Dog ownership, dog walking and children\u27s and parents\u27 physical activity

This study aimed to determine cross-sectional associations of dog ownership, dog walking, and physical activity (PA) among children and their parents. Objective measures of PA were obtained for children ages 5-6 and 10-12 years from 19 primary schools across Melbourne, Australia. Parents self-reported their PA, dog ownership, and frequency of dog walking: 53% of families owned a dog, 41% of children who owned a dog did not walk their dog at all, and 32% reported never or rarely walking their dog as a family. Dog ownership was associated with an additional 29 min/day in PA among younger girls, and 70 and 59 min/week more in PA among mothers of younger boys and older girls, respectively. Among mothers of older girls, dog owners were 1.6 times as likely to meet PA guidelines. Mothers with older boys and girls, and fathers with younger boys, who reported walking the dog regularly as a family, spent more time in PA (105, 90, and 158 more min/week, respectively). Promoting dog ownership and dog walking among children and as a family are potential strategies for increasing PA participation in some families.<br /

Hollow steel section columns filled with self-compacting concrete under ordinary and fire conditions

La thèse comprend 8 chapitres, 3 annexes, 191 figures, 43 tableaux, 13 photos et 181 références bibliographiques. Le corps du texte totalise 135 pages et les annexes 120 pages.Le chapitre 1 constitue l’introduction dans laquelle le contexte et les objectifs de la recherche sont définis.Le chapitre 2 présente l’état de la question concernant les colonnes faites de tubes en acier remplis de béton (CFSHS columns - concrete filled steel hollow section columns). Leur comportement à température ordinaire et sous conditions d’incendie est analysé ainsi que les paramètres significatifs qui guident leur comportement. Les propriétés du béton auto-plaçant sont aussi examinées dans ce chapitre.Le chapitre 3 est consacré à la présentation du code de calcul SAFIR développé à l’Université de Liège pour la simulation du comportement structural à température ordinaire et sous conditions d’incendie. Le logiciel a été utilisé pour simuler des résultats d’essais expérimentaux présentés dans la littérature, et quelques calibrations sont proposées.En utilisant le modèle décrit au chapitre 3, la charge ultime à température ordinaire des colonnes CFSHS est calculée en considérant différents paramètres. On considère essentiellement des tubes de petites dimensions avec un pourcentage élevé d’armatures ou contenant un autre profilé métallique. Ce type d’élément n’est pas couvert par les Eurocodes. Des simulations ont été réalisées en vue d’examiner si les méthodes classiques de l’Eurocode 4 (EN1994-1-1) sont applicables à ce type de section et de voir quelle courbe de flambement est la plus appropriée.Le chapitre 5 décrit la recherche expérimentale réalisée à l’Université de Liège relative au comportement au feu des colonnes CFSHS. Les essais expérimentaux ont été simulés par SAFIR, tant en ce qui concerne la répartition de la température à l’intérieur des éléments que le comportement structural. Un des objectifs de ces calculs était de vérifier si les propriétés thermiques et mécaniques du béton auto-plaçant sont proches de celles du béton ordinaire.En vue de fournir aux bureaux d’études des outils pratiques de dimensionnement, une formule permettant d’évaluer la résistance au feu des colonnes CFSHS est proposée dans le chapitre 6. Le domaine d’applicabilité a été étendu par rapport aux études précédentes. Une formule pour colonnes courtes de section carrée a d’abord été établie sur base de simulations effectuées à l’aide de SAFIR en considérant l’influence des paramètres principaux. On examine ensuite si cette formule est aussi applicable à d’autres types de profilés. La formule a été étendue en cas des colonnes élancées et à celui des colonnes chargées excentriquement.L’étude expérimentale du chapitre 5 est limitée à des sections d’assez petites dimensions (< 300 mm), essentiellement pour des problèmes de capacité de mise en charge des laboratoires. En vue de recueillir des informations pratiques pour des profilés de plus grandes dimensions pour lesquels on peut atteindre des résistances au feu de 2 heures et plus, des simulations numériques additionnelles sont présentées dans le chapitre 7, avec des résultats utilisables en bureau d’études.Le chapitre 8 donne les conclusions de l’étude et présente des suggestions pour des recherches futures

Steel Hollow Columns filled with self compacting Concrete under Fire Conditions

peer reviewedConcrete filled steel hollow section (CFSHS) columns can carry important loads and therefore are used extensively in the construction of high-rise buildings. Steel hollow sections are filled usually with ordinary concrete, but filling problems may arise with small cross sections and dense reinforcement or hollow sections (tubes) surrounding another profile (tube or H section) when the distance between the two profiles is small. For such a configuration, self-compacting concrete can be recommended. Ten columns filled with self-compacting concrete embedding another steel profile have been tested in the Fire Engineering Laboratory of the University of Liege - Belgium. The non linear finite element software SAFIR developed at the University of Liege has been used to simulate the thermal and structural behavior under fire conditions. A good agreement between numerical and experimental results has been obtained. This shows that SAFIR code can predict well the behavior of CFSHS columns and that the properties of self-compacting concrete at high temperatures can be considered to be the same as those of ordinary concrete. Another purpose of this study was to give practical tools to consulting engineers

Assessing competitiveness of foreign and local supermarket chains in Vietnamese market by using Fuzzy TOPSIS method

Considering the strategic importance for supermarket chains and to understanding the critical elements affecting their competitiveness and their relative level of competitiveness, this study tries to assess competitiveness of foreign and local supermarket chains in Vietnam using the fuzzy TOPSIS method. The results show that, even smaller size Vietnamese supermarket chains, when compared to foreign chains, are still slightly higher in competitiveness.Competitiveness; Supermarket chains; Fuzzy TOPSIS

Predicting Performances of Mutual Funds using Deep Learning and Ensemble Techniques

Predicting fund performance is beneficial to both investors and fund managers, and yet is a challenging task. In this paper, we have tested whether deep learning models can predict fund performance more accurately than traditional statistical techniques. Fund performance is typically evaluated by the Sharpe ratio, which represents the risk-adjusted performance to ensure meaningful comparability across funds. We calculated the annualised Sharpe ratios based on the monthly returns time series data for more than 600 open-end mutual funds investing in listed large-cap equities in the United States. We find that long short-term memory (LSTM) and gated recurrent units (GRUs) deep learning methods, both trained with modern Bayesian optimization, provide higher accuracy in forecasting funds' Sharpe ratios than traditional statistical ones. An ensemble method, which combines forecasts from LSTM and GRUs, achieves the best performance of all models. There is evidence to say that deep learning and ensembling offer promising solutions in addressing the challenge of fund performance forecasting.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 4 table

Acute Effects of TiO2 Nanomaterials on the Viability and Taxonomic Composition of Aquatic Bacterial Communities Assessed via High-Throughput Screening and Next Generation Sequencing

The nanotechnology industry is growing rapidly, leading to concerns about the potential ecological consequences of the release of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) to the environment. One challenge of assessing the ecological risks of ENMs is the incredible diversity of ENMs currently available and the rapid pace at which new ENMs are being developed. High-throughput screening (HTS) is a popular approach to assessing ENM cytotoxicity that offers the opportunity to rapidly test in parallel a wide range of ENMs at multiple concentrations. However, current HTS approaches generally test one cell type at a time, which limits their ability to predict responses of complex microbial communities. In this study toxicity screening via a HTS platform was used in combination with next generation sequencing (NGS) to assess responses of bacterial communities from two aquatic habitats, Lake Michigan (LM) and the Chicago River (CR), to short-term exposure in their native waters to several commercial TiO2 nanomaterials under simulated solar irradiation. Results demonstrate that bacterial communities from LM and CR differed in their sensitivity to nano-TiO2, with the community from CR being more resistant. NGS analysis revealed that the composition of the bacterial communities from LM and CR were significantly altered by exposure to nano-TiO2, including decreases in overall bacterial diversity, decreases in the relative abundance of Actinomycetales, Sphingobacteriales, Limnohabitans, and Flavobacterium, and a significant increase in Limnobacter. These results suggest that the release of nano-TiO2 to the environment has the potential to alter the composition of aquatic bacterial communities, which could have implications for the stability and function of aquatic ecosystems. The novel combination of HTS and NGS described in this study represents a major advance over current methods for assessing ENM ecotoxicity because the relative toxicities of multiple ENMs to thousands of naturally occurring bacterial species can be assessed simultaneously under environmentally relevant conditions

Effect of Graphene-Gold Nanocomposites on the Photocatalytic Activity Of TiO2_2

The synthesis of graphene (Gr) - gold (Au) nanoparticle (NP) composite was achieved using continuous ultraviolet wave exposure. The functional groups were investigated with FT-IR spectra. From the Raman spectra, D-band and G-band of graphene were identified. As a result, the uniform deposition of nanometer-sized Au NPs on the graphene sheets was observed from the field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) images. The photodegradation of methylene blue in aqueous solutions is studied using various photocatalysts, including neat TiO2, Gr/TiO2 and Gr-Au/TiO2 composites. The Gr weight ratio in this research is 2%. The Gr2%-Au0.1%/TiO2 composite had the highest photoactivity

Management and monitoring of air and water pollution by using GIS technology: Research article

The need for a green clean living environment is increasing today, with the boom of the socioeconomic development, educational level. However, the environmental pollution becomes an alerted global issue due to the large amount of wastes discharged making this need to be not easily met at the moment. Greenhouse gas emission mainly from energy, transport and agricultural land use is causing climate change because of their long atmospheric lifetime and trapping the heat in the atmosphere. Harmful effects and damages caused by environment pollution and climate change are unpredictable. It was reported that every year millions of people die because of fine particles when exposing to air pollution and other millions die from water-born diseases. Management and monitoring of air and water pollution by using GIS technology is an effective method. The measured data can be obtained continuously, quickly and accurately at stations in any regions even with complex terrain. This helps reduce the required number of employees, manage automatically and continuously a large number of data.Ngày nay nhu cầu về một môi trường sống xanh, sạch đang gia tăng, với sự bùng nổ của phát triển kinh tế - xã hội và trình độ dân trí. Tuy nhiên, ô nhiễm môi trường đang trở thành một vấn đề cảnh báo toàn cầu do số lượng lớn các chất thải được xả ra môi trường làm cho nhu cầu này không dễ dàng được đáp ứng tại thời điểm này. Phát thải khí nhà kính chủ yếu là từ sử dụng năng lượng, giao thông vận tải và đất nông nghiệp đang gây ra biến đổi khí hậu vì thời gian tồn tại của cúng dài và giữ nhiệt trong khí quyển. Các ảnh hưởng xấu và thiệt hại gây ra bởi ô nhiễm môi trường và biến đổi khí hậu là không thể đoán trước. Thông tin báo cáo chỉ ra rằng mỗi năm có hàng triệu người chết vì hít các hạt bụi mịn khi tiếp xúc với ô nhiễm không khí; và hàng triệu người khác chết vì bệnh do nước sinh ra. Quản lý và giám sát ô nhiễm không khí và nước bằng cách sử dụng công nghệ GIS là một phương pháp hiệu quả. Các dữ liệu đo có thể được lấy liên tục, nhanh chóng và chính xác tại các trạm ở bất kể khu vực nào, ngay cả nơi có địa hình phức tạp. Điều này giúp làm giảm số lượng lao động cần thiết, quản lý tự động và liên tục một số lượng lớn dữ liệu

A Rare Colonic Metastasis Case from Hepatocellular Carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellularcarcinoma (HCC) metastasis include intrahepatic and extrahepatic metastasis. Similar to intrahepatic metastasis, extrahepatic metastases are not unusual in cases with HCC. However, colonic metastasis is infrequent. CASE REPORT: We describe a clinical case, he was diagnosed with HCC a year ago, treated with TACE (transarterialchemoembolisation), re-examined with abdominal pain and defecation disorder. The tests such as CT scan, colorectal endoscopy, fine needle aspiration (FNA) revealed secondary metastatic lesion of HCC in sigmoid colon. This is the first gastrointestinal (GI) tract metastatic we have encountered. CONCLUSION: HCC metastases of the colon are rare, especially cases of hematogenous spread. The prognosis of these patients is often very critical. Indications for surgical removal of the lesion may be used if the general situation of patient is acceptable