Cost-effective strategies to maintain healthy active lifestyle in aging populations are required to address the global burden of age-related diseases. ASPREE will examine whether the potential primary prevention benefits of low dose aspirin outweigh the risks in older healthy individuals. Our primary hypothesis is that daily oral 100 mg enteric-coated aspirin will extend a composite primary endpoint termed ‘disability-free life’ including onset of dementia, total mortality, or persistent disability in at least one of the Katz Activities of Daily Living in 19,000 healthy participants aged 65 years and above (‘US minorities’) and 70 years and above (non ‘US minorities’). ASPREE is a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of oral 100 mg enteric-coated acetyl salicylic acid (ASA) or matching placebo being conducted in Australian and US community settings on individuals free of dementia, disability and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. Secondary endpoints are all-cause and cause specific mortality, fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events, fatal and non-fatal cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer), dementia, mild cognitive impairment, depression, physical disability, and clinically significant bleeding. To 20 September 2013 14383 participants have been recruited. Recruitment and study completion is anticipated in July 2014 and December 2018 respectively. In contrast to other aspirin trials that have largely focused on cardiovascular endpoints, ASPREE has a unique composite primary endpoint to better capture the overall risk and benefit of aspirin to extend healthy independent lifespan in older adults in the US and Australia.

The effects of different types of music on perceived and physiological measures of stress were evaluated. Sixty undergraduate psychology students, 31 males and 29 females, rated their level of relaxation and completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) after they were told that they would be taking a stressful, mental test. Participants were randomly assigned to listen to different types of music or silence while skin temperature, frontalis muscle activity, and heart rate were recorded. Participants rated their relaxation and anxiety levels after listening to music or silence and completed the Mental Rotations Task Test. MANOVA's resulted in significant differences between groups for trait anxiety, F(57, 3) = 3.058, p =.036, and postmusic phase heart rate, F(57, 3) = 3.522, p =.021. Significant differences were also found between groups on state anxiety when trait anxiety was used as a covariate, F(57, 3) = 3.95, p =.024. The results of the research suggest that music may have an effect on the cognitive component of the stress response.

This article reviews the data related to psychosocial adjustment of young ICD recipients, postulates theories to explain potential adjustment difficulties to ICD therapy experienced by younger recipients, and suggests clinical management techniques for addressing the unique psychosocial concerns of young ICD recipients. Studies of young ICD recipients suggest that a wide range of psychosocial adjustment issues are prominent in the post-ICD implantation period and that the issues may be different from older ICD recipients. The disability-stress-coping model and the transactional-stress-coping model are postulated as explanations for the unique adjustment concerns of children and adolescents with ICDs. Social comparison theory is also applied to the concerns of young adults with ICDs such that they often lack same age peers to compare experiences with cardiac difficulties. Brief, clinic-based interventions by health care providers, like a screening and referral heuristic and an "ICD Buddy" system, are suggested to increase effective coping and decrease social isolation for young ICD recipients.

The Condom Use Self-Efficacy Scale (CUSES) was administered to 447 multicultural college students. The sample consisted of 63.5% Hispanic/Latino, 17.1% African-American, 13.7% Caucasian, 4.1% other and 1.6% Asian students. The obtained scores were subjected to a principal components factor analysis with a Varimax rotation. An item designation criteria was used and three distinct factors were extracted: (1) 'Appropriation', (2) 'Sexually Transmitted Diseases' and (3) 'Partners' Disapproval'. Comparisons to the only other published factor analysis of the CUSES are made. Implications for future research using the CUSES to design AIDS education curricula for multicultural college students are discussed.

The potent growth-promoting activity of insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II) is highly regulated during development but frequently up-regulated in tumors. Increased expression of the normally monoallelic (paternally expressed) mouse (Igf2) and human (IGF2) genes modify progression of intestinal adenoma in the Apc Min/+ mouse and correlate with a high relative risk of human colorectal cancer susceptibility, respectively. We examined the functional consequence of Igf2 allelic dosage (null, monoallelic, and biallelic) on intestinal adenoma development in the Apc Min/+ by breeding with mice with either disruption of Igf2 paternal allele or H19 maternal allele and used these models to evaluate an IGF-II-specific therapeutic intervention. Increased allelic Igf2 expression led to elongation of intestinal crypts, increased adenoma growth independent of systemic growth, and increased adenoma nuclear B-catenin staining. By introducing a transgene expressing a soluble form of the full-length IGF-II/mannose 6-phosphate receptor (sIGF2R) in the intestine, which acts as a specific inhibitor of IGF-II ligand bioavailability (ligand trap), we show rescue of the Igf2-dependent intestinal and adenoma phenotype. This evidence shows the functional potency of allelic dosage of an epigenetically regulated gene in cancer and supports the application of an IGF-II ligand-specific therapeutic intervention in colorectal cancer. (Cancer Res 2006; 66(4): 1940-8)