Session 1-3-F: The Victorian Gambling Study Identifying and predicting risks

Overview Background Study design Incidence Transitions Risk & protective Co morbiditie

The Victorian gambling study: a longitudinal study of gambling and health in Victoria, 2008–2012

The Victorian gambling study is a longitudinal study of gambling and health in Victoria conducted between 2008 and 2012. This study is the only large-scale, general population, longitudinal gambling study conducted in Australia. Key findings Importantly, this study suggests problem gambling may be a long term condition and that relapse is common, indicating that long term support and treatment is required. The study also shows people at moderate risk of developing problems with gambling should be targeted with prevention and intervention programs.   This study deepens our understanding of gambling and provides valuable insights into problem gambling that informs all of the foundation’s programs and services. The study looked at: changes in gambling behaviour over time  the relationship between gambling and health and other social and economic factors  evidence about what factors cause some people to gamble excessively and what factors might help such people to recover  The study will help inform the foundation’s development of intervention, prevention and treatment options for people who have a problem with their gambling. Four waves of data collection have included: a baseline survey of 15,000 randomly selected members of the Victorian population (2008) wave two follow up data collection from 5,003 of the baseline participants (2009) wave three follow up data collection from 5,620 of the baseline participants (2010-11) wave four follow up data collection from 3,701 of the baseline participants (2011-12)

Hubungan Perhatian Guru dan Kemandirian Belajar dengan Hasil Belajar

The purpose of this research was to determine the positive and significant relationship between teacher attention and independence of learning together with the learning outcomes theme 6 subtheme 3 of the fifth grade students of SD Negeri 2 Metro Selatan. This type of research is quantitative research. The research method is ex-postfacto change.The data collection techniques were done by: observation, questionnaire, and documentation study. Data analysis techniques used product moment and multiple correlation. The results showed that there was a positive and significant research between teacher attention and independence of learning together with student learning outcomes, were collected with a correlation coefficient of 0.692 according to a strong level. Tujuan penelitian untuk mengetahui hubungan yang positif dan signifikan antara perhatian guru dan kemandirian belajar secara bersama-sama dengan hasil belajar tema 6 subtema 3 peserta didik kelas V SD Negeri 2 Metro Selatan. Jenis penelitian yang digunakan yaitu penelitian kuantitatif. Metode penelitian yang dipilih yaitu ex-postfacto korelasi. Teknik pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan: observasi, kuesioner, dan studi dokumentasi. Teknik analisis data yang digunakan adalah korelasi product moment dan multiple correlation. Hasil penelitianmenunjukkanterdapat hubungan yang positif dan signifikan antara perhatian guru dan kemandirian belajar secara bersama-sama dengan hasil belajar peserta didik, dengan hasil koefisien kolerasi sebesar 0,692 berada pada taraf kuat. Kata kunci: hasil belajar, kemandirian belajar, dan perhatian gur

Seeds of Change: Strategies for Food Security for the Inner City

The product of a year's work for six researchers, Seeds of Change is perhaps the most thorough documentation of an urban community's food system. Sections on hunger, nutrition, food industry, supermarket industry, communmity case study, farmers' markets, urban agriculture, joint ventures, and food policy councils

Review and Recommendations for Experimentations in Earth Orbit and Beyond

The space environment is regularly used for experiments addressing astrobiology research goals. The specific conditions prevailing in Earth orbit and beyond, notably the radiative environment (photons and energetic particles) and the possibility to conduct long-duration measurements, have been the main motivations for developing experimental concepts to expose chemical or biological samples to outer space, or to use the reentry of a spacecraft on Earth to simulate the fall of a meteorite. This paper represents an overview of past and current research in astrobiology conducted in Earth orbit and beyond, with a special focus on ESA missions such as Biopan, STONE (on Russian FOTON capsules) and EXPOSE facilities (outside the International Space Station). The future of exposure platforms is discussed, notably how they can be improved for better science return, and how to incorporate the use of small satellites such as those built in cubesat format

Lower-risk gambling limits : linked analyses across eight countries

The Lower Risk Gambling Guidelines project was funded by a grant to the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction from Mise sur Tois a now defunct, independent, not-for-profit organization that received an annual contribution to conduct safer gambling initiatives from the Quebec crown corporation in charge of conducting and managing gambling in the province of Quebec, Canada. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.A common public health initiative in many jurisdictions is provision of advice to people to limit gambling to reduce the risk of gambling-related harm. The purpose of this study is to use consistent methodology with existing population-based prevalence surveys of gambling and related harms from different countries to identify quantitative limits for lower risk gambling. Risk curve analyses were conducted with eleven high quality data sets from eight Western countries. Gambling indicators were monthly expenditure, percentage of income spent on gambling, monthly frequency, and number of different types of gambling. Harm indicators included financial, emotional, health, and relationship impacts. Contributing data sets produced limit ranges for each gambling indicator and each harm indicator, which were compared. Gender differences in limit ranges were minor. Modal analysis, an assessment of the mean of the upper and lower range limits, indicated that the risk of harm increases if an individual gambles at these levels or greater: $60 to$120 CAD monthly, five to eight times monthly, spends more than 1 to 3% of gross monthly income or plays three to four different gambling types. This study provides further evidence that lower-risk gambling guidelines can be based upon empirically derived limits.Peer reviewe

Biosignature stability in space enables their use for life detection on Mars

Two rover missions to Mars aim to detect biomolecules as a sign of extinct or extant life with, among other instruments, Raman spectrometers. However, there are many unknowns about the stability of Raman-detectable biomolecules in the martian environment, clouding the interpretation of the results. To quantify Raman-detectable biomolecule stability, we exposed seven biomolecules for 469 days to a simulated martian environment outside the International Space Station. Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) strongly changed the Raman spectra signals, but only minor change was observed when samples were shielded from UVR. These findings provide support for Mars mission operations searching for biosignatures in the subsurface. This experiment demonstrates the detectability of biomolecules by Raman spectroscopy in Mars regolith analogs after space exposure and lays the groundwork for a consolidated space-proven database of spectroscopy biosignatures in targeted environments

Biosignature stability in space enables their use for life detection on Mars

Two rover missions to Mars aim to detect biomolecules as a sign of extinct or extant life with, among other instruments, Raman spectrometers. However, there are many unknowns about the stability of Raman-detectable biomolecules in the martian environment, clouding the interpretation of the results. To quantify Raman-detectable biomolecule stability, we exposed seven biomolecules for 469 days to a simulated martian environment outside the International Space Station. Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) strongly changed the Raman spectra signals, but only minor change was observed when samples were shielded from UVR. These findings provide support for Mars mission operations searching for biosignatures in the subsurface. This experiment demonstrates the detectability of biomolecules by Raman spectroscopy in Mars regolith analogs after space exposure and lays the groundwork for a consolidated space-proven database of spectroscopy biosignatures in targeted environments

The role of immune suppression in COVID-19 hospitalization: clinical and epidemiological trends over three years of SARS-CoV-2 epidemic

Specific immune suppression types have been associated with a greater risk of severe COVID-19 disease and death. We analyzed data from patients >17 years that were hospitalized for COVID-19 at the “Fondazione IRCCS Ca′ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico” in Milan (Lombardy, Northern Italy). The study included 1727 SARS-CoV-2-positive patients (1,131 males, median age of 65 years) hospitalized between February 2020 and November 2022. Of these, 321 (18.6%, CI: 16.8–20.4%) had at least one condition defining immune suppression. Immune suppressed subjects were more likely to have other co-morbidities (80.4% vs. 69.8%, p < 0.001) and be vaccinated (37% vs. 12.7%, p < 0.001). We evaluated the contribution of immune suppression to hospitalization during the various stages of the epidemic and investigated whether immune suppression contributed to severe outcomes and death, also considering the vaccination status of the patients. The proportion of immune suppressed patients among all hospitalizations (initially stable at <20%) started to increase around December 2021, and remained high (30–50%). This change coincided with an increase in the proportions of older patients and patients with co-morbidities and with a decrease in the proportion of patients with severe outcomes. Vaccinated patients showed a lower proportion of severe outcomes; among non-vaccinated patients, severe outcomes were more common in immune suppressed individuals. Immune suppression was a significant predictor of severe outcomes, after adjusting for age, sex, co-morbidities, period of hospitalization, and vaccination status (OR: 1.64; 95% CI: 1.23–2.19), while vaccination was a protective factor (OR: 0.31; 95% IC: 0.20–0.47). However, after November 2021, differences in disease outcomes between vaccinated and non-vaccinated groups (for both immune suppressed and immune competent subjects) disappeared. Since December 2021, the spread of the less virulent Omicron variant and an overall higher level of induced and/or natural immunity likely contributed to the observed shift in hospitalized patient characteristics. Nonetheless, vaccination against SARS-CoV-2, likely in combination with naturally acquired immunity, effectively reduced severe outcomes in both immune competent (73.9% vs. 48.2%, p < 0.001) and immune suppressed (66.4% vs. 35.2%, p < 0.001) patients, confirming previous observations about the value of the vaccine in preventing serious disease