Six-month outcomes of a multi-campus smoking cessation contest

Background: Up to 40% of North American post-secondary students smoke at least occasionally, and most want to quit. Given students' preferences for free, easy-to-access, self-directed, convenient cessation methods, a motivational, incentive-based cessation contest may be an effective way to assist students to quit. The current study describes 3- and 6-month outcomes experienced by post-secondary student smokers who entered the 'Let's Make A Deal!' contest. Methodology: Contestants from five university campuses who chose to quit completely ('Quit For Good') or reduce their tobacco consumption by 50% ('Keep The Count') were invited to participate in a study of the contest. Three and six months after registration, participants were contacted by phone to assess their smoking and quitting behaviours. Qualitative and quantitative measures were collected, including weekly tobacco consumption, efficacy to resist temptations to smoke, use of quitting aids, and strategies to cope with withdrawal. Quitting was assessed using 7-day point prevalence and continuous abstinence. Results: Seventy-four (64.9%) of the 114 participants recruited for the study completed the follow-ups. Over 31 % of participants who entered Quit For Good and 23.5% of participants who entered Keep The Count were identified as quitters at the 6-month follow-up. Among the quitters, 45.5% experienced sustained abstinence from smoking for the 6-month duration of the study. Keep The Count contestants reduced their tobacco consumption by 57.2% at 3-month follow-up and sustained some of this reduction through to the 6-month follow-up. Qualitative data provides insights into how quitters coped with withdrawal and what hampered continuing smokers' efforts to quit. Significance: A motivational, incentive-based contest for post-secondary students can facilitate both smoking cessation and harm reduction. The contest environment, incentives, resources, and "buddies" provide positive structural and social supports to help smokers overcome potential barriers to quitting, successfully stop smoking, and manage potential triggers to relapse. The contest cessation rates are higher than the typical 5-7% associated with unassisted quitting.

Outcome Evaluation of a Campus-Based Quit and Win Contest

This study examined abstinence outcomes of a provincial, campus-based Quit and Win contest relative to contestants’ assessments of the prize, buddy support, social support network, and emails. Of the 288 participants providing baseline data, 201 self-reported their smoking and quitting behaviours, use of quit aides, and perceptions of contest components. On 5-point scales, perceived values of the contest prize, buddy support, social support network and email were 4.42, 3.95, 3.89, and 3.46 respectively. Intention to treat analysis showed 27.8% of participants achieved 6-week contest-period abstinence; 19.8% achieved 3-month sustained abstinence. Odds of achieving 3-month abstinence were influenced by age (OR = 1.10, CI =1.03, 1.18) and use of pharmacological quit aides (OR = 0.42, CI = 0.20, 0.88), but not smoking behaviours or contest components. Contest prizes and support were valued, but played an uncertain role in quitting success. Future research might examine their roles in contestant recruitment or retention.

Salivary testosterone and cortisol : role of athletic setting, game outcome, and game location /

Many studies investigating the relationship between hormones and competition have focused on athletic competition. The athletic setting enables r researchers to investigate the hormone-behaviour relationship in a relatively controlled environment. However, research to date has been based on observations made from single status contests and/or weekend tournaments and as such, does not provide a clear picture of an individual's average hormonal responses to both victory and defeat. In appreciation of this limitation, the current study tracked elite hockey players throughout a hockey season, measuring pre- and post-game salivary testosterone and Cortisol as well as psychological measures. I was interested in determining whether status outcome (win vs. loss) would influence an individual's testosterone and Cortisol responses to competition. Furthermore, I was also interested in assessing whether testosterone and Cortisol responses were specific to the competitive environment or whether similar hormonal responses would occur during non-competitive practice sessions. Last, I was interested in whether there were any differences in pre-game hormonal and psychological states depending on where the status contest was held: home versus away. The results indicated that game outcome moderated the testosterone responses to competition. That is, testosterone increased significantly more after a victory compared to a defeat. Furthermore, a loss of status produced significantly hreports, the players did not show an anticipatory rise in either Cortisol or testosterone prior to competition. In addition to the effects of status outcome on hormonal levels, it was also found that these hormonal responses were specific to competition. The athletes in the current study did not demonstrate any hormonal responses to the practice sessions. Last, there were significant differences in pre-game testosterone as well as in selfconfidence, cognitive, and somatic anxiety levels depending on the location at which the status contest took place. Pre-game testosterone and self-confidence levels were significantly higher prior to games played in the home venue. In contrast, pre-game somatic and cognitive anxiety levels were significantly higher prior to games played in the away venue. The current findings add to the developing literature on the relationship between hormones and competition. This was the first study to detect a moderating effect of status outcome on testosterone responses in a team sport. Furthermore, this was also the first study in humans to demonstrate that post-contest Cortisol levels were significantly higher after a loss of status. Last, the current study also adds to the sport psychology literature by demonstrating that pre-game psychological variables differ depending on where the status contest is being held: higher self-confidence at home and higher somatic and cognitive anxiety away. Taken together, the results from the current thesis may have important practical relevance to coaches, trainers and sport psychologists who are always trying to find ways to maximize performance. post-game Cortisol levels than did an increase in status. In contrast to previous

Rhapsodes of social science : Herodotus' performance of politeic inquiry

Herodotus' logos represents many examples ofthe relationship between political and paradigmatic authority, and the synthesis ofthese examples in a community characterized by free and equal speech. Herodotus' walkabout narrator sets forth an inquiry into knowledge-seeking he extends the isegoria principle from Athenian politics to the broader world. The History demonstrates (a) various modes of constructing meaning, (b) interacting notions ofhow people have lived and living questions as to how we ought to live, and (c) an investigation ofthe nature and limits ofhuman knowledge. Representing diverse wisdom, publicly and privately discovered and presented, Herodotus sets forth Solon's wise advice and law-making, the capital punishment of the learned Anacharsis, the investigative outrages of Cambyses and Psammetichus' more pious experiments. Their stories challenge and complement their communities' characters - the relative constraint under which the Egyptians and Persians make their investigations, the Scythians' qualified openness and the relative fearlessness and freedom in which the Greeks set forth their inquiries. Setting forth the investigator-storykeeper as a poetic historian, Herodotus shows that history as poetry thwarts natural decay by allowing custom to be reformed in an open milieu, and thus win through and survive. Despite the potential dangers that openness shares with tyranny, Herodotus' inquiry sets up a contest ofworld-views in which it is mutability that openness affords a community that ensures its survival.

We need to have a conversation about OpenURL, a close look at a corpus of error reports from the 2013 academic year. Or, How I learned to stop worrying and give up on clean metadata.

Presented at Access 2014, winner of poster contest.