The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between demographics, compassion fatigue (CF), compassion satisfaction (CS), burnout (BO) and alcohol use among dental hygienists (DHs).
...The web-based survey consisting of two validated instruments Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Professional Quality of Life to measure alcohol use, CF, CS and BO was conducted with a convenience sample of DHs (n = 963).
The completion rate was 81.6% (n = 786). Nearly one in five DHs (19.1%) reported having their alcohol consumption influenced by the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic at least moderately. The number of hours worked per week (x) and AUDIT scores (y) were fully mediated by BO (m) (P < 0.001); the average number of hours worked per week (x) and AUDIT scores (y) were fully mediated by CF (m) (P < 0.001); the average number of patients seen per day (x) was a predictor of AUDIT scores (y) when partially mediated by BO (m) (P < 0.001); and age (x) was a predictor of AUDIT scores (y), mediated by CS (m). Results showed that one in four DHs could qualify for binge drinking (25.6%, n = 177) and 15.1% experienced blackout drinking episodes within the past year (n = 118).
Mediating relationships exist between demographics, CF, CS, BO and alcohol use among DHs. More research needs to be conducted on alcohol use and CF among DHs and protective factors that may reduce the risk of BO, CF or alcohol use.
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-133).
by Jaime B. Teevan.
S.M.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2007.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis ...is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-176).
Although one of the most common uses for the Internet to search for information, Web search tools often fail to connect people with what they are looking for. This is because search tools are designed to satisfy people in general, not the searcher in particular. Different individuals with different information needs often type the same search terms into a search box and expect different results. For example, the query "breast cancer" may be used by a student to find information on the disease for a fifth grade science report, and by a cancer patient to find treatment options. This thesis explores how Web search personalization can help individuals take advantage of their unique past information interactions when searching. Several studies of search behavior are presented and used to inform the design of a personalized search system that significantly improves result quality. Without requiring any extra effort from the user, the system is able to return simple breast cancer tutorials for the fifth grader's "breast cancer" query, and lists of treatment options for the patient's. While personalization can help identify relevant new information, new information can create problems re-finding when presented in a way that does not account for previous information interactions.
(cont.) Consider the cancer patient who repeats a search for breast cancer treatments: she may want to learn about new treatments while reviewing the information she found earlier about her current treatment. To not interfere with refinding, repeat search results should be personalized not by ranking the most relevant results first, but rather by ranking them where the user most expects them to be. This thesis presents a model of what people remember about search results, and shows that it is possible to invisibly merge new information into previously viewed search result lists where information has been forgotten. Personalizing repeat search results in this way enables people to effectively find both new and old information using the same search result list.
by Jaime Teevan.
Ph.D.
Taste and smell play a key role in our ability to perceive foods. Overconsumption of highly palatable energy-dense foods can lead to increased caloric intake and obesity. Thus there is growing ...interest in the study of the biological mediators of fat taste and associated olfaction as potential targets for pharmacologic and nutritional interventions in the context of obesity and health. The number of studies examining mechanisms underlying fat taste and smell has grown rapidly in the last 5 years. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review is to summarize emerging evidence examining the biological mechanisms of fat taste and smell. A literature search was conducted of studies published in English between 2014 and 2021 in adult humans and animal models. Database searches were conducted using PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and Web of Science for key terms including fat/lipid, taste, and olfaction. Initially, 4,062 articles were identified through database searches, and a total of 84 relevant articles met inclusion and exclusion criteria and are included in this review. Existing literature suggests that there are several proteins integral to fat chemosensation, including cluster of differentiation 36 (CD36) and G protein-coupled receptor 120 (GPR120). This systematic review will discuss these proteins and the signal transduction pathways involved in fat detection. We also review neural circuits, key brain regions, ingestive cues, postingestive signals, and genetic polymorphism that play a role in fat perception and consumption. Finally, we discuss the role of fat taste and smell in the context of eating behavior and obesity.
Asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap (ACO) represents the confluence of bronchial airway hyperreactivity and chronic airflow limitation and has been described as leading to ...worse lung function and quality of life than found with either singular disease process.
We aimed to describe the prevalence and risk factors for ACO among adults across 6 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
We compiled cross-sectional data for 11,923 participants aged 35 to 92 years from 4 population-based studies in 12 settings. We defined COPD as postbronchodilator FEV1/forced vital capacity ratio below the lower limit of normal, asthma as wheeze or medication use in 12 months or self-reported physician diagnosis, and ACO as having both.
The prevalence of ACO was 3.8% (0% in rural Puno, Peru, to 7.8% in Matlab, Bangladesh). The odds of having ACO were higher with household exposure to biomass fuel smoke (odds ratio OR, 1.48; 95% CI, 0.98-2.23), smoking tobacco (OR, 1.28 per 10 pack-years; 95% CI, 1.22-1.34), and having primary or less education (OR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.07-1.70) as compared to nonobstructed nonasthma individuals. ACO was associated with severe obstruction (FEV1 %, <50; 31.6% of ACO vs 10.9% of COPD alone) and severe spirometric deficits compared with participants with asthma (−1.61 z scores FEV1; 95% CI, −1.48 to −1.75) or COPD alone (−0.94 z scores; 95% CI, −0.78 to −1.10).
ACO may be as prevalent and more severe in LMICs than has been reported in high-income settings. Exposure to biomass fuel smoke may be an overlooked risk factor, and we favor diagnostic criteria for ACO that include environmental exposures common to LMICs.
Display omitted
A mutualistic symbiosis exists between the alga Sargassum spp. and two shrimp species, Latreutes fucorum and Leander tenuicornis. However, little is known about how these shrimp locate and establish ...their host alga. Both visual and chemical cues are potentially available. A previous study has looked at both cue variables with results that are mixed. Specifically, these same shrimp species used chemical cues only when visible cues were available simultaneously. Visual cues would be presumably restricted at night, but chemical cues are potentially available continuously. This current research elaborates on the previous study to fully understand Sargassum shrimp chemoreception. Increases in sample sizes and both a 4-chambered and Y-maze apparatus were used to test whether the shrimp could detect Sargassum cues, dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) (a chemical excreted by some marine algae), and conspecific cues. Neither shrimp species showed a strong directional response to any of the chemical cues, but the Sargassum and DMSP cues did cause more shrimp to exhibit searching behavior. Additionally, several differences in responses between male and female shrimp were found for each cue. A lowered dilution of DMSP was also tested to determine sensitivity of L. fucorum shrimp to the chemical cue; although searching behavior was triggered, conclusions about quantifying the sensitivity could not be made. Overall, these results show the shrimp can detect chemical cues—in the absence of visual cues—that could affect initiating and maintaining this shrimp/algal symbiosis.
Key points
In aged rats, daily muscle stretching increases blood flow to skeletal muscle during exercise.
Daily muscle stretching enhanced endothelium‐dependent vasodilatation of skeletal muscle ...resistance arterioles of aged rats.
Angiogenic markers and capillarity increased in response to daily stretching in muscles of aged rats.
Muscle stretching performed with a splint could provide a feasible means of improving muscle blood flow and function in elderly patients who cannot perform regular aerobic exercise.
Mechanical stretch stimuli alter the morphology and function of cultured endothelial cells; however, little is known about the effects of daily muscle stretching on adaptations of endothelial function and muscle blood flow. The present study aimed to determine the effects of daily muscle stretching on endothelium‐dependent vasodilatation and muscle blood flow in aged rats. The lower hindlimb muscles of aged Fischer rats were passively stretched by placing an ankle dorsiflexion splint for 30 min day–1, 5 days week–1, for 4 weeks. Blood flow to the stretched limb and the non‐stretched contralateral limb was determined at rest and during treadmill exercise. Endothelium‐dependent/independent vasodilatation was evaluated in soleus muscle arterioles. Levels of hypoxia‐induced factor‐1α, vascular endothelial growth factor A and neuronal nitric oxide synthase were determined in soleus muscle fibres. Levels of endothelial nitric oxide synthase and superoxide dismutase were determined in soleus muscle arterioles, and microvascular volume and capillarity were evaluated by microcomputed tomography and lectin staining, respectively. During exercise, blood flow to plantar flexor muscles was significantly higher in the stretched limb. Endothelium‐dependent vasodilatation was enhanced in arterioles from the soleus muscle from the stretched limb. Microvascular volume, number of capillaries per muscle fibre, and levels of hypoxia‐induced factor‐1α, vascular endothelial growth factor and endothelial nitric oxide synthase were significantly higher in the stretched limb. These results indicate that daily passive stretching of muscle enhances endothelium‐dependent vasodilatation and induces angiogenesis. These microvascular adaptations may contribute to increased muscle blood flow during exercise in muscles that have undergone daily passive stretch.
Key points
In aged rats, daily muscle stretching increases blood flow to skeletal muscle during exercise.
Daily muscle stretching enhanced endothelium‐dependent vasodilatation of skeletal muscle resistance arterioles of aged rats.
Angiogenic markers and capillarity increased in response to daily stretching in muscles of aged rats.
Muscle stretching performed with a splint could provide a feasible means of improving muscle blood flow and function in elderly patients who cannot perform regular aerobic exercise.
Abstract
Changing-look active galactic nuclei (CL AGNs) can be generally confirmed by the emergence (turn-on) or disappearance (turn-off) of broad emission lines (BELs), associated with a transient ...timescale (about 100 ∼ 5000 days) that is much shorter than predicted by traditional accretion disk models. We carry out a systematic CL AGN search by crossmatching the spectra coming from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Following previous studies, we identify CL AGNs based on H
α
, H
β
, and Mg
ii
at
z
≤ 0.75 and Mg
ii
, C
iii
, and C
iv
at
z
> 0.75. We present 56 CL AGNs based on visual inspection and three selection criteria, including 2 H
α
, 34 H
β
, 9 Mg
ii
, 18 C
iii
, and 1 C
iv
CL AGN. Eight cases show simultaneous appearances/disappearances of two BELs. We also present 44 CL AGN candidates with significant flux variation of BELs, but remaining strong broad components. In the confirmed CL AGNs, 10 cases show additional CL candidate features for different lines. In this paper, we find: (1) a 24:32 ratio of turn-on to turn-off CL AGNs; (2) an upper-limit transition timescale ranging from 330 to 5762 days in the rest frame; and (3) the majority of CL AGNs follow the bluer-when-brighter trend. Our results greatly increase the current CL census (∼30%) and would be conducive to exploring the underlying physical mechanism.
Abstract
We present the probabilistic stellar mass function (pSMF) of galaxies in the DESI Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS), observed during the One-percent Survey. The One-percent Survey was one of DESI’s ...survey validation programs conducted from 2021 April to May, before the start of the main survey. It used the same target selection and similar observing strategy as the main survey and successfully observed the spectra and redshifts of 143,017 galaxies in the
r
< 19.5 magnitude-limited BGS Bright sample and 95,499 galaxies in the fainter surface-brightness- and color-selected BGS Faint sample over
z
< 0.6. We derive pSMFs from posteriors of stellar mass,
M
*
, inferred from DESI photometry and spectroscopy using the Hahn et al. PRObabilistic Value-Added BGS (PROVABGS) Bayesian spectral energy distribution modeling framework. We use a hierarchical population inference framework that statistically and rigorously propagates the
M
*
uncertainties. Furthermore, we include correction weights that account for the selection effects and incompleteness of the BGS observations. We present the redshift evolution of the pSMF in BGS, as well as the pSMFs of star-forming and quiescent galaxies classified using average specific star formation rates from PROVABGS. Overall, the pSMFs show good agreement with previous stellar mass function measurements in the literature. Our pSMFs showcase the potential and statistical power of BGS, which in its main survey will observe >100 × more galaxies. Moreover, we present the statistical framework for subsequent population statistics measurements using BGS, which will characterize the global galaxy population and scaling relations at low redshifts with unprecedented precision.
Abstract
In the current Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey, emission line galaxies (ELGs) and luminous red galaxies (LRGs) are essential for mapping the dark matter distribution at
z
...∼ 1. We measure the auto and cross correlation functions of ELGs and LRGs at 0.8 <
z
≤ 1.0 from the DESI One-Percent survey. Following Gao et al., we construct the galaxy–halo connections for ELGs and LRGs simultaneously. With the stellar–halo mass relation for the whole galaxy population (i.e., normal galaxies), LRGs can be selected directly by stellar mass, while ELGs can also be selected randomly based on the observed number density of each stellar mass, once the probability
P
sat
of a satellite galaxy becoming an ELG is determined. We demonstrate that the observed small scale clustering prefers a halo mass-dependent
P
sat
model rather than a constant. With this model, we can well reproduce the auto correlations of LRGs and the cross correlations between LRGs and ELGs at
r
p
> 0.1 Mpc
h
−1
. We can also reproduce the auto correlations of ELGs at
r
p
> 0.3 Mpc
h
−1
(
s
> 1 Mpc
h
−1
) in real (redshift) space. Although our model has only seven parameters, we show that it can be extended to higher redshifts and reproduces the observed auto correlations of ELGs in the whole range of 0.8 <
z
≤ 1.6, which enables us to generate a lightcone ELG mock for DESI. With the above model, we further derive halo occupation distributions for ELGs, which can be used to produce ELG mocks in coarse simulations without resolving subhalos.