State-approved membrane filtration (MF) techniques for water quality assessments were contrasted with metagenomic shotgun sequencing (MSS) protocols to evaluate their efficacy in providing precise health-risk indices for surface waters. Using MSS, the relative numerical abundance of pathogenic bacteria, virulence and antibiotic resistance genes revealed the status and potential pollution sources in samples studied. Traditional culture methods (TCM) showed possible fecal contamination, while MSS clearly distinguished between fecal and environmental bacteria contamination sources, and pinpointed actual risks from pathogens. RNA MSS to detect all viable microorganisms and qPCR of fecal biomarkers were used to assess the possible environmental risk between runoff drainage canals and a swamp area with no anthropogenic impact. Results revealed higher levels of pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and virulence and antibiotic resistance genes in the canal samples. The data underscore the potential utility of MSS in precision risk assessment for public and biodiversity health and tracking of environmental microbiome shifts by field managers and policy makers. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第22766号 / 工博第4765号 / 新制||工||1745(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市環境工学専攻 / (主査)教授 米田 稔, 教授 高野 裕久, 准教授 藤森 真一郎 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are ubiquitous in the environment and have been detected in drinking water. Although various water treatment processes can remove EDCs, chemicals can migrate from pipes that transport water and contaminate drinking water. Globally bottled water consumption is steadily rising as an alternative to tap water, but EDCs have also been detected in bottled water. Sources of EDCs in bottled water include contamination of the water source, contamination through the production process or the migration of EDCs from the packaging material. There is limited information on EDCs in drinking water and bottled water from South Africa. The aim of this study was to determine the estrogenic activity, levels of selected EDCs and the potential health risks associated with the consumption of water from selected distribution points in Pretoria (City of Tshwane) and Cape Town as well as bottled water. The study consisted of 3 phases. Phase 1 included the analysis of drinking water samples from ten water distribution points in Pretoria and Cape Town collected over four sampling periods. In phase 2, ten brands of bottled water were analysed after exposure to different storage conditions (20°C, 40°C, light and dark) for 10 days. Samples were extracted using a C18 solid phase extraction method. Estrogenic activity was assessed using the recombinant yeast estrogen screen (YES) bioassay and the T47D-KBluc reporter gene bioassay. The extracts were analysed for di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), diisononylphthalate (DINP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), bisphenol A (BPA), nonylphenol (NP), 17β-estradiol (E2), estrone (E1) and ethynylestradiol (EE2) using UPLC-MS. Phase 3 consisted of a scenario based health risk assessment to assess the carcinogenic and toxic human health risks associated with the consumption of distribution point and bottled water. All the samples were below the detection limit (dl) in the YES bioassay, but estrogenic activity was detected in bottled and distribution point water using the T47D-KBluc bioassay. All samples were below the 0.7 ng/L trigger value for estrogenic activity in drinking water. NP was below the dl for all the samples, E2 was detected in five distribution point samples and E1, EE2, DEHA, DEHP, DINP, DBP and BPA were detected in distribution point and bottled water samples. The estrogenic activity and levels of target chemicals were comparable to the levels found in other countries. Hazard quotients for BPA, DEHA and DINP were higher in bottled water compared to distribution point water. The greatest non-carcinogenic health risk was posed by E1 in distribution point water from Pretoria and the highest cancer risk by levels of DEHP in distribution point water from Cape Town. However, overall, health risk assessment revealed acceptable health and carcinogenic risks associated with the consumption of distribution point and bottled water. Although the potential health risks posed by the EDCs found in the water samples in this study were low, the fact that potential EDCs were found in the water samples are still of concern. A monitoring strategy that also includes water from other municipalities and other brands of bottled water are therefore recommended. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / PhD / Unrestricted

Impairments in balance with related decline in functional abilities, an increased incidence of falls, and fear of falling are problems that concern elderly populations as well as health care providers. There does not appear to be consensus on which method of balance testing or balance training best addresses the components of balance to effectively test and train balance as it relates to the specific task and environment in which it is occurring. It is also unclear what effect balance training may have on confidence in balance or reducing the fear of falling in elderly populations. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of balance training on q nondisabled elderly population. A six group pre-test - post-test experimental design was used with 59 elderly males and females living in a retirement community. All subjects completed low-tech and high-tech balance testing and filled out 2 balance confidence questionnaires. Experimental groups participated in low-tech or high-tech balance training protocols that were established expressly for this study, and completed follow-up testing which was not required of the control groups.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A. (Clinical Psychology) -- University of Limpopo, 2017 / Substantial literature connects religiousness to physical health; however, few studies have explored the influence of religiousness on risk-taking factors among Black first-entering university students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of religiousness on health risk behaviours among a sample of university students (N = 333) from a predominantly Black university in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. The risk behaviours of interest were alcohol consumption, risky sexual behaviours, cigarette smoking, drug use, rates of engagement in physical activity, and patterns of consuming healthy foods daily. The study used a cross-sectional design. Results indicated that intrinsic religiosity was negatively associated with alcohol consumption; risky sexual behaviours, cigarette smoking and drug use, and the effects of gender were present in both relationships. Intrinsic religiosity’s association with alcohol consumption and risky sexual behaviours had no gender effect. Nevertheless, there was no direct relationship between diet and physical engagement, although intrinsic religiosity influenced the students’ engagement in physical activity only in the context of gender. It is recommended that a three-way design may be more effective in uncovering some of the associations between intrinsic religiosity and risk behaviours such as eating a healthy diet and engaging in physical activity.

No description available.

Behavioral and physiological reactivity, and its relationship to cardiovascular disease has been studied in men for a number of years, and the expression of anger has been identified as a possible contributing factor. Few studies, however, have focused specifically on the reactivity of women, and those which have suggest that women are less reactive to laboratory tasks than men. For the present study, 45 undergraduate women, ages 19-21 were selected from a larger sample of 135 women to represent three discrete groups: (1) low anger/low denial, (2) high anger/low denial, and (3) low anger/high denial, based on their scores on the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory, P and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. It was hypothesized that the three groups would show reliable differences in heart rate and blood pressure during presentation of a stressful laboratory stimulus, the Stroop Color and Word Test. Each subject received three counterbalanced conditions: (1) no feedback, (2) error feedback without observer present, (3) error feedback with observer present. As hypothesized, women who reported a high level of denial and a low level of anger exhibited reliably greater systolic blood pressure to the no-feedback condition than subjects who reported low levels of denial and anger. The hypothesis that all groups would display greater A reactivity in a condition which provided error feedback with observation was not supported. / Master of Science

Several substantive observations formed the basis for this research. First, the observation of stagnating life expectancy in the United States over the first two decades of the 21st century, representing a dubious form of American exceptionalism. Second, evidence suggesting that novel measures of biological aging might provide allow for early evaluation of population-level health trajectories, based on direct observation of health status in still-living people. Third, the opportunity to apply these measures for study of population-level phenomena, using methods routinely used in the fields of sociology, demography, and economics. This dissertation represents a proof-of-concept work to support the application of biological aging measures to population health surveillance. In Chapter 2, I conduct a systematic literature review of novel measures and approaches to the quantification of population aging published since 2000, and identify 3 major classes of novel population aging measures. Biological-aging measures can be understood as a specific application of Sanderson and Scherbov’s α-ages approach, which indexes “true age” to the distribution of some aging-related characteristic in a reference sample. Relative to other novel measures and approaches, however, biological-aging algorithms hold particular promise in their ability to provide direct measures of pre-clinical, aging-related health risk across the entire adult age range of a population. In chapters 3 and 4, I apply published biological aging algorithms to blood-chemistry and organ-test data collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) to test whether the U.S. population has grown biologically older over the past two decades, as some interpretations of life expectancy data would suggest, and to evaluate the extent to which selected social and environmental exposures might explain these trends. Formal age-period-cohort analysis revealed consistent period increases in biological aging from 1999-2018; while population aging slowed after the training cohort was measured in NHANES III (1988-1994), aging trajectories have reverted towards early-1990s levels since the turn of the century. Limited evidence of cohort effects was observed, with findings consistent regardless of age, race, and sex – although racial disparities in biological aging persisted over the entire study period. Kitagawa-Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis of four candidate exposures (i.e., BMI, smoking status, blood lead, and urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon levels) suggested that changes in the distribution of behavioral and environmental risk factors accounted for a substantial proportion of observed period trends and/or racial disparities in biological aging over the first two decades of the 21st century. Broadly, these results suggest that measures of biological aging can provide earlier and more precise readouts of population health trajectories and their drivers, ultimately informing next-generation public health efforts to promote healthy aging and aging health equity.

This research sought to better understand the antecedents of consumers' perceptions of risk (health and safety risks specifically), and the relationship between the perceived risk of an option, and judgments about the acceptability of that option. The specific objective of the proposed research was to build a model of risk perception and risky option acceptability for hazardous products and activities (i.e., that present downside risks to a consumer's health and safety), using several variables that have been postulated to be important, using a multiple linear regression model building approach. One goal was to integrate the study of perceived risk in consumer behavior with various concepts and models of risk perception and risk acceptability from the behavioral decision sciences, an integration suggested previously by Jacoby (1981). Emphasis was placed on conceptual and methodological issues that confront researchers from either domain that need to be resolved if risk is to occupy a central place in marketing theory. Two of the variables included in the study of the determinants of perceived risk comprise the conceptual definition of perceived risk used in this research: probability of a negative outcome, and severity of a negative outcome. Specifically, both were hypothesized to be positively correlated with perceptions of risk. Six additional variables were also examined as determinants of perceived risk. Given the definition of risk used in this research, these variables relate to either or both of the constructs probability and severity, and implicitly were also hypothesized to be significant determinants of risk perception. The variable examined that relates to probability exclusively was controllability. Specifically, a negative relationship was hypothesized between the perceived risk of a product and the controllability of the negative outcome associated with that product. Variables which relate to severity exclusively include reversibility, dreadedness, and immediacy. Specifically, judgments of negative consequences as immediate, dreaded, and irreversible were hypothesized to be positively correlated with perceptions of risk. Finally, two variables that relate to both probability and severity included availability and catastrophic potential. Specifically, there should be a positive relationship between the perceived risk of a product and the availability and catastrophic potential of the negative outcome associated with that product. All hypotheses with the exception of those relating to immediacy were supported; the hypotheses relating confidence to acceptability was only partially supported. All variables with the exception of immediacy were concluded to belong in a comprehensive model of perceived risk and option acceptability. / Ph. D.