The "lessons" of the Australian "heroin shortage"

Heroin use causes considerable harm to individual users including dependence, fatal and nonfatal overdose, mental health problems, and blood borne virus transmission. It also adversely affects the community through drug dealing, property crime and reduced public amenity. During the mid to late 1990s in Australia the prevalence of heroin use increased as reflected in steeply rising overdose deaths. In January 2001, there were reports of an unpredicted and unprecedented reduction in heroin supply with an abrupt onset in all Australian jurisdictions. The shortage was most marked in New South Wales, the State with the largest heroin market, which saw increases in price, dramatic decreases in purity at the street level, and reductions in the ease with which injecting drug users reported being able to obtain the drug. The abrupt onset of the shortage and a subsequent dramatic reduction in overdose deaths prompted national debate about the causes of the shortage and later international debate about the policy significance of what has come to be called the "Australian heroin shortage". In this paper we summarise insights from four years' research into the causes, consequences and policy implications of the "heroin shortage"

Mass Transfer by Stellar Wind

I review the process of mass transfer in a binary system through a stellar wind, with an emphasis on systems containing a red giant. I show how wind accretion in a binary system is different from the usually assumed Bondi-Hoyle approximation, first as far as the flow's structure is concerned, but most importantly, also for the mass accretion and specific angular momentum loss. This has important implications on the evolution of the orbital parameters. I also discuss the impact of wind accretion, on the chemical pollution and change in spin of the accreting star. The last section deals with observations and covers systems that most likely went through wind mass transfer: barium and related stars, symbiotic stars and central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPN). The most recent observations of cool CSPN progenitors of barium stars, as well as of carbon-rich post-common envelope systems, are providing unique constraints on the mass transfer processes.Comment: Chapter 7, in Ecology of Blue Straggler Stars, H.M.J. Boffin, G. Carraro & G. Beccari (Eds), Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Springe

Falsification Of The Atmospheric CO2 Greenhouse Effects Within The Frame Of Physics

The atmospheric greenhouse effect, an idea that many authors trace back to the traditional works of Fourier (1824), Tyndall (1861), and Arrhenius (1896), and which is still supported in global climatology, essentially describes a fictitious mechanism, in which a planetary atmosphere acts as a heat pump driven by an environment that is radiatively interacting with but radiatively equilibrated to the atmospheric system. According to the second law of thermodynamics such a planetary machine can never exist. Nevertheless, in almost all texts of global climatology and in a widespread secondary literature it is taken for granted that such mechanism is real and stands on a firm scientific foundation. In this paper the popular conjecture is analyzed and the underlying physical principles are clarified. By showing that (a) there are no common physical laws between the warming phenomenon in glass houses and the fictitious atmospheric greenhouse effects, (b) there are no calculations to determine an average surface temperature of a planet, (c) the frequently mentioned difference of 33 degrees Celsius is a meaningless number calculated wrongly, (d) the formulas of cavity radiation are used inappropriately, (e) the assumption of a radiative balance is unphysical, (f) thermal conductivity and friction must not be set to zero, the atmospheric greenhouse conjecture is falsified.Comment: 115 pages, 32 figures, 13 tables (some typos corrected

Structural studies of thermally stable, combustion-resistant polymer composites

Composites of the industrially important polymer, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), were prepared by free-radical polymerization of MMA with varying amounts (1–30 wt. %) of sodium dioctylsulfosuccinate (Aerosol OT or AOT) surfactant added to the reaction mixture. The composites with AOT incorporated show enhanced resistance to thermal degradation compared to pure PMMA homopolymer, and micro-cone combustion calorimetry measurements also show that the composites are combustion-resistant. The physical properties of the polymers, particularly at low concentrations of surfactant, are not significantly modified by the incorporation of AOT, whereas the degradation is modified considerably for even the smallest concentration of AOT (1 wt. %). Structural analyses over very different lengthscales were performed. X-ray scattering was used to determine nm-scale structure, and scanning electron microscopy was used to determine μm-scale structure. Two self-assembled species were observed: large phase-separated regions of AOT using electron microscopy and regions of hexagonally packed rods of AOT using X-ray scattering. Therefore, the combustion resistance is observed whenever AOT self-assembles. These results demonstrate a promising method of physically incorporating a small organic molecule to obtain a highly thermally stable and combustion-resistant material without significantly changing the properties of the polymer

Developing an ecologically relevant heterogeneous biofilm model for dental-unit waterlines

This study monitored the biodiversity of microbes cultured from a heterogeneous biofilm which had formed on the lumen of a section of dental waterline tubing over a period of 910 days. By day two bacterial counts on the outlet-water showed that contamination of the system had occurred. After 14 days, a biofilm comparable to that of clinical waterlines, consisting of bacteria, fungi and amoebae had formed. This showed that the proprietary silver coating applied to the lumenal surface of the commercial waterline tubing failed to prevent biofilm formation. Molecular barcoding of isolated culturable microorganisms showed some degree of the diversity of taxa in the biofilm, including the opportunistic pathogen Legionella pneumophila. Whilst the system used for isolation and identification of contaminating microorganisms may underestimate the diversity of organisms in the biofilm, their similarity to those found in the clinical environment makes this a promising test-bed for future biocide testing

The impact of changes to heroin supply on blood-borne virus notifications and injecting related harms in New South Wales, Australia

BACKGROUND: In early 2001 Australia experienced a sudden and unexpected disruption to heroin availability, know as the 'heroin shortage'. This 'shortage has been linked to a decrease in needle and syringe output and therefore possibly a reduction in injecting drug use. We aimed to examine changes, if any, in blood-borne viral infections and presentations for injecting related problems related to injecting drug use following the reduction heroin availability in Australia, in the context of widespread harm reduction measures. METHODS: Time series analysis of State level databases on HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C notifications and hospital and emergency department data. Examination of changes in HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C notifications and hospital and emergency department admissions for injection-related problems following the onset of the heroin shortage; non-parametric curve-fitting of number of hepatitis C notifications among those aged 15–19 years. RESULTS: There were no changes observed in hospital visits for injection-related problems. There was no change related to the onset heroin shortage in the number of hepatitis C notifications among persons aged 15–19 years, but HCV notifications have subsequently decreased in this group. No change occurred in HIV and hepatitis B notifications. CONCLUSION: A marked reduction in heroin supply resulted in no increase in injection-related harm at the community level. However, a delayed decrease in HCV notifications among young people may be related. These changes occurred in a setting with widespread, publicly funded harm reduction initiatives

A Dose-Dependent Relationship between Exposure to a Street-Based Drug Scene and Health-Related Harms among People Who Use Injection Drugs

While the community impacts of drug-related street disorder have been well described, lesser attention has been given to the potential health and social implications of drug scene exposure on street-involved people who use illicit drugs. Therefore, we sought to assess the impacts of exposure to a street-based drug scene among injection drug users (IDU) in a Canadian setting. Data were derived from a prospective cohort study known as the Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study. Four categories of drug scene exposure were defined based on the numbers of hours spent on the street each day. Three generalized estimating equation (GEE) logistic regression models were constructed to identify factors associated with varying levels of drug scene exposure (2–6, 6–15, over 15 hours) during the period of December 2005 to March 2009. Among our sample of 1,486 IDU, at baseline, a total of 314 (21%) fit the criteria for high drug scene exposure (>15 hours per day). In multivariate GEE analysis, factors significantly and independently associated with high exposure included: unstable housing (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 9.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.36–14.20); daily crack use (AOR = 2.70; 95% CI, 2.07–3.52); encounters with police (AOR = 2.11; 95% CI, 1.62–2.75); and being a victim of violence (AOR = 1.49; 95 % CI, 1.14–1.95). Regular employment (AOR = 0.50; 95% CI, 0.38–0.65), and engagement with addiction treatment (AOR = 0.58; 95% CI, 0.45–0.75) were negatively associated with high exposure. Our findings indicate that drug scene exposure is associated with markers of vulnerability and higher intensity addiction. Intensity of drug scene exposure was associated with indicators of vulnerability to harm in a dose-dependent fashion. These findings highlight opportunities for policy interventions to address exposure to street disorder in the areas of employment, housing, and addiction treatment

The Essential Role for Laboratory Studies in Atmospheric Chemistry

Laboratory studies of atmospheric chemistry characterize the nature of atmospherically relevant processes down to the molecular level, providing fundamental information used to assess how human activities drive environmental phenomena such as climate change, urban air pollution, ecosystem health, indoor air quality, and stratospheric ozone depletion. Laboratory studies have a central role in addressing the incomplete fundamental knowledge of atmospheric chemistry. This article highlights the evolving science needs for this community and emphasizes how our knowledge is far from complete, hindering our ability to predict the future state of our atmosphere and to respond to emerging global environmental change issues. Laboratory studies provide rich opportunities to expand our understanding of the atmosphere via collaborative research with the modeling and field measurement communities, and with neighboring disciplines