Caregiver awareness of reproductive health issues for women with intellectual disabilities

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Limited attention has been paid to the issue of reproductive health as it affects women with intellectual disabilities, despite reproductive health being a vital issue in public health policy for women in the general population. This paper describes caregiver awareness of reproductive health issues relative to women with intellectual disabilities who are being cared for in welfare institutions in Taiwan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study employed a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study which recruited 1,152 caregivers (response rate = 71.87%) from 32 registered disability welfare institutions in Taiwan. We classified their understanding/awareness of reproductive health issues into four domains: menstrual (1) and menopause (2) issues, sex education (3), and reproductive health services (4). Each domain had five associated yes/no questions and the total score for the four domains was out of a maximum of 20. Data were analyzed using SPSS 15.0 software.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that most of the caregivers were familiar with matters concerning sex education, menopause, and reproductive health services, but they lacked adequate understanding of issues associated with menstruation in women with ID. Many aspects of reproductive health such as "menstrual pain", "age at menarche", "masturbation", "diet during perimenopause", and "publicly available reproductive health services" were issues in which caregivers lacked adequate knowledge and required further instruction. Logistic regression analysis revealed that female caregivers with a university degree, and those who had experience assisting with reproductive health care were more inclined to have higher reproductive health awareness scores than their counterparts.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study highlights that service providers should offer appropriate reproductive health education to institutional caregivers, and that more attention be focused on the personal experiences and concerns of intellectually disabled women in future research.</p

Report to the American Physical Society by the study group on research planning for coal utilization and synthetic fuel production

El deterioro de la calidad del agua de mar debido a la contaminación es un tema muy importante en la actualidad ya que ha aumentado con el paso de los años. El mayor aporte de residuos que desembocan en los mares y océanos se genera a partir de actividades terrestres como el desarrollo urbano, las actividades agrícolas, el turismo, etc. Para poder monitorear los niveles de contaminación marina es necesario el desarrollo de dispositivos sensores que permitan el control de especies contaminantes como metales pesados, compuestos organoclorados, hidrocarburos aromáticos, toxinas, etc. Por esta razón, en el presente estudio se han realizado ensayos para desarrollar un biosensor electroquímico capaz de medir la concentración de fosfato en el agua de mar. Para ello se ha escogido una reacción bioquímica que se cataliza por la enzima Fosfatasa alcalina (ALP), la cual es inhibida por el fosfato. El sustrato de la reacción es 4-Aminofenil fosfato (PAP), que en presencia de agua se hidroliza y genera como producto 4-Aminofenol (PAF). El producto de la reacción es electroactivo y cuando se oxida genera para-quinonaimina. Se han utilizado electrodos serigrafiados de carbono en todos los ensayos para aplicar las técnicas voltamperométricas. De este modo se ha comprobado que tanto en medio acuoso como en agua de mar sintética el PAF presenta respuesta electroquímica, la ALP posee actividad catalizadora y que el fosfato inhibe la ALP. Por otra parte, se ha encapsulado la proteína ALP en una matriz de sílice a través del método de Sol-Gel y se ha obtenido respuesta catalizadora en la reacción de hidrólisis de PAP a PAF, de modo que se puede desarrollar un sensor que detecte fosfato utilizando este método. Se ha escogido el fosfato como especie contaminante debido a que, en los océanos, el fósforo tiene una gran importancia como nutriente primario para organismos fotosintéticos y para autótrofos. Pero si este se encuentra en cantidades excesivas, induce el crecimiento desmesurado de algas y otros organismos provocando la eutrofización de las aguas. Cuando estas algas y otros vegetales mueren, al ser descompuestos por los microorganismos, se agota el oxígeno y se hace imposible la vida de otros seres vivos

Validation of on- and off-axis neutral beam current drive against experiment in DIII-Da

Neutral beam current drive (NBCD) experiments in DIII-D using vertically shifted plasmas to move the current drive away from the axis have clearly demonstrated robust off-axis NBCD. Time-dependent measurements of magnetic field pitch angles by the motional Stark effect diagnostic are used to obtain the evolution of the poloidal magnetic flux, which indicates a broad off-axis NBCD profile with a peak at about half the plasma minor radius. In most cases, the measured off-axis NBCD profile is consistent with calculations using an orbit-following Monte Carlo code for the beam ion slowing down including finite-orbit effects provided there is no large-scale magnetohydrodynamic activity such as Alfv́n eigenmodes modes or sawteeth. An alternative analysis method shows good agreement between the measured pitch angles and those from simulations using transport-equilibrium codes. Two-dimensional image of Doppler-shifted fast ion Dα light emitted by neutralized energetic ions shows clear evidence for a hollow profile of beam ion density, consistent with classical beam ion slowing down. The magnitude of off-axis NBCD is sensitive to the alignment of the beam injection relative to the helical pitch of the magnetic field lines. If the signs of toroidal magnetic field and plasma current yield the proper helicity, both measurement and calculation indicate that the efficiency is as good as on-axis NBCD because the increased fraction of trapped electrons reduces the electron shielding of the injected ion current, in contrast with electron current drive schemes where the trapping of electrons degrades the efficiency. The measured off-axis NBCD increases approximately linearly with the injection power, although a modest amount of fast ion diffusion is needed to explain an observed difference in the NBCD profile between the measurement and the calculation at high injection power. © 2009 American Institute of Physics

Validation of on- and off-axis neutral beam current drive against experiment in DIII-Da

Neutral beam current drive (NBCD) experiments in DIII-D using vertically shifted plasmas to move the current drive away from the axis have clearly demonstrated robust off-axis NBCD. Time-dependent measurements of magnetic field pitch angles by the motional Stark effect diagnostic are used to obtain the evolution of the poloidal magnetic flux, which indicates a broad off-axis NBCD profile with a peak at about half the plasma minor radius. In most cases, the measured off-axis NBCD profile is consistent with calculations using an orbit-following Monte Carlo code for the beam ion slowing down including finite-orbit effects provided there is no large-scale magnetohydrodynamic activity such as Alfv́n eigenmodes modes or sawteeth. An alternative analysis method shows good agreement between the measured pitch angles and those from simulations using transport-equilibrium codes. Two-dimensional image of Doppler-shifted fast ion Dα light emitted by neutralized energetic ions shows clear evidence for a hollow profile of beam ion density, consistent with classical beam ion slowing down. The magnitude of off-axis NBCD is sensitive to the alignment of the beam injection relative to the helical pitch of the magnetic field lines. If the signs of toroidal magnetic field and plasma current yield the proper helicity, both measurement and calculation indicate that the efficiency is as good as on-axis NBCD because the increased fraction of trapped electrons reduces the electron shielding of the injected ion current, in contrast with electron current drive schemes where the trapping of electrons degrades the efficiency. The measured off-axis NBCD increases approximately linearly with the injection power, although a modest amount of fast ion diffusion is needed to explain an observed difference in the NBCD profile between the measurement and the calculation at high injection power. © 2009 American Institute of Physics

Potential carbon emissions dominated by carbon dioxide from thawed permafrost soils

© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. Increasing temperatures in northern high latitudes are causing permafrost to thaw, making large amounts of previously frozen organic matter vulnerable to microbial decomposition. Permafrost thaw also creates a fragmented landscape of drier and wetter soil conditions that determine the amount and form (carbon dioxide (CO2), or methane (CH 4)) of carbon (C) released to the atmosphere. The rate and form of C release control the magnitude of the permafrost C feedback, so their relative contribution with a warming climate remains unclear. We quantified the effect of increasing temperature and changes from aerobic to anaerobic soil conditions using 25 soil incubation studies from the permafrost zone. Here we show, using two separate meta-analyses, that a 10 °C increase in incubation temperature increased C release by a factor of 2.0 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.8 to 2.2). Under aerobic incubation conditions, soils released 3.4 (95% CI, 2.2 to 5.2) times more C than under anaerobic conditions. Even when accounting for the higher heat trapping capacity of CH 4, soils released 2.3 (95% CI, 1.5 to 3.4) times more C under aerobic conditions. These results imply that permafrost ecosystems thawing under aerobic conditions and releasing CO2 will strengthen the permafrost C feedback more than waterlogged systems releasing CO2 and CH 4 for a given amount of C

Off-axis neutral beam current drive for advanced scenario development in DIII-D

Modification of the two existing DIII-D neutral beamlines is planned to allow vertical steering to provide off-axis neutral beam current drive (NBCD) peaked as far off-axis as half the plasma minor radius. New calculations for a downward-steered beam indicate strong current drive with good localization off-axis so long as the toroidal magnetic field, BT, and the plasma current, Ip, point in the same direction. This is due to good alignment of neutral beam injection (NBI) with the local pitch of the magnetic field lines. This model has been tested experimentally on DIII-D by injecting equatorially mounted NBs into reduced size plasmas that are vertically displaced with respect to the vessel midplane. The existence of off-axis NBCD is evident in the changes seen in sawtooth behaviour in the internal inductance. By shifting the plasma upwards or downwards, or by changing the sign of the toroidal field, off-axis NBCD profiles measured with motional Stark effect data and internal loop voltage show a difference in amplitude (40-45%) consistent with differences predicted by the changed NBI alignment with respect to the helicity of the magnetic field lines. The effects of NBI direction relative to field line helicity can be large even in ITER: off-axis NBCD can be increased by more than 30% if the BT direction is reversed. Modification of the DIII-D NB system will strongly support scenario development for ITER and future tokamaks as well as provide flexible scientific tools for understanding transport, energetic particles and heating and current drive. © 2009 IAEA, Vienna