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

Large deviations for a damped telegraph process

In this paper we consider a slight generalization of the damped telegraph process in Di Crescenzo and Martinucci (2010). We prove a large deviation principle for this process and an asymptotic result for its level crossing probabilities (as the level goes to infinity). Finally we compare our results with the analogous well-known results for the standard telegraph process

Climate Change, One Health and Mercury

Climate change is occurring on both regional and global scales. The use and global distribution of toxic metals is increasing and affecting environmental, animal and human health as a result of air, water and food contamination. Mercury (Hg) in major forms Hg°, Hg2+ and methyl mercury (CH3Hg+) are increasingly available around the globe. Both metal and organic contaminants are impacting the health of all species on the planet. Mercury is an example of a metal that can cause or aggravate a disease state, for example, diabetes. Habitat stewardship is needed to maintain a healthy system, and selecting a keystone species as a bio indicator to monitor changes in contaminant levels over time and space is essential. Mercury can be used to monitor the flow of toxics through the food system. The structural organization of food webs and their sensitivity to disturbances are relevant to predicting the fate of Hg bioavailability related to climate change. Hg needs to be monitored across many ecosystems because it impacts not only human health but also the health of the plants and animals. Monitoring studies are needed to identify changes related to climate change. Increased precipitation and sea level rise will result in greater mercury mobility into the coastal and terrestrial food webs

The visual nonverbal memory trace is fragile when actively maintained, but endures passively for tens of seconds

Despite attempts at active maintenance in the focus of attention, the fragile nature of the visual nonverbal memory trace may be revealed when the retention interval between target memoranda and probed recall on a trial is extended. In contrast, a passively maintained or unattended visual memory trace may be revealed as persisting proactive interference extending across quite extended intervals between trials in a recent probes task. The present study, comprising five experiments, used this task to explore the persistence of such a passive visual memory trace over time. Participants viewed some target visual items (for example, abstract colored patterns) followed by a variable retention interval and a probe item. The task was to report whether the probe matched one of the targets or not. A decaying active memory trace was indicated by poorer performance as the memory retention interval was extended on a trial. However, when the probe was a member of the target set from the preceding trial, task performance was poorer than a comparison novel probe, demonstrating proactive interference. Manipulations of the intertrial interval revealed that the temporal persistence of the passive memory trace of an old target was impressive, and proactive interference was largely resilient to a simple ‘cued forgetting’ manipulation. These data support the proposed two-process memory conception (active–passive memory) contrasting fragile active memory traces decaying over a few seconds with robust passive traces extending to tens of seconds

Ultrahigh magnetic field spectroscopy reveals the band structure of the 3D topological insulator Bi2_2Se3_3

We have investigated the band structure at the $\Gamma$ point of the three-dimensional (3D) topological insulator Bi$_2$Se$_3$ using magneto-spectroscopy over a wide range of energies ($0.55-2.2$\,eV) and in ultrahigh magnetic fields up to 150\,T. At such high energies ($E>0.6$\,eV) the parabolic approximation for the massive Dirac fermions breaks down and the Landau level dispersion becomes nonlinear. At even higher energies around 0.99 and 1.6 eV, new additional strong absorptions are observed with a temperature and magnetic-field dependence which suggest that they originate from higher band gaps. Spin orbit splittings for the further lying conduction and valence bands are found to be 0.196 and 0.264 eV

Structure and elastic properties of Mg(OH)2_2 from density functional theory

The structure, lattice dynamics and mechanical properties of the magnesium hydroxide have been investigated with static density functional theory calculations as well as \it {ab initio} molecular dynamics. The hypothesis of a superstructure existing in the lattice formed by the hydrogen atoms has been tested. The elastic constants of the material have been calculated with static deformations approach and are in fair agreement with the experimental data. The hydrogen subsystem structure exhibits signs of disordered behaviour while maintaining correlations between angular positions of neighbouring atoms. We establish that the essential angular correlations between hydrogen positions are maintained to the temperature of at least 150 K and show that they are well described by a physically motivated probabilistic model. The rotational degree of freedom appears to be decoupled from the lattice directions above 30K

Electronic theory for the normal state spin dynamics in Sr2_2RuO4_4: anisotropy due to spin-orbit coupling

Using a three-band Hubbard Hamiltonian we calculate within the random-phase-approximation the spin susceptibility, $\chi({\bf q},\omega)$, and NMR spin-lattice relaxation rate, 1/T$_1$, in the normal state of the triplet superconductor Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ and obtain quantitative agreement with experimental data. Most importantly, we find that due to spin-orbit coupling the out-of-plane component of the spin susceptibility $\chi^{zz}$ becomes at low temperatures two times larger than the in-plane one. As a consequence strong incommensurate antiferromagnetic fluctuations of the quasi-one-dimensional $xz$- and $yz$-bands point into the $z$-direction. Our results provide further evidence for the importance of spin fluctuations for triplet superconductivity in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$.Comment: revised versio

An Accurate Determination of the Exchange Constant in Sr_2CuO_3 from Recent Theoretical Results

Data from susceptibility measurements on Sr_2CuO_3 are compared with recent theoretical predictions for the magnetic susceptibility of the antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain. The experimental data fully confirms the theoretical predictions and in turn we establish that Sr_2CuO_3 behaves almost perfectly like a one-dimensional antiferromagnet with an exchange coupling of J = 1700^{+150}_{-100}K.Comment: revised and reformatted paper with new title to appear in Phys. Rev B (Feb.1996). 3 pages (revtex) with 3 embedded figures (macro included). A complete postscript file is available from http://fy.chalmers.se/~eggert/expsusc.ps or by request from [email protected]

Now the wars are over: The past, present and future of Scottish battlefields

Battlefield archaeology has provided a new way of appreciating historic battlefields. This paper provides a summary of the long history of warfare and conflict in Scotland which has given rise to a large number of battlefield sites. Recent moves to highlight the archaeological importance of these sites, in the form of Historic Scotland’s Battlefields Inventory are discussed, along with some of the problems associated with the preservation and management of these important cultural sites