Body satisfaction of female staff members working in primary schools in Mangaung, Bloemfontein

Background: The role of psychosocial determinants of overweight and obesity is receiving attention in South African literature. South Africans tend to exhibit an inaccurate perception of their body weight. Aims: The purpose of this study was to determine levels of body satisfaction in female staff members working in primary schools in Mangaung, Bloemfontein. Setting: Mangaung is a peri-urban area in Bloemfontein in the Free State province of South Africa. Methods: Female staff members over the age of 18 years were invited to participate in the study. Anthropometric measurements of weight and height were measured using standardised techniques to calculate body mass index (BMI). Waist circumference (WC) was measured as an indicator of risk for non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Weight satisfaction was measured using a structured, self-administered body satisfaction questionnaire. Results: The majority of the staff members (71.3%) were classified as obese (BMI > 30 kg/m2); similarly a majority of them were at a high risk of NCDs according to WC. A little over a third (34.8%) of the women perceived themselves to have a normal weight. The majority of the women who had no concern with their body image were obese (59.1%) and only 8.7% of the women in this study were markedly concerned with their body image. Of the 60.9% of women who reported having attempted to lose weight, 38.6% reported using exercise and 30.0% used water as a weight loss method. Conclusion: Women’s awareness of a healthy weight should be promoted if efforts to achieve weight loss are to be effective

Nutritional environment at secondary schools in Bloemfontein, South Africa

Objective: The objective was to determine the nutritional environment at secondary schools in Bloemfontein, Free State province.Design: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study.Subjects and setting: The subjects were secondary school principals in Bloemfontein, Free State province, in 2006.Method: Principals of 10 secondary schools who were already participating in a larger study on 26 schools completed structured questionnaireson nutrition practices.Results: Four schools utilised nutrition education programmes. None had vending machines. Two schools sold dairy products. Biscuits andchocolates were sold at eight schools, and sweets, crisps and fast food at all of the schools.Conclusion: The nutrition environment at Bloemfontein secondary schools does not support healthy eating habits. Nutrition policies need tobe introduced to improve the nutritional environment at schools as the available food for learners at the tuck shops and/or via the vendorswas mostly unhealthy

Biogeographic, Atmospheric, and Climatic Factors Influencing Tree Growth in Mediterranean Aleppo Pine Forests

There is a lack of knowledge on how tree species respond to climatic constraints like water shortages and related atmospheric patterns across broad spatial and temporal scales. These assessments are needed to project which populations will better tolerate or respond to global warming across the tree species distribution range. Warmer and drier conditions have been forecasted for the Mediterranean Basin, where Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensisMill.) is the most widely distributed conifer in dry sites. This species shows plastic growth responses to climate, being particularly sensitive to drought. We evaluated how 32 Aleppo pine forests responded to climate during the second half of the 20th century by using dendrochronology. Climatic constraints of radial growth were inferred by fitting the Vaganov-Shashkin (VS-Lite) growth model to ring-width data from our Aleppo pine forest network. Our findings reported that Aleppo pine growth decreased and showed the highest common coherence among trees in dry, continental sites located in southeastern and eastern inland Spain and Algeria. In contrast, growth increased in wetter sites located in northeastern Spain. Overall, across the Aleppo pine network tree growth was enhanced by prior wet winters and cool and wet springs, whilst warm summers were associated with less growth. The relationships between site ring-width chronologies were higher in nearby forests. This explains why Aleppo pine growth was distinctly linked to indices of atmospheric circulation patterns depending on the geographical location of the forests. The western forests were more influenced by moisture and temperature conditions driven by the Western Mediterranean Oscillation (WeMO) and the Northern Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the southern forests by the East Atlantic (EA) and the august NAO, while the Balearic, Tunisian and northeastern sites by the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the Scandinavian pattern (SCA). The climatic constraints for Aleppo pine tree growth and its biogeographical variability were well captured by the VS-Lite model. The model performed better in dry and continental sites, showing strong growth coherence between trees and climatic limitations of growth. Further research using similar broad-scale approaches to climate-growth relationships in drought-prone regions deserves more attention

Defense Economy: Essential Role of the TNI on Helping Border Villages in Increasing Community Productivity, Case Study in the Border Area of Nusa Tenggara Timur

This study aims to explain the phenomenon of the defense economy that economic and defense programs must run in harmony to obtain an acceleration in improving people's welfare. The main priority of the government program is not only to improve the economy but also to provide adequate security and defense. So that economic actors can carry out their commercial activities optimally. According to the defense economy, the impact of using the defense budget on the economy can appear from the approach of demand or consumption and supply or production. From the consumption side, the defense can protect national resources against various threats, so that public use becomes stable and even increases. In contrast, in this paper, we want to see a defense program from the production side. This paper aims to know how the Indonesian National Army (TNI) plays a role in helping local governments to develop border villages. The methodology is a literature review and focuses group discussions with local policymakers, especially in Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) Province. The part of the TNI is more critical when in border villages because it is at the forefront, remote and relatively inaccessible. There are still many areas whose development is slow with low accessibility and is dominated by disadvantaged regions with minimal social and economic facilities and infrastructure. It was there that this role became increasingly important as a way of opening in both physical and nonphysical forms. There were still few private, who dared to invest in border areas. Keywords: Defense Economy, Border Village, Indonesian National Army (TNI), Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT

Neuroendocrine carcinoma arising in soft tissue: three case reports and literature review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neuroendocrine tumours (NET) are tumours arising from neuroendocrine cells of neural crest origin. They are characterised by the presence of neurosecretory granules which react positively to silver stains and to specific markers including neuron specific enolase, synaptophysin and chromogranin. Metastasis to the skin occurs infrequently but primary soft tissue NET is excessively rare.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report our experience with 3 such cases. In the first case, the NET originated in muscle and was treated with wide surgical excision and adjuvant radiotherapy. The second case presented as a subcutaneous mass in the foot and the tumour was positive on ¹²³I mIBG scan. She has had prolonged recurrence-free survival following primary hypo-fractionated radiotherapy. In the third case, a cutaneous nodule proved to be a NET and at surgery, lymph node disease was present. He has remained disease-free after surgical excision without the need for external beam radiotherapy.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These tumours appear to have a good prognosis. Complete excision offers potentially curative treatment. Adjuvant radiotherapy may be helpful when the tumour margin is narrow. For patients with unresectable disease or where surgery would not be appropriate, radiotherapy appears to be an effective therapeutic option.</p

Converging Currents in Climate-Relevant Conservation: Water, Infrastructure, and Institutions

Ecologists and economists have long talked past each other, but climate change presents similar threats to both groups. Water may serve as the best means of finding a common cause and building a new vision of ecological and economic sustainability, especially in the developing world

Scientific merits and analytical challenges of tree-ring densitometry

R.W. was supported by NERC grant NE/K003097/1.X-ray microdensitometry on annually-resolved tree-ring samples has gained an exceptional position in last-millennium paleoclimatology through the maximum latewood density parameter (MXD), but also increasingly through other density parameters. For fifty years, X-ray based measurement techniques have been the de facto standard. However, studies report offsets in the mean levels for MXD measurements derived from different laboratories, indicating challenges of accuracy and precision. Moreover, reflected visible light-based techniques are becoming increasingly popular and wood anatomical techniques are emerging as a potentially powerful pathway to extract density information at the highest resolution. Here we review the current understanding and merits of wood density for tree-ring research, associated microdensitometric techniques, and analytical measurement challenges. The review is further complemented with a careful comparison of new measurements derived at 17 laboratories, using several different techniques. The new experiment allowed us to corroborate and refresh ?long-standing wisdom?, but also provide new insights. Key outcomes include; i) a demonstration of the need for mass/volume based re-calibration to accurately estimate average ring density; ii) a substantiation of systematic differences in MXD measurements that cautions for great care when combining density datasets for climate reconstructions; and iii) insights into the relevance of analytical measurement resolution in signals derived from tree-ring density data. Finally, we provide recommendations expected to facilitate future inter-comparability and interpretations for global change research.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe