Status update of the Power Conditioning System in the National Ignition Facility

Abstract not provide

No evidence that footedness in pheasants influences cognitive performance in tasks assessing colour discrimination and spatial ability

The differential specialization of each side of the brain facilitates the parallel processing of information and has been documented in a wide range of animals. Animals that are more lateralized as indicated by consistent preferential limb use are commonly reported to exhibit superior cognitive ability as well as other behavioural advantages.We assayed the lateralization of 135 young pheasants (Phasianus colchicus), indicated by their footedness in a spontaneous stepping task, and related this measure to individual performance in either 3 assays of visual or spatial learning and memory. We found no evidence that pronounced footedness enhances cognitive ability in any of the tasks. We also found no evidence that an intermediate footedness relates to better cognitive performance. This lack of relationship is surprising because previous work revealed that pheasants have a slight population bias towards right footedness, and when released into the wild, individuals with higher degrees of footedness were more likely to die. One explanation for why extreme lateralization is constrained was that it led to poorer cognitive performance, or that optimal cognitive performance was associated with some intermediate level of lateralization. This stabilizing selection could explain the pattern of moderate lateralization that is seen in most non-human species that have been studied. However, we found no evidence in this study to support this explanation

Comprehensive assessment of metabolic syndrome among rural Bangladeshi women

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MS), defined as a constellation of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, is one of the fastest growing public health burdens in the Asia-Pacific region. This trend is despite the fact that people in this region are no more overweight than Europeans and Americans. Unfortunately, in South Asia, MS screening has only been performed in a few countries other than Bangladesh. Therefore the present study is designed to conduct a comprehensive screening of MS in Bangladeshi rural women, which includes estimation of prevalence and assessment of risk factor. Methods: A total of 1535 rural Bangladesh women aged ≥ 15 years were studied using a population based crosssectional survey. The prevalence of MS was estimated using NCEP ATP III, modified NCEP ATP III and IDF criteria. Results: The prevalence rates of MS were 25.60 % (NCEP ATP III), 36.68 % (modified NCEP ATP III), and 19.80 % (IDF), as revealed by the present study. Furthermore, based on the NCEP ATP III criteria, 11.60 % of the subjects were found to have excess waist circumference; 29.12 % had elevated blood pressure, 30.42 % had elevated fasting plasma glucose level, 85.47 % had low HDL values and 26.91 % had increased triglyceride values. Low plasma HDL level was found to be the most common abnormality in the target population and elevated waist circumference was the least frequent component. Conclusions: The present study reveals a high prevalence of MS and its associated risk factors in rural Bangladeshi women. These findings are important in that they provide insights that will be helpful in formulating effective public health policy, notably the development of future health prevention strategies in Bangladesh

Consistency and flexibility in solving spatial tasks: different horses show different cognitive styles

Individual animals vary in their behaviour and reactions to novel situations. These differences may extend to differences in cognition among individuals. We tested twenty-six horses for their ability to detour around symmetric and asymmetric obstacles. All of the animals were able to get around the barrier to reach a food target, but varied in their approach. Some horses moved slowly but were more accurate in choosing the shortest way. Other horses acted quickly, consistently detoured in the same direction, and did not reliably choose the shortest way. The remaining horses shifted from a faster, directionally consistent response with the symmetric barrier, to a slower but more accurate response with the asymmetric barrier. The asymmetric barrier induced a reduction in heart rate variability, suggesting that this is a more demanding task. The different approaches used to solve the asymmetric task may reflect distinct cognitive styles in horses, which vary among individuals, and could be linked to different personality traits. Understanding equine behaviour and cognition can inform horse welfare and management

Environmental Efficiency, Emission Trends and Labour Productivity: Trade-Off or Joint Dynamics? Empirical Evidence Using NAMEA Panel Data

The paper provides new empirical evidence on the relationship between environmental efficiency and labour productivity using industry level data. We first provide a critical and extensive discussion around the interconnected issues of environmental efficiency and performance, firm performances and labour productivity, and environmental and non-environmental innovation dynamics. The most recent literature dealing with environmental innovation, environmental regulations and economic performances is taken as reference. We then test a newly adapted EKC hypothesis, by verifying the correlation between the two trends of environmental efficiency (productivity, namely sector emission on added value) and labour productivity (added value on employees) over a dynamic path. We exploit official NAMEA data sources for Italy over 1990-2002 for 29 sectoral branches. The period is crucial since environmental issues and then environmental policies came into the arena, and a restructuring of the economy occurred. It is thus interesting to assess the extent to which capital investments for the economy as a whole are associated with a positive or negative correlation between environmental efficiency of productive branches and labour productivity, often claimed by mainstream theory dealing with innovation in environmental economics. We believe that on the basis of the theoretical and empirical analyses focusing on innovation paths, firm performances and environmental externalities, there are good reasons to expect a positive correlation between environmental and labour productivities, or in alternative terms a negative correlation between mission intensity of production and labour productivity. The tested hypothesis is crucial within the long standing discussion over the potential trade-off or complementarity between environmental and labour productivity, strictly associated with sectoral and national technological innovation paths. The main added value of the paper is the analysis of the aforementioned hypothesis by exploiting a panel data set based on official NAMEA sectoral disaggregated accounting data, providing both cross section heterogeneity and a sufficient time span. We find that for most emissions, if not all, a negative correlation emerges between labour productivity and environmental productivity. Though this trend appears driven by the macro sectors services, manufacturing and industry, this evidence is not homogenous across emissions. In some cases U-shapes arise, mainly for services, and the assessment of Turning Points is crucial. Manufacturing and industry, all in all, seem to have a stronger weight. Overall, then, labour productivity dynamics seem to be complementary to a decreasing emission intensity of productive processes. The extent to which this evidence derives from endogenous market forces, industrial restructuring and/or from policy effects is scope for further research. The relative role of manufacturing and services in explaining this pattern is also to be analysed in future empirical analyses. In addition, the role of capital stocks and trade openness are extensions which may add value to future analyses carried out on the same NAMEA dataset