Brief Exposure to Pictures Depicting Poor Environments Leads to Increased Consumption of Beer in Adult Social Drinkers

Previous studies have suggested a trait-like association between neighborhood deprivation and alcohol consumption. However, it is not known whether temporarily manipulating poverty and affluence states by exposure to stimuli signifying resource-scarcity or resource-wealth would influence alcohol-seeking behavior. Here, we aimed to investigate whether implicit exposure to affluence and poverty-related pictures would influence beer consumption. Participants in a “poverty” group viewed pictures depicting impoverished environments, and participants in an “affluence” group viewed images of wealthy environments. After priming, participants were provided with nonalcoholic beer (which they were told was alcohol-containing beer) and orange juice under the guise of a bogus taste test, to measure their alcohol-seeking behavior. Results showed that priming participants with a resource-scarce environment led to an increase in beer consumption (as a percentage of total fluid consumed), compared to priming with a resource-rich environment. The same pattern of results was obtained in both a Western European sample (Experiment 1) and a West Indian sample (Experiment 2). In Experiment 2, we also tested whether risk-taking behavior, measured by the Balloon Analogue Risk Task, was influenced by the environmental priming; no differences between groups were observed. These results provide the first experimental evidence that manipulation of poverty-affluence state, by brief exposure to pictures of impoverished or wealthy neighborhoods, can influence alcohol-seeking behavior in adult social drinkers.     

Youth,violence and non-injection drug use: nexus of vulnerabilities among lesbian and bisexual sex workers

Despite increasing evidence of enhanced HIV risk among sexual minority populations, and sex workers (SWs) in particular, there remains a paucity of epidemiological data on the risk environments of SWs who identify as lesbian or bisexual. Therefore, this short report describes a study that examined the individual, interpersonal and structural associations with lesbian or bisexual identity among SWs in Vancouver, Canada. Analysis drew on data from an open prospective cohort of street and hidden off-street SWs in Vancouver. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regressions were used to examine the independent relationships between individual, interpersonal, work environment and structural factors and lesbian or bisexual identity. Of the 510 individuals in our sample, 95 (18.6%) identified as lesbian or bisexual. In multivariable analysis, reporting non-injection drug use in the last six months (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.89; 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 1.42, 5.75), youth ≤24 years of age (AOR = 2.43; 95% CI = 1.24, 4.73) and experiencing client-perpetrated verbal, physical and/or sexual violence in the last six months (AOR = 1.85; 95% CI = 1.15, 2.98) remained independently associated with lesbian/bisexual identity, after adjusting for potential confounders. The findings demonstrate an urgent need for evidence-based social and structural HIV prevention interventions. In particular, policies and programmes tailored to lesbian and bisexual youth and women working in sex work, including those that prevent violence and address issues of non-injection stimulant use are required.     

Infections of the Nervous System

Microorganisms can affect the entire neuraxis, producing a variety of neurologic complications that frequently entail prolonged hospitalizations and complicated treatment regimens. The spread of pathogens to new regions and the reemergence of opportunistic organisms in immunocompromised patients pose increasing challenges to health care professionals. Because rapid diagnosis and treatment may prevent long-term neurologic sequelae, providers should approach these diseases with a structured, neuroanatomic framework, incorporating a thorough history, examination, laboratory analysis, and neuroimaging in their clinical reasoning and decision-making.     

Use of a semi-automated object based analysis to map benthic composition,Heron Reef,Southern Great Barrier Reef

Coral reef scientists and managers require detailed information of reef environments to develop, implement and evaluate management strategies. Maps showing the distribution of corals, seagrass, algae, sand, rubble and rock are an essential component of this information. Using a semi-automated, object-based image analysis (OBIA) approach this study created a benthic community map for Heron Reef (area: approximately 27 km²), Southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Benthic cover information was acquired for calibration and validation via georeferenced photograph transects, which coincided with high spatial resolution Quickbird-2 satellite image capture in 2007. Through combination of these data sets and modification of a semi-automated OBIA classification scheme previously developed for seagrass environments to account for the heterogeneous nature of reef benthic communities, a benthic community map was created for Heron Reef with an overall accuracy of 61.6%. The robustness and repeatability of our method provide future opportunity to apply the semi-automated approach to a time series of field and high spatial resolution image data sets to create a time series of benthic community maps for Heron Reef. The results presented in this study therefore open up the opportunity to assess and understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of the reef environment.