Alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use amongst same-sex attracted women: results from the Western Australian Lesbian and Bisexual Women's Health and Well-Being Survey

Background: The prevalence of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use has been reported to be higheramongst lesbian and bisexual women (LBW) than their heterosexual counterparts. However, few studieshave been conducted with this population in Australia and rates that have been reported vary considerably.Methods: A self-completed questionnaire exploring a range of health issues was administered to 917women aged 15-65 years (median 34 years) living in Western Australia, who identified as lesbian orbisexual, or reported having sex with another woman. Participants were recruited from a range of settings,including Perth Pride Festival events (67.0%, n = 615), online (13.2%, n = 121), at gay bars and nightclubs(12.9%, n = 118), and through community groups (6.9%, n = 63). Results were compared against availablestate and national surveillance data.Results: LBW reported consuming alcohol more frequently and in greater quantities than women in thegeneral population. A quarter of LBW (25.7%, n = 236) exceeded national alcohol guidelines by consumingmore than four standard drinks on a single occasion, once a week or more. However, only 6.8% (n = 62)described themselves as a heavy drinker, suggesting that exceeding national alcohol guidelines may be anormalised behaviour amongst LBW. Of the 876 women who provided data on tobacco use, 28.1% (n =246) were smokers, nearly double the rate in the female population as a whole. One third of the sample(33.6%, n = 308) reported use of an illicit drug in the previous six months. The illicit drugs most commonlyreported were cannabis (26.4%, n = 242), meth/amphetamine (18.6%, n = 171), and ecstasy (17.9%, n =164). Injecting drug use was reported by 3.5% (n = 32) of participants.Conclusion: LBW appear to use alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs at higher rates than women generally,indicating that mainstream health promotion messages are not reaching this group or are not perceivedas relevant. There is an urgent need for public health practitioners working in the area of substance useto recognise that drug consumption and use patterns of LBW are likely to be different to the widerpopulation and that special considerations and strategies are required to address the unique and complexneeds of this population

Performance of the electromagnetic and hadronic prototype segments of the ALICE Forward Calorimeter

We present the performance of a full-length prototype of the ALICE Forward Calorimeter (FoCal). The detector is composed of a silicon-tungsten electromagnetic sampling calorimeter with longitudinal and transverse segmentation (FoCal-E) of about 20$X_0$ and a hadronic copper-scintillating-fiber calorimeter (FoCal-H) of about 5$\lambda_{\rm int}$. The data were taken between 2021 and 2023 at the CERN PS and SPS beam lines with hadron (electron) beams up to energies of 350 (300) GeV. Regarding FoCal-E, we report a comprehensive analysis of its response to minimum ionizing particles across all pad layers. The longitudinal shower profile of electromagnetic showers is measured with a layer-wise segmentation of 1$X_0$. As a projection to the performance of the final detector in electromagnetic showers, we demonstrate linearity in the full energy range, and show that the energy resolution fulfills the requirements for the physics needs. Additionally, the performance to separate two-showers events was studied by quantifying the transverse shower width. Regarding FoCal-H, we report a detailed analysis of the response to hadron beams between 60 and 350 GeV. The results are compared to simulations obtained with a Geant4 model of the test beam setup, which in particular for FoCal-E are in good agreement with the data. The energy resolution of FoCal-E was found to be lower than 3% at energies larger than 100 GeV. The response of FoCal-H to hadron beams was found to be linear, albeit with a significant intercept that is about factor 2 larger than in simulations. Its resolution, which is non-Gaussian and generally larger than in simulations, was quantified using the FWHM, and decreases from about 16% at 100 GeV to about 11% at 350 GeV. The discrepancy to simulations, which is particularly evident at low hadron energies, needs to be further investigated.Comment: 55 pages (without acronyms), 45 captioned figure

The Bergen proton CT system

The Bergen proton Computed Tomography (pCT) is a prototype detector under construction. It aims to have the capability to track and measure ions’ energy deposition to minimize uncertainty in proton treatment planning. It is a high granularity digital tracking calorimeter, where the first two layers will act as tracking layers to obtain positional information of the incoming particle. The remainder of the detector will act as a calorimeter. Beam tests have been performed with multiple beams. These tests have shown that the ALPIDE chip sensor can measure the deposited energy, making it possible for the sensors to distinguish between the tracks in the Digital Tracking Calorimeter (DTC)

Wissenskluft-Perspektive und Digital Divide in der Gesundheitskommunikation

Der Beitrag analysiert die Fragestellungen und Befunde der theoretischen Wissenskluft-Perspektive sowie des Konzepts der Digital Divide im Forschungsbereich der Gesundheitskommunikation

Differential trends in households' connection to the Internet: An actor-centered explanation

Lang V, Hillmert S. Differential trends in households' connection to the Internet: An actor-centered explanation. RATIONALITY AND SOCIETY. 2016;28(2):141-171.In this article, an actor-centered model of households' decision to obtain an Internet connection is set up to explain the diffusion of Internet technology. First, we derive a mechanism based on the demand and supply of online information, services, and goods which drives this diffusion. Afterwards, we link this mechanism to social inequalities with regard to digital technologies and deduce hypotheses regarding changes in the relevance of different socio-structural factors for adopting an Internet connection over the diffusion process. In our analyses, we address the following research questions: Which socio-structural differentiations persist over the diffusion process and why? How much of the inequality in the diffusion of Internet connections by socio-economic status can be explained by differences in information technology competencies and resource restrictions? We test our model with a discrete time transition rate analysis and Socio-Economic Panel data. Overall, our model rationalizes about 75% of the gross inequality by socio-economic status between households' choices to connect to the Internet. Regarding the persistence of social inequalities in adopting digital technologies, our study highlights the importance of structural opportunities to develop strategic information technology competencies during socialization. With respect to related indicators, our analyses show an about 13-fold increase in the influence of birth cohort differences on the adoption of Internet connections over the diffusion process. As a consequence, a central implication of our study is that we expect birth cohort differences in the diffusion of digital technologies not only to persist, but to increase

All Citizens are the Same, Aren’t They? – Developing an E-government User Typology

Part 6: Open GovernmentInternational audienceTaking a closer look at current research on e-government diffusion shows that most studies or conceptual works deal with citizens as one broad mass that is not further described or divided into smaller subgroups. Such efforts are mainly limited to the digital divide discourse and distinguish at most between haves and have-nots or younger and older parts of the population. Understanding why and how citizens use public online services also requires an understanding of how different segments of the population react to IT in general as well as to e-government in particular. To date, no meaningful attempts to develop such an e-government user typology have been undertaken. Therefore, the study at hand aims at developing a user typology for the e-government context. To this end, we chose an explorative design and conducted a qualitative interview study in Germany in 2016 with 18 respondents from all age groups. We qualitatively analyzed the sample regarding usage behavior, variety of use, and e-government specific uses and perceptions. Our research reveals six user types differing in quality and quantity of use with regard to internet-based technologies in general and e-government services in particular. Understanding how different populations perceive e-government and contextualizing their behavior can help explaining why some citizens are making advanced use of e-government while others widely ignore these services