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Additive manufacturing (AM) facilitates the fabrication of compliant mechanisms through its freeform and design customisation capabilities. Specifically, the properties of kinetic mechanisms such as springs can be extended with regards to their inherent (non-)linear stiffness functions. This allows for the customisation of AM springs according to user preferences. By combining the design synthesis approach of building blocks with the structural optimisation approach for AM, it is possible to define and customise spring stiffness functionalities. The optimisation process employs an automated computational framework based on a genetic algorithm scheme, which has been demonstrated through randomised and reference case studies. This framework enables the attainment of linear, progressive (stiffening), and degressive (softening) stiffness curves. The manufacturability of the springs has been validated through laser powder bed fusion using stainless-steel material 17-4 PH (H900). The springs have resulted in an accuracy error of maximum 6.48% and precision error of maximum 5% through compression testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adolescent cannabis use is an established risk factor for the development of psychosis, but the premorbid vulnerability factors and specificity versus generality of the psychotic symptom domains affected in cannabis-psychosis relationships remain incompletely understood. To improve our understanding of these relationships, we used longitudinal data to examine the individual and interactive effects of preadolescent transmissible liability to substance use disorders (SUD), measured via the transmissible liability index (TLI), and adolescent cannabis use on the development of two distinct psychotic symptom domains, paranoid and schizotypal personality traits in young adulthood. Methods: We performed secondary analysis of data from the Center for Education and Drug Abuse (CEDAR) study, which longitudinally assessed offspring of men with (N = 211) and without (N = 237) lifetime history of SUD at ages 10-12, and across adolescence as they transitioned to young adulthood. TLI scores were calculated at age 10-12, self-reported cannabis use was assessed at age 16, and paranoid and schizotypal symptoms were assessed at age 19. Results: Cannabis use at age 16 and family history of SUD were significantly associated with paranoid and schizotypal symptoms at age 19, but TLI scores were not. The interactive effect of TLI x cannabis use was also not significant. Paranoid and schizotypal symptoms showed different dose-dependent sensitivities to cannabis exposure at age 16. Conclusions: These findings indicate that adolescent cannabis use and family history of SUD differentially contribute to the development of paranoid and schizotypal personality traits through mechanisms that do not include behavioral disinhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Severity of substance use disorder (SUD) is typically evaluated by tabulating the number of symptoms. The resulting estimate of disorder severity is, however, biased due to intercorrelations among symptoms and their unequal salience. Objective. Employing item response theory (IRT) methodology, opioid use disorder symptoms were calibrated to derive the Opioid Use Disorder Severity Scale (OUDSS) and assess its predictive ability in men and women separately. Methods: A two-parameter IRT model was utilized to derive the OUDSS from DSM-IV symptoms recorded on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) in 438 men and 429 women who reported at least one lifetime opioid consumption event. The predictive ability of the OUDSS was evaluated using the 10 health, psychological, and social adjustment domains of the revised Drug Use Screening Inventory (DUSI-R) assessed 2 years later. Results: The OUDSS score predicted the severity of problems in all 10 DUSI-R domains in men and women. The OUDSS also predicted the DUSI-R diagnostic cutoff score of overall problem density score in men and women (OR = 2.21 and OR = 4.83, respectively). Withdrawal was the most frequently endorsed symptom in this sample of opioid users. The other symptoms' frequencies, while somewhat lower than withdrawal's, did not differ from it substantially, indicating a similar severity threshold. Conclusions: OUDSS enables dimensional measurement of opioid use severity on an interval scale. The OUDSS and DUSI-R together can identify problem areas requiring prevention or treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: About 30% of college students have smoked hookah tobacco. Although most students perceive this product to be innocuous and non-addictive, hookah tobacco increases the risk for disease and nicotine dependence. Currently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not regulate the manufacture, distribution, or sale of hookah tobacco. Objective: Empirical literature pertaining to hookah tobacco smoking is reviewed with a focus on the implications for regulatory policy. Methods: PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus databases were searched to locate articles published in English. The literature search combined several key words including "hookahs", "college", "advertising", "health effects", and "health policy". Results: Smoking hookah tobacco may play a role in the initiation of smoking among tobacco-naïve college students and may portend persistent smoking among those who have smoked cigarettes. College students are typically nondaily, social smokers. They do not perceive that their heightened risk for tobacco diseases and nicotine dependence relates to their smoking behavior. However, few public health messages target college-age adults to counter media messages that endorse hookah tobacco smoking. Conclusion: Given that the FDA is not authorized to ban specific tobacco products, policy actions should focus on the development of effective risk communication strategies that target college-age adults and on limiting the accessibility of hookah tobacco products to these adults. Accordingly, a research agenda that would inform these policy actions is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Our previous work demonstrated that the Transmissible Liability Index (TLI), an instrument designed as an index of liability for substance use disorder (SUD), is associated with risk of substance use disorder. This longitudinal study assessed whether TLI measured in 10-12-year-olds (late childhood) predicts suicidal behavior from age 12-14 (preadolescence) to age 25 (young adulthood). We hypothesized that TLI would predict number and severity of suicide attempts. Methods: Subjects were sons of men who had lifetime history of SUD ( n = 250), called the High Average Risk (HAR) group, and sons of men with no lifetime history of a SUD ( n = 250), called the Low Average Risk (LAR) group. The TLI was delineated at baseline (age 10-12), and age-specific versions were administered at 12-14, 16, 19, 22, and 25 years of age. Results: TLI was significantly associated with number and severity of lifetime suicide attempts. Conclusions: These findings confirm the hypothesis that TLI assessed at late childhood is a predictor of frequency and severity of suicidal behavior from preadolescence to young adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral self-regulation (BSR), defined herein as the degree to which one can control one's own activity and reactivity to environmental stimuli, has been posited to be salient to the onset of adolescent substance abuse. The goal of this study was to clarify particular family and peer correlates of BSR in at-risk sons. Subjects were 10-through 12-year-old sons of substance-abusing fathers (high-average risk [HAR]; n = 176) and normal controls (low-average risk [LAR]; n = 199). A BSR latent trait was developed using multiple measures and multiple informants. Analyses included separate hierarchical linear regressions for HAR and LAR groups. In the hierarchical linear model for HAR sons, family dysfunction and deviant peer affiliation were significantly associated with BSR, whereas for LAR sons, only peer affiliation was significantly associated with BSR. The above family and peer correlates differed in proportions of variance explained for BSR in HAR and LAR sons. These findings extend previous studies by showing that, in a hierarchical linear model, BSR in HAR sons is associated with specific interpersonal, family, and peer factors. These findings suggest that empirical, theory-guided interventions to prevent worsening of BSR in HAR boys should address specific interpersonal, family, and peer factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensity of isometric muscle contractions was measured in alcoholic subjects with cirrhosis (N = 42), nonalcoholic subjects with cirrhosis (N = 33), and normal controls (N = 31). Muscle strength and endurance were comparable in the alcoholic and nonalcoholic cirrhotic subjects for all variables. Both cirrhotic groups were inferior to normal controls for all variables. The quantity x frequency (Q x F) index reported for the period during peak alcohol consumption correlated with 6 muscle-force variables, accounting for 9-20% of the variance. Alcoholic and nonalcoholic cirrhotic subjects did not differ in Quality of Life Inventory (QOLI) scales. Significant correlations, however, were found for the alcoholic cirrhotic subjects but not for the nonalcoholic cirrhotic subjects between quality-of-life indices and muscle strength and endurance. Muscle weakness is thus differentially associated with quality of life in alcoholic cirrhotic subjects as compared with nonalcoholic subjects with cirrhosis even though level of strength and endurance in the two groups is comparable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on inter-individual variation in the calls of corvids has largely been restricted to single call types, such as alarm or contact calls, and has rarely considered the effects of age on call structure. This study explores structural variation in a contextually diverse set of 'caw' calls of the American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos), including alarm, foraging recruitment and territorial calls, and searches for structural features that may be associated with behavioural context and caller sex, age and identity. Automated pitch detection algorithms are used to generate 23 pitch-related and spectral parameters for a collection of caws from 18 wild, marked crows. Using principal component analysis and mixed models, we identify independent axes of acoustic variation associated with behavioural context and with caller sex, respectively. We also have moderate success predicting caller sex and identity from call structure. However, we do not find significant acoustic variation with respect to caller age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies are needed that examine neurobiological characteristics in high-risk individuals prior to substance use disorder (SUD) development. In this pilot study, 4 adolescent subjects at high risk for SUD (having at least 1 parent with an SUD) were compared with 4 adolescent reference subjects on a cortico-limbic reactivity paradigm, where they were presented with affect-laden faces or geometric shapes. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure cortical activation in response to these stimuli. High-risk subjects, compared to low-risk, exhibited greater left amygdala activation (t = 2.76,df = 6,p = 0.03), suggesting they may exhibit hyperresponsivity of the amygdala in response to emotional stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Stress is a well-documented factor in the development of addiction. However, no longitudinal studies to date have assessed the role of stress in mediating the development of substance use disorders (SUD). Our previous results have demonstrated that a measure called Transmissible Liability Index (TLI) assessed during pre-adolescent years serves as a significant predictor of risk for substance use disorder among young adults. However, it remains unclear whether life stress mediates the relationship between TLI and SUD, or whether stress predicts SUD. Methods: We conducted a longitudinal study involving 191 male subjects to assess whether life stress mediates the relationship between TLI as assessed at age 10-12 and subsequent development of SUD at age 22, after controlling for other relevant factors. Results: Logistic regression demonstrated that the development of SUD at age 22 was associated with stress at age 19. A path analysis demonstrated that stress at age 19 significantly predicted SUD at age 22. However, stress did not mediate the relationship between the TLI assessed at age 10-12 and SUD in young adulthood. Conclusions and scientific significance: These findings confirm that stress plays a role in the development of SUD, but also shows that stress does not mediate the development of SUD. Further studies are warranted to clarify the role of stress in the etiology of SUD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This prospective study tested the hypothesis that psychological dysregulation in mid-adolescence (age 16) mediates the association between parent-child attachment in late childhood (age 10-12) and development of substance use disorder (SUD) in adulthood (age 22). Method: The Youth Attachment to Parents Scale ( YAPS) was developed in 10-12-year-old boys and girls ( N = 694) at baseline residing in western Pennsylvania. Psychological dysregulation was measured by the neurobehavior disinhibition trait. Substance use was assessed at ages 10-12, 12-14, 16 and 19. SUD was diagnosed at age 22 using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders. The mediation of parent-child attachment and SUD by neurobehavior disinhibition was tested separately for mothers and fathers while controlling for baseline substance use. Results: Psychological dysregulation mediates the association between attachment to mothers and SUD, and partially mediates the association between attachment to fathers and SUD. Significant mediation effects remains after controlling for baseline substance use. Conclusion: Optimal prevention of SUD should include ameliorating both psychological dysregulation predisposing to SUD and quality of the parent-child relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Risk for substance use disorder is frequently transmitted across generations due to significant heritability. Objective: This longitudinal study tests the hypothesis that initial exposure to cannabis in youths having high transmissible risk is a signal event promoting development of cannabis use disorder (CUD). Methods: At age 22, 412 men were classified into three groups: (1) lifetime CUD, (2) cannabis use without CUD, and (3) no lifetime cannabis use. Transmissible risk, quantified on a continuous scale using the previously validated transmissible liability index ( TLI), along with cannabis use and CUD were documented at 10-12, 12-14, 16, 19, and 22 years of age. Results: The CUD group scored higher on the TLI before they began cannabis use compared to the other two groups. In addition, a progressive increase in TLI severity was evinced by the CUD group beginning at the time of initiation of cannabis use whereas cannabis users who did not subsequently develop CUD exhibited a decline in transmissible risk following first exposure. Conclusion: Initial use of cannabis potentiates development of CUD in youths who are at high transmissible risk but is inconsequential in youths having low risk. The practical ramifications of these results for prevention are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Knowledge of where substance use and other such behavioral problems frequently occur has aided policing, public health, and urban planning strategies to reduce such behaviors. Identifying locales characterized by high childhood neurobehavioral disinhibition (ND), a strong predictor of substance use and consequent disorder (SUD), may likewise improve prevention efforts. Objectives: The distribution of ND in 10-12-year olds was mapped to metropolitan Pittsburgh, PA, and tested for clustering within locales. Methods: The 738 participating families represented the population in terms of economic status, race, and population distribution. ND was measured using indicators of executive cognitive function, emotion regulation, and behavior control. Innovative geospatial analyzes statistically tested clustering of ND within locales while accounting for geographic barriers (large rivers, major highways), parental SUD severity, and neighborhood quality. Results: Clustering of youth with high and low ND occurred in specific locales. Accounting for geographic barriers better delineated where high ND is concentrated, areas which also tended to be characterized by greater parental SUD severity and poorer neighborhood quality. Conclusions and Significance: Offering programs that have been demonstrated to improve inhibitory control in locales where youth have high ND on average may reduce youth risk for SUD and other problem behaviors. As demonstrated by the present results, geospatial analysis of youth risk factors, frequently used in community coalition strategies, may be improved with greater statistical and measurement rigor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 20 years we have accumulated a greater knowledge and understanding of the genetic, neurobiological, and behavioral factors that may be associated with young people initiating the use of drugs and other substances and to progressing from use to abuse and dependence. This knowledge suggests that individuals may be 'predisposed' to substance use disorders (SUD) and that the actual engagement in these behaviors depends on their environmental experiences from micro to macro levels. This paper summarizes this knowledge base and supports a developmental framework that examines the interaction of posited genetic, psychological, and neurobiological 'predispositions' to SUD and those environmental influences that exacerbate this vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the incorporation of wiki technology within physical education. Boys from two classes at a school in the United Kingdom were divided into small teams and given the task of creating a new game in a same genre as football, hockey, netball or rugby. Each team had a wiki on which were recorded all the plans and developments of this game as it was being devised and refined. The teacher, an outside games expert and the school's librarian also had access to the wikis, which allowed for constant interaction between the participants outside class time. Interviews with the teacher, the librarian and the students revealed that the 24/7 classroom enabled by the ICT, together with an extended community of practice, resulted in a higher quality learning experience in physical education for the participants. Indeed, it was the belief of all concerned that the quality of the end game products would not have been possible without the ICT component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The etiology of behavioral precursors to substance misuse and aggression is viewed from the perspective of a developmental, multifactorial model of complex disorders. Beginning at conception, genetic and environmental interactions have potential to produce a sequence of behavioral phenotypes during development that bias the trajectory toward high-risk outcomes. One pathway is theorized to emanate from a deviation in neurological development that predisposes children to affective and cognitive delays or impairments that, in turn, generate dysregulatory behaviors. The plasticity of these neurobiological systems is highly relevant to the prevention sciences; their functions are reliant upon environmental inputs and can be altered, for better or for worse, contingent upon the nature of the inputs. Thus, social contextual factors confer significant influence on the development of this neural network and behavioral outcomes by increasing risk for, or protecting1 against, dysregulatory outcomes. A well-designed intervention can exploit the brain's plasticity by targeting biological and social factors at sensitive time points to positively influence emergent neurobiological functions and related behaviors. Accordingly, prevention research is beginning to focus on perturbations in developmental neural plasticity during childhood that increase the likelihood of risky behaviors and may also moderate intervention effects on behavior. Given that the more complex features of neurobiological functions underlying drug misuse and aggression (e.g., executive cognitive function, coping skills, affect regulation) do not coalesce until early adulthood when prefrontal-limbic brain networks consolidate, it is critical that mechanisms underlying developmental risk factors are identified. An empirically driven prevention approach, thus, may benefit from consideration of (i) the type, effect, and developmental timing of the environmental impact on the brain, and (ii) the type and effect on brain function, and developmental timing of the intervention. This translational approach promises to eventually offer some direction for the design of effective interventions to prevent drug misuse and concomitant aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Individual and contextual factors jointly participate in the onset and progression of substance abuse; however, the pattern of their relationship in males and females has not been systematically studied. Objectives: Male and female children and adolescents were compared to determine the relative influence of individual susceptibility (neurobehavior disinhibition or ND) and social environment (deviancy in peers) on use of illegal drugs. Methods: Boys (N = 380) and girls (N = 127) were prospectively tracked from age 10-12 to age 16 to delineate the role of ND and peer deviancy on use of illegal drugs. Results: Girls exhibited lower ND scores than boys in childhood and were less inclined to affiliate with deviant peers. These differences were reduced or disappeared by mid-adolescence. In boys only, peer deviancy in childhood mediated the association between ND and illegal drug use at age 16. In both genders, peer deviancy in mid-adolescence mediated ND and substance abuse at age 16. Conclusions: Individual and contextual risk factors promoting substance abuse are more salient at a younger age in boys compared to girls. Scientific Significance: These results point to the need for earlier screening and intervention for boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The revised Drug Use Screening Inventory (DUSI-R) is a valid and reliable self-report questionnaire used for quantifying problems that frequently precede and co-occur with substance abuse. The present investigation determined whether the DUSI-R's items can be aggregated into scales that implicate current and future psychiatric disorders. Scales were derived to screen for attention deficit, conduct, antisocial, anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders in a longitudinally tracked cohort of 328 boys. Evaluations were conducted when the boys were 12-14, 16, 19, and 22 years of age. All of the scales identified youths qualifying for current DSM-IV diagnosis with excellent accuracy. Predictive validity of the scales ranged from good to excellent. Accordingly cut-off scores were determined for each scale for use in practical settings to identify youths who require comprehensive diagnostic evaluation. Thus in addition to its utility for detecting problems that precede and correlate with substance abuse, the DUSI-R is cost-efficient for screening youths for mental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that a trait termed neurobehavior disinhibition (ND) measured in childhood predicts substance use disorder by young adulthood. The present investigation extends these findings by determining the degree to which peer environment mediates the association between ND and development of cannabis use disorder (CUD). ND was measured in a sample of 216 boys 10-12 years of age. The peer environment was assessed at age 16. Current CUD was determined at age 22. Paternal and maternal SUD predicted son's ND which, in turn, predicted son's peer environment and, subsequently, son's cannabis use frequency and CUD. Peer environment mediated the association between ND and cannabis use and ND and CUD. Maternal and paternal SUD predicted the peer environment. Parental SUD, son's ND, and son's peer environment predicted CUD at age 22 with 84% accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study aimed at determining the association of father's and mother's (parental) substance use disorder (SUD) and discipline styles and son's neurobehavior disinhibition (ND) with son's SUD from childhood (age 10-12) to young adulthood (age 19). It was hypothesized that (1) parental discipline styles and son's ND mediate the association between parental SUD and son's SUD, (2) son's ND mediates the association between parental discipline styles and son's SUD, and (3) parental discipline styles mediate the association between ND and SUD in the son. Methods: Two-hundred-sixty-three families including a 10-12 year-old son and both parents participated in the study. Results: (1) mother's discipline styles predicted father's discipline styles, (2) son's ND predicted mother's instilling guilt positively and father's punishment negatively, (3) son's ND mediated the association between father's SUD and punishment and son's SUD, and (4) mother's SUD predicted son's ND and SUD. Conclusions: The reciprocal prediction between son's ND and father's punishment and prediction of father's punishment by mother's punishment point to the need for family-based interventions that take into account the quality of specific dyadic interactions pertaining to discipline behaviors that amplify the risk for SUD in male children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most multivariate statistical techniques rely on the assumption of multivariate normality. The effects of nonnormality on multivariate tests are assumed to be negligible when variance-covariance matrices and sample sizes are equal. Therefore, in practice, investigators usually do not attempt to assess multivariate normality. In this simulation study, the effects of skewed and leptokurtic multivariate data on the Type I error and power of Hotelling's T 2 were examined by manipulating distribution, sample size, and variance-covariance matrix. The empirical Type I error rate and power of Hotelling's T 2 were calculated before and after the application of generalized Box-Cox transformation. The findings demonstrated that even when variance-covariance matrices and sample sizes are equal, small to moderate changes in power still can be observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the challenges faced by developers of youth drug abuse prevention programs in transporting scientifically proven or evidence-based programs into natural community' practice systems. Models for research on the transfer of prevention technology are described with specific emphasis given to the relationship between efficacy and effectiveness studies. Barriers that impede the successful integration of efficacy methods within effectiveness studies (e.g., client factors, practitioner factors, intervention structure characteristics, and environmental and organizational factors) are discussed. We present a modified model for program development and evaluation that includes a new type of research design, the hybrid efficacy- effectiveness study that addresses program transportability. The utility of the hybrid study is illustrated in the evaluation of the Early Risers "Skills for Success" prevention program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Drug Use Screening Inventory (DUSI) has been shown to have sound psychometric properties for quantifying the severity of health, behavior and psychosocial problems concomitant to substance use in adolescents. Its utility for identifying youth who will develop a disorder of abuse/dependence has, however, not been investigated. In this longitudinal study, the DUSI was administered to a sample of boys at ages 12-14, 16 and 19 in a repeated measures design. An overall problems severity score of 24% at ages 12-14 and 16 predicted a DSM-111-R substance use disorder (SUD) outcome at age 19 with 73% and 84% accuracy respectively. Parental history of SUD did not increase prediction of SUD outcome in the youth. These findings indicate that the DUSI, taking only 15-20 minutes to complete, is a useful practical instrument to identify youth who could benefit most from prevention interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging evidence indicates that psychological dysregulation is an integral component of the liability for substance use disorder (SUD). To date, the measurement of dysregulation entails using a variety of disparate unstandardized instruments. This report discusses the rationale underlying the Dysregulation Inventory (DI), the methods employed in item selection and scale construction, and describes preliminary results regarding psychometric properties. Satisfactory to superior reliability and validity were observed for the self-report, teacher-report, and parent-report versions of the DI. The scores on the DI discriminate youth who are at high and low average risk for SUD ascertained on the basis of paternal SUD. Moreover, the score on the DI at age 10-12 was found to account for a significant proportion of the variance on substance use at age 12-14, thereby pointing to its predictive validity. In addition, the DI score covaried with SUD severity in a sample of female adolescents. These results indicate that the DI may be useful for detecting youth who are at high risk for SUD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to design and evaluate a multidimensional schema for the assessment of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use topology. Six first order dimensions and a single second order dimension were confirmed. The first order dimensions are: motive state, beliefs and expectancies, social context, substance use behavior, behavioral pharmacological consequences, and social consequences. At age 16, the second order factor score predicted transition to a DSM-III-R substance use disorder (SUD) at age 19 with 71% accuracy and correlated significantly with the overall problem density score of the Drug Use Screening Inventory (R[2] = .27, p < .0001). Offspring of substanceabusing fathers scored higher than boys having normal fathers on the motive state and substance use behavior dimensions. These findings illustrate the value of multidimensional assessment of ATOD topology for identifying youth at high risk for SUD as well as for elucidating the factors contributing, to the transition to suprathreshold SUD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the genetic, biochemical and psychological components of substance use disorder (SUD) liability. Mission of the Center for Education and Drug Abuse Research regarding SUD; Differences between substance use and substance use disorder; Theoretical framework for elucidating the etiology of SUD; Result of social adaptation failure.

Paternal and maternal models of transmission of child neglect were tested separately in 10-12 year old offspring of men with a substance use disorder (SUD) and psychiatrically normal men (n = 156). The model hypothesizes that childhood neglect experienced by parents is related to their neglectful parenting moderated by psychological dysregulation in the child and by parental SUD. The paternal model was not confirmed. However, it was found that a history of childhood neglect in the mother was related to severity of neglect of her offspring. Child dysregulation was independently related to neglect severity and also enhanced the magnitude of association between history of neglect experienced by the mother and the severity of her neglectful parenting. In addition, SUD in the mother directly correlated with severity of neglectful parenting. Maternal SUD also moderated the association between her history of childhood neglect and severity of neglectful parenting. The ramifications of these results for understanding the etiology and impact of child neglect on the risk for SUD are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide is the outcome of a discrete behavioral act which may precede or ernerge consequent to a substance use disorder (SUD). A question that has yet to be empirically addressed pertains to the extent to which SUD and suicide have a common liability. The results reported herein indicate that psychological dysregulation in childhood is a risk factor for SUD but not suicidality. Offspring of men with SUD do, however, report a higher rate of suicidal ideation and attempts compared to offspring of psychiatrically normal men. These findings indicate that the risk for suicide and SUD do not completely map to each other but that there may be as yet unidentified factors which are associated with both outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A test of a theory positing a role of sexual maturation and behavioral self-regulation in the development of early onset substance use disorders (Tarter et al., 1999) was conducted. The rate of maturation in adolescent males across three timepoints, measured using Tanner staging, was found to be associated with parental substance use disorder (SUD). Parental, especially maternal, SUD was related to the sons' SUR The results of a structural equation model analysis are consistent with partial mediation of this relationship by sexual maturation, influencing sensation seeking, which is associated with the risk for subsequent early onset SUD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine whether magnitude of risk in offspring of fathers with substance use disorders differs with respect to liability severity according to presence or absence of the father in the home. Boys age 10-12 having biological substance abusing fathers living at home were compared to a matched group of boys where the biological substance abusing fathers were separated from their mothers. Comparisons were made on a panel of individual, parent-child interaction, peer, and school adjustment variables. The variables selected for comparison are well-established predisposing factors for substance abuse. Substance abuse is more severe in men who arc separated from their spouses. It was also found that 10-12 year old boys living with mothers who are separated from substance abusing men arc rated higher by their mothers on conduct problems compared to boys living with both parents. Lower involvement and supervision and lower attachment to their mothers are reported by boys who do not live with the substance abusing father compared to boys living with both parents. The increased risk for substance abuse in offspring of separated parents where the father is a substance abuser is concluded to be due to the combination of transmission of more severe liability from the father and fewer resources available to the single mother for effective parenting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hemispheric laterality, measured by the Wechsler Verbal IQ-Performance IQ differential score, in a large group of delinquents (N = 101) was not associated with violent-nonviolent behavior. Delinquents were, however, likely to be relatively more impaired on verbal than on nonverbal intellectual capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demonstrates the Drug Use Screening Inventory's (DUSI; Tarter, 1990) sensitivity in detecting youths who abuse drugs. Correlation of school adjustment and substance abuse.

Describes methods for estimating survival distributions based on nonparametric curve estimators. Subsurvival relationships and weighted subestimators; Simulation studies of long-term survival estimators; Modular estimation of the probability of being disease-free using a variety of data sources.

Stratified sampling is considered, where (a) the mean integrated squared error (MISE) metric is used in place of the mean squared error (MSE) metric; (b) the entire distribution [i.e., f(x)], rather than a property of the distribution [e.g., E(x)], is used as a target of the procedure; (c) the distribution f(x) is estimated by a truncated series f(x) (to counterbalance model complexity with sample size availability); and finally, (d) samples are taken both with and without replacement. In the last regard, series term inclusion rules are generalized to deal with samples taken without replacement from a finite population. Two special cases are treated in detail. The first shows that even for sample sizes as small as three and for data forms as elementary as the bivariate binary vectors, the use of orthogonal series representation can lead to smaller expected error than would be achievable through use of conventional representation and methods. The second demonstrates that in the continuous case, MISE-based and conventional sample size selection rules can differ substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viewing truth and beauty as a compromise also is appealing because today many data analysts prefer to use an adjustable Ockham's straight or electric razor, that is, digital computer. Conceptualization of the bump or outlier detection problem in terms of the odds that each bump would be present in a sample of infinite size has certain mathematical advantages. Most scientists also feel that it is usually not enough to demonstrate simple existence, but instead they must also explain the nature of the beast causing a bump. For this reason, before directly commenting on Good and Gaskins's excellent paper, it seems appropriate to illustrate the process of associating apparent anomalies with explanatory factors. Field trials with the primitive form of roughness penalty described before indicated that the scientific the expansion was terminated when the first term failed to satisfy the term-inclusion rule.

A procedure is derived for computing maximum likelihood estimates from the sample trigonometric moments. Several examples are given which demonstrate the convenience of this hybrid approach. The Zippin-Armitage method for dealing with incomplete survival information is generalized. A simple expression is obtained for the survival curve given nonparametric estimators of (1) the probability density of survival times for patients who have died, and (2) the probability density of known survival times for patients still alive. It is shown that this new estimator approaches the Kaplan-Meier product limit as the sample size approaches infinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interactive method for decomposing mixtures consisting of an arbitrary number of bivariate Gaussian components is described, which can handle problems currently attacked by cluster analysis methods. In contradistinction to most clustering methods, this procedure does not require selection of a metric or distance function with sample element arguments. Instead, estimates of population bivariate contours are examined graphically to yield estimates of subpopulation parameters. This approach is based on properties of the underlying population rather than on heuristic measures of distance between elements of a sample. Besides discussing the theory underlying this new class of procedures, several examples involving real and simulated data are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the presence of deficits in language capacities in children of substance abusers. Comparison of high and low risk children for drug abuse; Testing of intellectual ability and language competence; Measurement of language ability.

Examines the psychometric reliability of the Drug Use Screening Inventory (DUSI) in 191 adolescents who qualified for a DSM-III-R diagnosis of Psychoactive Substance Use Disorder. Usefulness of DUSI for identifying and quantifying substance use and related problems.

The psychometric structure and characteristics of the adult version of the Drug Use Screening Inventory were examined in alcohol and drug abusers (n = 119) and normal controls (n = 119). It was found that each of the 10 DUSI domains is unidimensional. Inter-item, split half and internal reliability ranged from good to excellent. A score of 4 or higher on the Substance Use Domain correctly classified 80% of the substance abusers whereas a score of 3 or less accurately detected 100% of the normal control subjects. These results demonstrated that the DUSI is a practical and psychometrically sound screening instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted this study with a sample of sons of fathers having a Psychoactive Substance Use Disorder (PSUD + , n = 55) and sons of fathers who did not qualify for a PSUD (PSUD-, n = 97). Parental discipline practice from the child's perspective was investigated in relation to the child's difficult temperament to determine their association with sons' externalizing and internalizing behavior problems reported by mothers. PSUD+ status, difficult temperament in the boys, and their ratings of parental discipline practices accounted for a significant proportion of variance with respect to their externalizing behavior (11%), but only PSUD+ status had a main effect on internalizing behavior. However, the main finding of this study was that the interaction of parental discipline and difficult temperament in the child moderated both externalizing and internalizing behavior problems, accounting for an additional 5% of an explained variance. Thus, this study illustrates the importance of the conjoint influence of children's temperament characteristics and parental discipline practices on the children's adjustment. These results support the findings from previous studies showing that a difficult temperament disposition places the child at risk for maltreatment by parents and for development of a disruptive behavior disorder. Both outcomes have been found in many investigations to presage alcohol and drug abuse in adolescence. The findings also underscore the importance of both individual and contextual variables for understanding the development of psychopathology. In this regard, the results show the need for prevention and treatment to encompass strategies directed at disaggregating the basis of maladaptive family interaction patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]