Evaluating an In-School Drug Prevention Program for At-Risk Youth

This study assessed an in-school program aimed at preventing or reducing drug use and other deviant behavior in a sample of 167 at-risk youth in their transition years. Over 10 weeks, 17 one-hour sessions were offered to youth who were identified using a self-report questionnaire (at 9 schools with 12 control sites in Ontario, Canada). Repeated measures analysis of covariance was used to assess program impact at posttest and six-month followup. Program participants, compared with the control group, reported less frequent drinking

Warming the early Earth - CO2 reconsidered

Despite a fainter Sun, the surface of the early Earth was mostly ice-free. Proposed solutions to this so-called "faint young Sun problem" have usually involved higher amounts of greenhouse gases than present in the modern-day atmosphere. However, geological evidence seemed to indicate that the atmospheric CO2 concentrations during the Archaean and Proterozoic were far too low to keep the surface from freezing. With a radiative-convective model including new, updated thermal absorption coefficients, we found that the amount of CO2 necessary to obtain 273 K at the surface is reduced up to an order of magnitude compared to previous studies. For the late Archaean and early Proterozoic period of the Earth, we calculate that CO2 partial pressures of only about 2.9 mb are required to keep its surface from freezing which is compatible with the amount inferred from sediment studies. This conclusion was not significantly changed when we varied model parameters such as relative humidity or surface albedo, obtaining CO2 partial pressures for the late Archaean between 1.5 and 5.5 mb. Thus, the contradiction between sediment data and model results disappears for the late Archaean and early Proterozoic.Comment: 53 pages, 4 tables, 11 figures, published in Planetary and Space Scienc

Integrated molecular characterisation of endometrioid ovarian carcinoma identifies opportunities for stratification

Endometrioid ovarian carcinoma (EnOC) is an under-investigated ovarian cancer type. Recent studies have described disease subtypes defined by genomics and hormone receptor expression patterns; here, we determine the relationship between these subtyping layers to define the molecular landscape of EnOC with high granularity and identify therapeutic vulnerabilities in high-risk cases. Whole exome sequencing data were integrated with progesterone and oestrogen receptor (PR and ER) expression-defined subtypes in 90 EnOC cases following robust pathological assessment, revealing dominant clinical and molecular features in the resulting integrated subtypes. We demonstrate significant correlation between subtyping approaches: PR-high (PR + /ER + , PR + /ER−) cases were predominantly CTNNB1-mutant (73.2% vs 18.4%, P < 0.001), while PR-low (PR−/ER + , PR−/ER−) cases displayed higher TP53 mutation frequency (38.8% vs 7.3%, P = 0.001), greater genomic complexity (P = 0.007) and more frequent copy number alterations (P = 0.001). PR-high EnOC patients experience favourable disease-specific survival independent of clinicopathological and genomic features (HR = 0.16, 95% CI 0.04–0.71). TP53 mutation further delineates the outcome of patients with PR-low tumours (HR = 2.56, 95% CI 1.14–5.75). A simple, routinely applicable, classification algorithm utilising immunohistochemistry for PR and p53 recapitulated these subtypes and their survival profiles. The genomic profile of high-risk EnOC subtypes suggests that inhibitors of the MAPK and PI3K-AKT pathways, alongside PARP inhibitors, represent promising candidate agents for improving patient survival. Patients with PR-low TP53-mutant EnOC have the greatest unmet clinical need, while PR-high tumours—which are typically CTNNB1-mutant and TP53 wild-type—experience excellent survival and may represent candidates for trials investigating de-escalation of adjuvant chemotherapy to agents such as endocrine therapy

Higher COVID-19 pneumonia risk associated with anti-IFN-α than with anti-IFN-ω auto-Abs in children

We found that 19 (10.4%) of 183 unvaccinated children hospitalized for COVID-19 pneumonia had autoantibodies (auto-Abs) neutralizing type I IFNs (IFN-alpha 2 in 10 patients: IFN-alpha 2 only in three, IFN-alpha 2 plus IFN-omega in five, and IFN-alpha 2, IFN-omega plus IFN-beta in two; IFN-omega only in nine patients). Seven children (3.8%) had Abs neutralizing at least 10 ng/ml of one IFN, whereas the other 12 (6.6%) had Abs neutralizing only 100 pg/ml. The auto-Abs neutralized both unglycosylated and glycosylated IFNs. We also detected auto-Abs neutralizing 100 pg/ml IFN-alpha 2 in 4 of 2,267 uninfected children (0.2%) and auto-Abs neutralizing IFN-omega in 45 children (2%). The odds ratios (ORs) for life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia were, therefore, higher for auto-Abs neutralizing IFN-alpha 2 only (OR [95% CI] = 67.6 [5.7-9,196.6]) than for auto-Abs neutralizing IFN-. only (OR [95% CI] = 2.6 [1.2-5.3]). ORs were also higher for auto-Abs neutralizing high concentrations (OR [95% CI] = 12.9 [4.6-35.9]) than for those neutralizing low concentrations (OR [95% CI] = 5.5 [3.1-9.6]) of IFN-omega and/or IFN-alpha 2

A new species that’s worth its salt: Verticordia elizabethiae (Myrtaceae: chamelaucieae), a salt-tolerant rarity from semi-arid Western Australia

[Extract:] When Alex George named Verticordia halophila A.S.George, a Featherflower associated with saline environments in the Coorow area, he noted that it was unusual for species of Verticordia DC. s. lat. to occur in this type of habitat (George 1991: 328). The new species described below also grows near salt lakes but occurs more than 200 km further inland than V. halophila. It was first collected in 1926 from a salt lake near Southern Cross by Charles Gardner, who identified it as V. pennigera Endl. Gardner’s specimen remained the only collection until 1990, when three further collections were made. Elizabeth George treated the new taxon as a disjunct ‘eastern’ or ‘inland’ variant of V. halophila, noting that it differed from the western variant in being ‘more rigid but lower, spreading to 40–45 cm wide’ and in flowering more prolifically (George & Pieroni 2002: 318)

A new species that’s worth its salt: Verticordia elizabethiae (Myrtaceae: chamelaucieae), a salt-tolerant rarity from semi-arid Western Australia

[Extract:] When Alex George named Verticordia halophila A.S.George, a Featherflower associated with saline environments in the Coorow area, he noted that it was unusual for species of Verticordia DC. s. lat. to occur in this type of habitat (George 1991: 328). The new species described below also grows near salt lakes but occurs more than 200 km further inland than V. halophila. It was first collected in 1926 from a salt lake near Southern Cross by Charles Gardner, who identified it as V. pennigera Endl. Gardner’s specimen remained the only collection until 1990, when three further collections were made. Elizabeth George treated the new taxon as a disjunct ‘eastern’ or ‘inland’ variant of V. halophila, noting that it differed from the western variant in being ‘more rigid but lower, spreading to 40–45 cm wide’ and in flowering more prolifically (George & Pieroni 2002: 318)

Description of a new south-western Australian plant group, Hypocalymma sect. Grandiflora (Myrtaceae: Chamelaucieae: Astarteinae)

A new section of Hypocalymma (Endl.) Endl., H. sect. Grandiflora Rye, Keighery & M.D.Barrett, is described. Like sect. Hypocalymma, the new section has seeds with a pitted testa, but it differs in having solitary axillary flowers with large petals greatly exceeding the length of the stamens. Its type species is H. puniceum C.A.Gardner and three of its five species are new: H. inopinatum Rye, Keighery & M.D.Barrett, H.magnificum Rye, Keighery & M.D.Barrett, and H. polyandrum Rye, Keighery & M.D.Barrett. Keys are given to the four sections of Hypocalymma and to the species of sect. Grandiflora. Four species have conservation priority