Reducing alcohol and other drug related harm

High levels of alcohol and other drug use-related harm among Indigenous Australians are both a consequence of, and contribute to, the health and social gap between them and non-Indigenous Australians. This resource sheet summarises current evidence on the issue. Reduction of harmful alcohol and other drug (AOD) use must include broad strategies to address the underlying social factors which predispose towards, or protect against, harmful use; and strategies specifically targeting harmful use itself. AOD-specific strategies should aim to prevent or minimise the uptake of harmful use; provide safe care for those who are intoxicated; provide treatment for those who are dependent; support those whose harmful AOD use has left them disabled or cognitively impaired; and support those whose lives are affected by others’ harmful AOD us

Forced Oscillations of Supported Drops

Oscillations of supported liquid drops are the subject of wide scientific interest, with applications in areas as diverse as liquid-liquid extraction, synthesis of ceramic powders, growing of pure crystals in low gravity, and measurement of dynamic surface tension. In this research, axisymmetric forced oscillations of arbitrary amplitude of viscous liquid drops of fixed volume which are pendant from or sessile on a rod with a fixed or moving contact line and surrounded by an inviscid ambient gas are induced by moving the rod in the vertical direction sinusiodally in time. In this paper, a preliminary report is made on the computational analysis of the oscillations of supported drops that have 'clean' interfaces and whose contact lines remain fixed throughout their motions. The relative importance of forcing to damping can be increased by either increasing the amplitude of rod motion A or Reynolds number Re. It is shown that as the ratio of forcing to damping rises, for drops starting from an initial rest state a sharp increase in deformation can occur when they are forced to oscillate in the vicinity of their resonance frequencies, indicating the incipience of hysteresis. However, it is also shown that the existence of a second stable limit cycle and the occurrence of hysteresis can be observed if the drop is subjected to a so-called frequency sweep, where the forcing frequency is first increased and then decreased over a suitable range. Because the change in drop deformation response is abrupt in the vicinity of the forcing frequencies where hysteresis occurs, it should be possible to exploit the phenomenon to accurately measure the viscosity and surface tension of the drop liquid

Fifteen Years of Chandra Operation: Scientific Highlights and Lessons Learned

NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, designed for three years of operation with a goal of five years is now entering its 15-th year of operation. Thanks to its superb angular resolution, the Observatory continues to yield new and exciting results, many of which were totally unanticipated prior to launch. We discuss the current technical status, review recent scientific highlights, indicate a few future directions, and present what we feel is the most important lesson learned from our experience of building and operating this great observatory

Large deformation solid-fluid interaction via a level set approach.

Solidification and blood flow seemingly have little in common, but each involves a fluid in contact with a deformable solid. In these systems, the solid-fluid interface moves as the solid advects and deforms, often traversing the entire domain of interest. Currently, these problems cannot be simulated without innumerable expensive remeshing steps, mesh manipulations or decoupling the solid and fluid motion. Despite the wealth of progress recently made in mechanics modeling, this glaring inadequacy persists. We propose a new technique that tracks the interface implicitly and circumvents the need for remeshing and remapping the solution onto the new mesh. The solid-fluid boundary is tracked with a level set algorithm that changes the equation type dynamically depending on the phases present. This novel approach to coupled mechanics problems promises to give accurate stresses, displacements and velocities in both phases, simultaneously

Estimating the clinical prevalence of Wilson’s disease in the UK

Background and AimThe clinical prevalence of Wilson’s disease (WD) in the UK remains unknown. The estimated genetic prevalence in the UK, 142/million, is higher than the clinical prevalence (15/million) reported in other European studies. The aim of this study was to estimate the clinical prevalence of WD utilising readily available laboratory and clinical data.MethodPatients with WD who attended Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust (NUH) between 2011 and 2018 were identified using multiple sources of case ascertainment: serum ceruloplasmin, 24-hour urinary copper, ‘Wilson’ in liver biopsy report, hospital prescription for penicillamine/trientine/zinc and admission coded with ICD-10 Code E83.0 (disorder of copper metabolism). Potential cases were identified using the Leipzig score, diagnosis was confirmed in hospital records and the point prevalence was calculated using the Office for National Statistics mid-2017 population estimates.ResultsA total of 1,794 patients were identified from ≥1 source; 19 patients had WD, of which 11 were from within the study catchment area and alive at the time of point prevalence estimation. Twentynine patients had Leipzig score ≥2 without a diagnosis of WD, but none had WD on screening (n=16). The overall prevalence of WD was 15.5/million; males 16.9/million and females 14.1/million.ConclusionThis is the first UK population-based study of WD clinical prevalence. This is lower than the UK genetic prevalence, but comparable to European clinical prevalence. The case ascertainment approach used in this study may be a cost-effective, and similar practises could be adopted nationally

Eating Paradise: Food as Coloniality and Leisure

Sandals Resorts’ Gourmet Discovery Dining programme continues the company’s practice of marketing difference by combining tourism with the commodification of food from non-Western cultures (Dodman and Rhiney 2008). The article draws on bell hooks’ (1992) concept of ‘eating the other’ and the analysis undertakes an interdisciplinary approach that combines visual analysis with Anibal Quijano’s (2007) concept of modernity/coloniality. The discussion explores the trends of global multiculturalism that have been adopted by Sandals in a hybridized cut and mix approach to selling a packaged ideal of the Caribbean. The visual techniques devised to create a culinary holiday package are overlaid onto a manufactured and homogenised or McDonaldized (Ritzer and Liska 1997) Caribbean that provides insight into the way in which global neoliberal multiculturalism is framed by ongoing colonial relations after formal colonial rule has ended in the Caribbean region

Aquatic Bacterial Communities Associated With Land Use and Environmental Factors in Agricultural Landscapes Using a Metabarcoding Approach

This study applied a 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding approach to characterize bacterial community compositional and functional attributes for surface water samples collected within, primarily, agriculturally dominated watersheds in Ontario and Québec, Canada. Compositional heterogeneity was best explained by stream order, season, and watercourse discharge. Generally, community diversity was higher at agriculturally dominated lower order streams, compared to larger stream order systems such as small to large rivers. However, during times of lower relative water flow and cumulative 2-day rainfall, modestly higher relative diversity was found in the larger watercourses. Bacterial community assemblages were more sensitive to environmental/land use changes in the smaller watercourses, relative to small-to-large river systems, where the proximity of the sampled water column to bacteria reservoirs in the sediments and adjacent terrestrial environment was greater. Stream discharge was the environmental variable most significantly correlated (all positive) with bacterial functional groups, such as C/N cycling and plant pathogens. Comparison of the community structural similarity via network analyses helped to discriminate sources of bacteria in freshwater derived from, for example, wastewater treatment plant effluent and intensity and type of agricultural land uses (e.g., intensive swine production vs. dairy dominated cash/livestock cropping systems). When using metabarcoding approaches, bacterial community composition and coexisting pattern rather than individual taxonomic lineages, were better indicators of environmental/land use conditions (e.g., upstream land use) and bacterial sources in watershed settings. Overall, monitoring changes and differences in aquatic microbial communities at regional and local watershed scales has promise for enhancing environmental footprinting and for better understanding nutrient cycling and ecological function of aquatic systems impacted by a multitude of stressors and land uses

Quantitative Evidence for Revising the Definition of Primary Graft Dysfunction after Lung Transplant

RATIONALE: Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) is a form of acute lung injury that occurs after lung transplantation. The definition of PGD was standardized in 2005. Since that time, clinical practice has evolved, and this definition is increasingly used as a primary endpoint for clinical trials; therefore, validation is warranted. OBJECTIVES: We sought to determine whether refinements to the 2005 consensus definition could further improve construct validity. METHODS: Data from the Lung Transplant Outcomes Group multicenter cohort were used to compare variations on the PGD definition, including alternate oxygenation thresholds, inclusion of additional severity groups, and effects of procedure type and mechanical ventilation. Convergent and divergent validity were compared for mortality prediction and concurrent lung injury biomarker discrimination. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A total of 1,179 subjects from 10 centers were enrolled from 2007 to 2012. Median length of follow-up was 4 years (interquartile range = 2.4-5.9). No mortality differences were noted between no PGD (grade 0) and mild PGD (grade 1). Significantly better mortality discrimination was evident for all definitions using later time points (48, 72, or 48-72 hours; P < 0.001). Biomarker divergent discrimination was superior when collapsing grades 0 and 1. Additional severity grades, use of mechanical ventilation, and transplant procedure type had minimal or no effect on mortality or biomarker discrimination. CONCLUSIONS: The PGD consensus definition can be simplified by combining lower PGD grades. Construct validity of grading was present regardless of transplant procedure type or use of mechanical ventilation. Additional severity categories had minimal impact on mortality or biomarker discrimination

The relationship between plasma lipid peroxidation products and primary graft dysfunction after lung transplantation is modified by donor smoking and reperfusion hyperoxia

BACKGROUND: Donor smoking history and higher fraction of inspired oxygen (FIO2) at reperfusion are associated with primary graft dysfunction (PGD) after lung transplantation. We hypothesized that oxidative injury biomarkers would be elevated in PGD, with higher levels associated with donor exposure to cigarette smoke and recipient hyperoxia at reperfusion. METHODS: We performed a nested case-control study of 72 lung transplant recipients from the Lung Transplant Outcomes Group cohort. Using mass spectroscopy, F2-isoprostanes and isofurans were measured in plasma collected after transplantation. Cases were defined in 2 ways: grade 3 PGD present at day 2 or day 3 after reperfusion (severe PGD) or any grade 3 PGD (any PGD). RESULTS: There were 31 severe PGD cases with 41 controls and 35 any PGD cases with 37 controls. Plasma F2-isoprostane levels were higher in severe PGD cases compared with controls (28.6 pg/ml vs 19.8 pg/ml, p = 0.03). Plasma F2-isoprostane levels were higher in severe PGD cases compared with controls (29.6 pg/ml vs 19.0 pg/ml, p = 0.03) among patients reperfused with FIO2 >40%. Among recipients of lungs from donors with smoke exposure, plasma F2-isoprostane (38.2 pg/ml vs 22.5 pg/ml, p = 0.046) and isofuran (66.9 pg/ml vs 34.6 pg/ml, p = 0.046) levels were higher in severe PGD compared with control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Plasma levels of lipid peroxidation products are higher in patients with severe PGD, in recipients of lungs from donors with smoke exposure, and in recipients exposed to higher Fio2 at reperfusion. Oxidative injury is an important mechanism of PGD and may be magnified by donor exposure to cigarette smoke and hyperoxia at reperfusion