Frequency, course and correlates of alcohol use from adolescence to young adulthood in a Swiss community survey

BACKGROUND: Few studies have analyzed the frequency of alcohol use across time from adolescence to young adulthood and its outcome in young adulthood. A Swiss longitudinal multilevel assessment project using various measures of psychopathology and psychosocial variables allowed for the study of the frequency and correlates of alcohol use so that this developmental trajectory may be better understood. METHOD: Alcohol use was studied by a questionnaire in a cohort of N = 593 subjects who had been assessed at three times between adolescence and young adulthood within the Zurich Psychology and Psychopathology Study (ZAPPS). Other assessment included questionnaire data measuring emotional and behavioural problems, life events, coping style, self-related cognitions, perceived parenting style and school environment, and size and efficiency of the social network. RESULTS: The increase of alcohol use from early adolescence to young adulthood showed only a few sex-specific differences in terms of the amount of alcohol consumption and the motives to drink. In late adolescence and young adulthood, males had a higher amount of alcohol consumption and were more frequently looking for drunkenness and feeling high. Males also experienced more negative consequences of alcohol use. A subgroup of heavy or problem drinkers showed a large range of emotional and behavioural problems and further indicators of impaired psychosocial functioning both in late adolescence and young adulthood. CONCLUSION: This Swiss community survey documents that alcohol use is problematic in a sizeable proportion of youth and goes hand in hand with a large number of psychosocial problems

Accounting for extractive industries: has IFRS 6 harmonized accounting practices by extractive industries? [forthcoming]

Accounting for extractive industries has historically been practiced by one of a number of methods: successful efforts, full costing, area of interest, appropriation and reserve recognition accounting. The choice of method adopted leads to different accounting figures. The difference in the treatment of the costs leads to different accounting figures being reported in the financial statements of extractive companies. This makes the “tell it like it is” criteria of accounting functioning differently making it difficult for stakeholders to make like with like comparisons for decision making purposes. These difficulties culminated into the release IFRS 6: an international financial reporting standard for the extractive industries, to help harmonise the accounting practice. This paper, through content analysis of 122 annual reports of upstream oil and gas companies from around the world, investigates the role of IFRS 6 in harmonising accounting practices by extractive industries. Our analysis identifies 7 types of companies, these differ in their compliance with the IFRS 6. Hence, we conclude that the IFRS 6 has made some success in harmonising accounting treatments of exploration and evaluation expense. However this is a limited success and more needs to be done in order to achieve wider harmonisation for the extractive industries

Fetal and infant origins of asthma

Previous studies have suggested that asthma, like other common diseases, has at least part of its origin early in life. Low birth weight has been shown to be associated with increased risks of asthma, chronic obstructive airway disease, and impaired lung function in adults, and increased risks of respiratory symptoms in early childhood. The developmental plasticity hypothesis suggests that the associations between low birth weight and diseases in later life are explained by adaptation mechanisms in fetal life and infancy in response to various adverse exposures. Various pathways leading from adverse fetal and infant exposures to growth adaptations and respiratory health outcomes have been studied, including fetal and early infant growth patterns, maternal smoking and diet, children’s diet, respiratory tract infections and acetaminophen use, and genetic susceptibility. Still, the specific adverse exposures in fetal and early postnatal life leading to respiratory disease in adult life are not yet fully understood. Current studies suggest that both environmental and genetic factors in various periods of life, and their epigenetic mechanisms may underlie the complex associations of low birth weight with respiratory disease in later life. New well-designed epidemiological studies are needed to identify the specific underlying mechanisms. This review is focused on specific adverse fetal and infant growth patterns and exposures, genetic susceptibility, possible respiratory adaptations and perspectives for new studies

Parallel evaluation of relational queries on a network of workstations

Theme 1 - Reseaux et systemes. Projet ReMapSIGLEAvailable from INIST (FR), Document Supply Service, under shelf-number : 14802 E, issue : a.1999 n.3638 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc

Improving the Informed Consent Process for Research Subjects with Low Literacy: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Inadequate health literacy may impair research subjects’ ability to participate adequately in the informed consent (IC) process. Our aim is to evaluate the evidence supporting interventions, to improve comprehension of the IC process in low literacy subjects. METHODS: We performed a MEDLINE database search (1966 to November 2011) supplemented by manual searches of bibliographies of key relevant articles. We selected all studies in which a modification of the IC was tested to improve comprehension in low literacy populations. Study design, quality criteria, population, interventions and outcomes for each trial were extracted. The main outcome evaluated was comprehension, measured using a written test or verbal comprehension. RESULTS: Our search strategy yielded 281 studies, of which only six met our eligibility criteria. The six studies included 1620 research participants. The studies predominantly included populations that were older (median age 61, range 48–64), ethnic minority, and with literacy level of 8th grade or below. Only one study had a randomized design. The specific intervention differed in each study. Two of the studies included the teach-back method or teach to goal method and achieved the highest level of comprehension. Two studies changed the readability level of the IC and resulted in the lowest comprehension among study subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence supporting interventions to improve the informed consent process in low literacy populations is extremely limited. Among the interventions evaluated, having a study team member spend more time talking one-on-one to study participants was the most effective strategy for improving informed consent understanding; however, this finding is based on the results of a single study