Handbook for Aboriginal Alcohol and Drug Work

The Handbook for Aboriginal Alcohol and Drug Work is a practical tool written for Aboriginal drug and alcohol workers, mental health workers and others working in this field. It offers a detailed look at alcohol and drug work from clinical, through to prevention, early intervention and harm reduction. This handbook is also likely to help people working to improve policy and those advocating for change. The idea for it came from workers all over Australia. They told us that they needed an easy to use handbook that can help them respond to the range of alcohol and drug issues they face every day. They also told us that such a book needs to take into account the complex challenges facing workers when helping clients, their families and, sometimes, whole communities

A selected bibliography on parameter optimization methods suitable for hybrid computation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68333/2/10.1177_003754976700800610.pd

Suppression of High-p_T Neutral Pion Production in Central Pb+Pb Collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 17.3 GeV Relative to p+C and p+Pb Collisions

Neutral pion transverse momentum spectra were measured in p+C and p+Pb collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 17.4 GeV at mid-rapidity 2.3 < eta_lab < 3.0 over the range 0.7< p_T < 3.5 GeV/c. The spectra are compared to pi0 spectra measured in Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 17.3 GeV in the same experiment. For a wide range of Pb+Pb centralities (N_part < 300) the yield of pi0's with p_T > 2 GeV/c is larger than or consistent with the p+C or p+Pb yields scaled with the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions (N_coll), while for central Pb+Pb collisions with N_part > 350 the pi0 yield is suppressed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Pion Freeze-Out Time in Pb+Pb Collisions at 158 A GeV/c Studied via pi-/pi+ and K-/K+ Ratios

The effect of the final state Coulomb interaction on particles produced in Pb+Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c has been investigated in the WA98 experiment through the study of the pi-/pi+ and K-/K+ ratios measured as a function of transverse mass. While the ratio for kaons shows no significant transverse mass dependence, the pi-/pi+ ratio is enhanced at small transverse mass values with an enhancement that increases with centrality. A silicon pad detector located near the target is used to estimate the contribution of hyperon decays to the pi-/pi+ ratio. The comparison of results with predictions of the RQMD model in which the Coulomb interaction has been incorporated allows to place constraints on the time of the pion freeze-out.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figure

Central Pb+Pb Collisions at 158 A GeV/c Studied by Pion-Pion Interferometry

Two-particle correlations have been measured for identified negative pions from central 158 AGeV Pb+Pb collisions and fitted radii of about 7 fm in all dimensions have been obtained. A multi-dimensional study of the radii as a function of kT is presented, including a full correction for the resolution effects of the apparatus. The cross term Rout-long of the standard fit in the Longitudinally CoMoving System (LCMS) and the vl parameter of the generalised Yano-Koonin fit are compatible with 0, suggesting that the source undergoes a boost invariant expansion. The shapes of the correlation functions in Qinv and Qspace have been analyzed in detail. They are not Gaussian but better represented by exponentials. As a consequence, fitting Gaussians to these correlation functions may produce different radii depending on the acceptance of the experimental setup used for the measurement.Comment: 13 pages including 10 figure

Search for Disoriented Chiral Condensates in 158 AGeV Pb+Pb Collisions

The restoration of chiral symmetry and its subsequent breaking through a phase transition has been predicted to create regions of Disoriented Chiral Condensates (DCC). This phenomenon has been predicted to cause anomalous fluctuations in the relative production of charged and neutral pions in high-energy hadronic and nuclear collisions. The WA98 experiment has been used to measure charged and photon multiplicities in the central region of 158 AGeV Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN SPS. In a sample of 212646 events, no clear DCC signal can be distinguished. Using a simple DCC model, we have set a 90% C.L. upper limit on the maximum DCC production allowed by the data.Comment: 20 Pages, LaTeX, uses elsart.cls, 8 eps figures included, submitted to Physics Letters

FGF receptor genes and breast cancer susceptibility: results from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium

Background:Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women. Genome-wide association studies have identified FGFR2 as a breast cancer susceptibility gene. Common variation in other fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors might also modify risk. We tested this hypothesis by studying genotyped single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and imputed SNPs in FGFR1, FGFR3, FGFR4 and FGFRL1 in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. Methods:Data were combined from 49 studies, including 53 835 cases and 50 156 controls, of which 89 050 (46 450 cases and 42 600 controls) were of European ancestry, 12 893 (6269 cases and 6624 controls) of Asian and 2048 (1116 cases and 932 controls) of African ancestry. Associations with risk of breast cancer, overall and by disease sub-type, were assessed using unconditional logistic regression. Results:Little evidence of association with breast cancer risk was observed for SNPs in the FGF receptor genes. The strongest evidence in European women was for rs743682 in FGFR3; the estimated per-allele odds ratio was 1.05 (95 confidence interval=1.02-1.09, P=0.0020), which is substantially lower than that observed for SNPs in FGFR2. Conclusion:Our results suggest that common variants in the other FGF receptors are not associated with risk of breast cancer to the degree observed for FGFR2. © 2014 Cancer Research UK

Assessment of variation in immunosuppressive pathway genes reveals TGFBR2 to be associated with prognosis of estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer after chemotherapy

Introduction: Tumor lymphocyte infiltration is associated with clinical response to chemotherapy in estrogen receptor (ER) negative breast cancer. To identify variants in immunosuppressive pathway genes associated with prognosis after adjuvant chemotherapy for ER-negative patients, we studied stage I-III invasive breast cancer patients of European ancestry, including 9,334 ER-positive (3,151 treated with chemotherapy) and 2,334 ER-negative patients (1,499 treated with chemotherapy). Methods: We pooled data from sixteen studies from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC), and employed two independent studies for replications. Overall 3,610 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 133 genes were genotyped as part of the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study, in which phenotype and clinical data were collected and harmonized. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression was used to assess genetic associations with overall survival (OS) and breast

Fine-Scale Mapping of the 5q11.2 Breast Cancer Locus Reveals at Least Three Independent Risk Variants Regulating MAP3K1

Peer reviewe

Genome-wide association and Mendelian randomisation analysis provide insights into the pathogenesis of heart failure

Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A small proportion of HF cases are attributable to monogenic cardiomyopathies and existing genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have yielded only limited insights, leaving the observed heritability of HF largely unexplained. We report results from a GWAS meta-analysis of HF comprising 47,309 cases and 930,014 controls. Twelve independent variants at 11 genomic loci are associated with HF, all of which demonstrate one or more associations with coronary artery disease (CAD), atrial fibrillation, or reduced left ventricular function, suggesting shared genetic aetiology. Functional analysis of non-CAD-associated loci implicate genes involved in cardiac development (MYOZ1, SYNPO2L), protein homoeostasis (BAG3), and cellular senescence (CDKN1A). Mendelian randomisation analysis supports causal roles for several HF risk factors, and demonstrates CAD-independent effects for atrial fibrillation, body mass index, and hypertension. These findings extend our knowledge of the pathways underlying HF and may inform new therapeutic strategies