Women's gambling behaviour, product preferences, and perceptions of product harm: Differences by age and gambling risk status

Background: Women's participation in, and harm from gambling, is steadily increasing. There has been very limited research to investigate how gambling behaviour, product preferences, and perceptions of gambling harm may vary across subgroups of women. Methods: This study surveyed a convenience sample of 509 women from Victoria and New South Wales, Australia. Women were asked a range of questions about their socio-demographic characteristics and gambling behaviour. Focusing on four gambling products in Australia-casino gambling, electronic gambling machines (EGMs), horse betting, and sports betting-women were asked about their frequency of participation, their product preferences, and perceptions of product harms. The sample was segmented a priori according to age and gambling risk status, and differences between groups were identified using Chi-square tests and ANOVAs. Thematic analysis was used to interpret qualitative data. Results: Almost two thirds (n=324, 63.7%) of women had engaged with one of the four products in the previous 12 months. Compared to other age groups, younger women aged 16-34 years exhibited a higher proportion of problem gambling, gambled more frequently, and across more products. While EGMs were the product gambled on most frequently by women overall, younger women were significantly more likely to bet on sports and gamble at casinos relative to older women. Qualitative data indicated that younger women engaged with gambling products as part of a 'night out', 'with friends', due to their 'ease of access' and perceived 'chance of winning big'. There were significant differences in the perceptions of the harms associated with horse and sports betting according to age and gambling risk status, with younger women and gamblers perceiving these products as less harmful. Conclusions: This study highlights that there are clear differences in the gambling behaviour, product preferences, and perceptions of product harms between subgroups of women. A gendered approach will enable public health researchers and policymakers to ensure that the unique factors associated with women's gambling are taken into consideration in a comprehensive public health approach to reducing and preventing gambling harm

Detection of migratory herring in a shallow channel using 12- and 100-kHz sidescan sonars

A hydroacoustic monitoring program for migratory herring was conducted in Drogden Channel, near Copenhagen, Denmark, beginning in June, 1996. Using installations of 100-kHz sidescan sonar oriented across the channel, herring schools were observed at ranges up to 500 m in water depths of 10–14 m. In October 1997, this effort was supplemented with a 12-kHz sidescan mounted on a motorized tripod allowing azimuthal sector scanning. This 12-kHz sidescan was able to detect herring schools up to a 1200-m range. Two examples are examined to assess the limits of herring school detectability and the feasibility of abundance estimation. In both cases, herring schools are detectable by their transience and up to 20 dB signal excess relative to the nominally stationary background reverberation, dominated by seabed backscattering. Attempts are made to extract quantitative abundance estimates using methods based on school size and density, and through quantitative echo-integration. Acoustic ray tracing was found to be useful in interpreting the results, and in particular modeling boundary-reflection focusing as a potential source of positive bias in herring abundance estimates

An Intermediate Range Sonar for Fish Detection

Abstract: A 12kHz side-scanning sonar for fisheries applications has been developed. The sonar consists of a 2.8°by 120°b eam-width, 40-element array which may either be towed or mountedon the sea floor. In the towed configuration salmon were detected at ranges up to 7km. The sonar was also deployed in a shallow (1O-14m deep) channel in Denmark on a tripod that mechanically rotated the transducer heading through a 50°sector. Herring schools were detected at ranges up to 1200m. RODUCTION A significant challenge in fisheries acoustics is the acquisition of data covering a sufficient area or volume so that accurate estimates can be made about the size of particular fish stocks. The use of traditional vertical echo-sounders and echo-integration techniques are well-established, however the accmacy of these measurements is compromised by the limited sampling volume and consequent need for statistical compensation. For this reason the potential of horizontally oriented sonars at intermediate to long range has been investigated over the past 30 years (1-4). Here we describe initial experiences gained with a sonar designed for horizontal operation in relatively shallow waters at ranges up to 7 km. k order to achieve a reasonable operating range while at the same time keeping the transducer within manageable dimensions, a 12kHz operating frequency was chosen. Cost considerations firther restricted the design to a fsxed 2.5m aperture array in which the 40 elements were wired in parallel, providing a nominal beam-width (to -3 dB) of 2.8°in azimuth and 120°in elevation. The sonar was driven with a modified EDOWestern model 248 Sonar Transceiver delivering approximately 2kW (electrical). The transmit pulse was a linear FM sweep sptig 11.2 to 12.8kHz with duration varying from 50 to 200ms. Extra capacitance was added to the transmitter power supply to maintain the &lving voltage during these longer pulses. Rearward acoustic radiation was reduced by 20dB (oneway) with either an epoxy foam or corprene backing material. A time-varying gain pre-amplifier was added to the array to boost the return signal up the 200m cable. The transceiver output was connected to a PentiumPC system for conversion, processing, display, and data storage. The coherently sampled echoes (up to 10s afier transmit) were correlated with the chirp pulse template, providing a processing gain of approx~ately 25dB. The 12kHz sidescan array was used in both towed and bottom-mounted cotilgurations @igure 1). During towing operations the array was mounted on the starboard side of a fibreglass tow-body. This was deployed behind and beneath the ship at a depth of nominally 40m while towing at speeds of 3 to 4 knots. An orientation package ww included inside the tow-body to provide measurements of depth, tempemture, salinity, heading and tilt. The trrmsceiver was located on the vessel. The vessel location and speed were derived from differential GPS. When the sonar was deployed on the seabed, it was mounted on a mechanically driven device that changed the azimuthal orientation under remote command. The motor was set to sweep in 2°steps over a 50" sector, requiring 6s between transmissions for data acquisition and rotating the array. 166

Pentylamine inhibits humidity detection in insect vectors of human and plant borne pathogens.

Insects house humidity-sensing neurons in the antenna, which is presumed to be important for a variety of behaviors and survival since water is a crucial component of the environment. Here we use the simple olfactory system of the Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP), a citrus pest that transmits a deadly bacterium, to identify volatile amines that significantly inhibited humidity-induced activation of antennal neurons. The inhibition of action potentials is observed by single sensillum recordings and mixing these odorants with humid air abolished the humidity avoidance behavior of ACP. The inhibition is conserved in the humidity-sensing coeloconic neurons of dipteran Drosophila melanogaster that are known to detect humidity, but it is not seen in other coeloconic neurons that are not sensitive to humidity. Dipteran mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Anopheles gambiae oviposit in water, and the addition of the humidity-inhibiting odorants in a two-choice oviposition assay significantly reduces oviposition. Our results demonstrate that a naturally occurring volatile compound can effectively "mask" detection of an important environmental cue and modify behavior of important vectors of plant and human disease pathogens. Odorants targeting the conserved humidity sensing system of insects, therefore, offer a novel strategy for modifying their behavior

Argonne National Laboratory Reports

This report summarizes the information base that was collected and reviewed in preparation for carrying out an analysis of the compatibility with regulations of waste management technologies for disposal of Hydrogen-3, Iodine-129, Carbon-14, and Krypton-85. Based on the review of this literature, summaries are presented here of waste-form characteristics, packaging, transportation, and disposal methods. Also discussed are regulations that might apply to all operations involved in disposal of the four nuclides, including the processing of irradiated fuel in a fuel reprocessing plant, packaging, storage, transport, and final disposal. The compliance assessment derived from this information is reported in a separate document