Combating CVD in Kazakhstan through workplace interventions

The project designs and tests a multifaceted worksite intervention protocol that includes smoking cessation, dietary instruction, and exercise regimens to lower the prevalence of CVD morbidity and mortality in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan has among the highest CVD morbidity and mortality rates in the world. Development of an effective worksite intervention model that targets and improves the health behaviors and health status of high-risk middle age working males can be extended to the Republic's crucial and expanding workplace environment

Combating CVD in Kazakhstan through workplace interventions

The project designs and tests a multifaceted worksite intervention protocol that includes smoking cessation, dietary instruction, and exercise regimens to lower the prevalence of CVD morbidity and mortality in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan has among the highest CVD morbidity and mortality rates in the world. Development of an effective worksite intervention model that targets and improves the health behaviors and health status of high-risk middle age working males can be extended to the Republic's crucial and expanding workplace environment

Effect of four plant species on soil 15N-access and herbage yield in temporary agricultural grasslands

Positive plant diversity-productivity relationships have been reported for experimental semi-natural grasslands (Cardinale et al. 2006; Hector et al. 1999; Tilman et al. 1996) as well as temporary agricultural grasslands (Frankow-Lindberg et al. 2009; Kirwan et al. 2007; Nyfeler et al. 2009; Picasso et al. 2008). Generally, these relationships are explained, on the one hand, by niche differentiation and facilitation (Hector et al. 2002; Tilman et al. 2002) and, on the other hand, by greater probability of including a highly productive plant species in high diversity plots (Huston 1997). Both explanations accept that diversity is significant because species differ in characteristics, such as root architecture, nutrient acquisition and water use efficiency, to name a few, resulting in composition and diversity being important for improved productivity and resource use (Naeem et al. 1994; Tilman et al. 2002). Plant diversity is generally low in temporary agricultural grasslands grown for ruminant fodder production. Grass in pure stands is common, but requires high nitrogen (N) inputs. In terms of N input, two-species grass-legume mixtures are more sustainable than grass in pure stands and consequently dominate low N input grasslands (Crews and Peoples 2004; Nyfeler et al. 2009; Nyfeler et al. 2011). In temperate grasslands, N is often the limiting factor for productivity (Whitehead 1995). Plant available soil N is generally concentrated in the upper soil layers, but may leach to deeper layers, especially in grasslands that include legumes (Scherer-Lorenzen et al. 2003) and under conditions with surplus precipitation (Thorup-Kristensen 2006). To improve soil N use efficiency in temporary grasslands, we propose the addition of deep-rooting plant species to a mixture of perennial ryegrass and white clover, which are the most widespread forage plant species in temporary grasslands in a temperate climate (Moore 2003). Perennial ryegrass and white clover possess relatively shallow root systems (Kutschera and Lichtenegger 1982; Kutschera and Lichtenegger 1992) with effective rooting depths of <0.7 m on a silt loamy site (Pollock and Mead 2008). Grassland species, such as lucerne and chicory, grow their tap-roots into deep soil layers and exploit soil nutrients and water in soil layers that the commonly grown shallow-rooting grassland species cannot reach (Braun et al. 2010; Skinner 2008). Chicory grown as a catch crop after barley reduced the inorganic soil N down to 2.5 m depth during the growing season, while perennial ryegrass affected the inorganic soil N only down to 1 m depth (Thorup-Kristensen 2006). Further, on a Wakanui silt loam in New Zealand chicory extracted water down to 1.9 m and lucerne down to 2.3 m soil depth, which resulted in greater herbage yields compared with a perennial ryegrass-white clover mixture, especially for dryland plots (Brown et al. 2005). There is little information on both the ability of deep- and shallow-rooting grassland species to access soil N from different vertical soil layers and the relation of soil N-access and herbage yield in temporary agricultural grasslands. Therefore, the objective of the present work was to test the hypotheses 1) that a mixture comprising both shallow- and deep-rooting plant species has greater herbage yields than a shallow-rooting binary mixture and pure stands, 2) that deep-rooting plant species (chicory and lucerne) are superior in accessing soil N from 1.2 m soil depth compared with shallow-rooting plant species, 3) that shallow-rooting plant species (perennial ryegrass and white clover) are superior in accessing soil N from 0.4 m soil depth compared with deep-rooting plant species, 4) that a mixture of deep- and shallow-rooting plant species has greater access to soil N from three soil layers compared with a shallow-rooting two-species mixture and that 5) the leguminous grassland plants, lucerne and white clover, have a strong impact on grassland N acquisition, because of their ability to derive N from the soil and the atmosphere

Managing risks to drivers in road transport

This report presents a number of case studies in managing risks to road transport drivers. The cases feature a variety of initiatives and interventions to protect drivers.In the road transport sector, as with any other, it is important to pay attention to working conditions in order to ensure a skilled and motivated workforce. Certain characteristics of the sector make it more difficult to practice risk management than in other sectors. But by taking account of how the sector operates in practice, and the characteristics of drivers themselves and the way they work, risks can be successfully manage

The Age-Redshift Relation for Standard Cosmology

We present compact, analytic expressions for the age-redshift relation $\tau(z)$ for standard Friedmann-Lema\^ \itre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) cosmology. The new expressions are given in terms of incomplete Legendre elliptic integrals and evaluate much faster than by direct numerical integration.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Gamma-Ray Background from Structure Formation in the Intergalactic Medium

The universe is filled with a diffuse and isotropic extragalactic background of gamma-ray radiation, containing roughly equal energy flux per decade in photon energy between 3 MeV-100 GeV. The origin of this background is one of the unsolved puzzles in cosmology. Less than a quarter of the gamma-ray flux can be attributed to unresolved discrete sources, but the remainder appears to constitute a truly diffuse background whose origin has hitherto been mysterious. Here we show that the shock waves induced by gravity during the formation of large-scale structure in the intergalactic medium, produce a population of highly-relativistic electrons with a maximum Lorentz factor above 10^7. These electrons scatter a small fraction of the microwave background photons in the present-day universe up to gamma-ray energies, thereby providing the gamma-ray background. The predicted diffuse flux agrees with the observed background over more than four decades in photon energy, and implies a mean cosmological density of baryons which is consistent with Big-Bang nucleosynthesis.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in Nature. (Press embargo until published.

The circadian clock regulates rhythmic erythropoietin expression in the murine kidney

Generation of circadian rhythms is cell-autonomous and relies on a transcription/translation feedback loop controlled by a family of circadian clock transcription factor activators including CLOCK, BMAL1 and repressors such as CRY1 and CRY2. The aim of the present study was to examine both the molecular mechanism and the hemopoietic implication of circadian erythropoietin expression. Mutant mice with homozygous deletion of the core circadian clock genes cryptochromes 1 and 2 (Cry-null) were used to elucidate circadian erythropoietin regulation. Wild-type control mice exhibited a significant difference in kidney erythropoietin mRNA expression between circadian times 06 and 18. In parallel, a significantly higher number of erythropoietin-producing cells in the kidney (by RNAscope®) and significantly higher levels of circulating erythropoietin protein (by ELISA) were detected at circadian time 18. Such changes were abolished in Cry-null mice and were independent from oxygen tension, oxygen saturation, or expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 2 alpha, indicating that circadian erythropoietin expression is transcriptionally regulated by CRY1 and CRY2. Reporter gene assays showed that the CLOCK/BMAL1 heterodimer activated an E-box element in the 5' erythropoietin promoter. RNAscope® in situ hybridization confirmed the presence of Bmal1 in erythropoietin-producing cells of the kidney. In Cry-null mice, a significantly reduced number of reticulocytes was found while erythrocyte numbers and hematocrit were unchanged. Thus, circadian erythropoietin regulation in the normoxic adult murine kidney is transcriptionally controlled by master circadian activators CLOCK/BMAL1, and repressors CRY1/CRY2. These findings may have implications for kidney physiology and disease, laboratory diagnostics, and anemia therapy

Probing the phase diagram of CeRu_2Ge_2 by thermopower at high pressure

The temperature dependence of the thermoelectric power, S(T), and the electrical resistivity of the magnetically ordered CeRu_2Ge_2 (T_N=8.55 K and T_C=7.40 K) were measured for pressures p < 16 GPa in the temperature range 1.2 K < T < 300 K. Long-range magnetic order is suppressed at a p_c of approximately 6.4 GPa. Pressure drives S(T) through a sequence of temperature dependences, ranging from a behaviour characteristic for magnetically ordered heavy fermion compounds to a typical behaviour of intermediate-valent systems. At intermediate pressures a large positive maximum develops above 10 K in S(T). Its origin is attributed to the Kondo effect and its position is assumed to reflect the Kondo temperature T_K. The pressure dependence of T_K is discussed in a revised and extended (T,p) phase diagram of CeRu_2Ge_2.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

A Nonlocal Metric Formulation of MOND

We study a class of nonlocal, but causal, covariant and conserved field equations for the metric. Although nonlocal, these equations do not seem to possess extra graviton solutions in weak field perturbation theory. Indeed, the equations reduce to those of general relativity when the Ricci scalar vanishes throughout spacetime. When a static matter source is present we show how these equations can be adjusted to reproduce Milgrom's Modified Newtonian Dynamics in the weak field regime, while reducing to general relativity for strong fields. We compute the angular deflection of light in the weak field regime and demonstrate that it is the same as for general relativity, resulting in far too little lensing if no dark matter is present. We also study the field equations for a general Robertson-Walker geometry. An interesting feature of our equations is that they become conformally invariant in the MOND limit.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX 2 epsilon, no figure