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Microwave heating was found to have a beneficial effect on the enzymatic esterification of lactic acid (LA) with ethanol in Cyphos 202 ionic liquid (IL) medium. Microwave irradiation caused hydrolysis of lactoyllactic acid (the linear dimer of LA) during the reaction, thus, as a result, more lactic acid was available as substrate and a higher ester yield was achieved in the esterification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the results for voltage–current (V–i) characteristics of dc low-pressure low to moderate current discharges in vapors of alcohols: methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, and n-butanol vapors. These electrical measurements are supported by optical recordings of axial emission profiles from low-current to high-current regimes. The voltage–current characteristics and the corresponding distribution of emission intensities were typically recorded for two pd values, in the left-hand branch of the Paschen curve (0.15 Torr cm) and in the minimum of the Paschen curves (ranging from 0.30 to 0.40 Torr cm for different alcohols selected here). In the recorded V–i characteristics, the different discharge regimes of discharge operation are easily distinguished. Axial profiles of emitted light from the low-current to high-current regimes reveal that heavy particles make up a significant contribution to excitation part in alcohol vapor discharges. In the region of transition from normal to abnormal glow in the methanol vapor discharge, sudden changes of the regime of operation were observed and several diagnostic techniques have been applied to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Malignant melanoma is an aggressive cancer of the skin and the leading cause of death from skin cancer. One major risk factor linked to melanoma development is exposure to UV radiation. However, the sharp increase in melanoma cases cannot be explained only by more UV exposure. Identifying additional modifiable social-environmental risk factors for melanoma beyond UV exposure would greatly impact public health initiatives and the methods of patient outreach and education. Recent studies have shown the link between melanoma and alcohol consumption. This perspective review paper aims to understand the mechanisms underlying ethanol's ability to induce human cancers, including melanoma. Although cancer mortality has declined among the general population, the incidence of melanoma continues to rise. While identifying high-risk cohorts with genetic risk factors improves public health initiatives and clinical care management, recognizing modifiable risk factors such as social-environmental risk factors would also affect the methods of patient outreach and education. One major modifiable social-environmental risk factor associated with melanoma is ultraviolet (UV) radiation. However, not all forms of melanoma are correlated with sun exposure or occur in sun-exposed areas. Additionally, UV exposure is rarely associated with tumor progression. Another social-environmental factor, pregnancy, does not explain the sharply increased incidence of melanoma. Recent studies have demonstrated that alcohol consumption is positively linked with an increased risk of cancers, including melanoma. This perspective review paper summarizes epidemiological data correlating melanoma incidence with alcohol consumption, describes the biochemical mechanisms of ethanol metabolism, and discusses how ethanol and ethanol metabolites contribute to human cancer, including melanoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alcohol consumption during pregnancy, even at low doses, may damage the fetus. Pregnant women tend to underreport their alcohol consumption generating the need for sensitive and specific biomarkers, among which PEth has emerged due to its high specificity and possibility to be measured in both maternal and neonatal blood. The aim of this study is to systematically review the latest 20 years of literature for depicting the state of the art, the limitations, and the prospects of PEth for estimating alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Materials and methods: A systematic search, adhering to PRISMA guidelines, of the latest 20 years of literature through "MeSH" and "free-text" protocols in the databases PubMed, SCOPUS, and Web of Science, with time limits 1 January 2002–1 March 2022, was performed. The inclusion criteria were as follows: PEth used for detecting alcohol consumption during pregnancy, quantified in blood through liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, and full texts in the English language. Opinion papers, editorials, and narrative reviews were excluded. Results: Sixteen (16) papers were included in the present review (0.81% of total retrieved records). All the included records were original articles, of which there were seven prospective cohort/longitudinal studies, six cross-sectional studies, two observational-descriptive studies, and one retrospective study. All studies assayed PEth in at least one biological matrix; seven (7) studies quantified PEth in maternal blood, seven studies in newborn blood, and only two studies in both maternal and neonatal blood. In several included papers, PEth proved more sensitive than self-reports for identifying pregnant women with an active alcohol intake with the diagnostic efficiency improving with the increase of the maternal alcohol intake. Conclusions: Further studies, performed on wider and well-stratified populations, are needed to drive any definitive conclusion. PEth is a promising marker for monitoring alcohol use in pregnancy; however, at the present time, its use is still limited mainly by the absence of a globally agreed interpretative cut-off, the paucity of data regarding its specificity/sensitivity, and the lack of standardization on the diagnostic efficiency of the different isoforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption are widespread practices that are legal and socially accepted in many societies. One of the common tools to reduce the consumption of these legal drugs is increasing prices. The prices for customers include taxes (value added tax and excise tax). Hundreds of studies from around the world are interested in the impact of taxes and prices on the demand for tobacco products. This topic is also relevant for governments of all countries trying to regulate consumption. AIM: The aim of the paper is to describe the amount of excise tax on legal drugs (alcohol, cigarettes) and compare their consumption in Europe and the countries of the European Union. METHODS: The sources of data for this research were publicly available from the World Health Organization (WHO), Global Information System on Alcohol and Health (GISAH), Tax Foundation, and Eurostat. In the paper selected scientific methods are used (analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction). For the literature review Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) were used. SAMPLE: Data from Europe was used to examine alcohol and its taxation; a total of 31 countries were examined. All 27 countries of the European Union were examined for the assessment of cigarette consumption and its taxation. RESULTS: The overview shows that low taxation can lead to high alcohol consumption (Estonia, France). On the other hand, even relatively high taxation may not lead to low alcohol consumption (Germany, Slovenia, Czechia, and Austria). However, a very high excise tax can lead to a reduction in alcohol consumption, for example in Norway, Iceland, Sweden, and also in Finland. In Finland and Denmark, it was confirmed that a high excise tax (Finland €6.14 and Denmark €5.27) leads to lower consumption of cigarettes (Finland 9.9% and Denmark 11.7%). In Bulgaria the data shows that a low excise tax (€1.81) leads to a large number of people who smoke cigarettes daily (28.7%). As many as 12.9% of people smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day, which is the highest value in the European Union. If we compare it with the average (6%), it is a very high value. CONCLUSIONS: In many countries, e.g. Finland, Bulgaria, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and France, it has been confirmed that the amount of consumption tax leads to greater or lesser consumption of legal drugs (alcohol, cigarettes). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Condensation of lignin is believed to interfere with delignification in alkaline pulping processes. The lack of clear evidence motivated us to quantitatively revisit it. This article evaluates the self-condensation of 4-hydroxymethyl-2-methoxyphenol (vanillyl alcohol, Va) in the simplest model system using Va and 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (creosol, Cr) under the same soda cooking conditions employed in our previous paper. Dimeric and trimeric self-condensation products of Va consisting of the α-5 bond (VaVa, 2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzyl)-4-hydroxymethyl-6-methoxyphenol), α-1 bond (VaVa', bis(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)methane), and α-5 & α-1 bonds (VaVaVa', 2,4-bis(4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-benzyl)-6-methoxyphenol) were identified and quantified. The formation rate of VaVa from Va was suggested to be about twice of that of VaVa', and to be similar to that of the condensation product between the α-carbon of Va and the aromatic C5-carbon of Cr (VaCr), which was identified in the first paper. Among all these detected condensation products, only VaVa that can be converted to the corresponding quinone methide (QM) readily underwent further condensation to be VaVaVa' and others. Only the monomers (Va and Cr) possessing the small steric factors condense with electrophilic QM's as nucleophiles. These results suggest that condensation of lignin in actual soda cooking processes, with steric factors much larger than the model system, progresses much less frequently than generally believed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore alcohol consumption among older Norwegian adults with symptoms of cognitive decline, assess the agreement between the reports of older adults and their next of kin regarding a person's alcohol consumption, and explore clinical and sociodemographic variables associated with agreement. Alcohol consumption was measured among 3608 older adults consulting specialist health care for symptoms of cognitive decline. Agreement between the participant and their next of kin regarding the participant's alcohol consumption was assessed with a weighted kappa (κ). A logistic regression analysis for hierarchical data was used to explore variables associated with agreement. Both the participants and their next of kin reported that more than 20% of the participants consumed alcohol 1–3 times a week, and that approximately 10% consumed alcohol four or more times a week. The agreement between the participant's and their next of kin's report regarding the participant's alcohol consumption was high (κ =.852), and variables associated with agreement were no cognitive decline, not drinking alcohol during the last year or ever as reported by the participant, and low agitation scores on a psychiatric assessment. This paper found alcohol consumption among older adults with symptoms of cognitive decline that was above the national average in Norway. This is also the first paper to demonstrate that a next of kin can be a reliable source of information regarding older adults' alcohol consumption. Health personnel should consider these findings when performing medical assessments or developing interventions for older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to alcohol content in media increases alcohol consumption and related harm. With exponential growth of media content, it is important to use algorithms to automatically detect and quantify alcohol exposure. Foundation models such as Contrastive Language-Image Pretraining (CLIP) can detect alcohol exposure through Zero-Shot Learning (ZSL) without any additional training. In this paper, we evaluated the ZSL performance of CLIP against a supervised algorithm called Alcoholic Beverage Identification Deep Learning Algorithm Version-2 (ABIDLA2), which is specifically trained to recognise alcoholic beverages in images, across three tasks. We found ZSL achieved similar performance compared to ABIDLA2 in two out of three tasks. However, ABIDLA2 outperformed ZSL in a fine-grained classification task in which determining subtle differences among alcoholic beverages (including containers) are essential. We also found that phrase engineering is essential for improving the performance of ZSL. To conclude, like ABIDLA2, ZSL with little phrase engineering can achieve promising performance in identifying alcohol exposure in images. This makes it easier for researchers, with little or no programming background, to implement ZSL effectively to obtain insightful analytics from digital media. Such analytics can assist researchers and policy makers to propose regulations that can prevent alcohol exposure and eventually prevent alcohol consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Methods Results Conclusions This paper considers the extent to which people drinking at harmful levels responded to minimum unit pricing (MUP) in Scotland in the way they, family members and those providing services anticipated they would. It examines data taken from a larger evaluation of the impact of MUP on people who are drinking at harmful levels.Qualitative interview data, (utilizing interviews and focus groups, with individuals, treatment services, and family members) was generated prior to the implementation of MUP in Scotland to provide insights into anticipated responses and comparable data generated across an extended 19-month period post-implementation and provided insights into actual responses.Overall, the data showed consistency between anticipated and actual responses, with fewer differences observed. In line with anticipated responses, many drinkers switched from cheap, strong ciders to other alcohol products, notably vodka. They consistently responded to the decrease in alcohol affordability by utilizing existing behavior such as managing finances and prioritizing spends on alcohol, including borrowing money, foregoing essentials, and using savings. There was less evidence of anticipated harmful consequences of MUP occurring, such as increased crime, switching to other drugs, or examples of acute withdrawal.Drinkers and those living and working with them, have a good command of how alcohol affordability is maintained or impacts on expenditure and other choices, and how they respond to any decrease in affordability including the introduction of minimum price policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Excessive alcohol use is associated with non‐communicable diseases and social problems, such as work absence, financial problems and family violence. Expenditure and expenditure shares on alcohol are valuable measures to monitor financial activities on this risk behaviour. The aim of this paper is to report trends in alcohol expenditure in Australia over the last two decades. Methods: Data are from six waves of Australian Household Expenditure Surveys from 1984 to 2015–2016. We explored trends of alcohol expenditure among Australians and in different socio‐demographic groups in the last 30 years. We further examined changes of expenditure on different on‐ and off‐premises beverages over time. Results: Absolute alcohol expenditure has remained the same between the 1980s and 2016, after accounting for inflation. However, a declining trend in relative alcohol expenditure as a proportion of total household expenditure was found across nearly all demographic groups (e.g., sex, age, employment, household income), except for women aged 45–54, who showed an increasing trend of alcohol expenditure after 1998–1999. Discussion and Conclusions: The current study shows declines in relative alcohol expenditure, which may reflect declines in alcohol's relative importance within the elements of the person's lifestyle they need to pay for and/or increased awareness of alcohol's health and social harms. Further longitudinal analysis should explore additional predictors of household expenditure on alcohol. Results suggest that current bi‐annual indexation increases in alcohol tax should account for increases in income to ensure the effectiveness of pricing. Moreover, attention is needed to address drinking among middle‐aged females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from ancient poems, this paper explores the chemical knowledge in the romantic and graceful ancient poems with readers and tells the dyeing principle of synthetic Indigo, the detection and identification of wine aroma and the chemical composition of tea from a chemical point of view. The purpose is to let readers have more understanding of the chemical knowledge in poems, stimulate their interest in chemical learning and appreciate the beauty of chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of observational studies have found a J-shaped relationship between alcohol intake and ischemic heart disease (IHD) risk. However, some studies suggest that the alleged cardio-protective effect may be an artifact in the way that the elevated risk for abstainers is due to self-selection on risk factors for IHD. The aim of this paper is to estimate the association between alcohol and IHD-mortality on the basis of aggregate time-series data, where the problem with selection effects is not present. In addition, we will analyze SES-specific mortality to investigate whether there is any socio-economic gradient in the relationship at issue. SES was measured by educational level. We used IHD-mortality in three educational groups as outcome. Per capita alcohol consumption was proxied by Systembolaget's alcohol sales (litres of alcohol 100% per capita 15+). Swedish quarterly data on mortality and alcohol consumption spanned the period 1991Q1–2020Q4. We applied SARIMA time-series analysis. Survey data were used to construct an indicator of heavy SES-specific episodic drinking. The estimated association between per capita consumption and IHD-mortality was positive and statistically significant in the two groups with primary and secondary education, but not in the group with postsecondary education. The association was significantly stronger the lower the educational group. Although the associations were generally stronger for males than for females, these differences were not statistically significant (P  > 0.05). Our findings suggest that the detrimental impact of per capita consumption on IHD-mortality was stronger the lower the educational group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last four decades, methodological innovations have continuously changed transcriptome profiling. It is now feasible to sequence and quantify the transcriptional outputs of individual cells or thousands of samples using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). These transcriptomes serve as a connection between cellular behaviors and their underlying molecular mechanisms, such as mutations. This relationship, in the context of cancer, provides a chance to unravel tumor complexity and heterogeneity and uncover novel biomarkers or treatment options. Since colon cancer is one of the most frequent malignancies, its prognosis and diagnosis seem to be critical. The transcriptome technology is developing for an earlier and more accurate diagnosis of cancer which can provide better protectivity and prognostic utility to medical teams and patients. A transcriptome is a whole set of expressed coding and non-coding RNAs in an individual or cell population. The cancer transcriptome includes RNA-based changes. The combined genome and transcriptome of a patient may provide a comprehensive picture of their cancer, and this information is beginning to affect treatment decision-making in real-time. A full assessment of the transcriptome of colon (colorectal) cancer has been assessed in this review paper based on risk factors such as age, obesity, gender, alcohol use, race, and also different stages of cancer, as well as non-coding RNAs like circRNAs, miRNAs, lncRNAs, and siRNAs. Similarly, they have been examined independently in the transcriptome study of colon cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable biofuel production is necessary to meet the daunting challenge of "fueling" growing economies with a significantly reduced carbon footprint. Although its higher oxygen content often hinders the direct conversion of lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) into energy-dense biofuels, microbial biofuel production from LCB still has potential. The production of primary alcohols by acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) fermentation has been practiced for more than a century to attain near-theoretical maximum. However, ABE produced conventionally by native microorganisms is not equivalent to fossil fuel-based aviation fuels in terms of energy density, volatility, and cost-efficiency. Various strategies have been adapted for the microbial synthesis of advanced fuels from renewable feedstock with the advancements in genetic engineering. Yet, the presence of inhibitors and the inefficiency of microbes to utilize or transport the sugar mixtures from LCB often impede titer and yield. However, ABE mixtures can act as platform chemicals to synthesize high-value biofuels by biocatalytic or chemo-catalytic applications. Chemical catalysts, in particular, are used to produce higher alcohols ranging from 3-carbon to 20-carbon fuels from the ABE fermentation mixture. This article reviews the recent trends in the production of higher biofuels from ABE mixtures using biological and chemical catalysts. Focus is placed on genomic and metabolic engineering strategies implemented to upgrade microbes for higher biofuel production via the fermentation of renewable feedstocks. This paper also summarizes the advancements in the chemical conversion route of an ABE fermentation mixture into higher biofuels. Finally, the review provides insights into future research toward commercializing renewable and sustainable higher biofuels and chemicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional news media can both reflect and shape public perceptions, including expectations relating to alcohol and parenting. This paper examines representations of parents in Australian news media reporting on youth drinking to understand how parental standards related to alcohol are constructed and articulated. 150 news articles were sampled from a larger study of youth drinking, in which we identified four representations of parents—parents as to blame, good parents, parents as lost and parents as victims. These four representations of parents reflect dominant neoliberal ways of governing, which promote parental education, best practice standards and responsibility as solutions to concerns around youth drinking. We examine the way politicians, research findings and legal directives (most commonly secondary supply laws) were deployed to attribute parental responsibility and standards of care. While parents as "to blame" or as irresponsible was concretely established in the articles, good parents were far more elusive and strategically individualized in ways that abdicated responsibility from the state, industry and structural burdens. As such, while media representations were able to define and moralize bad parents and parenting practices when it came to youth drinking, what it meant to be a "good parent" was often an ambiguous ideal. We suggest these media representations contribute to intensive parenting standards by providing another platform in which parental behaviors can be publicly scrutinized and moralized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solution plasma is a gas-phase discharge in the vapor bubbles in a solution and has the potential to efficiently produce H2 by decomposing aqueous alcohols. However, the mechanism of alcohol decomposition in solution plasma remains unclear. In this study, lower monohydric alcohols (methanol and ethanol, as well as 1- and 2-propanol) were treated in solution plasma, and in this paper, the gasification mechanism is discussed. The gases produced from these alcohols were mainly H2 and CO, with small ratios of C1–C3 hydrocarbons. Thus, the O/C ratio in the product gas was close to 1 for all alcohols, and most of the C atoms in the alcohols were bonded to O atoms. This excess of O atoms could have only come from water, suggesting a strong contribution of OH radicals from water for gasification. However, the C1–C3 hydrocarbons were produced solely by the decomposition of the alcohol. For both decomposition routes, possible reaction pathways are proposed that are consistent with the experimental facts such as the composition of the product gas and the intermediates detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigated the mechanisms, kinetics, and toxicity evaluation of the OH-initiated reaction of coniferyl alcohol (4-(3-hydroxy-1-propenyl)-2-methoxyphenol) in the atmosphere using theoretical calculations. The initial reaction of coniferyl alcohol with OH radicals had two pathways, H-abstraction and OH-addition reactions. The total reaction rate constants were 2.32 × 10−9 cm3 molecule−1 s−1 (in gas-phase) and 9.44 × 109 s−1 M−1 (in liquid-phase) for the preliminary reactions of coniferyl alcohol with OH radicals at 298 K, respectively, and the half-lives of the total reaction (including all initial H-abstraction and OH-addition reactions) of coniferyl alcohol with OH radical in the atmosphere, urban and remote clouds were 8.3 × 10−2 h, 5.83 × 103 h and 9.27 × 102 h, respectively. The temperature had a strong and positive influence on the initial reaction rate constant. The branching ratios of H-abstraction and OH-addition reactions were 3.68% and 97.69%, respectively, making the OH-addition reactions become dominant reactions. The ecotoxicity evaluation revealed that the toxicity levels of coniferyl alcohol and its products were similar and non-toxic. However, all these products have developmental toxicity, with most of them having no mutagenicity. Therefore, further attention should be paid to the oxidation process and product toxicity evaluation of coniferyl alcohol in the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disease theory of alcoholism, and by extension, of addiction, forms the theoretical basis of an expansive scientific industry, one which musters tremendous resources in the service of research, rehab clinics, and government programs. Revisiting the early work on the disease theory of alcoholism, this paper analyzes the apperance of the disease theory of alcoholism in the eighteenth/nineteenth century works of Rush, Trotter, and Brühl-Cramer as emergent of a theoretical tension within the Brunonian system of medicine, that of stimulus dependence. Establishing both the shared Brunonianism of these figures and the concept of stimulus dependence, I argue it is here that one finds the nascent formulation of the modern dependence model of addiction, pushing out alternative models, such as Hufeland's toxin theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Early intervention alcohol and drug (AOD) programs for disadvantaged young people have the potential to substantially decrease the need for future intervention, however there is little research about how young people use these programs or the substance use and other outcomes of such programs. This paper uses data from an Australian AOD early intervention program, The Street Universities, to: describe young people's participation; examine changes in substance use and wellbeing over 90 days; and assess which young people are most positively impacted Methods: Data come from a prospective study of new attendees, measuring retention in and attendance patterns in an 'engagement' program focussed on arts and lifestyle activities (n = 95), and a routine service dataset collected from seven years of therapeutic intervention (n = 3,893), measuring substance dependence (SDS), psychological distress (K10) and quality of life (EQoL) Results: Analysis reveals that young people were retained in the program at high proportion (63% at six months) and more than half of these returned at a frequency of weekly or more often. Young people participating in the therapeutic component of the program reported significant improvements in all key wellbeing indicators with SDS, K10 and EQoL scores significantly improving (at p <.001). These improvements occurred rapidly, within the first 30 days, and were maintained over the 90 day study period. Moreover, young people with the highest SDS and K10 scores and lowest quality of life at baseline experienced the most positive changes. Conclusion: Aligning engagement program with therapeutic intervention can provide comprehensive support to disadvantaged young people, producing substantial improvements in AOD use, distress and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we have developed an in-vehicle wireless driver breath alcohol detection (IDBAD) system based on Sn-doped CuO nanostructures. When the proposed system detects the ethanol trace in the driver's exhaled breath, it can alarm and then prevents the car to be started and also sends the location of the car to the mobile phone. The sensor used in this system is a two-sided micro-heater integrated resistive ethanol gas sensor fabricated based on Sn-doped CuO nanostructures. Pristine and Sn-doped CuO nanostructures were synthesized as the sensing materials. The micro-heater is calibrated to provide the desired temperature by applying voltage. The results showed that by Sn-doping in CuO nanostructures, the sensor performance can be significantly improved. The proposed gas sensor has a fast response, good repeatability along with good selectivity that makes it suitable for being used in practical applications such as the proposed system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consuming alcohol during pregnancy poses risks to the fetus, namely the manifestation of fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FAS/FASD). In the present paper, alcohol-related congenital heart abnormalities are examined. Congenital heart defects are morphological and functional abnormalities of the heart, which are present at birth and can disrupt the normal blood flow of the heart or great arteries. The most critical cardiac abnormalities due to alcohol consumption during pregnancy are d-transposition of the great arteries, tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary stenosis, as well as ventricular, atrial, and atrioventricular septal defects. The first clinical presentation in the immediate neonatal period is usually cyanosis (cyanotic heart diseases), without a standard occurrence. The treatment can be conservative or surgical, depending on the type and degree of the abnormality. Informing the public about the complications of alcohol consumption during pregnancy is essential to prevent the birth of children with abnormalities. Last but not least, early prenatal diagnosis is imperative for applying the best treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Comorbid drug and alcohol and mental health disorders are highly prevalent. Significant gaps in service provision make this problem particularly difficult to address in regional Australia. The Pathways to Comorbidity Care (PCC) program was designed to improve management of comorbidity by outpatient drug and alcohol clinicians in New South Wales, Australia. This paper uses the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to evaluate variations in implementation outcomes across geographically diverse services. Methods: Twenty clinicians across three drug and alcohol services from metropolitan, outer metropolitan and regional geographic locations were engaged at multiple levels of influence (directors, managers, clinicians) during the implementation of the multimodal PCC training package. The CFIR guided the development of self-report measures and semi-structured interviews evaluating implementation of the PCC training, and disparities in implementation barriers and facilitators were determined. Results: Metropolitan clinicians identified less barriers than regional clinicians on several intervention characteristics (adaptability, complexity, design quality and packaging), as well as outer setting (peer pressure), inner setting (implementation climate, staff incentives, leadership engagement, available resources) and process (planning, opinion leaders, executing) domains. Regional clinicians evaluated the networks and communications construct more favourably. Conclusions: Specific barriers identified more strongly by regional clinicians included the importance of communication with local clinicians and leadership about the practicalities of incorporating the approach into routine practice (allocation of time, increased accessibility of implementation team). Metropolitan clinicians provided more favourable evaluations of the package design, implementation climate and specific implementation processes such as a clear and informative implementation plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early twentieth century, intense public debate was taking place in Sweden around the control of alcohol consumption. Under intense pressure from the growing temperance movement, the Swedish government passed a motion to hold a referendum on 27 August 1922 to determine whether a total prohibition of alcohol should be implemented. One of the most important means of influencing public opinions was the propaganda poster, which relied on simple pictures, catchy slogans and bright colours to domesticate the prohibition debate and make it easily digestible. This paper conducts a study of the posters produced by the 'yes' and 'no' campaigns during the lead-up to the referendum. It finds that, despite their opposing arguments, both sides used similar arguments based around the breakdown of family life and the breakdown of Swedish society, depicting an imagined present or future in which Sweden was lawless and traditional values were threatened. Furthermore, both sides stirred up class warfare, creating conflict between the Swedish people and the government, and depicting alcoholism as a predominantly male, working-class problem. Overall, it argues that the 'no' campaign posters were ultimately more successful because of their ability to play on voters' emotions rather than use rational arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol use is a major cause of disability and death globally. These negative consequences disproportionately affect people who develop alcohol addiction, a chronic relapsing condition characterized by increased motivation to use alcohol, choice of alcohol over healthy, natural rewards, and continued use despite negative consequences. Available pharmacotherapies for alcohol addiction are few, have effect sizes in need of improvement, and remain infrequently prescribed. Research aimed at developing novel therapeutics has in large part focused on attenuating pleasurable or "rewarding" properties of alcohol, but this targets processes that primarily play a role as initiation factors. As clinical alcohol addiction develops, long‐term changes in brain function result in a shift of affective homeostasis, and rewarding alcohol effects become progressively reduced. Instead, increased stress sensitivity and negative affective states emerge in the absence of alcohol and create powerful incentives for relapse and continued use through negative reinforcement, or "relief." Based on research in animal models, several neuropeptide systems have been proposed to play an important role in this shift, suggesting that these systems could be targeted by novel medications. Two mechanisms in this category, antagonism at corticotropin‐releasing factor type 1, and neurokinin 1/substance P receptors, have been subject to initial evaluation in humans. A third, kappa‐opioid receptor antagonism, has been evaluated in nicotine addiction and could soon be tested for alcohol. This paper discusses findings with these mechanisms to date, and their prospects as future targets for novel medications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent declines in life expectancy in the US, especially for middle-aged White persons, have called attention to mortality from deaths of despair – deaths due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Census Bureau, this paper examined deaths of despair by race/ethnicity, age, cause of death, birth cohort, and sex in Missouri. We focused on Area Agencies on Aging as geographic units of interest to increase usefulness of our findings to public administrators. Deaths of despair began trending up for all age groups beginning in 2007–2009, with the sharpest increases occurring for Black or African American non-Hispanics beginning in 2013–2015. The most dramatic increases occurred for the population age 50–59 in St. Louis City and Area Agency on Aging regions in southern Missouri. For older adults, considerable variation in rates, trends, and cause of deaths of despair is evident across the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research supports the association between direct exposure to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, increased rates of alcohol and substance use and elevated risk of subsequent diagnosis with trauma-related and substance use disorders. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most diagnosed psychiatric illness in individuals who witnessed the 9/11 attacks or participated in disaster response efforts, and substance use disorders (SUDs) are highly comorbid with PTSD. The presence of both conditions poses challenges for clinical management and highlights the importance of screening and offering intervention to this at-risk population. This paper provides background on substance use, SUDs, and co-occurring PTSD in trauma exposed populations, describes best practices for identifying harmful substance use, the role of psychotherapy and medication for addiction treatment (MAT), and recommendations for management of co-occurring SUD and PTSD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The goal of our article was to systematise studies that investigated the impact of living conditions in large national regions on individual alcohol consumption. Methods: The objectives of the scoping review, the criteria and methods for selecting articles were defined in advance and recorded in the protocol PROSPERO CRD42021234874. We sought publications on the research topic in PubMed, Google Scholar, OpenGrey, Crossref and eLibrary databases from the moment they were created until December 31, 2021. The final sample included 81 publications. Results: The majority of ultimately selected papers were published after 2010 (62 articles), represented the USA (68 articles), and considered samples of children and youths, either the younger population or the general adult population (65 articles). High quality was characteristic for 19 studies, whereas satisfactory quality was exhibited by 46 publications. The most consistent associations with individual alcohol consumption were revealed for the legislative environment (especially for integral scales and indices), alcohol pricing policy, the prevalence of alcohol consumption and binge drinking in the population, and unemployment rate. Conclusion: The review made it possible to systematise the results of studies on the impact of the characteristics of large national regions on alcohol consumption, including a description of these characteristics and results, samples and designs of studies, their quality, as well as to summarise the results of these studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the formative role of substances of intoxication in the social and scientific establishment of the biological subject in late nineteenth-century Germany. Sourcing the emergence of substances of intoxication as "vital substances" from Brunonianism, this narrative traces their initial significance for Romantic physiology, followed by their rejection from neo-mechanical scientific physiology. Emphasis is placed on late nineteenth-century psychological research on the effects of intoxicants on the mind as the site of a dynamic encounter between theories of the mind and the body, particularly through Kraepelin's concept of intoxication as model psychosis, and his related research. The biological subject, here, is anti-vitalistic, and, yet, conceptually distinct from neo-mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol harms to others is a growing public health concern. The current paper investigates the prevalence and types of alcohol harms to others experienced by a representative sample of Bulgarians (n=3182, aged 20-65+). Data from the National Survey on Risk Factors for Populatio’s Health, conducted in 2020, reveals that 25% of respondents reported being negatively affected by someone else’s alcohol consumption in the past year. Additionally, 12.5% lived with someone who had experienced alcohol problems. Sleep disturbance emerged as the most commonly reported harm. These findings highlight the significant impact of alcohol harms to others in Bulgaria and underscore the need for further research to understand its scope and consequences. Developing policies targeted at specific harms to others is crucial for public health protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Danish fitness chain recently introduced a new concept called Bubbles & Squat. Here, fitness training is combined with free champagne and music. In this paper, we examine this new way of bringing parties, alcohol and physical culture together by exploring the possible meaning of it through existential philosophical analysis. We draw in particular on Nietzsche’s distinction between the Apolline and the Dionysiac, as well as his account of great health. On this basis, we analyse Bubbles & Squat as a case of Dionysiac intoxication, excess and ecstasy sneaking into contemporary Apolline fitness culture. In the last part of the paper, we raise the question if adding parties and bubbles to fitness training may, perhaps paradoxically, be healthy for the participants in an existential sense because it contributes to existential balance between the Dionysiac and the Apolline. We conclude that the philosophical framework presented in this paper can contribute to a new understanding of a general physical cultural phenomenon that the case of Bubbles & Squat represents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on data from one strand of a six-strand, exploratory study on end of life care for adults using substances (AUS). It presents data from the key informant (KI) strand of the study that aimed to identify models of practice in the UK. Participant recruitment was purposive and used snowball sampling to recruit KIs from a range of health and social care, policy and practice backgrounds. Data were collected in 2016–2017 from 20 KIs using a semi-structured interview approach. The data were analysed using template analysis as discussed by King (2012). This paper focusses on two of seven resulting themes, namely "Definitions and perceptions of key terms" in end of life care and substance use sectors, and "Service commissioning and delivery." The KIs demonstrated dedicated individual practice, but were critical of the systemic failure to provide adequate direction and resources to support people using substances at the end of their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bioreduction of prochiral ketones offers efficient access to chiral secondary alcohols, which are potentially beneficial precursors for producing many biologically active compounds and natural products. This bioreduction process can be affected by different parameters when whole-cell of biocatalysts such as Lactic Acid Bacteria strains are applied. In this context, this paper proposed an I-optimal design-based model to optimize culture parameters such as temperature, pH, incubation period, and agitation speed for asymmetric bioreduction of 2-methyl-1-phenylpropan-1-one (1) with Lactobacillus fermentum BY35 as a biocatalyst while achieving the highest conversion rate (cr) and enantiomeric excess (ee). The optimum settings of the four culture parameters and the cr and ee values were found using the proposed optimization model as follows: pH = 6.5, temperature = 25 °C, incubation period = 38.5 h, agitation speed = 200 rpm, the ee value = 98.78%, and the cr value = 98.92%. After the validation of the process, the cr and ee values were found to be > 99% and > 99%, respectively, while using the optimum operating conditions from the optimization model. Thus, the results of the optimization model are consistent with the results of the validation experiment. It is also noted that this paper is the first to optimize culture parameters using the proposed I-optimal design-based model for an asymmetric reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The predictive model of aging indicator based on intelligent algorithms has become an auxiliary method for the aging condition of transformer polymer insulation. However, most of the current research on the concentration prediction of aging products focuses on dissolved gases in oil, and the concentration prediction of alcohols in oil is ignored. As new types of aging indicators, alcohols (methanol, ethanol) are becoming prevalent in the aging evaluation of transformer polymer insulation. To address this, this study proposes a prediction model for the concentration of alcohols based on a genetic-algorithm-optimized support vector machine (GA-SVM). Firstly, accelerated thermal aging experiments on oil-paper insulation are conducted, and the concentration of alcohols is measured. Then, the data of the past 4 days of aging are used as the input feature of SVM, and the GA algorithm is utilized to optimize the kernel function parameter and penalty factor of SVM. Moreover, the concentrations of methanol and ethanol are predicted, after which the prediction accuracy of other algorithms and GA-SVM are compared. Finally, an industrial software program for predicting the concentration of methanol and ethanol is established. The results show that the mean square errors (MSE) of methanol and ethanol concentration predictions of the model proposed in this paper are 0.008 and 0.003, respectively. The prediction model proposed in this paper can track changes in methanol and ethanol concentrations well, providing a theoretical basis for the field of alcohol concentration prediction in transformer oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health concern that has spread around the globe. Machine Learning is promising in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Machine learning and artificial intelligence have been employed by various healthcare providers, scientists, and clinicians in medical industries in the fight against COVID-19 disease. In this paper, we discuss the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on alcohol consumption habit changes among healthcare workers in the United States during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. We utilize multiple supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods and models such as decision trees, logistic regression, support vector machines, multilayer perceptron, XGBoost, CatBoost, LightGBM, AdaBoost, Chi-Squared Test, mutual information, KModes clustering and the synthetic minority oversampling technique on a mental health survey data obtained from the University of Michigan Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research to investigate the links between COVID-19-related deleterious effects and changes in alcohol consumption habits among healthcare workers. Through the interpretation of the supervised and unsupervised methods, we have concluded that healthcare workers whose children stayed home during the first wave in the US consumed more alcohol. We also found that the work schedule changes due to the Covid-19 pandemic led to a change in alcohol use habits. Changes in food consumption, age, gender, geographical characteristics, changes in sleep habits, the amount of news consumption, and screen time are also important predictors of an increase in alcohol use among healthcare workers in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health concern that has spread around the globe. Machine Learning is promising in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Machine learning and artificial intelligence have been employed by various healthcare providers, scientists, and clinicians in medical industries in the fight against COVID-19 disease. In this paper, we discuss the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on alcohol consumption habit changes among healthcare workers in the United States during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. We utilize multiple supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods and models such as decision trees, logistic regression, support vector machines, multilayer perceptron, XGBoost, CatBoost, LightGBM, AdaBoost, Chi-Squared Test, mutual information, KModes clustering and the synthetic minority oversampling technique on a mental health survey data obtained from the University of Michigan Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research to investigate the links between COVID-19-related deleterious effects and changes in alcohol consumption habits among healthcare workers. Through the interpretation of the supervised and unsupervised methods, we have concluded that healthcare workers whose children stayed home during the first wave in the US consumed more alcohol. We also found that the work schedule changes due to the Covid-19 pandemic led to a change in alcohol use habits. Changes in food consumption, age, gender, geographical characteristics, changes in sleep habits, the amount of news consumption, and screen time are also important predictors of an increase in alcohol use among healthcare workers in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive alcohol use, especially binge and heavy drinking, represents a serious threat to force readiness across the Department of Defense. Though these behaviors are a matter of individual service member choice, they are influenced by perceptions of the culture of alcohol use in the military. This paper uses data from the 2018 Health Related Behaviors Survey of Active Duty service members to explore associations between perceived alcohol culture and excessive alcohol use, any serious drinking consequences, risky driving behaviors, productivity loss due to drinking, absenteeism, and presenteeism. Results from multivariate logistic regression reveal a strong, positive correlation between positive perceptions of drinking culture in the military and all outcomes. Targeting perceptions of the drinking culture is one way the military can reduce excessive and unhealthy use of alcohol and negative sequelae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aldehydes can not only accept hydrogen atoms to be reduced to alcohols, showing their oxidation properties; but also can donate hydrogen atoms of the C(sp2)−H bonds as hydrogen atom donors, showing their reduction properties. In this article, the hydrogen atom transfer reactions of eight aldehydes and free radicals in acetonitrile at 298 K were studied. The thermo‐kinetic parameters ΔG≠°(XH) of C(sp2)−H bonds in aldehydes were obtained by ΔG≠XH/Y=ΔG≠°(XH)+ΔG≠°(Y) as the ΔG≠°(Y) of free radicals were available in our previous work. The bond dissociation free energies ΔGo(XH) of C(sp2)−H bonds were calculated by iBonD HM method. The intrinsic resistance energies ΔG≠XH/X were determined as the ΔG≠°(XH) and ΔGo(XH) were available. ΔGo(XH), ΔG≠XH/X, and ΔG≠°(XH) were used to access the H‐donating abilities of C(sp2)−H bonds in aldehydes in thermodynamics, kinetics and actual HAT reactions. The scales and the effect of the structures of aldehydes on ΔGo(XH), ΔG≠XH/X, and ΔG≠°(XH) were discussed carefully. The oxidizing and reducing abilities of aldehydes, and the comparison of H‐donating abilities between C(sp2)−H of aldehydes with C(sp3)−H of the corresponding alcohols were also researched in detail. This paper not only fills the gap in the study of H‐donating activities of aldehydic C−H bonds, but also provides data support for the design and synthesis of more C(sp2)−H type antioxidants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consuming alcohol during pregnancy poses risks to the fetus, namely the manifestation of fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FAS/FASD). In the present paper, alcohol-related congenital heart abnormalities are examined. Congenital heart defects are morphological and functional abnormalities of the heart, which are present at birth and can disrupt the normal blood flow of the heart or great arteries. The most critical cardiac abnormalities due to alcohol consumption during pregnancy are d-transposition of the great arteries, tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary stenosis, as well as ventricular, atrial, and atrioventricular septal defects. The first clinical presentation in the immediate neonatal period is usually cyanosis (cyanotic heart diseases), without a standard occurrence. The treatment can be conservative or surgical, depending on the type and degree of the abnormality. Informing the public about the complications of alcohol consumption during pregnancy is essential to prevent the birth of children with abnormalities. Last but not least, early prenatal diagnosis is imperative for applying the best treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) have a long and successful history in industrial firefighting operations due to their unique properties allowing rapid knock-down of fires and efficient vapor suppression from large fuel surfaces preventing (re)ignition. However, all AFFF foams available on the market contain per- and polyfluorinated compounds which are expected to phase out in near future due to ongoing regulation. This paper summarizes foam testing of alcohol resistant AFFF (AFFF-AR) and fluorine-free alternatives (FFF-AR) in our company since 2001. It can be concluded that AFFF-AR foams' performance has decreased in the past while at the same time, FFF-AR foams' performance has significantly increased and some can be seen as replacements for AFFF-AR if correct application can be guaranteed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Alcohol screening, brief advice and referral to treatment (SBIRT) in primary health care is an effective strategy to decrease alcohol consumption at population level. However, there is relatively scarce evidence regarding its economic returns in non‐high‐income countries. The current paper aims to estimate the return‐on‐investment of implementing a SBIRT program in Mexican primary health‐care settings. Methods: Empirical data was collected in a quasi‐experimental study, from 17 primary health‐care centres in Mexico City regarding alcohol screening delivered by 145 health‐care providers. This data was combined with data from a simulation study for a period of 10 years (2008 to 2017). Economic investments were calculated from a public sector health‐care perspective as clinical consultation costs (salary and material costs) and program costs (set‐up, adaptation, implementation strategies). Economic return was calculated as monetary gains in the public sector health‐care, estimated via simulated reductions in alcohol consumption, dependent on population coverage of alcohol interventions delivered to primary health‐care patients. Results: Results showed that scaling up a SBIRT program in Mexico over a 10‐year period would lead to positive return‐on‐investment values ranging between 21% in scenario 4 (confidence interval −8.6%, 79.5%) and 110% in scenario 5 (confidence interval 51.5%, 239.8%). Moreover, over the 10‐year period, up to 16,000 alcohol‐related deaths could be avoided as a result of implementing the program. Discussion and Conclusions: SBIRT implemented at national level in Mexico may lead to substantial financial gains from a public sector health‐care perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted shortfalls in the U.S. food system, exposing how regulatory processes shape access to the market. This paper builds on ongoing research following the impact of shut-down orders on alcohol retail via small restaurants and breweries in Arizona and examines the impacts of regulatory shifts on the ability of these food enterprises to pivot. We highlight how the concept of the pivot creates expectations of individual businesses ability to be resilient to shocks. Responses within Arizona to COVID-19 induced systemic failures, demonstrate that bottom-up pivots from small businesses can creatively and quickly meet local community needs. However, those efforts were stymied by state government and top-down approaches that proved incapable of pivoting to meet local needs. Through this case study, we highlight the need and opportunity for further examination of the interplay between regulatory agencies and small businesses in times of crisis. We invite others into the work of creating guidelines for pivoting that facilitate bottom-up and top-down collaboration while ensuring the voice and agency of different players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Youth alcohol consumption has fallen markedly over the last twenty years in England. This paper explores the drivers of the decline from the perspectives of young people. Methods: The study used two methods in a convergent triangulation design. We undertook 38 individual or group qualitative interviews with 96 participants in various educational contexts in England. An online survey of 547 young people in England, was also conducted. Participants were aged between 12–19 years. For both data sources, participants were asked why they thought youth alcohol drinking might be in decline. Analysis of interview data was both deductive and inductive, guided by a thematic approach. Content analysis of survey responses further refined these themes and indicated their prevalence within a larger sample. Results: The research identified eight key themes that young people used to explain the decline in youth drinking: The potential for alcohol-related harm; Contemporary youth cultures and places of socialisation; The affordability of alcohol; Displacement of alcohol by other substances; Access and the regulatory environment; Disputing the decline; Future Orientations; and Parenting and the home environment. Heterogeneity in the experiences and perspectives of different groups of young people was evident, particularly in relation to age, gender, and socio-economic position. Conclusions: Young people's explanations for the decline in youth drinking in England aligned well with those generated by researchers and commentators in prior literature. Our findings suggest that changing practices of socialisation, decreased alcohol affordability and changed attitudes toward risk and self-governance may be key explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social research on alcohol and sexual encounters has tended to be siloed into several different research endeavors, each addressing separate aspects of wanted and unwanted sexual encounters. While sociologists have focused on the patterns of social interaction, status competition, and emotional hierarchies of sexual encounters, they have left the role of alcohol intoxication largely unexamined. Conversely, the two dominant approaches to sexual encounters within alcohol research, the theories of alcohol myopia and alcohol expectancy, while focusing on alcohol have tended to take little account of the socio-relational dynamics and gendered meanings involved in those encounters. Our aim in this theoretical paper is to begin to bring together some of the concepts from these different research strands in examining how the social processes of intoxication potentially impact heteronormative sexual scripts and hence notions of femininity and masculinity among cisgender, heterosexual women and men. Our discussion is focused on the concepts of ritual and scripts; power, status, and hierarchies; and socio-spatial contexts, which are central to an understanding of the gendered and embodied social practices that take place within intoxicated sexual events; the emotional nature of the socio-spatial contexts within which they occur; and the socio-structural conditions that frame these events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Alcohol and marijuana are commonly used by young adults, and use of both substances, particularly at the same time, is prevalent among this population. Understanding the prevalence, patterns, correlates, and consequences of simultaneous alcohol and marijuana (SAM) use is important to inform interventions. However, this literature is complicated by myriad terms used to describe SAM use, including use with overlapping effects and same-day co-use. OBJECTIVES: This scoping review identifies and describes the peer-reviewed literature focused on SAM use by young adults and distinguishes simultaneous use from same-day co-use of alcohol and marijuana. This review also provides a narrative summary of the prevalence of SAM use, patterns of SAM and other substance use, psychosocial correlates, and consequences of SAM use. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: This review is limited to papers written in English and published in peer-reviewed journals between January 2000 and August 2021. It includes papers assessing simultaneous use or same-day co-use of alcohol and marijuana among young adults ages 18 to 30. Review papers, qualitative interviews, experimental lab studies, policy work, toxicology or medical reports, and papers focused on neurological outcomes are excluded. SOURCES OF EVIDENCE: PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases were searched. Databases were selected and the search strategy developed in consultation with an information specialist. CHARTING METHODS: A data charting form was utilized to specify which information would be extracted from included papers. Eight categories of data were extracted: (1) research questions and hypotheses; (2) sample characteristics; (3) study procedures; (4) definition of SAM use; (5) prevalence of SAM use; (6) patterns of SAM and other substance use; (7) psychosocial correlates of SAM use; and (8) consequences of SAM use. RESULTS: A total of 1,282 papers were identified through initial search terms. Through double-blind title/ abstract screening and full-text review, the review was narrowed to 74 papers that met review inclusion criteria. Review of these papers demonstrated that SAM use was prevalent among young adults, particularly among those who reported heavier quantities and more frequent use of alcohol and marijuana. Enhancement-related motives for use were consistently positively associated with SAM use. SAM use was associated with greater perceived positive and negative consequences of alcohol and/or marijuana use. Inconsistencies in prevalence, patterns, correlates, and consequences were found between studies, which may be due to large variations in measurement of SAM use, populations studied, methodological design (e.g., cross-sectional vs. intensive longitudinal), and the covariates included in models. CONCLUSIONS: The literature on simultaneous use and same-day co-use of alcohol and marijuana has expanded rapidly. Of the 74 included papers (61 on SAM use; 13 on same-day co-use), 60 papers (47 on SAM use; 13 on same-day co-use) were published within the last 5 years. Future research focusing on the ways in which SAM use confers acute risk, above and beyond the risks associated with separate consumption of alcohol and marijuana, is needed for understanding potential targets for intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between the gender power balance, changes in the consumption of alcohol and changing social interdependences. The empirical setting is Ireland circa 1900 up to the present. Drawing from the works of Norbert Elias, I explain how a lessening of the power inequality between men and women was more moderate and limited up to the 1960s. The effect of this was that emancipatory changes around drinking were mainly confined to women from specific social cohorts. As the reduction in gender power inequality accelerated post 1960 it initially increased tensions between the genders, reflected in new power struggles over the social spaces in which drinking occurred and in the type of glass one should drink from. Despite the emergence of less unequal power relations, men continued to have a model setting function in relation to alcohol consumption. A central contention of the paper is the need to give greater consideration to the nature of social interdependences for they can generate a lessening of power inequalities for some social cohorts while failing to generate such a dynamic for other similar social groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a new perspective on historical understandings of the relationship between alcohol, climate and the body, by studying the way that British explorers of tropical Africa drank alcohol and wrote about drink between c.1850 and c.1910. We demonstrate that alcohol was simultaneously classified as a medicinal, a preventative and a pleasurable drink, shaped by competing medical theories, but that distinctions between these different roles were highly blurred. We also show how many explorers thought certain drinks helped to protect white bodies from the effects of tropical diseases. While popular amongst travellers, these views came under growing scrutiny in the latter part of the nineteenth century, reflecting both changing scientific views about the relationship between alcohol, climate and the body and the development of a much larger European presence in tropical Africa. However, even those who opposed tropical drinking often supported the use of other stimulants and viewed the tropics as uniquely dangerous. As such, the paper challenges the idea that the late nineteenth century marked a paradigm shift in scientific attitudes towards tropical environments, as much previous scholarship has suggested. At the same time, our examinations of explorers' descriptions of drinking by African people demonstrates how ideas about racial difference played an important role within medical understandings of alcohol. Overall, this paper examines the heterogeny of attitudes to alcohol to be found within tropical medicine and documents the continuities in approach shown between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights advances made using the 4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY) as a fluorophore in design and application of fluorescent sensors for microenvironment polarity. Sections of the paper cover broad analysis of a range of fluorescent indicators immobilized in ethyl- and methyl cellulose matrices. The present study demonstrates that BODIPY-based fluorescent materials could be successfully utilized for ratiometric detection of ethanol and acetone in gas phase. The achieved limit of detection value equals 0.02 mg/ml for acetone and 0.08 mg/ml for ethanol, whereas obtained sensoric materials are reusable without regeneration required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risky alcohol use is a major public health problem globally and in Sri Lanka. While a reduction in alcohol consumption can result in physical, mental, and social benefits, behaviour change is difficult to achieve. Effective, context-adapted interventions are required to minimise alcohol-related harm at a community level. THEATRE is a complex, community-based intervention evaluating whether a promising Sri Lankan pilot study that utilised arts-based research to moderate alcohol use can be scaled up. While the scaled-up pilot study protocol is presented elsewhere, the aim of this protocol paper is to describe the intervention programme theory and evaluation design, and modifications made to the study resulting from COVID-19 and the financial crisis. Drawing on the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) and Theoretical Domains Framework, behaviour change theories are presented with potential pathways to guide implementation and evaluation. Alcohol consumption patterns and context of drinking is detailed. The multifaceted intervention targets individuals and communities using arts-based interventions. Four of nine BCW functions are employed in the design of the intervention: education, persuasion, modelling and enablement, and training. Modifications made to the study due to COVID-19 and the financial crisis are described. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Review Committee, Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka (ERC/2018/21—July 2018 and Feb 2022) and the University of Sydney (2019/006). Findings will be disseminated locally to community members and key stakeholders and via international peer-reviewed publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic created an environment wherein stress and isolation could increase alcohol consumption. The effects of alcohol consumption on Covid-19 susceptibility and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on alcohol use, related harms and services were explored. Search terms were inputted to Medline and Embase databases, with relevant published papers written in English chosen. Alcohol ingestion both increased and decreased throughout the population globally, however, the overall trend was an increase. Risk factors for this included female sex, young age, family conflicts, unemployment, mental health disorders, substance misuse and lack of support. Alcohol misuse was found to be an aggravator of domestic violence and worsening mental health. It exacerbated the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and worsened the Covid-19 infection severity, with >10 drinks/week increasing the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) risk similarly to established risk factors. This was attributed to the immunosuppressive and disinhibition effects of alcohol. Therefore, healthcare professionals should provide support to vulnerable groups, encouraging stress reduction, healthy habits, limiting alcohol consumption (<5 drinks/week) and promoting coping techniques. Self-help tools that monitor individual alcohol intake and psychosocial interventions in a primary care setting can also be employed. Finally, governing bodies should inform the public of the risks of alcohol ingestion during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, the Covid-19 pandemic could create a cycle whereby alcohol misuse could become a risk factor for Covid-19 infection and the Covid-19 pandemic could become a risk factor for alcohol misuse. Healthcare professionals should counsel people on alcohol misuse risk and protective factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues: Meta‐analysis was used to estimate the effect of forming implementation intentions (i.e., if‐then plans) on weekly alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking (HED). Sample type, mode of delivery, intervention format and timeframe were tested as moderator variables. Approach: Cochrane, EThOS, Google Scholar, PsychArticles, PubMed and Web of Science were searched for relevant publications to 31 March 2021. Random‐effects meta‐analysis was used to estimate the effect size difference (d) between individuals forming versus not forming implementation intentions on weekly consumption and HED. Key Findings: Sixteen studies were included in meta‐analyses. The effect size difference for forming implementation intentions on weekly alcohol consumption was d+ = −0.14 confidence interval (CI) [−0.24; −0.03]. Moderator analyses highlighted stronger effects for: (i) community (d+ = −0.38, CI [−0.58; −0.18]) versus university (d+ = −0.04, CI [−0.13; 0.05]) samples; (ii) paper (d+ = −0.26, CI [−0.43; −0.09]) versus online (d+ = −0.04, CI [−0.14; 0.06]) mode of delivery; and (iii) volitional help sheet (d+ = −0.34, CI [−0.60; −0.07]) versus implementation intention format (d+ = −0.07, CI [−0.16; 0.02]). In addition, effects diminished over time (B = 0.02, SE = 0.01, CI [0.03; 0.01]). Forming implementation intentions had a null effect on HED, d+ = −0.01 CI [−0.10; 0.08]. Implications: Forming implementation intentions reduces weekly consumption but has no effect on HED. Conclusion: This review identifies boundary conditions on the effectiveness of implementation intentions to reduce alcohol consumption. Future research should focus on increasing the effectiveness of online‐delivered interventions and integrating implementation intention and motivational interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]