Construction and application of a questionnaire for the social scientific investigation of environmental noise effects

A social psychological questionnair has been developed to study the effects of environmental noise and was applied to 636 people living in 19 different areas of Hamburg. The theoretical foundations and the statistical means employed in its development are described. Four main reactions to noise are isolated statistically, and it is determined that these are moderated by several intervening variables, chief of which are coping capacity for noise, the perceived dangerousness of the noise souce, other daily loads and the individual's liability

Information system for monitoring, estimates and forecastes the main vital parameters of neonatal status

Certain categories of people, as well as newborn babies require constant monitoring signs of their life in hospitals or at home. The most common reason for this observation - apnea. Apnea - a condition accompanied by a lack of respiratory movements for more than 20 seconds. Caused by various factors such as the depletion of blood carbon dioxide caused by excessive ventilation, diseases such as bronchial asthma, various pulmonary diseases, snoring. This observation is particularly relevant for their newborn children. In the light of these provisions, the relevance of this work is evident and the need to address the information system for monitoring vital parameters, estimates and forecasts status of newborns as the problems of the complex. In order to observe these main basic parameters of life, we need a punctual device, which helps monitor newborns, on the one hand and, on the other hand to obtain a correct solution with respect to time in an emergency without the need for specialist or doctor. An artificial intelligence tool, which depends on machine learning, is the best modern method for this kind of information system

Long-term timing of four millisecond pulsars

We have timed four millisecond pulses, PSRs J1721-2457, J1745-0952, J1810-2005, and J1918-0642, for up to a total of 10.5 years each using multiple telescopes in the European Pulsar Timing Array network: the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in The Netherlands, the Nancay Radio Telescope in France and the Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank in the UK. The long time span has enabled us to measure the proper motions of J1745-0952 and J1918-0642, indicating that they have transverse velocities of 200(50) and 54(7) km/s respectively. We have obtained upper limits on the proper motion of J1721-2457 and J1810-2005, which imply that they have transverse velocities less than 140 and 400 km/s respectively. In all cases, the velocities lie in the range typical of millisecond pulsars. We present pulse profiles for each pulsar taken from observations at multiple frequencies in the range of 350 to 2600 MHz, and show that J1810-2005 shows significant profile evolution in this range. Using our multi-frequency observations, we measured the spectral indices for all four pulsars, and for J1810-2005 it appears to be very flat. The flux density of J1918-0642 shows extensive modulation which we attribute to the combined effects of refractive and diffractive scintillation. We discuss the possible use of including J1721-2457 or J1918-0642 in a pulsar timing array, and find that J1918-0642 will be useful to include when the timing precision of this pulsar is improved over the next few years. We have searched archival optical observations to detect companions of the binary pulsars, but none were detected. However, we provide lower limits on the masses of the white dwarf companions of PSRs J1745-0952 and J1918-0642.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic

Disturbance to the population due to flight operations at landing fields. Questionnaire on community reaction to non-commercial and sporting aviation

A field study was undertaken to determine the Sociopsychological effects of air traffic noise experienced by residents of areas near small sporting aviation fields. A questionaire was prepared which includes questions on flight restriction measures, on attitudes which moderate annoyance and on comparisons with other noise sources, etc

Gender balance in ECEC : why is there s little progres?

Social attitudes about male participation in the upbringing of children have changed considerably over the past few decades. Men are now seen as important for children’s development and learning. Research from many countries worldwide shows that in early childhood care and education (ECEC), male workers are welcomed by female colleagues and parents. In the last two decades there have been initiatives for more men in ECEC in several European countries. Nevertheless the proportion of male workers ECEC remains low worldwide. This article questions the persisting gender imbalance in ECEC and analyzes ambivalences regarding more men in the field. Based on recent gender theory, efforts and limits of strategies for more male students and workers in ECEC in Belgium, Norway and Germany are discussed. It is concluded that deeply held gendered attitudes and practices in the field of care and educational work with young children have to be put into question. More space in ECEC for embodied subjectivities is needed to overcome essentialist conceptions of differences between body and mind, women and men

Evolutionary and pulsational properties of white dwarf stars

Abridged. White dwarf stars are the final evolutionary stage of the vast majority of stars, including our Sun. The study of white dwarfs has potential applications to different fields of astrophysics. In particular, they can be used as independent reliable cosmic clocks, and can also provide valuable information about the fundamental parameters of a wide variety of stellar populations, like our Galaxy and open and globular clusters. In addition, the high densities and temperatures characterizing white dwarfs allow to use these stars as cosmic laboratories for studying physical processes under extreme conditions that cannot be achieved in terrestrial laboratories. They can be used to constrain fundamental properties of elementary particles such as axions and neutrinos, and to study problems related to the variation of fundamental constants. In this work, we review the essentials of the physics of white dwarf stars. Special emphasis is placed on the physical processes that lead to the formation of white dwarfs as well as on the different energy sources and processes responsible for chemical abundance changes that occur along their evolution. Moreover, in the course of their lives, white dwarfs cross different pulsational instability strips. The existence of these instability strips provides astronomers with an unique opportunity to peer into their internal structure that would otherwise remain hidden from observers. We will show that this allows to measure with unprecedented precision the stellar masses and to infer their envelope thicknesses, to probe the core chemical stratification, and to detect rotation rates and magnetic fields. Consequently, in this work, we also review the pulsational properties of white dwarfs and the most recent applications of white dwarf asteroseismology.Comment: 85 pages, 28 figures. To be published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Revie

Vector cavity solitons in broad area Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting lasers

We report the experimental observation of two-dimensional vector cavity solitons in a Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) under linearly polarized optical injection when varying optical injection linear polarization direction. The polarization of the cavity soliton is not the one of the optical injection as it acquires a distinct ellipticity. These experimental results are qualitatively reproduced by the spin-flip VCSEL model. Our findings open the road to polarization multiplexing when using cavity solitons in broad-area lasers as pixels in information technology

Environment-wide association study to comprehensively test and validate associations between nutrition and lifestyle factors and testosterone deficiency: NHANES 1988-1994 and 1999-2004

PURPOSE Testosterone (T) plays an important role in men's health and its deficiency is linked with poorer health. However, the role of nutritional and lifestyle factors in T regulation and production remains unclear. The objectives are to comprehensively test the cross-sectional associations of nutritional and lifestyle factors with T deficiency and to validate the associations in the NHANES survey. METHODS We performed weighted multivariable logistic regression analysis to examine the association of 173 nutritional and lifestyle factors with T deficiency (total testosterone ≤ 3.5 ng/mL) in NHANES III as the discovery set (mean age 41). We controlled for multiple comparisons with a false discovery rate (FDR) < 5% and replicated in NHANES 1999-2004 (mean age 44). RESULTS We identified seven nutritional factors as being inversely associated with T deficiency in NHANES 1999-2004, namely dietary intake of vitamin A, protein, saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, total fats, saturated fatty acid 16:0, and phosphorus. In a multivariable model, only vitamin A intake remained significantly associated with T deficiency (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.94-0.99). Principal component analysis suggested that the two principal components, (1) dietary fats, protein, and phosphorous and (2) total vitamin A, may be associated with T deficiency. CONCLUSION Our systematic evaluation provided new insight into the modifiable factors that could play a role in the regulation of T production. This study has the potential to contribute to the current body of literature which seeks to formulate a clinical definition of T deficiency after taking into account nutritional and lifestyle factors

Disgust Sensitivity and the Neurophysiology of Left- Right Political Orientations

Disgust has been described as the most primitive and central of emotions. Thus, it is not surprising that it shapes behaviors in a variety of organisms and in a variety of contexts—including homo sapien politics. People who believe they would be bothered by a range of hypothetical disgusting situations display an increased likelihood of displaying right-of-center rather than left-of-center political orientations. Given its primal nature and essential value in avoiding pathogens disgust likely has an effect even without registering in conscious beliefs. In this article, we demonstrate that individuals with marked involuntary physiological responses to disgusting images, such as of a man eating a large mouthful of writhing worms, are more likely to self-identify as conservative and, especially, to oppose gay marriage than are individuals with more muted physiological responses to the same images. This relationship holds even when controlling for the degree to which respondents believe themselves to be disgust sensitive and suggests that people’s physiological predispositions help to shape their political orientations

Obesity and male breast cancer: Provocative parallels?

While rare compared to female breast cancer the incidence of male breast cancer (MBC) has increased in the last few decades. Without comprehensive epidemiological studies, the explanation for the increased incidence of MBC can only be speculated. Nevertheless, one of the most worrying global public health issues is the exponential rise in the number of overweight and obese people, especially in the developed world. Although obesity is not considered an established risk factor for MBC, studies have shown increased incidence among obese individuals. With this observation in mind, this article highlights the correlation between the increased incidence of MBC and the current trends in obesity as a growing problem in the 21st century, including how this may impact treatment. With MBC becoming more prominent we put forward the notion that, not only is obesity a risk factor for MBC, but that increasing obesity trends are a contributing factor to its increased incidence