The experience of smoking in recovery settings: an ecological momentary assessment pilot study

ABSTRACT

Smoking continues to be the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, and people with substance use disorders (SUD) smoke at higher rates compared to their non-using counterparts. Individuals with SUDs may have different emotional experiences and expectancies than those without. The current study explored the relationship between smoking and emotional experiences among residents in recovery homes, a population that little is known about regarding their tobacco addiction. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), significant emotional differences were found between nicotine users and nonusers. Implications of these findings could help in the development of interventions directed toward reducing smoking cessation.     

Building a Dam,Constructing a Nation: The ‘drowning’ of Capel Celyn

Throughout history, the planning and construction of a dam has become symbolic of wider political events and processes. This paper investigates how the Tryweryn scheme in north-west Wales in the 1950s and 1960s became a central signifier within the emergent Welsh nationalism of the period. The project, providing water to the city of Liverpool, flooded the village of Capel Celyn and displaced its 48 residents. However, the opposition to the project extended beyond this rural community, with the scheme becoming a focal point for Welsh nationalism. This paper explores this significance, arguing that the Tryweryn scheme was articulated in a number of ways that elevated the project from a local issue to a national outcry, resulting in the term ‘Tryweryn’ having a resonance that continues to this day.     

An Integrated Scenario Ensemble-Based Framework for Hurricane Evacuation Modeling: Part 1—Decision Support System

This article introduces a new integrated scenario-based evacuation (ISE) framework to support hurricane evacuation decision making. It explicitly captures the dynamics, uncertainty, and human–natural system interactions that are fundamental to the challenge of hurricane evacuation, but have not been fully captured in previous formal evacuation models. The hazard is represented with an ensemble of probabilistic scenarios, population behavior with a dynamic decision model, and traffic with a dynamic user equilibrium model. The components are integrated in a multistage stochastic programming model that minimizes risk and travel times to provide a tree of evacuation order recommendations and an evaluation of the risk and travel time performance for that solution. The ISE framework recommendations offer an advance in the state of the art because they: (1) are based on an integrated hazard assessment (designed to ultimately include inland flooding), (2) explicitly balance the sometimes competing objectives of minimizing risk and minimizing travel time, (3) offer a well-hedged solution that is robust under the range of ways the hurricane might evolve, and (4) leverage the substantial value of increasing information (or decreasing degree of uncertainty) over the course of a hurricane event. A case study for Hurricane Isabel (2003) in eastern North Carolina is presented to demonstrate how the framework is applied, the type of results it can provide, and how it compares to available methods of a single scenario deterministic analysis and a two-stage stochastic program.     

The Teaching of Hypnosis: Outline and Method

Abstract

In the past several years there has been a significant increase in the number of training programs in clinical hypnosis. There appears to be little information available regarding the actual method and content of such coursework. The authors gave a number of professionals and paraprofessionals a training program that included lectures, clinical inductions, and an opportunity for limited use of these methods in a supervised setting. The methods used were presented in a step-by-step fashion, drawing upon not only the authors' experience and expertise, but also requiring the active participation of those learning these clinical methods. In all, there were ten sessions with some required reading outside of the class time. Typical problems of resistance, problem solving, and various perspectives were discussed and employed.     

Birth-multiple catastrophe processes

Birth-multiple catastrophe processes are analyzed where the birth transition rates are assumed to be constant while catastrophes are distinguished by having possibly different destinations and possibly different transition rates. The transient probability functions of such birth-multiple catastrophe systems are determined. The solution method uses dual processes, randomization, and sample path counting. Solutions are explicit in terms of being a finite linear combination of products of exponential functions of time, t, and nonnegative integer powers of t. The coefficients within this expansion follow a pattern of rational functions of the transition rates.     

Developing common ground for a sustainable knowledge base for social work education in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

This article is about a research project focused on the development of a common knowledge base for social work education in the Netherlands. Recent substantial changes in society and social policy were the reason for a reconsideration of the educational content of social work education. A great urgency was established with regard to the adaptation of the study programs, including a higher level of knowledge. The aim of the project was to provide a knowledge base that creates a bridge between theory and practice and between social work practice and the societal context. The project started with an exploration of literature focusing on the significance of knowledge for professional practice and on existing classifications of the knowledge base in social work education. Subsequently a design-based empirical study was carried out using the Delphi-method. Experts agreed about the definition of the knowledge base and about the design requirements: practice-based, science-based, usable and sustainable. After an exploration of the content, a model was developed consisting of seven building blocks (BBs). The common knowledge base has been established by the Dutch Council of Schools of Social Work and is being used as the basis for the body of knowledge in all curricula of social work education in the Netherlands.     

Partially Adaptive Estimation of the Censored Regression Model

Data censoring causes ordinary least squares estimates of linear models to be biased and inconsistent. Tobit, semiparametric, and partially adaptive estimators have been considered as possible solutions. This paper proposes several new partially adaptive estimators that cover a wide range of distributional characteristics. A simulation study is used to investigate the estimators’ relative efficiency in these settings. The partially adaptive censored regression estimators have little efficiency loss for censored normal errors and may outperform Tobit and semiparametric estimators considered for non-normal distributions. An empirical example of out-of-pocket expenditures for a health insurance plan provides an example, which supports these results.