The Emotional Economy of Unemployment: A Re-Analysis of Testimony From a Sheppey Family, 1978-1983

This is the final version of the article. Available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record.Between May 1978 and December 1983, the sociologist Ray Pahl conducted seven extensive interviews with a couple from Sheppey that he called “Linda” and “Jim.” These not only informed a key chapter in Pahl’s classic book Divisions of Labour but also evolved into a uniquely intimate account of how a family used to “getting by” (though never “affluent”) coped with the hardships and indignities of long-term reliance on welfare benefits. Perhaps inevitably, fascinating aspects of Linda and Jim’s testimony were left unused in Divisions of Labour, primarily because they were marginal to Pahl’s principal aim of demonstrating how the state welfare system could trap a family in poverty. We deliberately retain the narrative, case study approach of Pahl’s treatment, but shift our focus to the strategies that Linda and Jim adopted to cope with the emotional and psychological challenges of life at the sharp end of the early 1980s recession. How they retained a strong orientation toward the future, how they resisted internalizing the stigmatization associated with welfare dependency in 1980s Britain, and how their determination to fight “the system” ultimately led them to make choices in harmony with the logic of the New Right’s free market agenda.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Jon Lawrence was supported by a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship while conducting research for this article

Ground state properties of multi-polaron systems

We summarize our recent results on the ground state energy of multi-polaron systems. In particular, we discuss stability and existence of the thermodynamic limit, and we discuss the absence of binding in the case of large Coulomb repulsion and the corresponding binding-unbinding transition. We also consider the Pekar-Tomasevich approximation to the ground state energy and we study radial symmetry of the ground state density.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of ICMP12, Aalborg, Denmark, August 6--11, 2012; 8 page

Stability and Absence of Binding for Multi-Polaron Systems

We resolve several longstanding problems concerning the stability and the absence of multi-particle binding for N\geq 2 polarons. Fr\"ohlich's 1937 polaron model describes non-relativistic particles interacting with a scalar quantized field with coupling \sqrt\alpha, and with each other by Coulomb repulsion of strength U. We prove the following: (i) While there is a known thermodynamic instability for U<2\alpha, stability of matter does hold for U>2\alpha, that is, the ground state energy per particle has a finite limit as N\to\infty. (ii) There is no binding of any kind if U exceeds a critical value that depends on \alpha but not on N. The same results are shown to hold for the Pekar-Tomasevich model.Comment: 23 page

Binding, Stability, and Non-binding of Multi-polaron Systems

The binding of polarons, or its absence, is an old and subtle topic. After defining the model we state some recent theorems of ours. First, the transition from many-body collapse to the existence of a thermodynamic limit for N polarons occurs precisely at U=2\alpha, where U is the electronic Coulomb repulsion and \alpha is the polaron coupling constant. Second, if U is large enough, there is no multi-polaron binding of any kind. We also discuss the Pekar-Tomasevich approximation to the ground state energy, which is valid for large \alpha. Finally, we derive exact results, not reported before, about the one-dimensional toy model introduced by E. P. Gross.Comment: 12 pages; contribution to the proceedings of the conference QMath 11 (Hradec Kralove, September 2010); clarification added after Theorem 4.

Bi-Polaron and N-Polaron Binding Energies

The binding of polarons, or its absence, is an old and subtle topic. Here we prove two things rigorously. First, the transition from many-body collapse to the existence of a thermodynamic limit for N polarons occurs precisely at U=2\alpha, where U is the electronic Coulomb repulsion and \alpha is the polaron coupling constant. Second, if U is large enough, there is no multi-polaron binding of any kind. Considering the known fact that there is binding for some U>2\alpha, these conclusions are not obvious and their proof has been an open problem for some time.Comment: 4 page

Cognitive function in childhood and lifetime cognitive change in relation to mental wellbeing in four cohorts of older people

Background: poorer cognitive ability in youth is a risk factor for later mental health problems but it is largely unknown whether cognitive ability, in youth or in later life, is predictive of mental wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether cognitive ability at age 11 years, cognitive ability in later life, or lifetime cognitive change are associated with mental wellbeing in older people.Methods: we used data on 8191 men and women aged 50 to 87 years from four cohorts in the HALCyon collaborative research programme into healthy ageing: the Aberdeen Birth Cohort 1936, the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921, the National Child Development Survey, and the MRC National Survey for Health and Development. We used linear regression to examine associations between cognitive ability at age 11, cognitive ability in later life, and lifetime change in cognitive ability and mean score on the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale and meta-analysis to obtain an overall estimate of the effect of each.Results: people whose cognitive ability at age 11 was a standard deviation above the mean scored 0.53 points higher on the mental wellbeing scale (95% confidence interval 0.36, 0.71). The equivalent value for cognitive ability in later life was 0.89 points (0.72, 1.07). A standard deviation improvement in cognitive ability in later life relative to childhood ability was associated with 0.66 points (0.39, 0.93) advantage in wellbeing score. These effect sizes equate to around 0.1 of a standard deviation in mental wellbeing score. Adjustment for potential confounding and mediating variables, primarily the personality trait neuroticism, substantially attenuated these associations.Conclusion: associations between cognitive ability in childhood or lifetime cognitive change and mental wellbeing in older people are slight and may be confounded by personality trait difference

The effect of anthelmintic treatment during pregnancy on HIV plasma viral load: results from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in Uganda.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the effect of helminth infections and their treatment during pregnancy on HIV load, we conducted a 2 × 2 factorial randomized controlled trial of albendazole versus placebo and praziquantel versus placebo in pregnant women in Entebbe, Uganda. METHODS: Two hundred sixty-four HIV-infected pregnant women from the Entebbe Mother and Baby Study (ISRCTN 32849447) were included in this analysis. Women were tested for helminth infections at enrollment, and mean HIV load was compared between infected and uninfected groups. The effect of anthelmintic treatment on HIV load was evaluated at 6 weeks after treatment and at delivery using linear regression and adjusting for enrollment viral load. RESULTS: Hookworm and Trichuris infections were associated with higher mean viral load at enrollment [adjusted mean difference 0.24 log10 copies/mL, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.01 to 0.47, P = 0.03, and 0.37 log(10) copies/mL, 95% CI: 0.00 to 0.74, P = 0.05, respectively]. There were no associations between viral load and other helminth species. There was some evidence that albendazole reduced viral load at 6 weeks after treatment (adjusted mean difference -0.17, 95% CI: -0.36 to 0.01, P = 0.07); however, this effect did not differ according to mother's hookworm infection status and had diminished at delivery (adjusted mean difference -0.11, 95% CI: -0.28 to 0.07, P = 0.23). There was no effect of praziquantel treatment on HIV load at any time point. CONCLUSIONS: Infection with some soil-transmitted helminth species is associated with increased HIV load in pregnancy. Treatment with albendazole causes a small decrease in HIV load; however, this may not represent a direct effect of worm removal

Assessing the external validity of a randomized controlled trial of anthelminthics in mothers and their children in Entebbe, Uganda.

BACKGROUND: The 'external validity' of randomized controlled trials is an important measure of quality, but is often not formally assessed. Trials concerning mass drug administration for helminth control are likely to guide public health policy and careful interpretation of their context is needed. We aimed to determine how representative participants in one such trial were of their community. We explore implications for trial interpretation and resulting public health recommendations. METHODS: The trial assessed was the Entebbe Mother and Baby Study (EMaBS), a trial of anthelminthic treatment during pregnancy and early childhood. In a novel approach for assessing external validity, we conducted a two-stage cluster sample community survey within the trial catchment area and compared characteristics of potentially-eligible community children with characteristics of children participating in the trial. RESULTS: A total of 173 children aged three to five-years-old were surveyed from 480 households. Of children surveyed, we estimated that mothers of 60% would have been eligible for recruitment, and of these, 31% had actually been enrolled. Children surveyed were compared to 199 trial children in the same age group reviewed at annual trial visits during the same time period. There were significant differences in ethnicity between the trial participants and the community children, and in socioeconomic status, with those in the trial having, on average, more educated parents and higher maternal employment. Trial children were less likely to have barefoot exposure and more likely to use insecticide-treated bed nets. There were no significant differences in numbers of reported illness events over the last year. CONCLUSIONS: The trial had not enrolled all eligible participants, and those enrolled were of higher socioeconomic status, and had lower risk of exposure to the parasitic infections targeted by the trial interventions. It is possible the trial may have underestimated the absolute effects of anthelminthic treatment during pregnancy and early childhood, although the fact that there were no differences in reported incidence of common infectious diseases (one of the primary outcomes of EMaBS) between the two groups provides reassurance. Concurrent community surveys may be an effective way to test the external validity of trials. EMABS TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN32849447, registered 22 July 2005