Guarding the Tongue: A thematic analysis of gossip control strategies among orthodox Jewish women

This article describes the views and experiences of Strictly-Orthodox Jewish women with respect to the metapragmatic ethos of Shmiras HaLoshon (monitoring one's talk, literally 'guarding the tongue'). Eight extended interviews were conducted with Strictly-Orthodox women and teenagers in London, and salient themes were identified, namely: A. Loshon Hora ('evil talk') is the prime exemplar of bad talk. B. Loshon Hora is the hardest (one of the hardest) things to avoid, because it is so easy to do. C. The perceived consequences of Loshon Hora are very serious D. Great caution/various strategies are employed in order to not speak Loshon Hora E. Perceived gender differences exist in proneness to speak Loshon Hora. F. One is reponsible for monitoring others. G. Young children can be(come) aware of the issues. Subjects appeared to take this aspect of religious observance very seriously, and were taking active steps to promote observance. Social desirability bias may be an inappropriate concept for explaining our participants' behaviour. It is also suggested that the perceived importance of Shmiras HaLoshon may be important in helping to maintain community cohesion and preventing conflicts, by improving respect for privacy and reputation in a community where gossip is attractive but divisive

Drowning your sorrows? Attitudes towards alcohol in UK Jews and Protestants: a thematic analysis

Jewish culturally-supported beliefs may discourage drinking and drunkenness as ways of socialising and coping with stress. Thus Jewish men under stress may be relatively more likely to become depressed, and less likely to use and abuse alcohol. This study is the first qualitative comparison of Jews and Protestants, men and women. It examines whether alcohol-related beliefs are consistent with the alcohol-depression hypothesis, i.e. that positive beliefs about alcohol use and effects are associated with high alcohol use and low depression. Material and discussion: A thematic (interpretive phenomenological) analysis on open-ended question responses, from 70 Jews and 91 Protestants, and on semi-structured interviews with 5 Jews and 4 Protestants, identified three salient themes: the importance of retaining self-control, the pleasures of losing inhibitions, and the relations of alcohol-related behaviour to identity. Compared to Protestants, Jews described alcohol-related behaviour as threatening to self-control, loss of inhibition as unenjoyable and dangerous, and distinguished between the kinds of drinking behaviours appropriate for Jews and others. Sub-themes for Protestant men were denial that drinking threatens self-control, and appropriateness of going to the pub. Conclusions: The themes identified are not measurable using published research instruments. Alcohol-related behaviour may be a feature of Jewish identity. The beliefs identified are consistent with the alcohol-depression hypothesis

Anti-self-dual Riemannian metrics without Killing vectors, can they be realized on K3?

Explicit Riemannian metrics with Euclidean signature and anti-self dual curvature that do not admit any Killing vectors are presented. The metric and the Riemann curvature scalars are homogenous functions of degree zero in a single real potential and its derivatives. The solution for the potential is a sum of exponential functions which suggests that for the choice of a suitable domain of coordinates and parameters it can be the metric on a compact manifold. Then, by the theorem of Hitchin, it could be a class of metrics on $K3$, or on surfaces whose universal covering is $K3$.Comment: Misprints in eqs.(9-11) corrected. Submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit

Topos theory and `neo-realist' quantum theory

Topos theory, a branch of category theory, has been proposed as mathematical basis for the formulation of physical theories. In this article, we give a brief introduction to this approach, emphasising the logical aspects. Each topos serves as a `mathematical universe' with an internal logic, which is used to assign truth-values to all propositions about a physical system. We show in detail how this works for (algebraic) quantum theory.Comment: 22 pages, no figures; contribution for Proceedings of workshop "Recent Developments in Quantum Field Theory", MPI MIS Leipzig, July 200

Partner symmetries of the complex Monge-Ampere equation yield hyper-Kahler metrics without continuous symmetries

We extend the Mason-Newman Lax pair for the elliptic complex Monge-Amp\`ere equation so that this equation itself emerges as an algebraic consequence. We regard the function in the extended Lax equations as a complex potential. We identify the real and imaginary parts of the potential, which we call partner symmetries, with the translational and dilatational symmetry characteristics respectively. Then we choose the dilatational symmetry characteristic as the new unknown replacing the K\"ahler potential which directly leads to a Legendre transformation and to a set of linear equations satisfied by a single real potential. This enables us to construct non-invariant solutions of the Legendre transform of the complex Monge-Amp\`ere equation and obtain hyper-K\"ahler metrics with anti-self-dual Riemann curvature 2-form that admit no Killing vectors.Comment: submitted to J. Phys.

Childhood Physical Neglect Is Associated With Exaggerated Systemic and Intracellular Inflammatory Responses to Repeated Psychosocial Stress in Adulthood

Experiences of child maltreatment are associated with a host of adverse mental and physical health outcomes in adulthood. Altered reactivity to psychosocial stress exposure may partially explain known associations between early experiences of maltreatment and later life health. The present study focuses on examining whether experiences of child maltreatment are associated with physiological reactions to initial and repeated psychosocial stress in adulthood. To this end, 44 healthy adults (52% male, aged 18–65) completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire to provide information about exposure to child maltreatment and completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) on 2 consecutive days. Peripheral blood was collected prior to as well as 30 and 120 min following the TSST on each day. Plasma Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and gene expression of IL-6, IL-1β, nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB), and inhibitor of kB (IkB) were measured from each blood sample. Total CTQ scores were unrelated to plasma IL-6 and gene expression (ps > .10) but a history of childhood physical neglect was associated with increased interleukin-1β (β =.35; p =.02; R2 =.19) and nuclear factor-kB (β =.30; p =.046; R2 =.13) expression following initial stress. Following repeated exposure to the TSST, childhood physical neglect was associated with increased plasma IL-6 reactivity (β =.34; p =.02; R2 =.16) and increased expression of nuclear factor-kB (β =.31; p =.04; R2 =.08). Finally, childhood physical neglect was associated with decreased habituation following repeated exposure to the TSST. Other CTQ subscales were not related to plasma IL-6 and gene expression when considered individually. Results from this study are suggestive of a unique effect of childhood physical neglect on the physiological stress response following initial and repeated exposure to a common psychosocial stressor. This provides important directions for future research because the effect of childhood physical neglect on long-term neglect are not well understood and in need of further investigation

Ethnic-minority groups in England and Wales-factors associated with the size and timing of elevated COVID-19 mortality: a retrospective cohort study linking census and death records

BACKGROUND: We estimated population-level associations between ethnicity and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality using a newly linked census-based data set and investigated how ethnicity-specific mortality risk evolved during the pandemic. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of respondents to the 2011 Census of England and Wales in private households, linked to death registrations and adjusted for emigration (n = 47 872 412). The outcome of interest was death involving COVID-19 between 2 March 2020 and 15 May 2020. We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for ethnic-minority groups compared with the White population, controlling for individual, household and area characteristics. HRs were estimated on the full outcome period and separately for pre- and post-lockdown periods. RESULTS: In age-adjusted models, people from all ethnic-minority groups were at elevated risk of COVID-19 mortality; the HRs for Black males and females were 3.13 (95% confidence interval: 2.93 to 3.34) and 2.40 (2.20 to 2.61), respectively. However, in fully adjusted models for females, the HRs were close to unity for all ethnic groups except Black [1.29 (1.18 to 1.42)]. For males, the mortality risk remained elevated for the Black [1.76 (1.63 to 1.90)], Bangladeshi/Pakistani [1.35 (1.21 to 1.49)] and Indian [1.30 (1.19 to 1.43)] groups. The HRs decreased after lockdown for all ethnic groups, particularly Black and Bangladeshi/Pakistani females. CONCLUSION: Differences in COVID-19 mortality between ethnic groups were largely attenuated by geographical and socio-demographic factors, though some residual differences remained. Lockdown was associated with reductions in excess mortality risk in ethnic-minority populations, which has implications for a second wave of infection

Increased insolation threshold for runaway greenhouse processes on Earth like planets

Because the solar luminosity increases over geological timescales, Earth climate is expected to warm, increasing water evaporation which, in turn, enhances the atmospheric greenhouse effect. Above a certain critical insolation, this destabilizing greenhouse feedback can "runaway" until all the oceans are evaporated. Through increases in stratospheric humidity, warming may also cause oceans to escape to space before the runaway greenhouse occurs. The critical insolation thresholds for these processes, however, remain uncertain because they have so far been evaluated with unidimensional models that cannot account for the dynamical and cloud feedback effects that are key stabilizing features of Earth's climate. Here we use a 3D global climate model to show that the threshold for the runaway greenhouse is about 375 W/m$^2$, significantly higher than previously thought. Our model is specifically developed to quantify the climate response of Earth-like planets to increased insolation in hot and extremely moist atmospheres. In contrast with previous studies, we find that clouds have a destabilizing feedback on the long term warming. However, subsident, unsaturated regions created by the Hadley circulation have a stabilizing effect that is strong enough to defer the runaway greenhouse limit to higher insolation than inferred from 1D models. Furthermore, because of wavelength-dependent radiative effects, the stratosphere remains cold and dry enough to hamper atmospheric water escape, even at large fluxes. This has strong implications for Venus early water history and extends the size of the habitable zone around other stars.Comment: Published in Nature. Online publication date: December 12, 2013. Accepted version before journal editing and with Supplementary Informatio

Gender and depression in Anglo-Jewry

This study found similar prevalence of case depression among men as among women in a sample of 339 Jews affiliated to orthodox synagogues (157 men and 182 women). There were significant gender differences in several social-situational factors and symptoms, mostly in the direction that would suggest that case depression would be higher among women than among men. That this was not so is suggested to be the result of the cultural milieu: social factors that have been found to be associated with depression in other groups of people did not function as risk or vulnerability factors among the Jews studied. In particular, the evidence indicates the importance of specific cultural-religious values in contributing towards the prevalences that were observed. These values included the esteem attached to women's central role in family management, and the low use of alcohol and suicide as escape routes from depression

The social circumstances of anxiety and its symptoms among Anglo-Jews

In this community study of orthodox-affiliated Jews in London the social circumstances of anxiety were examined. By contrast with previous work on women in London, danger and early adversity bore only a weak relationship with anxiety in this sample. Eventfulness had the strongest relationship with anxiety of all the circumstances examined. Women were more likely to suffer from borderline anxiety than were men, but there were no gender differences in case anxiety. Women had more eventful lives than men but this could not solely account for gender differences in anxiety. Findings suggest the importance of cultural factors in aetiology