ShopSmart 4 Health - protocol of a skills-based randomised controlled trial promoting fruit and vegetable consumption among socioeconomically disadvantaged women

BackgroundThere is a need for evidence on the most effective and cost-effective approaches for promoting healthy eating among groups that do not meet dietary recommendations for good health, such as those with low incomes or experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. This paper describes the ShopSmart 4 Health study, a randomised controlled trial conducted by Deakin University, Coles Supermarkets and the Heart Foundation, to investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a skill-building intervention for promoting increased purchasing and consumption of fruits and vegetables amongst women of low socioeconomic position (SEP).Methods/designShopSmart 4 Health employed a randomised controlled trial design. Women aged 18&ndash;60 years, holding a Coles store loyalty card, who shopped at Coles stores within socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods and met low-income eligibility criteria were invited to participate. Consenting women completed a baseline survey assessing food shopping and eating habits and food-related behaviours and attitudes. On receipt of their completed survey, women were randomised to either a skill-building intervention or a wait-list control condition. Intervention effects will be evaluated via self-completion surveys and using supermarket transaction sales data, collected at pre- and post-intervention and 6-month follow-up. An economic evaluation from a societal perspective using a cost-consequences approach will compare the costs and outcomes between intervention and control groups. Process evaluation will be undertaken to identify perceived value and effects of intervention components.DiscussionThis study will provide data to address the currently limited evidence base regarding the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of skill-building intervention strategies aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption among socioeconomically disadvantaged women, a target group at high risk of poor diets.<br /

Integrated modelling of the thermal, chemical and geomechanical processes in underground coal gasification

The considerate focus on unconventional fossil fuel resources is a natural consequence of emerging global energy requirements and the ever more limited opportunities to deploy new conventional resources. Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) is an unconventional method for recovering energy from coal resources through in-situ conversion to gas. An oxidising gas agent is injected to initiate and sustain the in-situ coal gasification. The quality of the collected product syngas is characterised by its carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2) and methane (CH4) content. However, as it is an unconventional method of energy production it evolves through research conducted through modelling studies, laboratory and in-situ trials which support this evolution process. The purpose of this PhD research project is to identify and model the critical parameters which will give increased control on the underground process and ultimately the composition of the final syngas product. In order to achieve this objective, it is necessary to breakdown the UCG process to interrelated stages and design component models that realistically simulate the chemical and physical processes that take place. In the core of the UCG lays the coal gasification process and the simultaneous cavity growth within the coal seam and these will be studied as part of this PhD research. An integrated simulation methodology, which considers the thermal, chemical and geomechanical processes has led to the development of the coupled Thermo-Mechanical-Chemical (TMC) model. Experimental and literature data is used to validate and calibrate the developed models. In addition to increased understanding of the UCG process and its control, this research allows for UCG investors to maximise the financial value sourced from the end-product gas as well as reduce the risk of making unprofitable investments. A number of geologically representative UCG scenarios are simulated through the developed TMC model. The scenarios aim at evaluating the impact of various operational parameters to the UCG operation. The coal panel thickness, the panel depth below the surface, the operating pressure, the type of the injected agent as well as the type of coal where UCG takes place are among the tested parameters. The simulation methodology is based on coupling two industry standard simulators, Advanced System for Process ENgineering (ASPEN) Plus, used for the thermo-chemical simulation, and FLAC3D, which enables the thermo-mechanical simulation of the UCG process. The coupling of the two simulation tools is achieved through sequential interchange of data and through the development of an additional transitional Gasification Support module. The Gasification Support module facilitates the exchange of data between the two simulators and focus on the participating heat and mass transport phenomena within the growing UCG cavity. Principally, the Aspen Plus model simulates the chemical processes taking place in the coal seam and focuses on the thermodynamic, mass and heat transfer modelling components in order to calculate the amount of produced heat, as well as gas under restricted Gibbs minimisation and equilibrium conditions. In addition to the different chemical reactors that constitute the Aspen Plus model constructed, calculator blocks written in Fortran code were introduced to regulate modelling performance in line with experimental data. The Aspen Plus simulation also facilitated the development of different process designs depending on the employed UCG layout (i.e. Linked Vertical Wells, Continuous Retracting Injection Point). The FLAC3D model reflects realistically the 3D spatial features of a gasified coal seam underground. This module produces the resulting thermo-mechanical stress distributions on the coal seam and the surrounding strata, taking account of both mechanical failure and coal spalling effects, heat transfer rates within the cavity and the surrounding strata. The cavity growth modelling results include the extent and the growth rate of the developing UCG cavity given the specified operational parameters such as the coal characteristics (e.g. composition, formation thickness, depth), the composition of reagents injected (i.e. air, oxygen, steam) and the feed rate, the pressure, the gasification and the combustion temperatures. In addition, the UCG product gas characteristics (e.g. composition, heating value) and the participating heat and mass transfer phenomena are also analysed in comparison with the operational parameters of the UCG process.Open Acces

EXPLORING NEURAL NETWORK DEFENSES WITH ADVERSARIAL MIXUP

Neural networks (NNs) are vulnerable to adversarial examples, and extensive research is aimed at detecting them. However, detecting adversarial examples is not easy, even with the construction of new loss functions in a network. In this study, we introduce the Adversarial Mix up (AdvMix) network, a neural network that adds a None of the Above (NOTA) class on top of the existing classes to isolate the space where adversarial examples exist. We investigate the effectiveness of AdvMix in improving the robustness of models trained on deep neural networks against adversarial attacks by detecting them. We experimented with various data augmentation techniques and trained nine different models. Our findings show that using an AdvMix network can significantly improve the performance of models against various attacks while achieving better accuracy on benign examples. We were able to increase the accuracy of the vanilla model from 91% to 95% and improve the model's robustness. In many cases, we were able to eliminate the vulnerability of models against some popular and efficient attacks.Captain, Hellenic ArmyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Characteristics and determinants of endurance cycle ergometry and six-minute walk distance in patients with COPD

BACKGROUND: Exercise tolerance can be assessed by the cycle endurance test (CET) and six-minute walk test (6MWT) in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). We sought to investigate the characteristics of functional exercise performance and determinants of the CET and 6MWT in a large clinical cohort of COPD patients. METHODS: A dataset of 2053 COPD patients (43% female, age: 66.9 ± 9.5 years, FEV(1)% predicted: 48.2 ± 23.2) was analyzed retrospectively. Patients underwent, amongst others, respiratory function evaluation; medical tests and questionnaires, one maximal incremental cycle test where peak work rate was determined and two functional exercise tests: a CET at 75% of peak work rate and 6MWT. A stepwise multiple linear regression was used to assess determinants. RESULTS: On average, patients had impaired exercise tolerance (peak work rate: 56 ± 27% predicted, 6MWT: 69 ± 17% predicted). A total of 2002 patients had CET time of duration (CET-T(end)) less than 20 min while only 51 (2.5%) of the patients achieved 20 min of CET-T(end) . In former patients, the percent of predicted peak work rate achieved differed significantly between men (48 ± 21% predicted) and women (67 ± 31% predicted). In contrast, CET-T(end) was longer in men (286 ± 174 s vs 250 ± 153 s, p < 0.001). Also, six minute walking distance (6MWD) was higher in men compared to women, both in absolute terms as in percent of predicted (443 m, 67%predicted vs 431 m, 72%predicted, p < 0.05). Gender was associated with the CET-T(end) but BMI, FEV(1) and FRC were related to the 6MWD highlighting the different determinants of exercise performance between CET and 6MWT. CONCLUSIONS: CET-T(end) is a valuable outcome of CET as it is related to multiple clinical aspects of disease severity in COPD. Gender difference should temper the interpretation of CET

Growth differentiation factor-15 is associated with muscle mass in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and promotes muscle wasting in vivo.

BACKGROUND: Loss of muscle mass is a co-morbidity common to a range of chronic diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Several systemic features of COPD including increased inflammatory signalling, oxidative stress, and hypoxia are known to increase the expression of growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15), a protein associated with muscle wasting in other diseases. We therefore hypothesized that GDF-15 may contribute to muscle wasting in COPD. METHODS: We determined the expression of GDF-15 in the serum and muscle of patients with COPD and analysed the association of GDF-15 expression with muscle mass and exercise performance. To determine whether GDF-15 had a direct effect on muscle, we also determined the effect of increased GDF-15 expression on the tibialis anterior of mice by electroporation. RESULTS: Growth differentiation factor-15 was increased in the circulation and muscle of COPD patients compared with controls. Circulating GDF-15 was inversely correlated with rectus femoris cross-sectional area (P < 0.001) and exercise capacity (P < 0.001) in two separate cohorts of patients but was not associated with body mass index. GDF-15 levels were associated with 8-oxo-dG in the circulation of patients consistent with a role for oxidative stress in the production of this protein. Local over-expression of GDF-15 in mice caused wasting of the tibialis anterior muscle that expressed it but not in the contralateral muscle suggesting a direct effect of GDF-15 on muscle mass (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Together, the data suggest that GDF-15 contributes to the loss of muscle mass in COPD

β-glucan-dependent shuttling of conidia from neutrophils to macrophages occurs during fungal infection establishment

The initial host response to fungal pathogen invasion is critical to infection establishment and outcome. However, the diversity of leukocyte-pathogen interactions is only recently being appreciated. We describe a new form of interleukocyte conidial exchange called "shuttling." In Talaromyces marneffei and Aspergillus fumigatus zebrafish in vivo infections, live imaging demonstrated conidia initially phagocytosed by neutrophils were transferred to macrophages. Shuttling is unidirectional, not a chance event, and involves alterations of phagocyte mobility, intercellular tethering, and phagosome transfer. Shuttling kinetics were fungal-species-specific, implicating a fungal determinant. β-glucan serves as a fungal-derived signal sufficient for shuttling. Murine phagocytes also shuttled in vitro. The impact of shuttling for microbiological outcomes of in vivo infections is difficult to specifically assess experimentally, but for these two pathogens, shuttling augments initial conidial redistribution away from fungicidal neutrophils into the favorable macrophage intracellular niche. Shuttling is a frequent host-pathogen interaction contributing to fungal infection establishment patterns

Cloning and analysis of the positively acting regulatory gene amdR from Aspergillus nidulans.

The positively acting regulatory gene amdR of Aspergillus nidulans coordinately regulates the expression of four unlinked structural genes involved in acetamide (amdS), omega amino acid (gatA and gabA), and lactam (lamA) catabolism. By the use of DNA-mediated transformation of A. nidulans, the amdR regulatory gene was cloned from a genomic cosmid library. Southern blot analysis of DNA from various loss-of-function amdR mutants revealed the presence of four detectable DNA rearrangements, including a deletion, an insertion, and a translocation. No detectable DNA rearrangements were found in several constitutive amdRc mutants. Analysis of the fate of amdR-bearing plasmids in transformants showed that 10 to 20% of the transformation events were homologous integrations or gene conversions, and this phenomenon was exploited in developing a strategy by which amdRc and amdR- alleles can be readily cloned and analyzed. Examination of the transcription of amdR by Northern blot (RNA blot) analysis revealed the presence of two mRNAs (2.7 and 1.8 kilobases) which were constitutively synthesized at a very low level. In addition, amdR transcription did not appear to depend on the presence of a functional amdR product nor was it altered in amdRc mutants. The dosage effects of multiple copies of amdR in transformants were examined, and it was shown that such transformants exhibited stronger growth than did the wild type on acetamide and pyrrolidinone media, indicating increased expression of the amdS and lamA genes, respectively. These results were used to formulate a model for amdR-mediated regulation of gene expression in which the low constitutive level of amdR product sets the upper limits of basal and induced transcription of the structural genes. Multiple copies of 5' sequences from the amdS gene can result in reduced growth on substrates whose utilization is dependent on amdR-controlled genes. This has been attributed to titration of limiting amdR gene product. Strong support for this proposal was obtained by showing that multiple copies of the amdR gene can reverse this phenomenon (antititration).</jats:p

Rockfall hazard and risk assessment of road slopes.

Οι καταπτώσεις βράχων σε οδικές αρτηρίες, οδηγούν σε σημαντικές επιπτώσεις και συνεπώς είναι ιδιαίτερα σημαντική η εκτίμηση του επιπέδου της επικινδυνότητας σε πρανή οδοποιίας και η λήψη μέτρων προστασίας. Στην παρούσα εργασία συγκρίνονται οι σημαντικότερες μέθοδοι εκτίμησης της επικινδυνότητας και της διακινδύνευσης καταπτώσεων βράχων. Όσον αφορά την επικινδυνότητα, λαμβάνονται υπόψη παράμετροι όπως η γεωμετρία του πρανούς, οι κυκλοφοριακές συνθήκες, η γεωλογία και τα χαρακτηριστικά της βραχόμαζας, οι καιρικές συνθήκες, τα ιστορικά δεδομένα, κ.α. Εκτίμηση της επικινδυνότητας μπορεί επίσης να προκύψει μέσω δισδιάστατων ή τρισδιάστατων μοντέλων προσομοίωσης τροχιάς, όπου συνδυάζονται τα δεδομένα της συχνότητας βραχοπτώσεων με την κινητική ενέργεια του καταπίπτοντος τεμάχους βράχου. Όσον αφορά την εκτίμηση της διακινδύνευσης, έχουν αναπτυχθεί διάφορες μέθοδοι, που ποικίλουν από απλοϊκές προσεγγίσεις, έως ολοκληρωμένες πιθανολογικές ή ποσοτικές μέθοδοι. Τέλος, ως παράδειγμα, χρησιμοποιήθηκαν οι καταλληλότερες μέθοδοι εξ αυτών για την εκτίμηση της επικινδυνότητας και διακινδύνευσης από καταπτώσεις βράχων, σε δύο τυπικές διατομές της Εθνικής Οδού Αθηνών – Θεσσαλονίκης, στο τμήμα των Τεμπών, όπου έχουν καταγραφεί αρκετά συμβάντα καταπτώσεων βράχων τα τελευταία χρόνια.This paper presents and compares the main methods of hazard and risk assessment for road slopes. Hazard assessment is achieved by rating several parameters such as the slope’s geometry, traffic conditions, the geology and the rockmass properties, weather conditions, historical rockfall data etc. A hazard assessment can also be executed using 2D or 3D trajectory models, by combining the frequency of a rockfall and the kinetic energy of a falling rock. Several methodologies have been developed for risk assessment, varying from simplistic approaches to comprehensive probabilistic or quantitative risk assessment methods. Finally, the most suitable methods were used in order to assess the level of hazard and risk as an example (the data from two sections of the national road at Tempi Gorge, Greece) where many rockfall events occurred in the past few years