Nutritional determinants of worldwide diabetes: an econometric study of food markets and diabetes prevalence in 173 countries.

OBJECTIVE: Ageing and urbanization leading to sedentary lifestyles have been the major explanations proposed for a dramatic rise in diabetes worldwide and have been the variables used to predict future diabetes rates. However, a transition to Western diets has been suggested as an alternative driver. We sought to determine what socio-economic and dietary factors are the most significant population-level contributors to diabetes prevalence rates internationally. DESIGN: Multivariate regression models were used to study how market sizes of major food products (sugars, cereals, vegetable oils, meats, total joules) corresponded to diabetes prevalence, incorporating lagged and cumulative effects. The underlying social determinants of food market sizes and diabetes prevalence rates were also studied, including ageing, income, urbanization, overweight prevalence and imports of foodstuffs. SETTING: Data were obtained from 173 countries. SUBJECTS: Population-based survey recipients were the basis for diabetes prevalence and food market data. RESULTS: We found that increased income tends to increase overall food market size among low- and middle-income countries, but the level of food importation significantly shifts the content of markets such that a greater proportion of available joules is composed of sugar and related sweeteners. Sugar exposure statistically explained why urbanization and income have been correlated with diabetes rates. CONCLUSIONS: Current diabetes projection methods may estimate future diabetes rates poorly if they fail to incorporate the impact of nutritional factors. Imported sugars deserve further investigation as a potential population-level driver of global diabetes

Clinical and financial consequences of setting up an asthma clinic at St. Luke’s Hospital

The effects of setting up an asthma clinic were assessed in an audit study. A comparison was made between the quality and quantity of medication used by patients before and after attending the asthma clinic. The number and severity of exacerbations during a six month period before and a six month period after attending were also assessed. The cost of treatment before and after was also calculated. In 14% of patients, occupational factors, drugs or underlying lung disease were significant contributors to asthma. The number of acute episodes of severe asthma were reduced from 98 to 47, with hospital admissions falling from 26 to 1. Pulmonary function (%FEV1) improved in the group as a whole with the number of patients having their best FEV above 80% improving from 44 to 71. In spite of the expense of high cost drugs and the running costs of the clinic there were substantial savings largely from the reduced number of hospital admissions. The calculated annual cost fell from Lm 22,769 to Lm 10,654.peer-reviewe

Designing robust and revisable policies for gender equality: lessons from the Australian construction industry

The construction industry remains the most male dominated sector in Australia. Several decades of formal gender equality initiatives by government and business have failed to bring about any meaningful change to the hierarchical and numerical representation of women in the sector. Drawing on new institutionalism, particularly the concepts of ‘robustness’ and ‘revisability’, the nature and intent of formal policies and programs that impact on gender equality are analysed in two large Australian multinational construction firms. Through in-depth interviews with senior management and a document analysis of formal policies, it is concluded that gender equality initiatives and broader policies are primarily focused on increasing the numbers of women in construction rather than addressing gender practices and outcomes. These policies lack many of the qualities of robustness and revisability, which impacts on their capacity to genuinely challenge the gendered norms, practices and narratives of the sector

Demolishing gender structures

This report presents findings from Australian research investigating why policies and strategies to attract, retain and support the progression of women professionals in large construction companies have, for the most part, failed

International ocean institute - kids : targeting awareness on the sea with the younger generations

The Internet revolution has led to the proliferation of accessible web-based educational resources. The International Ocean Institute (IOI), initiated through its operational center at the University of Malta, has funded the IOI-KIDS project, the institute’s flagship educational activity targeting awareness and knowledge- sharing about the sea with younger generations. The IOI was founded in 1972 and is an International NGO, with centers in 25 different countries and special consultative status within the United Nations. Some of the key missions of the IOI are to disseminate information, share and transfer knowledge and experience, and instill, within the younger generations, a greater interest in the sea. To further spread the legacy of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), IOI organizes the Pacem in Maribus (PIM) conferences. At the 32nd PIM conference in Malta in November 2007, the emerging Malta Declaration called for youth to help protect the marine environment, to move beyond the narrow circles of ocean professionals and stakeholders to broader audiences, whose knowledge and understanding are key to the support of sound ocean policy, and to change perceptions and heighten appreciation for the oceans and its importance to our lives and future, especially among the young (Drago 2008a).peer-reviewe

Time-discounting and tobacco smoking: a systematic review and network analysis.

BACKGROUND: Tobacco smoking harms health, so why do people smoke and fail to quit? An explanation originating in behavioural economics suggests a role for time-discounting, which describes how the value of a reward, such as better health, decreases with delay to its receipt. A large number of studies test the relationship of time-discounting with tobacco outcomes but the temporal pattern of this relationship and its variation according to measurement methods remain unclear. We review the association between time-discounting and smoking across (i) the life course, from initiation to cessation, and (ii) diverse discount measures. METHODS: We identified 69 relevant studies in Web of Science and PubMed. We synthesized findings across methodologies and evaluated discount measures, study quality and cross-disciplinary fertilization. RESULTS: In 44 out of 54 studies, smokers more greatly discounted the future than non-smokers and, in longitudinal studies, higher discounting predicted future smoking. Smokers with lower time-discount rates achieved higher quit rates. Findings were consistent across studies measuring discount rates using hypothetical monetary or cigarette reward scenarios. The methodological quality of the majority of studies was rated as 'moderate' and co-citation analysis revealed an isolation of economics journals and a dearth of studies in public health. CONCLUSION: There is moderate yet consistent evidence that high time-discounting is a risk factor for smoking and unsuccessful cessation. Policy scenarios assuming a flat rate of population discounting may inadequately capture smokers' perceptions of costs and benefits

Unhealthy diets, obesity and time discounting: a systematic literature review and network analysis

There is an increasing policy commitment to address the avoidable burdens ofunhealthy diet, overweight and obesity. However, to design effective policies, it isimportant to understand why people make unhealthy dietary choices. Researchfrom behavioural economics suggests a critical role for time discounting, whichdescribes how people’s value of a reward, such as better health, decreases with delayto its receipt. We systematically reviewed the literature on the relationship of timediscounting with unhealthy diets, overweight and obesity in Web of Science andPubMed. We identified 41 studies that met our inclusion criteria as they examinedthe association between time discount rates and (i) unhealthy food consumption;(ii) overweight and (iii) response to dietary and weight loss interventions. Nineteenout of 25 cross-sectional studies found time discount rates positively associated withoverweight, obesity and unhealthy diets. Experimental studies indicated that lowertime discounting was associated with greater weight loss. Findings varied by howtime discount rates were measured; stronger results were observed for food thanmonetary-based measurements. Network co-citation analysis revealed a concentra-tion of research in nutrition journals. Overall, there is moderate evidence that hightime discounting is a significant risk factor for unhealthy diets, overweight and obe-sity and may serve as an important target for intervention

Data-Intensive architecture for scientific knowledge discovery

This paper presents a data-intensive architecture that demonstrates the ability to support applications from a wide range of application domains, and support the different types of users involved in defining, designing and executing data-intensive processing tasks. The prototype architecture is introduced, and the pivotal role of DISPEL as a canonical language is explained. The architecture promotes the exploration and exploitation of distributed and heterogeneous data and spans the complete knowledge discovery process, from data preparation, to analysis, to evaluation and reiteration. The architecture evaluation included large-scale applications from astronomy, cosmology, hydrology, functional genetics, imaging processing and seismology

Use of optical fibres for multi-parameter monitoring in electrical AC machines

This paper describes a new approach to multi-parameter monitoring for electrical AC machines. It is demonstrated that speed, torque and temperature can be measured using optical fibres incorporating sensors in the form of fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs) distributed around the machine. One fibre can incorporate several FBGs and hence provide several measurements. Experimental results showing speed, torque, direction of rotation, stator housing vibration and temperature measured using the FBG method are presented and validated against measurements obtained from conventional sensors. The results show that the optical fibre based approach allows multiple parameters to be monitored accurately and simultaneously with only a fraction of the usual monitoring equipment required. Another advantage of the proposed method is the EMI immunity naturally provided by optical solutions. The presented measurement technique can also offer a new alternative approach to sensorless control