Latitudinal Gradient in the Body Mass Index (BMI), and the BMI\u27s Geometric and Statistical Relationships to the Surface Area: Volume Ratio and Body Shape

The body mass index (BMI), weight/height2 (W/H2), is currently the index of choice for assessment of nutritional status. Statements in the literature about the BMI as a potential expression of “cold adaptation” or “Bergmann’s Rule” beg the question: What does that BMI measure in terms of size, shape, and the surface area:volume (SA:V) ratio? Geometric modeling shows that the BMI captures both size and shape and is inversely related to the SA:V ratio. This admixture of size/shape information, combined with the unmeaningful absolute value of the BMI, preclude precise understanding of what it measures. A new weight-height-based variable was derived –the mean effective breadth (MEB)- which more clearly relates to the SA:V ratio and heuristically represents what weight-for-height does: it alters body breadth. Previous findings of a geographical cline in the BMI in Native Americans were expanded to a worldwide sample of 328 adult populations. The BMI and MEB increased with increasing latitude, while the SA:V ratio decreased. All three ratios were also correlated with variables that alter the biological SA:V ratio: sitting height, relative sitting height, and bi-acromial and bi-iliac breadths. The MEB showed higher correlations with latitude, weight, height, sitting height, relative sitting height, and bi-acromial breadth than did the BMI, though coefficients were similar to those of the SA:V ratio. The BMI’s geometric and statistical associations with the SA:V ratio and measures of proportion or shape corroborate and amplify others’ findings that the BMI is not a shape-independent index of body size or nutritional status. The W/H2 ratio was originally conceived by Quetelet as a “proof” of body proportionality. Nutritional epidemiologists should beware these associations when using BMI cutoff categories to diagnose chronic energy deficiency or obesity

Characterization of Prognostic Factors for Recovery in Tuberculosis Patients In Northern Ghana

This study was conducted in the three Northern Regions of Ghana. A total 1,199 patients who enrolled for treatment at various treatment centers across Northern Ghana were considered for the study. The study characterized the prognostic factors for recovery in tuberculosis patients in the study area. The Kaplan-Meier estimator and binary logistic regression was used for the analysis. It was revealed that relapse patients are at increased risk of treatment failure compared to those with new cases whiles male patients have about 53% high risk of treatment failure compared to their female counterparts. It was also realized that for each one week increase in time of treatment after treatment initiation, the chance of recovery increases by 50%. Also, treatment success was found to be related to age with elderly and infants more prone to treatment failure. It was found that HIV/AIDS patients have about 24% high risk of treatment failure compared to their counterparts who non reactive to HIV/AIDS. There is therefore a pressing need for enormous care for these vulnerable groups to stem the menace of the tuberculosis disease in Northern Ghana. Keywords: Prognostic factors, recovery, logistic regression, treatment failure, Kaplan-Meier estimato

Trapping electrons in electrostatic traps over the surface of helium

We have observed trapping of electrons in an electrostatic trap formed over the surface of liquid helium-4. These electrons are detected by a Single Electron Transistor located at the centre of the trap. We can trap any desired number of electrons between 1 and $\sim 30$. By repeatedly ($\sim 10^3-10^4$ times) putting a single electron into the trap and lowering the electrostatic barrier of the trap, we can measure the effective temperature of the electron and the time of its thermalisation after heating up by incoherent radiation.Comment: Presented at QFS06 - Kyoto, to be published in J. Low Temp. Phys., 6 pages, 3 figure

Hemoglobinometry as a Method for Measuring Blood Meal Sizes of Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae)

A standardized clinical method for measuring hemoglobin has been applied to the measurement of the quantity of blood ingested by Aedes aegypti feeding on a vertebrate host. The midgut of a blood-fed mosquito is added to a reagent which converts all hemoglobin to hemiglobincyanide (HiCN) which can be read spectrophotometrically. A sample of the host's blood is required as a standard. We established the validity of this method by comparing hemoglobin determinations with the size of blood meals measured by weight as well as with blood meals administered as enemas. The method is independent of urination and digestion by the mosquito for at least 12 h after feeding (at 27°C) and can be applied to females feeding on an unrestrained host during crepuscular or dark periods. A disadvantage of this method is that females must be killed in order to determine the volume of blood they ingest. Once converted to hemiglobincyanide, the blood meal can be frozen and stored for later analysi

Average Time to Justice Delivery; A Case Study in the Upper West and East Regional District and Circuit Courts in Ghana

In this study, survival analysis was used to determine the average time to justice delivery in law courts for the Upper East and Upper West regions of Ghana.  The study revealed that the average time to justice delivery was 103 days. Four major factors were found to contribute significantly to the average time to justice delivery.  These were; the type of court handling the case, the type or nature of case, the occupation of the accused and the number of subsequent hearings.  Also, it was evident from the study that cases terminated faster in Upper East courts as compared to the Upper West courts.  Finally, it was found that civil cases tend to have shorter life spans than criminal cases. Keywords: Justice Delivery, Survival Analysis, Censoring, Court       

Localization and the effects of symmetries in the thermalization properties of one-dimensional quantum systems

We study how the proximity to an integrable point or to localization as one approaches the atomic limit, as well as the mixing of symmetries in the chaotic domain, may affect the onset of thermalization in finite one-dimensional systems. We consider systems of hard-core bosons at half-filling with nearest neighbor hopping and interaction, and next-nearest neighbor interaction. The latter breaks integrability and induces a ground-state superfluid to insulator transition. By full exact diagonalization, we study chaos indicators and few-body observables. We show that when different symmetry sectors are mixed, chaos indicators associated with the eigenvectors, contrary to those related to the eigenvalues, capture the onset of chaos. The results for the complexity of the eigenvectors and for the expectation values of few-body observables confirm the validity of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis in the chaotic regime, and therefore the occurrence of thermalization. We also study the properties of the off-diagonal matrix elements of few-body observables in relation to the transition from integrability to chaos and from chaos to localization.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, as published (Fig.09 was corrected in this final version

Catalytic Hydrogenations with Cationic Heteroleptic Copper(I)/N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes

A new heteroleptic cationic copper(I) complex bearing two N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands has been prepared. In situ, a Cu-O bond can be generated which enables the complex to catalytically activate H (2) . The resulting complex shows activity in catalytic chemo- and stereoselective alkyne semihydrogenations as well as conjugate reductions of enones

Pap Utilization Survey in Nueva Vida, Nicaragua: Professional and Health Promotoras Partnership

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer affecting women in developing countries and accounted for 84% of the global incidence of cervical cancer in 2012. Nicaragua is one country illustrating this disparity, with an annual cervical cancer mortality six times the U.S. rate. This may be explained by lack and poor utilization of effective screening programs, especially the Papanicolaou, or Pap, smear. This study resulted from a partnership formed by faculty and students from two U.S. universities and a Nicaraguan nonprofit organization to conduct projects to benefit a community in Nicaragua. To promote a free Pap smear program provided by the local clinic, a community-wide survey regarding Pap smear utilization was conducted with local health promotoras (promoters). Of 1,117 women, 78.4% reported ever having a Pap smear, of whom 11.1% had not received their results, while results were reported as normal by 78.9%, and abnormal by 10%. The most common reasons for not having a Pap smear were refusal to test, fear, and pain. Proportions of women who ever had a Pap smear varied by etapa (stage/neighborhood, p \u3c .001). Findings are useful for policy development to improve the clinic’s screening services and encourage full utilization of Pap smears