Aims
Risky single‐occasion drinking (RSOD) by young people is a serious public health issue, yet little is known about the specific circumstances of risky drinking occasions. This study examined the ...independent effects of event‐ and individual‐specific variables on RSOD.
Design
Longitudinal cohort study measuring self‐reported RSOD and event‐ and individual‐specific variables across two drinking occasions approximately 1 year apart.
Setting
Metropolitan Melbourne, Australia.
Participants
A sample of 710 young risky drinkers aged between 18 and 25 years and defined as engaging in risky drinking practices (males: consumed alcohol in excess of 10 Australian Standard Drinks (ASD: 10 g ethanol) in a single occasion in the previous year; females: consumed alcohol in excess of seven ASD for females in a single occasion in the previous year).
Measurements
Random digit‐dial telephone landline survey of the most recent heavy drinking occasion and socio‐demographic variables. The primary outcome was the log of the total drinks consumed in the most recent heavy drinking occasion. Event‐specific (e.g. number of drinking locations) and time‐varying (e.g. weekly income) and time‐invariant (e.g. sex) individual‐specific variables were examined as correlates of total drinks consumed.
Findings
Changes in event‐specific characteristics including the length of the drinking occasion (Likelihood Ratio χ2(2) = 24.4, P < 0.001), the number of drinking locations (Wald χ2(1) = 7.6, P = 0.006) and the number of different drink types (Wald χ2(1) = 13.6, P < 0.001) were associated with increases in total drinks consumed, after adjustment for time‐invariant and time‐variant individual‐specific variables such as gender, income level and weekly consumption. Few other effects were noted.
Conclusions
Event‐specific characteristics are important predictors of the number of drinks consumed during risky single occasion drinking (RSOD) and illustrate the importance of event contexts when considering interventions targeting RSOD. The total number of drinks consumed in a RSOD session appears to rise independently with the duration of the drinking event, the number of drinking locations and the number of different types of beverage consumed.
Most young people will be exposed to online pornography for the first time during childhood or early adolescence. Despite limited evidence of long term impacts, concerns about the negative influence ...of pornography on young viewers' sexual attitudes and practices have led to calls for the development of policy, resources, and guidelines to assist in navigating these experiences in family and community settings. Pornography and sex education are clearly sensitive topics and there is a need for research examining parents' perceptions of this highly complex issue to inform evidence-based education and social policy. We conducted a qualitative study using in-depth interviews, with parents (n = 20) of 10-16-year-old children. Parents were recruited on a spectrum of demographic, educational, and cultural backgrounds from across the greater region of Melbourne, Australia. Findings revealed that parents perceptions of their children, their own experiences of pornography use and internet communications technology, as well as a lack of involvement in school-based sex education, affected their ability to respond to the issue. Most parents preferred open dialogue with their own child over household level filters or regulation of online exposure. The study provides new considerations to inform policy responses and education program design.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The number of offshore wind farms is rapidly increasing as they are a critical part of many countries' renewable energy strategies. Quantifying the likely impacts of these developments on wildlife is ...a fundamental part of the impact assessments required in many regions before permission for developments is granted. A key concern related to wind turbines is the risk of birds colliding with turbine blades. We present a novel method to generate species‐specific flight height distributions which can be used to improve the assessment of collision risk by better reflecting the proportion of in‐flight populations at risk of collision. Data describing the flight heights of birds from surveys of 32 potential offshore wind farm development sites were combined to estimate continuous distributions for 25 marine bird species. Observations of flying birds assigned to discrete height categories were treated as observations from independent multinomial distributions with a shared underlying continuous distribution. This analysis enables calculation of the uncertainty around the estimates of the proportion of the in‐flight population at risk and consideration of different turbine designs. The mean r² for model fit across species was 0·85, and for seven of the species, good independent model validation (80% of independent observations within 95% confidence intervals) provides some confidence for use of the results at alternative sites. All species exhibited positively skewed flight height distributions. These results demonstrate that under the conditions in which the data were collected, raising hub height and using fewer, larger turbines are effective measures for reducing collision risk. Synthesis and applications. The methods presented here for modelling continuous flight height distributions provide measures of uncertainty and enable comparison of collision risk between different turbine designs. This approach will improve the accuracy of impact assessments and provide estimates of uncertainty, allowing better evidence to inform decision‐making.
The Spitzer Deep, Wide-field Survey Ashby, M. L. N; Stern, D; Brodwin, M ...
The Astrophysical journal,
08/2009, Letnik:
701, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level and subsequent cancer risk. Material and methods: HbA1c measurements were made on ...blood samples of participants in a hepatitis B (HB) screening program (1999–2001). Cancer incidence was determined by linkage to cancer registrations and hospitalization records to the end of 2004. Participants previously diagnosed with diabetes or cancer were excluded. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Cox regression. Results: Among the 46 575 participants (70% Māori, 12% Pacific, 5% Asian and 12% Other), 634 cancer cases were observed. For all cancers combined, a significant increased risk was found in persons with moderately elevated HbA1c levels (6%–6.9%) (HR 1.40, 95% CI: 1.11–1.76), with a smaller increased risk in persons with highly elevated levels (≥7%) (HR 1.09, 95% CI: 0.80–1.48) as compared with persons having low HbA1c levels (<6%). The HRs for respiratory cancers were 2.27 (95% CI: 1.34–3.86) for the moderate HbA1c category and 1.58 (95% CI: 0.77–3.26) for the upper HbA1c category. For endometrial cancers, the HRs were 4.05 (95% CI: 1.10–14.88) and 5.07 (95% CI: 1.20–21.31), respectively. For other cancer sites, no significantly increased risks were found. Conclusions: These findings are consistent with other evidence that abnormal glucose metabolism may be associated with an increased risk of some cancers.
Treatment of acute migraine headache with narcotics is potentially ineffective and may lead to abuse. The authors examined the treatment practice variation across five linked EDs in one Canadian ...center, focusing on the use of narcotic analgesics and factors associated with their use.
Five hundred acute migraine headache patient charts were randomly selected from five Canadian EDs. Charts underwent a structured review to determine medication use. Data were analyzed, comparing those who received narcotics as first-line treatment with those who did not, using chi(2) and t-tests and logistic regression.
The majority of patients (59.6%) received narcotics as first-line treatment. Numerous factors were associated with first-line narcotic treatment. Having taken antiheadache medications prior to ED presentation (odds ratio OR: 2.63; 95% CI: 1.53, 4.51) and hospital of presentation being other than Hospital A (e.g., Hospital D, OR: 6.32; 95% CI: 2.76, 14.46) increased the odds of receiving first-line narcotics. Having received a more urgent triage score (OR: 0.4; 95% CI: 0.24, 0.65) or having a longer duration of headache (OR: 0.994; 95% CI: 0.99, 0.99) decreased the odds of receiving first-line narcotics.
Acute migraine management in these EDs does not meet current consensus guidelines. Factors associated with narcotic use are predictable, and a concerted effort to replace narcotics with more evidence-based first-line treatments is needed.
Studying cells in a three‐dimensional (3D) environment has great potential in understanding cell behaviours such as morphology, proliferation, differentiation, and migration. Microengineered 3D cell ...scaffolds with precise defined geometries have offered a new approach to study cell behaviour and its interactions with scaffolds. The use of Raman spectroscopy to characterise biomolecules is a rapidly expanding area and has been implemented in numerous fields including pharmacology, microbiology, toxicology, and single‐cell studies. However, one area where it remains unexploited despite the vast potential of the technique is in the investigation of 3D cell scaffolds. A combination of Raman microscopy and chemometric approaches have employed to investigate the structure and biochemistry of nanofabricated scaffolds and a cell–scaffold complex. The 3D Raman mapping combined with the use of nanofabricated 3D scaffolds offers a unique opportunity to assess the influence of scaffold architecture on cell body and cell nuclei morphology and biochemistry. For the first time, we have cultured a human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line on OrmoComp scaffolds and determined the structure and biochemistry of nanofabricated scaffolds and a cell–scaffold complex with the use of Raman microscopy combined with appropriate data analysis protocols. The results demonstrate the potential of 3D Raman mapping for identifying biochemical and physical variation within single cells as they grow and adhere to 3D scaffolds.
In this study, we have designed different scaffolds using the ultraviolet (UV)–curable hybrid polymers such as OrmoComp and IP‐Dip. We have cultured human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line (Caco‐2) on OrmoComp scaffolds, and Raman was employed not only to investigate the biochemical and physical structure of 3D scaffold but also to identify chemical composition of single cell adhered to the nanofabricated scaffold. The results demonstrate the potential of 3D Raman mapping for identifying biochemical and physical variation within single cells as they grow and adhere to 3D scaffolds.
The electron's electric dipole moment (eEDM) can be determined by polarizing the spin of an atom or a molecule and then measuring the spin precession frequency in an applied electric field. Radiation ...is used to polarize the spin and then analyze the precession angle, and the measurement is often sensitive to the polarization of this radiation. We show how systematic errors can arise when both the polarization of the radiation and the magnitude of the electric field are imperfectly controlled. We derive approximate analytical expressions for these errors, confirm their accuracy numerically, and show how they can be corrected empirically. We consider spin manipulation using single-photon pulses, Raman pulses, and stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP), and we show that STIRAP provides better immunity to these systematic errors. An experimental study of these errors partly supports our findings but also reveals another potential error that is not captured by this analysis.
Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium bovis is a re-emerging disease of livestock that is of major economic importance worldwide, as well as being a zoonotic risk. There is significant ...heritability for host resistance to bovine TB (bTB) in dairy cattle. To identify resistance loci for bTB, we undertook a genome-wide association study in female Holstein-Friesian cattle with 592 cases and 559 age-matched controls from case herds. Cases and controls were categorised into distinct phenotypes: skin test and lesion positive vs skin test negative on multiple occasions, respectively. These animals were genotyped with the Illumina BovineHD 700K BeadChip. Genome-wide rapid association using linear and logistic mixed models and regression (GRAMMAR), regional heritability mapping (RHM) and haplotype-sharing analysis identified two novel resistance loci that attained chromosome-wise significance, protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor T (PTPRT; P=4.8 × 10(-7)) and myosin IIIB (MYO3B; P=5.4 × 10(-6)). We estimated that 21% of the phenotypic variance in TB resistance could be explained by all of the informative single-nucleotide polymorphisms, of which the region encompassing the PTPRT gene accounted for 6.2% of the variance and a further 3.6% was associated with a putative copy number variant in MYO3B. The results from this study add to our understanding of variation in host control of infection and suggest that genetic marker-based selection for resistance to bTB has the potential to make a significant contribution to bTB control.
Chemical and psychological stressors can exert long lasting changes in brain function and behaviour. Changes in DNA methylation have been shown to be an important mechanism mediating long lasting ...changes in neural function and behaviour, especially for anxiety‐like or stress responses. In the present study, we examined the effects of either a social or chemical stressor on DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) gene expression in the amygdala, an important brain region modulating stress responses and anxiety. In adult California mice (Peromyscus californicus) that were naïve to social defeat, females had higher levels of Dnmt1 expression in punch samples of the central amygdala (CeA) than males. In addition, mice that underwent social defeat stress showed reduced Dnmt1 and Dnmt3a expression in the CeA of females but not males. A second study using more anatomically specific punch samples replicated these effects for Dnmt1. Perinatal exposure (spanning from periconception through lactation) to bisphenol A or ethinyl oestradiol (oestrogens in birth control pills) also abolished sex differences in Dnmt1 expression in the CeA but not the basolateral amygdala. These findings identify a robust sex difference in Dnmt1 expression in the CeA that is sensitive to both psychological and chemical stressors. Future studies should aim to examine the impact of psychological and chemical stressors on DNA methylation in the CeA and also investigate whether Dnmt1 may have an underappreciated role in plasticity in behaviour.
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