Being a non-drinking student: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Recent research suggests that safer student alcohol consumption might be assisted by understanding how social occasions are managed by non-drinkers. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with five 19-22 year old non-drinking English undergraduates were subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). We present five inter-linked themes: ‘living with challenges to non drinking’; ‘seeing what goes on in drinking environments’; ‘dealing with conversations about non-drinking (‘making excuses vs. coming out’)’; ‘knowing which friends care about you’; and ‘the importance of withholding “legroom” for peer pressure’. Participants felt under persistent peer scrutiny (as a form of peer pressure) and could feel alienated in drinking environments. Talking about non-drinking was characterised by whether to ‘come out’ (as a non-drinker) or ‘fake it’ (e.g., ‘I’m on antibiotics’). Loyal friendships were reported as particularly important in this context. The decision not to drink was experienced as providing a successful buffer to peer pressure for former drinkers. Our findings unsettle traditional health promotion campaigns which advocate moderate drinking among students without always suggesting how it might be most successfully accomplished, and offer tentative guidance on how non-drinking during specific social occasions might be managed more successfully. Findings are discussed in relation to extant literature and future research directions are suggested

A Model Connecting Galaxy Masses, Star Formation Rates, and Dust Temperatures Across Cosmic Time

We investigate the evolution of dust content in galaxies from redshifts z=0 to z=9.5. Using empirically motivated prescriptions, we model galactic-scale properties -- including halo mass, stellar mass, star formation rate, gas mass, and metallicity -- to make predictions for the galactic evolution of dust mass and dust temperature in main sequence galaxies. Our simple analytic model, which predicts that galaxies in the early Universe had greater quantities of dust than their low-redshift counterparts, does a good job at reproducing observed trends between galaxy dust and stellar mass out to z~6. We find that for fixed galaxy stellar mass, the dust temperature increases from z=0 to z=6. Our model forecasts a population of low-mass, high-redshift galaxies with interstellar dust as hot as, or hotter than, their more massive counterparts; but this prediction needs to be constrained by observations. Finally, we make predictions for observing 1.1-mm flux density arising from interstellar dust emission with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Negative experiences of non-drinking college students in Great Britain: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Research relating to alcohol use amongst university students primarily examines the effects of binge drinking. Researchers rarely focus on a range of drinking styles including light or non-drinking. This study was designed to gain an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of female, first year UK undergraduates, who do not drink alcohol. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants. Narratives were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA; by Smith and Osborn (Sage 51-80, 2003). Three superordinate themes were identified: managing the feeling that you don’t belong^ highlights the importance of managing social interactions as a non-drinker; experiencing social exclusion recognises the impact on social bonding as a result of insufficient socialising opportunities; and experiencing peer pressure and social stigma highlights the scrutiny and labelling participants endured. These findings provide an understanding of some of the difficulties experienced by these undergraduates as a result of their non-drinking status. Implications of this research are discussed and areas for future research are outlined

Constraints facing goat-keepers and ways of addressing them through a participatory approach: Some experiences from semi-arid India

BAIF Development Research Foundation (BAIF), India, and the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) of the University of Greenwich, UK, are jointly implementing two complementary projects aimed at alleviating goat production problems caused by seasonal feed shortages in semi-arid India. One is entirely field-based and the other is primarily oriented towards laboratory feed evaluation: both started on 1 October 1997 and are due to end on 30 September 2000. The UK.'s Department for International Development is supporting the projects through its Livestock Production Programme. The title of the field-based project, the subject of this report, is: "Easing seasonal feed scarcity for small ruminants in semi-arid crop/livestock systems through a process of participatory research". The project is a multi-disciplinary one: the Project Leader for NRI is a socio-economist, whereas the Project Leader for BAIF is a veterinarian; and contributions are made by other staff from both organisations, who are from a variety of disciplines, including ruminant nutrition and agronomy. Until now the project has been working in three districts of north-west India - two in south Rajasthan (Bhilwara and Udaipur) and one in Gujarat (Bhavnagar). These districts were selected so that different goat production systems would be covered by the project (see Table 1). Limited diagnostic and needs assessment work has also been done in Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh. During 2000 similar work will be done in two new districts - Dharwad (Kamataka) and Pune (Maharashtra); and if feed scarcity is an important constraint in those districts further trials may be undertaken there

A power-saving modulation technique for time-of-flight range imaging sensors

Time-of-flight range imaging cameras measure distance and intensity simultaneously for every pixel in an image. With the continued advancement of the technology, a wide variety of new depth sensing applications are emerging; however a number of these potential applications have stringent electrical power constraints that are difficult to meet with the current state-of-the-art systems. Sensor gain modulation contributes a significant proportion of the total image sensor power consumption, and as higher spatial resolution range image sensors operating at higher modulation frequencies (to achieve better measurement precision) are developed, this proportion is likely to increase. The authors have developed a new sensor modulation technique using resonant circuit concepts that is more power efficient than the standard mode of operation. With a proof of principle system, a 93–96% reduction in modulation drive power was demonstrated across a range of modulation frequencies from 1–11 MHz. Finally, an evaluation of the range imaging performance revealed an improvement in measurement linearity in the resonant configuration due primarily to the more sinusoidal shape of the resonant electrical waveforms, while the average precision values were comparable between the standard and resonant operating modes