The Price of everything The Value of Nothing: A (Truly) External Review Of BERL’s Study Of Harmful Alcohol and Drug Use

In March 2009, Business and Economic Research Limited ("BERL") published “Costs of Harmful Alcohol and Other Drug Use,” a report jointly commissioned by the Ministry of Health and ACC. BERL was asked to measure the costs of drug and alcohol abuse to New Zealand society, but not to evaluate specific interventions. BERL calculated annual social costs of alcohol and illicit drug consumption of $6.8 billion, including$4.8 billion in social costs from alcohol alone. The report was cited by Law Commission President Sir Geoffrey Palmer as evidence in support of greater regulation, gaining considerable media coverage. We find substantial flaws in BERL’s method that together account for well over 90% of BERL’s calculated costs of alcohol use. Corrected external costs of alcohol use amount to $662 million and are roughly matched by the$516 million collected in alcohol excise taxes. The BERL report is wholly inadequate for use in assisting policy development.costs and benefits of alcohol usage; alcohol policy; New Zealand; adequacy of consultancy reports

Pioneer Venus

Venus before Pioneer, the Pioneer Venus mission, Pioneer Venus spacecraft, scientific investigation, mission to Venus scientific results, and results of Soviet studies of Venus are addressed. A chronology of exploration of Venus from Earth before the Pioneer Venus mission and Venus nomenclature and mythology are provided

Gauge Boson Exchange in AdSd+1AdS_{d+1}

We study the amplitude for exchange of massless gauge bosons between pairs of massive scalar fields in Anti-de Sitter space. In the AdS/CFT correspondence this amplitude describes the contribution of conserved flavor symmetry currents to 4-point functions of scalar operators in the boundary conformal theory. A concise, covariant (Y2K-compatible) derivation of the gauge boson propagator in \AdS_{d+1} is given. Techniques are developed to calculate the two bulk integrals over AdS space leading to explicit expressions or convenient, simple integral representations for the amplitude. The amplitude contains leading power and sub-leading logarithmic singularities in the gauge boson channel and leading logarithms in the crossed channel. The new methods of this paper are expected to have other applications in the study of the Maldacena conjecture.Comment: Corrections in (3.17) and (4.23); version to be published in Nuclear Physics B; 22 pages, 1 figure, using Plain TeX and BoxedEPS macros; email to [email protected]

A Qualitative Study of Women Who Have Been Problem Gamblers

During the past 20 years, there has been significant advancement in our conceptualization of problem gambling behaviour. Despite this progression, there remains a paucity of knowledge about gendered problem gambling behaviour. The purpose of this research was to elucidate the relationship between the female context and female problem gambling behaviour. The study employed qualitative methodology to explore the lived experiences of four female problem gamblers. Inductive content analysis resulted in the establishment of five core themes. A metaphor of self-protection emerged from examination of the core themes. The resultant metaphor suggests that female problem gambling may represent a maladaptive, yet functional self-protective behaviour against thoughts, memories, and feelings related to traumatic experiences. Further, these findings suggest a possible relationship between the metaphor of self-protection, trauma-mediated neurological changes in the brain, and amplified receptivity to gambling stimuli. Further research is required to verify and explore the generalizability of these findings.Alberta Gambling Research Institute (AGRI) - Scholarshi

Methane T-Dwarf Candidates in the Star Forming Region IC 348

IC 348 is a young (t$\sim$3Myr) and nearby (d$\sim$340pc) star forming region in the Perseus molecular cloud. We performed a deep imaging survey using the MEGACAM (z-band) and WIRCAM (JHK and narrowband CH${_4}$ on/off) wide-field cameras on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. From the analysis of the narrowband CH${_4}$ on/off deep images, we report 4 T-dwarf candidates, of which 3 clearly lie within the limits of the IC 348 cluster. An upper limit on the extinction was estimated for each candidate from colour-magnitude diagrams, and found consistent with extinction maps of the cloud. Initial comparisons with T-dwarf spectral models suggest these candidates have a spectral type between T3 and T5, and perhaps later, potentially making these among the lowest mass isolated objects detected in a young star forming region so far

How do dispersal costs and habitat selection influence realized population connectivity?

Despite the importance of dispersal for population connectivity, dispersal is often costly to the individual. A major impediment to understanding connectivity has been a lack of data combining the movement of individuals and their survival to reproduction in the new habitat (realized connectivity). Although mortality often occurs during dispersal (an immediate cost), in many organisms costs are paid after dispersal (deferred costs). It is unclear how such deferred costs influence the mismatch between dispersal and realized connectivity. Through a series of experiments in the field and laboratory, we estimated both direct and indirect deferred costs in a marine bryozoan (Bugula neritina). We then used the empirical data to parameterize a theoretical model in order to formalize predictions about how dispersal costs influence realized connectivity. Individuals were more likely to colonize poor-quality habitat after prolonged dispersal durations. Individuals that colonized poor-quality habitat performed poorly after colonization because of some property of the habitat (an indirect deferred cost) rather than from prolonged dispersal per se (a direct deferred cost). Our theoretical model predicted that indirect deferred costs could result in nonlinear mismatches between spatial patterns of potential and realized connectivity. The deferred costs of dispersal are likely to be crucial for determining how well patterns of dispersal reflect realized connectivity. Ignoring these deferred costs could lead to inaccurate predictions of spatial population dynamics

Behaviour of axially loaded structural bolting assemblies in fire

Bolt assemblies used in structural connections may fail in tension via two modes: Necking, which is a ductile failure, and thread stripping, which is a brittle failure mechanism. During a fire, a ductile failure mode is preferable as it provides continued load transfer from beams to columns for the longest amount of time, allowing for building evacuation. Bolt assemblies have been tested under tension at a range of strain rates and temperatures to observe both failure modes. Tests showed that those bolts with a non-martensitic microstructure failed in a beneficial ductile manner, contrary to the current standards

AdS/CFT 4-point functions: How to succeed at z-integrals without really trying

A new method is discussed which vastly simplifies one of the two integrals over AdS(d+1) required to compute exchange graphs for 4-point functions of scalars in the AdS/CFT correspondence. The explicit form of the bulk-to-bulk propagator is not required. Previous results for scalar, gauge boson and graviton exchange are reproduced, and new results are given for massive vectors. It is found that precisely for the cases that occur in the AdS(5) X S(5) compactification of Type IIB supergravity, the exchange diagrams reduce to a finite sum of graphs with quartic scalar vertices. The analogous integrals in n-point scalar diagrams for n>4 are also evaluated.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

Adverse and Positive Childhood Experiences of Clinical Mental Health Counselors as Predictors of Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, and Secondary Traumatic Stress

Despite an emphasis on self-care to avoid burnout and increase compassion satisfaction within the counseling profession, there is a dearth of research on the developmental experiences of counselors that may increase the likelihood of burnout. We examined the impact of mental health counselors’ (N = 140) experiences of adverse childhood experiences and positive childhood experiences on their present rates of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. We used a cross-sectional, non-experimental correlational design and reported descriptive statistics as well as results of multiple regression models. Results indicated significant relationships among counselors’ rates of adverse childhood experiences, positive childhood experiences, and compassion satisfaction and burnout. We include implications for the use of both the adverse and positive childhood experiences assessments in the training of counseling students and supervisees