Mathematical Model for Impact of Media on Cleanliness Drive in India

A mathematical model on cleanliness drive in India is analysed for active cleaners and passive cleaners. Cleanliness and endemic equilibrium points are found. Local and global stability of these equilibrium points are discussed using Routh-Hurwitz criteria and Lyapunov function respectively. Impact of media (as a control) is studied on passive cleaners to become active. Numerical simulation of the model is carried out which indicates that with the help of media transfer rate to active cleaners from passive cleaners is higher

Faktor-faktor yang Mempengaruhi Permintaan dan Penawaran Minyak Goreng Curah di Kota Medan

Minyak goreng merupakan salah satu bahan makanan pokok yang dikonsumsi oleh seluruh lapisan masyarakat Indonesia. Pada saat ini minyak goreng dipasarkan dalam dua bentuk, yaitu secara curah dan dalam kemasan dengan merek/label tertentu. Meskipun minyak goreng bermerek memiliki banyak keunggulan dan kian marak beredar di pasaran Kota Medan, namun permintaan terhadap minyak goreng curah masih lebih tinggi jika dibandingkan dengan minyak goreng bermerek. Tujuan dari penelitian adalah untuk menganalisis (1) faktor – faktor yang mempengaruhi permintaan minyak goreng curah di Kota Medan, (2) faktor – faktor yang mempengaruhi penawaran minyak goreng curah di Kota Medan. Metode pengambilan sampel dilakukan dengan teknik pengambilan sampel aksidental (accidental sampling) yaitu menentukan sampel berdasarkan orang yang ditemui secara kebetulan atau siapa saja yang memenuhi kriteria. Sampel yang diteliti sebanyak 30 sampel pembeli minyak goreng curah dan 30 sampel pedagang minyak goreng curah. Metode analisis yang digunakan adalah regresi linier berganda. Hasil penelitian dapat disimpulkan bahwa (1) Dari sisi permintaan secara serempak jumlah permintaan minyak goreng curah dipengaruhi oleh harga beli konsumen, pendapatan rata-rata per bulan, dan jumlah tanggungan. Secara parsial, variabel harga beli konsumen dan jumlah tanggungan berpengaruh secara nyata terhadap jumlah permintaan minyak goreng curah, sedangkan pendapatan rata-rata per bulan tidak berpengaruh secara nyata terhadap jumlah permintaan minyak goreng curah (2) Dari sisi penawaran secara serempak jumlah penawaran minyak goreng curah dipengaruhi oleh harga beli pedagang, keuntungan, dan harga barang lain. Secara parsial, variabel keuntungan berpengaruh nyata terhadap jumlah penawaran minyak goreng curah, sedangkan harga beli pedagang dan harga barang lain tidak berpengaruh secara nyata terhadap jumlah penawaran minyak goreng curah

Attention and early childhood education.

Informed by Iris Murdoch’s concept of attention, this thesis argues that economic and scientistic discourses within early childhood education misrepresent and neglect essential moral aspects of pedagogy. Early childhood education is built on particulars, the small and incremental attentive moments between individuals. Attention, described by Murdoch as ‘a just and loving gaze directed upon an individual reality’, improves the moral imagination and enhances the ability of teachers to see and respond to individual children in educational settings. The concept of attention is utilised to critique neoliberal approaches to early childhood education and to question the increasing application of neuroscientific explanations of the child in educational policy and pedagogical practice. Standardisation, objective empiricism, and limited measurements of teachers and children are problematised for the ways in which they attempt to delineate ‘fact’ from ‘value’. Attention fosters a critical understanding of how teachers’ everyday pedagogical practices can be appreciated as an ‘inhabited’ philosophy of education. Attention is explored in relation to the Māori concept of aroha. Aroha, as a generous direction of focus to the divine breath within another being, is helpful in developing a deeper understanding of attention. Together, aroha and attention prove synergistic in efforts to promote an approach to education that moves beyond the empirical, quantifiable and scientific. Together, these concepts support another way of understanding the ‘intentional’ teacher through acknowledging the importance of intuition in paying attention to children. Underpinned by humility, aroha and attention are orientations to life that see education as a moral and ethical undertaking. Seen in this light, education informs rather than limits rational investigation

A prospective cohort study of dietary patterns of non-western migrants in the Netherlands in relation to risk factors for cardiovascular diseases: HELIUS-Dietary Patterns

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Western countries the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is often higher in non-Western migrants as compared to the host population. Diet is an important modifiable determinant of CVD. Increasingly, dietary patterns rather than single nutrients are the focus of research in an attempt to account for the complexity of nutrient interactions in foods. Research on dietary patterns in non-Western migrants is limited and may be hampered by a lack of validated instruments that can be used to assess the habitual diet of non-western migrants in large scale epidemiological studies. The ultimate aims of this study are to (1) understand whether differences in dietary patterns explain differences in CVD risk between ethnic groups, by developing and validating ethnic-specific Food Frequency Questionnaires (FFQs), and (2) to investigate the determinants of these dietary patterns. This paper outlines the design and methods used in the HELIUS-Dietary Patterns study and describes a systematic approach to overcome difficulties in the assessment and analysis of dietary intake data in ethnically diverse populations.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>The HELIUS-Dietary Patterns study is embedded in the HELIUS study, a Dutch multi-ethnic cohort study. After developing ethnic-specific FFQs, we will gather data on the habitual intake of 5000 participants (18-70 years old) of ethnic Dutch, Surinamese of African and of South Asian origin, Turkish or Moroccan origin. Dietary patterns will be derived using factor analysis, but we will also evaluate diet quality using hypothesis-driven approaches. The relation between dietary patterns and CVD risk factors will be analysed using multiple linear regression analysis. Potential underlying determinants of dietary patterns like migration history, acculturation, socio-economic factors and lifestyle, will be considered.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This study will allow us to investigate the contribution of the dietary patterns on CVD risk factors in a multi-ethnic population. Inclusion of five ethnic groups residing in one setting makes this study highly innovative as confounding by local environment characteristics is limited. Heterogeneity in the study population will provide variance in dietary patterns which is a great advantage when studying the link between diet and disease.</p

Ethnicity and consumption: South Asian food shopping patterns in Britain 1947-75

Authors' draft version also available on University of Surrey e-print repository. Final version published by Sage and available at http://joc.sagepub.com/This article reviews the literature that explores the relationship between ethnic identities and food consumption, with particular reference to business management studies. It focuses on the food shopping practices of south Asians in Britain in the period 1947 to 1975, to illustrate the need for more historically contextualized studies that can provide a more nuanced exploration of any interconnections between ethnic identity and shopping behaviour. The article draws on a reasonably long-standing interest in ethnicity and consumption in marketing studies, and explores the conceptual use of acculturation within this literature. The arguments put forward are framed by recent interdisciplinary studies of the broader relationship between consumption and identity, which stress the importance of contextualizing any influence of ethnic identifications through a wider consideration of other factors including societal status, gender and age, rather than giving it singular treatment. The article uses a body of empirical research drawn from recent oral histories, to explore how these factors informed everyday shopping practices among south Asians in Britain. It examines some of the shopping and wider food provisioning strategies adopted by early immigrants on arrival in Britain. It considers the interaction between the south Asian population and the changing retail structure, in the context of the development of self-service and the supermarket. Finally, it demonstrates how age, gender and socioeconomic status interacted with ethnic identities to produce variations in shopping patterns

Dietary cadmium and risk of invasive postmenopausal breast cancer in the VITAL cohort.

This study does not support the hypothesis that dietary cadmium intake is a risk factor for breast cancer. However, non-differential measurement error in the estimate of cadmium intake is likely the most important factor that could have obscured an association

Relationship of EMAST and Microsatellite Instability Among Patients with Rectal Cancer

Elevated microsatellite instability at selected tetranucleotide repeats (EMAST) is a genetic signature identified in 60% of sporadic colon cancers and may be linked with heterogeneous expression of the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) protein hMSH3. Unlike microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) in which hypermethylation of hMLH1 occurs followed by multiple susceptible gene mutations, EMAST may be associated with inflammation and subsequent relaxation of MMR function with the biological consequences not known. We evaluated the prevalence of EMAST and MSI in a population-based cohort of rectal cancers, as EMAST has not been previously determined in rectal cancers. We analyzed 147 sporadic cases of rectal cancer using five tetranucleotide microsatellite markers and National-Cancer-Institute-recommended MSI (mononucleotide and dinucleotide) markers. EMAST and MSI determinations were made on analysis of DNA sequences of the polymerase chain reaction products and determined positive if at least two loci were found to have frame-shifted repeats upon comparison between normal and cancer samples from the same patient. We correlated EMAST data with race, gender, and tumor stage and examined the samples for lymphocyte infiltration. Among this cohort of patients with rectal cancer (mean age 62.2 ± 10.3 years, 36% female, 24% African American), 3/147 (2%) showed MSI (three males, two African American) and 49/147 (33%) demonstrated EMAST. Rectal tumors from African Americans were more likely to show EMAST than Caucasians (18/37, 49% vs. 27/104, 26%, p = 0.014) and were associated with advanced stage (18/29, 62% EMAST vs. 18/53, 37%, non-EMAST p = 0.02). There was no association between EMAST and gender. EMAST was more prevalent in rectal tumors that showed peri-tumoral infiltration compared to those without (30/49, 60% EMAST vs. 24/98, 25% non-EMAST, p = 0.0001). EMAST in rectal cancer is common and MSI is rare. EMAST is associated with African-American race and may be more commonly seen with metastatic disease. The etiology and consequences of EMAST are under investigation, but its association with immune cell infiltration suggests that inflammation may play a role for its development