Writing themselves in: a national report on the sexuality, health and well-being of same-sex attracted young people

This 1998 report is about young people who are attracted to their own sex. The need for accurate baseline figures about young people of non-heterosexual orientation has developed as part of a general concern about the spread of the HIV virus into the adolescent population and a specific concern around these young people’s emotional well-being. In the past three years, Australian adolescent research conducted by the National Centre in HIV Social Research, La Trobe University, has revealed that a significant minority of young people are not unequivocally heterosexual, with numbers ranging between 8 and 11% in recent research. Research which specifically targets this population has, until now, been conducted retrospectively and/or with people who identify as gay or lesbian recruited through gay and lesbian youth groups or the gay press. As researchers we know little about young people at pre-identity or pre-disclosure stages because their need for anonymity means they cannot be contacted through the usual channels. The young people represented in this project were accessed through an advertising campaign in National magazines, via radio and the Internet. A survey was available on a website and from the Centre for the Study of Sexually Transmissible Diseases. Surveys were also inserted in the gay and street press. These surveys sought information regarding sexual feelings and experiences as well as sexual and drug-taking practices in regard to STDs (including HIV) and related diseases. The source and adequacy of sexual health information for this group and their levels of support and experiences of abuse and discrimination were also elicited. The survey also charted young people’s perceptions of their quality of life and emotional well-being. In addition, participants were also asked to write stories about their experiences, including when they first knew about their sexual feelings, their relationships with family and friends, and their hopes for the future. &nbsp

"It's not easy but it's still possible to be an abstainer here": Non-Drug Use Among Young Men in a Slum Area in Makassar, Indonesia

This qualitative study explores the social context and protective factors that enable young men in a slum area (lorong) in Makassar, Indonesia, to abstain from using drugs. Semi-structured interviews, conducted with fifteen male non-drug users in the lorong showed, despite living in a drug risk environment, non-drug users were involved in neither the drug scene nor street culture. There were two main reasons for this: their employment opportunities, albeit in low paid jobs and the informal economy, and their schooling. These non-users asserted that respectability and the status of rewa (a local construct of masculinity) should and could be achieved through traditional means, i.e. employment providing legitimate income and education leading to a career. Their work provides both direct benefit, i.e. legitimate income (economic capital), and indirect benefits such as meaningful activities and structured time. Employment and schooling also generated a respectable identity (symbolic and cultural capital), wider social networks (bridging social capital) and the opportunity for upward mobility. All of these enable them to have a stake within mainstream society and are incentives for them to abstain from drug taking. This study demonstrates the crucial role of direct and indirect benefits of employment and of economic, symbolic, cultural and social capital in understanding the social context of non-drug use among young men in the lorong. The findings suggest protagonists of drug policy reform and implementation in Indonesia should be more cognizant of social marginalization in the lorong, and of the need to improve young people's access to employment and education, in order to decrease the likelihood of drug initiation and use

Australian clinicians and chemoprevention for women at high familial risk for breast cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>Effective chemoprevention strategies exist for women at high risk for breast cancer, yet uptake is low. Physician recommendation is an important determinant of uptake, but little is known about clinicians' attitudes to chemoprevention.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Focus groups were conducted with clinicians at five Family Cancer Centers in three Australian states. Discussions were recorded, transcribed and analyzed thematically.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty three clinicians, including genetic counselors, clinical geneticists, medical oncologists, breast surgeons and gynaecologic oncologists, participated in six focus groups in 2007. The identified barriers to the discussion of the use of tamoxifen and raloxifene for chemoprevention pertained to issues of evidence (evidence for efficacy not strong enough, side-effects outweigh benefits, oophorectomy superior for mutation carriers), practice (drugs not approved for chemoprevention by regulatory authorities and not government subsidized, chemoprevention not endorsed in national guidelines and not many women ask about it), and perception (clinicians not knowledgeable about chemoprevention and women thought to be opposed to hormonal treatments).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The study demonstrated limited enthusiasm for discussing breast cancer chemoprevention as a management option for women at high familial risk. Several options for increasing the likelihood of clinicians discussing chemoprevention were identified; maintaining up to date national guidelines on management of these women and education of clinicians about the drugs themselves, the legality of "off-label" prescribing, and the actual costs of chemopreventive medications.</p

Benchmarking whole exome sequencing in the German Network for Personalized Medicine

Introduction Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) has emerged as an efficient tool in clinical cancer diagnostics to broaden the scope from panel-based diagnostics to screening of all genes and enabling robust determination of complex biomarkers in a single analysis. Methods To assess concordance, six formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue specimens and four commercial reference standards were analyzed by WES as matched tumor-normal DNA at 21 NGS centers in Germany, each employing local wet-lab and bioinformatics investigating somatic and germline variants, copy-number alteration (CNA), and different complex biomarkers. Somatic variant calling was performed in 494 diagnostically relevant cancer genes. In addition, all raw data were re-analyzed with a central bioinformatic pipeline to separate wet- and dry-lab variability. Results The mean positive percentage agreement (PPA) of somatic variant calling was 76% and positive predictive value (PPV) 89% compared a consensus list of variants found by at least five centers. Variant filtering was identified as the main cause for divergent variant calls. Adjusting filter criteria and re-analysis increased the PPA to 88% for all and 97% for clinically relevant variants. CNA calls were concordant for 82% of genomic regions. Calls of homologous recombination deficiency (HRD), tumor mutational burden (TMB), and microsatellite instability (MSI) status were concordant for 94%, 93%, and 93% respectively. Variability of CNAs and complex biomarkers did not increase considerably using the central pipeline and was hence attributed to wet-lab differences. Conclusion Continuous optimization of bioinformatic workflows and participating in round robin tests are recommend

Book review: 'Handbook of adolescent development', edited by Sandy Jackson and Luc Goossens

Reivew of the book 'Handbook of adolescent development', edited by Sandy Jackson and Luc Goossens, published by Psychology Press, 2006

Giving up on drugs: homeless young people and self-reported problematic drug use

This is a publisher's version of an article published in Contemporary Drug Problems 2006, published by Federal Legal Publications, Inc. This version is reproduced with permission from Contemporary Drug Problems.Numerous studies have revealed high levels of drug-taking among young people experiencing homelessness. This article draws upon 20 in-depth interviews carried out as part of a five-year longitudinal study of homeless young people (Project i). It is noteworthy that almost all of those who identified their drug use as problematic gave up or reduced their level of use without treatment or professional assistance during the period of the study. The interviews provided insight into the way in which some young people experiencing homelessness view their drug use and the actions they take in light of these understandings. Here we report their stated reasons for giving up or reducing usage and identify some commonalities that may have impacted on the outcomes

Social connectedness among international students at an Australian university

Social connectedness, International students,