Efficacy of water preloading before main meals as a strategy for weight loss in primary care patients with obesity: RCT

Objective To investigate the efficacy of water preloading before meals as a weight loss strategy for adults with obesity. Methods A two-group randomized controlled trial was conducted in Birmingham, England. Eighty-four adults with obesity were recruited from general practices. All participants were given a face-to-face weight management consultation at baseline (30 min) and a follow-up telephone consultation at 2 weeks (10 min). At baseline, participants were randomized to either drinking 500 ml of water 30 min before their main meals or an attention control group where participants were asked to imagine their stomach was full before meals. The primary outcome was weight change at 12-week follow-up. Several measures of adherence were also used, including 24 h total urine collections. Results 41 participants were randomized to the intervention group and 43 to the comparator group. The water preloading group lost -1.3 kg (95% CI -2.4 to -0.1, P = 0.028) more than comparators at follow up. Adjusting for ethnicity, deprivation, age, and gender resulted in the intervention group losing -1.2 kg (95% CI -2.4 to 0.07, P = 0.063) more than the comparator. Conclusions There is preliminary evidence that water preloading before main meals leads to a moderate weight loss at follow up. ISRCTN3323815

A comprehensive analysis of air-sea CO2 flux uncertainties constructed from surface ocean data products

This is the final version. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record. Data Availability Statement: Input data sets used within this study are tabulated in Table S1 of the Supporting Information S1 with their respective DOIs. The software used within this study is available open source in Ford et al. (2024a), and updated at https://github.com/JamieLab/OceanICU. Output from the analysis in this study, including the input data sets on the 1° monthly grid, output from the UExP-FNN-U, air-sea CO2 fluxes and their respective uncertainty components, can be downloaded from Ford et al. (2024b).Increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere are partially sequestered into the global oceans through the air-sea exchange of CO2 and its subsequent movement to depth, commonly referred to as the global ocean carbon sink. Quantifying this ocean carbon sink provides a key component for closing the global carbon budget, which is used to inform and guide policy decisions. These estimates are typically accompanied by an uncertainty budget built by selecting what are perceived as critical uncertainty components based on selective experimentation. However, there is a growing realization that these budgets are incomplete and may be underestimated, which limits their power as a constraint within global budgets. In this study, we present a methodology for quantifying spatially and temporally varying uncertainties in the air-sea CO2 flux calculations for the fCO2-product based assessments that allows an exhaustive assessment of all known sources of uncertainties, including decorrelation length scales between gridded measurements, and the approach follows standard uncertainty propagation methodologies. The resulting standard uncertainties are higher than previously suggested budgets, but the component contributions are largely consistent with previous work. The uncertainties presented in this study identify how the significance and importance of key components change in space and time. For an exemplar method (the UExP-FNN-U method), the work identifies that we can currently estimate the annual ocean carbon sink to a precision of ±0.70 Pg C yr−1 (1σ uncertainty). Because this method has been built on established uncertainty propagation and approaches, it appears that applicable to all fCO2-product assessments of the ocean carbon sink.UK Research and InnovationConvex Seascape Survey/European Unio

Points-based physical activity: a novel approach to facilitate changes in body composition in inactive women with overweight and obesity

Background Physical activity (PA) interventions for the promotion of weight-management may benefit from increased choice and flexibility to overcome commonly-perceived barriers to PA. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a novel “points-based” approach to PA on body composition in inactive women, who are overweight or obese. Methods Seventy-six overweight or obese, inactive women were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: ‘Points-based’ PA (PBPA; 30 “PA points”•week− 1), Structured exercise (StructEx; 150 min moderate-intensity exercise•week− 1) or control (CONT; continue habitual inactive lifestyle) for a 24-week intervention. PA points for activities were adapted from MET values, and 30 points was equivalent to 150 min of brisk walking. Measures of body composition (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) and anthropometry were obtained at weeks 0, 4, 12 and 24. Self-report activities were recorded weekly, with objective measures of PA (tri-axial accelerometry) and self-report measures of food intake obtained at weeks 0 and 24. Results Fifty-eight women completed the study and provided data for primary outcomes. Of these, n = 41 and n = 19 provided data for food intake and objectively assessed PA. Mixed-design ANOVAs demonstrated that those in PBPA achieved a significant weight-loss at 24 weeks of − 3.3 ± 5.9 kg (− 3.4 ± 7.1%, p = 0.004). Waist circumference was reduced in PBPA at 24 weeks (− 2.8 ± 4.6 cm), compared with CONT (+ 2.1 ± 6.6 cm, p = 0.024). There was a trend for greater reductions in fat mass for those in PBPA vs. CONT (− 2.3 ± 4.6 kg vs. + 0.1 ± 2.0 kg, p = 0.075). Android fat was reduced in PBPA at both 12 weeks (− 6.1 ± 12.6%, p = 0.005) and 24 weeks (− 10.1 ± 18.4%, p = 0.005), while there was a trend for greater reductions in visceral adipose tissue in PBPA (− 5.8 ± 26.0%) vs. CONT at 24 weeks (+ 7.8 ± 18.3%, p = 0.053). Body composition, body weight and waist circumference were unchanged in StructEx. There were trends for increases in light-activity and reductions in sedentary time in PBPA. There was a trend for a reduction in daily energy intake of − 445 ± 564 kcal (p = 0.074), and a significant reduction in daily fat intake (p = 0.042) in PBPA. Conclusion A “points-based” approach to physical activity appears to be an effective strategy for inducing modest reductions in body weight and body fat in inactive women with overweight and obesity

From Plans to Pedagogy: Developing teachers’ spatial competencies

This research seeks to understand how teachers effectively engage in the design, development and use of innovative learning environments within primary and secondary schools in Australia and New Zealand. Innovative learning spaces are defined here as open, flexible and creatively-used spaces within which teachers and students collaborate to learn. There is seen to be a continuum of space types from entirely open, flexible spaces to closed, traditional classrooms that accommodate one teacher and one group of students. This paper reports on the results of one case study school located in the Australian Capital Territory. A case-study, mixed-methods methodology highlighted that innovative learning spaces may increase student engagement in learning and teachers’ use of evidence-based, student-centred pedagogies

Teachers as Embedded Practitioner-Researchers in Innovative Learning Environments

The paper introduces and explores the Plans to Pedagogy research programme, a three-year project focused on teacher capacity-building within schools. Plans to Pedagogy engages practitioner-researchers in the development of their and their colleagues’ spatial learning skills as they move into and attempt to take advantage of innovative learning environments. The programme involves teachers from eight schools across Australia and New Zealand. Still in progress, each three-year project addresses the individual school’s needs, while being supported by a more extensive university-situated “umbrella” research programme. This paper presents emerging findings from Plans to Pedagogy and discusses what is being learned about applied research in schools and how a research-focused approach to professional learning can enhance teacher learning and practice