707 research outputs found
Lifestyle and Income-related Inequality in Health in South Africa
BACKGROUND: Many low- and middle-income countries are experiencing an epidemiological transition from communicable to non-communicable diseases. This has negative consequences for their human capital development, and imposes a growing economic burden on their societies. While the prevalence of such diseases varies with socioeconomic status, the inequalities can be exacerbated by adopted lifestyles of individuals. Evidence suggests that lifestyle factors may explain the income-related inequality in self-reported health. Self-reported health is a subjective evaluation of people's general health status rather than an objective measure of lifestyle-related ill-health. METHOD: The objective of this paper is to expand the literature by examining the contribution of smoking and alcohol consumption to health inequalities, incorporating more objective measures of health, that are directly associated with these lifestyle practices. We used the National Income Dynamic Study panel data for South Africa. The corrected concentration index is used to measure inequalities in health outcomes. We use a decomposition technique to identify the contribution of smoking and alcohol use to inequalities in health. RESULTS: We find significant smoking-related and income-related inequalities in both self-reported and lifestyle-related ill-health. The results suggest that smoking and alcohol use contribute positively to income-related inequality in health. Smoking participation accounts for up to 7.35% of all measured inequality in health and 3.11% of the inequality in self-reported health. The estimates are generally higher for all measured inequality in health (up to 14.67%) when smoking duration is considered. Alcohol consumption accounts for 27.83% of all measured inequality in health and 3.63% of the inequality in self-reported health. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence that inequalities in both self-reported and lifestyle-related ill-health are highly prevalent within smokers and the poor. These inequalities need to be explicitly addressed in future programme planning to reduce health inequalities in South Africa. We suggest that policies that can influence poor individuals to reduce tobacco consumption and harmful alcohol use will improve their health and reduce health inequalities
Demographic and genetic attributes of dispersing and resident individuals of an enclosed Microtus pennsylvanicus population
A dispersal polymorphism may exist in emigrants from cyclic populations
of Microtus '~nnsylvanicus biasing trap-revealed movements
of unenclosed animals in favour of sedentary or colonizing individuals.
The dispersal tendency of emigrants from an enclosed population was
investigated by releasing animals via tubes into one of two adjacent
enclosures, one vacant and one inhabited. Individuals from the enclosed
population were monitored for age, sex, weight and electrophoretically
detectable serum transferrin genotype in an intensive live-trapping
program.
In 1973 the minimum number alive in the introduced enclosed
study population reached approximately l67/ha when breeding stopped
in October. In 1974 intensive breeding increased the population
density to 333/ha by mid-July when a long decline in numbers and
breeding intensity began without an intervening plateau. An
adjacent unenclosed area had a much lower density and longer breeding
season in 1974. The growth rate of young males in the enclosed
population tended to be lowest during the decline period in 1974.
Survival of the enclosed population was high throughout but was
lowest during the decline phase in both sexes, especially males.
Low transferrin heterozygote survival during the decline coincided
with a significant heterozygote deficiency in females whereas in males
genotype frequencies did not depart from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
values throughout th.e study. Twenty-nine suitable ani.mals were
released during the decline in five periods from July to November 1974.
The proportions of males and transferrin heterozygotes in the released
graun were generally greater than in the source population~ In the
test enclosures 21% of the released animals continued their movement
through the vacant area while 41% (no significant difference) moved
through the inhabited enclosure. In the vacant test area, females
had a greater tendency than males to continue dispersal whereas no
difference was noted in the inhabited area. Low frequency of captures
in the tubes, predator disturbances and cold weather forced the
termination of the study.
The role of dispersal as a population regulating mechanism was
further substantiated. The genetic differences between emigrant and
resident animals lend support to Howard's hypothesis that a genetic
polymorphism influences the tendency to disperse. Support is also
given to Myers' and Krebs' contention that among dispersers an
additional density dependent polymorphism influences the distance
dispersed
In Situ Measurement of the Aerosol Size Distribution in Stratospheric Solid Rocket Motor Exhaust Plumes
The concentration and size distribution of aerosol in the stratospheric exhaust plumes of two Space Shuttle rockets and one Titan IV rocket were measured using a two component aerosol sampling system carried aboard a WB‐57F aircraft. Aerosol size distribution in the 0.01 µm to 4 µm diameter size range was measured using a two component sampling system. The measured distributions display a trimodal form with modes near 0.005 µm, 0.09 µm, and 2.03 µm and are used to infer the relative mass fractionation among the three modes. While the smallest mode has been estimated to contain as much as 10% of the total mass of SRM exhaust alumina, we find show that the smallest mode contains less than 0.05% of the alumina mass. This fraction is so small so as to significantly reduce the likelihood that heterogeneous reactions on the SRM alumina surfaces could produce a significant global impact on stratospheric chemistry
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Use of Automated Ambulatory-Care Encounter Records for Detection of Acute Illness Clusters, Including Potential Bioterrorism Events
The advent of domestic bioterrorism has emphasized the need for enhanced detection of clusters of acute illness. We describe a monitoring system operational in eastern Massachusetts, based on diagnoses obtained from electronic records of ambulatory-care encounters. Within 24 hours, ambulatory and telephone encounters recording patients with diagnoses of interest are identified and merged into major syndrome groups. Counts of new episodes of illness, rates calculated from health insurance records, and estimates of the probability of observing at least this number of new episodes are reported for syndrome surveillance. Census tracts with unusually large counts are identified by comparing observed with expected syndrome frequencies. During 1996–1999, weekly counts of new cases of lower respiratory syndrome were highly correlated with weekly hospital admissions. This system complements emergency room- and hospital-based surveillance by adding the capacity to rapidly identify clusters of illness, including potential bioterrorism events
Molecular Hydrogen in the FUSE Translucent Lines of Sight: The Full Sample
We report total abundances and related parameters for the full sample of the
FUSE survey of molecular hydrogen in 38 translucent lines of sight. New results
are presented for the "second half" of the survey involving 15 lines of sight
to supplement data for the first 23 lines of sight already published. We assess
the correlations between molecular hydrogen and various extinction parameters
in the full sample, which covers a broader range of conditions than the initial
sample. In particular, we are now able to confirm that many, but not all, lines
of sight with shallow far-UV extinction curves and large values of the
total-to-selective extinction ratio, = / -- characteristic
of larger than average dust grains -- are associated with particularly low
hydrogen molecular fractions (). In the lines of sight with large
, there is in fact a wide range in molecular fractions, despite the
expectation that the larger grains should lead to less H formation.
However, we see specific evidence that the molecular fractions in this
sub-sample are inversely related to the estimated strength of the UV radiation
field and thus the latter factor is more important in this regime. We have
provided an update to previous values of the gas-to-dust ratio, (H)/, based on direct measurements of (H) and (H I).
Although our value is nearly identical to that found with Copernicus data, it
extends the relationship by a factor of 2 in reddening. Finally, as the new
lines of sight generally show low to moderate molecular fractions, we still
find little evidence for single monolithic "translucent clouds" with 1.Comment: 35 pages, 5 tables, 7 figures, accepted for publication in The
Astrophysical Journal Supplements Serie
Pennsylvania Folklife Special 1960 Festival Issue
• Plain Dutch and Gay Dutch: Two Worlds in the Dutch Country • Pennsylvania Dutch • Displaced Dutchmen Crave Shoo-flies • Hex Signs: A Myth • Lebanon Valley Date Stones • Antiques in Dutchland • Antique or Folk Art: Which? • Folk Festival Program • Religious Patterns of the Dutch Country • The Costumes of the Plain Dutch • Love Feasts • Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites • The Courtship and Wedding Practices of the Old Order Amishhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/1008/thumbnail.jp
Epithermal Mineralization of the Bonanza-Sandy Vein System, Masara Gold District, Mindanao, Philippines
The Masara Gold District in southeastern Mindanao island is an area of prolific hydrothermal copper and gold mineralization. This study documents the mineralization characteristics of the NW-trending Bonanza-Sandy epithermal veins to constrain possible hydrothermal fluid sources and ore-forming mechanisms. Epithermal mineralization in the NW veins is divided into three main stages: Stage 1 - massive quartz-sulfide; Stage 2 - massive to amorphous quartz-carbonate (calcite); and Stage 3 - colloform-cockade quartz-carbonate (bladed rhodochrosite). Stage 1 is the main gold mineralization phase, with chalcopyrite, pyrite, sphalerite and galena occurring with native gold and tellurides. Stages 2 and 3 contain invisible gold in the sphalerite, galena, pyrite and chalcopyrite. The deposit exhibits mineralization characteristics typical of intermediate sulfidation epithermal deposits based on the dominant chalcopyrite-pyrite mineral assemblage; illite-muscovite-chlorite alteration mineralogy that point to neutral pH conditions; and sphalerite composition of 2.26 to 8.72 mol% FeS in Stage 1 and 0.55 to 1.13 mol% FeS in Stage 2. The K-Ar age date of illite separates from highly altered diorite porphyry of the Lamingag Intrusive Complex yielded an Early Pliocene age (5.12 ± 0.16 Ma). Hydrothermal fluid exsolved from the magma that formed the Lamingag Intrusive Complex probably formed the ore-forming Stage 1 veins. Stages 2 and 3 involved the deposition of quartz and carbonate veins possibly by boiling hydrothermal fluids. Precious and base metal deposition was controlled by the Masara Fault Zone. Exploration markers for gold mineralization in the Masara Gold District and vicinity include the presence of Lamingag Intrusive Complex and massive sulfide veins
The Dutchman Vol. 6, No. 1
● Editorial ● Somerset County Decorated Barns ● Butter Molds ● Restaurants, too, Go Dutch ● The Hostetter Fractur Collection ● Bindnagle\u27s Church ● The Harry S. High Folk Art Collection ● Lebanon Valley Date Stones ● Of Bells and Bell Towers ● John Durang, the First Native American Dancer ● Stoffel Rilbps\u27 Epistle ● The First Singing of Our National Anthem ● Pennsylvania Dutch Pioneershttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/dutchmanmag/1000/thumbnail.jp
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