Intergenerational Transmission of Healthy Eating Behaviour and the Role of Household Income

This paper investigates the possibility of intergenerational transmission of unhealthy eating habits from parents to adult children. It uses the 2003 Scottish Health Survey and estimates the association between the present healthy eating behaviour of adult children and the past parental death from cardiovascular disease (CVD). It uses parental CVD death as an adverse health signal which may cause a healthy eating compensatory response in adult children. This response is due to increased chances and perception of genetic predisposition of adult children as well as an indicator for parental past unhealthy eating habits which may have been passed onto the adult children. Regression analysis suggests that paternal history has no impact on either sons or daughters, and maternal history influences negatively the eating behaviour of daughters only. Unhealthy eating intergenerational transmission appears to be more intense amongst lower household income individuals.intergenerational transmission, healthy eating, household income, cardiovascular disease, public health, gender

FIELD TRIALS AS AN EXTENSION TECHNIQUE: THE CASE OF SWAZILAND

One potentially serious problem in evaluating the effectiveness of extension programs is that participants are not picked at random. Self-selection can be a problem, and it can be compounded if extension officials concentrate on the most progressive farms. This study explores the relationships between adoption of maize high-yielding varieties (HYVs) and participation in field trials intended to foster HYV usage, drawing on data from Swaziland. Results indicate that it is impossible to say if field trials had any effect on adoption. Participating farms used more HYVs, but this could have been due to self-selection or the government's selection process.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

The invention of the vertical camera in photography

n/

Experimental Evidence of Non-Linear Dissipation Using Acoustic Micro-Lapses

Non-linear material behaviour is observed experimentally in a laboratory using a new method called Acoustic Micro-Lapses (AML). In this approach, the shooting of two waves is synchronised in a way that the second wave (TW) is to sense the fluctuations in material stiffness induced by the first (PW). The tests include four samples; twenty trials are performed for each sample by increasing time-delays between the waves. The recorded waves are decoupled and compared to determine spectral differences by computing a quantity proportional to the energy difference as function of the increasing time delay (). For a tight sandstone and aluminium samples, the random behaviour of implies that TW finds the same equilibrium conditions as PW. The Lucite and the Berea sandstone depict distinct maxima, implying that TW sensed the transitory perturbations induced by PW. Therefore, it is inferred that PW and TW must propagate with different phase speeds. To assess the previous results, quasi-static modelling is performed using two time delayed step functions. The corresponding creep compliance shows a strong discontinuity when the second step is applied, implying the existence of two unrelaxed moduli. This supports the lab data in that the two waves must have different dispersion relations such that they propagate with different speeds

Development of a composite model derived from cardiopulmonary exercise tests to predict mortality risk in patients with mild-to-moderate heart failure

Objective: Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is used to predict outcome in patients with mild-to-moderate heart failure (HF). Single CPET-derived variables are often used, but we wanted to see if a composite score achieved better predictive power. Methods: Retrospective analysis of patient records at the Department of Cardiology, Castle Hill Hospital, Kingston-upon-Hull. 387 patients [median (25th-75th percentile)] [age 65 (56-72) years; 79% males; LVEF 34 (31-37) %] were included. Patients underwent a symptomlimited, maximal CPET on a treadmill. During a median follow up of 8.6 ± 2.1 years in survivors, 107 patients died. Survival models were built and validated using a hybrid approach between the bootstrap and Cox regression. Nine CPET-derived variables were included. Z-score defined each variable's predictive strength. Model coefficients were converted to a risk score. Results: Four CPET-related variables were independent predictors of all-cause mortality in the survival model: the presence of exertional oscillatory ventilation (EOV), increasing slope of the relation between ventilation and carbon dioxide production (VE/VCO2 slope), decreasing oxygen uptake efficiency slope (OUES), and an increase in the lowest ventilatory equivalent for carbon dioxide (VEqCO2 nadir). Individual predictors of mortality ranged from 0.60 to 0.71 using Harrell’s C-statistic, but the optimal combination of EOV + VE/VCO2 slope + OUES + VEqCO2 nadir reached 0.75. The Hull CPET risk score had a significantly higher area under the curve (0.78) when compared to the Heart Failure Survival Score (AUC=0.70;

Early indication of decompensated heart failure in patients on home-telemonitoring: a comparison of prediction algorithms based on daily weight and noninvasive transthoracic bio-impedance

Background: Heart Failure (HF) is a common reason for hospitalization. Admissions might be prevented by early detection of and intervention for decompensation. Conventionally, changes in weight, a possible measure of fluid accumulation, have been used to detect deterioration. Transthoracic impedance may be a more sensitive and accurate measure of fluid accumulation. Objective: In this study, we review previously proposed predictive algorithms using body weight and noninvasive transthoracic bio-impedance (NITTI) to predict HF decompensations. Methods: We monitored 91 patients with chronic HF for an average of 10 months using a weight scale and a wearable bio-impedance vest. Three algorithms were tested using either simple rule-of-thumb differences (RoT), moving averages (MACD), or cumulative sums (CUSUM). Results: Algorithms using NITTI in the 2 weeks preceding decompensation predicted events (P<.001); however, using weight alone did not. Cross-validation showed that NITTI improved sensitivity of all algorithms tested and that trend algorithms provided the best performance for either measurement (Weight-MACD: 33%, NITTI-CUSUM: 60%) in contrast to the simpler rules-of-thumb (Weight-RoT: 20%, NITTI-RoT: 33%) as proposed in HF guidelines. Conclusions: NITTI measurements decrease before decompensations, and combined with trend algorithms, improve the detection of HF decompensation over current guideline rules; however, many alerts are not associated with clinically overt decompensation

A Phase Space Approach to Gravitational Enropy

We examine the definition S = ln Omega as a candidate "gravitational entropy" function. We calculate its behavior for gravitationl and density perturbations in closed, open and flat cosmologies and find that in all cases it increases monotonically. Using the formalism to calculate the gravitational entropy produced during inflation gives the canonical answer. We compare the behavior of S with the behavior of the square of the Weyl tensor. Applying the formalism to black holes has proven more problematical.Comment: Talk delivered at South African Relativistic Cosmology Symposium, Feb 1999. Some new results over Rothman and Anninos 97. To appear in GRG, 17 page

General properties of cosmological models with an Isotropic Singularity

Much of the published work regarding the Isotropic Singularity is performed under the assumption that the matter source for the cosmological model is a barotropic perfect fluid, or even a perfect fluid with a $\gamma$-law equation of state. There are, however, some general properties of cosmological models which admit an Isotropic Singularity, irrespective of the matter source. In particular, we show that the Isotropic Singularity is a point-like singularity and that vacuum space-times cannot admit an Isotropic Singularity. The relationships between the Isotropic Singularity, and the energy conditions, and the Hubble parameter is explored. A review of work by the authors, regarding the Isotropic Singularity, is presented.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur