Correlates of Omani adults' physical inactivity and sitting time

Objective: To inform public health approaches for chronic disease prevention, the present study identified sociodemographic, anthropometric and behavioural correlates of work, transport and leisure physical inactivity and sitting time among adults in Oman

Sexually Selected Infanticide in a Polygynous Bat

Background: Adult individuals of many species kill unrelated conspecific infants for several adaptive reasons ranging from predation or resource competition to the prevention of misdirected parental care. Moreover, infanticide can increase the reproductive success of the aggressor by killing the offspring of competitors and thereafter mating with the victimized females. This sexually selected infanticide predominantly occurs in polygynous species, with convincing evidence for primates, carnivores, equids, and rodents. Evidence for bats was predicted but lacking. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we report the first case, to our knowledge, of sexually selected infanticide in a bat, the polygynous white-throated round-eared bat, Lophostoma silvicolum. Behavioral studies in a free-living population revealed that an adult male repeatedly attacked and injured the pups of two females belonging to his harem, ultimately causing the death of one pup. The infanticidal male subsequently mated with the mother of the victimized pup and this copulation occurred earlier than any other in his harem. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings indicate that sexually selected infanticide is more widespread than previously thought, adding bats as a new taxon performing this strategy. Future work on other bats, especially polygynous species in the tropics, has great potential to investigate the selective pressures influencing the evolution of sexually selecte

Consensus guidelines for the use and interpretation of angiogenesis assays

The formation of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis, is a complex process that plays important roles in growth and development, tissue and organ regeneration, as well as numerous pathological conditions. Angiogenesis undergoes multiple discrete steps that can be individually evaluated and quantified by a large number of bioassays. These independent assessments hold advantages but also have limitations. This article describes in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro bioassays that are available for the evaluation of angiogenesis and highlights critical aspects that are relevant for their execution and proper interpretation. As such, this collaborative work is the first edition of consensus guidelines on angiogenesis bioassays to serve for current and future reference

Association of Accelerometer-Measured Sedentary Accumulation Patterns With Incident Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, and All-Cause Mortality.

Background Emerging evidence suggests accruing sedentary behavior (SB) in relatively more prolonged periods may convey additional cardiometabolic risks, but few studies have examined prospective outcomes. We examined the association of SB accumulation patterns with incident cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, and all-cause mortality (ACM). Methods and Results Data were from 7671 EPIC-Norfolk (European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Norfolk) cohort middle- to older-aged adults who wore accelerometers on the right hip for 4 to 7 days. Cox proportional hazards regression modeled associations between 2 measures of SB accumulation and incident CVD, cancer, and ACM. These were usual SB bout duration (the midpoint of each individual's SB accumulation curve, fitted using nonlinear regression) and alpha (hybrid measure of bout frequency and duration, with higher values indicating relatively shorter bouts and fewer long bouts). Models were adjusted for potential confounders, then further for 24-hour time-use compositions. During mean follow-up time of 6.4 years, 339 ACM, 1106 CVD, and 516 cancer events occurred. Elevated rates of incident cancer and ACM were seen with more prolonged SB accumulation (lower alpha, higher usual SB bout duration) but not CVD. For usual SB bout duration and alpha, respectively, the confounder-adjusted hazard ratios per SD of the exposure were 1.12 (95% CI, 1.02-1.23) and 0.88 (95% CI, 0.79-0.98) with incident cancer and 1.16 (95% CI, 1.07-1.26) and 0.80 (95% CI, 0.72-0.89) with ACM (all P<0.05). Further adjustment for 24-hour time use weakened associations with ACM for usual bout duration (hazard ratio, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.97-1.16; P=0.209) and partially for alpha (hazard ratio, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.77-0.99; P=0.029). Conclusions Accruing SB in longer bout durations was associated with higher rates of incident cancer and ACM but not with incident CVD, with some evidence of direct SB accumulation effects independent of 24-hour time use. Findings provide some support for considering SB accumulation as an adjunct target of messaging to "sit less and move more.

A cluster randomized controlled trial to reduce office workers’ sitting time: effect on productivity outcomes

Objective This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the Stand Up Victoria intervention - a multicomponent workplace intervention that successfully reduced workplace sitting-on productivity in the short- and longer-term.Methods Desk-based workers [5-39 per worksite; 68% women; mean age 45.6 (standard deviation 9.4) years] were cluster randomized by office worksite to receive intervention (7 worksites, 136 workers) or control (7 worksites, 95 workers). The intervention used organizational-, environmental-, and individual-level approaches to address workplace sitting. Productivity outcomes were measured via the Health and Work Questionnaire (HWQ; 10 outcomes) and Work Limitations Questionnaire (WLQ; 5 outcomes), administered at 0 (baseline), 3 (initial), and 12 (long-term) months. Intervention effects were assessed by linear mixed models, accounting for repeated measures and clustering, baseline values, and potential confounders. Evaluable case and multiple imputation analyses were used.Results At 12 months, trends for improvement were observed in the HWQ non-work satisfaction subscale (P=0.053) and stress item (P=0.086). Intervention effects on remaining outcomes for the HWQ were small and non-significant at both timepoints. At 3 months, intervention effects showed significant improvements in the WLQ mental demands subscale (P=0.043). At 12 months, intervention effects showed significant (

Validity of a multi-context sitting questionnaire across demographically diverse population groups: AusDiab3

© 2015 Clark et al. Background: Sitting time questionnaires have largely been validated in small convenience samples. The validity of this multi-context sitting questionnaire against an accurate measure of sitting time is reported in a large demographically diverse sample allowing assessment of validity in varied demographic subgroups. Methods: A subgroup of participants of the third wave of the Australian Diabetes, Obesity, and Lifestyle (AusDiab3) study wore activPAL3™ monitors (7 days, 24 hours/day protocol) and reported their sitting time for work, travel, television viewing, leisure computer use and "other" purposes, on weekdays and weekend days (n = 700, age 36-89 years, 45 % men). Correlations (Pearson's r; Spearman's ?) of the self-report measures (the composite total, contextual measures and items) with monitor-assessed sitting time were assessed in the whole sample and separately in socio-demographic subgroups. Agreement was assessed using Bland-Altman plots. Results: The composite total had a correlation with monitor-assessed sitting time of r = 0.46 (95 % confidence interval [CI]: 0.40, 0.52); this correlation did not vary significantly between demographic subgroups (all &gt;0.4). The contextual measure most strongly correlated with monitor-assessed sitting time was work (? = 0.25, 95 % CI: 0.17, 0.31), followed by television viewing (? = 0.16, 95 % CI: 0.09, 0.24). Agreement of the composite total with monitored sitting time was poor, with a positive bias (B = 0.53, SE 0.04, p &lt; 0.001) and wide limits of agreement (±4.32 h). Conclusions: This multi-context questionnaire provides a total sitting time measure that ranks participants well for the purposes of assessing health associations but has limited accuracy relative to activPAL-assessed sitting time. Findings did not differ in demographic subgroups

What strategies do desk-based workers choose to reduce sitting time and how well do they work? Findings from a cluster randomised controlled trial 11 Medical and Health Sciences 1117 Public Health and Health Services

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: Large amounts of sitting at work have been identified as an emerging occupational health risk, and findings from intervention trials have been reported. However, few such reports have examined participant-selected strategies and their relationships with behaviour change. Methods: The Stand Up Victoria cluster-randomised controlled trial was a workplace-delivered intervention comprising organisational, environmental and individual level behaviour change strategies aimed at reducing sitting time in desk-based workers. Sit-stand workstations were provided, and participants (n = 134; intervention group only) were guided by health coaches to identify strategies for the 'Stand Up', 'Sit Less', and 'Move More' intervention targets, including how long they would stand using the workstation. Three-month workplace sitting and activity changes (activPAL3-assessed total sitting, prolonged sitting (i.e., sitting =30 min continuously) and purposeful walking) were evaluated in relation to the number (regression analysis) and types of strategies (decision-tree analysis). Results: Over 80 different strategies were nominated by participants. Each additional strategy nominated for the 'Stand Up' intervention target (i.e. number of strategies) was associated with a reduction in prolonged sitting of 27.6 min/8-h workday (95% CI: -53.1, - 2.1, p = 0.034). Types of strategies were categorised into 13 distinct categories. Strategies that were task-based and phone-based were common across all three targets. The decision tree models did not select any specific strategy category as predicting changes in prolonged sitting ('Stand Up'), however four strategy categories were identified as important for total sitting time ('Sit Less') and three strategy categories for purposeful walking ('Moving More'). The uppermost nodes (foremost predictors) were nominating &gt; 3 h/day of workstation standing (reducing total workplace sitting) and choosing a 'Move More' task-based strategy (purposeful walking). Conclusions: Workers chose a wide range of strategies, with both strategy choice and strategy quantity appearing relevant to behavioural improvement. Findings support a tailored and pragmatic approach to encourage a change in sitting and activity in the workplace. Evaluating participant-selected strategies in the context of a successful intervention serves to highlight options that may prove feasible and effective in other desk-based workplace environments. Trial registration: This trial was prospectively registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials register (ACTRN12611000742976) on 15 July 2011