Using an original demographically representative survey, we estimate the determinants of public support for a set of supportive and punitive policies to combat the opioid epidemic among a sample of 2,131 Americans. Our findings indicate that individuals who attribute blame for the epidemic to the personal choices of individuals, conservatives and those high in racial resentment are consistently more likely to support punitive policies to combat the opioid epidemic and less likely to favour policies to support individuals with substance use disorders. Individuals who have a personal connection to someone struggling with opioid use disorder favour policies to support such individuals but have nuanced attitudes towards punitive policies. Importantly, we find overwhelming support for all supportive policies except supervised injection sites, while roughly 50% of our sample supported the set of punitive policy choices. Our research represents a significant step forward toward understanding public opinion about the opioid epidemic and policies to combat it.

We report on the occurrence, petrology and geochemistry of recently recognized leucocratic plagioclase-rich microgranular inclusions hosted by two granite facies in the late-Caledonian Galway Granite, Connemara, Ireland. They have been recorded at 66 localities along an ESE trending, 4 km wide corridor which incorporates the contact zone between their host granites (i.e. The Megacrystic Granite and the Mingling and Mixing Zone Granodiorite). The inclusions are discoidal in shape and oriented parallel to the general ESE trending foliation in the granites with the most elongate (6.0 × 0.6 cm) occurring in zones of strongest fabric intensity. Contacts between the inclusions and the host granite are sharp with no chilled margin visible. They display a fine-grained (<1 mm) interlocking texture with occasional crystals of plagioclase ranging up to 2 mm in length. Microprobe analysis shows that the plagioclase is essentially oligoclase (An22–32) in composition and is similar to that (i.e. An21–30) occurring in the host granites. Furthermore, the oligoclase accounts for between 61 and 78% of the mode which is reflected in the major element chemistry of the inclusions. Other minerals (in decending order of abundance) include K-feldspar, quartz, biotite and magnetite. The origin of the inclusions is unclear. However, the results of the microprobe analysis provide evidence of a link between them and their host granites.

This article explores experiences of relational intimacy (including sexual intimacy) in long-term relationships when one partner has dementia. An emerging body of research focuses on living with dementia, but work on relationships between people with dementia and their family and loved ones tends to focus on understanding the experience of caring, and on constructs like ‘care burden’. Research concerned with the lived experience of relationships themselves is less frequent, and very little published work focuses on experiences of sex and intimacy. This qualitative study explores how six participants experience their intimate relationships with their partners with dementia. Semi-structured interviews provided a rich source of data which were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Three master themes emerged from our analysis: ‘everydayness’, ‘absent presence’ and ‘I don't know if you want to know this…’. Participants explored how living with dementia constructed specific, everyday relational challenges, and disrupted everyday intimacies. Intimacy, including sexual intimacy, remains an important element of older couple relationships. Relational experiences present specific and difficult to articulate experiences for the partners of people living with dementia – particularly experiences related to sex and sexuality. Representations of older adults (particularly older adults with a long-term illness) as relatively asexual beings can make elements of these relational challenges particularly difficult to express.

Influenza causes significant morbidity and mortality in children. This study's objectives were to describe influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 during the pandemic, to compare it with circulating influenza in 2010/2011, and to identify risk factors for severe influenza defined as requiring admission to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Children hospitalized with influenza during the pandemic were older, and more likely to have received antiviral therapy than children hospitalized during the 2010/2011 season. In 2010/2011, only one child admitted to a PICU with underlying medical conditions had been vaccinated. The risk of severe illness in the pandemic was higher in females and those with underlying conditions. In 2010/2011, infection with influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 compared to other influenza viruses was a significant risk factor for severe disease. An incremental relationship was found between the number of underlying conditions and PICU admission. These findings highlight the importance of improving low vaccination uptake and increasing the use of antivirals in vulnerable children.

The colonisation of the Pacific islands represents one of the major achievements of early human societies and has attracted much attention from archaeologists and historical linguists. Determining the pattern and chronology of colonisation remains a challenge, as new discoveries continue to push back dates of earliest settlement. The length and direction of the colonising voyages has also led to lively debate seeking to trace languages and artefactual techniques and traditions to presumed places of origin. Seafaring simulation models provide one way of resolving these controversies. One of the most remote of these island groups, the Marianas, is shown here to have been settled not from Taiwan or the Philippines, as has been argued in Antiquity by Hung et al. (2011) and Winter et al. (2012), but from New Guinea or Island Southeast Asia to the south. It represents an incredible feat of early navigation over an ocean distance of some 2000km.

A novel repetitive DNA sequence in the sheep parasitic nematode Trichostrongylus colubriformis was cloned and sequenced. A l·1 kb repetitive sequence (Tc15) which hybridized with DNA from T. colubriformis but not with DNA from two other parasitic nematodes, Haemonchus contortus and Ostertagia circumcincta, or sheep was further characterized. Southern blot analysis showed that the repeat hybridized to a range of fragments in restriction digested T. colubriformis DNA and existed in multiple copy number tandem arrays. However, to define clearly the repetitive monomeric unit further screening of phagemid libraries containing BamH I restriction fragments using a subclone of Tc15 as a probe was carried out. Restriction map and sequence data were compiled for 3 clones containing a 145 bp highly repetitive sequence (designated TcREP) which shared homology with the original pTc15 clone. TcREP hybridized to a tandemly repeating sequence monomer of 145 bp in T. colubriformis DNA which was cloned from various genetic environments in the T. colubriformis genome. TcREP homologous sequences were also found in the genomes of two other species of the same genus (Trichostrongylus axei and Trichostrongylus vitrinus) but not in a fourth species (Trichostrongylus rugatus).

El propósito de este estudio era identificar los rasgos de la esquizofrenia de primer episodio que predicen el cumplimiento de la medicación antipsicótica en el seguimiento a los 6 meses. Utilizamos instrumentos validados para evaluar las variables clínicas y sociodemográficas en todos los pacientes con esquizofrenia de primer episodio de un área geográfica definida ingresados en un hospital psiquiátrico de Dublín durante un periodo de cuatro años (n = 100). En el seguimiento a los 6 meses (n = 60) evaluamos el cumplimiento de la medicación utilizando la Entrevista de Cumplimiento. Un tercio de los pacientes con esquizofrenia no tomaba la medicación a los seis meses de su primer episodio de enfermedad. Los niveles elevados de síntomas positivos en la linea de base, la falta de conciencia de la enfermedad en la línea de base, el uso inadecuado de alcohol en la línea de base y el uso inadecuado anterior de drogas predicen el incumplimiento. Estos resultados indican que un subgrupo identificable de pacientes con esquizofrenia de primer episodio tiene un riesgo alto de incumplimiento temprano de la medicación. Aunque las puntuaciones altas de síntomas positivos preceden y predicen el incumplimiento en la mayoría de los pacientes, la reducción de la conciencia de la enfermedad es el mejor predictor del incumplimiento en los pacientes que no utilizan inadecuadamente el alcohol u otras drogas.

The aim of this work was to assess whether or not oxidative stress had developed in a dwarf shrub bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) under long-term exposure to enhanced levels of ultraviolet-B (u.v.-B) radiation. The bilberry plants were exposed to increased u.v.-B representing a 15% stratospheric ozone depletion for seven full growing seasons (1991–1997) at Abisko, Swedish Lapland (68°N). The oxidative stress was assessed on leaves and stems by analysing ascorbate and glutathione concentrations, and activities of the closely related enzymes ascorbate peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.11) and glutathione reductase (EC 1.6.4.2). The affects of autumnal leaf senescence and stem cold hardening on these variables were also considered. The results showed that the treatment caused scarcely any response in the studied variables, indicating that u.v.-B flux representing a 15% ozone depletion under clear sky conditions is not sufficient to cause oxidative stress in the bilberry. It is suggested that no strain was evoked since adaptation was possible under such u.v.-B increases. The studied variables did, however, respond significantly to leaf senescence and especially to stem cold hardening.

Interaction effects of UV-B and CO2 on three lichens species, Cladonia arbuscula, Cetraria islandica and Stereocaulon paschale, from two latitudinal sites, 68°N and 56°N, were studied in a laboratory experiment. The response of the plants was recorded by measuring their chlorophyll fluorescence. All species had a similar response to enhanced UV-B depending on the latitude from which the population came and the time of the season when they were sampled. Overall, there was a significant increase in photosystem II yield (as measured by a fluorescence technique) due to UV-B and no separate effect due to enhanced CO2, although there was a significant interaction between CO⊂2 and UV-B. The increase due to UV-B was at the low CO2 level. There were also significant differences in response due to latitude. The results contradict our hypotheses that negative effects of UV-B would be larger in the North than in the South and that a negative response hould be especially large during the early season.