609 research outputs found
Monte Carlo study of the Widom-Rowlinson fluid using cluster methods
The Widom-Rowlinson model of a fluid mixture is studied using a new cluster
algorithm that is a generalization of the invaded cluster algorithm previously
applied to Potts models. Our estimate of the critical exponents for the
two-component fluid are consistent with the Ising universality class in two and
three dimensions. We also present results for the three-component fluid.Comment: 13 pages RevTex and 2 Postscript figure
Impacts of Climate Change on Multiple Use Management of Bureau of Land Management Land in the Intermountain West, USA
Although natural resource managers are concerned about climate change, many are unable to adequately incorporate climate change science into their adaptation strategies or management plans, and are not always aware of or do not employ the most current scientific knowledge. One of the most prominent natural resource management agencies in the United States is the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is tasked with managing over 248 million acres (\u3e1 million km2) of public lands for multiple, often conflicting, uses. Climate change will affect the sustainability of many of these land uses and could further increase conflicts between them. As such, the purpose of our study was to determine the extent to which climate change will affect public land uses, and whether the BLM is managing for such predicted effects. To do so, we first conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature that discussed potential impacts of climate change on the multiple land uses the BLM manages in the Intermountain West, USA, and then expanded these results with a synthesis of projected vegetation changes. Finally, we conducted a content analysis of BLM Resource Management Plans in order to determine how climate change is explicitly addressed by BLM managers, and whether such plans reflect changes predicted by the scientific literature. We found that active resource use generally threatens intrinsic values such as conservation and ecosystem services on BLM land, and climate change is expected to exacerbate these threats in numerous ways. Additionally, our synthesis of vegetation modeling suggests substantial changes in vegetation due to climate change. However, BLM plans rarely referred to climate change explicitly and did not reflect the results of the literature review or vegetation model synthesis. Our results suggest there is a disconnect between management of BLM lands and the best available science on climate change. We recommend that the BLM actively integrates such research into on-the-ground management plans and activities, and that researchers studying the effects of climate change make a more robust effort to understand the practices and policies of public land management in order to effectively communicate the management significance of their findings
Conflict in Mens Experiences With Antidepressants
While men’s experiences of depression and help-seeking are known to be shaped by gender there
is little research which examines their experience of using antidepressants to treat this. This
study is based on in-depth, narrative style interviews with 20 New Zealand men who had used
antidepressants. The analysis identified a number of areas of conflict in the men’s accounts of
using this medication. Conflict centered on the way taking antidepressants was seen as
undermining personal control while also allowing users to take charge of their problems;
facilitating general functioning while undermining sexual functioning; relieving emotional
distress while undermining emotional vitality; and the tension participants felt between making
autonomous judgements about the value of antidepressants or relying the ‘expertise’ of others.
Participants negotiated these conflicts in a variety of ways. In some cases antidepressants were
positioned as being able to affirm aspects of traditional masculinity while a smaller number of
participants managed these conflicts by redefining aspects of their own masculinity in ways that
contrasted with dominant constructions. This research is limited by the sample of older, more
privileged men in the context of New Zealand culture which favors macho forms of masculinity.
In similar contexts mental health practitioners should be mindful of the conflicts that men might
experience in relation to their antidepressant use. Facilitating men’s exploration of these issues
may enable them to make better decisions about treatment options or to provide more effective
support to those who have opted for antidepressant treatment
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Impact of regular consumption of millets on fasting and post-prandial blood glucose level: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Millets have a low Glycemic Index and are thus expected to help reduce
concentration of Fasting and Post-Prandial Blood Sugar (FBS and PPBS) and
glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), which can potentially help the management
of type 2 diabetes. This study conducts a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of millets consumption on FBS, PPBS, and HbA1c levels
in comparison to major staple diets using the difference-in-differences
(DID) method, where the effect size was computed on the Standardized
Mean Difference scale. Among twelve eligible articles, ten were used in the
meta-analysis to assess the effects on FBS levels, while five were used to
assess the effects on PPBS levels. The results show significant effects on FBS
(p < 0.01) and PPBS (p < 0.05) levels with the effect size of −0.71 and −0.42,
respectively. There were 11.8% (p = 0.001) and 15.1% (p = 0.012) reductions
in FBS and PPBS level respectively observed in the millet consuming group
whereas the comparator group did not have significant reductions in either
indicator. On the other hand, the effects on HbA1c levels were insignificant,
presumably due to the small sample size where only two studies were
undertaken over 90 days, which warrants further research. The findings
corroborate the evidence that millets can contribute to managing FBS and
PPBS levels better than major staple diets, implying that millets consumption
helps reduce the risk of type 2 diabete
Descriptive epidemiology of stigma against depression in a general population sample in Alberta
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mental health illnesses, such as depression, are responsible for a growing disease burden worldwide. Unfortunately, effective treatment is often impeded by stigmatizing attitudes of other individuals, which have been found to lead to a number of negative consequences including reduced help-seeking behavior and increased social distance. Despite the high prevalence of depression in Canada, little research has been conducted to examine stigma against depression in the Canadian general population. Such information is crucial to understanding the current state of stigmatizing attitudes in the Canadian communities, and framing future stigma reduction initiatives. The objectives of this study were to estimate the percentages of various stigmatizing attitudes toward depression in a general population sample and to compare the percentages by demographics and socioeconomic characteristics.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a cross-sectional telephone survey in Alberta, Canada, between February and June 2006. Random digit dialing was used to recruit participants who were aged 18-74 years old (n = 3047). Participants were presented a case vignette describing a depressed individual, and responded to a 9-item Personal Stigma questionnaire. The percentages of stigmatizing attitudes were estimated and compared by demographic and socioeconomic variables.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among the participants, 45.9% endorsed that depressed individuals were unpredictable and 21.9% held the view that people with depression were dangerous. Significant differences in stigmatizing attitudes were found by gender, age, education, and immigration status. A greater proportion of men than women held stigmatizing views on each stigma item. No consistent trend emerged by age in stigma against depression. Participants with higher levels of education reported less stigmatizing attitudes than those with less education. Participants who were not born in Canada were more likely to hold stigmatizing attitudes than those who were born in Canada.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In the general population, stigmatizing attitudes towards depression differ by demographic characteristics. Men, those with less education and immigrants should be the targets of stigma reduction campaigns.</p
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Calcium from finger millet—a systematic review and meta-analysis on calcium retention, bone resorption, and in vitro bioavailability
Calcium deficiency during child growth leads to osteoporosis in later stages of life. Finger
millet is one of the calcium dense foods, with three times the level of calcium than milk, and
the only cereal that contains high calcium content which is consistent across different varieties
(364 � 58 mg/100 g). Thus, finger millet has potential for addressing calcium deficiency naturally.
This study aimed to determine the retention and impact of finger millet calcium on bone turnover
through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Three human studies were eligible for systematic
review. Of these, only two were eligible for meta-analysis to assess the retention of calcium in
children of 9 to 12 years. One study on bone turnover markers was not used in the meta-analysis
as at least two studies are required to conduct meta-analysis. Due to the lack of complete data
only four studies were eligible for meta-analysis to assess the in vitro bioavailability of calcium
from unprocessed and a range of different types of processed finger millet. The result shows that
there was significant retention (p < 0.05) of 23.4 � 2.9% calcium from finger-millet-based diet which
could help bone accretion during child growth if finger-millet-based diet is consumed. The bone
turnover marker study shows that the resorption of calcium reduced by 28% and 47% among peri
and post-menopausal women respectively after feeding the nutria mixed grain ball. However, there
is no significant change in bone formation marker. Depending on the type of processing, calcium
bioavailability either increased or decreased. One in vitro study showed that calcium bioavailability
from finger millet was 28.6% when boiled, whereas three studies on processing show that certain
processing can double the calcium bioavailability to 61.4%. Irrespective of the type of processing,
finger millets contribute to high calcium retention and extremely high bioavailable calcium and could
be useful for healthy growth and in dealing with complications related to calcium deficiency
Associations of plasma fibrinogen assays, C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 with previous myocardial infarction
Background: The association of plasma fibrinogen with myocardial infarction (MI) may (like that of C-reactive protein, CRP) be a marker of subclinical inflammation, mediated by cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6). There are well- recognized discrepancies between commonly performed fibrinogen assays. Increased ratio of clottable fibrinogen to intact fibrinogen (measured by a recently developed immunoassay) has been proposed as a measure of hyperfunctional fibrinogen, and is elevated in acute MI.<br/> Objective: To compare the associations of intact fibrinogen and four routine fibrinogen assays (two von Clauss assays; one prothrombin-time derived; and one immunonephelometric) in a case-control study of previous MI. Patients/methods: Cases (n = 399) were recruited 3-9 months after their event; 413 controls were age- and sex-matched from the case-control study local population. Intact fibrinogen was measured in 50% of subjects. Results: All routine fibrinogen assays showed high intercorrelations (r = 0.82-0.93) and significant (P lt 0.0001) increased mean levels in cases vs. controls. These four routine assays correlated only moderately with intact fibrinogen (r = 0.45-0.62), while intact fibrinogen showed only a small, nonsignificant increase in cases vs. controls. Consequently, the ratio of each of the four routine assays to the intact fibrinogen assay was significantly higher (P lt 0.0003) in cases vs. controls. Each fibrinogen assay correlated with plasma levels of CRP and IL-6 (which were also elevated in cases vs. controls). Each routine fibrinogen assay remained significantly elevated in cases vs. controls after further adjustment for C-reactive protein and interleukin-6. Conclusions: These data provide evidence for acquired, increased hyperfunctional plasma fibrinogen in MI survivors, which is not associated with markers of inflammatory reactions. The causes and significance of these results remain to be established in prospective studies
Testing the gaugino AMSB model at the Tevatron via slepton pair production
Gaugino AMSB models-- wherein scalar and trilinear soft SUSY breaking terms
are suppressed at the GUT scale while gaugino masses adopt the AMSB form--
yield a characteristic SUSY particle mass spectrum with light sleptons along
with a nearly degenerate wino-like lightest neutralino and quasi-stable
chargino. The left- sleptons and sneutrinos can be pair produced at
sufficiently high rates to yield observable signals at the Fermilab Tevatron.
We calculate the rate for isolated single and dilepton plus missing energy
signals, along with the presence of one or two highly ionizing chargino tracks.
We find that Tevatron experiments should be able to probe gravitino masses into
the ~55 TeV range for inoAMSB models, which corresponds to a reach in gluino
mass of over 1100 GeV.Comment: 14 pages including 6 .eps figure
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