Multiple influences on participating in physical activity in older age: Developing a social ecological approach

Background: Evidence of the benefits of engaging in physical activity (PA) is strong, yet the number of older adults meeting the recommended 150 min/wk is low. Policy to increase uptake and adherence has focussed on the health benefits of PA, but may not be the most successful approach. Objective: This qualitative study sought to ask older adults what the components of a successful intervention to promote PA would be, by asking active older adults what motivated them to be active and asking inactive older adults what might encourage them to change. Design, setting and participants: Focus groups and semi‐structured interviews were held with 60 community‐dwelling older adults, aged 50‐87 years. Framework analysis was used to analyse the data, and themes congruent with a social ecological model of behaviour change were developed. Findings: Five themes emerged that influenced PA engagement at multiple levels: individual; interpersonal; perceived environment; community or organizational; and policy. PA engagement was determined by attitude or health status for some participants, but for the majority, PA being enjoyable, sociable, affordable, accessible, flexible and seasonal were more important than the health benefits. Discussion and conclusions: A social ecological model is presented, highlighting the fact that both motivated and unmotivated older adults need to have a range of appropriately labelled, appealing and accessible activities to choose from when thinking about engaging in PA. Policymakers and practitioners need to ensure that their offers of activity sessions are easy to access and easy to remain involved in

Involving Older Adults in Developing Physical Activity Interventions to Promote Engagement: a Literature Review

Physical activity (PA) is associated with health benefits, with policy across the world focussing on increasing participation. Yet uptake and adherence to PA amongst older adults remains below the recommended 150 min/week. This review aims to identify how older adults have been involved in the design, delivery, implementation and promotion of interventions to promote PA uptake and adherence, and whether there are any recorded benefits of this involvement. Systematic searches of CINAHL, Embase, HMIC, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Social Policy and Practice and the SSCI were undertaken. Inclusion/exclusion criteria were: (i) Original research; (ii) older adults, 50+; (iii) community dwelling; (iv) involvement in design, delivery, implementation or promotion of interventions. A narrative synthesis of ten studies is presented, following systematic methods, reporting study design and intervention type; participants and context; nature of involvement; effectiveness of interventions. Six different types of involvement were evident: (i) consultation; (ii) cooperation; (iii) co-learning; (iv) collaboration; (v) peer leadership and (vi) mentoring. Levels of success were reported, yet specific factors were difficult to isolate. The studies reported complex interventions which were reported as successful. However, it is difficult to state whether success was a result of the older adults’ involvement, as the benefits of involving older adults were not tracked or reported. Future research should be clear about the nature of involvement, the context in which research takes place, and the description of action and outcomes. Policy makers should consider the advantages to be gained from involving older adults in intervention development

Multiplex SNP Discrimination

Multiplex hybridization reactions of perfectly matched duplexes and duplexes containing a single basepair mismatch (SNPs) were investigated on DNA microarrays. Effects of duplex length, G-C percentage, and relative position of the SNP on duplex hybridization and SNP resolution were determined. Our theoretical model of multiplex hybridization accurately predicts observed results and implicates target concentration as a critical variable in multiplex SNP detection

A review of how we should define (and measure) adherence in studies examining older adults’ participation in exercise classes

Exercise classes provide a range of benefits to older adults, reducing risk of illness, promoting functional ability and improving well-being. However, to be effective and achieve long-term outcomes exercise needs to be maintained. Adherence is poor and reporting of adherence differs considerably between studies. Objective To explore how adherence to exercise classes for older people is defined in the literature and devise a definition for pooling data on adherence in future studies. Design Methodological review of the approaches used to measure adherence Methods A review of the literature was carried out using narrative synthesis, based on systematic searches ofMEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsychINFO . Two investigators identified eligible studies and extracted data independently. Results Thirty-seven papers including thirty-four studies were identified. Seven papers (seven studies) defined adherence as completion (retention). Thirty papers (27 studies) identified adherence using attendance records. Twelve papers (11studies) based adherence on duration of exercise and five papers (four studies) specified the intensity with which participants should exercise. Several studies used multiple methods. Conclusions There was little consensus between studies on how adherence should be defined, and even when studies used the same conceptual measure they measured the concept using different approaches and/or had different cut-off points. Adherence related to health outcomes requires multiple measurements e.g. attendance, duration and intensity. It is important that future studies consider the outcome of the intervention when considering their definition of adherence, and we recommend a series of definitions for future use

DNA multiplex hybridization on microarrays and thermodynamic stability in solution: a direct comparison

Hybridization intensities of 30 distinct short duplex DNAs measured on spotted microarrays, were directly compared with thermodynamic stabilities measured in solution. DNA sequences were designed to promote formation of perfect match, or hybrid duplexes containing tandem mismatches. Thermodynamic parameters ΔH°, ΔS° and ΔG° of melting transitions in solution were evaluated directly using differential scanning calorimetry. Quantitative comparison with results from 63 multiplex microarray hybridization experiments provided a linear relationship for perfect match and most mismatch duplexes. Examination of outliers suggests that both duplex length and relative position of tandem mismatches could be important factors contributing to observed deviations from linearity. A detailed comparison of measured thermodynamic parameters with those calculated using the nearest-neighbor model was performed. Analysis revealed the nearest-neighbor model generally predicts mismatch duplexes to be less stable than experimentally observed. Results also show the relative stability of a tandem mismatch is highly dependent on the identity of the flanking Watson–Crick (w/c) base pairs. Thus, specifying the stability contribution of a tandem mismatch requires consideration of the sequence identity of at least four base pair units (tandem mismatch and flanking w/c base pairs). These observations underscore the need for rigorous evaluation of thermodynamic parameters describing tandem mismatch stability

What do community-dwelling Caucasian and South Asian 60–70 year olds think about exercise for fall prevention?

Background: strategies to prevent falls often recommend regular exercise. However, 40% of over 50s in the UK report less physical activity than is recommended. Even higher rates of sedentary behaviour have been reported among South Asian older adults

The first WASP public data release

The WASP (wide angle search for planets) project is an exoplanet transit survey that has been automatically taking wide field images since 2004. Two instruments, one in La Palma and the other in South Africa, continually monitor the night sky, building up light curves of millions of unique objects. These light curves are used to search for the characteristics of exoplanetary transits. This first public data release (DR1) of the WASP archive makes available all the light curve data and images from 2004 up to 2008 in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. A web interface () to the data allows easy access over the Internet. The data set contains 3 631 972 raw images and 17 970 937 light curves. In total the light curves have 119 930 299 362 data points available between them

The 0.5MJ transiting exoplanet WASP-13b

We report the discovery of WASP-13b, a low-mass M_{\rm p} = 0.46 ^_~M_J transiting exoplanet with an orbital period of 4.35298 $\pm$ 0.00004 days. The transit has a depth of 9 mmag, and although our follow-up photometry does not allow us to constrain the impact parameter well (0 < b < 0.46), with radius in the range $R_{\rm p}$ ~ 1.06-1.21 RJ the location of WASP-13b in the mass-radius plane is nevertheless consistent with H/He-dominated, irradiated, low core mass and core-free theoretical models. The G1V host star is similar to the Sun in mass (M__ ~M_{\odot}) and metallicity ([M/H] = 0.0$\pm$0.2), but is possibly older ( 8.5^_{\rm -4.9} Gyr)

WASP-14b: 7.3 M-J transiting planet in an eccentric orbit

We report the discovery of a 7.3 M-J exoplanet WASP-14b, one of the most massive transiting exoplanets observed to date. The planet orbits the 10th-magnitude F5V star USNO-B1 11118-0262485 with a period of 2.243 752 d and orbital eccentricity e = 0.09. A simultaneous fit of the transit light curve and radial velocity measurements yields a planetary mass of 7.3 +/- 0.5 M-J and a radius of 1.28 +/- 0.08 R-J. This leads to a mean density of about 4.6 g cm(-3) making it the densest transiting exoplanets yet found at an orbital period less than 3 d. We estimate this system to be at a distance of 160 +/- 20 pc. Spectral analysis of the host star reveals a temperature of 6475 +/- 100 K, log g = 4.07 cm s(-2) and v sin i = 4.9 +/- 1.0 km s(-1), and also a high lithium abundance, log N(Li) = 2.84 +/- 0.05. The stellar density, effective temperature and rotation rate suggest an age for the system of about 0.5-1.0 Gyr

WASP-14b: 7.3 MJ transiting planet in an eccentric orbit

We report the discovery of a 7.3 MJ exoplanet WASP-14b, one of the most massive transiting exoplanets observed to date. The planet orbits the 10th-magnitude F5V star USNO-B1 11118−0262485 with a period of 2.243 752 d and orbital eccentricity e= 0.09. A simultaneous fit of the transit light curve and radial velocity measurements yields a planetary mass of 7.3 ± 0.5 MJ and a radius of 1.28 ± 0.08 RJ. This leads to a mean density of about 4.6 g cm−3 making it the densest transiting exoplanets yet found at an orbital period less than 3 d. We estimate this system to be at a distance of 160 ± 20 pc. Spectral analysis of the host star reveals a temperature of 6475 ± 100 K, log g= 4.07 cm s−2 and v sin i= 4.9 ± 1.0 km s−1, and also a high lithium abundance, log N(Li) = 2.84 ± 0.05. The stellar density, effective temperature and rotation rate suggest an age for the system of about 0.5-1.0 Gy