Numerous studies have demonstrated that genetic and environmental factors interact to influence alcohol problems. Yet prior research has primarily focused on samples of European descent and little is known about gene–environment interactions in relation to alcohol problems in non-European populations. In this study, we examined whether and how genetic risk for alcohol problems and peer deviance and interpersonal traumatic events independently and interactively influence trajectories of alcohol use disorder symptoms in a sample of African American students across the college years (N = 1,119; Mage = 18.44 years). Data were drawn from the Spit for Science study where participants completed multiple online surveys throughout college and provided a saliva sample for genotyping. Multilevel growth curve analyses indicated that alcohol dependence genome-wide polygenic risk scores did not predict trajectory of alcohol use disorder symptoms, while family history of alcohol problems was associated with alcohol use disorder symptoms at the start of college but not with the rate of change in symptoms over time. Peer deviance and interpersonal traumatic events were associated with more alcohol use disorder symptoms across college years. Neither alcohol dependence genome-wide polygenic risk scores nor family history of alcohol problems moderated the effects of these environmental risk factors on alcohol use disorder symptoms. Our findings indicated that peer deviance and experience of interpersonal traumatic events are salient risk factors that elevate risk for alcohol problems among African American college students. Family history of alcohol problems could be a useful indicator of genetic risk for alcohol problems. Gene identification efforts with much larger samples of African descent are needed to better characterize genetic risk for alcohol use disorders, in order to better understand gene–environment interaction processes in this understudied population.

Genetic predispositions play an important role in the development of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Understanding the mechanisms through which genetic risk unfolds to influence these developmental outcomes is critical for developing prevention and intervention efforts, capturing key elements of Irv's research agenda and scientific legacy. In this study, we examined the role of parenting and personality in mediating the effect of genetic risk on adolescents’ major depressive disorder and conduct disorder symptoms. Longitudinal data were drawn from a sample of 709 European American adolescents and their mothers from the Collaborative Studies on Genetics of Alcoholism. Results from multivariate path analysis indicated that adolescents’ depressive symptoms genome-wide polygenic scores (DS_GPS) predicted lower parental knowledge, which in turn was associated with more subsequent major depressive disorder and conduct disorder symptoms. Adolescents’ DS_GPS also had indirect effects on these outcomes via personality, with a mediating effect via agreeableness but not via other dimensions of personality. Findings revealed that the pattern of associations was similar across adolescent gender. Our findings emphasize the important role of evocative gene–environment correlation processes and intermediate phenotypes in the pathways of risk from genetic predispositions to complex adolescent outcomes.

Introduction: In 2015, there were 476 apparent illicit drug overdose deaths, prompting BC’s Provincial Health Officer to declare a public health emergency on 14 Apr 2016. Paramedics of BC’s Ambulance Service (BCAS) are on the front lines in this crisis. Here we examine recent trends in the number of suspected overdose events attended by the BCAS and the use of naloxone, an opioid antagonist, by BCAS paramedics. Methods: The BC Centre for Disease Control receives a weekly data feed from BC Emergency Health Services that includes all records from the BCAS Patient Care Record where: naloxone was administered by paramedics; the primary impression code indicates poisoning or overdose; or, the originating call is associated with ingestion poisoning (‘card 23’). Here, we report a descriptive analysis of these data for suspected drug overdose events during the period January 1, 2010 to September 30, 2016. Results: Between January 2010 and September 2016 BCAS paramedics attended 164,227 suspected overdose events; 12% of these events (n=16,944) included naloxone administration by BCAS paramedics. Paralleling the rise in illicit drug overdose deaths in BC, naloxone administration by paramedics has been increasing rapidly, doubling from approximately 180/month in 2014, to 370/month in 2016. When naloxone was administered by paramedics, 90% of these patients were transported, whereas 77% were transported when naloxone was not administered. Administrations occurred most frequently on Friday and Saturday evenings. Almost half (46%) of all naloxone administrations by paramedics were recorded as being in a home or residence; 18% were recorded as occurring on a street or highway. The proportion of naloxone administrations among males has increased yearly. In 2010, 58% of naloxone administrations were in males compared to 69% in 2016. Conclusion: The number of overdose deaths in BC has risen drastically in recent years and the proportion of ambulance calls requiring administration of naloxone by BCAS has climbed correspondingly. The vast majority of overdose cases-especially those requiring naloxone-are transported to the emergency department. With the overdose crisis showing little sign of abating, the administration of naloxone by BC paramedics will continue to be a critical element of the provincial response.

The Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer Array Receiver (Acbar) is a multifrequency millimeter-wave receiver optimized for observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect in clusters of galaxies. Acbar was installed on the 2.1 m Viper telescope at the South Pole in January 2001 and the results presented here incorporate data through July 2002. The power spectrum of the CMB at 150 GHz over the range ℓ = 150 — 3000 measured by Acbar is presented along with estimates for the values of the cosmological parameters within the context of ΛCDM models. The inclusion of ΩΛ greatly improves the fit to the power spectrum. Three-frequency images of the SZ decrement/increment are also presented for the galaxy cluster 1E0657–67.

Recently, compact and high-resolution camera modules with auto-focusing (AF) function have been integrated into cell phones in order to capture sharp photographs. Consumer demands AF camera modules in cell phones to have high performance with low cost. Accordingly, the present study proposes a new electromagnetic design of miniature AF voice coil motor (VCM) actuator with closed-loop control for cell phone camera modules to satisfy the requirements. The structure of the proposed AF VCM actuators was designed by using simulation methods. The performance of the proposed AF VCM actuators was demonstrated by a laboratory-built prototype. The experimental results have shown that the proposed AF VCM actuator has excellent performance with lower power consumption, higher positioning repeatability, and lower cost, when compared to previous AF VCM actuators with open-loop control or closed-loop control.

The warm white light emission from the MOS capacitor containing the Zr-doped HfO2 high-k thin film on a p-type Si wafer under various post deposition annealing temperatures has been investigated. The light intensity is affected by the annealing temperature and the magnitude of the stress voltage. The annealing temperature changes the defect density and the physical thickness of the high-k stack. The high stress voltage induces the strong light emission because of the passage of a large current through the conductive path. The broad band emission spectrum covers the visible and near IR wavelength range with a large color rendering index. This new light emission device has a very long lifetime of > 1,000 hours at the atmosphere without a protection layer. The device is made of the IC compatible material and fabrication process, which favors the application over a wide range of products.

Hospital employees with suspected adenoviral conjunctivitis underwent evaluation and testing with real-time polymerase chain reaction. Viral conjunctivitis was suspected in 307 (59%) of 518 employees with eye complaints; adenovirus was detected in 4% (22 of 518). Four employees had genotypes consistent with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. This algorithm minimizes productivity loss compared with clinical diagnosis.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2014;35(6):728–731

A growing trend in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is to view cells, matrices, and whole tissues from a materials science perspective. The rationale behind this novel approach to considering biological problems is that the material properties at these different length scales both define their physical stability and also provide instructive cues. These cues can maintain homeostasis in healthy tissues or drive dynamic events during development, wound healing, and disease progression. However, one must map and characterize the physical properties of the natural extracellular matrix environment found in vivo in order to guide the design of synthetic or naturally derived materials to control cell function. This article reviews the study of natural tissues as materials, and sheds light on the use of this information to develop novel synthetic materials that guide cell function.

Transcritical flow of a stratified fluid past a broad localised topographic obstacle is studied analytically in the framework of the forced extended Korteweg–de Vries, or Gardner, equation. We consider both possible signs for the cubic nonlinear term in the Gardner equation corresponding to different fluid density stratification profiles. We identify the range of the input parameters: the oncoming flow speed (the Froude number) and the topographic amplitude, for which the obstacle supports a stationary localised hydraulic transition from the subcritical flow upstream to the supercritical flow downstream. Such a localised transcritical flow is resolved back into the equilibrium flow state away from the obstacle with the aid of unsteady coherent nonlinear wave structures propagating upstream and downstream. Along with the regular, cnoidal undular bores occurring in the analogous problem for the single-layer flow modelled by the forced Korteweg–de Vries equation, the transcritical internal wave flows support a diverse family of upstream and downstream wave structures, including kinks, rarefaction waves, classical undular bores, reversed and trigonometric undular bores, which we describe using the recent development of the nonlinear modulation theory for the (unforced) Gardner equation. The predictions of the developed analytic construction are confirmed by direct numerical simulations of the forced Gardner equation for a broad range of input parameters.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.

We present two-wave mixing results obtained with CdSSe:V crystals. A large photorefractive gain of 0.24 cm-1 was observed at 633 nm with an optical intensity of 60 mW/cm2 and a grating period of 1.6 μrm. At this wavelength, we measured the photorefractive gain as a function of the grating period and incident optical intensity. To our knowledge, this is the first observation of the photorefractive effect in vanadium doped CdSSe crystals. The CdSSe crystals were grown by physical vapor transport (PVT) and doped with 150 ppm (nominal) vanadium for creating trap centers. The grown crystal has a large crystal size, good optical quality and a medium resistivity of 10-5 - 108 Ω-cm. Room temperature absorption and low temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy measurements are also discussed. With a significant photorefractive effect, the CdSSe:V crystals are promising for many device applications based on photorefractive effect, including optical limiting devices in the visible region.

The effect of shape memory alloy (SMA) on the postbuckling behavior of rectangular cross-ply and angle-ply plates by varying the SMA fiber spacing was investigated using the Finite Element Method. The formulation of the location-dependent linear, nonlinear stiffness matrices due to non-homogeneous material properties and the temperature-dependent recovery stress stiffness matrix were derived. Numerical results show that the increase of SMA fiber volume fraction and prestrain may generate more recovery stress, and increase the stiffness of SMA reinforced composite laminate. Therefore, the postbuckling deflections of the plate may be decreased significantly. The buckling mode that plate will buckle into is dependent on the fiber orientation of the angle-ply laminates. When the SMA fibers are concentrated in the center of the plate, the postbuckling deflections of the plate will be decreased considerably.