Regulation of food advertising on television for the prevention of childhood obesity

Obesity is a serious global epidemic and the prevention strategies implemented have been insufficient. Numerous environmental factors have been associated with risk of obesity and their full consideration in prevention policies is important. The connection between food advertising on television and childhood obesity has been demonstrated. The large number of advertisements for unhealthy foods targeted at children through television and its possible impact on health has led some countries to legislate on this matter. However, a conceptual framework of reference enabling legislation must be internationally defined in order to achieve a real impact in preventing childhood obesity. This paper reviews scientific evidence on the relationship between food advertising and childhood obesity as a basis for developing public policies to regulate food marketing on television.     

An Antiaphrodisiac in Heliconius melpomene Butterflies

Gilbert (1976) suggested that male-contributed odors of mated females of Heliconius erato could enforce monogamy. We investigated the pheromone system of a relative, Heliconius melpomene, using chemical analysis, behavioral experiments, and feeding experiments with labeled biosynthetic pheromone precursors. The abdominal scent glands of males contained a complex odor bouquet, consisting of the volatile compound (E)-β-ocimene together with some trace components and a less volatile matrix made up predominately of esters of common C₁₆- and C₁₈-fatty acids with the alcohols ethanol, 2-propanol, 1-butanol, isobutanol, 1-hexanol, and (Z)-3-hexenol. This bouquet is formed during the first days after eclosion, and transferred during copulation to the females. Virgin female scent glands do not contain these compounds. The transfer of ocimene and the esters was shown by analysis of butterflies of both sexes before and after copulation. Additional proof was obtained by males fed with labeled D-¹³C₆– glucose. They produced ¹³C-labeled ocimene and transferred it to females during copulation. Behavioral tests with ocimene applied to unmated females showed its repellency to males. The esters did not show such activity, but they moderated the evaporation rate of ocimene. Our investigation showed that β-ocimene is an antiaphrodisiac pheromone of H. melpomene.     

A new blocking problem from Java-based schedulers

We consider a form of blocking, which is typical in client–server systems including those implemented under the Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) specification. The novel feature is that tasks must wait for one of a number of parallel queues to clear its outstanding work. Thus, blocking time is the minimum of sojourn times at the parallel queues. Under certain simplifying assumptions, we solve this model for the probability distribution of blocking time and obtain a simple formula for its mean value. We then use this result in an aggregate server model of a larger queueing network in which further non-standard techniques are included to represent this form of blocking. We compare our approximate results against simulation data, obtaining good agreement for both system throughput and queue length probability distributions at equilibrium.     

Chemorheological time‐temperature‐transformation‐viscosity diagram: Foamed EPDM rubber compound

Thermal analysis, rheometry, and kinetic modeling are used to generate a comprehensive processability diagram for thermosetting and elastomeric resins. A chemorheological “time‐temperature‐transformation‐viscosity” diagram is proposed to fully characterize curing reactions toward process' on‐line control, optimization, and material design. Differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric techniques are used to measure total reaction heat, degree of vulcanization, and cure kinetics. The viscosity, as a function of temperature and cure degree, is obtained from parallel plate rheometry. The auto‐catalytic Kamal–Sourour model, including a diffusion‐control mechanism, is used to model cure kinetics, while the Castro–Macosko model serves to model the rheological behavior. Non‐linear least‐squares regression and numerical integration are used to find models' parameters and to construct the chemorheological diagram. The usefulness of the proposed methodology is illustrated in the context of an industrial‐like Ethylene Propylene Diene Termononer rubber compound that includes a chemical blowing agent. Even though the rubber formulation contains crosslinking agents, primary and secondary accelerators, promoters, activators, and processing aids, the chemorheological diagram is obtained consistently, validating the proposed methodology to any thermosetting or elastomeric resin. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43966.     

Effects of polymerization catalyst technology on the melt processing stability of polyethylenes. part 2. single stabilizer performance

The effects of a range of thermal and light stabilizers on the melt stability (investigated via multiple pass extrusion) and color stability of three different polyethylenes (PEs) were examined. The PEs varied in terms of the catalyst system used to synthesize the polymers and included an HDPE produced by using a chromium‐based Phillips catalyst and two LLDPEs produced via chromium‐based metallocene and titanium‐based Ziegler‐Natta catalysts. The additive types included a range of phenolics of different functionality, phosphites, hindered piperidines, an hydroxylamine, and Vitamin E. The results obtained for the three PEs confirmed that primary antioxidants (AOs) such as highly hindered and less, hindered phenols or hydroxylamines promoted good melt stability but in some cases tended toward yellowing. The secondary AOs such as the phosphites or thioethers behaved in the opposite way; color suppression was good, but melt stabilization was poor. It was also shown that for different types of phenols (all with similar molar activity), reducing steric hindrance to the phenolic OH enhanced the tendency to form chromophoric groups and hence color led to better efficiency than high hindrance. Those phenol with higher molar activity (mol OH/kg AO) showed the best processing performance. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers     

A comprehensive cardiac motion estimation framework using both untagged and 3-D tagged MR images based on nonrigid registration

In this paper, we present a novel technique based on nonrigid image registration for myocardial motion estimation using both untagged and 3-D tagged MR images. The novel aspect of our technique is its simultaneous usage of complementary information from both untagged and 3-D tagged MR images. To estimate the motion within the myocardium, we register a sequence of tagged and untagged MR images during the cardiac cycle to a set of reference tagged and untagged MR images at end-diastole. The similarity measure is spatially weighted to maximize the utility of information from both images. In addition, the proposed approach integrates a valve plane tracker and adaptive incompressibility into the framework. We have evaluated the proposed approach on 12 subjects. Our results show a clear improvement in terms of accuracy compared to approaches that use either 3-D tagged or untagged MR image information alone. The relative error compared to manually tracked landmarks is less than 15% throughout the cardiac cycle. Finally, we demonstrate the automatic analysis of cardiac function from the myocardial deformation fields.     

Electrochemical synthesis and characterization of new electrodes based on poly‐hematoxylin films

The poly‐hematoxylin films undoped (p‐HX) and doped with strontium (p‐HX‐Sr) were prepared on the platinum electrodes (Pt) using cyclic voltammetry. The influence of experimental parameters, such as: anodic potential and number of voltammetric cycles on the films synthesis was investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results showed that, the optimal conditions to obtain the poly‐hematoxylin films on platinum electrode from 10^?2 mol L^?1 NaNO₃ solution, were found by recording 10 voltammetric cycles at an anodic potential of 1.5 V. Electrocatalytic activity of the poly‐hematoxylin‐platinum (p‐HX/Pt) and poly‐hematoxylin‐strontium‐platinum (p‐HX‐Sr/Pt) electrodes was tested for electrochemical degradation of benzocaine using UV‐Vis spectrophotometry. Both, the mechanisms of hematoxylin (HX) polymerization, as well as benzocaine degradation were proposed. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

Influence of two compatibilizers on clay/PP nanocomposites properties

This article investigates the influence on mechanical properties of using a two compatibilizer system. Cloisite‐Na Clay (ClNa) was organically modified in different ways with a polyethermonoamine and maleated polypropylene (MA‐g‐PP) added as a second compatibilizer. A corotating twin‐screw extruder was used to obtain nanocomposites based on polypropylene via the melt intercalation technique. X‐ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetric results showed that intercalated nanocomposites with improved thermal stability were obtained. Increases of 8% in tensile strength, 34% in modulus, and 20% in crystallinity were observed. Also an increase of 23% in creep properties was observed when using these two compatibilizer system and 1% clay. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2013. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers