Changes in BMI and waist circumference in Scottish adults: use of repeated cross-sectional surveys to explore multiple age groups and birth-cohorts

Objective: To document changes in body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) over a 10-year period 1998-2008, in representative surveys of adults.<p></p> Subjects: Adults aged 18-72 in the Scottish Health Surveys conducted in 1998, 2003 and 2008 were divided, separately for men and women, into eleven 5-year age bands. ‘Synthetic birth-cohorts’ were created by dividing participants into thirteen 5-years-of-birth bands (n=20,423). Weight, height and waist circumference were objectively measured by trained observers.<p></p> Results: Subjects with data available on BMI/waist circumference were 7743/6894 in 1998, 5838/4437 in 2003 and 4688/925 in 2008 with approximately equal gender distributions. Mean BMI and waist were both greater in successive surveys in both men and women. At most specific ages, people were consistently heavier in 2008 than in 1998 by about 1-1.5 BMI units, and waist circumferences were greater, by about 2-6 cm in men and 5-7 cm in women. Greater increases were seen at younger ages between 1998 and 2003 than between 2003 and 2008, however increases continued at older ages, particularly in waist. All birth-cohorts observed over the 10 years 1998-2008 showed increases in both BMI and waist, most marked in the younger groups. The 10-year increases in waist within birth-cohorts (mean 7.4 cm (8.1%) in men and 8.6 cm (10.9%) in women) were more striking than BMI (mean 1.8 kg/m2 (6.6%) in men and 1.5 kg/m2 (6.4%) in women) were particularly steep in older women.<p></p> Conclusion: People were heavier and fatter in 2003 than those of the same age in 1998, with less marked increases in WC between 2003 and 2008 than 1998 and 2003. There were proportionally greater increases in waist circumference than BMI, especially in older women. This suggests a disproportionate increase in body fat, compared to muscle, particularly among older women.<p></p&gt

Eating the elephant whole or in slices: views of participants in a smoking cessation intervention trial on multiple behaviour changes as sequential or concurrent tasks

Background: This paper explores smoking cessation participants’ perceptions of attempting weight management alongside smoking cessation within the context of a health improvement intervention implemented in Glasgow, Scotland. <p/>Methods: One hundred and thirty-eight participants were recruited from smoking cessation classes in areas of multiple deprivation in Glasgow and randomised to intervention, receiving dietary advice, or to control groups. The primary outcome of the study was to determine the % change in body weight. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 15 intervention and 15 control participants at weeks 6 (during the intervention) and 24 (at the end of the intervention). The current paper, though predominantly qualitative, links perceptions of behaviour modification to % weight change and cessation rates at week 24 thereby enabling a better understanding of the mediators influencing multiple behaviour change. <p/>Results: Our findings suggest that participants who perceive separate behaviour changes as part of a broader approach to a healthier lifestyle, and hence attempt behaviour changes concurrently, may be at comparative advantage in positively achieving dual outcomes. <p/>Conclusions: These findings highlight the need to assess participants’ preference for attempting multiple behaviour changes sequentially or simultaneously in addition to assessing their readiness to change. Further testing of this hypothesis is warranted

The Evolution of Failure: Explaining Cancer as an Evolutionary Process

One of the major developments in cancer research in recent years has been the construction of models that treat cancer as a cellular population subject to natural selection. We expand on this idea, drawing upon multilevel selection theory. Cancer is best understood in our view from a multilevel perspective, as both a by-product of selection at other levels of organization, and as subject to selection (and drift) at several levels of organization. Cancer is a by-product in two senses. First, cancer cells co-opt signaling pathways that are otherwise adaptive at the organismic level. Second, cancer is also a by-product of features distinctive to the metazoan lineage: cellular plasticity and modularity. Applying the multilevel perspective in this way permits one to explain transitions in complexity and individuality in cancer progression. Our argument is a reply to Germain’s (2012) scepticism towards the explanatory relevance of natural selection for cancer. The extent to which cancer fulfills the conditions for being a paradigmatic Darwinian population depends on the scale of analysis, and the details of the purported selective scenario. Taking a multilevel perspective clarifies some of the complexities surrounding how to best understand the relevance of evolutionary thinking in cancer progression

Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Cambered and Twisted Wings Optimized for Flight at Supersonic Speeds

No abstract availabl

The Role of Organisational Culture in the Merger of English Local Authorities into a Single Unitary Authority

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Local Government Studies on 18/07/2013, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03003930.2013.787413 publicationstatus: publishedCornwall Council is a new ‘unitary’ local authority which was created following the merger of six district councils and one county council on 1 April 2009. A questionnaire survey based on specific ‘dimensions’ of organisational culture was circulated to staff prior to the merger date. Overall, the results indicated a generally congruent culture characterised by a strong team spirit and commitment to the workplace. A number of differences were observed between the cultural orientations of the seven councils, but there was only weak evidence of differences between tiers of management or professional groupings. The study suggests that the new organisation will have to find ways of ‘unfreezing’ staff from their established ways of thinking and working before changes can be properly embedded. It is recommended that the organisational change process shifts from a top-down ‘planned’ approach to a more ‘emergent’ approach to facilitate learning and organisational development

Wage Garnishment in Washington—An Empirical Study

The empirical data presented in this note were derived from studies conducted over a period of several months by members of the Washington Law Review. The most important project in terms of time and resource allocation was a study of 187 randomly selected case files taken from Seattle District Justice Court. The results of this study are reproduced in the Appendix. Three other studies were undertaken, consisting of telephone surveys of selected groups of collectors, employers, and union representatives. The results of these are not reproduced in tabulated form but the more significant data are set out in the text and footnotes to this note. In addition to these surveys, interviews were conducted with employers, union leaders, judges, lenders, attorneys, collection agency representatives, and staff members of the Washington State Attorney General\u27s Office and of the Legal Services Division of the Office of Economic Opportunity. It is hoped that the information derived from this research and the conclusions based thereon will provide concerned legislators with a beginning point for an informed review of Washington\u27s garnishment provisions. This note follows a topical approach. The statutory framework of wage garnishment in Washington is set forth at the outset, followed by an analysis of the use of the remedy by creditors. A third section of the note is concerned with the employer\u27s role in the process; the fourth section with the problems of debtors. Sections dealing with the possible impact of restrictions on wage garnishment upon credit and with possible judicial restrictions on abuses in the system serve to highlight further the manifold problems presented by the existing wage garnishment process. Finally, specific recommendations for legislative reform are proposed

Wage Garnishment in Washington—An Empirical Study

The empirical data presented in this note were derived from studies conducted over a period of several months by members of the Washington Law Review. The most important project in terms of time and resource allocation was a study of 187 randomly selected case files taken from Seattle District Justice Court. The results of this study are reproduced in the Appendix. Three other studies were undertaken, consisting of telephone surveys of selected groups of collectors, employers, and union representatives. The results of these are not reproduced in tabulated form but the more significant data are set out in the text and footnotes to this note. In addition to these surveys, interviews were conducted with employers, union leaders, judges, lenders, attorneys, collection agency representatives, and staff members of the Washington State Attorney General\u27s Office and of the Legal Services Division of the Office of Economic Opportunity. It is hoped that the information derived from this research and the conclusions based thereon will provide concerned legislators with a beginning point for an informed review of Washington\u27s garnishment provisions. This note follows a topical approach. The statutory framework of wage garnishment in Washington is set forth at the outset, followed by an analysis of the use of the remedy by creditors. A third section of the note is concerned with the employer\u27s role in the process; the fourth section with the problems of debtors. Sections dealing with the possible impact of restrictions on wage garnishment upon credit and with possible judicial restrictions on abuses in the system serve to highlight further the manifold problems presented by the existing wage garnishment process. Finally, specific recommendations for legislative reform are proposed

Spacecraft instrument calibration and stability

The following topics are covered: instrument degradation; the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV) Experiment; the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS); the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment 1 (SAGE-1) and SAGE-2 instruments; the Solar Mesosphere Explorer (SME) UV ozone and near infrared airglow instruments; and the Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere (LIMS)

Applications of low enthalpy geothermal energy: the case of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Chile

In recent decades, the industry has observed a significant shift towards the use of renewable energy, such as solar, wind and geothermal. The Chilean scenario has not been an exception, and much progress has been made in sustainable energy prospection and implementation, especially in the electricity sector, where solar and wind power amount 2300 MW, and since April 2017, the first geothermal power plant (48 MW) has come into operation. In the area of low enthalpy geothermal energy, the use is around 19 MW. The Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Chile has been contributing to this transformational process, with its Sustainable Campus initiative. The first step of this initiative is the introduction of renewable energy on site, which has been achieved through the installation of a solar photovoltaic plant of 15 kW. Along this line, the design and implementation of a geothermal air conditioning system (HAVC) is underway, which will serve the classrooms and offices in the traditional engineering building of the campus. The technology to be used in this project is the Ground Heat Pump (GHP). The present paper includes an introduction of the applications of low enthalpy geothermal energy in Chile, a description of the Office of Engineering for Sustainable Development at the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and the design of a geothermal HAVC system in the university campus, considering economic, environmental, technical and social aspects. Besides the operation of the GHP, the system will be used for teaching purposes to incorporate sustainable development in the curriculum of the university. The expected savings of the geothermal system versus an aerothermal design are 41,070 kWh annually, considering both cooling and heating.This research was partially funded by the Andean Geothermal Center of Excellence (CEGA) and the Complex Engineering Systems Institute, ISCI (Project CONICYT: FB0816)

Detailed Visual Cortical Responses Generated by Retinal Sheet Transplants in Rats with Severe Retinal Degeneration.

To combat retinal degeneration, healthy fetal retinal sheets have been successfully transplanted into both rodent models and humans, with synaptic connectivity between transplant and degenerated host retina having been confirmed. In rodent studies, transplants have been shown to restore responses to flashes of light in a region of the superior colliculus corresponding to the location of the transplant in the host retina. To determine the quality and detail of visual information provided by the transplant, visual responsivity was studied here at the level of visual cortex where higher visual perception is processed. For our model, we used the transgenic Rho-S334ter line-3 rat (both sexes), which loses photoreceptors at an early age and is effectively blind at postnatal day 30. These rats received fetal retinal sheet transplants in one eye between 24 and 40 d of age. Three to 10 months following surgery, visually responsive neurons were found in regions of primary visual cortex matching the transplanted region of the retina that were as highly selective as normal rat to stimulus orientation, size, contrast, and spatial and temporal frequencies. Conversely, we found that selective response properties were largely absent in nontransplanted line-3 rats. Our data show that fetal retinal sheet transplants can result in remarkably normal visual function in visual cortex of rats with a degenerated host retina and represents a critical step toward developing an effective remedy for the visually impaired human population.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa lead to profound vision loss in millions of people worldwide. Many patients lose both retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptors. Hence, there is a great demand for the development of efficient techniques that allow for long-term vision restoration. In this study, we transplanted dissected fetal retinal sheets, which can differentiate into photoreceptors and integrate with the host retina of rats with severe retinal degeneration. Remarkably, we show that transplants generated visual responses in cortex similar in quality to normal rats. Furthermore, transplants preserved connectivity within visual cortex and the retinal relay from the lateral geniculate nucleus to visual cortex, supporting their potential application in curing vision loss associated with retinal degeneration