Starting young? children’s experiences of trying smoking during pre-adolescence

Although the risks smoking poses to health are now well known, many young people continue to take up the habit. While numerous crosssectional studies of adolescents have identified correlates of smoking initiation, much less prospective, longitudinal research has been conducted with young children to gather their accounts of early experiences of smoking, and this study fills that significant gap. Quantitative and qualitative data, collected using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups, are presented from the pre-adolescent phase of the Liverpool Longitudinal Study of Smoking. By age 11, 27% of the cohort had tried smoking, 13% had smoked repeatedly and 3% were smoking regularly. Rates of experimentation increased over time. Qualitative data revealed that curiosity and the role of peers were central to children’s accounts of early smoking. By preadolescence, children are at different stages in their smoking careers, therefore interventionsmust be targeted to their varied experiences. Current prevention strategies often focus on restricting access to cigarettes, but a broad range of intervention measures is required which take account of the multifactorial nature of smoking onset. To be effective, policies that aim to prevent smoking must be grounded in children’s lived experiences

Singular inextensible limit in the vibrations of post-buckled rods: Analytical derivation and role of boundary conditions

In-plane vibrations of an elastic rod clamped at both extremities are studied. The rod is modeled as an extensible planar Kirchhoff elastic rod under large displacements and rotations. Equilibrium configurations and vibrations around these configurations are computed analytically in the incipient post-buckling regime. Of particular interest is the variation of the first mode frequency as the load is increased through the buckling threshold. The loading type is found to have a crucial importance as the first mode frequency is shown to behave singularly in the zero thickness limit in the case of prescribed axial displacement, whereas a regular behavior is found in the case of prescribed axial load.This publication is based in part upon work supported by Award no. KUK-C1-013-04, made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) (A.G.). A.G. is a Wolfson/Royal Society Merit Award holder. Support from the Royal Society, through the International Exchanges Scheme (Grant IE120203), is also acknowledge

Determining optimal cadence for an individual road cyclist from field data

The cadence that maximises power output developed at the crank by an individual cyclist is conventionally determined using a laboratory test. The purpose of this study was two-fold: (i) to show that such a cadence, which we call the optimal cadence, can be determined using power output, heart-rate, and cadence measured in the field and (ii) to describe methodology to do so. For an individual cyclist's sessions, power output is related to cadence and the elicited heart-rate using a non-linear regression model. Optimal cadences are found for two riders (83 and 70 revolutions per minute, respectively); these cadences are similar to the riders’ preferred cadences (82–92?rpm and 65–75?rpm). Power output reduces by approximately 6% for cadences 20?rpm above or below optimum. Our methodology can be used by a rider to determine an optimal cadence without laboratory testing intervention: the rider will need to collect power output, heart-rate, and cadence measurements from training and racing sessions over an extended period (>6 months); ride at a range of cadences within those sessions; and calculate his/her optimal cadence using the methodology described or a software tool that implements it

An archival case study : revisiting the life and political economy of Lauchlin Currie

This paper forms part of a wider project to show the significance of archival material on distinguished economists, in this case Lauchlin Currie (1902-93), who studied and taught at Harvard before entering government service at the US Treasury and Federal Reserve Board as the intellectual leader of Roosevelt's New Deal, 1934-39, as FDR's White House economic adviser in peace and war, 1939-45, and as a post-war development economist. It discusses the uses made of the written and oral material available when the author was writing his intellectual biography of Currie (Duke University Press 1990) while Currie was still alive, and the significance of the material that has come to light after Currie's death

Audiogenic reflex seizures in cats

This study aims at characterizing feline audiogenic reflex seizures (FARS). An online questionnaire was developed to capture information from owners with cats suffering FARS. This was collated with the medical records from the primary veterinarian. Ninety-six cats were included. Myoclonic seizures were one of the cardinal signs of this syndrome (90/96), frequently occurring prior to generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) in this population. Other features include a late-onset (median 15 years) and absence seizures (6/96), with most seizures triggered by high frequency sounds amid occasional spontaneous seizures (up to 20%). Half the population (48/96) had hearing impairment or were deaf. One third of cats (35/96) had concurrent diseases, most likely reflecting the age distribution. Birmans were strongly represented (30/96). Levetiracetam gave good seizure control. The course of the epilepsy was non-progressive in the majority (68/96) with an improvement over time in some (23/96). Only 33/96 and 11/90 owners respectively felt the GTCS and myoclonic seizures affected their cat’s quality of life (QoL). Despite this, many owners (50/96) reported a slow decline in their cat’s health becoming less responsive (43/50), not jumping (41/50), uncoordinated or weak in the pelvic limbs (24/50), and exhibiting dramatic weight loss (39/50). These signs were exclusively reported in cats experiencing seizures for >2 years with 42/50 owners stating these signs affected their cat’s QoL. In gathering data on audiogenic seizures in cats, we have identified a new epilepsy syndrome named FARS with a geriatric-onset. Further studies are warranted to investigate potential genetic predispositions to this condition

Deep and superficial amygdala nuclei projections revealed in vivo by probabilistic tractography

Copyright © 2011 Society for Neuroscience and the authors. The The Journal of Neuroscience uses a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.Despite a homogenous macroscopic appearance on magnetic resonance images, subregions of the amygdala express distinct functional profiles as well as corresponding differences in connectivity. In particular, histological analysis shows stronger connections for superficial (i.e., centromedial and cortical), compared with deep (i.e., basolateral and other), amygdala nuclei to lateral orbitofrontal cortex and stronger connections of deep compared with superficial, nuclei to polymodal areas in the temporal pole. Here, we use diffusion weighted imaging with probabilistic tractography to investigate these connections in humans. We use a data-driven approach to segment the amygdala into two subregions using k-means clustering. The identified subregions are spatially contiguous and their location corresponds to deep and superficial nuclear groups. Quantification of the connection strength between these amygdala clusters and individual target regions corresponds to qualitative histological findings in non-human primates, indicating such findings can be extrapolated to humans. We propose that connectivity profiles provide a potentially powerful approach for in vivo amygdala parcellation and can serve as a guide in studies that exploit functional and anatomical neuroimaging.The Wellcome Trust, a Max Planck Research Award and Swiss National Science Foundation

Localisation of the melanocortin-2-receptor and its accessory proteins in the developing and adult adrenal gland

The melanocortin-2-receptor (MC2R)/MC2R accessory protein (MRAP) complex is critical to the production of glucocorticoids from the adrenal cortex. Inactivating mutations in either MC2R or MRAP result in the clinical condition familial glucocorticoid deficiency. The localisation of MC2R together with MRAP within the adrenal gland has not previously been reported. Furthermore, MRAP2, a paralogue of MRAP, has been shown in vitro to have a similar function to MRAP, facilitating MC2R trafficking and responsiveness to ACTH. Despite similar MC2R accessory functions, in vivo, patients with inactivating mutations of MRAP fail to be rescued by a functioning MRAP2 gene, suggesting differences in adrenal expression, localisation and/or function between the two MRAPs. In this study on the rat adrenal gland, we demonstrate that while MRAP and MC2R are highly expressed in the zona fasciculata, MRAP2 is expressed throughout the adrenal cortex in low quantities. In the developing adrenal gland, both MRAP and MRAP2 are equally well expressed. The MC2R/MRAP2 complex requires much higher concentrations of ACTH to activate compared with the MC2R/MRAP complex. Interestingly, expression of MC2R and MRAP in the undifferentiated zone would support the notion that ACTH may play an important role in adrenal cell differentiation and maintenance