“F*ck it! Let’s get to drinking – poison our livers!”: a thematic analysis of alcohol content in contemporary YouTube music videos

Purpose: To describe the portrayal of alcohol content in popular YouTube music videos. Methods: We used inductive thematic analysis to explore the lyrics and visual imagery in 49 UK Top 40 songs and music videos previously found to contain alcohol content, and watched by many British adolescents aged between 11-18 years, and to examine if branded content contravened alcohol industry advertising codes of practice. Results: The analysis generated three themes. First, alcohol content was associated with sexualised imagery or lyrics and the objectification of women. Second, alcohol was associated with image, lifestyle and sociability. Finally, some videos showed alcohol overtly encouraging excessive drinking and drunkenness, including those containing branding, with no negative consequences to the drinker. Conclusion: Our results suggest that YouTube music videos promote positive associations with alcohol use. Further, several alcohol companies adopt marketing strategies in the video medium that are entirely inconsistent with their own or others agreed advertising codes of practice. We conclude that, as a harm reduction measure, policies should change to prevent adolescent exposure to the positive promotion of alcohol and alcohol branding in music videos

Mutations In the hepatocyte nuclear factor-4 alpha gene in maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY1)

THE disease maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is a genetically heterogeneous monogenic form of non-insulin-dependent (type 2) diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), characterized by early onset, usually before 25 years of age and often in adolescence or childhood, and by autosomal dominant inheritance(1). It has been estimated that 2-5% of patients with NIDDM may have this form of diabetes mellitus(2,3). Clinical studies have shown that prediabetic MODY subjects have normal insulin sensitivity but suffer from a defect in glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, suggesting that pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction rather than insulin resistance is the primary defect in this disorder(4,5). Linkage studies have localized the genes that are mutated in MODY on human chromosomes 20 (MODY1)(6), 7 (MODY2)(2) and 12 (MODY3)(7), with MODY2 and MODY3 being allelic with the genes encoding glucokinase(2), a key regulator of insulin secretion, and hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 alpha (HNF-1 alpha)(8), a transcription factor involved in tissue-specific regulation of liver genes but also expressed in pancreatic islets, insulinoma cells and other tissues. Here we show that MODY1 is the gene encoding HNF-4 alpha (gene symbol, TCF14), a member of the steroid/thyroid hormone receptor superfamily and an upstream regulator of HNF-1 alpha expressiong-(9,11).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62605/1/384458a0.pd