Nicotine Dependence And Alternative E-Cigarette Use Behaviors: Dripping And Vape Tricks

Background: E-cigarette use among youth is concerning due to the risk of exposure to hazardous chemicals and future combustible cigarette use. Alternative e-cigarette use behaviors, or dripping (i.e., applying drops of e-liquids directly onto heated coils) and vape tricks (i.e., blowing shapes or large clouds of visible exhaled aerosol), may also increase this risk. However, little is known about the risk of nicotine dependence among adolescents who engage in these behaviors. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the association between these alternative e-cigarette use behaviors and nicotine dependence among adolescents. Research Design: Cross-sectional data were collected from four Connecticut high schools. Students reported use of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, dripping and vape trick behaviors, nicotine dependence, sex, race, grade, socioeconomic status, age of e-cigarette onset, and past 30 day e-cigarette frequency. Two general linear models were generated with and without covariates to evaluate the association between alternative e-cigarette use behaviors and nicotine dependence. Results: Based on the unadjusted model, individuals who engaged in both vape tricks and dripping displayed greater nicotine dependence than individuals who engaged in either (Mean difference = 0.27, 95% CI = [0.13, 0.42]) or neither behaviors (Mean difference = 0.31, 95% CI = [0.10, 0.52]). However, after adjusting for demographic and other tobacco use characteristics, the association was no longer significant. Rather, age of e-cigarette onset (β = -0.07 [SE = 0.02], p = 0.002) and e-cigarette frequency (β = 0.01 [SE = 0.005], p = 0.01) significantly predicted nicotine dependence. Conclusions: Future research should further evaluate levels of nicotine concentration used for alternative use behaviors and potential pathways in which nicotine dependence can develop among adolescents who engage in vape tricks and/or dripping as they are at risk for engaging in more frequent use of e-cigarettes

Positive Parenting in Adolescence and Its Association with Future Hopes and Fears in Adulthood: A Longitudinal Analysis

During young adulthood (ages 20-39), individuals begin to develop a future orientation by thinking about their possible selves. In this longitudinal study, young adults’ future hopes and fears were examined in relation to their perceptions of the parenting style they experienced in adolescence. An interview was conducted with participants at age 26 and 32 to assess their future possible selves. Participants discussed both hoped-for and feared selves. The long-term impact of parenting on future hopes and fears was examined by exploring the possible impact of perceived parenting styles experienced in adolescence. Interviews were conducted in 2005 and 2011 with 26 year old participants (N = 100; 69% women) and 32 year old participants (N = 114; 71% women), respectively. At both ages, the top three hopes discussed by participants included work/career, marriage/relationship, and parenthood. At age 26, the top three fears discussed by participants included marriage/relationship, work/career, and mental health, however, at age 32, participants identified physical health and parenthood in addition to marriage/relationship fears. Perceived parenting style at adolescence did not generally have any association with hopes and fears at ages 26 and 32. However, participants who scored higher on the perceived parenting measure at age 17 discussed more parenthood hopes at age 32 compared to the participants who reported lower perceptions of the parenting styles they experienced. The results of the current study show how young adults are defining their future, with frequent consideration of work/career, marriage/relationships, and parenthood. These findings may inform the design of career interventions and therapy setting for young adults

Development And Validation Of A Flow Device To Study Platelet Function In Vitro And Elucidating The Role Of Thymosin β 4 In Various Physiological Processes

Parallel plate flow chambers, simulating in vivo fluid shear stress, provide a real time insight into the dynamic process of platelet aggregation and investigation of endothelial cell response to shear stress. This thesis describes the design and validation of - 1) A simple parallel plate flow chamber to study effects of shear stress on endothelial cells. This flow chamber is easy to use, inexpensive and fast to manufacture as compared to the flow devices reported previously. Moreover, it..

Low Cost Swarm Based Diligent Cargo Transit System

The goal of this paper is to present the design and development of a low cost cargo transit system which can be adapted in developing countries like India where there is abundant and cheap human labour which makes the process of automation in any industry a challenge to innovators. The need of the hour is an automation system that can diligently transfer cargo from one place to another and minimize human intervention in the cargo transit industry. Therefore, a solution is being proposed which could effectively bring down human labour and the resources needed to implement them. The reduction in human labour and resources is achieved by the use of low cost components and very limited modification of the surroundings and the existing vehicles themselves. The operation of the cargo transit system has been verified and the relevant results are presented. An economical and robust cargo transit system is designed and implemented.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures, 1 block diagra

Fractionally Spaced Adaptive Equalizer: A Review

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REVIEW OF REMOTE SENSING IMAGE SEGMENTATION TECHNIQUES

Abstract Image segmentation is an important tool in image processing and can serve as an efficient front end to sophisticated algorithms and thereby simplify subsequent processing. Image segmentation by region merging follows a particular order in the choice of regions. The target of segmentation is always to simplify and/or change the representation of a graphic into something that is more meaningful and simpler to analyze. Image segmentation is normally used to locate objects and boundaries (lines, curves, etc.) in images. To improve segmentation accuracy and the correctness, this paper proposed a Dynamic Statistical Region Merging (DSRM) algorithm to find the automatically select scale value. The purpose of this paper is to gather various segmentation techniques that can be used for the segmentation of remote sensing images (RSI). The paper provides good starting for researchers to find automatically select scale value using the combination of DSRM and fuzzy logic

Authenticity of vitamin D in modified vaginal health index in geriatric subjects

Background: Role of vitamin D is very well known for the functioning of many body organs. But its role in the post menopausal women in relation to various genitourinary disorders has been recognized recently. The main objective of this study was to evaluate role of vitamin D in vaginal health.Methods: This was a randomized controlled study in which 200 geriatric female patients of 65-78 years of age divided in to two groups comprising of study and control group with 100 subjects in each. Detailed obstetrical, gynecological and clinical history was elicited. Detailed local examination was done followed by follow up of 3 and6 months each. The Chi-square and independent t-test used for data analysis.Results: There was a visible increasing trend in Vitamin D deficiency with increase in time since menopause p value 0.1193. With increase in vitamin D levels, MVHI was found to be better. MVHI was found to increase significantly with Vitamin D supplementation at 3 and 6 months follow up.Conclusions: Intake of Vitamin D in older females led to improvement of MVHI in this study but further evaluation of the role of vitamin D as a modifiable causative factor in improving vaginal health is warranted

Is current rising trends of cesarean section –justified ?

Background: Cesarean section has become more prevalent over the years due to various factors and is exceeding the tolerable limit specified by WHO. The objective of this study was to analyze cesarean section rates in our department and to identify the factors that contributed to rising cesarean section rate considering both institutional aspects as well as socioeconomic causes.Methods: It was a retrospective study conducted between May 2015 to April 2016 and included all pregnant patients booked in antenatal clinic and unbooked patients admitted in early labour in whom cesarean section was conducted later along with cases coming in emergency for which cesarean section was indicated. Data was collected and categorized on the basis of age, parity, socioeconomic status, education and according to Robson’s ten group classification.Results: The cesarean section rate was found to be 33.2% in our study. The most common indication was repeat cesarean section, fetal distress, and breech presentation. Robson’s group1 had maximum cesarean rates followed by group 5, 6 and 3.Conclusions: Tertiary care centers cannot be expected to have a similar rate as primary and secondary ones due to high number of complex cases referred to them. Though effort should be made to keep the cesarean rate at a low level as suggested by WHO but denying it for an indicated case just to adhere to keep low rate jeopardizes maternal and fetal health. Hence no definitive guidelines can be followed and a very judicious approach is needed