School professionals are faced with addressing social behavioral concerns across multiple school settings with growing frequency. There is a need for efficient and effective methods to support students exhibiting challenging behavior. Tier -II interventions, such as Check-in/Check-out, can be implemented efficiently in schools with sufficient systems in place. However, these interventions are generally more effective for students whose problem behavior is more sensitive to adult attention. This study evaluated the effects of the Academic and Behavior Check-in/Check-out (ABC) intervention, a Tier-II intervention designed to provide additional support for students emitting behavior that is more sensitive to escape from academic tasks, relative to CICO using an ABAB reversal design. Functional assessment procedures corroborated that the behavior of three middle school students was in part motivated by escape from tasks. Implementation of ABC with all subjects resulted in improvements in academic engagement and reductions in problem behavior relative to CICO. Additionally, the ABC intervention was implemented with high fidelity and was rated favorably by stakeholders.

Literature Review: Background: Compassion-facilitating interventions (CFIs) seek to increase feelings of reassurance, safeness and well-being, and are suggested as a new psychotherapeutic approach to treat post-traumatic stress. Objectives: This review summarises and synthesises the literature investigating CFIs for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in clinical adult populations. Method: A systematic review of the experimental and intervention literature to date was completed using PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Knowledge databases. Results: CFIs show large to medium effect sizes in reducing PTSD in traumatised populations. However, many studies did not compare these interventions to active control conditions, and for the few studies that did, compassion-facilitating interventions were not better at reducing PTSD than the active control conditions. There was also not enough evidence in these studies to indicate a mechanism of change in these interventions. Conclusions: CFIs may be an effective intervention in PTSD, but more high quality research is needed to establish their efficacy over and above well established PTSD treatments. More research is also needed to identify the psychological mechanisms at work in decreasing PTSD symptoms Empirical Paper: Objective: Compassion-facilitating interventions are thought to be promising for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is theorised that inducing self compassion through a compassion-facilitating meditation task would interrupt the psychological processes that cause emotional distress and trauma-related intrusions that form post-trauma. Methods: A student sample (n = 72) was exposed to a trauma-film and then either listened to a neutral-emotion audio mediation or a compassion-facilitating meditation (CFM). Self-reported distress, self-compassion and self-criticism were measured at baseline, post-film, post-audio meditation and for seven days following the experiment. Measures of sympathetic arousal and parasympathetic activation were measured at baseline and during the trauma film and audio meditation. Trauma-related intrusions were measured for seven days following the experiment. Results: Lower self-reported distress and higher self-compassion were reported over the seven day follow-up, but not directly after the meditation. No statistical differences between conditions over time were found for any of the physiological measures but skin conductance was higher in the CFM group, contrary to predictions. There were also no statistical differences found between the two conditions in terms of sum daily intrusions following trauma-exposure. Conclusions: This research supports the hypothesis that facilitating self compassion can disrupt some of the observed processes post-trauma, namely felt distress, although only after a delay. These findings are relevant to the theoretical models of PTSD and future clinical interventions.

Connectedness has been identified as a powerful protective factor for adolescents. This study focused on the extent to which secondary students at the American International School of Utah (AISU) report perceptions of connectedness. Specifically, this work focused on school-level factors. It examined the extent to which participation in the school-wide interventions of Crew and Intensives influence perceptions of connectedness among AISU secondary students. Data collected provided insights about perceptions of connectedness within the AISU environment that may be used to inform current practices, identify additional student support needs, and improve future implementations. An Explanatory Sequential research design was used. This method included the use of quantitative measure administered and analyzed first, followed by a qualitative measure used to learn more about the quantitative results. The Hemingway Measure of Adolescent Connectedness Short Form by Michael Karcher served as the quantitative measure for this study. A semistructured interview protocol, created by the researcher, was used as the qualitative instrument. Results indicated that overall, study participants reported high-levels of connectedness on the Hemingway. Analysis of the Hemingway Subscales revealed that the Friends subscale had the highest levels of connectedness, followed by connectedness to Teacher. Connectedness to School was slightly lower than connectedness to Teachers. Connectedness to Peers showed moderate levels of connectedness. To learn more about the results of the quantitative stage of this study, semistructured interviews were conducted and analyzed using traditional deductive coding techniques. Results showed high-levels of connectedness associated with AISU as a school and with participation in Crew. Findings on the questions asking about Intensives showed that students appear to value the unique learning opportunities and ability to choose what they learn, more than they associated Intensives with connectedness.

The time of cancer diagnosis and treatment may be marked by an increase in stressors, which may be associated with poorer psychosocial and physical adaptation and increased sleep difficulty. Prior work has shown that psychosocial interventions that teach stress management skills can improve indicators of psychosocial and physical adaptation in women with breast cancer, mostly in cancer survivors who have completed treatment. The extant literature does not examine the effects of stress management on sleep, or the role that sleep plays in mediating psychosocial and physical adaptation outcomes, among women in the midst of treatment for non-metastatic breast cancer (BCa). Two hundred forty (240) women, recruited post-surgery from oncology practices, were randomly assigned to a 10-week group-based cognitive behavioral stress management intervention (CBSM; n = 120) or 1-day psychoeducation (PE) control (n = 120). The intervention consisted of didactics, CBSM techniques, and relaxation exercises, but did not specifically target sleep or sleep quality (SQ). Women assigned to the PE condition attended a one-day group seminar where they learned some of the material covered in the CBSM intervention, without the therapeutic group environment, role play techniques, and home practice. Participants completed self-report questionnaires at baseline, and at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. After controlling for days since surgery, participants in the CBSM group reported improved SQ, as well as increased positive states of mind, decreased disruption in social recreational functioning, and reduced fatigue-related daytime dysfunction for up to 8 - 12 months after baseline. There were marginally significant improvements in functional well-being and social functioning. CBSM was not associated with improvements in fatigue intensity. Improvements in SQ mediated CBSM-associated improvements in positive states of mind, social disruption, and fatigue-related daytime dysfunction. Thus, the CBSM intervention had beneficial effects on several indicators of functional adaptation that were in part explained by improvements in the quality of sleep. Future work should test the combined effects of stress management and sleep management interventions for women initiating treatment for BCa.

Researchers have investigated pacing and accuracy of students’ academic work. However, studies investigating the effects pacing have mixed results regarding accuracy levels and student acceptability. Fuller, Krohn, Orsega, Skinner, and Williams (2009) conducted a pilot study examining the impact of slowing students down on their accuracy levels. Specifically, Fuller et al. (2009) had computers deliver multiplication problems one at a time. In the no-delay condition a new problem was delivered immediately after students provided an answer to the previous problem. In the delay condition, after students entered the answer to a problem there was a 7-second delay before the computer delivered the next problem. No significant differences in accuracy levels between the two conditions were found, suggesting that pacing had no effect on accuracy. However, response accuracy levels were very high, suggesting that a ceiling effect may have hindered researchers’ ability to find significant differences. The current study extended this research on pacing by using more difficult multiplication problems. In addition, researchers have suggested that attention required to complete tasks may be a moderator variable that influences the effects of pacing on accuracy levels. However, researchers have not examined attention as a between-subjects moderator variable. The two primary purposes of this study were to investigate whether decreasing the pace of academic work by artificially inflating intertrial intervals (delay between problems) influenced mathematics performance and to determine if students’ attention levels moderated this impact. Participants were 111 fourth- and fifth-grade students who completed two sets of multiplication problems (7-second delay condition and no-delay condition). Students’ teachers completed brief attention ratings for students that were used to separate students into high and low attention problems groups. A mixed models ANOVA revealed no significant interaction which suggests that pacing does not interact with attention and accuracy. This study fails to support preceding studies claiming that a faster pace increases accuracy levels, but it did suggest that slowing the pace of students work does not hurt performance. Results indicate that previous researchers may be wrong about the influence of pacing on accuracy levels and attention as a moderating variable.

La thèse comporte deux parties. Dans la première partie (Chapitres 1 et 2), un examen des déterminants des interventions officielles sur le marché des changes est proposée. Dans la second partie (Chapitres 3 et 4), c'est la problématique des interventions dites « secrètes » qui est étudiée. Chapitre 1: « Talks, financial operations or both » Ce chapitre propose une nouvelle approche aux fonctions de réaction permettant d’examiner, dans un même modèle, les déterminants des différents types d’interventions (les interventions effectives et les interventions orales). Le modèle permet de mieux comprendre les choix stratégiques des autorités (opérations financières ou simple politique de communication) et d’en évaluer le degré de substituabilité ou de complémentarité. Chapitre 2 : « The institutional organization underlying interventions » La structure institutionnelle sous-jacente au processus d’intervention (interactions entre le Ministère des finances et la banque centrale) est explicitement incorporée dans le modèle proposé dans ce chapitre. Cette approche permet d’évaluer, dans quelle mesure, le Ministère des finances (l’autorité responsable de la politique de change), en intervenant sur le marché, internalise les objectifs de la banque centrale(l’agent du Ministère pour l’implémentation des ordres d’intervention). Chapitre 3 : « The secrecy puzzle » Ce chapitre propose une évaluation empirique des différents arguments théoriques expliquant le recours aux interventions secrètes. Le travail repose sur l’examen économétrique d’une fonction de stratégie, dans laquelle, des déterminants relatifs à la décision d’intervenir secrètement d’une part et, d’autre part, des déterminants relatifs à la détection des interventions par le marché sont incorporés. Chapitre 4 : « A unified approach to interventions » Un modèle unique, permettant d’expliquer les trois étapes du processus d’intervention, est proposé dans ce chapitre. Ces trois étapes sont relatives (i) au choix d’intervenir, (ii) au choix d’intervenir de façon secrète et (iii) à la perception des interventions par le marché. Grâce à l’inclusion de déterminants spécifiques pour ces différentes étapes, cette approche multidimensionnelle permet d’appréhender leurs interrelations et, donc, de mieux comprendre les différents arbitrages réalisés par les autorités lorsqu’elles décident d’intervenir.

Sammanfattning Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att göra en sammanställning och beskriva vad som fanns i vetenskaplig litteratur gällande sömnfrämjande interventioner för äldre personer med demenssjukdom.  Metoden var en deskriptiv litteraturstudie baserad på 14 vetenskapliga artiklar från sju länder, publicerade mellan år 2005- 2010.  Artikelsökning gjordes i databaserna Medline och Cinahl, även en manuell sökning ingick. Inkluderade artiklar i resultatet är granskade och kvalitetsbedömda.  Huvudresultatet visade att det fanns olika interventioner som ljusterapi, melatonin, akupressur, social aktivitet, utbildning och örtmedicin för att främja sömnstörningar för personer med demenssjukdom. De olika interventionerna uppvisade lite skiftande effekt för att främja sömnen, ingen av interventionerna ansågs övertygande däremot upptäcktes andra positiva effekter gällande agitation, dygnsrytmstörningar och vakenheten under dagen. Slutsatsen av denna litteraturstudie är att mer riktad forskning behövs om olika interventioner för att främja sömnstörningar hos äldre personer med demenssjukdomar. Förbättring av sömnkvalitet, livskvalitet och återhämtning är målsättningen med interventionerna. Sjuksköterskan kan förbättra sömnkvaliteten hos patienterna med hjälp av icke farmakologiska interventioner. Sömnhygien, sociala aktiviteter och att förstärka exponeringen av solljus och klart ljus är förstahandsval vid behandling av sömnstörning hos personer med demenssjukdom. / Abstract  The aim of this literature study was to describe the scientific literature for sleep disorder interventions for older people with dementia. The method was a descriptive study based on 14 scientific articles from seven countries, published between the years 2005 - 2010. Article search was made in the databases Medline and Cinahl, and manual searches were included. Included articles in the results were reviewed and quality estimated. The main result showed that there were various interventions as light therapy, melatonin, acupressure, social activity, education and herbal medicine to promote sleep disorders for people with dementia. The various interventions showed varied effect to promote sleep, none of the interventions was convincing, although other positive effects on agitation, circadian rhythm and day- time wake was discovered.  The conclusion of this study is that more research is needed in different interventions to promote sleep disorders for older people with dementia.  The goal of the measures is to improve quality of sleep, quality of life and recovery. Nurses can improve quality of sleep in patients with non-pharmacological interventions. Sleep hygiene, social activities and increase exposure of sunlight and bright light is first choice to treat sleep disorders among persons with dementia.

Purpose: The purpose of this research program was three-fold. First it aimed to determine the effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions in increasing cessation rates in smokers with cerebrovascular disease and whether smoking cessation reduces stroke recurrence. Second it aimed to determine the prognostic influence of smoking and its association with stroke severity, disability, length of stay in hospital and mortality. Third it aimed to identify multi-level correlates of smoking cessation in Canadians who reported stroke symptoms in a large population based survey. Methods: Two systematic reviews and meta-analyses were performed to achieve the first objective. For the second objective, a retrospective cohort study was undertaken using variables from the Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network. Finally, the third objective was achieved by analyzing respondents from the Canadian Community Health Survey. Results: There is a paucity of intervention studies examining the effectiveness of smoking cessation in smokers with cerebrovascular disease. Most intervention studies that were found, failed to employ evidence-based approaches to smoking cessation. No evidence was found in regards to the effect of smoking cessation on stroke recurrence. We found smokers had strokes at a younger age compared to non-smokers. We found that in transient ischemic attacks and intracerbral haemorrhage, smoking was a significant predictor of stroke severity, disability, length of stay in hospital and 1 year mortality. Correlates of smoking cessation among Canadians who have experienced symptoms of a stroke included: higher education and income, implementation of household and vehicle smoking restrictions, access to a general practitioner and the use of smoking cessation pharmacotherapies and counselling support. Co-morbidities such as depression and alcohol consumption reduced the likelihood of successful cessation. Conclusions: This three-phase research program elucidated the gaps in intervention research for this population along with co-morbidities that hinder success in cessation. Smoking negatively impacted outcomes such as disability, hospital length of stay and mortality in patients with transient ischemic attacks and intracerebral haemorrhage strokes. Future interventions should take into account modifiable smoking cessation correlates in order to increase cessation rates in smokers with cerebrovascular disease.

Much recent discussion has highlighted the challenges posed by what have variously been called “disruptive”, “discontinuous”, “breakthrough” and “radical” innovations. Although the labelling may vary, the underlying themes appear to be consistent. In particular it is clear that under conditions in which the dominant “rules of the game” change as a result of emergent or shifting markets, major movements at the technological frontier, dislocations in the regulatory environment etc, even organizations with well-developed innovation capabilities get into difficulties. This is less a matter of particular technological, market or political stimuli than of the limitations of the repertoire of organizational responses available to the firm. This resurfaces a long-running concern with managing innovation in two different modes, namely “exploitation” and “exploration”. This thesis reports the results of exploratory research into specific aspects of the organizational culture within the Research and Development (R&D) setting of a small mature UK based company, Cerulean. In doing so it also identifies and discusses key management interventions for developing an innovation culture that facilitates radical product innovation. Cerulean designs and manufactures quality control instrumentation and has in the past been very successful with radically new products. In recent years this propensity for “radicalness” has declined and the company now wishes to regain this capability. A grounded research methodology and a participative action research approach was utilised to surface issues that clearly illustrated both the presence and intensity of aspects of organisation culture that enabled and inhibited radical product innovation. Participative analysis of the data identified nine emerging themes and key constructs of an innovation culture that was found to influence “radicalness” in new product development ventures. The interrelationships between the themes were discussed in the context of current theoretical perspectives in the field of innovation management. This led to the development of a conceptual model that incorporates two “ideal” archetypal forms of innovation culture. A composite instrument was developed based on existing evaluation tools and used to assess the innovation culture. First use of the instrument indicated areas of opportunity in developing a radical innovation culture. Further participative analysis of the emergent themes and the assessment and evaluations of the extant innovation culture, resulted in a series of management interventions to stimulate the development of a culture to facilitate radical product innovation. The design of the interventions was also informed by the literature and other organizations, part of a national Discontinuous Innovation Forum (DIF) undergoing similar ambitions. The proposed interventions comprise a series of linked management actions in the form of a plan to shift the innovation culture of the company closer to a desired radical innovation culture.

Antimicrobial interventions implemented in slaughter establishments for the reduction of enteric pathogens on beef carcasses must be validated to demonstrate efficacy under commercial operation conditions. Validation studies can be conducted using surrogates which are nonpathogenic organisms that respond to a particular treatment in a manner equivalent to a target pathogen. The purpose of this study was to identify surrogates for enteric pathogens to validate antimicrobial interventions on beef carcasses. The growth, attachment, resistance properties as well as the response to interventions on beef carcasses of nonpathogenic fluorescent protein-marked E. coli strains were evaluated and compared to E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella strains. Growth curves were performed in tryptic soy broth at 37°C and it was demonstrated that in general, growth parameters were not different among surrogates and target pathogens. Thermal resistance was compared in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at 55, 60 and 65°C; D-values of surrogates were not different or were higher than those of target pathogens. The acid resistance of surrogates was not different to that of E. coli O157:H7 in PBS acidified with lactic acid at pH 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5. Some Salmonella serotypes were found to be less acid resistant than the surrogates. Survival of surrogates after storage at low temperatures (4°C and -18°C) was not different or was longer than survival of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. Additionally, the cell surface hydrophobicity and attachment to beef carcasses surfaces was not different among surrogates and pathogens. Antimicrobial interventions were applied on carcass surfaces under laboratory controlled conditions. After application of hot water washes, D-values were not different among surrogates and pathogens, while no differences were observed in log reductions (CFU/cm2) among surrogates and pathogens when 2% L-lactic acid sprays at 25 and 55°C were applied, regardless of the temperature and volume of the acid solution. The response of surrogates to water washes and lactic acid sprays on beef carcasses was also evaluated in commercial slaughter facilities. Reductions of surrogates were not different to those of aerobic plate count, coliforms and E. coli. However, the surrogates showed less variation and provided more consistent results than traditional indicators.