Latent variable assessment of outcomes in a nurse-managed intervention to increase latent tuberculosis treatment completion in homeless adults.

OBJECTIVE: To assess predictors of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) completion by using structural equation modeling (SEM) among homeless adults, a group at great risk for LTBI and active tuberculosis (TB). LTBI therapy is effective in stemming the progression to active TB, yet treatment adherence among homeless persons is difficult to attain. DESIGN: By using SEM, the authors assessed predictors of LTBI completion among a sample of 494 homeless adults in Los Angeles, CA, who received either a nurse case-managed program (NCM) or a usual care program. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Latent variables were created with the baseline variables of site type, age, intervention status, dissatisfaction with health care, depression, TB risk assessment, alcohol use, heroin or cocaine use, and TB knowledge. Outcome variables included many of the same baseline variables as well as treatment completion. RESULTS: LTBI treatment completion (100% adherence) was significantly and positively associated with participation in NCM, older age, and less heroin or cocaine use. NCM also predicted greater TB knowledge, greater ease of treatment, and more satisfaction with treatment (NCM completion rate = 64%, control rate = 42%). CONCLUSION: The culturally competent NCM program, combined with active tracking and incentives, was successful in a difficult-to-treat and highly transient population.     

Neurochemical regulation of feeding in the rat: facilitation by alpha-noradrenergic, but not dopaminergic, receptor stimulants.

Rats ate voraciously after intraventricular injections of the alpha-noradrenergic receptor stimulant clonidine. Intraventricular administration of l-norepinephrine also facilitated feeding, but similar injections of dopamine and apomorphine (a dopamine receptor stimulant) were ineffective and even tended to suppress feeding. Clonidine was 100 times more potent than norepinephrine and increased the intake of both the ordinary diet of powdered food and a highly palatable wet food. The anorexic action of amphetamine was reversed by centrally administered clonidine. These observations suggest "respondent" rather than "operant" regulation of feeding by noradrenergic systems. That is, in relation to noradrenergic mechanisms, feeding appears to be a respondent which is sensitized or disinhibited by activation of alpha-noradrenergic receptors, rather than an operant which is reinforced by the release of norepinephrine.     

Collateral behavior of the pigeon during conditioned suppression of key pecking

Ethological recording procedures measured collateral behavior in pigeons whose key-pecking performance was suppressed during a tone that ended with unavoidable electric shock. Independent recordings of gross behavior were made by two observers throughout 60-sec intervals immediately before, during, and after tone presentation. Results indicated significant reductions in the frequency of collateral movements and an increase in the time between successive movements during tone presentations. These effects were observed in all subjects, despite differences in the sequential patterns of behavior. Only partial recovery of the behavior evidenced before tone presentation was found during a 60-sec interval following shock. It was concluded that conditioned suppression procedures caused the bird to “freeze” during tone presentation and in this fashion produced a general inhibitory effect on ongoing overt activity, including key pecking.     

Public Attitudes Toward the Trustworthiness, Competence, and Altruism of Twenty Selected Occupations

Ratings on 4-point scales of truthfulness, competence, and altruism of 20 selected occupations were obtained from 4 samples of subjects. The subjects included 200 students from the University of Connecticut, 96 students from the University of Maryland, 50 secretaries from a small town in Connecticut, and 50 teachers from the public schools of the same town. In spite of differences in sex, age, occupation, education, and locale, all the samples and subsamples were remarkably similar in their ratings of the 20 occupations. A strong tendency appears for professionals to be rated high and for people who may be regarded as powerful in our society to be rated poorly on all 3 variables. Several interesting differences in ratings on the 3 variables within professions were obtained.     

Decision policies minimizing risk in a multistage betting game

Considered in this paper is a decision task which has been employed to study multistage betting behavior. When the task commences, a decision maker (DM) is provided with some capital x (x > 0) which he is required to allocate over m (m > 1) mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive alternatives, each of which occurs with probability p_i (p_i > 0, i = 1,…, m; Σ_i=1^mp_i = 1). If the amount y_i is allocated to alternative i (y_i ≥ 0, Σ_i=1^my_i = x) and alternative i obtains, DM's capital for the next stage of the game becomes y_ir_i, where r_i (r_i > 0) is the return per unit allocated to alternative i. The task consists of N stages.Defining risk in terms of the mean and variance of DM's bets, and assuming that the minimization of risk is DM's objective, decision policies satisfying this objective are derived in closed form and their testable properties are briefly discussed.     

Can Word Puzzles be Tailored to Improve Different Dimensions of Verbal Fluency? A Report of an Intervention Study

Verbal fluency is commonly used as a proxy measure of executive functioning, as it involves cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control. Previous research has demonstrated that crosswords can be a useful means of improving verbal fluency, results consistent with the cognitive reserve hypothesis; the form of verbal fluency affected has, however, differed across studies. The present study sought to assess the extent to which it was possible to target phonemic (PVF) and semantic verbal fluency (SVF) separately through word puzzles designed to focus on semantic/thematic and structural clues respectively. Fifty-three university students were randomly assigned to one of three groups: semantic/thematic, structural, or a daily diary control group. They were assessed on PVF and SVF at baseline, and immediately following a four-week intervention. Age, sex, and depression scores were controlled for. A 2 × 3 mixed ANCOVA showed that the structural group improved significantly more in PVF during the intervention period than did the semantic/thematic or control groups, with the improvement linked to improved switching performance. The effect size was large. No significant difference in improvement in SVF emerged, although the effect size was moderate. The findings support the notion that it is possible to improve specific forms of verbal fluency through tailored brief word-puzzle interventions.