AN ANALYSIS OF IODINE DEFICIENCY DISORDER AND ERADICATION STRATEGIES IN THE HIGH ATLAS MOUNTAINS OF MOROCCO

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

Mapping the landscape of climate engineering.

In the absence of a governance framework for climate engineering technologies such as solar radiation management (SRM), the practices of scientific research and intellectual property acquisition can de facto shape the development of the field. It is therefore important to make visible emerging patterns of research and patenting, which we suggest can effectively be done using bibliometric methods. We explore the challenges in defining the boundary of climate engineering, and set out the research strategy taken in this study. A dataset of 825 scientific publications on climate engineering between 1971 and 2013 was identified, including 193 on SRM; these are analysed in terms of trends, institutions, authors and funders. For our patent dataset, we identified 143 first filings directly or indirectly related to climate engineering technologies-of which 28 were related to SRM technologies-linked to 910 family members. We analyse the main patterns discerned in patent trends, applicants and inventors. We compare our own findings with those of an earlier bibliometric study of climate engineering, and show how our method is consistent with the need for transparency and repeatability, and the need to adjust the method as the field develops. We conclude that bibliometric monitoring techniques can play an important role in the anticipatory governance of climate engineering

Fractional Quantum Mechanics

A path integral approach to quantum physics has been developed. Fractional path integrals over the paths of the L\'evy flights are defined. It is shown that if the fractality of the Brownian trajectories leads to standard quantum and statistical mechanics, then the fractality of the L\'evy paths leads to fractional quantum mechanics and fractional statistical mechanics. The fractional quantum and statistical mechanics have been developed via our fractional path integral approach. A fractional generalization of the Schr\"odinger equation has been found. A relationship between the energy and the momentum of the nonrelativistic quantum-mechanical particle has been established. The equation for the fractional plane wave function has been obtained. We have derived a free particle quantum-mechanical kernel using Fox's H function. A fractional generalization of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation has been established. Fractional statistical mechanics has been developed via the path integral approach. A fractional generalization of the motion equation for the density matrix has been found. The density matrix of a free particle has been expressed in terms of the Fox's H function. We also discuss the relationships between fractional and the well-known Feynman path integral approaches to quantum and statistical mechanics.Comment: 27 page

Anomalous Rotational Relaxation: A Fractional Fokker-Planck Equation Approach

In this study we obtained analytically relaxation function in terms of rotational correlation functions based on Brownian motion for complex disordered systems in a stochastic framework. We found out that rotational relaxation function has a fractional form for complex disordered systems, which indicates relaxation has non-exponential character obeys to Kohlrausch-William-Watts law, following the Mittag-Leffler decay.Comment: Revtex4, 9 pages. Paper was revised. References adde

The Effect of Mobility and Strength Training on Firefighter Cadet Functional Mobility

Strength and Conditioning programs have positive effects on athletic performance (Hedrick, 2002). Similarly, firefighters have to be adequately fit to perform their job duties which require muscular strength and endurance, and aerobic fitness (Smith, 2011). Thus, firefighter’s health and fitness, including mobility, is crucial in their job performance. PURPOSE: We examined the effects of a strength, conditioning, and mobility program on functional mobility in firefighter cadets. METHODS: 43 firefighter cadets who were enrolled in a 12-week basic firefighter academy course participated. Cadets were separated into one of three cohorts; 1) No program; 2) Unmonitored Program; and 3) Indirectly Monitored Program. Participants either completed daily physical fitness training tasks on their own or set by fire instructors. A certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) set up the physical fitness training modes for cohorts 2 and 3; however, the CSCS did not monitor training directly. Mobility was assessed by ROM exercises using DARI Motion Capture® (DARI Motion, Kansas City, Missouri). Motions included bodyweight bilateral squat, unilateral squat right and left, forward lunge right and left, and lateral lunge right and left. Post testing was completed 12-weeks after initial assessments. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS. RESULTS: Overall Cohort 3, Indirectly Monitored Program, had the greatest positive mobility changes when comparing pre post testing. There were significant increases in bodyweight squat left knee flexion in cohort three (115.58±16.0 to 124.56±16.42, p=0.02). Bodyweight squat left ankle flexion also significantly increased (24.20±11.78 to 34.98±12.03, p=0.005). Significant increases in bodyweight squat percentage of lower body height in cohort three were also positive (47.3±10.7% to 52.7±10.0%, p=0.037), indicating that greater squat depth was achieved after the indirectly monitored program. However, negative effects on the bodyweight squat includes left and right knee valgus both increasing showing a lack of stability in dynamic knee control while squatting (left: 4.65±1.33to 5.02±0.66, p=0.039; right: 3.97±2.06 to 4.87±1.33, p=0.005). Unilateral squat depth percentage of lower body showed significant changes in Cohort 3 (26.9±8.3% to 32.0±13.6%, p=0.032). Unilateral squat knee and ankle flexion both showed positive significant differences (knee: 83.70±18.05 to 94.62±23.49, p=0.02; ankle: 24.34±9.38 to 34.57±12.25, p=0.001). CONCLUSION: The results of the current study suggest that even indirect monitoring of tactical strength and conditioning programming can have a positive effect on firefighter cadet’s functional mobility. In the future, programming should be more direct including the installation of tactical personnel to aid and facilitate training programs with proper supervision

Non-Markovian Levy diffusion in nonhomogeneous media

We study the diffusion equation with a position-dependent, power-law diffusion coefficient. The equation possesses the Riesz-Weyl fractional operator and includes a memory kernel. It is solved in the diffusion limit of small wave numbers. Two kernels are considered in detail: the exponential kernel, for which the problem resolves itself to the telegrapher's equation, and the power-law one. The resulting distributions have the form of the L\'evy process for any kernel. The renormalized fractional moment is introduced to compare different cases with respect to the diffusion properties of the system.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Levi-Civita cylinders with fractional angular deficit

The angular deficit factor in the Levi-Civita vacuum metric has been parametrized using a Riemann-Liouville fractional integral. This introduces a new parameter into the general relativistic cylinder description, the fractional index {\alpha}. When the fractional index is continued into the negative {\alpha} region, new behavior is found in the Gott-Hiscock cylinder and in an Israel shell.Comment: 5 figure

Fractional derivatives of random walks: Time series with long-time memory

We review statistical properties of models generated by the application of a (positive and negative order) fractional derivative operator to a standard random walk and show that the resulting stochastic walks display slowly-decaying autocorrelation functions. The relation between these correlated walks and the well-known fractionally integrated autoregressive (FIGARCH) models, commonly used in econometric studies, is discussed. The application of correlated random walks to simulate empirical financial times series is considered and compared with the predictions from FIGARCH and the simpler FIARCH processes. A comparison with empirical data is performed.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figure

Homeless drug users' awareness and risk perception of peer "Take Home Naloxone" use – a qualitative study

BACKGROUND Peer use of take home naloxone has the potential to reduce drug related deaths. There appears to be a paucity of research amongst homeless drug users on the topic. This study explores the acceptability and potential risk of peer use of naloxone amongst homeless drug users. From the findings the most feasible model for future treatment provision is suggested. METHODS In depth face-to-face interviews conducted in one primary care centre and two voluntary organisation centres providing services to homeless drug users in a large UK cosmopolitan city. Interviews recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically by framework techniques. RESULTS Homeless people recognise signs of a heroin overdose and many are prepared to take responsibility to give naloxone, providing prior training and support is provided. Previous reports of the theoretical potential for abuse and malicious use may have been overplayed. CONCLUSION There is insufficient evidence to recommend providing "over the counter" take home naloxone" to UK homeless injecting drug users. However a programme of peer use of take home naloxone amongst homeless drug users could be feasible providing prior training is provided. Peer education within a health promotion framework will optimise success as current professionally led health promotion initiatives are failing to have a positive impact amongst homeless drug users

Non-equilibrium Phase Transitions with Long-Range Interactions

This review article gives an overview of recent progress in the field of non-equilibrium phase transitions into absorbing states with long-range interactions. It focuses on two possible types of long-range interactions. The first one is to replace nearest-neighbor couplings by unrestricted Levy flights with a power-law distribution P(r) ~ r^(-d-sigma) controlled by an exponent sigma. Similarly, the temporal evolution can be modified by introducing waiting times Dt between subsequent moves which are distributed algebraically as P(Dt)~ (Dt)^(-1-kappa). It turns out that such systems with Levy-distributed long-range interactions still exhibit a continuous phase transition with critical exponents varying continuously with sigma and/or kappa in certain ranges of the parameter space. In a field-theoretical framework such algebraically distributed long-range interactions can be accounted for by replacing the differential operators nabla^2 and d/dt with fractional derivatives nabla^sigma and (d/dt)^kappa. As another possibility, one may introduce algebraically decaying long-range interactions which cannot exceed the actual distance to the nearest particle. Such interactions are motivated by studies of non-equilibrium growth processes and may be interpreted as Levy flights cut off at the actual distance to the nearest particle. In the continuum limit such truncated Levy flights can be described to leading order by terms involving fractional powers of the density field while the differential operators remain short-ranged.Comment: LaTeX, 39 pages, 13 figures, minor revision