Teledermatology in Hong Kong: a cost effective method to provide service to the elderly patients living in instiututions

published_or_final_versio

Zimbabwean diabetics' beliefs about health and illness: an interview study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Diabetes mellitus (DM) is increasing globally, with the greatest increase in Africa and Asia. In Zimbabwe a threefold increase was shown in the 1990s. Health-related behaviour is important in maintaining health and is determined by individual beliefs about health and illness but has seen little study. The purpose of the study was to explore beliefs about health and illness that might affect self-care practice and health care seeking behaviour in persons diagnosed with DM, living in Zimbabwe.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Exploratory study. Consecutive sample from a diabetes clinic at a central hospital. Semi-structured interviews were held with 21 persons aged 19-65 years. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Health was described as freedom from disease and well-being, and individual factors such as compliance with advice received and drugs were considered important to promote health. A mixture of causes of DM, predominantly individual factors such as heredity, overweight and wrong diet in combination with supernatural factors such as fate, punishment from God and witchcraft were mentioned. Most respondents did not recognize the symptoms of DM when falling ill but related the problems to other diseases, e.g. HIV, malaria etc. Limited knowledge about DM and the body was indicated. Poor economy was mentioned as harmful to health and a consequence of DM because the need to buy expensive drugs, food and attend check-ups. Self-care was used to a limited extent but if used, a combination of individual measures, household remedies or herbs and religious acts such as prayers and holy water were frequently used, and in some cases health care professionals were consulted.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Limited knowledge about DM, based on beliefs about health and illness including biomedical and traditional explanations related to the influence of supernatural forces, e.g. fate, God etc., were found, which affected patients' self-care and care-seeking behaviour. Strained economy was stated to be a factor of the utmost importance affecting the management of DM and thus health. To develop cost-effective and optimal diabetes care in a country with limited resources, not only educational efforts based on individual beliefs are needed but also considering systemic and structural conditions in order to promote health and to prevent costly consequences of DM.</p

High field x-ray diffraction study on a magnetic-field-induced valence transition in YbInCu4

We report the first high-field x-ray diffraction experiment using synchrotron x-rays and pulsed magnetic fields exceeding 30 T. Lattice deformation due to a magnetic-field-induced valence transition in YbInCu4 is studied. It has been found that the Bragg reflection profile at 32 K changes significantly at around 27 T due to the structural transition. In the vicinity of the transition field the low-field and the high-field phases are observed simultaneously as the two distinct Bragg reflection peaks: This is a direct evidence of the fact that the field-induced valence state transition is the first order phase transition. The field-dependence of the low-field-phase Bragg peak intensity is found to be scaled with the magnetization.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

HST FOC spectroscopy of the NLR of NGC 4151. I. Gas kinematics

We present the results from a detailed kinematic analysis of both ground-based, and Hubble Space Telescope/Faint Object Camera long-slit spectroscopy at sub-arcsec spatial resolution, of the narrow-line region of NGC 4151. In agreement with previous work, the extended emission gas (R > 4") is found to be in normal rotation in the galactic plane, a behaviour that we were able to trace even across the nuclear region, where the gas is strongly disturbed by the interaction with the radio jet, and connects smoothly with the large scale rotation defined by the neutral gas emission. The HST data, at 0.029" spatial resolution, allow us for the first time to truly isolate the kinematic behaviour of the individual clouds in the inner narrow-line region. We find that, underlying the perturbations introduced by the radio ejecta, the general velocity field can still be well represented by planar rotation down to a radius of ~ 0.5" (30 pc), distance at which the rotation curve has its turnover. The most striking result that emerges from our analysis is that the galaxy potential derived fitting the rotation curve changes from a "dark halo" at the ENLR distances to dominated by the central mass concentration in the NLR, with an almost Keplerian fall-off in the 1"< R < 4" interval. The observed velocity of the gas at 0.5" implies a mass of M ~ 10E9 M(sol) within the inner 60 pc. The presence of a turnover in the rotation curve indicates that this central mass concentration is extended. The first measured velocity point (outside the region saturated by the nucleus) would imply an enclosed mass of ~ 5E7 M(sol) within R ~ 0.15" (10 pc) which represents an upper limit to any nuclear point mass.Comment: 30 pages (aaspp4.sty), 14 figures. Fig. 1, 2 and 4 available by anonymous FTP at 143.54.2.51 (cd /pub/winge) as GIF files; or upon request to [email protected]. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (part 1

Review of the research knowledge and gaps on fish populations, fisheries and linked ecosystems in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO)

This report presents a review of the research knowledge and gaps on fish populations, fisheries and linked ecosystems in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO). The CAO comprises the deep basins of the Arctic Ocean beyond the shelf break, which largely overlap with the High Seas of the Arctic Ocean, i.e. the marine areas outside the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of the Arctic coastal nations. The authors of the report are members of the European Fisheries Inventory in the Central Arctic Ocean (EFICA) Consortium. This study was funded by the European Commission as an EU contribution to the international cooperation within the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean. The report contains desk-based research, using scientific research data bases as well as any available research performed by the EFICA Consortium partners and EU institutions or others. In Chapters 2-8 the authors review the literature and identify specific knowledge gaps. The gap analyses involve comparisons of actual knowledge with desired knowledge on the fish stocks of the CAO to be able to evaluate possibilities for future sustainable fisheries in the area. Chapter 1 is an introductory chapter, and Chapter 9 presents a holistic gap analysis based on Chapters 2-8 and recommendations for research priorities and the next steps. The critical gap analysis highlights that the knowledge gaps for the CAO are enormous and obstruct any quantitative analyses of its fish stocks. This agrees with the conclusions from the Fifth FiSCAO Report (FiSCAO 2018). While data for the physical environment in the CAO (oceanography, bottom topography and ice-cover dynamics) would be sufficient for fish stock modelling and assessment, there is a massive lack of biological and ecological data. The CAO is not a closed system and some aspects of the shelf seas are of high relevance for the CAO, notably connectivity of fish stocks and fish species moving north with climate warming. Scientific research and monitoring programs are established in the shelf seas, and new data are constantly being produced. Fish stock data are available from scientific projects and monitoring programs for some of the shelf seas (Barents Sea, Bering Sea, and to a lesser extent for the Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea). Data exist also for the Russian shelf seas (Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea), but these data are not internationally available, while for the areas north of Canada/Greenland data are missing; they do not exist because of the severe ice conditions there. More data from all shelf seas may be hidden in reports that are not publicly accessible. We recommend to make current knowledge generally available by translating key publications and identification of valuable data reports. Research priorities comprise the collection and analysis of primary data in the CAO, and – to a limited extent – from adjacent waters through collaborations with other Signatories of the Agreement (e.g. on population genetics). Further research priorities include an evaluation of ecosystem vulnerability, social-ecological analyses, i.e. recognizing the close and often complex interactions between humans and nature, and recommendations for governance of the CAO. Fulfilling the 14 specific research priorities mentioned in Chapter 9 to “sufficient knowledge available” could enable the potential, future application of an Ecosystem Approach to Management for the CAO

Concentration Dependence of Superconductivity and Order-Disorder Transition in the Hexagonal Rubidium Tungsten Bronze RbxWO3. Interfacial and bulk properties

We revisited the problem of the stability of the superconducting state in RbxWO3 and identified the main causes of the contradictory data previously published. We have shown that the ordering of the Rb vacancies in the nonstoichiometric compounds have a major detrimental effect on the superconducting temperature Tc.The order-disorder transition is first order only near x = 0.25, where it cannot be quenched effectively and Tc is reduced below 1K. We found that the high Tc's which were sometimes deduced from resistivity measurements, and attributed to compounds with .25 < x < .30, are to be ascribed to interfacial superconductivity which generates spectacular non-linear effects. We also clarified the effect of acid etching and set more precisely the low-rubidium-content boundary of the hexagonal phase.This work makes clear that Tc would increase continuously (from 2 K to 5.5 K) as we approach this boundary (x = 0.20), if no ordering would take place - as its is approximately the case in CsxWO3. This behaviour is reminiscent of the tetragonal tungsten bronze NaxWO3 and asks the same question : what mechanism is responsible for this large increase of Tc despite the considerable associated reduction of the electron density of state ? By reviewing the other available data on these bronzes we conclude that the theoretical models which are able to answer this question are probably those where the instability of the lattice plays a major role and, particularly, the model which call upon local structural excitations (LSE), associated with the missing alkali atoms.Comment: To be published in Physical Review

3D Integral Field Observations of Ten Galactic Winds - I. Extended phase (>10 Myr) of mass/energy injection before the wind blows

We present 3D spectroscopic observations of a sample of 10 nearby galaxies with the AAOmega-SPIRAL integral field spectrograph on the 3.9m AAT, the largest survey of its kind to date. The double-beam spectrograph provides spatial maps in a range of spectral diagnostics: [OIII] 5007, H-beta, Mg-b, NaD, [OI] 6300, H-alpha, [NII] 6583, [SII] 6717, 6731. All of the objects in our survey show extensive wind-driven filamentation along the minor axis, in addition to large-scale disk rotation. Our sample can be divided into either starburst galaxies or active galactic nuclei (AGN), although some objects appear to be a combination of these. The total ionizing photon budget available to both classes of galaxies is sufficient to ionise all of the wind-blown filamentation out to large radius. We find however that while AGN photoionisation always dominates in the wind filaments, this is not the case in starburst galaxies where shock ionisation dominates. This clearly indicates that after the onset of star formation, there is a substantial delay (> 10 Myr) before a starburst wind develops. We show why this behavior is expected by deriving ``ionisation'' and dynamical timescales for both AGNs and starbursts. We establish a sequence of events that lead to the onset of a galactic wind. The clear signature provided by the ionisation timescale is arguably the strongest evidence yet that the starburst phenomenon is an impulsive event. A well-defined ionisation timescale is not expected in galaxies with a protracted history of circumnuclear star formation. Our 3D data provide important templates for comparisons with high redshift galaxies.[Abridged]Comment: 43 pages, 30 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ Jan-2010, Full resolution figures available from: http://www.aao.gov.au/AAO/local/www/rgs/work/winds/public/papers/SPIRAL_WINDS_hi-res.htm