I Did What Last Night? Adolescent Risky Sexual Behaviors and Substance Abuse

Risky sexual behaviors by teenagers have shown to be strongly correlated with drug and alcohol consumption. The purpose of this study is to examine the question of whether alcohol and drug use increases the likelihood that teenagers will engage in four risky sexual behaviors: having sex, sex with multiple partners, sex without a condom, and sex without birth control. Two-stage least squares and a reduced form model are used to account for the potential endogeneity of substance use. The finding that alcohol consumption (as defined by either heavy drinking or drinking any amount) is unrelated to the probability of having sex is consistent with the findings of previous studies that also account for the potential endogeneity of alcohol consumption. The findings imply that the risky behaviors of sexually active teens, who may have made the decision long ago to become sexually active, might be altered through policies designed to reduce alcohol consumption.

Alcohol Regulation and Violence on College Campuses

This study focuses on the effects of variations in alcoholic beverage prices among states of the United States on violence on college campuses. The principal hypothesis tested is that the incidence of violence is negatively related to the price of alcohol. This hypothesis is derived from two well established relationships: the positive relationship between alcohol and violence and the negative relationship between the use of alcohol and its price. The data employed in the study are the 1989, 1990, and 1991 Core Alcohol and Drug Surveys of College Students. They contain almost 120,000 college students from approximately 200 colleges and universities throughout the United States and have measures of alcohol use and the adverse consequences of its use. These adverse consequences include the following indicators of violence: getting in trouble with the police, residence hall, or other college authorities; damaging property or pulling a fire alarm; getting into an argument or a fight; and taking advantage of another person sexually or having been taken advantage of sexually. The principal finding is that the incidence of each of these four acts of violence is inversely related to the price of beer in the state in which the student attends college.

An Investigation of the Effects of Alcohol Policies on Youth STDs

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of alcohol policies in reducing the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among youth. Previous research has shown that risky sexual practices (e.g., unprotected sex and multiple partners) that increase the risk of contracting a STD are highly correlated with alcohol use. If alcohol is a cause of risky sexual behavior, then policies that reduce the consumption of alcohol may also reduce the incidence of STDs. In this paper, we examine the relationship between alcohol policies (e.g., beer taxes and statutes pertaining to alcohol sales and drunk driving) and rates of gonorrhea and AIDS among teenagers and young adults. Results indicate that higher beer taxes are associated with lower rates of gonorrhea for males and are suggestive of lower AIDS rates. Strict drunk driving policies in the form of zero tolerance laws may also lower the gonorrhea rate among males under the legal drinking age.

The Effects of Alcohol Regulation on Physical Child Abuse

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of alcohol regulation on physical child abuse. Given the established relationship between alcohol consumption and violence, the principal hypothesis to be tested is that an increase in the price of alcohol will lead to a reduction in the incidence of violence. We also examine the effects of measures of the ease of obtaining alcohol, illegal drug prices, and the socio-demographic characteristics of the parent on the incidence of child abuse. Data on violence come from the 1976 and 1985 Physical Violence in American Families surveys. We estimate a reduced form model where violence is affected by the state excise tax rate on beer and other regulatory variables, and a structural model where violence is determined partly by consumption. Both equations are estimated separately for mothers and fathers. Results indicate that increases in the beer tax may decrease the incidence of violence committed by females but not by males. This is consistent with our second finding that violence by females increases with alcohol consumption while violence by males is not sensitive to changes in consumption.

BEGIN Partnership: Using Problem-Based Learning to Teach Genetics & Bioethics

A science education center at a university medical school had grant funding to develop a genetics curriculum unit, but needed a dissemination plan. A statewide science teacher organization that provided professional development training was facing decreased funding. These two groups combined their efforts, and created a unique partnership, called BEGIN (Biotechnology, Ethics and Genetics Instructional Network) that has brought together university medical and science faculty and high school biology teachers. The main goal of this partnership is to provide high school biology teachers with new instructional tools to face the challenges of teaching genetics and bioethics in a manner that is content-rich, research and standards-based, and relevant to students\u27 lives. This article describes the BEGIN partnership and summarizes the tiered approach used for designing, pilot-testing, and disseminating a new problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum module on the bioethics of DNA testing for Huntington\u27s disease. The article also provides some preliminary data on the effectiveness of this approach in transforming teacher practice

A high-density relativistic reflection origin for the soft and hard X-ray excess emission from Mrk 1044

We present the first results from a detailed spectral-timing analysis of a long ($\sim$130 ks) XMM-Newton observation and quasi-simultaneous NuSTAR and Swift observations of the highly-accreting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 1044. The broadband (0.3$-$50 keV) spectrum reveals the presence of a strong soft X-ray excess emission below $\sim$1.5 keV, iron K$_{\alpha}$ emission complex at $\sim$6$-$7 keV and a `Compton hump' at $\sim$15$-$30 keV. We find that the relativistic reflection from a high-density accretion disc with a broken power-law emissivity profile can simultaneously explain the soft X-ray excess, highly ionized broad iron line and the Compton hump. At low frequencies ($[2-6]\times10^{-5}$ Hz), the power-law continuum dominated 1.5$-$5 keV band lags behind the reflection dominated 0.3$-$1 keV band, which is explained with a combination of propagation fluctuation and Comptonization processes, while at higher frequencies ($[1-2]\times10^{-4}$ Hz), we detect a soft lag which is interpreted as a signature of X-ray reverberation from the accretion disc. The fractional root-mean-squared (rms) variability of the source decreases with energy and is well described by two variable components: a less variable relativistic disc reflection and a more variable direct coronal emission. Our combined spectral-timing analyses suggest that the observed broadband X-ray variability of Mrk~1044 is mainly driven by variations in the location or geometry of the optically thin, hot corona.Comment: 23 pages, 19 figures, 4 tables, Published in MNRA

Impact of the tick-size on financial returns and correlations

We demonstrate that the lowest possible price change (tick-size) has a large impact on the structure of financial return distributions. It induces a microstructure as well as it can alter the tail behavior. On small return intervals, the tick-size can distort the calculation of correlations. This especially occurs on small return intervals and thus contributes to the decay of the correlation coefficient towards smaller return intervals (Epps effect). We study this behavior within a model and identify the effect in market data. Furthermore, we present a method to compensate this purely statistical error.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

Draft genome sequence of Frankia sp. strain DC12, an atypical, noninfective, ineffective isolate from Datisca cannabina

Frankia sp. strain DC12, isolated from root nodules of Datisca cannabina, is a member of the fourth lineage of Frankia, which is unable to reinfect actinorhizal plants. Here, we report its 6.88-Mbp high-quality draft genome sequence, with a G+C content of 71.92% and 5,858 candidate protein-coding genes

Draft Genome Sequence of Frankia sp. Strain BMG5.12, a Nitrogen-Fixing Actinobacterium Isolated from Tunisian Soils

Members of the actinomycete genus Frankia form a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with 8 different families of actinorhizal plants. We report a draft genome sequence for Frankia sp. strain BMG5.12, a nitrogen-fixing actinobacterium isolated from Tunisian soils with the ability to infect Elaeagnus angustifolia and Myrica gale