Anemia in relation to body mass index and waist circumference among chinese women

Background

This study aimed to investigate the relationship of anemia and body mass index among adult women in Jiangsu Province, China. Data were collected in a sub-national cross-sectional survey, and 1,537 women aged 20 years and above were included in the analyses. Subjects were classified by body mass index (BMI) categories as underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese according to the Chinese standard. Central obesity was defined as a waist circumference?≥?80 cm. Anemia was defined as hemoglobin concentration?<?12 g/dl. Prevalence ratios (PRs) of the relationship between anemia and BMI or waist circumference were calculated using Poisson regression.

Findings

Overall, 31.1% of the Chinese women were anemic. The prevalence of overweight, obesity and central obesity was 34.2%, 5.8% and 36.2%, respectively. The obese group had the highest concentrations of hemoglobin compared with other BMI groups. After adjustment for confounders, overweight and obese women had a lower PR for anemia (PR: 0.72, 95% CI: 0.62-0.89; PR: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.43-0.79). Central obesity was inversely associated with anemia.

Conclusion

In this Chinese population, women with overweight/obesity or central obesity were less likely to be anemic as compared to normal weight women. No measures are required currently to target anemia specifically for overweight and obese people in China.     

Composite bonded systems for renovations of orthotropic steel bridge decks

The renovation solution for orthotropic steel bridge decks studied consists of bonding a second steel plate to the existing steel deck in order to reduce the stresses and increase the lifespan of the orthotropic bridge deck. A parametric study was carried out on the flexural behaviour of beams representing the renovation solution using experimental and analytical studies. The influence of different thicknesses, temperatures and spans was tested. The results obtained for the stress reduction factor show that it is independent of temperature. More efficient solutions can be achieved when minimizing the second steel plate thickness and maximizing the adhesive layer thickness reducing the weight and increasing the stiffness of the composite structure. Both elastic behaviour and yield load of the composite beams are dominated by the steel plate properties and therefore not affected significantly by temperature. However, the ultimate failure of the beams occurs by shear of the adhesive layer, the properties of which are affected by temperature.     

Modelling of isothermal austenite grain growth in a Si‐Mn TRIP steel ‐ experimental and calculation

Using the theory described in the preliminary publication, the isothermal grain growth of a low carbon, silicon‐manganese bearing TRIP‐steel has been studied. The austenitic grain size was established through the measurement of the mean linear intercept distance, which has been transformed into the real mean austenite grain size. A general model of the form dⁿ=d₀ⁿ+K₁t exp(K₂/T) was used and the coefficients n, K₁ and K₂ have been statistically determined. It has been demonstrated that for low annealing temperatures the value of n is situated around 6, whereas at high temperatures n rapidly drops and adopts a value of 2. This behaviour was related to the dissolution of the precipitates present in the austenitic matrix during the soaking treatments. The model delivers very good predictions for soaking temperatures up to 1200 °C. For higher temperatures, the deviations between the predicted grain size and the really measured one are higher.     

Framework for Sustainable Food Packaging Design

The environmental impacts of packages have been found to be relatively small compared with the food items they contain. Furthermore, from the environmental and operational point of view, the most significant task of the package is to protect the product, which is important to acknowledge in the packaging design process. This study introduces a guiding framework for designing sustainable food packaging. In this approach, the entire life cycle of the product–package combination is taken into consideration. The emphasis is on the prevention of food losses in packaging design as a major environmental criterion. Consideration of the properties of both the package and the product itself when designing the final package will lead to a better end result with smaller product losses and environmental impacts. By using different assessment methods in the different stages of the packaging design, the sustainability of the package can be enhanced. The decision making of the packaging designer is facilitated with methods that are introduced step by step and in a certain order that will also allow for corrective measures through back‐loops in the design process. The purpose is to integrate sustainability aspects at all stages firmly into the design process. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stress-controlled weakly periodic boundary conditions: Axial stress under varying orientations

The accuracy of multiscale modeling approaches for the analysis of heterogeneous materials hinges on the representativeness of the micromodel. One of the issues that affects this representativeness is the application of appropriate boundary conditions. Periodic boundary conditions are the most common choice. However, when localization takes place, periodic boundary conditions tend to overconstrain the microscopic problem. Weakly periodic boundary conditions have been proposed to overcome this effect. In this study, the effectiveness of weakly periodic boundary conditions in restoring transverse isotropy of representative volume elements (RVE) for a fiber-reinforced composite with elastoplastic matrix is investigated. The formulation of weakly periodic boundary conditions is extended to allow for force-controlled simulations where a uniaxial stress can be applied. A series of simulations is performed where the orientation of applied stress is gradually varied and the influence of this orientation on the averaged response is examined. An original method is presented to test the correlation between the ultimate principal stress and average localization angle of shear bands within an RVE. It is concluded that weakly periodic boundary conditions alleviate anisotropy in the RVE response but do not remove it.     

Generation of file processing programs based on JSP

This paper describes the generation of file processing programmes within the TUBA environment. Program structures are derived from data structures according to the JSP method. Expressions describing output data are specified in user-system dialogues. The program specifications are stored in the dictionary. Complete executable programs can be generated from these specifications.