Management of co-occurring substance use disorders

Reviewing the breadth of current knowledge on schizophrenia, this handbook provides clear, practical guidelines for effective assessment and treatment in diverse contexts. Leading authorities have contributed 61 concise chapters on all aspects of the disorder and its clinical management. In lieu of exhaustive literature reviews, each chapter summarizes the current state of the science; highlights key points the busy practitioner needs to know; and lists recommended resources, including seminal research studies, invaluable clinical tools, and more. Comprehensive, authoritative, and timely, the volume will enable professionals in any setting to better understand and help their patients or clients with severe mental illness.

Multiple Health Behavior Changes and Co-variation in a Telephone Counseling Trial

Background Delivering effective multiple health behavior interventions to large numbers of adults with chronic conditions via primary care settings is a public health priority. Purpose Within a 12-month, telephone-delivered diet and physical activity intervention with multiple behavioral outcomes, we examined the extent and co-variation of multiple health behavior change. Methods A cluster-randomized trial with 434 patients with type 2 diabetes or hypertension were recruited from 10 general practices, which were randomized to receive telephone counseling or usual care. Results Those receiving telephone counseling were significantly more likely than those in usual care to make greater reductions in multiple behaviors after adjusting for baseline risk behaviors (OR 2.42; 95%CI 1.43, 4.11). Controlling for baseline risk and group allocation, making changes to either physical activity, fat, vegetable, or fiber intake was associated with making significantly more improvements in other behaviors. Conclusions For patients with chronic conditions, telephone counseling can significantly improve multiple health behaviors, with behavioral changes tending to co-vary.

Co-adaptive environments : investigation into computer and network enhanced adaptable, sustainable and participatory environments

This paper presents research in response to environmental concerns we face today. In a search for a better method to manage spaces and building resources consumed excessively through traditional top-down architectural solutions, the research began by speculating that the building spaces and resources can be managed by designing architectural systems that encourage a bottom-up approach. In other words, this research investigates how to design systems that encourage occupants and users of buildings to actively understand, manage and customise their own spaces. Specific attention is paid to the participation of building users because no matter how sophisticated the system is, the building will become as wasteful as conventional buildings if users cannot, or do not want to, utilise the system effectively. The research is still in its early stages. The intension of this paper is to provide a background to the issue, discuss researches and projects relevant to, but not necessarily about, architecture, and introduce a number of hypothesis and investigations to realise adaptable, participatory and sustainable environments for users.

Co-creation in business service lifecycle management

Co-creation between customers and providers has recently gained more attention by business service providers as a promising endeavour. The different perspectives of co-creation - innovation, sourcing and marketing - are well deployed. From a provider’s point of view, the question of how to manage business services with respect to co-creation is vitally important. However, service engineering and service lifecycle management typically take a mostly internal, closed-loop approach, although a logical implication of acknowledging the value co-creation perspective on “service” would be to leverage customer and other stakeholder competences to the full extent. This paper aims at reconciling the perspectives of co-creation and makes a contribution by analysing where and how co-creation can be effectively utilised throughout the various stages of a generic business service lifecycle. The result will be a framework guiding companies in using co-creation when managing their business services.

Impact of embeddedness in co-ethnic & non co-ethnic networks on business performance : evidence from Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia

This paper investigates the research question ‘What is the effect of co-ethnic and non coethnic networking on business performance in Chinese immigrant businesses?’ The research will discuss key themes such as the extent to which Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs are embedded in co-ethnic and non co-ethnic networks and the affect of embeddedness on business performance, such as the entrepreneur’s satisfaction and business growth. Research on immigrant entrepreneurship has emerged as an important new area of inquiry within the field of entrepreneurship. The increased importance of the subject is due in part to major immigrant receiving countries, such as Australia, the United States and Canada, experiencing a high growth rate in their immigrant population. Reflecting on the existing research on immigrant entrepreneurship, it was decided to investigate the role of embeddedness on entrepreneurial business performance. This research seeks to identify the impact of embeddedness in co-ethnic and non co-ethnic networks on business performance of Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia. Chinese immigrant restaurant entrepreneurs in southeast Queensland, Australia were studied. The result expands on existing research on immigrant entrepreneurship, since the majority of immigrant entrepreneurship studies have been conducted on the United States and Canada immigrant experiences, but few have been conducted in the Australian immigrant entrepreneur context. This thesis also adds empirical testing to a research area with little empirical testing. The results indicated that embeddedness in the co-ethnic network is positively related to business performance measured by both growth and satisfaction. Embeddedness in the non co-ethnic network of the Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia did not show a similar pattern in accordance with studies conducted in the United States and Canada. This result is interesting and creates the opportunity for future research employing a comparative study.

Lifestyle factors associated concurrently and prospectively with co-morbid cardiovascular disease in a population-based cohort of colorectal cancer survivors

Aims To assess self-reported lifetime prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) among colorectal cancer survivors, and examine the cross-sectional and prospective associations of lifestyle factors with co-morbid CVD. Methods Colorectal cancer survivors were recruited (n = 1966). Data were collected at approximately 5, 12, 24 and 36 months post-diagnosis. Cross-sectional findings included six CVD categories (hypercholesterolaemia, hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, kidney disease and ischaemic heart disease (IHD)) at 5 months post-diagnosis. Longitudinal outcomes included the probability of developing (de novo) co-morbid CVD by 36 months post-diagnosis. Lifestyle factors included body mass index, physical activity, television (TV) viewing, alcohol consumption and smoking. Results Co-morbid CVD prevalence at 5 months post-diagnosis was 59%, and 16% of participants with no known CVD at the baseline reported de novo CVD by 36 months. Obesity at the baseline predicted de novo hypertension (odds ratio [OR] = 2.20, 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 1.09, 4.45) and de novo diabetes (OR = 6.55, 95% CI = 2.19, 19.53). Participants watching >4 h of TV/d at the baseline (compared with <2 h/d) were more likely to develop ischaemic heart disease by 36 months (OR = 5.51, 95% CI = 1.86, 16.34). Conclusion Overweight colorectal cancer survivors were more likely to suffer from co-morbid CVD. Interventions focusing on weight management and other modifiable lifestyle factors may reduce functional decline and improve survival.

‘You’re a bad driver but I just made a mistake’ : attribution differences between the ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators’ of scenario-based aggressive driving incidents

Driver aggression is an increasing concern for motorists, with some research suggesting that drivers who behave aggressively perceive their actions as justified by the poor driving of others. Thus attributions may play an important role in understanding driver aggression. A convenience sample of 193 drivers (aged 17-36) randomly assigned to two separate roles (‘perpetrators’ and ‘victims’) responded to eight scenarios of driver aggression. Drivers also completed the Aggression Questionnaire and Driving Anger Scale. Consistent with the actor-observer bias, ‘victims’ (or recipients) in this study were significantly more likely than ‘perpetrators’ (or instigators) to endorse inadequacies in the instigator’s driving skills as the cause of driver aggression. Instigators were significantly more likely attribute the depicted behaviours to external but temporary causes (lapses in judgement or errors) rather than stable causes. This suggests that instigators recognised drivers as responsible for driving aggressively but downplayed this somewhat in comparison to ‘victims’/recipients. Recipients and instigators agreed that the behaviours were examples of aggressive driving but instigators appeared to focus on the degree of intentionality of the driver in making their assessments while recipients appeared to focus on the safety implications. Contrary to expectations, instigators gave mean ratings of the emotional impact of driving aggression on recipients that were higher in all cases than the mean ratings given by the recipients. Drivers appear to perceive aggressive behaviours as modifiable, with the implication that interventions could appeal to drivers’ sense of self-efficacy to suggest strategies for overcoming plausible and modifiable attributions (e.g. lapses in judgement; errors) underpinning behaviours perceived as aggressive.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for the treatment of co-occurring depression and substance use : current evidence and directions for future research

Issues and Approach: The high rates of co-occurring depression and substance use, and the negative impact of this on illness course and outcomes have been well established. Despite this, few clinical trials have examined the efficacy of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). This paper systematically reviews these clinical trials, with an aim of providing recommendations for how future research can develop a more robust evidence base for the treatment of these common comorbidities. Leading electronic databases, including PubMed (ISI) and PsychINFO (CSA), were searched for peer-reviewed journal articles using CBT for the treatment of co-occurring depression and substance use. Of the 55 articles identified, 12 met inclusion criteria and were included in the review. ---------- Key Findings: There is only a limited evidence for the effectiveness of CBT either alone or in combination with antidepressant medication for the treatment of co-occurring depression and substance use. While there is support for the efficacy of CBT over no treatment control conditions, there is little evidence that CBT is more efficacious than other psychotherapies. There is, however, consistent evidence of improvements in both depression and substance use outcomes, regardless of the type of treatment provided and there is growing evidence that that the effects of CBT are durable and increase over time during follow up. ---------- Conclusions. Rather than declaring the ‘dodo bird verdict’ that CBT and all other psychotherapies are equally efficacious, it would be more beneficial to develop more potent forms of CBT by identifying variables that mediate treatment outcomes.

Raman spectroscopy of hydrogen arsenate group (AsO3OH)2− in solid-state compounds: cobalt-containing zinc arsenate mineral, koritnigite (Zn,Co)(AsO3OH)·H2O

Raman spectra of two well-defined types of koritnigite crystals from the Jáchymov ore district, Czech Republic, were recorded and interpreted. No substantial differences were observed between both crystal types. Observed Raman bands were attributed to the (AsO3OH)2- stretching and bending vibrations, stretching and bending vibrations of water molecules and hydroxyl ions. Non-interpreted Raman spectra of koritnigite from the RRUFF database, and published infrared spectra of cobaltkoritnigite were used for comparison. The O-H...O hydrogen bond lengths in the crystal structure of koritnigite were inferred from the Raman spectra and compared with those derived from the X-ray single crystal refinement. The presence of (AsO3OH)2- units in the crystal structure of koritnigite was proved from the Raman spectra which supports the conclusions of the X-ray structure analysis.