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Human services educators continually seek ways to make outreach programming more engaging and effective. This study evaluated an ongoing relationship education program funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (Administration of Children and Families) to determine the effectiveness of the Before You Tie the Knot (BYTK) premarital education program. A self-reported, quantitative, retrospective-pretest-then-post-test evaluation was utilized to assess key objectives in the sample (n = 1285). Clearly- evident effect sizes were found for perceived behavior changes in the participants' implementation of skills related to relationship quality (i.e., positive interaction, negative interaction, positive bonds, happiness/satisfaction, commitment, and not feeling trapped) covered in the training over a five-week period. Implications for how the BYTK program can facilitate change and learning in educational settings, as well as inform relationship education outreach programming, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although studies have examined the association between individuals' mindfulness and romantic relationship quality, additional empirical research is necessary to specifically comprehend the potential factors influencing the association between mindfulness and couple quality. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the association between mindfulness and couple quality and the mediating roles of self‐care and engagement in shared relationship activities among 1,331 participants in a southeastern region of the United States. The authors of this study conducted a multiple mediation analysis using longitudinal data to investigate the mediating effects of caring for self and engagement in shared relationship activities. The research findings in this study indicated that an individual's mindfulness had a significant direct association with couple quality in a romantic relationship. In addition, participants' couple quality was significantly mediated by self‐care and engagement in shared relationship activities with a romantic partner. Implications for educators, researchers and practitioners are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple studies have investigated the use of steel, synthetic fibers, and natural fibers to reduce plastic shrinkage cracks in concrete, which are mostly caused by water evaporation from the surface of the material. This review used original published research articles from the Web of Science and Scopus database to evaluate the performance and relationship between the fiber volume, aspect ratio, compressive strength, and plastic shrinkage cracking. This review also discussed the most widely used technique for evaluating plastic shrinkage cracking, the ASTM C 1579, with two bottom restraints and a central stress riser to induce cracking, and its modified version with additional reinforcement for further restraining the ASTM C 1579 mold. Longer fibers function better than shorter fibers because of their larger surface area, which allows them to bridge fissures. It was also observed that crack initiation time is delayed when fibers are added to concrete. In addition, as the volume proportion of the fibers increased, the plastic shrinkage cracks decreased, but the compressive strength declined. Furthermore, the volume fraction of the fibers had a greater effect on reducing cracking than the aspect ratio. It was also concluded that a fiber volume inclusion below 1% is best. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To evaluate changes in monthly buprenorphine dispensation associated with federal prescribing policies in Washington State from 2012 to 2022. Methods. We conducted an interrupted time series analysis comparing monthly buprenorphine prescriptions dispensed per 1000 population after the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), Substance Use-Disorder Prevention That Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act (SUPPORT), and new prescribing rules during the COVID-19 pandemic. Buprenorphine formulated for opioid use disorder was included from the Washington State Prescription Monitoring Program. A log-linear autoregressive model measured linear trend changes. Results. Physician prescribing increased by 1.63% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.41%, 1.85%) per month after CARA with sustained declines after SUPPORT. Nurse practitioner (NP) prescribing increased by 19.48% (95% CI = 18.8%, 20.16%) per month after CARA with physician assistants (PAs) showing similar trends. Following the implementation of SUPPORT, NP and PA trends continued to increase at a reduced growth rate of 3.96% (95% CI = 2.01%, 5.94%) and 1.87% (95% CI = 0.56%, 3.19%), respectively. No prescribers experienced increases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions. CARA nearly tripled the buprenorphine prescribing rate. The SUPPORT Act initiated sustained declines for physician prescribing, and the COVID-19 period reversed gains for PAs and NPs. The current opioid crisis requires expanded efforts in Washington State. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(7):696–704. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307649) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies investigating the potential structures underlying the connection between mindfulness and romantic relationship quality are not sufficient and require additional empirical findings. The current study aimed to examine a hypothesized model underlying the association between mindfulness and relationship quality, while investigating the roles of individuals' level of awareness and application of care in a romantic relationship among 199 adult participants in a southeastern region of the United States. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and path analysis were executed to examine the hypothesized structural model, testing a multi‐step pathway as to how mindfulness influences relationship quality. The SEM and path analyses showed a good fit for the present study's hypothesized model, indicating that individuals' mindfulness had a direct influence on their self‐awareness level. Individuals' self‐awareness and application of care mediated the link between mindfulness and relationship quality. Implications for family life educators, dyadic couples researchers, and marriage and family practitioners are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional canonical correlation analysis (CCA) measures the association between two datasets and identifies relevant contributors. However, it encounters issues with execution and interpretation when the sample size is smaller than the number of variables or there are more than two datasets. Our motivating example is a stroke‐related clinical study on pigs. The data are multimodal and consist of measurements taken at multiple time points and have many more variables than observations. This study aims to uncover important biomarkers and stroke recovery patterns based on physiological changes. To address the issues in the data, we develop two sparse CCA methods for multiple datasets. Various simulated examples are used to illustrate and contrast the performance of the proposed methods with that of the existing methods. In analyzing the pig stroke data, we apply the proposed sparse CCA methods along with dimension reduction techniques, interpret the recovery patterns, and identify influential variables in recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development and importance of tunnels are increasing worldwide, and countries like Korea, where about 70% of the total land is covered with mountain regions, need more tunnel constructions to connect different routes of roads for safe and efficient transport. This study applied fire to the 200 mm × 200 mm × 200 mm concrete specimens, similar to the Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) fire, through an electric furnace. Thermocouples were placed inside the specimens to analyze the temperature during the occurrence of fire. Experimental and simulation thermal analysis during the occurrence of fire was analyzed. The experimental temperature at different depths agreed with the simulation results. Different international fire curves were applied to study the temperature inside the concrete through simulation by LS-DYNA. Concrete with different thicknesses of fireproof board was analyzed through simulation, and using fireproof board reduces the inside temperature during fire occurrence. Among the studied international fire curves, modified hydrocarbon fire curves had a high-temperature effect on concrete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]