Alien Registration- Pomerleau, Joseph Armand R. (Auburn, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/30194/thumbnail.jp

The global burden of disease attributable to low consumption of fruit and vegetables: implications for the global strategy on diet.

OBJECTIVE: We estimated the global burden of disease attributable to low consumption of fruit and vegetables, an increasingly recognized risk factor for cardiovascular disease and cancer, and compared its impact with that of other major risk factors for disease. METHODS: The burden of disease attributable to suboptimal intake of fruit and vegetables was estimated using information on fruit and vegetable consumption in the population, and on its association with six health outcomes (ischaemic heart disease, stroke, stomach, oesophageal, colorectal and lung cancer). Data from both sources were stratified by sex, age and by 14 geographical regions. FINDINGS: The total worldwide mortality currently attributable to inadequate consumption of fruit and vegetables is estimated to be up to 2.635 million deaths per year. Increasing individual fruit and vegetable consumption to up to 600 g per day (the baseline of choice) could reduce the total worldwide burden of disease by 1.8%, and reduce the burden of ischaemic heart disease and ischaemic stroke by 31% and 19% respectively. For stomach, oesophageal, lung and colorectal cancer, the potential reductions were 19%, 20%, 12% and 2%, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study shows the potentially large impact that increasing fruit and vegetable intake could have in reducing many noncommunicable diseases. It highlights the need for much greater emphasis on dietary risk factors in public health policy in order to tackle the rise in noncommunicable diseases worldwide, and suggests that the proposed intersectoral WHO/FAO fruit and vegetable promotion initiative is a crucial component in any global diet strategy

Three-dimensional imaging and detection efficiency performance of orthogonal coplanar CZT strip detectors

We report on recent three-dimensional imaging performance and detection efficiency measurements obtained with 5 mm thick prototype CdZnTe detectors fabricated with orthogonal coplanar anode strips. In previous work, we have shown that detectors fabricated using this design achieve both very good energy resolution and sub-millimeter spatial resolution with fewer electronic channels than are required for pixel detectors. As electron-only devices, like pixel detectors, coplanar anode strip detectors can be fabricated in the thickness required to be effective imagers for photons with energies in excess of 500 keV. Unlike conventional double-sided strip detectors, the coplanar anode strip detectors require segmented contacts and signal processing electronics on only one surface. The signals can be processed to measure the total energy deposit and the photon interaction location in three dimensions. The measurements reported here provide a quantitative assessment of the detection capabilities of orthogonal coplanar anode strip detectors

Access to water in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

BACKGROUND: During the Soviet period, authorities in the USSR invested heavily in collective farming and modernization of living conditions in rural areas. However, many problems remained, including poor access to many basic amenities such as water. Since then, the situation is likely to have changed; economic decline has coincided with migration and widening social inequalities, potentially increasing disparities within and between countries. AIM: To examine access to water and sanitation and its determinants in urban and rural areas of eight former Soviet countries. METHODS: A series of nationally representative surveys in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Ukraine was undertaken in 2001, covering 18,428 individuals (aged 18+ years). RESULTS: The percentage of respondents living in rural areas varied between 27 and 59% among countries. There are wide urban-rural differences in access to amenities. Even in urban areas, only about 90% of respondents had access to cold running water in their home (60% in Kyrgyzstan). In rural areas, less than one-third had cold running water in their homes (44% in Russia, under 10% in Kyrgyzstan and Moldova). Between one-third and one-half of rural respondents in some countries (such as Belarus, Kazakhstan and Moldova) obtained their water from wells and similar sources. Access to hot running water inside the homes was an exception in rural households, reflecting the lack of modern heating methods in villages. Similarly, indoor access to toilets is common in urban areas but rare in rural areas. Access to all amenities was better in Russia compared with elsewhere in the region. Indoor access to cold water was significantly more common among rural residents living in apartments, and in settlements served by asphalt roads rather than dirt roads. People with more assets or income and living with other people were significantly more likely to have water on tap. In addition, people who had moved in more recently were more likely to have an indoor water supply. CONCLUSIONS: This was the largest single study of its kind undertaken in this region, and demonstrates that a significant number of people living in rural parts of the former Soviet Union do not have indoor access to running water and sanitation. There are significant variations among countries, with the worse situation in central Asia and the Caucasus, and the best situation in Russia. Access to water strongly correlates with socio-economic characteristics. These findings suggest a need for sustained investment in rebuilding basic infrastructure in the region, and monitoring the impact of living conditions on health

3DFeat-Net: Weakly Supervised Local 3D Features for Point Cloud Registration

In this paper, we propose the 3DFeat-Net which learns both 3D feature detector and descriptor for point cloud matching using weak supervision. Unlike many existing works, we do not require manual annotation of matching point clusters. Instead, we leverage on alignment and attention mechanisms to learn feature correspondences from GPS/INS tagged 3D point clouds without explicitly specifying them. We create training and benchmark outdoor Lidar datasets, and experiments show that 3DFeat-Net obtains state-of-the-art performance on these gravity-aligned datasets.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. Accepted in ECCV 201

Dietary beliefs in the Baltic republics.

OBJECTIVES: As beliefs and knowledge about the possible effects of foods on health can influence food behaviours, this study examined selected dietary beliefs in the Baltic countries and the association of beliefs related to salt intake and to types of fat with food behaviours. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. SETTING: Data from three surveys conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the summer of 1997 were used to describe the prevalence of dietary beliefs in these countries and to investigate the association between beliefs and behaviours (using logistic regression). SUBJECTS: Representative national samples of adults were selected in each country (Estonia, n = 2018; Latvia, n = 2308; Lithuania, n = 2153). RESULTS: Misunderstood concepts (myths) related to dietary salt, types of fat, meat consumption and bread and potatoes were observed in high proportions of the population. Education level was an important correlate of beliefs related to salt intake and types of fat, people with a higher education level being more likely to be familiar with these issues. Correct beliefs were not consistently associated with healthier behaviours (e.g. less frequent use of salt at the table and use of non-animal fats for cooking), except for salt intake in Estonia. CONCLUSIONS: Several misunderstood dietary concepts (myths) are still prevalent in the Baltic countries. Correct beliefs related to salt intake and types of fat were not consistent predictors of healthier food behaviours. In-depth qualitative investigations are needed to better describe and understand dietary beliefs and attitudes in the Baltic countries, and to identify barriers to the adoption of healthy food habits

Learning and Matching Multi-View Descriptors for Registration of Point Clouds

Critical to the registration of point clouds is the establishment of a set of accurate correspondences between points in 3D space. The correspondence problem is generally addressed by the design of discriminative 3D local descriptors on the one hand, and the development of robust matching strategies on the other hand. In this work, we first propose a multi-view local descriptor, which is learned from the images of multiple views, for the description of 3D keypoints. Then, we develop a robust matching approach, aiming at rejecting outlier matches based on the efficient inference via belief propagation on the defined graphical model. We have demonstrated the boost of our approaches to registration on the public scanning and multi-view stereo datasets. The superior performance has been verified by the intensive comparisons against a variety of descriptors and matching methods

Tonic and Phasic Amperometric Monitoring of Dopamine Using Microelectrode Arrays in Rat Striatum

Here we report a novel microelectrode array recording approach to measure tonic (resting) and phasic release of dopamine (DA) in DA-rich areas such as the rat striatum and nucleus accumbens. The resulting method is tested in intact central nervous system (CNS) and in animals with extensive loss of the DA pathway using the neurotoxin, 6-hydroxyDA (6-OHDA). The self-referencing amperometric recording method employs Nafion-coated with and without m-phenylenediamine recording sites that through real-time subtraction allow for simultaneous measures of tonic DA levels and transient changes due to depolarization and amphetamine-induced release. The recording method achieves low-level measures of both tonic and phasic DA with decreased recording drift allowing for enhanced sensitivity normally not achieved with electrochemical sensors in vivo

The support model for people with legally modified abilities according to United Nations

Este artículo se basa en una investigación social sobre el sistema de protección jurídica de las personas con algún tipo de discapacidad o en situación de dependencia que se encuentran sometidas a las figuras de tutela o curatela, en aplicación de lo previsto y establecido en el Código Civil Español, en sus artículos 199 y 200, así como en la Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil. La investigación se plantea como un estudio comparado entre diferentes países de la Unión Europea para ver su adecuación a lo establecido en el artículo 12 de la Convención de Naciones Unidas sobre derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad (en adelante, CDPD) en los procedimientos de incapacitación. Los resultados se analizan sobre la base de modelos técnico-sociales de intervención, los análisis jurídicos y la experiencia adquirida por las Fundación Tutelares de Castilla y León. Se proponen y diseñan algunas alternativas y servicios que pueden mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas adultas incapacitadas judicialmente y el tipo de apoyos que se les puede prestar, de acuerdo a lo establecido en la Convención de Naciones Unidas.This article is based on social research into the system of legal protection for persons with disabilities or in a situation of dependence who are subject to the figures of guardianship or conservatorship pursuant to the provisions in the Spanish Civil Code, sections 199 and 200, as well as the Code of Civil Procedure. The research is presented as a comparative study between different countries of the European Union regarding the adaptation to the provisions of Article 12 of the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter CRPD) Incapacitation procedures. The results are analyzed on the basis of technical-social intervention models, legal analysis and the experience of Guardianship Foundations of Castilla y León. Some alternatives and services are proposed and designed that can improve the quality of life of legally incapacitated persons and the type of support that can be provided to them in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Convention

Differential levels of glutamate dehydrogenase 1 (GLUD1) in Balb/c and C57BL/6 mice and the effects of overexpression of the Glud1 gene on glutamate release in striatum

We have previously shown that overexpression of the Glud1 (glutamate dehydrogenase 1) gene in neurons of C57BL/6 mice results in increased depolarization-induced glutamate release that eventually leads to selective neuronal injury and cell loss by 12 months of age. However, it is known that isogenic lines of Tg (transgenic) mice produced through back-crossing with one strain may differ in their phenotypic characteristics from those produced using another inbred mouse strain. Therefore, we decided to introduce the Glud1 transgene into the Balb/c strain that has endogenously lower levels of GLUD1 (glutamate dehydrogenase 1) enzyme activity in the brain as compared with C57BL/6. Using an enzyme-based MEA (microelectrode array) that is selective for measuring glutamate in vivo, we measured depolarization-induced glutamate release. Within a discrete layer of the striatum, glutamate release was significantly increased in Balb/c Tg mice compared with wt (wild-type) littermates. Furthermore, Balb/c mice released approx. 50–60% of the amount of glutamate compared with C57BL/6 mice. This is similar to the lower levels of endogenous GLUD1 protein in Balb/c compared with C57BL/6 mice. The development of these Glud1-overexpressing mice may allow for the exploration of key molecular events produced by chronic exposure of neurons to moderate, transient increases in glutamate release, a process hypothesized to occur in neurodegenerative disorders.This work was supported by the NSF (National Science Foundation) [grant number EEC-0310723]; NIH/NIDA (National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse) [grant number DA017186]; CEBRA, Phase II, NIA, [grant number AG12993]; NIAAA (National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) [grant numbers AA11419, AA04732, AA12276]; NSF [grant numbers DBI-9987807, DBI-0352848]; NIDA [grant number DA017186]; NINDS (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes) [grant number NS39787]; NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) [grant number MH58414]; NIDA Training [grant number DA022738]; NIDA [grant number DA015088], The Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation, The Miller, Hedwig and Wilbur Fund, and The University of Kansas Research Development Fund