Alcohol involvement in aggression between intimate partners in New Zealand: a national cross-sectional study

Objectives: To examine the role of alcohol at the time of aggressive incidents between intimate partners in the general population by gender, by estimating (1) prevalence and severity of aggression, and drinking at the time, (2) associations of drinking at the time of the aggression with reported severity, anger and fear, and (3) association of usual drinking patterns with partner aggression. Design: A national survey of 18-70-year-olds using an electoral roll sample obtained self-reported alcohol consumption, partner’s alcohol consumption and details of the most severe partner aggression by the respondent and towards the respondent in the past 2 years. The mean scores for associated severity, anger and fear were analysed by gender and alcohol involvement. Multinomial models estimated associations of drinking patterns with aggression to and from the respondent. Results: The response rate was 49% (n=1925). Men and women reported similar prevalence of victimisation and perpetration of aggression (11-15%). Alcohol was involved in more than 25% of incidents, and reported more by women than by men, particularly male-only drinking when the respondent was the victim. Women reported greater severity, anger and fear with victimisation than men, and drinking was associated with greater reported severity. Heavy episodic drinking by respondents was associated with a threefold increase in victimisation and doubling of perpetration of aggression involving alcohol. Heavy episodic drinking by either partner was also associated with drinking being involved in reported aggression. Conclusions: The experience of intimate-partner aggression in a cross-section of households differs by gender and the involvement of alcohol, and ‘counts’ of aggressive acts in a population-based survey do not reflect the reality of gender differences. Heavy episodic drinking patterns are associated with more aggression involving alcohol within relationships, and alcohol involvement is associated with increased severity

Assessing the Influence of Living and Working Conditions on Alcohol Consumption in Migrant Farmworkers in Mexico

Background and Purpose: Inadequate working and living conditions are associated with alcohol consumption in farmworkers in the U.S. However, the influence of these factors on alcohol consumption patterns in migrant farmworkers in Mexico remains unclear. The purpose of this analysis was to assess the influence of housing and working conditions on alcohol use in migrant farmworkers in Mexico. Methods: We used logistic and ordinal logistic regression to examine the association of living and working conditions on alcohol consumption and frequency in 3,132 farmworkers in Mexico with data from a Mexican national farmworker’s survey. Results: Living in inadequately built homes (OR=0.84; 95% CI=0.72, 0.98; p<0.05) and limited access to luxury items (OR=0.69; 95% CI=0.52, 0.94; p<0.01), were associated with a decreased likelihood to consume alcohol compared to living in better conditions. In contrast, living in employer provided housing (OR=1.79; 95% CI=1.40, 2.31; p<0.0001) and experiencing hazards related to safety (OR= 1.69; 95% CI= 1.35, 2.12; p<0.0001), work organization (OR= 1.29; CI= 1.03, 1.63; p<0.05), and ergonomics (OR= 2.04; CI= 1.18, 3.52; p<0.05) increased the likelihood of consuming alcohol. Conclusion: Living and working conditions of farmworkers may affect alcohol consumption. However, these findings require replication and specific mechanisms, which may influence these results warrants investigation

Resistant starch consumption promotes lipid oxidation

BACKGROUND: Although the effects of resistant starch (RS) on postprandial glycemia and insulinemia have been extensively studied, little is known about the impact of RS on fat metabolism. This study examines the relationship between the RS content of a meal and postprandial/post-absorbative fat oxidation. RESULTS: 12 subjects consumed meals containing 0%, 2.7%, 5.4%, and 10.7% RS (as a percentage of total carbohydrate). Blood samples were taken and analyzed for glucose, insulin, triacylglycerol (TAG) and free fatty acid (FFA) concentrations. Respiratory quotient was measured hourly. The 0%, 5.4%, and 10.7% meals contained 50 μCi [1-(14)C]-triolein with breath samples collected hourly following the meal, and gluteal fat biopsies obtained at 0 and 24 h. RS, regardless of dose, had no effect on fasting or postprandial insulin, glucose, FFA or TAG concentration, nor on meal fat storage. However, data from indirect calorimetry and oxidation of [1-(14)C]-triolein to (14)CO(2 )showed that addition of 5.4% RS to the diet significantly increased fat oxidation. In fact, postprandial oxidation of [1-(14)C]-triolein was 23% greater with the 5.4% RS meal than the 0% meal (p = 0.0062). CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that replacement of 5.4% of total dietary carbohydrate with RS significantly increased post-prandial lipid oxidation and therefore could decrease fat accumulation in the long-term

Evaluation of a Web-Based Cognitive Rehabilitation Program in Cancer Survivors Reporting Cognitive Symptoms After Chemotherapy

Purpose: Cognitive impairment is reported frequently by cancer survivors. There are no proven treatments. We evaluated a cognitive rehabilitation program (Insight) and compared it with standard care in cancer survivors self-reporting cognitive symptoms. Patients and Methods: We recruited adult cancer survivors with a primary malignancy (excluding central nervous system malignancies) who had completed three or more cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy in the previous 6 to 60 months and reported persistent cognitive symptoms. All participants received a 30-minute telephone consultation and were then randomly assigned to the 15-week, home-based intervention or to standard care. Primary outcome was self-reported cognitive function (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Cognitive Function [FACT-COG] perceived cognitive impairment [PCI] subscale): difference between groups after intervention (T2) and 6 months later (T3). Results: A total of 242 participants were randomly assigned: median age, 53 years; 95% female. The primary outcome of difference in FACT-COG PCI was significant, with less PCI in the intervention group at T2 (P < .001). This difference was sustained at T3 (P < .001). At T2, there was a significant difference in all FACT-COG subscales, favoring the intervention. Neuropsychological results were not significantly different between the groups at T2 or T3. There were significantly lower levels of anxiety/depression and fatigue in the intervention group at T2. There were significant improvements in stress in the intervention group at both time points. There was no significant difference in quality of life between the groups at T2, but the intervention group had better quality of life at T3. Conclusion: The intervention, Insight, led to improvements in cognitive symptoms compared with standard care. To our knowledge, this is the first large randomized controlled trial showing an improvement in self-reported cognitive function in cancer survivors, indicating that this intervention is a feasible treatment.Supported by the Cancer Council New South Wales, Friends of the Mater Foundation, a Cancer Institute New South Wales Clinical Fellowship (V.J.B.), a Clinical Oncology Society of Australia/Roche Hematology Oncology Targeted Therapies Fellowship (V.J.B.), a Pfizer Cancer Research Grant (V.J.B.), and by the National Breast Cancer Foundation (J.L.V.)

Modelling semantic transparency

We present models of semantic transparency in which the perceived trans- parency of English noun–noun compounds, and of their constituent words, is pre- dicted on the basis of the expectedness of their semantic structure. We show that such compounds are perceived as more transparent when the first noun is more frequent, hence more expected, in the language generally; when the compound semantic rela- tion is more frequent, hence more expected, in association with the first noun; and when the second noun is more productive, hence more expected, as the second ele- ment of a noun–noun compound. Taken together, our models of compound and con- stituent transparency lead us to two conclusions. Firstly, although compound trans- parency is a function of the transparencies of the constituents, the two constituents differ in the nature of their contribution. Secondly, since all the significant predictors in our models of compound transparency are also known predictors of processing speed, perceived transparency may itself be a reflex of ease of processing

Consumption patterns of sweet drinks in a population of Australian children and adolescents (2003–2008)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Intake of sweet drinks has previously been associated with the development of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents. The present study aimed to assess the consumption pattern of sweet drinks in a population of children and adolescents in Victoria, Australia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data on 1,604 children and adolescents (4–18 years) from the comparison groups of two quasi-experimental intervention studies from Victoria, Australia were analysed<it>.</it> Sweet drink consumption (soft drink and fruit juice/cordial) was assessed as one day’s intake and typical intake over the last week or month at two time points between 2003 and 2008 (mean time between measurement: 2.2 years).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Assessed using dietary recalls, more than 70% of the children and adolescents consumed sweet drinks, with no difference between age groups (p = 0.28). The median intake among consumers was 500 ml and almost a third consumed more than 750 ml per day. More children and adolescents consumed fruit juice/cordial (69%) than soft drink (33%) (p < 0.0001) and in larger volumes (median intake fruit juice/cordial: 500 ml and soft drink: 375 ml). Secular changes in sweet drink consumption were observed with a lower proportion of children and adolescents consuming sweet drinks at time 2 compared to time 1 (significant for age group 8 to <10 years, p = 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The proportion of Australian children and adolescents from the state of Victoria consuming sweet drinks has been stable or decreasing, although a high proportion of this sample consumed sweet drinks, especially fruit juice/cordial at both time points.</p

Cobalt and zinc halide complexes of 4-chloro and 4-methylaniline : syntheses, structures and magnetic behavior

Please read abstract in the article.The Carlson School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Clark University and the Department of Chemistry, Brandeis University. F. X. would like to acknowledge the funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skodowska-Curie grant agreement No 701647.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/poly2020-08-01hj2019Chemistr

The Optimal Study: Describing the Key Components of Optimal Health Care Delivery to UK Care Home Residents: A Research Protocol

Long-term institutional care in the United Kingdom is provided by care homes. Residents have prevalent cognitive impairment and disability, have multiple diagnoses, and are subject to polypharmacy. Prevailing models of health care provision (ad hoc, reactive, and coordinated by general practitioners) result in unacceptable variability of care. A number of innovative responses to improve health care for care homes have been commissioned. The organization of health and social care in the United Kingdom is such that it is unlikely that a single solution to the problem of providing quality health care for care homes will be identified that can be used nationwide. Realist evaluation is a methodology that uses both qualitative and quantitative data to establish an in-depth understanding of what works, for whom, and in what settings. In this article we describe a protocol for using realist evaluation to understand the context, mechanisms, and outcomes that shape effective health care delivery to care home residents in the United Kingdom. By describing this novel approach, we hope to inform international discourse about research methodologies in long-term care settings internationally

High-resolution observations of low-luminosity gigahertz-peaked spectrum and compact steep-spectrum sources

© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. We present very long baseline interferometry observations of a faint and low-luminosity (L 1.4 GHz < 10 27 W Hz -1 ) gigahertz-peaked spectrum (GPS) and compact steep-spectrum (CSS) sample. We select eight sources from deep radio observations that have radio spectra characteristic of a GPS or CSS source and an angular size of Φ <~ 2 arcsec, and detect six of them with the Australian Long Baseline Array. We determine their linear sizes, and model their radio spectra using synchrotron self-absorption (SSA) and free-free absorption (FFA) models. We derive statistical model ages, based on a fitted scaling relation, and spectral ages, based on the radio spectrum, which are generally consistent with the hypothesis that GPS and CSS sources are young and evolving. We resolve the morphology of one CSS source with a radio luminosity of 10 2 5WHz -1 , and find what appear to be two hotspots spanning 1.7 kpc. We find that our sources follow the turnover-linear size relation, and that both homogeneous SSA and an inhomogeneous FFA model can account for the spectra with observable turnovers. All but one of the FFA models do not require a spectral break to account for the radio spectrum, while all but one of the alternative SSA and power-law models do require a spectral break to account for the radio spectrum. We conclude that our low-luminosity sample is similar to brighter samples in terms of their spectral shape, turnover frequencies, linear sizes, and ages, but cannot test for a difference in morphology