8,338 research outputs found
Cortisol reactivity to psychosocial stress is greater in sexual risk takers
Several studies have reported an association between deviant behaviour and cortisol reactivity to stress. However relatively few studies have investigated the relationship between psychobiological stress reactivity and sexual risk taking behaviours. In the present study, cortisol reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was measured in 26 healthy young adults prior to the administration of a sexual health and behaviour questionnaire. The cortisol response to the TSST was greater in those individuals who reported that at least one of their previous two sexual partners was someone whom they had just met. Results are discussed in context of a model which suggests that early life stress dysregulates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and increases the likelihood of later life risk taking behaviour. The findings have implications in terms of improving our understanding of psychobiological factors which predispose individuals to engage in adverse sexual health behaviours
Plant-Soil Microbiome Feedback Impacts on Native and Non-native Grasses Throughout Kansas
Beginning in 1917, a group of perennial warm-season bunchgrasses collectively called Old World Bluestems (OWBs) were introduced from the countries of Europe, Asia, Russia, and Australia. These grasses were brought in to reduce soil erosion and increase hay and forage production, as they can produce up to four times more biomass than native grasses. However, the forage quality of OWBs is reduced as the plant matures and must therefore be harvested prior to maturation. Furthermore, OWBs have become problematic in the southern and central Great Plains, invading and then dominating native warm-season rangelands causing a reduction in ecosystem services
REFILL: low-cost fillers from quarry waste
Leahill Quarry is located on the coast of SW Ireland (near Adrigole, Co. Cork) in an Upper Devonian gritstone (fine-grained sandstone) sequence that is worked to produce high specification crushed rock aggregates (exported into UK and mainland Europe). The nature of the rock results in large quantities of fines being produced during processing. Leahill Quarry produces about 270,000 tonnes per annum of fines (0-2mm materials) and ‘filler’ (material passing 75m) after processing (washing). In an attempt to find new outlets for Leahill fines, Tarmac Fleming and BGS took part in a three year EC–supported industrial research project called REFILL, which included other UK and Greek partners and was managed overall by MIRO (Mineral Industry Research Organisation). Further details on the project are available by contacting MIRO through their website at: www.miro.co.uk.
The REFILL project consisted of various tasks which involved both Tarmac Fleming and BGS. Tasks 1 to 3 involved a study of existing production practices and a programme of technical evaluation of the fines from Leahill and other quarries in Britain. This involved characterization of the mineralogical, physical and chemical properties of the residues. Task 4 was a large-scale continuous test at Leahill Quarry to determine the effectiveness of a novel fluidised bed plant in terms of its ability to extract ‘filler’ from the 0-2mm fines. Tasks 5 to 8 investigated the potential end uses that could incorporate Leahill filler and fines, including an assessment of the available resources of fines, the availability of fines acceptable for particular applications and a review of the market potential for end-uses including asphalt, concrete, artificial soils and non-plastic sub-base materials
Wobble Stories as Reflective Practice: Learning through Struggle
As educators, we need to provide opportunities for students to critically analyze multiple viewpoints that can challenge them as a way to help them see value in learning and developing. University classrooms are a place for fostering, developing, and practicing strategies for navigating moments of Wobble through discussion and reflection
Learning Feynman Diagrams using Graph Neural Networks
In the wake of the growing popularity of machine learning in particle
physics, this work finds a new application of geometric deep learning on
Feynman diagrams to make accurate and fast matrix element predictions with the
potential to be used in analysis of quantum field theory. This research uses
the graph attention layer which makes matrix element predictions to 1
significant figure accuracy above 90% of the time. Peak performance was
achieved in making predictions to 3 significant figure accuracy over 10% of the
time with less than 200 epochs of training, serving as a proof of concept on
which future works can build upon for better performance. Finally, a procedure
is suggested, to use the network to make advancements in quantum field theory
by constructing Feynman diagrams with effective particles that represent
non-perturbative calculations
Translating regenerative medicine science into clinical practice: the local to global pivot
Research into cell and gene therapies is globally dispersed, which creates scientific opportunities, but in turn, significant commercial challenges. In order to successfully bring promising scientific endeavors through to commercial opportunity, greater cross-border coordination of supply side activity considerations such as academic institutions, funding gaps, intellectual property, and commercial entities as well as demand-side issues of reimbursement, regulatory policy, stakeholder engagement and patient engagement should be advocated for
Understanding Training and Workforce Pathways to Develop and Retain Black Maternal Health Clinicians in California
Despite evidence that greater diversity in health professions increases quality of care, the maternal health field has made little progress on increasing and sustaining the number of Black maternal health care workers. In this study, Urban researchers examine opportunities for and barriers to increasing the workforce of Black obstetrician/gynecologists (OB/GYNs), labor and delivery (L&D) nurses, and midwives, especially in light of the ongoing US maternal health crisis. Through interviews with Black maternal health clinicians and training program staff, we recommend actions that federal and state policymakers, leaders at higher education and health system institutions, and philanthropies can take to address structural barriers to entering and staying within the field and to support a thriving workforce
Factors associated with medication adherence in school-aged children with asthma
Adherence to preventive asthma treatment is poor, particularly in children, yet the factors associated with adherence in this age group are not well understood. Adherence was monitored electronically over 6 months in school-aged children who attended a regional emergency department in New Zealand for an asthma exacerbation and were prescribed twice-daily inhaled corticosteroids. Participants completed questionnaires including assessment of family demographics, asthma responsibility and learning style. Multivariable analysis of factors associated with adherence was conducted. 101 children (mean (range) age 8.9 (6-15) years, 51% male) participated. Median (interquartile range) preventer adherence was 30% (17-48%) of prescribed. Four explanatory factors were identified: female sex (+12% adherence), Asian ethnicity (+19% adherence), living in a smaller household (-3.0% adherence per person in the household), and younger age at diagnosis (+2.7% for every younger year of diagnosis) (all p<0.02). In school-aged children attending the emergency department for asthma, males and non-Asian ethnic groups were at high risk for poor inhaled corticosteroid adherence and may benefit most from intervention. Four factors explained a small proportion of adherence behaviour indicating the difficulty in identifying adherence barriers. Further research is recommended in other similar populations
Feature-Based Change Detection Reveals Inconsistent Individual Differences in Visual Working Memory Capacity
Visual working memory (VWM) is a key cognitive system that enables people to hold visual information in mind after a stimulus has been removed and compare past and present to detect changes that have occurred. VWM is severely capacity limited to around 3–4 items, although there are robust individual differences in this limit. Importantly, these individual differences are evident in neural measures of VWM capacity. Here, we capitalized on recent work showing that capacity is lower for more complex stimulus dimension. In particular, we asked whether individual differences in capacity remain consistent if capacity is shifted by a more demanding task, and, further, whether the correspondence between behavioral and neural measures holds across a shift in VWM capacity. Participants completed a change detection (CD) task with simple colors and complex shapes in an fMRI experiment. As expected, capacity was significantly lower for the shape dimension. Moreover, there were robust individual differences in behavioral estimates of VWM capacity across dimensions. Similarly, participants with a stronger BOLD response for color also showed a strong neural response for shape within the lateral occipital cortex, intraparietal sulcus (IPS), and superior IPS. Although there were robust individual differences in the behavioral and neural measures, we found little evidence of systematic brain-behavior correlations across feature dimensions. This suggests that behavioral and neural measures of capacity provide different views onto the processes that underlie VWM and CD. Recent theoretical approaches that attempt to bridge between behavioral and neural measures are well positioned to address these findings in future work
- …