Use of a Brief Smoking Consequences Questionnaire for Adults (SCQ-A) in African American Smokers.

Purposes of the present study were to (a) examine psychometric properties of a brief Smoking Consequences Questionnaire-Adult (SCQ-A) among an African American sample and (b) explore differences in smoking expectancies across levels of smoking-nicotine dependence. Four hundred eighty-four smokers attending an urban health clinic completed the brief SCQ-A. Maximum likelihood factor extraction with a varimax rotation specifying 9 factors replicated 9 factors of the original SCQ-A. Evidence for the brief SCQ-A's reliability and validity was found. Heavier and/or more dependent smokers had significantly higher scores than lighter and/or less dependent smokers on positive expectancies SCQ-A subscales. Results suggest the brief SCQ-A may be a useful alternative to the full scale SCQ-A. Results also provide evidence for the SCQ-A's validity with African American smokers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Strong African American Families Program: A cluster-randomized prevention trial of long-term effects and a mediational model.

The Strong African American Families Program, a universal preventive intervention to deter alcohol use among rural African American adolescents, was evaluated in a cluster-randomized prevention trial. This 7-week family skills training program is based on a contextual model in which intervention effects on youth protective factors lead to changes in alcohol use. African American 11-year-olds and their primary caregivers from 9 rural communities (N = 332 families) were randomly selected for study participation. Communities were randomized to prevention and control conditions. Intent-to-treat analyses indicated that fewer prevention than control adolescents initiated alcohol use; those who did evinced slower increases in use over time. Intervention-induced changes in youth protective factors mediated the effect of group assignment on long-term changes in use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A theory-based dual-focus alcohol intervention for preadolescents: The Strong African american Families program.

This study examined mediators of the Strong African American Families Program, a randomized, dual-focus prevention trial intended to delay the onset of alcohol use and reduce alcohol consumption among rural African American youths. More specifically, it demonstrated that changes in consumption 2 yrs after the intervention were mediated through 2 different paths, a social reaction path and a reasoned/intention path. The social reaction path provided evidence that relative to the control condition, the intervention decreased children's willingness to drink by making their images of drinkers less favorable. The reasoned/intention path provided evidence that the intervention influenced the children's intentions to drink by increasing targeted parenting behaviors related to alcohol. Furthermore, the data demonstrate that these changes in willingness and intentions were independently associated with alcohol consumption at the follow-up, and they suggest that a dual-process model approach that targets both intentions and willingness can be more successful than either approach alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race, Family Interactions, and Patient Stabilization in Schizophrenia.

This study examined family interactions associated with a failure to stabilize in schizophrenia. Fifty-eight patient and parent dyads completed a problem-solving task soon after an acute episode. Stabilization was assessed over the following 6 months. African American patients' self-initiated discussions of substance use and increased anxiety during the interaction were associated with a failure to stabilize. Nonstabilization in White patients was associated with high levels of both the patients' odd thinking and the parents' criticism. White patients who were depressed during the interaction were also less likely to stabilize. Findings suggest that family relationships may play in important role in determining whether patients stabilize after an acute episode. Results also point to the importance of cultural factors in predicting patient stabilization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Promoting sustainable sanitation through wastewater-fed aquaculture: a case study from Ghana

Several of the 10 key challenges targeted by the African Water Vision 2025 are directly or indirectly related to human waste management, in particular strengthening the financial base for providing adequate sanitation services. This case study describes a novel approach to improving the operation and maintenance of a waste stabilization pond system in Ghana by turning it into a dual-purpose wastewater treatment plant and commercial fish farm. Results of a collaborative pilot study between private, public and academic partners to test the institutional and technical feasibility of the model as well as the public health impacts are presented.     

Development and correlation analysis of non-dominated sorting buffalo optimization NSBUF II using Taguchi’s design coupled gray relational analysis and ANN

African Buffalo Optimization (ABO) is a latest bio-inspired optimization technique in the domain of evolutionary optimization, which mimics the migratory behaviour of the buffalo foraging for food across the African plains and forests. The ABO is, by now, recognized as a single-objective optimization algorithm, comprising the ability to solve both, the continuous and discrete optimization problems. However, a multi-objective version of ABO could be more useful for industrial problems. An aim is made in this article to develop the multi-objective variant of ABO, namely NSBUF II, which incorporates Pareto search for non-dominated solutions in the state space and a local search module for faster convergence. Selection of parameters for the NSBUF II is extremely sensitive to the obtained Pareto fronts. Thus, a Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) coupled with Taguchi’s L₁₆ orthogonal array is adopted, which efficiently obtains the best set of parameters for the NSBUF II. Initially the proposed NSBUF II is tested using utilization based bi-objective production cell design problem and compared with published Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO), and Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA II) successfully. To analyse the performance of the NSBUF II, Self-Organizing Map (SOM) is applied, which is a powerful tool for visualizing the high-dimensional data in low dimensional maps. Applied SOM visually reveals the hidden correlational structure among the design parameters and the objective space. The performance of the NSBUF II is validated statistically NSBUF II is further verified with a real-world case obtained based on the Abrasive Water Jet Machining (AWJM) process. Validation test proves the competence of the proposed NSBUF II for real-world problem solving. The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, a novel multi-objective NSBUF II algorithm is developed. Second, a SOM based visual analysis is proposed to visualize the correlation among design parameters and Pareto fronts. Third, the NSBUF II is employed to solve a combinatorial production cell design problem followed by a real-world industrial problem.     

Visual Expressions of Black Identity: African American and African Museum Websites

This qualitative and quantitative content analysis examines 46 African and African American museum websites. Merelman's cultural projection concept serves as a foundation to explain the societal importance of Black cultural expression. The analysis reviews how the African- and African American-centric organizations communicate Black and organizational identities on their digital platforms. Described are images, sound, and visual dynamism. The findings add to the literature on counterstereotypes and digital cultural expression, linking visual communication research with intercultural communication and strategic communication.     

The Migrant Metropolis and American Planning

Problem: Immigration poses various problems for U.S. cities and regions, and the roles planners should play in migrant communities are not clear.

Purpose: I consider how practitioners and scholars have understood and addressed the planning challenges and opportunities presented by the major migrations of ethnic minorities to U.S. cities and regions over the past century.

Methods: I trace discussions of planning and migration at professional planning conferences over the past century and survey planning scholarship and practice related to immigration and migrant communities in three principal eras: early 20th century southern and eastern European immigration; the mid-century internal migrations of African Americans and Puerto Ricans; and immigration in the late 20th and early 21st century.

Results and conclusions: Over the past century, immigration has had physical, economic, and social effects on people and places that are legitimate concerns of urban planners. Yet, the planning profession has had an ambiguous and often ambivalent relationship with migrant communities and has struggled to define specific roles for planners within those communities while social workers and other community and economic development practitioners played larger roles. Planning scholars have not paid as much attention to migrants' adaptation and mobility in U.S. society or their impacts on receiving communities, labor markets, housing, and congestion as have other scholars and urbanists.

Takeaway for practice: Planners have engaged with migrants in a variety of ways. Understanding this history provides context for contemporary debates about immigration and helps frame challenges and opportunities in migrant and receiving communities as planning problems.

Research support: None.     

Exploring the Antiplasmodial 2-Aminopyridines as Potential Antitrypanosomal Agents

Recently we reported the results of a screen of the Pathogen Box in which we identified 4-(2-amino-5-(4-(methylsulfonyl) phenyl) pyridin-3-yl)-2-methoxyphenol (MMV010576, 1 ) as our priority antitrypanosomal hit. This compound had previously been identified as a potent and selective antiplasmodial agent, where a focused optimization campaign, resulted in a medium-sized library of compounds, with favorable drug-like properties, one of which (MMV048, 2 , 5-(4-(methylsulfonyl)phenyl)-6′-(trifluoromethyl)-[3,3′-bipyridin]-2-amine) is currently undergoing clinical trials for malaria. Accordingly, we investigated this library, in order to elucidate structural activity relationship details of this class of compounds as inhibitors of Trypanosoma brucei. Our study has identified several structural features important for antitrypanosomal activity, which are distinct from those required for antiplasmodial activity. Results from this study can be exploited to develop potent antitrypanosomal agents.     

Concordance among biological, interview, and self-report measures of drug use among African American and Hispanic adolescents referred for drug abuse treatment.

This study examined the concordance among urine assays, interview measures, and self-report measures of marijuana and cocaine use among 190 drug-abusing/dependent African American and Hispanic adolescents and their families at 3 assessment points of an 18-month randomized clinical trial study. Results demonstrated concordance among urine assays, a calendar method self-report measure (Timeline Follow Back [TLFB]), and a noncalendar method self-report measure (Adolescent Drug Abuse Diagnosis Scale). Diagnostic criteria of marijuana and cocaine abuse/dependence from a clinical structured interview (Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children [DISC]) also converged, albeit weakly, with self-report measures. Adolescent and parent reports on DISC marijuana abuse/dependence diagnostic criteria were related; however, collateral findings for DISC cocaine abuse/dependence diagnostic criteria were equivocal. Differences in concordance among biological and self-report cocaine use measures were found for baseline TLFB assessments among African American participants. Implications for future use and refinement of adolescent drug use assessments are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)