Participation in college sports and protection from sexual victimization

Some sociologists have argued that sport is a male-dominated institution and sexist culture in which female athletes experience various forms of discrimination, including sexual harassment from coaches and male athletes. Some research does indicate that female athletes suffer higher rates of sexual victimization from authority figures in sport than their nonathletic counterparts in education and the workplace. In contrast, researchers have also speculated that athletic participation can protect female athletes from sexual victimization through a variety of social-psychological mechanisms such as team membership, physical strength, and self-confidence. This paper reports on the first descriptive analysis to test the “sport protection hypothesis” among both female and male athletes, using cross-tabulation secondary analyses of data from the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey, conducted in 1995 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (N=4814). USA college students of traditional undergraduate age (aged 18-24) were included in the sample (N=2903). Some limited support for the protection hypothesis was found, and student athletes were significantly less likely to report sexual victimization during their late high school and early college years than their nonathletic counterparts. A gender gap in the pattern of sexual victimization also appeared between males and females across all student age groups, with females experiencing more sexual victimization than males. However, no significant gender gap was found among athletes. The results are discussed in relation to previous studies of campus athletes and to college prevention policy

Graphical representation of an error occuring in linear system solution

U članku se razmatra problem pogreške u rješenju sustava linearnih jednadžbi koja nastaje zbog promjene desne strane sustava. Za ilustraciju tog problema koriste se mogućnosti programskog paketa Mathematica.The paper considers the problem of an error in solving a linear system, which occurs due to a change of the system right-hand side. This problem is graphically illustrated by the Mathematica software package

Thyroid hormone: the modulator of erectile function in the rabbit.

The possible role of thyroid hormones in the Nitric Oxide (NO)- mediated response to sexual stimulation, and on prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) and Sildenafil in the treatment of erectile dysfunction was investigated using the corpus cavernosum of the New Zealand rabbit animal model. The parameters studied were penile erection monitored as contractile force of the erectile tissue, sperm count and motility; in parallel with the haematocrit, red cell count or rheology, Heart Rate (HR), Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP), Thyroid Stimulating Hormones (TSH) and Thyroixine levels. Hypothyroidism or thyroidectomy was found to cause depletion of Endothelium Derived Relaxant Factor (EDRF) thereby causing very feeble contraction of the cavernosum muscle, in both Prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) and Sildenafil, oligospermia and less than 45% motile sperms. Thyroxine treatment produced contraction proportionate to the concentrations of PGE1 and Sildenafil; providing evidence that the erectogenic actions of both PGE1 and Sildenafil are possible only in the presence of adequate thyroid hormone level.Key Words: Corpus Cavernosum, Contractility, Erection, PGE1, Sildenafi

Thyroidectomy and induced hypothyroidism: a factor in the genesis of hydrosalpinx

The primary or natural cause of hydrosalpinx seemingly remains elusive; though some reports had indicated that increased intraluminal pressure is responsible for the phenomenon. This study was designed to determine the remote causes of increased intraluminal pressure using animal thyroid hormone as a pressure sensitive hormone. Four groups of sexually mature female Wistar rats (n=25), categorized into (1) Control or enthyroid rats, (2) thyrodectomized (T), (3) thyroidectomized but treated with thyroxine (TTT) and (4) thyroxine-treated or euthyroid rats (TT), were used for this study. For 60 days, the animals were fed with rat chow, while thyroxine (10ug/kg) was specifically administered to each of the rats in TTT and TT groups every alternate days of the experimental period. At the end of the experiment, the animals were sacrificed after blood sample collection, to harvest the uterine horn tissues, which were subsequently processed for histological study; with emphasis on the tubo-uterine junction. Results showed significant cytoarchitectural changes in the experimental groups, while thyroxinemia without  thyrotocosis -as indicated by the non-significant T4 level (P<0.040), was observed in the TT group that received  physiological doses of thyroxine. Our findings suggest therefore, that hypothyroidism might be a primary factor in the genesis of hydrosalpinx.Key Words: hydrosalpinx, oedema, thyrodectomy, hypothyroidism, thyroxine treatment

Thyroid hormone: a “prime suspect” in human immuno deficiency virus (hiv/aids) patients?

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is the final and most serious stage of the disease caused by human immunodeficiency virus. The Immune system is the target of AIDS. We investigate presentlyany possible involvement of thyroid hormone, the deficiency of which gives rise to oedema and susceptibility to nonspecific infections; with a view to finding the primary factor seeding the disease. It has been reported that circumcision reduced the incidence of HIV/AIDS infection. Beyond circumcision however there might be someconstitutional factor that comprises HIV infection to clinical AIDS. It is against this background that our research team turned to possible dyshormonopoisis and to thyroid hormone as a prime suspect among other possible factors that cause clinical AIDS. Moreover the hormone has been reported to be crucial for optimum immune function. A population of 200 seropositive AIDS patients were investigated against a control of 50 subjects made up of 25 healthy circumcised males and 25 healthy females; all of who were seronegative for the disease. The parameters investigated include thyrotropin (TSH), Thyroxine (T4), Total protein (TP), Albumin (Alb), Globulin (Glob), Immune complex (IC3) and Bence Jones proteins (BJP) levels in serum or urine. All seropositive clinically HIV/AIDS patients were hypothyroid. Seronegatives had significantly higher T4, TP, and Alb levels at

A Model for an Angular Velocity-Tuned Motion Detector Accounting for Deviations in the Corridor-Centering Response of the Bee

We present a novel neurally based model for estimating angular velocity (AV) in the bee brain, capable of quantitatively reproducing experimental observations of visual odometry and corridor-centering in free-flying honeybees, including previously unaccounted for manipulations of behaviour. The model is fitted using electrophysiological data, and tested using behavioural data. Based on our model we suggest that the AV response can be considered as an evolutionary extension to the optomotor response. The detector is tested behaviourally in silico with the corridor-centering paradigm, where bees navigate down a corridor with gratings (square wave or sinusoidal) on the walls. When combined with an existing flight control algorithm the detector reproduces the invariance of the average flight path to the spatial frequency and contrast of the gratings, including deviations from perfect centering behaviour as found in the real bee's behaviour. In addition, the summed response of the detector to a unit distance movement along the corridor is constant for a large range of grating spatial frequencies, demonstrating that the detector can be used as a visual odometer

Suitability of viscosity measurement methods for liquid food variety and applicability in food industry - A review.

Although there are several approaches to measure viscosity of liquid foods in the literature, the successful selected technique depends on the specific product and the functional characteristics that need to be analyzed. Accordingly, it is not an easy task for food technologists to determine the suitable approach to be used. Therefore briefing the existing methods, working principles, advantages, limitations and their successful applications for well known published articles, may enable the researchers to choose the optimum approach. The intensive review revealed that the most commonly used viscosity measurement devices are capillary flow viscometers, orifice type viscometers, falling ball viscometers, and rotational viscometers. Glass capillary viscometers are widely used for measuring low to medium viscosity of Newtonian fluids. In order to measure the viscosity of difficult fluids like those having large particles non-conventional geometries such as mixer viscometry method is used. Tube viscometer method which might be considered as a wide-bore capillary viscometer with a special capability to handle suspensions is currently used to determine rheological behaviour of a product after a thermal treatment. Scraped surface heat exchangers (SSHE) are widely used in food industry for thermal treatment of very viscous food products. Mass detecting capillary viscometer is a new technique to measure the viscosity of milk and soymilk products. In order to measure the viscosity of food stabilizers coaxial viscometers are recommended. Also, possibly the best known of the orifice viscometers in the food industry is the dipping-type Zahn viscometer. Finally, it could be inferred that the viscosity ought to be independent on the instrument, so different instruments will yield the same results, but this is a theoretical concept and different instruments rarely yield identical results

The Relationship of Gamma Immunoglobin (IgG) Density and Apgar Score in Normal Term Pregnancy

The transfer of maternal IgG provides the neonate with humoral immunity during early life. The population of transferred IgG or IgG density (IgGρ) was estimated to find out if it has any relevance to the condition of an infant 1-5 minutes after birth or APGAR score which gives an insight into the state of health of the infant and thus its chances of survival and its milestone of development. Ex-vivo, term placenta of forty euthyroid mothers, the maternal serum, and cord blood were used to estimate the IgGρ in both maternal and cord blood by taking blood samples from the antecubital vein of the mother and from the umbilical cord (mixed blood) immediately after birth; having determined the APGAR score within 1-5 minutes post-partum. The findings featured the following: the mean APGAR score (10); mean IgGρ of the neonates (11.94 ± 0.12mg/100ml of blood); mean IgGρ of the maternal blood (10.9 ± 0.29/100ml). The difference however, was not statistically significant (P>0.05). The findings provide evidence suggesting that IgGρ, not only relates to, but determines APGAR score of the neonates.Keywords: APGAR score, IgG density, Term placenta, Cord bloo

An Inexpensive Flying Robot Design for Embodied Robotics Research

Flying insects are capable of a wide-range of flight and cognitive behaviors which are not currently understood. The replication of these capabilities is of interest to miniaturized robotics, because they share similar size, weight, and energy constraints. Currently, embodiment of insect behavior is primarily done on ground robots which utilize simplistic sensors and have different constraints to flying insects. This limits how much progress can be made on understanding how biological systems fundamentally work. To address this gap, we have developed an inexpensive robotic solution in the form of a quadcopter aptly named BeeBot. Our work shows that BeeBot can support the necessary payload to replicate the sensing capabilities which are vital to bees' flight navigation, including chemical sensing and a wide visual field-of-view. BeeBot is controlled wirelessly in order to process this sensor data off-board; for example, in neural networks. Our results demonstrate the suitability of the proposed approach for further study of the development of navigation algorithms and of embodiment of insect cognition

The Influence of Thyroid Hormones on Gamma Immunoglobulin Density (Ig-Gp) and Apgar Score

Observations over the years, particularly in the labour rooms of Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), and TANDAM Medical Centre, Jos, Plateau, Nigeria, indicates that several neonates respond differently to these parameters. However, the experience of four mothers who had protracted labour and neonates with weak cry and low muscle tone, prompted this present investigation. Ex-vivo placenta, maternal and cord blood of twenty deliveries (10 primipara and ten multipara; five of which were by elective caesarean section) were assayed for thyroid hormone in maternal serum and IgGp in maternal and cord sera; while the APGAR scores of the neonates were as well, documented. Results showed that the mean immunoglobulin G population (IgGp) or density of neonates compared with that of their euthyriod mothers though higher in neonates was not statistically significant (P> 0.05). It was however significant (p < 0.01) between neonates and their hypothyroid mothers. APGAR score of the neonates of the euthyroid mothers were higher (p < 0.05) than those hypothyroid mothers who also bled for longer periods postpartum. It is our opinion that there could perhaps be an insight into the cause of such agonizing deliveries and to that effect, we recommended possible interventions.Keywords: Euthyroidism, hypothyroidism, APGAR score, Gamma Immunoglobulin (IgG