New perspectives on how to formulate alcohol drinking guidelines.

BACKGROUND: Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines (LRDGs) aim to reduce the harms caused by alcohol. However, considerable discrepancies exist in the 'low-risk' thresholds employed by different countries. ARGUMENT/ANALYSIS: Drawing upon Canada's LRDGs update process, the current paper offers the following propositions for debate regarding the establishment of 'low-risk' thresholds in national guidelines: (1) as an indicator of health loss, years of life lost (YLL) has several advantages that could make it more suitable for setting guidelines than deaths, premature deaths or disability adjusted years of life (DALYs) lost. (2) Presenting age-specific guidelines may not be the most appropriate way of providing LRDGs. (3) Given past overemphasis on the so-called protective effects of alcohol on health, presenting cause-specific guidelines may not be appropriate compared with a 'whole health' effect derived from a weighted composite risk function comprising conditions that are causally related to alcohol consumption. (4) To help people reduce their alcohol use, presenting different risk zones associated with alcohol consumption instead of a single low risk threshold may be advantageous. CONCLUSIONS: National LRDGs should be based on years of life lost and should be neither age-specific nor cause-specific. We recommend using risk zones rather than a single drinking threshold to help people assess their own risk and encourage the adoption of behaviours with positive health impacts across the alcohol use spectrum.

Clinical ophthalmic parameters of the Quaker parrot (Myiopsitta monachus).

PURPOSE: Ophthalmic diagnosis in many avian species remains hindered by a lack of normative values. This study aimed to establish normal ophthalmic parameters for select diagnostic tests in clinically normal Quaker parrots. METHODS: Ninety-six captive Quaker parrots aged 8-18 years underwent ophthalmic examination to include assessment of neuro-ophthalmic reflexes, phenol red thread test, rebound tonometry, fluorescein staining, palpebral fissure length measurements, slit lamp biomicroscopy, indirect ophthalmoscopy, and ocular ultrasound biometry. RESULTS: Menace response, dazzle reflex, and direct pupillary light reflex were present for all Quaker parrots. Tear production (mean ± SD) was 13.3 ± 4.0 mm/15 s and intraocular pressure (IOP, mean ± SD) was 10.6 ± 1.4 and 6.0 ± 1.3 mmHg in the D and P rebound tonometer calibration settings, respectively. For IOP measurement, D and P calibration settings were not interchangeable, with the lesser variation of the D setting preferred in the absence of a gold standard. Ultrasound measurement of the anterior chamber depth increased with age and males had longer axial globe and vitreous lengths. Incidental adnexal and ocular lesions, identified in 36/96 (37.5%) of Quaker parrots, did not statistically affect the created reference data. CONCLUSIONS: This work provides reference values and clinical findings to assist with monitoring the health of wild populations and maintaining the health of captive Quaker parrots.

Achieving all-age helmet use compliance for snow sports: strategic use of education, legislation and enforcement.

BACKGROUND: Nova Scotia is the first jurisdiction in the world to mandate ski and snowboard helmet use for all ages at ski hills in the province. This study represents a longitudinal examination of the effects of social marketing, educational campaigns and the introduction of helmet legislation on all-age snow sport helmet use in Nova Scotia. METHODS: A baseline observational study was conducted to establish the threshold of ski and snowboarding helmet use. Based on focus groups and interviews, a social marketing campaign was designed and implemented to address factors influencing helmet use. A prelegislation observational study assessed the effects of social marketing and educational promotion on helmet use. After all-age snow sport helmet legislation was enacted and enforced, a postlegislation observational study was conducted to determine helmet use prevalence. RESULTS: Baseline data revealed that 74% of skiers and snowboarders were using helmets, of which 80% were females and 70% were males. Helmet use was high in children (96%), but decreased with increasing age. Following educational and social marketing campaigns, overall helmet use increased to 90%. After helmet legislation was enacted, 100% compliance was observed at ski hills in Nova Scotia. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this study demonstrate that a multifaceted approach, including education, legislation and enforcement, was effective in achieving full helmet compliance among all ages of skiers and snowboarders.

Knowledge-based inferences across the hemispheres: domain makes a difference.

Language comprehension occurs when the left-hemisphere (LH) and the right-hemisphere (RH) share information derived from discourse [Beeman, M. J., Bowden, E. M., & Gernsbacher, M. A. (2000). Right and left hemisphere cooperation for drawing predictive and coherence inferences during normal story comprehension. Brain and Language, 71, 310-336]. This study investigates the role of knowledge domain across hemispheres, hypothesizing that the RH demonstrates inference processes for planning knowledge while the LH demonstrates inference processes for knowledge of physical cause and effect. In experiment 1, sixty-eight participants completed divided-visual-field reading tasks with 2-sentence stimuli that relied on these knowledge areas. Results showed that readers made more planning inferences from the RH and more physical inferences from the LH, indicating inference processes occur from each hemisphere dependent upon the knowledge domain required to support it. In experiment 2, sixty-four participants completed the same reading task with longer, story-length stimuli to demonstrate the effect in a more realistic setting. Experiment 2 results replicated the findings from experiment 1, extending previous findings, specifying that hemispheric differences for inferences rely on knowledge domains.