Parenting Programmes for preventing tobacco, alcohol or drugs misuse in children under 18 : a systematic review

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Health Education Research following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version [Petrie, J. ,Bunn, F. and Byrne, G. (2007) 'Parenting Programmes for preventing tobacco, alcohol or drug abuse in children under 18:a systematic review'. Health Education Research 22 (2) pp.177-191] is available online at: http://her.oxfordjournals.org/archive/index.dtl --Copyright Oxford University PressWe conducted a systematic review of controlled studies of parenting programmes to prevent tobacco, alcohol or drug abuse in children under 18. We searched Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, specialised Register of Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group, Pub Med, psych INFO, CINALH, and SIGLE. Two reviewers independently screened studies, extracted data and assessed study quality. Data were collected on actual or intended use of tobacco, alcohol or drugs by child, and associated risk or antecedent behaviours. Due to heterogeneity we did not pool studies in a meta-analysis and instead present a narrative summary of the findings. Twenty studies met our inclusion criteria. Statistically significant self-reported reductions of alcohol use were found in six of 14 studies, of drugs in five of nine studies and tobacco in nine out of 13 studies. Three interventions reported increases of tobacco, drug and alcohol use. We concluded that parenting programmes can be effective in reducing or preventing substance use. The most effective appeared to be those that shared an emphasis on active parental involvement and on developing skills in social competence, self-regulation and parenting. However, more work is needed to investigate further the change processes involved in such interventions and their long-term effectivenessPeer reviewe

Assessment and learning outcomes: the evaluation of deep learning in an on-line course

Using an online learning environment, students from European countries collaborated and communicated to carry out problem based learning in occupational therapy. The effectiveness of this approach was evaluated by means of the final assessments and published learning outcomes. In particular, transcripts from peer-to-peer sessions of synchronous communication were analysed. The SOLO taxonomy was used and the development of deep learning was studied week by week. This allowed the quality of the course to be appraised and showed, to a certain extent, the impact of this online international course on the learning strategies of the students. Results indicate that deep learning can be supported by synchronous communication and online meetings between course participants.</p

War of the Worlds Revisited: The Effect of Watching The Day After on Mood State

In the fall of 1983, The Day After, a fictional account of a nuclear attack on a civilian population, was broadcast on television in the United States and viewed by I00 million Americans . The Day After was said to differ from previous movie treatments of nuclear war by the vividness with which it forced its audience to experience the ground zero effects of a nuclear blast on human beings (I) . In what was described as the most horrifically searing footage ever to pass a network censor, the audience was shown group immolation, a carnage of mass vaporization and graphic images of death (I). It was widely predicted that this movie would have stressful psychological effects because it dealt with a potentially real disaster. Warnings of possible psychiatric side effects of the film were issued by the American Psychiatric Association , the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Broadcasting Company (1,2,3). So seriously were these warnings taken that the Federal Emergency Management Agency increased its staffing in anticipation of the movie\u27s psychological fallout (2). After the movie was shown, however, there was little systematic documentation of its psychological effects on the public. Since similarly graphic movies addressing the effects of nuclear war continue to be released and a replanned for the future, we feel the issue of the psychological effects of these films remains salient

A System Dynamics Innovation Diffusion Model Applied to Carbon Nanotube Manufacturing

The transition of advanced technologies from their nascent state to viable commercial entities is a critical step in assuring the United States\u27 national technological superiority and support is often required to incubate such technological developments. We propose a spiral development to investigate the possible scenarios, underlying economics, and risk associated with scaling up carbon nanotube (CNT) production to a commercially viable scale. As the first stage of this proposed effort, this study characterizes the potential scenarios by which a CNT manufacturing company can generate positive annual net revenue and potentially be considered a competitive manufacturer of CNT products on an industrial scale. Subsequent stages of this effort will determine the potential risks associated with investing in the current CNT research and production efforts from a macro perspective. This study investigates the necessary adoption fractions, contact rates, production capacities, production costs, product prices, monetary support, and time necessary for the company of interest to be considered a commercially viable producer of CNT products. The subsidization required to generate varied profit margins is also explored. The application of sys- tem dynamics models determined to approximately represent the real diffusion and production of both CNT sheet and CNT yarn products generates insight regarding policy improvement for the company to achieve competitive commercial CNT production and provide an assessment of when CNT production may be profitable. This study should not be used as the basis for decision making due to the fact that the analysis is based on notional data and scenarios

The Value of Information in Invasive Species Management

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Modulation of internuclear communication in multinuclear Ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes

The syntheses and characterisation of a series of mononuclear and dinuclear ruthenium polypyridyl complexes based on the bridging ligands 1,3-bis-[5-(2-pyridyl)-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl]benzene, 1,4-bis-[5-(2-pyridyl)-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl]benzene, 2,5-bis-[5-(2-pyridyl)-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl]thiophene, 2,5-bis-[5-pyrazinyl-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl]thiophene are reported. Electrochemical studies indicate that in these systems, the ground state interaction is critically dependent on the nature of the bridging ligand and its protonation state, with strong and weak interactions being observed for thiophene- and phenylene-bridged complexes, respectively

Wet-Based Glaciation on Mars

Mars is a glacial planet. It hosts water ice in large polar ice caps, and in thousands of ‘viscous flow features’ in its mid latitudes that are thought to be debris-covered water ice glaciers. These ice deposits range between a few million to ~1 billion years in age and formed during Mars’ most recent epoch, the late Amazonian. The late Amazonian was characterised by extremely cold and arid climate conditions that are not conducive to melting of ice. Consequently, late-Amazonian glaciation has been dominated by cold-based glacier thermal regimes. However, the recent discovery of an esker (a ridge of sediment deposited by meltwater flowing through a tunnel within or beneath glacial ice) associated with a viscous flow feature in the Phlegra Montes region of Mars’ northern mid latitudes provided the first indicative evidence that wet-based glaciation occurred in at least one location during the late Amazonian. In this thesis, I present the discovery of a second candidate esker associated with a viscous flow feature, in the NW Tempe Terra region of Mars’ northern mid latitudes. I argue that the remarkably similar geologic settings of the NW Tempe Terra and Phlegra Montes candidate eskers (both within tectonic rift/graben valleys) suggests that geothermal heating, possibly with an additional component of viscous strain heating within the basal ice, was a prerequisite for basal melting under cold climate conditions. I then characterise the 2D and 3D morphometries of these candidate eskers, undertake comparisons with the morphometries of ancient putative eskers on Mars and eskers on Earth, and develop conceptual models for the dynamics of esker formation in NW Tempe Terra. Finally, I present a geomorphic map of Chukhung crater, Mars, which hosts esker-like sinuous ridges associated with viscous flow features and provides a case study of the ongoing challenges for esker identification on Mars