41 research outputs found
Body Mass Index and Satisfaction with Health in Contemporary Switzerland
Background: Overweight and obesity have been linked with several objective and subjective measures of health. However, results are mixed and this relationship seems to vary across populations, genders and age categories. This paper investigates the relationship between categories of the Body Mass Index (underweight, normal weight, overweight, obesity and severe obesity) and satisfaction with health
Gravitational Lensing in Astronomy
Deflection of light by gravity was predicted by General Relativity and
observationaly confirmed in 1919. In the following decades various aspects of
the gravitational lens effect were explored theoretically, among them the
possibility of multiple or ring-like images of background sources, the use of
lensing as a gravitational telescope on very faint and distant objects, and the
possibility to determine Hubble's constant with lensing. Only relatively
recently gravitational lensing became an observational science after the
discovery of the first doubly imaged quasar in 1979. Today lensing is a booming
part of astrophysics.
In addition to multiply-imaged quasars, a number of other aspects of lensing
have been discovered since, e.g. giant luminous arcs, quasar microlensing,
Einstein rings, galactic microlensing events, arclets, or weak gravitational
lensing. By now literally hundreds of individual gravitational lens phenomena
are known.
Although still in its childhood, lensing has established itself as a very
useful astrophysical tool with some remarkable successes. It has contributed
significant new results in areas as different as the cosmological distance
scale, the large scale matter distribution in the universe, mass and mass
distribution of galaxy clusters, physics of quasars, dark matter in galaxy
halos, or galaxy structure.Comment: Review article for "Living Reviews in Relativity", see
http://www.livingreviews.org . 41 pages, latex, 22 figures (partly in GIF
format due to size constraints). High quality postscript files can be
obtained electronically at http://www.aip.de:8080/~jkw/review_figures.htm
Understanding the somatic consequences of depression: biological mechanisms and the role of depression symptom profile
The effects of exercise training in a weight loss lifestyle intervention on asthma control, quality of life and psychosocial symptoms in adult obese asthmatics: protocol of a randomized controlled trial
Risk Management Plans: are they a tool for improving drug safety?
PURPOSE: In 2005, new European legislation authorised Regulatory Agencies to require drug companies to submit a risk management plan (RMP) comprising detailed commitments for post-marketing pharmacovigilance. The aim of the study is to describe the characteristics of RMP for 15 drugs approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and their impact on post-marketing safety issues. METHODS: Of the 90 new Chemical Entities approved through a centralised procedure by the EMA during 2006 and 2007, 15 of them were selected and their safety aspects and relative RMPs analysed. All post-marketing communications released for safety reasons related to these drugs were also considered. RESULTS: A total of 157 safety specifications were established for the drugs assessed. Risk minimisation activities were foreseen for 5 drugs as training activities. Post-marketing safety issues emerged for 12 of them, leading to 39 type II variations in Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC). Nearly half of such variations, 19 (49%), concerned safety aspects not envisaged by the RMPs. Besides this, 9 Safety Communications were published for 6 out of 15 drugs assessed. CONCLUSION: The present study reveals several critical points on the way RMPs have been implemented. Several activities proposed by the RMPs do not appear to be adequate in dealing with the potential risks of drugs. Poor communication of risk to practitioners and to the public, and above all limited transparency for the total assessment of risk, seem to transform RMPs into a tool to reassure the public when inadequately evaluated drugs are granted premature marketing authorisation
The UK ROSAT Deep Survey
We present a summary of the identification content of the UK ROSAT Deep Survey. The survey is based on a 115ksec PSPC observation and comprises a sample of 70 sources to a flux limit of 2 x 10(-15) ergs cm(-2) s(-1) (0.5-2 keV). At bright fluxes the survey is dominated by broad line QSOs, at intermediate fluxes it contains a number of groups and clusters of galaxies, but at faint fluxes the survey contains many galaxies with narrow optical emission lines (NELGs). The average X-ray spectrum of the NELGs is harder than that of the QSOs and similar to that of the X-ray background. The NELGs have optical spectra similar to the majority of the field galaxy population in the same redshift range and may simply be the more luminous members of the emission line field galaxy population. Based on optical line ratios and X-ray/optical ratios, the NELGs, both as a sample and within individual galaxies, appear to be a mixture of starburst galaxies and true AGN
Ethnic differences in the association between cardiovascular risk factors and psychological distress in a population study in the Netherlands
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is growing body of evidence of an association between cardiovascular risk factors and depressive and anxiety symptoms. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether these associations are similar in ethnic minority groups.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A random urban population sample, aged 18+, stratified by ethnicity (484 native Dutch subjects, 383 Turkish-Dutch subjects, and 316 Moroccan-Dutch subjects), in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, was interviewed with the Kessler Psychological Distress scale (K10) in combination with measurements of several cardiovascular risk factors. The association of psychological distress (defined as a K10 score above cut-off of 20) with cardiovascular risk factors (obesity, abdominal obesity, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, low HDL cholesterol levels or diabetes), ethnicity and their interaction was analyzed using logistic regression analyses, stratified by gender and adjusted for age.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cardiovascular risk factors were not significantly associated with psychological distress in any of the gender/ethnic groups, with the exception of a positive association of obesity and hypertension with psychological distress in native Dutch women and a negative association of hypertension and psychological distress in Turkish men. Interaction terms of cardiovascular risk factors and ethnicity were approaching significance only in the association of obesity with the K10 in women.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this cross-sectional multi-ethnic adult population sample the majority of the investigated cardiovascular risk factors were not associated with psychological distress. The association of obesity with psychological distress varies by gender and ethnicity. Our findings indicate that the prevention of obesity and psychological distress calls for an integrated approach in native Dutch women, but not necessarily in Turkish-Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch women, in whom these problems may be targeted separately.</p