Waist Circumference predicting Cardiovascular Disease in Korean Men and Women

Objective: Obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are closely related and have become increasingly prevalent in Korea. Asians are more prone to obesity-related co-morbidities than Caucasians, even at lower body mass index (BMI) and/or smaller waist circumference (WC) values. Nevertheless, little is known regarding the association of WC with the risk of CVD in non-Caucasian populations. The authors conducted a prospective cohort study of WC and the risk of CVD in the Korean Heart Study.Methods: We examined the association of WC to CVD incidence among 53,026 Korean adults (30,152 men, 22,874 women) with no history of CVD and/or cancer. During a mean follow-up of 8.6 years, 2,722 incident cases of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) including 1,383 cases of ischemic heart disease (IHD) and 1,012 cases of stroke were documented. Results: Average WC at baseline was 84.0±8.2 cm in men and 75.2±8.9 cm in women. After adjustment for age and BMI, WC was significantly associated with cardiovascular risk factors (P <.001). In men, a WC of ≥91 cm was associated with an ASCVD hazard ratio (HR) of 1.62 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.25, 2.10) and an IHD HR of 1.70 (95% CI: 1.19, 2.42) in comparison with a WC of <78 cm even after further adjustment for BMI and traditional risk factors (P for trend = 0.0118, 0.0139 respectively). In women, the progressive associations of WC with ASCVD, IHD and stroke were observed. These associations were however attenuated after further adjustment for BMI and traditional risk factors. The multivariable HRs for ASCVD, IHD, and stroke increased with higher WC in both men and women. Conclusions: Central obesity significantly and independently contributes to cardiovascular outcomes in Korean men and women

Population of Cattle Egret (Bubulcus Ibis) at the Grassland of University Putra Malaysia, Serdang Selangor, Malaysia

A study of population of the Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) was conducted at the Grassland, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang Selangor. The objectives of this study were to (1) estimate the population size and (2) examine the feeding habitats of egrets. Distance Sampling Method was used for this study where five transects namely Transect A, Transect B, Transect C, Transect D and Transect E were established randomly in the study area. The length of each transect A, B, C, D and E was 390 m, 370 m, 310 m, 500 m and 480 m respectively. Each line was surveyed continuously at 3 days with two in morning and afternoon. Program DISTANCE V2.2 was used to estimate the density. Feeding habitat of Cattle Egret was conducted by direct observation. The density of Cattle Egret ranged from 2.51 to 4.34 individuals per hectare. The population size of egrets at the Grassland area of University Putra Malaysia, Serdang Selangor, Malaysia ranged from 648 to 1120 birds. The feeding habitat of egret was found to be associated with cattle. However, the number of egrets was less when the cattles were not feeding in the field, because cattles provided flies and cattle ticks for egrets

Iodate in calcite, aragonite and vaterite CaCO<inf>3</inf>: Insights from first-principles calculations and implications for the I/Ca geochemical proxy

The incorporation of iodine into each of the three polymorphs of CaCO3 – calcite, aragonite and vaterite, is compared using first-principles computational simulation. In each case iodine is most easily accommodated as iodate (IO3-) onto the carbonate site. Local strain fields around the iodate solute atom are revealed in the pair distribution functions for the relaxed structures, which indicate that aragonite displays the greatest degree of local structural distortion while vaterite is relatively unaffected. The energy penalty for iodate incorporation is least significant in vaterite, and greatest in aragonite, with the implication that iodine will display significant partitioning between calcium carbonate polymorphs. in the order vaterite > calcite > aragonite. Furthermore, we find that trace iodine incorporation into vaterite confers improved mechanical strength to vaterite crystals. Our results support the supposition that iodine is incorporated as iodate within biogenic carbonates, important in the application of I/Ca data in palaeoproxy studies of ocean oxygenation. Our observation that iodate is most easily accommodated into vaterite implies that the presence of vaterite in any biocalcification process, be it as an end-product or a precursor, should be taken into account when applying the I/Ca geochemical proxy

Successful transition to mobile government (m-government) : an adaptive framework

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.Over the past decade Governments all over the world have been moving towards providing services to their citizens via the web, with varying degrees of success. These e-Government initiatives have been the subject of extensive research. This research is concerned with the transitioning from e-Government to mobile government (m-Government). Mobile government implementation is still in its very early stages - indeed a perfect m-Government Framework/model has not yet been created. This research aims to contribute to the field by developing a successful m- Government framework as a basis for a transition methodology, either from e-Government to m- Government or directly to m-Government. Transitioning from e- Government to m-Government requires researching the integration process between e-Government and m-Government. It also requires investigation of all the pressures, obstacles that hinder the transition process and m -Government success factors. Such obstacles and success factors differ between nations, such as a nation's technological and information infrastructure, mobile device penetration and acceptance, public and social pressures, and security. Finally an m-Government initiative must be developed followed by an m-Government strategy. Mobile devices have the potential to become ideal access devices because they are small, light, personal, convenient, and many people carry them all the time, everywhere. Mobile devices have a number of connectivity options, and their own display and input capabilities. They are already widely used around the world. Mobile Government, despite its potential, has not reached anticipated adopt ion levels. While there may be many reasons for this, limited previous research has focused on only a few topics, mainly technology and consumers. The main aim of this study is to discover what is necessary to improve the adoption and implementation of mobile government systems. Specific objectives that w ere proposed to help achieve this aim included: a) identifying all the factors that may influence adoption and implementation of mobile services, b) integrating such factors and relations between them in a framework, and c) providing specific recommendations and guidelines in all the various perspectives. Case studies were the methodology employed to fulfil these objectives. A qualitative approach was found to be most suitable to this study, and open-ended Web surveys, as well as various kinds of interviews, including email, face-to-face, and phone, were used to obtain detailed, in-depth information from industry and user participants. The main contribution of this study is the adaptive theoretic al framework that explains the specific factors that influence the adoption, diffusion and implementation of mobile government systems. It provides interesting findings on each of the identified factors, and at the same time integrates such investigations as one coherent whole that forms a framework of success factor s for mobile government systems. Some of the discovered factors have never before been proposed. Others have been proposed in fragmented explanations that focused on several influences only. Yet other factor s have been proposed before, but this study offered more accurate or understandable interpretations or names for them. In addition, this study integrated all the factors in a framework, pointing out the important contexts and conditions that need to be understood and fulfilled. Another contribution can be found in the multitude of specific guidelines and recommendations that have been discovered in the participants' data. This study additionally devoted much attention to studying international mobile governments. The proposed framework with its well explained success factors can be used by traditional or electronic governments to improve their current work processes through the new mobile and wireless technologies

Smothering effect of different crops on weed Malva neglecta Wallr.

Field study was conducted at experimental farm of Punjab Agricultural University ,Ludhiana (India) during rabi seasons of 2004-05 and 2005-06. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with fourteen treatments having combination of seven different crops viz. bread wheat, durum wheat, six - rowed barley, two-rowed barley, raya, gobhi sarson, linseed and two weed control treatments i.e. hand weeded and unweeded. The study was planned with an objective to find out the most suitable Rabi crop that can suppress the weeds to maximum extent with minimum reduction in yield as there was no herbicide available which can control the weeds in an effective manner. Minimum weed dry matter accumulation was observed in raya (0.97qha-1 in the weeded plot) whereas maximum dry matter accumulation was observed in bread wheat (8.3qha-1), followed by durum wheat (6.1qha-1), linseed(5.0qha-1), barley (6-row) (4.9qha-1), barley (2-row) (2.6qha-1) and gobhi sarson (2.4qha-1). Raya (Brassica juncea) showed maximum suppressing poten-tial as minimum per cent reduction in crop yield of unweeded over weeded (7.4%) and minimum per cent increase in weed dry matter of unweeded over weeded( 44%) was observed in this crop. Gobhi sarson (Brassica napus) was the next best smothering crop followed by barley (2-row), barley (6-row), linseed, durum wheat and bread wheat, respectively in suppressing the M. neglecta. Two hand weedings treatment proved better in controlling the weeds as compared to unweeded treatment

A Review of the Use of Resorbable Plateing Systems in Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery

Resorbable materials have been used for many different procedures in cranio-maxillofacial surgery. However, they have had varying rates of success. The use of resorbable for oncological reconstruction is a relatively new area, compared with paediatric trauma and orthognathic surgery

An Alternative to Warner’s Randomized Response Model

A modification to Warner’s (1965) Randomized Response Model is suggested. The suggested model is more efficient than the original model

Scanning Electron Microscopy study of root tissue of muskmelon: Transferring Fusarium wilt resistance from snapmelon to muskmelon

The overall aim of this study was to investigate the level of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Melonis (F.o.m.) infection by studying the Scanning electron micrographs of transverse sections of parent inbred lines and developed F1 hybrid. The current study involved KP4HM-15 (Fusarium wilt resistant inbred line) in a crossing program with well adapted muskmelon cv. Punjab Sunehri (PS) to develop FW resistant hybrid possessing high yield and quality traits. Fom infects melon root and trails through the cortical and endodermal cells to reach xylem vessels by penetrating through pits. This is the first SEM appraisal of the whole tap root of field grown melon accessions, KP4HM-15, PS and PSxKP4HM-15 (MH-41) (F1 hybrid) aimed to discern the role of the root morphometric characters for imparting FW resistance. The trend for root epidermo-cortical thickness was KP4HM-15&gt;PS&gt;MH-41 while for the xylem diameter was MH-41&gt; KP4HM-15&gt;PS. The F1 hybrid exhibited FW resistance intermediate among the two parents i.e. absence or presence of less mycelia as compared to the susceptible parent (PS). However, the extent of infection was higher than the resistant parent KP4HM-15, which shows that partial resistance was transferred from KP4HM-15 to MH-41. This study accentuates the resistance gene mining and use of wild melon accessions to introgress FW resistance in commercial melon cultivars