Exposure to violence and PTSD symptoms among Somali women

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, exposure to traumatic stressors, and health care utilization were examined in 84 women attending a primary health care clinic in Mogadishu, Somalia. The Somalia-Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale was used in this active warzone to measure symptoms. Nearly all women reported high levels of confrontations with violence; half described being exposed to a potentially traumatizing event. Nearly one third had significant PTSD symptoms. Compared to those who did not, women who reported exposure to a traumatic stressor reported more confrontations with violence (7.1 vs. 3.3; p < . 001), health complaints (3.8 vs. 2.9; p = .03), and nearly 3 times as much (p = .03) health service utilization. A potentially traumatizing event was found to be a simplified proxy for assessing mental health distress in women attending a primary health care facility in highly insecure, unpredictable, resource-limited settings

Developing and applying a user-centered model for the design and implementation of information visualization tools

The objective of this paper is to show how approaches for user-centered information visualization design and development are being applied in the context of healthcare where users are not familiar with information visualization techniques. We base our design methods on user-centered frameworks in which 'prototyping' plays an important role in the process. We modify existing approaches to involve prototyping at an early stage of the process as the problem domain is assessed. We believe this to be essential, as it increases users' awareness of what information visualization techniques can offer them and that it enables users to participate more effectively in later stages of the design and development process. This also acts as a stimulus for engagement. The problem domain analysis stage of a pilot study using this approach is presented, in which techniques are being collaboratively developed with domain users from a healthcare institution. Our results suggest that this approach has engaged users, who are subsequently able to apply generic information visualization concepts to their domains and as a result are better equipped to take part in the subsequent collaborative design and development process

Human visual cortical responses to specular and matte motion flows

Determining the compositional properties of surfaces in the environment is an important visual capacity. One such property is specular reflectance, which encompasses the range from matte to shiny surfaces. Visual estimation of specular reflectance can be informed by characteristic motion profiles; a surface with a specular reflectance that is difficult to determine while static can be confidently disambiguated when set in motion. Here, we used fMRI to trace the sensitivity of human visual cortex to such motion cues, both with and without photometric cues to specular reflectance. Participants viewed rotating blob-like objects that were rendered as images (photometric) or dots (kinematic) with either matte-consistent or shiny-consistent specular reflectance profiles. We were unable to identify any areas in low and mid-level human visual cortex that responded preferentially to surface specular reflectance from motion. However, univariate and multivariate analyses identified several visual areas; V1, V2, V3, V3A/B, and hMT+, capable of differentiating shiny from matte surface flows. These results indicate that the machinery for extracting kinematic cues is present in human visual cortex, but the areas involved in integrating such information with the photometric cues necessary for surface specular reflectance remain unclear. © 2015 Kam, Mannion, Lee, Doerschner and Kersten

Experimental study in natural convection

The study of thermal and ventilation parameters, obtained in a transient, laminar solar chimney of reduced dimensions, (1 &lt; m &lt;3) m with a square collector (side = 2m) is presented. Experimental measurements has been made to determine the temperature of the absorber and the fluid in the collector, it is shown that at the entrance of the chimney, the temperature of the absorber decreases slightly while that of the fluid is maintained at a maximum level. Temperature differences were observed up to 32°C between the atmosphere and the fluid in April. A temperature variation at the absorber depending on the stack height is presented. Temperature measurements in the chimney, at various heights depending on the axial coordinate, show a variable temperature profile. It is, from these, shown that, in the selected interval of stack height, the average speeds of output increase linearly as a function of stack height. For a chimney of 3m in height and 20cm in diameter, a maximum speed of approximately 0.7 ms-1 was observed. The lack of appropriate equipment handicaps the velocity measurement at the chimney entrance. Thus, the results of simulations with the computer code COMSOL 5.1 has confirmed temperature values measured at the chimney entrance and after this, velocity values are determined.KEYWORDS: 1- Solar chimney, 2- Laminar convection, 3- Temperature, 4- Outlet velocit

Quantum Hall induced currents and the magnetoresistance of a quantum point contact

We report an investigation of quantum Hall induced currents by simultaneous measurements of their magnetic moment and their effect on the conductance of a quantum point contact (QPC). Features in the magnetic moment and QPC resistance are correlated at Landau-level filling factors nu=1, 2 and 4, which demonstrates the common origin of the effects. Temperature and non-linear sweep rate dependences are observed to be similar for the two effects. Furthermore, features in the noise of the induced currents, caused by breakdown of the quantum Hall effect, are observed to have clear correlations between the two measurements. In contrast, there is a distinct difference in the way that the induced currents decay with time when the sweeping field halts at integer filling factor. We attribute this difference to the fact that, while both effects are sensitive to the magnitude of the induced current, the QPC resistance is also sensitive to the proximity of the current to the QPC split-gate. Although it is clearly demonstrated that induced currents affect the electrostatics of a QPC, the reverse effect, the QPC influencing the induced current, was not observed

Acacia saligna as a supplementary feed for grazing desert sheep and goats

Acacia saligna, a leguminous tree, has a high crude protein content, remains green all year and can be grown in deserts using only runoff water. However, dry matter intake (DMI) by sheep and goats of A. saligna is low, presumably due to its high tannin content. It has been suggested that DMI could be increased by such methods as wilting of the forage and by neutralizing the negative effects of tannins by tannin-complexing agents. The purpose of this study was to determine DMI of supplementary A. saligna (phyllodes and small stems) by grazing sheep (∼ 50 kg) and goats (∼ 37 kg) when the animals were (1) offered wilted or fresh material (Expt 1); and (2) administered with polyethylene glycol (PEG), a tannin-binding agent (Expt 2). In this second experiment, there were three 14-day periods in which one group each of sheep and goats was on a regime of: No PEG–PEG–No PEG, whereas another group was on a regime of: No PEG–No PEG–PEG. In Expt 1, the DMI of A. saligna was statistically higher in goats than in sheep, but there was no difference in intake between fresh and wilted material. Average DMI of A. saligna, both fresh and wilted, was 124·1 g/day or 8·41 g/kg0·75 per day for goats and 94·1 g/day or 5·05 g/kg0·75 per day for sheep. Goats and sheep consuming fresh A. saligna gained more body mass than their respective controls; the difference was significantly greater in goats but not in sheep. In Expt 2, DMI of fresh A. saligna in the first period (before PEG) was 104·1 g/day or 7·16 g/kg0·75 per day for goats and 84·8 g/day or 4·51 g/kg0·75 per day for sheep. Administration of PEG during the second period resulted in an increase in DMI of 62% in goats and 83% in sheep. These animals maintained a high A. saligna intake in the third period when PEG was withdrawn. Goats and sheep that did not receive PEG in the second period had similar A. saligna intake as in the first period, but increased intake by 62% and 47%, respectively, with PEG in the third period. Overall, the two goat groups and two sheep groups consuming A. saligna lost less body mass than their respective controls; the difference was significantly less in sheep but not in goats. It was concluded that wilting A. saligna did not increase DMI. Administration of PEG increased A. saligna intake and the intake remained high after PEG was withdrawn. Offering A. saligna as a supplement had a positive effect on body mass change

Pile Setup in Cohesive Soil. I: Experimental Investigation

Pile setup in cohesive soils has been a known phenomenon for several decades. However, a systematic field investigation to provide the needed data to develop analytical procedures and integrate pile setup into the design method rarely exists. This paper summarizes a recently completed field investigation on five fully instrumented steel H-piles embedded in cohesive soils, while a companion paper discusses the development of the pile setup method. During the field investigation, detailed soil characterization, monitoring of soil total lateral stress and pore-water pressure, collection of pile dynamic restrike data as a function of time, and vertical static load tests were completed. Restrike measurements confirm that pile setup occurs at a logarithmic rate following the end of driving, and its development correlates well with the rate of dissipation of the measured porewater pressure. Based on the field data collected, it was concluded that the skin friction component, not the end bearing, contributes predominantly to the setup, which can be accurately estimated for practical purposes using soil properties, such as coefficient of consolidation, undrained shear strength, and the standard penetration testN-value

Towards the “ultimate earthquake-proof” building: Development of an integrated low-damage system

The 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence has highlighted the severe mismatch between societal expectations over the reality of seismic performance of modern buildings. A paradigm shift in performance-based design criteria and objectives towards damage-control or low-damage design philosophy and technologies is urgently required. The increased awareness by the general public, tenants, building owners, territorial authorities as well as (re)insurers, of the severe socio-economic impacts of moderate-strong earthquakes in terms of damage/dollars/ downtime, has indeed stimulated and facilitated the wider acceptance and implementation of cost-efficient damage-control (or low-damage) technologies. The ‘bar’ has been raised significantly with the request to fast-track the development of what the wider general public would hope, and somehow expect, to live in, i.e. an “earthquake-proof” building system, capable of sustaining the shaking of a severe earthquake basically unscathed. The paper provides an overview of recent advances through extensive research, carried out at the University of Canterbury in the past decade towards the development of a low-damage building system as a whole, within an integrated performance-based framework, including the skeleton of the superstructure, the non-structural components and the interaction with the soil/foundation system. Examples of real on site-applications of such technology in New Zealand, using concrete, timber (engineered wood), steel or a combination of these materials, and featuring some of the latest innovative technical solutions developed in the laboratory are presented as examples of successful transfer of performance-based seismic design approach and advanced technology from theory to practice

Theory of electronic transport through a triple quantum dot in the presence of magnetic field

Theory of electronic transport through a triangular triple quantum dot subject to a perpendicular magnetic field is developed using a tight binding model. We show that magnetic field allows to engineer degeneracies in the triple quantum dot energy spectrum. The degeneracies lead to zero electronic transmission and sharp dips in the current whenever a pair of degenerate states lies between the chemical potential of the two leads. These dips can occur with a periodicity of one flux quantum if only two levels contribute to the current or with half flux quantum if the three levels of the triple dot contribute. The effect of strong bias voltage and different lead-to-dot connections on Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the conductance is also discussed