Voluntary temporary abstinence from alcohol during “Dry January” and subsequent alcohol use

Objective: Temporary abstinence from alcohol may convey physiological benefits and enhance well-being. The aim of this study was to address a lack of information about: (1) correlates of successful completion of a planned period of abstinence, and (2) how success or failure in planned abstinence affects subsequent alcohol consumption. Methods: 857 British adults (249 men, 608 women) participating in the “Dry January” alcohol abstinence challenge completed a baseline questionnaire, a one-month follow-up questionnaire, and a 6-month follow-up questionnaire. Key variables assessed at baseline included measures of alcohol consumption and drink refusal self-efficacy (DRSE). Results: In bivariate analysis, success during Dry January was predicted by measures of more moderate alcohol consumption and greater social DRSE. Multivariate analyses revealed that success during Dry January was best predicted by a lower frequency of drunkenness in the month prior to Dry January. Structural Equation Modelling revealed that participation in Dry January was related to reductions in alcohol consumption and increases in DRSE among all respondents at 6-month follow-up, regardless of success, but these changes were more likely among people who successfully completed the challenge. Conclusions: The findings suggest that participation in abstinence challenges such as “Dry January” may be associated with changes toward healthier drinking and greater DRSE, and is unlikely to result in undesirable “rebound effects”: very few people reported increased alcohol consumption following a period of voluntary abstinence

Investigating Nonlinearity: A Note on the Estimation of Hamilton’s Random Field Regression Model

This is a revised and extended version of the authors’ 2003 Trinity Economic Paper. It describes Hamilton’s (2001) approach to nonlinear econometric modelling and some of the methods of nonlinear optimization, as before, but adds significantly to the investigation of Hamilton’s Gauss program for the implementation of his methodology. Specifically, it reports on the performance of this program using data relating to Hamilton’s US Phillips curve example, the use of two versions of the Gauss software and a range of numerical optimization options. It also examines the impact of changes in initial parameter estimates, the use of algorithm switching strategies, and the e?ects of changes in the sample data on the results produced by Hamilton’s procedure. The new results presented suggest some further clear conclusions that will be of value to those using Hamilton’s method.

Overcoming Challenges to Teamwork in Patient-Centered Medical Homes: A Qualitative Study

There is emerging consensus that enhanced inter-professional teamwork is necessary for the effective and efficient delivery of primary care, but there is less practical information specific to primary care available to guide practices on how to better work as teams. The purpose of this study was to describe how primary care practices have overcome challenges to providing team-based primary care and the implications for care delivery and policy

Forest cover estimation in Ireland using radar remote sensing: a comparative analysis of forest cover assessment methodologies

Quantification of spatial and temporal changes in forest cover is an essential component of forest monitoring programs. Due to its cloud free capability, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an ideal source of information on forest dynamics in countries with near-constant cloud-cover. However, few studies have investigated the use of SAR for forest cover estimation in landscapes with highly sparse and fragmented forest cover. In this study, the potential use of L-band SAR for forest cover estimation in two regions (Longford and Sligo) in Ireland is investigated and compared to forest cover estimates derived from three national (Forestry2010, Prime2, National Forest Inventory), one pan-European (Forest Map 2006) and one global forest cover (Global Forest Change) product. Two machine-learning approaches (Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees) are evaluated. Both Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees classification accuracies were high (98.1–98.5%), with differences between the two classifiers being minimal (<0.5%). Increasing levels of post classification filtering led to a decrease in estimated forest area and an increase in overall accuracy of SAR-derived forest cover maps. All forest cover products were evaluated using an independent validation dataset. For the Longford region, the highest overall accuracy was recorded with the Forestry2010 dataset (97.42%) whereas in Sligo, highest overall accuracy was obtained for the Prime2 dataset (97.43%), although accuracies of SAR-derived forest maps were comparable. Our findings indicate that spaceborne radar could aid inventories in regions with low levels of forest cover in fragmented landscapes. The reduced accuracies observed for the global and pan-continental forest cover maps in comparison to national and SAR-derived forest maps indicate that caution should be exercised when applying these datasets for national reporting

The current state of using learning analytics to measure and support K-12 student engagement: A scoping review

Student engagement has been identified as a critical construct for understanding and predicting educational success. However, research has shown that it can be hard to align data-driven insights of engagement with observed and self-reported levels of engagement. Given the emergence and increasing application of learning analytics (LA) within K-12 education, further research is needed to understand how engagement is being conceptualized and measured within LA research. This scoping review identifies and synthesizes literature published between 2011-2022, focused on LA and student engagement in K-12 contexts, and indexed in five international databases. 27 articles and conference papers from 13 different countries were included for review. We found that most of the research was undertaken in middle school years within STEM subjects. The results show that there is a wide discrepancy in researchers' understanding and operationalization of engagement and little evidence to suggest that LA improves learning outcomes and support. However, the potential to do so remains strong. Guidance is provided for future LA engagement research to better align with these goals

The acute influence of sucrose consumption with and without vitamin C co-ingestion on microvascular reactivity in healthy young adults

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.  Background Sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) are a major source of dietary sugar and a public health concern. Glucose consumption acutely influences microvascular reactivity in healthy adults, possibly via oxidative stress. The purpose of this study was to observe the acute influence of a more relevant dose of sucrose on microvascular reactivity, and to identify whether this response is influenced by the amount of vitamin C typically contained in SSB. Methods Thirteen ostensibly healthy adults (8 male, 5 female) performed three 1-day trials in a randomized order; the consumption of 300 ml water (control; CON), or 300 ml water with 50 g sucrose (SUGAR) or 50 g sucrose with 160 mg of vitamin C (VITC). Near infrared spectroscopy was used to determine peak reactive hyperaemia (PRH), the rate of desaturation (Slope 1) and reperfusion (Slope 2), and the total area under the reperfusion curve versus time (TRH) following 5 min of forearm cuff occlusion before and 30, 60, 90 and 120 min after test drink consumption. Results SUGAR and VITC significantly increased the total area under the curve versus time for plasma glucose (P < 0.05 for both). No changes in microvascular reactivity were observed between trials, although VITC increased Slope 1 compared to both SUGAR and CON 30 and 60 min post drink (P < 0.05 for both). Conclusion The consumption of a sugar load representative of commercially available SSB did not influence microvascular reactivity. The co-ingestion of Vitamin C also failed to influence microvascular reactivity, but did increase the rate of oxygen extraction

The influence of social constructs of hegemonic masculinity and sexual behaviour on acceptability of vaginal microbicides in Zambia

Vaginal microbicides are heralded as a woman’s HIV prevention method. This ethnographic study, conducted in a trial setting in Zambia, explored how the social construction of masculinity and sexual behaviour influenced the acceptability of vaginal microbicides from the man’s perspective. The data was generated from 18 In-depth Interviews (IDIs), and 8 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). The data was analysed thematically. The study found that hegemonic masculinity influenced the use of gel use among women in multiple ways: decision to initiate gel use, autonomous use of the gel and consistent use of the gel. Men were seen as heads of households and decision makers who approved their partners’ intentions to initiate gel use. Autonomous gel use by women was not supported because it challenged men’s position in sexual matters and at family level. The socially accepted notion that men engaged in multiple sexual relationships also influenced women’s decision to use the gel. Sustained gel use depended on the perceived effect of the gel on men’s sexual desires, sexual performance, fertility, and sexual behaviour. This study suggests that acceptability of microbicides partially lies within the realm of men, with use constrained and dictated by cultural constructs and practice of masculinity and gender

Fast, exact CMB power spectrum estimation for a certain class of observational strategies

We describe a class of observational strategies for probing the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) where the instrument scans on rings which can be combined into an n-torus, the {\em ring torus}. This class has the remarkable property that it allows exact maximum likelihood power spectrum estimation in of order $N^2$ operations (if the size of the data set is $N$) under circumstances which would previously have made this analysis intractable: correlated receiver noise, arbitrary asymmetric beam shapes and far side lobes, non-uniform distribution of integration time on the sky and partial sky coverage. This ease of computation gives us an important theoretical tool for understanding the impact of instrumental effects on CMB observables and hence for the design and analysis of the CMB observations of the future. There are members of this class which closely approximate the MAP and Planck satellite missions. We present a numerical example where we apply our ring torus methods to a simulated data set from a CMB mission covering a 20 degree patch on the sky to compute the maximum likelihood estimate of the power spectrum $C_\ell$ with unprecedented efficiency.Comment: RevTeX, 14 pages, 5 figures. A full resolution version of Figure 1 and additional materials are at http://feynman.princeton.edu/~bwandelt/RT

Strengthening impact assessment: a call for integration and focus

We suggest that the impact assessment community has lost its way based on our observation that impact assessment is under attack because of a perceived lack of efficiency. Specifically, we contend that the proliferation of different impact assessment types creates separate silos of expertise and feeds arguments for not only a lack of efficiency but also a lack of effectiveness of the process through excessive specialisation and a lack of interdisciplinary practice. We propose that the solution is a return to the basics of impact assessment with a call for increased integration around the goal of sustainable development and focus through better scoping. We rehearse and rebut counter arguments covering silo-based expertise, advocacy, democracy, sustainability understanding and communication. We call on the impact assessment community to rise to the challenge of increasing integration and focus, and to engage in the debate about the means of strengthening impact assessment