Waist Circumference predicting Cardiovascular Disease in Korean Men and Women

Objective: Obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are closely related and have become increasingly prevalent in Korea. Asians are more prone to obesity-related co-morbidities than Caucasians, even at lower body mass index (BMI) and/or smaller waist circumference (WC) values. Nevertheless, little is known regarding the association of WC with the risk of CVD in non-Caucasian populations. The authors conducted a prospective cohort study of WC and the risk of CVD in the Korean Heart Study.Methods: We examined the association of WC to CVD incidence among 53,026 Korean adults (30,152 men, 22,874 women) with no history of CVD and/or cancer. During a mean follow-up of 8.6 years, 2,722 incident cases of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) including 1,383 cases of ischemic heart disease (IHD) and 1,012 cases of stroke were documented. Results: Average WC at baseline was 84.0±8.2 cm in men and 75.2±8.9 cm in women. After adjustment for age and BMI, WC was significantly associated with cardiovascular risk factors (P <.001). In men, a WC of ≥91 cm was associated with an ASCVD hazard ratio (HR) of 1.62 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.25, 2.10) and an IHD HR of 1.70 (95% CI: 1.19, 2.42) in comparison with a WC of <78 cm even after further adjustment for BMI and traditional risk factors (P for trend = 0.0118, 0.0139 respectively). In women, the progressive associations of WC with ASCVD, IHD and stroke were observed. These associations were however attenuated after further adjustment for BMI and traditional risk factors. The multivariable HRs for ASCVD, IHD, and stroke increased with higher WC in both men and women. Conclusions: Central obesity significantly and independently contributes to cardiovascular outcomes in Korean men and women

Population of Cattle Egret (Bubulcus Ibis) at the Grassland of University Putra Malaysia, Serdang Selangor, Malaysia

A study of population of the Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) was conducted at the Grassland, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang Selangor. The objectives of this study were to (1) estimate the population size and (2) examine the feeding habitats of egrets. Distance Sampling Method was used for this study where five transects namely Transect A, Transect B, Transect C, Transect D and Transect E were established randomly in the study area. The length of each transect A, B, C, D and E was 390 m, 370 m, 310 m, 500 m and 480 m respectively. Each line was surveyed continuously at 3 days with two in morning and afternoon. Program DISTANCE V2.2 was used to estimate the density. Feeding habitat of Cattle Egret was conducted by direct observation. The density of Cattle Egret ranged from 2.51 to 4.34 individuals per hectare. The population size of egrets at the Grassland area of University Putra Malaysia, Serdang Selangor, Malaysia ranged from 648 to 1120 birds. The feeding habitat of egret was found to be associated with cattle. However, the number of egrets was less when the cattles were not feeding in the field, because cattles provided flies and cattle ticks for egrets

Ekotoksikologi Pestisida Decis 25 E, Curacron 500 EC, Score 150 EC dan Bactospein WP terhadap Lele (Clarias batrachus) dan Nila (Oreochromis niloticus)

Aplikasi pestisida pertanian yang berlebihan dan tidak tepat dapat terbawa oleh air hujan hingga ke perairan. Decis 25E yang tergolong insektisida Pyrethroid, Curacron 500 EC termasuk insektisida golongan Organofostat, Score 150 EC fungisida sistemik dan insektisida biologi Bactospein WP diuji tingkat toksisitasnya terhadap Lele (Clarias batrachus) dan Nila (Oreochromis niloticus) pada konsentrasi 0,1 ppm; 1 ppm; 10 ppm; dan 100 ppm dengan pelarut air. Decis 25E Curacron 500 EC memiliki tingkat toksisitas tinggi terhadap Lele dan Nila yang  menimbulkan pendarahan pada ikan uji dari konsentrasi 0,1 hingga 100 ppm dalam waktu lebih dari 1 jam. Sehingga adanya runoff Decis 25E dan Curacron 500 EC dengan konsentrasi 0,1 ppm di perairan dapat mengakibatkan kematian pada ikan. Fungisida Score 250 EC dan insektisida biologi Bactospeine WP cukup aman terhadap ikan lele dan nila pada konsentrasi 0,1 ppm

Successful transition to mobile government (m-government) : an adaptive framework

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.Over the past decade Governments all over the world have been moving towards providing services to their citizens via the web, with varying degrees of success. These e-Government initiatives have been the subject of extensive research. This research is concerned with the transitioning from e-Government to mobile government (m-Government). Mobile government implementation is still in its very early stages - indeed a perfect m-Government Framework/model has not yet been created. This research aims to contribute to the field by developing a successful m- Government framework as a basis for a transition methodology, either from e-Government to m- Government or directly to m-Government. Transitioning from e- Government to m-Government requires researching the integration process between e-Government and m-Government. It also requires investigation of all the pressures, obstacles that hinder the transition process and m -Government success factors. Such obstacles and success factors differ between nations, such as a nation's technological and information infrastructure, mobile device penetration and acceptance, public and social pressures, and security. Finally an m-Government initiative must be developed followed by an m-Government strategy. Mobile devices have the potential to become ideal access devices because they are small, light, personal, convenient, and many people carry them all the time, everywhere. Mobile devices have a number of connectivity options, and their own display and input capabilities. They are already widely used around the world. Mobile Government, despite its potential, has not reached anticipated adopt ion levels. While there may be many reasons for this, limited previous research has focused on only a few topics, mainly technology and consumers. The main aim of this study is to discover what is necessary to improve the adoption and implementation of mobile government systems. Specific objectives that w ere proposed to help achieve this aim included: a) identifying all the factors that may influence adoption and implementation of mobile services, b) integrating such factors and relations between them in a framework, and c) providing specific recommendations and guidelines in all the various perspectives. Case studies were the methodology employed to fulfil these objectives. A qualitative approach was found to be most suitable to this study, and open-ended Web surveys, as well as various kinds of interviews, including email, face-to-face, and phone, were used to obtain detailed, in-depth information from industry and user participants. The main contribution of this study is the adaptive theoretic al framework that explains the specific factors that influence the adoption, diffusion and implementation of mobile government systems. It provides interesting findings on each of the identified factors, and at the same time integrates such investigations as one coherent whole that forms a framework of success factor s for mobile government systems. Some of the discovered factors have never before been proposed. Others have been proposed in fragmented explanations that focused on several influences only. Yet other factor s have been proposed before, but this study offered more accurate or understandable interpretations or names for them. In addition, this study integrated all the factors in a framework, pointing out the important contexts and conditions that need to be understood and fulfilled. Another contribution can be found in the multitude of specific guidelines and recommendations that have been discovered in the participants' data. This study additionally devoted much attention to studying international mobile governments. The proposed framework with its well explained success factors can be used by traditional or electronic governments to improve their current work processes through the new mobile and wireless technologies

A Review of the Use of Resorbable Plateing Systems in Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery

Resorbable materials have been used for many different procedures in cranio-maxillofacial surgery. However, they have had varying rates of success. The use of resorbable for oncological reconstruction is a relatively new area, compared with paediatric trauma and orthognathic surgery

NETWORK CONNECTIVITY QUALITY - USER INTERFACE ICONS AND REPORTS

A computing device (e.g. mobile phone, smartphone, tablet computer, etc.) with multiple network connectivities may be configured to display a user interface with an indication of network quality to a user. For example, the displayed user interface may include an icon indicating the network quality (e.g., data transmission speeds, of a selected network connection) in a status bar. The computing device may also generate a network report detailing various performance metrics (e.g. an amount of data used, network speed, network reliability) of a selected network connection for a user-specified or pre-defined time period. The computing device may also provide a user with network usage suggestions based on the user’s network connection patterns. The computing device may also monitor changes in the network connection report and suggest a user take actions to correct, improve, or otherwise change network connectivity quality

An Alternative to Warner’s Randomized Response Model

A modification to Warner’s (1965) Randomized Response Model is suggested. The suggested model is more efficient than the original model

Iodate in calcite, aragonite and vaterite CaCO<inf>3</inf>: Insights from first-principles calculations and implications for the I/Ca geochemical proxy

The incorporation of iodine into each of the three polymorphs of CaCO3 – calcite, aragonite and vaterite, is compared using first-principles computational simulation. In each case iodine is most easily accommodated as iodate (IO3-) onto the carbonate site. Local strain fields around the iodate solute atom are revealed in the pair distribution functions for the relaxed structures, which indicate that aragonite displays the greatest degree of local structural distortion while vaterite is relatively unaffected. The energy penalty for iodate incorporation is least significant in vaterite, and greatest in aragonite, with the implication that iodine will display significant partitioning between calcium carbonate polymorphs. in the order vaterite > calcite > aragonite. Furthermore, we find that trace iodine incorporation into vaterite confers improved mechanical strength to vaterite crystals. Our results support the supposition that iodine is incorporated as iodate within biogenic carbonates, important in the application of I/Ca data in palaeoproxy studies of ocean oxygenation. Our observation that iodate is most easily accommodated into vaterite implies that the presence of vaterite in any biocalcification process, be it as an end-product or a precursor, should be taken into account when applying the I/Ca geochemical proxy

Processing double refractory gold-arsenic-bearing concentrates by direct reductive melting

Iron arsenides may be the key to extraction of gold from existing refractory ores such as that at Bakyrchik, Kazakhstan, an ore body containing an estimated £8.5 billion reserve of gold. Gold is not extractable without significant ecological contamination from the associate arsenopyrite mineralisation. A new method for gold recovery from refractory gold-arsenic-bearing materials, based on direct reductive melting (DRM) of the concentrate has been developed, which locks As into relatively benign iron arsenide phases, whilst gold is extracted into lead alloy. The method has been filed as a patent with the Patent Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan.Islamic Development Bank - Cambridge International Scholarship Programm