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We present results of a randomized, controlled, efficacy trial of a handbook intervention for parents of first-year college students. The aim of the interactive intervention was to decrease risk behaviors by increasing family protective factors. The handbook, based in self-determination theory and the social development model, provided evidence-based and developmentally targeted suggestions for parents to engage with their students in activities designed to support successful adjustment to college. We recruited 919 parent-student dyads from incoming students enrolled at a university in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and randomly assigned them to control and intervention conditions. We sent handbooks to intervention parents in June before students' August matriculation. Research assistants trained in motivational interviewing contacted parents to encourage use of the handbook. Control parents and students received treatment as usual. Participants completed baseline surveys during their final semester in high school (time 1) and their first semester at college (time 2). Self-reported frequency of alcohol, cannabis, and simultaneous use increased across both handbook and control students. In intent-to-treat analyses, odds of increased use were consistently lower and of similar magnitude for students in the intervention condition than in the control condition, and odds of first-time use were also lower in the intervention condition. Contact from research assistants predicted parents' engagement, and parent and student report of active engagement with handbook predicted lower substance use among intervention than control students across the transition to college. We developed a low-cost, theory-based handbook to help parents support their young adult children as they transition to independent college life. Students whose parents used the handbook were less likely to initiate or increase substance use than students in the control condition during their first semester in college.

In the last ten years we carried out several radioactivity investigations in the aetnean area, a peculiar site characterized by both tectonicand volcanic features. In particular, continuous measurements in-soilradon gas carried out from 2001 until 2006 in the eastern flank of Mt. Etna, while several volcanic events occurred, showed a possible correlation between radon concentration and geodynamic activity, in particular magma uprising. We report in particular on the survey performedin order to determine vertical radon concentration profiles at differentdepths in sites near active faults in order to extract radon diffusion coefficients for the different sites. Moreover laboratory analysis alloweddetermining radionuclide contents (via γ-spectroscopy) and radon exhalation rate (via Can-technique) for different rock samples from themonitored sites. This study represents a contribution to better definethe radon transport process through fractured media, in particular in volcanic area.

Human development reportedly includes critical and sensitive periods during which environmental stressors can affect traits that persist throughout life. Controversy remains over which of these periods provides an opportunity for such stressors to affect health and longevity. The elaboration of reproductive biology and its behavioral sequelae during adolescence suggests such a sensitive period, particularly among males. We test the hypothesis that life expectancy at age 20 among males exposed to life-threatening stressors during early adolescence will fall below that among other males. We apply time-series methods to cohort mortality data in France between 1816 and 1919, England and Wales between 1841 and 1919, and Sweden between 1861 and 1919. Our results indicate an inverse association between cohort death rates at ages 10-14 and cohort life expectancy at age 20. Our findings imply that better-informed and more strategic management of the stressors encountered by early adolescents may improve population health.

The human secondary sex ratio reportedly falls in populations subjected to exogenous stressors such as earthquakes or political and social upheavals. Explanations of the association include reduced conception of males and increased fetal deaths among males. The latter explanation has been supported by research reporting that the sex ratio in California fell 3 months, but not 8, 9 or 10 months, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. California's distance from the attacks raises the questions of whether the results arose from chance and would be found elsewhere. We contribute to the literature by testing the association between the secondary sex ratio and the events of September 11 in New York City.We replicate the California tests by applying interrupted time-series methods, which control for secular trends, seasonality and other forms of autocorrelation, to 91 cohorts born in New York City during 28-day periods from January 1996 to June 2002.As hypothesized, the sex ratio in New York City in the period 1 January to 28 January 2002 fell to 1, which was the lowest observed value during the test period and significantly (i.e. P < 0.01, two-tailed test) below the value expected from history.Our findings support the male fetal loss explanation of the association between exogenous population shocks and the secondary sex ratio.