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Selected AbstractsAn evaluation of a heroin overdose prevention and education campaignDRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 1 2010DANIELLE HORYNIAK Abstract Introduction and Aims. Following detection of an upward trend in the frequency of fatal heroin overdoses in Victoria between 2001 and 2003, Victoria's Department of Human Services planned a campaign aimed at increasing injecting drug users' (IDU) awareness of overdose risks and prevention strategies. Stickers, wallet cards and posters featuring five key messages were distributed via needle and syringe programs (NSP) and other drug and alcohol services between November 2005 and April 2006. An evaluation of the campaign was commissioned to be conducted in late 2006. Design and Methods. The evaluation consisted of analysis of three independent data sets,,quantitative data collected from IDU during the campaign period (n = 855 at baseline; and a range of 146,656 at follow up); qualitative interviews with IDU who were NSP clients during the campaign period (n = 16) and qualitative interviews with NSP staff and other key stakeholders (n = 9). Results. While key experts felt that the campaign messages had engendered lasting impact for at least some IDU, these positive impressions were not borne out by the NSP client data, with less than one quarter of all campaign messages being mentioned by a significantly higher proportion of clients during the post-campaign period compared with baseline. Key experts perceived the greatest weakness of the campaign to be the delay between issue identification and the introduction of campaign materials. Discussion and Conclusions. While IDU are generally responsive to health promotion campaigns, future initiatives in this domain should be designed and implemented rapidly and in ways that are sufficiently flexible to cope with shifts in drug markets which could influence the reception of key messages.[Horyniak D, Higgs P, Lewis J, Winter R, Dietze P, Aitken C. An evaluation of a heroin overdose prevention and education campaign. Drug Alcohol Rev 2009] [source] Rapid evolution and the convergence of ecological and evolutionary timeECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 10 2005Nelson G. Hairston Jr Abstract Recent studies have documented rates of evolution of ecologically important phenotypes sufficiently fast that they have the potential to impact the outcome of ecological interactions while they are underway. Observations of this type go against accepted wisdom that ecological and evolutionary dynamics occur at very different time scales. While some authors have evaluated the rapidity of a measured evolutionary rate by comparing it to the overall distribution of measured evolutionary rates, we believe that ecologists are mainly interested in rapid evolution because of its potential to impinge on ecological processes. We therefore propose that rapid evolution be defined as a genetic change occurring rapidly enough to have a measurable impact on simultaneous ecological change. Using this definition we propose a framework for decomposing rates of ecological change into components driven by simultaneous evolutionary change and by change in a non-evolutionary factor (e.g. density dependent population dynamics, abiotic environmental change). Evolution is judged to be rapid in this ecological context if its contribution to ecological change is large relative to the contribution of other factors. We provide a worked example of this approach based on a theoretical predator,prey interaction [Abrams, P. & Matsuda, H. (1997). Evolution, 51, 1740], and find that in this system the impact of prey evolution on predator per capita growth rate is 63% that of internal ecological dynamics. We then propose analytical methods for measuring these contributions in field situations, and apply them to two long-term data sets for which suitable ecological and evolutionary data exist. For both data sets relatively high rates of evolutionary change have been found when measured as character change in standard deviations per generation (haldanes). For Darwin's finches evolving in response to fluctuating rainfall [Grant, P.R. & Grant, B.R. (2002). Science, 296, 707], we estimate that evolutionary change has been more rapid than ecological change by a factor of 2.2. For a population of freshwater copepods whose life history evolves in response to fluctuating fish predation [Hairston, N.G. Jr & Dillon, T.A. (1990). Evolution, 44, 1796], we find that evolutionary change has been about one quarter the rate of ecological change , less than in the finch example, but nevertheless substantial. These analyses support the view that in order to understand temporal dynamics in ecological processes it is critical to consider the extent to which the attributes of the system under investigation are simultaneously changing as a result of rapid evolution. [source] Limits of life in MgCl2 -containing environments: chaotropicity defines the windowENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 3 2007John E. Hallsworth Summary The biosphere of planet Earth is delineated by physico-chemical conditions that are too harsh for, or inconsistent with, life processes and maintenance of the structure and function of biomolecules. To define the window of life on Earth (and perhaps gain insights into the limits that life could tolerate elsewhere), and hence understand some of the most unusual biological activities that operate at such extremes, it is necessary to understand the causes and cellular basis of systems failure beyond these windows. Because water plays such a central role in biomolecules and bioprocesses, its availability, properties and behaviour are among the key life-limiting parameters. Saline waters dominate the Earth, with the oceans holding 96.5% of the planet's water. Saline groundwater, inland seas or saltwater lakes hold another 1%, a quantity that exceeds the world's available freshwater. About one quarter of Earth's land mass is underlain by salt, often more than 100 m thick. Evaporite deposits contain hypersaline waters within and between their salt crystals, and even contain large subterranean salt lakes, and therefore represent significant microbial habitats. Salts have a major impact on the nature and extent of the biosphere, because solutes radically influence water's availability (water activity) and exert other activities that also affect biological systems (e.g. ionic, kosmotropic, chaotropic and those that affect cell turgor), and as a consequence can be major stressors of cellular systems. Despite the stressor effects of salts, hypersaline environments can be heavily populated with salt-tolerant or -dependent microbes, the halophiles. The most common salt in hypersaline environments is NaCl, but many evaporite deposits and brines are also rich in other salts, including MgCl2 (several hundred million tonnes of bischofite, MgCl2·6H2O, occur in one formation alone). Magnesium (Mg) is the third most abundant element dissolved in seawater and is ubiquitous in the Earth's crust, and throughout the Solar System, where it exists in association with a variety of anions. Magnesium chloride is exceptionally soluble in water, so can achieve high concentrations (> 5 M) in brines. However, while NaCl-dominated hypersaline environments are habitats for a rich variety of salt-adapted microbes, there are contradictory indications of life in MgCl2 -rich environments. In this work, we have sought to obtain new insights into how MgCl2 affects cellular systems, to assess whether MgCl2 can determine the window of life, and, if so, to derive a value for this window. We have dissected two relevant cellular stress-related activities of MgCl2 solutions, namely water activity reduction and chaotropicity, and analysed signatures of life at different concentrations of MgCl2 in a natural environment, namely the 0.05,5.05 M MgCl2 gradient of the seawater : hypersaline brine interface of Discovery Basin , a large, stable brine lake almost saturated with MgCl2, located on the Mediterranean Sea floor. We document here the exceptional chaotropicity of MgCl2, and show that this property, rather than water activity reduction, inhibits life by denaturing biological macromolecules. In vitro, a test enzyme was totally inhibited by MgCl2 at concentrations below 1 M; and culture medium with MgCl2 concentrations above 1.26 M inhibited the growth of microbes in samples taken from all parts of the Discovery interface. Although DNA and rRNA from key microbial groups (sulfate reducers and methanogens) were detected along the entire MgCl2 gradient of the seawater : Discovery brine interface, mRNA, a highly labile indicator of active microbes, was recovered only from the upper part of the chemocline at MgCl2 concentrations of less than 2.3 M. We also show that the extreme chaotropicity of MgCl2 at high concentrations not only denatures macromolecules, but also preserves the more stable ones: such indicator molecules, hitherto regarded as evidence of life, may thus be misleading signatures in chaotropic environments. Thus, the chaotropicity of MgCl2 would appear to be a window-of-life-determining parameter, and the results obtained here suggest that the upper MgCl2 concentration for life, in the absence of compensating (e.g. kosmotropic) solutes, is about 2.3 M. [source] Prediction of alcohol-related harm from controlled drinking strategies and alcohol consumption trajectoriesADDICTION, Issue 4 2004J. W. Toumbourou ABSTRACT Aims To establish predictors of age 21 alcohol-related harm from prior drinking patterns, current levels of alcohol consumption and use of controlled drinking strategies. Participants One thousand, five hundred and ninety-six students recruited from an initial sample of 3300 during their final year of high school in 1993. Design Longitudinal follow-up across five waves of data collection. Setting Post high school in Victoria, Australia. Measurements Self-administered surveys examining a range of health behaviours, including alcohol consumption patterns and related behaviour. Findings Drinking behaviours at age 21 were found to be strongly predicted by drinking trajectories established through the transition from high school. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that alcohol-related harms at age 21 were reduced where current levels of alcohol use fell within limits recommended in Australian national guidelines. After controlling for this effect it was found that the range of strategies employed by participants to control alcohol use maintained a small protective influence. Post-high-school drinking trajectories continued to demonstrate a significant effect after controlling for current behaviours. Findings revealed that over one quarter of males and females drank alcohol, but on a less-than-weekly basis. This pattern of alcohol use demonstrated considerable stability through the post-school transition and was associated with a low level of subsequent harm at age 21. Conclusions Future research should investigate whether encouraging more Australian adolescents to drink alcohol on a less-than-weekly basis may be a practical intervention target for reducing alcohol-related harms. [source] Clinical and radiographic judgement of occlusal caries in adolescentsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ORAL SCIENCES, Issue 2 2000Jan H. G. Poorterman In this study, the clinical and radiographic material of two groups of 17- and 20-yr-old adolescents, born either in 1970 or in 1976, was compared to study changes in the prevalence of occlusal dentine caries and to determine the additional value of the bitewing radiographs. The first and second molars of 478 participants were included. Clinical data were derived from an epidemiological project. Two examiners judged the bitewing radiographs, of which about 10% was examined by both. The overall Cohen's kappa for interexaminer agreement was 0.87. The prevalence of occlusal caries had not changed for the two age groups; after clinical and radiographic examination, around 33% of the occlusal surfaces of the 17 yr olds and around 25% of the 20 yr olds exhibited dentine caries. The clinical prevalence of occlusal caries in first and second molars was highly underestimated when compared with the radiographs. In the 1976 group, more sealants were recorded during the clinical examination. On the bitewing radiographs, radiolucencies were found underneath one-half of the sealants of the 17 yr olds and underneath one quarter of the sealants present in the 20 yr olds. [source] Enhancing catch-and-release science with biotelemetryFISH AND FISHERIES, Issue 1 2008Michael R. Donaldson Abstract Catch-and-release (C&R) angling is widely practised by anglers and is a common fisheries management strategy or is a by-product of harvest regulations. Accordingly, there is a growing body of research that examines not only the mortality associated with C&R, but also the sublethal physiological and behavioural consequences. Biotelemetry offers a powerful means of remotely monitoring the behaviour, physiology and mortality of fish caught and released in their natural environment, but we contend that its usefulness is still underappreciated by scholars and managers. In this study, we review the applications of biotelemetry in C&R science, identify novel research directions, opportunities and challenges. There are now about 250 C&R studies but only one quarter of these utilize biotelemetry. In fact, almost all of the C&R studies that have used biotelemetry have been conducted within the last decade. We found that the majority of C&R telemetry studies used either radio or acoustic telemetry, while comparatively few studies have used satellite technologies. Most C&R biotelemetry studies have been used to assess mortality rates, behavioural impairments or to evaluate the effects of displacement on fish. A small fraction of studies (<8%) have used physiological sensors despite the fact that these tools are highly applicable to understanding the multiple sublethal consequences of C&R and are useful for providing mechanistic insights into endpoints such as death. We conclude that C&R science has the potential to benefit greatly from biotelemetry technology, particularly with respect to providing more robust short-term and delayed mortality estimates and adopting a more integrative and comparative approach to understanding the lethal and sublethal impacts of C&R. However, there are still a number of challenges including (i) the need for appropriate controls and methodological approaches, (ii) the need for accounting for tagging and handling stress and mortality, and (iii) the need for certainty in assessing mortality. However, the benefits associated with C&R biotelemetry outweigh its disadvantages and limitations and thereby offer C&R researchers a suite of new tools to enhance fisheries management and conservation. [source] Sexual activity and risk-taking in later lifeHEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 2 2001C. Merryn Gott MA PhD Abstract The primary study objective was to identify the prevalence of sexual activity and sexual risk-taking behaviour among a sample of older community-based adults. Secondary objectives included gathering data about past experiences of consultations regarding sexual health issues with general practitioners (GPs) and at genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics, and exploring participants' STI and HIV/AIDS-related information needs. Individuals over the age of 50 were identified from four electoral wards within Sheffield, UK by means of a postal screen based on the electoral register. Respondents self completed a short postal questionnaire. Three hundred and nineteen individuals aged over 50 years selected at random from the general population responded. Approximately 80% of respondents were currently sexually active and 7% engaged in behaviours that may place them at risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Risk takers were typically male, aged between 50 and 60 years and married. Being male was also related to reporting current or past sexual health concerns. In total, of 75 respondents reporting such concerns, two thirds had discussed these concerns with their GP or attended a GUM clinic. Levels of satisfaction with such consultations were generally high, but declined with increasing age. Overall, most participants felt they had not received very much information about STIs and HIV, and about one quarter reported that they would like to receive more information on these topics. These data have implications for all health and social care professionals who work with older people and indicate a potential need for education to help professionals meet the sexual health needs of their older patients/clients. Further implications for sexual health promotion and the need for additional research in this field are also discussed. [source] Schooling, cognitive ability and healthHEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 10 2005M. Christopher Auld Abstract A large literature documents a strong correlation between health and educational outcomes. In this paper we investigate the role of cognitive ability in the health-education nexus. Using NLSY data, we show that one standard deviation increase in cognitive ability is associated with roughly the same increase in health as two years of schooling and that cognitive ability accounts for roughly one quarter of the association between schooling and health. Both schooling and ability are strongly associated with health at low levels but less related or unrelated at high levels. Estimates treating schooling as endogenous to health suggest that much of the correlation between schooling and health is attributable to unobserved heterogeneity; the causal effect of schooling on health is large only for respondents with low levels of schooling and low cognitive ability. An implication is that policies which increase schooling will only increase health to the extent that they increase the education of poorly-educated individuals. Subsidies to college education, for example, are unlikely to increase population health. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Reducing the length of mental health instruments through structurally incomplete designsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF METHODS IN PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH, Issue 3 2007Niels Smits Abstract This paper presents structurally incomplete designs as an approach to reduce the length of mental health tests. In structurally incomplete test designs, respondents only fill out a subset of the total item set. The scores on the unadministered items are estimated using methods for missing data. As an illustration, structurally incomplete test designs recording, respectively, two thirds, one half, one third and one quarter of the complete item set were applied to item scores on the Centre of Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale of the respondents in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA). The resulting unobserved item scores were estimated with the missing data method Data Augmentation. The complete and reconstructed data yielded very similar total scores and depression classifications. In contrast, the diagnostic accuracy of the incomplete designs decreased as the designs had more unobserved item scores. The discussion addresses the strengths and limitations of the application of incomplete designs in mental health research. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A method for the non-destructive analysis of gradients of mechanical stresses by X-ray diffraction measurements at fixed penetration/information depthsJOURNAL OF APPLIED CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, Issue 5 2006A. Kumar A rigorous measurement strategy for (X-ray) diffraction stress measurements at fixed penetration/information depths has been developed. Thereby errors caused by lack of penetration-depth control in traditional (X-ray) diffraction (sin2,) measurements have been annulled. The range of accessible penetration/information depths and experimental aspects have been discussed. As a practical example, the depth gradient of the state of residual stress in a sputter-deposited nickel layer of 2,µm thickness has been investigated by diffraction stress measurements with uncontrolled penetration/information depth and two controlled penetration/information depths corresponding to about one quarter and one tenth of the layer thickness, respectively. The decrease of the planar tensile stress in the direction towards the surface could be well established quantitatively. [source] An Analysis of the Distribution and Social Antecedents of Restrictive Behavioural Practices in a Community Day Service for Adults with Intellectual DisabilitiesJOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 2 2009Lori L. Finn Background, Community service providers strive to reduce the use of restrictive behavioural procedures, but little is known about their use in community services. Therefore, this study analysed the distribution among service users and antecedents to the use of restrictive procedures. Materials, The authors analysed records of the use of restrictive behavioural procedures for 81 adults with intellectual disabilities, behavioural and mental health challenges who attended a community day programme. The authors obtained data from one quarter in each of three consecutive years. The authors analysed the frequency of restrictive procedures by individual and the frequency of antecedents to the use of restrictive procedures. Results, A small proportion of service users accounted for all use of restrictive procedures. This was true for all three data sets. We coded antecedents to the use of restrictive procedures reliably. The most common antecedents were transitions and seatwork. Conclusion, Restrictive behavioural procedures are concentrated among a small proportion of service users and occasions. Efforts to reduce the use of restrictive procedures should first identify these service users and occasions and then focus efforts to reduce restrictive procedures there. Information concerning the antecedents of restrictive behavioural procedures may be useful as part of a descriptive assessment to design individual interventions to reduce restrictive procedures. [source] Vagal Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation: Prevalence and Ablation Outcome in Patients Without Structural Heart DiseaseJOURNAL OF CARDIOVASCULAR ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 5 2010RAPHAEL ROSSO M.D. Prevalence of Vagal Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation.,Introduction: The prevalence of vagal and adrenergic atrial fibrillation (AF) and the success rate of pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) are not well defined. We investigated the prevalence of vagal and adrenergic AF and the ablation success rate of antral pulmonary vein isolation (APVI) in patients with these triggers compared with patients with random AF. Methods and Results: Two hundred and nine consecutive patients underwent APVI due to symptomatic drug refractory paroxysmal AF. Patients were diagnosed as vagal or adrenergic AF if >90% of AF episodes were related to vagal or adrenergic triggers; otherwise, a diagnosis of random AF was made. Clinical, electrocardiogram (ECG), and Holter follow-up was every 3 months in the first year and every 6 months afterward and for symptoms. Of 209 patients, 57 (27%) had vagal AF, 14 (7%) adrenergic AF, and 138 (66%) random AF. Vagal triggers were sleep (96.4%), postprandial (96.4%), late post-exercise (51%), cold stimulus (20%), coughing (7%), and swallowing (2%). At APVI, 94.3% of patients had isolation of all veins. Twenty-five (12%) patients had a second APVI. At a follow-up of 21 ± 15 months, the percentage of patients free of AF was 75% in the vagal group, 86% in the adrenergic group, and 82% for random AF (P = 0.51). Conclusion: In patients with PAF and no structural heart disease referred for APVI, vagal AF is present in approximately one quarter. APVI is equally effective in patients with vagal AF as in adrenergic and random AF. (J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol, Vol. 21, pp. 489-493, May 2010) [source] P/E changes: some new resultsJOURNAL OF FORECASTING, Issue 4 2009Thomas Zorn Abstract The P/E ratio is often used as a metric to compare individual stocks and the market as a whole relative to historical valuations. We examine the factors that affect changes in the inverse of the P/E ratio (E/P) over time in the broad market (S&P 500 Index). Our model includes variables that measure investor beliefs and changes in tax rates and shows that these variables are important factors affecting the P/E ratio. We extend prior work by correcting for the presence of a long-run relation between variables included in the model. As frequently conjectured, changes in the P/E ratio have predictive power. Our model explains a large portion of the variation in E/P and accurately predicts the future direction of E/P, particularly when predicted changes in E/P are large or provide a consistent signal over more than one quarter. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Encouraging and analyzing student questions in a large physics course: Meaningful patterns for instructorsJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 8 2003Kathleen A. Harper In a large introductory physics course, structured weekly journals (weekly reports) regularly encouraged students to ask questions about the material. The resulting questions were collected for one quarter and coded based on difficulty and topic. Students also took several conceptual tests during the quarter. The reports contained more questions than typically observed in a college classroom, but the number of questions asked was not correlated to any measure of conceptual performance. Relationships among different types of questions and performance on these tests were explored. Deeper-level questions that focus on concepts, coherence of knowledge, and limitations were related to the variance in student conceptual achievement. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 776,791, 2003 [source] Speaking Foreign Languages in the United States: Correlates, Trends, and Possible ConsequencesMODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 4 2006JOHN P. ROBINSON With President George W. Bush's unprecedented call in January 2006 to expand the foreign language capacity of the United States, it has become clear that languages other than English (LOE) are of great interest to public policy in the United States. Yet the language capacity of the United States remains poorly documented. The 2000 General Social Survey (GSS) included new questions concerning the languages spoken by 1,398 respondents. Although about one quarter (26%) of respondents to this GSS sample claimed they could speak another language, only 10% overall said they could speak it very well. Those respondents who speak a foreign language were typically aged 25,44, graduate school educated, self-identified as being of a race other than White, and living in large metropolitan cities and on the coasts. Spanish (50%), French (15%), and German (9%) were the most common languages spoken by the survey respondents. Whereas 67% of respondents who learned the language at home as a child said they could speak it very well, only 10% of those who learned it in school or elsewhere did speak it very well. As expected, LOE speakers gave significantly more responses revealing support of LOE and policies favorable to immigration, with LOE-home speakers being more positive about these issues than LOE speakers who learned the language at school. These findings can help to inform national policy debates concerning how best to address the language needs of the United States. [source] Should children at risk for familial adenomatous polyposis be screened for hepatoblastoma and children with apparently sporadic hepatoblastoma be screened for APC germline mutations?,PEDIATRIC BLOOD & CANCER, Issue 6 2006Stefan Aretz MD Abstract Background Hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most frequent liver tumor in childhood, occurring in the first few years of life. Surgery combined with chemotherapy has resulted in dramatic improvements in prognosis. However, even today, about one quarter of affected children do not survive the disease. Compared to the general population, the risk of HB is 750,7,500 times higher in children predisposed to familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), an autosomal-dominant cancer predispostion syndrome caused by germline mutations in the tumor suppressor gene APC. Only limited data exist about the frequency of APC germline mutations in cases of apparently sporadic HB without a family history of FAP. Procedure In our sample of 1,166 German FAP families, all known cases of HB were registered. In addition, 50 patients with apparently sporadic HB were examined for APC germline mutations. Results In the FAP families, seven unrelated cases of HB are documented; three had been detected at an advanced stage. In patients with apparently sporadic HB, germline mutations in the APC gene were identified in 10%. Conclusions These data raise the issue of the appropriate screening for HB in children of FAP patients. To date, the efficiency of surveillance for HB is unclear. In Beckwith,Wiedemann syndrome (BWS), recent studies suggest an earlier detection of both Wilms tumor and HB by frequent screening. We discuss the rationale and implications of a screening program; besides the examination procedure itself, screening for HB in children of FAP patients would have important consequences for the policy of predictive testing in FAP. In a substantial fraction of sporadic HB, the disease is obviously the first manifestation of a de novo FAP. These patients should be identified by routine APC mutation screening and undergo colorectal surveillance thereafter. Pediatric Blood Cancer 2006;47:811,818. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Use of wild and cultivated foods by chimpanzees at Bossou, Republic of Guinea: feeding dynamics in a human-influenced environmentAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 8 2009Kimberley J. Hockings Abstract Increased human population growth and more conversions of natural habitat to agricultural land have resulted in greater proximity between humans and nonhuman primate species. Consequent increases in resource competition including crop-raiding are a by-product of both natural resources becoming less available and the nutritional benefits of cultivated foods becoming more known to the nonhuman primates. Chimpanzees at Bossou in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa, consume 17 different types of cultivated foods that are grown extensively throughout their small, fragmented home range. Direct observations of feeding behavior conducted over an 18-month period revealed that during specific months crops account for up to one quarter of chimpanzee feeding time, with higher overall crop-raiding levels throughout the periods of wild fruit scarcity. Some cultivated foods, especially sugar fruits, are mostly fallback foods, whereas others, such as rice pith (Oryza sp.) and maize (Zea mays), are consumed according to their availability even when wild foods are abundant. These findings highlight the importance of both crop choice by farmers and a thorough understanding of the ecology of resident primate species when establishing land management techniques for alleviating human,primate conflict. Am. J. Primatol. 71:636,646, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The pair-functional method for direct solution of molecular structures.ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION A, Issue 2 2001The new pair-functional direct method has been implemented and tested. Like the Patterson function, the pairing force has valuable imaging properties at high resolution. Two simple iterative algorithms were designed to refine on the total pair potential and the normalized intensity correlation coefficient of an atomic model. The first algorithm is a peak-picking method which selects the best-paired high peaks from a density map and then uses the strong reflections to generate a new Fourier filtered map. The second algorithm, the pair-and-square method, uses a tangent formula step instead of the Fourier and is a little more efficient. Computational experiments on a point-atom grid model, with perfect data, reached exact ab initio solutions for up to 600 atoms. Point-atom models were also solved by searching for reduced structures that contained as few as one quarter of the atoms. Seeded searches, guided by a small known fragment, solved up to 30000 atoms on the grid. Realistic tests on actual molecules showed that Sheldrick's [Acta Cryst. (1990), A46, 467,473] test structures of 50,200 atoms can be solved under a variety of conditions. [source] The Expanded Criteria Donor Policy: An Evaluation of Program Objectives and Indirect RamificationsAMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 7 2006J. D. Schold The expanded criteria donor (ECD) policy was formalized in 2002, which defined higher-risk deceased donor kidneys recovered for transplantation. There has not been a comprehensive examination of the impact of policy on the allocation of ECD kidneys, waiting times for transplant, center listing patterns or human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching. We examined transplant candidates from 1998 to 2004 utilizing a national database. We constructed models to assess alterations in recipient characteristics of ECD kidneys and trends in waiting time and cold ischemia time (CIT) associated with policy. We also evaluated the impact of the proportion of center candidate listings for ECD kidneys on waiting times. Elderly recipients were more likely to receive ECDs following policy (odds ratio = 1.36, p < 0.01). There was no association of decreased CIT or pretransplant dialysis time while increasing HLA mismatching with policy inception. Over one quarter of centers listed <20% of candidates for ECDs, while an additional quarter of centers listed >90%. Only centers with selective listing for ECDs offered reduced waiting times to ECD recipients. The ECD policy demonstrates potential to achieve certain ascribed goals; however, the full impact of the program, reaching all transplant candidates, may only be achieved once ECD listing patterns are recommended and adopted accordingly. [source] Prevalence of health behaviours in pregnancy at service entry in a Queensland health service districtAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 3 2009Shelley A. Wilkinson Abstract Objective: Limited prevalence data for unhealthy pregnancy health behaviours make it difficult to prioritise primary prevention efforts for maternal and infant health. This study's objective was to establish the prevalence of cigarette smoking, sufficient fruit and vegetable intake and sufficient physical activity among women accessing antenatal clinics in a Queensland (Australia) health service district. Method: Cross-sectional self-reported smoking status, daily fruit and vegetable intake, weekly physical activity and a range of socio-demographic variables were obtained from women recruited at their initial antenatal clinic visit, over a three-month recruitment phase during 2007. Results: Analyses were based on 262 pregnant women. The study sample was broadly representative of women giving birth in the district and state, with higher representation of women with low levels of education and high income. More than one quarter of women were smoking. Few women met the guidelines for sufficient fruit (9.2%), vegetables (2.7%) or physical activity (32.8%) during pregnancy. Conclusions: There were low levels of adherence to health behaviour recommendations for pregnancy in this sample. Implications: There is a clear need to develop and evaluate effective pregnancy behaviour interventions to improve primary prevention in maternal and infant health. Brief minimal contact interventions that can be delivered through primary care to create a greater primary prevention focus for maternal and infant health would be worth exploring. [source] How much does health care contribute to health gain and to health inequality?AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 1 2009Trends in amenable mortality in New Zealand 198 Abstract Objective: To estimate the contribution of health care to health gain, and to ethnic and socio-economic health inequalities, in New Zealand over the past quarter century. Method: Amenable and all-cause mortality rates by ethnicity and equivalised household income tertile from 1981,84 to 2001,04 were estimated from linked census-mortality datasets (the New Zealand Census-Mortality Study). Amenable mortality (deaths under age 75 from conditions responsive to health care) was defined using a classification recently developed for use in Australia and New Zealand. The contribution of health care to the observed improvement in population health status was estimated by the ratio of the difference in amenable to the difference in all-cause mortality over the observation period. Results: Trends in amenable causes of death were estimated to account for approximately one-third of the fall in mortality over the past quarter century, for the population as a whole and for all income and ethnic groups except Pacific peoples, for whom there was no reduction in amenable mortality. In 2001,04, amenable causes accounted for approximately one quarter of the mortality gap between all ethnic groups compared to the European/Other reference. Discussion: Our finding provides one indicator of the social impact of health care over this period. More importantly, that Pacific peoples seem to have benefited less than other ethnic groups calls for urgent explanation. Also, our finding that amenable causes account for about one quarter of current mortality disparities, clearly indicates that improvement in access to and quality of health care for disadvantaged groups could substantively reduce health inequalities. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||