Psychological intimate partner violence (P-IPV) refers to verbal abuse from one partner to another and abuse of power or control from one partner to another. To date, no studies have examined the longitudinal course of P-IPV exposure among mothers or the effect that witnessing P-IPV can have on their children. Using latent class growth analysis, the current study identified five trajectory groups with the following intercept and growth characteristics: low stable, low-increasing, moderate-decreasing, high-decreasing, and consistently elevated. Membership in the four groups characterized by higher P-IPV exposure was predicted by maternal race and exposure to physical abuse. The children of mothers in the low-increasing and consistently elevated groups had elevated scores on the Internalizing and Externalizing scales of the Childhood Behavior Checklist. These findings remained after controlling for child sex, race, cumulative trauma exposure, and maternal depression.

Food allergies (FAs) in children are increasingly common, and strict allergen avoidance and safety concerns place parents at risk for anxiety (Lau et al. in Pediatr Allergy Immunol 25:236-242, 2014). Assessing parental anxiety with generic instruments may not capture the unique experience of parents managing children's FAs. This study developed and preliminarily validated the 13-item Worry About Food Allergy (WAFA) questionnaire, a measure of FA-specific parental anxiety, in an online sample of 265 parents aged 22-66 (M = 40.25) of children with FAs. The WAFA showed good internal reliability (Cronbach's α = .89) and moderate convergent validity with other anxiety measures, indicating support for a reliable measure of a discrete, specific construct. Exploratory factor analysis indicated a single factor structure. Criterion validity was established through significant, small, positive correlations with relevant allergy variables. A coherent single factor measure, the WAFA, shows promise as a screening tool for parental anxiety in pediatric practice and FA management. Keywords Parental anxiety • Pediatric food allergy • Assessment • Measure developmentRecent prevalence rates for pediatric food allergy (FA) are estimated to be approximately 9% (Gupta et al., 2017), with 38.7% of children having a history of severe reactions (Gupta et al., 2011). Food allergy reactions can be life-threatening: In the US, every three minutes someone is sent to the emergency room due to a food allergy reaction (Clark, Espinola, Rudders, Banerji, & Camargo, 2011). The current management strategy for childhood food allergy is strict avoidance of the allergen, monitoring for cross contamination, carrying an epinephrine auto-injector, and yearly visits to the child's physician (Longo, Berti, Burks, Krauss, & Barbi, 2013). Although there is increasing focus on development of novel therapies such as allergen immunotherapy, which involves repeated exposure to increasing doses of the antigen (Burks, Laubach, & Jones, 2008), a recent analysis indicated risk for adverse reactions (Nurmatov et al., 2017), and long-term effects remain uncertain. As such, current practice in FA management generally remains focused on strict avoidance and preparation for a reaction.

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Background: A study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that patients respond better to lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) if their emphysema is confluent and predominantly located in the upper lobes. Methods: A density mask analysis was used to identify voxels inflated beyond 10.2 ml gas/g tissue (-910 HU) on preoperative and postoperative CT scans from patients receiving LVRS. These hyperinflated regions were considered to represent emphysematous lesions. A power law analysis was used to determine the relationship between the number (K) and size (A) of the emphysematous lesions in the whole lung and two anatomical regions using the power law equation Y=KA -D . Results: The analysis showed a positive correlation between the change in the power law exponent (D) and the change in exercise (Watts) after surgery (r=0.47, p=0.03). There was also a negative correlation between the power law exponent D in the upper region of the lung preoperatively and the change in exercise following surgery (r=-0.60, p<0.05). Conclusions: These results confirm that patients with large upper lobe lesions respond better to LVRS than patients with small uniformly distributed disease. Power law analysis of lung CT scans provides a quantitative method for determining the extent and location of emphysema within the lungs of patients with COPD.