treatments are working best for their patients," said Barzman. "And because mental health professionals are far more likely to be assaulted on the job than the average worker, it could offer a quick way to anticipate violent behavior in child psychiatric units. Eventually, we hope this testing might also provide a tool to help improve safety in schools."
For this study, the saliva test was used in combination with other aggressive behavior tools, including the Brief Rating of Aggression by Children and Adolescents (BRACHA) questionnaire, an assessment tool also developed by Barzman's team to predict aggression and violence in the hospital.
"This study sample, while small, gives us the data we need to move forward," added Barzman. "We have more studies planned before we can reach a definitive conclusion, but developing a new tool to help us anticipate violent behavior is our ultimate goal."
Barzman's team included Douglas Mossman, MD, a psychiatrist at the University of Cincinnati (UC) and an internationally recognized authority on violence prediction; Michael Sorter, MD, Director, Division of Psychiatry at Cincinnati Children's; David Klein, PhD, MD, an endocrinologist at Cincinnati Children's; Thomas Geracioti , MD, an expert in the endocrinology of mental disorders based at the Veterans Administration Medical Center and Kacey Appel, a PhD candidate in epidemiology at UC.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Drew H. Barzman, Douglas Mossman, Kacey Appel, Thomas J. Blom, Jeffrey R. Strawn, Nosa N. Ekhator, Bianca Patel, Melissa P. DelBello, Michael Sorter, David Klein, Thomas D. Geracioti. The Association Between Salivary Hormone Levels and Children?s Inpatient Aggression: A Pilot Study. Psychiatric Quarterly, 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s11126-013-9260-8
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
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