Smoking in film in New Zealand: measuring risk exposure

BACKGROUND: Smoking in film is a risk factor for smoking uptake in adolescence. This study aimed to quantify exposure to smoking in film received by New Zealand audiences, and evaluate potential interventions to reduce the quantity and impact of this exposure. METHODS: The ten highest-grossing films in New Zealand for 2003 were each analysed independently by two viewers for smoking, smoking references and related imagery. Potential interventions were explored by reviewing relevant New Zealand legislation, and scientific literature. RESULTS: Seven of the ten films contained at least one tobacco reference, similar to larger film samples. The majority of the 38 tobacco references involved characters smoking, most of whom were male. Smoking was associated with positive character traits, notably rebellion (which may appeal to adolescents). There appeared to be a low threshold for including smoking in film. Legislative or censorship approaches to smoking in film are currently unlikely to succeed. Anti-smoking advertising before films has promise, but experimental research is required to demonstrate cost effectiveness. CONCLUSION: Smoking in film warrants concern from public health advocates. In New Zealand, pre-film anti-smoking advertising appears to be the most promising immediate policy response

"Mother-weights" and lost fathers: parents in South Asian American literature

That parent-child relationships should play a significant role within South Asian American literature is perhaps no surprise, since this is crucial material for any writer. But the particular forms they so often take – a dysfunctional mother-daughter dynamic, leading to the search for maternal surrogates; and the figure of the prematurely deceased father – are more perplexing. Why do families adhere to these patterns in so many South Asian American texts and what does that tell us about this œuvre? More precisely, why are mothers subjected to a harsher critique than fathers and what purpose does this critique serve? How might we interpret the trope of the untimely paternal death? In this article I will seek to answer these questions – arguably key to an understanding of this growing body of writing – by considering works produced between the 1990s and the early twenty-first century by a range of South Asian American writers

Ice loss from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet during late Pleistocene interglacials

Understanding ice sheet behaviour in the geological past is essential for evaluating the role of the cryosphere in the climate system and for projecting rates and magnitudes of sea level rise in future warming scenarios1,2,3,4. Although both geological data5,6,7 and ice sheet models3,8 indicate that marine-based sectors of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet were unstable during Pliocene warm intervals, the ice sheet dynamics during late Pleistocene interglacial intervals are highly uncertain3,9,10. Here we provide evidence from marine sedimentological and geochemical records for ice margin retreat or thinning in the vicinity of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin of East Antarctica during warm late Pleistocene interglacial intervals. The most extreme changes in sediment provenance, recording changes in the locus of glacial erosion, occurred during marine isotope stages 5, 9, and 11, when Antarctic air temperatures11 were at least two degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial temperatures for 2,500 years or more. Hence, our study indicates a close link between extended Antarctic warmth and ice loss from the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, providing ice-proximal data to support a contribution to sea level from a reduced East Antarctic Ice Sheet during warm interglacial intervals. While the behaviour of other regions of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet remains to be assessed, it appears that modest future warming may be sufficient to cause ice loss from the Wilkes Subglacial Basin

Characterization of wheat genotypes for terminal heat stress tolerance in Bangladesh

This study was aimed to determine the types and levels of variability, heritability, genetic progress, relationships between yield and the features that contribute to it, and some key indicators of terminal heat stress tolerance. Twenty different wheat genotypes were planted in the fields over the course of six different treatments spaced 10 days interval following a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. A high degree of significant variation was observed for all the characters studied. Estimates of the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) revealed that the phenotypic coefficient of variation was higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation, which indicates a large effect of environment on the expression of the characters studied. The highest estimates of PCV and GCV were observed for grain yield/plant followed by the number of tillers/plant. Heritability estimates revealed that characters like pollen fertility and sterility exhibited the highest heritability followed by days to maturity. The genetic advance was higher for grains/plants followed by plant height. Grain yield showed significant and positive phenotypic and genotypic correlations with grains/plant and 100-grain weight. Phenotypic path analysis revealed a significant direct positive effect of 100-grain weight on grain yield. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the first five components having greater than one Eigenvalue contributed to 83.41% variability. The heat stress tolerance indices revealed that Bijoy and BARI Gom-25 had the lowest tolerance index (TOL), stress susceptibility index (SSI) values and highest yield susceptibility index (YSI) values which show more tolerance and less susceptibility to terminal heat stress and produce moderate grain yield under terminal heat stress. Balaka and Shughat had the highest mean productivity (MP), geometric mean productivity (GMP), and stress tolerance index (STI) values and produce high yields under terminal heat stress conditions. [J Bangladesh Agril Univ 2023; 21(1.000): 23-32

Life history traits of the critically endangered catfish eutropiichthys vacha (Hamilton 1822) in the Jamuna (Brahmaputra River Distributary) River, Northern Bangladesh

The critically endangered catfish Eutropiichthys vacha (Hamilton 1822) is one of the commercially high nutritional valuable food fish in Asian countries, but the natural populations are seriously decreasing due to high fishing pressure, leading to an alarming condition and deserving of high conservation importance. Our study describes some biological parameters, including sex ratio, length-frequency distribution (LFD), length-weight relationships (LWRs), length-length relationships (LLRs), condition factors (Allometric, KA; Fulton’s, KF; Relative condition, KR; Relative weight, WR) and form factor (a3.0) of E. vacha in the Jamuna (Brahmaputra River distributary) River, northern Bangladesh. A total of 350 specimens ranging from 8.01-16.95 cm TL (total length) and 1.70-30.38 g BW (body weight) were analyzed in this study. Sampling was done using traditional fishing gears during March 2010 to February 2011. The overall sex ratio showed no significant differences from the expected value of 1:1 (χ2=2.57, p>0.05), and there was no significant difference in the LFD between the sexes (p=0.38). The allometric coefficient b for the LWR indicated isometric growth (~3.00) in males and combined sexes, but negative allometric growth ( 0.997; p<0.001). KR showed significant variations (F=65.11; p<0.01) between male and female; whereas, KF was not significantly different between the sexes (p=0.64). Also, WR was significantly different from 100 for both sexes (p<0.01), indicating the imbalance habitat with food availability relative to the presence of predators for E. vacha. The estimated values of a3.0 were as 0.0060, 0.005 and 0.0054 for males, females and combined sexes of E. vacha. This study reported the first complete and comprehensive description of life-history traits for E. vacha from Bangladeshi waters. These results should be useful for the sustainable conservation of this critically endangered fishery in Bangladesh and neighboring countries

The prospect of spray pyrolyzed pure, Mn-doped, and Zn-doped nickel oxide thin films as TCO material

Nickel Oxide films with Manganese (Mn) and Zinc (Zn) doping (NiO, Ni1-xMnxO, and Ni1-xZnxO; where x = 0, 0.02, 0.04, and 0.06) were fabricated using the spray pyrolysis technique on the glass substrates at 400 °C (673K) temperature. The XRD spectra revealed a polycrystalline nature of the films with cubic crystal structure and a favored growth orientation towards the (111) plane. The SEM micrographs revealed a smooth, homogeneous, and uniform surface, while the EDS spectra confirmed the presence of Ni, O, Zn, and Mn elements in the films. Optical analysis using UV–visible absorption spectroscopy demonstrated high transparency of the films in the visible region (400 nm–900 nm), and the transparency increased with higher Zn doping, reaching ∼85 % in Ni0.94Zn0.06O films. Conversely, Ni1-xMnxO films show a slight transmission decline with increasing Mn doping concentrations. The sheet resistance of the films was found to be decreased for low-concentration doping and again began to increase for highly doped Ni0.94Zn0.06O and Ni0.94Mn0.06O films. Among all the films, Ni0.98Zn0.02O exhibited the maximum figure of merit, showing the prospect for optoelectronic applications

Machine learning and internet of things in industry 4.0: A review

Machine learning (ML), sensors networks, and Internet of Things (IoT) are the most important contributor in the newest revolution in the industry. It is going towards a fully automated industrial environment where all the components including post production, pre production, supply chain and quality control would be automatically managed. Human will work more with brain, where all the physical efforts would be replaced by ML enabled intelligent robots that will perform all the tasks, where sensor networks will collect live information from the environment. All the decision would be taken on the fly from the previous records. In this work, we have tried to shed some light on the current involvement of ML and IoT in industry 4.0 environment. 28 articles were reviewed in this work which were selected through a selection process and were published between 2017 and 2022. Different tools, protocols, algorithms and the latest technologies used in the industry 4.0 environment have been analytically discussed in this work. Research gaps were tried to found out and some recommendations were provided which can be a pathway to research advancement related to industry 4.0