Nicolle Clements

Prize-based Contingency Management for the Treatment of Substance Abusers: A Meta-analysis

AIM To review randomized controlled trials to assess efficacy of a prize-based contingency management procedure in reducing substance use (where a drug-free breath or urine sample provides a chance of winning a prize). METHODS A meta-analysis was conducted on papers published from January 2000 to February 2013 to determine the effect size of studies comparing prize-based contingency management to a treatment-as-usual control condition (k = 19 studies). Parallel analyses evaluated the efficacy of both short- (k = nine studies) and long-term outcomes (k = six studies) of prize-based contingency management. RESULTS The average end-of-treatment effect size (Cohens d) was 0.46 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.37, 0.54]. This effect size decreased at the short-term (≤3-month) post-intervention follow-up to 0.33 (95% CI = 0.12, 0.54) and at the 6-month follow-up time-point there was no detectable effect [d = -0.09 (95% CI = -0.28, 0.10)]. CONCLUSION Adding prize-based contingency management to behavioral support for substance use disorders can increase short-term abstinence, but the effect does not appear to persist to 6 months.

APPLYING MULTIPLE TESTING PROCEDURES TO DETECT CHANGE IN EAST AFRICAN VEGETATION

The study of vegetation fluctuations gives valuable informationtoward effective land use and development. We consider this prob-lem for the East African region based on the Normalized DifferenceVegetation Index (NDVI) series from satellite remote sensing datacollected between 1982 and 2006 over 8-kilometer grid points. Wedetect areas with significant increasing or decreasing monotonic veg-etation changes using a multiple testing procedure controlling themixed directional false discovery rate (mdFDR). Specifically, we usea three-stage directional Benjamini–Hochberg (BH) procedure withproven mdFDR control under independence and a suitable adaptiveversion of it. The performance of these procedures is studied throughsimulations before applying them to the vegetation data. Our anal-ysis shows increasing vegetation in the Northern hemisphere as wellas coastal Tanzania and generally decreasing Southern hemispherevegetation trends, which are consistent with historical evidence.

Achieving new levels of recall in consent to research by combining remedial and motivational techniques

Introduction Research supports the efficacy of both a remedial consent procedure (corrected feedback (CF)) and a motivational consent procedure (incentives) for improving recall of informed consent to research. Although these strategies were statistically superior to standard consent, effects were modest and not clinically significant. This study examines a combined incentivised consent and CF procedure that simplifies the cognitive task and increases motivation to learn consent information. Methods We randomly assigned 104 individuals consenting to an unrelated host study to a consent as usual (CAU) condition (n=52) or an incentivised CF (ICF) condition (n=52). All participants were told they would be quizzed on their consent recall following their baseline assessment and at 4 monthly follow-ups. ICF participants were also informed that they would earn

Statistical trend and change-point analysis of land-cover-change patterns in East Africa

5 for each correct answer and receive CF as needed. Results Quiz scores in the two conditions did not differ at the first administration (p=0.39, d=0.2); however, ICF scores were significantly higher at each subsequent administration (second: p=0.003, Cohens d=0.6; third: p<0.0001, d=1.4; fourth: p<0.0001, d=1.6; fifth: p<0.0001, d=1.8). Conclusions The ICF procedure increased consent recall from 72% to 83%, compared with the CAU condition in which recall decreased from 69% to 59%. This supports the statistical and clinical utility of a combined remedial and motivational consent procedure for enhancing recall of study information and human research protections.

Developing an Index to Measure the Voluntariness of Consent to Research

This work presents a new four-tier hierarchical change-point algorithm designed to detect land-cover change from satellite data. We tested the algorithm using Global Inventory Modelling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) data for eastern Africa. Using a unique sequence of four statistical change-point detection methods, we identified significant increases or decreases in normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), estimated the approximate time of change, and characterized the likely forms of change (i.e. linear trend, abrupt mean and/or variability change, and hockey-stick shaped change). Our method allows not just the identification of the change point but also the manner of change, and it can provide considerable insights into land-cover trajectories. In that sense, our approach has a significant advantage over other types of change-detection methods commonly reported in the remote-sensing literature. Although we demonstrated our algorithm using annual averages for coarse resolution data, our method can be easily adapted to finer spatial or temporal scale data, assuming assumptions of normality and independence are met. Overall, the changes detected by the algorithm are consistent with changes observed by other authors for the East Africa study area. We have demonstrated a powerful new tool for the detection of land-cover change using multi-temporal satellite data.

Investigating the Effect of eWOM in Movie Box Office Success Through an Aspect-Based Approach

The goals of the current study were to expand the content domain and further validate the Coercion Assessment Scale (CAS), a measure of perceived coercion for criminally involved substance abusers being recruited into research. Unlike the few existing measures of this construct, the CAS identifies specific external sources of pressure that may influence one’s decision to participate. In Phase 1, we conducted focus groups with criminal justice clients and stakeholders to expand the instrument by identifying additional sources of pressure. In Phase 2, we evaluated the expanded measure (i.e., endorsement rates, reliability, validity) in an ongoing research trial. Results identified new sources of pressure and provided evidence supporting the CAS’s utility and reliability over time as well as convergent and discriminative validity.

Use of the internet to obtain drugs without a prescription among treatment-involved adolescents and young adults

ThisstudyexaminestheinfluenceofElectronicWordofMouth(eWOM)ontheboxofficerevenue generationofmoviesintheU.SdomesticmarketusingthetechniqueofAspect-BasedSentiment Analysis(ABSA)andaspectidentification.Theanalysiswasconductedonthesentimentscoreand frequencyoffivemovieaspectsfromtheuserreviewscollectedfromhighgrossing2014movies. Thisstudyrevealedasignificantdependenceontheaspect-basedsentimentfrequencyofthemovie’s Storyaspect.Surprisingly,thedataalsoshowedastrongdependenceofmoviesuccessonthenegative sentimentfrequencyontheCastingaspect.ThefindingsofthestudysuggestthattheeWOMpresent inonlinemoviereviewscanbeused topredict theperformanceofamovieat theboxofficeby monitoringtheaspect’sfrequencyofsentiment,whichcanbereferredtoasametricoftheonline “buzz”ofthemovie. KEyWORdS Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis, Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM), Movie Reviews, Online Buzz, Regression Analysis, Revenue Prediction, Sentiment Analysis

Social adjustment of women with and without a substance-abusing partner.

ABSTRACT Nonmedical use of prescription drugs is common and poses risks such as injury, overdose, and development of abuse and dependence. Internet pharmacies offer prescription drugs without a prescription, creating a source of illicit drugs accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. We examined this issue in a convenience sample of 1,860 adolescents and young adults from 24 residential and outpatient treatment programs. Few individuals obtained drugs from the Internet (N = 26, 2.3%). Pain relievers were the most frequently purchased type of drug. The majority of adolescents and young adult online purchasers made the purchases from their own or a friends house.

Psychometric assessment of a self-administered version of the Significant Other Survey.

Abstract Little normative information is available about the psychosocial functioning of women who have a substance-abusing intimate partner. This study examined whether the social adjustment of women who indicate that they have a substance-abusing partner (n=69) is compromised relative to that of women who indicate that their partner does not abuse substances (n=68). Women with a substance-abusing partner reported compromised social adjustment relative to a comparison sample both overall and in five of six life domains (work, social/leisure, primary relationship, parental, family). Results suggest the potential benefit of expanding the focus of research and treatment to include effects and outcomes for these women and to influence treatment-related policy.

The Importance of Storytelling in Business Intelligence

While there are a number of general measures that assess interpersonal and psychological distress experienced by individuals who are in a close relationship with a substance abusing adult, until recently the field has lacked a psychometrically sound, self-administered multidimensional measure explicitly designed to measure the problems of non-substance-abusing adults who are concerned about a substance using loved one. This study examined the psychometric properties of a 54-item, self-administered (SA) version of the Significant Other Survey (SOS), a measure designed to address this gap. The SOS-SA assesses problems across seven problem domains (emotional, relationship, family, financial, physical violence, legal, health). Coefficient alpha estimates (N = 168) were good to excellent for five of the domains, the test-retest reliability (N = 83) across a 7-day time frame was fair to excellent for all seven domains. Similar reliability coefficients were identified regardless of whether the item queried about the problem frequency or perceived severity. There was preliminary support for the construct and discriminant validity of the SOS-SA. The SOS-SA appears to be a promising instrument given that it is brief, requires no specialized training to administer, and has good psychometric properties.