Rethinking democracy promotion

Despite the fact that democracy promotion is a major part of liberal foreign policies, the discipline of International Relations has not paid much systematic attention to it. Conversely, the study of democracy promotion is dominated by comparative politics and pays hardly any attention to the international system. This mutual neglect signifies a core weakness in the theory and practice of democracy promotion: its failure to comprehend the development of liberal democracy as an international process. This article argues that a thorough engagement with John Locke explains the failures of democracy promotion policies and provides a more comprehensive understanding of the development of liberal democrac

A cognitive-behavioural pedometer-based group intervention on physical activity and sedentary behaviour in individuals with type 2 diabetes

The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefits of a pedometer and a cognitive-behavioural group intervention for promoting physical activity (PA) in type 2 diabetes patients. We recruited 41 participants and randomized them into an intervention group (IG) (n = 20) and a control group (CG) (n = 21). The intervention consisted of five sessions within 12 weeks, a booster session after 22 weeks and a pedometer. Primary outcome was PA assessed by accelerometer (minutes per day) and pedometer (steps per day). Secondary outcomes were weight, body mass index, blood pressure, haemoglobin A1c and total cholesterol. After 12 weeks, the IG increased with more than 2000 steps day−1 compared with the CG, whereas sedentary behaviour decreased more than 1 hour day−1 in the IG and showed no change in the CG. There was no intervention effect on the accelerometer-based PA nor on health measurements. After 1 year, the increase in steps per day remained significant in the IG, but sedentary activity increased again to baseline levels. This pilot study showed that the combination of a 12-week cognitive-behavioura intervention and a pedometer has a significant short-term impact on daily steps and sedentary behaviour but that the effects on total PA and long-term effects were limited

Transnational labor regulation, reification and commodification: A critical review

Why does scholarship on transnational labor regulation (TLR) consistently fails to search for improvements in working conditions, and instead devotes itself to relentless efforts for identifying administrative processes, semantics, and amalgamations of stakeholders? This article critiques TLR from a pro-worker perspective, through the philosophical work of Georg Lukács, and the concepts of reification and commodification. A set of theoretically grounded criteria is developed and these are applied against selected contemporary cases of TLR. In the totality that is capitalism, reification of social relations of production conceals completely the experiences of workers. In TLR, managerialist and process-oriented scholarship is dominant, verifiable outcomes and positive improvements in conditions of employment are not sought, and worse, meaningless procedures are celebrated as positive achievements

How Does the Addition of Gel at the Time of Vaccination Affect Overall Nursery Pig Performance?

Swine industry feed suppliers are continually striving to create techniques and tools to reduce the additive stressors imposed on the weanling piglet, to increase advantageous behaviors (feeding and drinking) and to reduce aggrieve interactions. In addition to social reorganization, pigs are often vaccinated during the nursery phase to reduce the impact of potentially harmful diseases. It has been noted by swine practitioners that at the time of vaccination many pigs lie down, rest more and reduce the amount of feed consumption over the vaccination period. One product on the market is a gel-based feed that is designed to ease the transition from a liquid diet (sow\u27s milk) to dry ration. This gel-based feed contains high quality ingredients; it is highly palatable and provides the young pig with both a feed component and a water component thereby influencing feed consumption and intestinal health. The gel can be used in addition to a standard weaned pig solid ration. Although, often recommended to be used at the time of weaning, the possibilities of implementing the gel around the time of vaccination is a novel concept that might impact the individual pig’s overall performance. The objectives of this study were to determine if the addition of gel at the time of vaccination provided benefits to the nursery pigs’ performance

A Comparison of Two Motion Sensors for the Assessment of Free-Living Physical Activity of Adolescents

This study assessed and compared the daily step counts recorded by two different motion sensors in order to estimate the free-living physical activity of 135 adolescent girls. Each girl concurrently wore a Yamax pedometer and an ActiGraph accelerometer (criterion measure) every day for seven consecutive days. The convergent validity of the pedometer can be considered intermediate when used to measure the step counts in free-living physical activity; but should be considered with caution when used to classify participants’ step counts into corresponding physical activity categories because of a likelihood of ‘erroneous’ classification in comparison with the accelerometer

Patterns of impact resulting from a 'sit less, move more' web-based program in sedentary office employees.

PURPOSE: Encouraging office workers to 'sit less and move more' encompasses two public health priorities. However, there is little evidence on the effectiveness of workplace interventions for reducing sitting, even less about the longer term effects of such interventions and still less on dual-focused interventions. This study assessed the short and mid-term impacts of a workplace web-based intervention (Walk@WorkSpain, W@WS; 2010-11) on self-reported sitting time, step counts and physical risk factors (waist circumference, BMI, blood pressure) for chronic disease. METHODS: Employees at six Spanish university campuses (n=264; 42±10 years; 171 female) were randomly assigned by worksite and campus to an Intervention (used W@WS; n=129; 87 female) or a Comparison group (maintained normal behavior; n=135; 84 female). This phased, 19-week program aimed to decrease occupational sitting time through increased incidental movement and short walks. A linear mixed model assessed changes in outcome measures between the baseline, ramping (8 weeks), maintenance (11 weeks) and follow-up (two months) phases for Intervention versus Comparison groups. RESULTS: A significant 2 (group) × 2 (program phases) interaction was found for self-reported occupational sitting (F[3]=7.97, p=0.046), daily step counts (F[3]=15.68, p=0.0013) and waist circumference (F[3]=11.67, p=0.0086). The Intervention group decreased minutes of daily occupational sitting while also increasing step counts from baseline (446±126; 8,862±2,475) through ramping (+425±120; 9,345±2,435), maintenance (+422±123; 9,638±3,131) and follow-up (+414±129; 9,786±3,205). In the Comparison group, compared to baseline (404±106), sitting time remained unchanged through ramping and maintenance, but decreased at follow-up (-388±120), while step counts diminished across all phases. The Intervention group significantly reduced waist circumference by 2.1cms from baseline to follow-up while the Comparison group reduced waist circumference by 1.3cms over the same period. CONCLUSIONS: W@WS is a feasible and effective evidence-based intervention that can be successfully deployed with sedentary employees to elicit sustained changes on "sitting less and moving more"

SLU:s verksamhet med bin

Under 2014/15 var vi sammanlagt sju personer i den grupp på SLU som arbetar med olika aspekter på hälsa och sjukdomar hos honungsbin. Gruppen utökades under sommaren 2014 med två nya forskarstuderande/doktorander; Sepideh Lamei som ska studera mjölksyrabakteriers betydelse för bins hälsa, och Srinivas Thaduri som ska studera sammansättningen av mikroorganismer hos den gotländska population av bin som överlevt och klarar sig utan behandling mot varroakvalstret (de så kallade Bondbina). En kortfattad beskrivning av deras respektive projekt kan ni läsa om längre ned i texten

Differences in Nursery Pigs’ Behavior on the Day of Vaccination

Swine industry feed suppliers are continually striving to develop techniques and tools to reduce the additive stressors imposed on the weanling piglet, to increase advantageous behaviors (feeding and drinking) and to reduce aggressive interactions. One product on the market designed to ease the transition from a liquid diet (sow\u27s milk) to a dry ration is a gel-based feed supplement that was incorporated in this trial as a means to positively affect feeding and drinking behaviors. The objectives of this study were to determine if there were differences in the nursery pigs’ behavior on the day of vaccination when provided a gel supplement. A total of 29 d crossbred pigs (5.94 kg) were housed in Double L® confinement nursery buildings. Four treatments were compared. No vaccine and no gel (control n = 4) defined as unvaccinated and without supplemental gel at days 8 to 10. No vaccine and gel (n = 4) defined as pigs that were provided supplemental gel at days 8 to 10 without vaccination. Vaccinated and no gel (n = 4) defined as pigs that were vaccinated but did not receive supplemental gel at days 8 to 10. Vaccinated and gel (n = 4) defined as pigs that were provided supplemental gel at days 8 to 10 and were vaccinated. The group of four pigs housed together in a pen was considered the experimental unit for data analysis. Definitions for the behaviors and postures recorded and summarized for the trial included the following: Active was defined as standing, this included any upright postures. Inactive posture was defined as sitting or lying postures (both lateral and sternal). Time at drinker was defined as when an individual pig’s mouth was around the water nipple. Time at feeding stations was defined as the time when the individual pig’s head was inside the creep (that contained gel) or the three hole feeder (dry pelleted feed). Nursery aged pigs were less active (P \u3c 0.05; Figure 1) and spent less time (P \u3c 0.05; Figure 2) at the feeding stations 1- h after receiving Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae vaccination, indicating a short term behavioral response to this stressor. These behavioral alterations continued for approximately 6- h (or 5:00 PM the vaccination day afternoon). After this time, all nursery pigs regardless of treatment engaged in the same behavioral repertoire. However, the behavioral repertoire of these nursery pigs were not different over the 3-d trial (previously published worked by Johnson et al., 2008) suggesting that the effects of this vaccination stressor and product were not long lasting

The Effect of Supplementing Dry Feed with a Nutritional Gel Product at the Time of Vaccination on Nursery Pig Maintenance Behaviors and Postures

Swine industry feed suppliers are continually striving to develop techniques and tools to reduce the additive stressors imposed on the weanling piglet, to increase advantageous behaviors (feeding and drinking) and to reduce aggressive interactions. One product on the market designed to ease the transition from a liquid diet (sow\u27s milk) to a dry ration is a gel-based feed supplement that was incorporated in this trial as a means to positively affect the aforementioned parameters. The trial was conducted in the spring of 2007. A total of 64 3-week old, crossbred pigs (4.2 kg) were received from a commercial farm and housed in Double L ® confinement nursery buildings. Four treatments were compared. Control groups (n = 4) were defined as unvaccinated and without supplemental gel at days 9 to 11. Treatment one (TRT 1 n = 4 groups) was provided supplemental gel at days 9 to 11 without vaccination. Treatment two (TRT 2; n = 4 groups) was vaccinated but did not receive supplemental gel at days 9 to 11. Treatment three (TRT 3; n = 4 groups) received supplemental gel at days 9 to 11 and were vaccinated. The group of four pigs housed together in a pen was considered the experimental unit for data analysis. Definitions for the behaviors and postures recorded and summarized for the trial included the following: Active was defined as standing, this included any upright postures. Inactive posture was defined as sitting or lying postures (both lateral and sternal). Time at drinker was defined as when an individual pig’s mouth was around the water nipple. Time at feeding stations was defined as the time when the individual pig’s head was inside the creep (that contained gel) or the three hole feeder (dry pelleted feed). There were no differences between treatments for active (P = 0.60), inactive (P = 0.99) or time at drinker (P = 0.37), respectively. There was a difference (P = 0.0085) between treatments for the percentage of time spent at the feeding stations with pigs receiving vaccine and no gel spending the least amount of time at the feeding stations compared to the other three treatment groups. Therefore, the availability of a gel product when pigs are vaccinated provided some benefit, as the time spent at the feeding station was higher compared to pigs that did not have access to the gel