Evaluation of the Adolescent Drug Abuse Diagnosis instrument in a Swiss sample of drug abusers.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate a French language version of the Adolescent Drug Abuse Diagnosis (ADAD) instrument in a Swiss sample of adolescent illicit drug and/or alcohol users. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The participants in the study were 102 French-speaking adolescents aged 13-19 years who fitted the criteria of illicit drug or alcohol use (at least one substance--except tobacco--once a week during the last 3 months). They were recruited in hospitals, institutions and leisure places. Procedure. The ADAD was administered individually by trained psychologists. It was integrated into a broader protocol including alcohol and drug abuse DSM-IV diagnoses, the BDI-13 (Beck Depression Inventory), life events and treatment trajectories. RESULTS: The ADAD appears to show good inter-rater reliability; the subscales showed good internal coherence and the correlations between the composite scores and the severity ratings were moderate to high. Finally, the results confirmed good concurrent validity for three out of eight ADAD dimensions. CONCLUSIONS: The French language version of the ADAD appears to be an adequate instrument for assessing drug use and associated problems in adolescents. Despite its complexity, the instrument has acceptable validity, reliability and usefulness criteria, enabling international and transcultural comparisons.

Medidas de Prevención y Sanción ante el Hostigamiento y Acoso Sexual en el IMARPE

Prevenir y sancionar los actos de hostigamiento y acoso sexual en las relaciones laborales que pudieran producirse en el IMARPE.

Estudio de la edad, el crecimiento, la madurez sexual y el desove de la anchoveta (Cetengraulis Mysticetus) en el Golfo de Panamá

Realiza un estudio sobre la edad, crecimiento, madurez sexual y las épocas de desove de la anchoveta. Estas investigaciones se realizaron en el Golfo de Panamá entre los años de junio de 1951 a enero de 1956.

Estudio de la edad, el crecimiento, la madurez sexual y el desove de la anchoveta (Cetengraulis Mysticetus) en el Golfo de Panamá (Conclusión)

Presenta los métodos utilizados en los laboratorios para determinar la madurez sexual y desove de la población de anchovetas, su época y frecuencia. Estos datos concluyen la edad con relación al tiempo del desove anual gracias al índice de gónadas recolectado en el Golfo de Panamá.

D-3 2008-2 Dependent Adult Abuse Report, January - June 2009

D-3 Dependent Adult Abuse Report

Low prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in asymptomatic young Swiss men

BACKGROUND: Prevalence and risk factors for Chlamydia trachomatis infection among young men in Switzerland is still unknown. The objective of the present study was to assess prevalence and risk factors for C. trachomatis infection in young Swiss men. METHODS: 517 young Swiss men were enrolled in this cross-sectional study during their compulsory military recruitment. Participants completed a questionnaire and gave urine samples which were screened for C. trachomatis DNA by PCR. Genotyping of positive samples was done by amplification and sequencing the ompA gene. RESULTS: The prevalence of chlamydial infection among young Swiss male was 1.2% (95% confidence interval [95%CI], 0.4-2.5%). C. trachomatis infection was only identified among the 306 men having multiple sexual partner. Although frequent, neither unprotected sex (absence of condom use), nor alcohol and drug abuse were associated with chlamydial infection. Men living in cities were more frequently infected (2.9%, 95%CI 0.8-7.4%) than men living in rural areas (0.5%, 95%CI 0.1-1.9%, p = 0.046). Moreover, naturalised Swiss citizens were more often positive (4.9%, 95%CI 1.3-12.5%) than native-born Swiss men (0.5%, 95%CI 0.1-1.7%, p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: In comparison with other countries, the prevalence of chlamydial infection in men is extremely low in Switzerland, despite a significant prevalence of risky sexual behaviour. C. trachomatis infection was especially prevalent in men with multiple sexual partners. Further research is required (i) to define which subgroup of the general population should be routinely screened, and (ii) to test whether such a targeted screening strategy will be effective to reduce the prevalence of chlamydial infection among this population.

Sexual dimorphism in androdioecious Mercurialis annua, a wind-pollinated herb

Gender-dimorphic species often display a degree of sexual dimorphism in terms of life-history traits, yet little is known about dimorphism in androdioecious plants. Here we investigate sexual dimorphism in an androdioecious population of the wind-pollinated herb Mercurialis annua by comparing the resource allocation strategies of males and hermaphrodites grown under different nutrient-availability and competitive regimes. We found that males displayed smaller aboveground vegetative sizes than did hermaphrodites, but neither soil nutrient availability nor competition had a strong independent effect on their relative sizes. Plants adjusted their relative reproductive investment in response to nutrient availability. Specifically, hermaphrodites increased their reproductive allocation when growing in poor soils, whereas males displayed the opposite response. Finally, hermaphrodites were strongly female biased in their sex allocation, and this was more pronounced in nutrient-poor soils. To conclude, sexual dimorphism in androdioecious M. annua shares many features with dioecious and gynodioecious species, particularly wind-pollinated herbs. However, the direction of sex-allocation reaction norms displayed by hermaphrodites of M. annua differs from that documented for several insect-pollinated gynodioecious species, hinting at the importance of either the pollination mode or the sexual system as a context of selection shaping the reproductive strategy of plants with both male and female functions.

Iowa Substance Abuse Brief; Alcohol: Binge Drinking, May 2009, Issue 2

Binge drinking by Iowans is a serious problem. Binge drinking is commonly defined as five or more drinks of alcohol on the same occasion for men and four or more for women. The 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) estimated that 11% (approximately 28,000) of Iowans 12-17 years of age and 51% (approximately 177,000) of Iowans ages 18-25 had engaged in binge drinking during the past month. Favorable community and peer norms about alcohol use and easy access both contribute to this problem. Consequences of binge drinking can be immediate, like alcohol poisoning or injury, or much more delayed such as an increased risk for stroke or alcoholism. In either case the results can be severe.

Iowa Substance Abuse Brief; Alcohol: Underage Drinking, September 2009, Issue 1

IN BRIEF • More than one in three 11th graders drank alcohol in the past month. • For every four 11th graders in Iowa, one engaged in binge drinking in the past month. • Binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks for females and five or more for males on the same occasion (i.e., at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other) on at least one day in the past 30 days. • A drink refers to one half ounce of alcohol (one 12-oz beer, one 5-oz glass of wine, or one 1-oz shot of 100 proof distilled spirits).

Methamphetamine Abuse in Iowa, January 19, 2007

This second, and final, report is respectfully submitted to fully satisfy the following Senate File 169 requirement, as approved by the 2005 Iowa Legislature: “The Drug Policy Coordinator shall report, in a joint meeting, to the Committee on Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on Public Safety of the House of Representatives in January 2006 and in January 2007, the effects of this Act on methamphetamine abuse and related criminal activity.” (*Please note that impact data contained in this document have been updated since the initial 2006 report, and are based on the most recent information available to the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy.)

Tree of Sex: A database of sexual systems

The vast majority of eukaryotic organisms reproduce sexually, yet the nature of the sexual system and the mechanism of sex determination often vary remarkably, even among closely related species. Some species of animals and plants change sex across their lifespan, some contain hermaphrodites as well as males and females, some determine sex with highly differentiated chromosomes, while others determine sex according to their environment. Testing evolutionary hypotheses regarding the causes and consequences of this diversity requires interspecific data placed in a phylogenetic context. Such comparative studies have been hampered by the lack of accessible data listing sexual systems and sex determination mechanisms across the eukaryotic tree of life. Here, we describe a database developed to facilitate access to sexual system and sex chromosome information, with data on sexual systems from 11,038 plant, 705 fish, 173 amphibian, 593 non-avian reptilian, 195 avian, 479 mammalian, and 11,556 invertebrate species.

Egg-Laying "Intermorphs" in the Ant Crematogaster smithi neither Affect Sexual Production nor Male Parentage.

We study male parentage and between-colony variation in sex allocation and sexual production in the desert ant Crematogaster smithi, which usually has only one singly-mated queen per nest. Colonies of this species are known to temporarily store nutrients in the large fat body of intermorphs, a specialized female caste intermediate in morphology between queens and workers. Intermorphs repackage at least part of this fat into consumable but viable male-destined eggs. If these eggs sometimes develop instead of being eaten, intermorphs will be reproductive competitors of the queen but-due to relatedness asymmetries-allies of their sister worker. Using genetic markers we found a considerable proportion of non-queen sons in some, but not all, colonies. Even though intermorphs produce ∼1.7× more eggs than workers, their share in the parentage of adult males is estimated to be negligible due to their small number compared to workers. Furthermore, neither colony-level sex allocation nor overall sexual production was correlated with intermorph occurrence or number. We conclude that intermorph-laid eggs typically do not survive and that the storage of nutrients and their redistribution as eggs by intermorphs is effectively altruistic.

Iowa Supreme Court Improvement Project for Child in Need of Assistance Cases: A Study of Iowa's Court Performance in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases and Plan for Improvement.

A report of a one year assessment of Iowa's Juvenile Courts handling of Child in Need of Assistance cases and a plan for improvement.