EXPLORING NEW APPROACHES FOR WEIGHT LOSS MAINTENANCE: INTUITIVE EATING AND EMOTIONAL BRAIN TRAINING

While traditional behavioral weight loss programs have been successful at producing weight loss, weight maintenance is difficult to achieve. Addressing stress, one major contributing factor in weight gain, may be a potential solution. The purpose of this study was to test a stress-management program (EBT) for changes in weight and blood pressure, and maintenance of those changes. Obese adults (N=33) were randomized to two weight loss groups for a seven-week intervention and a seven-week follow-up period: an intuitive eating group or a stress management group. The intuitive eating group did not have any statistically significant changes in weight or blood pressure at seven or 14 weeks. The stress management group had significant changes at seven weeks in weight (p=0.05) and systolic (p=0.005) and diastolic (p=0.05) blood pressure. Weight decreased by 2.9 pounds at seven weeks and decreased a total of 4.4 pounds over the 14 weeks (p=0.05) in the EBT group. The EBT approach appears promising for weight loss and weight maintenance. More research with larger samples sizes and longer trial periods need to be done in order to draw a conclusion on the usefulness of this intervention

Self-Study Research in Europe

Final Published versio

The state of secularism: constituting religion and tradition towards a post-apartheid South Africa

This thesis studies the place of religion and tradition in South Africa’s democratic constitution and its political public. It begins by developing an analytical framework for the study of political secularism, which it defines as a normative account of the place of religion in politics and society and a series of disciplinary interventions that secure that religion is put and kept in its place. The body of the thesis analyses the constitution of contemporary South African secularism through a close reading of the archive of the constitutional negotiations in the 1980s and 1990s. It argues that individual rights to religion and the rights of religious bodies to the freedom of religion were secured in the transition. The foundations of the democratic political order were grounded in secular normative principles. In addition to this liberal constitutionalism, the terms of nation-building introduced elements of a Christian civil religion. The thesis also addresses the recognition of traditional authorities and customary law within the constitution. In this it argues that the African National Congress (ANC) tried but failed to secularise the institution of traditional leadership. During the period of the negotiations the ANC was unable to differentiate state politics and custom, unable to separate traditional institutions from the state, and therefore unable to wrest its powers to the state. The final chapter addresses some of the ambivalences and contradictions inherent in the political and legal dispensations around religion and traditional authority since 1994

Maternity care: a human rights issue?

All women need the ability to access midwifery-led care at the primary or first level of care, enabling them to have control over, and decide freely and responsibly about, their reproductive health. In establishing women’s control of their own reproductive health, there is likely to be a reduction in reliance on unnecessary interventions in birth. The choices of maternity care provided in Australia are at present discriminatory. On the pretence of fundinglimitations, community based midwifery-led models of care are not widely available. Such options are limited to so called ‘alternative birthing’ arrangements for a limited number of women, mainly in low socio-economic groups or ‘at risk’ groups such as teenagers and Aboriginal women. Whilst the increased mortality and morbidity rates, and poor social circumstances, of women in these groups clearly demonstrate their need for better care, these women may be further marginalised by being identified as needing special attention. Furthermore, we argue that a strategic reallocation of present funding from mainstream medicalised care would enable all women to access midwifery-led models of care, which are not only generally more cost effective than standard care but importantly offer them the option of choosing one-to-one midwifery (Maternity Coalition 2002). Until Australian governments stop limiting the real maternity care choices available to women, and make a political commitment to provide care based on consumer needs, rather than health professionals’ preferences, Australian women will not be able to exercise their fundamental human right to decide freely on matters related to their reproductive health, for these decisions are currently strongly constrained by what governments are prepared or encouraged to provide

Informierte, aktive Entscheidung für einen Geburtsort dank Social Media? : Wie die Hausgeburt in schriftlichen deutschsprachigen Social Media dargestellt wird. Möglichkeiten, wie Fachpersonen den Entscheidungsfindungsprozess Schwangerer begleiten können

Hintergrund: Die Entscheidung für einen Geburtsort ist von verschiedensten Faktoren abhängig und wird zu unterschiedlichen Zeitpunkten getroffen. Im deutschsprachigen Raum entscheiden sich ungefähr 1% der Schwangeren für eine Hausgeburt. Eine aktive Entscheidung für einen Geburtsort wirkt sich positiv auf die Zufriedenheit der Mutter aus. Im Entscheidungsfindungsprozess berücksichtigen Schwangere auch Inhalte aus dem Web2.0 und Social Media. Fragestellung und Zielsetzung: Wie wird die geplante Hausgeburt in deutschsprachigen schriftlichen Social-Media-Kanälen dargestellt und wie wirkt diese Darstellung auf Schwangere? Ziel der Arbeit ist, einen Überblick über schriftliche deutschsprachige Social-Media-Inhalte zur geplanten Hausgeburt zu bieten. Es werden Möglichkeiten aufgezeigt, wie Fachpersonen Schwangere im Entscheidungsfindungsprozess bezüglich des Geburtsortes begleiten können. Methode: Zum einen fand eine systematische Literaturrecherche in verschiedenen Datenbanken statt, wobei eine relevante Studie berücksichtigt wurde. Zum anderen wurde anhand eines Inhaltsanalysetools eine Inhaltsanalyse von Social Media und Web 2.0 Inhalten durchgeführt Resultate: Auf reinen Social-Media-Seiten findet sich wenig zur Hausgeburt. Abhängig von der Suchart werden unterschiedliche Inhalte gefunden. Inhalte bei ungerichteter Suche diskutieren die Hausgeburt kontrovers, während bei aktiver Suche Schwangere auf überwiegend positive Inhalte stossen. Schlussfolgerung: Beratung durch Fachpersonen ist aufgrund fehlender evidenzbasierter Informationen besonders wichtig

The Scottish Innovative Student Awards: preparing students to tackle wicked problems.

This session introduced the Scottish Innovative Student Awards (SISA), and gave an overview of how SISA helps students to tackle wicked problems with innovation and an orientation towards transforming the future. The session also presented two case studies of implementing SISA at the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University

The Scottish Innovative Student Award (SISA): preparing students to tackle wicked problems.

This case study presents the Scottish Innovative Student Award (SISA), which aims to recognise students' high-level skills development within existing academic modules, as well as providing an opportunity for students to confront problems in new ways, through an enterprise workshop and entrepreneurial learning activities. The study has been published among a set of similar studies, which represent the culmination of a series of discussions from the annual Advance HE Employability Symposium hosted in April 2021