IMPACT (Integrated Management of Physician-Delivered Alcohol Care for Tuberculosis patients) is a randomized, controlled effectiveness trial based in Tomsk, Russia, that assesses the effect of oral naltrexone and brief behavioral counseling on tuberculosis outcomes and alcohol use in 200 patients. Tuberculosis physicians without addiction experience delivered interventions as part of routine care over a 6-month period, focusing on alcohol intake reduction to support successful tuberculosis treatment. We describe design, training, and fidelity monitoring using a Russian and American team of physicians, bilingual coders, and supervisors. Culturally appropriate adaptations, limitations, and implications for future trials are discussed. The clinical trial identification number is NCT00675961. Funding came from the National Institutes of Health and National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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With the increase in the prevalence rate of children with autism in the U.S. there is a growing need for empirically based treatments to address the many deficits that children with autism manifest. Social Stories™ is one such treatment that has grown in popularity to address social deficits in children with autism. However, no meta-analysis done in recent years has found Social Stories™ to be an effective treatment, stating weak and inconsistent research methodologies as one of the primary issues in the studies examined. The current study sought to examine the use of Social Stories™ using best practice research standards for single subject design. A total of 4 elementary aged students with a special education eligibility of autism participated in the study. Results of the study revealed an increase in pro-social skills for all 4 participants and a promising future for further Social Story™ research and the quest to recognize it as an effective, empirically based treatment for children with autism. Furthermore, teachers reported that they found Social Stories™ to be an effective, feasible intervention, that helped them to better understand their students’ social deficits.

The participants in this study were referred by the teacher or the teacher support team for a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) and development of a positive behavior support plan to address disruptive behavior and academic skills deficits. Therefore, the purpose of Experiment I was to examine the ability of FBA procedures to identify students with reading difficulty who demonstrated problem behavior potentially maintained by escape from academic demands. Each environmental variable introduced during the brief functional analysis was manipulated via a multiple element design (Cooper, Wacker, Sasso, Reimers, & Donn, 1990; Derby et al., 1992; Northup et al., 1991). Experiment II sought to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of the Reading to Read (RTR) intervention package in addressing the oral reading fluency and comprehension deficits of referred elementary students. Experiment II also examined the generalized effects of the reading intervention on reducing the identified escapemaintained problem behaviors (i.e., off-task) during the reading class. For Experiment II, a multiple baseline (MBL) across participants design was used to evaluate the impact of the RTR intervention on addressing both academic and problem behaviors (e.g., identified on the FAIR-T). Results from descriptive and functional analysis procedures in Experiment I revealed that all of the participants were performing at least one grade level below expectations in regarding to reading fluency. In addition, all of the participants exhibited more off-task behavior during the difficult task demand versus the easy task demand conditions of the brief functional analysis. The participants also obtained lower scores on comprehension questions during the difficult task demand versus the easy task demand conditions. This pattern of responding suggested the off-task behavior was potentially maintained by escape from academic demands in reading. Results from Experiment II revealed that all participants increased their oral reading fluency levels on intervention probes in comparison to the baseline levels. In addition to the increase in oral reading fluency, there was an increase in their percentage of correct responses in reading comprehension when compared to baseline data. In regards to generalization reading probes, all of the participants evidenced overall increases in their reading skills in comparison to baseline data. In fact, all of the participants increased from frustrational to near mastery levels. Finally, results from Experiment II revealed that all participants’ experienced reduction in their off-task behavior while partaking in the RTR intervention in comparison to baseline levels. This notable decrease extended throughout the study for all participants. Overall, the present results revealed that the RTR intervention was effective in addressing the reading fluency and comprehension deficits of identified students. In addition, remediation of reading skills appeared to have assisted in the reduction of social problem behavior performed during reading instruction in the general education classroom. Important implications for practice and inclusion of the procedures used in this study within applied settings are discussed. In addition, important limitations and considerations for future research are outlined.

This applied research project responds to a critical problem in health and development: how to effectively translate our research evidence to the communities with and for whom we work in order to stimulate successful, sustainable health promotion activities and social change. The tangible product of this research is a handbook for health and outreach workers from immigrant communities from the Horn of Africa living in Toronto. The handbook is a resource which will be used as a starting point for the generation of community-based health initiatives, in this case, HIV/AIDS prevention programs. The research applies a conceptual approach which emphasizes participatory action research theory and methodology, and equitable, transcontextual research partnerships. It uses a model which merges both scientific evidence and experiential (ethnographic) evidence of risk and vulnerability to create new understandings on which to base the development of health programs. Stories, grounded in ethnographic evidence, are at the heart of the research strategy. The handbook is an example of experimental ethnographic writing: dialogue is used to communicate research evidence, health, and skills information; and a number of personal narrative:s have been constructed as resources to help health workers generate dialogue on issues of risk and vulnerability, and begin a process of reflection and action. In a larger context, the lessons learned as this work is implemented and evaluated in the community will contribute to the knowledge of intervention science. The research also serves as an example of ethical anthropology and raises for discussion ethnography's future project at the tum of the century. With attention to how anthropologists represent their work, 'moral ethnography' can serve a larger human project, helping us better understand what it is to be human and stimulating moral conversations about how we want to live. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

An experimental, randomized, control-group, pretest-postest design was employed in this study to examine the efficacy of the use of two short-term group counseling interventions employing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy with at-risk adolescents in changing their beliefs, altering their attitude toward school, and moderating behaviors that are problematic in an educational setting. Forty-eight subjects were included in this study from an alternative evening high school setting and were assessed in the initial stage of treatment using The Idea Inventory and The Majoribanks Attitude-To-School Inventory. The School Social Behavior Scale was employed at this beginning point to observe these students by teachers and administrators with regard to social competence and anti-social behaviors. Subjects were selected from a pool of regularly attending students in an alternative high school program and randomly assigned to three groups, one employing REBT concepts and techniques alone, one using REBT concepts and techniques in conjunction with the therapeutic board game, Let's Get Rational, and a control group. The treatment and control group designations were also randomly assigned to the counseling groups. Ten weekly 50 minute group counseling sessions were conducted by two master's level counselors employing the tenets of REBT with adolescents. Group participants had the opportunity to learn new interpersonal skills and behaviors that may be helpful to them in staying in school. At the conclusion of the 10 week treatment group sessions, the subjects in the three groups were re-assessed employing the same instruments mentioned before to determine if the activities in the group sessions made significant differences in the rational thinking, attitude to school, and school social behaviors of these at-risk students in an alternative setting. Data were analyzed using descritpive statistics in addition to a factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) to measure the pretest and posttest performance and understanding of the subjects. Results revealed that the differences in the scores of the treatment groups were significant the REBT group employing the game, Let's Get Rational, contributing to students learning and understanding of the tenets of REBT at the .05 alpha level on the four dependent variables. There were no significant differences between genders regarding the four dependent variables, and there was a lack of a significant interaction between the intervention approach taken and the gender of the group member. There was no significant interaction between the gender of the subject and the treatment group placement. The results from both REBT groups support the efficacy of using the tenets of REBT with school aged populations who are at risk for failure. Appropriate conclusions and recommendations based upon the study findings were made. Implications for secondary school counselors and those counselors working with at-risk students were delineated. / Ed. D.

yes / This briefing paper reports on research exploring ten detailed case studies of livelihoods-oriented interventions operating in Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda and Lesotho. As a proxy for best practice, these interventions were analysed through an audit of sustainable livelihood `principles¿. This revealed general lessons about both the practical opportunities and challenges for employing sustainable livelihoods approaches to the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development interventions and also about the changing format of development interventions. / Department for International Development.

Why do some international actors who intervene militarily in civil wars continue their military engagement after the war has ended, while other actors end their intervention and withdraw all military forces at the conclusion of the war? What explains the continuation of outside military intervention from wartime to peacetime, and why might this dimension of military intervention vary across conflicts? In analyzing this puzzle, this study introduces a new theoretical concept: persistent intervention. Defined as the continuation of an external state’s military intervention in a civil war after the war ends, the concept of persistent intervention sheds light on the connections between wartime and peacetime, or the post-conflict period. Drawing on a new dataset on post-war interventions across the globe in countries experiencing civil wars that ended between 1957-2020, as well as detailed comparative case studies of four interventions from the Middle East and Africa, this dissertation finds the availability and access to political and economic gains of the intervention as the main driver of the decision to keep troops in peacetime. The domestic elites' desire to protect these predatory gains from the intervention leaves some interveners entangled in the civil war country, where leaving too soon might devalue and destabilize the investments. The primary factor undermining persistent interventions is found to be intervener domestic instability that disrupts this extractive mechanism. Findings also have implications for external involvement in peace agreements and peacekeeping operations. / Political Science

Schools are facing an increasing pressure to deal effectively with students' problem behaviors in the school environment. Research suggests that Behavior Monitoring Programs (BMPs) are effective and efficient secondary interventions to use in remedying problem behavior in the classroom and are acceptable to teachers, parents, and students. Most of the research on BMPs has been conducted at the elementary school level. The current study investigated the effectiveness of a BMP within a school-wide system of Positive Behavior Support (PBS) with three suburban high school students. Problem behaviors for each student were targeted based upon previous office discipline referral data (ODR) and teacher comments, and three behavioral goals were made for students based upon these findings, along with teacher input. Effectiveness of the intervention was measured by the increase in teacher's behavioral ratings on the Daily Behavior Report Card (DBRC). Furthermore, teachers, parents and students rated the intervention's effectiveness via a five-item intervention acceptability questionnaire. Results of the study suggest that the BMP intervention is both effective and acceptable for use with secondary students. All students experienced an increase in behavioral ratings on the DBRC during intervention. Across all students and all behaviors, the intervention resulted in an overall mean improvement of 63% in problem behaviors in the classroom. Average effect sizes were large while probability levels were low. Furthermore, all teachers, parents, and students rated the intervention as being acceptable. The average rating that all parents gave for all five items (on a 6 point scale with higher numbers indicating greater acceptability) was 5.2, while the average for students was 4.3. The student's teachers together rated all five items as 4.8.

Bakgrund: Ungefär 130 000–150 000 personer i Sverige lider idag av demenssjukdomar och varje år insjuknar ytterligare ca 20 000–25 000 personer i sjukdomen. Demenssjukdomar innebär en progressiv försämring av kognitiva funktioner, vilket medför symtom som minnesstörningar, rumsliga oförmågor, nedsatta språkförståelser, förlust av inlärda funktioner, nedsatta praktiska förmågor samt beteendeförändringar. Inom omvårdnad av personer med demenssjukdom ska sjuksköterskor utgå ifrån personcentrerad vård som innebär att omvårdnad ska anpassas till personers behov. Enligt nationella riktlinjer är djurassisterade insatser en alternativ omvårdnadsåtgärd som kan användas som verktyg i den personcentrerade vården. Syfte: Syftet var att kartlägga hur personer med demenssjukdom påverkas av djurassisterade insatser. Metod: En allmän litteraturöversikt som inkluderade artiklar av både kvalitativ och kvantitativ metod. Resultat: Djurassisterade insatser hade påverkan på personer med demenssjukdom avseende fysiska funktioner, psykisk hälsa och inom kommunikation. Djuren motiverade till rörelse och aktiviteter, lockade fram positiva känslor, lindrade oro och ångest samt främjade verbal och icke-verbal kommunikation. Genom att använda djurassisterade insatser som oberoende omvårdnadsåtgärd främjades möjligheten för personer med demenssjukdom att erhålla en personcentrerad vård. Slutsats: Djurassisterade insatser påvisade positiv påverkan på personer med demenssjukdom och kan således utgöra ett alternativ av oberoende omvårdnadsåtgärd som kan tillämpas inom personcentrerad vård och omvårdnad. / Background: Approximately 130 000–150 000 people in Sweden are suffering from dementia, and an additional 20 000–25 000 people are diagnosed with the disease yearly. Dementia causes a progressive deterioration of cognitive abilities causing symptoms such as memory disorders, spatial incapacities, language impairment, loss of learned functions, impaired practical skills, and behavioral changes. In nursing people with dementia, nursing should be based on person-centered care, meaning nursing should be based on the individual's needs. According to national guidelines, animal-assisted intervention is an independent nursing intervention, which can be used as a tool within person-centered care. Aim: The aim was to identify how people with dementia are affected by animal-assisted interventions. Method: A general literature review, which included articles of both qualitive and quantitative approaches. Results: People with dementia were affected by animal-assisted interventions in areas such as physical functions, psychological health, and communication. The animals motivated movement and activities, evoked positive emotions, relieved anxiety and promoted verbal and non-verbal communication. Animal-assisted interventions enhanced the possibilities for person-centered care. Conclusion: People with dementia were positively affected by animal-assisted interventions. Animal-assisted intervention is an independent nursing intervention, which can be applied within person-centered care and within nursing.