Effects of a parental program for preventing underage drinking - The NGO program strong and clear

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The present study is an evaluation of a 3-year parental program aiming to prevent underage drinking. The intervention was implemented by a non-governmental organization and targeted parents with children aged 13-16 years old and included recurrent activities during the entire period of secondary school. The program consisted of four different types of group and self-administered activities: parent meetings, family dialogues, friend meetings, and family meetings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A quasi-experimental design was used following parents and children with questionnaires during the three years of secondary school. The analytic sample consisted of 509 dyads of parents and children. Measures of parental attitudes and behaviour concerning underage drinking and adolescents' lifetime alcohol consumption and drunkenness were used. Three socio-demographic factors were included: parental education, school, and gender of the child. A Latent Growth Modelling (LGM) approach was used to examine changes in parental behaviour regarding youth drinking and in young people's drinking behaviour. To test for the pre-post test differences in parental attitudes repeated measures ANOVA were used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results showed that parents in the program maintained their restrictive attitude toward underage drinking to a higher degree than non-participating parents. Adolescents of participants were on average one year older than adolescents with non-participating parents when they made their alcohol debut. They were also less likely to have ever been drunk in school year 9.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results of the study suggested that Strong and Clear contributed to maintaining parents' restrictive attitude toward underage drinking during secondary school, postponing alcohol debut among the adolescents, and significantly reducing their drunkenness.</p

Open data from the third observing run of LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA and GEO

The global network of gravitational-wave observatories now includes five detectors, namely LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO 600. These detectors collected data during their third observing run, O3, composed of three phases: O3a starting in April of 2019 and lasting six months, O3b starting in November of 2019 and lasting five months, and O3GK starting in April of 2020 and lasting 2 weeks. In this paper we describe these data and various other science products that can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at https://gwosc.org. The main dataset, consisting of the gravitational-wave strain time series that contains the astrophysical signals, is released together with supporting data useful for their analysis and documentation, tutorials, as well as analysis software packages.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figure

Search for Eccentric Black Hole Coalescences during the Third Observing Run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass $M>70$ $M_\odot$) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities $0 < e \leq 0.3$ at $0.33$ Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$ at 90\% confidence level.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure

Study protocol for a group randomized controlled trial of a classroom-based intervention aimed at preventing early risk factors for drug abuse: integrating effectiveness and implementation research

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>While a number of preventive interventions delivered within schools have shown both short-term and long-term impact in epidemiologically based randomized field trials, programs are not often sustained with high-quality implementation over time. This study was designed to support two purposes. The first purpose was to test the effectiveness of a universal classroom-based intervention, the Whole Day First Grade Program (WD), aimed at two early antecedents to drug abuse and other problem behaviors, namely, aggressive, disruptive behavior and poor academic achievement. The second purpose--the focus of this paper--was to examine the utility of a multilevel structure to support high levels of implementation during the effectiveness trial, to sustain WD practices across additional years, and to train additional teachers in WD practices.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The WD intervention integrated three components, each previously tested separately: classroom behavior management; instruction, specifically reading; and family-classroom partnerships around behavior and learning. Teachers and students in 12 schools were randomly assigned to receive either the WD intervention or the standard first-grade program of the school system (SC). Three consecutive cohorts of first graders were randomized within schools to WD or SC classrooms and followed through the end of third grade to test the effectiveness of the WD intervention. Teacher practices were assessed over three years to examine the utility of the multilevel structure to support sustainability and scaling-up.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The design employed in this trial appears to have considerable utility to provide data on WD effectiveness and to inform the field with regard to structures required to move evidence-based programs into practice.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p><b>Clinical Trials Registration Number</b>: NCT00257088</p

Evidence-based Kernels: Fundamental Units of Behavioral Influence

This paper describes evidence-based kernels, fundamental units of behavioral influence that appear to underlie effective prevention and treatment for children, adults, and families. A kernel is a behavior–influence procedure shown through experimental analysis to affect a specific behavior and that is indivisible in the sense that removing any of its components would render it inert. Existing evidence shows that a variety of kernels can influence behavior in context, and some evidence suggests that frequent use or sufficient use of some kernels may produce longer lasting behavioral shifts. The analysis of kernels could contribute to an empirically based theory of behavioral influence, augment existing prevention or treatment efforts, facilitate the dissemination of effective prevention and treatment practices, clarify the active ingredients in existing interventions, and contribute to efficiently developing interventions that are more effective. Kernels involve one or more of the following mechanisms of behavior influence: reinforcement, altering antecedents, changing verbal relational responding, or changing physiological states directly. The paper describes 52 of these kernels, and details practical, theoretical, and research implications, including calling for a national database of kernels that influence human behavior

Open data from the third observing run of LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO

The global network of gravitational-wave observatories now includes five detectors, namely LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO 600. These detectors collected data during their third observing run, O3, composed of three phases: O3a starting in 2019 April and lasting six months, O3b starting in 2019 November and lasting five months, and O3GK starting in 2020 April and lasting two weeks. In this paper we describe these data and various other science products that can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at https://gwosc.org. The main data set, consisting of the gravitational-wave strain time series that contains the astrophysical signals, is released together with supporting data useful for their analysis and documentation, tutorials, as well as analysis software packages

Exploring Ways to Improve Predictive Capability of Z-Pinch Calculations

For some time 2-dimensional RMHD (radiation magneto-hydrodynamic) calculations of radiating z-pinches have been made to agree with integral data (current wave form, yield and power). For these calculations, the agreement with detailed data, such as time-resolved x-ray images, is generally not as good. Correctly modeling the physics of z-pinches, including detailed data, is needed to have true predictive capability. To address this problem, the authors first determine which integral data are most sensitive to the details in the models. With this information, they investigate aspects of the pinch, to which the data is sensitive, using non-standard techniques. For example, the pinch is calculated in (x,y)-geometry to investigate how a non-symmetric implosion affects the simulated data