How Do Students Source and Supply Drugs? Characteristics of the University Illegal Drug Trade

Background: It is widely known that a proportion of university students use drugs. However, much less is known about how they source and supply their drugs. Objectives: In this article, we investigate student drug trading activity, including how they obtained their drugs, whether they sold drugs, and the extent to which their drug trading might be described as a form of “social supply”. Methods: A survey was conducted of all students across seven of the nine universities of Wales. In total, 7855 students submitted a questionnaire and 1877 of these reported drug use in the current academic year. All students who reported using one or more illegal drugs in the current academic year were asked how they obtained their drugs, how they funded their drug use, whether they had sold, traded or given away illegal drugs, along with their motives for drug trading. Results: The results showed that about half of users obtained drugs solely from friends and associates and one-fifth obtained them solely from external dealers. One-quarter used friends and associates as well as external markets. In many cases, supplying drugs amounted to sharing them or giving them away. However, over one-third of students said that they had sold drugs. Conclusions: Overall, the methods of sourcing and supplying drug among university students shares features of both “social supply” and “traditional” drug markets. We conclude that the student drug market investigated is best described as a “hybrid” combination of both.     

The Role of Narrative and Other-Referencing in Attenuating Psychological Reactance to Diabetes Self-Care Messages

This study charts pathways through message resistance to enhance the persuasiveness of diabetes self-care messages. A 2 (narrative) × 2 (other-referencing) × 2 (message) × 4 (order) experiment with adult diabetics (N = 58) tested whether packaging overt recommendations as a story rather than an informational argument (i.e., narrative structure) and highlighting the impact of health decisions on family and friends rather than the individual (i.e., other-referencing) can effectively attenuate psychological reactance to messages encouraging healthy diet and physical activity. Narrative and other-referencing each led to lower perceived threat to choice, less state anger and counterarguing, less negative cognitive responses, more positive attitudes toward the ad and the behaviors promoted, and greater intended compliance with message recommendations. Findings illustrate two strategies that communicators may employ in order to benefit from clear, direct health messages while avoiding the reactance they may provoke. Moreover, findings inform message design for diabetes self-care education.     

Analogical Reasoning Abilities of Recovering Alcoholics

This study investigated analogical reasoning abilities of alcoholics who had been abstinent from alcohol for at least 1 year. Their performance was compared to that of nonalcoholic controls matched as a group for education, age, and gender. Solution times and error rates were modeled using a regression model. Results showed a nonsignificant trend for alcoholics to be faster, but more error prone, than controls. The same componential model applied to both groups, and fit them equally well. Although differences have been found in analogical reasoning ability between controls and alcoholics immediately following detoxification, we find no evidence of differences after extended periods of sobriety.     

Attentional demands of continuously monitoring orientation using vestibular information.

The aim of this series of experiments was to determine whether attention is normally required for continuously processing vestibular information concerning orientation, or is required only when orientation is disrupted (eg by vestibular dysfunction or by conflicting visual and vestibular orientation cues). In the first two studies, healthy subjects were passively oscillated, and indicated when they perceived they were passing through their starting position. There was only weak evidence for interference between performance on this 'continuous orientation monitoring task' and on concurrent mental tasks. However, a third study showed that when patients with vestibular imbalance carried out the continuous orientation monitoring task their performance on a concurrent mental arithmetic task was substantially impaired. This dual task interference was correlated with inaccuracy in judging orientation on the continuous orientation monitoring task, which in turn correlated with severity of recent vestibular symptomatology (assessed by questionnaire). In a fourth experiment, disorientation was induced in healthy subjects by rotating the visual field about the line of sight. Bidirectional interference was observed between monitoring orientation (assessed by accuracy in setting a rod to the perceived vertical) and performance of an arithmetic task. Dual task interference was correlated with baseline levels of disorientation induced by the visual field, as indicated by inaccuracy in judging the visual vertical. These findings suggest that monitoring orientation makes significant demands upon cortical processing resources when disorientation is induced, whether the disorientation results from deficient sensory functioning or from ambiguous perceptual information.     

Contribution of genetic factors for melanoma susceptibility in sporadic US melanoma patients

Abstract:  The risks of developing malignant melanoma (MM) include ultraviolet irradiation and genetic factors. To examine the contribution of rare and common variation within known MM genes in sporadic US MM patients, coding regions of known MM susceptibility genes [cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A ( CDKN2A ), cyclin-dependent kinase 4, melanocortin 1 receptor ( MC1R ) and tyrosinase ( TYR )] were resequenced in 109–135 MM cases. The significance of variants was examined by comparing their frequencies in 390 cancer-free controls. Potential deleterious mutations in CDKN2A were found in two patients and two others had variants of unknown significance. Cases were more likely than controls to harbour the MC1R 'R' variants known or predicted to alter its function ( P  = 0.002), particularly the R160W variant ( P  = 0.0035). The associated TYR R402Q variant (rs1126809*A) was found in 29% of cases, similar to what has been described previously. One MM patient with a family history of MM, who had developed other skin cancers, was homozygous for a novel TYR variant (P406L) of unknown significance. Hence, rare variants in TYR may be important risk factors for skin cancer.