Purpose We evaluate the efficacy of a short family intervention in reducing sexual risk behavior, drug use, and delinquent behaviors among homeless youth. Methods A randomized controlled trial of 151 families with a homeless adolescent aged 12 to 17 years. Adolescents were recruited from diverse sites in southern California from March 2006 through June 2009 and assessed at recruitment (baseline), 3, 6, and 12 months later. Families were randomly assigned to an intervention condition with five weekly home-based intervention sessions or a control condition (standard care). Main outcome measures reflect self-reported sexual, substance use and delinquent behaviors over the last 90 days. Results Sexual risk (e.g., mean number of partners) (p < .001), alcohol use (p = .003), hard drug use (p < .001), and delinquent behaviors (p = .001) decreased significantly more over 12 months in the intervention condition compared to the control condition. Marijuana use, however, significantly increased in the intervention condition compared to the control condition (p < .001). Conclusion An intervention to re-engage families of homeless youth has significant benefits in reducing risk over 12 months.

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring was used to investigate the cardiovascular correlates of naturally occurring interpersonal interactions. Participants were New York City traffic agents, who routinely engage in conflict-prone communication with the public under relatively fixed conditions. Talking with the public, supervisors, or coworkers was associated with levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate that exceeded a resting baseline. Blood pressure was higher when agents were talking to the public than when they were talking to coworkers or engaged in a noncommunicative work task. Systolic blood pressure response during communication was associated with the agent's mood. Blood pressure effects associated with communication appear to persist after the communication has ceased. Implications of these data for the reactivity hypothesis of the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease are discussed.

We present extensive multi-frequency VLA and VLBA observations of the radio-bright supernova (SN) IIb SN 2004C that span ∼40-2793 days post-explosion. We interpret the temporal evolution of the radio spectral energy distribution (SED) in the context of synchrotron self-absorbed (SSA) emission from the explosion's forward shock as it expands in the circumstellar medium (CSM) previously sculpted by the mass-loss history of the stellar progenitor. VLBA observations and modeling of the VLA data point to a blastwave with average velocity ∼ 0.06c that carries an energy of ≈10 49 erg. Our modeling further reveals a flat CSM density profile ρ CSM ∝R −0.03 ± 0.22 up to a break radius R br ≈(1.96 ± 0.10) × 10 16 cm, with a steep density gradient following ρ CSM ∝R −2.3 ± 0.5 at larger radii. We infer that the flat part of the density profile corresponds to a CSM shell with mass ∼0.021 M , and that the progenitor's effective mass-loss rate varied with time over the range (50 − 500) × 10 −5 M yr −1 for an adopted wind velocity v w =1000 km s −1 and shock microphysical parameters e = 0.1, B = 0.01. These results add to the mounting observational evidence for departures from the traditional single-wind mass-loss scenarios in evolved, massive stars in the centuries leading up to core collapse. Potentially viable scenarios include mass loss powered by gravity waves and/or interaction with a binary companion.

investigations to identify missed opportunities to prevent each death under review and recommend strategies to prevent future deaths. Investments in the CDR system to date have prioritized building the system and expanding participation. Attention to implementation to identify best processes and practices is now needed. Methods/Approach We conducted in-depth interviews with 19 CDR team coordinators to understand how their teams are organized, the process for reviewing a death and issuing prevention recommendations, and how the recommendations are used to impact child death in their jurisdictions. Results Respondents stressed the importance of relationships with their internal and external partner organizations. Strong relationships facilitate data sharing, CDR team participation, and being able to have an impact on the community. Some respondents were challenged to articulate how CDR has impacted child death in their communities. While almost everyone stated that there had been a decline in child deaths over the years, few respondents could quantify how or point to an example where the results of the CDR meetings prevented child injury and rarely reported being engaged in translating the recommendations into action. Conclusions CDR teams provide a strong foundation for identifying local vulnerabilities for child injury and death, but lack resources to act on recommendations. Significance New strategies are needed to help bridge the gap between the work of CDR teams and injury prevention policy and practice.