Down On The Farm : They All Ask For You

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/4594/thumbnail.jp

Are perceptions of the environment in the workplace ‘neighbourhood’ associated with commuter walking?

Walking for the daily commute is one potential strategy for increasing physical activity levels. Understanding the behaviour-specific environmental correlates associated with commuter walking will help effective interventions to be identified and developed. The aim of this study was to examine the associations of perceptions of the environment in the workplace ‘neighbourhood’ and commuter walking. Participants in the baseline survey of the Walking Works intervention study reported perceptions of ten environmental attributes in their workplace neighbourhood, availability of public transport, time spent walking to and from work in the last seven days, their participation in physical activity and socio-demographic characteristics (n=676). We built a series of multivariate logistic regression models to examine associations between each environmental item, public transport availability and commuter walking. Half (52%) of respondents were classified as commuter walkers (n=352) (66% female; 47% aged <30 years). Respondents were significantly more likely to walk for their daily commute if they reported there to be convenient walking routes (OR (odds ratio) 2.05, 95% CI (confidence interval) 1.23-3.42), suitable pavements (OR 2.23, 95% CI 1.23-4.04), maintained pavements (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.02-2.62) or convenient public transport (OR 4.98, 95% CI 3.34-7.44) after adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics, free car parking at work and distance lived from work. Creating ‘pedestrian friendly’ environments in workplace surroundings may be important for encouraging walking for the daily commute to work. Such environments would include convenient routes, suitable and maintained pedestrian infrastructure and convenient access to public transport. Improving and maintaining the walking environment around existing workplaces and ensuring infrastructure around new workplaces is designed to support commuter walking should be considered a priority area for investment

Rattle My Bones

Orchestra playing instruments; Various instruments in rays coming from orchestrahttps://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/12550/thumbnail.jp

Are perceptions of the environment in the workplace 'neighbourhood' associated with commuter walking?

AbstractWalking for the daily commute is one potential strategy for increasing physical activity levels. Understanding the behaviour-specific environmental correlates associated with commuter walking will help effective interventions to be identified and developed. The aim of this study was to examine the associations of perceptions of the environment in the workplace ‘neighbourhood’ and commuter walking.Participants in the baseline survey of the Walking Works intervention study reported perceptions of ten environmental attributes in their workplace neighbourhood, availability of public transport, time spent walking to and from work in the last seven days, their participation in physical activity and socio-demographic characteristics (n=676). We built a series of multivariate logistic regression models to examine associations between each environmental item, public transport availability and commuter walking.Half (52%) of respondents were classified as commuter walkers (n=352) (66% female; 47% aged <30 years). Respondents were significantly more likely to walk for their daily commute if they reported there to be convenient walking routes (OR (odds ratio) 2.05, 95% CI (confidence interval) 1.23–3.42), suitable pavements (OR 2.23, 95% CI 1.23–4.04), maintained pavements (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.02–2.62) or convenient public transport (OR 4.98, 95% CI 3.34–7.44) after adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics, free car parking at work and distance lived from work.Creating ‘pedestrian friendly’ environments in workplace surroundings may be important for encouraging walking for the daily commute to work. Such environments would include convenient routes, suitable and maintained pedestrian infrastructure and convenient access to public transport. Improving and maintaining the walking environment around existing workplaces and ensuring infrastructure around new workplaces is designed to support commuter walking should be considered a priority area for investment

Recommendations to improve wildlife exposure estimation for development of soil screening and cleanup values

An integral component in the development of media-specific values for the ecological risk assessment of chemicals is the derivation of safe levels of exposure for wildlife. Although the derivation and subsequent application of these values can be used for screening purposes, there is a need to identify the threshold for effects when making remedial decisions during site-specific assessments. Methods for evaluation of wildlife exposure are included in the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) ecological soil screening levels (Eco-SSLs), registration, evaluation, authorization, and restriction of chemicals (REACH), and other risk-based soil assessment approaches. The goal of these approaches is to ensure that soil-associated contaminants do not pose a risk to wildlife that directly ingest soil, or to species that may be exposed to contaminants that persist in the food chain. These approaches incorporate broad assumptions in the exposure and effects assessments and in the risk characterization process. Consequently, thresholds for concluding risk are frequently very low with conclusions of risk possible when soil metal concentrations fall in the range of natural background. A workshop held in September, 2012 evaluated existing methods and explored recent science about factors to consider when establishing appropriate remedial goals for concentrations of metals in soils. A Foodweb Exposure Workgroup was organized to evaluate methods for quantifying exposure of wildlife to soil-associated metals through soil and food consumption and to provide recommendations for the development of ecological soil cleanup values (Eco-SCVs) that are both practical and scientifically defensible. The specific goals of this article are to review the current practices for quantifying exposure of wildlife to soil-associated contaminants via bioaccumulation and trophic transfer, to identify potential opportunities for refining and improving these exposure estimates, and finally, to make recommendations for application of these improved models to the development of site-specific remedial goals protective of wildlife. Although the focus is on metals contamination, many of the methods and tools discussed are also applicable to organic contaminants. The conclusion of this workgroup was that existing exposure estimation models are generally appropriate when fully expanded and that methods are generally available to develop more robust site-specific exposure estimates. Improved realism in site-specific wildlife Eco-SCVs could be achieved by obtaining more realistic estimates for diet composition, bioaccumulation, bioavailability and/or bioaccessibility, soil ingestion, spatial aspects of exposure, and target organ exposure. These components of wildlife exposure estimation should be developed on a site-, species-, and analyte-specific basis to the extent that the expense for their derivation is justified by the value they add to Eco-SCV development

Constructing tailored isoprenoid products by structure-guided modification of geranylgeranyl reductase

The archaeal enzyme geranylgeranyl reductase (GGR) catalyzes hydrogenation of carbon-carbon double bonds to produce the saturated alkyl chains of the organism\u27s unusual isoprenoid-derived cell membrane. Enzymatic reduction of isoprenoid double bonds is of considerable interest both to natural products researchers and to synthetic biologists interested in the microbial production of isoprenoid drug or biofuel molecules. Here we present crystal structures of GGR from Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, including the structure of GGR bound to geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate (GGPP). The structures are presented alongside activity data that depict the sequential reduction of GGPP to H(6)GGPP via the intermediates H(2)GGPP and H(4)GGPP. We then modified the enzyme to generate sequence variants that display increased rates of H(6)GGPP production or are able to halt the extent of reduction at H(2)GGPP and H(4)GGPP. Crystal structures of these variants not only reveal the structural bases for their altered activities; they also shed light onto the catalytic mechanism employed

The Canopus by Capt. E.L. Sackett, U.S.N.

In the years between the first and second world wars, the West watched with growing alarm the rise of militarism in Japan. Japan began a full-scale invasion of China in the summer of 1937 which culminated in the infamous Nanking Massacre that, an attack on the Great Wall of China in 1938, and continued bombardment of Chinese cities during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Seeking to counteract Japan’s economic and military influence in the region, the United States and its allies discontinued sale of oil, steel, and iron ore to Japan. Viewing this embargo as a provocation, Japan saw war with the West as the only way to protect its interests in the Pacific and attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Japan’s attacks on the Philippine Islands in the following days included the bombing of Nichols Field, a U.S. military airfield south of Manila and near the Cavite Navy Yard in Manila where the submarine tender USS Canopus was carrying out its duties before being moved north to Mariveles Bay.These events serve as an opening to the remarkable story of the USS Canopus and its men transcribed and edited here

Cislunar Explorers: Lessons Learned from the Development of an Interplanetary CubeSat

The Cislunar Explorers mission is a pair of ~3U nanosatellites (named Hydrogen and Oxygen) launching as a single 6U CubeSat as part of NASA’s Artemis-1 mission on the Space Launch System (SLS). The two spacecraft will demonstrate technologies increasing the reach, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness of interplanetary smallsats. These innovations include water electrolysis propulsion, multi-body optical navigation, passive spin-stabilization, and the operation of femtosatellites beyond low earth orbit. Cislunar Explorers also serves as a pathfinder for demonstrating the utility and versatility of water for future In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) on space missions. Critical subsystems complement each other to reduce the cost and complexity. Water not only serves as the propellant for the propulsion system, but also as a radiation shield, electronics heat sink, and nutation damper. Each spacecraft’s spin provides attitude stabilization, separates electrolyzed gas from the water in the propulsion tank, simplifies the active attitude control system, and enables the optical navigation system to cover a panoramic view around the spacecraft. The unique elements of the mission spacecraft’s design provided advantages to traditional CubeSat architectures but also produced unexpected development challenges. By leveraging the lessons learned from the development of the Cislunar Explorers mission, future interplanetary missions can utilize its technology to reduce cost, risk, and complexity

Social Attention in Children with Epilepsy

Children with epilepsy may be vulnerable to impaired social attention given the increased risk of neu- robehavioural comorbidities. Social attentional orienting and the potential modulatory role of attentional control on the perceptual processing of gaze and emotion cues have not been examined in childhood onset epilepsies. Social attention mechanisms were investigated in patients with epilepsy (n = 25) aged 8–18 years old and performance compared to healthy controls (n = 30). Dynamic gaze and emotion facial stimuli were integrated into an antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm. The time to orient attention and exe- cute a horizontal saccade toward (prosaccade) or away (antisaccade) from a peripheral target measured processing speed of social signals under conditions of low or high attentional control. Patients with epi- lepsy had impaired processing speed compared to healthy controls under conditions of high attentional control only when gaze and emotions were combined meaningfully to signal motivational intent of approach (happy or anger with a direct gaze) or avoidance (fear or sad with an averted gaze). Group dif- ferences were larger in older adolescent patients. Analyses of the discrete gaze emotion combinations found independent effects of epilepsy-related, cognitive and behavioural problems. A delayed disengage- ment from fearful gaze was also found under low attentional control that was linked to epilepsy devel- opmental factors and was similarly observed in patients with higher reported anxiety problems. Overall, findings indicate increased perceptual processing of developmentally relevant social motivations during increased cognitive control, and the possibility of a persistent fear-related attentional bias. This was not limited to patients with chronic epilepsy, lower IQ or reported behavioural problems and has implica- tions for social and emotional development in individuals with childhood onset epilepsies beyond remission