Heart-focused Anxiety as a Predictor of Cardiac Rehabilitation Attendance

Cardiac disease is the leading cause of death and functional impairment in North America. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) significantly improves health outcomes, yet adherence to treatment is a major obstacle for this population. Psychosocial factors such as depression have been identified as barriers to rehabilitation attendance, but evidence for anxiety as a potential barrier has been inconsistent. The aim of the current study was to test a more specific type of anxiety, heart-focused anxiety, as a predictor of CR attendance. Thirty-two participants between 39 and 87 years of age (M = 63.66, SD = 12.54, 53.1% female) were recruited from the Loma Linda University Medical Center CR program and heart clinic. Participants were given a psychological battery in which heart-focused anxiety, general anxiety, and depression were assessed. Two hierarchical binomial logistic regression models were run to test whether heart-focused anxiety predicted CR attendance above and beyond the influence of demographic variables, depression, and general anxiety. None of the predictors were statistically significant due to small sample size, therefore effect sizes were interpreted. In the first model, results indicated that there was a 35.7% increase in the odds of CR attendance for female participants (OR = 1.357, p \u3e .7), a 32.9% increase in odds of attendance for every one-point increase in general anxiety (OR = 1.329, p \u3e .1), and a 7.8% decrease in odds of attendance with every one-point increase in overall cardiac anxiety (OR = .922, p \u3e .8). In the second model, subscales of heart-focused anxiety were separated. Results indicated that the odds of attending CR increased by 60.7% for each one-point increase on the Fear subscale of the CAQ, increased by 34.3% for each one-point increase on the Avoidance subscale (OR = 1.343, p \u3e .7), and decreased by 57.3% for every one-point increase on the Attention subscale (OR = .427, p \u3e .2). Results suggest that patients with higher general anxiety, fear, and avoidance are more likely to attend CR (group 1), while those with higher levels of heart-focused anxiety and avoidance are less likely to attend CR (group 2). These findings suggest that patients in group 1 may benefit from standard interventions, such as increased educational counseling about their treatment and adherence, and patients in group 2 may benefit from interventions to reduce anxiety

Fluorine in the solar neighborhood - is it all produced in AGB-stars?

The origin of 'cosmic' fluorine is uncertain, but there are three proposed production sites/mechanisms: AGB stars, $\nu$ nucleosynthesis in Type II supernovae, and/or the winds of Wolf-Rayet stars. The relative importance of these production sites has not been established even for the solar neighborhood, leading to uncertainties in stellar evolution models of these stars as well as uncertainties in the chemical evolution models of stellar populations. We determine the fluorine and oxygen abundances in seven bright, nearby giants with well-determined stellar parameters. We use the 2.3 $\mu$m vibrational-rotational HF line and explore a pure rotational HF line at 12.2 $\mu$m. The latter has never been used before for an abundance analysis. To be able to do this we have calculated a line list for pure rotational HF lines. We find that the abundances derived from the two diagnostics agree. Our derived abundances are well reproduced by chemical evolution models only including fluorine production in AGB-stars and therefore we draw the conclusion that this might be the main production site of fluorine in the solar neighborhood. Furthermore, we highlight the advantages of using the 12 $\mu$m HF lines to determine the possible contribution of the $\nu$-process to the fluorine budget at low metallicities where the difference between models including and excluding this process is dramatic

Some Shoot and Cone Characteristics of Taiwan Red Pine

Taiwan red pine (Pinus taiwanensis Hayata) is endemic to the island of Taiwan, or Formosa (Li, 1963). It is one of the so-called uninodal pines - that is, its winter bud elongates to form an unbranched axis bearing lateral long shoot buds only near the distal end. However, it is remarkably prone to lammas growth or summer shoots (premature elongation of a newly formed dormant bud) and to several other anomalous forms of behavior. Some of these strongly affect tree form; others are economically unimportant but serve to illustrate further the morphological plasticity within the genus Pinus. The observations reported here were made in early March 1969, in natural stands, plantations, nurseries, and a seed orchard

The time variation in infrared water-vapour bands in Mira variables

The time variation in the water-vapour bands in oxygen-rich Mira variables has been investigated using multi-epoch ISO/SWS spectra of four Mira variables in the 2.5-4.0 micron region. All four stars show H2O bands in absorption around minimum in the visual light curve. At maximum, H2O emission features appear in the ~3.5-4.0 micronm region, while the features at shorter wavelengths remain in absorption. These H2O bands in the 2.5-4.0 micron region originate from the extended atmosphere. The analysis has been carried out with a disk shape, slab geometry model. The observed H2O bands are reproduced by two layers; a `hot' layer with an excitation temperature of 2000 K and a `cool' layer with an excitation temperature of 1000-1400 K. The radii of the `hot' layer (R_hot) are ~1 R_* at visual minimum and 2 R_* at maximum, where R_* is a radius of background source of the model. The time variation of R_hot/R_* from 1 to 2 is attributed to the actual variation in the radius of the H2O layer. A high H2O density shell occurs near the surface of the star around minimum, and moves out with the stellar pulsation. This shell gradually fades away after maximum, and a new high H2O density shell is formed in the inner region again at the next minimum. Due to large optical depth of H2O, the near-infrared variability is dominated by the H2O layer, and the L'-band flux correlates with the area of the H2O shell. The infrared molecular bands trace the structure of the extended atmosphere and impose appreciable effects on near-infrared light curve of Mira variables.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, accepted by A&

Toward Effective Violence Mitigation: Transforming Political Settlements

Recognising the centrality of violence in the development process (though not subscribing to the notion that conflict and violence are development in reverse), in 2012–14 a group of researchers at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) engaged in depth with the complex and thorny questions of how ‘new’ forms of violence in the developing world – as opposed to ‘traditional’ civil or intra-state war – should be understood; and through which policies they could best be prevented and/or mitigated. The result of this endeavour is a series of evidence-based reports that were produced in collaboration with Southern partners in a sample of four violence-affected countries in Africa: Nigeria (Niger Delta), Sierra Leone, Egypt and Kenya (Marsabit County). The evidence from the four case studies suggests that – contrary to the early post-Cold War accounts of ‘barbarism’ and ‘senseless bloodshed’ – the violence we observe in many countries and locales today is about something. Yet, the analyses also show that the triggers, manifestations and effects of this violence – characterised as diffuse, recursive and globalised – cannot be captured by using the analytical tools developed to explain armed conflict within states. Strictly speaking, it would be misguided to label the violence in the Niger Delta, Marsabit County, Egypt and Sierra Leone as ‘civil war’, ‘internal armed conflict’ or ‘new war’. Instead, it is more accurate to speak of highly heterogeneous situations of violence or ‘fields of social violence’. At the same time, it is crucial not to dissociate these situations of violence from political processes by, for instance, reducing them to manifestations of criminality, such as homicide and illicit drug trafficking, or reflections of social problems like rampant youth unemployment, the use of prohibited psychoactive substances, and gang culture.UK Department for International Developmen

Effects of space shuttle launches STS-1 through STS-9 on terrestrial vegetation of John F. Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Space Shuttle launches produce a cloud containing hydrochloric acid (HCl), aluminum oxide (Al203), and other substances. Acidities of less than 0.5 pH have been measured routinely in association with the launch cloud. In an area of about 22 ha regularly exposed to the exhaust cloud during most Shuttle launches, acute vegetation damage has resulted from the first nine Shuttle launches. Changes include loss of sensitive species, loss of plant community structure, reduction in total cover, and replacement of some species by weedy invaders. Community level changes define a retrogressive sequence. One-time impacts to strand and dune vegetation occurred after launches of STS-8 and STS-9. Acute vegetation damage occurred especially to sensitive species. Within six months, however, recovery was nearly complete. Sensitivity of species to the launch cloud was partially predicted by previous laboratory studies. Far-field acidic and dry fallout from the cloud as it rises to stabilization and moves with the prevailing winds causes vegetation spotting. Damage from this deposition is minor; typically at most 1% to 5% of leaf surface area is affected. No plant mortality or community changes have occurred from far-field deposition

Trapped in Toxic Exposure: Mitigation Masking and the Emotional Geography of Residential Proximity to Expanding Industry

The purpose of this study was to introduce a citizen’s stakeholder perspective into research on environmental regulation and offending. The business operations of a steel recycling plant located in a residential neighborhood was analyzed to identify how their mitigation efforts have been used to justify continued business expansion, mask other aspects of environmental offending, and block citizen efforts to become stakeholders in the governance process. The concept of “mitigation masking” was introduced to reveal victim blaming governance processes. We surveyed the residence using the retrospective pre-then-post design in a two-block radius surrounding HI&M (N=17). We collected a convenience sample of public comment cards (n = 79) on two different occasions. This study adds to research on environmental offending by introducing a citizen narrative into the literature on environmental regulation and offending and exploring how mitigation masking pollutes citizen human agency.Faculty Sponsor: Sherrie M. Steine

Sub-milliarcsecond precision spectro-astrometry of Be stars

The origin of the disks around Be stars is still not known. Further progress requires a proper parametrization of their structure, both spatially and kinematically. This is challenging as the disks are very small. Here we assess whether a novel method is capable of providing these data. We obtained spectro astrometry around the Pa beta line of two bright Be stars, alpha Col and zeta Tau, to search for disk signatures. The data, with a pixel to pixel precision of the centroid position of 0.3..0.4 milliarcsecond is the most accurate such data to date. Artefacts at the 0.85 mas level are present in the data, but these are readily identified as they were non-repeatable in our redundant datasets. This does illustrate the need of taking multiple data to avoid spurious detections. The data are compared with simple model simulations of the spectro astrometric signatures due to rotating disks around Be stars. The upper limits we find for the disk radii correspond to disk sizes of a few dozen stellar radii if they rotate Keplerian. This is very close to observationally measured and theoretically expected disk sizes, and this paper therefore demonstrates that spectro-astrometry, of which we present the first such attempt, has the potential to resolve the disks around Be stars.Comment: 6 pages, A&A accepte

Gas damping force noise on a macroscopic test body in an infinite gas reservoir

We present a simple analysis of the force noise associated with the mechanical damping of the motion of a test body surrounded by a large volume of rarefied gas. The calculation is performed considering the momentum imparted by inelastic collisions against the sides of a cubic test mass, and for other geometries for which the force noise could be an experimental limitation. In addition to arriving at an accurated estimate, by two alternative methods, we discuss the limits of the applicability of this analysis to realistic experimental configurations in which a test body is surrounded by residual gas inside an enclosure that is only slightly larger than the test body itself.Comment: 8 pages. updated with correct translational damping coefficient for cylinder on axis. added cylinder orthogonal to symmetry axis, force and torque. slightly edited throughou