Self-control and alcohol consumption among university students in Botswana

The study explored the relationship between self-control and alcohol consumption among students at the University of Botswana, and was entrenched within the socialcognitive theory of self-regulation. Data were collected from 135 undergraduate students (42.2% female, 57.8% male) with a mean age of 21.22 years (SD = 2.16). Self-control was measured by the Brief Self-control Scale. Self-reported alcohol consumption on weekdays and in specific situations was converted into alcohol units. Participants who reported not drinking alcohol at all (55.6%) scored significantly higher in self-control. For those participants who reported drinking alcohol (44.4%), total self-control scores correlated moderately and inversely with alcohol consumption per week, in situations of stress, happiness, and when with friends. Standard multiple regression analysis revealed that self-control was a stronger predictor of the amount of alcohol consumed than were age and gender. The results are discussed with regard to the role of self-regulatory behaviour in the consumption of alcohol.Key words: Alcohol consumption, Botswana, self-control, self-regulation, undergraduate student

CO2 and non-CO2 radiative forcings in climate projections for twenty-first century mitigation scenarios

Climate is simulated for reference and mitigation emissions scenarios from Integrated Assessment Models using the Bern2.5CC carbon cycle-climate model. Mitigation options encompass all major radiative forcing agents. Temperature change is attributed to forcings using an impulse-response substitute of Bern2.5CC. The contribution of CO2 to global warming increases over the century in all scenarios. Non-CO2 mitigation measures add to the abatement of global warming. The share of mitigation carried by CO2, however, increases when radiative forcing targets are lowered, and increases after 2000 in all mitigation scenarios. Thus, non-CO2 mitigation is limited and net CO2 emissions must eventually subside. Mitigation rapidly reduces the sulfate aerosol loading and associated cooling, partly masking Greenhouse Gas mitigation over the coming decades. A profound effect of mitigation on CO2 concentration, radiative forcing, temperatures and the rate of climate change emerges in the second half of the centur

Probabilistic climate change projections using neural networks

Anticipated future warming of the climate system increases the need for accurate climate projections. A central problem are the large uncertainties associated with these model projections, and that uncertainty estimates are often based on expert judgment rather than objective quantitative methods. Further, important climate model parameters are still given as poorly constrained ranges that are partly inconsistent with the observed warming during the industrial period. Here we present a neural network based climate model substitute that increases the efficiency of large climate model ensembles by at least an order of magnitude. Using the observed surface warming over the industrial period and estimates of global ocean heat uptake as constraints for the ensemble, this method estimates ranges for climate sensitivity and radiative forcing that are consistent with observations. In particular, negative values for the uncertain indirect aerosol forcing exceeding -1.2Wm-2 can be excluded with high confidence. A parameterization to account for the uncertainty in the future carbon cycle is introduced, derived separately from a carbon cycle model. This allows us to quantify the effect of the feedback between oceanic and terrestrial carbon uptake and global warming on global temperature projections. Finally, probability density functions for the surface warming until year 2100 for two illustrative emission scenarios are calculated, taking into account uncertainties in the carbon cycle, radiative forcing, climate sensitivity, model parameters and the observed temperature records. We find that warming exceeds the surface warming range projected by IPCC for almost half of the ensemble members. Projection uncertainties are only consistent with IPCC if a model-derived upper limit of about 5K is assumed for climate sensitivit

Mortality in Recreational Mountain-Biking in the Austrian Alps: A Retrospective Study over 16 Years.

Despite recreational mountain-biking's growing popularity worldwide, the literature on mortality in this leisure sporting activity is scarce. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the characteristics of fatal accidents as well as resulting dead victims during recreational mountain-biking in the Austrian Alps over the past 16 years. For this purpose, a retrospective study based on Austrian institutional documentation from 2006 to 2021 was conducted. In total, 97 fatalities (1 woman) with a mean age of 55.6 ± 13.9 years were recorded by the Austrian Alpine Police. Of those, 54.6% died due to a non-traumatic (mostly cardio-vascular) and 41.2% due to a traumatic event. Mountain-bikers fatally accidented for non-traumatic reasons frequently belonged to older age classes (p = 0.05) and mostly (73.6%) died during the ascent, whereas traumatic events mainly (70.0%) happened during the descent (p < 0.001). Throughout the examined period, the absolute number of fatalities slightly increased, whereas the mortality index (proportion of deaths/accidented victims) did not (mean value: 1.34 ± 0.56%). Factors such as male sex in general, above average age and uphill riding for non-traumatic accidents, as well as downhill riding for traumatic events, seem to be associated with fatalities during recreational mountain-biking in the Austrian Alps. These results should be considered for future preventive strategies in recreational mountain-biking

Making SPIFFI SPIFFIER: Upgrade of the SPIFFI instrument for use in ERIS and performance analysis from re-commissioning

SPIFFI is an AO-fed integral field spectrograph operating as part of SINFONI on the VLT, which will be upgraded and reused as SPIFFIER in the new VLT instrument ERIS. In January 2016, we used new technology developments to perform an early upgrade to optical subsystems in the SPIFFI instrument so ongoing scientific programs can make use of enhanced performance before ERIS arrives in 2020. We report on the upgraded components and the performance of SPIFFI after the upgrade, including gains in throughput and spatial and spectral resolution. We show results from re-commissioning, highlighting the potential for scientific programs to use the capabilities of the upgraded SPIFFI. Finally, we discuss the additional upgrades for SPIFFIER which will be implemented before it is integrated into ERIS.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures. Proceedings from SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 201

Invasive community-onset gram-positive infections from July 2018 through December 2022 at 2 children\u27s hospitals

BACKGROUND: Invasive infections caused by METHODS: Cases of iGAS, IPD, and I-CO-SA infections were identified prospectively and retrospectively at 2 large US children\u27s hospitals by positive cultures from July 2018 through December 2022. Admission data were used to estimate frequency. For comparison, rates of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, and SARS-CoV-2 were estimated by the number of positive viral test results at each institution. RESULTS: I-CO-SA infections showed little variation in the study period. Rates of iGAS infection and IPD decreased by 46% and 44%, respectively, from 2019 to 2020, coinciding with a substantial decrease in RSV and influenza. In 2022, RSV and influenza infection rates increased to prepandemic winter season rates, coinciding with a return to prepandemic rates of IPD (225% increase from 2021 to 2022) and a surge above prepandemic rates of iGAS infections (543% increase from 2021 to 2022). CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic had an unexpected influence on IPD and iGAS infections that was temporally related to changes in rates of viral infections