Characteristics of the low-energy reporters in a longitudinal national dietary survey

The aim of the present study was to establish whether the characteristics of members of a large national birth cohort study who submitted diet diaries with implausibly low-energy intake differed from those whose recorded energy intake was more plausible. Survey members (n 1898) recorded their diets in a 7 d diary in household measures. Those whose reported energy intake (EI) as a fraction of their estimated BMR was less than 1.10, here termed low-energy reporters (LER) but often called under-reporters, constituted 20.6 % of the study population. None of the variables describing dietary, smoking or exercise behaviour bore a significant relationship with low EI/BMR (<1.10), neither did those describing region of residence, subjective adequacy of income, current social class, social relations or the social environment of the subjects. Results of logistic regression analysis showed that the only independently significant characteristic for men was higher BMI. In women, in addition to higher BMI, having been overweight or obese as an adult independently, but less significantly, predicted low EI/BMR, while membership as a child of social class III (nonmanual), having more children in the household and having a paid job marginally but independently decreased the probability of reporting low EI/BMR. Submission of a diary with EI/BMR <1.10 7 years earlier in the same survey was an even more powerful predictor of current low EI/BMR than higher BMI in both sexes. The average reported diet-composition of LER was more micronutrient- and protein-rich than that of the others, indicating different dietary, or diet-recording, behaviour in this group of subjects. LER are not a random sample of the survey population, and their characteristics, definable to some extent, put them at risk for lower health status. Although EI/BMR cut-off points can be used to identify LER, the problem of how to use their data is still unresolved

Associations of gender inequality with child malnutrition and mortality across 96 countries.

National efforts to reduce low birth weight (LBW) and child malnutrition and mortality prioritise economic growth. However, this may be ineffective, while rising gross domestic product (GDP) also imposes health costs, such as obesity and non-communicable disease. There is a need to identify other potential routes for improving child health. We investigated associations of the Gender Inequality Index (GII), a national marker of women's disadvantages in reproductive health, empowerment and labour market participation, with the prevalence of LBW, child malnutrition (stunting and wasting) and mortality under 5 years in 96 countries, adjusting for national GDP. The GII displaced GDP as a predictor of LBW, explaining 36% of the variance. Independent of GDP, the GII explained 10% of the variance in wasting and stunting and 41% of the variance in child mortality. Simulations indicated that reducing GII could lead to major reductions in LBW, child malnutrition and mortality in low- and middle-income countries. Independent of national wealth, reducing women's disempowerment relative to men may reduce LBW and promote child nutritional status and survival. Longitudinal studies are now needed to evaluate the impact of efforts to reduce societal gender inequality.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Cambridge University Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/gheg.2016.

Clump stars in the Solar Neighbourhood

Hipparcos data has allowed the identification of a large number of clump stars in the Solar Neighbourhood. We discuss our present knowledge about their distributions of masses, ages, colours, magnitudes, and metallicities. We point out that the age distribution of clump stars is ``biased'' towards intermediate-ages. Therefore, the metallicity information they contain is different from that provided by the local G dwarfs. Since accurate abundance determinations are about to become available, these may provide useful constraints to chemical evolution models of the local disc.Comment: 6 pages, proc. of the Sept. 20-24, 1999 Vulcano Workshop "The chemical evolution of the Milky Way: stars vs. clusters", eds. F. Matteucci, F. Giovanell

Terahertz VRT spectroscopy of the water hexamer-d<inf>12</inf> prism: Dramatic enhancement of bifurcation tunneling upon librational excitation

Using diode laser vibration-rotation-tunneling spectroscopy near 15 Thz (500 cm−1), we have measured and assigned 142 transitions to three a-type librational subbands of the water hexamer-d12 prism. These subbands reveal dramatically enhanced (ca. 1000×) tunneling splittings relative to the ground state. This enhancement is in agreement with that observed for the water dimer, trimer, and pentamer in this same frequency region. The water prism tunneling motion has been predicted to potentially describe the motions of water in interfacial and confined environments; hence, the results presented here indicate that excitation of librational vibrations has a significant impact on the hydrogen bond dynamics in these macroscopic environments.</jats:p

Mathematical Modeling of Effect of Pumping Rate on Contaminant Transport in Riverbank Filtration System

Riverbank filtration (RBF) is a natural technology that is used for river water treatment. This research seeks to investigate the effect of pumping rate on the transport of colloids in RBF. However, this work considered Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) as a nutrient for bacteria. The mathematical model consists of groundwater flow equation and colloids concentration equations. The equations were solved analytically using parameter expanding method and Eigen function expansion techniques. The results obtained are presented graphically and discussed. It was observed that increase in pumping rate value enhance both the hydraulic head and concentration of colloids which slightly reduces the quality of pumped water from RBF

High-precision polarimetry of nearby stars (d < 50 pc): Mapping the interstellar dust and magnetic field inside the Local Bubble

Context:We investigate the linear polarization produced by interstellar dust aligned by the magnetic field in the solar neighborhood (d Aims: We aim to detect and map dust clouds which give rise to statistically significant amounts of polarization of the starlight passing through the cloud, and to determine the interstellar magnetic field direction from the position angle of the observed polarization.Methods: High-precision broad-band (BV R) polarization observations are made of 361 stars in spectral classes F to G, with detection sensitivity at the level of or better than 10−5 (0.001%). The sample consists of 125 stars in the magnitude range 6–9 observed at the 2.2 m UH88 telescope on Mauna Kea, 205 stars in the magnitude range 3–6 observed at the Japanese (Tohoku) T60 telescope on Haleakala, and 31 stars in the magnitude range 4–7 observed at the 1.27 m H127 telescope of the Greenhill Observatory, Tasmania. Identical copies of the Dipol-2 polarimeter are used on these three sites.Results: Statistically significant (>3σ) polarization is found in 115 stars, and >2σ detection in 178 stars, out of the total sample of 361 stars. Polarization maps based on these data show filament-like patterns of polarization position angles, which are related to both the heliosphere geometry, the kinematics of nearby clouds, and the Interstellar Boundary EXplorer ribbon magnetic field. From long-term multiple observations, a number (~20) of stars show evidence of intrinsic variability at the 10−5 level. This can be attributed to circumstellar effects (e.g., debris disks and chromospheric activity). The star HD 101805 shows a peculiar wavelength dependence, indicating size distribution of scattering particles different from that of a typical interstellar medium. Our high signal-to-noise measurements of nearby stars with very low polarization also provide a useful dataset for calibration purposes

An investigation into multi-spectral excitation power sources for Electrical Impedance Tomography

Electrical Impedance Tomography is a non-invasive, non-ionizing, non-destructive and painless imaging technology that can distinguish between cancerous and non-cancerous cells by reproducing tomographic images of the electrical impedance distribution within the body. The primary scope of this thesis is the study of hardware modules required for an EIT system. The key component in any EIT system is the excitation system. Impedance measurement can be performed by applying either a current or voltage through emitting electrodes and then measuring the resulting voltages or current on receiving electrodes. In this research, both types of excitation systems are investigated and developed for the Sussex EIM system. Firstly, a current source (CS) excitation system is investigated and developed. The performance of the excitation system degrades due to the unwanted capacitance within the system. Hence two CS circuits: Enhance Howland Source (EHS) and EHS combined with a General impedance convertor (GIC: to minimise the unwanted capacitance) are evaluated. Another technique (guard-amplifier) has also been investigated and developed to minimise the effect of stray capacitance. The accuracy of both types of CS circuits are evaluated in terms of its output impedance along with other performance parameters for different loading conditions and the results are compared to show their performance. Both CS circuits were affected by the loading voltage problem. A bootstrapping technique is investigated and integrated with both CS circuits to overcome the loading voltage problem. The research shows that both CS circuits were unable to achieve a high frequency bandwidth (i.e. ≥10MHz) and were limited to 2-3MHz. Alternatively, a discrete components current source was also investigated and developed to achieve a high frequency bandwidth and other desirable performance parameters. The research also introduces a microcontroller module to control the multiplexing involved for different CS circuit configurations via serial port interface software running on a PC. For breast cancer diagnosis, the interesting characteristics of breast tissues mostly lie above 1MHz, therefore a wideband excitation source covering high frequencies (i.e. ≥1-10MHz) is required. Hence, a second type of the excitation system is investigated. A constant voltage source (VS) circuit was developed for a wide frequency bandwidth with low output impedance. The research investigated three VS architectures and based on their initial bandwidth comparison, a differential VS system was developed to provide a wide frequency bandwidth (≥10MHz). The research presents the performance of the developed VS excitation system for different loading configurations reporting acceptable performance parameters. A voltage measurement system is also developed in this research work. Two different differential amplifier circuits were investigated and developed to measure precise differential voltage at a high frequency. The research reports a performance comparison of possible types of excitation systems. Results are compared to establish their relationship to performance parameters: frequency bandwidth, output impedance, SNR and phase difference over a wide bandwidth (i.e. up to 10MHz). The objective of this study is to investigate which design is the most appropriate for constructing a wideband excitation system for the Sussex EIM system or any other EIT based biomedical application with wide a bandwidth requirement