Maladaptive habits, such as substance use, that are highly ingrained and automatized behaviors with negative long-term health consequences need effective interventions to promote change towards more healthful behaviors. Implementation intentions, the structured linking of critical situations and alternative, healthier responses, have been shown to improve health-benefiting behaviors such as eating more fruits and vegetables and being more physically active (Sheeran, Milne, Webb, and Gollwitzer, 2005). Here, a laboratory analogue for smoking relapse and a pilot clinical trial of alcohol use are assessed using implementation intention interventions to reduce these health risk behaviors. In Study 1, heavy smokers completed a smoking resistance task that is a candidate analogue for smoking relapse. Participants were exposed to an in-laboratory implementation intention and/or monetary incentive condition during each of four experimental sessions. The combined implementation intention and monetary incentive condition resulted in the greatest delay to smoking initiation. In Study 2, individuals with alcohol use disorder completed an active or control implementation intention treatment condition. Remotely, both treatment groups received a daily ecological momentary intervention, thrice daily biologic breath alcohol ecological momentary assessments, and once daily self-report ecological momentary assessment of alcohol consumption during the intervention period. The active implementation intention group was associated with a greater reduction in alcohol consumption compared to the control group. Together, these studies provide experimental and initial clinical evidence for implementation intentions, in conjunction with other effective treatments (Study 1) and technological advancements (Study 2), to intervene on and reduce substance use. This project is the first to use implementation intentions in a laboratory evaluation of smoking resistance and in an initial clinical trial to reduce alcohol consumption in a naturalistic community sample using both ecological momentary assessments and ecological momentary interventions. / Ph. D. / The following studies provide evidence for the use of implementation intentions, a planning-based intervention, to reduce health risk behaviors. Implementation intentions are structured if-then statements that help individuals to identify critical situations where health risk behaviors are likely and to predetermine alternative and healthier responses when these situations are encountered. In the first study, nicotine-deprived cigarette smokers completed a laboratory task where they were asked to resist smoking. The participants were exposed to different conditions (implementation intentions and monetary incentives) to help them to resist smoking. The study found that the combination of both implementation intentions and monetary incentives were associated with the longest time to smoking reinitiation; however, the combination of both interventions was not significantly greater than monetary incentives alone. The second study employed implementation intentions as a strategy to reduce alcohol use over a two-week period in individuals with alcohol use disorder. The study found that implementation intentions reduced the amount of alcohol consumed on days where participants were drinking and these reductions were maintained at one-month follow-up. Together, these two studies provide support for translational work that evaluates interventions in the laboratory and then also in clinical trials. Furthermore, these studies show the trans-disease applications of interventions such as implementation intentions across health risk behaviors.

Background: Substance use can have lifelong consequences for adolescents and the rates of substance use in Canadian adolescents are increasing. This is a serious public health issue which needs to be addressed. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of public health unit (PHU) engagement in school-based substance use prevention programs on student substance use. Methods: Data was collected from the Cannabis, Obesity, Mental health, Physical activity, Alcohol use, Smoking and Sedentary behaviour (COMPASS) study over the 2018/19 data collection year. A multi-level logistic regression was used to analyze the associations between PHU engagement and student substance use. Results: The analyses found that 70% of schools had PHU engagement in substance use prevention programs. Overall, PHU engagement made no difference on student substance use. However, when PHU engagement was divided into five levels of engagement (with zero being no engagement and five being the highest level of engagement) it was found that students from schools where PHUs solved problems jointly (level two) had statistically significantly greater odds of binge drinking, alcohol use and cannabis use. Schools were also divided into low and high-use schools for each substance. It was found that students in low-use schools had statistically significantly greater odds of binge drinking, alcohol and cannabis use with some levels of PHU engagement and students from high-use schools had statistically significantly lower odds of cannabis and cigarette use with some levels of PHU engagement compared to a similar student from a school without PHU engagement. Conclusions: Our findings show that there is opportunity for greater PHU engagement with schools in substance use prevention programming. Furthermore, it is important that PHUs are working with schools to ensure school-based substance use prevention programs are evidence-based and tailored to the specific needs and risk-levels of the students. / Thesis / Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) / The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of public health unit (PHU) engagement in school-based substance use prevention programs on student substance use. Data for this study was collected from the Cannabis, Obesity, Mental health, Physical activity, Alcohol use, Smoking and Sedentary behaviour (COMPASS) study. The results show that 70% of schools had PHU engagement in substance use prevention programs. Across all schools, when PHUs and schools solved problems jointly an increase in student binge drinking, alcohol and cannabis use was found. When schools were divided into low and high-use schools, similar results were found when PHUs engaged with low-use schools whereas when PHUs engaged in high-use schools a reduced odds of student cannabis and cigarette use was found in some situations. These findings highlight the importance for PHUs to consider the specific needs and risk-levels of the students and schools they are engaging with.

The Best PhD Thesis in the Faculties of Dentistry, Engineering, Medicine and Science (University of Hong Kong), Li Ka Shing Prize,2008-2009 / published_or_final_version / Biological Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

3 pp. / This publication is meant to be a short fact sheet that provides estimates of turfgrass consumptive use (of water) in the Payson area. The publication provides a brief description of the procedures used to generate the CU estimates, then presents the data both as a CU table and CU curve. The publication should prove useful for irrigation management and water resource planning.

Revised; Originally Published: 2005 / 4 pp.

Thesis (MReg & UrbPlan)--University of South Australia, 1998

Thesis (M.Env.St. 1979) from the Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Adelaide.

Thesis (M.Inst.Agrar)(Land-use Planning))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M Arch)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2008. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: John Brittingham. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-108).

Thesis (MSD(Social Work and Criminology))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.