MENTEE VOICE: MENTEE PERSPECTIVES OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF YOUTH MENTORING PROGRAMS

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of youth mentoring programs from the mentee perspective. An extant survey instrument, the Youth Strength of Relationship (YSOR) was utilized to provide data necessary to address the study’s topic and research problem. The YSOR yielded a good level of internal reliability (George & Mallery, 2016) in addressing study participant perceptions of satisfaction with the mentoring program featured in the study. A nonprobability sampling approach was adopted, featuring a convenient, purposive methodology. The study’s sample of participants were youth mentees (n= 1,183) specifically accessed from a Central Florida agency that provides youth mentoring programs. A noteworthy, statistically significant level of overall study participant satisfaction with the mentoring program was achieved in the study. The research instrument domain of “comfort” manifested the highest mean score for study participant response effect of perceived satisfaction amongst the five domains. Study participant satisfaction levels were similar for both genders and all ethnicities represented in the study. The duration of the mentor/mentee match represented a statistically significant correlate and predictor of mentee overall satisfaction with the mentoring program featured in the study

GRANGER CAUSALITY AND U.S. CROP AND LIVESTOCK PRICES

Agricultural economists have recently been attracted to procedures suggested by Granger and others which allow observed data to reveal causal relationships. Results of this study indicate that "causality" tests can be ambiguous in identifying behavioral relationships between agricultural price variables. Caution is suggested when using such procedures for model choice.Demand and Price Analysis,

Bayesian inferencing for wind resource characterisation

The growing role of wind power in power systems has motivated R&D on methodologies to characterise the wind resource at sites for which no wind speed data is available. Applications such as feasibility assessment of prospective installations and system integration analysis of future scenarios, amongst others, can greatly benefit from such methodologies. This paper focuses on the inference of wind speeds for such potential sites using a Bayesian approach to characterise the spatial distribution of the resource. To test the approach, one year of wind speed data from four weather stations was modelled and used to derive inferences for a fifth site. The methodology used is described together with the model employed and simulation results are presented and compared to the data available for the fifth site. The results obtained indicate that Bayesian inference can be a useful tool in spatial characterisation of wind

African trypanosomiasis in travelers returning to the United Kingdom.

Two returning safari tourists with African trypanosomiasis were admitted to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London, in a 3-day period, compared with six cases in the previous 14 years. We describe the clinical features, diagnosis, and problems encountered in accessing appropriate therapy, and discuss the potential for emergence of this disease in increasingly adventurous international travelers

Effective Behavior Change Techniques in Asthma Self-Care Interventions: Systematic Review and Meta-Regression

This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.APA Journals®Objectives: The purpose of this study is to update previous systematic reviews of interventions targeting asthma self-care in adults with asthma, and to use meta-regression to examine the association between the use of specific behavior change techniques and intervention effectiveness. Methods: Electronic bibliographies were searched systematically to identify randomized controlled trials of interventions targeting asthma self-care. Intervention content was coded using a published taxonomy of behavior change techniques. For trials with a low-to-moderate risk of bias, study outcomes were pooled using random effects meta-analysis. Associations between intervention content and effect size were explored using meta-regression. Results: Meta-analysis of 38 trials (7883 patients) showed that interventions targeting asthma self-care reduced symptoms (standardized mean difference [SMD] = -0.38 [-0.52, -0.24]) and unscheduled health care use (odds ratio [OR] = 0.71 [0.56 to 0.90]) and increased adherence to preventive medication (OR = 2.55 [2.11 to 3.10]). meta-regression analyses found that "active involvement of participants" was associated with a reduction in unscheduled health care use (OR = 0.50 vs. 0.79). Inclusion of "stress management" techniques was associated with an increase in asthma symptoms (SMD = 0.01 vs. -0.44). Existing recommendations about the "optimal" content of asthma self-care interventions were tested but were not supported by the data. Conclusions: Interventions targeting asthma self-care are effective. Active involvement of participants is associated with increased intervention effectiveness, but the use of stress management techniques may be counterproductive. Taxonomy-based systematic reviews using meta-regression have potential for identifying techniques associated with increased effectiveness in behavioral interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)

Surrogate endpoints in trials-a call for better reporting

Better reporting of RCTs with primary surrogate endpoints

Cardiac rehabilitation

No abstract available