A survey of drug use and attitudes toward drugs among male law students and police trainees in Queensland, Australia: A research note

During first semester 1980, 96 first and last year male police students and 166 law students were surveyed about their drug use patterns and attitudes towards alcohol. Of these students, 69.3 percent drank at least once a month, 80.7 percent used coffee or tea, 23.6 percent analgesics, 3 percent antihistamines and marijuana and less than 1 percent sedatives, tranquilizers, stimulants, hallucinogens, cocaine or opiates once a month or more. Law students used caffeine and marijuana significantly more frequently than police students. On the whole, there were more similarities than differences between the two groups in terms of drug consumption. In terms of attitudes, police students felt significantly more than law students that alcoholism was caused by moral weakness and medical illness as shown in the Attitude Towards Alcoholism questionnaire. But significantly more police students (82 percent) than law students (37 percent) felt that it was important to have drug and alcohol education as part of their course of study. Also significantly more police students (58 percent) than law students (24 percent) felt that they were prepared to manage drug or alcohol problems professionally

Rapid Determination of Ethyl Alcohol in Alcoholic Beverages Using a Fluorescent Nanofiber Film

Electrospinning has been recognized as a simple, versatile, and viable technique to fabricate ultrathin nanofibers from various materials, e.g., polymers and composites, in aqueous solutions. In this study, we used polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a substrate to synthesize nanofibers by using an electric field between the syringe needle and PVA. The nanofibers demonstrate an immense potential for developing fluorescent detection system of ethyl alcohol from several types of beverages due to their special characteristics of a simple, albeit useful, and effective top-down fabrication process. The development of nanofibers, a fundamental understanding of electrospinning, and properties of the nanofibers, as well as their applications to determine the alcohol content in beverages by direct injection into the fiber surface, were described. This method was accomplished using a PVA nanofiber scaffold as the immobilized sensing film in samples of wine, beer, or some alcohol beverages. Various beverages were tested, which were found to contain low alcohol concentrations. The optical properties of nanofibers in an aqueous PVA solution were observed by fluorescence spectra. The PVA nanofiber films could be useful for detecting the alcohol upto 1.0vol% in a real sample within several seconds. Details of the type of electrospun fibers, and their characteristics were also explained. This study should serve as a guiding tool for nanoscience researchers in fibers, textiles, food validations, and polymer fields