Hydrocarbon ratios during PEM-WEST A: A model perspective

A useful application of the hydrocarbon measurements collected during the Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM-West A) is as markers or indices of atmospheric processing. Traditionally, ratios of particular hydrocarbons have been interpreted as photochemical indices, since much of the effect due to atmospheric transport is assumed to cancel by using ratios. However, an ever increasing body of observatonial and theoretical evidence suggests that turbulent mixing associated with atmospheric transport influences certain hydrocarbon ratios significantly. In this study a three-dimensional mesoscale photochemical model is used to study the interaction of photochemistry and atmospheric mixing on select hydrocarbons. In terms of correlations and functional relationships between various alkanes the model results and PEM-West A hydrocarbon observations share many similar characteristics as well as explainable differences. When the three-dimensional model is applied to inert tracers, hydrocarbon ratios and other relationships exactly follow those expected by simple dilution with model-imposed "background air," and the three-dimensional results for reactive hydrocarbons are quite consistent with a combined influence of photochemistry and simple dilution. Analogous to these model results, relationships between various hydrocarbons collected during the PEM-West A experiment appear to be consistent with this simplified picture of photochemistry and dilution affecting individual air masses. When hydrocarbons are chosen that have negligeble contributions to clean background air, unambiguous determinations of the relative contributions to photochemistry and dilution can be estimated from the hydrocarbon samples. Both the three-dimensional model results and the observations imply an average characteristic lifetime for dilution with background air roughly equivalent to the photochemical lifetime of butane for the western Pacific lower troposphere. Moreover, the dominance of OH as the primary photochemical oxidant downwind of anthropogenic source regions can be inferred from correlations between the highly reactive alkane ratios. By incorporating back-trajectory information within the three-dimensional model analysis, a correspondence between time and a particular hydrocarbon or hydrocarbon ratio can be determined, and the influence of atmospheric mixing or photochemistry can be quantified. Results of the three-dimensional model study are compared and applied to the PEM-West A hydrocarbon dataset, yielding a practical methodology for determining average OH concentrations and atmospheric mixing rates from the hydrocarbon measurements. Aircraft data taken below 2 km during wall flights east of Japan imply a diurnal average OH concentration of ∼3 × 106 cm-3. The characteristic time for dilution with background air is estimated to be ∼2.5 days for the two study areas examined in this work. Copyright 1996 by the American Geophysical Union

Role of IFN-α in Rheumatoid Arthritis

\ua9 2023, The Author(s).Purpose of Review: Type 1 interferons (IFN-I) are of increasing interest across a wide range of autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Historically, research into their role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been relatively neglected, but recent work continues to highlight a potential contribution to RA pathophysiology. Recent Findings: We emphasise the importance of disease stage when examining IFN-I in RA and provide an overview on how IFN-I may have a direct role on a variety of relevant cellular functions. We explore how clinical trajectory may be influenced by increased IFN-I signalling, and also, the limitations of scores composed of interferon response genes. Relevant environmental triggers and inheritable RA genetic risk relating to IFN-I signalling are explored with emphasis on intriguing data potentially linking IFN-I exposure, epigenetic changes, and disease relevant processes. Summary: Whilst these data cumulatively illustrate a likely role for IFN-I in RA, they also highlight the knowledge gaps, particularly in populations at risk for RA, and suggest directions for future research to both better understand IFN-I biology and inform targeted therapeutic strategies

Caregiver awareness of reproductive health issues for women with intellectual disabilities

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Limited attention has been paid to the issue of reproductive health as it affects women with intellectual disabilities, despite reproductive health being a vital issue in public health policy for women in the general population. This paper describes caregiver awareness of reproductive health issues relative to women with intellectual disabilities who are being cared for in welfare institutions in Taiwan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study employed a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study which recruited 1,152 caregivers (response rate = 71.87%) from 32 registered disability welfare institutions in Taiwan. We classified their understanding/awareness of reproductive health issues into four domains: menstrual (1) and menopause (2) issues, sex education (3), and reproductive health services (4). Each domain had five associated yes/no questions and the total score for the four domains was out of a maximum of 20. Data were analyzed using SPSS 15.0 software.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that most of the caregivers were familiar with matters concerning sex education, menopause, and reproductive health services, but they lacked adequate understanding of issues associated with menstruation in women with ID. Many aspects of reproductive health such as "menstrual pain", "age at menarche", "masturbation", "diet during perimenopause", and "publicly available reproductive health services" were issues in which caregivers lacked adequate knowledge and required further instruction. Logistic regression analysis revealed that female caregivers with a university degree, and those who had experience assisting with reproductive health care were more inclined to have higher reproductive health awareness scores than their counterparts.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study highlights that service providers should offer appropriate reproductive health education to institutional caregivers, and that more attention be focused on the personal experiences and concerns of intellectually disabled women in future research.</p

A synthetic electric force acting on neutral atoms

Electromagnetism is a simple example of a gauge theory where the underlying potentials -- the vector and scalar potentials -- are defined only up to a gauge choice. The vector potential generates magnetic fields through its spatial variation and electric fields through its time-dependence. We experimentally produce a synthetic gauge field that emerges only at low energy in a rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate: the neutral atoms behave as charged particles do in the presence of a homogeneous effective vector potential. We have generated a synthetic electric field through the time dependence of an effective vector potential, a physical consequence even though the vector potential is spatially uniform

High Outpatient Visits among People with Intellectual Disabilities Caring in a Disability Institution in Taipei: a 4-Year Survey

[[abstract]]Few studies reported in the literature have addressed the long-term trend of the use of medical care for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in institutions. The subject cohort in this study was made of 168 individuals with ID in a public residential facility from 1999 to 2002 in Taipei, Taiwan. The average age of participants was 19.3 years, and their average stay in an institution was 6.6 years. The average annual outpatient visit of the study participants was 18.2 in the previous 4 years. It was found that they had more medical visits than the general population. Nearly 20.8–34.5% (average 29.0%) of the participants utilized more than 25 visits annually which was defined as high outpatient visit users. This group of high outpatient users consumed more than half of the total annual outpatient care visits in the past 4 years. In the full model of Generalized Estimating Equations to compare the high and non-high outpatient users, the factor of individuals with ID dwelling in the institution were more likely to be high outpatient care users than individuals who were only accepting institutional day care services (OR = 6.29, 95% CI = 1.35–29.30). The present study provides general information of high outpatient utilization and its determinants of people with ID and provides evidence for medical care decision makers dealing with policy development for people with ID care in institutions

Assessment of GPs' beliefs relating to the care of people with intellectual disabilities: A Taiwan-based, opportunity-guided approach

[[abstract]]Purpose. This study was designed to investigate general practitioners' (GPs) beliefs about the perceived importance of their role in, and their satisfaction with, providing healthcare to people with intellectual disabilities. The identification of healthcare issues with potential for improvement was assessed using gap analysis and an opportunity-guided method. Method. A cross-sectional census survey by a mail-structured questionnaire recruited 331 GPs (response rate=16%) who provided information on healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities in 2006 in Taiwan. Results. The results indicated that GPs considered their role in providing healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities to be important (mean score 7.2-8.3). However, the respondents generally did not feel satisfied (mean score 4.6-5.5) with their achievements in treating patients with intellectual disabilities. We found that the gender and educational level of the respondents were statistically correlated to the perceived importance they considered their work to have, while the factors of age, medical practice setting and training experience in intellectual disability were statistically correlated to GPs' perceived satisfaction in providing healthcare to people with intellectual disabilities (p < 0.05). Those healthcare issues of 'training and experience in intellectual disability', 'multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral cooperation', 'adequate competence in disability diagnosis', 'genetic consulting services', 'duty of disease prevention and health promotion', and 'adequate medical consultation time' were the five most promising areas to be improved in healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities according to the opportunity-guided analysis. Conclusions. This study highlights that health professionals need to examine carefully healthcare issues pertaining to people with ID, and that much more effort is required to develop appropriate healthcare policies based on the opportunity-guided health issues identified here

Physical and Mental Health Status of Staff Working for People with Intellectual Disabilities in Taiwan: Measurement with the 36-Item Short-Form (SF-36) Health Survey

[[abstract]]"Little explicit attention has been given to the generic health profile of staff working for people with intellectual disability in institutions. This study aimed to provide a profile of physical and mental health of staff working in disability welfare institutions, and to examine the possible demographic and organizational factors that explain an association with their health. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted to analyze 1243 staff (76% response rate) working in 24 institutions in Taiwan. The 36-Item Short-Form (SF-36) Taiwan version was used to measure their generic health status. The mean of Physical component scores (PCS) was slightly higher than Mental component scores (MCS) (50.83 vs. 45.12). With regard to each dimension among PCS, the mean score of Physical functioning (PF) was 57.14 (S.D. = 5.93), Role limitations-physical (RP) was 49.88 (S.D. = 9.69), Bodily pain (BP) was 52.14 (S.D. = 8.09) and General medical health (GH) was 51.50 (S.D. = 8.28). Among the MCS, Vitality (VT) was 46.19 (S.D. = 6.71); Social functioning (SF) was 46.44 (S.D. = 7.58); Role limitations-emotional (RE) was 47.30 (S.D. = 11.89) and Mental health (MH) was 43.58 (S.D. = 8.81). We found the generic health of staff working for people with intellectual disabilities were significantly lower in PCS and MCS than the Taiwan general population. Influences of staff's demographic and organizational characteristics on their health were also analyzed in the content. This study highlights the authorities and service providers need to continue to develop their awareness and understanding of the experiences that their staff encounters in the organizations, so that they can receive resources to support their positive health in working for people with intellectual disabilities.

Job strain and determinants in staff working in institutions for people with intellectual disabilities in Taiwan: A test of the Job Demand-Control-Support model

[[abstract]]Little is known about the job strain of staff working in disability institutions. This study investigated the staff's job strain profile and its determinants which included the worker characteristics and the psychosocial working environments in Taiwan. A cross-sectional study survey was carried out among 1243 workers by means of a self-answered questionnaire. The outcome variable (high-strain job) was evaluated. The explanatory variables were: worker characteristics and the psychosocial working environment evaluated according to Karasek's Job Demand-Control-Support model. The results show that many staff characteristics were correlated with job strain, such as staff's working hours, age, gender, job title, educational level, religion, in-job training, working years in disability institutions and Effort–Reward Imbalance factors. Organization factors, such as geographical, institutional ownership and accreditation performance and size were also correlated with staff's job strain. In multiple a logistic regression model of the job strain, we found that the factors of financial reward (high compare to low, OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.928–0.975), extrinsic effort (high compare to low, OR = 1.072, 95% CI = 1.072–1.158), perceived job stress (sometimes stressful compare to no stress, OR = 2.305, 95% CI = 1.161–4.575; very stressful compare to no stress, OR = 3.931, 95% CI = 1.738–8.893) of the staff were significantly correlated to the high job strain of the staff. An important focus of future research should be extending the findings to consider the factors to affect the high job strain to improve the well-being for staff working for people with intellectual disability

Characterization of Chlorinated Aliphatic Hydrocarbons and Environmental Variables in a Shallow Groundwater in Shanghai Using Kriging Interpolation and Multifactorial Analysis

CAHs, as a cleaning solvent, widely contaminated shallow groundwater with the development of manufacturing in China's Yangtze River Delta. This study focused on the distribution of CAHs, and correlations between CAHs and environmental variables in a shallow groundwater in Shanghai, using kriging interpolation and multifactorial analysis. The results showed that the overall CAHs plume area (above DIV) was approximately 9,000 m(2) and located in the 2-4 m underground, DNAPL was accumulated at an area of approximately 1,400 m(2) and located in the 6-8m sandy silt layer on the top of the muddy silty clay. Heat-map of PPC for CAHs and environmental variables showed that the correlation between 'Fe2+' and most CAHs such as '1,1,1-TCA', '1,1-DCA', '1,1-DCE' and '% TCA' were significantly positive (p<0.001), but '% CA' and/or '% VC' was not, and 'Cl-' was significantly positive correlated with '1,1-DCA' and '1,1-DCE' (p<0.001). The PCA demonstrated that the relative proportions of CAHs in groundwater were mostly controlled by the sources and the natural attenuation. In conclusion, the combination of geographical and chemometrics was helpful to establishing an aerial perspective of CAHs and identifying reasons for the accumulation of toxic dechlorination intermediates, and could become a useful tool for characterizing contaminated sites in general.published_or_final_versio