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

Negations in syllogistic reasoning: Evidence for a heuristic–analytic conflict

An experiment utilizing response time measures was conducted to test dominant processing strategies in syllogistic reasoning with the expanded quantifier set proposed by Roberts (2005). Through adding negations to existing quantifiers it is possible to change problem surface features without altering logical validity. Biases based on surface features such as atmosphere, matching, and the probability heuristics model (PHM; Chater & Oaksford, 1999; Wetherick & Gilhooly, 1995) would not be expected to show variance in response latencies, but participant responses should be highly sensitive to changes in the surface features of the quantifiers. In contrast, according to analytic accounts such as mental models theory and mental logic (e.g., Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 1991; Rips, 1994) participants should exhibit increased response times for negated premises, but not be overly impacted upon by the surface features of the conclusion. Data indicated that the dominant response strategy was based on a matching heuristic, but also provided evidence of a resource-demanding analytic procedure for dealing with double negatives. The authors propose that dual-process theories offer a stronger account of these data whereby participants employ competing heuristic and analytic strategies and fall back on a heuristic response when analytic processing fails

A comprehensive sulfur and oxygen isotope study of sulfur cycling in a shallow, hyper-euxinic meromictic lake

Mahoney Lake is a permanently anoxic and sulfidic (euxinic) lake that has a dense plate of purple sulfur bacteria positioned at mid-water depth (∼7 m) where free sulfide intercepts the photic zone. We analyzed the isotopic composition of sulfate (δ34SSO4 and δ18OSO4), sulfide (δ34SH2S), and the water (δ18OH2O) to track the potentially coupled processes of dissimilatory sulfate reduction and phototrophic sulfide oxidation within an aquatic environment with extremely high sulfide concentrations (>30 mM). Large isotopic offsets observed between sulfate and sulfide within the monimolimnion (δ34SSO4-H2S = 51‰) and within pore waters along the oxic margin (δ34SSO4-H2S > 50‰) are consistent with sulfate reduction in both the sediments and the anoxic water column. Given the high sulfide concentrations of the lake, sulfur disproportionation is likely inoperable or limited to a very narrow zone in the chemocline, and therefore the large instantaneous fractionations are best explained by the microbial process of sulfate reduction. Pyrite extracted from the sediments reflects the isotopic composition of water column sulfide, suggesting that pyrite buried in the euxinic depocenter of the lake formed in the water column. The offset between sulfate and dissolved sulfide decreases at the chemocline (δ34SSO4-H2S = 37‰), a trend possibly explained by elevated sulfate reduction rates and inconsistent with appreciable disproportionation within this interval. Water column sulfate exhibits a linear response in δ18OSO4–δ34SSO4 and the slope of this relationship suggests relatively high sulfate reduction rates that appear to respond to seasonal changes in the productivity of purple sulfur bacteria. Although photosynthetic activity within the microbial plate influences the δ18OSO4–δ34SSO4 relationship, the biosignature for photosynthetic sulfur bacteria is restricted to the oxic/anoxic transition zone and is apparently minor relative to the more prevalent process of sulfate reduction operative throughout the light-deprived deeper anoxic water column and sediment pore waters

Insights into Chi recognition from the structure of an AddAB-type helicase–nuclease complex

Homologous recombination DNA repair requires double-strand break resection by helicase–nuclease enzymes. The crystal structure of bacterial AddAB in complex with DNA substrates shows that it employs an inactive helicase site to recognize ‘Chi' recombination hotspot sequences that regulate resection

Foreign-Body Reaction Mimicking Postneurosurgical Infection After Cranioplasty

The case of a 57-year-old woman who suffered a fall is presented. After a polymethyl malacrylate revision cranioplasty, she presented with signs, symptoms, and intraoperative findings consistent with postneurosurgical infection. Dural foreign-body reaction was diagnosed, and parenteral antibiotic therapy was discontinued successfully

Prolonged institutional rearing is associated with atypically large amygdala volume and difficulties in emotion regulation

Early adversity, for example poor caregiving, can have profound effects on emotional development. Orphanage rearing, even in the best circumstances, lies outside of the bounds of a species-typical caregiving environment. The long-term effects of this early adversity on the neurobiological development associated with socio-emotional behaviors are not well understood. Seventy-eight children, who include those who have experienced orphanage care and a comparison group, were assessed. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to measure volumes of whole brain and limbic structures (e.g. amygdala, hippocampus). Emotion regulation was assessed with an emotional go-nogo paradigm, and anxiety and internalizing behaviors were assessed using the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders, the Child Behavior Checklist, and a structured clinical interview. Late adoption was associated with larger corrected amygdala volumes, poorer emotion regulation, and increased anxiety. Although more than 50% of the children who experienced orphanage rearing met criteria for a psychiatric disorder, with a third having an anxiety disorder, the group differences observed in amygdala volume were not driven by the presence of an anxiety disorder. The findings are consistent with previous reports describing negative effects of prolonged orphanage care on emotional behavior and with animal models that show long-term changes in the amygdala and emotional behavior following early postnatal stress. These changes in limbic circuitry may underlie residual emotional and social problems experienced by children who have been internationally adopted

What is the 'problem' that outreach work seeks to address and how might it be tackled? Seeking theory in a primary health prevention programme

<b>Background</b> Preventive approaches to health are disproportionately accessed by the more affluent and recent health improvement policy advocates the use of targeted preventive primary care to reduce risk factors in poorer individuals and communities. Outreach has become part of the health service response. Outreach has a long history of engaging those who do not otherwise access services. It has, however, been described as eclectic in its purpose, clientele and mode of practice; its effectiveness is unproven. Using a primary prevention programme in the UK as a case, this paper addresses two research questions: what are the perceived problems of non-engagement that outreach aims to address; and, what specific mechanisms of outreach are hypothesised to tackle these.<p></p> <b>Methods</b> Drawing on a wider programme evaluation, the study undertook qualitative interviews with strategically selected health-care professionals. The analysis was thematically guided by the concept of 'candidacy' which theorises the dynamic process through which services and individuals negotiate appropriate service use.<p></p> <b>Results</b> The study identified seven types of engagement 'problem' and corresponding solutions. These 'problems' lie on a continuum of complexity in terms of the challenges they present to primary care. Reasons for non-engagement are congruent with the concept of 'candidacy' but point to ways in which it can be expanded.<p></p> <b>Conclusions</b> The paper draws conclusions about the role of outreach in contributing to the implementation of inequalities focused primary prevention and identifies further research needed in the theoretical development of both outreach as an approach and candidacy as a conceptual framework

Conducting longitudinal research with older widows : Exploring personal communities through multiple methods

This article reports on the process of undertaking a longitudinal multiple methods study with older women experiencing the transition of later life widowhood. A series of three qualitative in depth interviews were conducted with twenty-six older widows in North Staffordshire, United Kingdom. Interviews included the use of personal community diagrams to identify the structure of personal communities, and Christmas and Christmas cards to further explore social relationships and practices during transition. Examples of cases are given to illustrate the findings derived from the methods employed. The cases demonstrate the diverse and often paradoxical nature of social relationships within similar networks