The nations of the world plan to stop burning carbon fuels but have not fixed on any replacement. For social and economic confidence, they need to share a proper picture of the options. The science ...is simply explained and not in doubt, though widely misunderstood. Energy sources belong to three distinct groups: renewable, chemical and nuclear. Since human life began, it has adopted each of these in turn. In the past, initial disruptions have been more than off-set by the rise in human values that followed. Now, to complete the final step, we confront those who would look backward to the age of renewables. Instead, the world should look forward to a heavy dependence on nuclear energy with a confidence informed by natural science and openly shared in society.
Mississippi consistently ranks as one of the least healthy states in the United States (https://bit.ly/ 4647kAs). In 2017, Mississippi had the highest death rate in the nation from heart and kidney ...disease, and the second highest from stroke, diabetes, cancer, influenza or pneumonia, and septicemia (https://bit.ly/3LIu5BR). According to the America's Health Rankings 2022 annual report, approximately 12.4% of Mississippians have cardiovascular disease and 15.2% have diabetes, ranking Mississippi at 48th in the nation on both measures. Compared with the rest of the nation, Mississippians are themost likely to be born at a lowbirth weight (Mississippi: 11.8%; United States: 8.2% of infants weighing less than 2500 grams at birth; https://bit.ly/48sx9fh) and die a premature death (Mississippi: 13 781 years; United States: 8659 years of potential life lost before age 75 per 100 000 population annually; https://bit. ly/3tcXPR1). In addition, Mississippi had one of the highest rates of obesity, with 39.1% of the state categorized as obese.1 From health behaviors, like smoking and physical activity, to lack of health care access, Mississippians are burdened with excess disease, much of which is associated with factors that are preventable and modifiable. These poor health indicators are not confined to Mississippi's adults.
Purpose:
To identify factors that influence Black women’s body size perceptions
Design:
Interviews (cognitive mapping exercise) with 25 women; focus group with 7 additional women
Setting:
Mississippi ...Delta
Participants:
Thirty-two black women
Measures:
Influences on body size perceptions, body mass index, and body satisfaction
Analysis:
Interviewee maps were combined and condensed, using matrix addition and qualitative aggregation, to create a social map. The social map was presented to a focus group. A paired sample t test and descriptive statistics were run to assess weight perception accuracy and body satisfaction.
Results:
The initial social map contained 27 variables. Male preferences (87.5%) and appearance (64%) were believed by most participants to influence perceptions of body size. The focus group identified lack of encouragement, stress, and substance use as factors worth adding to the map. A statistically significant proportion of interviewees possessed an inaccurate weight perception, t(24) = 2.741, P < .05. Furthermore, 76% were dissatisfied with their current weight status and 80% desired a healthy body size.
Conclusion:
These findings provide practitioners with leverage points, beyond diet and physical activity, that may improve the efficacy of weight reduction interventions among black women. Considering the paucity of research regarding influences on body size perceptions, this study also provides researchers with participant-defined variables worthy of further examination.
The harm that society expects from ionizing radiation does not match experience. Evidently there is some basic error in this assumption. A reconsideration based on scientific principles shows how ...simple misunderstandings have exaggerated dangers. The consequences for society are far-reaching. The immediate impact of ionizing radiation on living tissue is destructive. However, this oxidative damage is similar to that produced during normal metabolic activity where the subsequent biological reaction is not only protective but also stimulates enhanced protection. This adaptation means that the response to oxidative damage depends on past experience. Similarly, social reaction to a radiological accident depends on the regulations and attitudes generated by the perception of previous instances. These shape whether nuclear technology and ionizing radiation are viewed as beneficial or as matters to avoid. Evidence of the spurious damage to society caused by such persistent fear in the second half of the 20 th century suggests that these laws and attitudes should be rebased on evidence. The three stages of radiological impact-the initial physical damage, the subsequent biological response, and the personal and social reaction-call on quite different logic and understanding. When these are confused, they lead to regulations and public policy decisions that are often inept, dangerous, and expensive. One example is when the mathematical rigor of physics, appropriate to the immediate impact, is misapplied to the adaptive behavior of biology. Another, the tortured historical reputation of nuclear technology, is misinterpreted as justifying a radiological protection policy of extreme caution.Specialized education and closed groups of experts tend to lock in interdisciplinary misperceptions. In the case of nuclear technology, the resulting lack of independent political confidence endangers the adoption of nuclear power as the replacement for fossil fuels. In the long term, nuclear energy is the only viable source of large-scale primary energy, but this requires a re-working of public understanding.
Among student populations, literature has identified associations between prescription opioid misuse and symptoms of depression such as hopelessness, sadness, and emotional pain. Thus far, existing ...literature has yet to investigate associations between prescription opioid misuse and depression using validated screening instruments for depression when exploring such associations. The purpose of this study was to utilize a validated screening tool to explore quantifiable presence of depression among college students who engage in recreational prescription opioid misuse (RPOM). Additionally, gender differences in depression and co-occurring substance use are examined.
Students (n = 104) of a large university in the Southeastern United States who reported ROM within the past 6 months completed instrumentation assessing demographics, substance use, as well as, screening tools for depression and possible opioid use disorder (OUD).
Positive depression screens were significantly higher among females, however, nearly56% of participants screened positive for major depression. Though high levels of co-occurring substance use were observed among the entire sample, males were significantly more likely to report cocaine use, more frequent use of alcohol and marijuana, as well as, exhibit a positive screen for disordered opioid use, at a rate 5 times that of their female counterparts.
Students who engage in RPOM are a particularly heightened-risk subsample of the college population who exhibit high levels of depressive symptomatology and substance use behavior. Targeted programming and further investigations are needed among this specific population. Future studies are encouraged to utilize validated instruments when assessing depression among students.
BACKGROUND:The current “gold standard” for treatment of chronic fracture nonunion in the metaphyseal-diaphyseal region of the fifth metatarsal is intramedullary screw fixation. Complications with ...this procedure, however, are not uncommon. Shock wave therapy can be an effective treatment for fracture nonunions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of shock wave therapy as a treatment of these nonunions.
METHODS:Twenty-three patients with a fracture nonunion in the metaphyseal-diaphyseal region of the fifth metatarsal received high-energy shock wave therapy (2000 to 4000 shocks; energy flux density per pulse, 0.35 mJ/mm), and twenty other patients with the same type of fracture nonunion were treated with intramedullary screw fixation. The numbers of fractures that were healed at three and six months after treatment in each group were determined, and treatment complications were recorded.
RESULTS:Twenty of the twenty-three nonunions in the shock wave group and eighteen of the twenty nonunions in the screw fixation group were healed at three months after treatment. One of the three nonunions that had not healed by three months in the shock wave group was healed by six months. There was one complication in the shock wave group (post-treatment petechiae) and eleven complications in the screw-fixation group (one refracture, one case of cellulitis, and nine cases of symptomatic hardware).
CONCLUSIONS:Both intramedullary screw fixation and shock wave therapy are effective treatments for fracture nonunion in the metaphyseal-diaphyseal region of the fifth metatarsal. Screw fixation is more often associated with complications that frequently result in additional surgery.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Parents may feed nestlings based on positional cues resulting from sibling competition for favored positions at the front of a nest cavity, or they may assess begging intensity regardless of location ...within the nest. We independently manipulated proximity to the nest entrance and hunger level to determine whether western bluebird (Sialia mexicana) parents favor hungrier nestlings or instead feed nestlings closest to the nest entrance. We used a balanced design to vary hungry and fed nestlings between the back and front of the nest box. We deprived half of the nestlings in each brood of food for an hour, and then, each nestling was constrained using Plexiglas dividers to a quadrant in the nest box. We videotaped inside the box to assess begging intensity and food delivery to individual nestlings. Hungry nestlings begged more intensely and received more food than fed nestlings, regardless of their proximity to the nest entrance. However, when delivering the first feed to nestlings, parents favored front nestlings over hungry nestlings, possibly due to a bias resulting from the manipulation, which involved replacing and rearranging nestlings after a 1-h period. Overall, parents did not favor nestlings in the front of the nest over those in the back. Parents therefore are able to distinguish hungrier nestlings and preferentially feed them under favorable environmental conditions, when brood reduction is uncommon.
Background: The pathophysiology of posterior tibial tendon dysfunction (PTTD) is poorly understood. It has been theorized that changes in hormone physiology may be a factor influencing tendon health. ...Estrogen's influence on the fibroblast has been studied in other musculoskeletal tissues. Gender differences in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries have been studied and it has been discovered that the Estrogen receptor (ER) as well as Progesterone receptor (PR) are expressed in the ACL. Material and Methods: Eight patients with PTTD requiring surgery were enrolled in our pilot study. The mean patient age was 52.4 (range, 18 to 73) years. There were five female and three male patients. Tendon samples were harvested from diseased PTT. Tendon samples harvested from healthy PTT and healthy flexor digitorum longus (FDL) tendon were used as controls. Tendon samples were processed using specific protocols for total RNA isolation from hypocellular, dense connective tissues. ERα and ERβ transcripts were quantified using real time RT-PCR. Quantitative values were obtained from the threshold cycle (Ct) number at which the increase in fluorescent signal associated with an exponential increase of PCR products can be detected. Results: Transcripts of both ERα and ERβ were reproducibly detected in RNA samples isolated from our tendon samples. There was no difference in receptor expression between diseased and control tendon samples. There was no difference in receptor expression between male and female patients. Conclusion: We found that the tenocyte of the PTT and FDL tendons express ERα and ERβ. Normal and diseased tendons of both male and female patients expressed both estrogen receptors. Clinical Relevance: Identifying ERα and ERβ gene expression in the fibroblast was an initial step in discovering whether tenocytes are targets for estrogen function. Estrogen receptors were identified indirectly by measuring receptor gene expression but we were unable to show a significant difference between diseased and control tendons.
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