363 research outputs found
Special Article: Physical Activity, Physical Fitness, and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Childhood
In adults, physical activity and exercise training are associated with reduced cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, a reduced likelihood of developing adverse cardiovascular risk factors, and improved insulin sensitivity. In childhood, participation in appropriate physical activity may prevent the development of cardiovascular risk factors in the future and complement treatment of existing cardiovascular risk factors, including hypertension, dyslipidemia, and overweight. Exercise in children can also significantly improve insulin sensitivity independent of weight loss. These e fects are mediated in overweight children by increases in lean body mass relative to fat mass and associated improvements in inflammatory mediators, endothelial function, and the associated adverse hormonal milieu
ROBIS: A new tool to assess risk of bias in systematic reviews was developed
AbstractObjectiveTo develop ROBIS, a new tool for assessing the risk of bias in systematic reviews (rather than in primary studies).Study Design and SettingWe used four-stage approach to develop ROBIS: define the scope, review the evidence base, hold a face-to-face meeting, and refine the tool through piloting.ResultsROBIS is currently aimed at four broad categories of reviews mainly within health care settings: interventions, diagnosis, prognosis, and etiology. The target audience of ROBIS is primarily guideline developers, authors of overviews of systematic reviews (“reviews of reviews”), and review authors who might want to assess or avoid risk of bias in their reviews. The tool is completed in three phases: (1) assess relevance (optional), (2) identify concerns with the review process, and (3) judge risk of bias. Phase 2 covers four domains through which bias may be introduced into a systematic review: study eligibility criteria; identification and selection of studies; data collection and study appraisal; and synthesis and findings. Phase 3 assesses the overall risk of bias in the interpretation of review findings and whether this considered limitations identified in any of the phase 2 domains. Signaling questions are included to help judge concerns with the review process (phase 2) and the overall risk of bias in the review (phase 3); these questions flag aspects of review design related to the potential for bias and aim to help assessors judge risk of bias in the review process, results, and conclusions.ConclusionsROBIS is the first rigorously developed tool designed specifically to assess the risk of bias in systematic reviews
Mood instability, mental illness and suicidal ideas : results from a household survey
Purpose:
There is weak and inconsistent evidence that mood instability (MI) is associated with depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicidality although the basis of this is unclear. Our objectives were first to test whether there is an association between depression and PTSD, and MI and secondly whether MI exerts an independent effect on suicidal thinking over and above that explained by common mental disorders.
Methods:
We used data from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2007 (N = 7,131). Chi-square tests were used to examine associations between depression and PTSD, and MI, followed by regression modelling to examine associations between MI and depression, and with PTSD. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to assess the independent effect of MI on suicidal thinking, after adjustment for demographic factors and the effects of common mental disorder diagnoses.
Results:
There are high rates of MI in depression and PTSD and the presence of MI increases the odds of depression by 10.66 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 7.51–15.13] and PTSD by 8.69 (95 % CI 5.90–12.79), respectively, after adjusting for other factors. Mood instability independently explained suicidal thinking, multiplying the odds by nearly five (odds ratio 4.82; 95 % CI 3.39–6.85), and was individually by some way the most important single factor in explaining suicidal thoughts.
Conclusions:
MI is strongly associated with depression and PTSD. In people with common mental disorders MI is clinically significant as it acts as an additional factor exacerbating the risk of suicidal thinking. It is important to enquire about MI as part of clinical assessment and treatment studies are required
Adaptive Management and the Value of Information: Learning Via Intervention in Epidemiology
Optimal intervention for disease outbreaks is often impeded by severe scientific uncertainty. Adaptive management (AM), long-used in natural resource management, is a structured decision-making approach to solving dynamic problems that accounts for the value of resolving uncertainty via real-time evaluation of alternative models. We propose an AM approach to design and evaluate intervention strategies in epidemiology, using real-time surveillance to resolve model uncertainty as management proceeds, with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) culling and measles vaccination as case studies. We use simulations of alternative intervention strategies under competing models to quantify the effect of model uncertainty on decision making, in terms of the value of information, and quantify the benefit of adaptive versus static intervention strategies. Culling decisions during the 2001 UK FMD outbreak were contentious due to uncertainty about the spatial scale of transmission. The expected benefit of resolving this uncertainty prior to a new outbreak on a UK-like landscape would be £45–£60 million relative to the strategy that minimizes livestock losses averaged over alternate transmission models. AM during the outbreak would be expected to recover up to £20.1 million of this expected benefit. AM would also recommend a more conservative initial approach (culling of infected premises and dangerous contact farms) than would a fixed strategy (which would additionally require culling of contiguous premises). For optimal targeting of measles vaccination, based on an outbreak in Malawi in 2010, AM allows better distribution of resources across the affected region; its utility depends on uncertainty about both the at-risk population and logistical capacity. When daily vaccination rates are highly constrained, the optimal initial strategy is to conduct a small, quick campaign; a reduction in expected burden of approximately 10,000 cases could result if campaign targets can be updated on the basis of the true susceptible population. Formal incorporation of a policy to update future management actions in response to information gained in the course of an outbreak can change the optimal initial response and result in significant cost savings. AM provides a framework for using multiple models to facilitate public-health decision making and an objective basis for updating management actions in response to improved scientific understanding
The Vehicle, Spring 2013
Vol. 54, Issue 1
Table of Contents
About Face!: A Confederacy of ClichesKaren Neuberg page 8
HopeJames Coxpage 9
IN or OUTTaryn DeVriespage 12
The Imagination of a ChildMaxwell Collinspage 16
How Free to be a TreeLeann Kirchnerpage 18
CrowsValentina Canopage 19
Old West PhotosFred Pollackpage 20
Lava LampFred Pollackpage 21
Mort MotGerry Mark Nortonpage 23
If ILaura Adrianpage 24
Finding my MonkeyDavid Lewitzkypage 25
Slow DragDavid Lewitzkypage 26
Political ScienceElizabeth Marlowpage 27
...Were Punctuated By...Elizabeth Marlowpage 28
St. E Pt 1Elizabeth Marlowpage 29
The Steamboat CaptainElizabeth Marlowpage 30
Pretty EyesRyan Sheapage 31
The World is RoundRyan Sheapage 32
End SongsJason Graffpage 33
The Sensitive Youth Grows UpRichard King Perkins IIpage 41
Colors and LightKyle Owenspage 42
RE-TARDKarlyn Thayerpage 44
Where Is Waldo?Riley Parishpage 57
Beneath Shifting SoundsHolly Daypage 58
Talking Shop with Mike Kardospage 60
Winnie Davis Neely Award winner:
Paper CutsGregory Robert Petersonpage 68
Paper-Mache PoetryGregory Robert Petersonpage 69
James K. Johnson Award winners:
ValveChristopher Robinsonpage 72
Dear MotherEliot Thompsonpage 76
Why Are There Bars on the WindowsEliot Thompsonpage 77
To Be a ScholarEliot Thompsonpage 79
OccidentalEliot Thompsonpage 80
Falling is for the ClumsyEliot Thompsonpage 81
Scary MonstersC. David Banyaipage 83
I Called My Grandmother DollyRashelle Spearpage 90
Tender FleshH R Greenpage 92
Faking ItShelby Koehnepage 95
Contributor\u27s notespage 101https://thekeep.eiu.edu/vehicle/1095/thumbnail.jp
The Vehicle, Spring 2013
Vol. 54, Issue 1
Table of Contents
About Face!: A Confederacy of ClichesKaren Neuberg page 8
HopeJames Coxpage 9
IN or OUTTaryn DeVriespage 12
The Imagination of a ChildMaxwell Collinspage 16
How Free to be a TreeLeann Kirchnerpage 18
CrowsValentina Canopage 19
Old West PhotosFred Pollackpage 20
Lava LampFred Pollackpage 21
Mort MotGerry Mark Nortonpage 23
If ILaura Adrianpage 24
Finding my MonkeyDavid Lewitzkypage 25
Slow DragDavid Lewitzkypage 26
Political ScienceElizabeth Marlowpage 27
...Were Punctuated By...Elizabeth Marlowpage 28
St. E Pt 1Elizabeth Marlowpage 29
The Steamboat CaptainElizabeth Marlowpage 30
Pretty EyesRyan Sheapage 31
The World is RoundRyan Sheapage 32
End SongsJason Graffpage 33
The Sensitive Youth Grows UpRichard King Perkins IIpage 41
Colors and LightKyle Owenspage 42
RE-TARDKarlyn Thayerpage 44
Where Is Waldo?Riley Parishpage 57
Beneath Shifting SoundsHolly Daypage 58
Talking Shop with Mike Kardospage 60
Winnie Davis Neely Award winner:
Paper CutsGregory Robert Petersonpage 68
Paper-Mache PoetryGregory Robert Petersonpage 69
James K. Johnson Award winners:
ValveChristopher Robinsonpage 72
Dear MotherEliot Thompsonpage 76
Why Are There Bars on the WindowsEliot Thompsonpage 77
To Be a ScholarEliot Thompsonpage 79
OccidentalEliot Thompsonpage 80
Falling is for the ClumsyEliot Thompsonpage 81
Scary MonstersC. David Banyaipage 83
I Called My Grandmother DollyRashelle Spearpage 90
Tender FleshH R Greenpage 92
Faking ItShelby Koehnepage 95
Contributor\u27s notespage 101https://thekeep.eiu.edu/vehicle/1095/thumbnail.jp
Lithic technological responses to Late Pleistocene glacial cycling at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, South Africa
There are multiple hypotheses for human responses to glacial cycling in the Late Pleistocene, including changes in population size, interconnectedness, and mobility. Lithic technological analysis informs us of human responses to environmental change because lithic assemblage characteristics are a reflection of raw material transport, reduction, and discard behaviors that depend on hunter-gatherer social and economic decisions. Pinnacle Point Site 5-6 (PP5-6), Western Cape, South Africa is an ideal locality for examining the influence of glacial cycling on early modern human behaviors because it preserves a long sequence spanning marine isotope stages (MIS) 5, 4, and 3 and is associated with robust records of paleoenvironmental change. The analysis presented here addresses the question, what, if any, lithic assemblage traits at PP5-6 represent changing behavioral responses to the MIS 5-4-3 interglacial-glacial cycle? It statistically evaluates changes in 93 traits with no a priori assumptions about which traits may significantly associate with MIS. In contrast to other studies that claim that there is little relationship between broad-scale patterns of climate change and lithic technology, we identified the following characteristics that are associated with MIS 4: increased use of quartz, increased evidence for outcrop sources of quartzite and silcrete, increased evidence for earlier stages of reduction in silcrete, evidence for increased flaking efficiency in all raw material types, and changes in tool types and function for silcrete. Based on these results, we suggest that foragers responded to MIS 4 glacial environmental conditions at PP5-6 with increased population or group sizes, 'place provisioning', longer and/or more intense site occupations, and decreased residential mobility. Several other traits, including silcrete frequency, do not exhibit an association with MIS. Backed pieces, once they appear in the PP5-6 record during MIS 4, persist through MIS 3. Changing paleoenvironments explain some, but not all temporal technological variability at PP5-6.Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada; NORAM; American-Scandinavian Foundation; Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia [SFRH/BPD/73598/2010]; IGERT [DGE 0801634]; Hyde Family Foundations; Institute of Human Origins; National Science Foundation [BCS-9912465, BCS-0130713, BCS-0524087, BCS-1138073]; John Templeton Foundation to the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State Universit
Supraglacial ponds regulate runoff from Himalayan debris-covered glaciers
Meltwater and runoff from glaciers in High Mountain Asia is a vital freshwater resource for one fifth of the Earth's population. Between 13% and 36% of the region's glacierized areas exhibit surface debris cover and associated supraglacial ponds whose hydrological buffering roles remain unconstrained. We present a high-resolution meltwater hydrograph from the extensively debris-covered Khumbu Glacier, Nepal, spanning a seven-month period in 2014. Supraglacial ponds and accompanying debris cover modulate proglacial discharge by acting as transient and evolving reservoirs. Diurnally, the supraglacial pond system may store >23% of observed mean daily discharge, with mean recession constants ranging from 31 to 108 hours. Given projections of increased debris-cover and supraglacial pond extent across High Mountain Asia, we conclude that runoff regimes may become progressively buffered by the presence of supraglacial reservoirs. Incorporation of these processes is critical to improve predictions of the region's freshwater resource availability and cascading environmental effects downstream
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SERDP ER-1376 Enhancement of In Situ Bioremediation of Energetic Compounds by Coupled Abiotic/Biotic Processes:Final Report for 2004 - 2006
This project was initiated by SERDP to quantify processes and determine the effectiveness of abiotic/biotic mineralization of energetics (RDX, HMX, TNT) in aquifer sediments by combinations of biostimulation (carbon, trace nutrient additions) and chemical reduction of sediment to create a reducing environment. Initially it was hypothesized that a balance of chemical reduction of sediment and biostimulation would increase the RDX, HMX, and TNT mineralization rate significantly (by a combination of abiotic and biotic processes) so that this abiotic/biotic treatment may be a more efficient for remediation than biotic treatment alone in some cases. Because both abiotic and biotic processes are involved in energetic mineralization in sediments, it was further hypothesized that consideration for both abiotic reduction and microbial growth was need to optimize the sediment system for the most rapid mineralization rate. Results show that there are separate optimal abiotic/biostimulation aquifer sediment treatments for RDX/HMX and for TNT. Optimal sediment treatment for RDX and HMX (which have chemical similarities and similar degradation pathways) is mainly chemical reduction of sediment, which increased the RDX/HMX mineralization rate 100 to150 times (relative to untreated sediment), with additional carbon or trace nutrient addition, which increased the RDX/HMX mineralization rate an additional 3 to 4 times. In contrast, the optimal aquifer sediment treatment for TNT involves mainly biostimulation (glucose addition), which stimulates a TNT/glucose cometabolic degradation pathway (6.8 times more rapid than untreated sediment), degrading TNT to amino-intermediates that irreversibly sorb (i.e., end product is not CO2). The TNT mass migration risk is minimized by these transformation reactions, as the triaminotoluene and 2,4- and 2,6-diaminonitrotoluene products that irreversibly sorb are no longer mobile in the subsurface environment. These transformation rates are increased 13 times further by chemical reduction of sediment. Dithionite reduction alone is not an effective treatment for TNT (intermediates that irreversibly sorb are not produced), even though the TNT degradation rate (to 2- or 4-aminodinitrotoluene) increases
Physics of the AGS-to ?RHIC Transfer Line Commissioning
This paper presents beam physics results from the fall 1995 AGS-to- RHIC (ATR) transfer line commissioning run with fully ionized gold nuclei. We first describe beam position monitors and transverse video profile monitors, instrumentation relevant to measurements performed during this commissioning. Measured and corrected beam trajectories demonstrate agreement with design optics to a few percent, including optical transfer functions and beamline dispersion. Digitized 2- dimensional video profile monitors were used to measure beam emittance, and beamline optics and AGS gold ion beam parameters are shown to be comparable to RHIC design requirements
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