Longitudinal study of adolescent tobacco use and tobacco control policies in India

Abstract Background This project will use a multilevel longitudinal cohort study design to assess whether changes in Community Tobacco Environmental (CTE) factors, measured as community compliance with tobacco control policies and community density of tobacco vendors and tobacco advertisements, are associated with adolescent tobacco use in urban India. India’s tobacco control policies regulate secondhand smoke exposure, access to tobacco products and exposure to tobacco marketing. Research data about the association between community level compliance with tobacco control policies and youth tobacco use are largely unavailable, and are needed to inform policy enforcement, implementation and development. Methods The geographic scope will include Mumbai and Kolkata, India. The study protocol calls for an annual comprehensive longitudinal population-based tobacco use risk and protective factors survey in a cohort of 1820 adolescents ages 12–14 years (and their parent) from baseline (Wave 1) to 36-month follow-up (Wave 4). Geographic Information Systems data collection will be used to map tobacco vendors, tobacco advertisements, availability of e-cigarettes, COTPA defined public places, and compliance with tobacco sale, point-of-sale and smoke-free laws. Finally, we will estimate the longitudinal associations between CTE factors and adolescent tobacco use, and assess whether the associations are moderated by family level factors, and mediated by individual level factors. Discussion India experiences a high burden of disease and mortality from tobacco use. To address this burden, significant long-term prevention and control activities need to include the joint impact of policy, community and family factors on adolescent tobacco use onset. The findings from this study can be used to guide the development and implementation of future tobacco control policy designed to minimize adolescent tobacco use.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144539/1/12889_2018_Article_5727.pd

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Second Duke Adaptation Study, 1968-1976

The purpose of the study was to understand normal development during the middle years as participants entered old age; to examine the process by which individuals adapt to normative life transitions (e.g., empty nest, retirement, widowhood); and to identify the "normal" psychological, social, and biomedical changes that characterize middle and later life. It was initiated to complement features of the First Duke Longitudinal Study through the inclusion of a younger sample of late middle age adults (i.e., 46-71 years of age), through its emphasis on "adaptation" in late middle age, and through its utilization of a cross-sequential design. Conceived of as a short-term longitudinal study, the study included 10 age-sex cohorts delineated by five-year age intervals ranging from 46 to 71 years of age at the start of data collection. Data were collected in four waves during a six-year period: 1968-1970, 1970-1972, 1972-1974, and 1974-1976. The sample consisted of 502 White American participants, 261 men and 241 women, ages 45 to 71 at the first wave of data collection. Of these, a core sample of 347 participants provided complete data for each of the initial four waves of data collection. The sampling frame for the study consisted of enrollees from the membership lists of the major health insurance association in Durham County, North Carolina. Data collected during the initial six-year phase of the study focused on physical, psychological, and social domains. Psychological data were collected on intelligence, personality, and vigilance functioning. Social data included a set of self-report scales also related to the psychological measures. Participants were also examined and rated by a medical doctor, given various laboratory tests, and medical histories were obtained. The Murray Research Archive numeric file data from all four waves. Follow-up of study participants is not permitted.

Teacher development against the policy reform grain: an argument for recapturing relationships in teaching and learning

As public schools in countries like the UK, USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand continue to suffer from the damaging effects of poorly conceptualized educational reforms, educators struggle to come up with alternatives with which to reclaim schools. While acknowledging the situational, contextual and temporal differences between these countries, this paper presents a rationale for reinserting the relational work of schools at the centre of a teacher development-led form of recovery. The central claim advanced herein is that teacher development in schools must have a central and demonstrable concern with the primacy of relationships in teaching and learning. Schools and teachers have the collective capacity to reclaim the ground that has been severely eroded by managerialist and marketizing agenda that have been allowed to intrude on schools and subjugate the importance of relational forms of knowing. Placing students at the centre is crucial to creating the direction necessary for re-establishing the relational complexity of schools