Scale matters : the need for a Bipolar Depression Rating Scale (BDRS)

Objective: To briefly review the clinical and biological distinctions between unipolar and bipolar depression critiquing in particular currently available depression rating scales and discuss the need for a new observer-rated scale tailored to bipolar depression.

Method: Relevant literature pertaining to the symptomatic differences between bipolar disorder and unipolar disorder as well as their measurement using existing assessment scales was identified by computerized searches and reviews of scientific journals known to the authors.

Results: Bipolar depression is distinct from unipolar depression in terms of phenomenology and clinical characteristics. These distinguishing features can be used to identify bipolarity in patients that present with recurrent depressive episodes. This is important because current self-report and observer-rated scales are optimized for unipolar depression, and hence limited in their ability to accurately assess bipolar depression.

Conclusion: The development of a specific bipolar depression rating scale will improve the assessment of bipolar depression in both research and clinical settings and assist the development of better treatments and interventions.

Size matters : extraordinary rodent abundance on an Australian tropical floodplain

Published estimates of the total biomass of natural populations of mammalian herbivores generally have ignored small-bodied taxa (especially, rodents). Including such taxa may dramatically change our understanding of total biomass and energy flow in such systems. Dusky rats (Rattus colletti) are small (up to 210 g) native Australian mammals, and our 5-year mark-recapture study on a tropical flood plain (Adelaide River, Northern Territory) revealed that rat biomass can reach extraordinary levels (up to 4.7 t km⁻²). Because their small body size results in high mass-specific metabolic rates, a given biomass of rodents has a several-fold higher total energy requirement than the same mass of large-bodied herbivores. Accordingly, during some years dusky rat biomass can be double that estimated for large herbivores on the world's most productive savannas in eastern and southern Africa. The huge rodent biomass strongly suggests that the Adelaide River flood plain must be an incredibly productive habitat. Considering the immense biological importance of these productive ecosystems, flood plain conservation must be placed high on the priority list of habitats that require immediate protection.

Optimal redistribution when educational background matters

Higher education plays an important role in determining individuals lifetime
earnings. In turn, the decision to become educated depends to a large extent on innate ability and on family characteristics, including both family
wealth and educational background. In this paper, we abstract from family
income differences to concentrate on the effects of fiscal policies on the
decision to undertake higher education when the educational background
matters. In a dynamic framework, where successive generations are linked by educational background, we consider a government that uses both linear income taxation and a lump-sum subsidy to education. Conditions for
optimality of each policy are derived. The factors that determine the sign
and magnitude of the tax rate and the subsidy are identified and include
concerns for redistribution, efficiency and the educational externality on
future generations

Research indepedence matters for practitioners and researchers in the addictions

As governments, industry bodies, and other interest groups become more adept at influencing the conduct and dissemination of research, it is increasingly important that the alcohol and other drug (AOD) sector maintains and protects the integrity of its evidence base. This commentary discusses the level and type of influence being exerted on the research process by different interest groups within the field. It explores the impact and influence of funding bodies, other interest groups, and social systems on addiction and recovery using relevant examples to identify questions for practitioners and researchers to consider when encountering interested parties in their day-to-day practice. Ultimately, it is service users and clinicians at the "front line" of recovery who have the most to lose from research findings that have been unduly influenced. The best protection against bias in these forms is to practice critical self-reflection and to keep openly and honestly debating those things that we find most challenging.

Glacial matters, detail

A cascading glacier of refuse, from ceiling to floor, greets the viewers as they step into Bozo Ink’s latest installation. Amongst other abjections fridges capture glaciated moments with perspex protrusions, and projected figures that move, wriggle and incubate inside of them. Fridge becomes womb, fridge as technological hubris, fridge is a stillborn archive. Includes the film : 'Yeti Caught in the Headlights'