The association between county political inclination and obesity: Results from the 2012 presidential election in the United States.

ObjectiveWe examined whether stable, county-level, voter preferences were significantly associated with county-level obesity prevalence using data from the 2012 US Presidential election. County voting preference for the 2012 Republican Party presidential candidate was used as a proxy for voter endorsement of personal responsibility approaches to reducing population obesity risk versus approaches featuring government-sponsored, multi-sectoral efforts like those recommended by the Centers for Disease Control Centers for Disease Control (CDC, 2009).MethodCartographic visualization and spatial analysis were used to evaluate the geographic clustering of obesity prevalence rates by county, and county-level support for the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 U.S. presidential election. The spatial analysis informed the spatial econometric approach employed to model the relationship between political preferences and other covariates with obesity prevalence.ResultsAfter controlling for poverty rate, percent African American and Latino populations, educational attainment, and spatial autocorrelation in the error term, we found that higher county-level obesity prevalence rates were associated with higher levels of support for the 2012 Republican Party presidential candidate.ConclusionFuture public health efforts to understand and reduce obesity risk may benefit from increased surveillance of this and similar linkages between political preferences and health risks

Validation of commercial precision spraying technology

The agricultural industry is a leading contributor to the Australian economy with an approximated revenue of $40 Billion in the 09/10 financial year. Weeds are portrayed as costing the agricultural industry up to$4 Billion per annum in herbicide use and lost production. Research into proposed methods to reduce this cost whilst maximising agricultural produce with sustainable practices will benefit the Australian economy. Blanket spraying is a procedure utilised by all broadacre farmers to manage and control on-farm weeds. During fallow, paddocks typically have only a 20% coverage of weeds, therefore, a blanket spray could unnecessarily spray as much as 80% of the field. Not only is this an expensive waste of herbicide, it also has negative impacts on the environment and possible accumulation in food products through residue buildup and runoff. Precision spraying platforms are available in agriculture which detect weeds in real time and activate nozzle solenoids to deliver chemicals to the weed. Precision spraying, therefore, targets only weeds and results in herbicide saving and a decrease in herbicide resistance. In theory this is impressive, however, adoption of this technology has been poor throughout the agricultural industry due to the large capital expenses required to purchase the systems and fear of change with no guarantee of the kill rate. There is no quantitative data that provides proof on the accuracy of any weed detection system commercially available. Therefore, this project aims to develop hardware and associated software to form the basis of a standardised test procedure for evaluating weed detection systems. Initially an assessment of two commercial weed detection systems were undertaken, the WeedSeeker and WEEDit platforms, to determine interfacing methods to recognise when the systems detect weeds. This assessment led to the development of two separate Weed-Check modules which could interface to the di↵erent platforms and capture a signal when a weed was detected. When this signal is recognised by the WeedCheck module, a camera is triggered which captures an image of the weed, whilst also geotagging the image with GPS position information. Field trials were designed to test the accuracy of the weed detection platforms. These trials were performed to gather information on three attributes. The first being the accuracy of the weed detection platform. This included determining the hit and miss rates of the technologies through taking images of the weeds detected and post analysing them. The second interest was the spray footprint of the weed detection platforms, which is important to ensure chemical is delivered to the weed. This test clearly showed the WEEDit had a better spray footprint of approximately 500mm whereas the WeedSeeker platform only had 150mm. The third stage of the trial involved using the GPS positions to create weed maps. This, however, proved to be inaccurate as a GPS error of up to 4.3 metres was observed. The images of the weeds were then analysed to match identical weeds captured within and between trials which formed the basis of the weed detection accuracy assessment. The outcomes of the trials proved a feasible method was developed for determining the accuracy of weed detection platforms. Through matching weeds within the image frame, it allowed an assessment of hit and miss rates of the two technologies. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen GPS error the weed map comparison was deemed unreliable. Further future development of the computer vision algorithm to automatically sort and match weeds within frames would be an excellent method of validation. The final outcome of the project found the WEEDit was better at detecting weeds under di↵erent conditions, whereas the WeedSeeker platform regularly missed smaller weeds, however, this comparison was only undertaken with a 0.16ha trial block due to GPS position errors. Further testing would need to be conducted to verify these findings. These findings and the software developed in this project have industry benefits as the result sets a standard of comparison of new developments in weed detection platforms against current commercial systems. This is of high significance to industry as there is no advantage in developing agricultural robots to change farming systems if the attachments and sensors available have not yet been validated. Robotics in agriculture can only be as effective as the sensors and implements available. To encourage adoption, farmers need to clearly see the benefits of the change and know they are moving forward not backward in weed control, sustainability and profitability

Quantifying mixing using magnetic resonance imaging.

Mixing is a unit operation that combines two or more components into a homogeneous mixture. This work involves mixing two viscous liquid streams using an in-line static mixer. The mixer is a split-and-recombine design that employs shear and extensional flow to increase the interfacial contact between the components. A prototype split-and-recombine (SAR) mixer was constructed by aligning a series of thin laser-cut Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) plates held in place in a PVC pipe. Mixing in this device is illustrated in the photograph in Fig. 1. Red dye was added to a portion of the test fluid and used as the minor component being mixed into the major (undyed) component. At the inlet of the mixer, the injected layer of tracer fluid is split into two layers as it flows through the mixing section. On each subsequent mixing section, the number of horizontal layers is duplicated. Ultimately, the single stream of dye is uniformly dispersed throughout the cross section of the device. Using a non-Newtonian test fluid of 0.2% Carbopol and a doped tracer fluid of similar composition, mixing in the unit is visualized using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI is a very powerful experimental probe of molecular chemical and physical environment as well as sample structure on the length scales from microns to centimeters. This sensitivity has resulted in broad application of these techniques to characterize physical, chemical and/or biological properties of materials ranging from humans to foods to porous media (1, 2). The equipment and conditions used here are suitable for imaging liquids containing substantial amounts of NMR mobile (1)H such as ordinary water and organic liquids including oils. Traditionally MRI has utilized super conducting magnets which are not suitable for industrial environments and not portable within a laboratory (Fig. 2). Recent advances in magnet technology have permitted the construction of large volume industrially compatible magnets suitable for imaging process flows. Here, MRI provides spatially resolved component concentrations at different axial locations during the mixing process. This work documents real-time mixing of highly viscous fluids via distributive mixing with an application to personal care products

The pedigree of pixie dust: Disneyland and theme parks as a remediation of playful places throughout history

The original Disneyland in California that opened in 1955 was the only one personally built by Walt Disney, who notably disdained Coney Island’s amusement parks while conceiving, developing, and popularizing the successful design and business model for the modern theme park industry. A historical examination reveals many facets of Disneyland to be a remediation of not only seaside parks but an extensive lineage of playful places including Roman Saturnalia, festivals, carnivals, pleasure gardens, and world’s fairs. A wide array of aspects encompassing access, gate fees, passes, location, performative labor, temporal milieu, target audience, synergistic media consumerism, religious content, elite approval, edification versus entertainment, and anti-alienation attractions had been adopted and/or adapted for each iteration of the playful place up to the time of Disney’s eponymous theme park. Remediation provides a novel framework to chart and examine the past and present evolution of the playful place

A Drink on the Terrace With Truus From Delft: Place Attachment at De Efteling Theme Park

Theme parks have been described by scholars as asocial and placeless, but recent research by McCarthy (2019) demonstrated that Southern Californians exhibit a strong sense of placement attachment and sociality at Disneyland. With the third highest attendance among theme parks in Europe, De Efteling in the Netherlands provides a congruent comparison to Disneyland since both parks were based in large measure on fairy tales, opened in the 1950s near two large metropolises, and mainly designed under the creative vision of one person. This study uses mixed methods of in-depth interviews, an online survey, and participant observation to determine the sense of place attachment (Manzo & Perkins, 2006) within cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions for De Efteling by local fans and then compares the results with Disneyland. The findings indicate De Efteling fans exhibit place attachment across the three dimensions largely in alignment with McCarthy’s (2019) study on Disneyland, but also reveal key differences due to the nature and characteristics of the ownerships, theming, fans, and scales of operation of the two parks. This study not only further rebuts the long-held contention of theme parks as placeless and lacking sociality, but also calls for exploration and comparison with other global theme parks

Creating partnerships for capacity building in developing countries - the experience of the World Bank

The authors discuss a variety of experiences in a number of transition, and developing countries to build institutional capacity for economics education. A flexible approach met with some success. The approach uses partnerships that combine the often different needs of a number of private donors, with the World Bank on the supply side. Much of the success was due to adopting each effort to the individual country situation. The authors also provide a brief summary of five academic institutions, and four research networks in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Decentralization,ICT Policy and Strategies,ICT Policy and Strategies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Tertiary Education,Scientific Research&Science Parks

The Existence of Maximum Likelihood Estimates for the Binary Response Logistic Regression Model

The existence of maximum likelihood estimates for the binary response logistic regression model depends on the configuration of the data points in your data set. There are three mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories for the configuration of data points in a data set: Complete Separation, Quasi-Complete Separation, and Overlap. For this paper, a binary response logistic regression model is considered. A 2 x 2 tabular presentation of the data set to be modeled is provided for each of the three categories mentioned above. In addition, the paper will present an example of a data set whose data points have a linear dependency. Both unconditional maximum likelihood estimation (asymptotic inference) and exact conditional estimation (exact inference) will be considered and contrasted in terms of results. The statistical software package SAS will be used for the binary response logistic regression modeling

An Example of How to Write the Statistical Section of a Bioequivalence Study Protocol for FDA Review

This paper provides a detailed example of how one should write the statistical section of a bioequivalence study protocol for FDA review. Three forms of bioequivalence are covered: average bioequivalence (ABE), population bioequivalence (PBE) and individual bioequivalence (IBE). The method of analysis is based on Jones and Kenward (2003) and a modification of their SAS Macro is provided

Adjustment to the McNemar’s Test for the Analysis of Clustered Matched-Pair Data

This paper presents how one can adjust the McNemar’s test for the analysis of clustered matched-pair data. A McNemar’s-like table for K clusters of matched-pair data is used