Using intervention mapping to develop a culturally appropriate intervention to prevent childhood obesity: the HAPPY (Healthy and Active Parenting Programme for Early Years) study.

INTRODUCTION: Interventions that make extensive use of theory tend to have larger effects on behaviour. The Intervention Mapping (IM) framework incorporates theory into intervention design, implementation and evaluation, and was applied to the development of a community-based childhood obesity prevention intervention for a multi-ethnic population. METHODS: IM was applied as follows: 1) Needs assessment of the community and culture; consideration of evidence-base, policy and practice; 2) Identification of desired outcomes and change objectives following identification of barriers to behaviour change mapped alongside psychological determinants (e.g. knowledge, self-efficacy, intention); 3) Selection of theory-based methods and practical applications to address barriers to behaviour change (e.g., strategies for responsive feeding); 4) Design of the intervention by developing evidence-based interactive activities and resources (e.g., visual aids to show babies stomach size). The activities were integrated into an existing parenting programme; 5) Adoption and implementation: parenting practitioners were trained by healthcare professionals to deliver the programme within Children Centres. RESULTS: HAPPY (Healthy and Active Parenting Programme for Early Years) is aimed at overweight and obese pregnant women (BMI > 25); consists of 12 × 2.5 hr. sessions (6 ante-natal from 24 weeks; 6 postnatal up to 9 months); it addresses mother's diet and physical activity, breast or bottle feeding, infant diet and parental feeding practices, and infant physical activity. CONCLUSION: We have demonstrated that IM is a feasible and helpful method for providing an evidence based and theoretical structure to a complex health behaviour change intervention. The next stage will be to assess the impact of the intervention on behaviour change and clinical factors associated with childhood obesity. The HAPPY programme is currently being tested as part of a randomised controlled feasibility trial

Tracking EEG changes to alpha and beta binaural beats

A binaural beat can be produced by presenting two tones of differing frequency, one to each ear. Such auditory stimulation has been suggested to influence behaviour and cognition via the process of cortical entrainment. However, research so far has only shown frequency following responses in the traditional EEG frequency ranges of delta, theta and gamma. Hence a primary aim of this research was to ascertain whether it would be possible to produce clear changes in the EEG in either the alpha or beta frequency ranges. Such changes, if possible, would have a number of important implications as well as potential applications. A secondary goal was to track any observable changes in EEG throughout the entrainment epoch to gain some insight into the nature of the entrainment effects any changes in an effort to identify more effective entrainment regimes. Twenty two healthy participants were recruited and randomly allocated to one of two groups, each of which was exposed to a distinct binaural beat frequency for ten 1-minute epochs. The first group listened to an alpha binaural beat of 10Hz and the second to a beta binaural beat of 20Hz. EEG was recorded from the left and right temporal regions during pre-exposure baselines, stimulus exposure epochs and post-exposure baselines. Analysis of changes in broad-band and narrow-band amplitude, and frequency showed no effect of either binaural beat frequency eliciting a frequency following effect in the EEG. Possible mediating factors are discussed and a number of recommendations are made regarding future studies, exploring entrainment effects from binaural beat presentation

Fiber optic sensors and spectrometry for the detection of volatile gem-polyhalogenated hydrocarbons

A fiber optic fluorometer utilizing a double-fiber optic probe was constructed. The absolute fluorescence signal and effective collection efficiency are approximately one fifth those of typical cuvette fluorometers and agree with those predicted by theory. A quinine sulfate calibration curve shows linearity from a detection limit of 10 pg/mL to 10 μg/mL. Single- and double-fiber probe configurations were also compared. The double-fiber configuration provided better detection limits due to its superior signal-to-background ratio. A discussion of sensor methodology for the monitoring of reaction intermediates is presented and a simple kinetic model for predicting the time dependent response of such sensors is developed. Two possible mechanisms for the Fujiwara reaction with chloroform are discussed. The effect of pyridine, water, and base concentrations on reaction kinetics was evaluated to develop single-phase Fujiwara reagent mixtures for both fluorometric and spectrophotometric determinations of chloroform. A unique "continuous-exposure" apparatus allowing vapor phase transport of chloroform from an aqueous sample to a conventional cuvette was constructed. The spectrophotometric detection limit for chloroform is 11 ng/mL and the method was shown to be suitable for the analysis of tap water. Two fiber optic chemical sensors (FOCS) for the detection of chloroform were developed. An aliquot of the optimized fluorometric reagent solution is held in contact with the fiber optic probe within a light-tight enclosure and is isolated from a bulk sample by a trapped headspace. One FOCS utilizes 1.3 mL of reagent held in a reservoir and the other utilizes a 10-μL drop of reagent suspended on the sensing tips of the fiber optic probe. Chloroform vapor from the sample migrates into the FOCS and reacts with the reagent to produce a fluorescent reaction intermediate which is monitored at 590 nm; the rate of increase in the fluorescence signal is related to chloroform concentration. Both FOCSs give detection limits better than 0.1 ng/mL. The response and total measurement times are comparable for the two FOCSs, and the duration of the linear response is limited by inner-filter effects. The response to a number of volatile GPHHCs including the trihalomethanes are reported. Analyses of tap water for chloroform with the reservoir FOCS and GC/MS were in excellent agreement

Ryanodine receptor dispersion disrupts Ca2+ release in failing cardiac myocytes

Reduced cardiac contractility during heart failure (HF) is linked to impaired Ca2+ release from Ryanodine Receptors (RyRs). We investigated whether this deficit can be traced to nanoscale RyR reorganization. Using super-resolution imaging, we observed dispersion of RyR clusters in cardiomyocytes from post-infarction HF rats, resulting in more numerous, smaller clusters. Functional groupings of RyR clusters which produce Ca2+ sparks (Ca2+ release units, CRUs) also became less solid. An increased fraction of small CRUs in HF was linked to augmented ‘silent’ Ca2+ leak, not visible as sparks. Larger multi-cluster CRUs common in HF also exhibited low fidelity spark generation. When successfully triggered, sparks in failing cells displayed slow kinetics as Ca2+ spread across dispersed CRUs. During the action potential, these slow sparks protracted and desynchronized the overall Ca2+ transient. Thus, nanoscale RyR reorganization during HF augments Ca2+ leak and slows Ca2+ release kinetics, leading to weakened contraction in this disease

Runoff of Silvicultural Herbicides Applied Using Best Management Practices

Nine small (2.2 to 2.9 ha) and four large (70 to 135 ha) watersheds in East Texas, USA, were instrumented to compare herbicide runoff under different silvicultural systems with best management practices (BMPs). Two treatments were evaluated: conventional, with clearcutting, aerial herbicide site preparation, and hand-applied banded herbaceous release; and intensive, in which subsoiling, aerial fertilization, and a second-year aerial herbicide application were added. Herbicides were applied as operational tank mixes. The highest imazapyr concentration found in stream water was 39 mg L‑1 during the first storm after application (23 days after treatment, DAT) and in-stream concentrations during runoff events dropped to L‑1 in all streams by 150 DAT. The highest hexazinone concentration was 8 mg L‑1 for the banded application and 35 mg L‑1 for the broadcast application the following year and fell to L‑1 in all streams by 140 DAT. The highest sulfometuron methyl concentration found during a runoff event was 4 mg L‑1 and fell to L‑1 in all streams by 80 DAT. About 1 to 2% of applied imazapyr and less than 1% of hexazinone and sulfometuron methyl were measured in storm runoff. Herbicide was found in streams during storm events only (all herbicides wereµg/L in all true baseflow samples), and peak concentrations during runoff events persisted for relatively short times (\u3c 24 h). These results suggest that silvicultural herbicide applications implemented with contemporary BMPs are unlikely to result in chronic exposure of aquatic biota; therefore, herbicide use under these conditions is unlikely to degrade surface waters

Precommissural and postcommissural fornix microstructure in healthy aging and cognition

The fornix is a key tract of the hippocampal formation, whose status is presumed to contribute to age-related cognitive decline. The precommissural and postcommissural fornix subdivisions form respective basal forebrain/frontal and diencephalic networks that may differentially affect aging and cognition. We employed multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including neurite orientation density and dispersion imaging, quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT), and T1-relaxometry MRI to investigate the microstructural properties of these fornix subdivisions and their relationship with aging and cognition in 149 asymptomatic participants (38–71 years). Aging was associated with increased free water signal and reductions in myelin-sensitive R1 and qMT indices but no apparent axon density differences in both precommissural and postcommissural fibers. Precommissural relative to postcommissural fibers showed a distinct microstructural pattern characterised by larger free water signal and axon orientation dispersion, with lower apparent myelin and axon density. Furthermore, differences in postcommissural microstructure were related to performance differences in object-location paired-associate learning. These results provide novel in vivo neuroimaging evidence for distinct microstructural properties of precommissural and postcommissural fibers that are consistent with their anatomy as found in axonal tracer studies, as well as for a contribution of postcommissural fibers to the learning of spatial configurations