(Mis)understanding alcohol use disorder: Making the case for a public health first approach

‘Alcohol use disorder’ (AUD) is used by several contemporary conceptualizations to identify, treat and prevent problems associated with alcohol use. Such conceptualizations encompass diagnostic classifications and broader frameworks for policy and practice. However, current AUD concepts are subject to multiple tensions and limitations in capturing and responding to the complex and heterogeneous nature of alcohol problems. Further, public understandings of alcohol problems are heavily divergent from professional AUD concepts and remain embedded within an ‘alcoholism’ master narrative in which disease model stereotypes come with multiple costs for prevention and ‘recovery’. The persistence of a problematic ‘alcoholism’ paradigm reflects the coalescing of multiple forces including the cognitive appeal of reductionism, motives to stigmatize and ‘other’, and an over-emphasis on AUD as an individually located biomedical problem. Public misperceptions of AUD as a matter of the individual, the individual’s essence, and misconceived notions of responsibility and control have been bolstered by industry interests and the ascension of neuroscience and genetics, in turn diverting attention from the importance of the environmental and commercial determinants of health and the effectiveness of under-utilized public health policies. We call for multiple stakeholders to support efforts to prioritize a public health first approach to advancing AUD research, policy and treatment in order to make significant advances in AUD prevention and treatment. We offer several recommendations to assist in shifting public understanding and scientific limitations in AUD concepts and responses

Should we embrace the term ‘preaddiction’?

Commen

Striding out with Parkinson disease: evidence-based physical therapy for gait disorders

Although Parkinson disease (PD) is common throughout the world, the evidence for physical therapy interventions that enable long-term improvement in walking is still emerging. This article critiques the major physical therapy approaches related to gait rehabilitation in people with PD: compensatory strategies, motor skill learning, management of secondary sequelae, and education to optimize physical activity and reduce falls. The emphasis of this review is on gait specifically, although balance and falls are of direct importance to gait and are addressed in that context. Although the researchers who have provided the evidence for these approaches grounded their studies on different theoretical paradigms, each approach is argued to have a valid place in the comprehensive management of PD generally and of gait in particular. The optimal mix of interventions for each individual varies according to the stage of disease progression and the patient's preferred form of exercise, capacity for learning, and age

Neutron metrology for SBSS

This is the final report of a two-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The goal of this work is to develop new detector technologies for Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship (SBSS) at the Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center (LANSCE) using existing expertise and infrastructure from the nuclear and particle physics programs at LANL

Altered functional brain network connectivity and glutamate system function in transgenic mice expressing truncated Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia 1

Considerable evidence implicates DISC1 as a susceptibility gene for multiple psychiatric diseases. DISC1 has been intensively studied at the molecular, cellular and behavioral level, but its role in regulating brain connectivity and brain network function remains unknown. Here, we utilize a set of complementary approaches to assess the functional brain network abnormalities present in mice expressing a truncated Disc1 gene (Disc1tr Hemi mice). Disc1tr Hemi mice exhibited hypometabolism in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and reticular thalamus along with a reorganization of functional brain network connectivity that included compromised hippocampal–PFC connectivity. Altered hippocampal–PFC connectivity in Disc1tr Hemi mice was confirmed by electrophysiological analysis, with Disc1tr Hemi mice showing a reduced probability of presynaptic neurotransmitter release in the monosynaptic glutamatergic hippocampal CA1–PFC projection. Glutamate system dysfunction in Disc1tr Hemi mice was further supported by the attenuated cerebral metabolic response to the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) antagonist ketamine and decreased hippocampal expression of NMDAR subunits 2A and 2B in these animals. These data show that the Disc1 truncation in Disc1tr Hemi mice induces a range of translationally relevant endophenotypes underpinned by glutamate system dysfunction and altered brain connectivity

Midinfrared third-harmonic generation from macroscopically aligned ultralong single-wall carbon nanotubes

We report the observation of strong third-harmonic generation from a macroscopic array of aligned ultralong single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)with intensemidinfrared radiation. Through power-dependent experiments, we determined the absolute value of the third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility !(3) of our SWCNT film to be 5.53 × 10−12 esu, three orders of magnitude larger than that of the fused silica reference we used. Taking account of the filling factor of 8.75% for our SWCNT film, we estimate a !(3) of 6.32 × 10−11 esu for a fully dense film. Furthermore, through polarization-dependent experiments, we extracted all the nonzero elements of the !(3) tensor, determining the magnitude of the weaker tensor elements to be #1/6 of that of the dominant !(3) zzzz component

Quantum Monte Carlo Calculations of Pion Scattering from Li

We show that the neutron and proton transition densities predicted by recent quantum Monte Carlo calculations for A=6,7 nuclei are consistent with pion scattering from 6Li and 7Li at energies near the Delta resonance. This has provided a microscopic understanding of the enhancement factors for quadrople excitations, which were needed to describe pion inelastic scattering within the nuclear shell model of Cohen and Kurath.Comment: 10 pages, REVTeX, 3 postscript figures; added calculation of elastic and inelastic pion scattering from 6Li at multiple energie

Fundamentals of Sports Analytics

Recently, the importance of statistics and analytics in sports has increased. This review describes measures of sports injury and fundamentals of sports injury research with a brief overview of some of the emerging measures of sports performance. We describe research study designs that can be used to identify risk factors for injury, injury surveillance programs, and common measures of injury risk and association. Finally, we describe measures of physical performance and training and considerations for using these measures. This review provides sports medicine clinicians with an understanding of current research measures and considerations for designing sports injury research studies