Development of a Miniature Electrostatic Accelerometer /MESA/ for low g applications Summary report

Design, fabrication, and testing of miniature digital electrostatic accelerometer for low gravity measurements in spac

Improving health outcomes for girls : reflections on the impact on body issue of a girl\u27s only health and physical education intervention

Background: The issues surrounding girls' lack of participation in physical activity are many and varied, but\ud generally relate to the broader social context of adolescent health in which the social relations of gender play a significant part in a lack of engagement with sports; with a lack of physical skills and confidence for\ud equitable participation; friendship considerations; body image issues and a concern about bullying and\ud harassment.\ud \ud Objectives: This paper reports on data collected as part of a larger project researching the impact of a non-traditional physical education and health intervention designed to build girls connectedness to each other,\ud their school and their community by engaging them in a girls' only negotiated physical activity program that\ud was supported by a targeted health education curricula.\ud \ud Underlying values and principles: Grade 8 girls in the State of Victoria, Australia have the lowest school\ud connectedness data than any other cohort. Using youth participation principles and underpinned by strong\ud educational guidelines an integrated health and physical education program was developed by a high school\ud in Australia in an attempt to improve connectedness. It facilitated the exploration of a number of different\ud lifestyle physical activities such as bellying dance, self-defense and yoga, to engage the girls with alternative\ud physical activities that were potentially available in their community as well as discussion and activities on\ud sexuality, body image and mental health.\ud \ud Knowledge base/ Evidence base: Whilst evaluation of girls' only physical activity programs are not new,\ud research into the impact of an integrated school-based health and physical education curricula are and have\ud implications for future school based approaches.\ud \ud Context of intervention/project/work: The project initially focused on adolescent girls at a small 7-12\ud Secondary College in an isolated community approximately 200 kilometres from the Capital city of Victoria. A\ud grant was awarded to a consortium of local/regional agencies to implement and extend the program over\ud three years. Overwhelmingly the program was conducted by regional and local agencies in conjunction with\ud the local secondary school. It is a partnerships model built on the notion of increasing participation and\ud access for young women whilst building a sustainable program run in partnership with the school and local\ud agencies and services. In 2009 the program was also run in a metropolitan secondary school that had a\ud similar socia-economic background. This paper draws on data from both schools.\ud \ud Methods: This paper reports on qualitative date collected on young women's perceptions of the program, its\ud contribution to their health and wellbeing and the impact of the program on understandings of health related\ud issues of relevance to young women. The data is drawn from focus group data collected from two high\ud schools in the state of Victoria, Australia in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Sixty five girls' in grade 7, 8, 9 and 10\ud participated in the pre and post program interviews.\ud \ud Results and Conclusions: We argue that whilst the data indicates that a girls only program can have a\ud pOSitive impact on aspect of connectedness such as relationships with their peers, reducing bullying\ud behaviour, the data raises some important questions around the adequacy of school-based health education,\ud and the sustainability of approaches designed to be delivered by outside agencies rather than classroom\ud teachers. We argue that whilst single sex health and physical education programs may be necessary for girls\ud to participate and engage fully, the current approach has little impact on traditional notions of gender and\ud body issues.\ud \ud Disclosure of Interest: Centre for Educational Futures and Innovation, Grant Research Support. Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Grant Research Support

Missense Mutations in Cancer Predisposing Genes: Can We Make Sense of Them?

In the analysis of genes associated with predispositions to malignancy the causative status of mutations can be made relatively easily where it is obvious that there is a clear disruption in the coding sequence of the gene. Difficulties arise, however, if missense mutations are identified, as these are not easily categorised into genetic variants that are not associated with disease risk or into clearly causative changes that impart a significant risk of disease

Fertilizer Backs Bombs

One source of “ammunition” for the “war food front” which many an Iowa farmer should seriously consider using this year is commercial fertilizer. If used wisely, it can profitably increase crop production

Etoposide and adriamycin containing combination chemotherapy (HOPE-Bleo) for relapsed Hodgkin's disease.

Forty-four patients with relapsed or resistant Hodgkin's disease were treated with adriamycin 40 mg m-2 i.v. on day 1, vincristine 1.4 mg m-2 i.v. on days 1 and 8, prednisolone 40 mg m-2 orally daily for 8 days, etoposide 200 mg m-2 orally daily for 4 days according to the nadir white cell count, and bleomycin 10 mg m-2 i.v. days 1 and 8 (HOPE-Bleo). Median age was 27 (range 12-71). When stage was considered according to all sites currently or previously involved by Hodgkin's disease (cumulative stage) 26 patients (59%) had stage IV, 13 (29%) stage III and five (11%) stage II disease; 33 (75%) had B symptoms. All patients had received previous chemotherapy and 18 (41%) had received two or more regimens. Twenty-six patients (59%) achieved CR and 10 (23%) PR; the median duration of CR was 22 months and median survival for all patients was 48 months. Eight patients remain in continuous CR; none of these had received extensive previous chemotherapy. Among the 19 patients who had relapsed from CR achieved by a single previous chemotherapy regimen, six (32%) achieved long CR on HOPE-Bleo. The regimen was generally well tolerated but the principal toxicity was myelosuppression. There were two toxic deaths, one due to neutropenic sepsis and the other due to acute peritonitis. The HOPE-Bleo regimen is an effective treatment for relapsed or resistant Hodgkin's disease, with a low probability of carcinogenesis and infertility. These factors suggest that HOPE-Bleo deserves further evaluation as primary treatment for Hodgkin's disease and very careful selection of relapsed patients for high dose salvage chemotherapy with bone marrow transplants must be exercised

Liquid Fertilizers?

Use of liquid fertilizers and fertilizer solutions has increased rapidly in Iowa since 1950, though such materials have been used in the United States since 1923. The earliest ones used in Iowa contained only nitrogen. Now, however, liquid fertilizers containing nitrogen, phosporous and potassium are being produced

Parent implementation of a treatment for late talkers based on cross-situational statistical learning principles: Treatment fidelity and acceptability

Purpose: Early intervention based on principles of cross-situational statistical learning (CSSL) for late-talking children has shown promise. This study explored whether parents could be trained to deliver this intervention protocol with fidelity and if they found the intervention to be acceptable. Method: Mothers of four English-speaking children aged 18–30 months who scored \u3c 10th centile for expressive vocabulary were recruited to an 8-week group training program. Parents were taught principles of CSSL and asked to perform 16 home treatment sessions (30 minutes each) in total, providing auditory bombardment of target words in full sentences at high dose number and syntactic variability, using a range of physical exemplars. Home diaries and two videotaped sessions measured treatment fidelity. Pre- and post-treatment questionnaires measured acceptability. Result: One parent discontinued the study after the second group training session. Three parents completed 15/16 group training sessions and reported completing 87% of home sessions. Two parents demonstrated implementing the intervention as per the target dose number by the first fidelity session (Weeks 2/3), and the third parent was very close to meeting target dose number by the second fidelity session (Weeks 7/8). Conclusion: Parents can be trained to deliver an intervention based on cross-situational statistical learning principles

Deletion Mutations in an Australian Series of HNPCC Patients

Hereditary non polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) is characterized by the presence of early onset colorectal cancer and other epithelial malignancies. The genetic basis of HNPCC is a deficiency in DNA mismatch repair, which manifests itself as DNA microsatellite instability in tumours. There are four genes involved in DNA mismatch repair that have been linked to HNPCC; these include hMSH2, hMLH1, hMSH6 and hPMS2. Of these four genes hMLH1 and hMSH2 account for the majority of families diagnosed with the disease. Notwithstanding, up to 40 percent of families do not appear to harbour a change in either hMSH2 or hMLH1 that can be detected using standard screening procedures such as direct DNA sequencing or a variety of methods all based on a heteroduplex analysis