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Purpose To evaluate the momentary association between exposure to alcohol advertising and middle-school students' beliefs about alcohol in real-world settings and to explore racial/ethnic differences in this association. Methods Middle-school students (N = 588) carried handheld data collection devices for 14 days, recording their exposures to all forms of alcohol advertising during the assessment period. Students also responded to three investigator-initiated control prompts (programmed to occur randomly) on each day of the assessment period. After each exposure to advertising and at each control prompt, students reported their beliefs about alcohol. Mixed-effects regression models compared students' beliefs about alcohol between moments of exposure to alcohol advertising and control prompts. Results Students perceived the typical person their age who drinks alcohol (prototype perceptions) more favorably and perceived alcohol use as more normative at times of exposure to alcohol advertising than at times of nonexposure (i.e., at control prompts). Exposure to alcohol advertising was not associated with shifts in the perceived norms of black and Hispanic students, however, and the association between exposure and prototype perceptions was stronger among non-Hispanic students than among Hispanic students. Conclusions Exposure to alcohol advertising is associated with acute shifts in adolescents' perceptions of the typical person that drinks alcohol and the normativeness of drinking. These associations are both statistically and substantively meaningful.

This study assessed whether endothelin-1 (ET-1) helps mediate postischemic acute kidney injury (AKI) progression to chronic kidney disease (CKD). The impact(s) of potent ETA or ETB receptor-specific antagonists (Atrasentan and BQ-788, respectively) on disease progression were assessed 24 h or 2 weeks following 30 min of unilateral ischemia in CD-1 mice. Unilateral ischemia caused progressive renal ET-1 protein/mRNA increases with concomitant ETA, but not ETB, mRNA elevations. Extensive histone remodeling consistent with gene activation and increased RNA polymerase II (Pol II) binding occurred at the ET-1 gene. Unilateral ischemia produced progressive renal injury as indicated by severe histologic injury and a 40% loss of renal mass. Pre- and post-ischemia or just postischemic treatment with Atrasentan conferred dramatic protective effects such as decreased tubule/microvascular injury, normalized tissue lactate, and total preservation of renal mass. Nuclear KI-67 staining was not increased by Atrasentan, implying that increased tubule proliferation was not involved. Conversely, ETB blockade had no protective effect. Thus, our findings provide the first evidence that ET-1 operating through ETA can have a critical role in ischemic AKI progression to CKD. Blockade of ETA provided dramatic protection, indicating the functional significance of these results.

A growing literature on adolescent drug treatment interventions demonstrates the efficacy of “research therapies,” but few rigorous studies examine the effectiveness of community-based treatments that are more commonly available to and utilized by youths and their families, the criminal justice system and other referring agencies. Even less is known about the long term effects of these community based treatments. This study evaluates the effects 72 to 102 months after intake to a widely disseminated community based treatment model, residential therapeutic community treatment, using data from RAND's Adolescent Outcomes Project. Weighting is used to control for pre-existing differences between adolescent probationers disposed to Phoenix Academy and those assigned to one of six alternative group homes serving as the comparison conditions. Although Phoenix Academy therapeutic community treatment had positive effects on substance use and psychological functioning during the first 12 months following intake, we find no evidence of positive long term effects on 16 outcomes measuring substance use and problems, criminal activity, institutionalization, psychological functioning and general functioning; but there is a significant negative effect for property crimes. We discuss the implications of these findings and the failure to maintain the effects observed in during the first year follow-up.