University of Alabama

About: University of Alabama is a education organization based out in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 27323 authors who have published 48609 publications receiving 1565337 citations. The organization is also known as: Alabama & Bama.

Dual-chamber pacing or ventricular backup pacing in patients with an implantable defibrillator: the Dual Chamber and VVI Implantable Defibrillator (DAVID) Trial.

Abstract: CONTEXT: Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy with backup ventricular pacing increases survival in patients with life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. Most currently implanted ICD devices provide dual-chamber pacing therapy. The most common comorbid cause for mortality in this population is congestive heart failure. OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy of dual-chamber pacing compared with backup ventricular pacing in patients with standard indications for ICD implantation but without indications for antibradycardia pacing. DESIGN: The Dual Chamber and VVI Implantable Defibrillator (DAVID) Trial, a single-blind, parallel-group, randomized clinical trial. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A total of 506 patients with indications for ICD therapy were enrolled between October 2000 and September 2002 at 37 US centers. All patients had a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of 40% or less, no indication for antibradycardia pacemaker therapy, and no persistent atrial arrhythmias. INTERVENTIONS: All patients had an ICD with dual-chamber, rate-responsive pacing capability implanted. Patients were randomly assigned to have the ICDs programmed to ventricular backup pacing at 40/min (VVI-40; n = 256) or dual-chamber rate-responsive pacing at 70/min (DDDR-70; n = 250). Maximal tolerated medical therapy for left ventricular dysfunction, including angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and beta-blockers, was prescribed to all patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Composite end point of time to death or first hospitalization for congestive heart failure. RESULTS: One-year survival free of the composite end point was 83.9% for patients treated with VVI-40 compared with 73.3% for patients treated with DDDR-70 (relative hazard, 1.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06-2.44). The components of the composite end point, mortality of 6.5% for VVI-40 vs 10.1% for DDDR-70 (relative hazard, 1.61; 95% CI, 0.84-3.09) and hospitalization for congestive heart failure of 13.3% for VVI-40 vs 22.6% for DDDR-70 (relative hazard, 1.54; 95% CI, 0.97-2.46), also trended in favor of VVI-40 programming. CONCLUSION: For patients with standard indications for ICD therapy, no indication for cardiac pacing, and an LVEF of 40% or less, dual-chamber pacing offers no clinical advantage over ventricular backup pacing and may be detrimental by increasing the combined end point of death or hospitalization for heart failure.

A meta-analysis of research on protection motivation theory.

Abstract: This article reports the first meta-analysis of the literature on protection motivation theory (Rogers, 1975, 1983; Rogers & Prentice-Dunn, 1997), a model of disease prevention and health promotion that has generated research for over two decades. The literature review included 65 relevant studies (N= approximately 30,000) that represented over 20 health issues. The mean overall effect size (d+= 0.52) was of moderate magnitude. In general, increases in threat severity, threat vulnerability, response efficacy, and self-efficacy facilitated adaptive intentions or behaviors. Conversely, decreases in maladaptive response rewards and adaptive response costs increased adaptive intentions or behaviors. This held true whether the measures were based on intentions or behaviors, and suggests that PMT components may be useful for individual and community interventions.

Identification of two classes of gamma-ray bursts

Abstract: We have studied the duration distribution of the gamma-ray bursts of the first BATSE catalog. We find a bimodality in the distribution, which separates GRBs into two classes: short events (less than 2 s) and longer ones (more than 2 s). Both sets are distributed isotropically and inhomogeneously in the sky. We find that their durations are anticorrelated with their spectral hardness ratios: short GRBs are predominantly harder, and longer ones tend to be softer. Our results provide a first GRB classification scheme based on a combination of the GRB temporal and spectral properties.

Conservation of Resources in the Organizational Context: The Reality of Resources and Their Consequences

Abstract: Over the past 30 years, conservation of resources (COR) theory has become one of the most widely cited theories in organizational psychology and organizational behavior. COR theory has been adopted across the many areas of the stress spectrum, from burnout to traumatic stress. Further attesting to the theory's centrality, COR theory is largely the basis for the more work-specific leading theory of organizational stress, namely the job demands-resources model. One of the major advantages of COR theory is its ability to make a wide range of specific hypotheses that are much broader than those offered by theories that focus on a single central resource, such as control, or that speak about resources in general. In this article, we will revisit the principles and corollaries of COR theory that inform those more specific hypotheses and will review research in organizational behavior that has relied on the theory.

Media effects : advances in theory and research

Abstract: Contents: Preface. M. McCombs, A. Reynolds, News Influence on Our Pictures of the World. D. Zillmann, Exemplification Theory of Media Influence. G. Gerbner, L. Gross, M. Morgan, N. Signorielli, J. Shanahan, Growing up With Television: Cultivation Processes. L.J. Shrum, Media Consumption and Perceptions of Social Reality: Effects and Underlying Processes. D.R. Roskos-Ewoldsen, B. Roskos-Ewoldsen, F.R.D. Carpentier, Media Priming: A Synthesis. A. Bandura, Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication. R.E. Petty, J.R. Priester, P. Brinol, Mass Media Attitude Change: Implications of the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion. E.M. Rogers, Intermedia Processes and Powerful Media Effects. D.M. McLeod, G.M. Kosicki, J.M. McLeod, Resurveying the Boundaries of Political Communication Effects. G.G. Sparks, C.W. Sparks, Effects of Media Violence. J. Cantor, Fright Reactions to Mass Media. R.J. Harris, C.L. Scott, Effects of Sex in the Media. B.S. Greenberg, D. Mastro, J.E. Brand, Minorities and the Mass Media: Television Into the 21st Century. D.W. Stewart, P. Pavlou, S. Ward, Media Influences on Marketing Communications. S.M. Fisch, Vast Wasteland or Vast Opportunity?: Effects of Educational Television on Children's Academic Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes. R.E. Rice, C.K. Atkin, Communication Campaigns: Theory, Design, Implementation, and Evaluation. J.D. Brown, K. Walsh-Childers, Effects of Media on Personal and Public Health. R.M. Perloff, The Third-Person Effect. M.B. Oliver, Individual Differences in Media Effects. A.M. Rubin, The Uses-and-Gratifications Perspective of Media Effects. J. Bryant, D. Miron, Entertainment as Media Effect. N. Mundorf, K.R. Laird, Social and Psychological Effects of Information Technologies and Other Interactive Media.