Increasing Parent Involvement among Head Start Families: A Randomized Control Group Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeLoatche, Kendall Jeffries; Bradley-Klug, Kathy L.; Ogg, Julia; Kromrey, Jeffrey D.; Sundman-Wheat, Ashley N.

2015-01-01

Parent involvement (PI) during preschool has been linked with strong pre-literacy skills, acquisition of mathematical skills, well-developed social skills, and positive attitudes toward school. Parents' active involvement in their children's learning is a recommended strategy in engaging families in children's education experiences. The purpose of…

Facilitating Involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous During Outpatient Treatment: A Randomized Clinical Trial

PubMed Central

Walitzer, Kimberly S.; Dermen, Kurt H.; Barrick, Christopher

2009-01-01

AIM This study evaluated two strategies to facilitate involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) – a 12-step-based directive approach and a motivational enhancement approach – during skills-focused individual treatment. DESIGN Randomized controlled trial with assessments at baseline, end of treatment, and 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after treatment. PARTICIPANTS, SETTING, and INTERVENTION 169 alcoholic outpatients (57 women) randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a directive approach to facilitating AA, a motivational enhancement approach to facilitating AA, or treatment as usual with no special emphasis on AA. MEASUREMENTS Self-report of AA meeting attendance and involvement, alcohol consumption (percent days abstinent, percent days heavy drinking), and negative alcohol consequences. FINDINGS Participants exposed to the 12-step directive condition for facilitating AA involvement reported more AA meeting attendance, more evidence of active involvement in AA, and a higher percent days abstinent relative to participants in the treatment-as-usual comparison group. Evidence suggested also that the effect of the directive strategy on abstinent days was partially mediated through AA involvement. The motivational enhancement approach to facilitating AA had no effect on outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that treatment providers can use a 12-step-based directive approach to effectively facilitate involvement in AA and thereby improve client outcome. PMID:19207347

Using Cluster Bootstrapping to Analyze Nested Data with a Few Clusters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Francis L.

2018-01-01

Cluster randomized trials involving participants nested within intact treatment and control groups are commonly performed in various educational, psychological, and biomedical studies. However, recruiting and retaining intact groups present various practical, financial, and logistical challenges to evaluators and often, cluster randomized trials…

The Random Forests Statistical Technique: An Examination of Its Value for the Study of Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matsuki, Kazunaga; Kuperman, Victor; Van Dyke, Julie A.

2016-01-01

Studies investigating individual differences in reading ability often involve data sets containing a large number of collinear predictors and a small number of observations. In this article, we discuss the method of Random Forests and demonstrate its suitability for addressing the statistical concerns raised by such data sets. The method is…

College Students and AIDS: AIDS Communication and Involvement Effects on Sexual Behavior.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Randy; McCain, Thomas

The purpose of this study was to describe college students' AIDS communication and explore the relationships between AIDS communication, involvement, and sexual behavior. A non-random sample of 334 college students was surveyed. AIDS message discrimination and multiple indicators of involvement were tested for associations with sexual behavior…

Involved-Field Radiotherapy versus Elective Nodal Irradiation in Combination with Concurrent Chemotherapy for Locally Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Prospective Randomized Study

PubMed Central

Chen, Ming; Bao, Yong; Ma, Hong-Lian; Wang, Jin; Wang, Yan; Peng, Fang; Zhou, Qi-Chao; Xie, Cong-Hua

2013-01-01

This prospective randomized study is to evaluate the locoregional failure and its impact on survival by comparing involved field radiotherapy (IFRT) with elective nodal irradiation (ENI) in combination with concurrent chemotherapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. It appears that higher dose could be delivered in IFRT arm than that in ENI arm, and IFRT did not increase the risk of initially uninvolved or isolated nodal failures. Both a tendency of improved locoregional progression-free survival and a significant increased overall survival rate are in favor of IFRT arm in this study. PMID:23762840

Active involvement and intervention in patients exposed to whiplash trauma in automobile crashes reduces costs: a randomized, controlled clinical trial and health economic evaluation.

PubMed

Rosenfeld, Mark; Seferiadis, Aris; Gunnarsson, Ronny

2006-07-15

To examine and compare the costs and consequences in a partial economic evaluation of two competing interventions in patients exposed to whiplash trauma in automobile crashes. The interventions were an active involvement and intervention using early mobilization and a standard intervention of rest, recommended short-term immobilization in a cervical collar and a cautious, gradual self-exercise program according to a leaflet. The study was randomized and controlled. The aim of the study was to compare the costs of an active involvement and intervention versus a standard intervention and to relate them to the clinical benefits in patients exposed to whiplash trauma in automobile crashes to facilitate decision-making regarding intervention and resource allocation. There is very little known about the health economic aspects of various interventions in the target treatment group of patients. Based on a prospective, randomized, clinical trial, data on clinical effectiveness and resources used for the active involvement and intervention and standard intervention were collected for a comparative analysis of the costs related to physical therapy treatment and sick leave. A cost-consequence analysis consisting of a modified cost-effectiveness analysis was used. The costs were significantly lower after 6 and 36 months with an active involvement and intervention as compared with the standard intervention. The active involvement and intervention were significantly superior in reducing experienced pain and reducing sick leave. For patients exposed to whiplash trauma in a motor vehicle collision, an active involvement and intervention were both less costly and more effective than a standard intervention.

A Model for Random Student Drug Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Judith A.; Rose, Nancy L.; Lutz, Danielle

2011-01-01

The purpose of this case study was to examine random student drug testing in one school district relevant to: (a) the perceptions of students participating in competitive extracurricular activities regarding drug use and abuse; (b) the attitudes and perceptions of parents, school staff, and community members regarding student drug involvement; (c)…

Methods for calculating confidence and credible intervals for the residual between-study variance in random effects meta-regression models

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Meta-regression is becoming increasingly used to model study level covariate effects. However this type of statistical analysis presents many difficulties and challenges. Here two methods for calculating confidence intervals for the magnitude of the residual between-study variance in random effects meta-regression models are developed. A further suggestion for calculating credible intervals using informative prior distributions for the residual between-study variance is presented. Methods Two recently proposed and, under the assumptions of the random effects model, exact methods for constructing confidence intervals for the between-study variance in random effects meta-analyses are extended to the meta-regression setting. The use of Generalised Cochran heterogeneity statistics is extended to the meta-regression setting and a Newton-Raphson procedure is developed to implement the Q profile method for meta-analysis and meta-regression. WinBUGS is used to implement informative priors for the residual between-study variance in the context of Bayesian meta-regressions. Results Results are obtained for two contrasting examples, where the first example involves a binary covariate and the second involves a continuous covariate. Intervals for the residual between-study variance are wide for both examples. Conclusions Statistical methods, and R computer software, are available to compute exact confidence intervals for the residual between-study variance under the random effects model for meta-regression. These frequentist methods are almost as easily implemented as their established counterparts for meta-analysis. Bayesian meta-regressions are also easily performed by analysts who are comfortable using WinBUGS. Estimates of the residual between-study variance in random effects meta-regressions should be routinely reported and accompanied by some measure of their uncertainty. Confidence and/or credible intervals are well-suited to this purpose. PMID:25196829

Recruitment and Retention for a Weight Loss Maintenance Trial Involving Weight Loss Prior to Randomization

PubMed Central

Grubber, J. M.; McVay, M. A.; Olsen, M. K.; Bolton, J.; Gierisch, J. M.; Taylor, S. S.; Maciejewski, M. L.; Yancy, W. S.

2016-01-01

Abstract Objective A weight loss maintenance trial involving weight loss prior to randomization is challenging to implement due to the potential for dropout and insufficient weight loss. We examined rates and correlates of non‐initiation, dropout, and insufficient weight loss during a weight loss maintenance trial. Methods The MAINTAIN trial involved a 16‐week weight loss program followed by randomization among participants losing at least 4 kg. Psychosocial measures were administered during a screening visit. Weight was obtained at the first group session and 16 weeks later to determine eligibility for randomization. Results Of 573 patients who screened as eligible, 69 failed to initiate the weight loss program. In adjusted analyses, failure to initiate was associated with lower age, lack of a support person, and less encouragement for making dietary changes. Among participants who initiated, 200 dropped out, 82 lost insufficient weight, and 222 lost sufficient weight for randomization. Compared to losing sufficient weight, dropping out was associated with younger age and tobacco use, whereas losing insufficient weight was associated with non‐White race and controlled motivation for physical activity. Conclusions Studies should be conducted to evaluate strategies to maximize recruitment and retention of subgroups that are less likely to initiate and be retained in weight loss maintenance trials. PMID:28090340

Involving patients in setting priorities for healthcare improvement: a cluster randomized trial.

PubMed

Boivin, Antoine; Lehoux, Pascale; Lacombe, Réal; Burgers, Jako; Grol, Richard

2014-02-20

Patients are increasingly seen as active partners in healthcare. While patient involvement in individual clinical decisions has been extensively studied, no trial has assessed how patients can effectively be involved in collective healthcare decisions affecting the population. The goal of this study was to test the impact of involving patients in setting healthcare improvement priorities for chronic care at the community level. Cluster randomized controlled trial. Local communities were randomized in intervention (priority setting with patient involvement) and control sites (no patient involvement). Communities in a canadian region were required to set priorities for improving chronic disease management in primary care, from a list of 37 validated quality indicators. Patients were consulted in writing, before participating in face-to-face deliberation with professionals. Professionals established priorities among themselves, without patient involvement. A total of 172 individuals from six communities participated in the study, including 83 chronic disease patients, and 89 health professionals. The primary outcome was the level of agreement between patients' and professionals' priorities. Secondary outcomes included professionals' intention to use the selected quality indicators, and the costs of patient involvement. Priorities established with patients were more aligned with core generic components of the Medical Home and Chronic Care Model, including: access to primary care, self-care support, patient participation in clinical decisions, and partnership with community organizations (p < 0.01). Priorities established by professionals alone placed more emphasis on the technical quality of single disease management. The involvement intervention fostered mutual influence between patients and professionals, which resulted in a 41% increase in agreement on common priorities (95%CI: +12% to +58%, p < 0.01). Professionals' intention to use the selected quality indicators was similar in intervention and control sites. Patient involvement increased the costs of the prioritization process by 17%, and required 10% more time to reach consensus on common priorities. Patient involvement can change priorities driving healthcare improvement at the population level. Future research should test the generalizability of these findings to other contexts, and assess its impact on patient care. The Netherlands National Trial Register #NTR2496.

Involving patients in setting priorities for healthcare improvement: a cluster randomized trial

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Patients are increasingly seen as active partners in healthcare. While patient involvement in individual clinical decisions has been extensively studied, no trial has assessed how patients can effectively be involved in collective healthcare decisions affecting the population. The goal of this study was to test the impact of involving patients in setting healthcare improvement priorities for chronic care at the community level. Methods Design: Cluster randomized controlled trial. Local communities were randomized in intervention (priority setting with patient involvement) and control sites (no patient involvement). Setting: Communities in a canadian region were required to set priorities for improving chronic disease management in primary care, from a list of 37 validated quality indicators. Intervention: Patients were consulted in writing, before participating in face-to-face deliberation with professionals. Control: Professionals established priorities among themselves, without patient involvement. Participants: A total of 172 individuals from six communities participated in the study, including 83 chronic disease patients, and 89 health professionals. Outcomes: The primary outcome was the level of agreement between patients’ and professionals’ priorities. Secondary outcomes included professionals’ intention to use the selected quality indicators, and the costs of patient involvement. Results Priorities established with patients were more aligned with core generic components of the Medical Home and Chronic Care Model, including: access to primary care, self-care support, patient participation in clinical decisions, and partnership with community organizations (p < 0.01). Priorities established by professionals alone placed more emphasis on the technical quality of single disease management. The involvement intervention fostered mutual influence between patients and professionals, which resulted in a 41% increase in agreement on common priorities (95%CI: +12% to +58%, p < 0.01). Professionals’ intention to use the selected quality indicators was similar in intervention and control sites. Patient involvement increased the costs of the prioritization process by 17%, and required 10% more time to reach consensus on common priorities. Conclusions Patient involvement can change priorities driving healthcare improvement at the population level. Future research should test the generalizability of these findings to other contexts, and assess its impact on patient care. Trial registration The Netherlands National Trial Register #NTR2496. PMID:24555508

Multilevel Analysis Methods for Partially Nested Cluster Randomized Trials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanders, Elizabeth A.

2011-01-01

This paper explores multilevel modeling approaches for 2-group randomized experiments in which a treatment condition involving clusters of individuals is compared to a control condition involving only ungrouped individuals, otherwise known as partially nested cluster randomized designs (PNCRTs). Strategies for comparing groups from a PNCRT in the…

Mentoring in Schools: An Impact Study of Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herrera, Carla; Grossman, Jean Baldwin; Kauh, Tina J.; McMaken, Jennifer

2011-01-01

This random assignment impact study of Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring involved 1,139 9- to 16-year-old students in 10 cities nationwide. Youth were randomly assigned to either a treatment group (receiving mentoring) or a control group (receiving no mentoring) and were followed for 1.5 school years. At the end of the first school…

Estimates of Intraclass Correlation for Variables Related to Behavioral HIV/STD Prevention in a Predominantly African American and Hispanic Sample of Young Women

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pals, Sherri L.; Beaty, Brenda L.; Posner, Samuel F.; Bull, Sheana S.

2009-01-01

Studies designed to evaluate HIV and STD prevention interventions often involve random assignment of groups such as neighborhoods or communities to study conditions (e.g., to intervention or control). Investigators who design group-randomized trials (GRTs) must take the expected intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) into account in sample size…

The Development of an Internet-Based Treatment for Problem Gamblers and Concerned Significant Others: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

PubMed

Nilsson, Anders; Magnusson, Kristoffer; Carlbring, Per; Andersson, Gerhard; Gumpert, Clara Hellner

2018-06-01

Problem gambling creates significant harm for the gambler and for concerned significant others (CSOs). While several studies have investigated the effects of individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for problem gambling, less is known about the effects of involving CSOs in treatment. Behavioral couples therapy (BCT) has shown promising results when working with substance use disorders by involving both the user and a CSO. This pilot study investigated BCT for problem gambling, as well as the feasibility of performing a larger scale randomized controlled trial. 36 participants, 18 gamblers and 18 CSOs, were randomized to either BCT or individual CBT for the gambler. Both interventions were Internet-delivered self-help interventions with therapist support. Both groups of gamblers improved on all outcome measures, but there were no differences between the groups. The CSOs in the BCT group lowered their scores on anxiety and depression more than the CSOs of those randomized to the individual CBT group did. The implications of the results and the feasibility of the trial are discussed.

Alcohol- and Drug-Involved Driving in the United States: Methodology for the 2007 National Roadside Survey

PubMed Central

Lacey, John H.; Kelley-Baker, Tara; Voas, Robert B.; Romano, Eduardo; Furr-Holden, C. Debra; Torres, Pedro; Berning, Amy

2013-01-01

This article describes the methodology used in the 2007 U.S. National Roadside Survey to estimate the prevalence of alcohol- and drug-impaired driving and alcohol- and drug-involved driving. This study involved randomly stopping drivers at 300 locations across the 48 continental U.S. states at sites selected through a stratified random sampling procedure. Data were collected during a 2-hour Friday daytime session at 60 locations and during 2-hour nighttime weekend periods at 240 locations. Both self-report and biological measures were taken. Biological measures included breath alcohol measurements from 9,413 respondents, oral fluid samples from 7,719 respondents, and blood samples from 3,276 respondents. PMID:21997324

Predictors of study completion and withdrawal in a randomized clinical trial of a pediatric diabetes adherence intervention.

PubMed

Driscoll, Kimberly A; Killian, Michael; Johnson, Suzanne Bennett; Silverstein, Janet H; Deeb, Larry C

2009-05-01

Loss of participants in randomized clinical trials threatens the validity of study findings. The purpose of this study was to determine pre-randomization predictors of study completion status throughout the course of a randomized clinical trial involving young children with type 1 diabetes and their primary caregivers. An intervention to improve adherence to the diabetes treatment regimen was delivered as part of the child's regular 3-month diabetes clinic visit. The study protocol involved 7 clinic visits across 18 months for the Immediate Treatment group and 9 clinic visits across 24 months for the Delayed Treatment group. Among those who completed the study and regardless of treatment group, participants were categorized into two groups: On-Time Completers (n=41) and Late Completers (n=39). Demographic, disease, and psychosocial characteristics of children and their primary caregivers measured prior to study randomization were tested for their association with the participants' completion status (i.e., On-Time Completers, Late Completers, or Withdrawals). Of the 108 participants, 28 (25.9%) withdrew and 80 (74.1%) completed the study. On-Time Completers (i.e., study completed within 4 months of expected date) were more likely to have private insurance and primary caregivers with some college education. Late Completers (i.e., study completion took longer than 4 months) were more likely to be boys and to have primary caregivers who reported mild to moderate levels of depression. Children who subsequently withdrew from the study reported poorer diabetes-related quality of life and poorer school-related quality of life at study inception and were more likely to have primary caregivers who did not work outside the home. Pre-randomization screening of participants on both demographic and psychological variables may help identify those at greatest risk for study withdrawal or poor study protocol adherence, permitting the investigators to develop retention strategies aimed at this high-risk group.

Mothers' different styles of involvement in preterm infant pain care.

PubMed

Axelin, Anna; Lehtonen, Liisa; Pelander, Tiina; Salanterä, Sanna

2010-01-01

To describe and understand how mothers utilize the opportunity to actively participate in their preterm infants' pain care using facilitated tucking by parents (FTP). Descriptive and exploratory study with postintervention interview. Finnish level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Twenty-three mothers who had preterm infants born at gestational ages of 32 to 34 weeks. The parents (N=45) of 29 preterm infants were taught to use FTP. In addition, all nurses in the NICU (N=76) received the same education to support the parents' use of FTP. After 2 to 4 weeks of FTP use, the mothers (n=23) were interviewed using the Clinical Interview for Parents of High-Risk Infants with additional questions related to the infants' pain care. The interviews were analyzed inductively with cross-case analysis and deductively with a previously developed coding scheme. Facilitated tucking by parents was perceived positively and was used by all participating mothers. Three different styles of involvement in preterm infants' pain care with FTP were identified. They formed a continuum from external to random and finally to internalized involvement. In external involvement, the pain care with FTP was triggered by outside factors such as nurses, whereas in random and internalized involvement the motivation emerged from a parent. Mothers with external involvement thought that any person could apply the FTP. In random involvement, mothers were mainly absent during painful procedures, although they saw themselves as the best caregivers. In internalized involvement, the responsibility for infant pain care was shared within the family. Mothers' NICU-related stress and maternal attachment were associated with this variation. This study showed that mothers' are willing to actively participate in their preterm infants' pain care. However, the participation is unique according to mother and her experiences before and during NICU admission. Nurses need to consider these differences in mothers when involving them in preterm infants' pain care.

Cluster-randomized Studies in Educational Research: Principles and Methodological Aspects.

PubMed

Dreyhaupt, Jens; Mayer, Benjamin; Keis, Oliver; Öchsner, Wolfgang; Muche, Rainer

2017-01-01

An increasing number of studies are being performed in educational research to evaluate new teaching methods and approaches. These studies could be performed more efficiently and deliver more convincing results if they more strictly applied and complied with recognized standards of scientific studies. Such an approach could substantially increase the quality in particular of prospective, two-arm (intervention) studies that aim to compare two different teaching methods. A key standard in such studies is randomization, which can minimize systematic bias in study findings; such bias may result if the two study arms are not structurally equivalent. If possible, educational research studies should also achieve this standard, although this is not yet generally the case. Some difficulties and concerns exist, particularly regarding organizational and methodological aspects. An important point to consider in educational research studies is that usually individuals cannot be randomized, because of the teaching situation, and instead whole groups have to be randomized (so-called "cluster randomization"). Compared with studies with individual randomization, studies with cluster randomization normally require (significantly) larger sample sizes and more complex methods for calculating sample size. Furthermore, cluster-randomized studies require more complex methods for statistical analysis. The consequence of the above is that a competent expert with respective special knowledge needs to be involved in all phases of cluster-randomized studies. Studies to evaluate new teaching methods need to make greater use of randomization in order to achieve scientifically convincing results. Therefore, in this article we describe the general principles of cluster randomization and how to implement these principles, and we also outline practical aspects of using cluster randomization in prospective, two-arm comparative educational research studies.

Predictive Factors in Undergraduates' Involvement in Campus Secret Cults in Public Universities in Edo State of Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azetta Arhedo, Philip; Aluede, Oyaziwo; Adomeh, Ilu O. C.

2011-01-01

This study examined the predictive factors in undergraduates' involvement in campus secret cults in public universities in Edo State of Nigeria. The study employed the descriptive method, specifically the survey format. A random sample of three hundred and eighty (380) undergraduates was drawn from the two public universities. Data were elicited…

Predicting bending stiffness of randomly oriented hybrid panels

Treesearch

Laura Moya; William T.Y. Tze; Jerrold E. Winandy

2010-01-01

This study was conducted to develop a simple model to predict the bending modulus of elasticity (MOE) of randomly oriented hybrid panels. The modeling process involved three modules: the behavior of a single layer was computed by applying micromechanics equations, layer properties were adjusted for densification effects, and the entire panel was modeled as a three-...

An analysis of the effect of funding source in randomized clinical trials of second generation antipsychotics for the treatment of schizophrenia.

PubMed

Montgomery, John H; Byerly, Matthew; Carmody, Thomas; Li, Baitao; Miller, Daniel R; Varghese, Femina; Holland, Rhiannon

2004-12-01

The effect of funding source on the outcome of randomized controlled trials has been investigated in several medical disciplines; however, psychiatry has been largely excluded from such analyses. In this article, randomized controlled trials of second generation antipsychotics in schizophrenia are reviewed and analyzed with respect to funding source (industry vs. non-industry funding). A literature search was conducted for randomized, double-blind trials in which at least one of the tested treatments was a second generation antipsychotic. In each study, design quality and study outcome were assessed quantitatively according to rating scales. Mean quality and outcome scores were compared in the industry-funded studies and non-industry-funded studies. An analysis of the primary author's affiliation with industry was similarly performed. Results of industry-funded studies significantly favored second generation over first generation antipsychotics when compared to non-industry-funded studies. Non-industry-funded studies showed a trend toward higher quality than industry-funded studies; however, the difference between the two was not significant. Also, within the industry-funded studies, outcomes of trials involving first authors employed by industry sponsors demonstrated a trend toward second generation over first generation antipsychotics to a greater degree than did trials involving first authors employed outside the industry (p=0.05). While the retrospective design of the study limits the strength of the findings, the data suggest that industry bias may occur in randomized controlled trials in schizophrenia. There appears to be several sources by which bias may enter clinical research, including trial design, control of data analysis and multiplicity/redundancy of trials.

Parent Involvement Intervention in Developing Weight Management Skills for both Parents and Overweight/Obese Children.

PubMed

Kim, Hee Soon; Park, Jiyoung; Park, Kye-Yeong; Lee, Myung-Nam; Ham, Ok Kyung

2016-03-01

The purpose of the study was to evaluate a parent involvement intervention for childhood obesity intended to increase parents' skills in managing children's weight-related behavior and to improve child-parent relationships. Many studies reported on parental influence on childhood obesity, emphasizing parent involvement in prevention and management of childhood obesity. A randomized controlled trial was conducted. Forty-two parents of overweight/obese children were recruited from four cities and randomized to the experimental group or control group. The parental intervention was provided only to parents in the experimental group and consisted of weekly newsletters and text messages for a period of 5 weeks. Exercise classes and nutrition education were provided to all children. Lifestyle Behaviour Checklist and the Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS) were used for measurement of parent outcome. For the child outcome, dietary self-efficacy, exercise frequency, and body mass index were measured. A mixed-design analysis of variance was performed with city location entered as a random effect. After the intervention, CPRS of parents and dietary self-efficacy of children showed an increase in the experimental group (p < .05). Intervention effects differed significantly according to the city location regarding the control efficacy of parents and dietary self-efficacy of children (p < .05). The results support the effectiveness of the parent involvement intervention in promoting child-parent relationship and dietary self-efficacy of children. However, a 5-week parent involvement intervention was not sufficient to produce significant changes in children's body mass index. Further research is needed to investigate effects of parent involvement intervention with long-term evaluation. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Cluster-randomized Studies in Educational Research: Principles and Methodological Aspects

PubMed Central

Dreyhaupt, Jens; Mayer, Benjamin; Keis, Oliver; Öchsner, Wolfgang; Muche, Rainer

2017-01-01

An increasing number of studies are being performed in educational research to evaluate new teaching methods and approaches. These studies could be performed more efficiently and deliver more convincing results if they more strictly applied and complied with recognized standards of scientific studies. Such an approach could substantially increase the quality in particular of prospective, two-arm (intervention) studies that aim to compare two different teaching methods. A key standard in such studies is randomization, which can minimize systematic bias in study findings; such bias may result if the two study arms are not structurally equivalent. If possible, educational research studies should also achieve this standard, although this is not yet generally the case. Some difficulties and concerns exist, particularly regarding organizational and methodological aspects. An important point to consider in educational research studies is that usually individuals cannot be randomized, because of the teaching situation, and instead whole groups have to be randomized (so-called “cluster randomization”). Compared with studies with individual randomization, studies with cluster randomization normally require (significantly) larger sample sizes and more complex methods for calculating sample size. Furthermore, cluster-randomized studies require more complex methods for statistical analysis. The consequence of the above is that a competent expert with respective special knowledge needs to be involved in all phases of cluster-randomized studies. Studies to evaluate new teaching methods need to make greater use of randomization in order to achieve scientifically convincing results. Therefore, in this article we describe the general principles of cluster randomization and how to implement these principles, and we also outline practical aspects of using cluster randomization in prospective, two-arm comparative educational research studies. PMID:28584874

Impact of Incredible Years® on teacher perceptions of parental involvement: A latent transition analysis.

PubMed

Thompson, Aaron M; Herman, Keith C; Stormont, Melissa A; Reinke, Wendy M; Webster-Stratton, Carolyn

2017-06-01

The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of the Incredible Years® Teacher Classroom Management (IY TCM) training on teacher perceptions of parental involvement. A cluster randomized design was used to assign 42 classroom teachers to either an IY TCM training (n=19) or a control condition (n=23). Teachers rated parental involvement (i.e., bonding with teacher, parental involvement at school) for the families of 805 low income students (IY TCM=504, control=301). A latent profile transition analysis framework was used to model the effect of IY TCM on teacher perceptions of parental involvement from pre to posttest. Four profiles consisting of various patterns of high, medium, and low teacher perceptions of bonding with and involvement of parents emerged. Analyses of teacher profiles at baseline revealed teachers who felt parental involvement and bonding was low were also likely to rate students as having more externalizing behaviors, fewer social competencies, more attention deficit symptoms, and disruptive behaviors towards adults and peers compared to teachers with more adaptive profiles. Further analysis revealed that parents of teachers randomly assigned to IY TCM were more likely to transition to a more adaptive view of parental involvement at follow-up compared to teachers in the control condition. Because teacher perceptions of parental involvement may adversely impact teacher attitudes towards difficult students, findings from the present study support the promise of teacher training as an avenue for conferring protections for struggling students. Copyright © 2017 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of a 2-Year Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Intervention in Middle School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haerens, Leen; Deforche, Benedicte; Maes, Lea; Cardon, Greet; Stevens, Veerle; De Bourdeaudhuij, Ilse

2006-01-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a middle school physical activity and healthy eating intervention, including an environmental and computer-tailored component, and to investigate the effects of parental involvement. A random sample of 15 schools with seventh and eight graders was randomly assigned to one of three…

A Multicenter, Randomized Clinical Trial of a Cognitive Remediation Program for Childhood Survivors of a Pediatric Malignancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butler, Robert W.; Copeland, Donna R.; Fairclough, Diane L.; Mulhern, Raymond K.; Katz, Ernest R.; Kazak, Anne E.; Noll, Robert B.; Patel, Sunita K.; Sahler, Olle Jane Z.

2008-01-01

Survivors of childhood cancer whose malignancy and/or treatment involved the central nervous system may demonstrate a consistent pattern of neurocognitive deficits. The present study evaluated a randomized clinical trial of the Cognitive Remediation Program (CRP). Participants were 6- to 17-year-old survivors of childhood cancer (N = 161; 35%…

Assessment Data-Informed Guidance to Individualize Kindergarten Reading Instruction: Findings from a Cluster-Randomized Control Field Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Connor, Carol M.; Folsom, Jessica S.; Greulich, Luana; Meadows, Jane; Li, Zhi

2011-01-01

The purpose of this cluster-randomized control field trial was to examine whether kindergarten teachers could learn to differentiate classroom reading instruction using Individualized Student Instruction for Kindergarten (ISI-K) and to test the efficacy of differentiation on reading outcomes. The study involved 14 schools, 23 ISI-K (n = 305…

A Randomized Clinical Trial of Methadone Maintenance for Prisoners: Prediction of Treatment Entry and Completion in Prison

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, Michael S.; Kinlock, Timothy W.; Couvillion, Kathryn A.; Schwartz, Robert P.; O'Grady, Kevin

2012-01-01

The present report is an intent-to-treat analysis involving secondary data drawn from the first randomized clinical trial of prison-initiated methadone in the United States. This study examined predictors of treatment entry and completion in prison. A sample of 211 adult male prerelease inmates with preincarceration heroin dependence were randomly…

Stereotype Threat and Women's Performance in Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marchand, Gwen C.; Taasoobshirazi, Gita

2013-01-01

Stereotype threat (ST), which involves confirming a negative stereotype about one's group, is a factor thought to contribute to the gender gap in science achievement and participation. This study involved a quasi-experiment in which 312 US high school physics students were randomly assigned, via their classroom cluster, to one of three ST…

Father Involvement in Urban Low-Income Fathers: Baseline Associations and Changes Resulting from Preventive Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rienks, Shauna L.; Wadsworth, Martha E.; Markman, Howard J.; Einhorn, Lindsey; Etter, Erica Moran

2011-01-01

This study investigates father involvement among a sample of ethnically diverse, low-income men participating in a randomized controlled trial of a 14-hour relationship education program that teaches skills and principles for healthy relationships. Utilizing data from 137 fathers, we examined contextual, individual, and coparental relationship…

The Effectiveness of Music in Pediatric Healthcare: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

PubMed Central

Treurnicht Naylor, Karline; Kingsnorth, Shauna; Lamont, Andrea; McKeever, Patricia; Macarthur, Colin

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to systematically review the effectiveness of music on pediatric health-related outcomes. Five electronic databases were searched for randomized controlled/crossover trial designs published between 1984 and 2009. Eligible studies used music as a therapy or intervention, included participants 1 to 18 years, and focused on at least one health-related outcome (with the exclusion of procedural pain). Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria. Quantitative synthesis was hampered by an inability to aggregate data arising from heterogeneity of interventions, outcomes and measurement tools. Qualitative synthesis revealed significant improvements in one or more health outcomes within four of seven trials involving children with learning and developmental disorders; two of three trials involving children experiencing stressful life events; and four of five trials involving children with acute and/or chronic physical illness. No significant effects were found for two trials involving children with mood disorders and related psychopathology. These findings offer limited qualitative evidence to support the effectiveness of music on health-related outcomes for children and adolescents with clinical diagnoses. Recommendations for establishing a consensus on research priorities and addressing methodological limitations are put forth to support the continued advancement of this popular intervention. PMID:20976017

Parent involvement in pain management for NICU infants: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Franck, Linda S; Oulton, Kate; Nderitu, Sue; Lim, Magdalene; Fang, Swee; Kaiser, Anthony

2011-09-01

To demonstrate feasibility and estimate the effect of an intervention to increase parental involvement in infant pain management in the NICU on parents' stress and postdischarge parenting competence and confidence. The study involved a randomized controlled trial. Parents recruited from 4 NICUs were randomly assigned by site to receive (1) a pain information booklet and instruction on infant comforting techniques (n = 84 intervention) in addition to a generic NICU care booklet or (2) the generic NICU care booklet alone (n = 85 control). The primary outcome was postintervention Parent Stressor Scale: NICU (PSS:NICU) scores. Secondary outcomes included parent attitudes about infant pain, nursing pain assessment, and parenting competence and role attainment after discharge. No differences were found between groups in PSS:NICU scores. Significant differences favoring the intervention group were found for satisfaction with pain information, parents shown infant pain cues and comforting techniques, nursing pain assessment, and parent preference for involvement during painful procedures. Role attainment after discharge was higher for the intervention group than for the control group. Both the intervention and control groups highly valued attention to infant pain and wanted information and involvement. These results provide no evidence of a reduction in NICU-related stress for parents who receive an intervention to increase their understanding and involvement in infant pain management. However, parents in the intervention group were better prepared to take an active role in infant pain care and had more positive views about their role attainment in the postdischarge period.

Late outcomes of a randomized trial of high-frequency oscillation in neonates.

PubMed

Zivanovic, Sanja; Peacock, Janet; Alcazar-Paris, Mireia; Lo, Jessica W; Lunt, Alan; Marlow, Neil; Calvert, Sandy; Greenough, Anne

2014-03-20

Results from an observational study involving neonates suggested that high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV), as compared with conventional ventilation, was associated with superior small-airway function at follow-up. Data from randomized trials are needed to confirm this finding. We studied 319 adolescents who had been born before 29 weeks of gestation and had been enrolled in a multicenter, randomized trial that compared HFOV with conventional ventilation immediately after birth. The trial involved 797 neonates, of whom 592 survived to hospital discharge. We compared follow-up data from adolescents who had been randomly assigned to HFOV with follow-up data from those who had been randomly assigned to conventional ventilation, with respect to lung function and respiratory health, health-related quality of life, and functional status, as assessed with the use of questionnaires completed when the participants were 11 to 14 years of age. The primary outcome was forced expiratory flow at 75% of the expired vital capacity (FEF75). The HFOV group had superior results on a test of small-airway function (z score for FEF75, -0.97 with HFOV vs. -1.19 with conventional therapy; adjusted difference, 0.23 [95% confidence interval, 0.02 to 0.45]). There were significant differences in favor of HFOV in several other measures of respiratory function, including forced expiratory volume in 1 second, forced vital capacity, peak expiratory flow, diffusing capacity, and impulse-oscillometric findings. As compared with the conventional-therapy group, the HFOV group had significantly higher ratings from teachers in three of eight school subjects assessed, but there were no other significant differences in functional outcomes. In a randomized trial involving children who had been born extremely prematurely, those who had undergone HFOV, as compared with those who had received conventional ventilation, had superior lung function at 11 to 14 years of age, with no evidence of poorer functional outcomes. (Funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme and others.).

Risk factors for proper oral language development in children: a systematic literature review.

PubMed

Gurgel, Léia Gonçalves; Vidor, Deisi Cristina Gollo Marques; Joly, Maria Cristina Rodrigues Azevedo; Reppold, Caroline Tozzi

2014-01-01

To conduct a systematic review of literature production related to risk factors for proper oral language development in children. We used the terms "child language," "risk factors," and "randomized controlled trial" in MEDLINE (accessed via PubMed), Lilacs, SciELO, and The Cochrane Library from January 1980 to February 2014. Randomized controlled trials involving the study of some risk factors related to child language were included. Works with individuals who were not from the age group 0-12 years and presented no reliable definition of risk factors were excluded. The research findings were classified according to their theme and categorized methodological aspects. We observed the lack of a standardized list of risk factors for language available for health professionals. The main risk factor mentioned was family dynamics, followed by interaction with parents, immediate social environment, and encouragement given to the child in the first years of life. It was also observed that organic hazards such as brain injury, persistent otitis media, and cardiac surgery, besides the type of food and parental counseling, may be related to language disorders. More randomized controlled trials involving the evaluation of risk factors for child language and the creation of further studies involving children above 6 years of age and males are needed.

Intervention randomized controlled trials involving wrist and shoulder arthroscopy: a systematic review

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Although arthroscopy of upper extremity joints was initially a diagnostic tool, it is increasingly used for therapeutic interventions. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the gold standard for assessing treatment efficacy. We aimed to review the literature for intervention RCTs involving wrist and shoulder arthroscopy. Methods We performed a systematic review for RCTs in which at least one arm was an intervention performed through wrist arthroscopy or shoulder arthroscopy. PubMed and Cochrane Library databases were searched up to December 2012. Two researchers reviewed each article and recorded the condition treated, randomization method, number of randomized participants, time of randomization, outcomes measures, blinding, and description of dropouts and withdrawals. We used the modified Jadad scale that considers the randomization method, blinding, and dropouts/withdrawals; score 0 (lowest quality) to 5 (highest quality). The scores for the wrist and shoulder RCTs were compared with the Mann–Whitney test. Results The first references to both wrist and shoulder arthroscopy appeared in the late 1970s. The search found 4 wrist arthroscopy intervention RCTs (Kienböck’s disease, dorsal wrist ganglia, volar wrist ganglia, and distal radius fracture; first 3 compared arthroscopic with open surgery). The median number of participants was 45. The search found 50 shoulder arthroscopy intervention RCTs (rotator cuff tears 22, instability 14, impingement 9, and other conditions 5). Of these, 31 compared different arthroscopic treatments, 12 compared arthroscopic with open treatment, and 7 compared arthroscopic with nonoperative treatment. The median number of participants was 60. The median modified Jadad score for the wrist RCTs was 0.5 (range 0–1) and for the shoulder RCTs 3.0 (range 0–5) (p = 0.012). Conclusion Despite the increasing use of wrist arthroscopy in the treatment of various wrist disorders the efficacy of arthroscopically performed wrist interventions has been studied in only 4 randomized studies compared to 50 randomized studies of significantly higher quality assessing interventions performed through shoulder arthroscopy. PMID:25059881

Random forests and stochastic gradient boosting for predicting tree canopy cover: Comparing tuning processes and model performance

Treesearch

E. Freeman; G. Moisen; J. Coulston; B. Wilson

2014-01-01

Random forests (RF) and stochastic gradient boosting (SGB), both involving an ensemble of classification and regression trees, are compared for modeling tree canopy cover for the 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD). The objectives of this study were twofold. First, sensitivity of RF and SGB to choices in tuning parameters was explored. Second, performance of the...

Mapping Evidence-Based Treatments for Children and Adolescents: Application of the Distillation and Matching Model to 615 Treatments from 322 Randomized Trials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chorpita, Bruce F.; Daleiden, Eric L.

2009-01-01

This study applied the distillation and matching model to 322 randomized clinical trials for child mental health treatments. The model involved initial data reduction of 615 treatment protocol descriptions by means of a set of codes describing discrete clinical strategies, referred to as practice elements. Practice elements were then summarized in…

The Impact of Including Husbands in Antenatal Health Education Services on Maternal Health Practices in Urban Nepal: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mullany, Britta C.; Becker, S.; Hindin, M. J.

2007-01-01

Observational studies suggest that including men in reproductive health interventions can enhance positive health outcomes. A randomized controlled trial was designed to test the impact of involving male partners in antenatal health education on maternal health care utilization and birth preparedness in urban Nepal. In total, 442 women seeking…

Comparison of evidence on harms of medical interventions in randomized and nonrandomized studies

PubMed Central

Papanikolaou, Panagiotis N.; Christidi, Georgia D.; Ioannidis, John P.A.

2006-01-01

Background Information on major harms of medical interventions comes primarily from epidemiologic studies performed after licensing and marketing. Comparison with data from large-scale randomized trials is occasionally feasible. We compared evidence from randomized trials with that from epidemiologic studies to determine whether they give different estimates of risk for important harms of medical interventions. Methods We targeted well-defined, specific harms of various medical interventions for which data were already available from large-scale randomized trials (> 4000 subjects). Nonrandomized studies involving at least 4000 subjects addressing these same harms were retrieved through a search of MEDLINE. We compared the relative risks and absolute risk differences for specific harms in the randomized and nonrandomized studies. Results Eligible nonrandomized studies were found for 15 harms for which data were available from randomized trials addressing the same harms. Comparisons of relative risks between the study types were feasible for 13 of the 15 topics, and of absolute risk differences for 8 topics. The estimated increase in relative risk differed more than 2-fold between the randomized and nonrandomized studies for 7 (54%) of the 13 topics; the estimated increase in absolute risk differed more than 2-fold for 5 (62%) of the 8 topics. There was no clear predilection for randomized or nonrandomized studies to estimate greater relative risks, but usually (75% [6/8]) the randomized trials estimated larger absolute excess risks of harm than the nonrandomized studies did. Interpretation Nonrandomized studies are often conservative in estimating absolute risks of harms. It would be useful to compare and scrutinize the evidence on harms obtained from both randomized and nonrandomized studies. PMID:16505459

Neural correlates of cognitive improvements following cognitive remediation in schizophrenia: a systematic review of randomized trials

PubMed Central

Isaac, Clémence; Januel, Dominique

2016-01-01

Background Cognitive impairments are a core feature in schizophrenia and are linked to poor social functioning. Numerous studies have shown that cognitive remediation can enhance cognitive and functional abilities in patients with this pathology. The underlying mechanism of these behavioral improvements seems to be related to structural and functional changes in the brain. However, studies on neural correlates of such enhancement remain scarce. Objectives We explored the neural correlates of cognitive enhancement following cognitive remediation interventions in schizophrenia and the differential effect between cognitive training and other therapeutic interventions or patients’ usual care. Method We searched MEDLINE, PsycInfo, and ScienceDirect databases for studies on cognitive remediation therapy in schizophrenia that used neuroimaging techniques and a randomized design. Search terms included randomized controlled trial, cognitive remediation, cognitive training, rehabilitation, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, near infrared spectroscopy, and diffusion tensor imaging. We selected randomized controlled trials that proposed multiple sessions of cognitive training to adult patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder and assessed its efficacy with imaging techniques. Results In total, 15 reports involving 19 studies were included in the systematic review. They involved a total of 455 adult patients, 271 of whom received cognitive remediation. Cognitive remediation therapy seems to provide a neurobiological enhancing effect in schizophrenia. After therapy, increased activations are observed in various brain regions mainly in frontal – especially prefrontal – and also in occipital and anterior cingulate regions during working memory and executive tasks. Several studies provide evidence of an improved functional connectivity after cognitive training, suggesting a neuroplastic effect of therapy through mechanisms of functional reorganization. Neurocognitive and social-cognitive training may have a cumulative effect on neural networks involved in social cognition. The variety of proposed programs, imaging tasks, and techniques may explain the heterogeneity of observed neural improvements. Future studies would need to specify the effect of cognitive training depending on those variables. PMID:26993787

Exceptionality and Peer Victimization Involvement in Late Childhood: Subtypes, Stability, and Social Marginalization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chin-Chih; Hamm, Jill V.; Farmer, Thomas W.; Lambert, Kerrylin; Mehtaji, Meera

2015-01-01

This study examined subtypes and stability/change in peer victimization involvement among students with exceptionalities. Data were collected over spring of fifth grade and fall/spring of sixth grade with 1,861 students in 36 rural schools as part of a cluster randomized trial of a context-based intervention (Supporting Early Adolescent Learning…

Parental and School Bonding in Iranian Adolescent Perpetrators and Victims of Bullying

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohebbi, Mina; Mirnasab, Mirmahmoud; Wiener, Judith

2016-01-01

This study compared parental and school bonding in adolescents in Iran who are perpetrators of bullying, victims of bullying and not-involved in bullying. Secondary school students (N = 240) were selected by cluster random sampling and screening, and categorized as perpetrators of bullying (N = 80), victims of bullying (N = 80) and non-involved (N…

Dynamic probability of reinforcement for cooperation: Random game termination in the centipede game.

PubMed

Krockow, Eva M; Colman, Andrew M; Pulford, Briony D

2018-03-01

Experimental games have previously been used to study principles of human interaction. Many such games are characterized by iterated or repeated designs that model dynamic relationships, including reciprocal cooperation. To enable the study of infinite game repetitions and to avoid endgame effects of lower cooperation toward the final game round, investigators have introduced random termination rules. This study extends previous research that has focused narrowly on repeated Prisoner's Dilemma games by conducting a controlled experiment of two-player, random termination Centipede games involving probabilistic reinforcement and characterized by the longest decision sequences reported in the empirical literature to date (24 decision nodes). Specifically, we assessed mean exit points and cooperation rates, and compared the effects of four different termination rules: no random game termination, random game termination with constant termination probability, random game termination with increasing termination probability, and random game termination with decreasing termination probability. We found that although mean exit points were lower for games with shorter expected game lengths, the subjects' cooperativeness was significantly reduced only in the most extreme condition with decreasing computer termination probability and an expected game length of two decision nodes. © 2018 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

On the mixing time of geographical threshold graphs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bradonjic, Milan

In this paper, we study the mixing time of random graphs generated by the geographical threshold graph (GTG) model, a generalization of random geometric graphs (RGG). In a GTG, nodes are distributed in a Euclidean space, and edges are assigned according to a threshold function involving the distance between nodes as well as randomly chosen node weights. The motivation for analyzing this model is that many real networks (e.g., wireless networks, the Internet, etc.) need to be studied by using a 'richer' stochastic model (which in this case includes both a distance between nodes and weights on the nodes). Wemore » specifically study the mixing times of random walks on 2-dimensional GTGs near the connectivity threshold. We provide a set of criteria on the distribution of vertex weights that guarantees that the mixing time is {Theta}(n log n).« less

Enhancing the Interpretive Reading and Analytical Writing of Mainstreamed English Learners in Secondary School: Results from a Randomized Field Trial Using a Cognitive Strategies Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olson, Carol Booth; Kim, James S.; Scarcella, Robin; Kramer, Jason; Pearson, Matthew; van Dyk, David A.; Collins, Penny; Land, Robert E.

2012-01-01

In this study, 72 secondary English teachers from the Santa Ana Unified School District were randomly assigned to participate in the Pathway Project, a cognitive strategies approach to teaching interpretive reading and analytical writing, or to a control condition involving typical district training focusing on teaching content from the textbook.…

Search efficiency of biased migration towards stationary or moving targets in heterogeneously structured environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Azimzade, Youness; Mashaghi, Alireza

2017-12-01

Efficient search acts as a strong selective force in biological systems ranging from cellular populations to predator-prey systems. The search processes commonly involve finding a stationary or mobile target within a heterogeneously structured environment where obstacles limit migration. An open generic question is whether random or directionally biased motions or a combination of both provide an optimal search efficiency and how that depends on the motility and density of targets and obstacles. To address this question, we develop a simple model that involves a random walker searching for its targets in a heterogeneous medium of bond percolation square lattice and used mean first passage time (〈T 〉 ) as an indication of average search time. Our analysis reveals a dual effect of directional bias on the minimum value of 〈T 〉 . For a homogeneous medium, directionality always decreases 〈T 〉 and a pure directional migration (a ballistic motion) serves as the optimized strategy, while for a heterogeneous environment, we find that the optimized strategy involves a combination of directed and random migrations. The relative contribution of these modes is determined by the density of obstacles and motility of targets. Existence of randomness and motility of targets add to the efficiency of search. Our study reveals generic and simple rules that govern search efficiency. Our findings might find application in a number of areas including immunology, cell biology, ecology, and robotics.

Effect Sizes in Three-Level Cluster-Randomized Experiments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedges, Larry V.

2011-01-01

Research designs involving cluster randomization are becoming increasingly important in educational and behavioral research. Many of these designs involve two levels of clustering or nesting (students within classes and classes within schools). Researchers would like to compute effect size indexes based on the standardized mean difference to…

Study Protocol for a Randomized Clinical Trial of a Fatherhood Intervention for African American Non-resident Fathers: Can we Improve Father and Child Outcomes?

PubMed Central

Julion, Wrenetha A.; Sumo, Jen’nea; Bounds, Dawn T.; Breitenstein, Susan M.; Schoeny, Michael; Gross, Deborah; Fogg, Louis

2016-01-01

Purpose African American (AA) fathers who live apart from their children face multiple obstacles to consistent and positive involvement with their children. Consequently, significant numbers of children are bereft of their father’s positive involvement. Intervention research that is explicitly focused on promoting the positive involvement of non-resident AA fathers with their young children is limited. The purpose of this article is to describe the study protocol of a randomized trial (RCT) designed to test the Building Bridges to Fatherhood program against a financial literacy comparison condition; and discuss early implementation challenges. Methods Fathers (n = 180) are recruited to attend 10 group meetings, reimbursed for transportation, given dinner and activity vouchers for spending time with their child, and incentivized with a $40 gift card at each data collection time point. Mothers are incentivized ($40 gift card) at data collection and must be amenable to father child interaction. Intervention targets include father psychological well-being, parenting competence, communication, problem-solving ability; father-mother relationship quality; and child behavioral and emotional/social development. Results To date, 57 fathers have been randomized to study condition. Recruitment has been influenced by father and mother hesitancy and the logistics of reaching and maintaining contact with participants. Strategies to surmount challenges to father and mother recruitment and engagement have been developed. Conclusions The prospective benefits of positive father involvement to children, fathers and families outweigh the challenges associated with community-based intervention research. The findings from this RCT can inform the body of knowledge on engaging AA non-resident fathers in culturally relevant fatherhood programming. PMID:27241687

Study protocol for a randomized clinical trial of a fatherhood intervention for African American non-resident fathers: Can we improve father and child outcomes?

PubMed

Julion, Wrenetha A; Sumo, Jen'nea; Bounds, Dawn T; Breitenstein, Susan M; Schoeny, Michael; Gross, Deborah; Fogg, Louis

2016-07-01

African American (AA) fathers who live apart from their children face multiple obstacles to consistent and positive involvement with their children. Consequently, significant numbers of children are bereft of their father's positive involvement. Intervention research that is explicitly focused on promoting the positive involvement of non-resident AA fathers with their young children is limited. The purpose of this article is to describe the study protocol of a randomized trial (RCT) designed to test the Building Bridges to Fatherhood program against a financial literacy comparison condition; and discuss early implementation challenges. Fathers (n=180) are recruited to attend 10 group meetings, reimbursed for transportation, given dinner and activity vouchers for spending time with their child, and incentivized with a $40 gift card at each data collection time point. Mothers are incentivized ($40 gift card) at data collection and must be amenable to father child interaction. Intervention targets include father psychological well-being, parenting competence, communication, problem-solving ability; father-mother relationship quality; and child behavioral and emotional/social development. To date, 57 fathers have been randomized to study condition. Recruitment has been influenced by father and mother hesitancy and the logistics of reaching and maintaining contact with participants. Strategies to surmount challenges to father and mother recruitment and engagement have been developed. The prospective benefits of positive father involvement to children, fathers and families outweigh the challenges associated with community-based intervention research. The findings from this RCT can inform the body of knowledge on engaging AA non-resident fathers in culturally relevant fatherhood programming. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Parent-Client Participation in the Bilingual Education Program in St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Padgett, Carmen H. A.

A study of a St. Croix bilingual education program looked at parent involvement from the program's beginning to the present and at parent recommendations for more meaningful involvement. A random sample of parents representing students at all grade levels was drawn from school records. The parents were surveyed by questionnaire, and interviewed.…

The Relationship between Task-Induced Involvement Load and Learning New Words from Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nassaji, Hossein; Hu, Hsueh-chao Marcella

2012-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between task-induced involvement load and ESL learners' inferencing and learning word meanings from context. Thirty-two ESL learners were randomly assigned to one of three groups, with each group receiving a different version of a text that was assumed to differ from one another in terms of the degree of…

Pilot study of a social network intervention for heroin users in opiate substitution treatment: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Day, Edward; Copello, Alex; Seddon, Jennifer L; Christie, Marilyn; Bamber, Deborah; Powell, Charlotte; George, Sanju; Ball, Andrew; Frew, Emma; Freemantle, Nicholas

2013-08-19

Research indicates that 3% of people receiving opiate substitution treatment (OST) in the UK manage to achieve abstinence from all prescribed and illicit drugs within 3 years of commencing treatment, and there is concern that treatment services have become skilled at engaging people but not at helping them to enter a stage of recovery and drug abstinence. The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse recommends the involvement of families and wider social networks in supporting drug users' psychological treatment, and this pilot randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the impact of a social network-focused intervention for patients receiving OST. In this two-site, early phase, randomized controlled trial, a total of 120 patients receiving OST will be recruited and randomized to receive one of three treatments: 1) Brief Social Behavior and Network Therapy (B-SBNT), 2) Personal Goal Setting (PGS) or 3) treatment as usual. Randomization will take place following baseline assessment. Participants allocated to receive B-SBNT or PGS will continue to receive the same treatment that is routinely provided by drug treatment services, plus four additional sessions of either intervention. Outcomes will be assessed at baseline, 3 and 12 months. The primary outcome will be assessment of illicit heroin use, measured by both urinary analysis and self-report. Secondary outcomes involve assessment of dependence, psychological symptoms, social satisfaction, motivation to change, quality of life and therapeutic engagement. Family members (n = 120) of patients involved in the trial will also be assessed to measure the level of symptoms, coping and the impact of the addiction problem on the family member at baseline, 3 and 12 months. This study will provide experimental data regarding the feasibility and efficacy of implementing a social network intervention within routine drug treatment services in the UK National Health Service. The study will explore the impact of the intervention on both patients receiving drug treatment and their family members. ISRCTN22608399. ISRCTN22608399 registration: 27/04/2012. Date of first randomisation: 14/08/2012.

Outcomes of a brief program, REORDER, to promote consumer recovery and family involvement in care.

PubMed

Dixon, Lisa B; Glynn, Shirley M; Cohen, Amy N; Drapalski, Amy L; Medoff, Deborah; Fang, Li Juan; Potts, Wendy; Gioia, Deborah

2014-01-01

The Recovery-Oriented Decisions for Relatives' Support (REORDER) intervention is an innovative, manualized protocol utilizing shared decision-making principles with persons who have serious mental illnesses to promote recovery and encourage consideration of family involvement in care. This study compared REORDER to enhanced treatment as usual in a randomized design. Participants included 226 veterans with serious mental illness whose relatives had low rates of contact with treatment staff. REORDER involved up to three consumer sessions followed by up to three relative educational sessions if the consumer and relative consented. Individuals were assessed at baseline and six months later. Eighty-five percent of the 111 randomly assigned REORDER participants attended at least one REORDER consumer session; of those, 59% had at least one family session. REORDER participants had significantly reduced paranoid ideation and increased recovery at follow-up. Participation in REORDER led to marked increases in family participation and improved consumer outcomes.

The role of vitamin D in the prevention of late-life depression.

PubMed

Okereke, Olivia I; Singh, Ankura

2016-07-01

In this article, we review current evidence regarding potential benefits of vitamin D for improving mood and reducing depression risk in older adults. We summarize gaps in knowledge and describe future efforts that may clarify the role of vitamin D in late-life depression prevention. MEDLINE and PsychINFO databases were searched for all articles on vitamin D and mood that had been published up to and including May 2015. Observational studies and randomized trials with 50 or more participants were included. We excluded studies that involved only younger adults and/or exclusively involved persons with current depression. Twenty observational (cross-sectional and prospective) studies and 10 randomized trials (nine were randomized placebo-controlled trials [RCTs]; one was a randomized blinded comparison trial) were reviewed. Inverse associations of vitamin D blood level or vitamin D intake with depression were found in 13 observational studies; three identified prospective relations. Results from all but one of the RCTs showed no statistically significant differences in depression outcomes between vitamin D and placebo groups. Observational studies were mostly cross-sectional and frequently lacked adequate control of confounding. RCTs often featured low treatment doses, suboptimal post-intervention changes in biochemical levels of vitamin D, and/or short trial durations. Vitamin D level-mood associations were observed in most, but not all, observational studies; results indicated that vitamin D deficiency may be a risk factor for late-life depression. However, additional data from well-designed RCTs are required to determine the impact of vitamin D in late-life depression prevention. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Modern Design of Experiments for Configuration Aerodynamics: A Case Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

DeLoach, Richard

2006-01-01

The effects of slowly varying and persisting covariate effects on the accuracy and precision of experimental result is reviewed, as is the rationale for run-order randomization as a quality assurance tactic employed in the Modern Design of Experiments (MDOE) to defend against such effects. Considerable analytical complexity is introduced by restrictions on randomization in configuration aerodynamics tests because they involve hard-to-change configuration variables that cannot be randomized conveniently. Tradeoffs are examined between quality and productivity associated with varying degrees of rigor in accounting for such randomization restrictions. Certain characteristics of a configuration aerodynamics test are considered that may justify a relaxed accounting for randomization restrictions to achieve a significant reduction in analytical complexity with a comparably negligible adverse impact on the validity of the experimental results.

Spaceflight Enhances Cell Aggregation and Random Budding in Candida albicans

PubMed Central

Woolley, Christine M.; Barrila, Jennifer; Buchanan, Kent; McCracken, James; Inglis, Diane O.; Searles, Stephen C.; Nelman-Gonzalez, Mayra A.; Ott, C. Mark; Wilson, James W.; Pierson, Duane L.; Stefanyshyn-Piper, Heidemarie M.; Hyman, Linda E.; Nickerson, Cheryl A.

2013-01-01

This study presents the first global transcriptional profiling and phenotypic characterization of the major human opportunistic fungal pathogen, Candida albicans, grown in spaceflight conditions. Microarray analysis revealed that C. albicans subjected to short-term spaceflight culture differentially regulated 452 genes compared to synchronous ground controls, which represented 8.3% of the analyzed ORFs. Spaceflight-cultured C. albicans–induced genes involved in cell aggregation (similar to flocculation), which was validated by microscopic and flow cytometry analysis. We also observed enhanced random budding of spaceflight-cultured cells as opposed to bipolar budding patterns for ground samples, in accordance with the gene expression data. Furthermore, genes involved in antifungal agent and stress resistance were differentially regulated in spaceflight, including induction of ABC transporters and members of the major facilitator family, downregulation of ergosterol-encoding genes, and upregulation of genes involved in oxidative stress resistance. Finally, downregulation of genes involved in actin cytoskeleton was observed. Interestingly, the transcriptional regulator Cap1 and over 30% of the Cap1 regulon was differentially expressed in spaceflight-cultured C. albicans. A potential role for Cap1 in the spaceflight response of C. albicans is suggested, as this regulator is involved in random budding, cell aggregation, and oxidative stress resistance; all related to observed spaceflight-associated changes of C. albicans. While culture of C. albicans in microgravity potentiates a global change in gene expression that could induce a virulence-related phenotype, no increased virulence in a murine intraperitoneal (i.p.) infection model was observed under the conditions of this study. Collectively, our data represent an important basis for the assessment of the risk that commensal flora could play during human spaceflight missions. Furthermore, since the low fluid-shear environment of microgravity is relevant to physical forces encountered by pathogens during the infection process, insights gained from this study could identify novel infectious disease mechanisms, with downstream benefits for the general public. PMID:24324620

Non-random mate choice in humans: insights from a genome scan.

PubMed

Laurent, R; Toupance, B; Chaix, R

2012-02-01

Little is known about the genetic factors influencing mate choice in humans. Still, there is evidence for non-random mate choice with respect to physical traits. In addition, some studies suggest that the Major Histocompatibility Complex may affect pair formation. Nowadays, the availability of high density genomic data sets gives the opportunity to scan the genome for signatures of non-random mate choice without prior assumptions on which genes may be involved, while taking into account socio-demographic factors. Here, we performed a genome scan to detect extreme patterns of similarity or dissimilarity among spouses throughout the genome in three populations of African, European American, and Mexican origins from the HapMap 3 database. Our analyses identified genes and biological functions that may affect pair formation in humans, including genes involved in skin appearance, morphogenesis, immunity and behaviour. We found little overlap between the three populations, suggesting that the biological functions potentially influencing mate choice are population specific, in other words are culturally driven. Moreover, whenever the same functional category of genes showed a significant signal in two populations, different genes were actually involved, which suggests the possibility of evolutionary convergences. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Achieving involvement: process outcomes from a cluster randomized trial of shared decision making skill development and use of risk communication aids in general practice.

PubMed

Elwyn, G; Edwards, A; Hood, K; Robling, M; Atwell, C; Russell, I; Wensing, M; Grol, R

2004-08-01

A consulting method known as 'shared decision making' (SDM) has been described and operationalized in terms of several 'competences'. One of these competences concerns the discussion of the risks and benefits of treatment or care options-'risk communication'. Few data exist on clinicians' ability to acquire skills and implement the competences of SDM or risk communication in consultations with patients. The aims of this study were to evaluate the effects of skill development workshops for SDM and the use of risk communication aids on the process of consultations. A cluster randomized trial with crossover was carried out with the participation of 20 recently qualified GPs in urban and rural general practices in Gwent, South Wales. A total of 747 patients with known atrial fibrillation, prostatism, menorrhagia or menopausal symptoms were invited to a consultation to review their condition or treatments. Half the consultations were randomly selected for audio-taping, of which 352 patients attended and were audio-taped successfully. After baseline, participating doctors were randomized to receive training in (i) SDM skills or (ii) the use of simple risk communication aids, using simulated patients. The alternative training was then provided for the final study phase. Patients were allocated randomly to a consultation during baseline or intervention 1 (SDM or risk communication aids) or intervention 2 phases. A randomly selected half of the consultations were audio-taped from each phase. Raters (independent, trained and blinded to study phase) assessed the audio-tapes using a validated scale to assess levels of patient involvement (OPTION: observing patient involvement), and to analyse the nature of risk information discussed. Clinicians completed questionnaires after each consultation, assessing perceived clinician-patient agreement and level of patient involvement in decisions. Multilevel modelling was carried out with the OPTION score as the dependent variable, and rater, consultation and clinician levels of data, standardized by rater within clinician. Following each of the interventions, the clinicians significantly increased their involvement of patients in decision making (OPTION score increased by 10.6 following risk communication training [95% confidence interval (CI) 7.9 -13.3; P < 0.001] and by 12.9 after SDM skill development (95% CI 10 -15.8, P < 0.001), a moderate effect size. The level of involvement achieved by the risk communication aids was significantly increased by the subsequent introduction of the skill development workshops (7.7 increase in OPTION score, 95% CI 3.4-12; P < 0.001). The alternative sequence (skills followed by risk communication aids) did not achieve this effect. The use of most risk information formats increased after the provision of specific risk communication aids (P < 0.001). Clinicians using the risk communication tools perceived significantly higher patient and clinician agreement on treatment (P < 0.001), patient satisfaction with information (P < 0.01), clinician satisfaction with decision (P < 0.01) and general overall satisfaction with the consultation (P < 0.001) than those who were exposed to SDM skill development workshops. These clinicians were able to acquire the skills to implement SDM competences and to use risk communication aids. Each intervention provided independent effects. Further progress towards greater patient involvement in health care decision making is possible, and skill development in this area should be incorporated into postgraduate professional development programmes.

Perceptions of Massage Therapists Participating in a Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Perlman, Adam; Dreusicke, Mark; Keever, Teresa; Ali, Ather

2015-01-01

Background Clinical practice and randomized trials often have disparate aims, despite involving similar interventions. Attitudes and expectancies of practitioners influence patient outcomes, and there is growing emphasis on optimizing provider–patient relationships. In this study, we evaluated the experiences of licensed massage therapists involved in a randomized controlled clinical trial using qualitative methodology. Methods Seven massage therapists who were interventionists in a randomized controlled trial participated in structured interviews approximately 30 minutes in length. Interviews focused on their experiences and perceptions regarding aspects of the clinical trial, as well as recommendations for future trials. Transcribed interviews were analyzed for emergent topics and themes using standard qualitative methods. Results Six themes emerged. Therapists discussed 1) promoting the profession of massage therapy through research, 2) mixed views on using standardized protocols, 3) challenges of sham interventions, 4) participant response to the sham intervention, 5) views on scheduling and compensation, and 6) unanticipated benefits of participating in research. Conclusions Therapists largely appreciated the opportunity to promote massage through research. They demonstrated insight and understanding of the rationale for a clinical trial adhering to a standardized protocol. Evaluating the experiences and ideas of complementary and alternative medicine practitioners provides valuable insight that is relevant for the implementation and design of randomized trials. PMID:26388961

Effects of a Brief Early Start Denver Model (ESDM)-Based Parent Intervention on Toddlers at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rogers, Sally J.; Estes, Annette; Lord, Catherine; Vismara, Laurie; Winter, Jamie; Fitzpatrick, Annette; Guo, Mengye; Dawson, Geraldine

2012-01-01

Objective: This study was carried out to examine the efficacy of a 12-week, low-intensity (1-hour/wk of therapist contact), parent-delivered intervention for toddlers at risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) aged 14 to 24 months and their families. Method: A randomized controlled trial involving 98 children and families was carried out in three…

Randomized Clinical Trial of Motivational Enhancement of Substance Use Treatment among Incarcerated Adolescents: Post-Release Condom Non-Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosengard, Cynthia; Stein, L. A. R.; Barnett, Nancy P.; Monti, Peter M.; Golembeske, Charles; Lebeau-Craven, Rebecca; Miranda, Robert

2007-01-01

Evaluated impact of motivational enhancement (ME) of substance abuse treatment compared to relaxation training (RT) on sex without condoms (overall and involving substance use) 3 months following release among incarcerated adolescents. This randomized clinical trial involved 114 incarcerated adolescents from the Northeast. Regression analyses…

A Randomized Trial of Probation Case Management for Drug-Involved Women Offenders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guydish, Joseph; Chan, Monica; Bostrom, Alan; Jessup, Martha A.; Davis, Thomas B.; Marsh, Cheryl

2011-01-01

This article reports findings from a clinical trial of a probation case management (PCM) intervention for drug-involved women offenders. Participants were randomly assigned to PCM (n = 92) or standard probation (n = 91) and followed for 12 months using measures of substance abuse, psychiatric symptoms, social support, and service utilization.…

Lifestyle interventions and independence for elders study: Recruitment and baseline characteristics

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Recruitment of older adults into long-term clinical trials involving behavioral interventions is a significant challenge. The Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders (LIFE) Study is a Phase 3 multicenter randomized controlled multisite trial, designed to compare the effects of a moderate...

Collaborative Behavioral Management for Drug-Involved Parolees: Rationale and Design of the Step'n Out Study

PubMed Central

FRIEDMANN, PETER D.; KATZ, ELIZABETH C.; RHODES, ANNE G.; TAXMAN, FAYE S.; O'CONNELL, DANIEL J.; FRISMAN, LINDA K.; BURDON, WILLIAM M.; FLETCHER, BENNETT W.; LITT, MARK D.; CLARKE, JENNIFER; MARTIN, STEVEN S.

2009-01-01

This article describes the rationale, study design, and implementation for the Step'n Out study of the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies. Step'n Out tests the relative effectiveness of collaborative behavioral management of drug-involved parolees. Collaborative behavioral management integrates the roles of parole officers and treatment counselors to provide role induction counseling, contract for pro-social behavior, and deliver contingent reinforcement of behaviors consistent with treatment objectives. The Step'n Out study will randomize 450 drug-involved parolees to collaborative behavioral management or usual parole. Follow-up at 3-and 9-months will assess primary outcomes of rearrest, crime and drug use. If collaborative behavioral management is effective, its wider adoption could improve the outcomes of community reentry of drug-involved ex-offenders. PMID:19809591

Design and analysis of group-randomized trials in cancer: A review of current practices.

PubMed

Murray, David M; Pals, Sherri L; George, Stephanie M; Kuzmichev, Andrey; Lai, Gabriel Y; Lee, Jocelyn A; Myles, Ranell L; Nelson, Shakira M

2018-06-01

The purpose of this paper is to summarize current practices for the design and analysis of group-randomized trials involving cancer-related risk factors or outcomes and to offer recommendations to improve future trials. We searched for group-randomized trials involving cancer-related risk factors or outcomes that were published or online in peer-reviewed journals in 2011-15. During 2016-17, in Bethesda MD, we reviewed 123 articles from 76 journals to characterize their design and their methods for sample size estimation and data analysis. Only 66 (53.7%) of the articles reported appropriate methods for sample size estimation. Only 63 (51.2%) reported exclusively appropriate methods for analysis. These findings suggest that many investigators do not adequately attend to the methodological challenges inherent in group-randomized trials. These practices can lead to underpowered studies, to an inflated type 1 error rate, and to inferences that mislead readers. Investigators should work with biostatisticians or other methodologists familiar with these issues. Funders and editors should ensure careful methodological review of applications and manuscripts. Reviewers should ensure that studies are properly planned and analyzed. These steps are needed to improve the rigor and reproducibility of group-randomized trials. The Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has taken several steps to address these issues. ODP offers an online course on the design and analysis of group-randomized trials. ODP is working to increase the number of methodologists who serve on grant review panels. ODP has developed standard language for the Application Guide and the Review Criteria to draw investigators' attention to these issues. Finally, ODP has created a new Research Methods Resources website to help investigators, reviewers, and NIH staff better understand these issues. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Estimating the efficacy of Alcoholics Anonymous without self-selection bias: An instrumental variables re-analysis of randomized clinical trials

PubMed Central

Humphreys, Keith; Blodgett, Janet C.; Wagner, Todd H.

2014-01-01

Background Observational studies of Alcoholics Anonymous’ (AA) effectiveness are vulnerable to self-selection bias because individuals choose whether or not to attend AA. The present study therefore employed an innovative statistical technique to derive a selection bias-free estimate of AA’s impact. Methods Six datasets from 5 National Institutes of Health-funded randomized trials (one with two independent parallel arms) of AA facilitation interventions were analyzed using instrumental variables models. Alcohol dependent individuals in one of the datasets (n = 774) were analyzed separately from the rest of sample (n = 1582 individuals pooled from 5 datasets) because of heterogeneity in sample parameters. Randomization itself was used as the instrumental variable. Results Randomization was a good instrument in both samples, effectively predicting increased AA attendance that could not be attributed to self-selection. In five of the six data sets, which were pooled for analysis, increased AA attendance that was attributable to randomization (i.e., free of self-selection bias) was effective at increasing days of abstinence at 3-month (B = .38, p = .001) and 15-month (B = 0.42, p = .04) follow-up. However, in the remaining dataset, in which pre-existing AA attendance was much higher, further increases in AA involvement caused by the randomly assigned facilitation intervention did not affect drinking outcome. Conclusions For most individuals seeking help for alcohol problems, increasing AA attendance leads to short and long term decreases in alcohol consumption that cannot be attributed to self-selection. However, for populations with high pre-existing AA involvement, further increases in AA attendance may have little impact. PMID:25421504

Estimating the efficacy of Alcoholics Anonymous without self-selection bias: an instrumental variables re-analysis of randomized clinical trials.

PubMed

Humphreys, Keith; Blodgett, Janet C; Wagner, Todd H

2014-11-01

Observational studies of Alcoholics Anonymous' (AA) effectiveness are vulnerable to self-selection bias because individuals choose whether or not to attend AA. The present study, therefore, employed an innovative statistical technique to derive a selection bias-free estimate of AA's impact. Six data sets from 5 National Institutes of Health-funded randomized trials (1 with 2 independent parallel arms) of AA facilitation interventions were analyzed using instrumental variables models. Alcohol-dependent individuals in one of the data sets (n = 774) were analyzed separately from the rest of sample (n = 1,582 individuals pooled from 5 data sets) because of heterogeneity in sample parameters. Randomization itself was used as the instrumental variable. Randomization was a good instrument in both samples, effectively predicting increased AA attendance that could not be attributed to self-selection. In 5 of the 6 data sets, which were pooled for analysis, increased AA attendance that was attributable to randomization (i.e., free of self-selection bias) was effective at increasing days of abstinence at 3-month (B = 0.38, p = 0.001) and 15-month (B = 0.42, p = 0.04) follow-up. However, in the remaining data set, in which preexisting AA attendance was much higher, further increases in AA involvement caused by the randomly assigned facilitation intervention did not affect drinking outcome. For most individuals seeking help for alcohol problems, increasing AA attendance leads to short- and long-term decreases in alcohol consumption that cannot be attributed to self-selection. However, for populations with high preexisting AA involvement, further increases in AA attendance may have little impact. Copyright © 2014 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

Stochastic species abundance models involving special copulas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huillet, Thierry E.

2018-01-01

Copulas offer a very general tool to describe the dependence structure of random variables supported by the hypercube. Inspired by problems of species abundances in Biology, we study three distinct toy models where copulas play a key role. In a first one, a Marshall-Olkin copula arises in a species extinction model with catastrophe. In a second one, a quasi-copula problem arises in a flagged species abundance model. In a third model, we study completely random species abundance models in the hypercube as those, not of product type, with uniform margins and singular. These can be understood from a singular copula supported by an inflated simplex. An exchangeable singular Dirichlet copula is also introduced, together with its induced completely random species abundance vector.

Systematic review of herbs and dietary supplements for glycemic control in diabetes.

PubMed

Yeh, Gloria Y; Eisenberg, David M; Kaptchuk, Ted J; Phillips, Russell S

2003-04-01

To conduct a systematic review of the published literature on the efficacy and safety of herbal therapies and vitamin/mineral supplements for glucose control in patients with diabetes. We conducted an electronic literature search of MEDLINE, OLDMEDLINE, Cochrane Library Database, and HealthSTAR, from database inception to May 2002, in addition to performing hand searches and consulting with experts in the field. Available clinical studies published in the English language that used human participants and examined glycemic control were included. Data were extracted in a standardized manner, and two independent investigators assessed methodological quality of randomized controlled trials using the Jadad scale. A total of 108 trials examining 36 herbs (single or in combination) and 9 vitamin/mineral supplements, involving 4,565 patients with diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance, met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed. There were 58 controlled clinical trials involving individuals with diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance (42 randomized and 16 nonrandomized trials). Most studies involved patients with type 2 diabetes. Heterogeneity and the small number of studies per supplement precluded formal meta-analyses. Of these 58 trials, the direction of the evidence for improved glucose control was positive in 76% (44 of 58). Very few adverse effects were reported. There is still insufficient evidence to draw definitive conclusions about the efficacy of individual herbs and supplements for diabetes; however, they appear to be generally safe. The available data suggest that several supplements may warrant further study. The best evidence for efficacy from adequately designed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is available for Coccinia indica and American ginseng. Chromium has been the most widely studied supplement. Other supplements with positive preliminary results include Gymnema sylvestre, Aloe vera, vanadium, Momordica charantia, and nopal.

Randomized Trial Comparison of Emotion Regulation and Relational Psychotherapies for PTSD with Girls Involved in Delinquency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ford, Julian D.; Steinberg, Karen L.; Hawke, Josephine; Levine, Joan; Zhang, Wanli

2012-01-01

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is prevalent in youth involved in delinquency, but it is often not effectively treated. A randomized clinical trial was conducted comparing the outcomes of an emotion regulation therapy (Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy, or TARGET) with a relational supportive therapy (Enhanced…

On the Choice of Adequate Randomization Ranges for Limiting the Use of Unwanted Cues in Same-Different, Dual-Pair, and Oddity Tasks

PubMed Central

Dai, Huanping; Micheyl, Christophe

2010-01-01

A major concern when designing a psychophysical experiment is that participants may use another stimulus feature (“cue”) than that intended by the experimenter. One way to avoid this involves applying random variations to the corresponding feature across stimulus presentations, to make the “unwanted” cue unreliable. An important question facing experimenters who use this randomization (“roving”) technique is: How large should the randomization range be to ensure that participants cannot achieve a certain proportion correct (PC) by using the unwanted cue, while at the same time avoiding unnecessary interference of the randomization with task performance? Previous publications have provided formulas for the selection of adequate randomization ranges in yes-no and multiple-alternative, forced-choice tasks. In this article, we provide figures and tables, which can be used to select randomization ranges that are better suited to experiments involving a same-different, dual-pair, or oddity task. PMID:20139466

Introductory Statistics Students' Conceptual Understanding of Study Design and Conclusions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fry, Elizabeth Brondos

Recommended learning goals for students in introductory statistics courses include the ability to recognize and explain the key role of randomness in designing studies and in drawing conclusions from those studies involving generalizations to a population or causal claims (GAISE College Report ASA Revision Committee, 2016). The purpose of this study was to explore introductory statistics students' understanding of the distinct roles that random sampling and random assignment play in study design and the conclusions that can be made from each. A study design unit lasting two and a half weeks was designed and implemented in four sections of an undergraduate introductory statistics course based on modeling and simulation. The research question that this study attempted to answer is: How does introductory statistics students' conceptual understanding of study design and conclusions (in particular, unbiased estimation and establishing causation) change after participating in a learning intervention designed to promote conceptual change in these areas? In order to answer this research question, a forced-choice assessment called the Inferences from Design Assessment (IDEA) was developed as a pretest and posttest, along with two open-ended assignments, a group quiz and a lab assignment. Quantitative analysis of IDEA results and qualitative analysis of the group quiz and lab assignment revealed that overall, students' mastery of study design concepts significantly increased after the unit, and the great majority of students successfully made the appropriate connections between random sampling and generalization, and between random assignment and causal claims. However, a small, but noticeable portion of students continued to demonstrate misunderstandings, such as confusion between random sampling and random assignment.

Progressive Elaboration and Cross-Validation of a Latent Class Typology of Adolescent Alcohol Involvement in a National Sample

PubMed Central

Donovan, John E.; Chung, Tammy

2015-01-01

Objective: Most studies of adolescent drinking focus on single alcohol use behaviors (e.g., high-volume drinking, drunkenness) and ignore the patterning of adolescents’ involvement across multiple alcohol behaviors. The present latent class analyses (LCAs) examined a procedure for empirically determining multiple cut points on the alcohol use behaviors in order to establish a typology of adolescent alcohol involvement. Method: LCA was carried out on six alcohol use behavior indicators collected from 6,504 7th through 12th graders who participated in Wave I of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth). To move beyond dichotomous indicators, a “progressive elaboration” strategy was used, starting with six dichotomous indicators and then evaluating a series of models testing additional cut points on the ordinal indicators at progressively higher points for one indicator at a time. Analyses were performed on one random half-sample, and confirmatory LCAs were performed on the second random half-sample and in the Wave II data. Results: The final model consisted of four latent classes (never or non–current drinkers, low-intake drinkers, non–problem drinkers, and problem drinkers). Confirmatory LCAs in the second random half-sample from Wave I and in Wave II support this four-class solution. The means on the four latent classes were also generally ordered on an array of measures reflecting psychosocial risk for problem behavior. Conclusions: These analyses suggest that there may be four different classes or types of alcohol involvement among adolescents, and, more importantly, they illustrate the utility of the progressive elaboration strategy for moving beyond dichotomous indicators in latent class models. PMID:25978828

Family factors affect clinician attitudes in pediatric end-of-life decision making: a randomized vignette study.

PubMed

Ruppe, Michael D; Feudtner, Chris; Hexem, Kari R; Morrison, Wynne E

2013-05-01

Conflicts between families and clinicians in pediatric end-of-life (EOL) care cause distress for providers, dissatisfaction for patients' families, and potential suffering for terminally ill children. We hypothesized that family factors might influence clinician decision making in these circumstances. We presented vignettes concerning difficult EOL decision making, randomized for religious objection to therapy withdrawal and perceived level of family involvement, to clinicians working in three Children's Hospital intensive care units. Additionally, attitudes about EOL care were assessed. Three hundred sixty-four respondents completed the questionnaire, for an overall response rate of 54%. Respondents receiving the "involved family" vignette were more likely to agree to continue medical care indefinitely (P<0.0005). Respondents were marginally more likely to pursue a court-appointed guardian for those patients whose families had nonreligious objections to withdrawal (P=0.05). Respondents who thought that a fear of being sued affected decisions were less likely to pursue unilateral withdrawal (odds ratio 0.8, 95% CI=0.6-0.9). Those who felt personal distress as a result of difficult EOL decision making, thought they often provided "futile" care, or those who felt EOL care was effectively addressed at the institution were less likely to want to defer to the parents' wishes (range of odds ratios 0.7-1). In this randomized vignette study, we have shown that family factors, particularly how involved a family seems to be in a child's life, affect what clinicians think is ethically appropriate in challenging EOL cases. Knowledge of how a family's degree of involvement may affect clinicians should be helpful to the clinical ethics consultants and offer some degree of insight to the clinicians themselves. Copyright © 2013 U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Estimating causal contrasts involving intermediate variables in the presence of selection bias.

PubMed

Valeri, Linda; Coull, Brent A

2016-11-20

An important goal across the biomedical and social sciences is the quantification of the role of intermediate factors in explaining how an exposure exerts an effect on an outcome. Selection bias has the potential to severely undermine the validity of inferences on direct and indirect causal effects in observational as well as in randomized studies. The phenomenon of selection may arise through several mechanisms, and we here focus on instances of missing data. We study the sign and magnitude of selection bias in the estimates of direct and indirect effects when data on any of the factors involved in the analysis is either missing at random or not missing at random. Under some simplifying assumptions, the bias formulae can lead to nonparametric sensitivity analyses. These sensitivity analyses can be applied to causal effects on the risk difference and risk-ratio scales irrespectively of the estimation approach employed. To incorporate parametric assumptions, we also develop a sensitivity analysis for selection bias in mediation analysis in the spirit of the expectation-maximization algorithm. The approaches are applied to data from a health disparities study investigating the role of stage at diagnosis on racial disparities in colorectal cancer survival. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Registration of RMBUP-C4, a random mated population with Gossypium hirsutum L. alleles, introgresssed into Upland cotton germplasm

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

RMBUP-C4 (Random Mated Barbadense Upland Population Cycle 4) (Reg. No. GP_____: PI______) is a unique random mated germplasm population of Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) which has introgression of G. barbadense L. alleles. This population involved five cycles of random mating beginning ...

The Analysis of Completely Randomized Factorial Experiments When Observations Are Lost at Random.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hummel, Thomas J.

An investigation was conducted of the characteristics of two estimation procedures and corresponding test statistics used in the analysis of completely randomized factorial experiments when observations are lost at random. For one estimator, contrast coefficients for cell means did not involve the cell frequencies. For the other, contrast…

Implementing Community Engagement for Combination Prevention: Lessons Learnt From the First Year of the HPTN 071 (PopART) Community-Randomized Study.

PubMed

Simwinga, Musonda; Bond, Virginia; Makola, Nozizwe; Hoddinott, Graeme; Belemu, Steve; White, Rhonda; Shanaube, Kwame; Seeley, Janet; Moore, Ayana

2016-08-01

Key to the success of a HIV combination prevention strategy, including galvanizing the current push to roll out universal test and treat (UTT), is the involvement and buy-in of the populations that the strategy aims to reach. Drawing on the experiences of engaging with 21 communities in Zambia and South Africa in the design and implementation of a community-randomized study of combination HIV prevention including UTT, this paper reflects on the commitment to, approaches for and benefits of involving communities. Key lessons learnt include that all communities require continuous community engagement (CE) and engagement needs to be adapted to diverse local contexts. Intrinsic goals of CE, such as building trusting relationships between study stakeholders, are necessary precursors to instrumental goals which strengthen the research quality. Engaging the community for combination prevention requires that CE successfully bridges science and real life, paying attention to influences in the wider social landscape.

Determinants of Teachers' Attitudes towards E- Learning in Tanzanian Higher Learning Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kisanga, Dalton H.

2016-01-01

This survey research study presents the findings on determinants of teachers' attitudes towards e-learning in Tanzanian higher learning institutions. The study involved 258 teachers from 4 higher learning institutions obtained through stratified, simple random sampling. Questionnaires and documentary review were used in data collection. Data were…

Need for Methamphetamine Programming in Extension Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beaudreault, Amy R.; Miller, Larry E.

2011-01-01

The study reported sought to identify the prevention education needs involving methamphetamine through survey methodology. The study focused on a random sample of U.S. states and the Extension Directors within each state, resulting in a 70% response rate (n = 134). Findings revealed that 11% reported they had received methamphetamine user…

Dietary Adherence Monitoring Tool for Free-living, Controlled Feeding Studies

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Objective: To devise a dietary adherence monitoring tool for use in controlled human feeding trials involving free-living study participants. Methods: A scoring tool was devised to measure and track dietary adherence for an 8-wk randomized trial evaluating the effects of two different dietary patter...

Monolingual or Bilingual Intervention for Primary Language Impairment? A Randomized Control Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thordardottir, Elin; Cloutier, Geneviève; Ménard, Suzanne; Pelland-Blais, Elaine; Rvachew, Susan

2015-01-01

Purpose: This study investigated the clinical effectiveness of monolingual versus bilingual language intervention, the latter involving speech-language pathologist-parent collaboration. The study focuses on methods that are currently being recommended and that are feasible within current clinical contexts. Method: Bilingual children with primary…

eLearning course may shorten the duration of mechanical restraint among psychiatric inpatients: a cluster-randomized trial.

PubMed

Kontio, Raija; Pitkänen, Anneli; Joffe, Grigori; Katajisto, Jouko; Välimäki, Maritta

2014-10-01

The management of psychiatric inpatients exhibiting severely disturbed and aggressive behaviour is an important educational topic. Well structured, IT-based educational programmes (eLearning) often ensure quality and may make training more affordable and accessible. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of an eLearning course for personnel on the rates and duration of seclusion and mechanical restraint among psychiatric inpatients. In a cluster-randomized intervention trial, the nursing personnel on 10 wards were randomly assigned to eLearning (intervention) or training-as-usual (control) groups. The eLearning course comprised six modules with specific topics (legal and ethical issues, behaviour-related factors, therapeutic relationship and self-awareness, teamwork and integrating knowledge with practice) and specific learning methods. The rates (incidents per 1000 occupied bed days) and durations of the coercion incidents were examined before and after the course. A total of 1283 coercion incidents (1143 seclusions [89%] and 140 incidents involving the use of mechanical restraints [11%]) were recorded on the study wards during the data collection period. On the intervention wards, there were no statistically significant changes in the rates of seclusion and mechanical restraint. However, the duration of incidents involving mechanical restraints shortened from 36.0 to 4.0 h (median) (P < 0.001). No statistically significant changes occurred on the control wards. After our eLearning course, the duration of incidents involving the use of mechanical restraints decreased. However, more studies are needed to ensure that the content of the course focuses on the most important factors associated with the seclusion-related elements. The eLearning course deserves further development and further studies. The duration of coercion incidents merits attention in future research.

Randomized controlled trial of parent-enhanced CBT compared with individual CBT for obsessive-compulsive disorder in young people.

PubMed

Reynolds, Shirley A; Clark, Sarah; Smith, Holly; Langdon, Peter E; Payne, Ruth; Bowers, Gemma; Norton, Elisabeth; McIlwham, Harriet

2013-12-01

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in young people can be effectively treated with Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). Practice guidelines in the United Kingdom recommend that CBT be delivered with parental or family involvement; however, there is no evidence from randomized trials that this enhances effectiveness. The aim of this trial was to assess if CBT with high parental involvement was more effective than CBT with low parental involvement (individual CBT) in reducing symptoms of OCD. Fifty young people ages 12-17 years with OCD were randomly allocated to individual CBT or parent-enhanced CBT. In parent-enhanced CBT parents attended all treatment sessions; in individual CBT, parents attended only Sessions 1, 7, and the final session. Participants received up to 14 sessions of CBT. Data were analyzed using intent-to-treat and per-protocol methods. The primary outcome measure was the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsion Scale (Scahill et al., 1997). Both forms of CBT significantly reduced symptoms of OCD and anxiety. Change in OCD symptoms was maintained at 6 months. Per-protocol analysis suggested that parent-enhanced CBT may be associated with significantly larger reductions in anxiety symptoms. High and low parental involvement in CBT for OCD in young people were both effective, and there was no evidence that 1 method of delivery was superior on the primary outcome measure. However, this study was small. Future trials should be adequately powered and examine interactions with the age of the young person and comorbid anxiety disorders.

Efficacy of treatment for somatoform disorders: a review of randomized controlled trials.

PubMed

Kroenke, Kurt

2007-12-01

To review the evidence from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that have focused on the treatment of patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4(th) Edition (DSM-IV) somatoform disorders. Although somatoform disorders are among the most common mental disorders presenting in the general medical setting, the strength of evidence for specific treatments has not been well synthesized. MEDLINE search of articles published in English from 1966 to 2006, using the following search terms: randomized clinical trial, somatoform disorders, somatization disorder, undifferentiated somatoform disorder, hypochrondriasis, conversion disorder, pain disorder, and body dysmorphic disorder. A total of 34 RCTs involving 3922 patients were included. Two thirds of the studies involved somatization disorder (n = 4 studies) and lower threshold variants, such as abridged somatization disorder (n = 9) and medically unexplained symptoms (n = 10). Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was effective in most studies (11 of 13), as were antidepressants in a small number (4 of 5) of studies. RCTs examining a variety of other treatments showed benefit in half (8 of 16) of the studies, the most consistent evidence existing for a consultation letter to the primary care physician. Effective treatments have been established for all somatoform disorders except conversion disorder (1 of 3 studies showing benefit) and pain disorder (no studies reported). CBT is the best established treatment for a variety of somatoform disorders, with some benefit also demonstrated for a consultation letter to the primary care physician. Preliminary but not yet conclusive evidence exists for antidepressants.

Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Chest Shielding on Preventing Patent Ductus Arteriosus in Premature Infants.

PubMed

Mannan, Javed; Amin, Sanjiv B

2017-03-01

Objective  This study aims to perform a meta-analysis of randomized studies to evaluate if chest shielding during phototherapy is associated with decreased incidence of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in premature infants. Design/Methods  We used published guidelines for the meta-analysis of clinical trials. The search strategy included electronic searches of CINAHL, CENTRAL Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, PubMed, and abstracts presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies. Inclusion criteria were randomized controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-RCTs or cluster RCTs published in English and involving chest shielding during phototherapy in premature infants with PDA as an outcome. Exclusion criteria involved case reports, case series, and multiple publications from the same author. Heterogeneity testing using Q statistics was performed to evaluate the variance between studies. Results  Two RCTs met study criteria. There was heterogeneity (I 2 : 55.4%) between the two trials. Meta-analysis of RCTs using the random effect model demonstrated that chest shielding during phototherapy was associated with decreased incidence of PDA (odds ratio: 0.47, 95% confidence interval: 0.23-0.96). There was no publication bias on Eggers test. Heterogeneity was seen in gestational age, gender, prophylactic use of postnatal indomethacin, duration of phototherapy, and assessment of PDA. Conclusion  Chest shielding during phototherapy may be associated with decreased incidence of PDA among premature infants. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

The Relationship between Monogamous/Polygamous Family Structure and the Mental Health of Bedouin Arab Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elbedour, S.; Bart, William; Hektner, Joel

2007-01-01

Previous studies of polygamy and child mental health have primarily focused on younger children. The present studies are among the first to focus on adolescents. The first study involved 210 randomly selected Bedouin Arab adolescents (mean age 15.9), who were administered instruments assessing their family environment and mental health. The second…

Visual Literacy and the Integration of Parametric Modeling in the Problem-Based Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Assenmacher, Matthew Benedict

2013-01-01

This quasi-experimental study investigated the application of visual literacy skills in the form of parametric modeling software in relation to traditional forms of sketching. The study included two groups of high school technical design students. The control and experimental groups involved in the study consisted of two randomly selected groups…

A randomized controlled trial of a brief intervention for illicit drugs linked to the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) in clients recruited from primary health-care settings in four countries.

PubMed

Humeniuk, Rachel; Ali, Robert; Babor, Thomas; Souza-Formigoni, Maria Lucia O; de Lacerda, Roseli Boerngen; Ling, Walter; McRee, Bonnie; Newcombe, David; Pal, Hemraj; Poznyak, Vladimir; Simon, Sara; Vendetti, Janice

2012-05-01

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a brief intervention (BI) for illicit drugs (cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine-type stimulants and opioids) linked to the World Health Organization (WHO) Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST). The ASSIST screens for problem or risky use of 10 psychoactive substances, producing a score for each substance that falls into either a low-, moderate- or high-risk category. Prospective, randomized controlled trial in which participants were either assigned to a 3-month waiting-list control condition or received brief motivational counselling lasting an average of 13.8 minutes for the drug receiving the highest ASSIST score. Primary health-care settings in four countries: Australia, Brazil, India and the United States. A total of 731 males and females scoring within the moderate-risk range of the ASSIST for cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine-type stimulants or opioids. ASSIST-specific substance involvement scores for cannabis, stimulants or opioids and ASSIST total illicit substance involvement score at baseline and 3 months post-randomization. Omnibus analyses indicated that those receiving the BI had significantly reduced scores for all measures, compared with control participants. Country-specific analyses showed that, with the exception of the site in the United States, BI participants had significantly lower ASSIST total illicit substance involvement scores at follow-up compared with the control participants. The sites in India and Brazil demonstrated a very strong brief intervention effect for cannabis scores (P < 0.005 for both sites), as did the sites in Australia (P < 0.005) and Brazil (P < 0.01) for stimulant scores and the Indian site for opioid scores (P < 0.01). The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test-linked brief intervention aimed at reducing illicit substance use and related risks is effective, at least in the short term, and the effect generalizes across countries. © 2011 The Authors, Addiction © 2011 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Selective Attentional Effects of Adjunct Study Questions on Achievement in Nigerian Secondary School Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okoye, Nnamdi S.

2008-01-01

The study investigated the selective attentional effects of adjunct study questions inserted before or after the presentation of science flow diagrams. The basic design for the study was a post-test only control group design involving a total of 252 students randomly selected from six secondary schools in Ile-Ife, Oshun State Nigeria. These were…

Impact of Teachers' Beliefs on Mathematics Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bayaga, Anass; Wadesango, Newman; Wadesango, Ongayi Vongai

2015-01-01

The objective of the current study was to analyse the impact of teachers' personal theory and beliefs (PTB) towards Mathematics teaching. A total of 183 respondents were involved in this study, using the stratified random sampling method with Cronbach's alpha of 0.87. Due to the objective of the research and the hypothesis, it was positioned…

Classroom Connectivity and Algebra 1 Achievement: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Irving, Karen E.; Pape, Stephen J.; Owens, Douglas T.; Abrahamson, Louis; Silver, David; Sanalan, Vehbi A.

2016-01-01

Findings from three years of a longitudinal randomized control trial involving a national U.S. sample of Algebra 1 teachers and students are reported. The study examines the effects of a connected classroom technology (CCT) professional development and classroom intervention on student achievement when compared to classroom instruction with…

The Prevalence of Lisping in Gay Men

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Borsel, John; De Bruyn, Els; Lefebvre, Evelien; Sokoloff, Anouschka; De Ley, Sophia; Baudonck, Nele

2009-01-01

This study evaluated the stereotype that gay men lisp. Two clinicians who were unaware of the specific purpose of the study and the populations involved judged randomized audio-recordings of 175 gay males, 100 heterosexual males and 100 heterosexual females for the presence of lisping during reading of a standardized text. In the gay males a…

Assessing the Eventual Publication of Clinical Trial Abstracts Submitted to a Large Annual Oncology Meeting

PubMed Central

Wang, Ruibin; Prasad, Vinay; Bates, Susan E.; Fojo, Tito

2016-01-01

Background. Despite the ethical imperative to publish clinical trials when human subjects are involved, such data frequently remain unpublished. The objectives were to tabulate the rate and ascertain factors associated with eventual publication of clinical trial results reported as abstracts in the Proceedings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (American Society of Clinical Oncology). Materials and Methods. Abstracts describing clinical trials for patients with breast, lung, colorectal, ovarian, and prostate cancer from 2009 to 2011 were identified by using a comprehensive online database (http://meetinglibrary.asco.org/abstracts). Abstracts included reported results of a treatment or intervention assessed in a discrete, prospective clinical trial. Publication status at 4−6 years was determined by using a standardized search of PubMed. Primary outcomes were the rate of publication for abstracts of randomized and nonrandomized clinical trials. Secondary outcomes included factors influencing the publication of results. Results. A total of 1,075 abstracts describing 378 randomized and 697 nonrandomized clinical trials were evaluated. Across all years, 75% of randomized and 54% of nonrandomized trials were published, with an overall publication rate of 61%. Sample size was a statistically significant predictor of publication for both randomized and nonrandomized trials (odds ratio [OR] per increase of 100 participants = 1.23 [1.11–1.36], p < .001; and 1.64 [1.15–2.34], p = .006, respectively). Among randomized studies, an industry coauthor or involvement of a cooperative group increased the likelihood of publication (OR 2.37, p = .013; and 2.21, p = .01, respectively). Among nonrandomized studies, phase II trials were more likely to be published than phase I (p < .001). Use of an experimental agent was not a predictor of publication in randomized (OR 0.76 [0.38–1.52]; p = .441) or nonrandomized trials (OR 0.89 [0.61–1.29]; p = .532). Conclusion. This is the largest reported study examining why oncology trials are not published. The data show that 4−6 years after appearing as abstracts, 39% of oncology clinical trials remain unpublished. Larger sample size and advanced trial phase were associated with eventual publication; among randomized trials, an industry-affiliated author or a cooperative group increased likelihood of publication. Unfortunately, we found that, despite widespread recognition of the problem and the creation of central data repositories, timely publishing of oncology clinical trials results remains unsatisfactory. Implications for Practice: The Declaration of Helsinki Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects notes the ethical obligation to report clinical trial data, whether positive or negative. This obligation is listed alongside requirements for risk minimization, access, confidentiality, and informed consent, all bedrocks of the clinical trial system, yet clinical trials are often not published, particularly if negative or difficult to complete. This study found that among American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting abstracts, 2009–2011, only 61% were published 4–6 years later: 75% of randomized trials and 54% of nonrandomized trials. Clinicians need to insist that every study in which they participate is published. PMID:26888691

Applied statistics in agricultural, biological, and environmental sciences.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Agronomic research often involves measurement and collection of multiple response variables in an effort to understand the more complex nature of the system being studied. Multivariate statistical methods encompass the simultaneous analysis of all random variables measured on each experimental or s...

Variances and uncertainties of the sample laboratory-to-laboratory variance (S(L)2) and standard deviation (S(L)) associated with an interlaboratory study.

PubMed

McClure, Foster D; Lee, Jung K

2012-01-01

The validation process for an analytical method usually employs an interlaboratory study conducted as a balanced completely randomized model involving a specified number of randomly chosen laboratories, each analyzing a specified number of randomly allocated replicates. For such studies, formulas to obtain approximate unbiased estimates of the variance and uncertainty of the sample laboratory-to-laboratory (lab-to-lab) STD (S(L)) have been developed primarily to account for the uncertainty of S(L) when there is a need to develop an uncertainty budget that includes the uncertainty of S(L). For the sake of completeness on this topic, formulas to estimate the variance and uncertainty of the sample lab-to-lab variance (S(L)2) were also developed. In some cases, it was necessary to derive the formulas based on an approximate distribution for S(L)2.

A simple method for assessing occupational exposure via the one-way random effects model.

PubMed

Krishnamoorthy, K; Mathew, Thomas; Peng, Jie

2016-11-01

A one-way random effects model is postulated for the log-transformed shift-long personal exposure measurements, where the random effect in the model represents an effect due to the worker. Simple closed-form confidence intervals are proposed for the relevant parameters of interest using the method of variance estimates recovery (MOVER). The performance of the confidence bounds is evaluated and compared with those based on the generalized confidence interval approach. Comparison studies indicate that the proposed MOVER confidence bounds are better than the generalized confidence bounds for the overall mean exposure and an upper percentile of the exposure distribution. The proposed methods are illustrated using a few examples involving industrial hygiene data.

The advocacy in action study a cluster randomized controlled trial to reduce pedestrian injuries in deprived communities.

PubMed

Lyons, R A; Towner, E; Christie, N; Kendrick, D; Jones, S J; Hayes, M; Kimberlee, R; Sarvotham, T; Macey, S; Brussoni, M; Sleney, J; Coupland, C; Phillips, C

2008-04-01

Road traffic-related injury is a major global public health problem. In most countries, pedestrian injuries occur predominantly to the poorest in society. A number of evaluated interventions are effective in reducing these injuries. Very little research has been carried out into the distribution and determinants of the uptake of these interventions. Previous research has shown an association between local political influence and the distribution of traffic calming after adjustment for historical crash patterns. This led to the hypothesis that advocacy could be used to increase local politicians knowledge of pedestrian injury risk and effective interventions, ultimately resulting in improved pedestrian safety. To design an intervention to improve the uptake of pedestrian safety measures in deprived communities. Electoral wards in deprived areas of England and Wales with a poor record of pedestrian safety for children and older adults. Design mixedmethods study, incorporating a cluster randomized controlled trial. Data mixture of Geographical Information Systems data collision locations, road safety interventions, telephone interviews, and questionnaires. Randomization 239 electoral wards clustered within 57 local authorities. Participants 615 politicians representing intervention and control wards. Intervention a package of tailored information including maps of pedestrian injuries was designed for intervention politicians, and a general information pack for controls. Primary outcome number of road safety interventions 25 months after randomization. Secondary outcomes politicians interest and involvement in injury prevention cost of interventions. Process evaluation use of advocacy pack, facilitators and barriers to involvement, and success.

Assessing the quality of a non-randomized pragmatic trial for primary prevention of falls among older adults.

PubMed

Albert, Steven M; Edelstein, Offer; King, Jennifer; Flatt, Jason; Lin, Chyongchiou J; Boudreau, Robert; Newman, Anne B

2015-01-01

Current approaches to falls prevention mostly rely on secondary and tertiary prevention and target individuals at high risk of falls. An alternative is primary prevention, in which all seniors are screened, referred as appropriate, and educated regarding falls risk. Little information is available on research designs that allow investigation of this approach in the setting of aging services delivery, where randomization may not be possible. Healthy Steps for Older Adults, a statewide program of the Pennsylvania (PA) Department of Aging, involves a combination of education about falls and screening for balance problems, with referral to personal physicians and home safety assessments. We developed a non-randomized statewide trial, Falls Free PA, to assess its effectiveness in reducing falls incidence over 12 months. We recruited 814 seniors who completed the program (503 first-time participants, 311 people repeating the program) and 1,020 who did not participate in the program, from the same sites. We assessed the quality of this non-randomized design by examining recruitment, follow-up across study groups, and comparability at baseline. Of older adults approached in senior centers, 90.5 % (n = 2,219) signed informed consent, and 1,834 (82.4 %) completed baseline assessments and were eligible for follow-up. Attrition in the three groups over 12 months was low and non-differential (<10 % for withdrawal and <2 % for other loss to follow-up). Median follow-up, which involved standardized monthly assessment of falls, was 10 months in all study groups. At baseline, the groups did not differ in measures of health or falls risk factors. Comparable status at baseline, recruitment from common sites, and similar experience with retention suggest that the non-randomized design will be effective for assessment of this approach to primary prevention of falls.

Does the patient-held record improve continuity and related outcomes in cancer care: a systematic review.

PubMed

Gysels, Marjolein; Richardson, Alison; Higginson, Irene J

2007-03-01

To assess the effectiveness of the patient-held record (PHR) in cancer care. Patients with cancer may receive care from different services resulting in gaps. A PHR could provide continuity and patient involvement in care. Relevant literature was identified through five electronic databases (Medline, Embase, Cinahl, CCTR and CDSR) and hand searches. Patient-held records in cancer care with the purpose of improving communication and information exchange between and within different levels of care and to promote continuity of care and patients' involvement in their own care. Data extraction recorded characteristics of intervention, type of study and factors that contributed to methodological quality of individual studies. Data were then contrasted by setting, objectives, population, study design, outcome measures and changes in outcome, including knowledge, satisfaction, anxiety and depression. Methodological quality of randomized control trials and non-experimental studies were assessed with separate standard grading scales. Seven randomized control trials and six non-experimental studies were identified. Evaluations of the PHR have reached equivocal findings. Randomized trials found an absence of effect, non-experimental evaluations shed light on the conditions for its successful use. Most patients welcomed introduction of a PHR. Main problems related to its suitability for different patient groups and the lack of agreement between patients and health professionals regarding its function. Further research is required to determine the conditions under which the PHR can realize its potential as a tool to promote continuity of care and patient participation.

Exercise and well-being: a review of mental and physical health benefits associated with physical activity.

PubMed

Penedo, Frank J; Dahn, Jason R

2005-03-01

This review highlights recent work evaluating the relationship between exercise, physical activity and physical and mental health. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, as well as randomized clinical trials, are included. Special attention is given to physical conditions, including obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease and sexual dysfunction. Furthermore, studies relating physical activity to depression and other mood states are reviewed. The studies include diverse ethnic populations, including men and women, as well as several age groups (e.g. adolescents, middle-aged and older adults). Results of the studies continue to support a growing literature suggesting that exercise, physical activity and physical-activity interventions have beneficial effects across several physical and mental-health outcomes. Generally, participants engaging in regular physical activity display more desirable health outcomes across a variety of physical conditions. Similarly, participants in randomized clinical trials of physical-activity interventions show better health outcomes, including better general and health-related quality of life, better functional capacity and better mood states. The studies have several implications for clinical practice and research. Most work suggests that exercise and physical activity are associated with better quality of life and health outcomes. Therefore, assessment and promotion of exercise and physical activity may be beneficial in achieving desired benefits across several populations. Several limitations were noted, particularly in research involving randomized clinical trials. These trials tend to involve limited sample sizes with short follow-up periods, thus limiting the clinical implications of the benefits associated with physical activity.

Ecological momentary assessment in a behavioral drinking moderation training program.

PubMed

Collins, R L; Morsheimer, E T; Shiffman, S; Paty, J A; Gnys, M; Papandonatos, G D

1998-08-01

We assessed predictors of self-reported excessive drinking (> 5 drinks) in a sample of heavy drinkers. Participants were randomly assigned to moderation training or a waiting-list control condition. They were trained in ecological momentary assessment (EMA) involving self-monitoring of drinking and other variables on a small hand-held computer, the electronic diary (ED). During the 8-week study, participants were compliant in their use of the ED for both random prompts and the entry of data related to specific drinking episodes. Generalized estimating equations were used to fit models involving predictors related to past history of drinking, aspects of the training program, drinking restraint, and episode-specific mood. The models indicated robust predictors of decreased and increased drinking. Our results suggest that EMA is a useful methodology for assessing drinking and related behaviors.

Glutamine Randomized Studies in Early Life: The Unsolved Riddle of Experimental and Clinical Studies

PubMed Central

Briassouli, Efrossini; Briassoulis, George

2012-01-01

Glutamine may have benefits during immaturity or critical illness in early life but its effects on outcome end hardpoints are controversial. Our aim was to review randomized studies on glutamine supplementation in pups, infants, and children examining whether glutamine affects outcome. Experimental work has proposed various mechanisms of glutamine action but none of the randomized studies in early life showed any effect on mortality and only a few showed some effect on inflammatory response, organ function, and a trend for infection control. Although apparently safe in animal models (pups), premature infants, and critically ill children, glutamine supplementation does not reduce mortality or late onset sepsis, and its routine use cannot be recommended in these sensitive populations. Large prospectively stratified trials are needed to better define the crucial interrelations of “glutamine-heat shock proteins-stress response” in critical illness and to identify the specific subgroups of premature neonates and critically ill infants or children who may have a greater need for glutamine and who may eventually benefit from its supplementation. The methodological problems noted in the reviewed randomized experimental and clinical trials should be seriously considered in any future well-designed large blinded randomized controlled trial involving glutamine supplementation in critical illness. PMID:23019424

Random Item Generation Is Affected by Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Multani, Namita; Rudzicz, Frank; Wong, Wing Yiu Stephanie; Namasivayam, Aravind Kumar; van Lieshout, Pascal

2016-01-01

Purpose: Random item generation (RIG) involves central executive functioning. Measuring aspects of random sequences can therefore provide a simple method to complement other tools for cognitive assessment. We examine the extent to which RIG relates to specific measures of cognitive function, and whether those measures can be estimated using RIG…

Predictors of Cyberloafing among Preservice Information Technology Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dursun, Ozcan Ozgur; Donmez, Onur; Akbulut, Yavuz

2018-01-01

The current mixed-method study investigated the extent of involvement in cyberloafing within classroom settings among preservice information technology teachers. Thirteen state universities were picked randomly from hierarchical clusters, which were determined according to the national university rankings. Then, a recent five-factor cyberloafing…

Evaluation of the effect of synthetic fibers and nonwoven geotextile reinforcement on the stability of heavy clay embankments.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2003-04-01

This study evaluates two methods for repairing slope surface failures of clayey soil embankments. One method involves reinforcing the cohesive soils with randomly oriented synthetic fibers; the other method incorporates non-woven geotextiles. The per...

Identification of Teaching Behaviors Which Predict Success for Mainstreamed Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larrivee, Barbara; Algina, James

The final phase of a study investigating effective teaching behaviors for mainstreamed students involved 118 elementary teachers. Teachers provided information on mainstreamed students and a sample of students was randomly selected to represent classification categories (learning disabilities, behavior disorders, speech impairments, and hearing…

A double-blind randomized placebo-controlled feasibility study evaluating individualized homeopathy in managing pain of knee osteoarthritis.

PubMed

Koley, Munmun; Saha, Subhranil; Ghosh, Shubhamoy

2015-07-01

Few homeopathic complexes seemed to produce significant effects in osteoarthritis; still, individualized homeopathy remained untested. We evaluated the feasibility of conducting an efficacy trial of individualized homeopathy in osteoarthritis. A prospective, parallel-arm, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled pilot study was conducted from January to October 2014 involving 60 patients (homeopathy, n = 30; placebo, n = 30) who were suffering from acute painful episodes of knee osteoarthritis and visiting the outpatient clinic of Mahesh Bhattacharyya Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital, West Bengal, India. Statistically significant reduction was achieved in 3 visual analog scales (measuring pain, stiffness, and loss of function) and Osteoarthritis Research Society International scores in both groups over 2 weeks (P < .05); however, group differences were not significant (P > .05). Overall, homeopathy did not appear to be superior to placebo; still, further rigorous evaluation in this design involving a larger sample size seems feasible in future. Clinical Trials Registry, India (CTRI/2014/05/004589). © The Author(s) 2015.

Blinded interpretation of study results can feasibly and effectively diminish interpretation bias.

PubMed

Järvinen, Teppo L N; Sihvonen, Raine; Bhandari, Mohit; Sprague, Sheila; Malmivaara, Antti; Paavola, Mika; Schünemann, Holger J; Guyatt, Gordon H

2014-07-01

Controversial and misleading interpretation of data from randomized trials is common. How to avoid misleading interpretation has received little attention. Herein, we describe two applications of an approach that involves blinded interpretation of the results by study investigators. The approach involves developing two interpretations of the results on the basis of a blinded review of the primary outcome data (experimental treatment A compared with control treatment B). One interpretation assumes that A is the experimental intervention and another assumes that A is the control. After agreeing that there will be no further changes, the investigators record their decisions and sign the resulting document. The randomization code is then broken, the correct interpretation chosen, and the manuscript finalized. Review of the document by an external authority before finalization can provide another safeguard against interpretation bias. We found the blinded preparation of a summary of data interpretation described in this article practical, efficient, and useful. Blinded data interpretation may decrease the frequency of misleading data interpretation. Widespread adoption of blinded data interpretation would be greatly facilitated were it added to the minimum set of recommendations outlining proper conduct of randomized controlled trials (eg, the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials statement). Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effectiveness of a new health care organization model in primary care for chronic cardiovascular disease patients based on a multifactorial intervention: the PROPRESE randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Orozco-Beltran, Domingo; Ruescas-Escolano, Esther; Navarro-Palazón, Ana Isabel; Cordero, Alberto; Gaubert-Tortosa, María; Navarro-Perez, Jorge; Carratalá-Munuera, Concepción; Pertusa-Martínez, Salvador; Soler-Bahilo, Enrique; Brotons-Muntó, Francisco; Bort-Cubero, Jose; Nuñez-Martinez, Miguel Angel; Bertomeu-Martinez, Vicente; Gil-Guillen, Vicente Francisco

2013-08-02

To evaluate the effectiveness of a new multifactorial intervention to improve health care for chronic ischemic heart disease patients in primary care. The strategy has two components: a) organizational for the patient/professional relationship and b) training for professionals. Experimental study. Randomized clinical trial. Follow-up period: one year. primary care, multicenter (15 health centers). For the intervention group 15 health centers are selected from those participating in ESCARVAL study. Once the center agreed to participate patients are randomly selected from the total amount of patients with ischemic heart disease registered in the electronic health records. For the control group a random sample of patients with ischemic heart disease is selected from all 72 health centers electronic records. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of a multifactorial intervention strategy involving patients with ischemic heart disease for the improvement of the degree of control of the cardiovascular risk factors and of the quality of life, number of visits, and number of hospitalizations. NCT01826929.

Random measurement error: Why worry? An example of cardiovascular risk factors.

PubMed

Brakenhoff, Timo B; van Smeden, Maarten; Visseren, Frank L J; Groenwold, Rolf H H

2018-01-01

With the increased use of data not originally recorded for research, such as routine care data (or 'big data'), measurement error is bound to become an increasingly relevant problem in medical research. A common view among medical researchers on the influence of random measurement error (i.e. classical measurement error) is that its presence leads to some degree of systematic underestimation of studied exposure-outcome relations (i.e. attenuation of the effect estimate). For the common situation where the analysis involves at least one exposure and one confounder, we demonstrate that the direction of effect of random measurement error on the estimated exposure-outcome relations can be difficult to anticipate. Using three example studies on cardiovascular risk factors, we illustrate that random measurement error in the exposure and/or confounder can lead to underestimation as well as overestimation of exposure-outcome relations. We therefore advise medical researchers to refrain from making claims about the direction of effect of measurement error in their manuscripts, unless the appropriate inferential tools are used to study or alleviate the impact of measurement error from the analysis.

Using Advance Organizers to Enhance Pupils' Achievement in Learning Poetry in English Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muiruri, Mary; Wambugu, Patriciah; Wamukuru, Kuria

2016-01-01

The study was a quasi-experimental that investigated the effects of Advance Organizers (AO) on achievement in poetry. Target population was class seven pupils of Nakuru North Sub-county primary schools in Kenya. 160 pupils were involved in the study. Four sampled schools were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups in Solomon Four…

Meta-Analysis of Day Treatment and Contingency-Management Dismantling Research: Birmingham Homeless Cocaine Studies (1990-2006)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schumacher, Joseph E.; Milby, Jesse B.; Wallace, Dennis; Meehan, Dawna-Cricket; Kertesz, Stefan; Vuchinich, Rudy; Dunning, Jonathan; Usdan, Stuart

2007-01-01

Four successive randomized clinical trials studying contingency management (CM), involving various treatment arms of drug-abstinent housing and work therapy and day treatment (DT) with a behavioral component, were compared on common drug abstinence outcomes at 2 treatment completion points (2 and 6 months). The clinical trials were conducted from…

The Importance of Parenting in the Development of Disorganized Attachment: Evidence from a Preventive Intervention Study in Adoptive Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Juffer, Femmie; Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian J.; van IJzendoorn, Marinus H.

2005-01-01

Background: As infant disorganized attachment is a serious risk factor for later child psychopathology, it is important to examine whether attachment disorganization can be prevented or reduced. Method: In a randomized intervention study involving 130 families with 6-month-old adopted infants, two attachment-based intervention programs were…

Extracorporeal shock wave therapy for calcific and noncalcific tendonitis of the rotator cuff: a systematic review.

PubMed

Harniman, Elaine; Carette, Simon; Kennedy, Carol; Beaton, Dorcas

2004-01-01

The authors conducted a systematic review to assess the effectiveness of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) for the treatment of calcific and noncalcific tendonitis of the rotator cuff. Conservative treatment for rotator cuff tendonitis includes physiotherapy, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, and corticosteroid injections. If symptoms persist with conservative treatment, surgery is often considered. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy has been suggested as a treatment alternative for chronic rotator cuff tendonitis, which may decrease the need for surgery. Articles for this review were identified by electronically searching Medline, EMBASE, Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) and hand-screening references. Two reviewers selected the trials that met the inclusion criteria, extracted the data, and assessed the methodological quality of the selected trials. Finally, the strength of scientific evidence was appraised. Evidence was classified as strong, moderate, limited, or conflicting. Sixteen trials met the inclusion criteria. There were only five randomized, controlled trials and all involved chronic (>/=3 months) conditions, three for calcific tendonitis and two for noncalcific tendonitis. For randomized, controlled trials, two (40%) were of high quality, one (33%) for calcific tendonitis and one (50%) for noncalcific tendonitis. The 11 nonrandomized trials included nine that involved calcific tendonitis and two that involved both calcific and noncalcific tendonitis. Common problem areas were sample size, randomization, blinding, treatment provider bias, and outcome measures. There is moderate evidence that high-energy ESWT is effective in treating chronic calcific rotator cuff tendonitis when the shock waves are focused at the calcified deposit. There is moderate evidence that low-energy ESWT is not effective for treating chronic noncalcific rotator cuff tendonitis, although this conclusion is based on only one high-quality study, which was underpowered. High-quality randomized, controlled trials are needed with larger sample sizes, better randomization and blinding, and better outcome measures.

A randomized controlled study of a social skills training for preadolescent children with autism spectrum disorders: generalization of skills by training parents and teachers?

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Social skills training (SST) is a common intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) to improve their social and communication skills. Despite the fact that SSTs are often applied in clinical practice, the evidence for the effectiveness of these trainings for children with ASD is inconclusive. Moreover, long term outcome and generalization of learned skills are little evaluated. Additionally, there is no research on the influence of involvement of parents and teachers on effectiveness of SST and on the generalization of learned social skills to daily life. We expect parent and teacher involvement in SST to enhance treatment efficacy and to facilitate generalization of learned skills to daily life. Method/Design In a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with three conditions, 120 participants with ASD at the end of primary school (10–12 years of calendar age) have been randomized to SST, SST-PTI (SST with Parent & Teacher Involvement), or care-as-usual. The SST consists of 18 group sessions of 1.5 hours for the children. In the SST-PTI condition, parents additionally participate in 8 parent sessions and parents and teachers are actively involved in homework assignments. Assessment takes place at three moments: before and immediately after the intervention period and at 6 months follow-up. Primary outcome is socialization, as an aspect of adaptive functioning. Secondary outcomes focus on specific social skills children learn during SST and on more general social skills pertaining to home and community settings from a multi-informant perspective. Additionally, possible predictors of treatment outcome will be assessed. Discussion The current study is an RCT study evaluating SST in a large sample of Dutch children with ASD in a specific age range (10–12 years). Strengths of the study are the use of one manualized protocol, application of standardized and internationally used rating instruments, use of multiple raters, investigation of generalization of learned skills to daily life, and the evaluation of efficacy in the longer term by follow-up measures at 6 months after the end of training. Trial registration NTR2405 PMID:24989854

A randomized controlled study of a social skills training for preadolescent children with autism spectrum disorders: generalization of skills by training parents and teachers?

PubMed

Dekker, Vera; Nauta, Maaike H; Mulder, Erik J; Timmerman, Marieke E; de Bildt, Annelies

2014-07-02

Social skills training (SST) is a common intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) to improve their social and communication skills. Despite the fact that SSTs are often applied in clinical practice, the evidence for the effectiveness of these trainings for children with ASD is inconclusive. Moreover, long term outcome and generalization of learned skills are little evaluated. Additionally, there is no research on the influence of involvement of parents and teachers on effectiveness of SST and on the generalization of learned social skills to daily life. We expect parent and teacher involvement in SST to enhance treatment efficacy and to facilitate generalization of learned skills to daily life. In a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with three conditions, 120 participants with ASD at the end of primary school (10-12 years of calendar age) have been randomized to SST, SST-PTI (SST with Parent & Teacher Involvement), or care-as-usual. The SST consists of 18 group sessions of 1.5 hours for the children. In the SST-PTI condition, parents additionally participate in 8 parent sessions and parents and teachers are actively involved in homework assignments. Assessment takes place at three moments: before and immediately after the intervention period and at 6 months follow-up. Primary outcome is socialization, as an aspect of adaptive functioning. Secondary outcomes focus on specific social skills children learn during SST and on more general social skills pertaining to home and community settings from a multi-informant perspective. Additionally, possible predictors of treatment outcome will be assessed. The current study is an RCT study evaluating SST in a large sample of Dutch children with ASD in a specific age range (10-12 years). Strengths of the study are the use of one manualized protocol, application of standardized and internationally used rating instruments, use of multiple raters, investigation of generalization of learned skills to daily life, and the evaluation of efficacy in the longer term by follow-up measures at 6 months after the end of training. NTR2405.

Housing First Reduces Re-offending among Formerly Homeless Adults with Mental Disorders: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Somers, Julian M.; Rezansoff, Stefanie N.; Moniruzzaman, Akm; Palepu, Anita; Patterson, Michelle

2013-01-01

Background Homelessness and mental illness have a strong association with public disorder and criminality. Experimental evidence indicates that Housing First (HF) increases housing stability and perceived choice among those experiencing chronic homelessness and mental disorders. HF is also associated with lower residential costs than common alternative approaches. Few studies have examined the effect of HF on criminal behavior. Methods Individuals meeting criteria for homelessness and a current mental disorder were randomized to one of three conditions treatment as usual (reference); scattered site HF; and congregate HF. Administrative data concerning justice system events were linked in order to study prior histories of offending and to test the relationship between housing status and offending following randomization for up to two years. Results The majority of the sample (67%) was involved with the justice system, with a mean of 8.07 convictions per person in the ten years prior to recruitment. The most common category of crime was “property offences” (mean = 4.09). Following randomization, the scattered site HF condition was associated with significantly lower numbers of sentences than treatment as usual (Adjusted IRR = 0.29; 95% CI 0.12–0.72). Congregate HF was associated with a marginally significant reduction in sentences compared to treatment as usual (Adjusted IRR = 0.55; 95% CI: 0.26–1.14). Conclusions This study is the first randomized controlled trial to demonstrate benefits of HF among a homeless sample with mental illness in the domain of public safety and crime. Our sample was frequently involved with the justice system, with great personal and societal costs. Further implementation of HF is strongly indicated, particularly in the scattered site format. Research examining interdependencies between housing, health, and the justice system is indicated. Trial registration ISRCTN57595077 PMID:24023796

From Protocols to Publications: A Study in Selective Reporting of Outcomes in Randomized Trials in Oncology

PubMed Central

Raghav, Kanwal Pratap Singh; Mahajan, Sminil; Yao, James C.; Hobbs, Brian P.; Berry, Donald A.; Pentz, Rebecca D.; Tam, Alda; Hong, Waun K.; Ellis, Lee M.; Abbruzzese, James; Overman, Michael J.

2015-01-01

Purpose The decision by journals to append protocols to published reports of randomized trials was a landmark event in clinical trial reporting. However, limited information is available on how this initiative effected transparency and selective reporting of clinical trial data. Methods We analyzed 74 oncology-based randomized trials published in Journal of Clinical Oncology, the New England Journal of Medicine, and The Lancet in 2012. To ascertain integrity of reporting, we compared published reports with their respective appended protocols with regard to primary end points, nonprimary end points, unplanned end points, and unplanned analyses. Results A total of 86 primary end points were reported in 74 randomized trials; nine trials had greater than one primary end point. Nine trials (12.2%) had some discrepancy between their planned and published primary end points. A total of 579 nonprimary end points (median, seven per trial) were planned, of which 373 (64.4%; median, five per trial) were reported. A significant positive correlation was found between the number of planned and nonreported nonprimary end points (Spearman r = 0.66; P < .001). Twenty-eight studies (37.8%) reported a total of 65 unplanned end points; 52 (80.0%) of which were not identified as unplanned. Thirty-one (41.9%) and 19 (25.7%) of 74 trials reported a total of 52 unplanned analyses involving primary end points and 33 unplanned analyses involving nonprimary end points, respectively. Studies reported positive unplanned end points and unplanned analyses more frequently than negative outcomes in abstracts (unplanned end points odds ratio, 6.8; P = .002; unplanned analyses odd ratio, 8.4; P = .007). Conclusion Despite public and reviewer access to protocols, selective outcome reporting persists and is a major concern in the reporting of randomized clinical trials. To foster credible evidence-based medicine, additional initiatives are needed to minimize selective reporting. PMID:26304898

Inclusive Education in Government Primary Schools: Teacher Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khan, Itfaq Khaliq; Hashmi, ShujahatHaider; Khanum, Nabeela

2017-01-01

The perceptions of primary school teachers towards inclusive education was investigated in mainstream government schools of Islamabad capital territory where inclusive education was being supported by Sight savers and other international organizations. The study was carried out involving 54 teachers in six randomly selected primary schools. The…

Recruitment strategies for a lung cancer chemoprevention trial involving ex-smokers.

PubMed

Kye, Steve H; Tashkin, Donald P; Roth, Michael D; Adams, Bradley; Nie, Wen-Xian; Mao, Jenny T

2009-09-01

The ability to recruit qualified subjects who are willing to adhere to the study protocol in clinical trials is an essential component of translational research. Such tasks can be particularly challenging for chemoprevention studies when the targeted study population is healthy, at risk individuals who do not have signs or symptoms of the disease, and the study participation involves complex scheduling and invasive procedures such as bronchoscopy. In this report, we describe the recruitment process and evaluated the effectiveness of various recruitment strategies utilized in our National Cancer Institute sponsored lung cancer chemoprevention study with celecoxib. Heavy ex-smokers were recruited into the study through various methods such as radio advertisements, print media, mass mailings, flyers, internet postings and others. The number of inquiries, on-site screenees and randomization generated by each method determined the efficacy of that recruitment strategy. We prescreened 4470 individuals, invited 323 people for on-site screening and randomized 137 subjects. Radio advertisements (ads) generated the most inquiries (71.1%), followed by internet posting (11.8%), print media (6.0%), posted and racked flyers (4.4%), mass mailings (2.7%) and other strategies such as referrals from friends or family members or health care providers (2.3%). Radio ads, although costly, yielded the most subjects for on-site screening and randomization. Moreover, among the various types of radio stations, news radio stations were by far the most successful. Our results suggest that advertising on news radio is a highly effective recruitment method for successful accrual of ex-smokers into lung cancer chemoprevention trials.

Involving fathers in teaching youth about farm tractor seatbelt safety--a randomized control study.

PubMed

Jinnah, Hamida Amirali; Stoneman, Zolinda; Rains, Glen

2014-03-01

Farm youth continue to experience high rates of injury and deaths as a result of agricultural activities. Farm machinery, especially tractors, is the most common cause of casualties to youth. A Roll-Over Protection Structure (ROPS) along with a fastened seatbelt can prevent almost all injuries and fatalities from tractor overturns. Despite this knowledge, the use of seatbelts by farmers on ROPS tractors remains low. This study treats farm safety as a family issue and builds on the central role of parents as teachers and role models of farm safety for youth. This research study used a longitudinal, repeated-measures, randomized-control design in which youth 10-19 years of age were randomly assigned to either of two intervention groups (parent-led group and staff-led group) or the control group. Fathers in the parent-led group were less likely to operate ROPS tractors without a seatbelt compared with other groups. They were more likely to have communicated with youth about the importance of wearing seatbelts on ROPS tractors. Consequently, youth in the parent-led group were less likely to operate a ROPS tractor without a seatbelt than the control group at post-test. This randomized control trial supports the effectiveness of a home-based, father-led farm safety intervention as a promising strategy for reducing youth as well as father-unsafe behaviors (related to tractor seatbelts) on the farm. This intervention appealed to fathers' strong motivation to practice tractor safety for the sake of their youth. Involving fathers helped change both father as well as youth unsafe tractor-seatbelt behaviors. Copyright © 2014 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

LA sprouts randomized controlled nutrition, cooking and gardening programme reduces obesity and metabolic risk in Hispanic/Latino youth.

PubMed

Gatto, N M; Martinez, L C; Spruijt-Metz, D; Davis, J N

2017-02-01

Many programmes for children that involve gardening and nutrition components exist; however, none include experimental designs allowing more rigorous evaluation of their impact on obesity. The objective of this study is to explore the effects of a novel 12-week gardening, nutrition and cooking intervention {'LA Sprouts'} on dietary intake, obesity parameters and metabolic disease risk among low-income, primarily Hispanic/Latino youth in Los Angeles.. This study used a randomized control trial involving four elementary schools [two randomized to intervention {172, 3rd-5th grade students}; two randomized to control {147, 3rd-5th grade students}]. Classes were taught in 90-min sessions once per week for 12 weeks. Data collected at pre-intervention and post-intervention included dietary intake via food frequency questionnaire, anthropometric measures {body mass index, waist circumference}, body fat, and fasting blood samples. LA Sprouts participants compared with controls had significantly greater reductions in body mass index z-scores {-0.1 vs. -0.04, respectively; p = 0.01} and waist circumference {-1.2 vs. 0.1 cm; p < 0.001}. Fewer LA Sprouts participants had the metabolic syndrome after the intervention than before, while controls with metabolic syndrome increased. LA Sprouts participants compared with controls increased dietary fiber intake {+3.4% vs. -16.5%; p = 0.04}. All participants decreased vegetable intake, but decreases were less in LA Sprouts than controls {-3.7% vs. -26.1%; p = 0.04}. Change in fruit intake did not differ between LA Sprouts and controls. LA Sprouts was effective in reducing obesity and metabolic risk; however, additional larger and longer-term studies are warranted. © 2016 World Obesity Federation.

Impact of sociodemographic patient characteristics on the efficacy of decision AIDS: a patient-level meta-analysis of 7 randomized trials.

PubMed

Coylewright, Megan; Branda, Megan; Inselman, Jonathan W; Shah, Nilay; Hess, Erik; LeBlanc, Annie; Montori, Victor M; Ting, Henry H

2014-05-01

Decision aids (DAs) increase patient knowledge, reduce decisional conflict, and promote shared decision making (SDM). The extent to which they do so across diverse sociodemographic patient groups is unknown. We conducted a patient-level meta-analysis of 7 randomized trials of DA versus usual care comprising 771 encounters between patients and clinicians discussing treatment options for chest pain, myocardial infarction, diabetes mellitus, and osteoporosis. Using a random effects model, we examined the impact of sociodemographic patient characteristics (age, sex, education, income, and insurance status) on the outcomes of knowledge transfer, decisional conflict, and patient involvement in SDM. Because of small numbers of people of color in the study population, we were not powered to investigate the role of race. Most patients were aged ≥65 years (61%), white (94%), and women (59%); two thirds had greater than a high school education. Compared with usual care, DA patients gained knowledge, were more likely to know their risk, and had less decisional conflict along with greater involvement in SDM. These gains were largely consistent across sociodemographic patient groups, with DAs demonstrating similar efficacy when used with vulnerable patients such as the elderly and those with less income and less formal education. Differences in efficacy were found only in knowledge of risk in 1 subgroup, with greater efficacy among those with higher education (35% versus 18%; P=0.02). In this patient-level meta-analysis of 7 randomized trials, DAs were efficacious across diverse sociodemographic groups as measured by knowledge transfer, decisional conflict, and patient involvement in SDM. To the extent that DAs increase patient knowledge and participation in SDM, they have potential to impact health disparities related to these factors. © 2014 American Heart Association, Inc.

How do we think machines think? An fMRI study of alleged competition with an artificial intelligence

PubMed Central

Chaminade, Thierry; Rosset, Delphine; Da Fonseca, David; Nazarian, Bruno; Lutcher, Ewald; Cheng, Gordon; Deruelle, Christine

2012-01-01

Mentalizing is defined as the inference of mental states of fellow humans, and is a particularly important skill for social interactions. Here we assessed whether activity in brain areas involved in mentalizing is specific to the processing of mental states or can be generalized to the inference of non-mental states by comparing brain responses during the interaction with an intentional and an artificial agent. Participants were scanned using fMRI during interactive rock-paper-scissors games while believing their opponent was a fellow human (Intentional agent, Int), a humanoid robot endowed with an artificial intelligence (Artificial agent, Art), or a computer playing randomly (Random agent, Rnd). Participants' subjective reports indicated that they adopted different stances against the three agents. The contrast of brain activity during interaction with the artificial and the random agents didn't yield any cluster at the threshold used, suggesting the absence of a reproducible stance when interacting with an artificial intelligence. We probed response to the artificial agent in regions of interest corresponding to clusters found in the contrast between the intentional and the random agents. In the precuneus involved in working memory, the posterior intraparietal suclus, in the control of attention and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, in executive functions, brain activity for Art was larger than for Rnd but lower than for Int, supporting the intrinsically engaging nature of social interactions. A similar pattern in the left premotor cortex and anterior intraparietal sulcus involved in motor resonance suggested that participants simulated human, and to a lesser extend humanoid robot actions, when playing the game. Finally, mentalizing regions, the medial prefrontal cortex and right temporoparietal junction, responded to the human only, supporting the specificity of mentalizing areas for interactions with intentional agents. PMID:22586381

How do we think machines think? An fMRI study of alleged competition with an artificial intelligence.

PubMed

Chaminade, Thierry; Rosset, Delphine; Da Fonseca, David; Nazarian, Bruno; Lutcher, Ewald; Cheng, Gordon; Deruelle, Christine

2012-01-01

Mentalizing is defined as the inference of mental states of fellow humans, and is a particularly important skill for social interactions. Here we assessed whether activity in brain areas involved in mentalizing is specific to the processing of mental states or can be generalized to the inference of non-mental states by comparing brain responses during the interaction with an intentional and an artificial agent. Participants were scanned using fMRI during interactive rock-paper-scissors games while believing their opponent was a fellow human (Intentional agent, Int), a humanoid robot endowed with an artificial intelligence (Artificial agent, Art), or a computer playing randomly (Random agent, Rnd). Participants' subjective reports indicated that they adopted different stances against the three agents. The contrast of brain activity during interaction with the artificial and the random agents didn't yield any cluster at the threshold used, suggesting the absence of a reproducible stance when interacting with an artificial intelligence. We probed response to the artificial agent in regions of interest corresponding to clusters found in the contrast between the intentional and the random agents. In the precuneus involved in working memory, the posterior intraparietal suclus, in the control of attention and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, in executive functions, brain activity for Art was larger than for Rnd but lower than for Int, supporting the intrinsically engaging nature of social interactions. A similar pattern in the left premotor cortex and anterior intraparietal sulcus involved in motor resonance suggested that participants simulated human, and to a lesser extend humanoid robot actions, when playing the game. Finally, mentalizing regions, the medial prefrontal cortex and right temporoparietal junction, responded to the human only, supporting the specificity of mentalizing areas for interactions with intentional agents.

An Alternative Method for Computing Mean and Covariance Matrix of Some Multivariate Distributions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Radhakrishnan, R.; Choudhury, Askar

2009-01-01

Computing the mean and covariance matrix of some multivariate distributions, in particular, multivariate normal distribution and Wishart distribution are considered in this article. It involves a matrix transformation of the normal random vector into a random vector whose components are independent normal random variables, and then integrating…

A new method for the construction of a mutant library with a predictable occurrence rate using Poisson distribution.

PubMed

Seong, Ki Moon; Park, Hweon; Kim, Seong Jung; Ha, Hyo Nam; Lee, Jae Yung; Kim, Joon

2007-06-01

A yeast transcriptional activator, Gcn4p, induces the expression of genes that are involved in amino acid and purine biosynthetic pathways under amino acid starvation. Gcn4p has an acidic activation domain in the central region and a bZIP domain in the C-terminus that is divided into the DNA-binding motif and dimerization leucine zipper motif. In order to identify amino acids in the DNA-binding motif of Gcn4p which are involved in transcriptional activation, we constructed mutant libraries in the DNA-binding motif through an innovative application of random mutagenesis. Mutant library made by oligonucleotides which were mutated randomly using the Poisson distribution showed that the actual mutation frequency was in good agreement with expected values. This method could save the time and effort to create a mutant library with a predictable mutation frequency. Based on the studies using the mutant libraries constructed by the new method, the specific residues of the DNA-binding domain in Gcn4p appear to be involved in the transcriptional activities on a conserved binding site.

Diabetes and cardiovascular disease interventions by community pharmacists: a systematic review.

PubMed

Evans, Charity D; Watson, Erin; Eurich, Dean T; Taylor, Jeff G; Yakiwchuk, Erin M; Shevchuk, Yvonne M; Remillard, Alfred; Blackburn, David

2011-05-01

To systematically review and assess the quality of studies evaluating community pharmacist interventions for preventing or managing diabetes or cardiovascular disease (CVD) and/or their major risk factors. A comprehensive literature search was performed using MEDLINE (1950-February 2011), EMBASE (1980-February 2011), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (1970-February 2011), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (1982-June 2007), and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (1898-February 2011). Search terms included: community pharmacy(ies), community pharmacist(s), cardiovascular, diabetes, and intervention. The grey literature was searched using the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Theses Canada, and OAlster databases. Articles published in English or French with all study designs were considered for the review. Studies were included if they contained interventions designed to reduce the incidence, risk, or mortality of CVD or diabetes; affect clinical indicators of CVD or diabetes mellitus (including hypertension, dyslipidemia, or hemoglobin A(1c)); and/or improve adherence to treatment strategies. Only studies involving interventions carried out primarily by pharmacists in community pharmacy settings were included. Study quality was assessed using a checklist validated for both randomized and nonrandomized studies. A total of 4142 studies were initially identified, with 40 meeting our inclusion criteria. Eleven studies were randomized controlled trials, 4 were cluster randomized trials, and 2 studies had randomized before-after designs. The remaining studies were controlled before-after (n = 2), cohort (n = 4), and uncontrolled before-after (n = 17) designs. Interventions focused on diabetes (n = 12), hypertension (n = 9), medication adherence (n = 9), lipids (n = 5), evidence-based medication initiation or optimization (n = 3), risk factor prediction scores (n = 1), and body mass index (n = 1). All studies contained interventions focused at the patient level and the majority of studies (34/40) involved interventions directed at both the physician and patient. No specific intervention emerged as superior, and study quality was generally poor, making it difficult to determine the true effect of the interventions. Poor study quality, time-intensive interventions, and unproven clinical significance warrant the need for further high-quality studies of community pharmacist interventions for preventing or managing diabetes or CVD and/or their major risk factors.

Evaluation of an alternative methodology for investigating leadership and binge drinking among sorority members.

PubMed

Plucker, Jonathan A; Teed, Carla M

2004-02-01

Recent research suggests that leaders in Greek organizations use alcohol more frequently and more heavily than non-leaders in Greek organizations. These results carry considerable implications for the majority of existing alcohol education programs that rely heavily on peer modeling. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether a more complex and realistic assessment of leadership involvement produced different results than the previous study. Results from 327 women in five randomly selected sororities provide evidence that binge drinking is related to some negative academic outcomes, but that a significant relationship between binge drinking and leadership involvement in Greek organizations does not exist. Furthermore, the results provide evidence that leadership styles do not influence the leadership involvement-binge drinking relationship.

Improving Teacher Perceptions of Parent Involvement Patterns: Findings from a Group Randomized Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herman, Keith C.; Reinke, Wendy M.

2017-01-01

For children with the most serious and persistent academic and behavior problems, parent involvement in education, particularly teacher perceptions of involvement, is essential to avert their expected long-term negative outcomes. Despite the widespread interest in and perceived importance of parent involvement in education, however, few…

Assessing variance components in multilevel linear models using approximate Bayes factors: A case study of ethnic disparities in birthweight

PubMed Central

Saville, Benjamin R.; Herring, Amy H.; Kaufman, Jay S.

2013-01-01

Racial/ethnic disparities in birthweight are a large source of differential morbidity and mortality worldwide and have remained largely unexplained in epidemiologic models. We assess the impact of maternal ancestry and census tract residence on infant birth weights in New York City and the modifying effects of race and nativity by incorporating random effects in a multilevel linear model. Evaluating the significance of these predictors involves the test of whether the variances of the random effects are equal to zero. This is problematic because the null hypothesis lies on the boundary of the parameter space. We generalize an approach for assessing random effects in the two-level linear model to a broader class of multilevel linear models by scaling the random effects to the residual variance and introducing parameters that control the relative contribution of the random effects. After integrating over the random effects and variance components, the resulting integrals needed to calculate the Bayes factor can be efficiently approximated with Laplace’s method. PMID:24082430

Professional involvement is associated with increased job satisfaction among dietitians.

PubMed

Mortensen, Jenny K; Nyland, Nora K; Fullmer, Susan; Eggett, Dennis L

2002-10-01

This study explored a relationship between professional involvement and job satisfaction among dietitians. A random sample of 2,600 employed registered dietitians (RDs) received a 55-item questionnaire including a standardized measure of job satisfaction. The response rate was 67.3%; 50.8% were useable (n = 1,321). Ninety-two percent of RDs reported job satisfaction. The mean score was 68.8 +/- .28 (possible range: 18-90), with scores over 54 indicating job satisfaction. A positive relationship was found between job satisfaction and markers of professional involvement. Additionally, six characteristics related to professional involvement were: having had a mentor, being a mentor, self-assessed high professional involvement, full-time employment, high annual income, and increased hours worked per week. There was also a positive relationship between markers of professional involvement and employer support. We conclude that, overall, RDs are satisfied with their jobs and that greater professional involvement is related to greater job satisfaction.

A New Method of Random Environmental Walking for Assessing Behavioral Preferences for Different Lighting Applications

PubMed Central

Patching, Geoffrey R.; Rahm, Johan; Jansson, Märit; Johansson, Maria

2017-01-01

Accurate assessment of people’s preferences for different outdoor lighting applications is increasingly considered important in the development of new urban environments. Here a new method of random environmental walking is proposed to complement current methods of assessing urban lighting applications, such as self-report questionnaires. The procedure involves participants repeatedly walking between different lighting applications by random selection of a lighting application and preferred choice or by random selection of a lighting application alone. In this manner, participants are exposed to all lighting applications of interest more than once and participants’ preferences for the different lighting applications are reflected in the number of times they walk to each lighting application. On the basis of an initial simulation study, to explore the feasibility of this approach, a comprehensive field test was undertaken. The field test included random environmental walking and collection of participants’ subjective ratings of perceived pleasantness (PP), perceived quality, perceived strength, and perceived flicker of four lighting applications. The results indicate that random environmental walking can reveal participants’ preferences for different lighting applications that, in the present study, conformed to participants’ ratings of PP and perceived quality of the lighting applications. As a complement to subjectively stated environmental preferences, random environmental walking has the potential to expose behavioral preferences for different lighting applications. PMID:28337163

Consumer involvement: effects on information processing from over-the-counter medication labels.

PubMed

Sansgiry, S S; Cady, P S; Sansgiry, S

2001-01-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of consumer involvement on information processing from over-the-counter (OTC) medication labels. A sample of 256 students evaluated simulated OTC product labels for two product categories (headache and cold) in random order. Each participant evaluated labels after reading a scenario to simulate high and low involvement respectively. A questionnaire was used to collect data on variables such as label comprehension, attitude-towards-product label, product evaluation, and purchase intention. The results indicate that when consumers are involved in their purchase of OTC medications they are significantly more likely to understand information from the label and evaluate it accordingly. However, involvement does not affect attitude-towards-product label nor does it enhance purchase intention.

Random walk study of electron motion in helium in crossed electromagnetic fields

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Englert, G. W.

1972-01-01

Random walk theory, previously adapted to electron motion in the presence of an electric field, is extended to include a transverse magnetic field. In principle, the random walk approach avoids mathematical complexity and concomitant simplifying assumptions and permits determination of energy distributions and transport coefficients within the accuracy of available collisional cross section data. Application is made to a weakly ionized helium gas. Time of relaxation of electron energy distribution, determined by the random walk, is described by simple expressions based on energy exchange between the electron and an effective electric field. The restrictive effect of the magnetic field on electron motion, which increases the required number of collisions per walk to reach a terminal steady state condition, as well as the effect of the magnetic field on electron transport coefficients and mean energy can be quite adequately described by expressions involving only the Hall parameter.

Multiobjective optimization in structural design with uncertain parameters and stochastic processes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rao, S. S.

1984-01-01

The application of multiobjective optimization techniques to structural design problems involving uncertain parameters and random processes is studied. The design of a cantilever beam with a tip mass subjected to a stochastic base excitation is considered for illustration. Several of the problem parameters are assumed to be random variables and the structural mass, fatigue damage, and negative of natural frequency of vibration are considered for minimization. The solution of this three-criteria design problem is found by using global criterion, utility function, game theory, goal programming, goal attainment, bounded objective function, and lexicographic methods. It is observed that the game theory approach is superior in finding a better optimum solution, assuming the proper balance of the various objective functions. The procedures used in the present investigation are expected to be useful in the design of general dynamic systems involving uncertain parameters, stochastic process, and multiple objectives.

A New Algorithm with Plane Waves and Wavelets for Random Velocity Fields with Many Spatial Scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elliott, Frank W.; Majda, Andrew J.

1995-03-01

A new Monte Carlo algorithm for constructing and sampling stationary isotropic Gaussian random fields with power-law energy spectrum, infrared divergence, and fractal self-similar scaling is developed here. The theoretical basis for this algorithm involves the fact that such a random field is well approximated by a superposition of random one-dimensional plane waves involving a fixed finite number of directions. In general each one-dimensional plane wave is the sum of a random shear layer and a random acoustical wave. These one-dimensional random plane waves are then simulated by a wavelet Monte Carlo method for a single space variable developed recently by the authors. The computational results reported in this paper demonstrate remarkable low variance and economical representation of such Gaussian random fields through this new algorithm. In particular, the velocity structure function for an imcorepressible isotropic Gaussian random field in two space dimensions with the Kolmogoroff spectrum can be simulated accurately over 12 decades with only 100 realizations of the algorithm with the scaling exponent accurate to 1.1% and the constant prefactor accurate to 6%; in fact, the exponent of the velocity structure function can be computed over 12 decades within 3.3% with only 10 realizations. Furthermore, only 46,592 active computational elements are utilized in each realization to achieve these results for 12 decades of scaling behavior.

[Parent participation in the treatment of dyslexic children - the results of a paper-pencil questionnaire].

PubMed

Multhauf, Bettina; Buschmann, Anke

2014-07-01

This study examined the degree and manner of involving parents in the treatment of dyslexic children. The study also identified therapeutic variables predicting the extent of parent involvement and the reasons for any instances of failed involvement. A sample of 53 out of 120 randomly selected German dyslexia therapists (response rate: 44 %) filled out a paper-pencil questionnaire assessing the degree and manner of parent involvement in the treatment of dyslexic children. Furthermore, therapists' attitudes toward parent involvement and their subjective competence when working with parents were assessed. The most common forms of parent involvement occurred during anamnesis and when drawing up recommendations for home exercises. The therapists' attitudes toward working with parents predicted the extent of parent involvement (β = .58). There was a significant correlation between working with parents and the subjective competence of the therapist (r = .28), which was mediated by therapists' attitudes toward parent involvement. Disinterest on the part of parents and therapists' lack of time proved to be reasons for less parent involvement. Despite declared positive attitudes toward working with parents, the involvement of parents in the therapeutic process by therapists was limited.

Students' Out-of-School Experiences, Job Priorities, and Perceptions toward Themselves as a Scientist: A Cross-Cultural Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korkmaz, Hunkar; Thomas, Julie Anna; Tatar, Nilgun; Altunay, Serpil

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine middle school students' out-of-school experiences related to science, priorities related to their future job, perception toward themselves as a scientist. One intact school was assigned randomly from each country. The study involved 479 students (363 Turkish students; 116 American students), aged between 11…

College Climate and Teacher-Trainee's Academic Work in Selected Colleges of Education in the Ashanti Region of Ghana

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adjei, Augustine; Dontoh, Samuel; Baafi-Frimpong, Stephen

2017-01-01

The study aimed at investigating the extent to which College climate (Leadership roles/practices and Class size) impact on academic work of Teacher-trainees. A survey research design was used for the study because it involved a study of relatively large population who were purposively and randomly selected. A sample size of 322 out of the…

An Analysis of the Role of the Elementary School Guidance Counselor.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrell, James; Healy, Alice A.

The study was conducted to analyze the role of the elementary school guidance counselor and explore counselors', teachers', and principals' expectations of this role. Involved were 35 schools where the counselor, principal and two randomly selected teachers responded to a Role Expectation Questionnaire and individual interviews. The findings…

EIA: Educational Reform or Repression?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monteith, Dianne S.

A recent study (Cook, 1989) involving 58 randomly selected South Carolina elementary schools indicated that none of these schools could be characterized as having an "open climate." This paper suggests that this situation may have its origins in the educational reform movement of the 1980s, first ignited by the publication of "A…

Main and Interaction Effects of Metallic Pollutants on Cognitive Functioning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moon, Charles; And Others

1985-01-01

A study involving 69 randomly selected elementary students indicated that increases in arsenic and interaction of arsenic lead were significantly related to decreased reading and spelling achievement, and increases in aluminum and the interaction of aluminum with lead were significantly related to decreased visual-motor performance. (Author/CL)

Classroom Questioning with Immediate Electronic Response: Do Clickers Improve Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yourstone, Steven A.; Kraye, Howard S.; Albaum, Gerald

2008-01-01

A number of studies have focused on how students and instructors feel about digital learning technologies. This research is focused on the substantive difference in learning outcomes between traditional classrooms and classrooms using clickers. A randomized block experimental design involving four sections of undergraduate Operations Management…

Working with Youth on LGBT Issues: Why Gay-Straight Alliance Advisors Become Involved

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valenti, Maria; Campbell, Rebecca

2009-01-01

This phenomenological qualitative study explores motivation for citizen participation in a local context by exploring the experiences of Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club advisors from public high schools. Fourteen advisors from one midwestern state were randomly recruited for participation. Inductive and deductive qualitative analyses elucidated…

Family Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Child Anxiety Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Jeffrey J.; Piacentini, John C.; Southam-Gerow, Michael; Chu, Brian C.; Sigman, Marian

2006-01-01

Objective: This study compared family-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT: the Building Confidence Program) with traditional child-focused CBT with minimal family involvement for children with anxiety disorders. Method: Forty clinically anxious youth (6-13 years old) were randomly assigned to a family- or child-focused cognitive-behavioral…

Teaching High-Expectation Strategies to Teachers through an Intervention Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDonald, Lyn; Flint, Annaline; Rubie-Davies, Christine M.; Peterson, Elizabeth R.; Watson, Penny; Garrett, Lynda

2016-01-01

This study describes the outcomes of an intervention focused on the strategies and practices of high-expectation teachers. Specifically, the intervention involved 84 teachers who were randomly assigned to control and intervention groups. The research methodology was primarily qualitative, grounded in the interpretive tradition. Data collected from…

Attitudes Toward Physical Activity of Champion Women Basketball Players.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corbin, Charles B.

This study was undertaken to determine which attitudes were central to the motivation of women involved in championship basketball competition. Seventy-five women members of teams represented in national basketball championships served as subjects for this experiment. In addition, a control group of 212 women was randomly selected from physical…

Assessing the Eventual Publication of Clinical Trial Abstracts Submitted to a Large Annual Oncology Meeting.

PubMed

Massey, Paul R; Wang, Ruibin; Prasad, Vinay; Bates, Susan E; Fojo, Tito

2016-03-01

Despite the ethical imperative to publish clinical trials when human subjects are involved, such data frequently remain unpublished. The objectives were to tabulate the rate and ascertain factors associated with eventual publication of clinical trial results reported as abstracts in the Proceedings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (American Society of Clinical Oncology). Abstracts describing clinical trials for patients with breast, lung, colorectal, ovarian, and prostate cancer from 2009 to 2011 were identified by using a comprehensive online database (http://meetinglibrary.asco.org/abstracts). Abstracts included reported results of a treatment or intervention assessed in a discrete, prospective clinical trial. Publication status at 4-6 years was determined by using a standardized search of PubMed. Primary outcomes were the rate of publication for abstracts of randomized and nonrandomized clinical trials. Secondary outcomes included factors influencing the publication of results. A total of 1,075 abstracts describing 378 randomized and 697 nonrandomized clinical trials were evaluated. Across all years, 75% of randomized and 54% of nonrandomized trials were published, with an overall publication rate of 61%. Sample size was a statistically significant predictor of publication for both randomized and nonrandomized trials (odds ratio [OR] per increase of 100 participants = 1.23 [1.11-1.36], p < .001; and 1.64 [1.15-2.34], p = .006, respectively). Among randomized studies, an industry coauthor or involvement of a cooperative group increased the likelihood of publication (OR 2.37, p = .013; and 2.21, p = .01, respectively). Among nonrandomized studies, phase II trials were more likely to be published than phase I (p < .001). Use of an experimental agent was not a predictor of publication in randomized (OR 0.76 [0.38-1.52]; p = .441) or nonrandomized trials (OR 0.89 [0.61-1.29]; p = .532). This is the largest reported study examining why oncology trials are not published. The data show that 4-6 years after appearing as abstracts, 39% of oncology clinical trials remain unpublished. Larger sample size and advanced trial phase were associated with eventual publication; among randomized trials, an industry-affiliated author or a cooperative group increased likelihood of publication. Unfortunately, we found that, despite widespread recognition of the problem and the creation of central data repositories, timely publishing of oncology clinical trials results remains unsatisfactory. ©AlphaMed Press.

Residual Defect Density in Random Disks Deposits.

PubMed

Topic, Nikola; Pöschel, Thorsten; Gallas, Jason A C

2015-08-03

We investigate the residual distribution of structural defects in very tall packings of disks deposited randomly in large channels. By performing simulations involving the sedimentation of up to 50 × 10(9) particles we find all deposits to consistently show a non-zero residual density of defects obeying a characteristic power-law as a function of the channel width. This remarkable finding corrects the widespread belief that the density of defects should vanish algebraically with growing height. A non-zero residual density of defects implies a type of long-range spatial order in the packing, as opposed to only local ordering. In addition, we find deposits of particles to involve considerably less randomness than generally presumed.

A Different Type of Test.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brady, Lisa

2003-01-01

Describes a successful random drug-testing program for athletes and students involved in school-sponsored activities at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, New Jersey. Urges all high schools to implement a random drug-testing program. (PKP)

Bile leakage test in liver resection: A systematic review and meta-analysis

PubMed Central

Wang, Hai-Qing; Yang, Jian; Yang, Jia-Yin; Yan, Lu-Nan

2013-01-01

AIM: To assess systematically the safety and efficacy of bile leakage test in liver resection. METHODS : Randomized controlled trials and controlled clinical trials involving the bile leakage test were included in a systematic literature search. Two authors independently assessed the studies for inclusion and extracted the data. A meta-analysis was conducted to estimate postoperative bile leakage, intraoperative positive bile leakage, and complications. We used either the fixed-effects or random-effects model. RESULTS: Eight studies involving a total of 1253 patients were included and they all involved the bile leakage test in liver resection. The bile leakage test group was associated with a significant reduction in bile leakage compared with the non-bile leakage test group (RR = 0.39, 95%CI: 0.23-0.67; I2 = 3%). The white test had superiority for detection of intraoperative bile leakage compared with the saline solution test (RR = 2.38, 95%CI: 1.24-4.56, P = 0.009). No significant intergroup differences were observed in total number of complications, ileus, liver failure, intraperitoneal hemorrhage, pulmonary disorder, abdominal infection, and wound infection. CONCLUSION: The bile leakage test reduced postoperative bile leakage and did not increase incidence of complications. Fat emulsion is the best choice of solution for the test. PMID:24363535

Bile leakage test in liver resection: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Wang, Hai-Qing; Yang, Jian; Yang, Jia-Yin; Yan, Lu-Nan

2013-12-07

To assess systematically the safety and efficacy of bile leakage test in liver resection. Randomized controlled trials and controlled clinical trials involving the bile leakage test were included in a systematic literature search. Two authors independently assessed the studies for inclusion and extracted the data. A meta-analysis was conducted to estimate postoperative bile leakage, intraoperative positive bile leakage, and complications. We used either the fixed-effects or random-effects model. Eight studies involving a total of 1253 patients were included and they all involved the bile leakage test in liver resection. The bile leakage test group was associated with a significant reduction in bile leakage compared with the non-bile leakage test group (RR = 0.39, 95%CI: 0.23-0.67; I (2) = 3%). The white test had superiority for detection of intraoperative bile leakage compared with the saline solution test (RR = 2.38, 95%CI: 1.24-4.56, P = 0.009). No significant intergroup differences were observed in total number of complications, ileus, liver failure, intraperitoneal hemorrhage, pulmonary disorder, abdominal infection, and wound infection. The bile leakage test reduced postoperative bile leakage and did not increase incidence of complications. Fat emulsion is the best choice of solution for the test. © 2013 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved.

Proteasix: a tool for automated and large-scale prediction of proteases involved in naturally occurring peptide generation.

PubMed

Klein, Julie; Eales, James; Zürbig, Petra; Vlahou, Antonia; Mischak, Harald; Stevens, Robert

2013-04-01

In this study, we have developed Proteasix, an open-source peptide-centric tool that can be used to predict in silico the proteases involved in naturally occurring peptide generation. We developed a curated cleavage site (CS) database, containing 3500 entries about human protease/CS combinations. On top of this database, we built a tool, Proteasix, which allows CS retrieval and protease associations from a list of peptides. To establish the proof of concept of the approach, we used a list of 1388 peptides identified from human urine samples, and compared the prediction to the analysis of 1003 randomly generated amino acid sequences. Metalloprotease activity was predominantly involved in urinary peptide generation, and more particularly to peptides associated with extracellular matrix remodelling, compared to proteins from other origins. In comparison, random sequences returned almost no results, highlighting the specificity of the prediction. This study provides a tool that can facilitate linking of identified protein fragments to predicted protease activity, and therefore into presumed mechanisms of disease. Experiments are needed to confirm the in silico hypotheses; nevertheless, this approach may be of great help to better understand molecular mechanisms of disease, and define new biomarkers, and therapeutic targets. © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Does the patient‐held record improve continuity and related outcomes in cancer care: a systematic review

PubMed Central

Gysels, Marjolein; Richardson, Alison; Higginson, Irene J.

2006-01-01

Abstract Objectives  To assess the effectiveness of the patient‐held record (PHR) in cancer care. Background  Patients with cancer may receive care from different services resulting in gaps. A PHR could provide continuity and patient involvement in care. Search strategy  Relevant literature was identified through five electronic databases (Medline, Embase, Cinahl, CCTR and CDSR) and hand searches. Inclusion criteria  Patient‐held records in cancer care with the purpose of improving communication and information exchange between and within different levels of care and to promote continuity of care and patients’ involvement in their own care. Data extraction and synthesis  Data extraction recorded characteristics of intervention, type of study and factors that contributed to methodological quality of individual studies. Data were then contrasted by setting, objectives, population, study design, outcome measures and changes in outcome, including knowledge, satisfaction, anxiety and depression. Methodological quality of randomized control trials and non‐experimental studies were assessed with separate standard grading scales. Main results and conclusions  Seven randomized control trials and six non‐experimental studies were identified. Evaluations of the PHR have reached equivocal findings. Randomized trials found an absence of effect, non‐experimental evaluations shed light on the conditions for its successful use. Most patients welcomed introduction of a PHR. Main problems related to its suitability for different patient groups and the lack of agreement between patients and health professionals regarding its function. Further research is required to determine the conditions under which the PHR can realize its potential as a tool to promote continuity of care and patient participation. PMID:17324196

Impact of celebrity pitch in direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs.

PubMed

Bhutada, Nilesh S; Menon, Ajit M; Deshpande, Aparna D; Perri, Matthew

2012-01-01

Online surveys were conducted to determine the impact of endorser credibility, endorser effectiveness, and consumers' involvement in direct-to-consumer advertising. In a randomized posttest only study, using the elaboration likelihood model, survey participants (U.S. adults) were either exposed to a fictitious prescription drug ad with a celebrity or a noncelebrity endorser. There was no significant difference in credibility and effectiveness between the celebrity and the noncelebrity endorser. High involvement consumers viewed the ad more favorably and exhibited significantly stronger drug inquiry intentions during their next doctor visit. Further, consumers' involvement did not moderate the effect of celebrity endorser.

Practice schedule and acquisition, retention, and transfer of a throwing task in 6-yr.-old children.

PubMed

Granda Vera, Juan; Montilla, Mariano Medina

2003-06-01

Earlier studies have raised questions about the usefulness of variable and random practice in learning motor tasks so this study was designed to investigate the effects of contextual interference in young children, and specifically to evaluate the effectiveness of variable or random practice structure in 6-yr.-old boys and girls. Participants on a variable practice schedule showed better performances than those on a blocked schedule. The differences between the two groups were significant in the acquisition, retention, and transfer phases. These results support the hypothesis that contextual interference enhances skill learning. Because the study involved groups of young children in the setting of their normally scheduled physical education class, the practical applications of the results are evident.

Effects of a Target-Task Problem-Solving Model on Senior Secondary School Students' Performance in Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olaniyan, A. O.; Omosewo, E. O.

2015-01-01

The study investigated the Effects of a Target-Task Problem-Solving Model on Senior Secondary School Students' Performance in Physics. The research design was a quasi-experimental, non-randomized, non-equivalent pretest, post-test using a control group. The study was conducted in two schools purposively selected and involved a total of 120 Senior…

An Evaluation of the National Teachers' Institute's Manpower Training Program for Teaching Personnel in Mid-Western Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osunde, A. U.; Omoruyi, F. E. O.

2004-01-01

This study evaluated the manpower-training program for teaching personnel in mid-western Nigeria by the National Teachers' Institute. Overall, 240 participants involved in the training program who were randomly selected from the area constituted the sample for the study. A questionnaire designed by the authors was the major instrument used for…

The Web Quest: Its Impact on Developing Teaching Skills of Physical Education Student Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohamed, Haythem Abdel Mageed; El Rheem, Rasha Nageh Ali Abd

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the use of WebQuests would impact the teaching performance of the physical education (PE) teacher candidates enrolled in Minia University. Twenty-eight, third-year teacher candidates were involved in the study (N = 28) and were randomly divided into two groups: a control and…

Long-Term Effects of CBT on Social Impairment in Adolescents with ASD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maddox, Brenna B.; Miyazaki, Yasuo; White, Susan W.

2017-01-01

Anxiety interventions involving social skills training and CBT for youth with ASD have shown promise, but few studies have examined the effects on social functioning or the maintenance of treatment gains. This study evaluated change in social skills during a randomized controlled trial of CBT and during the 1-year follow-up for 25 adolescents with…

[Is it beneficial to involve family member? A literature review to psychosocial interventions in family-centered nursing].

PubMed

Mahrer-Imhof, Romy; Bruylands, Michelle

2014-10-01

Families influence the wellbeing of patients and are influenced by illness themselves. Involving caregivers in patient care was examined in multiple studies. The aim of this literature review was to investigate the different approaches to family-centered interventions (FI) and to evaluate the tested outcomes as well as the detected effect sizes. This search for a systematic literature review of randomized controlled trials and metaanalyses revealed three Meta Analyses with studies until 2007 and six randomized controlled studies from 2007 to 2012. FI showed small to middle positive effects on the outcomes depression, mental health, anxiety of patients and family members and on caregiver burden. A conclusive effect on physical health could not be shown. The results strongly depend on the enrolled patient population, the targeted participants of FI, as well as the focus, type and dose of FI. The studies showed vast differences in the length and type of intervention, the target population and the selection of outcomes. Comparing outcomes was difficult due to the use of different outcome measures. Further research with various populations, different FI intensity but with same, valid outcome measures is needed.

Enhancing physical activity and reducing obesity through smartcare and financial incentives: A pilot randomized trial.

PubMed

Shin, Dong Wook; Yun, Jae Moon; Shin, Jung-Hyun; Kwon, Hyuktae; Min, Hye Yeon; Joh, Hee-Kyung; Chung, Won Joo; Park, Jin Ho; Jung, Kee-Taig; Cho, BeLong

2017-02-01

A pilot randomized trial assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of an intervention combining Smartcare (activity tracker with a smartphone application) and financial incentives. A three-arm, open-label randomized controlled trial design involving traditional education, Smartcare, and Smartcare with financial incentives was involved in this study. The latter group received financial incentives depending on the achievement of daily physical activity goals (process incentive) and weight loss targets (outcome incentive). Male university students (N = 105) with body mass index of ≥27 were enrolled. The average weight loss in the traditional education, Smartcare, and Smartcare with financial incentives groups was -0.4, -1.1, and -3.1 kg, respectively, with significantly greater weight loss in the third group (both Ps < 0.01). The final weight loss goal was achieved by 0, 2, and 10 participants in the traditional education, Smartcare, and Smartcare with financial incentives groups (odds ratio for the Smartcare with financial incentive vs. Smartcare = 7.27, 95% confidence interval: 1.45-36.47). Levels of physical activity were significantly higher in this group. The addition of financial incentives to Smartcare was effective in increasing physical activity and reducing obesity. © 2017 The Obesity Society.

Evaluation of the acceptability, feasibility and effectiveness of two methods of involving patients with disability in developing clinical guidelines: study protocol of a randomized pragmatic pilot trial.

PubMed

Lamontagne, Marie-Eve; Perreault, Kadija; Gagnon, Marie-Pierre

2014-04-10

Despite growing interest in the importance of, and challenges associated with the involvement of patient and population (IPP) in the process of developing and adapting clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), there is a lack of knowledge about the best method to use. This is especially problematic in the field of rehabilitation, where individuals with disabilities might face many barriers to their involvement in the guideline development and adaptation process. The goal of this pilot trial is to document the acceptability, feasibility and effectiveness of two methods of involving patients with a disability (traumatic brain injury) in CPG development. A single-blind, randomized, crossover pragmatic trial will be performed with 20 patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). They will be randomized into two groups, and each will try two alternative methods of producing recommendations; a discussion group (control intervention) and a Wiki, a webpage that can be modified by those who have access to it (experimental intervention). The participants will rate the acceptability of the two methods, and feasibility will be assessed using indicators such as the number of participants who accessed and completed the two methods, and the number of support interventions required. Twenty experts, blinded to the method of producing the recommendations, will independently rate the recommendations produced by the participants for clarity, accuracy, appropriateness and usefulness. Our trial will allow for the use of optimal IPP methods in a larger project of adapting guidelines for the rehabilitation of individuals with TBI. Ultimately the results will inform the science of CPG development and contribute to the growing knowledge about IPP in rehabilitation settings. Clinical trial KT Canada 87776.

Psychoeducational preparation of children for surgery: the importance of parental involvement.

PubMed

Li, Ho Cheung William; Lopez, Violeta; Lee, Tin Loi Isabel

2007-01-01

To examine the effects of therapeutic play intervention on outcomes of children undergoing day surgery, and to highlight the importance of parental involvement in the psychoeducational preparation of children for surgery. A randomized controlled trial, two group pre-test and repeated post-test, between subjects design was employed. Hong Kong Chinese children (7-12 years of age; n=203) admitted for elective surgery in a day surgery unit, along with their parents during a 13-month period, were invited to participate in the study. By using a simple complete randomization method, 97 of children with their parents were assigned to the experimental group receiving therapeutic play intervention, and 106 children with their parents were assigned to the control group receiving routine information preparation. The results showed that both children and their parents in the experimental group reported lower state anxiety scores in pre- and post-operative periods. Children in the experimental group exhibited fewer instances of negative emotional behaviors and parents in the experimental group reported greater satisfaction. The results, however, find no differences in children's post-operative pain between the two groups. The study provides empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of using therapeutic play intervention and the importance of parental involvement in the psychoeducational preparation of children for surgery. The findings heighten the awareness of the importance of integrating therapeutic play and parental involvement as essential components of holistic and quality nursing care to prepare children for surgery.

Photobiomodulation versus light-emitting diode (LED) therapy in the treatment of temporomandibular disorder: study protocol for a randomized, controlled clinical trial.

PubMed

Langella, Luciana G; Silva, Paula F C; Costa-Santos, Larissa; Gonçalves, Marcela L L; Motta, Lara J; Deana, Alessandro M; Fernandes, Kristianne P S; Mesquita-Ferrari, Raquel A; Bussadori, Sandra Kalil

2018-01-26

Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) is described as a subgroup of orofacial pain with a set of signs and symptoms that involve the temporomandibular joint, masticatory muscles, ears, and neck. TMD can occur unilaterally or bilaterally and approximately 70% of the population is affected with at least one sign. The disorder progresses with orofacial pain, muscle pain involving the masticatory and cervical muscles, joint noises (clicks and pops), joint block, mandibular dysfunction, and headache. The etiology can be abnormal occlusion and/or posture, trauma involving local tissues, repetitive microtrauma, parafunctional habits, and an increase in emotional stress. Studies have demonstrated that phototherapy is an efficient option for the treatment of TMD, leading to improvements in pain and orofacial function. The aim of the proposed study is to compare the effects of two sources of photobiomodulation in individuals with TMD. A randomized, controlled, double-blind, clinical trial is proposed, which will involve 80 individuals aged 18-65 years allocated to either a laser group or light-emitting diode (LED) group submitted to 12 sessions of phototherapy. The Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMDs will be used to evaluate all participants. Pain will be measured using the visual analog scale and maximum vertical mandibular movement will be determined with the aid of digital calipers. This study compares the effects of two modalities of laser therapy on the pain and orofacial function of patients with TMD dysfunction. Photobiomodulation and LED therapy are treatment options for reducing the inflammatory process and pain as well as inducing the regeneration of the target tissue. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03257748 . Registered on 8 August 2017.

Lifestyle interventions to reduce risk of diabetes among women with prior gestational diabetes mellitus.

PubMed

Chasan-Taber, Lisa

2015-01-01

While lifestyle interventions involving exercise and a healthy diet in high-risk adults have been found to reduce progression to type 2 diabetes by >50%, little attention has been given to the potential benefits of such strategies in women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). We conducted a literature search of PubMed for English language studies of randomized controlled trials of lifestyle interventions among women with a history of GDM. In total, nine studies were identified which fulfilled the eligibility criteria. The majority of randomized trials of lifestyle interventions in women with GDM have been limited to pilot or feasibility studies. However, preliminary findings suggest that such interventions can improve diabetes risk factors in women with a history of GDM. Larger, well-designed controlled randomized trials are needed to assess the effects of lifestyle interventions on preventing subsequent progression to type 2 diabetes among women with GDM. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

HIV Prevention for Adults With Criminal Justice Involvement: A Systematic Review of HIV Risk-Reduction Interventions in Incarceration and Community Settings

PubMed Central

Dumont, Dora; Operario, Don

2014-01-01

We summarized and appraised evidence regarding HIV prevention interventions for adults with criminal justice involvement. We included randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials that evaluated an HIV prevention intervention, enrolled participants with histories of criminal justice involvement, and reported biological or behavioral outcomes. We used Cochrane methods to screen 32 271 citations from 16 databases and gray literature. We included 37 trials enrolling n = 12 629 participants. Interventions were 27 psychosocial, 7 opioid substitution therapy, and 3 HIV-testing programs. Eleven programs significantly reduced sexual risk taking, 4 reduced injection drug risks, and 4 increased testing. Numerous interventions may reduce HIV-related risks among adults with criminal justice involvement. Future research should consider process evaluations, programs involving partners or families, and interventions integrating biomedical, psychosocial, and structural approaches. PMID:25211725

A Youth-Led, Social Marketing Intervention Run by Adolescents to Encourage Healthy Lifestyles among Younger School Peers (EYTO-Kids Project): A Protocol for Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (Spain)

PubMed Central

Aceves-Martins, Magaly; Papell-Garcia, Ignasi; Arola, Lluís; Giralt, Montse; Solà, Rosa

2017-01-01

Introduction: The EYTO-kids (European Youth Tackling Obesity in Adolescents and Children) study aims to increase fruit and/or vegetable consumption and physical activity, decrease sedentary lifestyles, and reduce the intake of sugary drinks and fast food using an innovative methodology based on social marketing and youth involvement. Methods: This study is a pilot school-based cluster randomized controlled 10-month intervention spanning two academic years (2015–2016 and 2016–2017), with eight primary schools and three high schools randomized into and designated the control group and eight primary schools and four high schools designated the intervention group in Reus, Spain. At least 301 younger school peers per group should be included. At the intervention high schools, the adolescent creators (ACs) receive an initial 16-h training session. In total, 26–32 high school ACs (12–14 years) from the four high schools will design and implement four health-promotion activities (1 h/each) for their younger (8–10 years), primary school peers. The control group will not receive any intervention. The outcomes (fruit, vegetable, fast food and sugary drink consumption; physical activity; and sedentary behaviors) of the control and intervention groups will be measured pre- and post-intervention. Conclusion: This study describes a protocol for pilot, peer-led, social marketing and youth-involved intervention, where adolescents design and implement activities for their younger peers to promote healthy lifestyles.

[Hormone replacement therapy and cognitive function].

PubMed

Huang, Chun-Ping; Hong, Chi-Tzong; Huang, I-Tsan

2006-12-01

Observational studies have suggested that postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may improve cognitive function, but data from randomized clinical trials have been sparse and inconclusive. The effects of HRT on dementia and mild cognitive impairment were assessed in a subgroup of participants in the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) (a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial). There were two study arms, one involved 4,532 postmenopausal women who received continuous combined estrogen (conjugated equine estrogens [CEE] plus medroxyprogesterone acetate [MPA]) or placebo, and the other involved 2,947 hysterectomized women randomized to continuous unopposed CEE or placebo. All participants were aged 65 years or older. CEE with or without MPA did not protect against (but substantially increased the risk of) dementia of any cause or cognitive decline. Incidence of probable dementia in the estrogen-alone trial was statistically similar to that in the estrogen plus progestin trial. When data from both trials were pooled, the overall risk for probable dementia was increased by 76% (HR, 1.76; 95% CI, 1.19 to 2.60; P = 0.005). A second report from WHIMS suggested that cognitive decline in women aged 65 years and older was greater in those receiving hormone therapy than in those receiving placebo (HR, 1.25; 95% CI, 0.97-1.60). The WHIMS results clearly indicate that CEE with or without MPA should not be used to prevent dementia or enhance cognition in women older than 65 years.

The clinical and cost-effectiveness of the BRinging Information and Guided Help Together (BRIGHT) intervention for the self-management support of people with stage 3 chronic kidney disease in primary care: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Improving the quality of care for people with vascular disease is a key priority. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has recently been included as a target condition for general practices to add to registers of chronic conditions as part of the Quality and Outcome Framework. This paper outlines the implementation and evaluation of a self-management intervention involving an information guidebook, tailored access to local resources and telephone support for people with stage 3 chronic kidney disease. Methods/Design The study involves a multi-site, longitudinal patient-level randomized controlled trial. The study will evaluate the clinical use and cost-effectiveness of a complex self-management intervention for people with stage 3 chronic kidney disease in terms of self-management capacity, health-related quality of life and blood pressure control compared to care as usual. We describe the methods of the patient-level randomized controlled trial. Discussion The management of chronic kidney disease is a developing area of research. The BRinging Information and Guided Help Together (BRIGHT) trial aims to provide evidence that a complementary package of support for people with vascular disease that targets both clinical and social need broadens the opportunities of self-management support by addressing problems related to social disadvantage. Trial registration Trial registration reference: ISRCTN45433299 PMID:23356861

A randomized controlled trial of an intervention program to Brazilian mothers who use corporal punishment.

PubMed

Santini, Paolla Magioni; Williams, Lucia C A

2017-09-01

This study evaluated a positive parenting program to Brazilian mothers who used corporal punishment with their children. The intervention was conducted in four agencies serving vulnerable children, and at a home replica laboratory at the University. Mothers who admitted using corporal punishment were randomly assigned between experimental (n=20) and control group (n=20). The program consisted of 12 individual sessions using one unit from Projeto Parceria (Partnership Project), with specific guidelines and materials on positive parenting, followed by observational sessions of mother-child interaction with live coaching and a video feedback session in the lab. The study used an equivalent group experimental design with pre/post-test and follow-up, in randomized controlled trials. Measures involved: Initial Interview; Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) - parent and child versions; Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); observational sessions with a protocol; and a Program Evaluation by participants. Analysis of mixed models for repeated measures revealed significant positive effects on the BDI and SDQ total scores, as well as less Conduct problems and Hyperactivity in SDQ measures from the experimental group mothers, comparing pre with post-test. Observational data also indicated significant improvement in positive interaction from the experimental group mothers at post-test, in comparison with controls. No significant results were found, however, in children's observational measures. Limitations of the study involved using a restricted sample, among others. Implications for future research are suggested. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Integrating Comparative Effectiveness Design Elements and Endpoints Into a Phase III, Randomized Clinical Trial (SWOG S1007) Evaluating OncotypeDX-Guided Management for Women With Breast Cancer Involving Lymph Nodes

PubMed Central

Ramsey, Scott D.; Barlow, William E.; Gonzalez-Angulo, Ana M.; Tunis, Sean; Baker, Laurence; Crowley, John; Deverka, Patricia; Veenstra, David; Hortobagyi, Gabriel N.

2012-01-01

Women with breast cancer involving the lymph nodes are typically treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy. Retrospective evaluations of prior studies suggest that the 21-gene test (OncotypeDX®), may allow identification of those who can safely avoid chemotherapy. To better understand the performance of the 21-gene test, the RxPONDER (Rx for Positive Node, Endocrine Responsive breast cancer) study was designed, a multicenter Phase III trial randomizing women with hormone receptor-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer involving 1–3 lymph nodes and a 21-gene assay recurrence score (RS) of 25 or less to endocrine therapy alone versus chemotherapy followed by endocrine therapy. As one of the first large-scale comparative-effectiveness studies in oncology, RxPONDER utilized an external stakeholder group to help inform the design of the trial. Stakeholders met with representatives of SWOG over several months through a structured discussion process. The stakeholder engagement process resulted in several changes being made to the trial design. In addition, stakeholder representatives from the health insurance industry provided guidance regarding a mechanism whereby the costs of OncotypeDX® would be paid by the majority of health insurers as part of the trial. The process may serve as a template for future studies evaluating the comparative effectiveness of genomic tests in oncology, particularly those that are conducted within cooperative clinical trials groups. PMID:23000081

A mathematical model of case-ascertainment bias: Applied to case-control studies nested within a randomized screening trial.

PubMed

Jansen, Rick J; Alexander, Bruce H; Hayes, Richard B; Miller, Anthony B; Wacholder, Sholom; Church, Timothy R

2018-01-01

When some individuals are screen-detected before the beginning of the study, but otherwise would have been diagnosed symptomatically during the study, this results in different case-ascertainment probabilities among screened and unscreened participants, referred to here as lead-time-biased case-ascertainment (LTBCA). In fact, this issue can arise even in risk-factor studies nested within a randomized screening trial; even though the screening intervention is randomly allocated to trial arms, there is no randomization to potential risk-factors and uptake of screening can differ by risk-factor strata. Under the assumptions that neither screening nor the risk factor affects underlying incidence and no other forms of bias operate, we simulate and compare the underlying cumulative incidence and that observed in the study due to LTBCA. The example used will be constructed from the randomized Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian cancer screening trial. The derived mathematical model is applied to simulating two nested studies to evaluate the potential for screening bias in observational lung cancer studies. Because of differential screening under plausible assumptions about preclinical incidence and duration, the simulations presented here show that LTBCA due to chest x-ray screening can significantly increase the estimated risk of lung cancer due to smoking by 1% and 50%. Traditional adjustment methods cannot account for this bias, as the influence screening has on observational study estimates involves events outside of the study observation window (enrollment and follow-up) that change eligibility for potential participants, thus biasing case ascertainment.

Multisource passive acoustic tracking: an application of random finite set data fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ali, Andreas M.; Hudson, Ralph E.; Lorenzelli, Flavio; Yao, Kung

2010-04-01

Multisource passive acoustic tracking is useful in animal bio-behavioral study by replacing or enhancing human involvement during and after field data collection. Multiple simultaneous vocalizations are a common occurrence in a forest or a jungle, where many species are encountered. Given a set of nodes that are capable of producing multiple direction-of-arrivals (DOAs), such data needs to be combined into meaningful estimates. Random Finite Set provides the mathematical probabilistic model, which is suitable for analysis and optimal estimation algorithm synthesis. Then the proposed algorithm has been verified using a simulation and a controlled test experiment.

Non-randomized response model for sensitive survey with noncompliance.

PubMed

Wu, Qin; Tang, Man-Lai

2016-12-01

Collecting representative data on sensitive issues has long been problematic and challenging in public health prevalence investigation (e.g. non-suicidal self-injury), medical research (e.g. drug habits), social issue studies (e.g. history of child abuse), and their interdisciplinary studies (e.g. premarital sexual intercourse). Alternative data collection techniques that can be adopted to study sensitive questions validly become more important and necessary. As an alternative to the famous Warner randomized response model, non-randomized response triangular model has recently been developed to encourage participants to provide truthful responses in surveys involving sensitive questions. Unfortunately, both randomized and non-randomized response models could underestimate the proportion of subjects with the sensitive characteristic as some respondents do not believe that these techniques can protect their anonymity. As a result, some authors hypothesized that lack of trust and noncompliance should be highest among those who have the most to lose and the least to use for the anonymity provided by using these techniques. Some researchers noticed the existence of noncompliance and proposed new models to measure noncompliance in order to get reliable information. However, all proposed methods were based on randomized response models which require randomizing devices, restrict the survey to only face-to-face interview and are lack of reproductivity. Taking the noncompliance into consideration, we introduce new non-randomized response techniques in which no covariate is required. Asymptotic properties of the proposed estimates for sensitive characteristic as well as noncompliance probabilities are developed. Our proposed techniques are empirically shown to yield accurate estimates for both sensitive and noncompliance probabilities. A real example about premarital sex among university students is used to demonstrate our methodologies. © The Author(s) 2014.

Information Memory Processing and Retrieval: The Use of Information Theory to Study Primacy and Recency Characteristics of Ninth Grade Science Students Processing Learning Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunlop, David L.

Reported is another study related to the Project on an Information Memory Model. This study involved using information theory to investigate the concepts of primacy and recency as they were exhibited by ninth-grade science students while processing a biological sorting problem and an immediate, abstract recall task. Two hundred randomly selected…

Predictors of 12-Step Attendance and Participation for Individuals With Stimulant Use Disorders.

PubMed

Hatch-Maillette, Mary; Wells, Elizabeth A; Doyle, Suzanne R; Brigham, Gregory S; Daley, Dennis; DiCenzo, Jessica; Donovan, Dennis; Garrett, Sharon; Horigian, Viviana E; Jenkins, Lindsay; Killeen, Therese; Owens, Mandy; Perl, Harold I

2016-09-01

Few studies have examined the effectiveness of 12-step peer recovery support programs with drug use disorders, especially stimulant use, and it is difficult to know how outcomes related to 12-step attendance and participation generalize to individuals with non-alcohol substance use disorders (SUDs). A clinical trial of 12-step facilitation (N=471) focusing on individuals with cocaine or methamphetamine use disorders allowed examination of four questions: Q1) To what extent do treatment-seeking stimulant users use 12-step programs and, which ones? Q2) Do factors previously found to predict 12-step participation among those with alcohol use disorders also predict participation among stimulant users? Q3) What specific baseline "12-step readiness" factors predict subsequent 12-step participation and attendance? And Q4) Does stimulant drug of choice differentially predict 12-step participation and attendance? The four outcomes variables, attendance, speaking, duties at 12-step meetings, and other peer recovery support activities, were not related to baseline demographic or substance problem history or severity. Drug of choice was associated with differential days of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) attendance among those who reported attending, and cocaine users reported more days of attending AA or NA at 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-ups than did methamphetamine users. Pre-randomization measures of perceived benefit of 12-step groups predicted 12-step attendance at 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Pre-randomization 12-step attendance significantly predicted number of other self-help activities at end-of-treatment, 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Pre-randomization perceived benefit and problem severity both predicted number of self-help activities at end-of-treatment and 3-month follow-up. Pre-randomization perceived barriers to 12-step groups were negatively associated with self-help activities at end-of-treatment and 3-month follow-up. Whether or not one participated in any duties was predicted at all time points by pre-randomization involvement in self-help activities. The primary finding of this study is one of continuity: prior attendance and active involvement with 12-step programs were the main signs pointing to future involvement. Limitations and recommendations are discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Predictors of 12-Step Attendance and Participation for Individuals with Stimulant Use Disorders

PubMed Central

Hatch-Maillette, Mary; Wells, Elizabeth A.; Doyle, Suzanne R.; Brigham, Gregory S.; Daley, Dennis; DiCenzo, Jessica; Donovan, Dennis; Garrett, Sharon; Horigian, Viviana E.; Jenkins, Lindsay; Killeen, Therese; Owens, Mandy; Perl, Harold I.

2017-01-01

Objective Few studies have examined the effectiveness of 12-step peer recovery support programs with drug use disorders, especially stimulant use, and it is difficult to know how outcomes related to 12-step attendance and participation generalize to individuals with non-alcohol substance use disorders (SUDs). Method A clinical trial of 12-step facilitation (N=471) focusing on individuals with cocaine or methamphetamine use disorders allowed examination of four questions: Q1) To what extent do treatment-seeking stimulant users use 12-step programs and, which ones? Q2) Do factors previously found to predict 12-step participation among those with alcohol use disorders also predict participation among stimulant users? Q3) What specific baseline “12-step readiness” factors predict subsequent 12-step participation and attendance? And Q4) Does stimulant drug of choice differentially predict 12-step participation and attendance? Results The four outcomes variables, Attendance, Speaking, Duties at 12-step meetings, and other peer recovery support Activities, were not related to baseline demographic or substance problem history or severity. Drug of choice was associated with differential days of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) attendance among those who reported attending, and cocaine users reported more days of attending AA or NA at 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-ups than did methamphetamine users. Pre-randomization measures of Perceived Benefit of 12-step groups predicted 12-step Attendance at 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Pre-randomization 12-step Attendance significantly predicted number of other Self-Help Activities at end-of-treatment, 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Pre-randomization Perceived Benefit and problem severity both predicted number of Self-Help Activities at end-of-treatment and 3-month follow-up. Pre-randomization Perceived Barriers to 12-step groups were negatively associated with Self-Help Activities at end-of-treatment and 3-month follow-up. Whether or not one participated in any Duties was predicted at all time points by pre-randomization involvement in Self-Help Activities. Conclusions The primary finding of this study is one of continuity: prior attendance and active involvement with 12-step programs were the main signs pointing to future involvement. Limitations and Recommendations are discussed. PMID:27431050

Primordial random motions and angular momenta of galaxies and galaxy clusters.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Silk, J.; Lea, S.

1973-01-01

We study the decay of primordial random motions of galaxies and galaxy clusters in an expanding universe by solving a kinetic equation for the relaxation of differential energy spectra N(E, t). Systematic dissipative energy losses are included, involving gravitational drag by, and accretion of, intergalactic matter, as well as the effect of collisions with other systems. Formal and numerical solutions are described for two distinct modes of galaxy formation in a turbulent medium, corresponding to formation at a distinct epoch and to continuous formation of galaxies. We show that any primordial random motions of galaxies at the present epoch can amount to at most a few km/sec, and that collisions at early epochs can lead to the acquisition of significant amounts of primordial angular momentum.

Evaluation of pulsing magnetic field effects on paresthesia in multiple sclerosis patients, a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group clinical trial.

PubMed

Afshari, Daryoush; Moradian, Nasrin; Khalili, Majid; Razazian, Nazanin; Bostani, Arash; Hoseini, Jamal; Moradian, Mohamad; Ghiasian, Masoud

2016-10-01

Evidence is mounting that magnet therapy could alleviate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). This study was performed to test the effects of the pulsing magnetic fields on the paresthesia in MS patients. This study has been conducted as a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group clinical trial during the April 2012 to October 2013. The subjects were selected among patients referred to MS clinic of Imam Reza Hospital; affiliated to Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Sixty three patients with MS were included in the study and randomly were divided into two groups, 35 patients were exposed to a magnetic pulsing field of 4mT intensity and 15-Hz frequency sinusoidal wave for 20min per session 2 times per week over a period of 2 months involving 16 sessions and 28 patients was exposed to a magnetically inactive field (placebo) for 20min per session 2 times per week over a period of 2 months involving 16 sessions. The severity of paresthesia was measured by the numerical rating scale (NRS) at 30, 60days. The study primary end point was NRS change between baseline and 60days. The secondary outcome was NRS change between baseline and 30days. Patients exposing to magnetic field showed significant paresthesia improvement compared with the group of patients exposing to placebo. According to our results pulsed magnetic therapy could alleviate paresthesia in MS patients .But trials with more patients and longer duration are mandatory to describe long-term effects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An Investigation of Plans and Procedures for Increasing Student Enrollments in Selected Southern California Community Colleges.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huguley, Sally M.

A study involving interviews with administrators at seven randomly selected Southern California community colleges was conducted to identify the marketing strategies undertaken by these institutions to increase student recruitment. During the interviews, respondents were asked to: (1) outline the functions of their public relations office; (2)…

Vietnamese Amerasians: Practical Implications of Current Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Felsman, J. Kirk.; And Others

This study was conducted to examine the experiences of Amerasians from Vietnam who resettled in the United States and to explore coping and adaptation among Vietnamese Amerasians over time. The initial data collection phase involved in-camp assessment of a randomly selected sample of Amerasian adolescents (N=259). The assessment is to be repeated…

Planned Missing Data Designs for Spline Growth Models in Salivary Cortisol Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hogue, Candace M.; Pornprasertmanit, Sunthud; Fry, Mary D.; Rhemtulla, Mijke; Little, Todd D.

2013-01-01

Salivary cortisol is often used as an index of physiological and psychological stress in exercise science and psychoneuroendocrine research. A primary concern when designing research studies examining cortisol stems from the high cost of analysis. Planned missing data designs involve intentionally omitting a random subset of observations from data…

Process and Learning Outcomes from Remotely-Operated, Simulated, and Hands-on Student Laboratories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corter, James E.; Esche, Sven K.; Chassapis, Constantin; Ma, Jing; Nickerson, Jeffrey V.

2011-01-01

A large-scale, multi-year, randomized study compared learning activities and outcomes for hands-on, remotely-operated, and simulation-based educational laboratories in an undergraduate engineering course. Students (N = 458) worked in small-group lab teams to perform two experiments involving stress on a cantilever beam. Each team conducted the…

Students' Reactions to Manual-Based Treatments for Substance Abuse: An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simons, Lori; Jacobucci, Raymond; Houston, Hank

2006-01-01

A quasi-experimental research design with quantitative and qualitative methodologies was conducted to explore reactions of 21 students to treatment manuals for substance abuse. Students were randomized to experimental (n = 11) and attention-control (n = 10) groups involving exposure to one of two manual-based therapy interventions. Quantitative…

Barriers to Distance Education in Rural Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Irvin, Matthew J.; Hannum, Wallace H.; Varre, Claire de la; Farmer, Thomas W.

2010-01-01

The primary purpose of the current study was to examine barriers to the use of distance education and explore related factors in small and low-income rural schools. Data were collected via a telephone survey with administrators or other qualified personnel. The sample involved 417 randomly selected small and low-income rural school districts…

Physical Activity Pattern of Prepubescent Filipino School Children during School Days

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonzalez-Suarez, Consuelo B.; Grimmer-Somers, Karen

2009-01-01

Background: Little is known about pre-pubescent Filipino children's involvement in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). There are international guidelines regarding required levels of MVPA for healthy children. Methods: This study describes participation of 11- to 12-year-olds in randomly selected public and private schools in San Juan,…

Pressures, Stresses, Anxieties, and On-Job Safety of the School Superintendent.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chand, Krishan

Identification of the causes of job stress for public school superintendents, with a focus on personal-experiential and task variables, is the purpose of this study. Methodology involved a mail survey of 1,531 randomly selected superintendents. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and multiple regression correlation (MCR) analysis were used to…

Approaches to Building Teacher-Parent Cooperation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cankar, Franc; Deutsch, Tomi; Sentocnik, Sonja

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the areas of cooperation in which parent and teacher expectations were the same and where they differed. Data were obtained from a sample of 55 randomly selected primary schools. We analyzed school-to home communications, parental influence on school decisions, and parent involvement in different school…

The Effect of Contextual and Conceptual Rewording on Mathematical Problem-Solving Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haghverdi, Majid; Wiest, Lynda R.

2016-01-01

This study shows how separate and combined contextual and conceptual problem rewording can positively influence student performance in solving mathematical word problems. Participants included 80 seventh-grade Iranian students randomly assigned in groups of 20 to three experimental groups involving three types of rewording and a control group. All…

The Role of Short-Term Memory on Language Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Li-Yuch

Two studies assessed the impact of short-term memory on English as a Second Language learning. The first involved 20 graduate students at a Taiwanese university, who were randomly divided into treatment and control groups. It investigated differences in the performance of phrase recollection when the information was chunked versus unchunked.…

Computers in the Schools: How Will Educators Cope with the Revolution?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gleason, Gerald T.; Reed, Timothy

A study was implemented to conduct a long-range observation and analysis of the process by which computers are channeled into educational practice. Data collection involved a structured interview with knowledgeable representatives of 35 school districts in Wisconsin. Participating schools were selected randomly and stratified by size. Questions in…

Public Perceptions about Father Involvement: Results of a Statewide Household Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andrews, Arlene Bowers; Luckey, Irene; Bolden, Errol; Whiting-Fickling, Judith; Lind, Katherine A.

2004-01-01

This study of social norms regarding expectations of fathers describes public perceptions based on a statewide, random household telephone survey of 1,010 adults. The results indicate strong public support for community expectations about father's time with child as communicated through workplace provision of paternal leave and flextime, although…

Stroke Survivors' Evaluations of a Stroke Workbook-Based Intervention Designed to Increase Perceived Control over Recovery

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joice, Sara; Johnston, Marie; Bonetti, Debbie; Morrison, Val; MacWalter, Ron

2012-01-01

Objective: To report stroke survivors' experiences and perceived usefulness of an effective self-help workbook-based intervention. Design: A cross-sectional study involving the intervention group of an earlier randomized controlled trial. Setting: At the participants' homes approximately seven weeks post-hospital discharge. Method: Following the…

Weight change among Mexican American students involved in an intensive intervention to prevent and treat obesity

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The current study examined the effects of an intensive weight management intervention for Mexican American adolescents. A total of 228 adolescents were randomized to an environmental health promotion program (EHPP) or EHPP plus intensive intervention (EHPP+II). The EHPP consisted of a school-wide in...

Mediators and Moderators of Outcome in the Behavioral Treatment of Childhood Social Phobia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alfano, Candica A.; Pina, Armando A.; Villalta, Ian K.; Beidel, Deborah C.; Ammerman, Robert T.; Crosby, Lori E.

2009-01-01

Data from a study involving 88 youths who participated in one of two randomized controlled treatment trials of Social Effectiveness Therapy for Children reveals that loneliness scores and social effectiveness predicted changes in social anxiety and overall functioning after the treatment. Child-reported loneliness mediated changes in social…

A More Powerful Test in Three-Level Cluster Randomized Designs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Konstantopoulos, Spyros

2011-01-01

Field experiments that involve nested structures frequently assign treatment conditions to entire groups (such as schools). A key aspect of the design of such experiments includes knowledge of the clustering effects that are often expressed via intraclass correlation. This study provides methods for constructing a more powerful test for the…

Impact of TimeSlips creative expression program on behavioral symptoms and psychotropic medication use in persons with dementia in long-term care: a cluster-randomized pilot study.

PubMed

Houser, Winona S; George, Daniel R; Chinchilli, Vernon M

2014-04-01

To evaluate whether involvement in TimeSlips, a creative storytelling program, reduced mood and behavioral symptoms as well as psychotropic medication use in persons with dementia. A cluster-randomized pilot study compared two discrete dementia care units in one nursing home. The control cohort (N = 10) received standard-of-care activity programming, and the intervention cohort (N = 10) received standard-of-care plus two one-hour TimeSlips sessions per week for six weeks. Data on mood and behavioral symptoms and psychotropic drug prescriptions were collected, and within-group and between-group comparisons were performed. Between-group comparisons did not reveal statistically significant differences in mood and behavioral symptoms. No differences in psychotropic drug prescriptions were found. Larger trials of longer duration are needed to determine whether involvement in TimeSlips reduces mood and behavioral symptoms that compromise quality of life for persons with dementia. Copyright © 2014 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Canonical Naimark extension for generalized measurements involving sets of Pauli quantum observables chosen at random

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sparaciari, Carlo; Paris, Matteo G. A.

2013-01-01

We address measurement schemes where certain observables Xk are chosen at random within a set of nondegenerate isospectral observables and then measured on repeated preparations of a physical system. Each observable has a probability zk to be measured, with ∑kzk=1, and the statistics of this generalized measurement is described by a positive operator-valued measure. This kind of scheme is referred to as quantum roulettes, since each observable Xk is chosen at random, e.g., according to the fluctuating value of an external parameter. Here we focus on quantum roulettes for qubits involving the measurements of Pauli matrices, and we explicitly evaluate their canonical Naimark extensions, i.e., their implementation as indirect measurements involving an interaction scheme with a probe system. We thus provide a concrete model to realize the roulette without destroying the signal state, which can be measured again after the measurement or can be transmitted. Finally, we apply our results to the description of Stern-Gerlach-like experiments on a two-level system.

[Relationships amongst work values, job characteristics and job involvement in "net generation" nurses].

PubMed

Chen, Sue-Hui; Chiou, Chii-Jun

2010-04-01

Children of the so-called "net generation" began joining the nurse workforce from the mid-1990s. Studies on the characteristics of this generation have been done primarily outside of Taiwan, and results may not adequately reflect conditions in Taiwan due to cultural differences. This study aimed to investigate the relationships amongst work values, job characteristics and job involvement in "net generation" nurses. This study employed a cross-sectional design. A randomized sample of 370 nurses born between 1977 and 1985 working in a medical center or a community hospital in Southern Taiwan accepted our invitation to join this study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. (1) Variables including work values, job characteristics, head nurse leadership qualities, job structure and opportunities for in-service education all correlated significantly with job involvement. (2) Regression analysis showed work values, job characteristics, head nurse leadership and religious belief to be significant predictors of job involvement, explaining 22.6% of the variance. This study provides insights that may be of potential value to nursing administrators. We suggest that administrators adopt democratic management practices, build diverse learning methods, strengthen autonomy, completeness, and feedback, and provide appropriate work guidance for nurses to increase job involvement.

The influence of peer affiliation and student activities on adolescent drug involvement.

PubMed

Jenkins, J E

1996-01-01

This study examined the importance of students' academic performance level and extracurricular activities as predictors of drug involvement relative to peer influence. Social development theory provided the theoretical rational for the study. Data were obtained from 2,229 randomly selected students in the eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades from seventeen school districts in northeastern Ohio. At all three grade levels, involvement in extracurricular activities and academic level were significantly correlated with students' gateway and hard drug use. Consistent with prior research, the strongest correlate of gateway and hard drug use across all grade levels was affiliation with drug-using friends. Having a job after school was marginally related to self-reported gateway drug use at grade level ten. Multiple regression analysis revealed that extracurricular involvement and academic performance level make small, but unique contributions to the prediction of adolescents' gateway drug use beyond affiliation with drug-using peers at all three grade levels. The findings of this study suggest that students' academic performance and extracurricular involvements are significantly related to adolescent gateway and hard drug use, but have less predictive significance relative to peer relationships.

Different effectiveness of closed embryo culture system with time-lapse imaging (EmbryoScope(TM)) in comparison to standard manual embryology in good and poor prognosis patients: a prospectively randomized pilot study.

PubMed

Wu, Yan-Guang; Lazzaroni-Tealdi, Emanuela; Wang, Qi; Zhang, Lin; Barad, David H; Kushnir, Vitaly A; Darmon, Sarah K; Albertini, David F; Gleicher, Norbert

2016-08-24

Previously manual human embryology in many in vitro fertilization (IVF) centers is rapidly being replaced by closed embryo incubation systems with time-lapse imaging. Whether such systems perform comparably to manual embryology in different IVF patient populations has, however, never before been investigated. We, therefore, prospectively compared embryo quality following closed system culture with time-lapse photography (EmbryoScope™) and standard embryology. We performed a two-part prospectively randomized study in IVF (clinical trial # NCT92256309). Part A involved 31 infertile poor prognosis patients prospectively randomized to EmbryoScope™ and standard embryology. Part B involved embryos from 17 egg donor-recipient cycles resulting in large egg/embryo numbers, thus permitting prospectively alternative embryo assignments to EmbryoScope™ and standard embryology. We then compared pregnancy rates and embryo quality on day-3 after fertilization and embryologist time utilized per processed embryo. Part A revealed in poor prognosis patients no differences in day-3 embryo scores, implantation and clinical pregnancy rates between EmbryoScope™ and standard embryology. The EmbryoScope™, however, more than doubled embryology staff time (P < 0.0001). In Part B, embryos grown in the EmbyoScope™ demonstrated significantly poorer day-3 quality (depending on embryo parameter between P = 0.005 and P = 0.01). Suspicion that conical culture dishes of the EmbryoScope™ (EmbryoSlide™) may be the cause was disproven when standard culture dishes demonstrated no outcome difference in standard incubation. Though due to small patient numbers preliminary, this study raises concerns about the mostly uncontrolled introduction of closed incubation systems with time lapse imaging into routine clinical embryology. Appropriately designed and powered prospectively randomized studies appear urgently needed in well-defined patient populations before the uncontrolled utilization of these instruments further expands. NCT02246309 Registered September 18, 2014.

Promoting state health department evidence-based cancer and chronic disease prevention: a multi-phase dissemination study with a cluster randomized trial component

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Cancer and other chronic diseases reduce quality and length of life and productivity, and represent a significant financial burden to society. Evidence-based public health approaches to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases have been identified in recent decades and have the potential for high impact. Yet, barriers to implement prevention approaches persist as a result of multiple factors including lack of organizational support, limited resources, competing emerging priorities and crises, and limited skill among the public health workforce. The purpose of this study is to learn how best to promote the adoption of evidence based public health practice related to chronic disease prevention. Methods/design This paper describes the methods for a multi-phase dissemination study with a cluster randomized trial component that will evaluate the dissemination of public health knowledge about evidence-based prevention of cancer and other chronic diseases. Phase one involves development of measures of practitioner views on and organizational supports for evidence-based public health and data collection using a national online survey involving state health department chronic disease practitioners. In phase two, a cluster randomized trial design will be conducted to test receptivity and usefulness of dissemination strategies directed toward state health department chronic disease practitioners to enhance capacity and organizational support for evidence-based chronic disease prevention. Twelve state health department chronic disease units will be randomly selected and assigned to intervention or control. State health department staff and the university-based study team will jointly identify, refine, and select dissemination strategies within intervention units. Intervention (dissemination) strategies may include multi-day in-person training workshops, electronic information exchange modalities, and remote technical assistance. Evaluation methods include pre-post surveys, structured qualitative phone interviews, and abstraction of state-level chronic disease prevention program plans and progress reports. Trial registration clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01978054. PMID:24330729

Occupational Diversity of Rural Residents in Virginia: A Research Study of Multiple Job Holding and Labor Exchange. Virginia Higher Education Research Project No. 2034410.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bryant, Clifton D.; And Others

For a 1979 study of occupational division of labor in rural areas, in-depth interviews conducted with 541 randomly selected respondents from 4 Virginia counties examined socio-demographic parameters (age, sex, race, and occupation); degree of involvement in multiple job holding; economic and social-psychological motives for participation in…

Does a Combination of Metaphor and Pairing Activity Help Programming Performance of Students with Different Self-Regulated Learning Level?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hui, Tie Hui; Umar, Irfan Naufal

2011-01-01

This study aims to investigate the effects of metaphors and pairing activity on programming performance of students with different self-regulated-learning (SRL) level. A total of 84 computing students were involved in this seven-week study, and they were randomly assigned either to a group that received a combination of metaphor and pair…

Male Partner's Involvement in HIV Counselling and Testing and Associated Factors among Partners of Pregnant Women in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia.

PubMed

Zenebe, Alemu; Gebeyehu, Abebaw; Derseh, Lemma; Ahmed, Kedir Y

2016-01-01

Background. Despite the existence of several programmes promoting male involvement in HIV counselling and testing during their wife's pregnancy as a part of PMTCT, few men have heeded the call. The aim of this study was to assess male partner's involvement in HCT and its associated factors. Methods. This study was based on institution based cross-sectional study design that used systematic random sampling technique. A total of 416 partners were interviewed in the data collection. Multivariable logistic regression model was fitted to identify the independent predictors. Result. In this study, the prevalence of male involvement in HCT was found to be 40.1% (95% CI: 35.3%-44.7%). The independent predictors of male involvement were partners who were younger, were cohabitant, were with multigravida wives, were knowledgeable on route of mother-to-child transmission, and discussed HCT. Conclusion. The prevalence of male involvement in HCT was found to be suboptimal compared to similar studies in Ethiopia. There is a need of interventions on partners who are older, separated, and with lower gravidity wife. Awareness creation campaign should also be created on the route of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and on the importance of discussion with wife.

Male Partner's Involvement in HIV Counselling and Testing and Associated Factors among Partners of Pregnant Women in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia

PubMed Central

Zenebe, Alemu; Gebeyehu, Abebaw; Derseh, Lemma

2016-01-01

Background. Despite the existence of several programmes promoting male involvement in HIV counselling and testing during their wife's pregnancy as a part of PMTCT, few men have heeded the call. The aim of this study was to assess male partner's involvement in HCT and its associated factors. Methods. This study was based on institution based cross-sectional study design that used systematic random sampling technique. A total of 416 partners were interviewed in the data collection. Multivariable logistic regression model was fitted to identify the independent predictors. Result. In this study, the prevalence of male involvement in HCT was found to be 40.1% (95% CI: 35.3%–44.7%). The independent predictors of male involvement were partners who were younger, were cohabitant, were with multigravida wives, were knowledgeable on route of mother-to-child transmission, and discussed HCT. Conclusion. The prevalence of male involvement in HCT was found to be suboptimal compared to similar studies in Ethiopia. There is a need of interventions on partners who are older, separated, and with lower gravidity wife. Awareness creation campaign should also be created on the route of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and on the importance of discussion with wife. PMID:27555968

Disappointment and adherence among parents of newborns allocated to the control group: a qualitative study of a randomized clinical trial.

PubMed

Meinich Petersen, Sandra; Zoffmann, Vibeke; Kjærgaard, Jesper; Graff Stensballe, Lone; Graff Steensballe, Lone; Greisen, Gorm

2014-04-15

When a child participates in a clinical trial, informed consent has to be given by the parents. Parental motives for participation are complex, but the hope of getting a new and better treatment for the child is important. We wondered how parents react when their child is allocated to the control group of a randomized controlled trial, and how it will affect their future engagement in the trial. We included parents of newborns randomized to the control arm in the Danish Calmette study at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen. The Calmette study is a randomized clinical trial investigating the non-specific effects of early BCG-vaccine to healthy neonates. Randomization is performed immediately after birth and parents are not blinded to the allocation. We set up a semi-structured focus group with six parents from four families. Afterwards we telephone-interviewed another 19 mothers to achieve saturation. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes across the data sets. The parents reported good understanding of the randomization process. Their most common reaction to allocation was disappointment, though relief was also seen. A model of reactions to being allocated to the control group was developed based on the participants' different positions along two continuities from 'Our participation in trial is not important' to 'Our participation in trial is important', and 'Vaccine not important to us' to 'Vaccine important to us'. Four very disappointed families had thought of getting the vaccine elsewhere, and one had actually had their child vaccinated. All parents involved in the focus group and the telephone interviews wanted to participate in the follow-ups planned for the Calmette study. This study identified an almost universal experience of disappointment among parents of newborns who were randomized to the control group, but also a broad expression of understanding and accepting the idea of randomization. The trial staff might use the model of reactions in understanding the parents' disappointment and in this way support their motives for participation. A generalized version might be applicable across randomized controlled trials at large. The Calmette study is registered in EudraCT (https://eudract.ema.europa.eu/) with trial number 2010-021979-85.

A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials of Interventions to Improve the Health of Persons During Imprisonment and in the Year After Release

PubMed Central

McIsaac, Kathryn E.; Liauw, Jessica; Green, Samantha; Karachiwalla, Fareen; Siu, Winnie; Burkholder, Kaite; Binswanger, Ingrid; Kiefer, Lori; Kinner, Stuart A.; Korchinski, Mo; Matheson, Flora I.; Young, Pam; Hwang, Stephen W.

2015-01-01

We systematically reviewed randomized controlled trials of interventions to improve the health of people during imprisonment or in the year after release. We searched 14 biomedical and social science databases in 2014, and identified 95 studies. Most studies involved only men or a majority of men (70/83 studies in which gender was specified); only 16 studies focused on adolescents. Most studies were conducted in the United States (n = 57). The risk of bias for outcomes in almost all studies was unclear or high (n = 91). In 59 studies, interventions led to improved mental health, substance use, infectious diseases, or health service utilization outcomes; in 42 of these studies, outcomes were measured in the community after release. Improving the health of people who experience imprisonment requires knowledge generation and knowledge translation, including implementation of effective interventions. PMID:25713970

Child language interventions in public health: a systematic literature review.

PubMed

De Cesaro, Bruna Campos; Gurgel, Léia Gonçalves; Nunes, Gabriela Pisoni Canedo; Reppold, Caroline Tozzi

2013-01-01

Systematically review the literature on interventions in children's language in primary health care. One searched the electronic databases (January 1980 to March 2013) MEDLINE (accessed by PubMed), Scopus, Lilacs and Scielo. The search terms used were "child language", "primary health care", "randomized controlled trial" and "intervention studies" (in English, Portuguese and Spanish). There were included any randomized controlled trials that addressed the issues child language and primary health care. The analysis was based on the type of language intervention conducted in primary health care. Seven studies were included and used intervention strategies such as interactive video, guidance for parents and group therapy. Individuals of both genders were included in the seven studies. The age of the children participant in the samples of the articles included in this review ranged from zero to 11 years. These seven studies used approaches that included only parents, parents and children or just children. The mainly intervention in language on primary health care, used in randomized controlled trials, involved the use of interactional video. Several professionals, beyond speech and language therapist, been inserted in the language interventions on primary health care, demonstrating the importance of interdisciplinary work. None of the articles mentioned aspects related to hearing. There was scarcity of randomized controlled trials that address on language and public health, either in Brazil or internationally.

Factors influencing adherence with therapeutic sunlight exposure in older people in intermediate care facilities.

PubMed

Durvasula, Seeta; Sambrook, Philip N; Cameron, Ian D

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing low adherence with therapeutic sunlight exposure in a randomized controlled trial conducted with older people living in intermediate care facilities. The study involved participants in the FREEDOM (Falls Risk Epidemiology: Effect of vitamin D on skeletal Outcomes and other Measures) study, a randomized controlled trial of therapeutic sun exposure to reduce falls in older people in intermediate care facilities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirty participants in the FREEDOM trial, and with ten sunlight officers who were employed to facilitate the sun exposure. Two focus groups involving 10 participants in the FREEDOM trial were also held at the end of the intervention period. Common themes were derived from the interview and focus group transcripts. The study showed that the perceived health benefits did not influence adherence with the sun exposure. Factors such as socializing with others and being outdoors were more important in encouraging attendance. The main barriers to adherence included the perceived inflexibility and regimentation of daily attendance, clash with other activities, unsuitable timing and heat discomfort. This study showed that providing greater flexibility and autonomy to older people in how and when they receive sun exposure is likely to improve adherence. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of Enrichment Devices on Aggression in Manipulated Nude Mice.

PubMed

Lockworth, Cynthia R; Kim, Sun-Jin; Liu, Jun; Palla, Shana L; Craig, Suzanne L

2015-11-01

Agonistic behavior in group-housed male mice is a recurring problem in many animal research facilities. Common management procedures, such as the removal of aggressors, are moderately successful but often fail, owing to recurrence of aggressive behavior among cagemates. Studies have incorporated enrichment devices to attenuate aggression, but such devices have had mixed results. However, these studies did not include research manipulations when assessing the benefits of various enrichment devices. We obtained 100 male athymic nude mice and studied the efficacy of various enrichment devices, including cotton squares, paper rolls, shredded paper, nylon bones, and a mouse house and wheel combination in the reduction of fighting during an ongoing study that involved randomization followed by prostate and intratibial injections. Groups were evaluated according to a numerical grading system for wound assessment. Examination of the data revealed that the enrichment devices had no effect on the presence of wounds, thus none of the devices tested affected fighting in nude mice. However, when mice began experimental use, fight wounds increased significantly at cage change and after randomization, reflecting a disruption of existing social hierarchies. Therefore, in the context of an actual research study that involves common manipulations, the specific enrichment device had less effect on aggression in male nude mice than did the destruction and reconstruction of social structures within each group.

Effectiveness of a web-based intervention for injured claimants: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Elbers, Nieke A; Akkermans, Arno J; Cuijpers, Pim; Bruinvels, David J

2013-07-20

There is considerable evidence showing that injured people who are involved in a compensation process show poorer physical and mental recovery than those with similar injuries who are not involved in a compensation process. One explanation for this reduced recovery is that the legal process and the associated retraumatization are very stressful for the claimant. The aim of this study was to empower injured claimants in order to facilitate recovery. Participants were recruited by three Dutch claims settlement offices. The participants had all been injured in a traffic crash and were involved in a compensation process. The study design was a randomized controlled trial. An intervention website was developed with (1) information about the compensation process, and (2) an evidence-based, therapist-assisted problem-solving course. The control website contained a few links to already existing websites. Outcome measures were empowerment, self-efficacy, health status (including depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms), perceived fairness, ability to work, claims knowledge and extent of burden. The outcomes were self-reported through online questionnaires and were measured four times: at baseline, and at 3, 6, and 12 months. In total, 176 participants completed the baseline questionnaire after which they were randomized into either the intervention group (n=88) or the control group (n=88). During the study, 35 participants (20%) dropped out. The intervention website was used by 55 participants (63%). The health outcomes of the intervention group were no different to those of the control group. However, the intervention group considered the received compensation to be fairer (P<0.01). The subgroup analysis of intervention users versus nonusers did not reveal significant results. The intervention website was evaluated positively. Although the web-based intervention was not used enough to improve the health of injured claimants in compensation processes, it increased the perceived fairness of the compensation amount. Netherlands Trial Register NTR2360.

Design, randomization and methodology of the TriAtiva Program to reduce obesity in school children in Southern Brazil.

PubMed

Friedrich, Roberta R; Caetano, Lisandrea C; Schiffner, Mariana D; Wagner, Mário B; Schuch, Ilaine

2015-04-11

The prevalence of child obesity in Brazil has increased rapidly in recent decades. There is, therefore, an urgent need to develop effective strategies to prevent and control child obesity. In light of these considerations, an intervention program with a focus on nutrition education and physical activity was developed for to prevent and control obesity in schools. The intervention was called the TriAtiva Program: Education, Nutrition and Physical Activity. This article describes the design, randomization and method used to evaluate the TriAtiva program. This randomized controlled cluster trial was performed in 12 municipal schools in the city of Porto Alegre/RS (six schools in the intervention group and six control schools) which offered first- through fourth grade, during one school year. The TriAtiva Program was implemented through educational activities related to healthy eating and physical activity, creating an environment which promoted student health while involving the school community and student families. The primary outcome of the present study was body mass, while its secondary outcomes were waist circumference, percent body fat, blood pressure and behavioural variables such as eating habits and physical activity levels, as well as the prevalence, incidence and remission rates of obesity. The intervention was developed based on a comprehensive review of controlled trials of similar design. The TriAtiva Program: Education, Nutrition and Physical Activity was the first study in Southern Brazil to use a randomized controlled design to evaluate an intervention involving both nutrition education and physical activity in schools. Our results will contribute to the development of future interventions aimed at preventing and controlling child obesity in schools, especially in Brazil. Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry (REBEC) number RBR2xx2z4.

Evidence for Transcript Networks Composed of Chimeric RNAs in Human Cells

PubMed Central

Borel, Christelle; Mudge, Jonathan M.; Howald, Cédric; Foissac, Sylvain; Ucla, Catherine; Chrast, Jacqueline; Ribeca, Paolo; Martin, David; Murray, Ryan R.; Yang, Xinping; Ghamsari, Lila; Lin, Chenwei; Bell, Ian; Dumais, Erica; Drenkow, Jorg; Tress, Michael L.; Gelpí, Josep Lluís; Orozco, Modesto; Valencia, Alfonso; van Berkum, Nynke L.; Lajoie, Bryan R.; Vidal, Marc; Stamatoyannopoulos, John; Batut, Philippe; Dobin, Alex; Harrow, Jennifer; Hubbard, Tim; Dekker, Job; Frankish, Adam; Salehi-Ashtiani, Kourosh; Reymond, Alexandre; Antonarakis, Stylianos E.; Guigó, Roderic; Gingeras, Thomas R.

2012-01-01

The classic organization of a gene structure has followed the Jacob and Monod bacterial gene model proposed more than 50 years ago. Since then, empirical determinations of the complexity of the transcriptomes found in yeast to human has blurred the definition and physical boundaries of genes. Using multiple analysis approaches we have characterized individual gene boundaries mapping on human chromosomes 21 and 22. Analyses of the locations of the 5′ and 3′ transcriptional termini of 492 protein coding genes revealed that for 85% of these genes the boundaries extend beyond the current annotated termini, most often connecting with exons of transcripts from other well annotated genes. The biological and evolutionary importance of these chimeric transcripts is underscored by (1) the non-random interconnections of genes involved, (2) the greater phylogenetic depth of the genes involved in many chimeric interactions, (3) the coordination of the expression of connected genes and (4) the close in vivo and three dimensional proximity of the genomic regions being transcribed and contributing to parts of the chimeric RNAs. The non-random nature of the connection of the genes involved suggest that chimeric transcripts should not be studied in isolation, but together, as an RNA network. PMID:22238572

Sampling Large Graphs for Anticipatory Analytics

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-05-15

low. C. Random Area Sampling Random area sampling [8] is a “ snowball ” sampling method in which a set of random seed vertices are selected and areas... Sampling Large Graphs for Anticipatory Analytics Lauren Edwards, Luke Johnson, Maja Milosavljevic, Vijay Gadepally, Benjamin A. Miller Lincoln...systems, greater human-in-the-loop involvement, or through complex algorithms. We are investigating the use of sampling to mitigate these challenges

Effectiveness of the addition of therapeutic alliance with minimal intervention in the treatment of patients with chronic, nonspecific low back pain and low risk of involvement of psychosocial factors: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial (TalkBack trial).

PubMed

Fagundes, Felipe Ribeiro Cabral; de Melo do Espírito Santo, Caique; de Luna Teixeira, Francine Mendonça; Tonini, Thaís Vanelli; Cabral, Cristina Maria Nunes

2017-01-31

The stratified model of care has been an effective approach for the treatment of low back pain. However, the treatment of patients with low risk of psychosocial-factor involvement is unclear. The addition of the therapeutic alliance to a minimal intervention may be an option for the treatment of low back pain. This paper reports on the rationale, design and protocol for a randomized controlled trial with blind assessor to assess the effectiveness of the addition of therapeutic alliance with minimal intervention on pain and disability in patients with chronic, nonspecific low back pain. Two hundred and twenty-two patients with chronic, nonspecific low back pain and low risk of involvement of psychosocial factors will be assessed and randomly allocated into three groups (n = 74 patients per group). The Positive Therapeutic Alliance group will receive counseling and guidance with an emphasis on therapeutic alliance and empathy. The Usual Treatment group will receive the same information and counseling with limited interaction with the therapist. The Control group will not receive any intervention. The treatment will be composed by two intervention sessions with a 1-week interval. A blinded assessor will collect the following outcomes at baseline, 1 month, 6 months and 12 months after randomization: pain intensity (Pain Numerical Rating Scale), specific disability (Patient-specific Functional Scale), general disability (Oswestry Disability Index), global perceived effect (Global Perceived Effect Scale), empathy (Consultation and Relational Empathy Measure), credibility and expectations related to treatment. The analysis will be performed using linear mixed models. This will be the first study to understand the effect of combining enhanced therapeutic alliance to a treatment based on counseling, information and advice (minimal intervention). The addition of the therapeutic alliance to minimal intervention may improve the treatment of chronic, nonspecific low back pain. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT 02497625. Registered on 10 July 2015.

Relations among questionnaire and experience sampling measures of inner speech: a smartphone app study

PubMed Central

Alderson-Day, Ben; Fernyhough, Charles

2015-01-01

Inner speech is often reported to be a common and central part of inner experience, but its true prevalence is unclear. Many questionnaire-based measures appear to lack convergent validity and it has been claimed that they overestimate inner speech in comparison to experience sampling methods (which involve collecting data at random timepoints). The present study compared self-reporting of inner speech collected via a general questionnaire and experience sampling, using data from a custom-made smartphone app (Inner Life). Fifty-one university students completed a generalized self-report measure of inner speech (the Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire, VISQ) and responded to at least seven random alerts to report on incidences of inner speech over a 2-week period. Correlations and pairwise comparisons were used to compare generalized endorsements and randomly sampled scores for each VISQ subscale. Significant correlations were observed between general and randomly sampled measures for only two of the four VISQ subscales, and endorsements of inner speech with evaluative or motivational characteristics did not correlate at all across different measures. Endorsement of inner speech items was significantly lower for random sampling compared to generalized self-report, for all VISQ subscales. Exploratory analysis indicated that specific inner speech characteristics were also related to anxiety and future-oriented thinking. PMID:25964773

Consumer involvement in cancer research: example from a Cancer Network.

PubMed

Arain, Mubashir; Pyne, Sarah; Thornton, Nigel; Palmer, Susan; Sharma, Ricky A

2015-10-01

The involvement of consumers and the general public in improving cancer services is an important component of health services. However, consumer involvement in cancer research is relatively unexplored. The objective of this study was to explore different ways of involving consumers in cancer research in one regional network. Thames Valley Cancer Network Consumer Research Partnership (CRP) group was formed in 2009. The group consists of consumers and professionals to help in promoting consumer involvement in Cancer Research in the Thames Valley. This study evaluated the project of consumer involvement in cancer research in the Thames Valley from March 2010 to March 2011. We used different indices to judge the level of consumer involvement: number of projects involving consumers through the group, types of projects, level of involvement (ranged from consultation on research documents to collaborating in preparing grant applications) and the methods of involving consumers in cancer research. Fifteen projects were submitted to the CRP group during the 12-month period studied. Of these, eight projects were clinical trials, three were qualitative research projects, two were patients' surveys and two were non-randomized interventional studies. Seven projects requested consumer involvement on patient information sheets for clinical trials. Of these seven applications, three also requested consumers' help in designing research questionnaires and another three requested that consumers should be involved in their project management group. In addition, four projects involved consumers in the proposal development phase and another four projects asked for advice on how to increase trial recruitment, conduct patient interviews or help with grant applications. The creation of the CRP and this audit of its activity have documented consumer involvement in cancer research in the Thames Valley. We have clearly shown that consumers can be involved in designing and managing cancer research projects. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Effect Evaluation of a Randomized Trial to Reduce Infectious Illness and Illness-related Absenteeism Among Schoolchildren: The Hi Five Study.

PubMed

Denbæk, Anne Maj; Andersen, Anette; Bonnesen, Camilla Thørring; Laursen, Bjarne; Ersbøll, Annette Kjær; Due, Pernille; Johansen, Anette

2018-01-01

Previous school-based hand hygiene interventions have reported to successfully reduce infectious illness among schoolchildren. But few studies have tested the effect in large populations with adequate statistical power and analyses. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a school-based multicomponent intervention to improve handwashing among schoolchildren, the Hi Five study, succeeded in reducing infectious illness and illness-related absenteeism in schools. The Hi Five study was a three-armed cluster-randomized controlled trial involving 43 randomly selected Danish schools; two intervention arms involving 14 schools each, and 15 control schools. Infectious illness days, infectious illness episodes and illness-related absenteeism were estimated in multilevel regressions, based on available cases of text messages answered by parents and based on questionnaire data reported by schoolchildren, respectively. At follow-up, children in the intervention schools did not differ from the control schools in number of illness days [odds ratio (OR)I-arm I: 0.91 (0.77-1.07) and ORI-arm II: 0.94 (0.79-1.12)] and illness episodes [ORI-arm I: 0.95 (0.81-1.11) and ORI-arm II: 0.98 (0.84-1.16)] or in reporting illness-related absenteeism [ORI-arm I: 1.09 (0.83-1.43) & ORI-arm II: 1.06 (0.81-1.40)]. The multicomponent Hi Five intervention achieved no difference in the number of illness days, illness episodes or illness-related absenteeism among children in intervention schools compared with control schools. It is noteworthy that one of the main components in the intervention, a mandatory daily handwashing before lunch, was only implemented by 1 of 3 of teachers in intervention schools.

Crossover ensembles of random matrices and skew-orthogonal polynomials

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kumar, Santosh, E-mail: skumar.physics@gmail.com; Pandey, Akhilesh, E-mail: ap0700@mail.jnu.ac.in

2011-08-15

Highlights: > We study crossover ensembles of Jacobi family of random matrices. > We consider correlations for orthogonal-unitary and symplectic-unitary crossovers. > We use the method of skew-orthogonal polynomials and quaternion determinants. > We prove universality of spectral correlations in crossover ensembles. > We discuss applications to quantum conductance and communication theory problems. - Abstract: In a recent paper (S. Kumar, A. Pandey, Phys. Rev. E, 79, 2009, p. 026211) we considered Jacobi family (including Laguerre and Gaussian cases) of random matrix ensembles and reported exact solutions of crossover problems involving time-reversal symmetry breaking. In the present paper we givemore » details of the work. We start with Dyson's Brownian motion description of random matrix ensembles and obtain universal hierarchic relations among the unfolded correlation functions. For arbitrary dimensions we derive the joint probability density (jpd) of eigenvalues for all transitions leading to unitary ensembles as equilibrium ensembles. We focus on the orthogonal-unitary and symplectic-unitary crossovers and give generic expressions for jpd of eigenvalues, two-point kernels and n-level correlation functions. This involves generalization of the theory of skew-orthogonal polynomials to crossover ensembles. We also consider crossovers in the circular ensembles to show the generality of our method. In the large dimensionality limit, correlations in spectra with arbitrary initial density are shown to be universal when expressed in terms of a rescaled symmetry breaking parameter. Applications of our crossover results to communication theory and quantum conductance problems are also briefly discussed.« less

Study protocol: cost-effectiveness of multidisciplinary nutritional support for undernutrition in older adults in nursing home and home-care: cluster randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Beck, Anne Marie; Gøgsig Christensen, Annette; Stenbæk Hansen, Birthe; Damsbo-Svendsen, Signe; Kreinfeldt Skovgaard Møller, Tina; Boll Hansen, Eigil; Keiding, Hans

2014-08-28

Older adults in nursing home and home-care are a particularly high-risk population for weight loss or poor nutrition. One negative consequence of undernutrition is increased health care costs. Several potentially modifiable nutritional risk factors increase the likelihood of weight loss or poor nutrition. Hence a structured and multidisciplinary approach, focusing on the nutritional risk factors and involving e.g. dieticians, occupational therapists, and physiotherapist, may be necessary to achieve benefits. Up till now a few studies have been done evaluating the cost-effectiveness of nutritional support among undernourished older adults and none of these have used such a multidisciplinary approach. An 11 week cluster randomized trial to assess the cost-effectiveness of multidisciplinary nutritional support for undernutrition in older adults in nursing home and home-care, identified by screening with the Eating validation Scheme. Before start of the study there will be performed a train-the-trainer intervention involving educated nutrition coordinators.In addition to the nutrition coordinator, the participants assigned to the intervention group strategy will receive multidisciplinary nutrition support. Focus will be on treatment of the potentially modifiable nutritional risk factors identified by screening, by involving physiotherapist, registered dietician, and occupational therapist, as relevant and independent of the municipality's ordinary assessment and referral system.The primary outcome parameter will be change in quality of life (by means of Euroquol-5D-3L). Secondary outcomes will be: physical performance (chair stand), nutritional status (weight, Body Mass Index and hand-grip strength), oral care, fall incidents, hospital admissions, rehabilitation stay, moving to nursing homes (for participants from home-care), use of social services and mortality.An economic evaluation will be conducted to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the multidisciplinary support.Furthermore, interviews with nursing home and home-care management, nursing staff and nutrition coordinators in both the control and intervention groups, participants in the intervention group and the involved multidisciplinary team will be performed. In this study we will evaluate in a randomized controlled trial whether multidisciplinary nutritional support is cost-effective, in undernourished older adults in home-care and nursing home and contribute to important research. ClinicalTrials.gov 2013 NCT01873456.

Mobile Health Technology for Atrial Fibrillation Management Integrating Decision Support, Education, and Patient Involvement: mAF App Trial.

PubMed

Guo, Yutao; Chen, Yundai; Lane, Deirdre A; Liu, Lihong; Wang, Yutang; Lip, Gregory Y H

2017-12-01

Mobile Health technology for the management of patients with atrial fibrillation is unknown. The simple mobile AF (mAF) App was designed to incorporate clinical decision-support tools (CHA 2 DS 2 -VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age ≥75 years, Diabetes Mellitus, Prior Stroke or TIA, Vascular disease, Age 65-74 years, Sex category], HAS-BLED [Hypertension, Abnormal renal/liver function, Stroke, Bleeding history or predisposition, Labile INR, Elderly, Drugs/alcohol concomitantly], SAMe-TT 2 R 2 [Sex, Age <60 years, Medical history, Treatment, Tobacco use, Race] scores), educational materials, and patient involvement strategies with self-care protocols and structured follow-up. Patients with atrial fibrillation were randomized into 2 groups (mAF App vs usual care) in a cluster randomized design pilot study. Patients' knowledge, quality of life, drug adherence, and anticoagulation satisfaction were evaluated at baseline, 1 month, and 3 months. Usability, feasibility, and acceptability of the mAF App were assessed at 1 month. A total of 113 patients were randomized to mAF App intervention (mean age, 67.4 years; 57.5% were male; mean follow-up, 69 days), and 96 patients were randomized to usual care (mean age, 70.9 years; 55.2% were male; mean follow-up, 95 days). More than 90% of patients reported that the mAF App was easy, user-friendly, helpful, and associated with significant improvements in knowledge compared with the usual care arm (P values for trend <.05). Drug adherence and anticoagulant satisfaction were significantly better with the mAF App versus usual care (all P < .05). Quality of life scores were significantly increased in the mAF App arm versus usual care, with anxiety and depression reduced (all P < .05). The pilot mAFA Trial is the first prospective randomized trial of Mobile Health technology in patients with atrial fibrillation, demonstrating that the mAF App, integrating clinical decision support, education, and patient-involvement strategies, significantly improved knowledge, drug adherence, quality of life, and anticoagulation satisfaction. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Statistical process control in nursing research.

PubMed

Polit, Denise F; Chaboyer, Wendy

2012-02-01

In intervention studies in which randomization to groups is not possible, researchers typically use quasi-experimental designs. Time series designs are strong quasi-experimental designs but are seldom used, perhaps because of technical and analytic hurdles. Statistical process control (SPC) is an alternative analytic approach to testing hypotheses about intervention effects using data collected over time. SPC, like traditional statistical methods, is a tool for understanding variation and involves the construction of control charts that distinguish between normal, random fluctuations (common cause variation), and statistically significant special cause variation that can result from an innovation. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of SPC and to illustrate its use in a study of a nursing practice improvement intervention. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A new method for predicting response in complex linear systems. II. [under random or deterministic steady state excitation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bogdanoff, J. L.; Kayser, K.; Krieger, W.

1977-01-01

The paper describes convergence and response studies in the low frequency range of complex systems, particularly with low values of damping of different distributions, and reports on the modification of the relaxation procedure required under these conditions. A new method is presented for response estimation in complex lumped parameter linear systems under random or deterministic steady state excitation. The essence of the method is the use of relaxation procedures with a suitable error function to find the estimated response; natural frequencies and normal modes are not computed. For a 45 degree of freedom system, and two relaxation procedures, convergence studies and frequency response estimates were performed. The low frequency studies are considered in the framework of earlier studies (Kayser and Bogdanoff, 1975) involving the mid to high frequency range.

The pain drawing as an instrument for identifying cervical spine nerve involvement in chronic whiplash-associated disorders.

PubMed

Bernhoff, Gabriella; Landén Ludvigsson, Maria; Peterson, Gunnel; Bertilson, Bo Christer; Elf, Madeleine; Peolsson, Anneli

2016-01-01

The aim of the study was to investigate the psychometric properties of a standardized assessment of pain drawing with regard to clinical signs of cervical spine nerve root involvement. This cross-sectional study included data collected in a randomized controlled study. Two hundred and sixteen patients with chronic (≥6 months) whiplash-associated disorders, grade 2 or 3, were included in this study. The validity, sensitivity, and specificity of a standardized pain drawing assessment for determining nerve root involvement were analyzed, compared to the clinical assessment. In addition, we analyzed the interrater reliability with 50 pain drawings. Agreement was poor between the standardized pain drawing assessment and the clinical assessment (kappa =0.11, 95% CI: -0.03 to 0.20). Sensitivity was high (93%), but specificity was low (19%). Interrater reliability was good (kappa =0.64, 95% CI: 0.53 to 0.76). The standardized pain drawing assessment of nerve root involvement in chronic whiplash-associated disorders was not in agreement with the clinical assessment. Further research is warranted to optimize the utilization of a pain/discomfort drawing as a supportive instrument for identifying nerve involvement in cervical spinal injuries.

Confronting Challenges in Intervention Research with Ethnically Diverse Older Adults: The USC Well Elderly II Trial

PubMed Central

Jackson, Jeanne; Mandel, Deborah; Blanchard, Jeanine; Carlson, Mike; Cherry, Barbara; Azen, Stanley; Chou, Chih-Ping; Jordan-Marsh, Maryalice; Forman, Todd; White, Brett; Granger, Douglas; Knight, Bob; Clark, Florence

2011-01-01

Background Community-dwelling older adults are at risk for declines in physical health, cognition, and psychosocial well-being. However, their enactment of active and health-promoting lifestyles can reduce such declines. Purpose The purpose of this article is to describe the USC Well Elderly II study, a randomized clinical trial designed to test the effectiveness of a healthy lifestyle program for elders, and document how various methodological challenges were addressed during the course of the trial. Methods In the study, 460 ethnically diverse elders recruited from a variety of sites in the urban Los Angeles area were enrolled in a randomized experiment involving a crossover design component. Within either the first or second six month phase of their study involvement, each elder received a lifestyle intervention designed to improve a variety of aging outcomes. At 4–5 time points over an 18–24 month interval, the research participants were assessed on measures of healthy activity, coping, social support, perceived control, stress-related biomarkers, perceived physical health, psychosocial well-being, and cognitive functioning to test the effectiveness of the intervention and document the process mechanisms responsible for its effects. Results The study protocol was successfully implemented, including the enrollment of study sites, the recruitment of 460 older adults, administration of the intervention, adherence to the plan for assessment, and establishment of a large computerized data base. Limitations Methodological challenges were encountered in the areas of site recruitment, participant recruitment, testing, and intervention delivery. Conclusions The completion of clinical trials involving elders from numerous local sites requires careful oversight and anticipation of threats to the study design that stem from: (a) social situations that are particular to specific study sites; and (b) physical, functional, and social challenges pertaining to the elder population. PMID:19254939

Confronting challenges in intervention research with ethnically diverse older adults: the USC Well Elderly II Trial.

PubMed

Jackson, Jeanne; Mandel, Deborah; Blanchard, Jeanine; Carlson, Mike; Cherry, Barbara; Azen, Stanley; Chou, Chih-Ping; Jordan-Marsh, Maryalice; Forman, Todd; White, Brett; Granger, Douglas; Knight, Bob; Clark, Florence

2009-02-01

Community-dwelling older adults are at risk for declines in physical health, cognition, and psychosocial well-being. However, their enactment of active and health-promoting lifestyles can reduce such declines. The purpose of this article is to describe the USC Well Elderly II study, a randomized clinical trial designed to test the effectiveness of a healthy lifestyle program for elders, and document how various methodological challenges were addressed during the course of the trial. In the study, 460 ethnically diverse elders recruited from a variety of sites in the urban Los Angeles area were enrolled in a randomized experiment involving a crossover design component. Within either the first or second 6-month phase of their study involvement, each elder received a lifestyle intervention designed to improve a variety of aging outcomes. At 4-5 time points over an 18-24 month interval, the research participants were assessed on measures of healthy activity, coping, social support, perceived control, stress-related biomarkers, perceived physical health, psychosocial well-being, and cognitive functioning to test the effectiveness of the intervention and document the process mechanisms responsible for its effects. The study protocol was successfully implemented, including the enrollment of study sites, the recruitment of 460 older adults, administration of the intervention, adherence to the plan for assessment, and establishment of a large computerized data base. Methodological challenges were encountered in the areas of site recruitment, participant recruitment, testing, and intervention delivery. The completion of clinical trials involving elders from numerous local sites requires careful oversight and anticipation of threats to the study design that stem from: (a) social situations that are particular to specific study sites; and (b) physical, functional, and social challenges pertaining to the elder population.

Perceptions of coping with non-disease-related life stress for women with osteoarthritis: a qualitative analysis

PubMed Central

Harris, Melissa L; Byles, Julie E; Townsend, Natalie; Loxton, Deborah

2016-01-01

Objective Coping with arthritis-related stress has been extensively studied. However, limited evidence exists regarding coping with stress extraneous to the disease (life stress). This study explored life stress and coping in a subset of older women with osteoarthritis from a larger longitudinal study. Setting An Australian regional university. Design This qualitative study involved semistructured telephone interviews. Potential participants were mailed a letter of invitation/participant information statement by the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). Invitations were sent out in small batches (primarily 10). Interviews were conducted until data saturation was achieved using a systematic process (n=19). Digitally recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and deidentified. Data were thematically analysed. Participants Women who indicated being diagnosed or treated for arthritis in the previous 3 years in the fifth survey of the ALSWH (conducted in 2007) provided the sampling frame. Potential participants were randomly sampled by a blinded data manager using a random number generator. Results Coping with life stress involved both attitudinal coping processes developed early in life (ie, stoicism) and transient cognitive and support-based responses. Women also described a dualistic process involving a reduction in the ability to cope with ongoing stress over time, coupled with personal growth. Conclusions This is the first study to examine how individuals cope with non-arthritis-related stress. The findings add to the current understanding of stress and coping, and have implications regarding the prevention of arthritis in women. Importantly, this study highlighted the potential detrimental impact of persistent coping patterns developed early in life. Public health campaigns aimed at stress mitigation and facilitation of adaptive coping mechanisms in childhood and adolescence may assist with arthritis prevention. PMID:27188808

Randomized controlled trial of mailed Nicotine Replacement Therapy to Canadian smokers: study protocol.

PubMed

Cunningham, John A; Leatherdale, Scott T; Selby, Peter L; Tyndale, Rachel F; Zawertailo, Laurie; Kushnir, Vladyslav

2011-09-28

Considerable public health efforts are ongoing Canada-wide to reduce the prevalence of smoking in the general population. From 1985 to 2005, smoking rates among adults decreased from 35% to 19%, however, since that time, the prevalence has plateaued at around 18-19%. To continue to reduce the number of smokers at the population level, one option has been to translate interventions that have demonstrated clinical efficacy into population level initiatives. Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) has a considerable clinical research base demonstrating its efficacy and safety and thus public health initiatives in Canada and other countries are distributing NRT widely through the mail. However, one important question remains unanswered--do smoking cessation programs that involve mailed distribution of free NRT work? To answer this question, a randomized controlled trial is required. A single blinded, panel survey design with random assignment to an experimental and a control condition will be used in this study. A two-stage recruitment process will be employed, in the context of a general population survey with two follow-ups (8 weeks and 6 months). Random digit dialing of Canadian home telephone numbers will identify households with adult smokers (aged 18+ years) who are willing to take part in a smoking study that involves three interviews, with saliva collection for 3-HC/cotinine ratio measurement at baseline and saliva cotinine verification at 8-week and 6-month follow-ups (N = 3,000). Eligible subjects interested in free NRT will be determined at baseline (N = 1,000) and subsequently randomized into experimental and control conditions to receive versus not receive nicotine patches. The primary hypothesis is that subjects who receive nicotine patches will display significantly higher quit rates (as assessed by 30 day point prevalence of abstinence from tobacco) at 6-month follow-up as compared to subjects who do not receive nicotine patches at baseline. The findings from the proposed trial are timely and highly relevant as mailed distribution of NRT require considerable resources and there are limited public health dollars available to combat this substantial health concern. In addition, findings from this randomized controlled trial will inform the development of models to engage smokers to quit, incorporating proactive recruitment and the offer of evidence based treatment. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01429129.

Chess Expertise and Memory for Chess Positions in Children and Adults.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schneider, Wolfgang; And Others

1993-01-01

A study presented four groups of chess players (child experts and novices, adult experts and novices) with short-term memory tasks involving meaningful and random chess positions, as well as a control board composed of geometric-shaped spaces and pieces. Found that child experts' immediate recall for meaningful chess positions was far superior to…

Gambling with Your Health: Predictors of Risk for AIDS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lasorsa, Dominic L.; Shoemaker, Pamela J.

To examine risk for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in terms of risk-related behaviors, and to investigate the factors that may be involved in putting one at risk, a study conducted telephone interviews with 493 randomly selected adults (18 years or older) in Austin, Texas in the fall of 1987. Respondents answered approximately 40…

Quasi-experimental evaluation without regression analysis.

PubMed

Rohrer, James E

2009-01-01

Evaluators of public health programs in field settings cannot always randomize subjects into experimental or control groups. By default, they may choose to employ the weakest study design available: the pretest, posttest approach without a comparison group. This essay argues that natural experiments involving comparison groups are within reach of public health program managers. Methods for analyzing natural experiments are discussed.

Experimental Impacts of a Preschool Intervention in Chile on Children's Language Outcomes: Moderation by Student Absenteeism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arbour, MaryCatherine; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu; Willett, John; Weiland, Christina; Snow, Catherine; Mendive, Susana; Barata, M. Clara; Treviño, Ernesto

2016-01-01

Despite consensus that school absenteeism has negative consequences for children's life outcomes, until recently, little was known about the prevalence of absenteeism or its potential to moderate the impacts of school-based interventions. This study provides evidence from a randomized experiment of a preschool intervention involving 1,876 children…

Traumatic and Stressful Events in Early Childhood: Can Treatment Help Those at Highest Risk?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ippen, Chandra Ghosh; Harris, William W.; Van Horn, Patricia; Lieberman, Alicia F.

2011-01-01

Objective: This study involves a reanalysis of data from a randomized controlled trial to examine whether child-parent psychotherapy (CPP), an empirically based treatment focusing on the parent-child relationship as the vehicle for child improvement, is efficacious for children who experienced multiple traumatic and stressful life events (TSEs).…

Improving the Acquisition of Novel Vocabulary through the Use of Imagery Interventions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Marisa T.; Johnson, Helen L.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of imagery interventions on the vocabulary acquisition abilities of second grade students. A total of 15 students were randomly assigned to three different intervention conditions: Word Only, which involves the simple verbal presentation of a vocabulary word; Dual Coding, in which a picture…

A Multilevel Study of Self-Beliefs and Student Behaviors in a Group Problem-Solving Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanham, José; McCormick, John

2018-01-01

Relationships among self-construal, self-efficacy, and group behaviors during a group problem-solving task with friends and acquaintances were hypothesized. The sample comprised 126 students in Grades 8-11, from 5 randomly selected government high schools, organized into 42 groups. Data collection involved self-reports and observations.…

The Measurement of Children's Self-Concepts as Related to Racial Membership.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stabler, John R.; Johnson, Edward E.

The study involved two stages: first, the evaluation of various stimuli as positive or negative; and second, the determination of whether or not positive stimuli were associated with the color white, and negative stimuli with black. The stimuli were statements related to self perception. From four integrated preschools were randomly selected 15…

Bridging the Rural-Urban Literacy Gap in China: A Mediation Analysis of Family Effects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Jingying; Li, Hui; Wang, Dan

2018-01-01

This study examines the effects of family involvement on the literacy gap between rural and urban Chinese primary students via mediation analysis. Altogether, 1080 students in Grades 1, 3, and 5 were randomly sampled from three urban and three rural primary schools from Shandong and Guizhou Provinces, representing eastern and western China,…

Writing to Learn in Science: Effects on Grade 4 Students' Understanding of Balance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillespie Rouse, Amy; Graham, Steve; Compton, Donald

2017-01-01

In this study, we randomly assigned 69 Grade 4 students to a writing-to-learn treatment (n = 23), comparison (n = 23), or no-treatment control (n = 23). Treatment and comparison students completed a science experiment involving balance. During the experiment, treatment students wrote four short responses and an extended response to document their…

Persistence of Learning Gains from Computer Assisted Learning: Experimental Evidence from China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mo, D.; Zhang, L.; Wang, J.; Huang, W.; Shi, Y.; Boswell, M.; Rozelle, S.

2015-01-01

Computer assisted learning (CAL) programs have been shown to be effective in improving educational outcomes. However, the existing studies on CAL have almost all been conducted over a short period of time. There is very little evidence on how the impact evolves over time. In response, we conducted a clustered randomized experiment involving 2741…

Beyond Randomized Controlled Trials in Attempted Suicide Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hatcher, Simon; Sharon, Cynthia; Coggan, Carol

2009-01-01

There is a lack of evidence about what is the best treatment for people who present to hospital after self harm. Most treatment trials have been small and involved unrepresentative groups of patients which result in inconclusive findings. Here we note some of the characteristics of attempted suicide which make it a difficult subject to study. We…

Evaluation of a Decision-Making Curriculum for Teaching Adolescents with Disabilities to Resist Negative Peer Pressure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khemka, Ishita; Hickson, Linda; Mallory, Sarah B.

2016-01-01

This study was designed to assess the impact of a decision-making curriculum (PEER-DM) on the social peer relationship knowledge and self-protective decision-making skills of adolescents with disabilities in hypothetical situations involving negative peer pressure. A randomized design was used to assign students with disabilities from…

Findings from a Multiyear Scale-Up Effectiveness Trial of Open Court Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaden-Kiernan, Michael; Borman, Geoffrey; Caverly, Sarah; Bell, Nance; Sullivan, Kate; Ruiz de Castilla, Veronica; Fleming, Grace; Rodriguez, Debra; Henry, Chad; Long, Tracy; Hughes Jones, Debra

2018-01-01

This multiyear scale-up effectiveness study of Open Court Reading (OCR) involved approximately 4,500 students and more than 1,000 teachers per year in Grades K-5 from 49 elementary schools in seven districts across the country. Using a school-level cluster randomized trial design, we assessed the implementation and effectiveness of Open Court…

Practising Mental Rotation Using Interactive Desktop Mental Rotation Trainer (iDeMRT)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rafi, Ahmad; Samsudin, Khairulanuar

2009-01-01

An experimental study involving 30 undergraduates (mean age = 20.5 years) in mental rotation (MR) training was conducted in an interactive Desktop Mental Rotation Trainer (iDeMRT). Stratified random sampling assigned students into one experimental group and one control group. The former trained in iDeMRT and the latter trained in conventional…

Knowledge about HIV and AIDS among Young South Africans in the Capricorn District, Limpopo Province

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melwa, Irene T.; Oduntan, Olalekan A.

2012-01-01

Objective: To assess the basic knowledge about HIV and AIDS among young South Africans in the Capricorn District of Limpopo Province, South Africa. Design: A questionnaire-based cohort study, involving data collection from senior high school students. Setting: Randomly selected high schools in the Capricorn District, Limpopo Province, South…

The Extent of Consumer Product Involvement in Paediatric Injuries

PubMed Central

Catchpoole, Jesani; Walker, Sue; Vallmuur, Kirsten

2016-01-01

A challenge in utilising health sector injury data for Product Safety purposes is that clinically coded data have limited ability to inform regulators about product involvement in injury events, given data entry is bound by a predefined set of codes. Text narratives collected in emergency departments can potentially address this limitation by providing relevant product information with additional accompanying context. This study aims to identify and quantify consumer product involvement in paediatric injuries recorded in emergency department-based injury surveillance data. A total of 7743 paediatric injuries were randomly selected from Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit database and associated text narratives were manually reviewed to determine product involvement in the injury event. A Product Involvement Factor classification system was used to categorise these injury cases. Overall, 44% of all reviewed cases were associated with consumer products, with proximity factor (25%) being identified as the most common involvement of a product in an injury event. Only 6% were established as being directly due to the product. The study highlights the importance of utilising injury data to inform product safety initiatives where text narratives can be used to identify the type and involvement of products in injury cases. PMID:27399744

The Extent of Consumer Product Involvement in Paediatric Injuries.

PubMed

Catchpoole, Jesani; Walker, Sue; Vallmuur, Kirsten

2016-07-07

A challenge in utilising health sector injury data for Product Safety purposes is that clinically coded data have limited ability to inform regulators about product involvement in injury events, given data entry is bound by a predefined set of codes. Text narratives collected in emergency departments can potentially address this limitation by providing relevant product information with additional accompanying context. This study aims to identify and quantify consumer product involvement in paediatric injuries recorded in emergency department-based injury surveillance data. A total of 7743 paediatric injuries were randomly selected from Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit database and associated text narratives were manually reviewed to determine product involvement in the injury event. A Product Involvement Factor classification system was used to categorise these injury cases. Overall, 44% of all reviewed cases were associated with consumer products, with proximity factor (25%) being identified as the most common involvement of a product in an injury event. Only 6% were established as being directly due to the product. The study highlights the importance of utilising injury data to inform product safety initiatives where text narratives can be used to identify the type and involvement of products in injury cases.

Semmelweis's methodology from the modern stand-point: intervention studies and causal ontology.

PubMed

Persson, Johannes

2009-09-01

Semmelweis's work predates the discovery of the power of randomization in medicine by almost a century. Although Semmelweis would not have consciously used a randomized controlled trial (RCT), some features of his material-the allocation of patients to the first and second clinics-did involve what was in fact a randomization, though this was not realised at the time. This article begins by explaining why Semmelweis's methodology, nevertheless, did not amount to the use of a RCT. It then shows why it is descriptively and normatively interesting to compare what he did with the modern approach using RCTs. The argumentation centres on causal inferences and the contrast between Semmelweis's causal concept and that deployed by many advocates of RCTs. It is argued that Semmelweis's approach has implications for matters of explanation and medical practice.

3D surface perception from motion involves a temporal–parietal network

PubMed Central

Beer, Anton L.; Watanabe, Takeo; Ni, Rui; Sasaki, Yuka; Andersen, George J.

2010-01-01

Previous research has suggested that three-dimensional (3D) structure-from-motion (SFM) perception in humans involves several motion-sensitive occipital and parietal brain areas. By contrast, SFM perception in nonhuman primates seems to involve the temporal lobe including areas MT, MST and FST. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study compared several motion-sensitive regions of interest including the superior temporal sulcus (STS) while human observers viewed horizontally moving dots that defined either a 3D corrugated surface or a 3D random volume. Low-level stimulus features such as dot density and velocity vectors as well as attention were tightly controlled. Consistent with previous research we found that 3D corrugated surfaces elicited stronger responses than random motion in occipital and parietal brain areas including area V3A, the ventral and dorsal intraparietal sulcus, the lateral occipital sulcus and the fusiform gyrus. Additionally, 3D corrugated surfaces elicited stronger activity in area MT and the STS but not in area MST. Brain activity in the STS but not in area MT correlated with interindividual differences in 3D surface perception. Our findings suggest that area MT is involved in the analysis of optic flow patterns such as speed gradients and that the STS in humans plays a greater role in the analysis of 3D SFM than previously thought. PMID:19674088

The effects of stakeholder involvement on perceptions of an evaluation's credibility.

PubMed

Jacobson, Miriam R; Azzam, Tarek

2018-06-01

This article presents a study of the effects of stakeholder involvement on perceptions of an evaluation's credibility. Crowdsourced members of the public and a group of educational administrators read a description of a hypothetical program and two evaluations of the program: one conducted by a researcher and one conducted by program staff (i.e. program stakeholders). Study participants were randomly assigned versions of the scenario with different levels of stakeholder credibility and types of findings. Results showed that both samples perceived the researcher's evaluation findings to be more credible than the program staff's, but that this difference was significantly reduced when the program staff were described to be highly credible. The article concludes with implications for theory and research on evaluation dissemination and stakeholder involvement. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Real-time fast physical random number generator with a photonic integrated circuit.

PubMed

Ugajin, Kazusa; Terashima, Yuta; Iwakawa, Kento; Uchida, Atsushi; Harayama, Takahisa; Yoshimura, Kazuyuki; Inubushi, Masanobu

2017-03-20

Random number generators are essential for applications in information security and numerical simulations. Most optical-chaos-based random number generators produce random bit sequences by offline post-processing with large optical components. We demonstrate a real-time hardware implementation of a fast physical random number generator with a photonic integrated circuit and a field programmable gate array (FPGA) electronic board. We generate 1-Tbit random bit sequences and evaluate their statistical randomness using NIST Special Publication 800-22 and TestU01. All of the BigCrush tests in TestU01 are passed using 410-Gbit random bit sequences. A maximum real-time generation rate of 21.1 Gb/s is achieved for random bit sequences in binary format stored in a computer, which can be directly used for applications involving secret keys in cryptography and random seeds in large-scale numerical simulations.

Statistical optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goodman, J. W.

This book is based on the thesis that some training in the area of statistical optics should be included as a standard part of any advanced optics curriculum. Random variables are discussed, taking into account definitions of probability and random variables, distribution functions and density functions, an extension to two or more random variables, statistical averages, transformations of random variables, sums of real random variables, Gaussian random variables, complex-valued random variables, and random phasor sums. Other subjects examined are related to random processes, some first-order properties of light waves, the coherence of optical waves, some problems involving high-order coherence, effects of partial coherence on imaging systems, imaging in the presence of randomly inhomogeneous media, and fundamental limits in photoelectric detection of light. Attention is given to deterministic versus statistical phenomena and models, the Fourier transform, and the fourth-order moment of the spectrum of a detected speckle image.

Evaluation of a Two-Phase Experimental Study of a Small Group ("MultiLit") Reading Intervention for Older Low-Progress Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buckingham, Jennifer; Beaman-Wheldall, Robyn; Wheldall, Kevin

2014-01-01

The study reported here examined the efficacy of a small group (Tier 2 in a three-tier Response to Intervention model) literacy intervention for older low-progress readers (in Years 3-6). This article focuses on the second phase of a two-phase, crossover randomized control trial involving 26 students. In Phase 1, the experimental group (E1)…

Written object naming, spelling to dictation, and immediate copying: Different tasks, different pathways?

PubMed

Bonin, Patrick; Méot, Alain; Lagarrigue, Aurélie; Roux, Sébastien

2015-01-01

We report an investigation of cross-task comparisons of handwritten latencies in written object naming, spelling to dictation, and immediate copying. In three separate sessions, adults had to write down a list of concrete nouns from their corresponding pictures (written naming), from their spoken (spelling to dictation) and from their visual presentation (immediate copying). Linear mixed models without random slopes were performed on the latencies in order to study and compare within-task fixed effects. By-participants random slopes were then included to investigate individual differences within and across tasks. Overall, the findings suggest that written naming, spelling to dictation, and copying all involve a lexical pathway, but that written naming relies on this pathway more than the other two tasks do. Only spelling to dictation strongly involves a nonlexical pathway. Finally, the analyses performed at the level of participants indicate that, depending on the type of task, the slower participants are more or less influenced by certain psycholinguistic variables.

Factual knowledge about AIDS and dating practices among high school students from selected schools.

PubMed

Nyachuru-Sihlangu, R H; Ndlovu, J

1992-06-01

Following various educational strategies by governmental and non-governmental organisations to educate youths and school teachers about HIV infection and prevention, this KABP survey was one attempt to evaluate the results. The study sample of 478 high school students was drawn from four randomly selected schools in Mashonaland and Matabeleland including high and low density, government and mission co-educational schools. The sample was randomly selected and stratified to represent sex and grade level. The KABP self administered questionnaire was used. The paper analyses the relationship between the knowledge and dating patterns. Generally, respondents demonstrated a 50pc to 80pc accuracy of factual knowledge. Of the 66pc Forms I through IV pupils who dated, 30pc preferred only sexually involved relationships and a small number considered the possibility of HIV/AIDS infection. A theoretically based tripartite coalition involving the school, the family health care services for education, guidance and support to promote responsible behaviour throughout childhood was suggested.

Kindness in the blood: A randomized controlled trial of the gene regulatory impact of prosocial behavior.

PubMed

Nelson-Coffey, S Katherine; Fritz, Megan M; Lyubomirsky, Sonja; Cole, Steve W

2017-07-01

Prosocial behavior is linked to longevity, but few studies have experimentally manipulated prosocial behavior to identify the causal mechanisms underlying this association. One possible mediating pathway involves changes in gene expression that may subsequently influence disease development or resistance. In the current study, we examined changes in a leukocyte gene expression profile known as the Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity (CTRA) in 159 adults who were randomly assigned for 4 weeks to engage in prosocial behavior directed towards specific others, prosocial behavior directed towards the world in general, self-focused kindness, or a neutral control task. Those randomized to prosocial behavior towards specific others demonstrated improvements (i.e., reductions) in leukocyte expression of CTRA indicator genes. No significant changes in CTRA gene expression were observed in the other 3 conditions. These findings suggest that prosocial behavior can causally impact leukocyte gene expression profiles in ways that might potentially help explain the previously observed health advantages associated with social ties. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Active music therapy approach in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a randomized-controlled trial.

PubMed

Raglio, Alfredo; Giovanazzi, Elena; Pain, Debora; Baiardi, Paola; Imbriani, Chiara; Imbriani, Marcello; Mora, Gabriele

2016-12-01

This randomized controlled study assessed the efficacy of active music therapy (AMT) on anxiety, depression, and quality of life in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Communication and relationship during AMT treatment were also evaluated. Thirty patients were assigned randomly to experimental [AMT plus standard of care (SC)] or control (SC) groups. AMT consisted of 12 sessions (three times a week), whereas the SC treatment was based on physical and speech rehabilitation sessions, occupational therapy, and psychological support. ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire, and Music Therapy Rating Scale were administered to assess functional, psychological, and music therapy outcomes. The AMT group improved significantly in McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire global scores (P=0.035) and showed a positive trend in nonverbal and sonorous-music relationship during the treatment. Further studies involving larger samples in a longer AMT intervention are needed to confirm the effectiveness of this approach in ALS.

Effects of stereospecific positioning of fatty acids in triacylglycerol structures in native and randomized fats: a review of their nutritional implications

PubMed Central

Karupaiah, Tilakavati; Sundram, Kalyana

2007-01-01

Most studies on lipid lowering diets have focused on the total content of saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. However, the distribution of these fatty acids on the triacylglycerol (TAG) molecule and the molecular TAG species generated by this stereospecificity are characteristic for various native dietary TAGs. Fat randomization or interesterification is a process involving the positional redistribution of fatty acids, which leads to the generation of new TAG molecular species. A comparison between native and randomized TAGs is the subject of this review with regards to the role of stereospecificity of fatty acids in metabolic processing and effects on fasting lipids and postprandial lipemia. The positioning of unsaturated versus saturated fatty acids in the sn-2 position of TAGs indicate differences in early metabolic processing and postprandial clearance, which may explain modulatory effects on atherogenecity and thrombogenecity. Both human and animal studies are discussed with implications for human health. PMID:17625019

Interventions to prevent misconduct and promote integrity in research and publication.

PubMed

Marusic, Ana; Wager, Elizabeth; Utrobicic, Ana; Rothstein, Hannah R; Sambunjak, Dario

2016-04-04

Improper practices and unprofessional conduct in clinical research have been shown to waste a significant portion of healthcare funds and harm public health. Our objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of educational or policy interventions in research integrity or responsible conduct of research on the behaviour and attitudes of researchers in health and other research areas. We searched the CENTRAL, MEDLINE, LILACS and CINAHL health research bibliographical databases, as well as the Academic Search Complete, AGRICOLA, GeoRef, PsycINFO, ERIC, SCOPUS and Web of Science databases. We performed the last search on 15 April 2015 and the search was limited to articles published between 1990 and 2014, inclusive. We also searched conference proceedings and abstracts from research integrity conferences and specialized websites. We handsearched 14 journals that regularly publish research integrity research. We included studies that measured the effects of one or more interventions, i.e. any direct or indirect procedure that may have an impact on research integrity and responsible conduct of research in its broadest sense, where participants were any stakeholders in research and publication processes, from students to policy makers. We included randomized and non-randomized controlled trials, such as controlled before-and-after studies, with comparisons of outcomes in the intervention versus non-intervention group or before versus after the intervention. Studies without a control group were not included in the review. We used the standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane. To assess the risk of bias in non-randomized studies, we used a modified Cochrane tool, in which we used four out of six original domains (blinding, incomplete outcome data, selective outcome reporting, other sources of bias) and two additional domains (comparability of groups and confounding factors). We categorized our primary outcome into the following levels: 1) organizational change attributable to intervention, 2) behavioural change, 3) acquisition of knowledge/skills and 4) modification of attitudes/perceptions. The secondary outcome was participants' reaction to the intervention. Thirty-one studies involving 9571 participants, described in 33 articles, met the inclusion criteria. All were published in English. Fifteen studies were randomized controlled trials, nine were controlled before-and-after studies, four were non-equivalent controlled studies with a historical control, one was a non-equivalent controlled study with a post-test only and two were non-equivalent controlled studies with pre- and post-test findings for the intervention group and post-test for the control group. Twenty-one studies assessed the effects of interventions related to plagiarism and 10 studies assessed interventions in research integrity/ethics. Participants included undergraduates, postgraduates and academics from a range of research disciplines and countries, and the studies assessed different types of outcomes.We judged most of the included randomized controlled trials to have a high risk of bias in at least one of the assessed domains, and in the case of non-randomized trials there were no attempts to alleviate the potential biases inherent in the non-randomized designs.We identified a range of interventions aimed at reducing research misconduct. Most interventions involved some kind of training, but methods and content varied greatly and included face-to-face and online lectures, interactive online modules, discussion groups, homework and practical exercises. Most studies did not use standardized or validated outcome measures and it was impossible to synthesize findings from studies with such diverse interventions, outcomes and participants. Overall, there is very low quality evidence that various methods of training in research integrity had some effects on participants' attitudes to ethical issues but minimal (or short-lived) effects on their knowledge. Training about plagiarism and paraphrasing had varying effects on participants' attitudes towards plagiarism and their confidence in avoiding it, but training that included practical exercises appeared to be more effective. Training on plagiarism had inconsistent effects on participants' knowledge about and ability to recognize plagiarism. Active training, particularly if it involved practical exercises or use of text-matching software, generally decreased the occurrence of plagiarism although results were not consistent. The design of a journal's author contribution form affected the truthfulness of information supplied about individuals' contributions and the proportion of listed contributors who met authorship criteria. We identified no studies testing interventions for outcomes at the organizational level. The numbers of events and the magnitude of intervention effects were generally small, so the evidence is likely to be imprecise. No adverse effects were reported. The evidence base relating to interventions to improve research integrity is incomplete and the studies that have been done are heterogeneous, inappropriate for meta-analyses and their applicability to other settings and population is uncertain. Many studies had a high risk of bias because of the choice of study design and interventions were often inadequately reported. Even when randomized designs were used, findings were difficult to generalize. Due to the very low quality of evidence, the effects of training in responsible conduct of research on reducing research misconduct are uncertain. Low quality evidence indicates that training about plagiarism, especially if it involves practical exercises and use of text-matching software, may reduce the occurrence of plagiarism.

Meta-analysis of randomized trials on access site selection for percutaneous coronary intervention in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction

PubMed Central

Komócsi, András; Aradi, Dániel; Kehl, Dániel; Ungi, Imre; Thury, Attila; Pintér, Tünde; Di Nicolantonio, James J.; Tornyos, Adrienn

2014-01-01

Introduction Superior outcomes with transradial (TRPCI) versus transfemoral coronary intervention (TFPCI) in the setting of acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have been suggested by earlier studies. However, this effect was not evident in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), suggesting a possible allocation bias in observational studies. Since important studies with heterogeneous results regarding mortality have been published recently, we aimed to perform an updated review and meta-analysis on the safety and efficacy of TRPCI compared to TFPCI in the setting of STEMI. Material and methods Electronic databases were searched for relevant studies from January 1993 to November 2012. Outcome parameters of RCTs were pooled with the DerSimonian-Laird random-effects model. Results Twelve RCTs involving 5,124 patients were identified. According to the pooled analysis, TRPCI was associated with a significant reduction in major bleeding (odds ratio (OR): 0.52 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.38–0.71, p < 0.0001)). The risk of mortality and major adverse events was significantly lower after TRPCI (OR = 0.58 (95% CI: 0.43–0.79), p = 0.0005 and OR = 0.67 (95% CI: 0.52–0.86), p = 0.002 respectively). Conclusions Robust data from randomized clinical studies indicate that TRPCI reduces both ischemic and bleeding complications in STEMI. These findings support the preferential use of radial access for primary PCI. PMID:24904651

Meta-analysis of randomized trials on access site selection for percutaneous coronary intervention in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

PubMed

Komócsi, András; Aradi, Dániel; Kehl, Dániel; Ungi, Imre; Thury, Attila; Pintér, Tünde; Di Nicolantonio, James J; Tornyos, Adrienn; Vorobcsuk, András

2014-05-12

Superior outcomes with transradial (TRPCI) versus transfemoral coronary intervention (TFPCI) in the setting of acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have been suggested by earlier studies. However, this effect was not evident in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), suggesting a possible allocation bias in observational studies. Since important studies with heterogeneous results regarding mortality have been published recently, we aimed to perform an updated review and meta-analysis on the safety and efficacy of TRPCI compared to TFPCI in the setting of STEMI. Electronic databases were searched for relevant studies from January 1993 to November 2012. Outcome parameters of RCTs were pooled with the DerSimonian-Laird random-effects model. Twelve RCTs involving 5,124 patients were identified. According to the pooled analysis, TRPCI was associated with a significant reduction in major bleeding (odds ratio (OR): 0.52 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.38-0.71, p < 0.0001)). The risk of mortality and major adverse events was significantly lower after TRPCI (OR = 0.58 (95% CI: 0.43-0.79), p = 0.0005 and OR = 0.67 (95% CI: 0.52-0.86), p = 0.002 respectively). Robust data from randomized clinical studies indicate that TRPCI reduces both ischemic and bleeding complications in STEMI. These findings support the preferential use of radial access for primary PCI.

Quantifying errors without random sampling.

PubMed

Phillips, Carl V; LaPole, Luwanna M

2003-06-12

All quantifications of mortality, morbidity, and other health measures involve numerous sources of error. The routine quantification of random sampling error makes it easy to forget that other sources of error can and should be quantified. When a quantification does not involve sampling, error is almost never quantified and results are often reported in ways that dramatically overstate their precision. We argue that the precision implicit in typical reporting is problematic and sketch methods for quantifying the various sources of error, building up from simple examples that can be solved analytically to more complex cases. There are straightforward ways to partially quantify the uncertainty surrounding a parameter that is not characterized by random sampling, such as limiting reported significant figures. We present simple methods for doing such quantifications, and for incorporating them into calculations. More complicated methods become necessary when multiple sources of uncertainty must be combined. We demonstrate that Monte Carlo simulation, using available software, can estimate the uncertainty resulting from complicated calculations with many sources of uncertainty. We apply the method to the current estimate of the annual incidence of foodborne illness in the United States. Quantifying uncertainty from systematic errors is practical. Reporting this uncertainty would more honestly represent study results, help show the probability that estimated values fall within some critical range, and facilitate better targeting of further research.

Searching for Evidence of an Anti-Inflammatory Diet in Children: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials for Pediatric Obesity Interventions With a Focus on Leptin, Ghrelin, and Adiponectin.

PubMed

Lewis, Kimberly A; Brown, Sharon A

2017-10-01

To address the complex phenomenon of pediatric obesity, one must understand the physiological mechanisms regulating energy intake and inflammation. The peptide hormones leptin, ghrelin, and adiponectin are involved in both, but their functions are dysregulated in obesity. The purpose of this systematic review is (1) to characterize studies of nutrition interventions for weight management in children who measure these peptides as outcomes, (2) to assess risk of bias in the studies, and (3) to determine the relationships between these peptides and body mass index (BMI). Eligibility Criteria: Peer-reviewed articles written in English, published in 2001-2016, and describing randomized controlled trials of pediatric interventions involving a nutrition component with the outcome measures leptin, ghrelin, and/or adiponectin were included. Articles were excluded if the intervention involved pharmaceuticals, supplements, infant formula, breastfeeding, or surgery. The 25 international studies represented 2,153 obese children. Ten diets were identified. Successful interventions included both structured exercise and hypocaloric dietary components, with or without counseling, resistance training, or medical components. Direct measures of adiposity were used in 69% of studies. Comparison group designs were disparate. Leptin levels decreased as BMI decreased. Evidence regarding the relationships of ghrelin and adiponectin with BMI was inconclusive. Despite known effects of maturation on hormones, studies did not consistently differentiate findings by maturational stage. Common anti-inflammatory and disease risk modification diets were missing or underrepresented. Studies that include children with comorbidities are needed. BMI and leptin levels have a positive relationship, but evidence on ghrelin and adiponectin was inconclusive.

Health education via mobile text messaging for glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Saffari, Mohsen; Ghanizadeh, Ghader; Koenig, Harold G

2014-12-01

Diabetes type 2 is an increasing problem worldwide that may be managed through education. Text-messaging using a cell phone can assist with self-care. The aim of this study was to systematically review the impact of education through mobile text-messaging on glycemic control. The design was a systematic review with meta-analysis. Five electronic databases were searched to access English studies involving a randomized controlled trial design that used text-messaging educational interventions in patients with type 2 diabetes during an 11-year period (2003-2013). Studies were evaluated using a quality assessment scale adapted from Jadad scale and Cochrane handbook. Extraction of data was carried out by two reviewers. A random-effect model with a standardized mean difference and Hedges's g indices was used for conducting the meta-analysis. Subgroup analyses were conducted and a Funnel plot was used to examine publication bias. Ten studies overall were identified that fulfilled inclusion criteria, involving a total of 960 participants. The mean age of the sample was 52.8 years and majority were females. Data were heterogeneous (I(2)=67.6). Analyses suggested a publication bias based on Egger's regression (P<0.05). HbA1c was reduced significantly in experimental groups compared to control groups (P<0.001). The effect size for glycemic control in studies that used text-messaging only was 44%. For studies that used both text-messaging and Internet, the effect size was 86%. Mobile text-messaging for educating Type 2 diabetics appears to be effective on glycemic control. Further investigations on mobile applications to achieve educational goals involving other diseases are recommended. Copyright © 2014 Primary Care Diabetes Europe. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Family-focused physical activity, diet and obesity interventions in African-American girls: a systematic review.

PubMed

Barr-Anderson, D J; Adams-Wynn, A W; DiSantis, K I; Kumanyika, S

2013-01-01

Obesity interventions that involve family members may be effective with racial/ethnic minority youth. This review assessed the nature and effectiveness of family involvement in obesity interventions among African-American girls aged 5-18 years, a population group with high rates of obesity. Twenty-six databases were searched between January 2011 and March 2012, yielding 27 obesity pilot or full-length prevention or treatment studies with some degree of family involvement and data specific to African-American girls. Interventions varied in type and level of family involvement, cultural adaptation, delivery format and behaviour change intervention strategies; most targeted parent-child dyads. Some similarities in approach based on family involvement were identified. The use of theoretical perspectives specific to African-American family dynamics was absent. Across all studies, effects on weight-related behaviours were generally promising but often non-significant. Similar conclusions were drawn for weight-related outcomes among the full-length randomized controlled trials. Many strategies appeared promising on face value, but available data did not permit inferences about whether or how best to involve family members in obesity prevention and treatment interventions with African-American girls. Study designs that directly compare different types and levels of family involvement and incorporate relevant theoretical elements may be an important next step. © 2012 The Authors. obesity reviews © 2012 International Association for the Study of Obesity.

Statistical power and optimal design in experiments in which samples of participants respond to samples of stimuli.

PubMed

Westfall, Jacob; Kenny, David A; Judd, Charles M

2014-10-01

Researchers designing experiments in which a sample of participants responds to a sample of stimuli are faced with difficult questions about optimal study design. The conventional procedures of statistical power analysis fail to provide appropriate answers to these questions because they are based on statistical models in which stimuli are not assumed to be a source of random variation in the data, models that are inappropriate for experiments involving crossed random factors of participants and stimuli. In this article, we present new methods of power analysis for designs with crossed random factors, and we give detailed, practical guidance to psychology researchers planning experiments in which a sample of participants responds to a sample of stimuli. We extensively examine 5 commonly used experimental designs, describe how to estimate statistical power in each, and provide power analysis results based on a reasonable set of default parameter values. We then develop general conclusions and formulate rules of thumb concerning the optimal design of experiments in which a sample of participants responds to a sample of stimuli. We show that in crossed designs, statistical power typically does not approach unity as the number of participants goes to infinity but instead approaches a maximum attainable power value that is possibly small, depending on the stimulus sample. We also consider the statistical merits of designs involving multiple stimulus blocks. Finally, we provide a simple and flexible Web-based power application to aid researchers in planning studies with samples of stimuli.

Treatment of Aspergillus fumigatus in patients with cystic fibrosis: a randomized, placebo-controlled pilot study.

PubMed

Aaron, Shawn D; Vandemheen, Katherine L; Freitag, Andreas; Pedder, Linda; Cameron, William; Lavoie, Annick; Paterson, Nigel; Wilcox, Pearce; Rabin, Harvey; Tullis, Elizabeth; Morrison, Nancy; Ratjen, Felix

2012-01-01

Many patients with cystic fibrosis develop persistent airway infection/colonization with Aspergillus fumigatus, however the impact of A. fumigatus on clinical outcomes remains unclear. The objective of this study was to determine whether treatment directed against Aspergillus fumigatus improves pulmonary function and clinical outcomes in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). We performed a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled pilot clinical trial involving 35 patients with CF whose sputum cultures were chronically positive for A. fumigatus. Participants were centrally randomized to receive either oral itraconazole 5 mg/kg/d (N = 18) or placebo (N = 17) for 24 weeks. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients who experienced a respiratory exacerbation requiring intravenous antibiotics over the 24 week treatment period. Secondary outcomes included changes in FEV(1) and quality of life. Over the 24 week treatment period, 4 of 18 (22%) patients randomized to itraconazole experienced a respiratory exacerbation requiring intravenous antibiotics, compared to 5 of 16 (31%) placebo treated patients, P = 0.70. FEV(1) declined by 4.62% over 24 weeks in the patients randomized to itraconazole, compared to a 0.32% improvement in the placebo group (between group difference = -4.94%, 95% CI: -15.33 to 5.45, P = 0.34). Quality of life did not differ between the 2 treatment groups throughout the study. Therapeutic itraconazole blood levels were not achieved in 43% of patients randomized to itraconazole. We did not identify clinical benefit from itraconazole treatment for CF patients whose sputum was chronically colonized with A. fumigatus. Limitations of this pilot study were its small sample size, and failure to achieve therapeutic levels of itraconazole in many patients. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00528190.

Comonotonic bounds on the survival probabilities in the Lee-Carter model for mortality projection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Denuit, Michel; Dhaene, Jan

2007-06-01

In the Lee-Carter framework, future survival probabilities are random variables with an intricate distribution function. In large homogeneous portfolios of life annuities, value-at-risk or conditional tail expectation of the total yearly payout of the company are approximately equal to the corresponding quantities involving random survival probabilities. This paper aims to derive some bounds in the increasing convex (or stop-loss) sense on these random survival probabilities. These bounds are obtained with the help of comonotonic upper and lower bounds on sums of correlated random variables.

Coordination and Management of Multisite Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Therapies: Experience from a Multisite Reflexology Intervention Trial

PubMed Central

Rahbar, Mohammad H.; Wyatt, Gwen; Sikorskii, Alla; Victorson, David; Ardjomand-Hessabi, Manouchehr

2011-01-01

Background Multisite randomized clinical trials allow for increased research collaboration among investigators and expedite data collection efforts. As a result, government funding agencies typically look favorably upon this approach. As the field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) continues to evolve, so do increased calls for the use of more rigorous study design and trial methodologies, which can present challenges for investigators. Purpose To describe the processes involved in the coordination and management of a multisite randomized clinical trial of a CAM intervention. Methods Key aspects related to the coordination and management of a multisite CAM randomized clinical trial are presented, including organizational and site selection considerations, recruitment concerns and issues related to data collection and randomization to treatment groups. Management and monitoring of data, as well as quality assurance procedures are described. Finally, a real world perspective is shared from a recently conducted multisite randomized clinical trial of reflexology for women diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. Results The use of multiple sites in the conduct of CAM-based randomized clinical trials can provide an efficient, collaborative and robust approach to study coordination and data collection that maximizes efficiency and ensures the quality of results. Conclusions Multisite randomized clinical trial designs can offer the field of CAM research a more standardized and efficient approach to examine the effectiveness of novel therapies and treatments. Special attention must be given to intervention fidelity, consistent data collection and ensuring data quality. Assessment and reporting of quantitative indicators of data quality should be required. PMID:21664296

Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment versus an Active Control for Children and Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders: A Randomized Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hudson, Jennifer L.; Rapee, Ronald M.; Deveney, Charise; Schniering, Carolyn A.; Lyneham, Heidi J.; Bavopoulos, Nataly

2009-01-01

Specific delivery of cognitive-behavioral skills is more effective in treating childhood anxiety compared to treatment that contains only nonspecific therapy factors. The findings are based on a randomized trial involving 112 children aged 7-16 years.

A Study of English Language Training for Refugees in the United States. Phase Three: The Influence of Language Training and Employment on Adult Refugees' Acquisition of English. Technical Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arter, Judith; And Others

The third phase of a national study of the impact of English language training programs on adult Southeast Asian refugees in the United States involved a longitudinal study of 400 recently-arrived refugees chosen at random from reception lines of refugee centers in four metropolitan areas: Portland, Oregon; San Diego; Oklahoma City; and Denver.…

EEG alpha power during maintenance of information in working memory in adults with ADHD and its plasticity due to working memory training: A randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Liu, Zhong-Xu; Glizer, Daniel; Tannock, Rosemary; Woltering, Steven

2016-02-01

The present study examined whether neural indices of working memory maintenance differ between young adults with ADHD and their healthy peers (Study 1), and whether this neural index would change after working memory training (Study 2). Study 1 involved 136 college students with ADHD and 41 healthy peers (aged 18-35 years) and measured their posterior alpha activity during a visual delayed-match-to-sample task using electroencephalography (EEG). Study 2 involved 99 of the participants with ADHD who were randomized into a standard-length or shortened-length Cogmed working memory training program or a waitlist control group. The ADHD group tended to be less accurate than the peers. Similarly, the ADHD group exhibited lower posterior alpha power at a trend level compared to their healthy peers. There were no training effects on participants' performance and only marginal increases in posterior alpha power in training groups compared to the waitlist group. Considering that the training effects were small and there was no load and dose effect, we conclude that the current study provides no convincing evidence for specific effects of Cogmed. These findings provide unique insights into neuroplasticity, or lack thereof, with near-transfer tasks in individuals with ADHD. Copyright © 2015 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interventions to improve hemodialysis adherence: a systematic review of randomized-controlled trials.

PubMed

Matteson, Michelle L; Russell, Cynthia

2010-10-01

Over 485,000 people in the United States have chronic kidney disease, a progressive kidney disease that may lead to hemodialysis. Hemodialysis involves a complex regimen of treatment, medication, fluid, and diet management. In 2005, over 312,000 patients were undergoing hemodialysis in the United States. Dialysis nonadherence rates range from 8.5% to 86%. Dialysis therapy treatment nonadherence, including treatment, medication, fluid, and diet nonadherence, significantly increases the risk of morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this paper is to systematically review randomized-controlled trial intervention studies designed to increase treatment, medication, fluid, and diet adherence in adult hemodialysis patients. A search of Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) (1982 to May 2008), MEDLINE (1950 to May 2008), PsycINFO (1806 to May 2008), and all Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Reviews (Cochran DSR, ACP Journal Club, DARE, and CCTR) was conducted to identify randomized-controlled studies that tested the efficacy of interventions to improve adherence in adult hemodialysis patients. Eight randomized-controlled trials met criteria for inclusion. Six of the 8 studies found statistically significant improvement in adherence with the intervention. Of these 6 intervention studies, all studies had a cognitive component, with 3 studies utilizing cognitive/behavioral intervention strategies. Based on this systematic review, interventions utilizing a cognitive or cognitive/behavioral component appear to show the most promise for future study. © 2010 The Authors. Hemodialysis International © 2010 International Society for Hemodialysis.

Inclusion of policies on ethical standards in animal experiments in biomedical science journals.

PubMed

Rands, Sean A

2011-11-01

Most published biomedical research involving animal models is evaluated carefully to ensure that appropriate ethical standards are met. In the current study, 500 journals randomly selected from MedLine were assessed for whether they presented animal research. Of the 138 journals that did, the instructions to authors of 85 (61.6%) included a requirement for author assurance of adherence to ethical standards during experiments involving animals. In comparison to a wider range of biologic journals, biomedical science journals were more likely to have some sort of ethical policy concerning the reporting and presentation of animal experiments.

Efficacy of 15% azelaic acid in psoriasis vulgaris: a randomized, controlled clinical trial.

PubMed

Iraji, Fariba; Faghihi, Gita; Siadat, Amir Hossein; Enshaieh, Shahla; Shahmoradi, Zabihlah; Joia, Abolfazl; Soleimani, Fatemeh

2010-08-01

Psoriasis is a common disorder affecting 1-3 percent of the general global population. Many therapeutic modalities have been suggested for treatment of this condition, but still there is no definite treatment for this disease. The objective in this study was to evaluate the efficacy of topical azelaic acid gel versus placebo in the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris. This study was a single-blinded randomized clinical trial. Overall, 31 patients were selected and the left or right sided lesions of the patients were randomized to receive either 15% azelaic acid or gel twice daily for a one-month period. Two symmetrical lesions with almost similar severity in every patient were selected and considered as index lesions to evaluate lesion response to treatment. The severity of erythema, scaling, hyperkeratosis and pruritus of the index lesions were scored in range of 0-3 for each lesion by the investigator at the baseline and follow up visits. The percent of involvement of each side of body was also measured using rule of nines. The collected data were analyzed using statistical tests including Mann-Whitney and ANOVA tests. There was no significant difference between the two groups before treatment (P > 0.05). After treatment, however, except pruritus, there was significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference regarding total psoriasis score between the two groups before treatment (P > 0.05). After treatment, however, there was significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.05) in favor of more efficacy for azelaic acid. There was no significant difference regarding percent of body involvement between the two groups before treatment (P > 0.05). After treatment, however, there was a significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.05) in favor of more efficacy on the part of azelaic acid gel. The results of our study showed that 15% azelaic acid gel was effective in reduction of purities, scaling and hyperkeratosis of psoriasis plaques. This treatment was also effective in reduction of skin involvement with psoriasis. It is recommended that a longer study be performed that can better evaluate the efficacy of this treatment against plaque-type psoriasis.

Empowerment of personal injury victims through the internet: design of a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Elbers, Nieke A; Akkermans, Arno J; Cuijpers, Pim; Bruinvels, David J

2011-02-02

Research has shown that current claims settlement process can have a negative impact on psychological and physical recovery of personal injury (PI) victims. One of the explanations for the negative impact on health is that the claims settlement process is a stressful experience and victims suffer from renewed victimization caused by the claims settlement process. PI victims can experience a lack of information, lack of involvement, lack of 'voice', and poor communication. We present the first study that aims to empower PI victims with respect to the negative impact of the claims settlement process by means of an internet intervention. The study is a two armed, randomized controlled trial (RCT), in which 170 PI victims are randomized to either the intervention or control group. The intervention group will get access to a website providing 1) an information module, so participants learn what is happening and what to expect during the claims settlement process, and 2) an e-coach module, so participants learn to cope with problems they experience during the claims settlement process. The control group will get access to a website with hyperlinks to commonly available information only. Participants will be recruited via a PI claims settlement office. Participants are included if they have been involved in a traffic accident which happened less than two years ago, and are at least 18 years old.The main study parameter is the increase of empowerment within the intervention group compared to the control group. Empowerment will be measured by the mastery scale and a self-efficacy scale. The secondary outcomes are perceived justice, burden, well being, work ability, knowledge, amount of damages, and lawyer-client communication. Data are collected at baseline (T0 measurement before randomization), at three months, six months, and twelve months after baseline. Analyses will be conducted according to the intention-to-treat principle. This study evaluates the effectiveness of an internet intervention aimed at empowerment of PI victims. The results will give more insight into the impact of compensation proceedings on health over time, and they can have important consequences for legal claims settlement. Strengths and limitations of this study are discussed. Netherlands Trial Register NTR2360.

Efficacy of pre-exercise low-level laser therapy on isokinetic muscle performance in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Type 2 diabetes, also known non-insulin-dependent diabetes, is the most prevalent type of the disease and involves defects in the secretion and action of insulin. The aim of the proposed study is to evaluate the efficacy of pre-exercise low-level laser therapy (LLLT) on muscle performance of the quadriceps femoris in individuals with type 2 diabetes. Methods/Design A double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial will be carried out in two treatment phases. In the first phase, quadriceps muscle performance will be evaluated using an isokinetic dynamometer and the levels of creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase (biochemical markers of muscle damage) will be determined. The participants will then be allocated to four LLLT groups through a randomization process using opaque envelopes: Group A (4 Joules), Group B (6 Joules), Group C (8 Joules) and Group D (0 Joules; placebo). Following the administration of LLLT, the participants will be submitted to an isokinetic eccentric muscle fatigue protocol involving the quadriceps muscle bilaterally. Muscle performance and biochemical markers of muscle damage will be evaluated again immediately after as well as 24 and 48 hours after the experimental protocol. One week after the last evaluation the second phase will begin, during which Groups A, B and C will receive the LLLT protocol that achieved the best muscle performance in phase 1 for a period of 4 weeks. At the end of this period, muscle performance will be evaluated again. The protocol for this study is registered with the World Health Organization under Universal Trial Number U1111-1146-7109. Discussion The purpose of this randomized clinical trial is to evaluate the efficacy of pre-exercise LLLT on the performance of the quadriceps muscle (peak torque, total muscle work, maximum power and fatigue index – normalized by body mass) in individuals with DM-2. The study will support the practice of evidence-based to the use of LLLT in improving muscle performance in Individuals with DM-2. Data will be published after the study is completed. PMID:24716713

Efficacy of pre-exercise low-level laser therapy on isokinetic muscle performance in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Gomes, Cid André Fidelis de Paula; Leal-Junior, Ernesto Cesar Pinto; Biasotto-Gonzalez, Daniela Aparecida; El-Hage, Yasmin; Politti, Fabiano; Gonzalez, Tabajara de Oliveira; Dibai-Filho, Almir Vieira; de Oliveira, Adriano Rodrigues; Frigero, Marcelo; Antonialli, Fernanda Colella; Vanin, Adriane Aver; de Tarso Camillo de Carvalho, Paulo

2014-04-09

Type 2 diabetes, also known non-insulin-dependent diabetes, is the most prevalent type of the disease and involves defects in the secretion and action of insulin. The aim of the proposed study is to evaluate the efficacy of pre-exercise low-level laser therapy (LLLT) on muscle performance of the quadriceps femoris in individuals with type 2 diabetes. A double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial will be carried out in two treatment phases. In the first phase, quadriceps muscle performance will be evaluated using an isokinetic dynamometer and the levels of creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase (biochemical markers of muscle damage) will be determined. The participants will then be allocated to four LLLT groups through a randomization process using opaque envelopes: Group A (4 Joules), Group B (6 Joules), Group C (8 Joules) and Group D (0 Joules; placebo). Following the administration of LLLT, the participants will be submitted to an isokinetic eccentric muscle fatigue protocol involving the quadriceps muscle bilaterally. Muscle performance and biochemical markers of muscle damage will be evaluated again immediately after as well as 24 and 48 hours after the experimental protocol. One week after the last evaluation the second phase will begin, during which Groups A, B and C will receive the LLLT protocol that achieved the best muscle performance in phase 1 for a period of 4 weeks. At the end of this period, muscle performance will be evaluated again. The protocol for this study is registered with the World Health Organization under Universal Trial Number U1111-1146-7109. The purpose of this randomized clinical trial is to evaluate the efficacy of pre-exercise LLLT on the performance of the quadriceps muscle (peak torque, total muscle work, maximum power and fatigue index - normalized by body mass) in individuals with DM-2. The study will support the practice of evidence-based to the use of LLLT in improving muscle performance in Individuals with DM-2. Data will be published after the study is completed.

The impact of decision aids to enhance shared decision making for diabetes (the DAD study): protocol of a cluster randomized trial.

PubMed

LeBlanc, Annie; Ruud, Kari L; Branda, Megan E; Tiedje, Kristina; Boehmer, Kasey R; Pencille, Laurie J; Van Houten, Holly; Matthews, Marc; Shah, Nilay D; May, Carl R; Yawn, Barbara P; Montori, Victor M

2012-05-28

Shared decision making contributes to high quality healthcare by promoting a patient-centered approach. Patient involvement in selecting the components of a diabetes medication program that best match the patient's values and preferences may also enhance medication adherence and improve outcomes. Decision aids are tools designed to involve patients in shared decision making, but their adoption in practice has been limited. In this study, we propose to obtain a preliminary estimate of the impact of patient decision aids vs. usual care on measures of patient involvement in decision making, diabetes care processes, medication adherence, glycemic and cardiovascular risk factor control, and resource utilization. In addition, we propose to identify, describe, and explain factors that promote or inhibit the routine embedding of decision aids in practice. We will be conducting a mixed-methods study comprised of a cluster-randomized, practical, multicentered trial enrolling clinicians and their patients (n = 240) with type 2 diabetes from rural and suburban primary care practices (n = 8), with an embedded qualitative study to examine factors that influence the incorporation of decision aids into routine practice. The intervention will consist of the use of a decision aid (Statin Choice and Aspirin Choice, or Diabetes Medication Choice) during the clinical encounter. The qualitative study will include analysis of video recordings of clinical encounters and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with participating patients, clinicians, and clinic support staff, in both trial arms. Upon completion of this trial, we will have new knowledge about the effectiveness of diabetes decision aids in these practices. We will also better understand the factors that promote or inhibit the successful implementation and normalization of medication choice decision aids in the care of chronic patients in primary care practices. NCT00388050.

Escitalopram in the Treatment of Adolescent Depression: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Multisite Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emslie, Graham J.; Ventura, Daniel; Korotzer, Andrew; Tourkodimitris, Stavros

2009-01-01

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that involves 312 male and female patients aged 12-17 reveal the effectiveness of escitalopram in the treatment of depressed adolescents. Eighty-three percent of the participants or 259 participants completed the 8 weeks therapy period.

Consequences of "Minimal" Group Affiliations in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunham, Yarrow; Baron, Andrew Scott; Carey, Susan

2011-01-01

Three experiments (total N = 140) tested the hypothesis that 5-year-old children's membership in randomly assigned "minimal" groups would be sufficient to induce intergroup bias. Children were randomly assigned to groups and engaged in tasks involving judgments of unfamiliar in-group or out-group children. Despite an absence of information…

Dissonance and Healthy Weight Eating Disorder Prevention Programs: A Randomized Efficacy Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stice, Eric; Shaw, Heather; Burton, Emily; Wade, Emily

2006-01-01

In this trial, adolescent girls with body dissatisfaction (N = 481, M age = 17 years) were randomized to an eating disorder prevention program involving dissonance-inducing activities that reduce thin-ideal internalization, a prevention program promoting healthy weight management, an expressive writing control condition, or an assessment-only…

Frequency of Examinations and Student Achievement in a Randomized Experiment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Paola, Maria; Scoppa, Vincenzo

2011-01-01

We carry out a randomized experiment involving undergraduate students enrolled at an Italian University attending two introductory economics classes to evaluate the impact on achievement of examination frequency and interim feedback provision. Students in the treated group were allowed to undertake an intermediate exam and were informed about the…

A randomized controlled trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of cardiac contractility modulation in patients with systolic heart failure: rationale, design, and baseline patient characteristics.

PubMed

Abraham, William T; Burkhoff, Daniel; Nademanee, Koonlawee; Carson, Peter; Bourge, Robert; Ellenbogen, Kenneth A; Parides, Michael; Kadish, Alan

2008-10-01

Cardiac contractility modulation (CCM) signals are nonexcitatory electrical signals delivered during the cardiac absolute refractory period that enhance the strength of cardiac muscular contraction. Prior research in experimental and human heart failure has shown that CCM signals normalize phosphorylation of key proteins and expression of genes coding for proteins involved in regulation of calcium cycling and contraction. The results of prior clinical studies of CCM have supported its safety and efficacy. A large-scale clinical study, the FIX-HF-5 study, is currently underway to test the safety and efficacy of this treatment. In this article, we provide an overview of the system used to deliver CCM signals, the implant procedure, and the details and rationale of the FIX-HF-5 study design. Baseline characteristics for patients randomized in this trial are also presented.

Directionality of Change in Youth Anxiety Treatment Involving Parents: An Initial Examination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silverman, Wendy K.; Kurtines, William M.; Jaccard, James; Pina, Armando A.

2009-01-01

This randomized clinical trial compared cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with minimal parent involvement to CBT with active parent involvement in a sample of 119 youths (7-16 years old; 33.6% Caucasian, 61.3% Latino) with anxiety disorders. The dynamics of change between youth anxiety and parent variables (positive-negative behaviors toward the…

Rationale for the Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network Treatment Protocol for Center-involved Diabetic Macular Edema

PubMed Central

Aiello, Lloyd Paul; Beck, Roy W; Bressler, Neil M.; Browning, David J.; Chalam, KV; Davis, Matthew; Ferris, Frederick L; Glassman, Adam; Maturi, Raj; Stockdale, Cynthia R.; Topping, Trexler

2011-01-01

Objective Describe the underlying principles used to develop a web-based algorithm that incorporated intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) treatment for diabetic macular edema (DME) in a Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network (DRCR.net) randomized clinical trial. Design Discussion of treatment protocol for DME. Participants Subjects with vision loss from DME involving the center of the macula. Methods The DRCR.net created an algorithm incorporating anti-VEGF injections in a comparative effectiveness randomized clinical trial evaluating intravitreal ranibizumab with prompt or deferred (≥24 weeks) focal/grid laser in eyes with vision loss from center-involved DME. Results confirmed that intravitreal ranibizumab with prompt or deferred laser provides superior visual acuity outcomes, compared with prompt laser alone through at least 2 years. Duplication of this algorithm may not be practical for clinical practice. In order to share their opinion on how ophthalmologists might emulate the study protocol, participating DRCR.net investigators developed guidelines based on the algorithm's underlying rationale. Main Outcome Measures Clinical guidelines based on a DRCR.net protocol. Results The treatment protocol required real time feedback from a web-based data entry system for intravitreal injections, focal/grid laser, and follow-up intervals. Guidance from this system indicated whether treatment was required or given at investigator discretion and when follow-up should be scheduled. Clinical treatment guidelines, based on the underlying clinical rationale of the DRCR.net protocol, include repeating treatment monthly as long as there is improvement in edema compared with the previous month, or until the retina is no longer thickened. If thickening recurs or worsens after discontinuing treatment, treatment is resumed. Conclusions Duplication of the approach used in the DRCR.net randomized clinical trial to treat DME involving the center of the macula with intravitreal ranibizumab may not be practical in clinical practice, but likely can be emulated based on an understanding of the underlying rationale for the study protocol. Inherent differences between a web-based treatment algorithm and a clinical approach may lead to differences in outcomes that are impossible to predict. The closer the clinical approach is to the algorithm used in the study, the more likely the outcomes will be similar to those published. PMID:22136692

Rationale for the diabetic retinopathy clinical research network treatment protocol for center-involved diabetic macular edema.

PubMed

Aiello, Lloyd Paul; Beck, Roy W; Bressler, Neil M; Browning, David J; Chalam, K V; Davis, Matthew; Ferris, Frederick L; Glassman, Adam R; Maturi, Raj K; Stockdale, Cynthia R; Topping, Trexler M

2011-12-01

To describe the underlying principles used to develop a web-based algorithm that incorporated intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) treatment for diabetic macular edema (DME) in a Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network (DRCR.net) randomized clinical trial. Discussion of treatment protocol for DME. Subjects with vision loss resulting from DME involving the center of the macula. The DRCR.net created an algorithm incorporating anti-VEGF injections in a comparative effectiveness randomized clinical trial evaluating intravitreal ranibizumab with prompt or deferred (≥24 weeks) focal/grid laser treatment in eyes with vision loss resulting from center-involved DME. Results confirmed that intravitreal ranibizumab with prompt or deferred laser provides superior visual acuity outcomes compared with prompt laser alone through at least 2 years. Duplication of this algorithm may not be practical for clinical practice. To share their opinion on how ophthalmologists might emulate the study protocol, participating DRCR.net investigators developed guidelines based on the algorithm's underlying rationale. Clinical guidelines based on a DRCR.net protocol. The treatment protocol required real-time feedback from a web-based data entry system for intravitreal injections, focal/grid laser treatment, and follow-up intervals. Guidance from this system indicated whether treatment was required or given at investigator discretion and when follow-up should be scheduled. Clinical treatment guidelines, based on the underlying clinical rationale of the DRCR.net protocol, include repeating treatment monthly as long as there is improvement in edema compared with the previous month or until the retina is no longer thickened. If thickening recurs or worsens after discontinuing treatment, treatment is resumed. Duplication of the approach used in the DRCR.net randomized clinical trial to treat DME involving the center of the macula with intravitreal ranibizumab may not be practical in clinical practice, but likely can be emulated based on an understanding of the underlying rationale for the study protocol. Inherent differences between a web-based treatment algorithm and a clinical approach may lead to differences in outcomes that are impossible to predict. The closer the clinical approach is to the algorithm used in the study, the more likely the outcomes will be similar to those published. Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references. Copyright © 2011 American Academy of Ophthalmology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Pathways Explaining the Reduction of Adult Criminal Behaviour by a Randomized Preventive Intervention for Disruptive Kindergarten Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vitaro, Frank; Barker, Edward D.; Brendgen, Mara; Tremblay, Richard E.

2012-01-01

Objective: This study aimed to identify the pathways through which a preventive intervention targeting young low-SES disruptive boys could result in lower crime involvement during adulthood. Method: The preventive intervention was implemented when the children were between 7 and 9 years and included three components (i.e. social skills, parental…

Indirect Goal Priming Is More Powerful than Explicit Instruction in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kesek, Amanda; Cunningham, William A.; Packer, Dominic J.; Zelazo, Philip David

2011-01-01

This study examined the relative efficacy of explicit instruction and indirect priming on young children's behavior in a task that required a series of choices between a small immediate reward and a larger delayed reward. One hundred and six 4-year-old children were randomly assigned to one of four conditions involving one of two goals (maximize…

A Pilot Evaluation of Small Group Challenging Horizons Program (CHP): A Randomized Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Langberg, Joshua M.; Smith, Bradley H.; Bogle, Kristin E.; Schmidt, Jonathan D.; Cole, Wesley R.; Pender, Carolyn A. S.

2007-01-01

This study examined the efficacy of an after-school program, the Challenging Horizons Program (CHP), that met four days a week and focused on improving organization, academic skills, and classroom behavior. The CHP was compared with a community control that included involvement in a district-run after-school program that met one to three days a…

Effects of Training Method and Gender on Learning 2D/3D Geometry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khairulanuar, Samsudin; Nazre, Abd Rashid; Jamilah, H.; Sairabanu, Omar Khan; Norasikin, Fabil

2010-01-01

This article reports the findings of an experimental study involving 36 primary school students (16 girls, 20 boys, Mean age = 9.5 years, age range: 8-10 years) in geometrical understanding of 2D and 3D objects. Students were assigned into two experimental groups and one control group based on a stratified random sampling procedure. The first…

Increasing the Precision of Estimates in Follow-Up Surveys: A Case Study. AIR 1983 Annual Forum Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Sheldon B.; Nichols, James O.

Survey data concerning teacher education program graduates were used to demonstrate the advantages of a stratified random sampling approach, with followup, relative to a one-shot mailing to an entire population. Sampling issues involved in such an approach are addressed, particularly with regard to quantifying the effects of nonresponse on the…

A Test of a Method of Increasing Patient Question Asking in Physician-Patient Interactions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feeser, Teresa; Thompson, Teresa L.

A study examined the effectiveness of a method designed to increase active patient involvement in the health care context. Subjects, 38 patients visiting a three-physician dermatology practice one randomly selected morning, were asked to fill out a survey at the end of their visit. Half of the subjects were asked to read a "communication…

The Effects of Arts-Integrated Instruction on Students' Memory for Science Content: Results from a Randomized Control Trial Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardiman, Mariale; JohnBull, Ranjini Mahinda; Carran, Deborah

2017-01-01

Strong correlational evidence suggests that involvement in the arts improves students' academic outcomes and memory of learning events (e.g., Peppler et al., 2014; Robinson, 2013; Scripps & Paradis, 2014). It is unclear, however, whether the improved outcomes are the result of general exposure to the arts, arts integrated into content…

The Effects of Face Expertise Training on the Behavioral Performance and Brain Activity of Adults with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faja, Susan; Webb, Sara Jane; Jones, Emily; Merkle, Kristen; Kamara, Dana; Bavaro, Joshua; Aylward, Elizabeth; Dawson, Geraldine

2012-01-01

The effect of expertise training with faces was studied in adults with ASD who showed initial impairment in face recognition. Participants were randomly assigned to a computerized training program involving either faces or houses. Pre- and post-testing included standardized and experimental measures of behavior and event-related brain potentials…

Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions of Effective Inquiry Instruction: Are Effective Instruction and Effective Inquiry Instruction Essentially the Same?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aulls, Mark W.; Ibrahim, Ahmed

2012-01-01

This multiple case study examined pre-service teachers perceptions of effective post-secondary instruction. Pre-service teachers were asked to write essays describing an effective teacher of their choice. Twenty-one essays were randomly selected. Data analysis involved open coding of each essay, content analysis of each essay using Anderson and…

Parent Involvement and Child Development: First-Year Results from a School-Randomized Trial in Latino Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gamoran, Adam; Turley, Ruth Lopez; Turner, Alyn; Fish, Rachel

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study is to test the effects on children's social, behavioral, and academic outcomes of an intervention, Families and Schools Together (FAST), when implemented in two novel ways: (a) in schools with predominantly Latino children and (b) on an entire grade-level cohort instead of with individual families targeted for the…

Replicating the Effects of a Teacher-Scaffolded Voluntary Summer Reading Program: The Role of Poverty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Thomas G.; Kim, James S.; Kingston, Helen Chen; Foster, Lisa

2014-01-01

A randomized trial involving 19 elementary schools (K-5) was conducted to replicate and extend two previous experimental studies of the effects of a voluntary summer reading program that provided (a) books matched to students' reading levels and interests and (b) teacher scaffolding in the form of end-of-year comprehension lessons. Matched…

Outcome and Process Evaluation of a Norwegian School-Randomized Fruit and Vegetable Intervention: Fruits and Vegetables Make the Marks (FVMM)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bere, E.; Veierod, M. B.; Bjelland, M.; Klepp, K.-I.

2006-01-01

This study reports the effect of the Fruits and Vegetables Make the Marks intervention, a school-based fruit and vegetable intervention consisting of a home economics classroom component and parental involvement and encouraged participation in the Norwegian School Fruit Programme, all delivered during the school year of 2001-02. Nine randomly…

Alcohol violations and aviation accidents: findings from the U.S. mandatory alcohol testing program.

PubMed

Li, Guohua; Baker, Susan P; Qiang, Yandong; Rebok, George W; McCarthy, Melissa L

2007-05-01

Mandatory alcohol testing has been implemented in the U.S. aviation industry since 1995. This study documents the prevalence of alcohol violations and the association between alcohol violations and aviation accidents among aviation employees with safety-sensitive functions. Data from the random alcohol testing and post-accident alcohol testing programs reported by major airlines to the Federal Aviation Administration for the years 1995 through 2002 were analyzed. A violation was defined as an alcohol level of > or = 0.04% or a refusal to submit to testing. Relative and attributable risks of accident involvement associated with alcohol violations were estimated using the case-control method. During the study period, random alcohol testing yielded a total of 440 violations, with an overall prevalence rate of 0.09% and a prevalence rate of 0.03% for flight crews. Alcohol violations were associated with an increased yet not statistically significant risk of accident involvement (odds ratio 2.56, 95% confidence interval 0.81-7.08) and were attributed to 0.13% of aviation accidents. Alcohol violations among U.S. major airline employees with safety-sensitive functions are rare and play a negligible role in aviation accidents.

Alcohol Violations and Aviation Accidents: Findings from the U.S. Mandatory Alcohol Testing Program

PubMed Central

Li, Guohua; Baker, Susan P.; Qiang, Yandong; Rebok, George W.; McCarthy, Melissa L.

2007-01-01

Introduction: Mandatory alcohol testing has been implemented in the U.S. aviation industry since 1995. This study documents the prevalence of alcohol violations and the association between alcohol violations and aviation accidents among aviation employees with safety-sensitive functions. Methods: Data from the random alcohol testing and post-accident alcohol testing programs reported by major airlines to the Federal Aviation Administration for the years 1995 through 2002 were analyzed. A violation was defined as an alcohol level of ≥ 0.04% or a refusal to submit to testing. Relative and attributable risks of accident involvement associated with alcohol violations were estimated using the case-control method. Results: During the study period, random alcohol testing yielded a total of 440 violations, with an overall prevalence rate of 0.09% and a prevalence rate of 0.03% for flight crews. Alcohol violations were associated with an increased yet not statistically significant risk of accident involvement (odds ratio 2.56, 95% confidence interval 0.81–7.08) and were attributed to 0.13% of aviation accidents. Discussion: Alcohol violations among U.S. major airline employees with safety-sensitive functions are rare and play a negligible role in aviation accidents. PMID:17539446

Brief mindfulness-based therapy for chronic tension-type headache: a randomized controlled pilot study.

PubMed

Cathcart, Stuart; Galatis, Nicola; Immink, Maarten; Proeve, Michael; Petkov, John

2014-01-01

Mindfulness-based therapy (MBT) has been demonstrated to be effective for reducing chronic pain symptoms; however, the use of MBT for Chronic Tension-Type Headache (CTH) exclusively has to date not been examined. Typically, MBT for chronic pain has involved an 8-week program based on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. Recent research suggests briefer mindfulness-based treatments may be effective for chronic pain. To conduct a pilot study into the efficacy of brief MBT for CTH. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of a brief (6-session, 3-week) MBT for CTH. Results indicated a significant decrease in headache frequency and an increase in the mindfulness facet of Observe in the treatment but not wait-list control group. Brief MBT may be an effective intervention for CTH.

A randomized controlled trial of group Stepping Stones Triple P: a mixed-disability trial.

PubMed

Roux, Gemma; Sofronoff, Kate; Sanders, Matthew

2013-09-01

Stepping Stones Triple P (SSTP) is a parenting program designed for families of a child with a disability. The current study involved a randomized controlled trial of Group Stepping Stones Triple P (GSSTP) for a mixed-disability group. Participants were 52 families of children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, Down syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, or an intellectual disability. The results demonstrated significant improvements in parent-reported child behavior, parenting styles, parental satisfaction, and conflict about parenting. Results among participants were similar despite children's differing impairments. The intervention effect was maintained at 6-month follow-up. The results indicate that GSSTP is a promising intervention for a mixed-disability group. Limitations of the study, along with areas for future research, are also discussed. © FPI, Inc.

Recourse-based facility-location problems in hybrid uncertain environment.

PubMed

Wang, Shuming; Watada, Junzo; Pedrycz, Witold

2010-08-01

The objective of this paper is to study facility-location problems in the presence of a hybrid uncertain environment involving both randomness and fuzziness. A two-stage fuzzy-random facility-location model with recourse (FR-FLMR) is developed in which both the demands and costs are assumed to be fuzzy-random variables. The bounds of the optimal objective value of the two-stage FR-FLMR are derived. As, in general, the fuzzy-random parameters of the FR-FLMR can be regarded as continuous fuzzy-random variables with an infinite number of realizations, the computation of the recourse requires solving infinite second-stage programming problems. Owing to this requirement, the recourse function cannot be determined analytically, and, hence, the model cannot benefit from the use of techniques of classical mathematical programming. In order to solve the location problems of this nature, we first develop a technique of fuzzy-random simulation to compute the recourse function. The convergence of such simulation scenarios is discussed. In the sequel, we propose a hybrid mutation-based binary ant-colony optimization (MBACO) approach to the two-stage FR-FLMR, which comprises the fuzzy-random simulation and the simplex algorithm. A numerical experiment illustrates the application of the hybrid MBACO algorithm. The comparison shows that the hybrid MBACO finds better solutions than the one using other discrete metaheuristic algorithms, such as binary particle-swarm optimization, genetic algorithm, and tabu search.

A randomized controlled trial of the effects of hypnosis with 3-D virtual reality animation on tiredness, mood, and salivary cortisol.

PubMed

Thompson, Trevor; Steffert, Tony; Steed, Anthony; Gruzelier, John

2011-01-01

Case studies suggest hypnosis with a virtual reality (VR) component may be an effective intervention; although few follow-up randomized, controlled trials have been performed comparing such interventions with standard hypnotic treatments. Thirty-five healthy participants were randomized to self-hypnosis with VR imagery, standard self-hypnosis, or relaxation interventions. Changes in sleep, cortisol levels, and mood were examined. Self-hypnosis involved 10- to 20-min. sessions visualizing a healthy immune scenario. Trait absorption was also recorded as a possible moderator. Moderated regression indicated that both hypnosis interventions produced significantly lower tiredness ratings than relaxation when trait absorption was high. When trait absorption was low, VR resulted in significantly higher engagement ratings, although this did not translate to demonstrable improvement in outcome. Results suggest that VR imagery may increase engagement relative to traditional methods, but further investigation into its potential to enhance therapeutic efficacy is required.

Logistic Regression with Multiple Random Effects: A Simulation Study of Estimation Methods and Statistical Packages.

PubMed

Kim, Yoonsang; Choi, Young-Ku; Emery, Sherry

2013-08-01

Several statistical packages are capable of estimating generalized linear mixed models and these packages provide one or more of three estimation methods: penalized quasi-likelihood, Laplace, and Gauss-Hermite. Many studies have investigated these methods' performance for the mixed-effects logistic regression model. However, the authors focused on models with one or two random effects and assumed a simple covariance structure between them, which may not be realistic. When there are multiple correlated random effects in a model, the computation becomes intensive, and often an algorithm fails to converge. Moreover, in our analysis of smoking status and exposure to anti-tobacco advertisements, we have observed that when a model included multiple random effects, parameter estimates varied considerably from one statistical package to another even when using the same estimation method. This article presents a comprehensive review of the advantages and disadvantages of each estimation method. In addition, we compare the performances of the three methods across statistical packages via simulation, which involves two- and three-level logistic regression models with at least three correlated random effects. We apply our findings to a real dataset. Our results suggest that two packages-SAS GLIMMIX Laplace and SuperMix Gaussian quadrature-perform well in terms of accuracy, precision, convergence rates, and computing speed. We also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the two packages in regard to sample sizes.

Logistic Regression with Multiple Random Effects: A Simulation Study of Estimation Methods and Statistical Packages

PubMed Central

Kim, Yoonsang; Emery, Sherry

2013-01-01

Several statistical packages are capable of estimating generalized linear mixed models and these packages provide one or more of three estimation methods: penalized quasi-likelihood, Laplace, and Gauss-Hermite. Many studies have investigated these methods’ performance for the mixed-effects logistic regression model. However, the authors focused on models with one or two random effects and assumed a simple covariance structure between them, which may not be realistic. When there are multiple correlated random effects in a model, the computation becomes intensive, and often an algorithm fails to converge. Moreover, in our analysis of smoking status and exposure to anti-tobacco advertisements, we have observed that when a model included multiple random effects, parameter estimates varied considerably from one statistical package to another even when using the same estimation method. This article presents a comprehensive review of the advantages and disadvantages of each estimation method. In addition, we compare the performances of the three methods across statistical packages via simulation, which involves two- and three-level logistic regression models with at least three correlated random effects. We apply our findings to a real dataset. Our results suggest that two packages—SAS GLIMMIX Laplace and SuperMix Gaussian quadrature—perform well in terms of accuracy, precision, convergence rates, and computing speed. We also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the two packages in regard to sample sizes. PMID:24288415

Effect of the Raga Ananda Bhairavi in Post Operative Pain Relief Management.

PubMed

Kumar, Thirumurthy Sathish; Muthuraman, M; Krishnakumar, R

2014-10-01

Music is considered as an universal language and has influences the human existence at various levels.In recent years music therapy has evolved as a challenge of research with a clinical approach involving science and art. Music therapy has been used for various therapeutic reasons like Alzheimer's disease,Hypertension and mental disorders to name a few. We conducted a study to establish the effect of the classical ragam Anandhabhairavi on post operative pain relief. A randomized controlled study involving 60 patients who were to undergo surgery was conducted at PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research,Coimbatore.30 patients selected at random and were exposed to the ragam Anandhabhairavi which was played in their room pre operatively (from the day they got admitted for surgery) and 3 days post operatively. The control group did not listen to the music during their stay in the hospital. An observation chart was attached in which the requirement of analgesics by the patient was recorded. On completion of the study and on analysis,the ragam Anandhabhairavi had a significant effect in post operative pain management which was evidenced by the reduction in analgesic requirement by 50 % in those who listened to the ragam.A significant p value of <0.001 was obtained.

Coherent random lasing controlled by Brownian motion of the active scatterer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Shuofeng; Yin, Leicheng; Zhang, ZhenZhen; Xia, Jiangying; Xie, Kang; Zou, Gang; Hu, Zhijia; Zhang, Qijin

2018-05-01

The stability of the scattering loop is fundamental for coherent random lasing in a dynamic scattering system. In this work, fluorescence of DPP (N, N-di [3-(isobutyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes) propyl] perylene diimide) is scattered to produce RL and we realize the transition from incoherent RL to coherent RL by controlling the Brownian motion of the scatterers (dimer aggregates of DPP) and the stability of scattering loop. To produce coherent random lasers, the loop needs to maintain a stable state within the loop-stable time, which can be determined through controlled Brownian motion of scatterers in the scattering system. The result shows that the loop-stable time is within 5.83 × 10‑5 s to 1.61 × 10‑4 s based on the transition from coherent to incoherent random lasing. The time range could be tuned by finely controlling the viscosity of the solution. This work not only develops a method to predict the loop-stable time, but also develops the study between Brownian motion and random lasers, which opens the road to a variety of novel interdisciplinary investigations involving modern statistical mechanics and disordered photonics.

A random walk model for evaluating clinical trials involving serial observations.

PubMed

Hopper, J L; Young, G P

1988-05-01

For clinical trials where the variable of interest is ordered and categorical (for example, disease severity, symptom scale), and where measurements are taken at intervals, it might be possible to achieve a greater discrimination between the efficacy of treatments by modelling each patient's progress as a stochastic process. The random walk is a simple, easily interpreted model that can be fitted by maximum likelihood using a maximization routine with inference based on standard likelihood theory. In general the model can allow for randomly censored data, incorporates measured prognostic factors, and inference is conditional on the (possibly non-random) allocation of patients. Tests of fit and of model assumptions are proposed, and application to two therapeutic trials of gastroenterological disorders are presented. The model gave measures of the rate of, and variability in, improvement for patients under different treatments. A small simulation study suggested that the model is more powerful than considering the difference between initial and final scores, even when applied to data generated by a mechanism other than the random walk model assumed in the analysis. It thus provides a useful additional statistical method for evaluating clinical trials.

Random motor generation in a finger tapping task: influence of spatial contingency and of cortical and subcortical hemispheric brain lesions

PubMed Central

Annoni, J.; Pegna, A.

1997-01-01

OBJECTIVE—To test the hypothesis that, during random motor generation, the spatial contingencies inherent to the task would induce additional preferences in normal subjects, shifting their performances farther from randomness. By contrast, perceptual or executive dysfunction could alter these task related biases in patients with brain damage.
METHODS—Two groups of patients, with right and left focal brain lesions, as well as 25 right handed subjects matched for age and handedness were asked to execute a random choice motor task—namely, to generate a random series of 180 button presses from a set of 10 keys placed vertically in front of them.
RESULTS—In the control group, as in the left brain lesion group, motor generation was subject to deviations from theoretical expected randomness, similar to those when numbers are generated mentally, as immediate repetitions (successive presses on the same key) are avoided. However, the distribution of button presses was also contingent on the topographic disposition of the keys: the central keys were chosen more often than those placed at extreme positions. Small distances were favoured, particularly with the left hand. These patterns were influenced by implicit strategies and task related contingencies.
 By contrast, right brain lesion patients with frontal involvement tended to show a more square distribution of key presses—that is, the number of key presses tended to be more equally distributed. The strategies were also altered by brain lesions: the number of immediate repetitions was more frequent when the lesion involved the right frontal areas yielding a random generation nearer to expected theoretical randomness. The frequency of adjacent key presses was increased by right anterior and left posterior cortical as well as by right subcortical lesions, but decreased by left subcortical lesions.
CONCLUSIONS—Depending on the side of the lesion and the degree of cortical-subcortical involvement, the deficits take on a different aspect and direct repetions and adjacent key presses have different patterns of alterations. Motor random generation is therefore a complex task which seems to necessitate the participation of numerous cerebral structures, among which those situated in the right frontal, left posterior, and subcortical regions have a predominant role.

 PMID:9408109

The effect of role assignment in high fidelity patient simulation on nursing students: An experimental research study.

PubMed

Weiler, Dustin T; Gibson, Andrea L; Saleem, Jason J

2018-04-01

Previous studies have evaluated the effectiveness of high fidelity patient simulators (HFPS) on nursing training; however, a gap exists on the effects of role assignment on critical thinking, self-efficacy, and situation awareness skills in team-based simulation scenarios. This study aims to determine if role assignment and the involvement level related to the roles yields significant effects and differences in critical thinking, situation awareness and self-efficacy scores in team-based high-fidelity simulation scenarios. A single factorial design with five levels and random assignment was utilized. A public university-sponsored simulation center in the United States of America. A convenience sample of 69 junior-level baccalaureate nursing students was recruited for participation. Participants were randomly assigned one of five possible roles and completed pre-simulation critical thinking and self-efficacy assessments prior to the simulation beginning. Playing within their assigned roles, participants experienced post-partum hemorrhaging scenario using an HFPS. After completing the simulation, participants completed a situation awareness assessment and a post-simulation critical thinking and self-efficacy assessment. Role assignment was found to have a statistically significant effect on critical thinking skills and a statistically significant difference in various areas of self-efficacy was also noted. However, no statistical significance in situation awareness abilities was found. Results support the notion that certain roles required the participant to be more involved with the simulation scenario, which may have yielded higher critical thinking and self-efficacy scores than roles that required a lesser level of involvement. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Salmonella enteritidis outbreak in Thailand: study by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis.

PubMed

Kantama, L; Jayanetra, P

1996-03-01

An outbreak of Salmonella enteritidis in Thailand was reported in 1990. The majority of isolates were found in chicken and human throughout the country. The continuation of a high rate of spreading which is presently continuing prompted us to investigate possible clonal involvement in the outbreak. One hundred and twenty five isolates of S. enteritidis which were isolated between 1990-1993 were clonally identified by the technique of Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. Eight profiles were found indicating the presence of 8 clones, designated no. 1-8. The predominant clone was profile no. 4 which was encountered in 93.6% of tested isolates while the rest of the profile comprised only 0.8-1.6%. The predominant clone was distributed mainly in isolates from chickens and humans which is suggestive that the profile no. 4 is the major clone involved in this outbreak and that chickens were the source of S. enteritidis infection. The information from the Microbiology Laboratory at Ramathibodi Hospital revealed that nearly 40% of S. enteritidis were isolated from blood specimens. This may reflect the invasiveness of S. enteritidis in Thailand. We concluded that the outbreak involved the single clone, RAPD profile no. 4 which may disperse dominantly during the epidemic.

Mindfulness Meditation Modulates Pain Through Endogenous Opioids.

PubMed

Sharon, Haggai; Maron-Katz, Adi; Ben Simon, Eti; Flusser, Yuval; Hendler, Talma; Tarrasch, Ricardo; Brill, Silviu

2016-07-01

Recent evidence supports the beneficial effects of mindfulness meditation on pain. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this effect remain poorly understood. We used an opioid blocker to examine whether mindfulness meditation-induced analgesia involves endogenous opioids. Fifteen healthy experienced mindfulness meditation practitioners participated in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study. Participants rated the pain and unpleasantness of a cold stimulus prior to and after a mindfulness meditation session. Participants were then randomized to receive either intravenous naloxone or saline, after which they meditated again, and rated the same stimulus. A (3) × (2) repeated-measurements analysis of variance revealed a significant time effect for pain and unpleasantness scores (both P <.001) as well as a significant condition effect for pain and unpleasantness (both P <.2). Post hoc comparisons revealed that pain and unpleasantness scores were significantly reduced after natural mindfulness meditation and after placebo, but not after naloxone. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between the pain scores following naloxone vs placebo and participants' mindfulness meditation experience. These findings show, for the first time, that meditation involves endogenous opioid pathways, mediating its analgesic effect and growing resilient with increasing practice to external suggestion. This finding could hold promising therapeutic implications and further elucidate the fine mechanisms involved in human pain modulation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Peer Inclusion in Interventions for Children with ADHD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Vilaysack, Brandon; Doma, Kenji; Wilkes-Gillan, Sarah; Speyer, Renée

2018-01-01

Objective To assess the effectiveness of peer inclusion in interventions to improve the social functioning of children with ADHD. Methods We searched four electronic databases for randomized controlled trials and controlled quasi-experimental studies that investigated peer inclusion interventions alone or combined with pharmacological treatment. Data were collected from the included studies and methodologically assessed. Meta-analyses were conducted using a random-effects model. Results Seventeen studies met eligibility criteria. Studies investigated interventions consisting of peer involvement and peer proximity; no study included peer mediation. Most included studies had an unclear or high risk of bias regarding inadequate reporting of randomization, blinding, and control for confounders. Meta-analyses indicated improvements in pre-post measures of social functioning for participants in peer-inclusive treatment groups. Peer inclusion was advantageous compared to treatment as usual. The benefits of peer inclusion over other therapies or medication only could not be determined. Using parents as raters for outcome measurement significantly mediated the intervention effect. Conclusions The evidence to support or contest the efficacy of peer inclusion interventions for children with ADHD is lacking. Future studies need to reduce risks of bias, use appropriate sample sizes, and provide detailed results to investigate the efficacy of peer inclusion interventions for children with ADHD. PMID:29744363

Dropout from individual psychotherapy for major depression: A meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.

PubMed

Cooper, Andrew A; Conklin, Laren R

2015-08-01

Dropout from mental health treatment poses a substantial problem, but rates vary substantially across studies and diagnoses. Focused reviews are needed to provide more detailed estimates for specific areas of research. Randomized clinical trials involving individual psychotherapy for unipolar depression are ubiquitous and important, but empirical data on average dropout rates from these studies is lacking. We conducted a random-effects meta-analysis of 54 such studies (N=5852) including 80 psychotherapy conditions, and evaluated a number of predictors of treatment- and study-level dropout rates. Our overall weighted dropout estimates were 19.9% at the study level, and 17.5% for psychotherapy conditions specifically. Therapy orientation did not significantly account for variance in dropout estimates, but estimates were significantly higher in psychotherapy conditions with more patients of minority racial status or with comorbid personality disorders. Treatment duration was also positively associated with dropout rates at trend level. Studies with an inactive control comparison had higher dropout rates than those without such a condition. Limitations include the inability to test certain potential predictors (e.g., socioeconomic status) due to infrequent reporting. Overall, our findings suggest the need to consider how specific patient and study characteristics may influence dropout rates in clinical research on individual therapy for depression. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Random-effects meta-analysis: the number of studies matters.

PubMed

Guolo, Annamaria; Varin, Cristiano

2017-06-01

This paper investigates the impact of the number of studies on meta-analysis and meta-regression within the random-effects model framework. It is frequently neglected that inference in random-effects models requires a substantial number of studies included in meta-analysis to guarantee reliable conclusions. Several authors warn about the risk of inaccurate results of the traditional DerSimonian and Laird approach especially in the common case of meta-analysis involving a limited number of studies. This paper presents a selection of likelihood and non-likelihood methods for inference in meta-analysis proposed to overcome the limitations of the DerSimonian and Laird procedure, with a focus on the effect of the number of studies. The applicability and the performance of the methods are investigated in terms of Type I error rates and empirical power to detect effects, according to scenarios of practical interest. Simulation studies and applications to real meta-analyses highlight that it is not possible to identify an approach uniformly superior to alternatives. The overall recommendation is to avoid the DerSimonian and Laird method when the number of meta-analysis studies is modest and prefer a more comprehensive procedure that compares alternative inferential approaches. R code for meta-analysis according to all of the inferential methods examined in the paper is provided.

Developing evidence-based dentistry skills: how to interpret randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews.

PubMed

Kiriakou, Juliana; Pandis, Nikolaos; Madianos, Phoebus; Polychronopoulou, Argy

2014-10-30

Decision-making based on reliable evidence is more likely to lead to effective and efficient treatments. Evidence-based dentistry was developed, similarly to evidence-based medicine, to help clinicians apply current and valid research findings into their own clinical practice. Interpreting and appraising the literature is fundamental and involves the development of evidence-based dentistry (EBD) skills. Systematic reviews (SRs) of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered to be evidence of the highest level in evaluating the effectiveness of interventions. Furthermore, the assessment of the report of a RCT, as well as a SR, can lead to an estimation of how the study was designed and conducted.

Effects of a signature on rates of change: a randomized controlled trial involving continuing education and the commitment-to-change model.

PubMed

Mazmanian, P E; Johnson, R E; Zhang, A; Boothby, J; Yeatts, E J

2001-06-01

Physicians frequently are asked to sign commitments to change practice, based upon their involvement in continuing medical education (CME) activities. Although use of the commitment-to-change model is increasingly widespread in CME, the effect of signing such commitments on rates of change is not well understood. Immediately after a CME session, 110 physicians were asked to specify a change they intended to make in practice and to designate a level of commitment to change. To determine the effects of a signature on rates of change, physicians were randomly assigned to control (signature) and experimental (non-signature) groups. Follow-up surveys were conducted at two and three months to determine rates of change. In all, 88 physicians completed the first questionnaire, and 64 of them completed the follow-up. Consistent with prior studies involving the commitment-to-change model, those expressing an intention to change were significantly more likely to change on follow-up (p =.035). There was no significant difference between signature and non-signature groups (p =.99), regardless of age or gender. Signatures appear unimportant to assuring compliance with commitments to change used in CME conferences. A physician's behavior can be expected to change if the specified change is consistent with the physician's beliefs and sense of what is important. The relative influences of components of the commitment-to-change model require further study to determine more clearly their roles in causation and measurement.

An ounce of prevention: A pre-randomization protocol to improve retention in substance use disorder clinical trials.

PubMed

Northrup, Thomas F; Greer, Tracy L; Walker, Robrina; Rethorst, Chad D; Warden, Diane; Stotts, Angela L; Trivedi, Madhukar H

2017-01-01

Missing data in substance use disorder (SUD) research pose a significant threat to internal validity. Participants terminate involvement or become less likely to attend intervention and research visits for many reasons, which should be addressed prior to becoming problematic. During a 9-month study targeting stimulant abuse, early dropouts and participant reported attendance barriers led to implementing a structured, pre-randomization protocol with participants about retention and solution-focused strategies (the "Fireside Chat"). Our aim is to outline this approach and present data on intervention participation and research visit attendance after implementation. STimulant Reduction using Dosed Exercise (STRIDE) was a two-arm, multisite randomized clinical trial testing treatment-as-usual for stimulant abuse/dependence augmented by Exercise or Health Education. For both groups, study intervention visits at the site were scheduled 3/week for 12weeks followed by 1/week for 24weeks. During The Chat, research staff thoroughly reviewed participants' expectations, and barriers and solutions to retention. Fifteen participants were randomized (to Exercise or Health Education) prior to and fourteen were randomized after Chat implementation. Intervention and monthly follow-up attendance (before and after implementation) were compared at the site (N=29) that developed and rigorously implemented The Chat. Individuals who participated in The Chat (n=14) attended significantly more intervention visits during weeks 1-12 (p<0.001) and weeks 13-36 (p<0.05) and attended more research visits (p<0.001). Proactive discussion of expectations and barriers prior to randomization was associated with greater study attendance. SUD researchers should consider tailoring this approach to suit their needs. Further investigation is warranted. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Does cultural competency training of health professionals improve patient outcomes? A systematic review and proposed algorithm for future research.

PubMed

Lie, Désirée A; Lee-Rey, Elizabeth; Gomez, Art; Bereknyei, Sylvia; Braddock, Clarence H

2011-03-01

Cultural competency training has been proposed as a way to improve patient outcomes. There is a need for evidence showing that these interventions reduce health disparities. The objective was to conduct a systematic review addressing the effects of cultural competency training on patient-centered outcomes; assess quality of studies and strength of effect; and propose a framework for future research. The authors performed electronic searches in the MEDLINE/PubMed, ERIC, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Web of Science databases for original articles published in English between 1990 and 2010, and a bibliographic hand search. Studies that reported cultural competence educational interventions for health professionals and measured impact on patients and/or health care utilization as primary or secondary outcomes were included. Four authors independently rated studies for quality using validated criteria and assessed the training effect on patient outcomes. Due to study heterogeneity, data were not pooled; instead, qualitative synthesis and analysis were conducted. Seven studies met inclusion criteria. Three involved physicians, two involved mental health professionals and two involved multiple health professionals and students. Two were quasi-randomized, two were cluster randomized, and three were pre/post field studies. Study quality was low to moderate with none of high quality; most studies did not adequately control for potentially confounding variables. Effect size ranged from no effect to moderately beneficial (unable to assess in two studies). Three studies reported positive (beneficial) effects; none demonstrated a negative (harmful) effect. There is limited research showing a positive relationship between cultural competency training and improved patient outcomes, but there remains a paucity of high quality research. Future work should address challenges limiting quality. We propose an algorithm to guide educators in designing and evaluating curricula, to rigorously demonstrate the impact on patient outcomes and health disparities.

Meta-analysis identifies gene-by-environment interactions as demonstrated in a study of 4,965 mice.

PubMed

Kang, Eun Yong; Han, Buhm; Furlotte, Nicholas; Joo, Jong Wha J; Shih, Diana; Davis, Richard C; Lusis, Aldons J; Eskin, Eleazar

2014-01-01

Identifying environmentally-specific genetic effects is a key challenge in understanding the structure of complex traits. Model organisms play a crucial role in the identification of such gene-by-environment interactions, as a result of the unique ability to observe genetically similar individuals across multiple distinct environments. Many model organism studies examine the same traits but under varying environmental conditions. For example, knock-out or diet-controlled studies are often used to examine cholesterol in mice. These studies, when examined in aggregate, provide an opportunity to identify genomic loci exhibiting environmentally-dependent effects. However, the straightforward application of traditional methodologies to aggregate separate studies suffers from several problems. First, environmental conditions are often variable and do not fit the standard univariate model for interactions. Additionally, applying a multivariate model results in increased degrees of freedom and low statistical power. In this paper, we jointly analyze multiple studies with varying environmental conditions using a meta-analytic approach based on a random effects model to identify loci involved in gene-by-environment interactions. Our approach is motivated by the observation that methods for discovering gene-by-environment interactions are closely related to random effects models for meta-analysis. We show that interactions can be interpreted as heterogeneity and can be detected without utilizing the traditional uni- or multi-variate approaches for discovery of gene-by-environment interactions. We apply our new method to combine 17 mouse studies containing in aggregate 4,965 distinct animals. We identify 26 significant loci involved in High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, many of which are consistent with previous findings. Several of these loci show significant evidence of involvement in gene-by-environment interactions. An additional advantage of our meta-analysis approach is that our combined study has significantly higher power and improved resolution compared to any single study thus explaining the large number of loci discovered in the combined study.

Meta-Analysis Identifies Gene-by-Environment Interactions as Demonstrated in a Study of 4,965 Mice

PubMed Central

Joo, Jong Wha J.; Shih, Diana; Davis, Richard C.; Lusis, Aldons J.; Eskin, Eleazar

2014-01-01

Identifying environmentally-specific genetic effects is a key challenge in understanding the structure of complex traits. Model organisms play a crucial role in the identification of such gene-by-environment interactions, as a result of the unique ability to observe genetically similar individuals across multiple distinct environments. Many model organism studies examine the same traits but under varying environmental conditions. For example, knock-out or diet-controlled studies are often used to examine cholesterol in mice. These studies, when examined in aggregate, provide an opportunity to identify genomic loci exhibiting environmentally-dependent effects. However, the straightforward application of traditional methodologies to aggregate separate studies suffers from several problems. First, environmental conditions are often variable and do not fit the standard univariate model for interactions. Additionally, applying a multivariate model results in increased degrees of freedom and low statistical power. In this paper, we jointly analyze multiple studies with varying environmental conditions using a meta-analytic approach based on a random effects model to identify loci involved in gene-by-environment interactions. Our approach is motivated by the observation that methods for discovering gene-by-environment interactions are closely related to random effects models for meta-analysis. We show that interactions can be interpreted as heterogeneity and can be detected without utilizing the traditional uni- or multi-variate approaches for discovery of gene-by-environment interactions. We apply our new method to combine 17 mouse studies containing in aggregate 4,965 distinct animals. We identify 26 significant loci involved in High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, many of which are consistent with previous findings. Several of these loci show significant evidence of involvement in gene-by-environment interactions. An additional advantage of our meta-analysis approach is that our combined study has significantly higher power and improved resolution compared to any single study thus explaining the large number of loci discovered in the combined study. PMID:24415945

Effectiveness of a stepped primary care smoking cessation intervention: cluster randomized clinical trial (ISTAPS study).

PubMed

Cabezas, Carmen; Advani, Mamta; Puente, Diana; Rodriguez-Blanco, Teresa; Martin, Carlos

2011-09-01

To evaluate the effectiveness in primary care of a stepped smoking cessation intervention based on the transtheoretical model of change. Cluster randomized trial; unit of randomization: basic care unit (family physician and nurse who care for the same group of patients); and intention-to-treat analysis. All interested basic care units (n = 176) that worked in 82 primary care centres belonging to the Spanish Preventive Services and Health Promotion Research Network in 13 regions of Spain. A total of 2,827 smokers (aged 14-85 years) who consulted a primary care centre for any reason, provided written informed consent and had valid interviews. The outcome variable was the 1-year continuous abstinence rate at the 2-year follow-up. The main variable was the study group (intervention/control). Intervention involved 6-month implementation of recommendations from a Clinical Practice Guideline which included brief motivational interviews for smokers at the precontemplation-contemplation stage, brief intervention for smokers in preparation-action who do not want help, intensive intervention with pharmacotherapy for smokers in preparation-action who want help and reinforcing intervention in the maintenance stage. Control group involved usual care. Among others, characteristics of tobacco use and motivation to quit variables were also collected. The 1-year continuous abstinence rate at the 2-year follow-up was 8.1% in the intervention group and 5.8% in the control group (P = 0.014). In the multivariate logistic regression, the odds of quitting of the intervention versus control group was 1.50 (95% confidence interval = 1.05-2.14). A stepped smoking cessation intervention based on the transtheoretical model significantly increased smoking abstinence at a 2-year follow-up among smokers visiting primary care centres. © 2011 The Authors, Addiction © 2011 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Effectiveness of acupuncture for angina pectoris: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

PubMed

Yu, Changhe; Ji, Kangshou; Cao, Huijuan; Wang, Ying; Jin, Hwang Hye; Zhang, Zhe; Yang, Guanlin

2015-03-28

The purpose of this systematic review is to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture for angina pectoris. Eleven electronic databases were searched until January 2013. The study included randomized controlled trials that the effectiveness of acupuncture alone was compared to anti-angina medicines (in addition to conventional treatment) and the effectiveness of a combination of acupuncture plus anti-angina medicines was compared to anti-angina medicines alone. The trial selection, data extraction, quality assessment and data analytic procedures outlined in the 2011 Cochrane Handbook were involved. The study included 25 randomized controlled trials (involving 2,058 patients) that met our inclusion criteria. The pooled results showed that the number of patients with ineffectiveness of angina relief was less in the combined acupuncture-anti-angina treatment group than in the anti-angina medicines alone group (RR 0.33, 95% CI 0.23-0.47, p < 0.00001, I2 = 0%). Similarly, compared to the anti-angina medicines alone group, fewer patients in the combined treatment group showed no ECG improvement (RR 0.50, 95% CI 0.40-0.62, p < 0.00001, I2 = 0%). However, no differences were observed between acupuncture treatment alone and anti-angina medicines alone for both outcome measures. Only four trials mentioned adverse effects. One trial found no significant difference between acupuncture and Chinese medicine, and three reported no adverse events. The quality of the trials was found to be low. The findings showed very low evidence to support the use of acupuncture for improving angina symptoms and ECG of angina patients. However, the quality of the trials included in this study was low. Large and rigorously designed trials are needed to confirm the potential benefit and adverse events of acupuncture.

The probability of false positives in zero-dimensional analyses of one-dimensional kinematic, force and EMG trajectories.

PubMed

Pataky, Todd C; Vanrenterghem, Jos; Robinson, Mark A

2016-06-14

A false positive is the mistake of inferring an effect when none exists, and although α controls the false positive (Type I error) rate in classical hypothesis testing, a given α value is accurate only if the underlying model of randomness appropriately reflects experimentally observed variance. Hypotheses pertaining to one-dimensional (1D) (e.g. time-varying) biomechanical trajectories are most often tested using a traditional zero-dimensional (0D) Gaussian model of randomness, but variance in these datasets is clearly 1D. The purpose of this study was to determine the likelihood that analyzing smooth 1D data with a 0D model of variance will produce false positives. We first used random field theory (RFT) to predict the probability of false positives in 0D analyses. We then validated RFT predictions via numerical simulations of smooth Gaussian 1D trajectories. Results showed that, across a range of public kinematic, force/moment and EMG datasets, the median false positive rate was 0.382 and not the assumed α=0.05, even for a simple two-sample t test involving N=10 trajectories per group. The median false positive rate for experiments involving three-component vector trajectories was p=0.764. This rate increased to p=0.945 for two three-component vector trajectories, and to p=0.999 for six three-component vectors. This implies that experiments involving vector trajectories have a high probability of yielding 0D statistical significance when there is, in fact, no 1D effect. Either (a) explicit a priori identification of 0D variables or (b) adoption of 1D methods can more tightly control α. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sequential psychological and pharmacological therapies for comorbid and primary insomnia: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Morin, Charles M; Edinger, Jack D; Krystal, Andrew D; Buysse, Daniel J; Beaulieu-Bonneau, Simon; Ivers, Hans

2016-03-03

Chronic insomnia is a prevalent disorder associated with significant psychosocial, health, and economic impacts. Cognitive behavioral therapies (CBTs) and benzodiazepine receptor agonist (BzRA) medications are the most widely supported therapeutic approaches for insomnia management. However, few investigations have directly compared their relative and combined benefits, and even fewer have tested the benefits of sequential treatment for those who do not respond to initial insomnia therapy. Moreover, insomnia treatment studies have been limited by small, highly screened study samples, fixed-dose, and fixed-agent pharmacotherapy strategies that do not represent usual clinical practices. This study will address these limitations. This is a two-site randomized controlled trial, which will enroll 224 adults who meet the criteria for a chronic insomnia disorder with or without comorbid psychiatric disorders. Prospective participants will complete clinical assessments and polysomnography and then will be randomly assigned to first-stage therapy involving either behavioral therapy (BT) or zolpidem. Treatment outcomes will be assessed after 6 weeks, and treatment remitters will be followed for the next 12 months on maintenance therapy. Those not achieving remission will be offered randomization to a second, 6-week treatment, again involving either pharmacotherapy (zolpidem or trazodone) or psychological therapy (BT or cognitive therapy (CT)). All participants will be re-evaluated 12 weeks after the protocol initiation and at 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month follow-ups. Insomnia remission, defined categorically as a score < 8 on the Insomnia Severity Index, a patient-reported outcome, will serve as the primary endpoint for treatment comparisons. Secondary outcomes will include sleep parameters derived from daily sleep diaries and from polysomnography, subjective measures of fatigue, mood, quality of life, and functional impairments; and measures of adverse events; dropout rates; and treatment acceptability. Centrally trained therapists will administer therapies according to manualized, albeit flexible, treatment algorithms. This clinical trial will provide new information about optimal treatment sequencing and will have direct implication for the development of clinical guidelines for managing chronic insomnia with and without comorbid psychiatric conditions. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01651442 , Protocol version 4, 20 April 2011, registered 26 June 2012.

Virtual temporal bone dissection system: OSU virtual temporal bone system: development and testing.

PubMed

Wiet, Gregory J; Stredney, Don; Kerwin, Thomas; Hittle, Bradley; Fernandez, Soledad A; Abdel-Rasoul, Mahmoud; Welling, D Bradley

2012-03-01

The objective of this project was to develop a virtual temporal bone dissection system that would provide an enhanced educational experience for the training of otologic surgeons. A randomized, controlled, multi-institutional, single-blinded validation study. The project encompassed four areas of emphasis: structural data acquisition, integration of the system, dissemination of the system, and validation. Structural acquisition was performed on multiple imaging platforms. Integration achieved a cost-effective system. Dissemination was achieved on different levels including casual interest, downloading of software, and full involvement in development and validation studies. A validation study was performed at eight different training institutions across the country using a two-arm randomized trial where study subjects were randomized to a 2-week practice session using either the virtual temporal bone or standard cadaveric temporal bones. Eighty subjects were enrolled and randomized to one of the two treatment arms; 65 completed the study. There was no difference between the two groups using a blinded rating tool to assess performance after training. A virtual temporal bone dissection system has been developed and compared to cadaveric temporal bones for practice using a multicenter trial. There was no statistical difference between practice on the current simulator compared to practice on human cadaveric temporal bones. Further refinements in structural acquisition and interface design have been identified, which can be implemented prior to full incorporation into training programs and used for objective skills assessment. Copyright © 2012 The American Laryngological, Rhinological, and Otological Society, Inc.

Estimation of Complex Generalized Linear Mixed Models for Measurement and Growth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jeon, Minjeong

2012-01-01

Maximum likelihood (ML) estimation of generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) is technically challenging because of the intractable likelihoods that involve high dimensional integrations over random effects. The problem is magnified when the random effects have a crossed design and thus the data cannot be reduced to small independent clusters. A…

Weight Control Intervention for Truck Drivers: The SHIFT Randomized Controlled Trial, United States

PubMed Central

Wipfli, Brad; Thompson, Sharon V.; Elliot, Diane L.; Anger, W. Kent; Bodner, Todd; Hammer, Leslie B.; Perrin, Nancy A.

2016-01-01

Objectives. To evaluate the effectiveness of the Safety and Health Involvement For Truckers (SHIFT) intervention with a randomized controlled design. Methods. The multicomponent intervention was a weight-loss competition supported with body weight and behavioral self-monitoring, computer-based training, and motivational interviewing. We evaluated intervention effectiveness with a cluster-randomized design involving 22 terminals from 5 companies in the United States in 2012 to 2014. Companies were required to provide interstate transportation services and operate at least 2 larger terminals. We randomly assigned terminals to intervention or usual practice control conditions. We assessed participating drivers (n = 452) at baseline and 6 months. Results. In an intent-to-treat analysis, the postintervention difference between groups in mean body mass index change was 1.00 kilograms per meters squared (P < .001; intervention = −0.73; control = +0.27). Behavioral changes included statistically significant improvements in fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity. Conclusions. Results establish the effectiveness of a multicomponent and remotely administered intervention for producing significant weight loss among commercial truck drivers. PMID:27463067

Weight Control Intervention for Truck Drivers: The SHIFT Randomized Controlled Trial, United States.

PubMed

Olson, Ryan; Wipfli, Brad; Thompson, Sharon V; Elliot, Diane L; Anger, W Kent; Bodner, Todd; Hammer, Leslie B; Perrin, Nancy A

2016-09-01

To evaluate the effectiveness of the Safety and Health Involvement For Truckers (SHIFT) intervention with a randomized controlled design. The multicomponent intervention was a weight-loss competition supported with body weight and behavioral self-monitoring, computer-based training, and motivational interviewing. We evaluated intervention effectiveness with a cluster-randomized design involving 22 terminals from 5 companies in the United States in 2012 to 2014. Companies were required to provide interstate transportation services and operate at least 2 larger terminals. We randomly assigned terminals to intervention or usual practice control conditions. We assessed participating drivers (n = 452) at baseline and 6 months. In an intent-to-treat analysis, the postintervention difference between groups in mean body mass index change was 1.00 kilograms per meters squared (P < .001; intervention = -0.73; control = +0.27). Behavioral changes included statistically significant improvements in fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity. Results establish the effectiveness of a multicomponent and remotely administered intervention for producing significant weight loss among commercial truck drivers.

African American adolescent mothers' early caregiving involvement and childrens' behavior and academic performance at age 7.

PubMed

Oberlander, Sarah E; Black, Maureen M

2011-01-01

The United States continues to have the highest incidence of adolescent births among industrialized nations. This study used transactional and life span theories of development to examine whether caregiving patterns assessed over the first 24 months postpartum predicted children's behavior and academic achievement at 7 years. Participants included 120 primiparous, urban, low-income, African American adolescent mothers who participated in a randomized controlled trial of home intervention. Group-based trajectories were used to examine the pattern of caregiving involvement over time. Two distinct, consistent trajectories of caregiving involvement were found: maternal and shared. Maternal caregiving involvement over the first 24 months postpartum predicted positive child behavior and academic achievement at 7 years. In keeping with both transactional and life span theories, findings suggest that adoption of the parent role may lead to positive long-term outcomes for children of adolescent mothers.

A single-loop optimization method for reliability analysis with second order uncertainty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Shaojun; Pan, Baisong; Du, Xiaoping

2015-08-01

Reliability analysis may involve random variables and interval variables. In addition, some of the random variables may have interval distribution parameters owing to limited information. This kind of uncertainty is called second order uncertainty. This article develops an efficient reliability method for problems involving the three aforementioned types of uncertain input variables. The analysis produces the maximum and minimum reliability and is computationally demanding because two loops are needed: a reliability analysis loop with respect to random variables and an interval analysis loop for extreme responses with respect to interval variables. The first order reliability method and nonlinear optimization are used for the two loops, respectively. For computational efficiency, the two loops are combined into a single loop by treating the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimal conditions of the interval analysis as constraints. Three examples are presented to demonstrate the proposed method.

Robot-assisted remote echocardiographic examination and teleconsultation: a randomized comparison of time to diagnosis with standard of care referral approach.

PubMed

Boman, Kurt; Olofsson, Mona; Berggren, Peter; Sengupta, Partho P; Narula, Jagat

2014-08-01

The strategy using cardiological consultation in addition to the robot-assisted remote echocardiography at a distance was tested in a prospective, randomized open-label trial to evaluate its feasibility and to define its clinical value in a rural area. The present study involved 1 primary healthcare center in the north of Sweden, 135 miles from the hospital where the echocardiograms and the cardiology teleconsultation were performed long distance in real time. Nineteen patients were randomized to remote consultation and imaging, and 19 to the standard of care consultation. The total process time was significantly reduced in the former arm (median 114 days vs. 26.5 days; p < 0.001). The time from randomization until attaining a specialist consultation was also significantly reduced (p < 0.001). The patients' satisfaction was reassuring; they considered that the remote consultation strategy offered an increased rapidity of diagnosis and the likelihood of receiving faster management compared with the standard of care at the primary healthcare center. Copyright © 2014 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Two betweenness centrality measures based on Randomized Shortest Paths

PubMed Central

Kivimäki, Ilkka; Lebichot, Bertrand; Saramäki, Jari; Saerens, Marco

2016-01-01

This paper introduces two new closely related betweenness centrality measures based on the Randomized Shortest Paths (RSP) framework, which fill a gap between traditional network centrality measures based on shortest paths and more recent methods considering random walks or current flows. The framework defines Boltzmann probability distributions over paths of the network which focus on the shortest paths, but also take into account longer paths depending on an inverse temperature parameter. RSP’s have previously proven to be useful in defining distance measures on networks. In this work we study their utility in quantifying the importance of the nodes of a network. The proposed RSP betweenness centralities combine, in an optimal way, the ideas of using the shortest and purely random paths for analysing the roles of network nodes, avoiding issues involving these two paradigms. We present the derivations of these measures and how they can be computed in an efficient way. In addition, we show with real world examples the potential of the RSP betweenness centralities in identifying interesting nodes of a network that more traditional methods might fail to notice. PMID:26838176

Long-acting reversible contraceptive acceptability and unintended pregnancy among women presenting for short-acting methods: a randomized patient preference trial.

PubMed

Hubacher, David; Spector, Hannah; Monteith, Charles; Chen, Pai-Lien; Hart, Catherine

2017-02-01

Measures of contraceptive effectiveness combine technology and user-related factors. Observational studies show higher effectiveness of long-acting reversible contraception compared with short-acting reversible contraception. Women who choose long-acting reversible contraception may differ in key ways from women who choose short-acting reversible contraception, and it may be these differences that are responsible for the high effectiveness of long-acting reversible contraception. Wider use of long-acting reversible contraception is recommended, but scientific evidence of acceptability and successful use is lacking in a population that typically opts for short-acting methods. The objective of the study was to reduce bias in measuring contraceptive effectiveness and better isolate the independent role that long-acting reversible contraception has in preventing unintended pregnancy relative to short-acting reversible contraception. We conducted a partially randomized patient preference trial and recruited women aged 18-29 years who were seeking a short-acting method (pills or injectable). Participants who agreed to randomization were assigned to 1 of 2 categories: long-acting reversible contraception or short-acting reversible contraception. Women who declined randomization but agreed to follow-up in the observational cohort chose their preferred method. Under randomization, participants chose a specific method in the category and received it for free, whereas participants in the preference cohort paid for the contraception in their usual fashion. Participants were followed up prospectively to measure primary outcomes of method continuation and unintended pregnancy at 12 months. Kaplan-Meier techniques were used to estimate method continuation probabilities. Intent-to-treat principles were applied after method initiation for comparing incidence of unintended pregnancy. We also measured acceptability in terms of level of happiness with the products. Of the 916 participants, 43% chose randomization and 57% chose the preference option. Complete loss to follow-up at 12 months was <2%. The 12-month method continuation probabilities were 63.3% (95% confidence interval, 58.9-67.3) (preference short-acting reversible contraception), 53.0% (95% confidence interval, 45.7-59.8) (randomized short-acting reversible contraception), and 77.8% (95% confidence interval, 71.0-83.2) (randomized long-acting reversible contraception) (P < .001 in the primary comparison involving randomized groups). The 12-month cumulative unintended pregnancy probabilities were 6.4% (95% confidence interval, 4.1-8.7) (preference short-acting reversible contraception), 7.7% (95% confidence interval, 3.3-12.1) (randomized short-acting reversible contraception), and 0.7% (95% confidence interval, 0.0-4.7) (randomized long-acting reversible contraception) (P = .01 when comparing randomized groups). In the secondary comparisons involving only short-acting reversible contraception users, the continuation probability was higher in the preference group compared with the randomized group (P = .04). However, the short-acting reversible contraception randomized group and short-acting reversible contraception preference group had statistically equivalent rates of unintended pregnancy (P = .77). Seventy-eight percent of randomized long-acting reversible contraception users were happy/neutral with their initial method, compared with 89% of randomized short-acting reversible contraception users (P < .05). However, among method continuers at 12 months, all groups were equally happy/neutral (>90%). Even in a typical population of women who presented to initiate or continue short-acting reversible contraception, long-acting reversible contraception proved highly acceptable. One year after initiation, women randomized to long-acting reversible contraception had high continuation rates and consequently experienced superior protection from unintended pregnancy compared with women using short-acting reversible contraception; these findings are attributable to the initial technology and not underlying factors that often bias observational estimates of effectiveness. The similarly patterned experiences of the 2 short-acting reversible contraception cohorts provide a bridge of generalizability between the randomized group and usual-care preference group. Benefits of increased voluntary uptake of long-acting reversible contraception may extend to wider populations than previously thought. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA) and the Traditional Approach Using Tales of Virtue Based on His Majesty the King's Teaching Concepts in Seventh Grade Students' Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chaemsai, Rungruedee; Rattanavich, Saowalak

2016-01-01

This study compares the English reading comprehension and ethical awareness of 7th grade students, when using either a directed reading-thinking activity (DR-TA), or a more traditional approach, involving tales of virtue based on His Majesty the King's teaching concepts. A randomized control group pretest-posttest design was used for the study,…

Silviculture for a declining species, Cerulean Warbler: 10-year results of a pilot study in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley

Treesearch

Paul B. Hamel; Mike Staten; Ray Souter; Carl G. Smith III; Gene Holland

2016-01-01

We report on the current status of a long-term study of Cerulean Warbler (Setophaga cerulea) response to silviculture on a 58-ha tract in Desha County, Arkansas. The work involved a 10 year premanipulation monitoring of the birds on the tract, followed by implementation of a split plot comparison of alternative treatments, each applied to a randomly selected half of...

Virtual reality for improving balance in patients after stroke: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Li, Zhen; Han, Xiu-Guo; Sheng, Jing; Ma, Shao-Jun

2016-05-01

To evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality interventions for improving balance in people after stroke. Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Studies were obtained by searching the following databases: MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, Web of Science and CENTRAL. Two reviewers assessed studies for inclusion, extracted data and assessed trial quality. Sixteen studies involving 428 participants were included. People who received virtual reality interventions showed marked improvements in Berg Balance Scale (mean difference: 1.46, 95% confidence interval: 0.09-2.83, P<0.05, I²=0%) and Timed Up and Go Test (mean difference: -1.62, 95% confidence interval: -3.07- -0.16, P<0.05, I²=24%) compared with controls. This meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials supports the use of virtual reality to improve balance after stroke. © The Author(s) 2015.

Epidemiologic methods in clinical trials.

PubMed

Rothman, K J

1977-04-01

Epidemiologic methods developed to control confounding in non-experimental studies are equally applicable for experiments. In experiments, most confounding is usually controlled by random allocation of subjects to treatment groups, but randomization does not preclude confounding except for extremely large studies, the degree of confounding expected being inversely related to the size of the treatment groups. In experiments, as in non-experimental studies, the extent of confounding for each risk indicator should be assessed, and if sufficiently large, controlled. Confounding is properly assessed by comparing the unconfounded effect estimate to the crude effect estimate; a common error is to assess confounding by statistical tests of significance. Assessment of confounding involves its control as a prerequisite. Control is most readily and cogently achieved by stratification of the data, though with many factors to control simultaneously, multivariate analysis or a combination of multivariate analysis and stratification might be necessary.

Why the evidence for outpatient commitment is good enough.

PubMed

Swanson, Jeffrey W; Swartz, Marvin S

2014-06-01

After nearly three decades of studies evaluating the legal practice of involuntary outpatient commitment, there is yet little consensus about its effectiveness and only limited implementation. Debate continues over how best to assist adults with serious mental illnesses who are unable or unwilling to participate in prescribed community treatment and as a result experience repeated involuntary hospitalizations or involvement with the criminal justice system. The authors comment on the Oxford Community Treatment Order Evaluation Trial (OCTET), a recently conducted randomized trial of outpatient commitment, and discuss the limitations of the study's design for resolving the persistent question of whether compulsory treatment is more effective than purely voluntary treatment for this difficult-to-reach target population. The authors conclude that the search for a definitive and generalizable randomized trial of outpatient commitment may be a quixotic quest; the field should, rather, welcome the results of well-conducted, large-scale, quasi-experimental and naturalistic studies with rigorous multivariable statistical controls.

Stochastic arbitrage return and its implication for option pricing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fedotov, Sergei; Panayides, Stephanos

2005-01-01

The purpose of this work is to explore the role that random arbitrage opportunities play in pricing financial derivatives. We use a non-equilibrium model to set up a stochastic portfolio, and for the random arbitrage return, we choose a stationary ergodic random process rapidly varying in time. We exploit the fact that option price and random arbitrage returns change on different time scales which allows us to develop an asymptotic pricing theory involving the central limit theorem for random processes. We restrict ourselves to finding pricing bands for options rather than exact prices. The resulting pricing bands are shown to be independent of the detailed statistical characteristics of the arbitrage return. We find that the volatility “smile” can also be explained in terms of random arbitrage opportunities.

Active Video Game Exercise Training Improves the Clinical Control of Asthma in Children: Randomized Controlled Trial.

PubMed

Gomes, Evelim L F D; Carvalho, Celso R F; Peixoto-Souza, Fabiana Sobral; Teixeira-Carvalho, Etiene Farah; Mendonça, Juliana Fernandes Barreto; Stirbulov, Roberto; Sampaio, Luciana Maria Malosá; Costa, Dirceu

2015-01-01

The aim of the present study was to determine whether aerobic exercise involving an active video game system improved asthma control, airway inflammation and exercise capacity in children with moderate to severe asthma. A randomized, controlled, single-blinded clinical trial was carried out. Thirty-six children with moderate to severe asthma were randomly allocated to either a video game group (VGG; N = 20) or a treadmill group (TG; n = 16). Both groups completed an eight-week supervised program with two weekly 40-minute sessions. Pre-training and post-training evaluations involved the Asthma Control Questionnaire, exhaled nitric oxide levels (FeNO), maximum exercise testing (Bruce protocol) and lung function. No differences between the VGG and TG were found at the baseline. Improvements occurred in both groups with regard to asthma control and exercise capacity. Moreover, a significant reduction in FeNO was found in the VGG (p < 0.05). Although the mean energy expenditure at rest and during exercise training was similar for both groups, the maximum energy expenditure was higher in the VGG. The present findings strongly suggest that aerobic training promoted by an active video game had a positive impact on children with asthma in terms of clinical control, improvement in their exercise capacity and a reduction in pulmonary inflammation. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01438294.

Active Video Game Exercise Training Improves the Clinical Control of Asthma in Children: Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Gomes, Evelim L. F. D.; Carvalho, Celso R. F.; Peixoto-Souza, Fabiana Sobral; Teixeira-Carvalho, Etiene Farah; Mendonça, Juliana Fernandes Barreto; Stirbulov, Roberto; Sampaio, Luciana Maria Malosá; Costa, Dirceu

2015-01-01

Objective The aim of the present study was to determine whether aerobic exercise involving an active video game system improved asthma control, airway inflammation and exercise capacity in children with moderate to severe asthma. Design A randomized, controlled, single-blinded clinical trial was carried out. Thirty-six children with moderate to severe asthma were randomly allocated to either a video game group (VGG; N = 20) or a treadmill group (TG; n = 16). Both groups completed an eight-week supervised program with two weekly 40-minute sessions. Pre-training and post-training evaluations involved the Asthma Control Questionnaire, exhaled nitric oxide levels (FeNO), maximum exercise testing (Bruce protocol) and lung function. Results No differences between the VGG and TG were found at the baseline. Improvements occurred in both groups with regard to asthma control and exercise capacity. Moreover, a significant reduction in FeNO was found in the VGG (p < 0.05). Although the mean energy expenditure at rest and during exercise training was similar for both groups, the maximum energy expenditure was higher in the VGG. Conclusion The present findings strongly suggest that aerobic training promoted by an active video game had a positive impact on children with asthma in terms of clinical control, improvementin their exercise capacity and a reductionin pulmonary inflammation. Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01438294 PMID:26301706

Internet-based interventions for disordered gamblers: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial of online self-directed cognitive-behavioural motivational therapy.

PubMed

Hodgins, David C; Fick, Gordon H; Murray, Robert; Cunningham, John A

2013-01-08

Gambling disorders affect about one percent of adults. Effective treatments are available but only a small proportion of affected individuals will choose to attend formal treatment. As a result, self-directed treatments have also been developed and found effective. Self-directed treatments provide individuals with information and support to initiate a recovery program without attending formal treatment. In previous research we developed an telephone-based intervention package that helps people to be motivated to tackle their gambling problem and to use basic behavioral and cognitive change strategies. The present study will investigate the efficacy of this self-directed intervention offered as a free online resource. The Internet is an excellent modality in which to offer self-directed treatment for gambling problems. The Internet is increasingly accessible to members of the public and is frequently used to access health-related information. Online gambling sites are also becoming more popular gambling platforms. A randomized clinical trial (N=180) will be conducted in which individuals with gambling problems who are not interested in attending formal treatment are randomly assigned to have access to an online self-directed intervention or to a comparison condition. The comparison condition will be an alternative website that offers a self-assessment of gambling involvement and gambling-related problems. The participant's use of the resources and their gambling involvement (days of gambling, dollars loss) and their gambling problems will be tracked for a twelve month follow-up period. The results of this research will be important for informing policy-makers who are developing treatment systems. ISRCTN06220098.

Specialist mental health consultation for depression in Australian aged care residents with dementia: a cluster randomized trial.

PubMed

McSweeney, Kate; Jeffreys, Aimee; Griffith, Joanne; Plakiotis, Chris; Kharsas, Renee; O'Connor, Daniel W

2012-11-01

This cluster randomized controlled trial sought to determine whether multidisciplinary specialist mental health consultation was more effective than care as usual in treating the depression of aged care residents with dementia. Three hundred and eighty nine aged care residents were screened for dementia and major depression. Forty four were ultimately included in the intervention sample, selected from 20 aged care facilities located in Melbourne, Australia. Facilities were randomly allocated to an intervention condition involving the provision of multidisciplinary specialist consultation regarding the best-practice management of depression in dementia, or to a care as usual condition. Consultations involved individually tailored medical and psychosocial recommendations provided to care staff and general practitioners. All residents participated in a comprehensive pre-intervention diagnostic assessment, including the administration of the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia. This assessment was repeated approximately 15 weeks post-intervention by a rater blind to study condition. Multidisciplinary specialist mental health consultation was significantly more effective than care as usual in treating the clinical depression of aged care residents with dementia (p < 0.05, partial η(2)  = 0.16). At follow-up, the mean Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia score for the intervention group was 9.47, compared with 14.23 for the control group. In addition, 77% of the intervention group no longer met criteria for major depression. The results of this study suggest that the psychosocial and medical management of depressed aged care residents can be improved by increasing access to specialist mental health consultation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Randomized Trial of a Parent-Based Intervention on Drinking Behavior Among Incoming College Freshmen*

PubMed Central

Ichiyama, Michael A.; Fairlie, Anne M.; Wood, Mark D.; Turrisi, Rob; Francis, Diane P.; Ray, Anne E.; Stanger, Louise A.

2009-01-01

Objective: Despite research suggesting that parental involvement can affect alcohol involvement among adolescents, few studies have focused on parent-based alcohol prevention strategies among college undergraduates. We report the results of a randomized trial of a parent-based intervention (PBI) in a sample of college freshmen. Method: Across two cohorts, 724 incoming freshman—parent dyads completed baseline assessments and were randomly assigned to PBI or intervention as usual (an alcohol fact sheet for parents). Student follow-up assessments were completed at 4 and 8 months. Results: Two-part latent growth curve modeling was used to test hypothesized intervention effects. Outcome variables were drinks per week (past month), heavy episodic drinking (past 2 weeks), and alcohol-related problems (past 3 months). Over the 8-month follow-up period, PBI had a significant effect on drinks per week but not heavy episodic drinking or alcohol-related problems. Specifically, compared with students in the intervention-as-usual condition, students receiving the PBI were significantly less likely to transition from nondrinker to drinker status and showed less growth in drinking over the freshman year. However, the direct PBI effect on growth was qualified by a PBI × Gender interaction, with probes indicating that the effect applied to women but not men in the PBI condition. Conclusions: This study extends previous research by demonstrating the potential utility for PBIs to decrease the likelihood of transitioning into drinker status and, at least for women, for slowing growth in drinking over the freshman year. PMID:19538914

Intranasal oxytocin reduces social perception in women: Neural activation and individual variation.

PubMed

Hecht, Erin E; Robins, Diana L; Gautam, Pritam; King, Tricia Z

2017-02-15

Most intranasal oxytocin research to date has been carried out in men, but recent studies indicate that females' responses can differ substantially from males'. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study involved an all-female sample of 28 women not using hormonal contraception. Participants viewed animations of geometric shapes depicting either random movement or social interactions such as playing, chasing, or fighting. Probe questions asked whether any shapes were "friends" or "not friends." Social videos were preceded by cues to attend to either social relationships or physical size changes. All subjects received intranasal placebo spray at scan 1. While the experimenter was not blinded to nasal spray contents at Scan 1, the participants were. Scan 2 followed a randomized, double-blind design. At scan 2, half received a second placebo dose while the other half received 24 IU of intranasal oxytocin. We measured neural responses to these animations at baseline, as well as the change in neural activity induced by oxytocin. Oxytocin reduced activation in early visual cortex and dorsal-stream motion processing regions for the social > size contrast, indicating reduced activity related to social attention. Oxytocin also reduced endorsements that shapes were "friends" or "not friends," and this significantly correlated with reduction in neural activation. Furthermore, participants who perceived fewer social relationships at baseline were more likely to show oxytocin-induced increases in a broad network of regions involved in social perception and social cognition, suggesting that lower social processing at baseline may predict more positive neural responses to oxytocin. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluating a Multidimensional Reading Comprehension Program and Reconsidering the Lowly Reputation of Tests of Near Transfer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuchs, Douglas; Hendricks, Emma; Walsh, Meagan E.; Fuchs, Lynn S.; Gilbert, Jennifer K.; Zhang Tracy, Wen; Patton, Samuel, III.; Davis, Nicole; Kim, Wooliya; Elleman, Amy M.; Peng, Peng

2018-01-01

We conducted a 14-week experimental study of 2 versions of a relatively comprehensive RC intervention that involved 50 classroom teachers, 15 tutors, and 120 children drawn in equal proportions from grades 3 and 5 in 13 schools in a large urban school district. Students were randomly assigned in equal numbers to the 2 tutoring conditions and a…

Evaluating a Multidimensional Reading Comprehension Program and Reconsidering the Lowly Reputation of Tests of Near-Transfer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuchs, Douglas; Hendricks, Emma; Walsh, Meagan E.; Fuchs, Lynn S.; Gilbert, Jennifer K.; Zhang Tracy, Wen; Patton, Samuel, III; Davis-Perkins, Nicole; Kim, Wooliya; Elleman, Amy M.; Peng, Peng

2018-01-01

We conducted a 14-week experimental study of 2 versions of a relatively comprehensive RC intervention that involved 50 classroom teachers, 15 tutors, and 116 children drawn in equal proportions from grades 3 and 5 in 13 schools in a large urban school district. Students were randomly assigned in equal numbers to the two tutoring conditions and a…

Effects of Gloss Type on Text Recall and Incidental Vocabulary Learning in Mobile-Assisted L2 Listening

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çakmak, Fidel; Erçetin, Gülcan

2018-01-01

This study investigates the effects of multimedia glosses on text recall and incidental vocabulary learning in a mobile-assisted L2 listening task. A total of 88 participants with a low level of proficiency in English were randomly assigned to one of four conditions that involved single channel (textual-only, pictorial-only) and dual-channel…

Supporting Early Adolescent Learning and Social Strengths: Promoting Productive Contexts for Students At-Risk for EBD during the Transition to Middle School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farmer, Thomas W.; Hamm, Jill V.; Petrin, Robert A.; Robertson, Dylan; Murray, Robert A.; Meece, Judith L.; Brooks, Debbie Sprott

2010-01-01

This study involved a pilot examination of the impact of the Supporting Early Adolescent Learning and Social Strengths (SEALS) model on the 6th grade academic and social context following the transition to middle school. Two middle schools from a high poverty Appalachian school district were randomly assigned to the intervention and control…

A Randomized Clinical Trial Comparison between Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) and Adult-Driven Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Intervention on Disruptive Behaviors in Public School Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohammadzaheri, Fereshteh; Koegel, Lynn Kern; Rezaei, Mohammad; Bakhshi, Enayatolah

2015-01-01

Children with autism often demonstrate disruptive behaviors during demanding teaching tasks. Language intervention can be particularly difficult as it involves social and communicative areas, which are challenging for this population. The purpose of this study was to compare two intervention conditions, a naturalistic approach, Pivotal Response…

Social Support and Endocrine Function: A Randomized Trial with Breast Cancer Patients

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-08-01

number of events, but also involves cognitive appraisal processes as well (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983; Lazarus & Folkman , 1984). Subjective...been linked causally to social support in some studies (Cohen, Teresi, & Holmes, 1987; Schaefer, Coyne, & Lazarus , 1981), suggesting that social support...Schaefer, C., Coyne, J., & Lazarus , R. (1981). Health related functions of social support. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4, 381-406. Seeman, T.E

A Native American Community's Involvement and Empowerment to Guide Their Children's Development in the School Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rivera, Hector H.; Tharp, Roland G.

2006-01-01

This study provides an empirical description of the dimensions of community values, beliefs, and opinions through a survey conducted in the Pueblo Indian community of Zuni in New Mexico. The sample was composed of 200 randomly chosen community members ranging from 21 to 103 years old. A principal component factor analysis was conducted, as well as…

Growth and spacing in Eucalyptus-A case study from Punjab

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kapur, S.K.; Dogra, A.S.

1992-12-31

A spacing trial of Eucalyptus tereticornis Smith involving 14 different spacings in a randomized block design with four replications was started in Punjab in 1988. Analysis of data 7 years after planting shows that a spacing of 3.0 m x 3.0 m may be best for pulpwood production, although there is no significant difference between different spacings in terms of volume produced.

Development of Attitudes towards Mathematics Scale (ATMS) Using Nigerian Data - Factor Analysis as a Determinant of Attitude Subcategories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zakariya, Yusuf F.

2017-01-01

This study was aimed at the development of an instrument for measuring students' attitudes towards mathematics. A survey research design was adopted involving 510 students randomly selected. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out to determine the number of factors to be retained in the ATMS. The adequacy of the sample was confirmed by…

The Effect of the Number and Nature of Features and of General Ability on the Simultaneous and Successive Processing of Maps.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sutherland, Sandra; Winn, William

The interactions of three factors that may be involved with the memory for pattern or sequence in visual materials were investigated in this study: (1) arbitrariness of representation; (2) task; and (3) ability of students. The subjects, who were 29 graduate students in education, were pretested for general ability and randomly assigned to four…

THE SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF MIGRANT FARM LABORERS--EFFECT OF MIGRANT FARM LABOR ON THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

BROOKS, MELVIN S.; HILGENDORF, ROBERT L.

MIGRANT LABORERS WHO PICKED STRAWBERRIES IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS IN THE SPRING OF 1958 WERE SURVEYED. THIS PARTICULAR SAMPLE WAS SELECTED FOR STUDY BECAUSE FAR MORE CHILDREN ARE INVOLVED IN THE HARVEST OF STRAWBERRIES THAN IN ANY OTHER FARM TASK OF THE AREA. MIGRANTS WHO WERE INTERVIEWED WERE SELECTED BY SYSTEMATIC RANDOM SAMPLING--A PROCEDURE THAT…

The Efficacy of Yoga as a Form of Treatment for Depression

PubMed Central

Bridges, Ledetra; Sharma, Manoj

2017-01-01

The purpose of this article was to systematically review yoga interventions aimed at improving depressive symptoms. A total of 23 interventions published between 2011 and May 2016 were evaluated in this review. Three study designs were used: randomized control trials, quasi-experimental, and pretest/posttest, with majority being randomized control trials. Most of the studies were in the United States. Various yoga schools were used, with the most common being Hatha yoga. The number of participants participating in the studies ranged from 14 to 136, implying that most studies had a small sample. The duration of the intervention period varied greatly, with the majority being 6 weeks or longer. Limitations of the interventions involved the small sample sizes used by the majority of the studies, most studies examining the short-term effect of yoga for depression, and the nonutilization of behavioral theories. Despite the limitations, it can be concluded that the yoga interventions were effective in reducing depression. PMID:28664775

Patterns of relapse from a phase 3 Study of response-based therapy for intermediate-risk Hodgkin lymphoma (AHOD0031): a report from the Children's Oncology Group.

PubMed

Dharmarajan, Kavita V; Friedman, Debra L; Schwartz, Cindy L; Chen, Lu; FitzGerald, T J; McCarten, Kathleen M; Kessel, Sandy K; Iandoli, Matt; Constine, Louis S; Wolden, Suzanne L

2015-05-01

The study was designed to determine whether response-based therapy improves outcomes in intermediate-risk Hodgkin lymphoma. We examined patterns of first relapse in the study. From September 2002 to July 2010, 1712 patients <22 years old with stage I-IIA with bulk, I-IIAE, I-IIB, and IIIA-IVA with or without doxorubicin, bleomycin, vincristine, etoposide, prednisone, and cyclophosphamide were enrolled. Patients were categorized as rapid (RER) or slow early responders (SER) after 2 cycles of doxorubicin, bleomycin, vincristine, etoposide, prednisone, and cyclophosphamide (ABVE-PC). The SER patients were randomized to 2 additional ABVE-PC cycles or augmented chemotherapy with 21 Gy involved field radiation therapy (IFRT). RER patients were stipulated to undergo 2 additional ABVE-PC cycles and were then randomized to 21 Gy IFRT or no further treatment if complete response (CR) was achieved. RER without CR patients were non-randomly assigned to 21 Gy IFRT. Relapses were characterized without respect to site (initial, new, or both; and initial bulk or initial nonbulk), and involved field radiation therapy field (in-field, out-of-field, or both). Patients were grouped by treatment assignment (SER; RER/no CR; RER/CR/IFRT; and RER/CR/no IFRT). Summary statistics were reported. At 4-year median follow-up, 244 patients had experienced relapse, 198 of whom were fully evaluable for review. Those who progressed during treatment (n=30) or lacked relapse imaging (n=16) were excluded. The median time to relapse was 12.8 months. Of the 198 evaluable patients, 30% were RER/no CR, 26% were SER, 26% were RER/CR/no IFRT, 16% were RER/CR/IFRT, and 2% remained uncategorized. The 74% and 75% relapses involved initially bulky and nonbulky sites, respectively. First relapses rarely occurred at exclusively new or out-of-field sites. By contrast, relapses usually occurred at nodal sites of initial bulky and nonbulky disease. Although response-based therapy has helped define treatment for selected RER patients, it has not improved outcome for SER patients or facilitated refinement of IFRT volumes or doses. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effect of recovery coaches for substance-involved mothers in child welfare: impact on juvenile delinquency.

PubMed

Douglas-Siegel, Jonah A; Ryan, Joseph P

2013-10-01

Despite the documented relationship between parental substance abuse and youth delinquency, the effects of parental interventions on delinquency outcomes are unknown. Such interventions are particularly vital for families in the child welfare system who are at heightened risk for both parental substance involvement and youth delinquency. The current study tested the impact of intensive case management in the form of a recovery coach for substance-involved mothers on youth delinquency outcomes among a randomized sample of 453 families involved in a Title IV-E experimental waiver demonstration in Cook County, Illinois. In comparison to control group participants, families enrolled in the Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (AODA) waiver demonstration experienced a lower rate of juvenile arrest, net of factors such as demographic characteristics, primary drug of choice, and time spent in substitute care. Findings support efforts to curb delinquency among child-welfare involved youth by providing recovery coaches to their substance abusing or dependent parents. © 2013.

Persistent random walk of cells involving anomalous effects and random death

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fedotov, Sergei; Tan, Abby; Zubarev, Andrey

2015-04-01

The purpose of this paper is to implement a random death process into a persistent random walk model which produces sub-ballistic superdiffusion (Lévy walk). We develop a stochastic two-velocity jump model of cell motility for which the switching rate depends upon the time which the cell has spent moving in one direction. It is assumed that the switching rate is a decreasing function of residence (running) time. This assumption leads to the power law for the velocity switching time distribution. This describes the anomalous persistence of cell motility: the longer the cell moves in one direction, the smaller the switching probability to another direction becomes. We derive master equations for the cell densities with the generalized switching terms involving the tempered fractional material derivatives. We show that the random death of cells has an important implication for the transport process through tempering of the superdiffusive process. In the long-time limit we write stationary master equations in terms of exponentially truncated fractional derivatives in which the rate of death plays the role of tempering of a Lévy jump distribution. We find the upper and lower bounds for the stationary profiles corresponding to the ballistic transport and diffusion with the death-rate-dependent diffusion coefficient. Monte Carlo simulations confirm these bounds.

Involvement of Fathers in Pediatric Obesity Treatment and Prevention Trials: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Morgan, Philip J; Young, Myles D; Lloyd, Adam B; Wang, Monica L; Eather, Narelle; Miller, Andrew; Murtagh, Elaine M; Barnes, Alyce T; Pagoto, Sherry L

2017-02-01

Despite their important influence on child health, it is assumed that fathers are less likely than mothers to participate in pediatric obesity treatment and prevention research. This review investigated the involvement of fathers in obesity treatment and prevention programs targeting children and adolescents (0-18 years). A systematic review of English, peer-reviewed articles across 7 databases. Retrieved records included at least 1 search term from 2 groups: "participants" (eg, child*, parent*) and "outcomes": (eg, obes*, diet*). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing behavioral interventions to prevent or treat obesity in pediatric samples were eligible. Parents must have "actively participated" in the study. Two authors independently extracted data using a predefined template. The search retrieved 213 eligible RCTs. Of the RCTs that limited participation to 1 parent only (n = 80), fathers represented only 6% of parents. In RCTs in which participation was open to both parents (n = 133), 92% did not report objective data on father involvement. No study characteristics moderated the level of father involvement, with fathers underrepresented across all study types. Only 4 studies (2%) suggested that a lack of fathers was a possible limitation. Two studies (1%) reported explicit attempts to increase father involvement. The review was limited to RCTs published in English peer-reviewed journals over a 10-year period. Existing pediatric obesity treatment or prevention programs with parent involvement have not engaged fathers. Innovative strategies are needed to make participation more accessible and engaging for fathers. Copyright © 2017 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Laryngoscope plastic blades in scheduled general anesthesia patients: a comparative randomized study.

PubMed

Galinski, Michel; Catineau, Jean; Rayeh, Fatima; Muret, Jane; Ciebiera, Jean-Pierre; Plantevin, Frédéric; Foucrier, Arnaud; Tual, Loic; Combes, Xavier; Adnet, Frédéric

2011-03-01

To compare two brands of disposable plastic laryngoscope blades, Vital View plastic blades and Heine XP plastic blades, with the reusable Heine Classic+ Macintosh metal blades. Prospective randomized, controlled, single-blinded study. Operating room of a university-affiliated hospital. 519 patients without criteria for predicted difficult intubation, undergoing scheduled surgery during general anesthesia. Patients were randomized to three groups according to laryngoscope blade brand. Difficult tracheal intubation was evaluated by the Intubation Difficulty Scale (IDS) (IDS > 5 = procedure involving moderate to major difficulty). The percentage of intubations with an IDS > 5 was 3.1% in Group M (metal blade group), 5.1% in Group V (Vital View plastic blade group), and 10.0% in Group H (Heine plastic blade group). A significant difference was noted between Groups M and H (P = 0.02) but not between Groups M and V. Intubation may be more challenging when using Heine XP plastic blades but no significant difference exists between Vital-View plastic blades and Heine Classic+ metal blades. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Semiparametric Bayesian classification with longitudinal markers

PubMed Central

De la Cruz-Mesía, Rolando; Quintana, Fernando A.; Müller, Peter

2013-01-01

Summary We analyse data from a study involving 173 pregnant women. The data are observed values of the β human chorionic gonadotropin hormone measured during the first 80 days of gestational age, including from one up to six longitudinal responses for each woman. The main objective in this study is to predict normal versus abnormal pregnancy outcomes from data that are available at the early stages of pregnancy. We achieve the desired classification with a semiparametric hierarchical model. Specifically, we consider a Dirichlet process mixture prior for the distribution of the random effects in each group. The unknown random-effects distributions are allowed to vary across groups but are made dependent by using a design vector to select different features of a single underlying random probability measure. The resulting model is an extension of the dependent Dirichlet process model, with an additional probability model for group classification. The model is shown to perform better than an alternative model which is based on independent Dirichlet processes for the groups. Relevant posterior distributions are summarized by using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. PMID:24368871

The effects of message framing, involvement, and nicotine dependence on anti-smoking public service announcements.

PubMed

Jung, Wan S; Villegas, Jorge

2011-01-01

Anti-smoking Public Service Announcements (PSAs) typically emphasize the negative consequences of failing to quit smoking (negative frame), as opposed to emphasizing the benefits of quitting (positive frame). However, stressing the benefits of quitting sometimes produces better communication outcomes. Previous research on message framing has tried to identify factors affecting the impact of positive framing and negative framing. Data were collected on 188 undergraduates attending a southeastern university in the United States who were assigned randomly to view either positive or negative messages. Our study found that involvement and nicotine dependence moderated the impact of framed smoking-cessation messages on attitude toward the ad.

Alcohol-Adapted Anger Management Treatment: A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Innovative Therapy for Alcohol Dependence.

PubMed

Walitzer, Kimberly S; Deffenbacher, Jerry L; Shyhalla, Kathleen

2015-12-01

A randomized controlled trial for an innovative alcohol-adapted anger management treatment (AM) for outpatient alcohol dependent individuals scoring moderate or above on anger is described. AM treatment outcomes were compared to those of an empirically-supported intervention, Alcoholics Anonymous Facilitation treatment (AAF). Clients in AM, relative to clients in AAF, were hypothesized to have greater improvement in anger and anger-related cognitions and lesser AA involvement during the 6-month follow-up. Anger-related variables were hypothesized to be stronger predictors of improved alcohol outcomes in the AM treatment condition and AA involvement was hypothesized to be a stronger predictor of alcohol outcomes in the AAF treatment group. Seventy-six alcohol dependent men and women were randomly assigned to treatment condition and followed for 6 months after treatment end. Both AM and AAF treatments were followed by significant reductions in heavy drinking days, alcohol consequences, anger, and maladaptive anger-related thoughts and increases in abstinence and self-confidence regarding not drinking to anger-related triggers. Treatment with AAF was associated with greater AA involvement relative to treatment with AM. Changes in anger and AA involvement were predictive of posttreatment alcohol outcomes for both treatments. Change in trait anger was a stronger predictor of posttreatment alcohol consequences for AM than for AAF clients; during-treatment AA meeting attendance was a stronger predictor of posttreatment heavy drinking and alcohol consequences for AAF than for AM clients. Anger-related constructs and drinking triggers should be foci in treatment of alcohol dependence for anger-involved clients. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Alcohol-adapted Anger Management Treatment: A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Innovative Therapy for Alcohol Dependence

PubMed Central

Walitzer, Kimberly S.; Deffenbacher, Jerry L.; Shyhalla, Kathleen

2015-01-01

A randomized controlled trial for an innovative alcohol-adapted anger management treatment (AM) for outpatient alcohol dependent individuals scoring moderate or above on anger is described. AM treatment outcomes were compared to those of an empirically-supported intervention, Alcoholics Anonymous Facilitation treatment (AAF). Clients in AM, relative to clients in AAF, were hypothesized to have greater improvement in anger and anger-related cognitions and lesser AA involvement during the six-month follow-up. Anger-related variables were hypothesized to be stronger predictors of improved alcohol outcomes in the AM treatment condition and AA involvement was hypothesized to be a stronger predictor of alcohol outcomes in the AAF treatment group. Seventy-six alcohol dependent men and women were randomly assigned to treatment condition and followed for six months after treatment end. Both AM and AAF treatments were followed by significant reductions in heavy drinking days, alcohol consequences, anger, and maladaptive anger-related thoughts and increases in abstinence and self-confidence regarding not drinking to anger-related triggers. Treatment with AAF was associated with greater AA involvement relative to treatment with AM. Changes in anger and AA involvement were predictive of posttreatment alcohol outcomes for both treatments. Change in trait anger was a stronger predictor of posttreatment alcohol consequences for AM than for AAF clients; during-treatment AA meeting attendance was a stronger predictor of posttreatment heavy drinking and alcohol consequences for AAF than for AM clients. Anger-related constructs and drinking triggers should be foci in treatment of alcohol dependence for anger-involved clients. PMID:26387049

Protocol for the effect evaluation of Individual Placement and Support (IPS): a randomized controlled multicenter trial of IPS versus treatment as usual for patients with moderate to severe mental illness in Norway.

PubMed

Sveinsdottir, Vigdis; Løvvik, Camilla; Fyhn, Tonje; Monstad, Karin; Ludvigsen, Kari; Øverland, Simon; Reme, Silje Endresen

2014-11-18

Roughly one third of disability pensions in Norway are issued for mental and behavioral disorders, and vocational rehabilitation offered to this group has traditionally been dominated by train-and-place approaches with assisted or sheltered employment. Based on a more innovative place-and-train approach, Individual Placement and Support (IPS) involves supported employment in real-life competitive work settings, and has shown great promise for patients with severe mental illness. The study is a multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) of IPS in a Norwegian context, involving an effect evaluation, a process evaluation, and a cost/benefit analysis. IPS will be compared to high quality treatment as usual (TAU), with labor market participation and educational activity at 12 months post inclusion as the primary outcome. The primary outcome will be measured using register data, and the project will also include complete follow-up up to 4 years after inclusion for long-term outcome data. Secondary outcomes include mental health status, disability and quality of life, collected through survey questionnaires at baseline, and after 6 and 12 months. Participants will include patients undergoing treatment for moderate to severe mental illness who are either unemployed or on sickness or social benefits. The estimated total sample size of 400-500 will be randomly assigned to the interventions. To be eligible, participants must have an expressed desire to work, and sufficient Norwegian reading and writing skills to fill out the questionnaires. The Effect Evaluation of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) will be one of the largest randomized controlled trials to date investigating the effectiveness of IPS on competitive employment, and the first study to evaluate the effectiveness of IPS for patients with moderate to severe mental illness within a Norwegian context. Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01964092 . Registered October 16th, 2013.

Effect of Moderate-Intensity Exercise Training on Peak Oxygen Consumption in Patients With Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

PubMed

Saberi, Sara; Wheeler, Matthew; Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer; Hornsby, Whitney; Agarwal, Prachi P; Attili, Anil; Concannon, Maryann; Dries, Annika M; Shmargad, Yael; Salisbury, Heidi; Kumar, Suwen; Herrera, Jonathan J; Myers, Jonathan; Helms, Adam S; Ashley, Euan A; Day, Sharlene M

2017-04-04

Formulating exercise recommendations for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is challenging because of concern about triggering ventricular arrhythmias and because a clinical benefit has not been previously established in this population. To determine whether moderate-intensity exercise training improves exercise capacity in adults with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. A randomized clinical trial involving 136 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was conducted between April 2010 and October 2015 at 2 academic medical centers in the United States (University of Michigan Health System and Stanford University Medical Center). Date of last follow-up was November 2016. Participants were randomly assigned to 16 weeks of moderate-intensity exercise training (n = 67) or usual activity (n = 69). The primary outcome measure was change in peak oxygen consumption from baseline to 16 weeks. Among the 136 randomized participants (mean age, 50.4 [SD, 13.3] years; 42% women), 113 (83%) completed the study. At 16 weeks, the change in mean peak oxygen consumption was +1.35 (95% CI, 0.50 to 2.21) mL/kg/min among participants in the exercise training group and +0.08 (95% CI, -0.62 to 0.79) mL/kg/min among participants in the usual-activity group (between-group difference, 1.27 [95% CI, 0.17 to 2.37]; P = .02). There were no occurrences of sustained ventricular arrhythmia, sudden cardiac arrest, appropriate defibrillator shock, or death in either group. In this preliminary study involving patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, moderate-intensity exercise compared with usual activity resulted in a statistically significant but small increase in exercise capacity at 16 weeks. Further research is needed to understand the clinical importance of this finding in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, as well as the long-term safety of exercise at moderate and higher levels of intensity. clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01127061.

Study protocol: a mixed methods study to assess mental health recovery, shared decision-making and quality of life (Plan4Recovery).

PubMed

Coffey, Michael; Hannigan, Ben; Meudell, Alan; Hunt, Julian; Fitzsimmons, Deb

2016-08-17

Recovery in mental health care is complex, highly individual and can be facilitated by a range of professional and non-professional support. In this study we will examine how recovery from mental health problems is promoted in non-medical settings. We hypothesise a relationship between involvement in decisions about care, social support and recovery and quality of life outcomes. We will use standardised validated instruments of involvement in decision-making, social contacts, recovery and quality of life with a random sample of people accessing non-statutory mental health social care services in Wales. We will add to this important information with detailed one to one case study interviews with people, their family members and their support workers. We will use a series of these interviews to examine how people build recovery over time to help us understand more about their involvement in decisions and the social links they build. We want to see how being involved in decisions about care and the social links people have are related to recovery and quality of life for people with experience of using mental health support services. We want to understand the different perspectives of the people involved in making recovery possible. We will use this information to guide further studies of particular types of social interventions and their use in helping recovery from mental health problems.

Reasons for nonresponse in a web-based survey of alcohol involvement among first-year college students.

PubMed

Cranford, James A; McCabe, Sean Esteban; Boyd, Carol J; Slayden, Janie; Reed, Mark B; Ketchie, Julie M; Lange, James E; Scott, Marcia S

2008-01-01

This study conducted a follow-up telephone survey of a probability sample of college students who did not respond to a Web survey to determine correlates of and reasons for nonresponse. A stratified random sample of 2502 full-time first-year undergraduate students was invited to participate in a Web-based survey. A random sample of 221 students who did not respond to the original Web survey completed an abbreviated version of the original survey by telephone. Nonresponse did not vary by gender, but nonresponse was higher among Blacks and Hispanics compared to Whites, and Blacks compared to Asians. Nonresponders reported lower frequency of past 28 days drinking, lower levels of past-year and past 28-days heavy episodic drinking, and more time spent preparing for classes than responders. The most common reasons for nonresponse were "too busy" (45.7%), "not interested" (18.1%), and "forgot to complete survey" (18.1%). Reasons for nonresponse to Web surveys among college students are similar to reasons for nonresponse to mail and telephone surveys, and some nonresponse reasons vary as a function of alcohol involvement.

Is Attention Shared Between the Ears?1

PubMed Central

Shiffrin, Richard M.; Pisoni, David B.; Castaneda-Mendez, Kicab

2012-01-01

This study tests the locus of attention during selective listening for speech-like stimuli. Can processing be differentially allocated to the two ears? Two conditions were used. The simultaneous condition involved one of four randomly chosen stop-consonants being presented to one of the ears chosen at random. The sequential condition involved two intervals; in the first S listened to the right ear; in the second S listened to the left ear. One of the four consonants was presented to an attended ear during one of these intervals. Experiment I used no distracting stimuli. Experiment II utilized a distracting consonant not confusable with any of the four target consonants. This distractor was always presented to any ear not containing a target. In both experiments, simultaneous and sequential performance were essentially identical, despite the need for attention sharing between the two ears during the simultaneous condition. We conclude that selective attention does not occur during perceptual processing of speech sounds presented to the two ears. We suggest that attentive effects arise in short-term memory following processing. PMID:23226838

Jamming and percolation in random sequential adsorption of straight rigid rods on a two-dimensional triangular lattice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perino, E. J.; Matoz-Fernandez, D. A.; Pasinetti, P. M.; Ramirez-Pastor, A. J.

2017-07-01

Monte Carlo simulations and finite-size scaling analysis have been performed to study the jamming and percolation behavior of linear k-mers (also known as rods or needles) on a two-dimensional triangular lattice of linear dimension L, considering an isotropic RSA process and periodic boundary conditions. Extensive numerical work has been done to extend previous studies to larger system sizes and longer k-mers, which enables the confirmation of a nonmonotonic size dependence of the percolation threshold and the estimation of a maximum value of k from which percolation would no longer occur. Finally, a complete analysis of critical exponents and universality has been done, showing that the percolation phase transition involved in the system is not affected, having the same universality class of the ordinary random percolation.

Contralateral eye comparison on changes in visual field following laser in situ keratomileusis vs photorefractive keratectomy for myopia: a randomized clinical trial.

PubMed

Mostafaei, A; Sedgipour, M R; Sadeghi-Bazargani, H

2009-12-01

Study purpose was to compare the changes of Visual Field (VF) during laser in situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) VS photorefractive keratectomy (PRK). This randomized, double blind, study involved 54 eyes of 27 Myopia patients who underwent LASIK or PRK procedures for contralateral eyes in each patient. Using Humphrey 30-2 SITA standard, the Mean Defect (MD) and Pattern Standard Deviation (PSD) were evaluated preoperatively and three months after surgery. At the same examination optical zone size, papillary and corneal diameters were also evaluated. There was no clinically significant difference in PSD and MD measurements between treated eyes with LASIK or PRK in any zone pre and postoperatively. VF may not be affected by corneal changes induced by LASIK or PRK three months after surgery.

Design and application of nickel-titanium olecranon memory connector in treatment of olecranon fractures: a prospective randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Chen, Xiao; Liu, Peng; Zhu, Xiaofei; Cao, Liehu; Zhang, Chuncai; Su, Jiacan

2013-06-01

We carried out this study to test the efficacy of the olecranon memory connector (OMC) in olecranon fractures. We designed a prospective randomised controlled trial involving 40 cases of olecranon fractures. From May 2004 to December 2009, 40 patients with olecranon fractures were randomly assigned into two groups. Twenty patients were treated with OMC, while another 20 patients were fixed with locking plates in our hospital. The DASH score, MEP score, range of motion and radiographs were used to evaluate the postoperative elbow function and complications. For MEP score, OMC was better than the locking plate; for DASH score, complication rate, and range of elbow motion, the two methods presented no significant difference. The study showed that OMC could be an effective alternative to treat olecranon fractures.

Sampling Strategies for Evaluating the Rate of Adventitious Transgene Presence in Non-Genetically Modified Crop Fields.

PubMed

Makowski, David; Bancal, Rémi; Bensadoun, Arnaud; Monod, Hervé; Messéan, Antoine

2017-09-01

According to E.U. regulations, the maximum allowable rate of adventitious transgene presence in non-genetically modified (GM) crops is 0.9%. We compared four sampling methods for the detection of transgenic material in agricultural non-GM maize fields: random sampling, stratified sampling, random sampling + ratio reweighting, random sampling + regression reweighting. Random sampling involves simply sampling maize grains from different locations selected at random from the field concerned. The stratified and reweighting sampling methods make use of an auxiliary variable corresponding to the output of a gene-flow model (a zero-inflated Poisson model) simulating cross-pollination as a function of wind speed, wind direction, and distance to the closest GM maize field. With the stratified sampling method, an auxiliary variable is used to define several strata with contrasting transgene presence rates, and grains are then sampled at random from each stratum. With the two methods involving reweighting, grains are first sampled at random from various locations within the field, and the observations are then reweighted according to the auxiliary variable. Data collected from three maize fields were used to compare the four sampling methods, and the results were used to determine the extent to which transgene presence rate estimation was improved by the use of stratified and reweighting sampling methods. We found that transgene rate estimates were more accurate and that substantially smaller samples could be used with sampling strategies based on an auxiliary variable derived from a gene-flow model. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

The Hi Five study: design of a school-based randomized trial to reduce infections and improve hygiene and well-being among 6-15 year olds in Denmark.

PubMed

Johansen, Anette; Denbæk, Anne Maj; Bonnesen, Camilla Thørring; Due, Pernille

2015-03-01

Infectious illnesses such as influenza and diarrhea are leading causes of absenteeism among Danish school children. Interventions in school settings addressing hand hygiene have shown to reduce the number of infectious illnesses. However, most of these studies include small populations and almost none of them are conducted as randomized controlled trials. The overall aim of the Hi Five study was to develop, implement and evaluate a multi-component school-based intervention to improve hand hygiene and well-being and to reduce the prevalence of infections among school children in intervention schools by 20% compared to control schools. This paper describes the development and the evaluation design of Hi Five. The Hi Five study was designed as a tree-armed cluster-randomized controlled trial. A national random sample of schools (n = 44) was randomized to one of two intervention groups (n = 29) or to a control group with no intervention (n = 15). A total of 8,438 six to fifteen-year-old school children were enrolled in the study. The Hi Five intervention consisted of three components: 1) a curriculum component 2) mandatory daily hand washing before lunch 3) extra cleaning of school toilets during the school day. Baseline data was collected from December 2011 to April 2012. The intervention period was August 2012 to June 2013. The follow-up data was collected from December 2012 to April 2013. The Hi Five study fills a gap in international research. This large randomized multi-component school-based hand hygiene intervention is the first to include education on healthy and appropriate toilet behavior as part of the curriculum. No previous studies have involved supplementary cleaning at the school toilets as an intervention component. The study will have the added value of providing new knowledge about usability of short message service (SMS, text message) for collecting data on infectious illness and absenteeism in large study populations. Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN19287682 , 21 December 2012.

Mentalization-based therapy for parents in entrenched conflict: A random allocation feasibility study.

PubMed

Hertzmann, Leezah; Target, Mary; Hewison, David; Casey, Polly; Fearon, Pasco; Lassri, Dana

2016-12-01

To explore the effectiveness of a mentalization-based therapeutic intervention specifically developed for parents in entrenched conflict over their children. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first randomized controlled intervention study in the United Kingdom to work with both parents postseparation, and the first to focus on mentalization in this situation. Using a mixed-methods study design, 30 parents were randomly allocated to either mentalization-based therapy for parental conflict-Parenting Together, or the Parents' Group, a psycho-educational intervention for separated parents based on elements of the Separated Parents Information Program-part of the U.K. Family Justice System and approximating to treatment as usual. Given the challenges of recruiting parents in these difficult circumstances, the sample size was small and permitted only the detection of large differences between conditions. The data, involving repeated measures of related individuals, was explored statistically, using hierarchical linear modeling, and qualitatively. Significant findings were reported on the main predicted outcomes, with clinically important trends on other measures. Qualitative findings further contributed to the understanding of parents' subjective experience, pre- and posttreatment. Findings indicate that a larger scale randomized controlled trial would be worthwhile. These encouraging findings shed light on the dynamics maintaining these high-conflict situations known to be damaging to children. We established that both forms of intervention were acceptable to most parents, and we were able to operate a random allocation design with extensive quantitative and qualitative assessments of the kind that would make a larger-scale trial feasible and productive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Efficacy of Acupuncture for Bell's Palsy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

PubMed

Li, Pingping; Qiu, Tangmeng; Qin, Chao

2015-01-01

Acupuncture has emerged as an alternative therapy for Bell's palsy in both adults and children. However, the use of acupuncture is controversial. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the efficacy of acupuncture for Bell's palsy. We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, irrespective of any language restrictions. Randomized controlled trials comparing acupuncture with other therapies for Bell's palsy in adults or children were included. Fourteen randomized controlled trials involving 1541 individuals were included in this meta-analysis. Significant association was observed in acupuncture with a higher effective response rate for Bell's palsy (relative risk, 1.14; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-1.25; P = 0.005) but there was a heterogeneity among the studies (I2 = 87%). An assessment of the included studies revealed a high risk of bias in methodological quality. An evaluation of the incidence of complications was not available, owing to incomplete data. Acupuncture seems to be an effective therapy for Bell's palsy, but there was insufficient evidence to support the efficacy and safety of acupuncture. However, the results should be interpreted cautiously, because of the poor quality and heterogeneity of the included studies.

The rationale and design of the Beta-blocker to LOwer CArdiovascular Dialysis Events (BLOCADE) Feasibility Study.

PubMed

Roberts, Matthew A; Pilmore, Helen L; Ierino, Francesco L; Badve, Sunil V; Cass, Alan; Garg, Amit X; Hawley, Carmel M; Isbel, Nicole M; Krum, Henry; Pascoe, Elaine M; Tonkin, Andrew M; Vergara, Liza A; Perkovic, Vlado

2015-03-01

The Beta-blocker to LOwer CArdiovascular Dialysis Events (BLOCADE) Feasibility Study aims to determine the feasibility of a large-scale randomized controlled trial with clinical endpoints comparing the beta-blocking agent carvedilol with placebo in patients receiving dialysis. The BLOCADE Feasibility Study is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group feasibility study comparing the beta-blocking agent carvedilol with placebo. Patients receiving dialysis for ≥3 months and who are aged ≥50 years, or who are ≥18 years and have diabetes or cardiovascular disease, were eligible. The primary outcome was the proportion of participants who complete a 6-week run-in phase in which all participants received carvedilol titrated from 3.125 mg twice daily to 6.25 mg twice daily. Other measures included how many patients are screened, the proportion recruited, the overall recruitment rate, the proportion of participants who remain on study drug for 12 months and the incidence of intra-dialytic hypotension while on randomized treatment. The BLOCADE Feasibility Study commenced recruiting in May 2011 and involves 11 sites in Australia and New Zealand. The BLOCADE Feasibility Study will inform the design of a larger clinical endpoint study to determine whether beta-blocking agents provide benefit to patients receiving dialysis, and define whether such a study is feasible. © 2014 Asian Pacific Society of Nephrology.

Acceptability and effectiveness of a web-based psychosocial intervention among criminal justice involved adults.

PubMed

Lee, J D; Tofighi, B; McDonald, R; Campbell, A; Hu, M C; Nunes, E

2017-12-01

The acceptability, feasibility and effectiveness of web-based interventions among criminal justice involved populations are understudied. This study is a secondary analysis of baseline characteristics associated with criminal justice system (CJS) status as treatment outcome moderators among participants enrolling in a large randomized trial of a web-based psychosocial intervention (Therapeutic Education System [TES]) as part of outpatient addiction treatment. We compared demographic and clinical characteristics, TES participation rates, and the trial's two co-primary outcomes, end of treatment abstinence and treatment retention, by self-reported CJS status at baseline: 1) CJS-mandated to community treatment (CJS-mandated), 2) CJS-recommended to treatment (CJS-recommended), 3) no CJS treatment mandate (CJS-none). CJS-mandated (n = 107) and CJS-recommended (n = 69) participants differed from CJS-none (n = 331) at baseline: CJS-mandated were significantly more likely to be male, uninsured, report cannabis as the primary drug problem, report fewer days of drug use at baseline, screen negative for depression, and score lower for psychological distress and higher on physical health status; CJS-recommended were younger, more likely single, less likely to report no regular Internet use, and to report cannabis as the primary drug problem. Both CJS-involved (CJS -recommended and -mandated) groups were more likely to have been recently incarcerated. Among participants randomized to the TES arm, module completion was similar across the CJS subgroups. A three-way interaction of treatment, baseline abstinence and CJS status showed no associations with the study's primary abstinence outcome. Overall, CJS-involved participants in this study tended to be young, male, and in treatment for a primary cannabis problem. The feasibility and effectiveness of the web-based psychosocial intervention, TES, did not vary by CJS-mandated or CJS-recommended participants compared to CJS-none. Web-based counseling interventions may be effective interventions as US public safety policies begin to emphasize supervised community drug treatment over incarceration.

Speech Output Technologies in Interventions for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Scoping Review.

PubMed

Schlosser, Ralf W; Koul, Rajinder K

2015-01-01

The purpose of this scoping review was to (a) map the research evidence on the effectiveness of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions using speech output technologies (e.g., speech-generating devices, mobile technologies with AAC-specific applications, talking word processors) for individuals with autism spectrum disorders, (b) identify gaps in the existing literature, and (c) posit directions for future research. Outcomes related to speech, language, and communication were considered. A total of 48 studies (47 single case experimental designs and 1 randomized control trial) involving 187 individuals were included. Results were reviewed in terms of three study groupings: (a) studies that evaluated the effectiveness of treatment packages involving speech output, (b) studies comparing one treatment package with speech output to other AAC modalities, and (c) studies comparing the presence with the absence of speech output. The state of the evidence base is discussed and several directions for future research are posited.

Relative Cost-Effectiveness of Treatments for Adolescent Depression: 36-Week Results from the TADS Randomized Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Domino, Marisa Elena; Foster, E. Michael; Vitiello, Benedetto; Kratochvil, Christopher J.; Burns, Barbara J.; Silva, Susan G.; Reinecke, Mark A.; March, John S.

2009-01-01

Randomized controlled trials that involve 327 participants aged 12 to 18 who were diagnosed with major depression were given either fluoxetine alone, cognitive-behavioral therapy, or a combination of both. Cost-effectiveness acceptability curves suggest that combination treatment is highly likely to be the most cost-effective treatment than…

Randomized Trial of Brief Motivational Treatments for Pathological Gamblers: More Is Not Necessarily Better

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hodgins, David C.; Currie, Shawn R.; Currie, Gillian; Fick, Gordon H.

2009-01-01

The efficacy of brief treatments for media-recruited pathological gamblers was tested in a randomized clinical trial design (N = 314). Two self-directed motivational interventions were compared with a 6-week waiting list control and a workbook only control. Brief motivational treatment involved a telephone motivational interview and a mailed…

Hospital recruitment for a pragmatic cluster-randomized clinical trial: Lessons learned from the COMPASS study.

PubMed

Johnson, Anna M; Jones, Sara B; Duncan, Pamela W; Bushnell, Cheryl D; Coleman, Sylvia W; Mettam, Laurie H; Kucharska-Newton, Anna M; Sissine, Mysha E; Rosamond, Wayne D

2018-01-26

Pragmatic randomized clinical trials are essential to determine the effectiveness of interventions in "real-world" clinical practice. These trials frequently use a cluster-randomized methodology, with randomization at the site level. Despite policymakers' increased interest in supporting pragmatic randomized clinical trials, no studies to date have reported on the unique recruitment challenges faced by cluster-randomized pragmatic trials. We investigated key challenges and successful strategies for hospital recruitment in the Comprehensive Post-Acute Stroke Services (COMPASS) study. The COMPASS study is designed to compare the effectiveness of the COMPASS model versus usual care in improving functional outcomes, reducing the numbers of hospital readmissions, and reducing caregiver strain for patients discharged home after stroke or transient ischemic attack. This model integrates early supported discharge planning with transitional care management, including nurse-led follow-up phone calls after 2, 30, and 60 days and an in-person clinic visit at 7-14 days involving a functional assessment and neurological examination. We present descriptive statistics of the characteristics of successfully recruited hospitals compared with all eligible hospitals, reasons for non-participation, and effective recruitment strategies. We successfully recruited 41 (43%) of 95 eligible North Carolina hospitals. Leading, non-exclusive reasons for non-participation included: insufficient staff or financial resources (n = 33, 61%), lack of health system support (n = 16, 30%), and lack of support of individual decision-makers (n = 11, 20%). Successful recruitment strategies included: building and nurturing relationships, engaging team members and community partners with a diverse skill mix, identifying gatekeepers, finding mutually beneficial solutions, having a central institutional review board, sharing published pilot data, and integrating contracts and review board administrators. Although we incorporated strategies based on the best available evidence at the outset of the study, hospital recruitment required three times as much time and considerably more staff than anticipated. To reach our goal, we tailored strategies to individuals, hospitals, and health systems. Successful recruitment of a sufficient number and representative mix of hospitals requires considerable preparation, planning, and flexibility. Strategies presented here may assist future trial organizers in implementing cluster-randomized pragmatic trials. Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02588664 . Registered on 23 October 2015.

The CHOLEGAS study: multicentric randomized, blinded, controlled trial of gastrectomy plus prophylactic cholecystectomy versus gastrectomy only, in adults submitted to gastric cancer surgery with curative intent.

PubMed

Farsi, Marco; Bernini, Marco; Bencini, Lapo; Miranda, Egidio; Manetti, Roberto; de Manzoni, Giovanni; Verlato, Giuseppe; Marrelli, Daniele; Pedrazzani, Corrado; Roviello, Francesco; Marchet, Alberto; Cristadoro, Luigi; Gerard, Leonardo; Moretti, Renato

2009-05-15

The incidence of gallstones and gallbladder sludge is known to be higher in patients after gastrectomy than in general population. This higher incidence is probably related to surgical dissection of the vagus nerve branches and the anatomical gastrointestinal reconstruction. Therefore, some surgeons perform routine concomitant cholecystectomy during standard surgery for gastric malignancies. However, not all the patients who are diagnosed to have cholelithiasis after gastric cancer surgery will develop symptoms or require additional surgical treatments and a standard laparoscopic cholecystectomy is feasible even in those patients who underwent previous gastric surgery. At the present, no randomized study has been published and the decision of gallbladder management is left to each surgeon preference. The study is a randomized controlled investigation. The study will be performed in the General and Oncologic Surgery, Department of Oncology-Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi-Florence-Italy, a large teaching institution, with the participation of all surgeons who accept to be involved in, together with other Italian Surgical Centers, on behalf of the GIRCG (Italian Research Group for Gastric Cancer).The patients will be randomized into two groups: in the first group the patient will be submitted to prophylactic cholecystectomy during standard surgery for curable gastric cancer (subtotal or total gastrectomy), while in the second group he/she will be submitted to standard gastric surgery only. ClinicalTrials.gov ID. NCT00757640.

Theory-based self-management educational interventions on patients with type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

PubMed

Zhao, Fang-Fang; Suhonen, Riitta; Koskinen, Sanna; Leino-Kilpi, Helena

2017-04-01

To synthesize the effects of theory-based self-management educational interventions on patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in randomized controlled trials. Type 2 diabetes is a common chronic disease causing complications that put a heavy burden on society and reduce the quality of life of patients. Good self-management of diabetes can prevent complications and improve the quality of life of T2DM patients. Systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials following Cochrane methods. A literature search was carried out in the MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PSYCINFO, and Web of Science databases (1980-April 2015). The risk of bias of these eligible studies was assessed independently by two authors using the Cochrane Collaboration's tool. The Publication bias of the main outcomes was examined. Statistical heterogeneity and random-effects model were used for meta-analysis. Twenty studies with 5802 participants met the inclusion criteria. The interventions in the studies were based on one or more theories which mostly belong to mid-range theories. The pooled main outcomes by random-effects model showed significant improvements in HbA1c, self-efficacy, and diabetes knowledge, but not in BMI. As for quality of life, no conclusions can be drawn as the pooled outcome became the opposite with reduced heterogeneity after one study was excluded. No significant publication bias was found in the main outcomes. To get theory-based interventions to produce more effects, the role of patients should be more involved and stronger and the education team should be trained beyond the primary preparation for the self-management education program. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A software system for the simulation of chest lesions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ryan, John T.; McEntee, Mark; Barrett, Saoirse; Evanoff, Michael; Manning, David; Brennan, Patrick

2007-03-01

We report on the development of a novel software tool for the simulation of chest lesions. This software tool was developed for use in our study to attain optimal ambient lighting conditions for chest radiology. This study involved 61 consultant radiologists from the American Board of Radiology. Because of its success, we intend to use the same tool for future studies. The software has two main functions: the simulation of lesions and retrieval of information for ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) and JAFROC (Jack-Knife Free Response ROC) analysis. The simulation layer operates by randomly selecting an image from a bank of reportedly normal chest x-rays. A random location is then generated for each lesion, which is checked against a reference lung-map. If the location is within the lung fields, as derived from the lung-map, a lesion is superimposed. Lesions are also randomly selected from a bank of manually created chest lesion images. A blending algorithm determines which are the best intensity levels for the lesion to sit naturally within the chest x-ray. The same software was used to run a study for all 61 radiologists. A sequence of images is displayed in random order. Half of these images had simulated lesions, ranging from subtle to obvious, and half of the images were normal. The operator then selects locations where he/she thinks lesions exist and grades the lesion accordingly. We have found that this software was very effective in this study and intend to use the same principles for future studies.

Identifying Barriers That Hinder Onsite Parental Involvement in a School-Based Health Promotion Program

PubMed Central

Garcia-Dominic, Oralia; Wray, Linda A.; Treviño, Roberto P.; Hernandez, Arthur E.; Yin, Zenong; Ulbrecht, Jan S.

2009-01-01

We investigated whether barriers to onsite parental involvement in the Bienestar Health Program Parent Component could be identified and whether participation rates could be increased by addressing these barriers. All nonparticipating parents of fourth-grade students of San Antonio Independent School District from 4 schools, which were selected randomly from 20 intervention schools in Bienestar, were invited to take part in this study. A total of 47 of 223 (21%) parents engaged in one of four focus groups offered. Parents identified barriers to their involvement in Bienestar that fit into five descriptive categories: (a) low value, (b) high cost, (c) competing family demands, (d) concerns about the program design, and (e) social role norms. The Bienestar Parent Component was then modified according to the focus group findings, which resulted in a marked increase in parental involvement from 17% to 37% overall. These findings suggest that even when parents are involved in the initial design of parent-friendly and culturally sensitive programs, as was the case for Bienestar, maximizing parental involvement may require additional assessment, identification, and remediation of barriers. PMID:19339644

Perceptions of coping with non-disease-related life stress for women with osteoarthritis: a qualitative analysis.

PubMed

Harris, Melissa L; Byles, Julie E; Townsend, Natalie; Loxton, Deborah

2016-05-17

Coping with arthritis-related stress has been extensively studied. However, limited evidence exists regarding coping with stress extraneous to the disease (life stress). This study explored life stress and coping in a subset of older women with osteoarthritis from a larger longitudinal study. An Australian regional university. This qualitative study involved semistructured telephone interviews. Potential participants were mailed a letter of invitation/participant information statement by the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). Invitations were sent out in small batches (primarily 10). Interviews were conducted until data saturation was achieved using a systematic process (n=19). Digitally recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and deidentified. Data were thematically analysed. Women who indicated being diagnosed or treated for arthritis in the previous 3 years in the fifth survey of the ALSWH (conducted in 2007) provided the sampling frame. Potential participants were randomly sampled by a blinded data manager using a random number generator. Coping with life stress involved both attitudinal coping processes developed early in life (ie, stoicism) and transient cognitive and support-based responses. Women also described a dualistic process involving a reduction in the ability to cope with ongoing stress over time, coupled with personal growth. This is the first study to examine how individuals cope with non-arthritis-related stress. The findings add to the current understanding of stress and coping, and have implications regarding the prevention of arthritis in women. Importantly, this study highlighted the potential detrimental impact of persistent coping patterns developed early in life. Public health campaigns aimed at stress mitigation and facilitation of adaptive coping mechanisms in childhood and adolescence may assist with arthritis prevention. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Interventions to Improve Suboptimal Prescribing in Nursing Homes: A Narrative Review

PubMed Central

Marcum, Zachary A.; Handler, Steven M.; Wright, Rollin; Hanlon, Joseph T.

2010-01-01

Background Appropriate medication prescribing for nursing home residents remains a challenge. Objective The purpose of this study was to conduct a narrative review of the published literature describing randomized controlled trials that used interventions to improve suboptimal prescribing in nursing homes. Methods The PubMed, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, and EMBASE databases were searched for articles published in the English language between January 1975 and December 2009, using the terms drug utilization, pharmaceutical services, aged, long-term care, nursing homes, prescribing, geriatrics, and randomized controlled trial. A manual search of the reference lists of identified articles and the authors’ files, book chapters, and recent review articles was also conducted. Abstracts and posters from meetings were not included in the search. Studies were included if they: (1) had a randomized controlled design; (2) had a process measure outcome for quality of prescribing or a distal outcome measure for medication-related adverse patient events; and (3) involved nursing home residents. Results Eighteen studies met the inclusion criteria for this review. Seven of those studies described educational approaches using various interventions (eg, outreach visits) and measured suboptimal prescribing in different manners (eg, adherence to guidelines). Two studies described computerized decision-support systems to measure the intervention’s impact on adverse drug events (ADEs) and appropriate drug orders. Five studies described clinical pharmacist activities, most commonly involving a medication review, and used various measures of suboptimal prescribing, including a measure of medication appropriateness and the total number of medications prescribed. Two studies each described multidisciplinary and multifaceted approaches that included heterogeneous interventions and measures of prescribing. Most (15/18; 83.3%) of these studies reported statistically significant improvements in ≥1 aspect of suboptimal prescribing. Only 3 of the studies reported significant improvements in distal health outcomes, and only 3 measured ADEs or adverse drug reactions. Conclusions Mixed results were reported for a variety of approaches used to improve suboptimal prescribing. However, the heterogeneity of the study interventions and the various measures of suboptimal prescribing used in these studies does not allow for an authoritative conclusion based on the currently available literature. PMID:20624609

A 3-week multimodal intervention involving high-intensity interval training in female cancer survivors: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Schmitt, Joachim; Lindner, Nathalie; Reuss-Borst, Monika; Holmberg, Hans-Christer; Sperlich, Billy

2016-02-01

To compare the effects of a 3-week multimodal rehabilitation involving supervised high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on female breast cancer survivors with respect to key variables of aerobic fitness, body composition, energy expenditure, cancer-related fatigue, and quality of life to those of a standard multimodal rehabilitation program. A randomized controlled trial design was administered. Twenty-eight women, who had been treated for cancer were randomly assigned to either a group performing exercise of low-to-moderate intensity (LMIE; n = 14) or a group performing high-intensity interval training (HIIT; n = 14) as part of a 3-week multimodal rehabilitation program. No adverse events related to the exercise were reported. Work economy improved following both HIIT and LMIE, with improved peak oxygen uptake following LMIE. HIIT reduced mean total body fat mass with no change in body mass, muscle or fat-free mass (best P < 0.06). LMIE increased muscle and total fat-free body mass. Total energy expenditure (P = 0.45) did not change between the groups, whereas both improved quality of life to a similar high extent and lessened cancer-related fatigue. This randomized controlled study demonstrates that HIIT can be performed by female cancer survivors without adverse health effects. Here, HIIT and LMIE both improved work economy, quality of life and cancer-related fatigue, body composition or energy expenditure. Since the outcomes were similar, but HIIT takes less time, this may be a time-efficient strategy for improving certain aspects of the health of female cancer survivors. © 2016 The Authors. Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American Physiological Society and The Physiological Society.

Antioxidant supplements and mortality.

PubMed

Bjelakovic, Goran; Nikolova, Dimitrinka; Gluud, Christian

2014-01-01

Oxidative damage to cells and tissues is considered involved in the aging process and in the development of chronic diseases in humans, including cancer and cardiovascular diseases, the leading causes of death in high-income countries. This has stimulated interest in the preventive potential of antioxidant supplements. Today, more than one half of adults in high-income countries ingest antioxidant supplements hoping to improve their health, oppose unhealthy behaviors, and counteract the ravages of aging. Older observational studies and some randomized clinical trials with high risks of systematic errors ('bias') have suggested that antioxidant supplements may improve health and prolong life. A number of randomized clinical trials with adequate methodologies observed neutral or negative results of antioxidant supplements. Recently completed large randomized clinical trials with low risks of bias and systematic reviews of randomized clinical trials taking systematic errors ('bias') and risks of random errors ('play of chance') into account have shown that antioxidant supplements do not seem to prevent cancer, cardiovascular diseases, or death. Even more, beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E may increase mortality. Some recent large observational studies now support these findings. According to recent dietary guidelines, there is no evidence to support the use of antioxidant supplements in the primary prevention of chronic diseases or mortality. Antioxidant supplements do not possess preventive effects and may be harmful with unwanted consequences to our health, especially in well-nourished populations. The optimal source of antioxidants seems to come from our diet, not from antioxidant supplements in pills or tablets.

Randomness and diversity matter in the maintenance of the public resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Aizhi; Zhang, Yanling; Chen, Xiaojie; Sun, Changyin

2017-03-01

Most previous models about the public goods game usually assume two possible strategies, i.e., investing all or nothing. The real-life situation is rarely all or nothing. In this paper, we consider that multiple strategies are adopted in a well-mixed population, and each strategy represents an investment to produce the public goods. Past efforts have found that randomness matters in the evolution of fairness in the ultimatum game. In the framework involving no other mechanisms, we study how diversity and randomness influence the average investment of the population defined by the mean value of all individuals' strategies. The level of diversity is increased by increasing the strategy number, and the level of randomness is increased by increasing the mutation probability, or decreasing the population size or the selection intensity. We find that a higher level of diversity and a higher level of randomness lead to larger average investment and favor more the evolution of cooperation. Under weak selection, the average investment changes very little with the strategy number, the population size, and the mutation probability. Under strong selection, the average investment changes very little with the strategy number and the population size, but changes a lot with the mutation probability. Under intermediate selection, the average investment increases significantly with the strategy number and the mutation probability, and decreases significantly with the population size. These findings are meaningful to study how to maintain the public resource.

Summary of Laboratory and Field Comfort Studies on Candidate Fabrics for a Year-Round Uniform

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-06-01

differences were particularly sharp under wearing conditions involving mild to heavy sweating at the skin- garment interface. 5 The evaluation of comfort using...34 would be inter- preted as meaning that the garment was "mildly scratchy". If no comment was made by the wearer, a rating of 5, "totally comfortable...25 women used in this study had no difficulty in detecting these differences even though the garments were presented randomly without identifying

Conjoint Monitoring of Symptoms of Premenstrual Syndrome: Impact on Marital Satisfaction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frank, Beth; And Others

1993-01-01

Randomly assigned 30 women with premenstrual syndrome to control group which involved monitoring menstrual cycle symptoms or to conjoint monitoring group which involved both wife and husband in charting cyclic symptoms. Following treatment, Marital Satisfaction Inventory (MSI) scores predicted group membership; conjoint group resulted in…

Effects of a novel method for enteral nutrition infusion involving a viscosity-regulating pectin solution: A multicenter randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Tabei, Isao; Tsuchida, Shigeru; Akashi, Tetsuro; Ookubo, Katsuichiro; Hosoda, Satoru; Furukawa, Yoshiyuki; Tanabe, Yoshiaki; Tamura, Yoshiko

2018-02-01

The initial complications associated with infusion of enteral nutrition (EN) for clinical and nutritional care are vomiting, aspiration pneumonia, and diarrhea. There are many recommendations to prevent these complications. A novel method involving a viscosity-regulating pectin solution has been demonstrated. In Japan, this method along with the other so-called "semi-solid EN" approaches has been widely used in practice. However, there has been no randomized clinical trial to prove the efficiency and safety of a viscosity-regulating pectin solution in EN management. Therefore, we planned and initiated a multicenter randomized controlled trial to determine the efficiency and safety. This study included 34 patients from 7 medical institutions who participated. Institutional review board (IRB) approval was obtained from all participating institutions. Patients who required EN management were enrolled and randomly assigned to the viscosity regulation of enteral feeding (VREF) group and control group. The VREF group (n = 15) was managed with the addition of a viscosity-regulating pectin solution. The control group (n = 12) was managed with conventional EN administration, usually in a gradual step-up method. Daily clinical symptoms of pneumonia, fever, vomiting, and diarrhea; defecation frequency; and stool form were observed in the 2 week trial period. The dose of EN and duration of infusion were also examined. A favorable trend for clinical symptoms was noticed in the VREF group. No significant differences were observed in episodes of pneumonia, fever, vomiting, and diarrhea between the 2 groups. An apparent reduction in infusion duration and hardening of stool form were noted in the VREF group. The novel method involving a viscosity-regulating pectin solution with EN administration can be clinically performed safely and efficiently, similar to the conventional method. Moreover, there were benefits, such as improvement in stool form, a short time for EN infusion, and a reduction in vomiting episodes, with the use of the novel method. This indicates some potential advantages in the quality of life among patients receiving this novel method. Copyright © 2017 European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effectiveness of adjuvant radiotherapy in patients with oropharyngeal and floor of mouth squamous cell carcinoma and concomitant histological verification of singular ipsilateral cervical lymph node metastasis (pN1-state)--a prospective multicenter randomized controlled clinical trial using a comprehensive cohort design.

PubMed

Moergel, Maximilian; Jahn-Eimermacher, Antje; Krummenauer, Frank; Reichert, Torsten E; Wagner, Wilfried; Wendt, Thomas G; Werner, Jochen A; Al-Nawas, Bilal

2009-12-23

Modern radiotherapy plays an important role in therapy of advanced head and neck carcinomas. However, no clinical studies have been published addressing the effectiveness of postoperative radiotherapy in patients with small tumor (pT1, pT2) and concomitant ipsilateral metastasis of a single lymph node (pN1), which would provide a basis for a general treatment recommendation. The present study is a non-blinded, prospective, multi-center randomized controlled trial (RCT). As the primary clinical endpoint, overall-survival in patients receiving postoperative radiation therapy vs. patients without adjuvant therapy following curative intended surgery is compared. The aim of the study is to enroll 560 adult males and females for 1:1 randomization to one of the two treatment arms (irradiation/no irradiation). Since patients with small tumor (T1/T2) but singular lymph node metastasis are rare and the amount of patients consenting to randomization is not predictable in advance, all patients rejecting randomization will be treated as preferred and enrolled in a prospective observational study (comprehensive cohort design) after giving informed consent. This observational part of the trial will be performed with maximum consistency to the treatment and observation protocol of the RCT. Because the impact of patient preference for a certain treatment option is not calculable, parallel design of RCT and observational study may provide a maximum of evidence and efficacy for evaluation of treatment outcome. Secondary clinical endpoints are as follows: incidence and time to tumor relapse (locoregional relapse, lymph node involvement and distant metastatic spread), Quality of life as reported by EORTC (QLQ-C30 with H&N 35 module), and time from operation to orofacial rehabilitation. All tumors represent a homogeneous clinical state and therefore additional investigation of protein expression levels within resection specimen may serve for establishment of surrogate parameters of patient outcome. The inherent challenges of a rare clinical condition (pN1) and two substantially different therapy arms would limit the practicality of a classical randomized study. The concept of a Comprehensive Cohort Design combines the preference of a randomized study, with the option of careful data interpretation within an observational study. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00964977.

Effectiveness of the Challenging Horizons After-School Program for Young Adolescents With ADHD

PubMed Central

Evans, Steven W.; Schultz, Brandon K.; DeMars, Christine E.; Davis, Heather

2012-01-01

There are no empirically supported psychosocial treatments for adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study examined the treatment benefits of the Challenging Horizons Program (CHP), a psychosocial treatment program designed to address the impairment and symptoms associated with this disorder in young adolescents. In addition to evaluating social and academic functioning outcomes, two critical questions from previous studies pertaining to the timing, duration, and family involvement in treatment were addressed. Forty-nine students recruited in two cohorts were randomly assigned to receive either the CHP or a community care condition. Outcomes suggested that students who received the CHP improved compared to students in the control condition on measures of symptoms and impairment. Implications related to timing, duration, and family involvement are reported, as well as recommendations for future studies. PMID:21658528

Inference in randomized trials with death and missingness.

PubMed

Wang, Chenguang; Scharfstein, Daniel O; Colantuoni, Elizabeth; Girard, Timothy D; Yan, Ying

2017-06-01

In randomized studies involving severely ill patients, functional outcomes are often unobserved due to missed clinic visits, premature withdrawal, or death. It is well known that if these unobserved functional outcomes are not handled properly, biased treatment comparisons can be produced. In this article, we propose a procedure for comparing treatments that is based on a composite endpoint that combines information on both the functional outcome and survival. We further propose a missing data imputation scheme and sensitivity analysis strategy to handle the unobserved functional outcomes not due to death. Illustrations of the proposed method are given by analyzing data from a recent non-small cell lung cancer clinical trial and a recent trial of sedation interruption among mechanically ventilated patients. © 2016, The International Biometric Society.

Policy and organizational implications of gender imbalance in the NHS.

PubMed

Miller, Karen

2007-01-01

The purpose of the paper is to examine the policy and organizational implications of gender imbalance in management, which research suggests exists in the NHS. The research in this paper involved a qualitative approach with an analysis of elite interviews conducted with a non-random sample of officials involved in health policy and interviews with a random sample of senior managers in NHS Scotland. The research formed part of a larger study, which explored the enablers and inhibitors to female career progression in various Scottish sectors. The paper finds that gender imbalance in management exists in the NHS. This is manifested in a masculine organizational context, leadership and policy decision-making process, which have implications for female career advancement opportunities and subsequently access to macro policy decisions. The paper involved a sample (30 percent) of senior managers and examined policy processes in NHS Scotland. To improve the external validity of the findings further research should be conducted in NHS organizations in England and Wales. The findings in the paper suggest that gender imbalance in management and a masculine organizational context and leadership style within the NHS create a less than conducive environment for female employees. This has practical implications in terms of levels of part-time employment, career progression and attrition rates. The paper adds to the debate of gender and organizational studies by examining the health sector, which has high levels of female employment but low levels of female representation at senior management levels. The paper therefore adds to an often-neglected area of study, women in leadership and senior managerial positions. The paper is original in its approach by examining the micro and meso organizational dimensions which impact on women's ability to influence macro health policy.

Evaluation of effect of low-level laser therapy on adolescents with temporomandibular disorder: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background A number of problems involving the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and associated structures can lead to temporomandibular disorder (TMD). The aim of the proposed study is to assess the effect of low-level laser therapy on occlusal contacts, mandibular movements, electromyography activity in the muscles of mastication and pain in adolescents with TMD. Methods/Design A randomized, controlled, double-blind, clinical trial will be carried out involving 85 male and female adolescents between 15 and 18 years of age. The research diagnostic criteria for TMD will be used to assess all individuals who agree to participate. All participants will be submitted to a clinical examination and electromyographic analysis of the masseter muscles and anterior bundle of the temporal muscles bilaterally, to determine TMD. Based on the clinical findings, the participants will be classified as having or not having TMD. Those with TMD will be divided into four groups, three of which will receive low-level laser therapy and one of which will receive a placebo treatment. The treatments will involve the TMJ region alone, the masseter and temporal muscles alone, or both these regions together. The data will be submitted to descriptive statistical analysis. The chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test will be used to determine associations among the categorical variables. The Student’s t test and analysis of variance will be used for the comparison of mean electromyographic signals. Pearson’s correlation coefficients will be calculated for the analysis of correlations among the continuous variables. Trial registration The protocol for this study has been submitted to Clinical Trials – registration number (NCT01846000). PMID:23876095

Multi-Aircraft Video - Human/Automation Target Recognition Studies: Video Display Size in Unaided Target Acquisition Involving Multiple Videos

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-04-01

Index ( NASA - TLX : Hart & Staveland, 1988), and a Post-Test Questionnaire. Demographic data/Background Questionnaire. This questionnaire was used...very confident). NASA - TLX . The NASA TLX (Hart & Staveland, 1988) is a subjective workload assessment tool. A multidimensional weighting...completed the NASA - TLX . The test trials were randomized across participants and occurred in a counterbalanced order that took into account video display

The Effects of Focus on Forms and Focus on Form in Teaching Complex Grammatical Structures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pawlak, Miroslaw

2012-01-01

The classroom-based study reported in the present paper sought to compare the effectiveness of the focus on forms (FonFs) and focus on form (FonF) approach in teaching English third conditional to Polish high school students. It involved three intact classes, randomly designated as FonF (n = 34), FonFs (n = 36), and Control (n = 35) with a pretest…

Information Memory Processing and Retrieval: Relationships of the Intellect with the Processing of a Learning and Cognition Task.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moser, Gene W.

Reported is one of a series of investigations of the Project on an Information Memory Model. This study was done to test an information memory model for identifying the unit of information structure involved in task cognitions by humans. Four groups of 30 randomly selected subjects (ages 7, 9, 11 and 15 years) performed a sorting task of 14…

Exposure and non-fear emotions: A randomized controlled study of exposure-based and rescripting-based imagery in PTSD treatment.

PubMed

Langkaas, Tomas Formo; Hoffart, Asle; Øktedalen, Tuva; Ulvenes, Pål G; Hembree, Elizabeth A; Smucker, Mervin

2017-10-01

Interventions involving rescripting-based imagery have been proposed as a better approach than exposure-based imagery when posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with emotions other than fear. Prior research led to the study's hypotheses that (a) higher pretreatment non-fear emotions would predict relatively better response to rescripting as compared to exposure, (b) rescripting would be associated with greater reduction in non-fear emotions, and (c) pretreatment non-fear emotions would predict poor response to exposure. A clinically representative sample of 65 patients presenting a wide range of traumas was recruited from patients seeking and being offered PTSD treatment in an inpatient setting. Subjects were randomly assigned to 10 weeks of treatment involving either rescripting-based imagery (Imagery Rescripting; IR) or exposure-based imagery (Prolonged Exposure; PE). Patients were assessed on outcome and emotion measures at pretreatment, posttreatment and 12 months follow-up. Comparison to control benchmarks indicated that both treatments were effective, but no outcome differences between them appeared. None of the initial hypotheses were supported. The results from this study challenge previous observations and hypotheses about exposure mainly being effective for fear-based PTSD and strengthen the notion that exposure-based treatment is a generally effective treatment for all types of PTSD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions targeting sleep and their impact on child body mass index, diet, and physical activity.

PubMed

Yoong, Sze Lin; Chai, Li Kheng; Williams, Christopher M; Wiggers, John; Finch, Meghan; Wolfenden, Luke

2016-05-01

This review aimed to examine the impact of interventions involving an explicit sleep component on child body mass index (BMI), diet, and physical activity. A systematic search was undertaken in six databases to identify randomized controlled trials examining the impact of interventions with a sleep component on child BMI, dietary intake, and/or physical activity. A random effects meta-analysis was conducted assessing the impact of included interventions on child BMI. Of the eight included trials, three enforced a sleep protocol and five targeted sleep as part of multicomponent behavioral interventions either exclusively or together with nutrition and physical activity. Meta-analysis of three studies found that multicomponent behavioral interventions involving a sleep component were not significantly effective in changing child BMI (n = 360,-0.04 kg/m(2) [-0.18, 0.11], I(2)  = 0%); however, only one study included in the meta-analysis successfully changed sleep duration in children. There were some reported improvements to adolescent diet, and only one trial examined the impact on child physical activity, where a significant effect was observed. Findings from the included studies suggest that where improvements in child sleep duration were achieved, a positive impact on child BMI, nutrition, and physical activity was also observed. © 2016 The Obesity Society.

New synthetic prosthesis for peripheral nerve injuries: an experimental pilot study.

PubMed

Uranüs, Selman; Bretthauer, Georg; Nagele-Moser, Doris; Saliba, Sarah; Tomasch, Gordana; Rafolt, Dietmar; Justich, Ivo; Waldert, Jörg; Berghold, Andrea; Kleinert, Reinhold; Becker, Heinz; Voges, Udo; Wiederstein-Grasser, Iris; Koch, Horst

2013-04-01

Even the most modern technology has failed to induce satisfactory functional regeneration of traumatically severed peripheral nerves. Delayed neural regeneration and in consequence, slower neural conduction seriously limit muscle function in the area supplied by the injured nerve. This study aimed to compare a new nerve coaptation system involving an innovative prosthesis with the classical clinical method of sutured nerve coaptation. Besides the time and degree of nerve regeneration, the influence of electrostimulation was also tested. The sciatic nerve was severed in 14 female Göttingen minipigs with an average weight of 40.4 kg. The animals were randomized into 2 groups: One group received the new prosthesis and the other underwent microsurgical coaptation. In each group, according to the randomization a part of the animals received postoperative electrostimulation. Postoperative monitoring and the stimulation schedule covered a period of 9 months, during which axonal budding was evaluated monthly. The data from the pilot study indicate that results with the nerve prosthesis were comparable with those of conventional coaptation. The results indicate that implantation of the nerve prosthesis allows for good and effective neural regeneration. This new and simple treatment option for peripheral nerve injuries can be performed in any hospital with surgical facilities as it does not involve the demanding microsurgical suture technique that can only be performed in specialized centers.

Social Support, Religious Involvement and Alcohol Use among Students at a Conservative Religious University

PubMed Central

Thompson, Wendy E.

2017-01-01

The misuse of alcohol among college students remains a significant public health concern in the United States. Excessive drinking among college students has been linked to numerous negative consequences, including rape, impaired academic performance, absenteeism from work and school and damaged social relations. This study examined whether religious involvement and social support played a role in reducing the frequency of alcohol use. A non-random convenience sample of 364 students from a larger study of 760 college students—18 years old and older—were recruited over a 2 month period. The survey used in this study consisted of 124 items and collected information on areas such as substance misuse, sexual activity, use of pornography, relationships, personal religious practices, and social support. A descriptive analysis and chi-square were performed to determine if there was a relationship between frequency of alcohol use and gender, marital status, student class, GPA, religion, ethnicity and age. Linear regression was conducted to determine if social support and religious involvement were predictors of frequency of alcohol misuse. Multivariate regression analysis was used for predicting religious involvement when including social support while controlling for gender, age, ethnicity and grade. The present study revealed that religious involvement was a predictor for reduced frequency of alcohol use, while social support was not a predictor of lower frequency of alcohol use. PMID:28538657

Involvement of Wives in Farm Tasks as Related to Characteristics of the Farm, the Family and Work Off the Farm.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilkening, Eugene A.; Ahrens, Nancy

In an attempt to determine the basis of the farm wife's involvement in farm tasks, hypotheses regarding farm size and type, family cycle and wife's age, off-farm work of husband or wife, and family educational levels were tested in a 1978 random questionnaire survey of 532 Wisconsin farm families. As expected, wives were more involved with farm…

A randomized, blinded, multicenter trial of a gentamicin vancomycin gel (DFA-02) in patients undergoing abdominal surgery.

PubMed

Bennett-Guerrero, Elliott; Berry, Scott M; Bergese, Sergio D; Fleshner, Phillip R; Minkowitz, Harold S; Segura-Vasi, Alvaro M; Itani, Kamal M F; Henderson, Karen W; Rackowski, Felicia P; Aberle, Laura H; Stryjewski, Martin E; Corey, G Ralph; Allenby, Kent S

2017-06-01

SI is a significant medical problem. DFA-02 is an investigational bioresorbable modified release gel consisting of both gentamicin (16.8 mg/mL) and vancomycin (18.8 mg/mL). A Phase 2a study, where the drug was applied during surgical incision closure, suggested safety and tolerability but was not designed to assess its efficacy. In a Phase 2b randomized, blinded trial patients undergoing abdominal, primarily colorectal, surgery were randomized (4:1:1) to one of three study arms: DFA-02, matching placebo gel, or standard of care (SOC) involving irrigation of the wound with normal saline. The DFA-02 and placebo gel groups received up to 20 mL of study drug inserted above the fascia during wound closure, and were treated in a double-blind manner; the SOC group was treated in a single-blind manner. The primary endpoint was SSI (adjudicated centrally by a blinded committee) through postoperative day 30. Overall, 445 subjects (intention-to-treat) were randomized at 35 centers with 425 subjects completing the study and being evaluable. There were 67 SSIs (15.8%): 64.2% superficial, 7.5% deep, and 28.4% organ space. The incidence of SSI was not statistically significantly different between the DFA-02 and the placebo gel/SOC arms combined, 42/287 = 14.6% vs 25/138 = 18.1% (p = 0.36), respectively. Rehospitalization within 30 days was also similar between study groups (DFA-02 28.6%, placebo gel 21.4%, SOC 27.3%). In this multicenter, blinded, randomized trial with central adjudication, the gentamicin/vancomycin gel was not associated with a significant reduction in SSI. Patients undergoing abdominal surgery were randomized to one of three study arms: DFA-02 gel consisting of both gentamicin and vancomycin, matching placebo gel, or standard of care (SOC). Of 425 patients completing the study at 35 sites the gentamicin/vancomycin gel was not associated with a significant reduction in SSI. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Long-lasting changes in brain activation induced by a single REAC technology pulse in Wi-Fi bands. Randomized double-blind fMRI qualitative study.

PubMed

Rinaldi, Salvatore; Mura, Marco; Castagna, Alessandro; Fontani, Vania

2014-07-11

The aim of this randomized double-blind study was to evaluate in healthy adult subjects, with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), long lasting changes in brain activation patterns following administration of a single, 250 milliseconds pulse emitted with radio-electric asymmetric conveyer (REAC) technology in the Wi-Fi bands. The REAC impulse was not administered during the scan, but after this, according to a protocol that has previously been demonstrated to be effective in improving motor control and postural balance, in healthy subjects and patients. The study was conducted on 33 healthy volunteers, performed with a 1.5 T unit while operating a motor block task involving cyclical and alternating flexion and extension of one leg. Subsequently subjects were randomly divided into a treatment and a sham treatment control group. Repeated fMRI examinations were performed following the administration of the REAC pulse or sham treatment. The Treated group showed cerebellar and ponto-mesencephalic activation components that disappeared in the second scan, while these activation components persisted in the Sham group. This study shows that a very weak signal, such as 250 milliseconds Wi-Fi pulse, administered with REAC technology, could lead to lasting effects on brain activity modification.

Comparison of intravenous versus topical tranexamic acid in total knee arthroplasty: a prospective randomized study.

PubMed

Patel, Jay N; Spanyer, Jonathon M; Smith, Langan S; Huang, Jiapeng; Yakkanti, Madhusudhan R; Malkani, Arthur L

2014-08-01

The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of topical Tranexamic Acid (TXA) versus Intravenous (IV) Tranexamic Acid for reduction of blood loss following primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA). This prospective randomized study involved 89 patients comparing topical administration of 2.0g TXA, versus IV administration of 10mg/kg. There were no differences between the two groups with regard to patient demographics or perioperative function. The primary outcome measure, perioperative change in hemoglobin level, showed a decrease of 3.06 ± 1.02 in the IV group and 3.42 ± 1.07 in the topical group (P = 0.108). There were no statistical differences between the groups in preoperative hemoglobin level, lowest postoperative hemoglobin level, or total drain output. One patient in the topical group required blood transfusion (P = 0.342). Based on our study, topical Tranexamic Acid has similar efficacy to IV Tranexamic Acid for TKA patients. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Empowerment of personal injury victims through the internet: design of a randomized controlled trial

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Research has shown that current claims settlement process can have a negative impact on psychological and physical recovery of personal injury (PI) victims. One of the explanations for the negative impact on health is that the claims settlement process is a stressful experience and victims suffer from renewed victimization caused by the claims settlement process. PI victims can experience a lack of information, lack of involvement, lack of 'voice', and poor communication. We present the first study that aims to empower PI victims with respect to the negative impact of the claims settlement process by means of an internet intervention. Methods/design The study is a two armed, randomized controlled trial (RCT), in which 170 PI victims are randomized to either the intervention or control group. The intervention group will get access to a website providing 1) an information module, so participants learn what is happening and what to expect during the claims settlement process, and 2) an e-coach module, so participants learn to cope with problems they experience during the claims settlement process. The control group will get access to a website with hyperlinks to commonly available information only. Participants will be recruited via a PI claims settlement office. Participants are included if they have been involved in a traffic accident which happened less than two years ago, and are at least 18 years old. The main study parameter is the increase of empowerment within the intervention group compared to the control group. Empowerment will be measured by the mastery scale and a self-efficacy scale. The secondary outcomes are perceived justice, burden, well being, work ability, knowledge, amount of damages, and lawyer-client communication. Data are collected at baseline (T0 measurement before randomization), at three months, six months, and twelve months after baseline. Analyses will be conducted according to the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion This study evaluates the effectiveness of an internet intervention aimed at empowerment of PI victims. The results will give more insight into the impact of compensation proceedings on health over time, and they can have important consequences for legal claims settlement. Strengths and limitations of this study are discussed. Trial registration Netherlands Trial Register NTR2360 PMID:21288346

Association of DSM-IV Posttraumatic Stress Disorder With Traumatic Experience Type and History in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys.

PubMed

Liu, Howard; Petukhova, Maria V; Sampson, Nancy A; Aguilar-Gaxiola, Sergio; Alonso, Jordi; Andrade, Laura Helena; Bromet, Evelyn J; de Girolamo, Giovanni; Haro, Josep Maria; Hinkov, Hristo; Kawakami, Norito; Koenen, Karestan C; Kovess-Masfety, Viviane; Lee, Sing; Medina-Mora, Maria Elena; Navarro-Mateu, Fernando; O'Neill, Siobhan; Piazza, Marina; Posada-Villa, José; Scott, Kate M; Shahly, Victoria; Stein, Dan J; Ten Have, Margreet; Torres, Yolanda; Gureje, Oye; Zaslavsky, Alan M; Kessler, Ronald C

2017-03-01

Previous research has documented significant variation in the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) depending on the type of traumatic experience (TE) and history of TE exposure, but the relatively small sample sizes in these studies resulted in a number of unresolved basic questions. To examine disaggregated associations of type of TE history with PTSD in a large cross-national community epidemiologic data set. The World Health Organization World Mental Health surveys assessed 29 TE types (lifetime exposure, age at first exposure) with DSM-IV PTSD that was associated with 1 randomly selected TE exposure (the random TE) for each respondent. Surveys were administered in 20 countries (n = 34 676 respondents) from 2001 to 2012. Data were analyzed from October 1, 2015, to September 1, 2016. Prevalence of PTSD assessed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Among the 34 676 respondents (55.4% [SE, 0.6%] men and 44.6% [SE, 0.6%] women; mean [SE] age, 43.7 [0.2] years), lifetime TE exposure was reported by a weighted 70.3% of respondents (mean [SE] number of exposures, 4.5 [0.04] among respondents with any TE). Weighted (by TE frequency) prevalence of PTSD associated with random TEs was 4.0%. Odds ratios (ORs) of PTSD were elevated for TEs involving sexual violence (2.7; 95% CI, 2.0-3.8) and witnessing atrocities (4.2; 95% CI, 1.0-17.8). Prior exposure to some, but not all, same-type TEs was associated with increased vulnerability (eg, physical assault; OR, 3.2; 95% CI, 1.3-7.9) or resilience (eg, participation in sectarian violence; OR, 0.3; 95% CI, 0.1-0.9) to PTSD after the random TE. The finding of earlier studies that more general history of TE exposure was associated with increased vulnerability to PTSD across the full range of random TE types was replicated, but this generalized vulnerability was limited to prior TEs involving violence, including participation in organized violence (OR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.0-1.6), experience of physical violence (OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.2-1.7), rape (OR, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.7-3.8), and other sexual assault (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1-2.3). The World Mental Health survey findings advance understanding of the extent to which PTSD risk varies with the type of TE and history of TE exposure. Previous findings about the elevated PTSD risk associated with TEs involving assaultive violence was refined by showing agreement only for repeated occurrences. Some types of prior TE exposures are associated with increased resilience rather than increased vulnerability, connecting the literature on TE history with the literature on resilience after adversity. These results are valuable in providing an empirical rationale for more focused investigations of these specifications in future studies.

Decision Aid for Cigarette Smokers Scheduled for Elective Surgery.

PubMed

Warner, David O; LeBlanc, Annie; Kadimpati, Sandeep; Vickers, Kristin S; Shi, Yu; Montori, Victor M

2015-07-01

Decision aids can increase patient involvement in decision-making about health care. The study goal was to develop and test a decision aid for use by clinicians in discussion options for changing smoking behavior before and after elective surgery. In formative work, a decision aid was designed to facilitate patient-clinician discussion regarding three options: continue smoking, attempt a period of temporary abstinence, and attempt to quit smoking for good. A randomized, two-group pilot study was then conducted in smokers evaluated in preparation for elective surgery in a preoperative clinic to test the hypothesis that the decision aid would improve measures of decisional quality compared with usual care. The final decision aid consisted of three laminated cards. The front of each card included a colorful graphic describing each choice; the reverse including two to three pros and cons for each decision, a simple graphic illustrating the effects of smoking on the body, and a motivational phrase. In the randomized trial of 130 patients, the decision aid significantly (P < 0.05) improved measures of decisional quality and patient involvement in decision making (Cohen's d effect sizes of 0.76 and 1.20 for the Decisional Conflict Scale and Observing PatienT involvement In decisiON-making scale, respectively). However, the decision aid did not affect any aspect of perioperative smoking behavior, including the distribution of or adherence to choices. Although the use of a decision aid to facilitate clinician-patient discussions regarding tobacco use around the time of surgery substantially improved measures of decisional quality, it alone did not change perioperative tobacco use behavior.

Meeting the complex needs of urban youth and their families through the 4Rs 2Ss Family Strengthening Program: The “real world” meets evidence-informed care

PubMed Central

Small, Latoya; Jackson, Jerrold; Gopalan, Geetha; McKay, Mary McKernan

2014-01-01

Youth living in poverty face compounding familial and environmental challenges in utilizing effective community mental health services. They have ongoing stressors that increase their dropout rate in mental health service use. Difficulties also exist in staying engaged in services when they are involved with the child welfare system. This study examines the 4Rs 2Ss Family Strengthening Program, developed across four broad conceptual categories related to parenting skills and family processes that form a multiple family group service delivery approach. A total of 321 families were enrolled in this randomized intervention study, assigned to either the 4Rs 2Ss Family Strengthening Program or standard care services. Caregivers and their children randomly assigned to the experimental condition received a 16 week multiple family group intervention through their respective outpatient community mental health clinic. Data was collected at baseline, midtest (8 weeks), posttest (16 weeks), and 6 month follow-up. Major findings include high engagement in the 4Rs 2Ss Family Strengthening Program, compared to standard services. Although child welfare status is not related to attendance, family stress and parental depression are also related to participant engagement in this multiple family group intervention. Involvement in the 4Rs 2Ss Family Strengthening Program resulted in improved effects for child behaviors. Lastly, no evidence of moderation effects on family stress, child welfare involvement, or parental needs were found. The 4Rs 2Ss Family Strengthening Program appeared able to engage families with more complex “real world” needs. PMID:26523115

The effects of a multiyear universal social-emotional learning program: The role of student and school characteristics.

PubMed

2010-04-01

This article examines the impact of a universal social-emotional learning program, the Fast Track PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) curriculum and teacher consultation, embedded within the Fast Track selective prevention model. The longitudinal analysis involved 2,937 children of multiple ethnicities who remained in the same intervention or control schools for Grades 1, 2, and 3. The study involved a clustered randomized controlled trial involving sets of schools randomized within 3 U.S. locations. Measures assessed teacher and peer reports of aggression, hyperactive-disruptive behaviors, and social competence. Beginning in first grade and through 3 successive years, teachers received training and support and implemented the PATHS curriculum in their classrooms. The study examined the main effects of intervention as well as how outcomes were affected by characteristics of the child (baseline level of problem behavior, gender) and by the school environment (student poverty). Modest positive effects of sustained program exposure included reduced aggression and increased prosocial behavior (according to both teacher and peer report) and improved academic engagement (according to teacher report). Peer report effects were moderated by gender, with significant effects only for boys. Most intervention effects were moderated by school environment, with effects stronger in less disadvantaged schools, and effects on aggression were larger in students who showed higher baseline levels of aggression. A major implication of the findings is that well-implemented multiyear social-emotional learning programs can have significant and meaningful preventive effects on the population-level rates of aggression, social competence, and academic engagement in the elementary school years. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Meeting the complex needs of urban youth and their families through the 4Rs 2Ss Family Strengthening Program: The "real world" meets evidence-informed care.

PubMed

Small, Latoya; Jackson, Jerrold; Gopalan, Geetha; McKay, Mary McKernan

2015-07-01

Youth living in poverty face compounding familial and environmental challenges in utilizing effective community mental health services. They have ongoing stressors that increase their dropout rate in mental health service use. Difficulties also exist in staying engaged in services when they are involved with the child welfare system. This study examines the 4Rs 2Ss Family Strengthening Program, developed across four broad conceptual categories related to parenting skills and family processes that form a multiple family group service delivery approach. A total of 321 families were enrolled in this randomized intervention study, assigned to either the 4Rs 2Ss Family Strengthening Program or standard care services. Caregivers and their children randomly assigned to the experimental condition received a 16 week multiple family group intervention through their respective outpatient community mental health clinic. Data was collected at baseline, midtest (8 weeks), posttest (16 weeks), and 6 month follow-up. Major findings include high engagement in the 4Rs 2Ss Family Strengthening Program, compared to standard services. Although child welfare status is not related to attendance, family stress and parental depression are also related to participant engagement in this multiple family group intervention. Involvement in the 4Rs 2Ss Family Strengthening Program resulted in improved effects for child behaviors. Lastly, no evidence of moderation effects on family stress, child welfare involvement, or parental needs were found. The 4Rs 2Ss Family Strengthening Program appeared able to engage families with more complex "real world" needs.

Involving Parents in Paired Reading with Preschoolers: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lam, Shui-fong; Chow-Yeung, Kamfung; Wong, Bernard P. H.; Lau, Kwok Kiu; Tse, Shuk In

2013-01-01

A paired reading program was implemented for 195 Hong Kong preschoolers (mean age = 4.7 years) and their parents from families with a wide range of family income. The preschoolers were randomly assigned to experimental or waitlist control groups. The parents in the experimental group received 12 sessions of school-based training on paired reading…

Implementation of a Manualized Communication Intervention for School-Aged Children with Pragmatic and Social Communication Needs in a Randomized Controlled Trial: The Social Communication Intervention Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Catherine; Lockton, Elaine; Gaile, Jacqueline; Earl, Gillian; Freed, Jenny

2012-01-01

Background: Speech-language interventions are often complex in nature, involving multiple observations, variable outcomes and individualization in treatment delivery. The accepted procedure associated with randomized controlled trials (RCT) of such complex interventions is to develop and implement a manual of intervention in order that reliable…

Optimal Design in Three-Level Block Randomized Designs with Two Levels of Nesting: An ANOVA Framework with Random Effects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Konstantopoulos, Spyros

2013-01-01

Large-scale experiments that involve nested structures may assign treatment conditions either to subgroups such as classrooms or to individuals such as students within subgroups. Key aspects of the design of such experiments include knowledge of the variance structure in higher levels and the sample sizes necessary to reach sufficient power to…

WORD FREQUENCY IN THE MODERN GERMAN SHORT STORY. FINAL REPORT.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

SCHERER, GEORGE A.; AND OTHERS

A LIST OF THE MOST FREQUENTLY USED WORDS IN MODERN GERMAN SHORT STORIES WAS COMPILED. AN ANTHOLOGY OF 702 RECENTLY PUBLISHED, GERMAN SHORT STORIES WAS OBTAINED AND USED FOR A WORD COUNT, INVOLVING THE RANDOM SELECTION OF 4 WORDS IN EVERY 100-WORD PASSAGE. TWO INDEPENDENT RANDOM SAMPLES OF ABOUT 80,000 WORDS EACH WERE DRAWN FROM NEARLY 2 MILLION…

"Right from the Start": Randomized Trial Comparing an Attachment Group Intervention to Supportive Home Visiting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Niccols, Alison

2008-01-01

Background: Infant attachment security is a protective factor for future mental health, and may be promoted by individual interventions. Given service demands, it is important to determine if a group-based intervention for parents could be used to enhance infant attachment security. Methods: In a randomized trial involving 76 mothers, an 8-session…

Robust reliable sampled-data control for switched systems with application to flight control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakthivel, R.; Joby, Maya; Shi, P.; Mathiyalagan, K.

2016-11-01

This paper addresses the robust reliable stabilisation problem for a class of uncertain switched systems with random delays and norm bounded uncertainties. The main aim of this paper is to obtain the reliable robust sampled-data control design which involves random time delay with an appropriate gain control matrix for achieving the robust exponential stabilisation for uncertain switched system against actuator failures. In particular, the involved delays are assumed to be randomly time-varying which obeys certain mutually uncorrelated Bernoulli distributed white noise sequences. By constructing an appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) and employing an average-dwell time approach, a new set of criteria is derived for ensuring the robust exponential stability of the closed-loop switched system. More precisely, the Schur complement and Jensen's integral inequality are used in derivation of stabilisation criteria. By considering the relationship among the random time-varying delay and its lower and upper bounds, a new set of sufficient condition is established for the existence of reliable robust sampled-data control in terms of solution to linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Finally, an illustrative example based on the F-18 aircraft model is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed design procedures.

Fluctuating Navier-Stokes equations for inelastic hard spheres or disks.

PubMed

Brey, J Javier; Maynar, P; de Soria, M I García

2011-04-01

Starting from the fluctuating Boltzmann equation for smooth inelastic hard spheres or disks, closed equations for the fluctuating hydrodynamic fields to Navier-Stokes order are derived. This requires deriving constitutive relations for both the fluctuating fluxes and the correlations of the random forces. The former are identified as having the same form as the macroscopic average fluxes and involving the same transport coefficients. On the other hand, the random force terms exhibit two peculiarities as compared with their elastic limit for molecular systems. First, they are not white but have some finite relaxation time. Second, their amplitude is not determined by the macroscopic transport coefficients but involves new coefficients. ©2011 American Physical Society

An integrated approach to consumer representation and involvement in a multicentre randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Langston, Anne L; McCallum, Marilyn; Campbell, Marion K; Robertson, Clare; Ralston, Stuart H

2005-01-01

Although, consumer involvement in individual studies is often limited, their involvement in guiding health research is generally considered to be beneficial. This paper outlines our experiences of an integrated relationship between the organisers of a clinical trial and a consumer organisation. The PRISM trial is a UK multicentre, randomized controlled trial comparing treatment strategies for Paget's disease of the bone. The National Association for the Relief of Paget's Disease (NARPD) is the only UK support group for sufferers of Paget's disease and has worked closely with the PRISM team from the outset. NARPD involvement is integral to the conduct of the trial and specific roles have included: peer-review; trial steering committee membership; provision of advice to participants, and promotion of the trial amongst Paget's disease patients. The integrated relationship has yielded benefits to both the trial and the consumer organisation. The benefits for the trial have included: recruitment of participants via NARPD contacts; well-informed participants; unsolicited patient advocacy of the trial; and interested and pro-active collaborators. For the NARPD and Paget's disease sufferers, benefits have included: increased awareness of Paget's disease; increased access to relevant health research; increased awareness of the NARPD services; and wider transfer of diagnosis and management knowledge to/from health care professionals. Our experience has shown that an integrated approach between a trial team and a consumer organisation is worthwhile. Adoption of such an approach in other trials may yield significant improvements in recruitment and quality of participant information flow. There are, however, resource implications for both parties.

Homosexual parents: a comparative forensic study of character and harms to children.

PubMed

Cameron, P; Cameron, K

1998-06-01

40 appeals cases of custody disputes drawn systematically from all cases involving a homosexual parent in the United States were compared to 38 appeals cases involving heterosexual custody disputes drawn randomly from listings under parental "character" and 18 appeals cases drawn randomly from "general" cases in Dicennial Digest from 1966 to 1991. Each case involving homosexual vs heterosexual claimants was examined for recorded information about (1) the character of the homosexual parent, the associates of the homosexual parent, the heterosexual parent, and the associates of the heterosexual parent, (2) the effects, particularly harms, upon the child(ren), and (3) psychiatric opinion. 82% of the homosexual vs 18% of the heterosexual parents and 54% of the homosexual's associates vs 19% of the heterosexuals' associates were recorded as having poor character in cases involving a homosexual claimant. Of the 66 recorded harms, e.g., molestation, physical abuse, to the 73 children, homosexual persons accounted for 64 (97%). Of the 32 lesbians, 6 were recorded as having engaged in criminal activity and 3 of bringing false charges of child sexual abuse against the father. Psychiatric opinion, however, ran 25 to 12 in favor of custody for the homosexual parent. In the 56 heterosexual vs heterosexual comparison cases, 38% of the heterosexual parents and 28% of their associates were recorded as having poor character. Six harms to their 105 children and 3 instances of criminality but no false charges of sexual abuse were recorded. In the appeals court literature, homosexual parents were disproportionately of poor character and disproportionately associated with various harms to their children.

The Impact of a School-Based Weight Management Program Involving Parents via mHealth for Overweight and Obese Children and Adolescents with Intellectual Disability: A Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Leung, Cynthia; Chen, Hong; Brown, Michael; Chen, Jyu-Lin; Cheung, Gordon; Lee, Paul H.

2017-01-01

There is a scarcity of resources and studies that utilize targeted weight management interventions to engage parents via mHealth tools targeting obese children and adolescents with mild intellectual disabilities (MIDs) extended from school to a home setting. To test the feasibility and acceptability of a school-based weight program (SBWMP) involving parents via mHealth tools designed to reduce weight, enhance knowledge and adopt healthy lifestyles, and thereby achieve better psychosocial well-being among children and adolescents with MIDs. Four special schools were randomly assigned as intervention or control schools. Students from the intervention group (n = 63) were compared to those in the control group (n = 52), which comprised those with usual school planned activities and no parental involvement. Demographics were considered as covariates in a general linear model, an ordinal regression model and a binary logistic regression model analyzing the relationships between the SBWMP and the outcome variables at baseline (T0) and six months later (T1). Body weight, body mass index, and triceps and subscapular skinfold thickness were lower in the intervention group compared to the control group, although the differences were not statistically significant. There was a positive and direct impact of the SBWMP on students’ health knowledge and psychological impacts in the intervention group. The SBWMP extended to the home involving parents via mHealth tools is a feasible and acceptable program for this group with MIDs and their parents. PMID:28981460

rTMS in fibromyalgia: a randomized trial evaluating QoL and its brain metabolic substrate.

PubMed

Boyer, Laurent; Dousset, Alix; Roussel, Philippe; Dossetto, Nathalie; Cammilleri, Serge; Piano, Virginie; Khalfa, Stéphanie; Mundler, Olivier; Donnet, Anne; Guedj, Eric

2014-04-08

This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study investigated the impact of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on quality of life (QoL) of patients with fibromyalgia, and its possible brain metabolic substrate. Thirty-eight patients were randomly assigned to receive high-frequency rTMS (n = 19) or sham stimulation (n = 19), applied to left primary motor cortex in 14 sessions over 10 weeks. Primary clinical outcomes were QoL changes at the end of week 11, measured using the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ). Secondary clinical outcomes were mental and physical QoL component measured using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), but also pain, mood, and anxiety. Resting-state [(18)F]-fluorodeoxyglucose-PET metabolism was assessed at baseline, week 2, and week 11. Whole-brain voxel-based analysis was performed to study between-group metabolic changes over time. At week 11, patients of the active rTMS group had greater QoL improvement in the FIQ (p = 0.032) and in the mental component of the SF-36 (p = 0.019) than the sham stimulation group. No significant impact was found for other clinical outcomes. Compared with the sham stimulation group, patients of the active rTMS group presented an increase in right medial temporal metabolism between baseline and week 11 (p < 0.001), which was correlated with FIQ and mental component SF-36 concomitant changes (r = -0.38, p = 0.043; r = 0.51, p = 0.009, respectively). QoL improvement involved mainly affective, emotional, and social dimensions. Our study shows that rTMS improves QoL of patients with fibromyalgia. This improvement is associated with a concomitant increase in right limbic metabolism, arguing for a neural substrate to the impact of rTMS on emotional dimensions involved in QoL. This study provides Class II evidence that rTMS compared with sham rTMS improves QoL in patients with fibromyalgia.

The Effects of the Literal Meaning of Emotional Phrases on the Identification of Vocal Emotions.

PubMed

Shigeno, Sumi

2018-02-01

This study investigates the discrepancy between the literal emotional content of speech and emotional tone in the identification of speakers' vocal emotions in both the listeners' native language (Japanese), and in an unfamiliar language (random-spliced Japanese). Both experiments involve a "congruent condition," in which the emotion contained in the literal meaning of speech (words and phrases) was compatible with vocal emotion, and an "incongruent condition," in which these forms of emotional information were discordant. Results for Japanese indicated that performance in identifying emotions did not differ significantly between the congruent and incongruent conditions. However, the results for random-spliced Japanese indicated that vocal emotion was correctly identified more often in the congruent than in the incongruent condition. The different results for Japanese and random-spliced Japanese suggested that the literal meaning of emotional phrases influences the listener's perception of the speaker's emotion, and that Japanese participants could infer speakers' intended emotions in the incongruent condition.

A Randomized Clinical Trial of a Money Management Intervention for Veterans With Psychiatric Disabilities.

PubMed

Elbogen, Eric B; Hamer, Robert M; Swanson, Jeffrey W; Swartz, Marvin S

2016-10-01

The study evaluated an intervention to help veterans with psychiatric disabilities, who face a unique set of challenges concerning money management. A randomized clinical trial was conducted of a brief (one to three hours) psychoeducational, recovery-oriented money management intervention called $teps for Achieving Financial Empowerment ($AFE). Analyses revealed no main effects on outcomes of random assignment to $AFE (N=67) or a control condition consisting of usual care (N=77). Veterans who reported using $AFE skills showed significantly lower impulsive buying, more responsible spending, higher rates of engaging in vocational activities, and greater number of work hours compared with veterans in the control condition. Findings have clinical implications for case management services involving informal money management assistance. Offering veterans with psychiatric disabilities a one-time money management intervention is unlikely to lead to substantial changes. Results imply that efforts to improve psychosocial outcomes among veterans must not only teach but also increase use of money management skills.

Fluid Physics Under a Stochastic Acceleration Field

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vinals, Jorge

2001-01-01

The research summarized in this report has involved a combined theoretical and computational study of fluid flow that results from the random acceleration environment present onboard space orbiters, also known as g-jitter. We have focused on a statistical description of the observed g-jitter, on the flows that such an acceleration field can induce in a number of experimental configurations of interest, and on extending previously developed methodology to boundary layer flows. Narrow band noise has been shown to describe many of the features of acceleration data collected during space missions. The scale of baroclinically induced flows when the driving acceleration is random is not given by the Rayleigh number. Spatially uniform g-jitter induces additional hydrodynamic forces among suspended particles in incompressible fluids. Stochastic modulation of the control parameter shifts the location of the onset of an oscillatory instability. Random vibration of solid boundaries leads to separation of boundary layers. Steady streaming ahead of a modulated solid-melt interface enhances solute transport, and modifies the stability boundaries of a planar front.

New distributed fusion filtering algorithm based on covariances over sensor networks with random packet dropouts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caballero-Águila, R.; Hermoso-Carazo, A.; Linares-Pérez, J.

2017-07-01

This paper studies the distributed fusion estimation problem from multisensor measured outputs perturbed by correlated noises and uncertainties modelled by random parameter matrices. Each sensor transmits its outputs to a local processor over a packet-erasure channel and, consequently, random losses may occur during transmission. Different white sequences of Bernoulli variables are introduced to model the transmission losses. For the estimation, each lost output is replaced by its estimator based on the information received previously, and only the covariances of the processes involved are used, without requiring the signal evolution model. First, a recursive algorithm for the local least-squares filters is derived by using an innovation approach. Then, the cross-correlation matrices between any two local filters is obtained. Finally, the distributed fusion filter weighted by matrices is obtained from the local filters by applying the least-squares criterion. The performance of the estimators and the influence of both sensor uncertainties and transmission losses on the estimation accuracy are analysed in a numerical example.

On-Chip Fluorescence Switching System for Constructing a Rewritable Random Access Data Storage Device.

PubMed

Nguyen, Hoang Hiep; Park, Jeho; Hwang, Seungwoo; Kwon, Oh Seok; Lee, Chang-Soo; Shin, Yong-Beom; Ha, Tai Hwan; Kim, Moonil

2018-01-10

We report the development of on-chip fluorescence switching system based on DNA strand displacement and DNA hybridization for the construction of a rewritable and randomly accessible data storage device. In this study, the feasibility and potential effectiveness of our proposed system was evaluated with a series of wet experiments involving 40 bits (5 bytes) of data encoding a 5-charactered text (KRIBB). Also, a flexible data rewriting function was achieved by converting fluorescence signals between "ON" and "OFF" through DNA strand displacement and hybridization events. In addition, the proposed system was successfully validated on a microfluidic chip which could further facilitate the encoding and decoding process of data. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the use of DNA hybridization and DNA strand displacement in the field of data storage devices. Taken together, our results demonstrated that DNA-based fluorescence switching could be applicable to construct a rewritable and randomly accessible data storage device through controllable DNA manipulations.

Outcomes of gait trainer use in home and school settings for children with motor impairments: a systematic review.

PubMed

Paleg, Ginny; Livingstone, Roslyn

2015-11-01

To summarize and critically appraise evidence regarding use of gait trainers (walkers providing trunk and pelvic support) at home or school with children who are unable to walk independently or with hand-held walkers. Searches were performed in seven electronic databases including EBM Reviews, CINAHL, Medline and EMBASE for publications in English from database inception to November 2014. Included studies involved at least one child with a mobility limitation and measured an outcome related to gait trainer use. Articles were appraised using American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine criteria for group and single-subject designs and quality ratings completed for studies rated levels I-III. The PRISMA statement was followed with inclusion criteria set a priori. Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts and full-text articles. Seventeen studies involving 182 children were included. Evidence from one small randomized controlled trial suggests a non-significant trend toward increased walking distance while the other evidence level II study (concurrent multiple baseline design) reports increased number of steps. Two level III studies (non-randomized two-group studies) report statistically significant impact on mobility level with one finding significant impact on bowel function and an association between increased intervention time and bone mineral density. Remaining descriptive level evidence provides support for positive impact on a range of activity outcomes, with some studies reporting impact on affect, motivation and participation with others. Evidence supporting outcomes for children using gait trainers is primarily descriptive and, while mainly positive, is insufficient to draw firm conclusions. © The Author(s) 2015.

Exploring Women's Preferences for the Mode of Delivery in Twin Gestations: Results of the Twin Birth Study.

PubMed

Murray-Davis, Beth; McVittie, Jennifer; Barrett, Jon F; Hutton, Eileen K

2016-12-01

The Twin Birth Study, an international, multi-center randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare the risks of planned cesarean with planned vaginal delivery for twin pregnancies. The aim of this component of the trial was to understand participants' perspectives of study participation and preferences for the mode of delivery. A mixed-methods questionnaire was distributed to study participants 3 months after giving birth. The questionnaire contained Likert scales and open-ended questions about the experience of being enrolled in a clinical trial and of childbirth, including the mode of delivery. Quantitative data were analyzed using SAS to generate descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analyzed to identify categories and themes. Ninety-one percent of trial participants completed the questionnaire. Across all groups, the majority of women would participate in a study like this one again if given the opportunity. Main benefits of participating were as follows: benefits to one and one's babies, altruism, and receiving quality care. Randomization for the mode of delivery was challenging for women because of the desire to be involved in decision-making. Findings related to childbirth experience and the mode of delivery demonstrated a preference for vaginal birth across all groups. Those who had a vaginal birth were more satisfied with their birth experience. This study provides evidence to inform practitioners about what women who have twin pregnancies like or dislike about birth and their desire for involvement in decision-making. Vaginal birth was preferred across all study groups and was associated with greater satisfaction with childbirth experience. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

R. A. Fisher and his advocacy of randomization.

PubMed

Hall, Nancy S

2007-01-01

The requirement of randomization in experimental design was first stated by R. A. Fisher, statistician and geneticist, in 1925 in his book Statistical Methods for Research Workers. Earlier designs were systematic and involved the judgment of the experimenter; this led to possible bias and inaccurate interpretation of the data. Fisher's dictum was that randomization eliminates bias and permits a valid test of significance. Randomization in experimenting had been used by Charles Sanders Peirce in 1885 but the practice was not continued. Fisher developed his concepts of randomizing as he considered the mathematics of small samples, in discussions with "Student," William Sealy Gosset. Fisher published extensively. His principles of experimental design were spread worldwide by the many "voluntary workers" who came from other institutions to Rothamsted Agricultural Station in England to learn Fisher's methods.

Clinical follow-up after cessation of chronic electrical neuromodulation in patients with severe coronary artery disease: a prospective randomized controlled study on putative involvement of sympathetic activity.

PubMed

Jessurun, G A; DeJongste, M J; Hautvast, R W; Tio, R A; Brouwer, J; van Lelieveld, S; Crijns, H J

1999-10-01

The present study assessed the reoccurrence of myocardial ischemia after withholding electrical neurostimulation. After randomization, in the study or withdrawal group, spinal cord stimulation (SCS) was set active during the first 4 weeks, followed by 4 weeks of withholding stimulation. In the control group, SCS was switched off during 4 weeks before the end of the study. The control group had no crossover period. Measurements were done at baseline, then after 4 and 8 weeks. The first periods at 4 weeks of each sequence of both groups were compared. In addition, a comparison of clinical variables was performed between the study group 4 weeks after withholding stimulation and the control group 4 weeks following randomization. A total number of 24 patients with refractory angina and an implanted spinal cord stimulator were included in the study (n = 12) and control group. Angina pectoris complaints, nitroglycerin intake, ischemia, and heart rate variability using 48-hour ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring were assessed. In addition, neurohormonal status and symptom-limited aerobic capacity were evaluated. There was no increase of anginal complaints or ischemia after withholding stimulation. Neurohormonal levels and aerobic capacity were not altered. We conclude that there is no adverse clinical rebound phenomenon after withholding neurostimulation in patients with refractory angina pectoris.

Reflections on experimental research in medical education.

PubMed

Cook, David A; Beckman, Thomas J

2010-08-01

As medical education research advances, it is important that education researchers employ rigorous methods for conducting and reporting their investigations. In this article we discuss several important yet oft neglected issues in designing experimental research in education. First, randomization controls for only a subset of possible confounders. Second, the posttest-only design is inherently stronger than the pretest-posttest design, provided the study is randomized and the sample is sufficiently large. Third, demonstrating the superiority of an educational intervention in comparison to no intervention does little to advance the art and science of education. Fourth, comparisons involving multifactorial interventions are hopelessly confounded, have limited application to new settings, and do little to advance our understanding of education. Fifth, single-group pretest-posttest studies are susceptible to numerous validity threats. Finally, educational interventions (including the comparison group) must be described in detail sufficient to allow replication.

Engagement and Retention of Suicide Attempters in Clinical Research

PubMed Central

Gibbons, Carly J.; Stirman, Shannon Wiltsey; Brown, Gregory K.; Beck, Aaron T.

2010-01-01

Background High attrition rates in longitudinal research can limit study generalizability, threaten internal validity, and decrease statistical power. Research has demonstrated that there can be significant differences between participants who complete a research study and those who drop out prematurely, and that treatment outcomes may be dependent on retention in a treatment protocol. Aims The current paper describes the challenges encountered when implementing a randomized controlled trial of cognitive therapy for the prevention of suicide attempts and the solutions developed to overcome these problems. Methods Problems unique to suicide attempters are discussed, and strategies successfully implemented to boost retention rates are provided. Results The methods implemented appeared to increase retention rates in the randomized controlled trial. Conclusions Many steps can be taken to work with this difficult population, and researchers are encouraged to be as involved and flexible with participants as possible. PMID:20418211

Breath-stacking and incentive spirometry in Parkinson's disease: Randomized crossover clinical trial.

PubMed

Ribeiro, Rhayssa; Brandão, Daniella; Noronha, Jéssica; Lima, Cibelle; Fregonezi, Guilherme; Resqueti, Vanessa; Dornelas de Andrade, Arméle

2018-05-01

Patients with Parkinson's disease often exhibit respiratory disorders and there are no Respiratory Therapy protocols which are suggested as interventions in Parkinson's patients. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of Breathing-Stacking (BS) and incentive spirometer (IS) techniques in volume variations of the chest wall in patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD). 14 patients with mild-moderate PD were included in this randomized cross-over study. Volume variations of the chest wall were assessed before, immediately after, then 15 and 30 min after BS and IS performance by optoelectronic plethysmography. Tidal volume (VT) and minute ventilation (MV) significantly increased after BS and IS techniques (p < 0.05). There was greater involvement of pulmonary and abdominal compartments after IS. The results suggest that these re-expansion techniques can be performed to immediately improve volume. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Recruiting seniors with chronic low back pain for a randomized controlled trial of a self-management program.

PubMed

Groupp, Elyse; Haas, Mitchell; Fairweather, Alisa; Ganger, Bonnie; Attwood, Michael

2005-02-01

To identify recruitment challenges and elucidate specific strategies that enabled recruitment of seniors for a randomized trial on low back pain comparing the Chronic Disease Self-management Program of the Stanford University to a 6-month wait-list control group. Recruitment for a randomized controlled trial. Community-based program offered at 12 locations. Community-dwelling seniors 60 years and older with chronic low back pain of mechanical origin. Passive recruitment strategies included advertisement in local and senior newspapers, in senior e-mail newsletters and listservs, in local community centers and businesses. Active strategies included meeting seniors at health fairs, lectures to the public and organizational meetings, and the help of trusted professionals in the community. A total of 100 white and 20 African American seniors were recruited. The program seemed to have the most appeal to white, middle-class older adults, educated through high school level. Advertisement failed to attract any participants to the program. Successful strategies included interaction with seniors at health fairs and lectures on health care, especially when the program was endorsed by a trusted community professional. Generating interest in the self-management program required keen communication skills because the idea of "self-management" was met with a myriad of responses, ranging from disinterest to disbelief. Generating interest also required active participation within the communities. Initial contacts had to be established with trusted professionals, whose endorsement enabled the project managers to present the concept of self-management to the seniors. More complex recruitment strategies were required for this study involving the self-management approach to back pain than for studies involving treatment.

Bladder base/trigone injection is safe and as effective as bladder body injection of onabotulinumtoxinA for idiopathic detrusor overactivity refractory to antimuscarinics.

PubMed

Kuo, Hann-Chorng

2011-09-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of onabotulinumtoxinA injections at bladder base/trigone and compare with injections at bladder body or bladder body/trigone for the treatment of idiopathic detrusor overactivity (IDO) refractory to antimuscarinics. A single blind, randomized, paralleled, actively controlled trial was performed in patients with urodynamically proven IDO who failed antimuscarinic therapy. Patients were randomly assigned to receive intravesical injections of 100 U of onabotulinumtoxinA into three different bladder sites. All treatments were evaluated by voiding diary variables, urgency severity score, urodynamic studies, and patient perception of bladder condition. Long-term success rates over 12 months were also determined. Among the patients, 37 were randomized to injections in the bladder body, 35 into the bladder body/trigone, and 33 into the bladder base/trigone. Successful results were reported in 76 (72%) patients at 3 months: 26 (70%) in the bladder body group, 26 (74%) in the bladder body/trigone group, and 24 (73%) in the bladder base/trigone group. There were no significant differences in success rates, changes in urgency and urgency incontinence episodes, urodynamic variables, or long-term success rates among the three subgroups. The incidence of adverse events was similar among three groups. No vesicoureteral reflux was noted in all patients with or without involving trigone injection. Intravesical onabotulinumtoxinA injection is an effective treatment for IDO regardless of the bladder injection site. Bladder base/trigone injection is as safe and effective as bladder body injections with or without trigone involvement. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Effects of cue-exposure treatment on neural cue reactivity in alcohol dependence: a randomized trial.

PubMed

Vollstädt-Klein, Sabine; Loeber, Sabine; Kirsch, Martina; Bach, Patrick; Richter, Anne; Bühler, Mira; von der Goltz, Christoph; Hermann, Derik; Mann, Karl; Kiefer, Falk

2011-06-01

In alcohol-dependent patients, alcohol-associated cues elicit brain activation in mesocorticolimbic networks involved in relapse mechanisms. Cue-exposure based extinction training (CET) has been shown to be efficacious in the treatment of alcoholism; however, it has remained unexplored whether CET mediates its therapeutic effects via changes of activity in mesolimbic networks in response to alcohol cues. In this study, we assessed CET treatment effects on cue-induced responses using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In a randomized controlled trial, abstinent alcohol-dependent patients were randomly assigned to a CET group (n = 15) or a control group (n = 15). All patients underwent an extended detoxification treatment comprising medically supervised detoxification, health education, and supportive therapy. The CET patients additionally received nine CET sessions over 3 weeks, exposing the patient to his/her preferred alcoholic beverage. Cue-induced fMRI activation to alcohol cues was measured at pretreatment and posttreatment. Compared with pretreatment, fMRI cue-reactivity reduction was greater in the CET relative to the control group, especially in the anterior cingulate gyrus and the insula, as well as limbic and frontal regions. Before treatment, increased cue-induced fMRI activation was found in limbic and reward-related brain regions and in visual areas. After treatment, the CET group showed less activation than the control group in the left ventral striatum. The study provides first evidence that an exposure-based psychotherapeutic intervention in the treatment of alcoholism impacts on brain areas relevant for addiction memory and attentional focus to alcohol-associated cues and affects mesocorticolimbic reward pathways suggested to be pathophysiologically involved in addiction. Copyright © 2011 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Random forests on Hadoop for genome-wide association studies of multivariate neuroimaging phenotypes

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Motivation Multivariate quantitative traits arise naturally in recent neuroimaging genetics studies, in which both structural and functional variability of the human brain is measured non-invasively through techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). There is growing interest in detecting genetic variants associated with such multivariate traits, especially in genome-wide studies. Random forests (RFs) classifiers, which are ensembles of decision trees, are amongst the best performing machine learning algorithms and have been successfully employed for the prioritisation of genetic variants in case-control studies. RFs can also be applied to produce gene rankings in association studies with multivariate quantitative traits, and to estimate genetic similarities measures that are predictive of the trait. However, in studies involving hundreds of thousands of SNPs and high-dimensional traits, a very large ensemble of trees must be inferred from the data in order to obtain reliable rankings, which makes the application of these algorithms computationally prohibitive. Results We have developed a parallel version of the RF algorithm for regression and genetic similarity learning tasks in large-scale population genetic association studies involving multivariate traits, called PaRFR (Parallel Random Forest Regression). Our implementation takes advantage of the MapReduce programming model and is deployed on Hadoop, an open-source software framework that supports data-intensive distributed applications. Notable speed-ups are obtained by introducing a distance-based criterion for node splitting in the tree estimation process. PaRFR has been applied to a genome-wide association study on Alzheimer's disease (AD) in which the quantitative trait consists of a high-dimensional neuroimaging phenotype describing longitudinal changes in the human brain structure. PaRFR provides a ranking of SNPs associated to this trait, and produces pair-wise measures of genetic proximity that can be directly compared to pair-wise measures of phenotypic proximity. Several known AD-related variants have been identified, including APOE4 and TOMM40. We also present experimental evidence supporting the hypothesis of a linear relationship between the number of top-ranked mutated states, or frequent mutation patterns, and an indicator of disease severity. Availability The Java codes are freely available at http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/~gmontana. PMID:24564704

Random forests on Hadoop for genome-wide association studies of multivariate neuroimaging phenotypes.

PubMed

Wang, Yue; Goh, Wilson; Wong, Limsoon; Montana, Giovanni

2013-01-01

Multivariate quantitative traits arise naturally in recent neuroimaging genetics studies, in which both structural and functional variability of the human brain is measured non-invasively through techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). There is growing interest in detecting genetic variants associated with such multivariate traits, especially in genome-wide studies. Random forests (RFs) classifiers, which are ensembles of decision trees, are amongst the best performing machine learning algorithms and have been successfully employed for the prioritisation of genetic variants in case-control studies. RFs can also be applied to produce gene rankings in association studies with multivariate quantitative traits, and to estimate genetic similarities measures that are predictive of the trait. However, in studies involving hundreds of thousands of SNPs and high-dimensional traits, a very large ensemble of trees must be inferred from the data in order to obtain reliable rankings, which makes the application of these algorithms computationally prohibitive. We have developed a parallel version of the RF algorithm for regression and genetic similarity learning tasks in large-scale population genetic association studies involving multivariate traits, called PaRFR (Parallel Random Forest Regression). Our implementation takes advantage of the MapReduce programming model and is deployed on Hadoop, an open-source software framework that supports data-intensive distributed applications. Notable speed-ups are obtained by introducing a distance-based criterion for node splitting in the tree estimation process. PaRFR has been applied to a genome-wide association study on Alzheimer's disease (AD) in which the quantitative trait consists of a high-dimensional neuroimaging phenotype describing longitudinal changes in the human brain structure. PaRFR provides a ranking of SNPs associated to this trait, and produces pair-wise measures of genetic proximity that can be directly compared to pair-wise measures of phenotypic proximity. Several known AD-related variants have been identified, including APOE4 and TOMM40. We also present experimental evidence supporting the hypothesis of a linear relationship between the number of top-ranked mutated states, or frequent mutation patterns, and an indicator of disease severity. The Java codes are freely available at http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/~gmontana.

Parental Outcomes Following Participation in Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maughan, Andrea L.; Weiss, Jonathan A.

2017-01-01

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) benefit from parent involvement in their therapy, and there is evidence that this involvement may improve parent functioning as well. We examined changes in parent mental health, parenting, and expressed emotion, following participation in a randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavior therapy for…

Learning about and from a Distribution of Program Impacts Using Multisite Trials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raudenbush, Stephen W.; Bloom, Howard S.

2015-01-01

The present article provides a synthesis of the conceptual and statistical issues involved in using multisite randomized trials to learn about and from a distribution of heterogeneous program impacts across individuals and/or program sites. Learning "about" such a distribution involves estimating its mean value, detecting and quantifying…

A Group Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating Parent Involvement in Whole-School Actions to Reduce Bullying

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cross, Donna; Lester, Leanne; Pearce, Natasha; Barnes, Amy; Beatty, Shelley

2018-01-01

Parents can significantly affect children's peer relationships, including their involvement in bullying. The authors developed and evaluated ways to enhance parents' knowledge, self-efficacy, attitudes, and skills related to parent-child communication about bullying. The 3-year Friendly Schools Friendly Families whole-school intervention included…

Obsessive-compulsive disorder and family accommodation: A 3-year follow-up.

PubMed

Gomes, Juliana Braga; Cordioli, Aristides Volpato; Heldt, Elizeth

2017-07-01

The present study assessed 3-year maintenance of family accommodation (FA) reduction in a sample from a randomized clinical trial that assessed the impact of 12 sessions of cognitive-behavioral group therapy (CBGT) for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), with the involvement of family members in two sessions. Of the 46 original pairs of patients/family members, 35 were assessed at 3 years. Demographic and clinical characteristics remained similar. Post-CBGT improvement of OCD symptoms remained significant; FA reduced 39% after the therapy and 51% at follow-up. FA reduction remained over time, underscoring the importance of permanently assessing FA and involving family members when treating OCD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multidimensional treatment foster care as a preventive intervention to promote resiliency among youth in the child welfare system.

PubMed

Leve, Leslie D; Fisher, Philip A; Chamberlain, Patricia

2009-12-01

Demographic trends indicate that a growing segment of families is exposed to adversity such as poverty, drug use problems, caregiver transitions, and domestic violence. Although these risk processes and the accompanying poor outcomes for children have been well studied, little is known about why some children develop resilience in the face of such adversity, particularly when it is severe enough to invoke child welfare involvement. This paper describes a program of research involving families in the child welfare system. Using a resiliency framework, evidence from 4 randomized clinical trials that included components of the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care program is presented. Future directions and next steps are proposed.

Assessing differences in groups randomized by recruitment chain in a respondent-driven sample of Seattle-area injection drug users.

PubMed

Burt, Richard D; Thiede, Hanne

2014-11-01

Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) is a form of peer-based study recruitment and analysis that incorporates features designed to limit and adjust for biases in traditional snowball sampling. It is being widely used in studies of hidden populations. We report an empirical evaluation of RDS's consistency and variability, comparing groups recruited contemporaneously, by identical methods and using identical survey instruments. We randomized recruitment chains from the RDS-based 2012 National HIV Behavioral Surveillance survey of injection drug users in the Seattle area into two groups and compared them in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, drug-associated risk behaviors, sexual risk behaviors, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status and HIV testing frequency. The two groups differed in five of the 18 variables examined (P ≤ .001): race (e.g., 60% white vs. 47%), gender (52% male vs. 67%), area of residence (32% downtown Seattle vs. 44%), an HIV test in the previous 12 months (51% vs. 38%). The difference in serologic HIV status was particularly pronounced (4% positive vs. 18%). In four further randomizations, differences in one to five variables attained this level of significance, although the specific variables involved differed. We found some material differences between the randomized groups. Although the variability of the present study was less than has been reported in serial RDS surveys, these findings indicate caution in the interpretation of RDS results. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Naringenin Regulates Expression of Genes Involved in Cell Wall Synthesis in Herbaspirillum seropedicae▿

PubMed Central

Tadra-Sfeir, M. Z.; Souza, E. M.; Faoro, H.; Müller-Santos, M.; Baura, V. A.; Tuleski, T. R.; Rigo, L. U.; Yates, M. G.; Wassem, R.; Pedrosa, F. O.; Monteiro, R. A.

2011-01-01

Five thousand mutants of Herbaspirillum seropedicae SmR1 carrying random insertions of transposon pTnMod-OGmKmlacZ were screened for differential expression of LacZ in the presence of naringenin. Among the 16 mutants whose expression was regulated by naringenin were genes predicted to be involved in the synthesis of exopolysaccharides, lipopolysaccharides, and auxin. These loci are probably involved in establishing interactions with host plants. PMID:21257805

Naringenin regulates expression of genes involved in cell wall synthesis in Herbaspirillum seropedicae.

PubMed

Tadra-Sfeir, M Z; Souza, E M; Faoro, H; Müller-Santos, M; Baura, V A; Tuleski, T R; Rigo, L U; Yates, M G; Wassem, R; Pedrosa, F O; Monteiro, R A

2011-03-01

Five thousand mutants of Herbaspirillum seropedicae SmR1 carrying random insertions of transposon pTnMod-OGmKmlacZ were screened for differential expression of LacZ in the presence of naringenin. Among the 16 mutants whose expression was regulated by naringenin were genes predicted to be involved in the synthesis of exopolysaccharides, lipopolysaccharides, and auxin. These loci are probably involved in establishing interactions with host plants.

Hypnotic clever hands: Agency and automatic responding.

PubMed

Polito, Vince; Barnier, Amanda J; Connors, Michael H

2018-06-01

The Clever Hands task (Wegner, Fuller, & Sparrow, 2003) is a behavioral illusion in which participants make responses to a trivia quiz for which they have no sense of agency. Sixty high hypnotizable participants completed two versions of the Clever Hands task. Quiz One was a replication of the original study. Quiz Two was a hypnotic adaptation using three suggestions that were based on clinical disruptions to the sense of agency. The suggestions were for: random responding, thought insertion, and alien control. These suggestions led to differences in accuracy (action production) and estimates of accuracy (action projection). Specifically, whereas the random responding suggestion had little effect, the two clinically based suggestions had opposite impacts on action production: the thought insertion suggestion led to an increase in the rate of correct responses (although participants still believed they were responding randomly); while the alien control suggestion led to a reduction in the rate of correct answers and a pattern of results that more closely approximated randomness. Contrary to theoretical accounts that claim that hypnosis affects executive monitoring rather than executive control, this result indicates that specific hypnotic suggestions can also influence the implicit processes involved in action production. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

A morphologic analysis of 'naked' islets of Langerhans in lobular atrophy of the pancreas.

PubMed

Suda, K; Tsukahara, M; Miyake, T; Hirai, S

1994-08-01

The 'naked' islets of Langerhans (NIL) in randomly selected autopsy cases and in cases of chronic alcoholic pancreatitis, cystic fibrosis, and pancreatic carcinoma were studied histopathologically. The NIL were found in 55 of 164 randomly selected cases, with age-related frequency, in 21 of 30 cases of chronic alcoholic pancreatitis, in 2 of 2 cases of cystic fibrosis, and in 25 of 32 cases of pancreatic carcinoma. The NIL were frequently accompanied by ductal alterations: epithelial metaplasia and hyperplasia in randomly selected cases, protein plugs in chronic alcoholic pancreatitis, mucus plugs in cystic fibrosis, and obliterated ducts in pancreatic carcinoma. The NIL in randomly selected cases may have been formed by ductal alterations that caused stenosis of the lumen, those in chronic alcoholic pancreatitis and cystic fibrosis were the result of protein or mucus plugging, and those in pancreatic carcinoma were a result of neoplastic involvement of the distal pancreatic duct. Therefore, the common factor in the development of NIL is thought to be obstruction of the pancreatic duct system, and in cases of NIL that have a multilobular distribution and interinsular fibrosis, a diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis can usually be made.

Production planning and backup sourcing strategy of a buyer-dominant supply chain with random yield and demand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Kebing; Xiao, Tiaojun

2015-11-01

This paper studies the backup sourcing strategy of the buyer and the production planning of the supplier in presence of both random yield and random demand. Since the production is susceptible to the randomness of yield beyond the control of the supplier, the buyer may access to a backup sourcing option for the finished items. We analyse the value of backup sourcing for both the decentralised and centralised channels. Backup sourcing strategy of the buyer may lower the supply chain's performance. We show that the order quantity of the buyer does not change the stocking factor of the supplier's input. Meanwhile, compared with the centralised operation, the decentralised operation is more dependent on the backup sourcing to reduce supply shortage of the contracting supplier. From the channel's perspective, an incentive scheme is developed to facilitate the coordination of both the buyer and the contracting supplier, we show that the proposed option contract can allow the supply chain members to share the respective risks involved in the production and selling processes. Finally, we also provide qualitative insights based on numerical examples of the centralised and decentralised solutions.

Limits to randomness in paleobiologic models: the case of Phanerozoic species diversity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sepkoski, J. J. Jr; Sepkoski JJ, J. r. (Principal Investigator)

1994-01-01

The question of how random, or unconstrained, paleobiologic models should be is examined with a case study: Signor's (1982, 1985) inverse calculation of levels of marine species diversity through the Phanerozoic. His calculation involved an ingenious model that estimated species numbers and species abundances in the world oceans of the past by correcting known numbers of fossil species for variations in sedimentary rocks available for sampling and in effort paleontologists might devote to sampling. The model proves robust to changes in possible shapes of species-abundance distributions, but it is sensitive to alterations in the assumption that paleontologists collect fossils at random. If it is assumed that ease of collecting varies with age of sediment (with the Cenozoic offering easy sampling) or that paleontologists tend to seek out rarer fossils, results of the inverse calculation change. In particular, the magnitude of the calculated Cenozoic diversity increase always declines from the factor of about seven as originally reported to something considerably smaller. This leaves open the problem of the magnitude of Cenozoic increase in marine species diversity, awaiting better empirical data and, perhaps, more exacting models, random or otherwise.

Mothers' perceptions of their child's enrollment in a randomized clinical trial: poor understanding, vulnerability and contradictory feelings.

PubMed

Carvalho, Adriana Assis; Costa, Luciane Rezende

2013-12-10

Little is known about the views of mothers when their children are invited to participate in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) investigating medicines and/or invasive procedures. Our goal was to understand mothers' perceptions of the processes of informed consent and randomization in a RCT that divided uncooperative children into three intervention groups (physical restraint, sedation, and general anesthesia) for dental rehabilitation. This is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with mothers accompanying children under 3 years old presenting severe early childhood caries. Their responses were analyzed using content analysis. We identified one major theme from 15 mothers' responses - "Understanding of, attitudes toward, and feelings about consenting to participate in a RCT involving advanced behavior guidance techniques and about randomization" - that was derived from the following subcategories: confusion in defining techniques, questions after signing the consent form, lack of knowledge about the techniques, acceptance or questioning of the drawing, sharing responsibility with the child during the drawing, and feelings of faith in God, fear, powerlessness to choose, and relief from or an increase in pressure. Despite mothers' misunderstanding, vulnerability, and contradictory feelings, they were willing to overlook their thoughts in order to complete their children's dental treatment.

Intention to adopt clinical decision support systems in a developing country: effect of Physician’s perceived professional autonomy, involvement and belief: a cross-sectional study

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Computer-based clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are regarded as a key element to enhance decision-making in a healthcare environment to improve the quality of medical care delivery. The concern of having new CDSS unused is still one of the biggest issues in developing countries for the developers and implementers of clinical IT systems. The main objectives of this study are to determine whether (1) the physician’s perceived professional autonomy, (2) involvement in the decision to implement CDSS and (3) the belief that CDSS will improve job performance increase the intention to adopt CDSS. Four hypotheses were formulated and tested. Methods A questionnaire-based survey conducted between July 2010 and December 2010. The study was conducted in seven public and five private hospitals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Before contacting the hospitals, necessary permission was obtained from the Ministry of Health, Malaysia and the questionnaire was vetted by the ethics committee of the ministry. Physicians working in 12 hospitals from 10 different specialties participated in the study. The sampling method used was stratified random sampling and the physicians were stratified based on the specialty. A total of 450 physicians were selected using a random number generator. Each of these physicians was given a questionnaire and out of 450 questionnaires, 335 (response rate – 74%) were returned and 309 (69%) were deemed usable. Results The hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Salient results are: (1) Physicians’ perceived threat to professional autonomy lowers the intention to use CDSS (p < 0.01); (2) Physicians involvement in the planning, design and implementation increases their intention to use CDSS (p < 0.01); (3) Physicians belief that the new CDSS will improve his/her job performance increases their intention to use CDSS (p < 0.01). Conclusion The proposed model with the three main constructs (physician’s professional characteristic, involvement and belief) explains 47% of the variance in the intention to use CDSS. This is significantly higher than the models addressed so far. The results will have a major impact in implementing CDSS in developing countries. PMID:23216866

Intention to adopt clinical decision support systems in a developing country: effect of physician's perceived professional autonomy, involvement and belief: a cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Sambasivan, Murali; Esmaeilzadeh, Pouyan; Kumar, Naresh; Nezakati, Hossein

2012-12-05

Computer-based clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are regarded as a key element to enhance decision-making in a healthcare environment to improve the quality of medical care delivery. The concern of having new CDSS unused is still one of the biggest issues in developing countries for the developers and implementers of clinical IT systems. The main objectives of this study are to determine whether (1) the physician's perceived professional autonomy, (2) involvement in the decision to implement CDSS and (3) the belief that CDSS will improve job performance increase the intention to adopt CDSS. Four hypotheses were formulated and tested. A questionnaire-based survey conducted between July 2010 and December 2010. The study was conducted in seven public and five private hospitals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Before contacting the hospitals, necessary permission was obtained from the Ministry of Health, Malaysia and the questionnaire was vetted by the ethics committee of the ministry. Physicians working in 12 hospitals from 10 different specialties participated in the study. The sampling method used was stratified random sampling and the physicians were stratified based on the specialty. A total of 450 physicians were selected using a random number generator. Each of these physicians was given a questionnaire and out of 450 questionnaires, 335 (response rate--74%) were returned and 309 (69%) were deemed usable. The hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Salient results are: (1) Physicians' perceived threat to professional autonomy lowers the intention to use CDSS (p < 0.01); (2) Physicians involvement in the planning, design and implementation increases their intention to use CDSS (p < 0.01); (3) Physicians belief that the new CDSS will improve his/her job performance increases their intention to use CDSS (p < 0.01). The proposed model with the three main constructs (physician's professional characteristic, involvement and belief) explains 47% of the variance in the intention to use CDSS. This is significantly higher than the models addressed so far. The results will have a major impact in implementing CDSS in developing countries.

Rehabilitation Interventions for Improving Social Participation After Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

PubMed

Obembe, Adebimpe O; Eng, Janice J

2016-05-01

Despite the fact that social participation is considered a pivotal outcome of a successful recovery after stroke, there has been little attention on the impact of activities and services on this important domain. To present a systematic review and meta-analysis from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effects of rehabilitation interventions on social participation after stroke. A total of 8 electronic databases were searched for relevant RCTs that evaluated the effects of an intervention on the outcome of social participation after stroke. Reference lists of selected articles were hand searched to identify further relevant studies. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database Scale. Standardized mean differences (SMDs) and confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using fixed- and random-effect models. In all, 24 RCTs involving 2042 stroke survivors were identified and reviewed, and 21 were included in the meta-analysis. There was a small beneficial effect of interventions that utilized exercise on social participation (10 studies; SMD = 0.43; 95% CI = 0.09, 0.78;P= .01) immediately after the program ended. Exercise in combination with other interventions (13 studies; SMD = 0.34; 95% CI = 0.10, 0.58;P= .006) also resulted in beneficial effects. No significant effect was observed for interventions that involved support services over 9 studies (SMD = 0.09 [95% CI = -0.04, 0.21];I(2)= 0%;P= .16). The included studies provide evidence that rehabilitation interventions may be effective in improving social participation after stroke, especially if exercise is one of the components. © The Author(s) 2015.

Opinions of researchers based in the UK on recruiting subjects from developing countries into randomized controlled trials.

PubMed

Newton, Sam K; Appiah-Poku, John

2007-12-01

Explaining technical terms in consent forms prior to seeking informed consent to recruit into trials can be challenging in developing countries, and more so when the studies are randomized controlled trials. This study was carried out to examine the opinions of researchers on ways of dealing with these challenges in developing countries. Recorded in-depth interviews with 12 lecturers and five doctoral students, who had carried out research in developing countries, at a leading school of public health in the United Kingdom. A purposive, snowballing approach was used to identify interviewees. Researchers were divided on the feasibility of explaining technical trials in illiterate populations; the majority of them held the view that local analogies could be used to explain these technical terms. Others were of the opinion that this could not be done since it was too difficult to explain technical trials, such as randomized controlled trials, even to people in developed countries. Researchers acknowledged the difficulty in explaining randomized controlled trials but it was also their perception that this was an important part of the ethics of the work of scientific research involving human subjects. These difficulties notwithstanding, efforts should be made to ensure that subjects have sufficient understanding to consent, taking into account the fact that peculiar situations in developing countries might compound this difficulty.

A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Divalproex Extended-Release in the Treatment of Bipolar Disorder in Children and Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Karen Dineen; Redden, Laura; Kowatch, Robert A.; Wilens, Timothy E.; Segal, Scott; Chang, Kiki; Wozniak, Patricia; Vigna, Namita V.; Abi-Saab, Walid; Saltarelli, Mario

2009-01-01

A double-blind study that involves 150 patients aged 10-17 on the effect of divalproex extended-release in the treatment of bipolar disorder shows that the drug was similar to placebo based on adverse events and that no treatment effect was observed in the drug. The drug is not suitable for treatment of youths with bipolar I disorder, mixed or…

Exercise is good for your blood pressure: effects of endurance training and resistance training.

PubMed

Fagard, R H

2006-09-01

1. Although several epidemiological studies have not observed significant independent relationships between physical activity or fitness and blood pressure, others have concluded that blood pressure is lower in individuals who are more fit or active. However, longitudinal intervention studies are more appropriate for assessing the effects of physical activity on blood pressure. 2. Previously, we have performed meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials involving dynamic aerobic endurance training or resistance training. Inclusion criteria were: random allocation to intervention and control; physical training as the sole intervention; inclusion of healthy sedentary normotensive and/or hypertensive adults; intervention duration of at least 4 weeks; availability of systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure; and publication in a peer-reviewed journal up to December 2003. 3. The meta-analysis on endurance training involved 72 trials and 105 study groups. After weighting for the number of trained participants, training induced significant net reductions of resting and day time ambulatory blood pressure of 3.0/2.4 mmHg (P < 0.001) and 3.3/3.5 mmHg (P < 0.01), respectively. The reduction of resting blood pressure was more pronounced in the 30 hypertensive study groups (-6.9/-4.9) than in the others (-1.9/-1.6; P < 0.001 for all). Systemic vascular resistance decreased by 7.1% (P < 0.05), plasma noradrenaline by 29% (P < 0.001) and plasma renin activity by 20% (P < 0.05). Bodyweight decreased by 1.2 kg (P < 0.001), waist circumference by 2.8 cm (P < 0.001), percentage body fat by 1.4% (P < 0.001) and the Homeostatic Model Assessment (HOMA) index of insulin resistance by 0.31 units (P < 0.01). High-density lipoprotein-cholesterol increased by 0.032 mmol/L (P < 0.05). 4. Resistance training has been less well studied. A meta-analysis of nine randomized controlled trials (12 study groups) on mostly dynamic resistance training revealed a weighted net reduction of diastolic blood pressure of 3.5 mmHg (P < 0.01) associated with exercise and a non-significant reduction of systolic blood pressure of 3.2 mmHg (P = 0.10). 5. In conclusion, dynamic aerobic endurance training decreases blood pressure through a reduction of systemic vascular resistance, in which the sympathetic nervous system and the renin-angiotensin system appear to be involved, and favourably affects concomitant cardiovascular risk factors. In addition, the few available data suggest that resistance training is able to reduce blood pressure.

Functions of parental involvement and effects of school climate on bullying behaviors among South Korean middle school students.

PubMed

Lee, Chang-Hun; Song, Juyoung

2012-08-01

This study uses an ecological systems theory to understand bullying behavior. Emphasis is given to overcome limitations found in the literature, such as very little empirical research on functions of parental involvement and the impacts of school climate on bullying as an outcome variable. Two functions of parental involvement investigated are (a) bridging the negative experiences within the family with bullying behaviors at schools, and (b) influencing school climate. Bullying behaviors were measured by a modified Korean version of Olweus' bully/victim questionnaire (reliability range: .78-.84) from 1,238 randomly selected Korean middle school students in 2007. Findings from structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses showed that (a) individual traits are one of the most important influence on bullying, (b) negative experiences in the family do not have direct influence on bullying behaviors at school, (c) parental involvement influences school climate, and (d) positive school climate was negatively related to bullying behaviors.

Predicting network modules of cell cycle regulators using relative protein abundance statistics.

PubMed

Oguz, Cihan; Watson, Layne T; Baumann, William T; Tyson, John J

2017-02-28

Parameter estimation in systems biology is typically done by enforcing experimental observations through an objective function as the parameter space of a model is explored by numerical simulations. Past studies have shown that one usually finds a set of "feasible" parameter vectors that fit the available experimental data equally well, and that these alternative vectors can make different predictions under novel experimental conditions. In this study, we characterize the feasible region of a complex model of the budding yeast cell cycle under a large set of discrete experimental constraints in order to test whether the statistical features of relative protein abundance predictions are influenced by the topology of the cell cycle regulatory network. Using differential evolution, we generate an ensemble of feasible parameter vectors that reproduce the phenotypes (viable or inviable) of wild-type yeast cells and 110 mutant strains. We use this ensemble to predict the phenotypes of 129 mutant strains for which experimental data is not available. We identify 86 novel mutants that are predicted to be viable and then rank the cell cycle proteins in terms of their contributions to cumulative variability of relative protein abundance predictions. Proteins involved in "regulation of cell size" and "regulation of G1/S transition" contribute most to predictive variability, whereas proteins involved in "positive regulation of transcription involved in exit from mitosis," "mitotic spindle assembly checkpoint" and "negative regulation of cyclin-dependent protein kinase by cyclin degradation" contribute the least. These results suggest that the statistics of these predictions may be generating patterns specific to individual network modules (START, S/G2/M, and EXIT). To test this hypothesis, we develop random forest models for predicting the network modules of cell cycle regulators using relative abundance statistics as model inputs. Predictive performance is assessed by the areas under receiver operating characteristics curves (AUC). Our models generate an AUC range of 0.83-0.87 as opposed to randomized models with AUC values around 0.50. By using differential evolution and random forest modeling, we show that the model prediction statistics generate distinct network module-specific patterns within the cell cycle network.

Random Measurement Error Does Not Bias the Treatment Effect Estimate in the Regression-Discontinuity Design. II. When an Interaction Effect Is Present.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trochim, William M. K.; And Others

1991-01-01

The regression-discontinuity design involving a treatment interaction effect (TIE), pretest-posttest functional form specification, and choice of point-of-estimation of the TIE are examined. Formulas for controlling the magnitude of TIE in simulations can be used for simulating the randomized experimental case where estimation is not at the…

Effects on Parental Mental Health of an Education and Skills Training Program for Parents of Young Children with Autism: A Randomized Controlled Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tonge, Bruce; Brereton, Avril; Kiomall, Melissa; MacKinnon, Andrew; King, Neville; Rinehart, Nicole

2006-01-01

Objective: To determine the impact of a parent education and behavior management intervention (PEBM) on the mental health and adjustment of parents with preschool children with autism. Method: A randomized, group-comparison design involving a parent education and counseling intervention to control for nonspecific therapist effects and a control…

Indicated Prevention and Early Intervention for Childhood Anxiety: A Randomized Trial with Caucasian and Hispanic/Latino Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pina, Armando A.; Zerr, Argero A.; Villalta, Ian K.; Gonzales, Nancy A.

2012-01-01

Objective: This trial of a randomized indicated anxiety prevention and early intervention explored initial program effects as well as the role of ethnicity and language on measured outcomes. Method: A total of 88 youth (M = 10.36 years; 45 girls, 52 Latino) received 1 of 2 protocols with varying degrees of parent involvement, and response was…

Effect of Endoscopic Sphincterotomy for Suspected Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction on Pain-Related Disability Following Cholecystectomy

PubMed Central

Cotton, Peter B.; Durkalski, Valerie; Romagnuolo, Joseph; Pauls, Qi; Fogel, Evan; Tarnasky, Paul; Aliperti, Giuseppe; Freeman, Martin; Kozarek, Richard; Jamidar, Priya; Wilcox, Mel; Serrano, Jose; Brawman-Mintzer, Olga; Elta, Grace; Mauldin, Patrick; Thornhill, Andre; Hawes, Robert; Wood-Williams, April; Orrell, Kyle; Drossman, Douglas; Robuck, Patricia

2015-01-01

IMPORTANCE Abdominal pain after cholecystectomy is common and may be attributed to sphincter of Oddi dysfunction. Management often involves endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) with manometry and sphincterotomy. OBJECTIVE To determine whether endoscopic sphincterotomy reduces pain and whether sphincter manometric pressure is predictive of pain relief. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS Multicenter, sham-controlled, randomized trial involving 214 patients with pain after cholecystectomy without significant abnormalities on imaging or laboratory studies, and no prior sphincter treatment or pancreatitis randomly assigned (August 6, 2008-March 23, 2012) to undergo sphincterotomy or sham therapy at 7 referral medical centers. One-year follow-up was blinded. The final follow-up visit was March 21, 2013. INTERVENTIONS After ERCP, patients were randomized 2:1 to sphincterotomy (n = 141) or sham (n = 73) irrespective of manometry findings. Those randomized to sphincterotomy with elevated pancreatic sphincter pressures were randomized again (1:1) to biliary or to both biliary and pancreatic sphincterotomies. Seventy-two were entered into an observational study with conventional ERCP managemeny. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Success of treatment was defined as less than 6 days of disability due to pain in the prior 90 days both at months 9 and 12 after randomization, with no narcotic use and no further sphincter intervention. RESULTS Twenty-seven patients (37%; 95%CI, 25.9%-48.1%) in the sham treatment group vs 32 (23%; 95%CI, 15.8%-29.6%) in the sphincterotomy group experienced successful treatment (adjusted risk difference, −15.6%; 95% CI, −28.0% to −3.3%; P = .01). Of the patients with pancreatic sphincter hypertension, 14 (30%; 95% CI, 16.7%-42.9%) who underwent dual sphincterotomy and 10 (20%; 95% CI, 8.7%-30.5%) who underwent biliary sphincterotomy alone experienced successful treatment. Thirty-seven treated patients (26%; 95% CI,19%-34%) and 25 patients (34%; 95% CI, 23%-45%) in the sham group underwent repeat ERCP interventions (P = .22). Manometry results were not associated with the outcome. No clinical subgroups appeared to benefit from sphincterotomy more than others. Pancreatitis occurred in 15 patients (11%) after primary sphincterotomies and in 11 patients (15%) in the sham group. Of the nonrandomized patients in the observational study group, 5 (24%; 95%CI, 6%-42%) who underwent biliary sphincterotomy, 12 (31%; 95%CI, 16%-45%) who underwent dual sphincterotomy, and 2 (17%; 95%CI, 0%-38%) who did not undergo sphincterotomy had successful treatment. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In patients with abdominal pain after cholecystectomy undergoing ERCP with manometry, sphincterotomy vs sham did not reduce disability due to pain. These findings do not support ERCP and sphincterotomy for these patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: 00688662 PMID:24867013

Challenging mental health related stigma in China: Systematic review and meta-analysis. I. Interventions among the general public.

PubMed

Xu, Ziyan; Rüsch, Nicolas; Huang, Fangfang; Kösters, Markus

2017-09-01

Mental illness stigma is widely endorsed by the general public in China. Evidence-based anti-stigma interventions to reduce public stigma are needed. However, most studies on the efficacy of anti-stigma interventions took place in Western countries and existing Chinese studies were often not included in recent systematic reviews. This review evaluates the efficacy of anti-stigma interventions among the general population in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. Eight databases in English and Chinese were searched for randomized and non-randomized controlled trials. Subgroup analyses compared interventions with and without consumer contact. Standardized mean differences were calculated from eligible studies where possible. We included 9 trials involving 2041 participants. Interventions yielded a small effect on stereotypes reduction and a similar effect on improving mental health literacy. No study assessed discrimination outcomes. Interventions with consumer contact were not superior to those without. There were insufficient data on medium and long term effects. Heterogeneity across studies was moderate. Quality of studies was modest. Further research using rigorous methods is required. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.