Complementary Public Service Announcements as a Strategy for Enhancing the Impact of Health-Promoting Messages in Fictional Television Programs

Research suggests that health-promoting storylines in developed nations’ fictional television programs can have a beneficial impact on viewers’ beliefs, attitudes, intentions, or behaviors. The sizes of the effects are generally modest; however, the audience reach is substantial. Given that many fictional programs may hold the prolonged attention of millions of viewers, it is of value to examine potential strategies for enhancing the persuasive impact of their health-promoting storylines. Complementary public service announcements may be a promising strategy. This randomized experimental study (N = 310) examined the effects of viewing a complementary public service announcement after an organ donation story in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Results indicated that the public service announcement enhanced the beneficial impact of the story on viewers’ discussion behavior (about one’s organ donor wishes), discussion intention, and perceived learning. This experimental study is the first to examine the effects of viewing a non-character public service announcement after a health-related storyline in a developed nation’s fictional program compared to viewing the same episode of the program on its own. It is important for future research to examine whether these findings replicate for different health issues and with a nationally representative sample.     

Biogeography of Burkholderia pseudomallei in the Torres Strait Islands of Northern Australia

It has been hypothesized that biogeographical boundaries are a feature of Burkholderia pseudomallei ecology, and they impact the epidemiology of melioidosis on a global scale. This study examined the relatedness of B. pseudomallei sourced from islands in the Torres Strait of Northern Australia to determine if the geography of isolated island communities is a determinant of the organisms'' dispersal. Environmental sampling on Badu Island in the Near Western Island cluster recovered a single clone. An additional 32 clinical isolates from the region were sourced. Isolates were characterized using multilocus sequence typing and a multiplex PCR targeting the flagellum gene cluster. Gene cluster analysis determined that 69% of the isolates from the region encoded the ancestral Burkholderia thailandensis-like flagellum and chemotaxis gene cluster, a proportion significantly lower than that reported from mainland Australia and consistent with observations of isolates from southern Papua New Guinea. A goodness-of-fit test indicated that there was geographic localization of sequence types throughout the archipelago, with the exception of Thursday Island, the economic and cultural hub of the region. Sequence types common to mainland Australia and Papua New Guinea were identified. These findings demonstrate for the first time an environmental reservoir for B. pseudomallei in the Torres Strait, and multilocus sequence typing suggests that the organism is not randomly distributed throughout this region and that seawater may provide a barrier to dispersal of the organism. Moreover, these findings support an anthropogenic dispersal hypothesis for the spread of B. pseudomallei throughout this region.     

Ultrasonic Cavitation-Enabled Treatment for Therapy of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Proof of Principle

Ultrasound myocardial cavitation-enabled treatment was applied to the SS-16^BN rat model of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy for proof of the principle underlying myocardial reduction therapy. A focused ultrasound transducer was targeted using 10-MHz imaging (10 S, GE Vivid 7) to the left ventricular wall of anesthetized rats in a warmed water bath. Pulse bursts of 4-MPa peak rarefactional pressure amplitude were intermittently triggered 1:8 heartbeats during a 10-min infusion of a microbubble suspension. Methylprednisolone was given to reduce initial inflammation, and Losartan was given to reduce fibrosis in the healing tissue. At 28 d post therapy, myocardial cavitation-enabled treatment significantly reduced the targeted wall thickness by 16.2% (p?<0.01) relative to shams, with myocardial strain rate and endocardial displacement reduced by 34% and 29%, respectively, which are sufficient for therapeutic treatment. Premature electrocardiogram complexes and plasma troponin measurements were found to identify optimal and suboptimal treatment cohorts and would aid in achieving the desired impact. With clinical translation, myocardial cavitation-enabled treatment should fill the need for a new non-invasive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy therapy option.     

Silent suicide: suicide among people not in contact with mental health services

The evidence relating postpartum mood disorder to endocrine factors is reviewed, with particular reference to thyroid hormones, progesterone, cortisol and oestrogen. The findings on non-psychotic depression and thyroid dysfunction are the most robust, but such biological changes have to be seen as interacting with psychological and social factors to produce depression. Hormone treatment trials in specific subgroups of postnatal women would enhance our understanding of aetiology