19,424 research outputs found
Prediction of mutual diffusion coefficients for thermal conductivity data
Prediction of mutual diffusion coefficients for thermal conductivity data in gase
1987 Oregon Vineyard and Winery Report
This document is the first comprehensive report of a survey on Oregon\u27s wine grape industry. The report provides an inventory of vineyard plantings and a detailed summary of the 1987 crop and winery production
Dietary factors associated with obesity indicators and level of sports participation in Flemish adults : a cross-sectional study
BACKGROUND: Obesity develops when energy intake continuously exceeds energy expenditure, causing a fundamental chronic energy imbalance. Societal and behavioural changes over the last decades are held responsible for the considerable increase in sedentary lifestyles and inappropriate dietary patterns. The role of dietary fat and other dietary factors in the aetiology and maintenance of excess weight is controversial. The purposes of the present study were to investigate the dietary factors associated with body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC), and to analyse whether dietary intake varies between subjects with different levels of sports participation. METHODS: Data for this cross-sectional study, including anthropometric measurements, 3-day diet diary and physical activity questionnaire, were collected by the Flemish Policy Research Centre Sport, Physical Activity and Health (SPAH) between October 2002 and April 2004. Results of 485 adult men and 362 women with plausible dietary records were analysed. Analyses of covariance were performed to determine the differences in dietary intake between normal weight, overweight and obese subjects, and between subjects with different levels of sports participation. RESULTS: Total energy intake, protein and fat intake (kcal/day) were significantly higher in obese subjects compared to their lean counterparts in both genders. Percentage of energy intake from fat was significantly higher in obese men compared to men with normal weight or WC. Energy percentages from carbohydrates and fibres were negatively related to BMI and WC in men, whereas in women a higher carbohydrate and fibre intake was positively associated with obesity. Alcohol intake was positively associated with WC in men. Subjects participating in health related sports reported higher intake of carbohydrates, but lower intake of fat compared to subjects not participating in sports. CONCLUSION: This study supports the evidence that carbohydrate, fat, protein and fibre intake are closely related to BMI and WC. The sex differences for dietary intake between obese men and women might reflect the generally higher health consciousness of women. Alcohol intake was only associated with WC, emphasizing the importance of WC as an additional indicator in epidemiological studies. Besides enhancing sports and physical activity, it is necessary to improve the knowledge about nutrition and to promote the well-balanced consumption of wholesome food
Development of a Fast and Detailed Model of Urban-Scale Chemical and Physical Processing
Abstract and PDF report are also available on the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://globalchange.mit.edu/).A reduced form metamodel has been produced to simulate the effects of physical, chemical, and meteorological processing of highly reactive trace species in hypothetical urban areas, which is capable of efficiently simulating the urban concentration, surface deposition, and net mass flux of these species. A polynomial chaos expansion and the probabilistic collocation method have been used for the metamodel, and its coefficients were fit so as to be applicable under a broad range of present-day and future conditions. The inputs upon which this metamodel have been formed are based on a combination of physical properties (average temperature, diurnal temperature range, date, and latitude), anthropogenic properties (patterns and amounts of emissions), and the surrounding environment (background concentrations of certain species).
Probability Distribution Functions (PDFs) of the inputs were used to run a detailed parent chemical and physical model, the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx), thousands of times. Outputs from these runs were used in turn to both determine the coefficients of and test the precision of the metamodel, as compared with the detailed parent model. The deviations between the metamodel and the parent mode for many important species (O3, CO, NOx, and BC) were found to have a weighted RMS error less than 10% in all cases, with many of the specific cases having a weighted RMS error less than 1%. Some of the other important species (VOCs, PAN, OC, and sulfate aerosol) usually have their weighted RMS error less than 10% as well, except for a small number of cases. These cases, in which the highly non-linear nature of the processing is too large for the third order metamodel to give an accurate fit, are explained in terms of the complexity and non-linearity of the physical, chemical, and meteorological processing. In addition, for those species in which good fits have not been obtained, the program has been designed in such a way that values which are not physically realistic are flagged.
Sensitivity tests have been performed, to observe the response of the 16 metamodels (4 different meteorologies and 4 different urban types) to a broad set of potential inputs. These results were compared with observations of ozone, CO, formaldehyde, BC, and PM10 from a few well observed urban areas, and in most of the cases, the output distributions were found to be within ranges of the observations.
Overall, a set of efficient and robust metamodels have been generated which are capable of simulating the effects of various physical, chemical, and meteorological processing, and capable of determining the urban concentrations, mole fractions, and fluxes of species, important to human health and the climate.Federal Agencies and industries that sponsor the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change
New Stellar Cross Sections and The "Karlsruhe Astrophysical Database of Nucleosynthesis in Stars"
Since April 2005 a regularly updated stellar neutron cross section
compilation is available online at http://nuclear-astrophysics.fzk.de/kadonis.
This online-database is called the "Karlsruhe Astrophysical Database of
Nucleosynthesis in Stars" project and is based on the previous Bao et al.
compilation from the year 2000. The present version \textsc{KADoNiS} v0.2
(January 2007) includes recommended cross sections for 280 isotopes between
H and Po and 75 semi-empirical estimates for isotopes without
experimental information. Concerning stellar cross sections of the
32 stable, proton-rich isotopes produced by the process experimental
information is only available for 20 isotopes, but 9 of them have rather large
uncertainties of 9%. The first part of a systematic study of stellar
cross sections of the -process isotopes Se, Sr,
Pd, Te, Ba, Ba, Dy, and Hf is
presented. In another application \textsc{KADoNiS} v0.2 was used for an
modification of a reaction library of Basel university. With this modified
library -process network calculations were carried out and compared to
previous results.Comment: Proceedings "International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and
Technology 2007", Nice/ Franc
Regional deposits and demographic changes
This paper empirically analyzes the relationship between regional deposits and demographic changes. Using different types of deposit data from Japan which has experienced a sharp increase in the number of retirees, we provide clear evidence that an increase in the dependency ratio is negatively correlated with overall deposits but positively with the most liquid deposits.Regional deposits, Demographic changes, Panel cointegration, Panel DOLS
An Analysis of materials suitable for use as a pitfall trap in a desert environment
The purpose of this study is to identify a type of pitfall trap container that can withstand the temperature extremes of the Mojave Desert in which the terrestrial, or above ground, drift fence with pitfall traps will be utilized for trapping reptiles. A pitfall trap is a container, such as a plastic bucket with a plastic lid, that is buried in the ground up to the lip of the bucket and used to catch small ground dwelling fauna that fall into the trap. Many different pitfall trap materials have been utilized in the trapping of small ground-dwelling fauna. Plastic has been the most common material used in pitfall trap containers, or buckets, in many different climates around the world. However, plastic is probably a very inefficient material for pitfall trap containers utilized in a desert environment due to extremely dry conditions and extreme temperature fluctuations.
Pitfall trap containers have been used for trapping small ground-dwelling fauna in many regions of the world. Plastic pitfall trap containers have been a common trapping method utilized for trapping small ground-dwelling fauna. Plastic buckets and other containers are used in reptile surveys in order for scientists to survey the health and well being of individual reptiles. Reptiles are examined, weighed and measured
Academic libraries and learning support in the electronic environment
Learning and teaching techniques are changing in the new electronic environment. Students are asked to gather information from different sources, most of them in electronic formats. Libraries have to adapt their buildings and services to meet their users needs continuously. Amongst the means librarians have included to support learning are electronic based information and learning resources, a better provision of IT technologies, working environments for different types of learning, digital reference services, information literacy skills and the possibility of accessing all these facilities, resources and services at any time. The conclusion indicates that librarians should continuously improve electronic information and learning resources, as well as discovering new ways to approach students
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