Ease Of Dissemination Research Articles

Evidence-based assessment of anxiety disorders in adults.

This article discusses issues related to the development and dissemination of evidence-based assessment strategies for anxiety disorders and associated problems. It begins with a review of the criteria that should be considered when determining whether particular assessment procedures are evidence-based. These include such factors as reliability, validity, cost-effectiveness, consumer acceptability, utility across different populations, and ease of dissemination. The importance of considering the purpose of the assessment process when deciding whether a procedure is evidence-based is emphasized. Next, the major assessment domains that are particularly important in the area of anxiety disorders (e.g., triggers for anxiety symptoms, avoidance behaviors) are reviewed. Finally, some potential obstacles to the dissemination of evidence-based assessment procedures are discussed along with suggestions for managing these obstacles.

Privacy issues in personalized medicine.

Pharmacogenomics is the emerging study of why individuals respond differently to drugs. It aims to replace the current 'one size fits all' therapeutic approach with 'personalized medicine' that will use pharmacogenomic tests to predict drug response. In a simple conceptualization, these tests challenge privacy as a result of two factors: how comprehensive is the test and how is the access to samples or digital information controlled. Point-of-care tests are likely to be limited in scope, fit seamlessly into medical records and do not raise qualitatively new ethical and privacy challenges. In order to define practically relevant pharmacogenomic predictive patterns however, large-scale clinical trials and research on human specimens will be required, resulting in large databases of genomic information. The genomic scans' magnitude, stability, implications to kin and ease of dissemination together represent a qualitatively different challenge compared to traditional, self-limited and often temporally transient medical information.

Virtual courseware for geoscience education: Virtual Earthquake and Virtual Dating

Virtual courseware developed for introductory-level, on-line geology labs is an interactive teaching/learning model that has an enormous pedagogical potential for making Web sites places where students learn by doing. Virtual Earthquake and Virtual Dating are modest examples of the `virtual courseware' paradigm. Virtual Earthquake helps students explore the techniques of how an earthquake's epicenter is located and how its Richter magnitude is determined. Virtual Dating models the theory and techniques of the radiometric age determination of rocks and minerals. Virtual courseware applications offer several advantages over traditional floppy disk or CD ROM-based courseware, the most significant being the ease of dissemination. The author's experience with bringing these two virtual applications on-line suggests that there is a need for interactive geology labs on-line and that the approach will be received with enthusiasm by the educational community. The widespread implementation and adoption of virtual courseware can bring meaningful educational content and interactivity for the geosciences that goes beyond multimedia on the World-Wide-Web.

Can line clinicians master the conceptual complexities of dialectical behavior therapy? An evaluation of a State Department of Mental Health training program

Dialectical behavior therapy for borderline personality disorder has rapidly attained wide-spread popularity, with one indication being the development of training initiatives by the Department of Mental Health within at least two States in USA. Efficacy data published by the originator of the treatment, Marsha Linehan, and her colleagues, probably accounts at least in part for this popularity. However, the complexity of DBT raises a fundamental question regarding these broader applications: can clinicians of diverse backgrounds acquire a shared and sophisticated understanding of the treatment theory? The clinical utility of a treatment rests heavily upon ease of dissemination (APA, Template for developing guidelines: Interventions for mental disorders and psychosocial aspects of physical disorders. Washington, DC: Author, 1995), and in that regard DBT — a complicated, multifaceted approach — could appear vulnerable. This vulnerability is heightened when institutional adoption involves the collaboration of numerous clinicians, who, despite occupying diverse roles, must nevertheless develop a shared understanding of the treatment. Using a detailed examination of DBT knowledge, we evaluated the conceptual mastery of 109 clinicians trained via a State Department of Mental Health initiative. Performance on the examination correlated specifically with DBT training. Prior education or background in behavior therapy accounted for little variance, indicating that clinicians occupying diverse roles acquired reasonable intellectual mastery over this complex model.

Empirically Validated Psychological Treatment: What Does It Mean in the Domain of Relationship Problems?

The concept of empirically validated treatments is an attempt to focus psychological training and practice on treatments that work. In this paper, I examine the complexities of defining the concept with reference to the treatment of relationship problems. The key criterion employed to define a treatment as empirically validated is established efficacy within controlled trials. I suggest that the criteria need to be expanded to include assessment of the variability, clinical significance, and durability of treatment effects, the relative efficacy of alternative approaches, and the ease of dissemination of treatments. Whilst few, if any, psychological treatments currently have data on whether they meet all these criteria, I suggest that setting these more ambitious criteria will direct us towards the ultimate goal of offering better psychological treatments.

Effect of Heat on Mold Spores.

Because of their wide distribution and ease of dissemination, molds always present a problem in the preparation of foodstuffs that are not to be consumed immediately. The changes produced in foods by molds are in general very undesirable. As heat is the most common way of preserving foods, it was thought desirable to know something about the thermal death times of molds. Thorn and Avery1 found that Rhizopus nigricans and Oidium lactis were killed in pasteurized milk at 54.5°C. (130.1°F.) in 30 minutes, but that most strains of Aspergillus and Penicillium resisted this temperature and were killed at 60°C. (140°F.) for 30 minutes.Since 30 minutes is the customary pasteurization time, and since this experiment was carried out mainly to study the effect of pasteurization, no tests were made at intervals more frequent than 30 minutes. Streider and McClellan2 studied the thermal relations of molds in bread. They submerged flasks containing mold suspensions in a water bath at 20° C. (68°F.). The temperature was ...