The Experiences of Middle-Aged Women in an Online Weight-Loss Community

The obesity epidemic continues to be a public health crisis in the United States. The number of obese middle-aged women has risen dramatically over the past few decades. Despite multiple levels of support available, not all women are receiving the support they need to reduce overweight/obesity, as evidenced by the continuing rise in obesity. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, this study examined middle-aged women\u27s views on exercising, eating healthily, and social support in online weight-loss communities. For this study, the health belief model (HBM) and social learning theory (SLT) were used as conceptual frameworks to understand a person\u27s behavioral intentions (HBM) and how they might be influenced by the behavior of others (SLT). The recruitment of participants who met the inclusion criteria was based on purposeful sampling. Fifteen virtual semi structured interviews were conducted, recorded, and transcribed in order to identify categories and themes; when saturation was achieved, data collection was completed. Participants in an online weight-loss community between the ages of 40 and 58 years were interviewed via virtual interviews. There were 10 emergent themes identified by using Dedoose software to analyze the data. Both narrative and thematic analysis were used to analyze data from the transcripts. Exercise, nutrition, and personal support in their community influenced their decisions and actions for reducing overweight/obesity. Identifying additional strategies for programming that are specific to this age group could contribute to positive social change through the outcomes of this study. With the support of others, reducing obesity can improve overall health and lead to positive social change

The frequency of falls in children judo training

Purpose: Falling techniques are inseparable part of youth judo training. Falling techniques are related to avoiding injuries exercises (Nauta et al., 2013). There is not good evidence about the ratio of falling during the training in children. Methods: 26 children (age 8.88±1.88) were video recorded on ten training sessions for further indirect observation and performance analysis. Results: Research protocol consisted from recording falls and falling techniques (Reguli et al., 2015) in warming up, combat games, falling techniques, throwing techniques and free fighting (randori) part of the training session. While children were taught almost exclusively forward slapping roll, backward slapping roll and sideward direct slapping fall, in other parts of training also other types of falling, as forward fall on knees, naturally occurred. Conclusions: Judo coaches should stress also on teaching unorthodox falls adding to standard judo curriculum (Koshida et al., 2014). Various falling games to teach children safe falling in different conditions should be incorporated into judo training. Further research to gain more data from groups of different age in various combat and non-combat sports is needed

Fear of crime and victimization among the elderly participating in the self-defence course

Purpose. Self-defence training could enhance seniors´ defensive skills and fitness. There is lack of evidence about fear and concerns of seniors participating in the self-defence course. Methods. 18 elderly persons (16 female, 1 male; age 66.2, SD=5.86) participated in the self-defence course lasting 8 training units (each unit 60 minutes). Standardized tool for fear of crime and victimization analysis previously used in Euro-Justis project in the Czech Republic (2011) was used in pretest and posttest. Results. We explored the highest fear of crime by participants in their residence area after dark (mean=2,77; median=3; SD=0,80), lower fear at the night in their homes (mean=2,29; median=2; SD=0,75) and in their residence area at the daytime (mean=2,00; median=2; SD=0,77) at the beginning of the course. We noticed certain decrease of fear of crime after the intervention. Participant were less afraid of crime in their residence area after dark (mean=2,38; median=2; SD=0,77), they felt lower fear of crime at the night in their homes (mean=2,00; median=2; SD=0,48) and in their residence area at the daytime (mean=1,82; median=2; SD=0,63). Conclusions. The approach to self-defence teaching for elderly should be focused not just on the motor development, but also on their emotional state, fear of crime, perception of dangerousness of diverse situations and total wellbeing. Fear of crime analysis can contribute to create tailor made structure of the self-defence course for specific groups of citizens

Developing a ‘best practice’ supply chain performance and operational framework for dairy producers : a multiple case study analysis in Egypt

Supply chain management is based on the global concept, where different companies are connected worldwide. Moreover, supply chain performance management is a growing field of study, especially for perishable products. Egyptian dairy producers have suffered a significant drop in their production since 2011, due to the poor quality and quantity of raw milk, changes in governmental regulations, hazard risks, and volatility in consumer taste. This has threatened meeting the increasing market demand for dairy products. Extant literature highlighted the following gaps: limited research assessing the dairy producers' supply chain performance in a detailed view from an operational perspective, and lack of specific performance measures especially in Egypt as a developing country in this context. Therefore, this thesis introduces a best practice performance framework for dairy producers in Egypt to optimise and assess their performance, in terms of sustainable production of safe and secure dairy products to fulfil the Egyptian market demand. The research adopts three theories to explore and understand the research problem. The resource-based view theory is used to identify the operational capabilities and the critical control points within the production. Network theory is used to explore the risks in the wider dairy supply chain and identify solutions to overcome them. Last, the institutional theory is used to understand the pressures faced by dairy producers, all of which will help to develop a best practice performance framework by following the mimetic approach to contrast and compile the performance measures of the top six large Egyptian dairy producers. That is achieved by referring to the Supply Chain Operation Reference (SCOR) model key attributes as a guide. This research utilises a narrative literature review to consolidate the background knowledge on the dairy sector’s operations and supply chain risks. Then, classify the different operational and supply chain performance measures and models to provide future research directions based on the research gaps identified. A multiple case-study methodology is adopted in this study. It follows a qualitative research approach across two phases by using the NVivo12 software to conduct a thematic analysis. Firstly, two observations and seventeen exploratory semi structured interviews with key informants within six case studies were conducted to explore the operational capabilities, critical control points and performance measures and the risks affecting large Egyptian dairy producers. Secondly, two focus groups were held with a diversified sample of practitioners, government officials, and suppliers to validate the results of the first phase. The key findings of the research highlighted that those dairy producers performing on a satisfactory level qualify them to adopt the SCOR model to enhance their performance and imitate the dairy producers’ practices in developed countries. The following key areas were addressed: 1) identifying the current operational capabilities needed to produce milk products, defining and classifying new critical control points for the production of UHT milk and pasteurised milk which up until now remains vague and not well determined, 2) each producer has designed their performance measures which has left them exposed to vulnerabilities and limits their optimum utilisation of their capabilities and to be able to continually improve. Thus, standardisation of performance measures and sharing of best practice, with a detailed classification for applicability is key for Egyptian dairy producers. A major contribution of this research is the development of an operational and supply chain performance-based best practice framework, based on SCOR, to guide the dairy producers through optimising and enhancing their production of safe and secure dairy products. Further, the research has identified three new SCOR attributes: a) suppliers’ improvement and traceability, b) health and safety environment, and c) employees’ morale, also seven new critical control points and capabilities. Besides, utilising the qualitative approach to provide in-depth within and cross-case exploration of six large dairy producers’ current state. This research also recommends that the government should leverage the small farmers within a milk hub, with a tracking system, to close the gap of raw milk supply shortage to Egypt. That addresses the shortcomings in the extant literature, which will significantly contribute to enhancing the performance and sustainability of the Egyptian dairy industry as a whole, and consequently will benefit the Egyptian economy. That sets the base for future researchers to utilise the proposed best practice for a wider scope of dairy producers with similar characteristics

Determination of Time Dependent Stress Distribution on Potato Tubers at Mechanical Collision

This study focuses on determining internal stress progression and the realistic representation of time dependent deformation behaviour of potato tubers under a sample mechanical collision case. A reverse engineering approach, physical material tests and finite element method (FEM)-based explicit dynamics simulations were utilised to investigate the collision based deformation characteristics of the potato tubers. Useful numerical data and deformation visuals were obtained from the simulation results. The numerical results are presented in a format that can be used for the determination of bruise susceptibility magnitude on solid-like agricultural products. The modulus of elasticity was calculated from experimental data as 3.12 [MPa] and simulation results showed that the maximum equivalent stress was 1.40 [MPa] and 3.13 [MPa] on the impacting and impacted tubers respectively. These stress values indicate that bruising is likely on the tubers. This study contributes to further research on the usage of numerical-methods-based nonlinear explicit dynamics simulation techniques in complicated deformation and bruising investigations and industrial applications related to solid-like agricultural products