Predisposing Factors to Drug Abuse Among In-School Adolescents in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria

Drug abuse among in-school adolescents is a problem which the government of Nigeria and indeed some other countries are yet to find a lasting solution to. Drug abuse among school children can disrupt the smooth running of teaching and learning in school. One of the ways of solving the problem is by trying to find out what leads in-school adolescents into the act. The objectives of this study were to examine the predisposing factors to drug abuse among in-school adolescents in Kwara State and to examine the influence of the variables of gender, age, religion and level of study on the respondents’ response on the predisposing factors. A descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study comprised of the adolescents in secondary school and university. A sample of 403 students were selected through a multistage sampling procedure in order to participate in the study. Data was collected via a questionnaire titled ‘Predisposing Factors to Drug Abuse (PFDA)’. The questionnaire was validated by experts in test and measurement design. It has a reliability coefficient of 0.68 which adjudged the instrument to be reliable. Data was analysed with mean, rank order, t-test and analysis of variance. Hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed that the factors that predispose in-school adolescents to drug abuse were: peer influence, depression, lack of good parental care, low self-esteem, poor academic performance, among other factors. Findings further revealed that age, gender, religion and level of education did not make the respondents differ in their responses on the predisposing factors to drug abuse among in-school adolescents. It is recommended that counsellors, parents and stake holders in education should initiate a serious campaign regarding sensitization against drug abuse. It is also recommended that academic programs should be learner-centred.

Assessing suicide ideation among older adults: a systematic review of screening and measurement tools

ABSTRACT Objectives: Rates of suicide in older adults may be higher than reported due to poor understandings of presentation of suicide ideation in this group. The objectives of this paper were to (i) review current measurement tools designed for older adults to detect suicide ideation and (ii) assess their psychometric properties. Design: We used a systematic review approach to identify measurement tools developed specifically for older adults without cognitive decline or impairment. Results: Ten articles that reported on a total of seven different measurement tools were identified. These included tools that focused on resiliency to suicide and those that measured risk of suicide behavior. There was wide variation across the articles: some were adaptations of existing scales to suit older populations, others were developed by authors; they varied in length from four to 69 items; a range of settings was used, and there was a mix of self-report and clinician-administered measures. Most displayed good psychometric properties, with both approaches showing similar quality. Limitations in terms of samples, settings, and measurement design are discussed. Conclusion: The case for specific measures for older adults is clear from this review. There appear to be unique factors that should be considered in understanding suicide ideation and behavior among older adults that may not be directly assessed in non-specific measurements. However, there is a need to expand the diversity of individuals included in measurement development to ensure they are appropriate across gender, culture and minority status, and for the views of professionals to be considered.

Temporal variability in quantitative human gut microbiome profiles and implications for clinical research

While clinical gut microbiota research is ever-expanding, extending reference knowledge of healthy between- and within-subject gut microbiota variation and its drivers remains essential; in particular, temporal variability is under-explored, and a comparison with cross-sectional variation is missing. Here, we perform daily quantitative microbiome profiling on 713 fecal samples from 20 Belgian women over six weeks, combined with extensive anthropometric measurements, blood panels, dietary data, and stool characteristics. We show substantial temporal variation for most major gut genera; we find that for 78% of microbial genera, day-to-day absolute abundance variation is substantially larger within than between individuals, with up to 100-fold shifts over the study period. Diversity, and especially evenness indicators also fluctuate substantially. Relative abundance profiles show similar but less pronounced temporal variation. Stool moisture, and to a lesser extent diet, are the only significant host covariates of temporal microbiota variation, while menstrual cycle parameters did not show significant effects. We find that the dysbiotic Bact2 enterotype shows increased between- and within-subject compositional variability. Our results suggest that to increase diagnostic as well as target discovery power, studies could adopt a repeated measurement design and/or focus analysis on community-wide microbiome descriptors and indices.

HUBUNGAN PENGETAHUAN, SIKAP, DUKUNGAN SUAMI DENGAN KESIAPAN WANITA MENGHADAPI MENOPAUSE DI RW 08 CIBEBER CIMAHI SELATAN

Background, in Indonesia most women experience menopause around the age of 50 years, and in some women menopause can take place at around 40 years of age or no later than 60 years (Soehartono, 2010). Until the end of the 21st century there were around 18,000,000-20,000,000 elderly, which is a significant number and requires serious attention. In Indonesia, it is the responsibility of the elderly to take care of them. The purpose of this study was to find out how the relationship between husband support and women's readiness to face menopause. The method used in this study was an analytical survey. The measurement design is carried out in a cross-sectional manner, namely a research design by measuring or observing at the same time (one time). The research was conducted at RW 8 Cibeber, South Cimahi. The study was conducted in January - August 2020. The population in this study were all mothers aged 45-59 years who lived in RW 8 Cibeber, Cimahi Selatan, totaling 163 people. Results of the analysis of the relationship between husband's support and readiness, there were 28 (44%) of 40 people whose husband's support was not supported with readiness in the unprepared category, while 7 (11%) of 23 people whose readiness were in the unprepared category. The results of the Chi-square test obtained a p value of 0.003, which means that there is a significant relationship between husband's support and women's readiness to face menopause. The conclusion in this study is that women's knowledge about menopause has a significant relationship with women's readiness to face menopause. The attitude of women about menopause has a significant relationship with women's readiness to face menopause. Husband's support for menopause has a significant relationship with women's readiness to face menopause.

Development and Testing of an Instrument for Summative Assessment of Practical Skill Performance: A Generalizability Theory Approach

Background and PurposeMany newly graduated nurses lack proficiency in practical skill performance. Presently, nursing students’ practical skill is assessed by summative instruments with overarching items. The purpose of this study was to develop a more detailed instrument to use in summative assessment of nursing students’ practical skill performance and to assess its psychometric properties.MethodsA 50-item instrument was developed. Video-recorded performances were rated by experienced clinical supervisors. A multifacet measurement design was developed. Relevant parameters were estimated by generalizability analysis.ResultsFindings indicated that error of measurement were mainly caused by raters far more than by items. Conclusions: The present study suggested that summative assessment in realistic settings may not apply one rater only. Two to three/four raters appear necessary to dependably measure most skills.

A Monte Carlo Study of Confidence Interval Methods for Generalizability Coefficient

Computing confidence intervals around generalizability coefficients has long been a challenging task in generalizability theory. This is a serious practical problem because generalizability coefficients are often computed from designs where some facets have small sample sizes, and researchers have little guide regarding the trustworthiness of the coefficients. As generalizability theory can be framed to a linear mixed-effect model (LMM), bootstrap and simulation techniques from LMM paradigm can be used to construct the confidence intervals. The purpose of this research is to examine four different LMM-based methods for computing the confidence intervals that have been proposed and to determine their accuracy under six simulated conditions based on the type of test scores (normal, dichotomous, and polytomous data) and data measurement design ( p× i× r and p× [ i:r]). A bootstrap technique called “parametric methods with spherical random effects” consistently produced more accurate confidence intervals than the three other LMM-based methods. Furthermore, the selected technique was compared with model-based approach to investigate the performance at the levels of variance components via the second simulation study, where the numbers of examines, raters, and items were varied. We conclude with the recommendation generalizability coefficients, the confidence interval should accompany the point estimate.

SENSORLESS SPEED CONTROL OF THE DIRECT CURRENT MOTORS

In this paper, a new speed control algorithm for a permanent magnet DC motor which does not require implementation of the angular speed sensor is presented. Three steps are performed to develop the control system: design of speed tracking control algorithm assuming the speed measurement; design of speed observer; design of sensorless speed control algorithm based on the principle of separation. Information about speed is taken from the speed observer using the motor current value. The stability of the composite system dynamics consisting of three subsystems (the speed regulation loop, current regulation loop, and speed observer) is analyzed. The feedback gains tuning procedure for decoupling of three subsystems is given. The simulation results show that the dynamic performance of the designed system is similar to the performance of the system with angular speed measurement. The resulting closed-loop system has structural robustness properties with respect to parametric and coordinate disturbances. References 12, figures 2.

A Systematic Review of Momentary Assessment Designs for Mood and Anxiety Symptoms

Background: Altering components of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) measures to better suit the purposes of individual studies is a common and oftentimes necessary step. Though the inherent flexibility in EMA has its benefits, no resource exists to provide an overview of the variability in how convergent constructs and symptoms have been assessed in the past. The present study fills that gap by examining EMA measurement design for mood and anxiety symptomatology.Methods: Various search engines were used to identify 234 relevant studies. Items administered, data collection schedules (i.e., beeps per day), response scales (i.e., Likert), data collection platforms (i.e., apps), and psychometric properties (i.e., reliability) were extracted.Results: Study designs varied greatly in all aspects across the identified papers. Over 4,600 extracted items were qualitatively analyzed, resulting in the identification of 12 themes. The most EMA items focused on affect, with categories such as “happiness” and “tension” appearing most frequently. We provide all of our data extraction in the format of an open-source database.Limitations: Despite our best attempts to include as much of the relevant literature as possible, this review and the accompanying database are not exhaustive, but can easily be built upon to include other, newer studies.Conclusions: The fact that the affect theme featured both positive and negative emotional constructs highlights the dichotomous focus on valence and affect within the literature surrounding anxious and depressive symptomatology. We hope that our database will act as a helpful design decision-making resource for researchers studying this kind of symptomatology in the future.Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO (CRD42019139409).

Applying generalizability theory to examine assessments of subjective cognitive complaints: whose reports should we rely on – participant versus informant?

ABSTRACT Objectives: This study aimed to apply the generalizability theory (G-theory) to investigate dynamic and enduring patterns of subjective cognitive complaints (SCC), and reliability of two widely used SCC assessment tools. Design: G-theory was applied to assessment scales using longitudinal measurement design with five assessments spanning 10 years of follow-up. Setting: Community-dwelling older adults aged 70–90 years and their informants, living in Sydney, Australia, participated in the longitudinal Sydney Memory and Ageing Study. Participants: The sample included 232 participants aged 70 years and older, and 232 associated informants. Participants were predominantly White Europeans (97.8%). The sample of informants included 76 males (32.8%), 153 females (65.9%), and their age ranged from 27 to 86 years, with a mean age of 61.3 years (SD = 14.38). Measurements: The Memory Complaint Questionnaire (MAC-Q) and the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE). Results: The IQCODE demonstrated strong reliability in measuring enduring patterns of SCC with G = 0.86. Marginally acceptable reliability of the 6-item MAC-Q (G = 0.77–0.80) was optimized by removing one item resulting in G = 0.80–0.81. Most items of both assessments were measuring enduring SCC with exception of one dynamic MAC-Q item. The IQCODE significantly predicted global cognition scores and risk of dementia incident across all occasions, while MAC-Q scores were only significant predictors on some occasions. Conclusions: While both informants’ (IQCODE) and self-reported (MAC-Q) SCC scores were generalizable across sample population and occasions, self-reported (MAC-Q) scores may be less accurate in predicting cognitive ability and diagnosis of each individual.