1,448 research outputs found
Association between changes in lifestyle and all-cause mortality: The Health and Lifestyle Study
Background To examine the combined influence of changes in physical activity, diet, smoking and alcohol consumption on all-cause mortality.
Methods Health behaviours were assessed in 1984/1985 and 1991/1992 in 8123 adults from the UK (4666 women, median age 41.0 years). An unhealthy lifestyle score was calculated, allocating one point for smoking, fruits and vegetables 14 units (women) or >21 units of alcohol (men) per week.
Results There were 2003 deaths over a median follow-up of 6.6 years (IQR 5.9–7.2) following the resurvey. The modal change in the unhealthy lifestyle score was zero, 41.8% had the same score, 35.5% decreased and 22.7% increased score between surveys. A one unit decrease in the unhealthy lifestyle score was not associated with a beneficial effect on mortality (HR 0.93; 95% CI 0.83 to 1.04). A one unit increase in the unhealthy lifestyle score increased the risk of mortality (adjusted HR 1.09; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.18).
Conclusions In this general population sample, the adoption of an unhealthy lifestyle was associated with an increased risk of mortality
How simple rules determine pedestrian behavior and crowd disasters
With the increasing size and frequency of mass events, the study of crowd
disasters and the simulation of pedestrian flows have become important research
areas. Yet, even successful modeling approaches such as those inspired by
Newtonian force models are still not fully consistent with empirical
observations and are sometimes hard to calibrate. Here, a novel cognitive
science approach is proposed, which is based on behavioral heuristics. We
suggest that, guided by visual information, namely the distance of obstructions
in candidate lines of sight, pedestrians apply two simple cognitive procedures
to adapt their walking speeds and directions. While simpler than previous
approaches, this model predicts individual trajectories and collective patterns
of motion in good quantitative agreement with a large variety of empirical and
experimental data. This includes the emergence of self-organization phenomena,
such as the spontaneous formation of unidirectional lanes or stop-and-go waves.
Moreover, the combination of pedestrian heuristics with body collisions
generates crowd turbulence at extreme densities-a phenomenon that has been
observed during recent crowd disasters. By proposing an integrated treatment of
simultaneous interactions between multiple individuals, our approach overcomes
limitations of current physics-inspired pair interaction models. Understanding
crowd dynamics through cognitive heuristics is therefore not only crucial for a
better preparation of safe mass events. It also clears the way for a more
realistic modeling of collective social behaviors, in particular of human
crowds and biological swarms. Furthermore, our behavioral heuristics may serve
to improve the navigation of autonomous robots.Comment: Article accepted for publication in PNA
Description of Drip-Line Nuclei within Relativistic Mean-Field Plus BCS Approach
Recently it has been demonstrated, considering Ni and Ca isotopes as
prototypes, that the relativistic mean-field plus BCS (RMF+BCS) approach
wherein the single particle continuum corresponding to the RMF is replaced by a
set of discrete positive energy states for the calculation of pairing energy
provides a good approximation to the full relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RHB)
description of the ground state properties of the drip-line neutron rich
nuclei. The applicability of RMF+BCS is essentially due to the fact that the
main contribution to the pairing correlations is provided by the low-lying
resonant states. General validity of this approach is demonstrated by the
detailed calculations for the ground state properties of the chains of isotopes
of O, Ca, Ni, Zr, Sn and Pb nuclei. The TMA and NL-SH force parameter sets have
been used for the effective mean-field Lagrangian. Comprehensive results for
the two neutron separation energy, rms radii, single particle pairing gaps and
pairing energies etc. are presented. The Ca isotopes are found to exhibit
distinct features near the neutron drip line whereby it is found that further
addition of neutrons causes a rapid increase in the neutron rms radius with
almost no increase in the binding energy, indicating the occurrence of halos. A
comparison of these results with the available experimental data and with the
recent continuum relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RCHB) calculations amply
demonstrates the validity and usefulness of this fast RMF+BCS approach.Comment: 59 pages, 40 figure
Early life diarrhoea and later blood pressure in a developing country: the 1982 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort study
Background: It has recently been hypothesised that acute dehydration in early childhood may "programme'' increased blood pressure via salt retention. We examined whether there was an association between episodes of diarrhoea (a proxy for acute dehydration) and later measured blood pressure.Methods: In the 1982 Pelotas birth cohort study (Brazil), parents/carers reported hospital admissions for diarrhoea in the first 12 and 20 months of study members' lives. Blood pressure was subsequently measured directly in adolescence (aged 15, 18, 19 years) and early adulthood (aged 23 years).Results: We found no evidence of an association between diarrhoea in the first 12 months of life and blood pressure measured at any point in adolescence or early adulthood. These findings were unchanged after adjustment for a range of covariates. Equally null results were apparent when diarrhoea admissions in the first 20 months of life, access to home sanitation and use of piped water were the exposures of interest.Conclusions: Early life proxies for dehydration and diarrhoea were unrelated to later blood pressure in this examination, the most comprehensive to date, of the potential association
Limits on the low energy antinucleon-nucleus annihilations from the Heisenberg principle
We show that the quantum uncertainty principle puts some limits on the
effectiveness of the antinucleon-nucleus annihilation at very low energies.
This is caused by the fact that the realization a very effective short-distance
reaction process implies information on the relative distance of the reacting
particles. Some quantitative predictions are possible on this ground, including
the approximate A-independence of antinucleon-nucleus annihilation rates.Comment: 10 pages, no figure
Investigation of alpha-nuclear potential families from elastic scattering experiments
In this work we present the continuation of the reported analysis [1] of the experimentally measured angular distributions of the reaction Cd-106(alpha, alpha)Cd-106 at several different energies around the Coulomb barrier. The difficulties that arise in the study of Cd-106-alpha-nuclear potential and the so called Family Problem are addressed
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