Expanding evidence for the multiple dangers of epidemic abdominal obesity

The waistline of America has been expanding now for decades,1 largely as a consequence of an obesogenic environment, with a car-worshipping culture and take-away lifestyle par excellence.2 No upper limit to the prevalence or extent of obesity is yet apparent, and many countries and communities worldwide are busily following the American lead. Accumulating research evidence suggests that the personal and economic costs of the obesity epidemic are immense,3 driven by the obesity-related increases in risk for conditions such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, the metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease (CVD), kidney disease, arthritis, cancer, asthma, and sleep-disordered breathing. In addition, decreases are apparent in self-esteem and quality of life. <br /

Advantages of 3D time-of-flight range imaging cameras in machine vision applications

Machine vision using image processing of traditional intensity images is in wide spread use. In many situations environmental conditions or object colours or shades cannot be controlled, leading to difficulties in correctly processing the images and requiring complicated processing algorithms. Many of these complications can be avoided by using range image data, instead of intensity data. This is because range image data represents the physical properties of object location and shape, practically independently of object colour or shading. The advantages of range image processing are presented, along with three example applications that show how robust machine vision results can be obtained with relatively simple range image processing in real-time applications

Effects of sewage effluent on soil constraints in the Tamworth Region of New South Wales

The Tamworth Regional Council area has experienced many challenges during 2020 – drought, fires, floods, and an unprecedented global pandemic. Council staff and especially engineers have had to be at the forefront of addressing issues arising from the natural disasters and pandemic. Amid the crises water use has had huge political and social repercussions regarding acceptable outcomes within a changing climate. Councils have for many years disposed of municipal effluent from their sewage treatment schemes in land-based disposal areas. The ability to grow agricultural crops from this effluent has only become viable as treatment systems have improved with the subsequent lowering of health and environmental risks. Tamworth Regional Council has an effluent reuse farm utilizing pivot irrigation. Control areas can be sourced on soils outside the irrigation area to determine before and after condition of the soil. To be fully representative of the soils where sewage effluent has or has not been applied this study identified appropriate testing sites at the Tamworth Effluent Reuse Farm (TERF). The research involved classifying the study soils on the farm using the Australian Soil Classification (ASC), (Isbell & NCST, 2016). The quality and quantity of effluent applied to each of the soils was determined using data provided by Tamworth Regional Council in relation to ANZECC guidelines. Irrigation data for each pivot showed insufficient effluent had been applied to push the salts through the profile. This was highlighted in a chemical analysis that had been performed for EPA compliance. To determine how the effluent was affecting the physical characteristics of the best and worst performing vertosol, sampling of irrigated and control soil was collected according to Australian guidelines. Testing was performed at a National Australian Testing Authority (NATA) registered laboratory. Physical soil tests were carried out in each identified horizon of excavated soil pits, as part of this report, and the results showed the irrigated soils are displaying signs of dispersion, compaction and reduced hydraulic conductivity. To fully understand all the constraints and spatial covariates of interest further, an Electro Magnetic (EM) and gamma survey was conducted on the worst yielding pivots. Ground truthing of the spatial survey was then carried out with soil cores and constraint maps produced. Soils were found to have high dispersion, reduced permeability and increased salt levels compared to control areas, which are symptoms of salinity and sodicity caused by effluent irrigation at levels that significantly affect yield. The findings revealed alternative spatial management of the irrigation and cropping regime will be required to ensure the sustainability of the TERF soils in the long term. The effluent, even at medium strength salt load, requires a leaching factor to be applied to ensure salts are pushed through the profile as even exceptionally good agricultural soils will be adversely affected if adequate leaching does not occur over time

The correlation between supermarket size and national obesity prevalence

BACKGROUND: Supermarkets provide healthy and affordable food options while simultaneously heavily promoting energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and drinks. Store size may impact body weight via multiple mechanisms. Large stores encourage purchasing of more food in a single visit, and in larger packages. In addition they provide greater product choice (usually at lower prices) and allow greater exposure to foods of all types. These characteristics may promote purchasing and consumption. Our objective was to assess the relationship between supermarket size and obesity, which has rarely been assessed. RESULTS: Data on supermarket size (measured as total aisle length in metres) was from 170 stores in eight developed countries with Western-style diets. Data for national obesity prevalence was obtained from the UK National Obesity Observatory. We found a strong correlation between average store size and national obesity prevalence (r&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.96). CONCLUSIONS: Explanations for the association between store size and national obesity prevalence may include larger and less frequent shopping trips and greater choice and exposure to foods in countries with larger stores. Large supermarkets may represent a food system that focuses on quantity ahead of quality and therefore may be an important and novel environmental indicator of a pattern of behaviour that encourages obesity