Developing sexual competence? Exploring strategies for the provision of effective sexualities and relationships education

School-based sexualities and relationships education (SRE) offers one of the most promising means of improving young people's sexual health through developing 'sexual competence'. In the absence of evidence on whether the term holds the same meanings for young people and adults (e.g. teachers, researchers, policy-makers), the paper explores 'adult' notions of sexual competence as construed in research data and alluded to in UK Government guidance on SRE, then draws on empirical research with young people on factors that affect the contexts, motivations and outcomes of sexual encounters, and therefore have implications for sexual competence. These data from young people also challenge more traditional approaches to sexualities education in highlighting disjunctions between the content of school-based input and their reported sexual experience. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these insights for developing a shared notion of what SRE is trying to achieve and suggestions for recognition in the content and approaches to SRE.</p

Quasi-Moessbauer effect in two dimensions

Expressions for the absorption spectrum of a nucleus in a three- and a two-dimensional crystal respectively are obtained analytically at zero and at finite temperature respectively. It is found that for finite temperature in two dimensions the Moessbauer effect vanishes but is replaced by what we call a Quasi-Moessbauer effect. Possibilities to identify two-dimensional elastic behavior are discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, notation simplifie

Crystal Distortion and the Two-Channel Kondo Effect

We study a simple model of the two-channel Kondo effect in a distorted crystal. This model is then used to investigate the interplay of the Kondo and Jahn-Teller effects, and also the Kondo effect in an impure crystal. We find that the Jahn-Teller interaction modifies the characteristic energy scale of the system below which non-Fermi-liquid properties of the model become apparent. The modified energy scale tends to zero as the limit of a purely static Jahn-Teller effect is approached. We find also that the non-Fermi-liquid properties of the quadrupolar Kondo effect are not stable against crystal distortion caused by impurities.Comment: 11 page

The growth companies puzzle: can growth opportunities measures predict firm growth?

While numerous empirical studies include proxies for growth opportunities in their analyses, there is limited evidence as to the validity of the various growth proxies used. Based on a sample of 1942 firm-years for listed UK companies over the 1990-2004 period, we assess the performance of eight growth opportunities measures. Our results show that while all the growth measures show some ability to predict growth in company sales, total assets, or equity, there are substantial differences between the various models. In particular, Tobin's Q performs poorly while dividend-based measures generally perform best. However, none of the measures has any success in predicting earnings per share growth, even when controlling for mean reversion and other time-series patterns in earnings. We term this the 'growth companies puzzle'. Growth companies do grow, but they do not grow in the key dimension (earnings) theory predicts. Whether the failure of 'growth companies' to deliver superior earnings growth is attributable to increased competition, poor investments, or behavioural biases, it is still a puzzle why growth companies on average fail to deliver superior earnings growth

The majority of re-activatable latent HIV proviruses are genetically distinct with no evidence of ongoing evolution

Background Two mechanisms have been proposed to contribute in to the maintenance of the HIV latent reservoir: homeostatic proliferation of latently infected cells and low level viral replication in the lymphoid tissue. Here we studied the sequences of reactivatable latent viruses obtained from a stably treated patient to assess the importance of these mechanisms. Methods Resting CD4+ T cells were isolated at regular intervals from the patient, underwent limiting dilution, were activated and then co-cultured with SupT1-CCR5 cells for 21 days. The supernatant was harvested for viral RNA. Regions in gag and env were analysed by Sanger sequencing. To control for artefacts from culture and sequencing, SupT1-CCR5 cells were infected with NL4-3 and underwent the same limiting dilution, culture, and sequencing processes. Pairwise comparisons were performed to obtain p-distances. Each pair of patient derived viral sequences was considered distinct if the p-distance was higher than that of the corresponding region of the sequences from NL4-3 infected SupT1-CCR5 cells. To seek evidence of viral evolution, a consensus was created from the viral sequences obtained from the first sample and sequences from samples obtained subsequently were compared against this baseline consensus. Results We obtained 32 sequences of reactivated latent viruses from a single patient. 18 distinct sequences could be distinguished from the gag region. The remaining 14 sequences segregated into five groups. However, when the env regions of these 14 sequences were analysed, only one ‘clonal’ group of two sequences remained. 30/32 reactivated latent viruses were distinct. If the threshold p-distance for two sequences to be considered distinct was set at the maximal (rather than average) p-distance observed in the reference set, 26/32 of reactivated latent viruses would still be considered distinct. We have not observed any increase in p-distances over 28 weeks of sampling compared to the baseline samples to suggest of accumulation of mutations. Conclusion Our results show that the majority of reactivatable latent viruses are genetically distinct. Persistent viral evolution was not observed in the latent reservoir harboured in peripheral blood resting CD4+ T cells in this stably treated patient

Offering disinclined people the choice between different screening appointments: a randomised online survey

Objectives: An invitation to cancer screening with a single (fixed) appointment time has been shown to be a more effective way at increasing uptake compared with an invitation with an open (unscheduled) appointment. The present study tested whether offering more than one fixed appointment could further enhance this effect or be detrimental to people’s intention. / Design: Experimental online hypothetical vignette survey. / Methods: 1,908 respondents who stated that they did not intend to participate in Bowel Scope Screening (BSS) were offered either one, two, four or six hypothetical fixed BSS appointments (all of which covered the same time of day to control for individual preferences). / Results: Participants who were given more than one appointment to choose from were less likely to intend to book an appointment despite multiple appointments being perceived as more convenient. / Conclusions: These results suggest that when it comes to offering people appointments for cancer screening, less (choice) is more, at least if alternatives fail to serve an inherent preference

The potential for dietary factors to prevent or treat osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease for which there are no disease-modifying drugs. It is a leading cause of disability in the UK. Increasing age and obesity are both major risk factors for OA and the health and economic burden of this disease will increase in the future. Focusing on compounds from the habitual diet that may prevent the onset or slow the progression of OA is a strategy that has been under-investigated to date. An approach that relies on dietary modification is clearly attractive in terms of risk/benefit and more likely to be implementable at the population level. However, before undertaking a full clinical trial to examine potential efficacy, detailed molecular studies are required in order to optimise the design. This review focuses on potential dietary factors that may reduce the risk or progression of OA, including micronutrients, fatty acids, flavonoids and other phytochemicals. It therefore ignores data coming from classical inflammatory arthritides and nutraceuticals such as glucosamine and chondroitin. In conclusion, diet offers a route by which the health of the joint can be protected and OA incidence or progression decreased. In a chronic disease, with risk factors increasing in the population and with no pharmaceutical cure, an understanding of this will be crucial

Number counts and clustering properties of bright Distant Red Galaxies in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey Early Data Release

We describe the number counts and spatial distribution of 239 Distant Red Galaxies (DRGs), selected from the Early Data Release of the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey. The DRGs are identified by their very red infrared colours with (J-K)AB>1.3, selected over 0.62 sq degree to a 90% completeness limit of KAB~20.7. This is the first time a large sample of bright DRGs has been studied within a contiguous area, and we provide the first measurements of their number counts and clustering. The population shows strong angular clustering, intermediate between those of K-selected field galaxies and optical/infrared-selected Extremely Red Galaxies. Adopting the redshift distributions determined from other recent studies, we infer a high correlation length of r0~11 h-1 Mpc. Such strong clustering could imply that our galaxies are hosted by very massive dark matter halos, consistent with the progenitors of present-day L>L* elliptical galaxies.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, revised version accepted to MNRAS. Higher-resolution figures available from the authors on reques