The Impact Of Social Capital On Youth Substance Use

Substance use, such as alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana, is a threat to the health and well-being of the youth, their families, and society as well. Government supports and implements several programs to protect youth from substance use. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of social capital on youth behavior and to suggest evidence-based policy interventions. Social capital refers to individual embeddedness in web of social relations and their behaviors guided by social structure. Therefore, adolescents\u27 social interactions with their peers, parents, and community were investigated. The substance use was measured by the usage of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and inhalants in the past year. The type of activities adolescents participate in, the time and type of intra-familial interactions between parents and adolescents, and the type of peer groups adolescents interact with were employed as indicators of social capital. In other words, this study focuses on the relationship between youth substance use and the impact of parents, peers, and youth activities. Moreover, the study examined not only the correlation between social capital and substance use, but also the variation in substance use among youth by age, gender, ethnicity, income level, and mobility. The data, National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2005, 2006, and 2007), was collected by the United States Department of Health and Human Service, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Office of Applied Studies. The sample size for each year was around 17.000. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesized. The results of the statistical analysis supported the research hypothesis. Findings show that there is a relationship between youth substance use and social capital. All three dimensions of social capital (peer impact, family attachments, and youth activities) were found to be statistically significant. While peer influence is positively correlated with substance use, family attachment and youth activities have a negative relationship with substance use. The impact of social capital however varies by age, gender, ethnicity, mobility, and income level. The study also contributes to the social capital literature by integrating different perspectives in social capital and substance use literature. Moreover, it successfully demonstrates how social capital can be utilized as a policy and intervention tool

Drug decriminalization policy : Literature review : models, implementation and outcomes

The report aims to identify legal frameworks, models, and implementation practices of the decriminalization policies and to assess their empirical results. Statistics show that the prevalence of drug use has increased for decades all around the world despite all the strict measures taken. Decriminalization policy has emerged as a response to unbalanced prohibitionist drug policy, which creates not only social injustices at the individual level but also public health problems and high social costs at the macro level. On the other hand, decriminalization is a complex framework and is generally used as an umbrella term representing contemporary strategy. Governments have tailored this framework according to their priorities and expectations. The report categorizes models, implementations, and outcomes to evaluate results. Besides, by providing overall results from three European countries, we aim to assess the impact of the contextual factors and variation of the results. We hope the report will contribute to the discussion of developing better policy models managing drug problems.Non peer reviewe

Mechanism of invasion by prostate cancer

The prostate is normally under the control of sex steroids and endocrine therapy is the most effective first line therapy in prostate cancer. Prostate carcinoma is characterised by eventual loss of hormonal sensitivity with increased aggressive behaviour of the tumour. Prostate carcinoma has an initial slow growing non- invasive phase, but, mostly, is invasive by the time of diagnosis. As the tumour progresses, tissue growth factors, such as epidermal growth factor (EGF) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGFbeta) appear to be more effective than hormones in the control of the cancer cells. Increased tyrosine kinase activity, related to the increased activity of growth factor receptors, has been shown in many prostate cancers. Plasminogen activators (PA) , particularly urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA), have been implicated in extracellular proteolysis in invasiveness, metastasis and angiogenesis. PA are highly substrate specific enzymes which convert the inactive zymogen plasminogen to plasmin. Plasmin, a proteolytic enzyme of broad specificity, degrades laminin and fibronectin, and activates various tissue metalloproteinases. Degradation of these extracellular proteins facilitates the migration and metastasis of tumour cells to different biological sites. Regulation of uPA activity and pericellular proteolysis, at protein level, is controlled by the combination of PA inhibitors, PAI-1 and PAI-2 which are responsible for the negative regulation and uPA receptor (uPAR) which binds latent uPA. uPA plays a critical role in the invasion and migration of prostate cancer cells and provides a marker of the aggressive phenotype. This study investigated the regulation by androgen, EGF, and TGFbeta of the release and function of uPA, PAI-1 and PAI-2 using hormone-insensitive invasive prostate cancer cells, PC-3 and DU145. These studies include measurement of EGF receptor function, in terms of its sensitivity to a "specific" inhibitor and assay of the various proteases at mRNA, protein and functional levels. The PC3 and DU145 cells both possess EGF receptor (EGFR). Growth of PC3 cells was stimulated by exogenous EGF but not that of DU145 cells (figs 3.5 and 3.6). However, EGFR-specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors significantly inhibited growth of both cell types (figs 3.7 and 3.8). On the other hand, both cell types were found to be growth insensitive to exogenous TGFbeta (figs 4.1 and 4.2). Both cell lines expressed uPA, uPAR and PAI-1 transcripts. uPA, tPA, PAI-1 and PAI-2 proteins were all detectable in the PC3 cells whereas only uPA and PAI-1 proteins (PAI-1 protein was hardly detectable in the control group) were found in DU145 cells. EGF increased the production of uPA, at both transcriptional and protein level (figs 3.11, 3.15 and 3.16) in addition to increasing uPAR at transcriptional level (figs 3.12 and 3.14) in both cell lines. uPA activity was enhanced by EGF in both cell lines (figs 3.18 and 3.19). The matrigel invasion of the PC3 cells was increased by exogenous EGF in an in vitro invasion assay (fig 3.20). The tyrosine kinase inhibitors inhibited all stimulations caused by EGF. uPA production and activity were suppressed well below that in the control group. The tyrosine kinase inhibitor (ZM26060S) also reversed the EGF stimulated matrigel invasion by the PC3 cells. TGFbeta also stimulated uPA and PAI-1 production in both cell lines (figs 4.8 and 4.9). The TGFB-induced increase in PAI-1 production in both cell lines (figs 4.10 and 4.11) was remarkable (2087 % in PC3, 1433 % in DU145). TGFbeta also stimulated PAI-2 protein in the PC3 cell line. uPA activity was found to be inhibited by TGFbeta in the PC3 cell cytosol whereas it was increased in the DU145 cells (figs 4.12 and 4.13). In the matrigel invasion assay TGFbeta treated PC3 and DU 145 cells showed a similar invasion in comparison to the control group. Overall, EGF is a potent stimulative agent for both growth and invasion in prostate cancer cells. The contribution of TGFbeta to prostate cancer cell growth and invasiveness still seems to be controversial. The effect of TGFbeta on the immune system, on angiogenesis and on colony formation by cancer cells all suggest that TGFbeta plays a positive role in favour of cancer invasiveness and provides a new target for therapy. As can be seen from the results, targetting the EGFR function inhibits not only tumour growth but also its invasiveness. On the basis of these results, inhibition of EGFR-related tyrosine kinase activity may open a new era in the treatment of drug-resistant prostate cancer

Twitter activity surrounding the Finnish green party's cannabis legalisation proposal : A mixed-methods analysis

Background: In September 2021, a Finnish political party, the Greens, voted to include cannabis policy reform in their party programme, which would legalise the use, possession, manufacture and sale of cannabis. A rapid public discussion has emerged on different social media platforms, including Twitter. Methods: We downloaded 10 days of Twitter data and prepared it for further text analysis, including sentiment, topic modelling and thematic content analysis. Results: Before the proposal, the average daily number of tweets was approximately 140. However, during the week of the proposal, there was a significant increase in tweet volume, reaching a peak of 6,600 tweets on a single day, with a daily average of over 2,700 tweets. Sentiment analysis showed that during the public discussion, the sentiment scores of the tweets were more likely to be positive. Through topic modelling analysis, we obtained the weight of the topic for each tweet, which enabled us to identify the most representative tweets in our corpus. To narrow the sample size for content analysis, we selected tweets that had a topic percentage distribution of over 0.95 (N=188) for closer thematic content analysis. Several positive and negative themes emerged, which were then categorised under broader topics. Similar themes were identified in the most retweeted, liked and commented tweets, which came mainly from known public figures, including politicians, health experts and NGO leaders. Conclusion: Our results show that the discussion was not limited to cannabis legalisation, but instead covered a variety of topics related to drug policy.Peer reviewe

An In Vitro Comparison of Different Diagnostic Methods in Detection of Residual Dentinal Caries

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficiency of different diagnostic methods in detection of residual dentinal caries in excavated cavities. Fifty extracted molar with deep dentinal carious lesions were excavated using a slow-speed handpiece. All cavities were assessed by laser fluorescence(LF) device, electronic caries monitor(ECM), and caries detector dye(CDD) by three independent observers blindly. The measurements were repeated after two weeks. Specimens containing dentin slices 150 μm in thickness were prepared for histological analyses. The existence and absence of carious dentin was determined using a lightmicroscope. The average intraobserver accuracy was 1.00 (perfect agreement) for CDD, 0.86 (excellent agreement) for ECM, and 0.50 (good agreement) for LF. The average interobserver accuracy values were 0.92 (excellent agreement), (0.36 marginal agreement) and 0.48 (good agreement), for CDD, ECM, and LF, respectively. The average specificity was 0.60 for CDD, 73% for ECM, and 0.50 for LF. The average sensitivity was 0.55 for CDD, 0.85 for LF, and 0.47 for ECM. The average accuracy values were 0.53, 0.51, and 0.81 for CDD, ECM, and LF, respectively. LF had the greatest sensitivity and accuracy values of any of the methods tested. As a conclusion, LF device is appeared to most reliable method in detection of remain caries in cavity. However, because of its technical sensitivity it may susceptible to variations in measurements. To pay attention to the rule of usage and repeated measurements can minimize such variations in clinical practice. It was concluded that LF is an improvement on the currently available aids for residual caries detection

Sociodemographic differences and experienced effects of young adults who use cannabis mainly for self-medication versus recreationally in Finland

Purpose Cannabis use continues to increase worldwide, and a number of nation states are changing their cannabis policies. Policy changes require research into key populations, namely, people who use cannabis. This study aims to examine sociodemographic differences of young Finns who reported using cannabis mainly for self-medication versus mainly recreationally, as well as their reported effects of cannabis use. Design/methodology/approach The data come from an anonymous online survey (N = 247, 70.0% males, 25.9% females, 4.1% other) that was analysed using multiple logistic regression. The authors focused on whether various demographic indicators differed between those who reportedly used cannabis mainly for recreational purposes and mainly for self-medicinal purposes. The authors also qualitatively examined the respondents’ experienced effects of cannabis, both desired and undesired. Findings Being older and female, living in a smaller city and earlier age of initiation of cannabis use were statistically significant in predicting the medicinal use of cannabis. The majority of recreational effects were related to themes such as relaxation and pleasure, but many participants also reported desired medical effects. Similarly, many participants reported several undesired effects. Research limitations/implications Understanding especially young people’s motivations to use cannabis, which include using it for various medical effects, can improve the design of harm reduction and treatment programmes as well as enhance the well-being of people who use cannabis. Originality/value This study gives a nuanced account of sociodemographic factors and motivations of young people who use cannabis in Finland as well as the reported effects it has on them, which complements data from national drug surveys.Peer reviewe

Bringing Packed Red Blood Cells to the Point of Combat Injury: Are We There Yet?

INTRODUCTION: Hemorrhage is the leading cause of injury related pre-hospital mortality. We investigated worst case scenarios and possible requirements of Turkish Military. As we plan to use blood resources during casualty transport, the impact of transport related mechanical stress on PRBC (packed red blood cell) were analyzed. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The in vitro experiment was performed in the environmental test laboratories of ASELSAN(R). Operational vibrations of potential casualty transport mediums such as Sikorsky Helicopters, Kirpi(R) Armoured Vehicle and NATO vibration standardsoftware MIL-STD-810G were recorded. The most powerful mechanical stress, which was created by the NATO standard, was applied to 15 units of fresh (7 day) PRBC in a blood cooler box. The vibrations were simulated by TDS v895 Medium-Force Shaker Device. On site blood samples were analyzed at 0, 6th and 24th hours for biochemical and biomechanical analyses. RESULTS: The mean age of fresh and old PRBCs was 4.9 (SD +/- 2.2) and 32.8 (SD +/- 11.8) days, respectively. Six-hour mechanical damage of fresh PRBC was demonstrated by increased erythrocyte fragmentation rates (p=0.015), hemolysis rates (p=0.003), supernatant potassium levels (p=0.003) and decreased hematocrit levels (p=0.015). Old PRBC hemolysis rates (p=0.015), supernatant potassium levels (p=0.015), supernatant Hb (p=0.015) were increased and Htc levels were decreased (p=0.015) within 6 hours. Two (%13) units of fresh and none of the old PRBC were eligible for transfusion after 6 hours of mechanical stress. CONCLUSION: When the austere combat environment was simulated for 24 hours, fresh and old PRBC hemolysis rates were above the quality criteria. Currently, a technology to overcome this mechanical damage does not seem to exist. In the light of the above data, a new national project is being performed

Solid-phase optical sensing techniques for sensitive virus detection

First author draf