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Objective: During adolescence, neurobiological maturation occurs concurrently with social and interpersonal changes, including the initiation of alcohol and other substance use. The National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) is designed to disentangle the complex relationships between onset, escalation, and desistance of alcohol use and changes in neurocognitive functioning and neuromaturation.Method: A sample of 831 youth, ages 12-21 years, was recruited at five sites across the United States, oversampling those at risk for alcohol use problems. Most (83%) had limited or no history of alcohol or other drug use, and a smaller portion (17%) exceeded drinking thresholds. A comprehensive assessment of biological development, family background, psychiatric symptomatology, and neuropsychological functioning-in addition to anatomical, diffusion, and functional brain magnetic resonance imaging-was completed at baseline.Results: The NCANDA sample of youth is nationally representative of sex and racial/ethnic groups. More than 50% have at least one risk characteristic for subsequent heavy drinking (e.g., family history, internalizing or externalizing symptoms). As expected, those who exceeded drinking thresholds (n = 139) differ from those who did not (n = 692) on identified factors associated with early alcohol use and problems.Conclusions: NCANDA successfully recruited a large sample of adolescents and comprehensively assessed psychosocial functioning across multiple domains. Based on the sample's risk profile, NCANDA is well positioned to capture the transition into drinking and alcohol problems in a large portion of the cohort, as well as to help disentangle the associations between alcohol use, neurobiological maturation, and neurocognitive development and functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy alcohol drinking is a major, preventable problem that adversely impacts the physical and mental health of US young adults. Studies seeking drinking risk factors typically focus on young adults who enrolled in 4-year residential college programs (4YCP) even though most high school graduates join the workforce, military, or community colleges. We examined 106 of these understudied young adults (USYA) and 453 4YCPs from the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) by longitudinally following their drinking patterns for 8 years from adolescence to young adulthood. All participants were no-to-low drinkers during high school. Whereas 4YCP individuals were more likely to initiate heavy drinking during college years, USYA participants did so later. Using mental health metrics recorded during high school, machine learning forecasted individual-level risk for initiating heavy drinking after leaving high school. The risk factors differed between demographically matched USYA and 4YCP individuals and between sexes. Predictors for USYA drinkers were sexual abuse, physical abuse for girls, and extraversion for boys, whereas 4YCP drinkers were predicted by the ability to recognize facial emotion and, for boys, greater openness. Thus, alcohol prevention programs need to give special consideration to those joining the workforce, military, or community colleges, who make up the majority of this age group., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None of the authors have biomedical financial interests or conflicts of interest with the reported data or their interpretation., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Surveillance performed after the introduction of general Haemophilus influenzae serotype b (Hib) vaccination in Denmark identified 13 cases of invasive bacteraemic H. influenzae serotype f (Hif) disease in adults over a period of 7 years. Bacteraemic respiratory tract infections accounted for 61 % of cases, but meningitis, epiglottitis and osteoarthritis were also seen. Recent Danish isolates were compared to recent American isolates, historical Hif strains and non-Hif invasive strains. Results of conventional serotyping were confirmed by PCR detection of the serotype-f-specific cap and bexA gene sequences. Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis typing revealed that recent Danish and American isolates belonged to a single Hif clone, which may be undergoing expansion. The need for accurate serotyping of H. influenzae to enable reliable monitoring for Hib replacement by other capsular types is emphasized.

The Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans population consists of a large number of clones among which the ubiquitous leukotoxin gene operon appears very homogeneous. Population genetic analyses performed by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis together with DNA fingerprinting and analyses of genomic DNA restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) on 97 strains isolated over a period of 45 years revealed that each of the serotypes a, b, c, d and e comprise genetically isolated subpopulations and that successful horizontal transfer of genomic DNA between strains of different serotypes appears to be extremely rare in vivo. In contrast, recombination between strains of the same serotype in general appears to take place in nature. The results provide evidence that non-serotypeable strains are serotype antigen-deficient variants originating from strains of the known serotypes. Serotype b and c strains may contain transmittable DNA sequences not found in strains of the other serotypes.

The paper provides a description of 112 Haemophilus strains isolated from cases of conjunctivitis in Egypt, Tunisia, Denmark, and the U.S.A., and aims at a clarification of the taxonomy of haemophili implicated in conjunctivitis. Although the study confirms the diversity of haemophili which can be isolated from inflamed conjunctivae, the vast majority of strains could be assigned to either biotype II or III of H. influenzae. Thirteen strains possessed all the characteristics of the Koch-Weeks bacillus. However, judged by the findings the recognition of the Koch-Weeks bacillus as a separate species does not seem tenable. It is suggested that this organism is considered a haemagglutinating variety of H. influenzae biotype III. The study indicates that the haemagglutinating ability per se, which can be found in strains of several taxa of Haemophilus, is associated with a special pathogenic potential.