A climate for change

This paper reports on the findings of a research project investigating the nature of participation of secondary school students in a collaborative research programme. Four groups of students, aged 14 to 15 years old, from a secondary school in the United Kingdom (UK) participated in the study. The students involved in the programme took the role of researchers investigating their peers’ perceptions of climate change using video to visually record their findings. University researchers worked collaboratively with the school students and a teacher from the school through an approach that empowered the students within the research process. Drawing from the ideas and issues raised from an initial briefing session, each group of students developed a short interview schedule to be used whilst investigating the views of their peers. Although the project was on a small scale, the data gathered from the brainstorming activity, video reports and reflective discussions provided a useful snap shot of how the participating students perceived their experience and the nature of their involvement in the research process. The research approach enabled students to take on the role of investigator when interviewing their peers and to offer a voice for both themselves and their peers. Introduction</p

Antimicrobial peptides: agents of border protection for companion animals.

Over the past 20 years, there have been significant inroads into understanding the roles of antimicrobial peptides in homeostatic functions and their involvement in disease pathogenesis. In addition to direct antimicrobial activity, these peptides participate in many cellular functions, including chemotaxis, wound healing and even determination of canine coat colour. Various biological and genetic approaches have helped to elucidate the role of antimicrobial peptides with respect to innate immunity and host defense. Associations of antimicrobial peptides with various skin diseases, including psoriasis, rosacea and atopic dermatitis, have been documented in humans. In the longer term, therapeutic modulation of antimicrobial peptide expression may provide effective new treatments for disease. This review highlights current knowledge about antimicrobial peptides of the skin and circulating leukocytes, with particular focus on relevance to physiology and disease in companion animals

Developing proactive communication strategies for a potential pandemic

Communication through the Australian media during a potential avian influenza epidemic could act to inform the public OR misinform, contributing to unnecessary public panic and undesirable responses. This project is part of ongoing research to assess Australians’ knowledge and perceptions of bird flu which will allow the development of public service advertising messages for use by the Australian government in the event of a bird flu outbreak or pandemic. Focus group and CATI survey results on bird flu perceptions were used by an Australian advertising agency to prepare two campaign concepts. The concepts (story boards and print ads) were tested using focus groups by two independent market research companies in July 2006. This paper reports on the results of the ad-testing, and provides recommendations for the development and refinement of a public communication campaign to minimise public panic during a bird flu outbreak or pandemic in Australia

The Effect of Oral Contraceptive Pill Use on Knee Joint Laxity in Women

Schultz et al. (2004) demonstrated that 63% of the change in knee joint laxity (KJL) during a menstrual cycle was due to associated fluctuations in sex hormone levels. Use of oral contraceptives modulates the fluctuation of sex hormone levels during the menstrual cycle and thus may reduce fluctuation in KJL PURPOSE: Given that increased KJL is a known risk factor for sustaining knee injuries, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of oral contraceptive use on KJL during the follicular, ovulation, and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle. METHODS: Sixty college-age women were screened for participation and fourteen (20.07±1.21 years, 163.05± 9.70, and 66.81± 12.32 kg) met the inclusion criteria, provided informed consent, and participated in the study. Based on screening questionnaires, participants were sorted into groups, oral contraceptive users (OC) and non-users (NOC). Each participant’s KJL was measured on six occasions, five days apart. KJL was measured using a KT-1000 Knee Arthrometer at 133 N. Measurements on days 1-7, 11-14, and 19-22 were used for data analysis to correspond with the three phases of the menstrual cycle. A 2x3 (group x phase) mixed model ANOVA was used to compare KJL between groups and across the three phases of the menstrual cycle. RESULTS: KJL are reported in Table 1. Group and phase did not interact to affect KJL (F(2,24)=1.92, p=0.17). KJL did not differ between OC and NOC users across the menstrual cycle (F(1,12)=0.07, p=0.80), and was not different between any phase of the menstrual cycle (F(2,24)=0.14, p=0.87). However, given that the spike in estradiol associated with the ovulation phase has been suggested to affect ligament laxity, a comparison between groups during this phase was conducted. Though KJL was larger for NOC than OC, the results of a one-tailed independent t-test suggest that this difference was not statistically significantly (t(12)= 1.72, p = 0.06). However, this difference was characterized by a large effect size (Cohen d= 0.92) suggesting that NOC users experience more KJL during the ovulation phase than OC users. CONCLUSION: The results of the study indicate that OC may play a role in KJL. However, with limited statistical power of these analyses, additional data are needed to fully assess this effect

Nicotine, Tobacco Use, and the 55th Nebraska Symposium on Motivation

Tobacco use is a worldwide health problem. As so well stated by Mackay and Ericksen (2002), “No other consumer product is as dangerous, or kills as many people. Tobacco kills more than AIDS, legal drugs, illegal drugs, road accidents, murder, and suicide combined” (p. 36). Imagine the lives saved, and the amount of pain, emotional suffering, and fiscal burden alleviated, if we could devise approaches that helped current tobacco users quit and remain abstinent, and prevented new smokers from emerging. Although these idealistic goals are worth pursuing, improving cessation rates by only a small fraction, or making small gains in preventing people from experimenting with tobacco, would nevertheless translate into significant improvement in the health and well-being of countless thousands worldwide as well as financial savings to employers, government institutions, and the heath care system. Even such small, incremental steps require a concerted and coordinated effort by basic scientists, clinical researchers and practitioners, and policy makers to discover the basis of tobacco dependence and apply that knowledge to the implementation of prevention policies and smoking cessation aids. This year\u27s Nebraska Symposium on Motivation was devoted to research on the drug that is widely believed to form the basis of tobacco use and dependence, nicotine

Diminished conditioned responding to the nicotine stimulus by antidepressant drugs with differing specificity for the serotonin and norepinephrine transporter

People diagnosed with depression also tend to have a co-morbid nicotine addiction. Thus, there is interest in whether medications used to treat depression alter the effects of nicotine. This study assessed whether the antidepressant drugs citalopram, imipramine, and reboxetine, with differing specificity for the serotonin and norepinephrine transporter, altered responding controlled by the conditional stimulus (CS) effects of nicotine. Rats received intermixed 20-min nicotine (0.4 mg base/kg, SC) and saline sessions. On nicotine sessions, rats had intermittent access to sucrose; no sucrose was available on saline sessions. After discrimination performance stabilized and a nicotine generalization curve (0.025–0.4 mg/kg) was established, the antidepressant drugs were assessed. In these tests, rats were pretreated with citalopram (1–17 mg/kg), imipramine (1–17 mg/ kg), or reboxetine (1–30 mg/kg) before the training dose of nicotine and placement in a chamber for a 4-min extinction test. At the higher doses, all three antidepressant drugs blocked responding evoked by the nicotine CS and decreased nicotine-induced hyperactivity. When these higher doses of citalopram, imipramine, and reboxetine were tested alone (no nicotine), they decreased chamber activity and/or dipper entries. Nevertheless, all three drugs produced partial or complete blockade of the CS effects of nicotine at doses that produced no effect on dipper entries or chamber entries. This finding suggests that both neurotransmitters play a role in the CS effects of nicotine and that modifications in these systems by antidepressants may be clinically relevant

Diminished conditioned responding to the nicotine stimulus by antidepressant drugs with differing specificity for the serotonin and norepinephrine transporter

People diagnosed with depression also tend to have a co-morbid nicotine addiction. Thus, there is interest in whether medications used to treat depression alter the effects of nicotine. This study assessed whether the antidepressant drugs citalopram, imipramine, and reboxetine, with differing specificity for the serotonin and norepinephrine transporter, altered responding controlled by the conditional stimulus (CS) effects of nicotine. Rats received intermixed 20-min nicotine (0.4 mg base/kg, SC) and saline sessions. On nicotine sessions, rats had intermittent access to sucrose; no sucrose was available on saline sessions. After discrimination performance stabilized and a nicotine generalization curve (0.025–0.4 mg/kg) was established, the antidepressant drugs were assessed. In these tests, rats were pretreated with citalopram (1–17 mg/kg), imipramine (1–17 mg/ kg), or reboxetine (1–30 mg/kg) before the training dose of nicotine and placement in a chamber for a 4-min extinction test. At the higher doses, all three antidepressant drugs blocked responding evoked by the nicotine CS and decreased nicotine-induced hyperactivity. When these higher doses of citalopram, imipramine, and reboxetine were tested alone (no nicotine), they decreased chamber activity and/or dipper entries. Nevertheless, all three drugs produced partial or complete blockade of the CS effects of nicotine at doses that produced no effect on dipper entries or chamber entries. This finding suggests that both neurotransmitters play a role in the CS effects of nicotine and that modifications in these systems by antidepressants may be clinically relevant

Long-distance landscapes: from quarries to monument at Stonehenge.

Stonehenge is famous for the distances moved by its stones, both sarsens and bluestones. In particular, the bluestones have their geological origins in West Wales, 225km away. Recent excavations at two of these bluestone sources – one for rhyolite and one for spotted dolerite – have identified evidence of megalith quarrying around 3000 BC, when Stonehenge’s first stage was constructed. This remarkable movement of bluestones from Wales coincided with a decline in regional cultural distinctions between west and east, suggesting that building Stonehenge may have served to unify the Neolithic populations of Britain