NGOs, Turnout, and the Left: A Sub-national Analysis of Brazil

This article is designed to examine the role non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play in politics. Previous evidence suggests that NGOs mobilize communities to challenge existing patterns of authority or that they serve hand in glove with existing elites. We reconcile these two contradictory findings by identifying an important contextual feature that helps determine the extent NGOs mobilize or anesthetize. We argue that a community’s level of education influences not only whether people vote but how they vote. We employ a cross-sectional data set from Brazilian municipalities that allows us to estimate the relationship between NGOs, voting turnout, and electoral results. We find that although there is a significant statistical interaction between literacy and NGOs when explaining voting turnout, the effect is not substantively important. The interaction between literacy and NGOs is, however, an important consideration in determining how people vote: in communities with relatively low literacy rates, a robust NGO presence significantly increases the left’s electoral fortunes. Our findings imply the influence NGOs have on society is more political than social

Preferences and emotional response to weight-related terminology used by healthcare professionals to describe body weight in people living with overweight and obesity

Previous studies have explored people's perceptions of weight-related terminology; however, to date, limited data has explored the emotional response to weight-related terms used by healthcare professionals (HCPs). This study explored the preferences and emotional responses of terms used by HCPs to describe body weight and of parents to describe their children's weight. A total of 2911 adults completed an online cross-sectional survey, with 1693 living with overweight or obesity (mean age 49.2 years [SD 12.5], female (96%), median body mass index (BMI) 31.4 kg/m^{2} [28.1, 36.5]). The survey explored preferences of 22 weight-related terms using a 5-point Likert scale and their emotional response to these terms (using 7-core emotions). Parents also indicated preferences and emotional responses to terms used to describe their children's weight. Respondents completed the modified weight bias internalization scale to examine how this may impacted preferences. 'Weight', "unhealthy weight" and "overweight" were the three preferred terms, while "super obese", "chubby", and "extra-large" were least preferred in people living with overweight and obesity. Parents preferred 'weight', "unhealthy weight" and "body mass index", and least preferred "fat", "extra-large" and "extremely obese" when describing their children's weight. All terms elicited a negative emotional response. The most commonly emotion was sadness for terms to describe adult's bodyweight, and anger for terms used to describe children's weight. All BMI categories reported disgust with terms incorporating "obese". Our results offer novel insight into the preferred terminology and emotional responses to terminology used by HCPs for both adults and parents to describe their children's weight

Exploring the awareness, attitudes, and actions (AAA) of UK adults at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19

Background: People at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19 have experienced greater restrictions during the pandemic, yet there is a paucity of research exploring their lived experience. / Objectives: This study explored the impact of COVID-19 on people identified as at high risk of severe illness by UK Government, and in particular, the impact of the first lockdown on access to healthcare, medications and use of technological platforms. / Methods: 1038 UK adults who identified as at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19 in line with UK Government guidance or self-identified with acute or other chronic health conditions, completed the Awareness, Attitudes and Actions survey which explored the impact of COVID-19 on access to healthcare, management of long-term health condition, mental health, and health behaviours. / Results: Most participants reported feelings of vulnerability, anxiety and isolation, noticed that other people changed their behaviour towards them including a feeling of being stigmatised by people not categorised as high risk. Participants described the largely negative impact that the COVID-19 lockdown had on to health-related behaviours and access to healthcare, which had resulted in large declines in mental health and wellbeing. Participants also indicated disappointment at the UK Governments response and handling of the COVID-19 lockdown. / Implications: This study provides novel evidence of the lived experience of the first COVID-19 lockdown for people identified as at high risk of severe illness. In the context of behavioural health interventions, the ubiquity of digital technologies and their adoption into day-to-day life translates into greater potential reach than traditional interventions, and consequently, greater potential for positive public health impact. Findings should be considered by policymakers and healthcare professionals to support people now and as we transition through the recovery phase with a particular emphasis on supporting mental health and changes to the management of long-term health conditions

Chaos in the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence

We study the motion of a string in the background of the Schwarzschild black hole in AdS_5 by applying the standard arsenal of dynamical systems. Our description of the phase space includes: the power spectrum, the largest Lyapunov exponent, Poincare sections and basins of attractions. We find convincing evidence that the motion is chaotic. We discuss the implications of some of the quantities associated with chaotic systems for aspects of the gauge/gravity correspondence. In particular, we suggest some potential relevance for the information loss paradox.Comment: 29 pages, 11 figure

Cross-sectional analysis to explore the awareness, attitudes and actions of UK adults at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19

OBJECTIVES: This study explored the impact of COVID-19 on people identified as at high risk of severe illness by UK government, and in particular, the impact of lockdown on access to healthcare, medications and use of technological platforms. DESIGN: Online survey methodology. SETTING: UK. PARTICIPANTS: 1038 UK adults were recruited who were either identified by UK government as at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19 or self-identified as at high risk with acute or other chronic health conditions not included in the UK government list. Participants were recruited through social media advertisements, health charities and patient organisations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The awareness, attitudes and actions survey which explores the impact of COVID-19, on including access to healthcare, use of technology for health condition management, mental health, depression, well-being and lifestyle behaviours. RESULTS: Nearly half of the sample (44.5%) reported that their mental health had worsened during the COVID-19 lockdown. Management of health conditions changed including access to medications (28.5%) and delayed surgery (11.9%), with nearly half of the sample using telephone care (45.5%). Artificial Intelligence identified that participants in the negative cluster had higher neuroticism, insecurity and negative sentiment. Participants in this cluster reported more negative impacts on lifestyle behaviours, higher depression and lower well-being, alongside lower satisfaction with platforms to deliver healthcare. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides novel evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on people identified as at high risk of severe illness. These findings should be considered by policy-makers and healthcare professionals to avoid unintended consequences of continued restrictions and future pandemic responses

Negative impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown upon health-related behaviours and psychological wellbeing in people living with severe and complex obesity in the UK

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to unprecedented changes in the way we live, particularly for people at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19. People with pre-existing health conditions have been markedly impacted and, in some instances, left unsupported due to reduced provision of routine healthcare services. People living with obesity (PLWO) are identified as at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection. Currently, there is a paucity of evidence about the impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown on PLWO, including those accessing weight management and bariatric surgery services (WMS). METHODS: 543 adults (16–80 years) with obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) were recruited between 14th May and 9th July 2020 through social media advertisements, professional and patient obesity organisations and WMS. Participants completed an online survey regarding the impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown upon, mental health, well-being, health-related behaviours, risk mitigating behaviours, access to WMS and weight stigma. FINDINGS: During the first COVID-19 lockdown, the majority of PLWO reported deterioration of their mental health and health-related behaviours such as diet, physical activity (PA) and sleep. With 55% reporting an unhealthier diet, 61% reduced PA and 80% worsening of their sleep. Higher depression and lower wellbeing scores were found to associate with the greatest adverse impact upon health-related behaviours. PLWO who were attending WMS prior to the first lockdown reported a greater deterioration of their diet, with nearly 50% reporting worsening of their diet and PA worsening compared to PLWO who were not attending WMS. Most participants took two or more risk mitigating actions (73%). PLWO attending WMS reported reduced access (44%) with insufficient information (49%) from their clinical service providers. The majority of participants reported no change in perceived weight stigma. INTERPRETATION: This study shows the detrimental impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown on PLWO in relation to health-related behaviours, mental health and access to WMS. Our findings show that PLWO with poor mental health and those attending WMS were most adversely impacted and highlights the need for greater mental health support and continued provision of support from WMS for PLWO during future lockdowns. FUNDING: This research was funded through National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre funding

Hydrodynamic simulations of shell convection in stellar cores

Shell convection driven by nuclear burning in a stellar core is a common hydrodynamic event in the evolution of many types of stars. We encounter and simulate this convection (i) in the helium core of a low-mass red giant during core helium flash leading to a dredge-down of protons across an entropy barrier, (ii) in a carbon-oxygen core of an intermediate-mass star during core carbon flash, and (iii) in the oxygen and carbon burning shell above the silicon-sulfur rich core of a massive star prior to supernova explosion. Our results, which were obtained with the hydrodynamics code HERAKLES, suggest that both entropy gradients and entropy barriers are less important for stellar structure than commonly assumed. Our simulations further reveal a new dynamic mixing process operating below the base of shell convection zones.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures .. submitted to a proceedings of conference about "Red Giants as Probes of the Structure and Evolution of the Milky Way" which has taken place between 15-17 November 2010 in Rom

Programming Model to Develop Supercomputer Combinatorial Solvers

© 2017 IEEE. Novel architectures for massively parallel machines offer better scalability and the prospect of achieving linear speedup for sizable problems in many domains. The development of suitable programming models and accompanying software tools for these architectures remains one of the biggest challenges towards exploiting their full potential. We present a multi-layer software abstraction model to develop combinatorial solvers on massively-parallel machines with regular topologies. The model enables different challenges in the design and optimization of combinatorial solvers to be tackled independently (separation of concerns) while permitting problem-specific tuning and cross-layer optimization. In specific, the model decouples the issues of inter-node communication, n ode-level scheduling, problem mapping, mesh-level load balancing and expressing problem logic. We present an implementation of the model and use it to profile a Boolean satisfiability solver on simulated massively-parallel machines with different scales and topologies

The action for higher spin black holes in three dimensions

In the context of (2+1)--dimensional Chern-Simons SL(N,R)\times SL(N,R) gauge fields and spin N black holes we compute the on-shell action and show that it generates sensible and consistent thermodynamics. In particular, the Chern-Simons action solves the integrability conditions recently considered in the literature.Comment: Paper shortened and generalized. Main results unchanged. 25 pages, Latex, no figure