Segmented sedentary time and physical activity patterns throughout the week from wrist-worn ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers among children 7–12 years old

The authors thank the children, schools, teachers, and parents who agreed to participate in this study. Our study was funded by University of the West of Scotland's VP Research Fund. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Exploring the feasibility of a cluster pilot randomised control trial to improve children’s 24-hour movement behaviours and dietary intake:happy homework

We aimed to explore the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of Happy Homework (HH); an 8-week home-focussed intervention, with the purpose of encouraging children’s positive dietary behaviours and engagement in positive physical activity (PA) and sleep behaviours. We randomised four Scottish schools (n = 71 participants; 5 classrooms) to either the HH intervention (n = 2) or usual curriculum control group (n = 2). HH consisted of movement and dietary-focused parent and child tasks. Primary outcome measures were intervention feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy. Secondary outcomes were objectively measured PA via ActiGraph GT3X+, sedentary behaviours (SBs) and sleep duration via activPAL4™ accelerometers and dietary behaviours, fruit and vegetable consumption and screen-time via questionnaires. After controlling for pre-test levels, post intervention stepping time and sleep duration were significantly greater for the HH group in comparison to the control group. The HH group reported eating more fruit and vegetables at post-test than the control group. Participants also reported the intervention to be enjoyable and motivating. These findings provide promising evidence that given a greater sample size, better retention and the prioritisation of health and wellbeing homework, HH could enhance children’s health and wellbeing

Segmented sedentary time and physical activity patterns throughout the week from wrist-worn ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers among children 7–12 years old

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/mercorr_pro/1795/thumbnail.jp

A quantitative and qualitative exploration of client-therapist interaction and engagement in treatment in an alcohol service

Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Trust, UK Studies have suggested that differences in the effectiveness of therapists may be related to the therapist's ability to maintain a facilitative stance in the face of client resistance or hostility. The current study, examined a sample of audiotaped sessions from Hyams, Cartwright, and Spratley's (1996) study of engagement in an alcohol treatment service in an attempt to see whether the therapists' effectiveness at engaging clients in treatment was related to client-therapist interaction in assessment interviews. It was hypothesized that there would be (1) more overall negative interpersonal behaviour (2) more negative interpersonal behaviour by the therapist and (3) more negative interpersonal complementarity in interviews where the client failed to engage. Structural Analysis of Social Behaviour was used to assess the interpersonal behaviour of clients and therapists in three case comparisons, each of which focused on an engage and a non-engage case provided by one of three participating therapists. An additional series of follow-up qualitative case studies was carried out on the interviews where the client failed to engage. The results were mixed, with the qualitative analyses providing more support for the hypotheses than the quantitative analysis. It was concluded that problematic interpersonal processes might be harder to gauge in assessment sessions than later on in therapy and methodological recommendations were made for enhancing the likelihood of detecting problematic processes in future studies. Evidence of the equivalent effectiveness of different models of therapy, the differential effectiveness of different therapists and the central role of the therapeutic alliance has highlighted the role of generic interpersonal processes in the outcome of psychotherapy Reproduction in any form (including the internet) is prohibited without prior permission from the Society communications may derive from the therapist's own introjects or theoretical ideas Consistent with the findings reviewed above, research on the treatment of substance misuse has suggested therapist effects both with regard to outcome (Luborsky, McLellan, 248 James Macdonald et al. Copyright © The British Psychological Society Reproduction in any form (including the internet) is prohibited without prior permission from the Society Woody, Other research has suggested that interpersonal behaviours of the therapist such as 'accurate empathy' Exploration of client-therapist interaction 249 Copyright © The British Psychological Society Reproduction in any form (including the internet) is prohibited without prior permission from the Society Method Participants The participants were three nurse therapists and six clients who took part in the earlier study by The three therapists were male, had passed a diploma in alcohol counselling and consultation and each had over three years experience in counselling clients with alcohol problems. Two of them had completed further therapy training. They were selected from the six therapists who took part in the larger study because their whereabouts was still known at the day unit, which meant they could be contacted for permission for their data to be included in the current study. The therapists were the one with the highest engagement rate in the Hyams et al. study (76.2% of the clients he assessed engaged in treatment) and two with intermediate engagement rates (46.7 and 37.5%). The client participants were selected according to a number of criteria. Firstly, only male clients were selected as the sample in the study as a whole were predominantly male and it was thought that selecting only male participants would reduce the variance associated with factors beyond the scope of the study. Secondly, only tapes which were already transcribed were used due to restrictions of time and money. Nineteen transcriptions had been made at an earlier stage of the alcohol project, selected to reflect a mixture of outcomes for each therapist. Finally, two cases were selected for each of the participating therapists: one where the client engaged in treatment and one where they did not. In line with Hyams et al. (p. 109), the criterion used for engagement in treatment was either attendance at two further counselling sessions or attendance at five group therapy sessions within three months of the assessment interview. The average age of the six clients was 39.6. Clients completed the Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SADQ Stockwell, Murphy, & Hodgson, 1983), the average score for which was 23.8 indicating mild or moderate alcohol dependence, somewhat below the mean in the wider study of 27.4. In all cases the therapist believed that the patient 'should enter treatment'. For clarity of presentation the six interviews will be denoted as 'One-E' for therapist one, engaged interview; 'One-N' for therapist one, non-engaged interview and so on. Comparisons 'One', 'Two' and 'Three' will therefore refer to the comparisons between each of the three therapists' engaged and non-engaged interviews. Design 250 James Macdonald et al. Copyright © The British Psychological Society Reproduction in any form (including the internet) is prohibited without prior permission from the Society A major issue with single-case research is 'how to establish the generality of one's findings' (Hilliard, 1993, p. 376) with most authors recommending a strategy of replication across multiple cases Measures The SASB observational coding system (SASB Benjamin, 1974; A third of the material to be coded was coded by a second rater. In order to ensure that a range of the material was covered by the inter-rater reliability check the full forty minutes of coding was checked on two interviews. These interviews featured two separate therapists and comprised one after which the client engaged (Three-E) and one where the client failed to engage (Two-N). The reliability of the coding in Three-E was high, with a Kappa of 0.86. Although the reliability for Two-N was low at 0.62, this is still considered as an acceptable level of reliability for SASB analysis Analysis Quantitative Weighted scores summarizing the underlying dimensions of affiliation and autonomy Exploration of client-therapist interaction 251 Copyright © The British Psychological Society Reproduction in any form (including the internet) is prohibited without prior permission from the Society hostility and complexity in each case comparison. Lagged cross-tabulations have been used to address the question of client-therapist complementarity. Lagged crosstabulations are a means of plotting the relationship between codes given to one speaker and codes given to another speaker on the following segment (i.e. the contingency between therapist codes and following patient codes and vice versa). The calculations provide a value of Phi, which is the equivalent of the product moment correlation in a two by two table. Descriptive data in the form of 'SASB cluster scores' Qualitative Three qualitative case studies were carried out on the interviews where the client failed to engage. These interviews were selected because the interpersonal processes associated with failure to engage were the main focus of the study. The purpose of these studies was (1) to check the validity of the quantitative findings in the context of the whole interviews (since in all but one instance the quantitative part of the study is based on coding of only part of the interview). In this sense the aim was to reduce the danger of making a type II error as a result of limitations in the quantitative method (e.g. limited sampling of the interviews), just as the quantitative method may militate against the dangers of making a Type I error as a result of confirmatory bias in the qualitative analysis (2) to develop a more contextual understanding of the underlying interpersonal processes at work in the interviews and therefore to refine the conclusions of the quantitative study and to clarify how these findings might be extended (3) to provide illustrations of the SASB codes which otherwise can be opaque to the reader who wishes to make clinical sense of the findings and (4) to enable the reader to put the quantitative findings of the main study back into clinical context and so exploit the potential of single-case studies to contribute to an 'increased integration of research and practice ' (Tracey, 1985, p. 196). The qualitative case studies were modelled on the series of qualitative studies conducted by 1 The 'introject' focus was not coded in this study of interpersonal process. 252 James Macdonald et al. Copyright © The British Psychological Society Reproduction in any form (including the internet) is prohibited without prior permission from the Society Due to space limitations, only one qualitative case study is included, selected because it was the shortest. The other two case studies are reported in full in Procedure The first author was provided with the interview transcripts and digitized audiofiles from the earlier study. These were then entered into a coding frame in a computer program, the C-I-SAID SASB coding was conducted on two twenty minutes portions of each interview. The first portion started five minutes into the interview and the second portion consisted of the final twenty minutes of the session. The decision to code only part of the interviews was based on the SASB 'pond water theory' which specifies that coding a small sample of a person's interpersonal behaviour typically results in a representative sample of interpersonal patterns Results For clarity and ease of interpretation, quantitative results will be organized around the three principle research questions (rather than being presented separately for each case or case comparison). SASB cluster scores for clients and therapists in all the interviews are presented in table form in the Appendix. Overall negative process, clients' negative process and failure to engage in alcohol treatment The percentages of thought units for each speaker in each interview coded with any of the hostile SASB codes (Belittling and Blaming 1-6; Attacking and Rejecting 1-7; Ignoring and Neglecting 1-8; Sulking and Scurrying 2-6; Protesting and Recoiling 2-7; and Walling off and Distancing 2-8) are presented in Exploration of client-therapist interaction 253 Copyright © The British Psychological Society Reproduction in any form (including the internet) is prohibited without prior permission from the Society 254 James Macdonald et al. Copyright © The British Psychological Society Reproduction in any form (including the internet) is prohibited without prior permission from the Society in Two-N (16.5% of whose communications were given a hostile code). This contrast with contrasts with the studies by Henry and colleagues. Where possible, overall levels of hostility of the engaging and the non-engaging interview in each case were compared using Chi-squared analyses (see Because of the low numbers of hostile codes in the interviews it was decided to conduct statistical comparisons comparing levels of 'disaffiliation' rather than hostility between the two interviews. The rationale for this was based on an earlier Maudsley Alcohol Pilot Project finding that alcohol workers who felt insecure in their role with particular clients tended to withdraw in a variety of ways from the therapeutic relationship In summary, out of the three case comparisons, only Comparison Two shows clear evidence of the predicted differences in overall negative process between engage and ns, non-significant. Exploration of client-therapist interaction 255 Copyright © The British Psychological Society Reproduction in any form (including the internet) is prohibited without prior permission from the Society non-engage interviews, with significant differences on overall hostility, client hostility, overall disaffiliation, client disaffiliation, overall complexity and client complexity. It is notable that the client in the non-engage interview in this case comparison is considerably more hostile than the clients in all the other interviews, with 16.5% of his communications coded as hostile (the next most hostile client was hostile only 3% of the time). Comparison One shows some trends in the predicted direction, with more hostile codes in the nonengage interview, although hostile codes were too infrequent for Chi-squared analyses to be conducted and there was no significant difference in overall disaffiliation between the two interviews. However, there was significantly more client disaffiliation and significantly more overall complexity in the non-engage interview in Comparison One. Comparison Three showed no trends in the predicted direction and analyses comparing overall hostility, client hostility, overall disaffiliation, client disaffiliation, overall complexity and client complexity were all non-significant. Therapists' negative process and clients' failure to engage in treatment In order to compare the relative levels of affiliation and control in the interviews (reflecting the two underlying dimensions of the SASB model), weighted scores for affiliation and autonomy/control were calculated for the therapist and client, following the procedure outlined b

Exploring the feasibility of a cluster pilot randomised control trial to improve children’s 24-hour movement behaviours and dietary intake: Happy homework

Rosie Arthur - ORCID: 0000-0003-0651-4056 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0651-4056We aimed to explore the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of Happy Homework (HH); an 8-week home-focussed intervention, with the purpose of encouraging children’s positive dietary behaviours and engagement in positive physical activity (PA) and sleep behaviours. We randomised four Scottish schools (n = 71 participants; 5 classrooms) to either the HH intervention (n = 2) or usual curriculum control group (n = 2). HH consisted of movement and dietary-focused parent and child tasks. Primary outcome measures were intervention feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy. Secondary outcomes were objectively measured PA via ActiGraph GT3X+, sedentary behaviours (SBs) and sleep duration via activPAL4™ accelerometers and dietary behaviours, fruit and vegetable consumption and screen-time via questionnaires. After controlling for pre-test levels, post intervention stepping time and sleep duration were significantly greater for the HH group in comparison to the control group. The HH group reported eating more fruit and vegetables at post-test than the control group. Participants also reported the intervention to be enjoyable and motivating. These findings provide promising evidence that given a greater sample size, better retention and the prioritisation of health and wellbeing homework, HH could enhance children’s health and wellbeing.https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2023.2300562aheadofprintaheadofprin

An evaluation of personal cooling systems for reducing thermal strain whilst working in chemical/biological protective clothing

© 2019 The Authors. Published by Frontiers Media. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.00424© 2019 Bach, Maley, Minett, Zietek, Stewart and Stewart. Objective: The use of personal cooling systems to mitigate heat strain on first-responders achieves two potential performance benefits relative to the absence of such cooling: (1) the completion of a workload with less effort; and/or (2) the completion of a greater workload for the same effort. Currently, claims made by manufacturers regarding the capability of their products for use in conjunction with chemical/biological protective clothing remain largely unsubstantiated. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the means by which heat strain can be alleviated during uncompensable heat stress in chemical/biological clothing, using the ASTM F2300-10 methodology. Methods: Eight healthy males completed five trials of continuous walking (4.5 km h-1; 35°C; 49% RH) for up to 120 min while wearing one of four cooling systems and/or a National Fire and Protection Association 1994 Class-3 chemical/biological ensemble. The four cooling methods (ice vest [IV], phase-change vest [PCM], water-perfused suit [WS], and combination ice slurry/ice vest [SLIV]) and no cooling (CON). Results: We observed significant improvements in trial times for IV (18 ± 10 min), PCM (20 ± 10 min) and SLIV (22 ± 10 min), but no differences for WS (4 ± 7 min). Heart rate, rectal, mean skin, and body temperatures were significantly lower in all cooling conditions relative to control at various matched time points in the first 60 min of exercise. Thermal sensation, comfort and perceived exertion all had significant main effects for condition, and time, there were no differences in their respective interactions. Conclusion: The IV, PCM, and SLIV produced lower heart rate, mean skin, rectal and mean body temperatures in addition to improved work times compared to control. The WS did not improve work times possibly as a result of the cooling capacity of the suit abating, and magnifying thermal insulation. Considering the added time and resources required to implement combination cooling in the form of ice slurry and ice vest (SLIV), there was no significant additive effect for perception, cardiovascular strain, rectal temperature and total trial time relative to the phase change vest or ice vest alone. This may be a product of a "ceiling" effect for work limit set to 120 min as part of ASTM F2300-10.This project is financially supported by the United States Government through the United States Department of Defense (DOD).Published versio

Structurally defined ring-opening and insertion of pinacolborane into aluminium-nitrogen bonds of sterically demanding dialkylaluminium amides

Dialkylaluminium amides iBu 2Al(TMP) and iBu 2Al(HMDS) can perform catalytic hydroboration of ketones with pinacolborane to form the expected boronic esters. However, repeating the same reactions stoichiometrically without a ketone leads unexpectedly to ring-opening of pinacolborane and insertion of its open chain into the Al−N(amido) bond. To date there has been limited knowledge on decomposition pathways of HBpin despite its prominent role in hydroboration chemistry. X-ray crystallography shows these mixed Al−B products [iBu 2Al{OC(Me) 2C(Me) 2O}B(H)(NR 2)] 2 (NR 2=TMP or HMDS) form dimers with an (AlO) 2 core and terminal B−N bonds. Since the bond retention (B−H) and bond breaking (B−O) in these transformations seemed surprising, DFT calculations run using M11/6-31G(d,p) gave an energy profile consistent with a σ-bond metathesis mechanism where London dispersion interactions between iBu and (amide) Me groups play an important stabilising role in the final outcome

The effect of varying glucose levels on the ex vivo crystalline lens: implications for hyperglycaemia-induced refractive changes

Purpose: Refractive changes in diabetic eyes have long been reported but with equivocal results. The lens has been a more recent focus as the source of any change but it is possible that multiple sources of variation have made it difficult to demonstrate a systematic change clinically. The aim of this study was therefore to use a bovine lens model to investigate the optical changes in hyperglycaemia and when lenses are returned to normal glucose levels as would occur following commencement of treatment. Method: Bovine eyes were obtained and their lenses excised under sterile conditions before placing them in culture medium within an incubator using standard tissue culture techniques. In the first experiment, lenses were transferred into culture medium containing 5 mm (n = 12), 15 mm (n = 12) and 30 mm (n = 12) glucose. Measurements were made of the change in back vertex focusing distance with equatorial lens diameter using the ScanTox™ measurement system. From these measurements, the back vertex focal length and primary longitudinal spherical aberration were derived. In a second experiment, lenses maintained at 30 mm glucose (n = 7) were stepped down to 5 mm glucose to simulate starting diabetic therapy and measured in the same way. Changes over time were assessed with a linear regression model. Results: A trend towards myopia was observed with increasing hyperglycaemia, this was not statistically significant. When lenses were stepped-down from hyperglycaemia to normal physiological levels of glucose, a hyperopic shift was observed in line with published clinical studies that again failed to reach statistical significance. High variability in the measurement on longitudinal spherical aberration prevented any significant trends being measured. Conclusions: Our results suggest that there are no consistent crystalline lens-induced refractive changes following exposure to hyperglycaemia for time-periods up to 5 days used in the current study. It is possible that bovine lenses are able to offset the raised osmotic pressure from high glucose levels in the short-term by a process of osmoregulation and that repeated osmotic stress or longer term exposure may be required to induce the changes in refraction that are seen clinically