Infant feeding practices of emirati women in the rapidly developing city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Rapid economic and cultural transition in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been accompanied by new challenges to public health; most notably a rapid rise in chronic disease. Breastfeeding is known to improve health outcomes in adulthood, is associated with reduced risk of developing chronic disease, and is therefore an important public health issue for this rapidly increasing population. Factors associated with infant feeding practices were examined in a cohort of 125 Emirati women and their infants, with data collected at birth and 3, 6 and 15 months postpartum by questionnaires and interviews. Participants were recruited in the Corniche Hospital, the main maternity hospital in the city of Abu Dhabi. Factors affecting the duration of breastfeeding and the introduction of complementary foods were investigated using univariate and multivariate statistics. Recommended infant feeding practices, such as exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and timely introduction of appropriate complementary foods, were poorly adhered to. Factors implicated in early cessation of breastfeeding included: time to first breastfeed, mother’s education level, employment status and early introduction of complementary foods

Postpartum Maternal Health at a Time of Rapid Societal Change in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Background. Abu Dhabi has undergone a rapid transition from a subsistence economy to a wealthy modern state over the last 50 years. This paper presents an insight into the health status of Emirati mothers during this transition through a prospective longitudinal study of mothers who gave birth in a government maternity hospital in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.Methods. 125 women were interviewed within the first week after birth, as part of a larger study encompassing a wide range of cultural, social, and behavioural aspects of health. They were then re-interviewed at three, six and 15 months postpartum. A food frequency questionnaire was also administered to the mothers at birth. Data were analysed using univariate statistics.Results. Over 70% of the mothers had BMI in the overweight and obese categories, and approximately half of the women were dissatisfied with their weight. Contributing factors were likely to be diets high in fats and sugar, low levels of exercise and women’s limited involvement in household food purchasing and preparation. Iron deficiency anaemia, diabetes, asthma and fertility problems were found to be the most common concerns amongst the participants prior to conception. Anaemia rates were high during pregnancy, with 35% having haemoglobin < 11 g/dL, and were positively associated with parity. Belief in traditional and herbal medicines was strong, with 43% of women using a variety of remedies during pregnancy.Conclusions. Policies and support mechanisms to encourage women to make better dietary choices and to provide more opportunities for exercising are required to improve the health of mothers in the UAE. The development of good quality health care has resulted in the better maternal health outcomes, although traditional practices in relation to herbal medicines are still common.

Investigating the thermal and irradiation stability of chemical vapor deposited erbium oxide tritium barrier coatings for Li breeder blanket applications

Two-micron thick erbium oxide tritium barrier coatings have been prepared by aerosol injection chemical vapor deposition and subsequently irradiated with 33 MeV Au 6+ ions at fluences up to 2.1 × 1016 Au/m2 at 550°C. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were used to investigate the coating surface morphologies, phase structures and cross-sectional microstructures as a function of irradiation and thermal treatment. XRD data was also used to extract information about the evolution of lattice strain in the coating. Some of the cubic erbia transformed to the monoclinic phase in the sample that was ion irradiated at temperature, and this was accompanied by a change from columnar to a more equiaxed grain structure. All coatings were found to experience out-of-plane tensile strain, thought to originate from thermal stresses created during coating manufacture. Thermal treatment reduced microstrains present in the as-deposited sample, whilst the cubic-to-monoclinic phase transformation reduced strain in the cubic phase but increased strain in the monoclinic phase

The Kinetics of Primary Alpha Plate Growth in Titanium Alloys

The kinetics of primary alpha-Ti colony/Widmanstatten plate growth from the beta are examined, comparing model to experiment. The plate growth velocity depends sensitively both on the diffusivity D(T) of the rate-limiting species and on the supersaturation around the growing plate. These result in a maxima in growth velocity around 40 K below the transus, once sufficient supersaturation is available to drive plate growth. In Ti-6246, the plate growth velocity was found to be around 0.32 um min-1 at 850 oC, which was in good agreement with the model prediction of 0.36 um min-1 . The solute field around the growing plates, and the plate thickness, was found to be quite variable, due to the intergrowth of plates and soft impingement. This solute field was found to extend to up to 30 nm, and the interface concentration in the beta was found to be around 6.4 at.% Mo. It was found that increasing O content will have minimal effect on the plate lengths expected during continuous cooling; in contrast, Mo approximately doubles the plate lengths obtained for every 2 wt.% Mo reduction. Alloys using V as the beta stabiliser instead of Mo are expected to have much faster plate growth kinetics at nominally equivalent V contents. These findings will provide a useful tool for the integrated design of alloys and process routes to achieve tailored microstructures.Comment: Revised version resubmitted to journa

Observations of the Breakdown of Mountain Waves Over the Andes Lidar Observatory at Cerro Pachon on 8/9 July 2012

Although mountain waves (MWs) are thought to be a ubiquitous feature of the wintertime southern Andes stratosphere, it was not known whether these waves propagated up to the mesopause region until Smith et al. (2009) confirmed their presence via airglow observations. The new Andes Lidar Observatory at Cerro Pachon in Chile provided the opportunity for a further study of these waves. Since MWs have near-zero phase speed, and zero wind lines often occur in the winter upper mesosphere (80 to 100 km altitude) region due to the reversal of the zonal mean and tidal wind, MW breakdown may routinely occur at these altitudes. Here we report on very high spatial/temporal resolution observations of the initiation of MW breakdown in the mesopause region. Because the waves are nearly stationary, the breakdown process was observed over several hours; a much longer interval than has previously been observed for any gravity wave breakdown. During the breakdown process observations were made of initial horseshoe-shaped vortices, leading to successive vortex rings, as is also commonly seen in Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of idealized and multiscale gravity wave breaking. Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) structures were also observed to form. Comparing the structure of observed KHI with the results of existing DNS allowed an estimate of the turbulent kinematic viscosity. This viscosity was found to be around 25 m2/s, a value larger than the nominal viscosity that is used in models

On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection

A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Relationship of edge localized mode burst times with divertor flux loop signal phase in JET

A phase relationship is identified between sequential edge localized modes (ELMs) occurrence times in a set of H-mode tokamak plasmas to the voltage measured in full flux azimuthal loops in the divertor region. We focus on plasmas in the Joint European Torus where a steady H-mode is sustained over several seconds, during which ELMs are observed in the Be II emission at the divertor. The ELMs analysed arise from intrinsic ELMing, in that there is no deliberate intent to control the ELMing process by external means. We use ELM timings derived from the Be II signal to perform direct time domain analysis of the full flux loop VLD2 and VLD3 signals, which provide a high cadence global measurement proportional to the voltage induced by changes in poloidal magnetic flux. Specifically, we examine how the time interval between pairs of successive ELMs is linked to the time-evolving phase of the full flux loop signals. Each ELM produces a clear early pulse in the full flux loop signals, whose peak time is used to condition our analysis. The arrival time of the following ELM, relative to this pulse, is found to fall into one of two categories: (i) prompt ELMs, which are directly paced by the initial response seen in the flux loop signals; and (ii) all other ELMs, which occur after the initial response of the full flux loop signals has decayed in amplitude. The times at which ELMs in category (ii) occur, relative to the first ELM of the pair, are clustered at times when the instantaneous phase of the full flux loop signal is close to its value at the time of the first ELM