Determinants for Bullying Victimization among 11–16-Year-Olds in 15 Low- and Middle-Income Countries:\ud A Multi-Level Study

Bullying is an issue of public health importance among adolescents worldwide. The present study aimed at explaining differences in bullying rates among adolescents in 15 low- and middle-income countries using globally comparable indicators of social and economic well-being. Using data derived from the Global School-based Health Survey, we performed bivariate analyses to examine differences in bullying rates by country and by bullying type. We then constructed a multi-level model using four fixed variables (age, gender, hunger and truancy) at the individual level, random effects at the classroom and\ud school levels and four fixed variables at the country level (Gini coefficient, per capita Gross Domestic Project, homicide rate and pupil to teacher ratio). Bullying rates differed significantly by classroom, school and by country, with Egypt (34.2%) and Macedonia (3.6%) having the highest and lowest rates, respectively. Eleven-year-olds were the most likely of the studied age groups to report being bullied, as was being a male. Hunger and truancy were found to significantly predict higher rates of bullying. None of the explanatory variables at the country level remained in the final model. While self-reported bullying varied significantly between countries, the variance between classrooms better explained these differences. Our findings suggest that classroom settings should be considered when designing approaches aimed at bullying prevention.\u

Suicidal ideation among school-attending adolescents in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

 Background: Suicidal ideation is an understudied risk factor for suicidal intent. The present study investigates the patterns and risk factors for suicidal ideation among a sample of school-attending adolescents in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Methods: This study examined secondary data collected in 2006 through the Global School-Based Student Health Survey. The data were collected via two-stage cluster sampling representative of all secondary schools in Dar es Salaam. We compared adolescents who reported suicidal ideation (SI) and those who reported a plan to carry out a suicide attempt (SP), with those reporting neither ideation nor an attempt (controls) within the 12 months preceding the survey. Our analyses targeted demographic, behavioral, social, mental health and family factors. Results: A total of 2,176 students aged 11-16 years participated. Within the recall period, 7% (n=149) of participants had thought about suicide with 6.3% (n=136) having created a plan to carry out an attempt. Fifty percent of those reporting SP were female. We found that significant associations existed across all categories of psychological health, substance use and among those who reported being bullied. In the multivariate analysis adolescents reporting suicidal intent were more than twice as likely to report having been lonely (RRR=2.33; CI=1.36-4.01); more likely to suffer from depressive symptoms (RRR=2.26; CI=1.56-3.27) and have previously used an illicit substance (RRR=1.97; CI=1.12-3.48). We found an inverse association with age and suicidal planning (RRR=0.74; CI=0.62-0.90) as well as poverty and SP (RRR=0.53; CI=0.29-0.98) and an increased likelihood for adolescents reporting SP to be lonely (RRR=2.76; CI=1.55-4.90) and depressed (RRR=3.98; CI=2.71-5.86). Tobacco use (RRR=2.15; CI=1.22-3.78) and illicit substance use (RRR=1.99; CI=1.10-3.60) were associated with SP as was having parents who were knowledgeable of what adolescents did during their free time (RRR=2.15; CI=1.07-4.31). Respondents who reported having no friends were also more likely to report SP (RRR=3.68; CI=2.22-6.08). Conclusion: Our results suggest that, as in high-income settings, psychological factors, risky health behaviors such as substance use, and social and familial support impact suicidal ideation. This knowledge should be used to help inform further research as well as prevention and intervention strategies.

Uses and Implications of Field Disease Data for Livestock Genomic and Genetics Studies

This paper identifies issues associated with field disease data and their implications on the interpretation of estimated genetic parameters and experimental designs. The main focus is on concepts relating to the impacts of diagnostic test properties and exposure to infection, and how exposure to infection is intricately related to within-herd epidemic dynamics. The following are raised challenges: (i) to more fully understand and describe the dynamic impacts of disease epidemics on genetic interpretations; (ii) to develop statistical methods to jointly estimate epidemiological and genetic parameters from complex epidemiological data; (iii) to develop and explore optimal experimental designs for case-control studies, exploiting field disease data. Solving these problems would add insight to both disease genetic and epidemiological studies, as well as enabling us to better select animals for increased disease resistance

Conceptualizing Restorative Justice for People with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison or Jail

Individuals with psychiatric disabilities who are involved in the criminal justice system face a number of challenges to community integration upon release. There is a critical need to develop and evaluate interventions for these individuals that connect them to the community by enhancing naturalistic social connections and helping them to participate meaningfully in valued roles. The purposes of this article are to describe, provide a theoretical rationale, and propose a conceptual model for the use of a particular restorative justice model, circles of support and accountability, to meet this need. We describe the principles of restorative justice (repairing harm, stakeholder involvement, and the transformation of community and governmental roles and relationships) and how these map on to elements of the circles intervention. These elements include a focus on community participation, positive social support, democratic decision making, collective ownership of crime problems, and connection to community-based resources. We then suggest how changes in identity transformation, moral development and motivation, and collective efficacy might mediate relationships between these intervention elements and community integration outcomes. Finally, we encourage the systematic evaluation of the circles intervention for people with mental health conditions leaving custody and provide recommendations for policy and practice

Nutrient Digestibility of Condensed Algal Residue Solubles in Beef Cattle Fishing Diets

Condensed algal residue solubles (CARS) were evaluated in finishing cattle diets. Six treatments were evaluated (2 × 3 factorial arrangement), CARS inclusion in the diet at 0, 5, or 10% of diet dry matter with 0 or 20% wet distillers grains. Th e remainder of the diets consisted of 57.5– 87.5% dry rolled corn, 7.5% sorghum silage and 5% supplement. Increasing wet distillers grains in the diet had no effect on dry matter and organic matter intake but decreased dry matter and organic matter digestibility. Increasing CARS inclusion in the diet resulted in lower dry matter and organic matter intake with no effect on dry matter and organic matter digestibility. Replacing up to 10% dry rolled corn with CARS in diets with or without wet distillers grains had little effect on digestibility of finishing beef cattle diets

Estropause, sex hormones and metal homeostasis in the mouse brain

Alterations in brain metal ion homeostasis have been reported with aging and are implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. To assess whether age-related changes in hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) hormones might be involved in modulating brain metal ion homeostasis, we treated 7.5-month intact, sham-ovariecomized and ovariectomized C57B6SJL mice with vehicle or leuprolide acetate (for 9-months) to differentiate between whether sex steroids or gonadotropins might modulate brain metal ion concentrations. Unlike other aging mammals, there was no increase in plasma luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) concentrations following estropause in mice, suggesting there was sufficient residual production by the follicle depleted ovary, of sex steroids like estrogens and protein hormones like the inhibins, in order to suppress pituitary LH/FSH production. Castration on the other hand induced significant increases in circulating LH and FSH. Modulation of plasma sex steroid and gonadotropin levels did not significantly alter the concentrations of brain metals tested (Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Co, Ni, Al, Li), although there was a tendency for a decrease in all brain metals following ovariectomy (low estrogens and progesterone, high gonadotropins), a response that was reversed with leuprolide acetate treatment (low sex steroids, low gonadotropins). Brain Cu concentration was the only metal correlated with plasma LH (−0.37, n = 30, p \u3c 0.05) and FSH (−0.42, n = 29, p \u3c 0.01). This study demonstrates that sex hormones do not markedly alter brain metal ion homeostasis, unlike previously reported studies of circulating metal ion homeostasis. The role of gonadotropins in regulating metal ion homeostasis does however warrant further study

Economic Analysis of Increased Corn Silage Inclusion in Beef Finishing Cattle

An economic analysis was conducted to assess the feasibility of feeding greater inclusions of corn silage in finishing diets. Cattle were fed two inclusions of corn silage (15 and 45% of diet dry matter) with or without tylosin. Cattle fed 15% corn silage with tylosin had the best feed conversion, 15 % corn silage without tylosin was intermediate, and both 45% corn silage with and without tylosin had the poorest feed conversion. Feeding corn silage at greater inclusions decreased ADG but increased final body weight when fed to an equal fatness (28 days longer). However, feeding corn silage at 45% was more economical compared to feeding 15% corn silage, especially at higher corn prices, provided shrink is well managed (less than 15%). Feeding elevated concentrations of corn silage may have an economic advantage while also offering the addition of liver abscess control in finishing diets without tylosin

Estimating individuals’ genetic and non-genetic effects underlying infectious disease transmission from temporal epidemic data

Individuals differ widely in their contribution to the spread of infection within and across populations. Three key epidemiological host traits affect infectious disease spread: susceptibility (propensity to acquire infection), infectivity (propensity to transmit infection to others) and recoverability (propensity to recover quickly). Interventions aiming to reduce disease spread may target improvement in any one of these traits, but the necessary statistical methods for obtaining risk estimates are lacking. In this paper we introduce a novel software tool called SIRE (standing for "Susceptibility, Infectivity and Recoverability Estimation"), which allows for the first time simultaneous estimation of the genetic effect of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), as well as non-genetic influences on these three unobservable host traits. SIRE implements a flexible Bayesian algorithm which accommodates a wide range of disease surveillance data comprising any combination of recorded individual infection and/or recovery times, or disease diagnostic test results. Different genetic and non-genetic regulations and data scenarios (representing realistic recording schemes) were simulated to validate SIRE and to assess their impact on the precision, accuracy and bias of parameter estimates. This analysis revealed that with few exceptions, SIRE provides unbiased, accurate parameter estimates associated with all three host traits. For most scenarios, SNP effects associated with recoverability can be estimated with highest precision, followed by susceptibility. For infectivity, many epidemics with few individuals give substantially more statistical power to identify SNP effects than the reverse. Importantly, precise estimates of SNP and other effects could be obtained even in the case of incomplete, censored and relatively infrequent measurements of individuals' infection or survival status, albeit requiring more individuals to yield equivalent precision. SIRE represents a new tool for analysing a wide range of experimental and field disease data with the aim of discovering and validating SNPs and other factors controlling infectious disease transmission

Evaluation of the effects of biochar on diet digestibility and methane production from growing and finishing steers

The objectives of these studies were to evaluate the effects of biochar (0%, 0.8%, or 3% of diet dry matter) on diet digestibility and methane and carbon dioxide production from cattle on growing and finishing diets. The growing diet consisted of 21% brome hay, 20% wheat straw, 30% corn silage, 22% wet distillers grains plus solubles, and 7% supplement. The finishing diet consisted of 53% dry-rolled corn, 15% corn silage, 25% wet distillers grains plus solubles, and 7% supplement. In both trials biochar replaced fine ground corn in the supplement. Six crossbred steers (initial body weight [BW] 529 kg; SD = 16 kg) were used in both the growing and finishing trial. The growing diets were evaluated over 6 periods followed by the finishing trial with 3 periods. Digestibility measures were taken over 4 d after at least 8 d of adaptation to diets followed by 2 d of gas emission measurements using headbox calorimeters. Dry matter intake (DMI) was not affected (P ≥ 0.43; 7.91 kg/d) by biochar inclusion in the growing study and increased quadratically (P = 0.07) in the finishing study with 0.8% biochar inclusion having the greatest DMI (12.9 kg/d). Organic matter (OM) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) digestibility increased quadratically (P = 0.10) in the growing study whereas OM digestibility tended to linearly decrease (P = 0.13) and NDF digestibility was not affected (P ≥ 0.39) by biochar inclusion in the finishing diet. Digestible energy intake (Mcal/d) was not affected (P ≥ 0.25) by biochar inclusion in the growing or finishing study. Methane production (g/d) tended to decrease quadratically (P = 0.14) in the growing study and was decreased 10.7% for the 0.8% biochar treatment relative to the control. There were no statistical differences in methane production (g/d) in the finishing study (P ≥ 0.32) but cattle on the 0.8% biochar treatment produced numerically less (9.6%) methane than the control. Methane production as g/kg DMI of the 0.8% biochar treatment relative to the control was numerically reduced 9.5% and 18.4% in the growing and finishing studies, respectively (P ≥ 0.13). Carbon dioxide production (g/d and g/kg of intake) quadratically decreased (P ≤ 0.06) in the growing study but was not affected by treatment in the finishing study (P ≥ 0.34). Although biochar is not a U.S. Food and Drug Administration -approved feed for cattle, the initial research shows potential as a methane mitigation strategy in both growing and finishing diets