A microcoulometric study of adsorption on the hydrogen electrode

Thie work was begun with the intention of studying the adsorption of organic compounds upon the hydrogen electrode. The fact that certain substances, even when present in extremely low concentration, will poison the electrode with which they are in contact shows clearly that these substances must be strongly adsorbed on the electrode surface. The problem or determining the amount absorbed at various concentration, temperatures, and pressures, however, required a method capable of detecting quantities of adsorbate in the ordor of 10-11 moles

Comparison of VO2 peak during treadmill and cycle ergometry in severely overweight youth

The purpose of this study was to compare peak cardiorespiratory parameters during treadmill and cycle ergometry in severely overweight youth. Twenty-one participants from the Committed to Kids Pediatric Weight Management program at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center volunteered. Participants completed peak treadmill and cycle ergometer tests on separate days. In order to examine reliability, six subjects completed a second treadmill test and seven subjects a second cycle test. Physical characteristics included the following: Age (yrs) 12.5 ± 2.8; Body weight (BW) (kg) 78.5 ± 27.0, Height (m) 1.56 ± 0.13; and % fat 42.8 ± 7.5. No statistical significant differences (p ? 0.05) were found between treadmill and cycle peak tests. Treadmill VO2 peak (l·min-1) averaged 1.57 ± 0.40 and cycle 1.46 ± 0.30 and VO2 peak relative to BW 21.5 ± 4.1 and 20.3 ± 5.5 for treadmill and cycle ergometry, respectively. Therefore treadmill values were 7.0% and 5.6% higher than cycle values. In normal weight or children and adolescents at risk for overweight, treadmill values typically average from 7 to 12% higher than cycle values. Reliability of VO2 peak as indicated by intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.70 to 0.96 for a single or repeated tests. Intra individual variability averaged 0.5% for VO2 peak (l·min-1) during treadmill ergometry and 5.7% for cycle ergometry. Also, standard errors of measurement were low (40 to 90 ml min or 1.0 to 1.7 ml.kg-1. min-1) for the peak treadmill or cycle tests. In summary, our data suggest that both treadmill and cycle ergometry provide reliable methods for determining VO2 peak in overweight youth

Chronomics, human time estimation, and aging

Franz Halberg, Robert B Sothern, Germaine Cornélissen, Jerzy Czaplicki1Halberg Chronobiology Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; 1Institut de Pharmacologie et de Biologie Structurale CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, FranceBackground: Circadian rhythm stage affects many outcomes, including those of mental aging.Methods: Estimations of 1 minute ∼5 times/day for a year, 25 years apart, by a healthy male biomedical scientist (RBS), are analyzed by the extended cosinor.Results: Cycles of a half-week, a week, ∼30 days, a half-year and a year, in self-assessed 1-minute estimation by RBS between 25 and 60 years of age in health, are mapped for the first time, compared and opposite effects are found. For RBS at 60 vs at 25 years of age, it takes less time in the morning around 10:30 (P < 0.001), but not in the evening around 19:30 (P = 0.956), to estimate 1 minute.Discussion: During the intervening decades, the time of estimating 1 minute differed greatly, dependent on circadian stage, being a linear decrease in the morning and increase in the evening, the latter modulated by a ∼33.6-year cycle.Conclusion: Circadian and infradian rhythm mapping is essential for a scrutiny of effects of aging. A ∼30-day and a circannual component apparent at 25 years of age are not found later; cycles longer than a year are detected. Rhythm stages await tests as markers for timing therapy in disease.Keywords: circadian rhythm, mental function, time estimatio

Blood, sex and trust: : The limits of the population-based risk management paradigm

Blood screening is imperfect so Donor Health Check questionnaires (DHC) are used to defer those whose ‘behaviour’ suggests disproportionate risk of Blood Borne Infection (BBI). Taking the UK case, we compare deferment of three sub-populations with different HIV prevalence; Men-who-have-Sex-with-Men (4.7%), black-Africans (3.7%) and ‘the-general-(heterosexual)-population’ (c.0.09%) arguing that, with respect to STIs, DHC assesses risk based on broad population-level risk-groups not behaviour. This approach relies on an imaginative geography that distances heterosexual risk from the domestic population. Most DHCs knowingly commit the ecological fallacy allowing population-level statistics to obscure within-group diversity, inadequately identifying the risk posed by ‘low-risk-groups’. The disjuncture between ontological risk phenomenon (diverse sexual practice) and the epistemological grid used to map risk (homogenised risk-groups) needs examination. Unpacking the category ‘heterosexual’ would both better differentiate risk within this group and change the relative-risk calculated for ‘high-risk groups’. We call for piloting of practice-based questions and a mixed-method approach to DHCs to more accurately assess all potential donors.PostprintPeer reviewe

Social marketing for a farmer’s market in an underserved community: A needs assessment

The aim of the present paper is to assess local residents’ awareness of utilizing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to purchase fresh produce at local farmers’ markets, and to determine internet use and media preferences of study participants prior to implementation of a social marketing campaign. A needs assessment was conducted to collect baseline data in an underserved neighbourhood in New Orleans (LA, USA). The study was carried out August 2014-May 2015. The assessment revealed that 73% of the respondents were unaware that the SNAP benefits could be used to purchase food in farmers’ markets; 63% of low-income participants never attended a farmers’ market compared to 27% of mid/high-income. Over 50% of the low-income respondents have access to the internet at least once per day. The results show the potential of raising awareness among a wide range of members in the community. This needs assessment will serve as the foundation for a social marketing intervention, which will be disseminated city-wide

Absence of Adolescent Obesity in Grenada: Is This a Generational Effect?

Background: Low- and middle-income countries are affected disproportionately by the ongoing global obesity pandemic. Representing a middle income country, the high prevalence of obesity among Grenadian adults as compared to US adults is expected as part of global obesity trends. The objective of this study was to determine if Grenadian adolescents have a higher prevalence of overweight compared to their US counterparts, and if a disparity exists between urban and rural adolescents.Methods: Using a subcohort of participants in the Grenadian Nutrition Student Survey, diet quality and anthropometric measures were collected from 55% of the classrooms of first year secondary students in Grenada (n = 639). Rural or urban designations were given to each school. Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated and categorized as overweight or obese for each student following CDC classification cutoffs. A standardized BMI (BMIz) was calculated for each school. Sex-specific BMI and overall BMIz were compared to a 1980s US cohort. Multilevel models, overall and stratified by sex, of students nested within schools were conducted to determine if BMIz differed by rural or urban locality, gender, and diet quality.Results: The mean age of this cohort was 12.7 (SD = 0.8) years with 83.8% of the cohort identifying as Afro-Caribbean. Females had nearly twice the prevalence of overweight when compared to males (22.7 vs. 12.2%) but a similar prevalence of obesity (8.2 vs. 6.8%). Grenadian adolescents had lower prevalence of overweight (females: 22.7 vs. 44.7%; males: 12.2 vs. 38.8%, respectively) as compared to US counterparts. Eating a traditional diet was negatively associated with BMIz score among females (β^ = −0.395; SE = 0.123) in a stratified, multilevel analysis. BMIz scores did not differ significantly by rural or urban school designation.Conclusions: Among Grenadian adolescents, this study identified a lower overweight prevalence compared to US counterparts and no difference in overweight prevalence by urban or rural location. We hypothesize that the late introduction of processed foods to Grenada protected this cohort from obesogenic promoters due to a lack of fetal overnutrition. However, further research in subsequent birth cohorts is needed to determine if adolescent obesity will increase due to a generational effect

Transfusing our lifeblood: reframing research impact through inter-disciplinary collaboration between health geography and nurse education

The authors wish to thank the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for funding this seminar series (Grant Number: ES/L000741/1).Geographers have long grappled with how their research can positively impact individuals, communities and society. Demonstrating research impact is an increasingly important aspect of academic life internationally. In this paper we argue that agendas for encouraging ‘impact’ would be well-served if impact through teaching was identified and stimulated more explicitly, and if academics better recognised and seized the opportunities that already exist for such impact. We take engagement between health geography and nurse education as an example of how social scientists could demonstrate research impact through inter-disciplinary involvement in the education of health care professionals, and specifically student nurses. We begin by showing how the UK's Research Excellence Framework (widely regarded as the key reference point for research performance management regimes internationally) has tended to produce an undervaluation of impact via education in many disciplines. A comprehensive overview of international scholarship at the intersection between geography and nursing is then presented. Here we trace three ‘waves of enquiry’ that have focused on research interactions before calling for a fourth focused on critical pedagogy. To illustrate the possibilities of this fourth wave, we sketch a case study that outlines how engagement with research around blood donation could help provide a foundation for critical pedagogy that challenges student nurses to practice reflexively, think geographically and act justly. Finally, we call for closer engagement between health geography and nurse education, by encouraging educators to translate, teach, and transfuse ideas and people between health geography and nurse education. In so doing, we argue that work at this interface can be mutually beneficial and demonstrate impact both within and beyond research assessment rubrics. Hence, our ideas are relevant beyond nurse education and geography insofar as this paper serves as an example of how reframing research impact can recover the importance of impact through education.PostprintPeer reviewe