Social and material deprivation among youth in Finland : causes, consequences, and coping.

Background: Social and material deprivation is associated with poor health, decreased subjective well-being, and limited opportunities for personal development. To date, little is known about the lived experiences of Finnish low-income youths and the general purpose of this study is to fill this gap. Despite the extensive research on socioeconomic income disparities, only a few scholars have addressed the question of how low socioeconomic position is experienced by disadvantaged people themselves. Little is known about the everyday social processes that lead to decreased well-being of economically and socially disadvantaged citizens. Data: The study is based on the data of 65 autobiographical essays written by Finnish low-income youths aged 14-29 (M=23.51, SD=3.95). The research data were originally collected in a Finnish nationwide writing contest “Arkipäivän kokemuksia köyhyydestä” [Everyday Experiences of Poverty] between June and September of 2006. The contest was partaken by 850 Finnish writers. Methods and key concepts: Autobiographical narratives (N=65) of low-income youths were analyzed based on grounded theory methodology (GTM). The analysis was not built on specific pre-conceived categorizations; it was guided by the paradigm model and so-called “sensitizing concepts”. The concepts this study utilized were based on the research literature on socioeconomic inequalities, resilience, and coping. Socioeconomic inequalities refer to unequal distribution of resources, such as income, social status, and health, between social groups. The concept of resilience refers to an individual’s capacity to cope despite existing risk factors and conditions that are harmful to health and well-being. Coping strategies can be understood as ways by which a person tries to cope with psychological stress in a situation where internal or externals demands exceed one’s resources. The ways to cope are cognitive or behavioral efforts by which individual tries to relieve the stress and gain new resources. Lack of material and social resources is associated with increased exposure to health-related stressors during the life-course. Aims: The first aim of this study is to illustrate how youths with low socioeconomic status perceive the causes and consequences of their social and material deprivation. The second aim is to describe what kind of coping strategies youths employ to cope in their everyday life. The third aim is to build an integrative conceptual framework based on the relationships between causes, consequences, and individual coping strategies associated with deprivation. The analysis was carried out through systematic coding and orderly treatment of the data based on the grounded theory methodology. Results: Finnish low-income youths attributed the primary causes of deprivation to their family background, current socioeconomic status, sudden life changes, and contextual factors. Material and social deprivation was associated with various kinds of negative psychological, social, and material consequences. Youths used a variety of coping strategies that were identified as psychological, social, material, and functional-behavioral. Finally, a conceptual framework was formulated to link the findings together. In the discussion, the results were compared and contrasted to the existing research literature. The main references of the study were: Coping: Aldwin (2007); Lazarus & Folkman (1984); Hobfoll (1989, 2001, 2002). Deprivation: Larivaara, Isola, & Mikkonen (2007); Lister (2004); Townsend (1987); Raphael (2007). Health inequalities: Dahlgren & Whitehead (2007); Lynch. et al. (2000); Marmot & Wilkinson (2006); WHO (2008). Methods: Charmaz (2006); Flick (2009); Strauss & Corbin (1990). Resilience: Cutuli & Masten (2009); Luthar (2006).

V-CE Sensing for IGBT Protection in NPC Three Level Converters-Causes For Spurious Trippings and Their Elimination

Neutral point clamped (NPC), three level converters with insulated gate bipolar transistor devices are very popular in medium voltage, high power applications. DC bus short circuit protection is usually done, using the sensed voltage across collector and emitter (i.e., V-CE sensing), of all the devices in a leg. This feature is accommodated with the conventional gate drive circuits used in the two level converters. The similar gate drive circuit, when adopted for NPC three level converter protection, leads to false V-CE fault signals for inner devices of the leg. The paper explains the detailed circuit behavior and reasons, which result in the occurrence of such false V-CE fault signals. This paper also illustrates that such a phenomenon shows dependence on the power factor of the supplied three-phase load. Finally, experimental results are presented to support the analysis. It is shown that the problem can be avoided by blocking out the V-CE sense fault signals of the inner devices of the leg.

Synergistic interaction between particular X-chromosome deletions andSex-lethal causes female lethality inDrosophila melanogaster

We studied the effect on female viability of trans-heterozygous combinations of X-chromosome deficiencies and Sxt-(fl), a null allele of Sex-lethal. Twentyfive deficiencies, which together covered 80% of the X chromosome, were tested. Seven of these trans-heterozygous combinations caused significant levels of female lethality. Two of the seven interacting deficiencies include the previously known sex determination genes sans fille and sisterless-a. Four of the remaining uncover X-chromosomal regions that were not hitherto known to contain sex determination genes. These newly identified regions are defined by deficiencies Df(1)RA2 (7D10; 8A4-5), Df(1)KA14 (7F1-2; 8C6), Df(1)C52 (8E; 9C-D) and Df(1)N19 (17A1; 18A2). These four deficiencies were characterized further to determine whether it was the maternal or zygotic dosage that was primarily responsible for the observed lethality of female embryos, daughterless and extra macrochaetae, two known regulators of Sxl, influence the interaction of these deficiencies with Sxl.

Recommendations for driver licensing and traffic law enforcement in India aiming to improve road safety

During the last decade, developing countries such as India have been exhibiting rapid increase in human population and vehicles, and increase in road accidents. Inappropriate driving behaviour is considered one of the major causes of road accidents in India as compared to defective geometric design of pavement or mechanical defects in vehicles. It can result in conditions such as lack of lane discipline, disregard to traffic laws, frequent traffic violations, increase in crashes due to self-centred driving, etc. It also demotivates educated drivers from following good driving practices. Hence, improved driver behaviour can be an effective countermeasure to reduce the vulnerability of road users and inhibit crash risks. This article highlights improved driver behaviour through better driver education, driver training and licensing procedures along with good on-road enforcement; as an effective countermeasure to ensure road safety in India. Based on the review and analysis, the article also recommends certain measures pertaining to driver licensing and traffic law enforcement in India aimed at improving road safety.

Stimulation by DIF causes an increase of intracellular Ca2+ in Dictyostelium discoideum

Using fluorescence- activated cell sorting (FAGS), we have studied the effect of the differentiation-inducing factor (DIF) on cellular Ca2+ in Dictyostelium discoideum. We have shown previously that freshly starved or postaggregation amoebae are heterogenous with respect to the amounts of cellular Ca2+ that they contain; the L or ''low Ca2+'' class exhibits a prespore tendency and the H or ''high Ca2+'' class exhibits a prestalk tendency. Upon adding DIF, within 2 min there is an approximately twofold increase in the relative fraction of amoebae falling in the H class. A major part of the increase is caused by Ca2+ influx from the extracellular medium. Therefore a rise in the level of cellular Ca2+ is an early step in the signal transduction pathway following stimulation by DIF. Also, in parallel with the cellular heterogeneity in respect of Ca2+ content, there is a heterogeneity in the response to DIF, which appears to be restricted to L cells. (C) 1997 Academic Press.

Trends in aerosol optical depth over Indian region: Potential causes and impact indicators

The first regional synthesis of long-term (back to similar to 25 years at some stations) primary data (from direct measurement) on aerosol optical depth from the ARFINET (network of aerosol observatories established under the Aerosol Radiative Forcing over India (ARFI) project of Indian Space Research Organization over Indian subcontinent) have revealed a statistically significant increasing trend with a significant seasonal variability. Examining the current values of turbidity coefficients with those reported similar to 50 years ago reveals the phenomenal nature of the increase in aerosol loading. Seasonally, the rate of increase is consistently high during the dry months (December to March) over the entire region whereas the trends are rather inconsistent and weak during the premonsoon (April to May) and summer monsoon period (June to September). The trends in the spectral variation of aerosol optical depth (AOD) reveal the significance of anthropogenic activities on the increasing trend in AOD. Examining these with climate variables such as seasonal and regional rainfall, it is seen that the dry season depicts a decreasing trend in the total number of rainy days over the Indian region. The insignificant trend in AOD observed over the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a regional hot spot of aerosols, during the premonsoon and summer monsoon season is mainly attributed to the competing effects of dust transport and wet removal of aerosols by the monsoon rain. Contributions of different aerosol chemical species to the total dust, simulated using Goddard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport model over the ARFINET stations, showed an increasing trend for all the anthropogenic components and a decreasing trend for dust, consistent with the inference deduced from trend in Angstrom exponent.

Bayesian Accelerated Life Testing under Competing Weibull Causes of Failure

Consider a J-component series system which is put on Accelerated Life Test (ALT) involving K stress variables. First, a general formulation of ALT is provided for log-location-scale family of distributions. A general stress translation function of location parameter of the component log-lifetime distribution is proposed which can accommodate standard ones like Arrhenius, power-rule, log-linear model, etc., as special cases. Later, the component lives are assumed to be independent Weibull random variables with a common shape parameter. A full Bayesian methodology is then developed by letting only the scale parameters of the Weibull component lives depend on the stress variables through the general stress translation function. Priors on all the parameters, namely the stress coefficients and the Weibull shape parameter, are assumed to be log-concave and independent of each other. This assumption is to facilitate Gibbs sampling from the joint posterior. The samples thus generated from the joint posterior is then used to obtain the Bayesian point and interval estimates of the system reliability at usage condition.

Bayesian Accelerated Life Testing under Competing Weibull Causes of Failure

Consider a J-component series system which is put on Accelerated Life Test (ALT) involving K stress variables. First, a general formulation of ALT is provided for log-location-scale family of distributions. A general stress translation function of location parameter of the component log-lifetime distribution is proposed which can accommodate standard ones like Arrhenius, power-rule, log-linear model, etc., as special cases. Later, the component lives are assumed to be independent Weibull random variables with a common shape parameter. A full Bayesian methodology is then developed by letting only the scale parameters of the Weibull component lives depend on the stress variables through the general stress translation function. Priors on all the parameters, namely the stress coefficients and the Weibull shape parameter, are assumed to be log-concave and independent of each other. This assumption is to facilitate Gibbs sampling from the joint posterior. The samples thus generated from the joint posterior is then used to obtain the Bayesian point and interval estimates of the system reliability at usage condition.

Maximum likelihood analysis of multi-stress accelerated life test data of series systems with competing log-normal causes of failure

This article presents frequentist inference of accelerated life test data of series systems with independent log-normal component lifetimes. The means of the component log-lifetimes are assumed to depend on the stress variables through a linear stress translation function that can accommodate the standard stress translation functions in the literature. An expectation-maximization algorithm is developed to obtain the maximum likelihood estimates of model parameters. The maximum likelihood estimates are then further refined by bootstrap, which is also used to infer about the component and system reliability metrics at usage stresses. The developed methodology is illustrated by analyzing a real as well as a simulated dataset. A simulation study is also carried out to judge the effectiveness of the bootstrap. It is found that in this model, application of bootstrap results in significant improvement over the simple maximum likelihood estimates.

Assessment of driver vision functions in relation to their crash involvement in India

Among the human factors that influence safe driving, visual skills of the driver can be considered fundamental. This study mainly focuses on investigating the effect of visual functions of drivers in India on their road crash involvement. Experiments were conducted to assess vision functions of Indian licensed drivers belonging to various organizations, age groups and driving experience. The test results were further related to the crash involvement histories of drivers through statistical tools. A generalized linear model was developed to ascertain the influence of these traits on propensity of crash involvement. Among the sampled drivers, colour vision, vertical field of vision, depth perception, contrast sensitivity, acuity and phoria were found to influence their crash involvement rates. In India, there are no efficient standards and testing methods to assess the visual capabilities of drivers during their licensing process and this study highlights the need for the same.

Quercetin, a Natural Flavonoid Interacts with DNA, Arrests Cell Cycle and Causes Tumor Regression by Activating Mitochondrial Pathway of Apoptosis

Naturally occurring compounds are considered as attractive candidates for cancer treatment and prevention. Quercetin and ellagic acid are naturally occurring flavonoids abundantly seen in several fruits and vegetables. In the present study, we evaluate and compare antitumor efficacies of quercetin and ellagic acid in animal models and cancer cell lines in a comprehensive manner. We found that quercetin induced cytotoxicity in leukemic cells in a dose-dependent manner, while ellagic acid showed only limited toxicity. Besides leukemic cells, quercetin also induced cytotoxicity in breast cancer cells, however, its effect on normal cells was limited or none. Further, quercetin caused S phase arrest during cell cycle progression in tested cancer cells. Quercetin induced tumor regression in mice at a concentration 3-fold lower than ellagic acid. Importantly, administration of quercetin lead to -5 fold increase in the life span in tumor bearing mice compared to that of untreated controls. Further, we found that quercetin interacts with DNA directly, and could be one of the mechanisms for inducing apoptosis in both, cancer cell lines and tumor tissues by activating the intrinsic pathway. Thus, our data suggests that quercetin can be further explored for its potential to be used in cancer therapeutics and combination therapy.