Older and wiser? Men’s and women’s accounts of drinking in early mid-life

Most qualitative research on alcohol focuses on younger rather than older adults. To explore older people’s relationship with alcohol, we conducted eight focus groups with 36 men and women aged 35 to 50 years in Scotland, UK. Initially, respondents suggested that older drinkers consume less alcohol, no longer drink to become drunk and are sociable drinkers more interested in the taste than the effects of alcohol. However, as discussions progressed, respondents collectively recounted recent drunken escapades, challenged accounts of moderate drinking, and suggested there was still peer pressure to drink. Some described how their drinking had increased in mid-life but worked hard discursively to emphasise that it was age and stage appropriate (i.e. they still met their responsibilities as workers and parents). Women presented themselves as staying in control of their drinking while men described going out with the intention of getting drunk (although still claiming to meet their responsibilities). While women experienced peer pressure to drink, they seemed to have more options for socialising without alcohol than did men. Choosing not to drink alcohol is a behaviour that still requires explanation in early mid-life. Harm reduction strategies should pay more attention to drinking in this age group

Structure and spacing of cellulose microfibrils in woody cell walls of dicots

The structure of cellulose microfibrils in situ in wood from the dicotyledonous (hardwood) species cherry and birch, and the vascular tissue from sunflower stems, was examined by wide-angle X-ray and neutron scattering (WAXS and WANS) and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). Deuteration of accessible cellulose chains followed by WANS showed that these chains were packed at similar spacings to crystalline cellulose, consistent with their inclusion in the microfibril dimensions and with a location at the surface of the microfibrils. Using the Scherrer equation and correcting for considerable lateral disorder, the microfibril dimensions of cherry, birch and sunflower microfibrils perpendicular to the [200] crystal plane were estimated as 3.0, 3.4 and 3.3 nm respectively. The lateral dimensions in other directions were more difficult to correct for disorder but appeared to be 3 nm or less. However for cherry and sunflower, the microfibril spacing estimated by SANS was about 4 nm and was insensitive to the presence of moisture. If the microfibril width was 3 nm as estimated by WAXS, the SANS spacing suggests that a non-cellulosic polymer segment might in places separate the aggregated cellulose microfibrils

The Attributional Double Standard : Actor-Observer Differences in Predicting the Relationship Between Attitudes and Behaviors

It was hypothesized that subjects who took the role of interaction observers ration than actors would predict a closer relationship between attitudes and behaviors and would report greater confidence in behavioral predictions derivable from an actor\u27s attitude statements. One hundred sixty-eight subjects assumed the role of either actor or observer in scenarios of group interactions in which a central person made a statement about a particular attitude object. As predicted, subjects in the observer role reported that specific future behaviors (e.g., loaning money, helping to study for a test) had a greater likelihood of occurrence following an attitude statement (e.g., I like Pat ) than did subjects in the actor role, and observers were more confident than actors in these predictions. In addition, the favorability of the attitude statement was directly related to the strength of predictions, and the central person\u27s familiarity with the audience was directly related to confidence in predictions. Observers apparently view attitude statements as reliable indications of internal dispositions that serve as a potential cause of subsequent behaviors, while actors view attitude statements as tenuous orientations that can be modified in accord with future situational contingencies

Invariants of differential equations defined by vector fields

We determine the most general group of equivalence transformations for a family of differential equations defined by an arbitrary vector field on a manifold. We also find all invariants and differential invariants for this group up to the second order. A result on the characterization of classes of these equations by the invariant functions is also given.Comment: 13 page

Quantized representation of some nonlinear integrable evolution equations on the soliton sector

The Hirota algorithm for solving several integrable nonlinear evolution equations is suggestive of a simple quantized representation of these equations and their soliton solutions over a Fock space of bosons or of fermions. The classical nonlinear wave equation becomes a nonlinear equation for an operator. The solution of this equation is constructed through the operator analog of the Hirota transformation. The classical N-solitons solution is the expectation value of the solution operator in an N-particle state in the Fock space.Comment: 12 page

Integrative Review of Older Adult Loneliness and Social Isolation in Aotearoa/New Zealand

To conduct an integrative review of empirical studies of loneliness for older people in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Loneliness is a risk factor for older people's poor physical and cognitive health, serious illness and mortality. A national survey showed loneliness rates vary by gender and ethnicity

Lattice and q-difference Darboux-Zakharov-Manakov systems via ∂ˉ\bar{\partial}-dressing method

A general scheme is proposed for introduction of lattice and q-difference variables to integrable hierarchies in frame of $\bar{\partial}$-dressing method . Using this scheme, lattice and q-difference Darboux-Zakharov-Manakov systems of equations are derived. Darboux, B\"acklund and Combescure transformations and exact solutions for these systems are studied.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, to be published in J Phys A, Letters

Potential Conservation Laws

We prove that potential conservation laws have characteristics depending only on local variables if and only if they are induced by local conservation laws. Therefore, characteristics of pure potential conservation laws have to essentially depend on potential variables. This statement provides a significant generalization of results of the recent paper by Bluman, Cheviakov and Ivanova [J. Math. Phys., 2006, V.47, 113505]. Moreover, we present extensions to gauged potential systems, Abelian and general coverings and general foliated systems of differential equations. An example illustrating possible applications of proved statements is considered. A special version of the Hadamard lemma for fiber bundles and the notions of weighted jet spaces are proposed as new tools for the investigation of potential conservation laws.Comment: 36 pages, extended versio

Discrete analogues of the Liouville equation

The notion of Laplace invariants is transferred to the lattices and discrete equations which are difference analogs of hyperbolic PDE's with two independent variables. The sequence of Laplace invariants satisfy the discrete analog of twodimensional Toda lattice. The terminating of this sequence by zeroes is proved to be the necessary condition for existence of the integrals of the equation under consideration. The formulae are presented for the higher symmetries of the equations possessing integrals. The general theory is illustrated by examples of difference analogs of Liouville equation.Comment: LaTeX, 15 pages, submitted to Teor. i Mat. Fi