OBJECTIVES: To investigate the efficacy of a novel brain plasticity–based computerized cognitive training program in older adults and to evaluate the effect on untrained measures of memory and ...attention and participant‐reported outcomes.
DESIGN: Multisite randomized controlled double‐blind trial with two treatment groups.
SETTING: Communities in northern and southern California and Minnesota.
PARTICIPANTS: Community‐dwelling adults aged 65 and older (N=487) without a diagnosis of clinically significant cognitive impairment.
INTERVENTION: Participants were randomized to receive a broadly‐available brain plasticity–based computerized cognitive training program (intervention) or a novelty‐ and intensity‐matched general cognitive stimulation program modeling treatment as usual (active control). Duration of training was 1 hour per day, 5 days per week, for 8 weeks, for a total of 40 hours.
MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcome was a composite score calculated from six subtests of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status that use the auditory modality (RBANS Auditory Memory/Attention). Secondary measures were derived from performance on the experimental program, standardized neuropsychological assessments of memory and attention, and participant‐reported outcomes.
RESULTS: RBANS Auditory Memory/Attention improvement was significantly greater (P=.02) in the experimental group (3.9 points, 95% confidence interval (CI)=2.7–5.1) than in the control group (1.8 points, 95% CI=0.6–3.0). Multiple secondary measures of memory and attention showed significantly greater improvements in the experimental group (word list total score, word list delayed recall, digits backwards, letter–number sequencing; P<.05), as did the participant‐reported outcome measure (P=.001). No advantage for the experimental group was seen in narrative memory.
CONCLUSION: The experimental program improved generalized measures of memory and attention more than an active control program.
The university participant pool is a key resource for behavioral research, and data quality is believed to vary over the course of the academic semester. This crowdsourced project examined time of ...semester variation in 10 known effects, 10 individual differences, and 3 data quality indicators over the course of the academic semester in 20 participant pools (N=2696) and with an online sample (N=737). Weak time of semester effects were observed on data quality indicators, participant sex, and a few individual differences—conscientiousness, mood, and stress. However, there was little evidence for time of semester qualifying experimental or correlational effects. The generality of this evidence is unknown because only a subset of the tested effects demonstrated evidence for the original result in the whole sample. Mean characteristics of pool samples change slightly during the semester, but these data suggest that those changes are mostly irrelevant for detecting effects.
Although single items can save time and burden in psychology research, concerns about their reliability have made the use of multiple-item measures the default standard practice. Although single ...items cannot demonstrate internal reliability, their criterion validity can be compared with multiple-item measures. Using ecological momentary assessment data, we evaluated repeated measures correlations and constructed multilevel cross-lagged models to assess concurrent and predictive validity of single- and multiple-item measures. Correlations between the single- and multiple-item measures ranged from .24 to .61. In 27 of 29 unique single-item predictor models, single items demonstrated significant predictive validity, and in one of eight sets of comparisons, a single-item predictor exhibited a larger effect size than its multiple-item counterpart. Although multiple-item measures generally performed better than single items, the added benefit of multiple items was modest in most cases. The present data provide support for the use of single-item measures in intensive longitudinal designs.
With the rapid development of crowd sensing in sensing applications, excellent incentive mechanisms are playing an increasingly important role. However, most existing solutions do not fully consider ...the ability of participants to perform tasks, the degree to which they complete tasks, or the credibility of the task sensing results. In this paper, we aim to develop an incentive model based on voting mechanism for crowd sensing(abbreviated as CIBV), which includes three algorithms. The first is a participant decision algorithm (PDA) that adopts a reverse auction model and comprehensively considers candidate execution capability; the second is the budget balance and extra reward algorithm (BBER); the third is the evaluate algorithm (EA) to be applied at the end of sensing tasks. Compared with previous work, the experimental results show that in our proposed CIBV model, each task is performed by multiple participants, and each participant can perform multiple tasks, our model can greatly improve the participants’ execution ability value and provide the platform with the ability to control the process of selecting participants.
•Impact of agricultural extension services (AES) on farmers' technical efficiency.•Farmers who received AES are technically more efficient than the non-receivers.•Production level of the participant ...farmers outweighs the non-participant farmers.•AES enhance the farmers' environment-friendly agriculture-related knowledge.
Agricultural Extension Services (AES) aim to improve farming knowledge that helps in increasing crop production and the technical efficiency of paddy farmers in Bangladesh. The purposes of this study are to measure the impact of an AES, namely, the Blue Gold programme, on the technical efficiency and production level of the Boro paddy farmers in southwest rural Bangladesh. A total of 122 paddy farmers were interviewed, employing a random sampling method. To analyse the technical efficiency of the farmers, the Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier model was employed. The findings show that the mean technical efficiency levels of the participants and non-participants are 95% and 82%, producing 162.74 and 136.48 maunds per hectare, respectively. The findings are indispensable for devising strategies for environment-friendly agricultural activities and rural economic development in Bangladesh.
Member Checking Birt, Linda; Scott, Suzanne; Cavers, Debbie ...
Qualitative health research,
11/2016, Letnik:
26, Številka:
13
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The trustworthiness of results is the bedrock of high quality qualitative research. Member checking, also known as participant or respondent validation, is a technique for exploring the credibility ...of results. Data or results are returned to participants to check for accuracy and resonance with their experiences. Member checking is often mentioned as one in a list of validation techniques. This simplistic reporting might not acknowledge the value of using the method, nor its juxtaposition with the interpretative stance of qualitative research. In this commentary, we critique how member checking has been used in published research, before describing and evaluating an innovative in-depth member checking technique, Synthesized Member Checking. The method was used in a study with patients diagnosed with melanoma. Synthesized Member Checking addresses the co-constructed nature of knowledge by providing participants with the opportunity to engage with, and add to, interview and interpreted data, several months after their semi-structured interview.
Participant attentiveness is a concern for many researchers using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Although studies comparing the attentiveness of participants on MTurk versus traditional subject ...pool samples have provided mixed support for this concern, attention check questions and other methods of ensuring participant attention have become prolific in MTurk studies. Because MTurk is a population that
learns
, we hypothesized that MTurkers would be more attentive to instructions than are traditional subject pool samples. In three online studies, participants from MTurk and collegiate populations participated in a task that included a measure of attentiveness to instructions (an instructional manipulation check: IMC). In all studies, MTurkers were more attentive to the instructions than were college students, even on novel IMCs (Studies 2 and 3), and MTurkers showed larger effects in response to a minute text manipulation. These results have implications for the sustainable use of MTurk samples for social science research and for the conclusions drawn from research with MTurk and college subject pool samples.
Background
In twin pregnancies, the rates of adverse perinatal outcome and subsequent long‐term morbidity are substantial, and mainly result from preterm birth (PTB).
Objectives
To assess the ...effectiveness of progestogen treatment in the prevention of neonatal morbidity or PTB in twin pregnancies using individual participant data meta‐analysis (IPDMA).
Search strategy
We searched international scientific databases, trial registration websites, and references of identified articles.
Selection criteria
Randomised clinical trials (RCTs) of 17–hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17Pc) or vaginally administered natural progesterone, compared with placebo or no treatment.
Data collection and analysis
Investigators of identified RCTs were asked to share their IPD. The primary outcome was a composite of perinatal mortality and severe neonatal morbidity. Prespecified subgroup analyses were performed for chorionicity, cervical length, and prior spontaneous PTB.
Main results
Thirteen trials included 3768 women and their 7536 babies. Neither 17Pc nor vaginal progesterone reduced the incidence of adverse perinatal outcome (17Pc relative risk, RR 1.1; 95% confidence interval, 95% CI 0.97–1.4, vaginal progesterone RR 0.97; 95% CI 0.77–1.2). In a subgroup of women with a cervical length of ≤25 mm, vaginal progesterone reduced adverse perinatal outcome when cervical length was measured at randomisation (15/56 versus 22/60; RR 0.57; 95% CI 0.47–0.70) or before 24 weeks of gestation (14/52 versus 21/56; RR 0.56; 95% CI 0.42–0.75).
Author's conclusions
In unselected women with an uncomplicated twin gestation, treatment with progestogens (intramuscular 17Pc or vaginal natural progesterone) does not improve perinatal outcome. Vaginal progesterone may be effective in the reduction of adverse perinatal outcome in women with a cervical length of ≤25 mm; however, further research is warranted to confirm this finding.
To help adapt cardiovascular disease risk prediction approaches to low-income and middle-income countries, WHO has convened an effort to develop, evaluate, and illustrate revised risk models. Here, ...we report the derivation, validation, and illustration of the revised WHO cardiovascular disease risk prediction charts that have been adapted to the circumstances of 21 global regions.
In this model revision initiative, we derived 10-year risk prediction models for fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease (ie, myocardial infarction and stroke) using individual participant data from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration. Models included information on age, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, history of diabetes, and total cholesterol. For derivation, we included participants aged 40–80 years without a known baseline history of cardiovascular disease, who were followed up until the first myocardial infarction, fatal coronary heart disease, or stroke event. We recalibrated models using age-specific and sex-specific incidences and risk factor values available from 21 global regions. For external validation, we analysed individual participant data from studies distinct from those used in model derivation. We illustrated models by analysing data on a further 123 743 individuals from surveys in 79 countries collected with the WHO STEPwise Approach to Surveillance.
Our risk model derivation involved 376 177 individuals from 85 cohorts, and 19 333 incident cardiovascular events recorded during 10 years of follow-up. The derived risk prediction models discriminated well in external validation cohorts (19 cohorts, 1 096 061 individuals, 25 950 cardiovascular disease events), with Harrell's C indices ranging from 0·685 (95% CI 0·629–0·741) to 0·833 (0·783–0·882). For a given risk factor profile, we found substantial variation across global regions in the estimated 10-year predicted risk. For example, estimated cardiovascular disease risk for a 60-year-old male smoker without diabetes and with systolic blood pressure of 140 mm Hg and total cholesterol of 5 mmol/L ranged from 11% in Andean Latin America to 30% in central Asia. When applied to data from 79 countries (mostly low-income and middle-income countries), the proportion of individuals aged 40–64 years estimated to be at greater than 20% risk ranged from less than 1% in Uganda to more than 16% in Egypt.
We have derived, calibrated, and validated new WHO risk prediction models to estimate cardiovascular disease risk in 21 Global Burden of Disease regions. The widespread use of these models could enhance the accuracy, practicability, and sustainability of efforts to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease worldwide.
World Health Organization, British Heart Foundation (BHF), BHF Cambridge Centre for Research Excellence, UK Medical Research Council, and National Institute for Health Research.
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