Misuse of a morphine alternative (Diconal).

This article details the methods of misuse, effects and side effects and prescription issues relating to the morphine alternative, Diconal. From the summer of 1970 to December 1971 64 people (primarily males, with an average age of 21.4 years) presented for treatment for adverse effects from the use of Diconal. Adverse effects include infections, overdose, venous thromboses and abscesses. Initially Diconal abusers acquired the drug through burgling dispensaries, and later attended multiple doctors in order to receive a large number of prescriptions. Two doctors were charged with failing to comply with the Dangerous Drugs Act 1934. Few abusers were charged as they had acquired the drugs on prescription. In August 1971 the National Drugs Advisory Board wrote to GPs drawing their attention to the care required in prescribing Diconal, especially to young people. Following pressure and publicity the marketing of Diconal ceased as of November 30th, 1971

The poet as engineer of truth: Pierre Jean Jouve

non-peer-reviewedEntering into language, according to models of various provenance and vintage, is an entry into the world of disunity, of distance, of distress. Yahweh invented the curse of Babel to punish man’s pride – the bar of mutual incomprehension is the biblical answer to the mad notion of global intelligibility between human subjects. The history of the Bible itself, as a series of translation upon translation, points to the human drive to re-establish this intelligibility via the written text. It represents a myth of wholeness through language. In Lacan, developing Freud in the question of language, the entry of the child into the ordre symbolique initiates the demise of a subjective personal unity and with it the intelligibility to the subject of the ‘self’. Language in these and other versions is a necessary, tragic alienation for those who would live socially. As lived experience this alienation has classically been expressed as a descent from some, other, Reality: Le poète est semblable au prince des nuées Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l’archer; Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées, Ses ailes de géant l’empêchent de marcher. (L’Albatros)PUBLISHEDNot peer reviewe

Personal and social correlates of types of drug abuse in Dublin.

Significant differences were found between opioid takers and non-takers among referrals to Jervis Street Drug Advisory and Treatment Centre, Dublin, for the following variables: Sex, Age, Employment Status, Prior Court Appearance, Solitary drug taking. First drug taken abroad. Injection history. Physical complications associated with drug taking, and Maternal psychiatric status (for referrals aged under 21). Further analysis indicated 6 types of abuse associated with particular personal and social circumstances: (1) Minor tranquillisers, (2) Barbiturates only or with minor tranquillisers, (3) Opioids only or mainly, (4) Cannabis and/or L.S.D. only, (5) Poly-abuse excluding opioids, and (6) Poly-abuse including opioids.In broad social terms, these 6 groups may be seen as representing psychiatric or personal inadequacy-groups (1), (2) and (3), subcultural deviance-(5) and (6), and subcultural hedonism in the context of poor family relationships-(4). Groups most at risk were considered to be in the following order-(2), (3), (6),(1). Finally, cluster analyses, using unweighted and weighted variables, were employed to test the significance of distinctions based on types (3), (4), (5) and (6). In general, similar groups were obtained

On the statistical machinery of alien species

Many species of plants are found in regions to which they are alien and their global distribution has been found to exhibit several remarkable patterns,characterised by exponential functions of the kind that could arise through versions of MacArthur's broken stick. We show here that these various patterns are all quantitatively reproduced by a simple algorithm, in terms of a single parameter- a single stick to be broken. This algorithm admits a biological interpretation in terms of niche structures fluctuating with time and productivity; with sites and species highly idiosyncratic. Technically, this is an application of statistical mechanics to ecology quite different from the familiar application to species abundance distributions.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures. Follows and strengthens arXiv:1004.2271 . Version 2 has 16 pages and 3 figures. It differs from the original version in a revised and extended discussion of the biological aspects and a small change in a parameter to improve agreement with dat

Marine reserves and optimal dynamic harvesting when fishing damages habitat

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Kelly, M. R., Jr., Neubert, M. G., & Lenhart, S. Marine reserves and optimal dynamic harvesting when fishing damages habitat. Theoretical Ecology, 12(2), (2019): 131-144, doi:10.1007/s12080-018-0399-7.Marine fisheries are a significant source of protein for many human populations. In some locations, however, destructive fishing practices have negatively impacted the quality of fish habitat and reduced the habitat’s ability to sustain fish stocks. Improving the management of stocks that can be potentially damaged by harvesting requires improved understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of the stocks, their habitats, and the behavior of the harvesters. We develop a mathematical model for both a fish stock as well as its habitat quality. Both are modeled using nonlinear, parabolic partial differential equations, and density dependence in the growth rate of the fish stock depends upon habitat quality. The objective is to find the dynamic distribution of harvest effort that maximizes the discounted net present value of the coupled fishery-habitat system. The value derives both from extraction (and sale) of the stock and the provisioning of ecosystem services by the habitat. Optimal harvesting strategies are found numerically. The results suggest that no-take marine reserves can be an important part of the optimal strategy and that their spatiotemporal configuration depends both on the vulnerability of habitat to fishing damage and on the timescale of habitat recovery when fishing ceases.This manuscript is based upon the work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DEB-1558904 (to MGN) and also supported by the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, an Institute supported by the National Science Foundation through NSF Award #DBI-1300426, with additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Irish drug abusers II: their psychological characteristics.

This is the second in a series of 3 articles based on a study of a cohort of Irish drug abusers. This article attempts to identify the psychological traits of drug abusers within the cohort. The cohort consists of 100 drug abusers who attend a drug advisory and treatment centre in Dublin for the first time between November 1977 and February 1979. Three psychosocial, scales (GEFT, NSQ, and PFS) were administered to each subject. Overall, the results indicate that subjects who participated in the study, while of average or above average intelligence, were poorly psychologically adjusted, characterised by a poor sense of identity, a high level of suggestibility and a tendency towards emotional dependence. Their overall level of intelligence was within or above the normal range