1,091 research outputs found
The Need for Culturally-Tailored Smartphone Applications for Weight Control
Background: Approximately 35% of U.S. adults are obese, and this rate is expected to increase by almost 50% by 2030. New media such as smartphone applications (apps) provide a useful and low-cost way to disseminate weight control information. For many culturally distinctive population subgroups, however, there is currently an absence of research-tested smartphone apps for weight control.
Methods: In this commentary, we highlight the need for culturally tailored smartphone apps for weight control and offer recommendations for further research by providing two specific examples: 1) the characteristic dietary patterns and absence of smartphone apps for weight loss for Hispanic Americans, in English and Spanish, and 2) and need for smartphone apps for weight loss for Brazilian Americans, including those who speak Portuguese.
Results: Smartphone apps can be an effective intervention for improving diet and nutrition, encouraging physical activity, and reducing obesity, but few randomized controlled trials have been conducted of stand-alone smartphone apps for weight loss that focus primarily on self-monitoring of diet and physical activity. Further, there have been no published studies of apps for promoting healthy diet, better nutrition, increasing levels of physical activity, and weight loss among Hispanic Americans or Brazilian Americans.
Conclusions: Low-cost, effective e-Health interventions (healthcare practices supported by electronic processes) are needed to promote physical activity, healthy eating, and weight control in culturally distinctive subgroups of the population. For weight loss, apps should be developed by use of evidence-based approaches that relate to behavioral theories. Additional public health research is needed to identify low-cost, effective strategies for weight loss for people who have varying levels of health literacy, and for non-English speakers. Culturally tailored e-Health interventions for weight control are more likely to address the needs of individuals and increase their motivation to engage in health promoting behaviors
Reducing Disparities by way of a Cancer Disparities Research Training Program
Background: For minority populations, there is a continuing disparity in the burden of death and illness from cancer. Research to address this disparity should be conducted by investigators who can best understand and address the needs of culturally diverse communities. However, minorities are under-represented in health-related research. The goal of this project was to develop and evaluate an approach to motivating and preparing masterâs degree students for careers dedicated to cancer disparities research.
Method: A Cancer Disparities Research Training Program (CDRTP) was initiated in 2010. The program consists of coursework, practicum experiences, and research opportunities. Assessment of the curriculum is based on monitoring achievement of evaluation indicators and includes a quantitative assessment and qualitative approach.
Results: In its first three years, the program graduated 20 trainees, all of whom were minorities (18 African Americans and two Asians). When asked about career goals, two-thirds of the trainees indicated interest in pursuing careers in research on cancer prevention and control. The trainees expressed high satisfaction with the courses, instructor, materials, and curriculum. Although trainees had suggestions about course details, evaluations overall were positive. Across focus groups, three recurrent themes emerged regarding activities to enhance the student experience: having a wider variety of topics, more guest speakers, and field trips.
Conclusion: The CDRTP was intended to recruit students â primarily African Americans â into research on prevention and control of cancer disparities. Although final evaluation of the programâs overall outcome will not be available for several years, a preliminary evaluation indicates the program is being successful
Factors associated with the utilization of community dental services among newly incarcerated adults
Background: Given the high rates of risky behaviors and health conditions among incarcerated individuals and the relationship between oral and general health, receipt of quality dental care is essential to the overall health and well-being of this population. However, few recent studies have focused on access to care and the state of oral health among incarcerated populations in the U.S. For the current study, a secondary data analysis was conducted to: 1) assess factors associated with the use of dental services among a newly incarcerated prison population in Georgia and 2) consider barriers related to utilization of dental services pre- to post-release.
Methods: Descriptive statistics were calculated, and bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted utilizing SAS 9.2 software. Results: Thirty-one percent (n=250) of survey respondents reported having a dental visit within the past year. Survey respondents who had a regular dentist (OR: 1.9; 95% CI: 1.325, 2.697), private dental insurance (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.022, 2.245), or who reported pain as the reason for their last dental visit (OR: 2.2; 95% CI: 1.556, 3.130) were more likely to have utilized dental services within the past year.
Conclusions: The findings highlight the role of social and economic resources and oral health needs on utilization of dental services. Additional practice and policy efforts are needed to address gaps in the dental care continuum that affect currently and formerly incarcerated adults in Georgia
Nuclear starburst-driven evolution of the central region in NGC 6764
We study the CO and the radiocontinuum emission in an active galaxy to
analyze the interplay between the central activity and the molecular gas. We
present new high-resolution observations of the CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) emission
lines, and 3.5 cm and 20 cm radio continuum emission in the central region of
the LINER/starburst galaxy NGC 6764. The galaxy has an outflow morphology in
radio continuum, spatially coincident with the CO and H emission, and
centered slightly off the radio continuum peak at the LINER nucleus. The total
molecular gas mass in the center is about 7x10^8 \msun, using a CO luminosity
to total molecular gas conversion factor that is three times lower than the
standard one. CO(1-0) emission is found near the boundaries of the radio
continuum emission cone. The outflow has a projected expansion velocity of 25
km/s relative to the systemic velocity of NGC6764. About 4x 10^6 \msun of
molecular gas is detected in the outflow. The approximate location (~1 kpc) of
the dynamical inner Lindblad resonance has been derived from the rotation
curve. The peak of the CO emission is slightly (< 200 pc) offset from the peak
of the radio continuum.
The molecular gas has most likely been ejected by the stellar winds from the
recent starburst, but the CO line ratios show indication of an interaction with
the AGN. The energy released by the nuclear starburst is sufficient to explain
the observed outflow, even if the data cannot exclude the AGN from being the
major energy source. Comparison of the outflow with hydrodynamical simulations
suggests that the nuclear starburst is 3--7 Myr old and the bubble-like outflow
is still confined and not freely expanding.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
The Incidence of Highly-Obscured Star-Forming Regions in SINGS Galaxies
Using the new capabilities of the Spitzer Space Telescope and extensive
multiwavelength data from the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS),
it is now possible to study the infrared properties of star formation in nearby
galaxies down to scales equivalent to large HII regions. We are therefore able
to determine what fraction of large, infrared-selected star-forming regions in
normal galaxies are highly obscured and address how much of the star formation
we miss by relying solely on the optical portion of the spectrum. Employing a
new empirical method for deriving attenuations of infrared-selected
star-forming regions we investigate the statistics of obscured star formation
on 500pc scales in a sample of 38 nearby galaxies. We find that the median
attenuation is 1.4 magnitudes in H-alpha and that there is no evidence for a
substantial sub-population of uniformly highly-obscured star-forming regions.
The regions in the highly-obscured tail of the attenuation distribution
(A_H-alpha > 3) make up only ~4% of the sample of nearly 1800 regions, though
very embedded infrared sources on the much smaller scales and lower
luminosities of compact and ultracompact HII regions are almost certainly
present in greater numbers. The highly-obscured cases in our sample are
generally the bright, central regions of galaxies with high overall attenuation
but are not otherwise remarkable. We also find that a majority of the galaxies
show decreasing radial trends in H-alpha attenuation. The small fraction of
highly-obscured regions seen in this sample of normal, star-forming galaxies
suggests that on 500pc scales the timescale for significant dispersal or break
up of nearby, optically-thick dust clouds is short relative to the lifetime of
a typical star-forming region.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; emulateapj style, 30 pages, 18
figures (compressed versions), 3 table
Estimating the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the effect of residual foreground contamination
We consider future balloon-borne and ground-based suborbital experiments
designed to search for inflationary gravitational waves, and investigate the
impact of residual foregrounds that remain in the estimated cosmic microwave
background maps. This is achieved by propagating foreground modelling
uncertainties from the component separation, under the assumption of a
spatially uniform foreground frequency scaling, through to the power spectrum
estimates, and up to measurement of the tensor to scalar ratio in the parameter
estimation step. We characterize the error covariance due to subtracted
foregrounds, and find it to be subdominant compared to instrumental noise and
sample variance in our simulated data analysis. We model the unsubtracted
residual foreground contribution using a two-parameter power law and show that
marginalization over these foreground parameters is effective in accounting for
a bias due to excess foreground power at low . We conclude that, at least
in the suborbital experimental setups we have simulated, foreground errors may
be modeled and propagated up to parameter estimation with only a slight
degradation of the target sensitivity of these experiments derived neglecting
the presence of the foregrounds.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in JCA
On the relationship between auroral and nebular oxygen line intensities in spectra of HII regions
We investigate relationships between observed auroral and nebular oxygen line
fluxes in spectra of HII regions. We find a relation that is
metallicity-dependent at low metallicities, but becomes independent of
metallicity (within the uncertainties of the available data) above 12+logO/H ~
8.25, i.e. there is one-to-one correspondance (the ff - relation) between
auroral and nebular oxygen line fluxes in spectra of high-metallicity HII
regions. The ff - relation allows one to estimate the flux in the auroral line
from strong oxygen line measurements. This solves the problem of the electron
temperature (and, consequently, abundance) determination in high-metallicity
HII regions. The ff - relation confirms the basic idea of the empirical method,
proposed by Pagel et al. (1979) a qurter of a century ago, that the oxygen
abundance in HII region can be estimated from the strong oxygen lines
measurements only.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
The Nature of Infrared Emission in the Local Group Dwarf Galaxy NGC 6822 As Revealed by Spitzer
We present Spitzer imaging of the metal-deficient (Z ~30% Z_sun) Local Group
dwarf galaxy NGC 6822. On spatial scales of ~130 pc, we study the nature of IR,
H alpha, HI, and radio continuum emission. Nebular emission strength correlates
with IR surface brightness; however, roughly half of the IR emission is
associated with diffuse regions not luminous at H alpha (as found in previous
studies). The global ratio of dust to HI gas in the ISM, while uncertain at the
factor of ~2 level, is ~25 times lower than the global values derived for
spiral galaxies using similar modeling techniques; localized ratios of dust to
HI gas are about a factor of five higher than the global value in NGC 6822.
There are strong variations (factors of ~10) in the relative ratios of H alpha
and IR flux throughout the central disk; the low dust content of NGC 6822 is
likely responsible for the different H alpha/IR ratios compared to those found
in more metal-rich environments. The H alpha and IR emission is associated with
high-column density (> ~1E21 cm^-2) neutral gas. Increases in IR surface
brightness appear to be affected by both increased radiation field strength and
increased local gas density. Individual regions and the galaxy as a whole fall
within the observed scatter of recent high-resolution studies of the radio-far
IR correlation in nearby spiral galaxies; this is likely the result of depleted
radio and far-IR emission strengths in the ISM of this dwarf galaxy.Comment: ApJ, in press; please retrieve full-resolution version from
http://www.astro.wesleyan.edu/~cannon/pubs.htm
Gram Negative Bacteria Are Associated with the Early Stages of Necrotizing Enterocolitis
Introduction: Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) affects 5â10 % of infants born weighing less than 1500 g. Most models of NEC recapitulate late-stage disease with gut necrosis and elevated inflammatory mediators. Evaluation of NEC at earlier, less lethal stages of disease will allow investigation of initial disease triggers and may advance our understanding of temporal relationships between factors implicated in NEC pathogenesis. In this manuscript, we describe our investigation of early NEC and test the hypothesis that bacteria and inflammatory mediators differ between animals with early NEC and disease fre
Genotoxic agents promote the nuclear accumulation of annexin A2: role of annexin A2 in mitigating DNA damage
Annexin A2 is an abundant cellular protein that is mainly localized in the cytoplasm and plasma membrane, however a small population has been found in the nucleus, suggesting a nuclear function for the protein. Annexin A2 possesses a nuclear export sequence (NES) and inhibition of the NES is sufficient to cause nuclear accumulation. Here we show that annexin A2 accumulates in the nucleus in response to genotoxic agents including gamma-radiation, UV radiation, etoposide and chromium VI and that this event is mediated by the nuclear export sequence of annexin A2. Nuclear accumulation of annexin A2 is blocked by the antioxidant agent N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and stimulated by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), suggesting that this is a reactive oxygen species dependent event. In response to genotoxic agents, cells depleted of annexin A2 show enhanced phospho-histone H2AX and p53 levels, increased numbers of p53-binding protein 1 nuclear foci and increased levels of nuclear 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanine, suggesting that annexin A2 plays a role in protecting DNA from damage. This is the first report showing the nuclear translocation of annexin A2 in response to genotoxic agents and its role in mitigating DNA damage.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); European Union [PCOFUND-GA-2009-246542]; Foundation for Science and Technology of Portugal; Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute; Terry Fox Foundationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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