Alcohol and healthy ageing: a challenge for alcohol policy

Objectives: This paper presents findings of a qualitative study of older people's use of alcohol during retirement and identifies ways that an improved understanding of older people's drinking can inform policy approaches to alcohol and active and healthy ageing. Study design: Qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted with a self-selecting sample of retired people. Methods: Participants were recruited from three geographical locations in the West of Scotland. A quota sampling design was used to ensure a broad spread of participants in terms of socio-economic position, age and gender. In total 40 participants were interviewed and the data analysed thematically using Braun and Clarke's (2006) approach. Results: Amongst those who used alcohol, it was most often framed in terms of pleasure, relaxation, socialising and as a way to mark the passage of time. Alcohol was often associated with social occasions and interactions both in private and in public spaces. There were also many examples of the use of imposed routines to limit alcohol use and of a decreasing volume of alcohol being consumed as participants aged. This suggests that older people are often active in constructing what they regard as ‘healthier’ routines around alcohol use. However, processes and circumstances associated with ageing can lead to risk of social isolation and/or increased alcohol consumption. Such processes include retirement from paid work and other ‘biographical disruptions’ such as caring for a partner, bereavement and/or loss of social networks. Conclusions: These findings highlight processes that can result in changes in drinking habits and routines. Whilst these processes can be associated with a reduction or cessation of alcohol use as people age, they can also be associated with increased risk of harmful alcohol consumption. Fractured or disrupted routines, particularly those associated with bereavement or the burden of caring responsibilities, through increasing the risk of loneliness and isolation, can construct increased risk of harmful alcohol consumption. These findings reframe the pathway of risk between ageing and alcohol-related harm by highlighting the vulnerability to harmful drinking practices brought by fracture or sudden change of routine. The findings point to a role for public health in supporting the reconstruction of routines that provide structure and meaning and can be used to actively manage the benefits and harms associated with drinking

Insights on capitalism from Oceania

Purpose: The authors introduce the chapters of Engaging with Capitalism with a discussion of anthropological and other social theory about peoples' approaches to capitalism, especially peoples with vibrant noncapitalist social systems, such as are found in Oceania. Approach: The introduction is in the form of a review of anthropological and other social theory about interactions between capitalism and noncapitalist social systems. Findings: The theoretical literature has tended to dichotomize capitalist and noncapitalist societies. While heuristically it is useful to contrast capitalist and noncapitalist social systems, in practice once societies come into the orbit of capitalism people adapt elements of capitalism to suit their aims. Furthermore, societies generally considered thoroughly capitalist also include noncapitalist features. So it is more accurate to think of societies as involving a mix of capitalism and noncapitalism, and the nature of that mix is part of what makes each society distinct. Social implications: The theoretical dichotomization of societies as capitalist or not, with capitalism understood as being universal, and noncapitalism understood in general terms such as gift economy, is prevalent in public imaginaries. Domestic social policy and international development assistance are often based on this dualistic understanding. Such programs could work better if they were based instead on an understanding that each group of people has a dynamic economic system, which includes capitalist and noncapitalist elements that interact in ways influenced by their history and locality. Value of paper: The chapter provides a conceptual scaffold for thinking about the ways people engage with capitalism. © 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Competency-based assessment for the training of PhD students and early-career scientists.

The training of PhD students and early-career scientists is largely an apprenticeship in which the trainee associates with an expert to become an independent scientist. But when is a PhD student ready to graduate, a postdoctoral scholar ready for an independent position, or an early-career scientist ready for advanced responsibilities? Research training by apprenticeship does not uniformly include a framework to assess if the trainee is equipped with the complex knowledge, skills and attitudes required to be a successful scientist in the 21st century. To address this problem, we propose competency-based assessment throughout the continuum of training to evaluate more objectively the development of PhD students and early-career scientists. © 2018, Verderame et al

Theoretical Treatment of Quasibound Resonances in Two-Color Resonant Four-Wave Mixing Spectroscopy

A treatment of continuum states in the application of diagrammatic perturbation theory to calculate the signal produced in two-color resonant four-wave mixing (TC-RFWM) spectroscopy is developed. The third-order susceptibility is significantly modified from that obtained when considering only discrete states. To illustrate the contribution of continuum states, the line profile of a quasibound resonance arising from the configuration interaction of bound and continuum states is derived. Analytic expressions for line profiles are presented for two specific experimental implementations of TC-RFWM used in gas-phase spectroscopic studies. While the TC-RFWM line profiles are found to be very distinct from the line profiles measured in linear spectroscopic techniques, the results demonstrate the important capability to characterize the TC-RFWM line profiles in terms of the same fundamental and physically significant parameters

The Effect of Laser Bandwidth on the Signal Detected in Two-Color, Resonant Four-Wave Mixing Spectroscopy

The effect of laser line shape and bandwidth on the signal detected in two-color, resonant four-wave mixing (TC-RFWM) spectroscopy is determined by means of an ab initio calculation of the third-order polarization based on diagrammatic perturbation theory. Modifications to the approach previously used for the case of delta-function laser line shapes are made by introducing a different treatment of the rotating wave approximation and phase-matching conditions. A three-level excitation scheme for double-resonance spectroscopy of bound and quasibound states is analyzed. In the case of Lorentzian laser line shapes, analytic expressions for the signal line profile are obtained for each excitation scheme. Analytic approximations of the signal line profile are also obtained in the case of Gaussian laser line shapes. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)01917-0]

Theoretical Treatment of Quasibound Resonances in Two-Color Resonant Four-Wave Mixing Spectroscopy

A treatment of continuum states in the application of diagrammatic perturbation theory to calculate the signal produced in two-color resonant four-wave mixing (TC-RFWM) spectroscopy is developed. The third-order susceptibility is significantly modified from that obtained when considering only discrete states. To illustrate the contribution of continuum states, the line profile of a quasibound resonance arising from the configuration interaction of bound and continuum states is derived. Analytic expressions for line profiles are presented for two specific experimental implementations of TC-RFWM used in gas-phase spectroscopic studies. While the TC-RFWM line profiles are found to be very distinct from the line profiles measured in linear spectroscopic techniques, the results demonstrate the important capability to characterize the TC-RFWM line profiles in terms of the same fundamental and physically significant parameters

The Effect of Laser Bandwidth on the Signal Detected in Two-Color, Resonant Four-Wave Mixing Spectroscopy

The effect of laser line shape and bandwidth on the signal detected in two-color, resonant four-wave mixing (TC-RFWM) spectroscopy is determined by means of an ab initio calculation of the third-order polarization based on diagrammatic perturbation theory. Modifications to the approach previously used for the case of delta-function laser line shapes are made by introducing a different treatment of the rotating wave approximation and phase-matching conditions. A three-level excitation scheme for double-resonance spectroscopy of bound and quasibound states is analyzed. In the case of Lorentzian laser line shapes, analytic expressions for the signal line profile are obtained for each excitation scheme. Analytic approximations of the signal line profile are also obtained in the case of Gaussian laser line shapes. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)01917-0]

Completing the Translation

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154355/1/onco13114_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154355/2/onco13114.pd