A global systematic scoping review of studies analysing indicators, development, and content of national-level physical activity and sedentary behaviour policies

Background: National policy approaches to physical activity (PA) promotion and sedentary behaviour (SB) reduction are needed to address rising rates of non-communicable diseases. Understanding the policy process and impact through robust research and evaluation is crucial for facilitating successful reforms in national health policy. This scoping review, therefore, aimed to map the evidence on indicators, development, and content of national PA and/or SB policies globally. Methods: A systematic search of academic and grey literature was conducted through six bibliographic databases, Google, and websites of three large organisations for PA promotion. Results: Out of 24,872 screened documents, 203 publications from 163 studies were selected. The selected studies investigated PA/SB policies in 168 countries worldwide, and we provided summary results for each of the countries. Overall, 69, 29, and 2% of the analyses of national PA/SB policies were conducted for high-, middle-, and low-income countries, respectively. Twenty-two percent of the studies mentioned SB policies as part of their analysis, with only one study focusing solely on assessing SB policies. Operational definitions of policy were found in only 13% of publications. Only 15% of the studies used a conceptual or theoretical framework. A large variety of methods were used for data collection and analysis of PA/SB policy. Conclusions: We found that PA policy research is much more developed than it was considered several years ago. Research around SB policies is still in its infancy, but it seems to have experienced some positive progress in the last few years. Three key issues were identified that should be addressed in further research: [i] there is a lack of PA/SB policy research in low- and middle-income countries, which is an important limitation of the current body of evidence; [ii] the definition of policy varied significantly across studies, and most studies did not rely on any theoretical framework, which may impede cross-study comparisons; and [iii] studies have used a variety of methods to analyse policy, which may also cause problems with comparability. Future PA/SB policy research should aim towards a clearer conceptualisation of policy, greater reliance on existing theoretical frameworks, and the use and further development of standardised methods for PA/SB policy analysis

Are they ‘worth their weight in gold’? Sport for older adults: benefits and barriers of their participation for sporting organisations

The ageing global population has led to an increased focus on health for older adults. However, older adults have not been a specific priority for some sporting organisations (SOs). Thus, there is an emerging opportunity for this age group to be considered within international sport policy. The aim of this study was to understand the benefits and barriers that SOs encounter when engaging older adults. Eight focus group interviews (n = 49) were held with representatives of Australian national sporting organisations (NSOs), and older adults who were either sport club or non-sport club members. The socioecological model domains, interpersonal, organisational and policy, were used as a framework for thematic analysis, and organisational capacity building concepts were utilised to explain the findings. Common perceived benefits included interpersonal benefits (intergenerational opportunities and role models) and organisational benefits (volunteering, financial contributions and maximised facility usage) for engaging older adults. Common perceived barriers included interpersonal barriers (competing priorities and perceived societal expectations), organisational barriers (lack of appropriate playing opportunities, lack of facility access and lack of club capacity) and policy barriers (strategic organisational focus on children and elite sport and risk management). Whilst participation in sport is not common for older adults, their involvement can be invaluable for sport clubs. It is not anticipated that any policy focus on older adults will significantly increase active participation for this age group. However, any increase in older adults’ sport participation either through actively playing, supporting family and friends and/or volunteering will contribute to the positive health of individuals, sport clubs and the community.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Prebiotic feeding elevates central brain derived neurotrophic factor, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunits and D-serine

The influence of the gut microbiota on brain chemistry has been convincingly demonstrated in rodents. In the absence of gut bacteria, the central expression of brain derived neurotropic factor, (BDNF), and N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) subunits are reduced, whereas, oral probiotics increase brain BDNF, and impart significant anxiolytic effects. We tested whether prebiotic compounds, which increase intrinsic enteric microbiota, also affected brain BDNF and NMDARs. In addition, we examined whether plasma from prebiotic treated rats released BDNF from human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells, to provide an initial indication of mechanism of action. Rats were gavaged with fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) or water for five weeks, prior to measurements of brain BDNF, NMDAR subunits and amino acids associated with glutamate neurotransmission (glutamate, glutamine, and serine and alanine enantiomers). Prebiotics increased hippocampal BDNF and NR1 subunit expression relative to controls. The intake of GOS also increased hippocampal NR2A subunits, and frontal cortex NR1 and d-serine. Prebiotics did not alter glutamate, glutamine, l-serine, l-alanine or d-alanine concentrations in the brain, though GOSfeeding raised plasma d-alanine. Elevated levels of plasma peptide YY (PYY) after GOS intake was observed. Plasma from GOS rats increased the release of BDNF from SH-SY5Y cells, but not in the presence of PYY antisera. The addition of synthetic PYY to SH-SY5Y cell cultures, also elevated BDNF secretion. We conclude that prebiotic-mediated proliferation of gut microbiota in rats, like probiotics, increases brain BDNF expression, possibly through the involvement of gut hormones. The effect of GOS on components of central NMDAR signalling was greater than FOS, and may reflect the proliferative potency of GOS on microbiota. Our data therefore, provide a sound basis to further investigate the utility of prebiotics in the maintenance of brain health and adjunctive treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders

Search for transient optical counterparts to high-energy IceCube neutrinos with Pan-STARRS1

In order to identify the sources of the observed diffuse high-energy neutrino flux, it is crucial to discover their electromagnetic counterparts. IceCube began releasing alerts for single high-energy ($E > 60$ TeV) neutrino detections with sky localisation regions of order 1 deg radius in 2016. We used Pan-STARRS1 to follow-up five of these alerts during 2016-2017 to search for any optical transients that may be related to the neutrinos. Typically 10-20 faint ($m < 22.5$ mag) extragalactic transients are found within the Pan-STARRS1 footprints and are generally consistent with being unrelated field supernovae (SNe) and AGN. We looked for unusual properties of the detected transients, such as temporal coincidence of explosion epoch with the IceCube timestamp. We found only one transient that had properties worthy of a specific follow-up. In the Pan-STARRS1 imaging for IceCube-160427A (probability to be of astrophysical origin of $\sim$50 %), we found a SN PS16cgx, located at 10.0' from the nominal IceCube direction. Spectroscopic observations of PS16cgx showed that it was an H-poor SN at z = 0.2895. The spectra and light curve resemble some high-energy Type Ic SNe, raising the possibility of a jet driven SN with an explosion epoch temporally coincident with the neutrino detection. However, distinguishing Type Ia and Type Ic SNe at this redshift is notoriously difficult. Based on all available data we conclude that the transient is more likely to be a Type Ia with relatively weak SiII absorption and a fairly normal rest-frame r-band light curve. If, as predicted, there is no high-energy neutrino emission from Type Ia SNe, then PS16cgx must be a random coincidence, and unrelated to the IceCube-160427A. We find no other plausible optical transient for any of the five IceCube events observed down to a 5$\sigma$ limiting magnitude of $m \sim 22$ mag, between 1 day and 25 days after detection.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, accepted to A&

Book Reviews

With the observation of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, interest has risen in models of PeV-mass decaying dark matter particles to explain the observed flux. We present two dedicated experimental analyses to test this hypothesis. One analysis uses 6 years of IceCube data focusing on muon neutrino ‘track’ events from the Northern Hemisphere, while the second analysis uses 2 years of ‘cascade’ events from the full sky. Known background components and the hypothetical flux from unstable dark matter are fitted to the experimental data. Since no significant excess is observed in either analysis, lower limits on the lifetime of dark matter particles are derived: we obtain the strongest constraint to date, excluding lifetimes shorter than $10^{28}$ s at 90% CL for dark matter masses above 10 TeV

A Search for Neutrino Emission from Fast Radio Bursts with Six Years of IceCube Data

We present a search for coincidence between IceCube TeV neutrinos and fast radio bursts (FRBs). During the search period from 2010 May 31 to 2016 May 12, a total of 29 FRBs with 13 unique locations have been detected in the whole sky. An unbinned maximum likelihood method was used to search for spatial and temporal coincidence between neutrinos and FRBs in expanding time windows, in both the northern and southern hemispheres. No significant correlation was found in six years of IceCube data. Therefore, we set upper limits on neutrino fluence emitted by FRBs as a function of time window duration. We set the most stringent limit obtained to date on neutrino fluence from FRBs with an $E^{-2}$ energy spectrum assumed, which is 0.0021 GeV cm$^{-2}$ per burst for emission timescales up to \textasciitilde10$^2$ seconds from the northern hemisphere stacking search.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

The identification of QTL controlling ergot sclerotia size in hexaploid wheat implicates a role for the Rht dwarfing alleles

The fungal pathogen Claviceps purpurea infects ovaries of a broad range of temperate grasses and cereals, including hexaploid wheat, causing a disease commonly known as ergot. Sclerotia produced in place of seed carry a cocktail of harmful alkaloid compounds that result in a range of symptoms in humans and animals, causing ergotism. Following a field assessment of C. purpurea infection in winter wheat, two varieties ‘Robigus’ and ‘Solstice’ were selected which consistently produced the largest differential effect on ergot sclerotia weights. They were crossed to produce a doubled haploid mapping population, and a marker map, consisting of 714 genetic loci and a total length of 2895 cM was produced. Four ergot reducing QTL were identified using both sclerotia weight and size as phenotypic parameters; QCp.niab.2A and QCp.niab.4B being detected in the wheat variety ‘Robigus’, and QCp.niab.6A and QCp.niab.4D in the variety ‘Solstice’. The ergot resistance QTL QCp.niab.4B and QCp.niab.4D peaks mapped to the same markers as the known reduced height (Rht) loci on chromosomes 4B and 4D, Rht-B1 and Rht-D1, respectively. In both cases, the reduction in sclerotia weight and size was associated with the semi-dwarfing alleles, Rht-B1b from ‘Robigus’ and Rht-D1b from ‘Solstice’. Two-dimensional, two-QTL scans identified significant additive interactions between QTL QCp.niab.4B and QCp.niab.4D, and between QCp.niab.2A and QCp.niab.4B when looking at sclerotia size, but not between QCp.niab.2A and QCp.niab.4D. The two plant height QTL, QPh.niab.4B and QPh.niab.4D, which mapped to the same locations as QCp.niab.4B and QCp.niab.4D, also displayed significant genetic interactions