Depression and suicide are of increasing concern on college campuses. This article presents data from the College Health Intervention Projects on the frequency of depression and suicide ideation ...among 1,622 college students who accessed primary care services in 4 university clinics in the Midwest, Northwest, and Canada. Students completed the Beck Depression Inventory and other measures related to exercise patterns, alcohol use, sensation seeking, and violence. The frequency of depression was similar for men (25%) and women (26%). Thought of suicide was higher for men (13%) than women (10%). Tobacco use, emotional abuse, and unwanted sexual encounters were all associated with screening positive for depression. "Days of exercise per week" was inversely associated with screening positive for depression. Because the majority of students access campus-based student health centers, medical providers can serve a key role in early identification and intervention. With every 4th student reporting symptoms of depression and every 10th student having suicidal thoughts, such interventions are needed.
The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of brief physician advice in reducing alcohol use and related harm in college students.
The College Health Intervention Projects (CHIPs) is a ...randomized, controlled clinical trial with 12-month follow-up conducted in five college health clinics in Wisconsin; Washington state; and Vancouver, Canada. Of the 12,900 students screened for high-risk drinking, 484 men and 502 women met inclusion criteria and were randomized into a control (n = 493) or intervention (n = 493) group. Ninety-six percent of students participated in the follow-up procedures. The intervention consisted of two 15-minute counseling visits and two follow-up phone calls, and used motivational interviewing, contracting, diary cards, and take-home exercises.
No significant differences were found between groups at baseline on alcohol use, age, socioeconomic or smoking status, rates of depression, or measures of alcohol-related harm. At 12 months, the experimental subjects reduced their 28-day drinking totals by 27.2%, and the control group reduced their totals by 21%. A mixed effects repeated measures model found a statistical difference in favor of the brief-intervention group (beta = 4.7, SE = 2.0, p = .018) in 28-day drinking totals. The total Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index score was also significantly different during the 12-month follow-up period (beta = 0.8, SE = 0.4, p = .033). There was no difference on the other outcome measures of interest, such as frequency of excessive heavy drinking, health care utilization, injuries, drunk driving, depression, or tobacco use.
The study supports resource allocation and implementation of alcohol screening and brief physician advice in primary care-based college health clinics.
Depression and suicide are of increasing concern on college campuses. This article presents data from the College Health Intervention Projects on the frequency of depression and suicide ideation ...among 1,622 college students who accessed primary care services in 4 university clinics in the Midwest, Northwest, and Canada. Students completed the Beck Depression Inventory and other measures related to exercise patterns, alcohol use, sensation seeking, and violence. The frequency of depression was similar for men (25%) and women (26%). Thought of suicide was higher for men (13%) than women (10%). Tobacco use, emotional abuse, and unwanted sexual encounters were all associated with screening positive for depression. “Days of exercise per week” was inversely associated with screening positive for depression. Because the majority of students access campus-based student health centers, medical providers can serve a key role in early identification and intervention. With every 4th student reporting symptoms of depression and every 10th student having suicidal thoughts, such interventions are needed.
Transnational supermarkets are establishing themselves in distinct national contexts, yet their success depends on the effective localization of their operations in each place. The establishment of ...local supply chains, vertically coordinated using private standards, is a key localization strategy. Supermarket procurement practices introduce a wide array of standards that influence not just product quality, but how the product is produced, procured and traded. This dissertation uses Nicaragua as a case to explore what retail-led restructuring of agri-food systems means for food producers in developing countries producing for the domestic market. I use national data on agriculture and food retailing together with interviews of key actors in those sectors to provide an understanding of how the architecture of the agri-food system has changed as a result of the entrance of supermarkets into domestic food markets. Interviews with farmers differently located within that system provides an understanding of how that change is experienced by farmers. This dissertation is organized as three related but independent papers. The first paper explores the localization strategy of a transnational supermarket (now Wal-Mart Centroamérica) which uses long-term partnerships with NGOs to overcome the challenges of fresh vegetable procurement and supermarket growth in Nicaragua. These partnerships have helped supermarkets manage the supply chain to their advantage, improve product quality, stabilize supply, and access resources for growth, all while reducing procurement costs. The second paper examines the effects of this localization strategy on how food is produced and marketed domestically. The supermarket's procurement practices produce a new culture of production and trade among suppliers which removes transactions from the market, makes price comparisons difficult, and raises the costs of switching market channels, all affecting market competition. The third paper shows how supermarket localization strategies simultaneously differentiate their products and practices from other market channels, while standardizing them within the supermarket channel. Procurement routes and delivery and payment systems have a much larger impact on the organization of production and marketing than product quality standards themselves. The resulting standardization imposes costs on farmers, makes farmers replaceable, and allows supermarkets to wield greater power in the supply chain.
Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2006.
Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves ...84-88).
Cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A) induction in fish and other animals has been reported following exposure to pulp and paper mill effluent. Dioxins and furans as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ...(PAH) are known inducers of CYP1A and have been found in sediments near pulp and paper mills. Retene (7-isopropyl-1-methylphenanthrene), an alkyl-substituted phenanthrene, has been recently associated with effluent and found to induce CYP1A in fish. This study utilized an in vitro assay, P450 Reporter Gene System (RGS), to assess the transcriptional activation of human CYP1A by retene after short (6 h) and long (16 h) exposures. Retene was as potent as benzoapyrene in inducing RGS, but was not as readily biotransformed by the cells. Extracts of sediments collected near a pulp and paper mill were analysed, and RGS-derived toxic equivalencies (TEQ) were strongly correlated with Chemical TEQ analysis of dioxins and furans determined by EPA Method 8290 using high-resolution gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. RGS 6-h responses indicated the presence of PAH in the extracts, which was confirmed by GC/MS analysis. Retene was detected at considerably higher concentrations than other PAH. These data support the use of the RGS assay to detect the presence of CYP1Ainducing compounds, including retene as well as dioxins and furans, in sediments near pulp mills.
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