The 'Outcome Reporting in Brief Intervention Trials: Alcohol' (ORBITAL) framework: protocol to determine a core outcome set for efficacy and effectiveness trials of alcohol screening and brief intervention.

BACKGROUND: The evidence base to assess the efficacy and effectiveness of alcohol brief interventions (ABI) is weakened by variation in the outcomes measured and by inconsistent reporting. The 'Outcome Reporting in Brief Intervention Trials: Alcohol' (ORBITAL) project aims to develop a core outcome set (COS) and reporting guidance for its use in future trials of ABI in a range of settings. METHODS/DESIGN: An international Special Interest Group was convened through INEBRIA (International Network on Brief Interventions for Alcohol and Other Drugs) to inform the development of a COS for trials of ABI. ORBITAL will incorporate a systematic review to map outcomes used in efficacy and effectiveness trials of ABI and their measurement properties, using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) criteria. This will support a multi-round Delphi study to prioritise outcomes. Delphi panellists will be drawn from a range of settings and stakeholder groups, and the Delphi study will also be used to determine if a single COS is relevant for all settings. A consensus meeting with key stakeholder representation will determine the final COS and associated guidance for its use in trials of ABI. DISCUSSION: ORBITAL will develop a COS for alcohol screening and brief intervention trials, with outcomes stratified into domains and guidance on outcome measurement instruments. The standardisation of ABI outcomes and their measurement will support the ongoing development of ABI studies and a systematic synthesis of emerging research findings. We will track the extent to which the COS delivers on this promise through an exploration of the use of the guidance in the decade following COS publication.

Impact of ecosystem management on microbial community level physiological profiles of postmining forest rehabilitation.

We investigated the impacts of forest thinning, prescribed fire, and contour ripping on community level physiological profiles (CLPP) of the soil microbial population in postmining forest rehabilitation. We hypothesized that these management practices would affect CLPP via an influence on the quality and quantity of soil organic matter. The study site was an area of Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata Donn ex Sm.) forest rehabilitation that had been mined for bauxite 12 years previously. Three replicate plots (20 x 20 m) were established in nontreated forest and in forest thinned from 3,000-8,000 stems ha(-1) to 600-800 stems ha(-1) in April (autumn) of 2003, followed either by a prescribed fire in September (spring) of 2003 or left nonburned. Soil samples were collected in August 2004 from two soil depths (0-5 cm and 5-10 cm) and from within mounds and furrows caused by postmining contour ripping. CLPP were not affected by prescribed fire, although the soil pH and organic carbon (C), total C and total nitrogen (N) contents were greater in burned compared with nonburned plots, and the coarse and fine litter mass lower. However, CLPP were affected by forest thinning, as were fine litter mass, soil C/N ratio, and soil pH, which were all higher in thinned than nonthinned plots. Furrow soil had greater coarse and fine litter mass, and inorganic phosphorous (P), organic P, organic C, total C, total N, ammonium, microbial biomass C contents, but lower soil pH and soil C/N ratio than mound soil. Soil pH, inorganic P, organic P, organic C, total C and N, ammonium, and microbial biomass C contents also decreased with depth, whereas soil C/N ratio increased. Differences in CLPP were largely (94%) associated with the relative utilization of gluconic, malic (greater in nonthinned than thinned soil and mound than furrow soil), L-tartaric, succinic, and uric acids (greater in thinned than nonthinned, mound than furrow, and 5-10 cm than 0-5 cm soil). The relative utilization of amino acids also tended to increase with increasing soil total C and organic C contents but decreased with increasing nitrate content, whereas the opposite was true for carboxylic acids. Only 45% of the variance in CLPP was explained using a multivariate multiple regression model, but soil C and N pools and litter mass were significant predictors of CLPP. Differences in soil textural components between treatments were also correlated with CLPP; likely causes of these differences are discussed. Our results suggest that 1 year after treatment, CLPP from this mined forest ecosystem are resilient to a spring prescribed fire but not forest thinning. We conclude that differences in CLPP are likely to result from complex interactions among soil properties that mediate substrate availability, microbial nutrient demand, and microbial community composition.

Effects of the dopaminergic agent and NMDA receptor antagonist amantadine on cognitive function, cerebral glucose metabolism and D2 receptor availability in chronic traumatic brain injury: a study using positron emission tomography (PET).

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to assess effects of amantadine (AMH), a dopaminergic agent and NMDA antagonist, on chronic traumatic brain injury (TBI). The primary hypotheses were that amantadine treatment would result in executive function improvement and increased activity in pre-frontal cortex. RESEARCH DESIGN: An open-label design was used. METHODS: Twenty-two subjects underwent neuropsychological testing pre- and post-12 week treatment. Six subjects also underwent PET scanning. INTERVENTION: Amantadine 400 mg was administered per day. RESULTS: Significant improvements on tests of executive function were observed with treatment. Analysis of PET data demonstrated a significant increase in left pre-frontal cortex glucose metabolism. There was a significant positive correlation between executive domain scores and left pre-frontal glucose metabolism. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first known study to assess amantadine in chronic TBI using PET and the data are consistent with the hypotheses. The conduction of further studies is warranted.

Psychological reactance: factor structure and internal consistency of the Questionnaire for the Measurement of Psychological Reactance.

Psychological reactance, the theory that people resist attempts to constrain either their thoughts or their behaviors (J. W. Brehm, 1966), has been an influential concept in social psychology. In an attempt to measure reactance, J. Merz (1983) developed the Questionnaire for the Measurement of Psychological Reactance (QMPR). Subsequent researchers (S.-M. Hong & R. Ostini, 1989; R. K. Tucker & P. Y. Byers, 1987) have debated both the exact factor structure and the psychometric stability of the QMPR. In the present study, 898 undergraduates completed the QMPR. Factor analysis suggested that psychological reactance is multidimensional. The authors found 3 factors underlying the QMPR, but the QMPR provided unreliable estimates for each of those factors. According to the results, the QMPR as currently written is psychometrically unsatisfactory.