298 research outputs found
The Health Behavior Information Needs and Preferences of Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Survivors
PURPOSE: This study aimed to establish teenage and young adult cancer survivors (TYACS') specific interest in receiving information on physical activity, diet, smoking, and alcohol consumption and their preferences regarding the delivery, format, and timing of such health behaviour information. METHODS: TYACS aged 13-25 years were invited to complete a questionnaire assessing the advice they had received in the past and their preferences on when and how health behavior information should be delivered. RESULTS: A total of 216 TYACS (mean age: 20 years; mean age at diagnosis: 16 years) completed the questionnaire. Approximately 40% of TYACS received no advice on physical activity and diet, and more than half (54%) received no advice on weight management. The majority (>70%) reported receiving no advice on smoking or alcohol consumption. Interest in receiving lifestyle advice was high overall (71%) but varied across behaviors, with TYACS reporting a greater level of interest in receiving advice on health protective behaviors (physical activity and diet) than health risk behaviors (smoking and alcohol consumption) (âŒ85% vs. âŒ15%, respectively). TYACS reported seeking health behavior information from health professionals and were most interested in information delivered online or in the form of a mobile app. Similar proportions (18%-29%) felt health behavior information should first be provided before, during, immediately after, and post-treatment. CONCLUSIONS: It is evident that there is a need to develop lifestyle interventions in a range of formats available to TYACS throughout the care pathway to address the health behavior information needs of young people with cancer
The Extremes of Thermonuclear Supernovae
The majority of thermonuclear explosions in the Universe seem to proceed in a
rather standardised way, as explosions of carbon-oxygen (CO) white dwarfs in
binary systems, leading to 'normal' Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). However, over
the years a number of objects have been found which deviate from normal SNe Ia
in their observational properties, and which require different and not seldom
more extreme progenitor systems. While the 'traditional' classes of peculiar
SNe Ia - luminous '91T-like' and faint '91bg-like' objects - have been known
since the early 1990s, other classes of even more unusual transients have only
been established 20 years later, fostered by the advent of new wide-field SN
surveys such as the Palomar Transient Factory. These include the faint but
slowly declining '02es-like' SNe, 'Ca-rich' transients residing in the
luminosity gap between classical novae and supernovae, extremely short-lived,
fast-declining transients, and the very luminous so-called
'super-Chandrasekhar' SNe Ia. Not all of them are necessarily thermonuclear
explosions, but there are good arguments in favour of a thermonuclear origin
for most of them. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the zoo
of potentially thermonuclear transients, reviewing their observational
characteristics and discussing possible explosion scenarios.Comment: Author version of a chapter for the 'Handbook of Supernovae', edited
by A. Alsabti and P. Murdin, Springer. 50 pages, 7 figure
Network of Earthquakes and Recurrences Therein
We quantify the correlation between earthquakes and use the same to
distinguish between relevant causally connected earthquakes. Our correlation
metric is a variation on the one introduced by Baiesi and Paczuski (2004). A
network of earthquakes is constructed, which is time ordered and with links
between the more correlated ones. Data pertaining to the California region has
been used in the study. Recurrences to earthquakes are identified employing
correlation thresholds to demarcate the most meaningful ones in each cluster.
The distribution of recurrence lengths and recurrence times are analyzed
subsequently to extract information about the complex dynamics. We find that
the unimodal feature of recurrence lengths helps to associate typical rupture
lengths with different magnitude earthquakes. The out-degree of the network
shows a hub structure rooted on the large magnitude earthquakes. In-degree
distribution is seen to be dependent on the density of events in the
neighborhood. Power laws are also obtained with recurrence time distribution
agreeing with the Omori law.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
Assessing the conservation value of waterbodies: the example of the Loire floodplain (France)
In recent decades, two of the main management tools used to stem biodiversity erosion have been biodiversity monitoring and the conservation of natural areas. However, socio-economic pressure means that it is not usually possible to preserve the entire landscape, and so the rational prioritisation of sites has become a crucial issue. In this context, and because floodplains are one of the most threatened ecosystems, we propose a statistical strategy for evaluating conservation value, and used it to prioritise 46 waterbodies in the Loire floodplain (France). We began by determining a synthetic conservation index of fish communities (Q) for each waterbody. This synthetic index includes a conservation status index, an origin index, a rarity index and a richness index. We divided the waterbodies into 6 clusters with distinct structures of the basic indices. One of these clusters, with high Q median value, indicated that 4 waterbodies are important for fish biodiversity conservation. Conversely, two clusters with low Q median values included 11 waterbodies where restoration is called for. The results picked out high connectivity levels and low abundance of aquatic vegetation as the two main environmental characteristics of waterbodies with high conservation value. In addition, assessing the biodiversity and conservation value of
territories using our multi-index approach plus an a posteriori hierarchical classification methodology reveals two major interests: (i) a possible geographical extension and (ii) a multi-taxa adaptation
Bioavailability in soils
The consumption of locally-produced vegetables by humans may be an important exposure pathway for soil contaminants in many urban settings and for agricultural land use. Hence, prediction of metal and metalloid uptake by vegetables from contaminated soils is an important part of the Human Health Risk Assessment procedure. The behaviour of metals (cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, lead and zinc) and metalloids (arsenic, boron and selenium) in contaminated soils depends to a large extent on the intrinsic charge, valence and speciation of the contaminant ion, and soil properties such as pH, redox status and contents of clay and/or organic matter. However, chemistry and behaviour of the contaminant in soil alone cannot predict soil-to-plant transfer. Root uptake, root selectivity, ion interactions, rhizosphere processes, leaf uptake from the atmosphere, and plant partitioning are important processes that ultimately govern the accumulation ofmetals and metalloids in edible vegetable tissues. Mechanistic models to accurately describe all these processes have not yet been developed, let alone validated under field conditions. Hence, to estimate risks by vegetable consumption, empirical models have been used to correlate concentrations of metals and metalloids in contaminated soils, soil physico-chemical characteristics, and concentrations of elements in vegetable tissues. These models should only be used within the bounds of their calibration, and often need to be re-calibrated or validated using local soil and environmental conditions on a regional or site-specific basis.Mike J. McLaughlin, Erik Smolders, Fien Degryse, and Rene Rietr
Binary and Millisecond Pulsars at the New Millennium
We review the properties and applications of binary and millisecond pulsars.
Our knowledge of these exciting objects has greatly increased in recent years,
mainly due to successful surveys which have brought the known pulsar population
to over 1300. There are now 56 binary and millisecond pulsars in the Galactic
disk and a further 47 in globular clusters. This review is concerned primarily
with the results and spin-offs from these surveys which are of particular
interest to the relativity community.Comment: 59 pages, 26 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in Living
Reviews in Relativity (http://www.livingreviews.org
Search for Gravitational Waves from Primordial Black Hole Binary Coalescences in the Galactic Halo
We use data from the second science run of the LIGO gravitational-wave
detectors to search for the gravitational waves from primordial black hole
(PBH) binary coalescence with component masses in the range 0.2--.
The analysis requires a signal to be found in the data from both LIGO
observatories, according to a set of coincidence criteria. No inspiral signals
were found. Assuming a spherical halo with core radius 5 kpc extending to 50
kpc containing non-spinning black holes with masses in the range 0.2--, we place an observational upper limit on the rate of PBH coalescence
of 63 per year per Milky Way halo (MWH) with 90% confidence.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev.
Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology with Gravitational Waves
Gravitational wave detectors are already operating at interesting sensitivity
levels, and they have an upgrade path that should result in secure detections
by 2014. We review the physics of gravitational waves, how they interact with
detectors (bars and interferometers), and how these detectors operate. We study
the most likely sources of gravitational waves and review the data analysis
methods that are used to extract their signals from detector noise. Then we
consider the consequences of gravitational wave detections and observations for
physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.Comment: 137 pages, 16 figures, Published version
<http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2009-2
Hydrologically-driven crustal stresses and seismicity in the New Madrid Seismic Zone
The degree to which short-term non-tectonic processes, either natural and anthropogenic, influence the occurrence of earthquakes in active tectonic settings or âstableâ plate interiors, remains a subject of debate. Recent work in plate-boundary regions demonstrates the capacity for long-wavelength changes in continental water storage to produce observable surface deformation, induce crustal stresses and modulate seismicity rates. Here we show that a significant variation in the rate of microearthquakes in the intraplate New Madrid Seismic Zone at annual and multi-annual timescales coincides with hydrological loading in the upper Mississippi embayment. We demonstrate that this loading, which results in geodetically observed surface deformation, induces stresses within the lithosphere that, although of small amplitude, modulate the ongoing seismicity of the New Madrid region. Correspondence between surface deformation, hydrological loading and seismicity rates at both annual and multi-annual timescales indicates that seismicity variations are the direct result of elastic stresses induced by the water load
Derivation of consistent hard rock (1000<Vs<3000 m/s) GMPEs from surface and down-hole recordings: Analysis of KiK-net data
A key component in seismic hazard assessment is the estimation of ground motion for hard rock sites, either for applications to installations built on this site category, or as an input motion for site response computation. Empirical ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) are the traditional basis for estimating ground motion while VS30 is the basis to account for site conditions. As current GMPEs are poorly constrained for VS30 larger than 1000 m/s, the presently used approach for estimating hazard on hard rock sites consists of âhost-to-targetâ adjustment techniques based on VS30 and Îș0 values. The present study investigates alternative methods on the basis of a KiK-net dataset corresponding to stiff and rocky sites with 500 < VS30 < 1350 m/s. The existence of sensor pairs (one at the surface and one in depth) and the availability of P- and S-wave velocity profiles allow deriving two âvirtualâ datasets associated to outcropping hard rock sites with VS in the range [1000, 3000] m/s with two independent corrections: 1/down-hole recordings modified from within motion to outcropping motion with a depth correction factor, 2/surface recordings deconvolved from their specific site response derived through 1D simulation. GMPEs with simple functional forms are then developed, including a VS30 site term. They lead to consistent and robust hard-rock motion estimates, which prove to be significantly lower than host-to-target adjustment predictions. The difference can reach a factor up to 3â4 beyond 5 Hz for very hard-rock, but decreases for decreasing frequency until vanishing below 2 Hz
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