“Binge drinking? It’s good, it’s harmless fun”:a discourse analysis of accounts of female undergraduate drinking in Scotland

Binge drinking in young people, particularly females and students, is a source of some concern to those engaged in health education. The concept is usually defined in terms of quantities of alcohol consumed within a relatively short space of time. Research suggests that reasons for drinking are varied, and are likely to be influenced by culture and context. This study aimed to explore issues important to female undergraduate students in Scotland. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 19 participants who were asked to describe what they understand by the term ‘binge drinking’, why they drink and what might trigger excessive consumption. Discourse analysis was used to explore the possible ‘functions’ of what was said, as well as the content. Participants showed sensitivity to how others might interpret their responses. They described binge drinking in terms of its behavioural effects rather than quantities consumed. Crucially, they positioned themselves outside the categories of ‘serious’ or ‘anti-social’ drinkers. These findings have important implications for our understanding of factors influencing drinking behaviour in this group of people, which in turn impacts on the potential design of health-enhancing interventions. The study also demonstrates the usefulness of a discourse analytic approach to accounts of drinking behaviour

Descriptors and accounts of alcohol consumption:methodological issues piloted with female undergraduate drinkers in Scotland

Excessive drinking among young women continues to attract adverse media attention and is the target of UK government-led initiatives. Reliable research on alcohol consumption is needed to inform/evaluate public health interventions. This pilot study, investigating descriptors of alcohol drinking in female Scottish undergraduate students, comprised: (i) self-completed questionnaire survey (n=95); (ii) interview plus test pouring of a ‘drink’ (n=19). Self-reports by 70% of drinkers (n=90) indicated alcohol consumption for the ‘week past’ meriting classification as ‘binge’ drinking, and 83% of this group reported drinking in this fashion at least fortnightly. However, binge-drinking may be under-estimated, since poured drinks were measured to be on average double the alcohol content for a standard drink, drinking often occurred outwith licensed premises, and respondents preferred to quantify consumption in (fractions of) bottles, rather than glasses. Qualitative analysis showed that interviewees oriented to drinking as an accountable practice but were unaware of the clinical definition of binge drinking. They defined it in terms of the effect of alcohol consumed on individual behaviour, not in absolute quantities. Given the unreliability of self-reported consumption, future health surveys and initiatives should consider ‘quantifying’ alcohol in a way more meaningful to the population of interest, in terms of effect

CMS Optical Links: Lessons learned from Mass Production

The CMS Tracker will install over 40000 optical links in its data-readout and control system, representing an unprecedented deployment of this technology in a Particle Physics Experiment. After reviewing the Quality Process employed in this project, a summary of the performance data measured during production will be shown. The analysis of this data will then be used to illustrate how the performance of the installed system may be predicted, giving confidence that the specified functionality will be attained in the final system. Completion of the production has allowed reflection upon the processes used and improvements for future such projects will be given in the form of some lessons learned

Reassessment of the evolution of wheat chromosomes 4A, 5A, and 7B.

Key messageComparison of genome sequences of wild emmer wheat and Aegilops tauschii suggests a novel scenario of the evolution of rearranged wheat chromosomes 4A, 5A, and 7B. Past research suggested that wheat chromosome 4A was subjected to a reciprocal translocation T(4AL;5AL)1 that occurred in the diploid progenitor of the wheat A subgenome and to three major rearrangements that occurred in polyploid wheat: pericentric inversion Inv(4AS;4AL)1, paracentric inversion Inv(4AL;4AL)1, and reciprocal translocation T(4AL;7BS)1. Gene collinearity along the pseudomolecules of tetraploid wild emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccoides, subgenomes AABB) and diploid Aegilops tauschii (genomes DD) was employed to confirm these rearrangements and to analyze the breakpoints. The exchange of distal regions of chromosome arms 4AS and 4AL due to pericentric inversion Inv(4AS;4AL)1 was detected, and breakpoints were validated with an optical Bionano genome map. Both breakpoints contained satellite DNA. The breakpoints of reciprocal translocation T(4AL;7BS)1 were also found. However, the breakpoints that generated paracentric inversion Inv(4AL;4AL)1 appeared to be collocated with the 4AL breakpoints that had produced Inv(4AS;4AL)1 and T(4AL;7BS)1. Inv(4AS;4AL)1, Inv(4AL;4AL)1, and T(4AL;7BS)1 either originated sequentially, and Inv(4AL;4AL)1 was produced by recurrent chromosome breaks at the same breakpoints that generated Inv(4AS;4AL)1 and T(4AL;7BS)1, or Inv(4AS;4AL)1, Inv(4AL;4AL)1, and T(4AL;7BS)1 originated simultaneously. We prefer the latter hypothesis since it makes fewer assumptions about the sequence of events that produced these chromosome rearrangements

Follow-up study of people who misuse alcohol: reflections on methodology.

Background Considerable challenges exist for researchers attempting to monitor longitudinally the impact of any intervention on heavy drinkers, therefore they are often excluded from surveys. A particular challenge is the loss of validity through attrition.Aim To describe issues encountered when recruiting and re-contacting difficult to reach heavy drinkers participating in a longitudinal study; and propose strategies to inform the design of future studies to minimise the effects of confounding factors.Discussion Baseline recruitment exceeded targets, but attrition at first follow-up interview was considerable. Baseline alcohol consumption was not predictive of loss to follow-up. A variety of factors affected attrition including abstinence, severe intoxication at interview, deaths, selling of telephone, change of address and incarceration.Conclusion Longitudinal studies that use personal telephones or address details in following up heavy drinkers face considerable challenges to minimise attrition. An important mitigating factor is the use of flexible and experienced interviewers.Implications for practice The anticipated and reactive strategies documented in this paper provide important lessons for costing, designing and collecting data in future studies

Statistical characteristics of finger-tapping data in Huntington’s disease

Measuring the rate of finger tapping is a technique commonly used as an indicator of impairment in degenerative neurological conditions, such as Huntington’s disease. The information it provides can be greatly enhanced by analysing not simply the overall tapping rate, but also the statistical characteristics of the individual times between each successive response. Recent technological improvements in the recording equipment allow the responses to be analysed extremely quickly, and permit modification of the task in the interest of greater clinical specificity. Here we illustrate its use with some pilot data from a group of manifest HD patients and age-matched controls. Even in this small cohort, differences in the responses are apparent that appear to relate to the severity of the disease as measured by conventional behavioural tests

Follow-up study of people who misuse alcohol: reflections on methodology.

Background Considerable challenges exist for researchers attempting to monitor longitudinally the impact of any intervention on heavy drinkers, therefore they are often excluded from surveys. A particular challenge is the loss of validity through attrition.Aim To describe issues encountered when recruiting and re-contacting difficult to reach heavy drinkers participating in a longitudinal study; and propose strategies to inform the design of future studies to minimise the effects of confounding factors.Discussion Baseline recruitment exceeded targets, but attrition at first follow-up interview was considerable. Baseline alcohol consumption was not predictive of loss to follow-up. A variety of factors affected attrition including abstinence, severe intoxication at interview, deaths, selling of telephone, change of address and incarceration.Conclusion Longitudinal studies that use personal telephones or address details in following up heavy drinkers face considerable challenges to minimise attrition. An important mitigating factor is the use of flexible and experienced interviewers.Implications for practice The anticipated and reactive strategies documented in this paper provide important lessons for costing, designing and collecting data in future studies

The total margin of exposure of ethanol and acetaldehyde for heavy drinkers consuming cider or vodka

Heavy drinkers in Scotland may consume 1600 g ethanol per week. Due to its low price, cider may bepreferred over other beverages. Anecdotal evidence has linked cider to specific health hazards beyondother alcoholic beverages. To examine this hypothesis, nine apple and pear cider samples were chemicallyanalysed for constituents and contaminants. None of the products exceeded regulatory or toxicologicalthresholds, but the regular occurrence of acetaldehyde in cider was detected. To provide aquantitative risk assessment, two collectives of exclusive drinkers of cider and vodka were compared andthe intake of acetaldehyde was estimated using probabilistic MonteeCarlo type analysis. The ciderconsumers were found to ingest more than 200-times the amount of acetaldehyde consumed by vodkaconsumers. The margins of exposure (MOE) of acetaldehyde were 224 for the cider and over 220,000 forvodka consumers. However, if the effects of ethanol were considered in a cumulative assessment of thecombined MOE, the effect of acetaldehyde was minor and the combined MOE for both groups was 0.3.We suggest that alcohol policy priority should be given on reducing ethanol intake by measures such asminimum pricing, rather than to focus on acetaldehyde

Physical mapping of a large plant genome using global high-information-content-fingerprinting: the distal region of the wheat ancestor Aegilops tauschii chromosome 3DS

Extent: 10p.Background: Physical maps employing libraries of bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones are essential for comparative genomics and sequencing of large and repetitive genomes such as those of the hexaploid bread wheat. The diploid ancestor of the D-genome of hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum), Aegilops tauschii, is used as a resource for wheat genomics. The barley diploid genome also provides a good model for the Triticeae and T. aestivum since it is only slightly larger than the ancestor wheat D genome. Gene co-linearity between the grasses can be exploited by extrapolating from rice and Brachypodium distachyon to Ae. tauschii or barley, and then to wheat. Results: We report the use of Ae. tauschii for the construction of the physical map of a large distal region of chromosome arm 3DS. A physical map of 25.4 Mb was constructed by anchoring BAC clones of Ae. tauschii with 85 EST on the Ae. tauschii and barley genetic maps. The 24 contigs were aligned to the rice and B. distachyon genomic sequences and a high density SNP genetic map of barley. As expected, the mapped region is highly collinear to the orthologous chromosome 1 in rice, chromosome 2 in B. distachyon and chromosome 3H in barley. However, the chromosome scale of the comparative maps presented provides new insights into grass genome organization. The disruptions of the Ae. tauschii-rice and Ae. tauschii-Brachypodium syntenies were identical. We observed chromosomal rearrangements between Ae. tauschii and barley. The comparison of Ae. tauschii physical and genetic maps showed that the recombination rate across the region dropped from 2.19 cM/Mb in the distal region to 0.09 cM/Mb in the proximal region. The size of the gaps between contigs was evaluated by comparing the recombination rate along the map with the local recombination rates calculated on single contigs. Conclusions: The physical map reported here is the first physical map using fingerprinting of a complete Triticeae genome. This study demonstrates that global fingerprinting of the large plant genomes is a viable strategy for generating physical maps. Physical maps allow the description of the co-linearity between wheat and grass genomes and provide a powerful tool for positional cloning of new genes.Delphine Fleury, Ming-Cheng Luo, Jan Dvorak, Luke Ramsay, Bikram S Gill, Olin D Anderson, Frank M You, Zahra Shoaei, Karin R Deal and Peter Langridg

The enigma of 'harmful' alcohol consumption: evidence from a mixed methods study involving female drinkers in Scotland

Background/Aims: An appreciation of the drinking patterns of population subgroups may usefully inform tailored interventions. For this purpose research has highlighted a need to better describe the drinking behaviour of UK women. This study aims to characterise the purchasing and consumption behaviour of female heavy, harmed, drinkers in contact with Scottish health services in two cities and explore the factors that influence the link to harm.Methods: Mixed method study involving cross sectional survey questionnaires and one-to-one interviews (5). The questionnaires documented (i) demographic data (including derived deprivation score), last week’s (or ‘typical’ weekly) consumption (type, brand, volume, price, place of purchase), self-reported illnesses and (ii) Alcohol Related Problem Questionnaire score.Results: Median consumption was 157.6 UK units for the recorded week, with almost exclusive purchase from ‘off sale’ retail outlets. Preferred drinks were white cider, vodka and white wine. Increasing problems was positively associated with drinking more in the week, being younger, and belonging to Glasgow.Participants: 181 patients with serious health problems linked to alcohol, recruited within NHS hospital clinics (in- and out- patient settings), in two Scottish cities during 2012.Conclusion: For Scottish women the current definition of ‘harmful’ consumption likely captures a fourfold variation in alcohol intake, with gender differences less apparent. While current alcohol-related harm is positively associated with dose and being younger, there is clear evidence of an influence of the less tangible ‘Glasgow effect’. Future harm concerns are warranted by data relating to pattern, alcohol dose and cigarette use