Teaching basic relaxation procedures to psychiatric patients receiving electronconvulsive therapy : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

There has been no research on psychiatric patients examining the ability to remember relaxation skills whilst receiving electroconvulsive therapy. This thesis addressed itself to the question of whether the patients could remember the relaxation procedures that were taught immediately before, during, or immediately after the ECT series. Fourteen patients were assigned to three different groups. The first group received the relaxation training (RT) prior to beginning the ECT series, the second group received the RT during the ECT series and the third group received the RT immediately after the ECT series. Assessment was made of the verbal instructions taught to the patients using a checklist devised by the author. Comparisons were made between patients on their performance according to several different independent variables, diagnosis, frequency of ECT, response to treatment and order of presentation effects. Eleven of the fourteen subjects learnt the RT procedures within three training sessions. The remaining subjects failed to learn the RT procedures in six sessions but this study did not confirm that ECT was a precipitant in their failure to learn. No significant effect was associated with diagnosis, frequency of ECT or response to treatment. It was concluded that it is possible to teach RT procedures to the majority of psychiatric patients at the institution where this study was completed. This study produced no evidence to suggest that it is preferable to teach RT to patients at any particular point in ECT treatment sequence and in addition there was no evidence of any anterograde or retrograde amnesic effects associated with ECT sufficient to interfere with the learning of verbal instructions associated with RT

Marginal analysis of longitudinal count data in long sequences: Methods and applications to a driving study

Most of the available methods for longitudinal data analysis are designed and validated for the situation where the number of subjects is large and the number of observations per subject is relatively small. Motivated by the Naturalistic Teenage Driving Study (NTDS), which represents the exact opposite situation, we examine standard and propose new methodology for marginal analysis of longitudinal count data in a small number of very long sequences. We consider standard methods based on generalized estimating equations, under working independence or an appropriate correlation structure, and find them unsatisfactory for dealing with time-dependent covariates when the counts are low. For this situation, we explore a within-cluster resampling (WCR) approach that involves repeated analyses of random subsamples with a final analysis that synthesizes results across subsamples. This leads to a novel WCR method which operates on separated blocks within subjects and which performs better than all of the previously considered methods. The methods are applied to the NTDS data and evaluated in simulation experiments mimicking the NTDS.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/11-AOAS507 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Diseases of winter linseed : occurrence, effects and importance

In 1998, a survey of the incidence and severity of diseases was carried out on 30 crops of winter linseed at early flowering and again at crop maturity. Five crops each were selected in south west, east, east Midlands, west Midlands and north of England and from Scotland. Crops were predominantly cv. Oliver (90% crops), grown from certified seed (83%) and sown in September (97%). Pasmo (Mycosphaerella) was the most important disease, affecting leaves of 73% crops at early flowering and 90% crops at maturity. Powdery mildew (70% crops), Alternaria (30% crops) on leaves and Botrytis on capsules (70% crops) were also common. Regional differences were apparent for powdery mildew, which was present in all regions except the southwest, whilst Alternaria predominated in the Midlands. Half of the crops surveyed had received fungicide sprays, but this appeared to have made limited impact on disease severity. Pasmo is a new threat to UK linseed crops and this raises concerns about the threat it poses to spring linsee

Teenage Drivers Portable Electronic Device Use While Driving

Young drivers’ crash risk increases when they engage in certain secondary tasks while driving. Using a sample of participants from the NEXT Generation Health Study who reported having an independent driving license and driving at least one day in the last 30 days (n = 1,243), the prevalence of portable electronic device use while driving was estimated. Two measures of prevalence were calculated: (1) engaging in the behavior at least once in the last 30 days; (2) percentage of days engaged in the behavior, relative to the number of days driven in the last 30 days. A total of 82.84% reported engaging in electronic device use while driving at least once in the last 30 days. Specifically, 71.13% made or answered a phone call, 64.84% read or sent a text message, 20.29% read or sent an email, 29.11% checked a website, 71.64% changed music, 12.80% used a tablet or computer, and 52.64% looked at directions or a map. Young drivers reported using electronic devices while driving on 19.06% of the days they drove. Males were more likely to use tablet or computer while driving, teens from moderate and high affluence households were more likely to check websites, and rural participants were less likely to look at directions or a map than urban participants. The number of days participants reported driving in the last 30 days, but not self-reported miles driven, was associated with a higher likelihood of using an electronic device while driving

Hazard Perception and Distraction in Novice Drivers: Effects of 12 Months Driving Experience

The high crash risk of novice drivers has been partly attributed to their underdeveloped hazard perception abilities. Novice drivers also have an increased risk of crashes due to distractions. Studies show that novice drivers do not detect risk relevant cues and are more susceptible to distractions when compared to adult drivers. This test track study was conducted to study the effects of 12 months of driving experience on teenagers. Forty-two teenagers and their parents drove through hazard perception scenarios while engaged in secondary tasks. These participants had participated in a similar session 12 months earlier. For the odometer and texting task conditions the novice drivers showed an improvement in hazard perception and a small but insignificant decrease in task suspension after 12 months. For the scenario with the cell phone task none of the novice drivers suspended the task, nor exhibited any sort of hazard perception behavior at 12 months. The results indicate that although hazard perception generally improves with experience under some distracting task conditions this is not the case for cell phone distractions

Psychosocial factors associated with smoking and drinking among Japanese early adolescent boys and girls: Cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Smoking and drinking alcohol among early adolescents are serious public health concerns, but few studies have been conducted in Japan to assess their prevalence and etiology. A regional survey was conducted in eight schools in two Japanese school districts to identify psychosocial factors associated with smoking and drinking behaviors for boys and girls.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Junior high school students from seventh to ninth grades (N = 2,923) completed a self-reported questionnaire between December 2002 and March 2003. Relationships between psychosocial variables (i.e., self-assertive efficacy to resist peer pressure, parental involvement, school adjustment, and deviant peer influence) and smoking and drinking were investigated using logistic regression analyses and path analyses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Smoking in the last six months was significantly more prevalent in boys (7.9%) than girls (5.1%). The prevalence of drinking in the last six months was similar in boys (23.7%) and girls (21.8%). Self-efficacy to resist peer pressure was negatively associated with both smoking and drinking among both boys and girls and provided both direct and indirect effects through deviant peer influence. Parental involvement showed indirect effects through school adjustment and/or deviant peer influence to both smoking among both boys and girls and drinking among girls, although parental involvement showed direct effects on smoking only for boys. School adjustment was negatively associated with smoking among both boys and girls and drinking among girls.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest that self-assertive efficacy to resist peer pressure, parental involvement, school adjustment and deviant peer influence are potentially important factors that could be addressed by programs to prevent smoking and/or drinking among early adolescent boys and girls in Japan.</p

Enhancing Water Quality Data Service Discovery And Access Using Standard Vocabularies

There is a growing need for consistency across the publishing, discovering, integrating and access to scientific datasets, such as water quality data. Such datasets may have varying formats and service interfaces. The Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) is both a software package and a data format for producing array-oriented scientific data, which is commonly used to exchange data, including water quality data. NetCDF datasets are also published through service interfaces using the THREDDS data server. Alternatively water quality datasets can be encoded with standard XML formats such as WaterML 2.0, which can be published with services such as the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) community\u27s Web Feature Service interface standard (WFS). However, appropriate interpretation of the content, discovery and interoperability of data depends on common models, schemas and vocabularies, though these may not always be available. Using the water quality vocabulary we have developed, formalized using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) language, and published as Linked Data, we demonstrate the use of such standard vocabularies in existing data services for providing service capability metadata. We also present methods for augmenting existing metadata fields for water quality data specifically in formats such as NetCDF, WaterML 2.0 using standard vocabularies. We show how using standard vocabularies that are encoded and published using semantic technologies can enhance discovery, integration and access to existing data services delivering water quality datasets

Diabolical survival in Death Valley: recent pupfish colonization, gene flow and genetic assimilation in the smallest species range on earth

One of the most endangered vertebrates, the Devils Hole pupfish Cyprinodon diabolis, survives in a nearly impossible environment: a narrow subterranean fissure in the hottest desert on earth, Death Valley. This species became a conservation icon after a landmark 1976 US Supreme Court case affirming federal groundwater rights to its unique habitat. However, one outstanding question about this species remains unresolved: how long has diabolis persisted in this hellish environment? We used next-generation sequencing of over 13 000 loci to infer the demographic history of pupfishes in Death Valley. Instead of relicts isolated 2–3 Myr ago throughout repeated flooding of the entire region by inland seas as currently believed, we present evidence for frequent gene flow among Death Valley pupfish species and divergence after the most recent flooding 13 kyr ago. We estimate that Devils Hole was colonized by pupfish between 105 and 830 years ago, followed by genetic assimilation of pelvic fin loss and recent gene flow into neighbouring spring systems. Our results provide a new perspective on an iconic endangered species using the latest population genomic methods and support an emerging consensus that timescales for speciation are overestimated in many groups of rapidly evolving species

Passenger Age and Gender Effects on Adult Driver Fatal Crash Rate

Driver behavior and crash rates vary with the presence of passengers but the details of this relationship are not well understood. The literature generally does not take into account the characteristics of passengers, yet effects on crashes may vary dramatically with passenger age and gender. This study estimated the amount of exposure (driving miles) done by various driver age/gender categories with various combinations of passengers. Statistical imputation techniques were used to derive travel estimates for various pairings using data from the 2001 National Household Travel Survey. Crash frequencies for every pairing were obtained from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and were used to compute fatal crash rates (per 10 million trip miles). The findings reported here focus on adult (21 and older) drivers. The results show that drivers of a given type (age/gender group) show dramatically different crash rates as a function of passenger type. Some passenger types are associated with fatal crash rates higher than that with no passenger, while other passenger types are associated with lower crash rates. The details of this relationship depend to some degree on driver characteristics. Crash rates for different driver age/gender groups overlap substantially based on the passenger, so that the “best” and “worst” driver groups are passenger-specific. For adult male drivers, female passengers are generally associated with lower crash rates. For male drivers, there is a higher crash rate with a male passenger of a given age than with a female passenger of the same age, even for child passengers

How Well Do Parents Manage Young Driver Crash Risks

Abstract Motor vehicle crashes are extremely high among young drivers during at least the first year of licensure. Crash risks decline with increased experience, but the more newly licensed teenagers drive, the greater their risk exposure. Hence, the dilemma facing policy makers and parents is how to provide young drivers with driving experience without unduly increasing their crash risk. Graduated driver licensing policies serve to delay licensure and then limit exposure to the highest risk conditions after licensure, allowing young drivers to gain experience only under less risky driving conditions. A similar strategy is needed to guide parents. Parents do not appear to appreciate just how risky driving is for novice drivers and tend to exert less control over their teenage children&apos;s driving than might be expected. Recent research has demonstrated that simple motivational strategies can persuade parents to adopt driving agreements and impose greater restrictions on early teen driving