Body Satisfaction, Weight Gain, and Binge Eating Among Overweight Adolescent Girls

Objective: To examine if body satisfaction is associated with body mass index (BMI) change and whether it protects against the development of frequent binge eating among overweight and obese adolescent girls. Methods: We used prospective data from 9 waves of an ongoing cohort study of adolescents, the Growing Up Today Study. At enrollment in 1996, participants were 9 to 14 years old. Questionnaires were mailed to participants annually until 2001, then biennially through 2007. Girls who were overweight or obese in 1996 were included in the analysis (n=1 559). Our outcomes were annual change in BMI and incident frequent binge eating, defined as binge eating at least weekly and no use of compensatory behaviors. Results: At baseline, 57.2% of the overweight and obese girls were at least somewhat satisfied with their bodies. During 11 years of follow-up, 9.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) [7.8, 10.8]) of the girls started to binge eat frequently. Controlling for BMI and other confounders, overweight and obese girls who reported being at least somewhat satisfied with their bodies made smaller BMI gains (β=−0.10 kg/m$^2$, 95% CI [−0.19, −0.02]) and had 61% lower odds of starting to binge eat frequently (odds ratio (OR)=0.39, 95% CI [0.24, 0.64]) than their less satisfied peers. Compared to girls who were the least satisfied with their bodies, girls who were the most satisfied had 85% lower odds of starting to binge eat frequently (OR=0.15, 95% CI [0.06, 0.37]). The association between body satisfaction and starting to binge eat frequently was stronger for younger adolescents than older adolescents. Conclusions: While body dissatisfaction is common among overweight and obese girls, body satisfaction may protect against excessive weight gain and binge eating. Prevention of body dissatisfaction must begin early and should be considered as a component of both obesity and eating disorder prevention programs

MHD waves in sunspots

The review addresses the spatial frequency morphology of sources of sunspot oscillations and waves, including their localization, size, oscillation periods, height localization with the mechanism of cut-off frequency that forms the observed emission variability. Dynamic of sunspot wave processes, provides the information about the structure of wave fronts and their time variations, investigates the oscillation frequency transformation depending on the wave energy is shown. The initializing solar flares caused by trigger agents like magnetoacoustic waves, accelerated particle beams, and shocks are discussed. Special attention is paid to the relation between the flare reconnection periodic initialization and the dynamics of sunspot slow magnetoacoustic waves. A short review of theoretical models of sunspot oscillations is provided.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, Chapter in AGU Monograph (in press), Review articl

CHILD SAFETY FEATURES

A system may include computing devices (e.g., a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a wearable device, a tracking tag, an Internet of Things (IoT) booster seat, an IoT adaptive headrest, etc.) and vehicles (e.g., an automobile, a motorcycle, a bus, a recreational vehicle (RV), a semi-trailer truck, a tractor or other type of farm equipment, train, a plane, a boat, a helicopter, a personal transport vehicle, etc.). Based on a location of a child with respect to the vehicles (which may be determined using, e.g., Bluetooth™, ultra-wideband technology, sensors of the vehicles, etc.), the system may perform actions to improve child safety. For example, based on the location of the child, the vehicles may change vehicle settings to those suitable for a child (e.g., enable child safety locks, disable power window controls in the rear seats, adjust airbag deployment based on the presence and size of the child, etc.). In this way, the techniques may facilitate the implementation of protection measures for children, ensuring their safety in and near vehicles

Sustainability in a changing world: integrating human health and wellbeing, urbanisation, and ecosystem services

There is an urgent need to address interlinked sustainability issues in a world challenged by inequality, finite resources and unprecedented changes across Earth’s systems. As Future Earth Fellows, based on our collective expertise in a diverse range of sustainability issues, here we identify a specific need to recognise and respond appropriately to the nexus between human health and wellbeing, urbanisation, and ecosystem services (the ‘WUE nexus’). This nexus is a priority area for research, policy and practice. In particular, it provides a useful pathway to meet the challenges of successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this brief, we present the following policy recommendations:1. By emphasising urban-rural linkages, foster an integrated approach to ensure food security, food safety, and health promotion;2. Secure resilient livelihoods for all, in particular for vulnerable groups; and3. Integrate co-production of knowledge in science for decision-making, including the co-design of implementation frameworks, and the adoption of a nexus approach.<br/

Developing an alcohol and other drug serious game for adolescents: Considerations for improving student engagement

Objectives: To explore perceptions of alcohol and other drug (AOD) education and digital game design preferences among Australian adolescents with the goal of identifying key factors to promote engagement in an AOD serious game for Australian secondary school students. Methods: Semi-structured focus groups were conducted with 36 adolescents aged between 13 and 18 years. Qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Participants described heightened engagement with AOD education that incorporated relatable and relevant real-life stories and interactive discussions. They also expressed a desire for learning to focus on practical strategies to reduce AOD harm and overcome social pressure to use AOD. Participants highlighted the importance of incorporating relatable characters and context-relevant scenarios in promoting engagement, and identified social elements, player choice, and optimal challenge as important game design considerations. Conclusions: A focus on meaningful realistic scenarios, relatable characters, relevant information and practical skills may promote high school aged students’ engagement with AOD educational content. Game designs incorporating social elements and decision-making opportunities may be conducive to promoting engagement and enhancing learning. Implications for public health: Findings from this study can be used by researchers and game designers for the development of future AOD serious games targeted at Australian adolescents

Explaining the GWSkyNet-Multi machine learning classifier predictions for gravitational-wave events

GWSkyNet-Multi is a machine learning model developed for classification of candidate gravitational-wave events detected by the LIGO and Virgo observatories. The model uses limited information released in the low-latency Open Public Alerts to produce prediction scores indicating whether an event is a merger of two black holes, a merger involving a neutron star, or a non-astrophysical glitch. This facilitates time sensitive decisions about whether to perform electromagnetic follow-up of candidate events during LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) observing runs. However, it is not well understood how the model is leveraging the limited information available to make its predictions. As a deep learning neural network, the inner workings of the model can be difficult to interpret, impacting our trust in its validity and robustness. We tackle this issue by systematically perturbing the model and its inputs to explain what underlying features and correlations it has learned for distinguishing the sources. We show that the localization area of the 2D sky maps and the computed coherence versus incoherence Bayes factors are used as strong predictors for distinguishing between real events and glitches. The estimated distance to the source is further used to discriminate between binary black hole mergers and mergers involving neutron stars. We leverage these findings to show that events misclassified by GWSkyNet-Multi in LVK's third observing run have distinct sky area, coherence factor, and distance values that influence the predictions and explain these misclassifications. The results help identify the model's limitations and inform potential avenues for further optimization.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Ap

Aboveground carbon responses to experimental and natural hurricane impacts in a subtropical wet forest in Puerto Rico

Climate change and disturbance make it difficult to project long-term patterns of carbon sequestration in tropical forests, but large ecosystem experiments in these forests can inform predictions. The Canopy Trimming Experiment (CTE) manipulates two key components of hurricane disturbance, canopy openness and detritus deposition, in a tropical forest in Puerto Rico. We documented how the CTE and a real hurricane affected tree recruitment, biomass, and aboveground carbon storage over 15 years. In the CTE treatments, we trimmed branches, but we did not fell trees. We expected that during the 14-year period after initial canopy trimming, regrowth of branches and stems and stem recruitment stimulated by increased light and trimmed debris would help restore biomass and carbon loss due to trimming. Compared to control plots, in the trimmed plots recruitment of palms and dicot trees increased markedly after trimming, and stem diameters of standing trees increased. Data showed that recruitment of small trees adds little to aboveground carbon, compared to the amount in large trees. Nevertheless, this response restored pretreatment biomass and carbon in the experimental period. In particular, the experimental additions of trimmed debris on the forest floor seemed to stimulate increase in aboveground carbon. Toward the end of the experimental period, Hurricane Maria (Category 4 hurricane) trimmed and felled some trees but reduced aboveground carbon less in the plots (including untrimmed plots) than experimental trimming had. Thus, it appears that the amount of regrowth recorded after experimental trimming could also restore aboveground carbon in the forest after a severe hurricane in the same time span. However, Hurricane Maria, unlike the trimming treatments, felled large trees, and it may be that with predicted, more frequent severe hurricanes, that the continued loss of large trees would over the long term decrease aboveground carbon stored in this Puerto Rican forest and likewise in other tropical forests affected by cyclonic storms

Sideffect GamePlan: Development of an alcohol and other drug serious game for high school students using a systematic and iterative user-centred game development framework

Serious games have shown to be effective in improving motivation to learn, knowledge and retention, thus are being increasingly used for alcohol and other drug (AOD) education. This paper outlines the development of an online AOD serious game for in-class use by Australian secondary school teachers for students in Years 9–10. Adapted from Edwards et al. (2018), the seven-step systematic and iterative user-centred development framework included: (1) Forming an expert multidisciplinary design team, (2) Defining the problem and establishing user preferences, (3) Incorporating the evidence base, (4) Serious game design, (5) Incorporating behavioural and psychological theory, (6) Developing a logic model and investigating causal pathways, and (7) User testing. High school students (n = 8), health and physical education teachers (n = 7), and parents (n = 8) were engaged throughout different stages of the development process to inform development and provide feedback on considerations for promoting engagement, acceptability, and usability of the game amongst both students and teachers. Overall, participants rated game acceptability and usability favourably and would recommend the game for learning about AOD. Constructive feedback and suggestions for improvements from user testing sessions were implemented to form the final version of the game and module. The next step is to test Sideffect GamePlan in a simulated classroom environment before piloting in school settings