Temporal trends and recent correlates in sedentary behaviours in Chinese children

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sedentary behaviours (television, video and computer) are related to health outcomes independent of physical activity. Few studies have examined trends and correlates of sedentary behaviours among youth in developing nations. The current study is to examine temporal trends in sedentary behaviours and recent correlates of screen use in Chinese children during a period of economic transition.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Secondary analysis of China Health and Nutrition Surveys. Cross-sectional data on sedentary behaviours including screen use among children aged 6-18 years from four surveys in 1997 (n = 2,469), 2000 (n = 1,838), 2004 (n = 1,382) and 2006 (n = 1,128). Temporal trends in screen use by socio-demographic characteristics were examined. The correlates of spending more than 2 hours per day on screen time in the most recent survey data (2006, n = 986) were analysed using survey logistic regression analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Daily screen time significantly increased in each subgroup by age, sex and urban/rural residence, with the largest increase for urban boys aged 13-18 years from 0.5 hours to 1.7 hours, and for rural boys aged 6-12 years from 0.7 hours to 1.7 hours (p < 0.0001). Daily time in both homework and extracurricular cultural activity increased significantly from 2000 to 2004 but was stable from 2004 to 2006. Boys (OR: 1.41, 95%CI: 1.09 -1.82), having a TV in the bedroom (OR: 1.86, 95%CI: 1.15 - 3.01), having access to internet at home (OR: 1.93, 95%CI: 1.12 - 3.31) or at internet cafés (OR: 2.01, 95%CI: 1.21 - 3.34), or often watching TV with parents (OR: 2.27, 95%CI: 1.37 - 3.74) were all associated with being more likely to be high screen users (≥ 2 hours/day). While children aged 13-18 years (OR: 0.67, 95%CI: 0.46-0.97) were less likely to be high screen users. Children whose parents often have rules on their TV viewing (OR: 0.64, 95%CI: 0.37 - 1.10) were slightly but not significantly less likely to be high screen users.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study confirms sedentary behaviour has increased over the last decade in Chinese children. Efforts to ensure Chinese youth meet screen time guidelines include limiting access to screen technologies and encouraging parents to monitor their own screen time and to set limits on their child's screen time.</p

Neuroprotective efficacy of P7C3 compounds in primate hippocampus.

There is a critical need for translating basic science discoveries into new therapeutics for patients suffering from difficult to treat neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions. Previously, a target-agnostic in vivo screen in mice identified P7C3 aminopropyl carbazole as capable of enhancing the net magnitude of postnatal neurogenesis by protecting young neurons from death. Subsequently, neuroprotective efficacy of P7C3 compounds in a broad spectrum of preclinical rodent models has also been observed. An important next step in translating this work to patients is to determine whether P7C3 compounds exhibit similar efficacy in primates. Adult male rhesus monkeys received daily oral P7C3-A20 or vehicle for 38 weeks. During weeks 2-11, monkeys received weekly injection of 5'-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) to label newborn cells, the majority of which would normally die over the following 27 weeks. BrdU+ cells were quantified using unbiased stereology. Separately in mice, the proneurogenic efficacy of P7C3-A20 was compared to that of NSI-189, a proneurogenic drug currently in clinical trials for patients with major depression. Orally-administered P7C3-A20 provided sustained plasma exposure, was well-tolerated, and elevated the survival of hippocampal BrdU+ cells in nonhuman primates without adverse central or peripheral tissue effects. In mice, NSI-189 was shown to be pro-proliferative, and P7C3-A20 elevated the net magnitude of hippocampal neurogenesis to a greater degree than NSI-189 through its distinct mechanism of promoting neuronal survival. This pilot study provides evidence that P7C3-A20 safely protects neurons in nonhuman primates, suggesting that the neuroprotective efficacy of P7C3 compounds is likely to translate to humans as well

Optical design for the narrow field infrared adaptive optics system (NFIRAOS) petite on the thirty meter telescope

We describe an exploratory optical design for the Narrow Field InfraRed Adaptive Optics (AO) System (NFIRAOS) Petite, a proposed adaptive optics system for the Thirty Meter Telescope Project. NFIRAOS will feed infrared spectrograph and wide-field imaging instruments with a diffraction limited beam. The adaptive optics system will require multi-guidestar tomographic wavefront sensing (WFS) and multi-conjugate AO correction. The NFIRAOS Petite design specifications include two small 60 mm diameter deformable mirrors (DM's) used in a woofer/tweeter or multiconjugate arrangement. At least one DM would be a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) DM. The AO system would correct a 10 to 30 arcsec diameter science field as well as laser guide stars (LGS's) located within a 60 arcsec diameter field and low-order or tip/tilt natural guide stars (NGS's) within a 60 arcsec diameter field. The WFS's are located downstream of the DM's so that they can be operated in true closed-loop, which is not necessarily a given in extremely large telescope adaptive optics design. The WFS's include adjustable corrector elements which correct the static aberrations of the AO relay due to field position and LGS distance height

Theoretical He I Emissivities in the Case B Approximation

We calculate the He I case B recombination cascade spectrum using improved radiative and collisional data. We present new emissivities over a range of electron temperatures and densities. The differences between our results and the current standard are large enough to have a significant effect not only on the interpretation of observed spectra of a wide variety of objects but also on determinations of the primordial helium abundance.Comment: Accepted to ApJ

Exploring the impact, value and limitations of reflective practice groups for clergy in a Church in Wales diocese

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Mental Health, Religion and Culture on 3rd September 2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2020.1789571This research explores the impact, value and limitations of reflective practice groups for Clergy in a Church in Wales diocese. The aims were to explore what participants of reflective practice groups experience as the impact, value and limitations of their groups, and to better understand any implications for delivery of reflective practice groups for Clergy. Two focus groups comprising of the participants from two reflective practice groups from a diocese in the Church in Wales were interviewed, and the data analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Two superordinate themes emerged along with ten subordinate themes. The key findings are that the participants of both groups clearly found them to be a valuable experience and self-defined the impact on their ministries as: creating more reflective clergy; developing greater wisdom; building and gaining affirmed strategies that they could take back into relationships within their parishes; enabling a different perspective to be gained on management expectations; development of self-preservation strategies for coping with those expectations; improvement in practice and relationships within their work; improving their priestly skills; managing boundaries more appropriately; approaching meetings more positively; managing situations in more helpful ways; and discerning what God may be saying in certain situations

Preliminary evidence of increased striatal dopamine in a nonhuman primate model of maternal immune activation.

Women exposed to a variety of viral and bacterial infections during pregnancy have an increased risk of giving birth to a child with autism, schizophrenia or other neurodevelopmental disorders. Preclinical maternal immune activation (MIA) models are powerful translational tools to investigate mechanisms underlying epidemiological links between infection during pregnancy and offspring neurodevelopmental disorders. Our previous studies documenting the emergence of aberrant behavior in rhesus monkey offspring born to MIA-treated dams extends the rodent MIA model into a species more closely related to humans. Here we present novel neuroimaging data from these animals to further explore the translational potential of the nonhuman primate MIA model. Nine male MIA-treated offspring and 4 controls from our original cohort underwent in vivo positron emission tomography (PET) scanning at approximately 3.5-years of age using [18F] fluoro-l-m-tyrosine (FMT) to measure presynaptic dopamine levels in the striatum, which are consistently elevated in individuals with schizophrenia. Analysis of [18F]FMT signal in the striatum of these nonhuman primates showed that MIA animals had significantly higher [18F]FMT index of influx compared to control animals. In spite of the modest sample size, this group difference reflects a large effect size (Cohen's d = 0.998). Nonhuman primates born to MIA-treated dams exhibited increased striatal dopamine in late adolescence-a hallmark molecular biomarker of schizophrenia. These results validate the MIA model in a species more closely related to humans and open up new avenues for understanding the neurodevelopmental biology of schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders associated with prenatal immune challenge

Creativity out of chaos

Creativity is said to be highly desired in post-modern and post-industrial organizations Creativity and anarchy on the one hand, and managerialism, on the other, can be seen as different forms of knowledge, two opposed ideals. In many organizational as well as societal reforms we currently observe it is the managerialist ideal that wins over the anarchic. In this paper, we wonder if people fear anarchy? We reflect on the possible reasons for the fear, and we also try to explain why we believe that anarchic organizing should not be avoided or feared

Beyond capitalism and liberal democracy: on the relevance of GDH Cole’s sociological critique and alternative

This article argues for a return to the social thought of the often ignored early 20th-century English thinker GDH Cole. The authors contend that Cole combined a sociological critique of capitalism and liberal democracy with a well-developed alternative in his work on guild socialism bearing particular relevance to advanced capitalist societies. Both of these, with their focus on the limitations on ‘free communal service’ in associations and the inability of capitalism to yield emancipation in either production or consumption, are relevant to social theorists looking to understand, critique and contribute to the subversion of neoliberalism. Therefore, the authors suggest that Cole’s associational sociology, and the invitation it provides to think of formations beyond capitalism and liberal democracy, is a timely and valuable resource which should be returned to

Personal, Social, and Environmental Mediators Associated With Increased Recreational Physical Activity in Women and Girls in the Kingdom of Tonga.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this paper was to identify personal, social, and environmental mediators of recreational physical activity (PA) in a 6-month netball-based intervention for women and girls in Tonga. METHODS: Tonga Netball's "low-engagement village program" was implemented in 10 villages and aimed to increase the recreational PA levels in women and girls through a comprehensive, structured community-level netball program addressing key barriers to participation. In a mixed-methods approach, these mediating barriers were identified through qualitative interviews based on the socioecological model. Quantitative measures for mediators and recreational PA were then developed, and data from 301 women and girls were collected. Standard mediation analyses methods were then applied. RESULTS: Program participation appeared to significantly increase PA levels. Statistically significant personal mediators were body issues, preferring competitions, and clothing. Social mediators were support from sports council, community leaders, friends, and church. Environmental mediators were travel time and access to balls, bibs, and umpires. CONCLUSION: A comprehensive community-level program addressing key participation barriers can increase recreational PA among women and girls in Tonga. Triangulating these results with mediation analyses of variables on the causal pathway can strengthen our understanding of causation and inform funding prioritization for critical program components in similar contexts

Extraction of Water from Martian Regolith Simulant via Open Reactor Concept

To demonstrate proof of concept water extraction from simulated Martian regolith, an open reactor design is presented along with experimental results. The open reactor concept avoids sealing surfaces and complex moving parts. In an abrasive environment like the Martian surface, those reactor elements would be difficult to maintain and present a high probability of failure. A general lunar geotechnical simulant was modified by adding borax decahydrate (Na2B4O710H2O) (BDH) to mimic the ~ 3 percent water content of hydrated salts in near surface soils on Mars. A rotating bucket wheel excavated the regolith from a source bin and deposited the material onto an inclined copper tray, which was fitted with heaters and a simple vibration system. The combination of vibration, tilt angle and heat was used to separate and expose as much regolith surface area as possible to liberate the water contained in the hydrated minerals, thereby increasing the efficiency of the system. The experiment was conducted in a vacuum system capable of maintaining a Martian like atmosphere. Evolved water vapor was directed to a condensing system using the ambient atmosphere as a sweep gas. The water vapor was condensed and measured. Processed simulant was captured in a collection bin and weighed in real time. The efficiency of the system was determined by comparing pre- and post-processing soil mass along with the volume of water captured