Integrating theories of alcohol consumption: how do drinking motives influence self-efficacy?

Integrating theories regarding alcohol consumption can create complementary explanations and reduce unexplained variance in drinking behaviour prediction. This study investigated the utility of integrating the Motivational Model of Alcohol Use (MMAU) with the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA). A cross-sectional study was conducted to test the mediation of HAPA self-efficacy between episode-specific drinking motives and drinking frequency/quantity

Mentoring: results from the Australian Psychological Society College of Health Psychologists professional mentoring survey

Introduction: A key purpose of APS College of Health Psychologists (CHP) is to provide professional support for Health Psychologists. Professional mentoring provides opportunities for new practitioners, to be matched with established practitioners, to assist with transition to professional practice. The CHP is considering developing a platform to facilitate professional mentoring. This project aims to better understand members’ needs, for future support/development opportunities. Methods: Health Psychologists comprising all membership categories and final-year post-graduate Health Psychology students were invited were invited to complete a mentoring survey, advertised through professional/university networks and related social-media sites. Socio-demographic and education/employment information was captured. Ethics approval was obtained from Bond University. Results: There were fifty-two respondents (57% graduated from highest degree within six years, 27% post-grads; 66% Health Psychology Masters/PhD). Majority (80%) knew the process for becoming Health Psychology-endorsed, whilst half (56%) knew requirements for CHP membership (56%). Two-thirds (68%) would recommend a career in Health Psychology to others (23% unsure). Main findings indicated 73% expressed interest in a mentoring program sponsored by CHP (7% unsure); and were most interested in: advice about endorsement requirements, employment and growing a career in health psychology; with preferred mentoring formats face-to-face and email. Further qualitative analysis revealed key themes regarding motivations and barriers (time, family) for mentoring. Conclusions: This information will help inform the development of a mentoring platform to support the professional and workforce development needs of Health Psychologists in Australia, and tailor other APS CHP services to the better meet the needs of recent graduates/early-career Health Psychologists

Comparative in vitro evaluation of contact activity of fluralaner, spinosad, phoxim, propoxur, permethrin and deltamethrin against the northern fowl mite, Ornithonyssus sylviarum.

BackgroundNorthern fowl mites (Ornithonyssus sylviarum) are obligate hematophagous ectoparasites of both feral birds and poultry, particularly chicken layers and breeders. They complete their entire life-cycle on infested birds while feeding on blood. Infestations of O. sylviarum are difficult to control and resistance to some chemical classes of acaricides is a growing concern. The contact susceptibility of O. sylviarum to a new active ingredient, fluralaner, was evaluated, as well as other compounds representative of the main chemical classes commonly used to control poultry mite infestations in Europe and the USA.MethodsSix acaricides (fluralaner, spinosad, phoxim, propoxur, permethrin, deltamethrin) were dissolved and serially diluted in butanol:olive oil (1:1) to obtain test solutions used for impregnation of filter paper packets. A carrier-only control was included. Thirty adult northern fowl mites, freshly collected from untreated host chickens, were inserted into each packet for continuous compound exposure. Mite mortality was assessed after incubation of the test packets for 48 h at 75% relative humidity and a temperature of 22 °C.ResultsAdult mite LC50 /LC99 values were 2.95/8.09 ppm for fluralaner, 1587/3123 ppm for spinosad, 420/750 ppm for phoxim and 86/181 ppm for propoxur. Permethrin and deltamethrin LC values could not be calculated due to lack of mortality observed even at 1000 ppm.ConclusionsNorthern fowl mites were highly sensitive to fluralaner after contact exposure. They were moderately sensitive to phoxim and propoxur, and less sensitive to spinosad. Furthermore, the tested mite population appeared to be resistant to the pyrethroids, permethrin and deltamethrin, despite not being exposed to acaricides for at least 10 years

Bluetongue virus infection creates light averse Culicoides vectors and serious errors in transmission risk estimates.

BackgroundPathogen manipulation of host behavior can greatly impact vector-borne disease transmission, but almost no attention has been paid to how it affects disease surveillance. Bluetongue virus (BTV), transmitted by Culicoides biting midges, is a serious disease of ruminant livestock that can cause high morbidity and mortality and significant economic losses. Worldwide, the majority of surveillance for Culicoides to assess BTV transmission risk is done using UV-light traps. Here we show that field infection rates of BTV are significantly lower in midge vectors collected using traps baited with UV light versus a host cue (CO2).MethodsWe collected Culicoides sonorensis midges in suction traps baited with CO2, UV-light, or CO2 + UV on three dairies in southern California to assess differences in the resulting estimated infection rates from these collections. Pools of midges were tested for BTV by qRT-PCR, and maximum likelihood estimates of infection rate were calculated by trap. Infection rate estimates were also calculated by trapping site within a dairy. Colonized C. sonorensis were orally infected with BTV, and infection of the structures of the compound eye was examined using structured illumination microscopy.ResultsUV traps failed entirely to detect virus both early and late in the transmission season, and underestimated virus prevalence by as much as 8.5-fold. CO2 + UV traps also had significantly lower infection rates than CO2-only traps, suggesting that light may repel infected vectors. We found very high virus levels in the eyes of infected midges, possibly causing altered vision or light perception. Collecting location also greatly impacts our perception of virus activity.ConclusionsBecause the majority of global vector surveillance for bluetongue uses only light-trapping, transmission risk estimates based on these collections are likely severely understated. Where national surveillance programs exist, alternatives to light-trapping should be considered. More broadly, disseminated infections of many arboviruses include infections in vectors' eyes and nervous tissues, and this may be causing unanticipated behavioral effects. Field demonstrations of pathogen-induced changes in vector behavior are quite rare, but should be studied in more systems to accurately predict vector-borne disease transmission

Overview of NWIS Software

The Nuclear Weapons Identification System (NWIS) is a system that performs radiation signature measurements on objects such as nuclear weapons components. NWIS consists of a {sup 252}Cf fission source, radiation detectors and associated analog electronics, data acquisition boards, and a computer running Windows NT and the application software. NWIS uses signal processing techniques to produce a radiation signature from the radiation emitted from the object. This signature can be stored and later compared to another signature to determine whether two objects are similar. A library of such signatures can be used to identify objects in closed containers as well as determine attributes such as fissile mass and in some cases enrichment. NWIS uses a {sup 252}Cf source on one side of the object to produce radiation that its detectors measure on the other side of the target (active mode). If the object naturally emits enough radiation, the {sup 252}Cf source is not required (passive mode). The NWIS data acquisition hardware has five detector channels. Each channel receives shaped detector pulses and times those pulses with 1 nanosecond resolution. In active mode measurements one of these channels receives pulses from a detector measuring the {sup 252}Cf source fissions. Thus, for active mode measurements, NWIS has the time of each {sup 252}Cf fission and the subsequent injection of neutrons and gamma rays into the object. The remaining channels receive pulses from the detectors measuring radiation from the object. These detectors record the amount and time of radiation exiting the object. By correlating the radiation events among the source and the other detectors, and among the detectors themselves, a characteristic response of the object to {sup 252}Cf radiation or its own internal radiation is measured. The data acquisition hardware consists of two custom-made boards. The Data Capture and Compression (DCC) board is built around a Gallium Arsine (GaAs) chip designed at ORNL. This chip assigns a time to each pulse received on the five detector channels and passes five compressed streams of time stamp data to the Data Acquisition (DA) board. The DA board performs additional data compression, consolidates the five data streams into one, formats the data, and passes it across the computer's PCI bus into computer memory. The computer processor performs the signal processing required to calculate the signatures and saves the result to disk. Signature analysis software provides the means to manipulate and match signatures in a signature library

Laboratory evaluation of stable isotope labeling of Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) for adult dispersal studies.

BackgroundStable isotope labeling is a promising method for use in insect mark-capture and dispersal studies. Culicoides biting midges, which transmit several important animal pathogens, including bluetongue virus (BTV) and epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV), are small flies that develop in various semi-aquatic habitats. Previous Culicoides dispersal studies have suffered from the limitations of other labeling techniques, and an inability to definitively connect collected adult midges to specific immature development sites.ResultsAdult C. sonorensis were successfully labeled with 13C and 15N stable isotopes as larvae developing in a semi-aquatic mud substrate in the laboratory. High and low-dose isotope treatments for both elements significantly enriched midges above the background isotope levels of unenriched controls. Enrichment had no effect on C. sonorensis survival, though a slight (~ 5 day) delay in emergence was observed, and there was no significant effect of pool size on 13C or 15N enrichment levels.ConclusionsStable isotope labeling is life-long, and does not interfere with natural insect behaviors. Stable isotope enrichment using 13C or 15N shows promise for Culicoides dispersal studies in the field. This method can be used to identify adult dispersal from larval source habitat where a midge developed. It may be possible to detect a single enriched midge in a pool of unenriched individuals, though further testing is needed to confirm the sensitivity of this method

Seasonal variation and impact of waste-water lagoons as larval habitat on the population dynamics of Culicoides sonorensis (Diptera:Ceratpogonidae) at two dairy farms in northern California.

The Sacramento (northern Central) Valley of California (CA) has a hot Mediterranean climate and a diverse ecological landscape that is impacted extensively by human activities, which include the intensive farming of crops and livestock. Waste-water ponds, marshes, and irrigated fields associated with these agricultural activities provide abundant larval habitats for C. sonorensis midges, in addition to those sites that exist in the natural environment. Within this region, C. sonorensis is an important vector of bluetongue (BTV) and related viruses that adversely affect the international trade and movement of livestock, the economics of livestock production, and animal welfare. To characterize the seasonal dynamics of immature and adult C. sonorensis populations, abundance was monitored intensively on two dairy farms in the Sacramento Valley from August 2012- to July 2013. Adults were sampled every two weeks for 52 weeks by trapping (CDC style traps without light and baited with dry-ice) along N-S and E-W transects on each farm. One farm had large operational waste-water lagoons, whereas the lagoon on the other farm was drained and remained dry during the study. Spring emergence and seasonal abundance of adult C. sonorensis on both farms coincided with rising vernal temperature. Paradoxically, the abundance of midges on the farm without a functioning waste-water lagoon was increased as compared to abundance on the farm with a waste-water lagoon system, indicating that this infrastructure may not serve as the sole, or even the primary larval habitat. Adult midges disappeared from both farms from late November until May; however, low numbers of parous female midges were detected in traps set during daylight in the inter-seasonal winter period. This latter finding is especially critical as it provides a potential mechanism for the "overwintering" of BTV in temperate regions such as northern CA. Precise documentation of temporal changes in the annual abundance and dispersal of Culicoides midges is essential for the creation of models to predict BTV infection of livestock and to develop sound abatement strategies

Acer rubrum Wats.

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