‘An examination of the perspectives of autistic adults about their engagement in physical activity’

Emerging research suggests that physical activity (PA) participation with autistic adults is low. Despite this fact, little is known about why their PA participation is low. The low participation rates among autistic adults is problematic given that PA participation can confer numerous physical, mental, and social benefits. To date, autistic adults perspectives have been absent from PA research, and there is paucity of research examining how intrapersonal processes interconnect with interpersonal, environmental and policy-level processes to shape their PA participation. In this study, seventeen autistic adults participated in two online semi-structured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to organize the data and interpreted further by the social ecological model. The study findings highlight that sensory sensitivities, the personal trainer's style of coaching, and trust were important interconnected processes that shaped autistic adults PA participation. The study findings are significant because they illuminate that PA participation was not a behaviour solely influenced by intrapersonal processes such as motivation or self-concept. Rather, for the autistic adults in this study, sensory sensitivities, the personal trainer's style of coaching, and trust were interconnected to influence, hinder, and/or shape PA participation. This interconnected understanding of PA participation among autistic adults described in this study provides a valuable contribution to the field of autism research as it highlights the need to understand the multi-level processes associated with PA participation. The results of this work suggest that future research should focus on how the multi-level processes associated with PA among autistic adults interconnect to shape PA participation rather than focusing on how these processes function independently to shape PA participation

Soils of western Wright Valley, Antarctica

Western Wright Valley, from Wright Upper Glacier to the western end of the Dais, can be divided into three broad geomorphic regions: the elevated Labyrinth, the narrow Dais which is connected to the Labyrinth, and the North and South forks which are bifurcated by the Dais. Soil associations of Typic Haplorthels/Haploturbels with ice-cemented permafrost at 70 cm. They are developed in situ in strongly weathered drift with very low surface boulder frequency and occur on the upper erosion surface of the Labyrinth and on the Dais. Typic Anhyorthels also occur at lower elevation on sinuous and patchy Wright Upper III drift within the forks. Salic Aquorthels exist only in the South Fork marginal to Don Juan Pond, whereas Salic Haplorthels occur in low areas of both South and North forks where any water table is> 50 cm. Most soils within the study area have an alkaline pH dominated by Na+ and Cl- ions. The low salt accumulation within Haplorthels/Haploturbels may be due to limited depth of soil development and possibly leaching

The Effects of Scenic and Environmental Amenities on Agricultural Land Values

Ascribing land value solely to productive capacity does not accurately capture the impact environmental amenities provide on western land prices. Agricultural land prices in Wyoming are estimated using a hedonic price model and Geographic Information Sciences (GIS) data. These GIS measurements include on-parcel wildlife and fish habitat, viewscape attributes and distance to protected federal lands. A feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) approach is used to address both spatial autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity. The estimation is robust and highly significant. Results indicate that amenities as well as productivity are significant in explaining land values for the sample analyzed. Such information is useful for landscape management in the face of amenity threatening parcel fragmentation.Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Aspects of conflict in the contemporary Papua New Guinea Highlands

To the foreign observer, Papua New Guinea is readily associated with violent gang crime, tribal fighting and electoral violence. In the Highlands region, high-powered weapons render tribal fighting increasingly problematic, particularly in provinces hosting large-scale resource extraction operations such as Southern Highlands Province and Enga. This discussion paper, based on presentations made to an AusAID seminar, provides an overview of aspects of conflict in the contemporary Papua New Guinea Highlands. Beginning in the Southern Highlands, Weiner explores the nature of conflict in areas surrounding the Kutubu Oil Project, examining not only contemporary land disputes, but also the cultural milieu in which they occur. Moving to Enga, Yala investigates the similarities and differences between ‘traditional’ and contemporary conflict in the Highlands, drawing primarily upon his personal experiences of conflict in Enga. McLeod then provides perspectives on conflict in Simbu Province, with a particular focus upon the nature of ‘social rules’ in that area. Collectively, these essays, all of which are based upon the authors’ extensive experiences in Papua New Guinea, seek to provide an insight into the nature of contemporary conflict in the Papua New Guinea Highlands.AusAI

Heptagons from the Steinmann Cluster Bootstrap

We reformulate the heptagon cluster bootstrap to take advantage of the Steinmann relations, which require certain double discontinuities of any amplitude to vanish. These constraints vastly reduce the number of functions needed to bootstrap seven-point amplitudes in planar $\mathcal{N} = 4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, making higher-loop contributions to these amplitudes more computationally accessible. In particular, dual superconformal symmetry and well-defined collinear limits suffice to determine uniquely the symbols of the three-loop NMHV and four-loop MHV seven-point amplitudes. We also show that at three loops, relaxing the dual superconformal ($\bar{Q}$) relations and imposing dihedral symmetry (and for NMHV the absence of spurious poles) leaves only a single ambiguity in the heptagon amplitudes. These results point to a strong tension between the collinear properties of the amplitudes and the Steinmann relations.Comment: 43 pages, 2 figures. v2: typos corrected; version to appear in JHE

Does psychotherapy for binge eating remediate nutritional intake in people with bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder?

People who binge eat (those with bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED)) have a significantly disturbed nutritional intake compared to people who don’t binge eat. Moreover, people who binge eat consume excess energy, have altered macronutrient ratios, and have diets that are deficient in many vitamins and minerals. While the nutritional intakes of people who binge eat are well-researched, few studies contrast the nutritional intakes of people with BN and BED. Additionally, while cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the most researched psychotherapy for binge eating-related disorders, little is known about the nutritional outcomes of this treatment. Appetite-focussed cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT-A) is an augmented version of CBT that provides modified nutritional advice and aims to improve response to cues of hunger and satiety. CBT-A has good treatment outcome, similar to that of traditional CBT, however whether there is a nutritional benefit attributable to the nutrition-related augmentations of CBT-A has not been investigated. A sample of 79 women with either BN (n = 38) or BED (n = 41) were randomised to CBT or schema therapy (n = 57), or to CBT-A (n = 22). Participants completed seven-day prospective food records pre-, mid-, and post-treatment and these records were entered into a nutritional software that provided average intakes of total energy, macronutrients and micronutrients. Nutrient intakes were compared to empirically-determined healthy intakes or ratios, and summary measures of macronutrient, micronutrient, and total adequacy were created. Nutritional intake and nutritional adequacy were modelled over time and between groups using linear mixed models analyses. Modelling nutritional variables suggested that psychotherapies for transdiagnostic binge eating reduced the energy, macronutrient, and mineral intakes over weekly sessions of treatment and many of these changes were maintained over monthly sessions. Vitamin intakes did not change despite reductions in food intake, and participants received less of their total energy from sugars, total fats, and saturated fats, and more from protein. These changes occurred alongside increased macronutrient adequacy over the first half of treatment and reduced micronutrient adequacy over the first half of treatment, which was maintained at the end of treatment. Little separated people with BN and BED nutritionally, and nutritional responses to treatment did not differ between diagnostic groups. Nutritional responses to the two treatment types were indistinguishable. Results support the use of transdiagnostic nutritional advice, however, fail to support the modified nutritional advice of CBT-A. The current study broadens knowledge about the nutritional outcomes of treatments for binge eating and these results likely have implications in understanding the high medical burden associated with BN and BED

Cancer Itineraries Across Borders in Post-invasion Iraq: War, Displacement, and Geographies of Care

Recent studies have documented how successive wars and sanctions have led to a deterioration of the Iraqi national health care system and the emergence of geographies of care spanning beyond the borders of the state. Focusing specifically on cancer and oncology, this dissertation develops an ethnography of these geographies by accompanying patients and their companions across provinces and borders in the pursuit of treatment. In post-invasion Iraq, lack of security and an absence of meaningful reconstruction compels an increasing number of cancer patients from central and southern Iraq to piece together treatments through movement. They travel northward to the emerging public oncology hubs of Kirkuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in addition to regional private centers in Amman, Istanbul and Beirut. The ethnography follows such illness journeys over multi-year periods, accompanying patients as they traverse sites of treatment in Iraq and Lebanon. These itineraries constantly intersect with ongoing conditions of war and forced displacements, in addition to violent events from past wars that remain imprinted on the body and the roadways. Part I is an attempt to engage with conversations in medical oncology, geography, and refugee studies – fields that shape health policy in the region. In keeping with this genre of scholarship the material is molded into case studies, drawing from hospital-based fieldwork in Sulaymaniyah, Kirkuk, Erbil, and Beirut. The cases extend beyond the circumscribed spatiality of the hospital through a methodology of accompaniment between sites of treatment. Part II consists of an extended ethnographic study of a single patient's cancer journey. It shows how changing dynamics of conflict shape the kinship network’s evolving justifications for either granting or withholding resources towards high-cost cancer treatments. The ethnography eventually moves with the patient across borders to Lebanon’s oncology centers. Following a cancer itinerary across borders reveals how a wide array of non-medical actors are brought into the scene of care through movement, indicating that Iraq's emerging geographies of cancer care are not solely oriented towards the healing promised by biomedicine. The study reworks anthropological understandings of the spatial, social, and temporal breadth of chronic illness in a region of war

Electric breakdown and moisture adsorption in evaporated dielectric films

Previous work on evaporated films and on measurement of electric breakdown is reviewed and its relation to the present work is shown. Electric breakdown theory is also briefly reviewed. Results of measurements of the breakdown fields of dielectric films between evaporated metal electrodes are then presented. Studies have been made of freshly deposited films in a vacuum which remained unbroken between deposition and testing, and also of films exposed to air saturated with water vapour. The dielectrics investigated were sodium chloride, lithium fluoride, and cryolite (Na3AIF6). Sodium chloride was chosen since it has attracted the attention of numerous previous workers so that, its breakdown field is well known. Lithium fluoride has not been quite so widely studied, but it is unique among the alkali halides in being; only sparingly soluble. This is an important advantage in the work on moist specimens since soluble films tend to disintegrate on exposure to water vapour. Cryolite, another insoluble fluoride, is in common use as a thin film material for optical purposes since it forms films of good stability. If its electrical properties are also suitable it might well be promising as a dielectric for evaporated capacitors. Measurements of its when virtually all moisture was removed before the test, by drying; in vacuum. Three possible explanations of the rise in breakdown field could be broadly distinguished (a) adsorbed moisture is solely responsible, more being present on the films tested under moist conditions than on those dried in vacuum but some. water molecules still remaining on the latter films, or (b) the increase in breakdown field of the specimens dried in vacuum is due to recrystallisation and only the further increase in the specimens tested in the presence of moisture; is directly due to adsorbed layers, or (c) the increase is entirely due to a recrystallisation. Process modified in some way by the simultaneous presence of, the moisture and the electric field to give the further increase in the specimens; tested, under moist, conditions. Experiments were therefore performed in which the films were exposed to a field just below the breakdown value while still in their environment of water vapour but in which the actual test; took place after drying in vacuum. The, results were similar to those for the specimens tested while still in moist air. This is in general consistent only with explanation (c). Some indications were obtained that the breakdown field increases on exposure to moisture for cryolite and sodium, chloride as well as lithium fluoride