Physical activity recommendations from general practitioners in Australia. Results from a national survey

OBJECTIVE: To identify subgroups of Australian adults likely to receive physical activity advice from their general practitioner and to evaluate the content of the advice provided. METHODS: Participants (n=1,799), recruited from the Australian Health and Social Science panel, completed an online survey. Signal Detection Analysis was used to identify subgroups that were more/less likely to have received physical activity recommendations. RESULTS: Overall, 18% of participants received a physical activity recommendation from their general practitioner in the past 12 months and eight unique subgroups were identified. The subgroup with the highest proportion (54%) of participants reporting that they received a physical activity recommendation was those with poor physical and mental health-related quality of life and an average daily sitting time of <11 hours. Other subgroups with high proportions of individuals receiving recommendations were characterised by higher weight and/or the presence of co-morbidities. The most commonly prescribed physical activity type was aerobic activity. Few participants received specific physical activity advice. CONCLUSIONS: General practitioners are incorporating physical activity promotion into their practice, but primarily as a disease management tool and with limited specificity. IMPLICATIONS: Strategies to assist Australian general practitioners to effectively promote physical activity are needed

Assessing the legacy of red mud pollution in a shallow freshwater lake: arsenic accumulation and speciation in macrophytes

Little is known about long-term ecological responses in lakes following red mud pollution. Among red mud contaminants, arsenic (As) is of considerable concern. Determination of the species of As accumulated in aquatic organisms provides important information about the biogeochemical cycling of the element and transfer through the aquatic food-web to higher organisms. We used coupled ion chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to assess As speciation in tissues of five macrophyte taxa in Kinghorn Loch, U.K., 30 years following the diversion of red mud pollution from the lake. Toxic inorganic As was the dominant species in the studied macrophytes, with As species concentrations varying with macrophyte taxon and tissue type. The highest As content measured in roots of Persicaria amphibia (L.) Gray (87.2 mg kg–1) greatly exceeded the 3–10 mg kg–1 range suggested as a potential phytotoxic level. Accumulation of toxic As species by plants suggested toxicological risk to higher organisms known to utilize macrophytes as a food source

A meta-analysis of water quality and aquatic macrophyte responses in 18 lakes treated with lanthanum modified bentonite (PHOSLOCK®)

Lanthanum (La) modified bentonite is being increasingly used as a geo-engineering tool for the control of phosphorus (P) release from lake bed sediments to overlying waters. However, little is known about its effectiveness in controlling P across a wide range of lake conditions or of its potential to promote rapid ecological recovery. We combined data from 18 treated lakes to examine the lake population responses in the 24 months following La-bentonite application (range of La-bentonite loads: 1.4 to 6.7 tonnes ha-1) in concentrations of surface water total phosphorus (TP; data available from 15 lakes), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP; 14 lakes), and chlorophyll a (15 lakes), and in Secchi disk depths (15 lakes), aquatic macrophyte species numbers (6 lakes) and aquatic macrophyte maximum colonisation depths (4 lakes) across the treated lakes. Data availability varied across the lakes and variables, and in general monitoring was more frequent closer to the application dates. Median annual TP concentrations decreased significantly across the lakes, following the La-bentonite applications (from 0.08 mg L-1 in the 24 months pre-application to 0.03 mg L-1 in the 24 months post-application), particularly in autumn (0.08 mg L-1 to 0.03 mg L-1) and winter (0.08 mg L-1 to 0.02 mg L-1). Significant decreases in SRP concentrations over annual (0.019 mg L-1 to 0.005 mg L-1), summer (0.018 mg L-1 to 0.004 mg L-1), autumn (0.019 mg L-1 to 0.005 mg L-1) and winter (0.033 mg L-1 to 0.005 mg L-1) periods were also reported. P concentrations following La-bentonite application varied across the lakes and were correlated positively with dissolved organic carbon concentrations. Relatively weak, but significant responses were reported for summer chlorophyll a concentrations and Secchi disk depths following La-bentonite applications, the 75th percentile values decreasing from 119 μg L-1 to 74 μg L-1 and increasing from 398 cm to 506 cm, respectively. Aquatic macrophyte species numbers and maximum colonisation depths increased following La-bentonite application from a median of 5.5 species to 7.0 species and a median of 1.8 m to 2.5 m, respectively. The aquatic macrophyte responses varied significantly between lakes. La-bentonite application resulted in a general improvement in water quality leading to an improvement in the aquatic macrophyte community within 24 months. However, because, the responses were highly site-specific, we stress the need for comprehensive pre- and post-application assessments of processes driving ecological structure and function in candidate lakes to inform future use of this and similar products

Galaxy Zoo: the dependence of morphology and colour on environment

We analyse the relationships between galaxy morphology, colour, environment and stellar mass using data for over 100,000 objects from Galaxy Zoo, the largest sample of visually classified morphologies yet compiled. We conclusively show that colour and morphology fractions are very different functions of environment. Both are sensitive to stellar mass; however, at fixed stellar mass, while colour is also highly sensitive to environment, morphology displays much weaker environmental trends. Only a small part of both relations can be attributed to variation in the stellar mass function with environment. Galaxies with high stellar masses are mostly red, in all environments and irrespective of their morphology. Low stellar-mass galaxies are mostly blue in low-density environments, but mostly red in high-density environments, again irrespective of their morphology. The colour-density relation is primarily driven by variations in colour fractions at fixed morphology, in particular the fraction of spiral galaxies that have red colours, and especially at low stellar masses. We demonstrate that our red spirals primarily include galaxies with true spiral morphology. We clearly show there is an environmental dependence for colour beyond that for morphology. Before using the Galaxy Zoo morphologies to produce the above results, we first quantify a luminosity-, size- and redshift-dependent classification bias that affects this dataset, and probably most other studies of galaxy population morphology. A correction for this bias is derived and applied to produce a sample of galaxies with reliable morphological type likelihoods, on which we base our analysis.Comment: 25 pages, 20 figures (+ 6 pages, 11 figures in appendices); moderately revised following referee's comments; accepted by MNRA

Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of an outcall program to reduce carer burden and depression among carers of cancer patients (PROTECT) : rationale and design of a randomized controlled trial

Published: 6 January 2014BACKGROUND: Carers provide extended and often unrecognized support to people with cancer. The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that excessive carer burden is modifiable through a telephone outcall intervention that includes supportive care, information and referral to appropriate psycho-social services. Secondary aims include estimation of changes in psychological health and quality of life. The study will determine whether the intervention reduces unmet needs among patient dyads. A formal economic program will also be conducted. METHODS/DESIGN: This study is a single-blind, multi-centre, randomized controlled trial to determine the efficacy and cost-efficacy of a telephone outcall program among carers of newly diagnosed cancer patients. A total of 230 carer/patient dyads will be recruited into the study; following written consent, carers will be randomly allocated to either the outcall intervention program (n = 115) or to a minimal outcall / attention control service (n = 115). Carer assessments will occur at baseline, at one and six months post-intervention. The primary outcome is change in carer burden; the secondary outcomes are change in carer depression, quality of life, health literacy and unmet needs. The trial patients will be assessed at baseline and one month post-intervention to determine depression levels and unmet needs. The economic analysis will include perspectives of both the health care sector and broader society and comprise a cost-consequences analysis where all outcomes will be compared to costs. DISCUSSION: This study will contribute to our understanding on the potential impact of a telephone outcall program on carer burden and provide new evidence on an approach for improving the wellbeing of carers.Patricia M Livingston, Richard H Osborne, Mari Botti, Cathy Mihalopoulos, Sean McGuigan, Leila Heckel, Kate Gunn, Jacquie Chirgwin, David M Ashley and Melinda William

Detecting Radio AGN Signatures in Red Geysers

A new class of quiescent galaxies harboring possible AGN-driven winds has been discovered using spatially resolved optical spectroscopy from the ongoing SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. These galaxies, termed "red geysers", constitute 5−10% of the local quiescent population and are characterized by narrow bisymmetric patterns in ionized gas emission features. Cheung et al. argued that these galaxies host large-scale AGN-driven winds that may play a role in suppressing star formation at late times. In this work, we test the hypothesis that AGN activity is ultimately responsible for the red geyser phenomenon. We compare the nuclear radio activity of the red geysers to a matched control sample with similar stellar mass, redshift, rest frame NUV−r color, axis ratio and presence of ionized gas. We have used the 1.4 GHz radio continuum data from VLA FIRST survey to stack the radio flux from the red geyser and control samples. In addition to a 3 times higher FIRST detection rate, we find that red geysers have a 5σ higher level of average radio flux than control galaxies. After restricting to rest-frame NUV−r color > 5 and checking mid-IR WISE photometry, we rule out star formation contamination and conclude that red geysers are associated with more active AGN. Red geysers and a possibly-related class with disturbed Hα emission account for 40\% of all radio-detected red galaxies with log (M⋆/M⊙)<11. Our results support a picture in which episodic AGN activity drives large-scale-relatively weak ionized winds that may provide a feedback mechanism for many early-type galaxies

Circulating microRNAs in sera correlate with soluble biomarkers of immune activation but do not predict mortality in ART treated individuals with HIV-1 infection: A case control study

Introduction: The use of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has dramatically reduced HIV-1 associated morbidity and mortality. However, HIV-1 infected individuals have increased rates of morbidity and mortality compared to the non-HIV-1 infected population and this appears to be related to end-organ diseases collectively referred to as Serious Non-AIDS Events (SNAEs). Circulating miRNAs are reported as promising biomarkers for a number of human disease conditions including those that constitute SNAEs. Our study sought to investigate the potential of selected miRNAs in predicting mortality in HIV-1 infected ART treated individuals. Materials and Methods: A set of miRNAs was chosen based on published associations with human disease conditions that constitute SNAEs. This case: control study compared 126 cases (individuals who died whilst on therapy), and 247 matched controls (individuals who remained alive). Cases and controls were ART treated participants of two pivotal HIV-1 trials. The relative abundance of each miRNA in serum was measured, by RTqPCR. Associations with mortality (all-cause, cardiovascular and malignancy) were assessed by logistic regression analysis. Correlations between miRNAs and CD4+ T cell count, hs-CRP, IL-6 and D-dimer were also assessed. Results: None of the selected miRNAs was associated with all-cause, cardiovascular or malignancy mortality. The levels of three miRNAs (miRs -21, -122 and -200a) correlated with IL-6 while miR-21 also correlated with D-dimer. Additionally, the abundance of miRs -31, -150 and -223, correlated with baseline CD4+ T cell count while the same three miRNAs plus miR- 145 correlated with nadir CD4+ T cell count. Discussion: No associations with mortality were found with any circulating miRNA studied. These results cast doubt onto the effectiveness of circulating miRNA as early predictors of mortality or the major underlying diseases that contribute to mortality in participants treated for HIV-1 infection

The Fifteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: First Release of MaNGA-derived Quantities, Data Visualization Tools, and Stellar Library

Twenty years have passed since first light for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Here, we release data taken by the fourth phase of SDSS (SDSS-IV) across its first three years of operation (2014 July–2017 July). This is the third data release for SDSS-IV, and the 15th from SDSS (Data Release Fifteen; DR15). New data come from MaNGA—we release 4824 data cubes, as well as the first stellar spectra in the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar), the first set of survey-supported analysis products (e.g., stellar and gas kinematics, emission-line and other maps) from the MaNGA Data Analysis Pipeline, and a new data visualization and access tool we call "Marvin." The next data release, DR16, will include new data from both APOGEE-2 and eBOSS; those surveys release no new data here, but we document updates and corrections to their data processing pipelines. The release is cumulative; it also includes the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since first light. In this paper, we describe the location and format of the data and tools and cite technical references describing how it was obtained and processed. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has also been updated, providing links to data downloads, tutorials, and examples of data use. Although SDSS-IV will continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V (2020–2025), we end this paper by describing plans to ensure the sustainability of the SDSS data archive for many years beyond the collection of data