The erosion of nongambling spheres by smartphone gambling: a qualitative study on workplace and domestic disordered gambling

The potential dangers of internet-based gambling as compared with more traditional land-based gambling have been increasingly investigated over the past decade. The general consensus appears to be that although internet gambling might not be a more dangerous medium for gambling per se, the 24/7 availability it generates for problem gamblers, however, is. Because smartphones have become the most used way of gambling online, internet gambling must, therefore, be further subcategorized according to the device by which it is accessed. This study examines the issue by exploring the views of smartphone gamblers undergoing treatment for gambling disorder in focus group settings (N=35). Utilizing thematic analysis, the paper shows that smartphone gambling has colonized spaces previously regarded as nongambling spheres. The workplace, especially in male-dominated contexts, emerged as an accommodator and stimulator of gambling behavior, raising issues of productivity rather than criminality. Domestic gambling was mostly characterized by an invasion of bathroom and bedtime spheres of intimacy. The study examines the implications of prevention and treatment, focusing on the minimization of exposure to gambling stimuli, the erosion of intimacy that recovering gamblers must endure, and the necessity of embracing a broader definition of gambling-related harm

Locating villages in the floods : the use of RADARSAT imagery in the flood hazard management in Bangladesh

Bangladesh lies almost entirely on the delta of three major rivers: the Padma (the Ganges), the Jamuna (the Brahmaputra), and the Meghna. A considerable portion of Bangladesh has been repeatedly devastated by floods associated with cyclonic storm surges along its coastal islands and riverine flooding along the rivers traversing the lowlying deltaic plain. Extensive flooding is a recurring event affecting a significant proportion of the population. The International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), through the International Geographical Union (IGU) is providing scientific support to the Bangladesh Flood Action Plan as part of the United Nation's International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). The IGU study has focused on a long term survey of flood prone areas using remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and the global positioning system (GPS). RADARSAT imagery serves to improve the imagery base for the area, as Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery of terraces and levees in natural areas nearly covered by seasonal floods have better discrimination of elevated land surfaces than many other imagery sources. RADARSAT provides an "all-weather" remote sensing tool for monitoring flood events. In this study, the imagery is being used to determine areas affected by annual and catastrophic floods, specifically isolated villages in the flooded areas. A protocol using the application of "low pass" smoothing filters to the RADARSAT data, followed by defined digital number thresholds to select regions of interest allows for the identification of villages in the imagery. After further testing of the chosen threshold ranges combined with ground truthing in Bangladesh, this protocol would be suitable for emergency management use during flooding. Isolated villages needing assistance during a flood event would be identified and prioritized accordingly. The day/night and cloud-penetration characteristics of radar may be the only practical means of mapping the extent of monsoonal flooding of the deltaic plain, where a large rural population is forced to adapt to seasonal isolation in a flooded landscape. Maps of rural hamlets and isolated flood refuge sites will never keep pace with the growing population and constantly changing fluvial landscape without the use of high altitude remote sensing satellites such as RADARSAT

Suckling a protein-restricted rat dam leads to diminished albuminuria in her male offspring in adult life: a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that in male rats, exposure to maternal protein restriction either in utero or whilst suckling can have profound effects on both longevity and kidney telomere lengths. This study monitored albuminuria longitudinally in male rats whose mothers had been protein restricted either during pregnancy or lactation. METHODS: Pregnant Wistar rats were fed either a 20% ('control') or an 8% protein ('low protein') diet. At two days of age some of the pups were cross-fostered to dams fed the diet that was not given to their biological mothers. At weaning all pups were fed standard chow. Urine samples were collected for the measurement of albumin and creatinine at monthly intervals from two months-of-age. Longitudinal analysis was then performed using repeated measures analysis of variance. RESULTS: Overall estimated marginal geometric mean (95 % confidence interval) urine albumin to creatinine ratios were: control animals 79.5 (57.2 to approximately 110.6) g/mol (n = 6 litters, 24 animals in total), those exposed in utero to maternal protein restriction 71.0 (47.4 to approximately 106.5) (n = 4 litters, 16 animals in total), those exposed to maternal protein restriction whilst suckling 21.2 (14.7 to approximately 30.4) (n = 5 litters, 20 animals in total) (p < 0.001). These latter animals had lower albumin to creatinine ratios than either of the two other groups (both p < 0.001), which had ratios that were indistinguishable from each other (p = 1.0). Similar results were gained using 24 h. urine albumin excretion rates. These differences became evident from three months-of-age and were long-lasting. CONCLUSION: Animals exposed to maternal protein restriction whilst suckling exhibited lower urine albumin excretions during much of adult life. As urine albumin can be nephrotoxic, these rats therefore appeared to be relatively protected against future nephron damage like that previously observed in animals exposed to maternal protein restriction in utero

Efficacy of iron-biofortified crops

Biofortification aims to increase the content of micronutrients in staple crops without sacrificing agronomic yield, making the new varieties attractive to farmers. Food staples that provide a major energy supply in low- and middle-income populations are the primary focus. The low genetic variability of iron in the germplasm of most cereal grains is a major obstacle on the path towards nutritional impact with these crops, which is solvable only by turning to transgenic approaches. However, biofortified varieties of common beans and pearl millet have been developed successfully and made available with iron contents as high as 100 mg/kg and 80 mg/kg, respectively, two to five times greater than the levels in the regular varieties. This brief review summarizes the research to date on the bioavailability and efficacy of iron-biofortified crops, highlights their potential and limitations, and discusses the way forward with multiple biofortified crop approaches suitable for diverse cultures and socio-economic milieu. Like post-harvest iron fortification, these biofortified combinations might provide enough iron to meet the additional iron needs of many iron deficient women and children that are not covered at present by their traditional diets.Keywords: Biofortification, Iron, Beans, Pearl millet, Rice, Polyphenols, Phytic acid, Anemia, Efficacy, Nutrition-Agriculture linkage

Inflammatory and metabolic responses to high-fat meals with and without dairy products in men.

Postprandial inflammation is an important factor for human health since chronic low-grade inflammation is associated with chronic diseases. Dairy products have a weak but significant anti-inflammatory effect on postprandial inflammation. The objective of the present study was to compare the effect of a high-fat dairy meal (HFD meal), a high-fat non-dairy meal supplemented with milk (HFM meal) and a high-fat non-dairy control meal (HFC meal) on postprandial inflammatory and metabolic responses in healthy men. A cross-over study was conducted in nineteen male subjects. Blood samples were collected before and 1, 2, 4 and 6 h after consumption of the test meals. Plasma concentrations of insulin, glucose, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, TAG and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured at each time point. IL-6, TNF-α and endotoxin concentrations were assessed at baseline and endpoint (6 h). Time-dependent curves of these metabolic parameters were plotted, and the net incremental AUC were found to be significantly higher for TAG and lower for CRP after consumption of the HFM meal compared with the HFD meal; however, the HFM and HFD meals were not different from the HFC meal. Alterations in IL-6, TNF-α and endotoxin concentrations were not significantly different between the test meals. The results suggest that full-fat milk and dairy products (cheese and butter) have no significant impact on the inflammatory response to a high-fat meal

Anomalous relaxation and self-organization in non-equilibrium processes

We study thermal relaxation in ordered arrays of coupled nonlinear elements with external driving. We find, that our model exhibits dynamic self-organization manifested in a universal stretched-exponential form of relaxation. We identify two types of self-organization, cooperative and anti-cooperative, which lead to fast and slow relaxation, respectively. We give a qualitative explanation for the behavior of the stretched exponent in different parameter ranges. We emphasize that this is a system exhibiting stretched-exponential relaxation without explicit disorder or frustration.Comment: submitted to PR

Promoting bioengineered tooth innervation using nanostructured and hybrid scaffolds

The innervation of teeth mediated by axons originating from the trigeminal ganglia is essential for their function and protection. Immunosuppressive therapy using Cyclosporine A (CsA) was found to accelerate the innervation of transplanted tissues and particularly that of bioengineered teeth. To avoid the CsA side effects, we report in this study the preparation of CsA loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles, their embedding on polycaprolactone (PCL)-based scaffolds and their possible use as templates for the innervation of bioengineered teeth. This PCL scaffold, approved by the FDA and capable of mimicking the extracellular matrix, was obtained by electrospinning and decorated with CsA-loaded PLGA nanoparticles to allow a local sustained action of this immunosuppressive drug. Dental re-associations were co-implanted with a trigeminal ganglion on functionalized scaffolds containing PLGA and PLGA/cyclosporine in adult ICR mice during 2 weeks. Histological analyses showed that the designed scaffolds did not alter the teeth development after in vivo implantation. The study of the innervation of the dental re-associations by indirect immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), showed that 88.4% of the regenerated teeth were innervated when using the CsA-loaded PLGA scaffold. The development of active implants thus allows their potential use in the context of dental engineering. Statement of Significance Tooth innervation is essential for their function and protection and this can be promoted in vivo using polymeric scaffolds functionalized with immunosuppressive drug-loaded nanoparticles. Immunosuppressive therapy using biodegradable nanoparticles loaded with Cyclosporine A was found to accelerate the innervation of bioengineered teeth after two weeks of implantation

An Upper Limit on the Infrared Background Density from HEGRA data on Mkn501

The energy spectrum of Mkn501 in the TeV energy regime, as measured by the HEGRA (High Energy Gamma Ray Astronomy) Cerenkov telescopes during its low state in 1995/96 and during a fraction of the 1997 outburst in the TeV energy regime, is shown to place stringent upper limits on the still unknown infrared photon density in the energy region between 3 x 10**(-3) and 3 xt 10**(-1) eV. Assuming two different shapes for the unknown infrared photon spectrum in this energy range we calculate upper limits on the infrared photon density on the basis of the power-law fit obtained for the observed spectrum up to the maximum energy.Comment: 11 pages, 6 Postscript figures, Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic