Development of a theory and evidence informed intervention to promote smoking cessation during pregnancy using narrative, text-messages and images as modes of delivery

Background: Cigarette smoking is a leading preventable factor associated with complications in pregnancy including preterm birth and low birthweight. Past interventions have raised cessation rates by approximately 6% overall (Lumley et al. 2009). Methods: A three-part literature review, two qualitative studies with a total of 36 participants, and the development of an intervention to promote smoking cessation during pregnancy were completed. Central to the design of the research was the creation of the theoretical basis which was developed in line with recommendations from the MRC Framework for Complex Interventions (Craig et al. 2008, Campbell et al. 2000). For part one of the literature review, 24 qualitative and 44 quantitative studies were re-analysed to complete a mixed-methods secondary analysis of the active ingredients in interventions to promote smoking cessation during pregnancy. Part two consisted of an exploration of psychological models and constructs which are likely to predict or influence smoking behaviour during pregnancy. The final part was a discussion regarding the modes of delivery by which an intervention could feasibly be delivered. Qualitative interviews were carried out with participants from stakeholder groups to fill in gaps in literature and determine the acceptability and feasibility of the proposed intervention. The intervention was created using the theoretical basis developed from the findings. Further qualitative interviews, a focus group, and heuristic evaluation were used to determine the acceptability and usability of the intervention for the target group of pregnant smokers. Results and Conclusions: Findings from this work are potentially relevant for a wide range of behaviours and behavioural interventions. An intervention which has a strong grounding in theory and evidence, and is acceptable and feasible for the target group and in clinical practice was developed using evidence gathered in this thesis

Leadership as Teaching: Mapping the Thinking of Administrators and Teachers

Leading and teaching both involve processes that permit others to transform their thinking. Yet there has been little systematic, empirical research to connect the two. This exploratory study examines K-12 educational leadership asking: What are the similarities and differences in the ways school administrators think about leading compared to the ways teachers think about teaching ? This mixed methods study offers an examination of whether administrators think about their work in terms of the vital teaching role of leadership (Burns, 1978, p. 425) by creating and comparing three sets of concept maps, one for teachers and administrators and one for each of the two groups disaggregated. Two participant samples provided the data. Focus group members generated 100 statements, and card sorting participants rated and categorized the concepts. Concept mapping (Trochim, 2005) produced maps with geographic clusters that revealed patterns of thinking. Clusters fell into two geographic segments: Personal and Extra-Personal. The concept of holding environment (Kegan, 1982, 1994; Heifetz, 1994) and its components, challenge and support, provided a construct for the maps\u27 interpretations. Disaggregating the rating data and statistical analyses revealed areas of similarity and differences suggesting: 1) administrators and teachers strongly value the Personal (Support) aspects of their work; 2) both rate the Extra-Personal cluster Create some tension lower than other aspects of their work; 3) administrators rate the Extra-Personal (Challenge) aspects of their work higher than teachers; and 4) administrators rate the Extra-Personal clusters Political awareness and Using evidence and data significantly higher than teachers. Disaggregating the data to create separate maps for administrators and teachers reveals a dimension, the Intra-Personal, that appears only on the administrators\u27 map. Disaggregated data show that administrators rate the concept cluster Challenge the Status Quo least important of all other areas of their work. These findings can inform the work of school change agents and administrator development programs. Research recommendations include creating maps of business or political leaders\u27 thinking using the 100 teaching concepts, and developing cognitive maps of individual administrators using think-aloud interviews during sorting and rating procedures. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible at the OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.ed

Leadership as Teaching: Mapping the Thinking of Administrators and Teachers

Leading and teaching both involve processes that permit others to transform their thinking. Yet there has been little systematic, empirical research to connect the two. This exploratory study examines K-12 educational leadership asking: What are the similarities and differences in the ways school administrators think about leading compared to the ways teachers think about teaching ? This mixed methods study offers an examination of whether administrators think about their work in terms of the vital teaching role of leadership (Burns, 1978, p. 425) by creating and comparing three sets of concept maps, one for teachers and administrators and one for each of the two groups disaggregated. Two participant samples provided the data. Focus group members generated 100 statements, and card sorting participants rated and categorized the concepts. Concept mapping (Trochim, 2005) produced maps with geographic clusters that revealed patterns of thinking. Clusters fell into two geographic segments: Personal and Extra-Personal. The concept of holding environment (Kegan, 1982, 1994; Heifetz, 1994) and its components, challenge and support, provided a construct for the maps\u27 interpretations. Disaggregating the rating data and statistical analyses revealed areas of similarity and differences suggesting: 1) administrators and teachers strongly value the Personal (Support) aspects of their work; 2) both rate the Extra-Personal cluster Create some tension lower than other aspects of their work; 3) administrators rate the Extra-Personal (Challenge) aspects of their work higher than teachers; and 4) administrators rate the Extra-Personal clusters Political awareness and Using evidence and data significantly higher than teachers. Disaggregating the data to create separate maps for administrators and teachers reveals a dimension, the Intra-Personal, that appears only on the administrators\u27 map. Disaggregated data show that administrators rate the concept cluster Challenge the Status Quo least important of all other areas of their work. These findings can inform the work of school change agents and administrator development programs. Research recommendations include creating maps of business or political leaders\u27 thinking using the 100 teaching concepts, and developing cognitive maps of individual administrators using think-aloud interviews during sorting and rating procedures. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible at the OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.ed

Women's experiences of factors that facilitate or inhibit gestational diabetes self-management

BACKGROUND: Gestational diabetes rates have increased dramatically in the past two decades and this pattern of increase appears to relate primarily to the obesity epidemic, older maternal age and migration from world areas of high GDM risk. Women from disadvantaged and migrant backgrounds are most at risk of developing and of mismanaging this condition. The aim of the study was to explore the factors that facilitated or inhibited gestational diabetes self-management among women in a socially deprived area. METHODS: Fifteen pregnant women, with a diagnosis of gestational diabetes, were purposively recruited for this study. Qualitative semi structured interviews and 1 focus group were conducted when participants were approximately 28–38 weeks gestation. The study’s theoretical framework was based on interpretative phenomenology and data was analysed using a thematic analysis approach. RESULTS: Women in this study identified a number of factors that complicated their task of GDM self-management. Barriers included: (1) time pressures; (2) physical constraints; (3) social constraints; (4) limited comprehension of requirements, and (5) insulin as an easier option. Factors facilitating GDM self-management included: thinking about the baby and psychological support from partners and families. CONCLUSION: Women from low socio economic and migrant backgrounds often struggle to comprehend GDM self-management requirements. To improve adherence to management plans, these women require educational and supportive services that are culturally appropriate and aimed at a low level of literacy

Development and initial testing of a GDM information website for multi-ethnic women with GDM

BACKGROUND: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) affects approximately 5–15 % of pregnant women in Australia. Highest rates are seen among women who are obese, from specific ethnic backgrounds and low socio-economic circumstance. These features also impact on uptake of self-management recommendations. GDM that is not well managed can give rise to serious pregnancy complications. The aim of this project was to develop and test an intervention to improve knowledge of GDM and GDM self-management principles. METHODS: A web-based intervention, consisting of resources aimed at a low level of literacy, was developed and tested among multi-ethnic women at a metropolitan hospital in Melbourne Australia. A basic one-group pre-test/post-test design was used to explore the impact of the intervention on knowledge, in 3 domains: (1) Knowledge of GDM; (2) food values, and;(3) GDM self-management principles. Questionnaire data was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 21.0. Fisher’s exact test was used to test for an improvement in each knowledge scale. RESULTS: Twenty-one women with GDM, from multi-ethnic backgrounds, participated in the testing of the intervention. Results indicated that the intervention was effective at improving knowledge scores and this effect was greatest in the first domain, knowledge of GDM. Although some improvement of knowledge scores occurred in the other two domains, food values and self-management principles, these improvements were less than expected. This finding may relate to a number of misunderstandings in the interpretation of the web resource and survey questions. These issues will need to be resolved prior to proceeding to a clinical trial. CONCLUSION: Initial results from this study look promising and suggest that with some improvements, the intervention could prove a useful adjunct support for women with GDM from multi-ethnic and low socio-economic backgrounds. Conducting a randomised controlled trial is feasible in the future and will provide a useful means of examining efficacy of the intervention

Use of a web-based educational intervention to improve knowledge of healthy diet and lifestyle in women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus compared to standard clinic-based education

Flow chart of recruitment procedure. (PDF 103 kb

Forum for Arctic Modeling and Observational Synthesis (FAMOS) : past, current, and future activities

© The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 121 (2016): 3803–3819, doi:10.1002/2016JC011898.The overall goal of the Forum for Arctic Modeling and Observational Synthesis (FAMOS) community activities reported in this special issue is to enhance understanding of processes and mechanisms driving Arctic Ocean marine and sea ice changes, and the consequences of those changes especially in biogeochemical and ecosystem studies. Major 2013–2015 FAMOS accomplishments to date are: identification of consistent errors across Arctic regional models; approaches to reduce these errors, and recommendations for the most effective coupled sea ice-ocean models for use in fully coupled regional and global climate models. 2013–2015 FAMOS coordinated analyses include many process studies, using models together with observations to investigate: dynamics and mechanisms responsible for drift, deformation and thermodynamics of sea ice; pathways and mechanisms driving variability of the Atlantic, Pacific and river waters in the Arctic Ocean; processes of freshwater accumulation and release in the Beaufort Gyre; the fate of melt water from Greenland; characteristics of ocean eddies; biogeochemistry and ecosystem processes and change, climate variability, and predictability. Future FAMOS collaborations will focus on employing models and conducting observations at high and very high spatial and temporal resolution to investigate the role of subgrid-scale processes in regional Arctic Ocean and coupled ice-ocean and atmosphere-ice-ocean models.National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs. Grant Number: PLR-1313614 and PLR- 131364

Software Graphics Processing Unit (sGPU) for Deep Space Applications

A graphics processing capability will be required for deep space missions and must include a range of applications, from safety-critical vehicle health status to telemedicine for crew health. However, preliminary radiation testing of commercial graphics processing cards suggest they cannot operate in the deep space radiation environment. Investigation into an Software Graphics Processing Unit (sGPU)comprised of commercial-equivalent radiation hardened/tolerant single board computers, field programmable gate arrays, and safety-critical display software shows promising results. Preliminary performance of approximately 30 frames per second (FPS) has been achieved. Use of multi-core processors may provide a significant increase in performance

Butyrylcholinesterase genotype and enzyme activity in relation to Gulf War illness: preliminary evidence of gene-exposure interaction from a case¿control study of 1991 Gulf War veterans

Abstract Background Epidemiologic studies have implicated wartime exposures to acetylcholinesterase (AChE)-inhibiting chemicals as etiologic factors in Gulf War illness (GWI), the multisymptom condition linked to military service in the 1991 Gulf War. It is unclear, however, why some veterans developed GWI while others with similar exposures did not. Genetic variants of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) differ in their capacity for metabolizing AChE-inhibiting chemicals, and may confer differences in biological responses to these compounds. The current study assessed BChE enzyme activity and BChE genotype in 1991 Gulf War veterans to evaluate possible association of this enzyme with GWI. Methods This case–control study evaluated a population-based sample of 304 Gulf War veterans (144 GWI cases, meeting Kansas GWI criteria, and 160 controls). BChE enzyme activity levels and genotype were compared, overall, in GWI cases and controls. Potential differences in risk associated with cholinergic-related exposures in theater were explored using stratified analyses to compare associations between GWI and exposures in BChE genetic and enzyme activity subgroups. Results Overall, GWI cases and controls did not differ by mean BChE enzyme activity level or by BChE genotype. However, for the subgroup of Gulf War veterans with less common, generally less active, BChE genotypes (K/K, U/AK, U/A, A/F, AK/F), the association of wartime use of pyridostigmine bromide (PB) with GWI (OR = 40.00, p = 0.0005) was significantly greater than for veterans with the more common U/U and U/K genotypes (OR = 2.68, p = 0.0001). Conclusions Study results provide preliminary evidence that military personnel with certain BChE genotypes who used PB during the 1991 Gulf War may have been at particularly high risk for developing GWI. Genetic differences in response to wartime exposures are potentially important factors in GWI etiology and should be further evaluated in conjunction with exposure effects.Peer Reviewe