Measuring physical inactivity:do current measures provide an accurate view of "sedentary" video game time?

BACKGROUND: Measures of screen time are often used to assess sedentary behaviour. Participation in activity-based video games (exergames) can contribute to estimates of screen time, as current practices of measuring it do not consider the growing evidence that playing exergames can provide light to moderate levels of physical activity. This study aimed to determine what proportion of time spent playing video games was actually spent playing exergames. METHODS: Data were collected via a cross-sectional telephone survey in South Australia. Participants aged 18 years and above (n = 2026) were asked about their video game habits, as well as demographic and socioeconomic factors. In cases where children were in the household, the video game habits of a randomly selected child were also questioned. RESULTS: Overall, 31.3% of adults and 79.9% of children spend at least some time playing video games. Of these, 24.1% of adults and 42.1% of children play exergames, with these types of games accounting for a third of all time that adults spend playing video games and nearly 20% of children's video game time. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial proportion of time that would usually be classified as "sedentary" may actually be spent participating in light to moderate physical activity

Genetic Basis of Self-Incompatibility in the Lichen-Forming Fungus Lobaria pulmonaria and Skewed Frequency Distribution of Mating-Type Idiomorphs: Implications for Conservation

Fungal populations that reproduce sexually are likely to be genetically more diverse and have a higher adaptive potential than asexually reproducing populations. Mating systems of fungal species can be self-incompatible, requiring the presence of isolates of different mating-type genes for sexual reproduction to occur, or self-compatible, requiring only one. Understanding the distribution of mating-type genes in populations can help to assess the potential of self-incompatible species to reproduce sexually. In the locally threatened epiphytic lichen-forming fungus Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm., low frequency of sexual reproduction is likely to limit the potential of populations to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Our study provides direct evidence of self-incompatibility (heterothallism) in L. pulmonaria. It can thus be hypothesized that sexual reproduction in small populations might be limited by an unbalanced distribution of mating-type genes. We therefore assessed neutral genetic diversity (using microsatellites) and mating-type ratio in 27 lichen populations (933 individuals). We found significant differences in the frequency of the two mating types in 13 populations, indicating a lower likelihood of sexual reproduction in these populations. This suggests that conservation translocation activities aiming at maximizing genetic heterogeneity in threatened and declining populations should take into account not only presence of fruiting bodies in transplanted individuals, but also the identity and balanced representation of mating-type genes

The independent association of overweight and obesity with breathlessness in adults: a cross-sectional, population-based study

Obesity is an independent risk factor for chronic breathlessness and should be assessed in people with this symptom

Measuring subjective wellbeing in a surveillance system: ¿who are these people who are positive?

Background: Promo ng and improving the wellbeing (and happiness) of the general popula on is emerging as a public health priority globally and a key societal aspira on. Countries are including measures on wellbeing to supplement tradi onal measures of economic growth as an indicator of na onal prosperity. Including ques ons on subjec ve individual wellbeing can be useful to measure and can be included in a surveillance system. These ques ons can provide an overall assessment of how people are doing and take into account of what people decide for themselves is important beside health. It can capture the meaning and purpose in life which is not covered in current “nega ve” ques ons such as psychological distress. Purpose: To assess the performance and associa on of subjec  ve wellbeing on a range of socio- economic status (SES) and inequali  es indicators

L'uomo al centro del lavoro collaborativo, tra letteratura e professione: il Kaleidos Hotel e alcune proposte di gestione della conoscenza tacita in azienda. Prendere consapevolezza degli strumenti tecnologici a disposizione, reinventarne ed ampliarne l'utilizzo.

Questa tesi vuole essere il naturale epilogo di un percorso di studi e formazione che mi ha portata alla formulazione di un pensiero: in un’epoca in cui ci si sente sempre più confusi dalle nuove potenzialità della tecnologia in continua evoluzione e dalla complessità degli ambienti in cui è difficile far sentire la propria voce, si avverte il bisogno di sentirsi ancora padroni di ciò che si è creato finora e si cercano la possibilità e la libertà di espressione. L’uomo è circondato, quasi soffocato, da una considerevole quantità di strumenti, tanto che a volte gli sembra di non avere più il potere di dirigere e decidere, come se avesse delegato ogni aspetto ad una macchina, dimenticandosi che quella macchina l’ha costruita lui; l’uomo ha bisogno di reagire e ripensare la propria situazione e ciò che ha a disposizione con maggiore consapevolezza. Tutto questo deve far sentire la persona al centro di una gamma di possibilità di azione e creazione, che va ad incontrare il raggio di azione e creazione di altre persone: è necessario equilibrare il bisogno di affermazione della propria identità con la consapevolezza di essere inseriti in contesti condivisi: caselle di posta elettronica, social network, ambienti di lavoro o svago, club, luoghi pubblici,… In qualsiasi momento siamo (realmente o potenzialmente) in contatto con altre persone, collaborazione e condivisione sono insite nelle nostre attività quotidiane. Questo lavoro si sviluppa in due parti e contesti differenti, uno letterario, aziendale l’altro, i quali però si pongono un fine comune: mettere al centro dell’attenzione l’uomo, le sue capacità, le sue conoscenze, la sua essenza, e contemporaneamente dare ad ognuno la possibilità di mettersi in gioco, di condividere, di esprimersi, in un ambiente di lavoro collaborativo (letterario prima, poi professionale). Supportati da studi e riflessioni sulla letteratura di entrambi i campi, i due ambienti proposti, sono: - Un sito web in cui si sviluppa una storia fatta di personaggi differenti, e si propone come tentativo di opera letteraria collettiva lontana dalla fisicità del libro e contraria alla presenza di un unico auctor: la metafora dell’albergo è stata scelta come luogo di ritrovo di più persone, che possono comunicare tramite un Libro degli Ospiti e comunicare direttamente con la Reception (ovvero il creatore dell’idea e del sito). All’ albergo è stato dato il nome di Kaleidos Hotel: il nome rimanda al caleidoscopio, uno strumento ottico che crea una molteplicità di strutture simmetriche, sempre diverse, servendosi di specchi e frammenti di vetro o plastica. Questo serve a sottolineare che l’ambiente, composto di singole stanze racchiuse ognuna nella propria pagina web, permette la definizione di ogni specifica identità, diversa da tutte le altre: chiunque può creare la propria pagina ed il proprio personaggio, caratterizzarlo come preferisce ed inserire nel proprio spazio personale qualsiasi materiale di tipo digitale, come canzoni, foto, video, link a siti esterni, ecc… Ciò che risulta è un testo pensato a prescindere dalla forma libro, dalle sole parole, dalla figura di un autore. Vengono presentati la struttura base del sito (in Appendice il codice completo) ed un resoconto della sua pubblicazione online, con la “risposta” e le prime reazioni degli utenti. - Il secondo ambiente è una serie di proposte di utilizzo di strumenti alla portata di tutti, per migliorare la collaborazione e la comunicazione all’ interno delle piccole aziende: si vuole dare ad ogni dipendente la possibilità di condividere il proprio asset intangibile, le proprie opinioni e le proprie idee, al fine di aumentare la conoscenza totale a disposizione dell’organizzazione, così che essa possa affrontare il maggior numero di situazioni, adeguandosi ad esse, e possa garantire il benessere di ognuno dei componenti, migliorando così le condizione dell’organismo aziendale. Vengono evidenziate e confrontate le caratteristiche di questi strumenti ritenute necessarie allo scopo di cui sopra: in particolare, sono importanti la condivisione e la garanzia che venga data a tutti la possibilità di contribuire e far sentire la propria voce, così come è importante far capire che ogni piccola azienda può dedicare energie a questo ambito, senza il bisogno di ricorrere a degli specialisti. La principale caratteristica comune a questi due progetti è la centralità della persona: ognuno di noi può contribuire ad un’opera letteraria, sentirsi autore pur non essendo stato investito da un’ auctoritas, ed ognuno di noi può avere la possibilità, nell’ambiente di lavoro, di non essere solo un ingranaggio della macchina aziendale, ma un baule di conoscenze, esperienze, storie da raccontare. Altra caratteristica è l’importanza data al lavoro collaborativo: solo lavorando in gruppo si possono unire le conoscenze, prendere spunti e lasciarsi influenzare, unire qualcosa di già creato a qualcosa di nuovo per sviluppare nuove informazioni o creazioni. Ciò che scriviamo e componiamo è per forza influenzato da ciò che abbiamo assorbito nella nostra esperienza e si riflette inevitabilmente e quasi inconsciamente nella nostra opera; inoltre, riunirsi in un’organizzazione per effettuare determinati lavori dimostra che solo in gruppo si possono fare cose che la persona singola non può fare. Più specificamente, il Kaleidos Hotel cerca di rendere consapevoli sulle possibilità offerte dalla tecnologia oggi: creare una storia non chiusa in un libro, ma inserita in pagine digitali che possono crescere all’ infinito e contenere anche immagini, suoni, collegamenti. Più sono le persone a contribuire e collaborare, più l’opera può arricchirsi e crescere: questo vale anche e soprattutto in ambito lavorativo, perché le organizzazioni sono in primo luogo insiemi di persone che devono comunicare e lavorare assieme, e perché questo avvenga nel migliore dei modi, è necessario che ognuna di esse possa aver cura di sé e del proprio spazio all’ interno dell’azienda

Surveillance of health status and health risk: The future of data collection using the telephone in Australia

Epidemiologically-designed, continuous and effective chronic disease and behavioural risk factor surveillance systems provide scientific evidence at the local level to assist government, health professionals and administrators, to respond effectively in reducing the burden associated with non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Many monitoring and surveillance systems utilise the telephone as the method of choice in obtaining population data. However, the dramatic change in telecommunication usage, diminishing coverage of telephone sampling frames and declining participation in household surveys, has led to methodological and statistical challenges. This has led to the present study that explores these challenges through an established telephone data collection system in Australia, the South Australian Monitoring and Surveillance System (SAMSS). The aim of this research is to determine how telephone surveys in Australia can continue to be used to reliably collect representative information on health indicators and other related health issues by exploring alternative efficient and cost effective methods. The first study, using face-to-face South Australian household survey data, found that using landline-based telephone number sampling frames excludes mobile-only households in Australia (27.8% of households in 2013). From 2006 to 2013, the proportion of mobile-only households has increased and this trend does not appear to be plateauing. This corresponds with the decrease in landline telephone coverage. Mobile-only households are demographically different in that respondents are more likely to be younger, never married and living in rented accommodation. By excluding this group, landline-based sampling frames may possibly produce biased health estimates for some health indicators, such as the proportion of people who are current smokers or who have a mental health condition. The second study found participation in SAMSS has decreased over a period of twelve years, with an 18.6% decrease in the response rate (from 68.9% in 2002 to 56.1% in 2014) and a 65.5% increase in the refusal rate. When demographic data are compared to Census data, SAMSS had a higher proportion of females, older people and people who rent, and these groups are increasingly being over-represented over time. The result from these studies imply that a mobile telephone sample needs to be incorporated. Unfortunately, there is no complete mobile telephone sampling frame in Australia with a geographical marker and only 7% of the currently used nationwide mobile telephone sampling frames are South Australian residents, making the sampling method uneconomic. This is compounded by lower participation in mobile telephone surveys compared to landline telephone surveys. Based on these methodological issues and corresponding with decline in participation, efficient methodological strategies need to be considered for smaller states like South Australia. The last two studies present two different cost effective and efficient methodological techniques, to minimise bias in health estimates due to nonresponse and sample coverage, and to increase participation in mobile telephone surveys. One study used raked weighting methodology to overcome, to some extent, the nonresponse biases and sampling coverage problems associated with telephone surveys. By incorporating more sociodemographic variables such as renting and marital status, besides the usual age, sex and area of residence, health estimates such as the proportion of current smokers corresponds well with other more expensive face-to-face surveys. The last study used a simple novel technique of sending a text message to prospective survey respondents to improve participation. This thesis has explored and shown, from a series of studies, that telephone surveys, with careful monitoring of procedures and use of innovative techniques and statistical methods, can still be used to collect and report information on chronic diseases and behavioural risk factors in Australia. The uniqueness of this body of works presents a detailed examination of the status of a current surveillance system by nonresponse rates, trends of nonresponse rates and coverage biases, and links this information to possible solutions to overcome nonresponse biases, with the aim of producing reliable and representative health estimates.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Adelaide Medical School, 201

Microsatellite markers for Dictyochloropsis reticulata (Trebouxiophyceae), the symbiotic alga of the lichen Lobaria pulmonaria (L.)

We isolated and characterized eight microsatellite markers for Dictyochloropsis reticulata, the primary photosynthetic partner of the epiphytic lichen Lobaria pulmonaria. These are the first microsatellite loci reported for a lichen symbiotic alga. These polymorphic markers will be useful for investigating spatial genetic structure, biogeography and dispersal of this eukaryotic alga and will generally shed light on the coevolution of the green-algal lichen symbiose

Long-term consequences of disturbances on reproductive strategies of the rare epiphytic lichen Lobaria pulmonaria: clonality a gift and a curse

The effect of disturbance on symbiotic organisms such as lichens is particularly severe. In case of heterothallic lichen-forming fungi, disturbances may lead to unbalanced gene frequency and patchy distribution of mating types, thus inhibiting sexual reproduction and imposing clonality. The impact of disturbance on reproductive strategies and genetic diversity of clonal systems has so far received little attention. To infer the effects of disturbances on mating-type allele frequencies and population structure, we selected three populations in the Parc Jurassien Vaudois (Switzerland), which were affected by uneven-aged forestry, intensive logging and fire, respectively. We used microsatellite markers to infer genetic diversity, allelic richness and clonal diversity of the epiphytic lichen Lobaria pulmonaria and used L. pulmonaria-specific MAT1-1 and MAT1-2 markers to analyse the frequency and distribution of mating types of 889 individuals. Our study shows that stand-replacing disturbances affect the mating-type frequency and distribution, thus compromising the potential for sexual reproduction. The fire-disturbed area had a significantly lower genetic and genotypic diversity and a higher clonality. Furthermore, the majority of compatible mating pairs in this area were beyond the effective vegetative dispersal range of the species. We conclude that stand-replacing disturbances lead to lower chances of sex and symbiont reshuffling and thus have long-lasting negative consequences on the reproductive strategies and adaptive potential of epiphytic lichen symbiose

The impact of socioeconomic status on arthritis and osteoporosis

Background: Low socioeconomic status has been shown to be associated with both osteoarthri s and rheumatoid arthri s, impac ng on outcomes and even the development of arthri s. However the associa on with osteoporosis has been less clear. The reasons for the associa on may be linked to socioeconomic status through educa onal aspects, income, employment type and even area of residence. Purpose: The purpose of this study was use a monthly surveillance and monitoring system to examine the prevalence of self-reported osteoarthri s, rheumatoid arthri  s and osteoporosis over  me and the associa  on with measures of socioeconomic status

Two colliding epidemics - obesity is independently associated with chronic pain interfering with activities of daily living in adults 18 years and over; a cross-sectional, population-based study.

BACKGROUND: Chronic pain interfering with activities of daily living is highly prevalent in the community. More than 600 million people worldwide are obese. The aim of this paper is to assess if such chronic pain is associated independently with obesity across the adult population, having controlled for other key factors. METHODS: The South Australian Health Omnibus is an annual, population-based, cross-sectional study. Data on 2616 participants were analysed for episodes of daily pain for three of the preceding six months. Obesity was derived from self-reported height and weight. Multivariable logistic regression analysed the associations between chronic pain interfering with activities of daily living, body mass index (BMI) and key socio-demographic factors. RESULTS: Chronic pain interfering with activities of daily living peaks in people ≥75 years of age while obesity peaks in the 45-54 age group. Pain and obesity together peak in the 55-74 year age group. In the adjusted multinominal logistic regression model, compared to those with no pain, there was a strong association between obesity and pain that interfered moderately or extremely with day-to-day activities (OR 2.25; 95 % CI 1.57-3.23; p < 0.001) having controlled for respondents' age, gender, rurality, country of birth and highest educational attainment. People over 65 years of age and those with lower educational levels were more likely to experience such chronic pain related to obesity. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates a strong association between chronic pain and obesity/morbid obesity in the South Australian population. Prospective, longitudinal data are needed to understand the dynamic interaction between these two prevalent conditions