bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The price elasticity for alcohol in Sweden 1984–2003
Authors: Norström Thor 
Published: December 2017

■ Aims The article addresses the following research questions: (i) How strong is the price elasticity for beer, wine and spirits? (ii) How rapid is the effect of a price change? (iii) Is the price elasticity stable across time and space? (iv) Does an increase in price give a corresponding effect as a decrease? ■ Methods & Data The sales data cover Systembolaget's retail sales of beer, wine and spirits for the period from January 1984 to March 2004. The price indexes are based on weighted baskets deflated by a consumer price index. Most of the analyses were performed on quarterly data. The data were analysed using the Box-Jenkins technique for time series analysis. ■ Results The price elasticities—as estimated from quarterly data—were statistically significant for all beverages; –0.8 for beer, –0.6 for wine and and –1 for spirits. Similar estimates were obtained from monthly data, suggesting a fast consumer response to price changes. The elasticity for beer was weaker during the period 1995–2004 (-0.6) than during the period 1984–1994 (-1.4), but it was no different in southern Sweden than in the remainder of the country. An increase in the price of spirits seems to affect sales as much as a price decrease, that is, the price effect seems to be symmetric. Finally, the results indicated that since 1995 sales of beer and wine increased more, and spirits sales less, than predicted from the development in prices. ■ Conclusions The study confirms previous findings that the demand of alcoholic beverages is responsive to changes in price; however, price is not the sole factor that drives the trends in sales. The reduced elasticity for beer may be due to the marked drop in beer prices.
Young adults' experiences of intoxication. An analysis of the dynamics of drinking habits in diary material
Authors: Törrönen Jukka 
Published: December 2017

Aim The article studies the current state of Finnish drinking habits in the pub (literally ‘restaurant’ in Finnish) drinking diaries (N=60; 39 women, 21 men) of young adults. Drinking habits are theorised as cultural models by taking influences from Bourdieu's theory of habitus and from phenomenological and pragmatist concepts of habit. Methods The analysis of the diary material makes use of the tools developed in semiotic sociology and narratology. The main concern is with 1) what kind of roles or role does alcohol play in the narrators' stories, 2) how does the role of alcohol change or develop in the story lines; and 3) through what kinds of viewpoints is alcohol consumed and experienced? By addressing these three questions, it is possible to make inferences about prevailing drinking habits in Finnish culture. Results From the diaries it is possible to identify at least five different types of drinking habits and traditions layered in culture and in active use in social life: heroic intoxication, sociable partying, individual partying, hanging out, and meal drinking. These drinking habits differ from one another in terms of both motives and regulation. Even though they often occur in the same situations, they frame these situations as distinctive fields of activity. Conclusions The analysis shows that drinking to intoxication and drinking habits in Finland cannot be reduced to one single cultural core and tradition. In all the drinking habits that appear in the diaries there is a clear tendency to try and break away from goal-oriented, linear time and to move towards a cyclical, timeless time, which may be described as a search for a flow experience.
Harm reduction – ideals and paradoxes
Authors: Andersen Ditte , Järvinen Margaretha 
Published: December 2017

Aim The aim of the article is to critically reflect on the harm reduction approach used in Danish substance abuse treatment. Data The article is based on qualitative interviews with staff at treatment institutions in Copenhagen. Themes and Conclusions Three themes are addressed. First, our data indicate that low-threshold methadone treatment is difficult to combine with a long-term goal of abstinence. In fact, many harm reduction proponents among staff are directly opposed to treatment models in which abstinence is a goal. Second, we illustrate how the development of harm reduction measures is embedded in a socio-political trend focusing on a combined “autonomization/responsibilization” of social clients. This focus on clients as autonomous and responsible subjects clashes with another central conception among staff: the idea that heroin addicts are slaves to their substance use and hence cannot be treated as fully rational human beings. Third, the article analyses the relationship between harm reduction and social integration. Although social integration of substance abusers is part of the rationale behind harm reduction measures, this goal is difficult to reach with a group of clients as marginalized as the ones in focus.
Stakeholders' views of Alcohol Policy
Authors: Anderson Peter , Baumberg Ben 
Published: December 2017

Method A questionnaire survey on views of alcohol policy was completed by stakeholders (country counterparts of the European Commission's Alcohol and Health Working Group (mostly government officials), country nongovernmental organizations that have a remit on alcohol policy, and representative bodies of the beverage alcohol industry, who are stakeholders of the European Commission's Alcohol and Health Working group). Results Representatives of the alcohol industry (AIs) tended to hold different views than representatives of governmental (GOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), who were more similar in their views. The AIs viewed regulatory measures as of low impact and policy importance in strong contrast to both NGOs and GOs. AIs were more favourable to educational measures than either NGOs or GOs. All three groups were similar and positive in their views of the impact and importance of implementation measures and of interventions for hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption. In general, AIs were more positive in their views of successful implementation of both the WHO European Alcohol Action Plan and the Council Recommendation on the dinking of alcohol by young people than GOs who were more favourable than NGOs, but this was largely due to the AIs giving very high implementation scores for items that were their responsibility. With regard to perceived advances and barriers, again there were discordant views between the AIs and both the GOs and NGOs, who were more similar in their perceptions. The strongest theme among GOs and NGOs was the importance of coordination in implementing action plans and strategies at country and European levels. The strongest theme among AIs was stakeholder involvement, i.e. their own participation in the policy process. This was in contrast to the views of GOs and NGOs who both saw industry lobbying as a major barrier to effective policy to reduce alcohol-related harm. Conclusion Whilst representatives of the alcohol industry regard themselves as having an equal place to GOs and NGOs in policy discussion, they bring to the policy table markedly different views than GOs and NGOs, proposing educational measures, for which the scientific evidence for impact is rather wanting, and opposing regulatory measures, for which the scientific evidence for impact is rather strong. In contrast, government officials and non-governmental organizations view industry lobbying as a major barrier to effective alcohol policy.
Drinking among Japanese Youth -a Paradox for Theories of Alcohol Availability?
Authors: Leonardsen Dag 
Published: December 2017

Aims By presenting the paradoxical case of Japan this study aims to highlight the importance of cross-cultural data to understanding different drinking patterns. Why is it that a country with high alcohol availability does not present higher figures of consumption? Why is it that Japanese youth, who can buy their alcohol even from vending machines, do not engage in heavier drinking than they apparently do? Does Japan teach Western countries a lesson in this regard? Methods and Data The discussion is based on data from the WHO Alcohol Database together with different survey-based studies undertaken in Japan. These empirical data are connected to general literature on Japanese culture and Japanese society. Results and Conclusions The data presented confirm the importance of analysing the cultural dimension when studying drinking patterns. Even though structural variables regarding availability are significant in explaining alcohol consumption, cross-cultural data alert us to the importance of including cultural values in our analyses. Japan does possibly represent a ‘deviant case’ regarding alcohol research, thus confirming this perspective. It is neither possible, nor desirable, to transplant collectivistic Japanese values into Western countries. However, we can ask what might be the Western functional equivalent to Japanese group control. Counteracting the increasing age-based segmentation in Western societies is perhaps the most potent answer to this question.
Upward Trends in Alcohol Consumption and Related Harm in Finland
Authors: Mäkelä Pia , Österberg Esa 
Published: December 2017

Aim Our aim was to study whether the development in the rates of harm still follows the development in per capita alcohol consumption, and to clarify the relationship between alcohol consumption and related harms by paying attention to third factors affecting this relationship. Data Statistics on alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm associated with the maintenance of public order and safety alcohol-related deaths and hospitalizations, and treatment for alcohol problems in the period 1990–2004. Analysis In the last 15 years, alcohol consumption in Finland first decreased during the economic recession of the early 1990s, and then increased almost constantly. Some harm series roughly followed these consumption trends, and for some others the connection with alcohol consumption became obvious when the effect of some third factor was taken into account. Harm rates also increased in 2004 when alcohol consumption increased by 10% after a decrease of alcohol excise duty rates of 33% on average. Conclusions In Finland changes in alcohol consumption are still today followed by changes in rates of alcohol-related harm.
Whilst it's Red Wine with Beef, it's Booze with a Cruise!
Authors: Törrönen Jukka , Maunu Antti 
Published: December 2017

Aim The article explores typical drinking situations, practices involved in these situations and the situational control of drinking. Data and Method The data consist of 60 diaries (39 women, 21 men) written by young adults aged 23–35. The writers provide descriptions of all their visits to pubs and restaurants and drinking occasions over a period of at least two months. The writers are all IT and service professionals, representing a generation whose descriptions provide an insight into what kinds of drinking situations are receding in Finland; what kinds of situations continue to have cultural relevance; and what kinds of new drinking situations are emerging. Drinking situations are identifed and distinguished from one another by reference to three factors: the motives of drinking, the processes of drinking and the drinkers' subjective commitment to those processes. In addition, drinking situation are analysed from the points of view of gender and (self-)control. Results Five main types of drinking situations are extracted from the analysis of the diary accounts: hanging out, meal drinking, partying, carnival and individual activity. Hanging out and meal drinking are described in the diary accounts as drinking situations where gender differences carry little signifcance. These drinking situations encourage the use of alcohol, but not drinking to inebriation. By contrast, the three other types are intoxication-oriented and in them gender differences emerge. Partying, for its part, encourages controlled inebriation. Carnival is a drinking situation that encourages heavy drinking, even beyond consciousness. Also individual activity may encourage heavy drinking. However, in this situation people rarely drink to the same extent as in carnival or party situation since they do not have the security net provided by company. Conclusions The heavier drinking the situation encourages, the more gendered the experience appears. women who felt that they had lost control over their bodily activities expressed more shame than men, especially in descriptions of several days' carnival drinking.
Harm Reduction – Ideals and Paradoxes
Authors: Andersen Ditte , Järvinen Margaretha 
Published: December 2017

Aim The aim of the article is to critically reflect on the harm reduction approach used in Danish substance abuse treatment. Data The article is based on qualitative interviews with staff at treatment institutions in Copenhagen. Themes and Conclusions Three themes are addressed. First, our data indicate that low-threshold methadone treatment is difficult to combine with a long-term goal of abstinence. In fact, many harm reduction proponents among staff are directly opposed to treatment models in which abstinence is a goal. Second, we illustrate how the development of harm reduction measures is embedded in a socio-political trend focusing on a combined “autonomization/responsibilization” of social clients. This focus on clients as autonomous and responsible subjects clashes with another central conception among staff: the idea that heroin addicts are slaves to their substance use and hence cannot be treated as fully rational human beings. Third, the article analyses the relationship between harm reduction and social integration. Although social integration of substance abusers is part of the rationale behind harm reduction measures, this goal is difficult to reach with a group of clients as marginalized as the ones in focus.
Artikel
Authors: Österberg Mirja 
Published: December 2017

Based on the author's Master's thesis at the University of Helsinki in 2005, this article traces the reaction and response by the management of the Finnish alcohol monopoly Oy Alko Ab to the process of European economic integration between 1988 and 1994. The data for the study consist of archive materials, protocols and memoirs, earlier research and literature as well as interviews with key figures involved in the process. A distinction is made between four different periods in the management's reactions between 1988–1994. In the first period 1988–1989, the Alko management began to realise that European integration might have an impact on the company's operation. During the second period 1990–1991, there was a growing recognition that integration would affect the company in a major way and that it would be losing its import and export monopoly. At the same time, the Alko management began taking steps to strengthen the company's competitiveness and organisation. During the third period, from February 1992 to August 1992, the Alko management realised that the company's production and wholesale monopoly might also be under threat. They decided to fight to retain the company's three remaining monopoly rights and did so over the next six months until 25 August 1992, when the battle was limited to the monopoly of off-premise retail sales of alcoholic beverages. In the fourth period from August 1992 to May 1994, the Alko management moved to shore up the company's competitiveness and prepare for the eventuality of the company possibly losing its retail monopoly.
Artikel
Authors: Andreasson Jesper , Lalander Philip 
Published: December 2017

Aims The aim of the article is to understand the meaning of subversive situations and collective storytelling in a Swedish male second division handball team. By subversive we mean situations and stories which exceed the limit of what is seen as legitimate outside the secret alliance of the group. The article examines how alcohol functions to transform the scene in which a situation or a collective story becomes subversive. Methods and Data One of the authors spent several years as an active member in the handball team, collecting ethnographical data both from sports settings and related situations involving storytelling, for example, at parties, in dressing rooms, and during team trips to other Nordic countries. In addition interviews were conducted with 17 members of the team. Results The storytelling and the subversive situations make it possible to create an alternative world, in which the members of the team can overstep different types of rules of conduct and civilized behaviour. This is made possible in part because of the meaning attached to alcohol as a transformer of social reality and also because of the character of the social group as homosocial and secret.
Does Beverage Type Matter?
Authors: Mäkelä Pia , Mustonen Heli , Österberg Esa 
Published: December 2017

The purpose of this article is to review the associations of different beverage types with different types of harm and discuss their likely causes. The key issue is whether alcohol policy can influence the occurrence of harms by affecting consumers' beverage choices. This is dependent on the following questions addressed in this article: 1) Does beverage choice affect alcohol-related harm if quantity of alcohol is equal? 2) Does beverage choice impact the quantity of alcohol consumed? 3) Can beverage choice influence the nature of the drinking situation and thereby quantities and harm? The literature review did not reveal great differences between different beverages with regard to harm if equal amounts are drunk, although it seems that spirits are somewhat more closely associated with alcohol poisonings and aggressive behaviour. Our results showed that spirits have a prominent role in Finnish binge drinking: the proportion of spirits consumed increases in direct proportion to the amounts of alcohol consumed on individual drinking occasions. we conclude that it would be unwise to encourage consumers to favour spirits. Currently, the difference in taxes on spirits and mild alcoholic beverages in Finland is larger than the corresponding difference in harm per litre of ethyl alcohol. However, an equal rate of taxes would make spirits much cheaper per litre of ethyl alcohol than other beverages. Based on our review, this situation would in all probability lead to an increase in alcohol-related harm.
Dosimetric Study and Neurocognitive Function of Hippocampal-Sparing Whole-Brain Radiotherapy
Authors: Wang Baohong , Li Hongfei , Kong Fanyang , Xu Dandan , Zhang Xudong , Jia Fei , Lin Yalei , Li Guowen 
Published: December 2017

Objective: To investigate the feasibility of hippocampal-sparing whole-brain radiotherapy and reduction in neurocognitive function impairment after radiotherapy. Methods: Forty-three patients with brain metastases were selected. Whole-brain radiotherapy was performed in 22 patients, with 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy in parallel opposed fields. Twenty-one patients had significant difference. Planning parameter values and neurocognitive function scores in 2 groups were statistically analyzed. Results: Homogeneity index in the 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy group and tomotherapy group was 0.12 ± 0.02 and 0.36 ± 0.03, respectively, with a significant difference ( P < .05). The homogeneity of target doses was better in the tomotherapy group than in the 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy group. There was a statistical significance in Dmean and Dmax between the 2 groups ( P < .05). The dose in hippocampal was less in the tomotherapy group than in the other group. Dmean and Dmax of the left hippocampus declined to 20.14% and 35.39% of prescription dose, respectively, and Dmean and Dmax of the right hippocampus declined to 19.92% and 35.14% of prescription dose, respectively. Neurocognitive function score between the 2 groups before treatment and 1 month after treatment had no significant difference ( P > .05), while there was a significant difference in 3 and 6 months after treatment ( P < .05). Neurocognitive function score was higher in the tomotherapy group than in the other group. No level III or above adverse reactions were observed. Conclusions: Hippocampal-sparing whole-brain radiotherapy in brain metastases treatment is feasible. Homogeneity index value is higher in the tomotherapy group than in the 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy group. All V95% in the 2 groups meet the requirements. Hippocampal sparing could avoid neurocognitive function impairment to some extent.
Mutant calreticulin knockin mice develop thrombocytosis and myelofibrosis without a stem cell self-renewal advantage
Authors: Li Juan , Prins Daniel , Park Hyun Jung , Grinfeld Jacob , Gonzalez-Arias Carlos , Loughran Stephen , Dovey Oliver M. , Klampfl Thorsten , Bennett Cavan , Hamilton Tina L. , Pask Dean C. , Sneade Rachel , Williams Matthew , Aungier Juliet , Ghevaert Cedric , Vassiliou George S. , Kent David G. , Green Anthony R. 
Published: December 2017

Key Points
Mutant CALR drives ET and MF in knockin mice. Mutant CALR expression results in expansion of phenotypic HSCs without a self-renewal advantage.
Effectiveness of a job vacancy referral scheme
Authors: Bollens Joost , Cockx Bart 
Published: December 2017

Abstract

ᅟ
The public employment service (PES) makes use in many countries of vacancy referrals as to facilitate the matching between unemployed workers and vacancies. Based on a “timing-of-events” approach to control for selective participation, this study evaluates whether this policy instrument enhanced the transition to employment in Flanders (region in northern Belgium). Three referral types are distinguished: (1) referrals actively matched by a caseworker by phone or by e-mail; (2) automatic referrals, in which the match is accomplished by a software without caseworker intervention; and (3) invitations, in which the referral is transmitted to the unemployed in a meeting with a caseworker. All three referral instruments are found to be effective, even many months after the transmission of the referral: the first and third referral types more than triples, respectively, double the transition rate to employment both in short- and long-run, while the automatic referrals enhance this rate by 50% in the first 2 months and double it in the long-run.

JEL Classification
C41, J63, J64, J65, J68
Improving learning and confidence through small group, structured otoscopy teaching: A prospective interventional study
Authors: You Peng , Chahine Saad , Husein Murad 
Published: December 2017

Background Otologic diseases are common and associated with significant health care costs. While accurate diagnosis relies on physical exam, existing studies have highlighted a lack of comfort among trainees with regards to otoscopy. As such, dedicated otoscopy teaching time was incorporated into the undergraduate medical curriculum in the form of a small group teaching session. In this study, we aimed to examine the effect of a small-group, structured teaching session on medical students’ confidence with and learning of otoscopic examination. Methods Using a prospective study design, an otolaryngologist delivered an one-hour, small group workshop to medical learners. The workshop included introduction and demonstration of otoscopy and pneumatic otoscopy followed by practice with peer feedback. A survey exploring students’ confidence with otoscopy and recall of anatomical landmarks was distributed before(T1), immediately after(T2), and 1 month following the session(T3). Results One hundred and twenty five learners participated from February 2016 to February 2017. Forty nine participants with complete data over T1-T3 demonstrated significant improvement over time in confidence ( Wilk's lambda = .09, F(2,48) = 253.31 p < .001, η 2 = .91) and learning ( Wilk's lambda = 0.34, F(2,47) = 24.87 p < .001, η 2 = .66). Conclusions A small-group, structured teaching session had positive effects on students’ confidence with otoscopy and identification of otologic landmarks. Dedicated otoscopy teaching sessions may be a beneficial addition to the undergraduate medical curriculum.