Factors influencing dietary supplement consumption: A case study in Chiang Mai, Thailand

A consumer survey on dietary supplement consumption was carried out on 494 consumers aged 20 years and older in Chiang Mai province. The percentage of consumers who regularly consumed dietary supplements was 38.5%. Vitamins and minerals were the most consumed products, followed by functional drinks, functional foods, protein extracts, dietary fibre, cod liver oil, phytochemicals, algae products, fat absorbers, fish oils and bee products in that order. Females and participants who had recommended waistlines, had higher income, usually felt stressed or sick, and who preferred eating fruits/vegetables or routinely drank water tended to have a higher rate of consumption of dietary supplements. Participants gave priority over a product with guaranteed quality when they made decision to purchase dietary supplements, but their purchase was also influenced by the attractiveness of the product and advertisement for it

Developmental aspects of male reproductive health: clinical studies on semen quality, cryptorchidism, and puberty

Current evidence shows increasing rates of male reproductive disorders, including cryptorchidism, hypospadias, poor semen quality, decreased testosterone level, and testicular cancer. Therefore, studies on the physiology of the male reproductive system, and the current state of male reproductive health are necessary. In the first study, we followed the semen quality of young men for 10 years from the age of 19 years to see whether there are age-related changes in semen quality. In the second study, we compared the semen quality of young Finnish and Danish men to clarify possible differences between the countries. In the third study, we compared serum levels of reproductive hormones and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I) during puberty between individuals with and without a history of cryptorchidism to see whether a history of orchiopexy or delayed testicular descent is associated with alterations in the levels of these hormones. The first study showed that sperm concentration and total sperm count do not generally increase after 19 years, indicating that the maximum sperm production capacity is reached already in young adulthood. Sperm motility and morphology continue to improve after the age of 19 years. The second study showed that unlike in earlier studies, sperm concentrations, total sperm counts, and percentages of morphologically normal spermatozoa of Finnish and Danish men were now similar. However, Finnish men had better sperm motility. The third study showed that especially boys with a history of operated bilateral cryptorchidism had higher serum FSH and lower inhibin B levels than non-cryptorchid boys during puberty. These findings indicated an impaired Sertoli cell and/or germ cell function or number. Leydig cell function and the function of the growth hormone-IGF-I system were generally well-preserved during puberty in boys with a history of cryptorchidism.--- Miehen lisääntymisterveyteen liittyvien ongelmien, kuten kivesten laskeutumattomuuden (piilokiveksisyyden), virtsaputken alahalkioisuuden, kivessyövän, heikentyneen siemennesteen laadun sekä alhaisen testosteronipitoisuuden, on raportoitu yleistyneen. Tämän vuoksi tarvitaan tutkimuksia miehen lisääntymiselimistön normaalista toiminnasta sekä miesten lisääntymisterveyden nykytilasta. Väitöskirjan ensimmäisessä osatyössä selvitettiin tapahtuuko 19-vuotiaiden miesten siemennesteen laadussa muutoksia 10 vuoden seurannan aikana. Toisessa osatyössä verrattiin suomalaisten ja tanskalaisten nuorten miesten siemennesteen laatua, jotta nähtäisiin onko maiden välillä eroa siemennesteen laadussa. Kolmannessa osatyössä verrattiin piilokives- ja verrokkiryhmien sukupuolihormonien ja insuliinin kaltaisen kasvutekijä I:n (IGF-I) pitoisuuksia läpi murrosiän. Tässä viimeisessä osatyössä haluttiin selvittää, liittyykö hoidettuun tai spontaanisti parantuneeseen piilokiveksisyyteen muutoksia murrosiän hormoni- ja kasvutekijätasoissa. Ensimmäisessä osatyössä todettiin, että siemennesteen siittiöpitoisuus ja siittiömäärä eivät yleisesti kasva 19. ikävuoden jälkeen. Tämä viittaa siihen, että maksimaalinen siittiötuotantokapasiteetti saavutetaan jo varhaisessa aikuisiässä. Toisessa osatyössä havaittiin, että toisin kuin aiemmissa tutkimuksissa, suomalaisten ja tanskalaisten nuorten miesten välillä ei ollut enää eroa siittiöpitoisuudessa, siittiöiden kokonaismäärässä eikä normaalien siittiöiden määrässä. Suomalaisten nuorten miesten siittiöt liikkuivat kuitenkin paremmin kuin tanskalaisten miesten siittiöt. Kolmannessa osatyössä havaittiin, että etenkin leikkaushoitoa vaatineeseen molemminpuoliseen piilokiveksisyyteen liittyi murrosiässä verrokkeja suurempi follikkelia stimuloivan hormonin pitoisuus ja verrokkeja pienempi inhibiini B:n pitoisuus. Nämä viittaavat vähentyneeseen Sertolin solujen ja/tai itusolujen toimintaan tai määrään. Murrosiän aikainen Leydigin solujen ja IGF-I-kasvuhormoni -akselin toiminta oli yleisesti ottaen normaalia piilokivesryhmässä

Remediation and reuse of Chromium contaminated soils through cold top ex-site vitrification

More than 150 sites in Hudson County, New Jersey are identified as chromium contaminated sites. Hexavalent chromium, highly soluble in water, is considered as an environmental and health hazard, classified as a group A human carcinogen. In this research, the feasibility was performed to study the possibility of remediation of chromium contaminated soil by ex-situ vitrification and to evaluate reuse potential of vitrified products as highway construction aggregate. A series of physical and chemical analysis was conducted on nine soil samples collected from different chromium contaminated sites. Results were analyzed for their compatibility for vitrification. Sand and carbon were added to enhance vitrification process. Vitrification was performed and the vitrified products were subjected to further chemical and physical tests. TCLP chromium concentration results verified a successful remediation. The vitrified product properties complied with the New Jersey Department of Transportation standards, designating high reuse potential

We are O.K.: a study of gay apologia

LD2668 .R4 SPCH 1988 R65Master of ArtsCommunication Studie

Feasibility study to extract iron and chromium from chromium contaminated soils

Chromium contaminated soils, besides being recognized for toxic and hazardous hexavalent chromium, contain high iron concentrations. At some sites, concentrations of iron oxide are higher than 30%. Both iron and chromium in soils have recyclable value provided they can be either concentrated in the oxide form or separated as metal. The concentrated oxide can be used as a substitute for the iron ore. The extracted metal can also be recycled in the steel industry. The objective of this study is to study the feasibility of extracting iron and chromium from soils. Chromium contaminated soils, can be classified into two groups, one with high iron content having magnetic properties, and the other with low content of iron with no magnetic properties. The extraction of iron and chromium in their oxide forms was conducted using magnetic and gravitational separation techniques. The magnetic separation was found to be better than gravitational separation to concentrate iron and chromium from chromium contaminated soils for the experimental setup. However, the iron content in soil could not be concentrated to as high a level as high grade or processed iron ore, 60-70% iron content. The reduction of iron oxide to metal can be accomplished at high temperature under the reducing environment. The reduction of iron oxide in soil was quite rapid at temperature higher than 1100°C. The solid carbon was used as a reducing agent for the study of reduction in Thermo-Gravimetric Analyzer. The reduction process was found to be controlled by gasification with the activation energy of 45-55 kcal/mol based on the selected kinetic models. The complete reduction required at least 15% of carbon by weight. The metal agglomeration and separation occurred when sand was added to soils. The substantial percentage of metal, 15-32 %, was separated from GAR and TPR soils mixed with 15-25% of sand and 15% carbon. The LSP soil mixtures yielded metal separation with sand addition above 20%. Phase and viscosity diagrams were used to explain the metal separation and behavior of the slag. Experimental results demonstrated that iron and chromium can be extracted from chromium contaminated soils found in Hudson County, NJ

Impacts Of Vocabulary Acquisition Techniques Instruction On Students Learning

The objectives of this study were to determine how the selected vocabulary acquisition techniques affected the vocabulary ability of 35 students who took EN 111 and investigate their attitudes towards the techniques instruction. The research study was one-group pretest and post-test design. The instruments employed were in-class exercises regarding an analysis of word structures and context clues, a vocabulary proficiency test, as well as a questionnaire surveying the students’ attitudes toward the instruction. The pretest and post-test scores were calculated for descriptive statistics and compared using a t-test dependent measure. The study revealed that the students’ post-test score was higher than their pretest score at the .001 level of significance. The results of the questionnaire also illustrated their very favorable attitude toward the instruction of vocabulary acquisition techniques as a whole

Automatic Transformation of Ordinary Timed Petri Nets into Event-B for Formal Verification

The behavioral correctness of real-time software system relies on both the result of its computation and the clock times when the result is produced. Obviously, formal verification of the safety and correctness of real-time software specification from the very beginning of the software design phase obviously helps us reduce the development efforts. From a practical point of view, the timed Petri net is commonly used to graphically model and illustrate the views of the timed behaviors of the real-time software system. However, the simulation of a timed Petri net is tedious and ineffective for the huge and complex real-time system. Alternatively, formal verification using Event-B specification method provides an efficient automatic theorem proving tool but writing an Event-B specification from scratch is still difficult and needs mathematical logic background. In this paper, we propose an automatic transformation of ordinary timed Petri nets into Event-B specification. The basic notations in the ordinary timed Petri nets are considered and mapped into the code fragments of Event-B. The final resulting Event-B codes are generated in the well-formed format which is required and successfully verified by an Event-B prover called Rodin tool

Dependency Types Validation of Precedence Diagram Method Using Ontology

Precedence Diagram Method (PDM) is a visual representation technique that depicts the activities involved in a project. It is a tool for scheduling activities using nodes to represent activities and their connections with arrows to illustrate activity dependencies. During project execution, activities in the project may be considered to change and may lead to inconsistency of dependency types. Consequently, dates and deadlines are missed so these mistakes could prove very costly. Since an ontology describes the relationship between the concepts within a domain. Thus, the ontology could be used to represent knowledge of PDM. This paper proposes PDM Ontology in OWL and rules for inferring the new knowledge from existing PDM and validating PDM using SWRL