212 research outputs found

    Coastal oceanography and sedimentology in New Zealand, 1967-91.

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    This paper reviews research that has taken place on physical oceanography and sedimentology on New Zealand's estuaries and the inner shelf since c. 1967. It includes estuarine sedimentation, tidal inlets, beach morphodynamics, nearshore and inner shelf sedimentation, tides and coastal currents, numerical modelling, short-period waves, tsunamis, and storm surges. An extensive reference list covering both published and unpublished material is included. Formal teaching and research programmes dealing with coastal landforms and the processes that shape them were only introduced to New Zealand universities in 1964; the history of the New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research parallels and chronicles the development of physical coastal science in New Zealand, most of which has been accomplished in last 25 years

    An assessment of the precise products on static Precise Point Positioning using Multi-Constellation GNSS

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    Precise point positioning (PPP) is highly dependent on the precise ephemerides and satellite clock products that are used. Different ephemeris and clock products are available from a variety of different organizations. The aim of this paper is to assess the achievable static positioning accuracy and precision when using different precise ephemerides from three analysis centres Natural Resources Canada (EMX), European Space Agency (ESA) and GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ), using GPS alone, GLONASS alone, and GPS and GLONASS combined. It will be shown in this paper that the precise products are significantly affected by the time-base of the reference stations, and that this is propagated through to all the estimated satellite clocks. In order to overcome the combined biases in the estimated satellite clock, in the PPP processing, these clocks errors need to be handled with an appropriate variation in the estimated receiver clock. It will also be shown that the precise coordinates of the satellites differ between the analysis centres, and this affects the PPP position estimation at the millimetre level. However, all those products will be shown to result in the same level of precision for all coordinate components and are equivalent to the horizontal precision from a Global Double Difference (GDD) solution. For the horizontal coordinate component, the level of agreement between the PPP solutions, and with the GDD solution, is at the millimetre level. There is a notable, but small, bias in the north coordinate components of the PPP solutions, from the corresponding north component of the GDD solutions. It is shown that this difference is due to the different strategy adopted for the GDD and PPP solutions, with PPP being more affected by the changing satellite systems. The precision of the heights of the receiver sites will be shown to be almost the same across all the PPP scenarios, with all three products. Finally, it will be concluded that accuracy of the height component is system dependent and is related to the behaviour of antenna phase centre with the different constellation type

    Doing gender locally: The importance of ‘place’ in understanding marginalised masculinities and young men’s transitions to ‘safe’ and successful futures

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    Observable anxieties have been developing about the position of boys and young men in contemporary society in recent years. This is expressed as a crisis of masculinity, in which place is often implicitly implicated, but is rarely considered for its role in the shaping of young men’s practices, trajectories and aspirations. Drawing on research conducted with young people who accessed a range of social care support services, this article argues that transition means different things for young men in different locales and that local definitions of masculinity are required to better understand young men’s lives and the opportunities available to them. The authors argue that home life, street life, individual neighbourhoods, regions and nations all shaped the young men’s identities and the practices they (and the staff working with them) drew on in order to create successful futures and ‘safe’ forms of masculinity. It is suggested that this place-based approach has the potential to re-shape the ‘crisis’ discourse surrounding masculinity and the anxieties associated with young men

    Quasi-coherent fluctuations limiting the pedestal growth on Alcator C-Mod: experiment and modelling

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    Performance predictions for future fusion devices rely on an accurate model of the pedestal structure. The candidate for predictive pedestal structure is EPED, and it is imperative to test the underlying hypotheses to further gain confidence for ITER projections. Here, we present experimental work testing one of the EPED hypotheses, namely the existence of a soft limit set by microinstabilities such as the kinetic ballooning mode. This work extends recent work on Alactor C-Mod (Diallo et al 2014 Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 115001), to include detailed measurements of the edge fluctuations and comparisons of edge simulation codes and experimental observations

    Urinary estrogen metabolites and long-term mortality following breast cancer

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    Background: Estrogen metabolite concentrations of 2-hydroxyestrone (2-OHE1) and 16-hydroxyestrone (16-OHE1) may be associated with breast carcinogenesis. However, no study has investigated their possible impact on mortality after breast cancer. Methods: This population-based study was initiated in 1996–1997 with spot urine samples obtained shortly after diagnosis (mean ¼ 96 days) from 683 women newly diagnosed with first primary breast cancer and 434 age-matched women without breast cancer. We measured urinary concentrations of 2-OHE1 and 16-OHE1 using an enzyme-linked immunoassay. Vital status was determined via the National Death Index (n ¼ 244 deaths after a median of 17.7 years of follow-up). We used multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the estrogen metabolites-mortality association. We evaluated effect modification using likelihood ratio tests. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: Urinary concentrations of the 2-OHE1 to 16-OHE1 ratio (>median of 1.8 vs <median) were inversely associated with all-cause mortality (HR ¼ 0.74, 95% CI ¼ 0.56 to 0.98) among women with breast cancer. Reduced hazard was also observed for breast cancer mortality (HR ¼ 0.73, 95% CI ¼ 0.45 to 1.17) and cardiovascular diseases mortality (HR ¼ 0.76, 95% CI ¼ 0.47 to 1.23), although the 95% confidence intervals included the null. Similar findings were also observed for women without breast cancer. The association with all-cause mortality was more pronounced among breast cancer participants who began chemotherapy before urine collection (n ¼ 118, HR ¼ 0.42, 95% CI ¼ 0.22 to 0.81) than among those who had not (n ¼ 559, HR ¼ 0.98, 95% CI ¼ 0.72 to 1.34; Pinteraction ¼ .008). Conclusions: The urinary 2-OHE1 to 16-OHE1 ratio may be inversely associated with long-term all-cause mortality, which may depend on cancer treatment status at the time of urine collection

    Dietary intake of fish, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and survival after breast cancer: A population-based follow-up study on Long Island, New York

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    BACKGROUND In laboratory experiments, ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have been found to reduce inflammatory eicosanoids resulting from ω-6 PUFA metabolism via competitive inhibition, and the ω-3-induced cytotoxic environment increases apoptosis and reduces cell growth in breast cancer cells. To the authors' knowledge, epidemiologic investigations regarding whether dietary ω-3 PUFA intake benefits survival after breast cancer are limited and inconsistent. METHODS The authors used resources from a population-based follow-up study conducted on Long Island, New York, among 1463 women newly diagnosed with first primary breast cancer who were interviewed an average of approximately 3 months after diagnosis to assess risk and prognostic factors, including dietary intake (using a food frequency questionnaire). Vital status was determined through 2011, yielding a median follow-up of 14.7 years and 485 deaths. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression. RESULTS All-cause mortality was reduced among women with breast cancer reporting the highest quartile of intake (compared with never) for tuna (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.55-0.92), other baked/broiled fish (HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.58-0.97), and the dietary long-chain ω-3 PUFAs docosahexaenoic acid (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.55-0.92) and eicosapentaenoic acid (HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.58-0.97). CONCLUSIONS All-cause mortality was reduced by 16% to 34% among women with breast cancer who reported a high intake of fish and long-chain ω-3 PUFAs. Long-chain ω-3 PUFA intake from fish and other dietary sources may provide a potential strategy to improve survival after breast cancer. Cancer 2015;121:2244-2252

    Polymorphisms in DNA repair genes, recreational physical activity and breast cancer risk

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    The mechanisms driving the inverse association between recreational physical activity (RPA) and breast cancer risk are complex. While exercise is associated with increased reactive oxygen species production it may also improve damage repair systems, particularly those that operate on single-strand breaks including base excision repair (BER), nucleotide excision repair (NER) and mismatch repair (MMR). Of these repair pathways, the role of MMR in breast carcinogenesis is least investigated. Polymorphisms in MMR or other DNA repair gene variants may modify the association between RPA and breast cancer incidence. We investigated the individual and joint effects of variants in three MMR pathway genes (MSH3, MLH1 and MSH2) on breast cancer occurrence using resources from the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project. We additionally characterized interactions between RPA and genetic polymorphisms in MMR, BER and NER pathways. We found statistically significant multiplicative interactions (p < 0.05) between MSH2 and MLH1, as well as between postmenopausal RPA and four variants in DNA repair (XPC-Ala499Val, XPF-Arg415Gln, XPG-Asp1104His and MLH1-lle219Val). Significant risk reductions were observed among highly active women with the common genotype for XPC (OR = 0.54; 95% CI, 0.36-0.81) and XPF (OR = 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44-0.87), as well as among active women who carried at least one variant allele in XPG (OR = 0.46; 95% CI, 0.29-0.77) and MLH1 (OR = 0.46; 95% CI, 0.30-0.71). Our data show that women with minor alleles in both MSH2 and MLH1 could be at increased breast cancer risk. RPA may be modified by genes in the DNA repair pathway, and merit further investigation

    Alcator C-Mod: research in support of ITER and steps beyond

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    This paper presents an overview of recent highlights from research on Alcator C-Mod. Significant progress has been made across all research areas over the last two years, with particular emphasis on divertor physics and power handling, plasma–material interaction studies, edge localized mode-suppressed pedestal dynamics, core transport and turbulence, and RF heating and current drive utilizing ion cyclotron and lower hybrid tools. Specific results of particular relevance to ITER include: inner wall SOL transport studies that have led, together with results from other experiments, to the change of the detailed shape of the inner wall in ITER; runaway electron studies showing that the critical electric field required for runaway generation is much higher than predicted from collisional theory; core tungsten impurity transport studies reveal that tungsten accumulation is naturally avoided in typical C-Mod conditions.United States. Department of Energy (DE-FC02-99ER54512-CMOD)United States. Department of Energy (DE-AC02-09CH11466)United States. Department of Energy (DE-FG02-96ER-54373)United States. Department of Energy (DE-FG02-94ER54235
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