Being Drunk to Have Fun or to Forget Problems? Identifying Enhancement and Coping Drinkers Among Risky Drinking Adolescents

Prevention programs in adolescence are particularly effective if they target homogeneous risk groups of adolescents who share a combination of particular needs and problems. The present work aims to identify and classify risky single-occasion drinking (RSOD) adolescents according to their motivation to engage in drinking. An easy-to-use coding procedure was developed. It was validated by means of cluster analyses and structural equation modeling based on two randomly selected subsamples of a nationally representative sample of 2,449 12- to 18-year-old RSOD students in Switzerland. Results revealed that the coding procedure classified RSOD adolescents as either enhancement drinkers or coping drinkers. The high concordance (Sample A: kappa - .88, Sample B: kappa - .90) with the results of the cluster analyses demonstrated the convergent validity of the coding classification. The fact that enhancement drinkers in both subsamples were found to go out more frequently in the evenings and to have more satisfactory social relationships, as well as a higher proportion of drinking peers and a lower likelihood to drink at home than coping drinkers demonstrates the concurrent validity of the classification. To conclude, the coding procedure appears to be a valid, reliable, and easy-to-use tool that can help better adapt prevention activities to adolescent risky drinking motives.

Once-yearly zoledronic acid and days of disability, bed rest, and back pain: randomized, controlled HORIZON Pivotal Fracture Trial.

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of once-yearly zoledronic acid on the number of days of back pain and the number of days of disability (ie, limited activity and bed rest) owing to back pain or fracture in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. This was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in 240 clinical centers in 27 countries. Participants included 7736 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. Patients were randomized to receive either a single 15-minute intravenous infusion of zoledronic acid (5 mg) or placebo at baseline, 12 months, and 24 months. The main outcome measures were self-reported number of days with back pain and the number of days of limited activity and bed rest owing to back pain or a fracture, and this was assessed every 3 months over a 3-year period. Our results show that although the incidence of back pain was high in both randomized groups, women randomized to zoledronic acid experienced, on average, 18 fewer days of back pain compared with placebo over the course of the trial (p = .0092). The back pain among women randomized to zoledronic acid versus placebo resulted in 11 fewer days of limited activity (p = .0017). In Cox proportional-hazards models, women randomized to zoledronic acid were about 6% less likely to experience 7 or more days of back pain [relative risk (RR) = 0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.90-0.99] or limited activity owing to back pain (RR = 0.94, 95% CI 0.87-1.00). Women randomized to zoledronic acid were significantly less likely to experience 7 or more bed-rest days owing to a fracture (RR = 0.58, 95% CI 0.47-0.72) and 7 or more limited-activity days owing to a fracture (RR = 0.67, 95% CI 0.58-0.78). Reductions in back pain with zoledronic acid were independent of incident fracture. Our conclusion is that in women with postmenopausal osteoporosis, a once-yearly infusion with zoledronic acid over a 3-year period significantly reduced the number of days that patients reported back pain, limited activity owing to back pain, and limited activity and bed rest owing to a fracture.

Limits on the validity of infinite length assumptions for modelling shallow landslides

The infinite slope method is widely used as the geotechnical component of geomorphic and landscape evolution models. Its assumption that shallow landslides are infinitely long (in a downslope direction) is usually considered valid for natural landslides on the basis that they are generally long relative to their depth. However, this is rarely justified, because the critical length/depth (L/H) ratio below which edge effects become important is unknown. We establish this critical L/H ratio by benchmarking infinite slope stability predictions against finite element predictions for a set of synthetic two-dimensional slopes, assuming that the difference between the predictions is due to error in the infinite slope method. We test the infinite slope method for six different L/H ratios to find the critical ratio at which its predictions fall within 5% of those from the finite element method. We repeat these tests for 5000 synthetic slopes with a range of failure plane depths, pore water pressures, friction angles, soil cohesions, soil unit weights and slope angles characteristic of natural slopes. We find that: (1) infinite slope stability predictions are consistently too conservative for small L/H ratios; (2) the predictions always converge to within 5% of the finite element benchmarks by a L/H ratio of 25 (i.e. the infinite slope assumption is reasonable for landslides 25 times longer than they are deep); but (3) they can converge at much lower ratios depending on slope properties, particularly for low cohesion soils. The implication for catchment scale stability models is that the infinite length assumption is reasonable if their grid resolution is coarse (e.g. >25?m). However, it may also be valid even at much finer grid resolutions (e.g. 1?m), because spatial organization in the predicted pore water pressure field reduces the probability of short landslides and minimizes the risk that predicted landslides will have L/H ratios less than 25. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Hyperactivity and attention problems in a Swiss sample of school-aged children: effects of school achievement, child gender, and informants.

OBJECTIVE: The sensitivity and tolerance regarding ADHD symptoms obviously differ from one culture to another and according to the informants (parents, teachers, or children). This stimulates the comparison of data across informants and countries. METHOD: Parents and teachers of more than 1,000 school-aged Swiss children (5 to 17 years old) fill in Conners's questionnaires on ADHD. Children who are older than 10 years old also fill in a self-report questionnaire. Results are compared to data from a North American sample. RESULTS: Swiss parents and teachers tend to report more ADHD symptoms than American parents and teachers as far as the oldest groups of children are concerned. Interactions are evidenced between school achievement, child gender, and informants. A relatively low rate of agreement between informants is found. CONCLUSION: These results strengthen the importance to take into account all informants in the pediatric and the child psychiatry clinic, as well as in the epidemiological studies.

Un horizon infini : paysage, expérience et savoir dans les voyages au Tibet de Jacques Bacot et des explorateurs français (1850-1912)

Résumé de la thèseCette étude repose sur un double constat initial : en premier lieu, les récits français d'explorationau Tibet de la période s'étendant de 1850 à 1912 relèvent d'une tradition particulière du voyagescientifique en partie irréductible aux traditions des autres nations impérialistes de la mêmeépoque, notamment la tradition britannique à laquelle on les a souvent assimilés. En second lieu,ces récits révèlent à la fois la place centrale dégagée à la description du paysage tibétain et uneévolution unique et originale des savoirs et des représentations qui lui sont liés.Ce travail montre la rapide évolution des images du Tibet que s'est façonnées l'Europe,l'interrelation de cette histoire des représentations avec une révision des connaissances sur laterre et l'homme dans les sciences du XIXe siècle, ainsi qu'une dimension différentielle entre lesobjectifs de connaissance émanant des explorateurs français et anglais, différence due à uncontexte géopolitique hétérogène. Sur le fond de cette démarche contextualisante, le recours àl'analyse textuelle met en évidence le rôle qu'ont joué les explorateurs français dans l'histoire dessavoirs sur le Tibet.Pour des raisons inhérentes à la qualité d'écriture de ses récits et à l'acuité remarquable de sonapproche du monde tibétain, une place centrale de ce travail a été ménagée à Jacques Bacot(voyages de 1906 à 1907 - Dans les Marches tibétaines - et de 1909 à 1910 - Le Tibet révolté). Il a dèslors été fructueux de replacer ses récits dans l'histoire des savoirs et des représentations du Tibetet de les comparer aux récits majeurs d'autres explorateurs français au Tibet comme GabrielBonvalot, Fernand Grenard et Henri d'Ollone.Le paysage est une notion-clé pour comprendre le regard que portent les explorateurs sur leTibet. Or le paysage revêt des acceptions variables selon les auteurs et affiche des facettesdifférentes. Il a ainsi été possible de distinguer plusieurs dimensions : une dimension cognitive, unedimension épistémique, une dimension intersubjective et, enfin, une dimension imaginaire et sacrée. Cettedimension sacrée du paysage peut également être actualisée en tant que dimension écosymbolique.C'est là l'aboutissement des voyages de Bacot. L'explorateur, attentif à la culture tibétaine, envient à réaliser la valeur sacrée qui traverse la relation des Tibétains eux-mêmes à leurenvironnement. Le paysage ainsi compris se place au fondement d'une expérience partagée avecdes acteurs issus d'une autre culture et apparaît ainsi comme un opérateur privilégié pour« comprendre les compréhensions » (Clifford Geertz) des explorateurs, mais aussi, de proche enproche, des Tibétains.D'un point de vue épistémologique, la mise au jour de ces dimensions du paysage permetd'éviter certains écueils de la critique historienne et littéraire sur les récits de voyage au Tibet, quin'y a vu tantôt que de simples documents inertes, tantôt que le reflet d'un imaginaire purementet indéfectiblement occidental. La présente étude montre au contraire la part irréductiblequ'occupe la rencontre in situ avec l'autre et l'ailleurs dans l'élaboration conjointe desreprésentations et des savoirs.

The investigation of deaths in custody: a qualitative analysis of problems and prospects.

The right to be treated humanely when detained is universally recognized. Deficiencies in detention conditions and violence, however, subvert this right. When this occurs, proper medico-legal investigations are critical irrespective of the nature of death. Unfortunately, the very context of custody raises serious concerns over the effectiveness and fairness of medico-legal examinations. The aim of this manuscript is to identify and discuss the practical and ethical difficulties encountered in the medico-legal investigation following deaths in custody. Data for this manuscript come from a larger project on Death in Custody that examined the causes of deaths in custody and the conditions under which these deaths should be investigated and prevented. A total of 33 stakeholders from forensic medicine, law, prison administration or national human rights administration were interviewed. Data obtained were analyzed qualitatively. Forensic experts are an essential part of the criminal justice process as they offer evidence for subsequent indictment and eventual punishment of perpetrators. Their independence when investigating a death in custody was deemed critical and lack thereof, problematic. When experts were not independent, concerns arose in relation to conflicts of interest, biased perspectives, and low-quality forensic reports. The solutions to ensure independent forensic investigations of deaths in custody must be structural and simple: setting binding standards of practice rather than detailed procedures and relying on preexisting national practices as opposed to encouraging new practices that are unattainable for countries with limited resources.