Individual perceptions of physical activity in a community-level initiative in North Queensland, Australia

Introduction: Community-level health initiatives advertise the benefits of physical activity, however, it is unknown how personally relevant these promoted benefits are to those who take part. The purpose of this study was to describe the personal experience of participation in the health programs, and to identify how appropriate the participants felt the programs were. Methods: Participants were rural North Queensland residents participating in Australian federal government funded health initiative programs offered by their local council. There were 25 participants (10 males, 15 females) whose ages ranged from 47 to 79. Twenty-one were in the 12-week Diabetes Australia Beat It program, and four participants were in a 10-week water aerobics program. Qualitative data was provided by participants during semi-structured interviews which asked about current exercise habits, reason for taking part in the program and opinions about the program and facilitators. Results: Thematic Analysis was used to analyze the data. It was an inductive analysis that assessed semantic themes from a realist perspective. The themes fond detail the personal definition of exercise (Exercise to me), the physical benefits of exercise (Keep yourself, Future fitness, Observed changes), and the psychological benefits of exercise (socializing, challenging oneself, sense of achievement). Conclusions: The benefits that participants felt they gained from the physical fitness program, and their reasons for attending were different to the programs' expected outcomes. Programs should aim to appeal and cater to the needs of a wide group of people who have limited access to exercise facilities and health behaviour programs

Individual perceptions of physical activity in a community-level initiative in North Queensland, Australia

Introduction: Community-level health initiatives advertise the benefits of physical activity, however, it is unknown how personally relevant these promoted benefits are to those who take part. The purpose of this study was to describe the personal experience of participation in the health programs, and to identify how appropriate the participants felt the programs were. Methods: Participants were rural North Queensland residents participating in Australian federal government funded health initiative programs offered by their local council. There were 25 participants (10 males, 15 females) whose ages ranged from 47 to 79. Twenty-one were in the 12-week Diabetes Australia Beat It program, and four participants were in a 10-week water aerobics program. Qualitative data was provided by participants during semi-structured interviews which asked about current exercise habits, reason for taking part in the program and opinions about the program and facilitators. Results: Thematic Analysis was used to analyze the data. It was an inductive analysis that assessed semantic themes from a realist perspective. The themes fond detail the personal definition of exercise (Exercise to me), the physical benefits of exercise (Keep yourself, Future fitness, Observed changes), and the psychological benefits of exercise (socializing, challenging oneself, sense of achievement). Conclusions: The benefits that participants felt they gained from the physical fitness program, and their reasons for attending were different to the programs' expected outcomes. Programs should aim to appeal and cater to the needs of a wide group of people who have limited access to exercise facilities and health behaviour programs

FIFA World Cup 2010 : implications for and effects on the entrepreneurial performance of South Africa’s informal sector

It is well established that so called ‘mega events’ have a marked impact on the socio-economic trajectory of a host nation. Research on the merits of mega- events is fairly substantial, and indeed, derived implications for entrepreneurship in a host country are a recurring theme. Yet, little has been done to investigate the potential impact of these events on the entrepreneurial performance of the informal sector. The informal sector is a significant contributor to employment and to the South African economy and shown to exhibit strong entrepreneurial potential. As such, it provides fertile grounds for research. This paper reflects on the FIFA 2010 world cup as catalyst for entrepreneurial activity in Johannesburg’s informal sector. Associated issues of ambush marketing and perceptions of legalities, formalities, and barriers related to the organisation of the world cup are investigated

Minimising medicine use in organic dairy herds through animal health and welfare planning

Livestock is important in many organic farming systems, and it is an explicit goal to ensure high levels of animal health and welfare (AHW) through good management. This will lead to reduced medicine use and better quality of animal products. In two EU network projects NAHWOA & SAFO it was concluded that this is not guaranteed merely by following organic standards. Both networks recommended implementation of individual animal health plans to stimulate organic farmers to improve AHW. These plans should include a systematic evaluation of AHW and be implemented through dialogue with each farmer in order to identify goals and plan improvements. 15 research institutions in 8 European countries are involved in the proposed project with the main objective to minimise medicine use in organic dairy herds through active and well planned AHW promotion and disease prevention. The project consists of 5 work packages, 4 of which comprise research activities building on current research projects, new applications across borders, exchange of knowledge, results and conclusions between participating countries, and adopting them to widely different contexts. International and national workshops facilitate this exchange. Focus areas are animal health planning, AHW assessment using animal based parameters and development of advisory systems and farmer groups. Epidemiological analyses of the effect on AHW from reduced medicine use and herd improvements are planned in all participating countries

Investigating MgII Absorption in Paired Quasar Sight-Lines

We test whether the Tinker & Chen model of MgII absorption due to the gaseous halo around a galaxy can reproduce absorption in quasar pairs (both lensed and physical) and lensed triples and quads from the literature. These quasars exhibit absorption from a total of 38 MgII systems spanning z=0.043 - 2.066 with mean redshift =1.099 and weighted mean rest-frame equivalent width of 0.87 Ang. Using the Tinker & Chen model to generate simulated sight-lines, we marginalize the unknown parameters of the absorbing galaxies: dark matter halo mass, impact parameter, and azimuthal angle on the sky. We determine the ability of the model to statistically reproduce the observed variation in MgII absorption strength between paired sight-lines for different values of the gas covering fraction f_c and the characteristic length scale ell_c, within which the variation in absorption equivalent widths between sight-lines exponentially decreases. We find a best-fit f_c=0.60 \pm 0.15 and ell_c<8/h_70 kpc (1\sigma confidence limits), with smaller f_c allowed at larger ell_c. At 99.7% confidence, we are able to rule out f_c>0.87 for all values of ell_c and the region where ell_c<1.0/h_70 kpc and f_c<0.3.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS, 1 Dec 201

Emergence and Variability of Broad Absorption Line Quasar Outflows

We isolate a set of quasars that exhibit emergent C iv broad absorption lines (BALs) in their spectra by comparing spectra in the SDSS Data Release 7 and the SDSS/BOSS Data Releases 9 and 10. After visually defining a set of emergent BALs, follow-up observations were obtained with the Gemini Observatory for 105 quasars. We find an emergence rate consistent with the previously reported disappearance rate of BAL quasars given the relative numbers of non-BAL and BAL quasars in the SDSS. We find candidate newly emerged BALs are preferentially drawn from among BALs with smaller balnicity indices, shallower depths, larger velocities, and smaller widths. Within two rest-frame years (average) after a BAL has emerged, we find it equally likely to continue increasing in equivalent width in an observation six months later (average) as it is to start decreasing. From the time separations between our observations, we conclude the coherence time-scale of BALs is less than 100 rest-frame days. We observe coordinated variability among pairs of troughs in the same quasar, likely due to clouds at different velocities responding to the same changes in ionizing flux; and the coordination is stronger if the velocity separation between the two troughs is smaller. We speculate the latter effect may be due to clouds having on average lower densities at higher velocities due to mass conservation in an accelerating flow, causing the absorbing gas in those clouds to respond on different timescales to the same ionizing flux variations.Comment: 37 pages, 25 figure