Descriptors and accounts of alcohol consumption:methodological issues piloted with female undergraduate drinkers in Scotland

Excessive drinking among young women continues to attract adverse media attention and is the target of UK government-led initiatives. Reliable research on alcohol consumption is needed to inform/evaluate public health interventions. This pilot study, investigating descriptors of alcohol drinking in female Scottish undergraduate students, comprised: (i) self-completed questionnaire survey (n=95); (ii) interview plus test pouring of a ‘drink’ (n=19). Self-reports by 70% of drinkers (n=90) indicated alcohol consumption for the ‘week past’ meriting classification as ‘binge’ drinking, and 83% of this group reported drinking in this fashion at least fortnightly. However, binge-drinking may be under-estimated, since poured drinks were measured to be on average double the alcohol content for a standard drink, drinking often occurred outwith licensed premises, and respondents preferred to quantify consumption in (fractions of) bottles, rather than glasses. Qualitative analysis showed that interviewees oriented to drinking as an accountable practice but were unaware of the clinical definition of binge drinking. They defined it in terms of the effect of alcohol consumed on individual behaviour, not in absolute quantities. Given the unreliability of self-reported consumption, future health surveys and initiatives should consider ‘quantifying’ alcohol in a way more meaningful to the population of interest, in terms of effect

Attachment systems for curtain wall construction and maintenance requirements

Curtain Wall construction has become a familiar and widely used method for enclosing structures. Since the 1950\u27s this type of enclosure has become increasingly the most popular choice of Designers and Builders. During this period of development, however, acceptable and uniform building standards have not evolved to create adequate quality control. This thesis investigates some of the design requirements of Curtain Walls, in particular the attachment system, and the maintenance costs that are directly related to the attachment system and the consequences of such failures

On the Spatial Distribution of Hard X-Rays from Solar Flare Loops

The aim of this paper is to investigate the spatial structure of the impulsive phase hard X-ray emission from solar flares. This work is motivated by the YOHKOH and the forthcoming HESSI observations. Summarizing past results, it is shown that the transport effects can account for the observations by inhomogeneous loops where there is a strong field convergence and/or density enhancement at the top of the flaring loop. Scattering by plasma turbulence at the acceleration site or pancake type pitch angle distribution of the accelerated electrons can also give rise to enhanced emission at the loop tops. These could be a natural consequence of acceleration by plasma waves. This paper considers a general case of stochastic scattering and acceleration that leads to an isotropic pitch angle distribution and an enhanced emission from the loop tops or the acceleration site. Following the formalism developed in earlier papers the strength and the spectrum of the radiation expected from the acceleration site and the foot points are evaluated and their dependence on the parameters describing the acceleration process and the flare plasma are determined. The theoretical ratio of these two intensities and relative values of their spectral indices are compared with the YOHKOH observations, demonstrating that the above mentioned parameters can be constrained with such observations. It is shown that future high spatial and spectral resolution observations, for example those expected from HESSI, can begin to distinguish between different models and constrain their parameters.Comment: 37 pages with 20 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ http://www.astronomy.stanford.ed

Plantain (\u3cem\u3ePlantago lanceolata\u3c/em\u3e L.) Growth Islimited Under Waterlogging

Plantain (Plantago lanceolata L.; PL) is becoming an increasingly important component of New Zealand dairy pastures because of its ability to reduce nitrogen losses to the environment. However, widespread suggestions of its poor persistence, have led to industry concern over its suitability for dairy systems. Anecdotal evidence suggests that PL does not cope well in waterlogged soil, yet there is little scientific literature relevant to this issue. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of waterlogging stress on PL growth and survival. In a glasshouse, the performance of PL under waterlogging was evaluated against perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.; PRG), the predominant plant species in New Zealand dairy pastures. Three watering regimes were applied to PL and PRG plants in plastic pots: control (optimal watering), wet (soil at field capacity), and waterlogged (water table 5cm below the soil surface) for 39 days, before 27 days of recovery under control watering. Plant dry mass (DM) harvests were made on days 22, 39 and 66. The leaf DM of PL was reduced by the waterlogging treatment by 37% and 38% respectively during the treatment and recovery periods, in comparison with the control. In contrast, the leaf DM of PRG plants was only reduced by 18% and 3% by the waterlogging treatment during the treatment and recovery periods respectively, and so PRG produced 28% and 45% more leaf DM under waterlogging than PL, during the treatment and recovery periods, respectively. The root DM of PRG was 33% higher under waterlogging in comparison with the control at day 39, while PL root DM was not significantly affected by water treatment. Whilst PL growth appears to be sensitive to waterlogging stress, the survival of PL under waterlogged conditions suggests that it possesses some waterlogging tolerance strategies. PRG exhibited an enhanced ability for coping under, and recovering from waterlogging stress, which may have been associated with the maintenance of root growth under waterlogging. These findings suggest that PL growth may be somewhat limited in periodically waterlogged pastures, and the enhanced ability of PRG to cope with waterlogging stress, could provide it with a competitive advantage over PL under such conditions, should they coexist in a mixed sward

Validation of a non-contact technique for torque measurements in wind turbines using an enhanced transient FSV approach

In-service turbine monitoring is essential for maximizing the wind energy contribution to the global energy budget. Measurement of turbine shaft torque under transient wind conditions is fundamental to develop reliable condition monitoring techniques. Contact based measurements bring their own disadvantages and non-contactless measurements have many potential advantages. However, their performance needs to be validated against standard methods. This paper focuses on the development of an enhanced transient Feature Selective Validation (FSV) techniques to undertake this analysis with an emphasis on transient data processing. The nature of FSV makes it a natural technique to consider for this problem space. Open questions have existed as to how transients should be dealt with in FSV. This paper overcomes the limitations of previous approaches for step-function transient comparison and presents analytical methods to ensure the transient feature itself is considered, irrespective of how much pre- and post- transient data happens to be included

Technical note: A comparison of editing criteria for lying-behaviour data derived from three-dimensional accelerometer devices on grazing dairy cows

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Des Moines Area Community College Creative Writing Contest 1976-2001

Award-Winning Works For the Academic Year · 2000-2001https://openspace.dmacc.edu/creativewriting/1002/thumbnail.jp

The Spectral Lag of GRB060505: A Likely Member of the Long Duration Class

Two long gamma-ray bursts, GRB 060505 and GRB 060614, occurred in nearby galaxies at redshifts of 0.089 and 0.125 respectively. Due to their proximity and durations, deep follow-up campaigns to search for supernovae (SNe) were initiated. However none were found in either case, to limits more than two orders of magnitude fainter than the prototypical GRB-associated SN, 1998bw. It was suggested that the bursts, in spite of their durations (4 and 102 s), belonged to the population of short GRBs which has been shown to be unrelated to SNe. In the case of GRB 060614 this argument was based on a number of indicators, including the negligible spectral lag, which is consistent with that of short bursts. GRB 060505 has a shorter duration, but no spectral lag was measured. We present the spectral lag measurements of GRB 060505 using Suzakus Wide Area Monitor and the Swift Burst Alert Telescope. We find that the lag is 0.36+/- 0.05 s, inconsistent with the lags of short bursts and consistent with the properties of long bursts and SN-GRBs. These results support the association of GRB 060505 with other low-luminosity GRBs also found in star-forming galaxies and indicates that at least some massive stars may die without bright SNe.Comment: Accepted by ApJL, 5 pages, 3 Figure

Prostaglandin E2 increases fibroblast geneâ specific and global DNA methylation via increased DNA methyltransferase expression

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154365/1/fsb2026009012.pd