The effectiveness of a health versus appearance message on pregnant women's intentions to exercise postpartum : the moderating role of self-monitoring

Despite the confimied health benefits of exercise during the postpartum period, many new mothers are not sufficiently active. The present research aimed to examine the effectiveness of 2 types of messages on intention to exercise after giving birth on 2 groups of pregnant women (low and high self-monitors) using the Theory of Planned Behavior as a theoretical basis. Participants were 2 1 8 pregnant women 1 8 years of age and older (Mean age = 27.9 years, SD = 5.47), and in their second or third trimester. Women completed a demographics questionnaire, a self-monitoring (SM) scale and the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire for current and pre-pregnancy exercise levels. They then read one of two brochures, describing either the health or appearance benefits of exercise for postpartum women. Women's attitudes, social norms, perceived behavioral control, and intentions to exercise postpartum were then assessed to determine whether one type of message (health or appearance) was more effective for each group. A MANOVA found no significant effect (p>0.05) for message type, SM, or their interaction. Possible reasons include the fact that the two messages may have been too similar, reading any message about exercise may result in intentions to exercise, or lack of attention given to the brochure. Given the lack of research in this area, more studies are necessary to confirm the present results. Two additional exploratory analyses were conducted. Pearson correlations found higher levels of pre-pregnancy exercise and current exercise to be associated with more positive attitudes, more positive subjective norms, higher perceived behavioral control, and higher intention to exercise postpartum. A hierarchical regression was conducted to determine the predictive utility of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on intention for each self-monitoring group. Results of the analysis demonstrated the three independent variables significantly predicted intention (p < .001) in both groups, accounting for 58-62% of the variance in intention. For low self-monitors, attitude was the strongest predictor of intention, followed by perceived behavioral control and subjective norm. For high self-monitors, perceived behavioral control was the strongest predictors, followed by attitudes and subjective norm. The present study has practical and real world implications by contributing to our understanding of what types of messages, in a brochure format, are most effective in changing pregnant women's attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and intention to exercise postpartum and provides ftirther support for the use of the Theory of Planned Behavior with this population.

An Alternative Approach To Computer System Security Monitoring And Enhancement Through System Call Sequence Analysis

Modern computer systems are plagued with stability and security problems: applications lose data, web servers are hacked, and systems crash under heavy load. Many of these problems or anomalies arise from rare program behavior caused by attacks or errors. A substantial percentage of the web-based attacks are due to buffer overflows. Many methods have been devised to detect and prevent anomalous situations that arise from buffer overflows. The current state-of-art of anomaly detection systems is relatively primitive and mainly depend on static code checking to take care of buffer overflow attacks. For protection, Stack Guards and I-leap Guards are also used in wide varieties.This dissertation proposes an anomaly detection system, based on frequencies of system calls in the system call trace. System call traces represented as frequency sequences are profiled using sequence sets. A sequence set is identified by the starting sequence and frequencies of specific system calls. The deviations of the current input sequence from the corresponding normal profile in the frequency pattern of system calls is computed and expressed as an anomaly score. A simple Bayesian model is used for an accurate detection.Experimental results are reported which show that frequency of system calls represented using sequence sets, captures the normal behavior of programs under normal conditions of usage. This captured behavior allows the system to detect anomalies with a low rate of false positives. Data are presented which show that Bayesian Network on frequency variations responds effectively to induced buffer overflows. It can also help administrators to detect deviations in program flow introduced due to errors.

Dynamics of some Environmentally Significant Pesticides in a Tropical Waterway - A Toxicological Approach

Industrial pollutants, consisting of heavy metals, petroleum residues, petrochemicals, and a wide spectrum of pesticides, enter the marine environment on a massive scale and pose a very serious threat to all forms of aquatic life. Although, earlier, efforts were directed towards the identification of pollutants and their major sources, because of a growing apprehension about the potential harm that pesticides can inflict upon various aquatic fauna and flora, research on fundamental and applied aspects of pesticides in the aquatic environment has mushroomed to a point where it has become difficult to even keep track of the current advances and developments. The Cochin Estuarine System (CES), adjoining the Greater Cochin area, receives considerable amounts of domestic sewage, urban wastes, agricultural runoff as well as effluent from the industrial units spread all along its shores. Since preliminary investigations revealed that the most prominent of organic pollutants discharged to these estuarine waters were the pesticides, the present study was designed to analyse the temporal and spatial distribution profile of some of the more toxic, persistent pesticides ——— organochlorines such as DDT and their metabolites; HCH-isomers; a cyclodiene compound," Endosulfan and a widely distributed, easily degradable, organophosphorus compound, Malathion, besides investigating their sorptional and toxicological characteristics. Although, there were indications of widespread contamination of various regions of the CBS with DDT, HCH-isomers etc., due to inadequacies of the monitoring programmes and due to a glaring void of baseline data the causative factors could not identified authentically. Therefore, seasonal and spatial distributions of some of the more commonly used pesticides in the CES were monitored systematically, (employing Gas Chromatographic techniques) and the results are analysed.

Ecological characteristics of prawn culture fields in the Cochin area

Prawn culture by traditional method forms an important occupation for the people in these areas, especially in the Vypeen island. Though short term studies have been made on various aspects of prawn culture field and its ecology, a study of detailed nature covering perennial, seasonal, fields and canals between coconut plantation is lacking from these areas. This study will also enable to assess the relative productivity of different systems during different seasons and the influence of the environment on the production potentials. Therefore the present study is taken upto throw more light on the ecological characteristics of these fields with special emphasis on its primary, secondary and tertiary production. The present area of investigation includes the prawn culture fields adjacent to Cochin backwater. The Cochin backwater (O9° 58'N 76° 28'E) is a shallow semi-enclosed body of water of tropical estuary. A narrow gut, about 450 M wide forms its main connection with the Arabian sea and this region is subjected to regular tidal influenceertiary production.

Application of ocean colour data to study the oceanographic and atmospheric features off the southwest coast of India with special reference to upwelling

Satellite remote sensing is being effectively used in monitoring the ocean surface and its overlying atmosphere. Technical growth in the field of satellite sensors has made satellite measurement an inevitable part of oceanographic and atmospheric research. Among the ocean observing sensors, ocean colour sensors make use of visible band of electromagnetic spectrum (shorter wavelength). The use of shorter wavelength ensures fine spatial resolution of these parameters to depict oceanographic and atmospheric characteristics of any region having significant spaio-temporal variability. Off the southwest coast of India is such an area showing very significant spatio-temporal oceanographic and atmospheric variability due to the seasonally reversing surface winds and currents. Consequently, the region is enriched with features like upwelling, sinking, eddies, fronts, etc. Among them, upwelling brings nutrient-rich waters from subsurface layers to surface layers. During this process primary production enhances, which is measured in ocean colour sensors as high values of Chl a. Vertical attenuation depth of incident solar radiation (Kd) and Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) are another two parameters provided by ocean colour sensors. Kd is also susceptible to undergo significant seasonal variability due to the changes in the content of Chl a in the water column. Moreover, Kd is affected by sediment transport in the upper layers as the region experiences land drainage resulting from copious rainfall. The wide range of variability of wind speed and direction may also influence the aerosol source / transport and consequently AOD. The present doctoral thesis concentrates on the utility of Chl a, Kd and AODprovided by satellite ocean colour sensors to understand oceanographic and atmospheric variability off the southwest coast of India. The thesis is divided into six Chapters with further subdivisions

Assessment of trophic change and its probable impact on tropical estuarine environment (the Kodungallur-Azhikode estuary, India)

The cumulative effects of global change, including climate change, increased population density and domestic waste disposal, effluent discharges from industrial processes, agriculture and aquaculture will likely continue and increases the process of eutrophication in estuarine environments. Eutrophication is one of the leading causes of degraded water quality, water column hypoxia/anoxia, harmful algal bloom (HAB) and loss of habitat and species diversity in the estuarine environment. The present study attempts to characterize the trophic condition of coastal estuary using a simple tool; trophic index (TRIX) based on a linear combination of the log of four state variables with supplementary index Efficiency Coefficient (Eff. Coeff.) as a discriminating tool. Numerically, the index TRIX is scaled from 0 to10, covering a wide range of trophic conditions from oligotrophic to eutrophic. Study area Kodungallur-Azhikode Estuary (KAE) was comparatively shallow in nature with average depth of 3.6±0.2 m. Dissolve oxygen regime in the water column was ranged from 4.7±1.3 mgL−1 in Station I to 5.9±1.4 mgL−1 in Station IV. The average nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) of KAE water was 470 mg m−3; values ranged from Av. 364.4 mg m−3 at Station II to Av. 626.6 mg m−3at Station VII. The mean ammonium-nitrogen (NH4 +-N) varied from 54.1 mg m−3 at Station VII to 101 mg m−3 at Station III. The average Chl-a for the seven stations of KAE was 6.42±3.91 mg m−3. Comparisons over different spatial and temporal scales in the KAE and study observed that, estuary experiencing high productivity by the influence of high degree of eutrophication; an annual average of 6.91 TRIX was noticed in the KAE and seasonal highest was observed during pre monsoon period (7.15) and lowest during post monsoon period (6.51). In the spatial scale station V showed high value 7.37 and comparatively low values in the station VI (6.93) and station VII (6.96) and which indicates eutrophication was predominant in land cover area with comparatively high water residence time. Eff. Coeff. values in the KAE ranges from −2.74 during monsoon period to the lowest of −1.98 in pre monsoon period. Present study revealed that trophic state of the estuary under severe stress and the restriction of autochthonous and allochthonous nutrient loading should be keystone in mitigate from eutrophication process

Developing a desertification indicator system for a small Mediterranean catchment: a case study from the Serra de Rodes, Alt Empordà, Catalunya, NE Spain

La desertificació és un problema de degradació de sòls de gran importància en regions àrides, semi-àrides i sub-humides, amb serioses conseqüències ambientals, socials i econòmiques com a resultat de l'impacte d'activitats humanes en combinació amb condicions físiques i medi ambientals desfavorables (UNEP, 1994). L'objectiu principal d'aquesta tesi va ser el desenvolupament d'una metodologia simple per tal de poder avaluar de forma precisa l'estat i l'evolució de la desertificació a escala local, a través de la creació d'un model anomenat sistema d'indicators de desertificació (DIS). En aquest mateix context, un dels dos objectius específics d'aquesta recerca es va centrar en l'estudi dels factors més importants de degradació de sòls a escala de parcel.la, comportant un extens treball de camp, analisi de laboratori i la corresponent interpretació i discussió dels resultats obtinguts. El segon objectiu específic es va basar en el desenvolupament i aplicació del DIS. L'àrea d'estudi seleccionada va ser la conca de la Serra de Rodes, un ambient típic Mediterràni inclòs en el Parc Natural del Cap de Creus, NE Espanya, el qual ha estat progressivament abandonat pels agricultors durant el segle passat. Actualment, els incendis forestals així com el canvi d'ús del sòl i especialment l'abandonament de terres són considerats els problemes ambientals més importants a l'àrea d'estudi (Dunjó et al., 2003). En primer lloc, es va realitzar l'estudi dels processos i causes de la degradació dels sòls a l'àrea d'interés. En base a aquest coneixement, es va dur a terme la identificació i selecció dels indicadors de desertificació més rellevants. Finalment, els indicadors de desertificació seleccionats a escala de conca, incloent l'erosió del sòl i l'escolament superficial, es van integrar en un model espaial de procés. Ja que el sòl és considerat el principal indicador dels processos d'erosió, segons la FAO/UNEP/UNESCO (1979), tant el paisatge original així com els dos escenaris d'ús del sòl desenvolupats, un centrat en el cas hipotétic del pas d'un incendi forestal, i l'altre un paisatge completament cultivat, poden ser ambients classificats sota baixa o moderada degradació. En comparació amb l'escenari original, els dos escenaris creats van revelar uns valors més elevats d'erosió i escolament superficial, i en particular l'escenari cultivat. Per tant, aquests dos hipotètic escenaris no semblen ser una alternativa sostenible vàlida als processos de degradació que es donen a l'àrea d'estudi. No obstant, un ampli ventall d'escenaris alternatius poden ser desenvolupats amb el DIS, tinguent en compte les polítiques d'especial interés per la regió de manera que puguin contribuir a determinar les conseqüències potencials de desertificació derivades d'aquestes polítiques aplicades en aquest escenari tan complexe espaialment. En conclusió, el model desenvolupat sembla ser un sistema força acurat per la identificació de riscs presents i futurs, així com per programar efectivament mesures per combatre la desertificació a escala de conca. No obstant, aquesta primera versió del model presenta varies limitacions i la necessitat de realitzar més recerca en cas de voler desenvolupar una versió futura i millor del DIS.

Predicting origins of passerines migrating through Canadian migration monitoring stations using stable-hydrogen isotope analyses of feathers: a new tool for bird conservation

The Canadian Migration Monitoring Network (CMMN) consists of standardized observation and migration count stations located largely along Canada’s southern border. A major purpose of CMMN is to detect population trends of migratory passerines that breed primarily in the boreal forest and are otherwise poorly monitored by the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). A primary limitation of this approach to monitoring is that it is currently not clear which geographic regions of the boreal forest are represented by the trends generated for each bird species at each station or group of stations. Such information on “catchment areas” for CMMN will greatly enhance their value in contributing to understanding causes of population trends, as well as facilitating joint trend analysis for stations with similar catchments. It is now well established that naturally occurring concentrations of deuterium in feathers grown in North America can provide information on their approximate geographic origins, especially latitude. We used stable hydrogen isotope analyses of feathers (δ²Hf) from 15 species intercepted at 22 CMMN stations to assign approximate origins to populations moving through stations or groups of stations. We further constrained the potential catchment areas using prior information on potential longitudinal origins based upon bird migration trajectories predicted from band recovery data and known breeding distributions. We detected several cases of differences in catchment area of species passing through sites, and between seasons within species. We discuss the importance of our findings, and future directions for using this approach to assist conservation of migratory birds at continental scales.

Biased representation of disturbance rates in the roadside sampling frame in boreal forests: implications for monitoring design

The North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) is the principal source of data to inform researchers about the status of and trend for boreal forest birds. Unfortunately, little BBS coverage is available in the boreal forest, where increasing concern over the status of species breeding there has increased interest in northward expansion of the BBS. However, high disturbance rates in the boreal forest may complicate roadside monitoring. If the roadside sampling frame does not capture variation in disturbance rates because of either road placement or the use of roads for resource extraction, biased trend estimates might result. In this study, we examined roadside bias in the proportional representation of habitat disturbance via spatial data on forest “loss,” forest fires, and anthropogenic disturbance. In each of 455 BBS routes, the area disturbed within multiple buffers away from the road was calculated and compared against the area disturbed in degree blocks and BBS strata. We found a nonlinear relationship between bias and distance from the road, suggesting forest loss and forest fires were underrepresented below 75 and 100 m, respectively. In contrast, anthropogenic disturbance was overrepresented at distances below 500 m and underrepresented thereafter. After accounting for distance from road, BBS routes were reasonably representative of the degree blocks they were within, with only a few strata showing biased representation. In general, anthropogenic disturbance is overrepresented in southern strata, and forest fires are underrepresented in almost all strata. Similar biases exist when comparing the entire road network and the subset sampled by BBS routes against the amount of disturbance within BBS strata; however, the magnitude of biases differed. Based on our results, we recommend that spatial stratification and rotating panel designs be used to spread limited BBS and off-road sampling effort in an unbiased fashion and that new BBS routes be established where sufficient road coverage exists.

Assessing range-wide habitat suitability for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken

Population declines of many wildlife species have been linked to habitat loss incurred through land-use change. Incorporation of conservation planning into development planning may mitigate these impacts. The threatened Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is experiencing loss of native habitat and high levels of energy development across its multijurisdictional range. Our goal was to explore relationships of the species occurrence with landscape characteristics and anthropogenic effects influencing its distribution through evaluation of habitat suitability associated with one particular habitat usage, lekking. Lekking has been relatively well-surveyed, though not consistently, in all jurisdictions. All five states in which Lesser Prairie-Chickens occur cooperated in development of a Maxent habitat suitability model. We created two models, one with state as a factor and one without state. When state was included it was the most important predictor, followed by percent of land cover consisting of known or suspected used vegetation classes within a 5000 m area around a lek. Without state, land cover was the most important predictor of relative habitat suitability for leks. Among the anthropogenic predictors, landscape condition, a measure of human impact integrated across several factors, was most important, ranking third in importance without state. These results quantify the relative suitability of the landscape within the current occupied range of Lesser Prairie-Chickens. These models, combined with other landscape information, form the basis of a habitat assessment tool that can be used to guide siting of development projects and targeting of areas for conservation.

Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) surveys in the North American Intermountain West: utilizing citizen scientists to conduct monitoring across a broad geographic scale

The Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) is an open-country species breeding in the northern United States and Canada, and has likely experienced a long-term, range-wide, and substantial decline. However, the cause and magnitude of the decline is not well understood. We set forth to address the first two of six previously proposed conservation priorities to be addressed for this species: (1) better define habitat use and (2) improve population monitoring. We recruited 131 volunteers to survey over 6.2 million ha within the state of Idaho for Short-eared Owls during the 2015 breeding season. We surveyed 75 transects, 71 of which were surveyed twice, and detected Short-eared Owls on 27 transects. We performed multiscale occupancy modeling to identify habitat associations, and performed multiscale abundance modeling to generate a state-wide population estimate. Our results suggest that within the state of Idaho, Short-eared Owls are more often found in areas with marshland or riparian habitat or areas with greater amounts of sagebrush habitat at the 1750 ha transect scale. At the 50 ha point scale, Short-eared Owls tend to associate positively with fallow and bare dirt agricultural land and negatively with grassland. Cropland was not chosen at the broader transect scale suggesting that Short-eared Owls may prefer more heterogeneous landscapes. On the surface our results may seem contradictory to the presumed land use by a “grassland” species; however, the grasslands of the Intermountain West, consisting largely of invasive cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), lack the complex structure shown to be preferred by these owls. We suggest the local adaptation to agriculture represents the next best habitat to their historical native habitat preferences. Regardless, we have confirmed regional differences that should be considered in conservation planning for this species. Last, our results demonstrate the feasibility, efficiency, and effectiveness of utilizing public participation in scientific research to achieve a robust sampling methodology across the broad geography of the Intermountain West.

Monitoring and modelling the three-dimensional flow of water under drip irrigation

The interpretation of soil water dynamics under drip irrigation systems is relevant for crop production as well as on water use and management. In this study a three-dimensional representation of the flow of water under drip irrigation is presented. The work includes analysis of the water balance at point scale as well as area-average, exploring uncertainties in water balance estimations depending on the number of locations sampled. The water flow was monitored by detailed profile water content measurements before irrigation, after irrigation and 24 h later with a dense array of soil moisture access tubes radially distributed around selected drippers. The objective was to develop a methodology that could be used on selected occasions to obtain 'snap shots' of the detailed three-dimensional patterns of soil moisture. Such patterns are likely to be very complex, as spatial variability will be induced for a number of reasons, such as strong horizontal gradients in soil moisture, variations between individual sources in the amount of water applied and spatial variability is soil hydraulic properties. Results are compared with a widely used numerical model, Hydrus-2D. The observed dynamic of the water content distribution is in good agreement with model simulations, although some discrepancies concerning the horizontal distribution of the irrigation bulb are noted due to soil heterogeneity. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Data assimilation for marine monitoring and prediction: The MERCATOR operational assimilation systems and the MERSEA developments

During the past 15 years, a number of initiatives have been undertaken at national level to develop ocean forecasting systems operating at regional and/or global scales. The co-ordination between these efforts has been organized internationally through the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE). The French MERCATOR project is one of the leading participants in GODAE. The MERCATOR systems routinely assimilate a variety of observations such as multi-satellite altimeter data, sea-surface temperature and in situ temperature and salinity profiles, focusing on high-resolution scales of the ocean dynamics. The assimilation strategy in MERCATOR is based on a hierarchy of methods of increasing sophistication including optimal interpolation, Kalman filtering and variational methods, which are progressively deployed through the Syst`eme d’Assimilation MERCATOR (SAM) series. SAM-1 is based on a reduced-order optimal interpolation which can be operated using ‘altimetry-only’ or ‘multi-data’ set-ups; it relies on the concept of separability, assuming that the correlations can be separated into a product of horizontal and vertical contributions. The second release, SAM-2, is being developed to include new features from the singular evolutive extended Kalman (SEEK) filter, such as three-dimensional, multivariate error modes and adaptivity schemes. The third one, SAM-3, considers variational methods such as the incremental four-dimensional variational algorithm. Most operational forecasting systems evaluated during GODAE are based on least-squares statistical estimation assuming Gaussian errors. In the framework of the EU MERSEA (Marine EnviRonment and Security for the European Area) project, research is being conducted to prepare the next-generation operational ocean monitoring and forecasting systems. The research effort will explore nonlinear assimilation formulations to overcome limitations of the current systems. This paper provides an overview of the developments conducted in MERSEA with the SEEK filter, the Ensemble Kalman filter and the sequential importance re-sampling filter.

Electrochemical and sonoelectrochemical monitoring of indigo reduction by glucose

The reduction of indigo (dispersed in water) to leuco-indigo (dissolved in water) is an important industrial process and investigated here for the case of glucose as an environmentally benign reducing agent. In order to quantitatively follow the formation of leuco-indigo two approaches based on (i) rotating disk voltammetry and (ii) sonovoltammetry are developed. Leuco-indigo, once formed in alkaline solution, is readily monitored at a glassy carbon electrode in the mass transport limit employing hydrodynamic voltammetry. The presence of power ultrasound further improves the leuco-indigo determination due to additional agitation and homogenization effects. While inactive at room temperature, glucose readily reduces indigo in alkaline media at 65 degrees C. In the presence of excess glucose, a surface dissolution kinetics limited process is proposed following the rate law d eta(leuco-indigo)/dt = k x c(OH-) x S-indigo where eta(leuco-indigo) is the amount of leuco-indigo formed, k = 4.1 x 10(-9) m s(-1) (at 65 degrees C, assuming spherical particles of I gm diameter) is the heterogeneous dissolution rate constant,c(OH-) is the concentration of hydroxide, and Sindigo is the reactive surface area. The activation energy for this process in aqueous 0.2 M NaOH is E-A = 64 U mol(-1) consistent with a considerable temperature effects. The redox mediator 1,8-dihydroxyanthraquinone is shown to significantly enhance the reaction rate by catalysing the electron transfer between glucose and solid indigo particles. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All fights reserved.

Age relationships beteen low level rock platforms and the high coastal slopes in Jersey and the surrounding area.

Recent research along the coastal cliffs and embayments of Jersey has revealed new aspects of the geomorphology of the rocky shore platform and its relationship with the steep slopes that link it to the island plateau above. Specifically, a rockhead platform meets a 10-30 m high, near vertical cliff at approximately 8-10 m above Jersey Datum (J.D.= ±0 m Ordnance Datum; likewise Guernsey Datum: G.D.), slopes down-towards mid-tide levels becoming ever more deeply dissected. Generalised contours of this platform show it to be distinct from a lower tidal rockhead platform which is comparatively smooth over large areas as it undergoes continuing contemporary abrasion. This lower platform is generally separated from the higher one by low cliffs, less than a metre high at mid-tidal levels, but two to three metres at the base of the backing cliffs. Both of these platforms are shown to antedate the Last Cold Stage (Devensian) head at a number of localities and this relationship is taken to represent the general situation, not only in Jersey, but throughout the other Channel Islands and adjacent coasts of Armorica. Whether either, or both, of these two platforms are older than Marine Oxygen Isotope Substage (MOIS) 5e (Ipswichian) as well is not known. However the considerable age of the numerous and wide intertidal shore platforms of the Channel Islands and adjacent coasts of Amorica makes a greater age quite possible.