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Background/Aim: The relation of social isolation (SI) to global cardiovascular health (CVH) is not clear. In this paper the association of CVH metrics to SI within US adults was investigated. Methods: Using the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the association of SI with American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 (LS7) CVH components (smoking, body mass index, physical activity, total cholesterol, diet, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose) was examined. The sum of the components (scored 1 for poor, 2 for intermediate and 3 for ideal) created a composite CVH score. Multiple logistic regression provided the odds of SI according to levels of the LS7 components adjusted for age, sex, and ethnicity. Results: A total of 3,528 adults aged ≥ 40 were studied. The mean age, sex and ethnicity-adjusted composite CVH scores were 14.1 vs 14.6 in those with vs without SI (p < 0.01). Multiple logistic regression examined individual LS7 components in relation to SI and showed the adjusted odds for SI for those with ideal vs poor smoking status to be 0.57 (range 0.38-0.85), ideal vs poor physical activity 0.53 (range 0.37-0.76) and ideal vs poor fasting glucose 0.65 (range 0.47-0.91). Conclusion: This study generally shows lower levels of CVH in those with vs without SI, with non-smoking status; ideal physical activity and ideal glucose levels were all less likely associated with SI, suggesting the potential value for screening for SI in identifying those at potential cardiovascular disease risk.

Electroreduction of CO2 became an important topic recently because it can reduce the atmospheric CO2 levels and simultaneously synthesize chemical fuels. However, efficient conversion of CO2 to pro...

In this paper, we obtain approximate inverses of popular tri-diagonal and penta-diagonal matrices which are used to construct local (or a discrete quasi-interpolant) interpolatory and integro splines.

In this paper, we show that the integro quintic splines can locally be constructed without solving any systems of equations. The new construction does not require any additional end conditions. By virtue of these advantages the proposed algorithm is easy to implement and effective. At the same time, the local integro quintic splines possess as good approximation properties as the integro quintic splines. In this paper, we have proved that our local integro quintic spline has superconvergence properties at the knots for the first and third derivatives. The orders of convergence at the knots are six (not five) for the first derivative and four (not three) for the third derivative.

Background and Aim: Evaluation of voice problem involves perceptual, acoustic, aerodynamic and physiological measure. In recent years assessment of patients point of view use as a essential part of evaluation. The aim of this study was construct a questionnaire for assessment of physical, functional and emotional voice problems in adults. Methods: This study is a kind of constructing battery. Based on a comprehensive study of many foreign questionnaires, “The voice symptoms assessment” questionnaire in adult was produced. Its content validity was determined according to the judgment of 7 speech and language pathologists. This questionnaire administered to 60 voice patients (20 female and 40 male) between 18 to 60 years old that could read and write in Persian. The reliability of this questionnaire is determined by the method of Cronbach Alpha and split half. Results: Content validity index of this questionnaire was 0.94. Cronbach Alpha was high (more than 0.7) and Spearman-Brown coefficient of split half was 0.96. Correlatoin Coefficient was statistically significant between 3 parts and total questionnaire (p

The present study examines the relationship between the levels of persistent polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in adolescents’ blood serum and concurrent measures of their ADHD-like behavior derived from ratings provided by parents and teachers. Two measures with demonstrated diagnostic validity, the Conners and ADDES scales, are used. The study was conducted in partnership with the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne where the St. Lawrence River and surrounding waterways have been contaminated with PCBs that have entered the food chain. This study examines a subset of the data derived from the Mohawk Adolescent Well-Being Study (MAWBS), which was designed to investigate psychosocial and health related outcomes of 271 adolescents aged 10 years to 17 years and whose mothers were likely to have consumed PCB-contaminated fish and wild game before and during their pregnancy. No evidence of negative effects of adolescent blood PCB levels on ADHD-like behavior was found, and indeed occasional findings were in the unexpected direction. The possibility of negative confounding by SES and breast-feeding history was examined but dismissed.

Using the resistive heated method, TiO2/Ag/TiO2 thin files (Transparent heat windows) in vertical deposition angle were deposited on SiO2 substrate, in high vacuum (HV) condition and 100°c. The thickness of TiO2 on glass substrate was 50°A, Silver film 125°A and 225°A and the upper layer TiO2 with 115°A. All other deposition conditions were same for both samples .Atomic force microscope (AFM), and spectrophotometric methods were used to study the nanostructures of these samples in the range of FTIR. The purpose of this work is to find and produce the structure with the least energy waste.

In this paper we define a new set of spline functions called “Fuzzy Splines” to interpolate fuzzy data. Numerical examples will be presented to illustrate the differences between of using our spline and other interpolations that have been studied before.

Researchers and educators argue that social and emotional development affect academic success, and therefore should be targets for intervention. It is strongly suggested that such intervention begin during kindergarten. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Nurturing Curriculum, which is designed to improve emotional and social behaviors in the classroom. Eight kindergarten teachers conducted the Nurturing Curriculum throughout the school year. Aggression, dominance, disruptive behavior, socially immature behavior, and academic immaturity decreased significantly over time. Prosocial behavior increased significantly over time. Comparison to a cohort not exposed to the Nurturing Curriculum indicated that these improvements are not simply due to normal developmental changes in emotional and social behaviors. Collectively, the emotional and social behaviors measured accounted for 82 percent of the variance in academic immaturity at the end of the school year. Thus, the Nu...

In this paper the spline-on-spline interpolatory polynomials are used to approximate Cauchy principal value integrals and their derivatives. This technique yields better results than using the derivatives of the traditional single spline functions, which has been considered by Orsi. Improved order of convergence for these approximations are discussed.

In this short paper, a very interesting Pascal-like triangle is introduced to derive and easily write the consistency relations of any spline function of any degree.

k=i is close to log n; this shows that the harmonic series diverges very, very slowly. For example, it takes more than 1.5 x 1043 terms for its partial sums to reach 100; see [3], [4], and [5]. In this paper, we refine and thin out the harmonic series to show that the divergence of this series depends on some of its specific terms and without those terms the remaining subseries is convergent. Then, an upper bound and an approximate value will be given to the value of the convergent subseries. Finally, by use of the derived results, it will be shown that the divergence of the Euler series E: (over prime numbers p) depends on specific prime numbers.

The algorithms and schemes of the cubic spline interpolation with two end conditions which do not require thederivative information at the end points are of great practical importance and have been included in several general purpose software libraries. The cubic spline with not-a-knot end conditions is one of them and it is implemented in the widely used IMSL and NAG software libraries. In this paper we compare theE(3) cubic spline with the not-a-knot cubic spline and we will show that theE(3) cubic spline is more accurate than the second one, and also, it has superconvergence properties which the not-a-knot cubic spline does not have. These superconvergence properties of theE(3) cubic spline can be used in different fields for better approximation.

In this paper, the main idea of the not-a-knot cubic spline of De Boor [8] will be extended to all the interior points (knots) of the spline interval to obtain a piecewise interpolatory cubic polynomial. Instead of the original and conventional not-a-knot cubic spline, to construct this piecewise polynomial we do not need to solve a tridiagonal system of linear equations, and this provides a shortcut which helps us save the time of doing more computations. The order of convergence of this piecewise cubic polynomial is O(h^4).

The interpolatory piecewise Hermite quartic polynomials induced by cubic spline has been established by Behforooz and Papamichael [1]. These polynomials can be used to approximate the functions and their derivatives over the entire spline interval and obtain better orders of convergence than use of the cubic spline. In this paper these piecewise polynomials will be used to estimate the Cauchy principal value integrals and their derivatives. This technique yields better results than using the derivatives of the single spline functions which has been considered by Orsi [2].