597 research outputs found
A Snapshot of J. L. Synge
A brief description is given of the life and influence on relativity theory
of Professor J. L. Synge accompanied by some technical examples to illustrate
his style of work
Evaluation of the impact of a school gardening intervention on children's fruit and vegetable intake: a randomised controlled trial.
Background: Current academic literature suggests that school gardening programmes can provide an interactive environment with the potential to change children’s fruit and vegetable intake. This is the first cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) designed to evaluate whether a school gardening programme can have an effect on children’s fruit and vegetable intake.
Methods: The trial included children from 23 schools; these schools were randomised into two groups, one to receive the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)-led intervention and the other to receive the less involved Teacher-led intervention. A 24-hour food diary (CADET) was used to collect baseline and follow-up dietary intake 18 months apart. Questionnaires were also administered to evaluate the intervention implementation.
Results: A total of 641 children completed the trial with a mean age of 8.1 years (95% CI: 8.0, 8.4). The unadjusted results from multilevel regression analysis revealed that for combined daily fruit and vegetable intake the Teacher-led group had a higher daily mean change of 8 g (95% CI: −19, 36) compared to the RHS-led group -32 g (95% CI: −60, −3). However, after adjusting for possible confounders this difference was not significant (intervention effect: −40 g, 95% CI: −88, 1; p = 0.06). The adjusted analysis of process measures identified that if schools improved their gardening score by 3 levels (a measure of school gardening involvement - the scale has 6 levels from 0 ‘no garden’ to 5 ‘community involvement’), irrespective of group allocation, children had, on average, a daily increase of 81 g of fruit and vegetable intake (95% CI: 0, 163; p = 0.05) compared to schools that had no change in gardening score.
Conclusions: This study is the first cluster randomised controlled trial designed to evaluate a school gardening intervention. The results have found very little evidence to support the claims that school gardening alone can improve children’s daily fruit and vegetable intake. However, when a gardening intervention is implemented at a high level within the school it may improve children’s daily fruit and vegetable intake by a portion. Improving children’s fruit and vegetable intake remains a challenging task
Quantitative trait loci conferring grain mineral nutrient concentrations in durum wheat 3 wild emmer wheat RIL population
Mineral nutrient malnutrition, and particularly
deficiency in zinc and iron, afflicts over 3 billion people
worldwide. Wild emmer wheat, Triticum turgidum ssp.
dicoccoides, genepool harbors a rich allelic repertoire for
mineral nutrients in the grain. The genetic and physiological
basis of grain protein, micronutrients (zinc, iron,
copper and manganese) and macronutrients (calcium,
magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and sulfur) concentration
was studied in tetraploid wheat population of 152
recombinant inbred lines (RILs), derived from a cross
between durum wheat (cv. Langdon) and wild emmer
(accession G18-16). Wide genetic variation was found
among the RILs for all grain minerals, with considerable
transgressive effect. A total of 82 QTLs were mapped for
10 minerals with LOD score range of 3.2–16.7. Most QTLs
were in favor of the wild allele (50 QTLs). Fourteen pairs
of QTLs for the same trait were mapped to seemingly
homoeologous positions, reflecting synteny between the A
and B genomes. Significant positive correlation was found
between grain protein concentration (GPC), Zn, Fe and Cu,
which was supported by significant overlap between the
respective QTLs, suggesting common physiological and/or
genetic factors controlling the concentrations of these
mineral nutrients. Few genomic regions (chromosomes 2A,
5A, 6B and 7A) were found to harbor clusters of QTLs for
GPC and other nutrients. These identified QTLs may
facilitate the use of wild alleles for improving grain
nutritional quality of elite wheat cultivars, especially in
terms of protein, Zn and Fe
High-definition endoscopy with digital chromoendoscopy for histologic prediction of distal colorectal polyps
Maternal hormone levels among populations at high and low risk of testicular germ cell cancer
Ethnic differences in maternal oestrogen levels have been suggested as explaining the significantly higher risk of testicular germ cell tumours (TGCT) of white men than black men in the United States. We therefore examined levels of maternal oestrogens, as well as testosterone and alphafetoprotein (AFP), in 150 black and 150 white mothers in the Collaborative Perinatal Project. Serum levels of estradiol (total, free and bioavailable), estriol, testosterone (total, free and bioavailable), sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), and AFP were examined during first and third trimesters. We found that the black mothers, rather than the white mothers, had significantly higher estradiol levels in first trimester (P=0.05). Black mothers also had significantly higher levels of all testosterone (P<0.001) and AFP (P<0.001) in both trimesters. In addition, the ratios of sex hormones (estradiol/testosterone) were significantly lower among black mothers. These findings provide little support to the oestrogen hypothesis, but are consistent with higher levels of testosterones and/or AFP being associated with reduced risk of TGCT; alternatively, lower oestrogen/androgen ratios may be associated with reduced risk
Yb- and Er-doped fiber laser Q-switched with an optically uniform, broadband WS2 saturable absorber.
We demonstrate a ytterbium (Yb) and an erbium (Er)-doped fiber laser Q-switched by a solution processed, optically uniform, few-layer tungsten disulfide saturable absorber (WS2-SA). Nonlinear optical absorption of the WS2-SA in the sub-bandgap region, attributed to the edge-induced states, is characterized by 3.1% and 4.9% modulation depths with 1.38 and 3.83 MW/cm(2) saturation intensities at 1030 and 1558 nm, respectively. By integrating the optically uniform WS2-SA in the Yb- and Er-doped laser cavities, we obtain self-starting Q-switched pulses with microsecond duration and kilohertz repetition rates at 1030 and 1558 nm. Our work demonstrates broadband sub-bandgap saturable absorption of a single, solution processed WS2-SA, providing new potential efficacy for WS2 in ultrafast photonic applications.The authors thank E. J. R. Kelleher for valuable discussions. MZ acknowledges support from Beihang University, China, through a Zhuoyue Bairen Program and TH from the Royal Academy of Engineering through a fellowship (Graphlex). This work at Beihang University was supported by 973 Program (2012CB315601), NSFC (61221061/61435002) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.This is the final version of the article. It was first available from NPG via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep1748
What is the role of the film viewer? The effects of narrative comprehension and viewing task on gaze control in film
Film is ubiquitous, but the processes that guide viewers' attention while viewing film narratives are poorly understood. In fact, many film theorists and practitioners disagree on whether the film stimulus (bottom-up) or the viewer (top-down) is more important in determining how we watch movies. Reading research has shown a strong connection between eye movements and comprehension, and scene perception studies have shown strong effects of viewing tasks on eye movements, but such idiosyncratic top-down control of gaze in film would be anathema to the universal control mainstream filmmakers typically aim for. Thus, in two experiments we tested whether the eye movements and comprehension relationship similarly held in a classic film example, the famous opening scene of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (Welles & Zugsmith, Touch of Evil, 1958). Comprehension differences were compared with more volitionally controlled task-based effects on eye movements. To investigate the effects of comprehension on eye movements during film viewing, we manipulated viewers' comprehension by starting participants at different points in a film, and then tracked their eyes. Overall, the manipulation created large differences in comprehension, but only produced modest differences in eye movements. To amplify top-down effects on eye movements, a task manipulation was designed to prioritize peripheral scene features: a map task. This task manipulation created large differences in eye movements when compared to participants freely viewing the clip for comprehension. Thus, to allow for strong, volitional top-down control of eye movements in film, task manipulations need to make features that are important to narrative comprehension irrelevant to the viewing task. The evidence provided by this experimental case study suggests that filmmakers' belief in their ability to create systematic gaze behavior across viewers is confirmed, but that this does not indicate universally similar comprehension of the film narrative
Evaluation of a health systems knowledge translation network for Africa (KTNET): a study protocol
Risk of uterine rupture in women undergoing trial of labour with a history of both a caesarean section and a vaginal delivery
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