2,848 research outputs found
Reducing smoking in adolescents: cost-effectiveness results from the cluster randomized ASSIST (A Stop Smoking In Schools Trial)
Introduction: School-based smoking prevention programmes can be effective, but evidence on cost-effectiveness is lacking. We conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of a school-based “peer-led” intervention.<p></p>
Methods: We evaluated the ASSIST (A Stop Smoking In Schools Trial) programme in a cluster randomized controlled trial. The ASSIST programme trained students to act as peer supporters during informal interactions to encourage their peers not to smoke. Fifty-nine secondary schools in England and Wales were randomized to receive the ASSIST programme or usual smoking education. Ten thousand seven hundred and thirty students aged 12–13 years attended participating schools. Previous work has demonstrated that the ASSIST programme achieved a 2.1% (95% CI = 0%–4.2%) reduction in smoking prevalence. We evaluated the public sector cost, prevalence of weekly smoking, and cost per additional student not smoking at 24 months.<p></p>
Results: The ASSIST programme cost of £32 (95% CI = £29.70–£33.80) per student. The incremental cost per student not smoking at 2 years was £1,500 (95% CI = £669–£9,947). Students in intervention schools were less likely to believe that they would be a smoker at age 16 years (odds ratio [OR] = 0.80; 95% CI = 0.66–0.96).<p></p>
Conclusions: A peer-led intervention reduced smoking among adolescents at a modest cost. The intervention is cost-effective under realistic assumptions regarding the extent to which reductions in adolescent smoking lead to lower smoking prevalence and/or earlier smoking cessation in adulthood. The annual cost of extending the intervention to Year 8 students in all U.K. schools would be in the region of £38 million and could result in 20,400 fewer adolescent smokers.<p></p>
Reflections in the Mirror: Women’s Self Comparisons to Mannequins and Peers
The fashion industry has been under fire for years for using unrealistic body sizes in the form of stick-thin fashion models to promote the sale of clothing. Typical Western fashion models in today’s society are sized 0-2 and weigh approximately 23% less than the average U.S. woman, who weighs approximately 163 pounds and wears a size 14 (Vesilind, 2009). According to Vartanian (2009), many women suffer from body image self-discrepancies when they compare themselves with others, including fashion models. As such, social comparison has been documented to create negative emotions, such as body dissatisfaction and disappointment (Posavac & Posavac, 2002).
Although a number of studies have investigated how an idealized body image in media impacts social comparison among females, no research has explored to what extent comparisons of mannequins to a customer’s self may impact self-image and consumer behavior. Since mannequins serve to show consumers how clothing may look on the human body and consumers may be drawn to the clothing due to the way the clothing fits the mannequin and/or the poise, stature, or grace of the mannequin itself (Schneider, 1997), it should be expected that mannequins would also influence self-image and behavior.
Utilizing Social Comparison Theory as the theoretical foundation, this study examines the influencing factors affecting U.S. females\u27 social comparison tendencies and psychological well-being when a female compares her body to that of a mannequin and to other women. Data was collected using an online survey through the use of snowball convenience sampling, yielding 314 usable responses. Results indicate that the use of idealized mannequins in retail stores have a significant impact on social comparison and body dissatisfaction for female consumers. These results suggest that female consumers do indeed compare their bodies to those of mannequins and that the greater the discrepancy between the size of the mannequin and their own size, the more dissatisfied the woman is with her body. This research extends Social Comparison Theory as the findings show women also compare themselves to mannequins. In addition, results of this study show that women who are categorized with a BMI classification of overweight or obese are more likely to compare themselves to other females. Results also show that the top five body parts/characteristics most commonly compared to mannequins and other females are body size, weight, body shape, waist, and legs
A note on the index bundle over the moduli space of monopoles
Donaldson has shown that the moduli space of monopoles is diffeomorphic
to the space \Rat_k of based rational maps from the two-sphere to itself. We
use this diffeomorphism to give an explicit description of the bundle on
\Rat_k obtained by pushing out the index bundle from . This gives an
alternative and more explicit proof of some earlier results of Cohen and Jones.Comment: 9 page
Performance Evaluation of a High Bandwidth Liquid Fuel Modulation Valve for Active Combustion Control
At the NASA Glenn Research Center, a characterization rig was designed and constructed for the purpose of evaluating high bandwidth liquid fuel modulation devices to determine their suitability for active combustion control research. Incorporated into the rig s design are features that approximate conditions similar to those that would be encountered by a candidate device if it were installed on an actual combustion research rig. The characterized dynamic performance measures obtained through testing in the rig are planned to be accurate indicators of expected performance in an actual combustion testing environment. To evaluate how well the characterization rig predicts fuel modulator dynamic performance, characterization rig data was compared with performance data for a fuel modulator candidate when the candidate was in operation during combustion testing. Specifically, the nominal and off-nominal performance data for a magnetostrictive-actuated proportional fuel modulation valve is described. Valve performance data were collected with the characterization rig configured to emulate two different combustion rig fuel feed systems. Fuel mass flows and pressures, fuel feed line lengths, and fuel injector orifice size was approximated in the characterization rig. Valve performance data were also collected with the valve modulating the fuel into the two combustor rigs. Comparison of the predicted and actual valve performance data show that when the valve is operated near its design condition the characterization rig can appropriately predict the installed performance of the valve. Improvements to the characterization rig and accompanying modeling activities are underway to more accurately predict performance, especially for the devices under development to modulate fuel into the much smaller fuel injectors anticipated in future lean-burning low-emissions aircraft engine combustors
Computing Hilbert Class Polynomials
We present and analyze two algorithms for computing the Hilbert class
polynomial . The first is a p-adic lifting algorithm for inert primes p
in the order of discriminant D < 0. The second is an improved Chinese remainder
algorithm which uses the class group action on CM-curves over finite fields.
Our run time analysis gives tighter bounds for the complexity of all known
algorithms for computing , and we show that all methods have comparable
run times
Classical analogous of quantum cosmological perfect fluid models
Quantization in the mini-superspace of a gravity system coupled to a perfect
fluid, leads to a solvable model which implies singularity free solutions
through the construction of a superposition of the wavefunctions. We show that
such models are equivalent to a classical system where, besides the perfect
fluid, a repulsive fluid with an equation of state is present.
This leads to speculate on the true nature of this quantization procedure. A
perturbative analysis of the classical system reveals the condition for the
stability of the classical system in terms of the existence of an anti-gravity
phase.Comment: Latex file, 10 pages, 3 figure
Saturation properties of nuclear matter in a relativistic mean field model constrained by the quark dynamics
We have built an effective Walecka-type hadronic Lagrangian in which the
hadron masses and the density dependence of the coupling constants are deduced
from the quark dynamics using a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. In order to stabilize
nuclear matter an eight-quark term has been included. The parameters of this
Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model have been determined using the meson properties in the
vacuum but also in the medium through the omega meson mass in nuclei measured
by the TAPS collaboration. Realistic properties of nuclear matter have been
obtained.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Nuclear Physics
A Gravitational Aharonov-Bohm Effect, and its Connection to Parametric Oscillators and Gravitational Radiation
A thought experiment is proposed to demonstrate the existence of a
gravitational, vector Aharonov-Bohm effect. A connection is made between the
gravitational, vector Aharonov-Bohm effect and the principle of local gauge
invariance for nonrelativistic quantum matter interacting with weak
gravitational fields. The compensating vector fields that are necessitated by
this local gauge principle are shown to be incorporated by the DeWitt minimal
coupling rule. The nonrelativistic Hamiltonian for weak, time-independent
fields interacting with quantum matter is then extended to time-dependent
fields, and applied to problem of the interaction of radiation with
macroscopically coherent quantum systems, including the problem of
gravitational radiation interacting with superconductors. But first we examine
the interaction of EM radiation with superconductors in a parametric oscillator
consisting of a superconducting wire placed at the center of a high Q
superconducting cavity driven by pump microwaves. We find that the threshold
for parametric oscillation for EM microwave generation is much lower for the
separated configuration than the unseparated one, which then leads to an
observable dynamical Casimir effect. We speculate that a separated parametric
oscillator for generating coherent GR microwaves could also be built.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, YA80 conference (Chapman University, 2012
Model Independent Higgs Boson Mass Limits at LEP
We derive model-independent constraints on Higgs mass and couplings from
associated signals for higher masses, accessible at LEP2. This work is
motivated by the fact that, in many extensions of the standard model, the Higgs
boson can have substantial "invisible" decay modes, for example, into light or
massless weakly interacting Goldstone bosons associated to the spontaneous
violation of lepton number below the weak scale.Comment: FTUV/93-19, 13 pag + 2 figures(not included but available upon
request), Late
- …