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Activity Number:
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402
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Type:
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Invited
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Date/Time:
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Wednesday, August 1, 2007 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
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Sponsor:
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Section on Statistical Computing
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| Abstract - #308177 |
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Title:
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Assessing Interventions Related to HIV Incidents Under the Influence of Ethanol
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Author(s):
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Yasmin H. Said and Edward Wegman*+
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Companies:
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George Mason University and George Mason University
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Address:
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4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA, 22030-4422,
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Keywords:
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social networks ; alcohol abuse ; disease mechanism
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Abstract:
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Alcohol abuse leads to serious individual and societal outcomes. Among these, we identify irresponsible behavioral outcomes notably risky sexual contacts and other violence related outcomes. Risky sexual contacts can lead to infections with HIV and other STDs. Social, structural, and environmental factors are major influences on HIV-related behaviors. Our work provides a policy tool for evaluation of interventions using a dynamic agent-based simulation based on estimates of conditional probabilities. Alcohol abusers are embedded in a social network that is reminiscent of an ecology system. We formulate a model of this network to explore interventions that reduce the overall probability of negative outcomes. Historically, modeling attempts have focused on specific negative outcomes. The unique feature of this work is that we explore the simultaneous reduction of all negative outcomes.
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