Design of a Wearable Balance Control Indicator

Each year, one in three elderly fall. Studies show that many factors contribute to an elderly person\u27s risk of falling, but if the factors causing imbalance are improved, a person\u27s risk of falling may be reduced. A device that detects and alerts the user of an off-balance situation before the fall occurs could identify a specific need for improved balance control. This MQP describes the design, testing, and verification of a prototype wearable device that is worn on the right hip during the sit-to-stand activity (STS) to detect and notify the user of an unbalanced STS. By signaling an off-balance situation during STS, our device notifies the user of poor balance control and identifies the need for balance control improvement

Measuring GHG Emissions Across the Agri‐Food Sector Value Chain: The Development of a Bioeconomy Input‐Output Model

Increasing food production to meet rising global demand while minimising negative environmental impacts such as agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is one of the greatest challenges facing the agri‐food sector. Sustainable food production relates not only to primary production, but also has wider value chain implications. Aninput‐output (IO) model is a modelling framework which contains information on the flow of goods and services across a value chain at a regional or national economy level. This paper provides a detailed description of the development of a Bioeconomy IO (BIO) model which is disaggregated across the subs‐sectors of the agri‐food valuechain and environmentally extended (EE) to examine environmental outputs, including GHG emissions, We focus on Ireland, where emissions from agriculture comprise 33% of national GHG emissions and where there has been a major expansion and transformation in agriculture supported by national and EU policy. In a substantial Annex to this paper, we describe the modelling assumptions made in developing the BIO model. Breaking up the value chain into components, we find that most value is generated at the processing stage of the value chain, with greaterprocessing value in more sophisticated value chains such as dairy processing. On the other hand, emissions are in general highest in primary production, albeit emissions from purchased animal feed are higher for poultry than for other value chains, given the lower animal based emissions from poultry than from cows or sheep. The level ofdisaggregation also shows that the sub‐sectors are themselves discrete value chains. The analysis highlights that emissions per unit of output are much higher for beef and sheep meat value chains than for pig and poultry. The analysis facilitated by the BIO model also allows for the mapping of emissions along the agri‐food value chain using the adapted IO EE approach. Such analysis is valuable in identifying emissions ‘hot‐spots’ along the value chains and analysing potential avenues for emission efficiencies

OPEN COMMUNITY HEALTH: WORKSHOP REPORT

This report summarizes key outcomes from a workshop on open community health conducted at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in April 2018. Workshop members represented research and practice communities across Citizen Science, Open Source, and Wikipedia. The outcomes from the workshop include (1) comparisons among these communities, (2) how a shared understanding and assessment of open community health can be developed, and (3) a taxonomical comparison to begin a conversation between these communities that have developed disparate languages

Particulate matter exposure during pregnancy is associated with birth weight, but not gestational age, 1962-1992: a cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Exposure to air pollutants is suggested to adversely affect fetal growth, but the evidence remains inconsistent in relation to specific outcomes and exposure windows.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using birth records from the two major maternity hospitals in Newcastle upon Tyne in northern England between 1961 and 1992, we constructed a database of all births to mothers resident within the city. Weekly black smoke exposure levels from routine data recorded at 20 air pollution monitoring stations were obtained and individual exposures were estimated via a two-stage modeling strategy, incorporating temporally and spatially varying covariates. Regression analyses, including 88,679 births, assessed potential associations between exposure to black smoke and birth weight, gestational age and birth weight standardized for gestational age and sex.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Significant associations were seen between black smoke and both standardized and unstandardized birth weight, but not for gestational age when adjusted for potential confounders. Not all associations were linear. For an increase in whole pregnancy black smoke exposure, from the 1^st(7.4 μg/m³) to the 25^th(17.2 μg/m³), 50^th(33.8 μg/m³), 75^th(108.3 μg/m³), and 90^th(180.8 μg/m³) percentiles, the adjusted estimated decreases in birth weight were 33 g (SE 1.05), 62 g (1.63), 98 g (2.26) and 109 g (2.44) respectively. A significant interaction was observed between socio-economic deprivation and black smoke on both standardized and unstandardized birth weight with increasing effects of black smoke in reducing birth weight seen with increasing socio-economic disadvantage.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The findings of this study progress the hypothesis that the association between black smoke and birth weight may be mediated through intrauterine growth restriction. The associations between black smoke and birth weight were of the same order of magnitude as those reported for passive smoking. These findings add to the growing evidence of the harmful effects of air pollution on birth outcomes.</p

Measuring GHG Emissions Across the Agri‐Food Sector Value Chain: The Development of a Bioeconomy Input‐Output Model

Increasing food production to meet rising global demand while minimising negative environmental impacts such as agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is one of the greatest challenges facing the agri‐food sector. Sustainable food production relates not only to primary production, but also has wider value chain implications. Aninput‐output (IO) model is a modelling framework which contains information on the flow of goods and services across a value chain at a regional or national economy level. This paper provides a detailed description of the development of a Bioeconomy IO (BIO) model which is disaggregated across the subs‐sectors of the agri‐food valuechain and environmentally extended (EE) to examine environmental outputs, including GHG emissions, We focus on Ireland, where emissions from agriculture comprise 33% of national GHG emissions and where there has been a major expansion and transformation in agriculture supported by national and EU policy. In a substantial Annex to this paper, we describe the modelling assumptions made in developing the BIO model. Breaking up the value chain into components, we find that most value is generated at the processing stage of the value chain, with greaterprocessing value in more sophisticated value chains such as dairy processing. On the other hand, emissions are in general highest in primary production, albeit emissions from purchased animal feed are higher for poultry than for other value chains, given the lower animal based emissions from poultry than from cows or sheep. The level ofdisaggregation also shows that the sub‐sectors are themselves discrete value chains. The analysis highlights that emissions per unit of output are much higher for beef and sheep meat value chains than for pig and poultry. The analysis facilitated by the BIO model also allows for the mapping of emissions along the agri‐food value chain using the adapted IO EE approach. Such analysis is valuable in identifying emissions ‘hot‐spots’ along the value chains and analysing potential avenues for emission efficiencies

A selection of Slovenian literary heroes for the preschool period

V vrtcih slovenske literarne junake vse bolj spodrivajo tuji fantazijski junaki, za katere se otroci navdušijo prek risank, revij in video igric. Slovenski junaki so pomemben del naše kulture in so lahko nekakšni spremljevalci v domovinski vzgoji pri najmlajših. To delo naj služi kot promocija slovenskih literarnih junakov pri otrocih vseh starosti, z začetkom v predšolskem obdobju. V delu je opredeljeno merilo izbire likovpredstavljene so njihove zgodbe, posebne lastnosti in upodobitevjunaki so po izvoru opredeljeni kot ljudski ali umetninavedeni so avtorji in zgodovinske okoliščine nastankaraziskane so njihova prepoznavnost in zastopanost v različnih medijih (slikanice, avdio- in video mediji, oglasi) ter dostopnost teh medijev.In preschools, Slovenian literary heroes are being displaced by foreign fantastic heroes that impress children via cartoons, magazines and video games. Slovenian heroes are an important part of our culture and can act as companions of sorts within citizenship education of youngsters. This thesis should serve as a promotion of Slovenian literary heroes for children of all ages, beginning with the preschool period. The thesis defines the selection criterion of charactersit introduces their stories, special characteristics and depictionsit defines heroes by origin as folk or artificialit lists the authors and historical circumstances of productionit investigates their recognisability and representation in various media (picture books, audio- and video media, advertisements) and the accessibility of these media

Imputation and subset-based association analysis across different cancer types identifies multiple independent risk loci in the TERT-CLPTM1L region on chromosome 5p15.33

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have mapped risk alleles for at least 10 distinct cancers to a small region of 63 000 bp on chromosome 5p15.33. This region harbors the TERT and CLPTM1L genes; the former encodes the catalytic subunit of telomerase reverse transcriptase and the latter may play a role in apoptosis. To investigate further the genetic architecture of common susceptibility alleles in this region, we conducted an agnostic subset-based meta-analysis (association analysis based on subsets) across six distinct cancers in 34 248 cases and 45 036 controls. Based on sequential conditional analysis, we identified as many as six independent risk loci marked by common single-nucleotide polymorphisms: five in the TERT gene (Region 1: rs7726159, P = 2.10 x 10(-39); Region 3: rs2853677, P = 3.30 x 10(-36) and P-Conditional = 2.36 x 10(-8); Region 4: rs2736098, P = 3.87 x 10(-12) and P-Conditional = 5.19 x 10(-6), Region 5: rs13172201, P = 0.041 and P-Conditional = 2.04 x 10(-6); and Region 6: rs10069690, P = 7.49 x 10 215 and P-Conditional = 5.35 x 10(-7)) and one in the neighboring CLPTM1L gene(Region 2: rs451360; P = 1.90 x 10(-18) and P-Conditional = 7.06 x 10(-16)). Between three and five cancers mapped to each independent locus with both risk-enhancing and protective effects. Allele-specific effects on DNA methylation were seen for a subset of risk loci, indicating that methylation and subsequent effects on gene expression may contribute to the biology of risk variants on 5p15.33. Our results provide strong support for extensive pleiotropy across this region of 5p15.33, to an extent not previously observed in other cancer susceptibility loci