Risk faktors for fracture in middle-aged men and women

The number of fractures is increasing worldwide, and fractures frequently cause long-term disability, impaired quality of life and sometimes death. The Malmö Preventive Project, a population-based, prospective study, consisting of 22 444 men, mean age 44 and 10 902 women, mean age 50 years, provides data for evaluation of common public health conditions, such as fracture and diabetes. The follow-up was 19 and 15 years for men and women, respectively. Multiple risk factors for fracture were identified. In women, the most important risk factors were advancing age (relative risk RR 1.56, Confidence Interval 95% 1.45-1.68), previous fracture (RR 2.00, CI 95% 1.56-2.58) and diabetes (RR 1.87, CI 95% 1.26-2,79). In men, advancing age (RR 1.19, CI 95% 1.12-1.26), mental health problems (RR 1.92, CI 95% 1.47-2.51), increased levels of ? glutamyl transferase (RR 1.24, CI 95% 1.18-1.31) and diabetes (RR 2.38, CI 95% 1.65-3.42) were major risk contributors. Impaired glucose tolerance, evaluated through an oral glucose tolerance test, was in both genders associated with a substantially decreased risk of fractures, independent of age, BMI and smoking. This thesis has identified multiple risk factors for low-energy fracture, in both men and women, highlighting diabetes and mental health problems as major contributors in this age group. Current management strategies and therapeutic guidelines are not addressing a number of the identified risk factors. Subsequently, risk assessment can be substantially improved by adding these risk factors to intervention algorithms for middle-aged individuals

Viking '75 spacecraft design and test summary. Volume 1: Lander design

The Viking Mars program is summarized. The design of the Viking lander spacecraft is described

Viking '75 spacecraft design and test summary. Volume 3: Engineering test summary

The engineering test program for the lander and the orbiter are presented. The engineering program was developed to achieve confidence that the design was adequate to survive the expected mission environments and to accomplish the mission objective

NORDIC SKIING BIOMECHANICS AND PHYSIOLOGY

Cross-country skiing provides unique movement patterns and unique athletes for sport science research. The integration of physiology and biomechanics into research projects has provided insights into systemic solutions regarding high intensity, whole body exercise and how workload is distributed. Newly introduced ski sprint events have stimulated continued research to better understand performance and human capacity limitations

Anisotropic Distribution of SDSS Satellite Galaxies: Planar (not Polar) Alignment

The distribution of satellite galaxies relative to isolated host galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is investigated. Host-satellite systems are selected using three different methods, yielding samples of ~3300, ~1600, and \~950 satellites. In the plane of the sky, the distributions of all three samples show highly significant deviations from circular symmetry (> 99.99%, > 99.99%, and 99.79% confidence levels, respectively), and the degree of anisotropy is a strong function of the projected radius, r_p, at which the satellites are found. For r_p < 100 kpc, the SDSS satellites are aligned preferentially with the major axes of the hosts. This is in stark contrast to the Holmberg effect, in which satellites are aligned with the minor axes of host galaxies. The degree of anisotropy in the distribution of the SDSS satellites decreases with r_p and is consistent with an isotropic distribution at of order the 1-sigma level for 250 kpc < r_p < 500 kpc.Comment: ApJ Letters (in press); Discussion section substantially revised, SDSS DR3 included in the analysis, no significant changes to the result

Spectral Classification of Galaxies

We investigate the integrated spectra of a sample of 24 normal galaxies. A principal component analysis suggests that most of the variance present in the spectra is due to the differences in morphology of the galaxies in the sample. We show that spectroscopic parameters extracted from the spectra, like the amplitude of the 4000 \AA~ break or of the CN band, correlate well with Hubble types and are useful for quantitative classification.Comment: 7 pages uuencoded compressed PostScript file. To appear in Vistas in Astronomy, special issue on Artificial Neural Networks in Astronom

DIFFERENT TECHNICAL STRATEGIES AND BIOMECHANICAL ASPECTS OF DOUBLE POLlNG IN ELITE CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING

The purpose of this study was to analyse double poling (DP) regarding biomechanical performance determinants and different strategies. Eleven elite cross-country skiers performed DP at 85% of their maximal DP velocity (V85%) during roller skiing (treadmill; 1° inclination) while pole forces and selected joint angles were recorded. A 2D video evaluation categorised skiers into two different DP strategy groups. Strategy A group showed higher elbow (p < 0.01) and hip flexion angular velocities, smaller minimum elbow, knee and hip angles, higher peak pole force, shorter time to peak pole force and a longer relati.ve recovery time (p < 0.05), variables to which V85% was significantly correlated (p < 0.05). DP strategy A provides an effective model for technique and specific strength training while its physiological economy has to be further investigated

Study of Foaming Properties and Effect of the Isomeric Distribution of Some Anionic Surfactants

Using different reaction conditions of photosulfochlorination of n-dodecane, two samples of anionic surfactants of sulfonate type are obtained. Their micellar behavior has been already reported and the relationship between their isomeric distribution and their chemical structures and micellar behaviors have been more thoroughly explored. In this investigation, we screened the foaming properties (foaming power and foam stability) by a standardized method very similar to the Ross–Miles foaming tests to identify which surfactants are suitable for applications requiring high foaming, or, alternatively, low foaming. The results obtained for the synthesized surfactants are compared to those obtained for an industrial sample of secondary alkanesulfonate (Hostapur 60) and to those of a commercial sample of sodium dodecylsulfate used as reference for anionic surfactants. The foam formation and foam stability of aqueous solutions of the two samples of dodecanesulfonate are compared as a function of their isomeric distribution. These compounds show good foaming power characterized in most cases by metastable or dry foams. The highest foaming power is obtained for the sample rich in primary isomers which also produces foam with a relatively high stability. For the sample rich in secondary isomers we observe under fixed conditions a comparable initial foam height but the foam stability turns out to be low. This property is interesting for applications requiring low foaming properties such as dishwashing liquid for machines. The best results are observed near and above the critical micellar concentrations and at 25 C for both the samples