831 research outputs found
Estimated vitamin D synthesis and dietary vitamin D intake among Asians in two distinct geographical locations (Kuala Lumpur, 3°N versus Aberdeen, 57°N) and climates
Objective:
To compare the contributions of UVB exposure and diet to total vitamin D among Asians living in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and Aberdeen (AB).
Design:
Longitudinal study.
Setting:
UVB exposure (using polysulfone film badges) and skin colour and dietary vitamin D intake (by web-based questionnaire) were measured at each season in AB and during south-west (SWM) and north-east monsoons (NEM) in KL.
Subjects:
One hundred and fifteen Asians in KL and eighty-five Asians in AB aged 20â50 years.
Results:
Median summer UVB exposure of Asians in AB (0·25 SED/d) was higher than UVB exposure for the KL participants (SWM=0·20 SED/d, P=0·02; NEM= 0·14 SED/d, P<0·01). UVB exposure was the major source of vitamin D in KL year-round (60%) but only during summer in AB (59%). Median dietary vitamin D intake was higher in AB (3·50 ”g/d (140 IU/d)), year-round, than in KL (SWM=2·05 ”g/d (82 IU/d); NEM=1·83 ”g/d (73 IU/d), P<0·01). Median total vitamin D (UVB plus diet) was higher in AB only during summer (8·45 ”g/d (338 IU/d)) compared with KL (SWM=6·03 ”g/d (241 IU/d), P=0·04; NEM=5·35 ”g/d (214 IU/d), P<0·01), with a comparable intake across the full year (AB=5·75 ”g/d (230 IU/d); KL=6·15 ”g/d (246 IU/d), P=0·78).
Conclusions:
UVB exposure among Asians in their home country is low. For Asians residing at the northerly latitude of Scotland, acquiring vitamin D needs from UVB exposure alone (except in summer) may be challenging due to low ambient UVB in AB (available only from April to October)
The effects of changes to the built environment on the mental health and well-being of adults: Systematic review
© 2018 The Authors There is increasing interest in the influence of place on health, and the need to distinguish between environmental and individual level factors. For environmental-level factors, current evidence tends to show associations through cross-sectional and uncontrolled longitudinal analyses rather than through more robust study designs that can provide stronger causal evidence. We restricted this systematic review to randomised (or cluster) randomised controlled trials and controlled before-and-after studies of changes to the built environment. Date of search was December 2016. We identified 14 studies. No evidence was found of an effect on mental health from âurban regenerationâ and âimproving green infrastructureâ studies. Beneficial effects on quality-of-life outcomes from âimproving green infrastructureâ were found in two studies. One âimproving green infrastructureâ study reported an improvement in social isolation. Risk-of-bias assessment indicated robust data from only four studies. Overall, evidence for the impact of built environment interventions on mental health and quality-of-life is weak. Future research requires more robust study designs and interdisciplinary research involving public health, planning and urban design experts
Non-destructive, dynamic detectors for Bose-Einstein condensates
We propose and analyze a series of non-destructive, dynamic detectors for
Bose-Einstein condensates based on photo-detectors operating at the shot noise
limit. These detectors are compatible with real time feedback to the
condensate. The signal to noise ratio of different detection schemes are
compared subject to the constraint of minimal heating due to photon absorption
and spontaneous emission. This constraint leads to different optimal operating
points for interference-based schemes. We find the somewhat counter-intuitive
result that without the presence of a cavity, interferometry causes as much
destruction as absorption for optically thin clouds. For optically thick
clouds, cavity-free interferometry is superior to absorption, but it still
cannot be made arbitrarily non-destructive . We propose a cavity-based
measurement of atomic density which can in principle be made arbitrarily
non-destructive for a given signal to noise ratio
A common genetic variant of a mitochondrial RNA processing enzyme predisposes to insulin resistance
Mitochondrial energy metabolism plays an important role in the pathophysiology of insulin resistance. Recently, a missense N437S variant was identified in the MRPP3 gene, which encodes a mitochondrial RNA processing enzyme within the RNase P complex, with predicted impact on metabolism. We used CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to introduce this variant into the mouse Mrpp3 gene and show that the variant causes insulin resistance on a high-fat diet. The variant did not influence mitochondrial gene expression markedly, but instead, it reduced mitochondrial calcium that lowered insulin release from the pancreatic islet ÎČ cells of the Mrpp3 variant mice. Reduced insulin secretion resulted in lower insulin levels that contributed to imbalanced metabolism and liver steatosis in the Mrpp3 variant mice on a high-fat diet. Our findings reveal that the MRPP3 variant may be a predisposing factor to insulin resistance and metabolic disease in the human population
Charm quark mass dependence of the electromagnetic dipole operator contribution to anti-B -> X(s) gamma at O(alpha**2(s))
We extend existing calculations of the electromagnetic dipole operator
contribution to the total decay rate and the photon energy spectrum of the
decay \bar{B} -> X_s\gamma at O(\alpha_s^2) by working out the exact dependence
on the charm quark mass.Comment: 10 pages, uses axodraw.sty; minor corrections, references added,
matches published versio
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The first cyborg and First World War bodies as anti-war propaganda
This article discusses a play published in The Strand Magazine during the First World War which features a cyborg presenting anti-war and pacifist messages,
used by The Strand to create anti-German propaganda. The article draws on theories of disability, cyborgs and the posthuman, and from new research on wartime fiction magazines. The importance of the cyborg character,
Soldier 241, for the literary history of science fiction is explored by focusing on the relations between the mechanical and the impaired body, and on the
First World War as a nexus for technological, surgical and military development. As a cyborg, this character reflects politicized desires that the wartime authorities did not acknowledge: a longing for the end of war, and
refusal to countenance a society that rejected the impaired body
Stimulant Medication and Reading Performance
The study examined the sustained effects of methylphenidate on reading performance in a sample of 42 boys, ages 8 to 11, with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Two subgroups were formed based on the presence or absence of co-occurring conduct disorders. Subjects were selected on the basis of their positive response to methylphenidate as determined in a series of original medication trials (Forness, Cantwell, Swanson, Hanna, & Youpa, 1991). For the purpose of this study, subjects were placed on their optimal dose of medication for a 6-week period and then tested on measures of oral reading and reading comprehension equivalent to those used in the original trials, retested after a week without medication (placebo), then tested again the following week after return to medication. Only the subgroup with conduct disorders responded, and this response was limited to reading comprehension improvement in only those subjects who also demonstrated improvement in oral reading on original trials. No response differences were found between subjects with or without learning disabilities.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68569/2/10.1177_002221949202500205.pd
Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in âs = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fbâ1 of protonâproton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results
Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC
provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of
lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with
a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the
transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the
anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the
nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of
the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp.
Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in
the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies
smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating
nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and
transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of
inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous
measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables,
submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are
available at
http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02
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