A Preliminary Investigation of Child, Parent and Programme Leader Reflections on Participation in and Delivery of a Family- Based Weight Intervention Programme.

Childhood obesity is considered to be the greatest public health risk to children today, placing young people at considerable risk for adult obesity and consequent CVD, diabetes, liver dysfunction, and other morbidities (Doro-Altan et al., 2008; Singh et al., 2008). As a result numerous interventions with the potential to reduce obesity levels or associated risk of chronic diseases have been devised (Steinberger et al., 2003; Flynn et al., 2006). Not withstanding the need for further quantitative evaluation of the effect of such interventions, key publications have now called for qualitative evaluations to be undertaken in order to create an evidence base from the views of participants that may highlight why certain interventions may be more, or less successful (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2006; Luttikhuis et al., 2009). In response to these very recent calls, this abstract intends to present, from qualitative methods of enquiry, preliminary findings of parent, child and programme leader experiences of, reflections on and future intentions following participation in and delivery of a nationally implemented family-based weight intervention programme in the UK. Data from semi-structured interviews with 6 families who completed the programme in December 2008 and 1 programme leader will be presented. Informal thematic analysis will be utilised to identify emergent themes with data presentation accentuating the qualitative, ‘lived’ experience of the programme and the impact of the various aspects of the intervention on intentions for future behaviours. It is anticipated that the outcomes of this study will help to inform the organisation, content, implementation and nature of future intervention programmes in order to enhance their effectiveness

From Club to Country: Exploring youth footballers experiences of international football

The study of athletic career transitions has grown in recent years, with scholars seeking to understand how to better support athletes through various aspects of their career, including, but not limited to, areas such as, the youth-to-senior transition and retirement from sport. A transition that has been underrepresented in academia is that of the club-to-country transition in football. This thesis aimed to better understand the experiences of current youth footballers when moving between club and international football in order to provide both policy and practical implications to better support young footballers at this time. Through an interpretivist methodological position, a case study approach was chosen to provide the researcher with as “full an understanding of the case as possible” (Punch 1998: 15). The thesis used methods triangulation to collect data through interviews, observations and document analysis, in order to avoid the potential biases that can occur through using a single method of study (Williamson, 2005). The semi-structured interviews involved access to current youth international footballers and leadership staff from leading youth academies in The Premier League – becoming the first to provide insight into the club-to-country transition in England. The data was then analysed using a thematic analysis, generating initial codes and themes before being organised into the empirical chapters. Findings were organised into three empirical chapters. The first, Chapter 4, explained the process of entering the international environment, finding that clubs are likely to prioritise their own games programme over international opportunities for developing footballers and that, at times, from the clubs perspective there was ambiguity as to why certain players were selected. This shows the competing priorities of both club and NGB. Chapter 5 discussed the implications this transition can have on player development, showing the sporting performance and psychological implications, including identity and self-esteem that can occur through international representation. Chapter 6 discussed the relationship between professional football clubs and the national governing body during this process, highlighting how the clubs perceived the presence of the youth international footballer as a key performance indicator as well as an opportunity to recruit other potential academy prospects. The potential ethical issues were then discussed around the commoditisation of childhood. Chapter 6 also discussed the support that youth international footballers receive from both club and national coaching staff throughout the transition. In conclusion, the findings presented here add to the current career transition research through focusing on an element of the developing footballers’ career that has yet to be discussed in the extant literature. The findings were also used to develop a model for the club-to-country transition, outlining meta-transitions, described as transitions within a transition process (Schinke et al., 2015), that require different types and levels of support at each stage of the process

Sustainable livestock systems for high-producing animals

National audienc

Generalizing boundaries for triangular designs, and efficacy estimation at extended follow-ups.

BACKGROUND: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a parasitic disease transmitted by sandflies and is fatal if left untreated. Phase II trials of new treatment regimens for VL are primarily carried out to evaluate safety and efficacy, while pharmacokinetic data are also important to inform future combination treatment regimens. The efficacy of VL treatments is evaluated at two time points, initial cure, when treatment is completed and definitive cure, commonly 6 months post end of treatment, to allow for slow response to treatment and detection of relapses. This paper investigates a generalization of the triangular design to impose a minimum sample size for pharmacokinetic or other analyses, and methods to estimate efficacy at extended follow-up accounting for the sequential design and changes in cure status during extended follow-up. METHODS: We provided R functions that generalize the triangular design to impose a minimum sample size before allowing stopping for efficacy. For estimation of efficacy at a second, extended, follow-up time, the performance of a shrinkage estimator (SHE), a probability tree estimator (PTE) and the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) for estimation was assessed by simulation. RESULTS: The SHE and PTE are viable approaches to estimate an extended follow-up although the SHE performed better than the PTE: the bias and root mean square error were lower and coverage probabilities higher. CONCLUSIONS: Generalization of the triangular design is simple to implement for adaptations to meet requirements for pharmacokinetic analyses. Using the simple MLE approach to estimate efficacy at extended follow-up will lead to biased results, generally over-estimating treatment success. The SHE is recommended in trials of two or more treatments. The PTE is an acceptable alternative for one-arm trials or where use of the SHE is not possible due to computational complexity. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01067443 , February 2010

The effect of pedometer step goal, feedback and self-monitoring interventions on accelerometer-measured physical activity in children

This study assessed the utility of 3-week goal-setting, self-monitoring and step-feedback pedometer interventions for increasing physical activity (PA) in children, and the relative impact of individual and group-standardised goals. Three classes of primary school children (n = 68) were randomised to: (a) individual-standardised goal (IS), (b) group-standardised goal (GS) or (c) open pedometer control (CON) groups. PA was assessed via accelerometry (baseline and end-point). There were no main effects for study group, but there was an interaction between time and group for moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), with MVPA time change differing between IS and CON, as MVPA increased in IS but decreased in CON. Mean plots showed MVPA increased in less-active children allocated IS goals, but decreased in GS children. MVPA in more-active children did not change in IS, but declined in GS and CON. Goal-setting, self-monitoring and step-feedback pedometer interventions did not modify PA. Individual-standardised goals may, however, have utility due to mitigating the decline in MVPA in more-active and increasing MVPA in less-active children

Ugi multicomponent reaction to prepare peptide–peptoid hybrid structures with diverse chemical functionalities

Monodisperse sequenced peptides and peptoids present unique nano-structures based on their self-assembled secondary and tertiary structures. However, the generation of peptide and peptoid hybrid oligomers in a sequence-defined manner via Ugi multicomponent reaction has not yet been studied. Herein, we report a synthetic strategy that enables both the modification of peptides as well as the generation of sequence-defined peptide–peptoid hybrid structures. Our synthetic methodology rests on the fusion of solid phase peptide synthesis with Ugi multicomponent reactions. We evidence that a diversity of chemical functionalities can be inserted into peptides or used in the design of peptide–peptoid hybrids exploiting a wide functional array including amines, carboxylic acids, hydrocarbons, carbohydrates as well as polymers, introducing a sequence-defined synthetic platform technology for precision peptoid hybrids

Finansal okuryazarlığın mobil alışveriş yapma eğilimi üzerine etkisi

Finansal okuryazarlık, finansal ürünler ve uygulamalar ile ilgili genel bilgi ve olumsuzluklara karşı önlemler alınmasıdır. Mobil alışveriş, insanların ihtiyaçlarına yer ve zaman sınırlandırması olmadan elektronik ortam vasıtasıyla ulaşmasıdır. Hayatın her alanında olan bu kavramların önemin artması bu konuların ele alınmasına ve incelenmesine sebep olmuştur. Bu çalışma, Kilis İli Milli Eğitim Müdürlüğüne bağlı lise öğretmenlerinden toplanan veriler sonucu yapılan etki, düzey ve anlam ilişkisi analizleri ile araştırılmıştır. Yapılan analizler sonucunda, finansal okuryazarlık düzeyi %57 olarak bulunmuştur. Finansal okuryazarlık düzeyinin; cinsiyet, medeni durum, yaş ve gelir düzeyi değişkenlerine göre anlamlı farklılık gösterdiği sonucu çıkmıştır. Mobil alışveriş yapma eğiliminin; harcama tutarı değişkeni ile anlamlı farklılık gösterdiği sonucu çıkmıştır. Finansal okuryazarlık düzeyinin mobil alışveriş yapma eğilimine etkisinin, finansal okuryazarlık (%19) ve harcama tutarını (%18) pozitif yönde etkilediği sonucuna varılmıştır

Targeted identification of genomic regions using TAGdb

Background: The introduction of second generation sequencing technology has enabled the cost effective sequencing of genomes and the identification of large numbers of genes and gene promoters. However, the assembly of DNA sequences to create a representation of the complete genome sequence remains costly, especially for the larger and more complex plant genomes. Results: We have developed an online database, TAGdb, that enables researchers to identify paired read sequences that share identity with a submitted query sequence. These tags can be used to design oligonucleotide primers for the PCR amplification of the region in the target genome. Conclusions: The ability to produce large numbers of paired read genome tags using second generation sequencing provides a cost effective method for the identification of genes and promoters in large, complex or orphan species without the need for whole genome assembly