Psychometric Properties of an Assessment for Mental Health Recovery Programs

The concept of recovery can be operationalized from either the point of view of the consumer, or from the perspective of the agency providing services. The Milestones of Recovery Scale (MORS) was created to capture aspects of recovery from the agency perspective. Evidence establishing the psychometric properties of the MORS was obtained in three efforts: Inter-rater reliability using staff at The Village, a multi-service organization serving the homeless mentally ill in Long Beach, California; inter-rater reliability was also obtained from Vinfen Corporation, a large provider of housing services to mentally ill persons in Boston, Massachusetts. A test–retest reliability study was conducted using staff rating of clients at The Village, and evidence for validity was obtained using the Level of Care Utilization System (LOCUS) as a validity measure. The intra-class correlation coefficient for the inter-rater reliability study was r = .85 (CI .81, .89) for The Village and r = .86 (CI .80, .90) for Vinfen Corporation; test–retest reliability was r = .85 (CI .81, .87); and validity coefficients for the LOCUS were at or above r = .49 for all subscales except one. There is sufficient evidence for the reliability and validity of the MORS

Assessing Internet addiction using the parsimonious Internet addiction components model - a preliminary study [forthcoming]

Internet usage has grown exponentially over the last decade. Research indicates that excessive Internet use can lead to symptoms associated with addiction. To date, assessment of potential Internet addiction has varied regarding populations studied and instruments used, making reliable prevalence estimations difficult. To overcome the present problems a preliminary study was conducted testing a parsimonious Internet addiction components model based on Griffiths’ addiction components (2005), including salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, and relapse. Two validated measures of Internet addiction were used (Compulsive Internet Use Scale [CIUS], Meerkerk et al., 2009, and Assessment for Internet and Computer Game Addiction Scale [AICA-S], Beutel et al., 2010) in two independent samples (ns = 3,105 and 2,257). The fit of the model was analysed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Results indicate that the Internet addiction components model fits the data in both samples well. The two sample/two instrument approach provides converging evidence concerning the degree to which the components model can organize the self-reported behavioural components of Internet addiction. Recommendations for future research include a more detailed assessment of tolerance as addiction component

Growth Rate Responses of Missouri and Lower Yellowstone River Fishes to a Latitudinal Gradient

Notropis atherinoides, freshwater drums Aplodinotus grunniens, river carpsuckers Carpiodes carpio and saugers Stizostedion canadense collected in 1996-1998 from nine river sections of the Missouri and lower Yellowstone rivers at two life-stages (young-of-the-year and age 1+ years) were significantly different among sections. However, they showed no river-wide latitudinal trend except for age 1+ years emerald shiners that did show a weak negative relation between growth and both latitude and length of growing season. The results suggest growth rates of fishes along the Missouri River system are complex and could be of significance in the management and conservation of fish communities in this altered system

Consensus on a conversation aid for shared decision making with people with intellectual disabilities in the palliative phase

Background: Little is known about how to involve people with intellectual disabilities in making decisions about treatment and care in their palliative phase. We aimed to reach a consensus about a shared decision-making (SDM) conversation aid for people with intellectual disabilities, relatives, and healthcare professionals. Methods: In a Delphi process, an expert panel of 11 people with intellectual disabilities, 14 relatives, and 65 healthcare profe

An Evolutionary Framework for Association Testing in Resequencing Studies

Sequencing technologies are becoming cheap enough to apply to large numbers of study participants and promise to provide new insights into human phenotypes by bringing to light rare and previously unknown genetic variants. We develop a new framework for the analysis of sequence data that incorporates all of the major features of previously proposed approaches, including those focused on allele counts and allele burden, but is both more general and more powerful. We harness population genetic theory to provide prior information on effect sizes and to create a pooling strategy for information from rare variants. Our method, EMMPAT (Evolutionary Mixed Model for Pooled Association Testing), generates a single test per gene (substantially reducing multiple testing concerns), facilitates graphical summaries, and improves the interpretation of results by allowing calculation of attributable variance. Simulations show that, relative to previously used approaches, our method increases the power to detect genes that affect phenotype when natural selection has kept alleles with large effect sizes rare. We demonstrate our approach on a population-based re-sequencing study of association between serum triglycerides and variation in ANGPTL4

The empirical analysis of non-problematic video gaming and cognitive skills: a systematic review

Videogames have become one of the most popular leisure activities worldwide, including multiple game genres with different characteristics and levels of involvement required. Although a small minority of excessive players suffer detrimental consequences including impairment of several cognitive skills (e.g., inhibition, decision-making), it has also been demonstrated that playing videogames can improve different cognitive skills. Therefore, the current paper systematically reviewed the empirical studies experimentally investigating the positive impact of videogames on cognitive skills. Following a number of inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 32 papers were identified as empirically investigating three specific skills: taskswitching (eight studies), attentional control (22 studies), and sub-second time perception (two studies). Results demonstrated that compared to control groups, non-problematic use of videogames can lead to improved task-switching, more effective top-down attentional control and processing speed and increased sub-second time perception. Two studies highlighted the impact of gaming on cognitive skills differs depends upon game genre. The studies reviewed suggest that videogame play can have a positive impact on cognitive processes for players

Calf health from birth to weaning. III. housing and management of calf pneumonia

Calfhood diseases have a major impact on the economic viability of cattle operations. A three part review series has been developed focusing on calf health from birth to weaning. In this paper, the last of the three part series, we review disease prevention and management with particular reference to pneumonia, focusing primarily on the pre-weaned calf. Pneumonia in recently weaned suckler calves is also considered, where the key risk factors are related to the time of weaning. Weaning of the suckler calf is often combined with additional stressors including a change in nutrition, environmental change, transport and painful husbandry procedures (castration, dehorning). The reduction of the cumulative effects of these multiple stressors around the time of weaning together with vaccination programmes (preconditioning) can reduce subsequent morbidity and mortality in the feedlot. In most studies, calves housed individually and calves housed outdoors with shelter, are associated with decreased risk of disease. Even though it poses greater management challenges, successful group housing of calves is possible. Special emphasis should be given to equal age groups and to keeping groups stable once they are formed. The management of pneumonia in calves is reliant on a sound understanding of aetiology, relevant risk factors, and of effective approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Early signs of pneumonia include increased respiratory rate and fever, followed by depression. The single most important factor determining the success of therapy in calves with pneumonia is early onset of treatment, and subsequent adequate duration of treatment. The efficacy and economical viability of vaccination against respiratory disease in calves remains unclear