Perspectives on a ‘Sit Less, Move More’ Intervention in Australian Emergency Call Centres

Background: Prolonged sitting is associated with increased risk of chronic diseases. Workplace programs that aim to reduce sitting time (sit less) and increase physical activity (move more) have targeted desk-based workers in corporate and university settings with promising results. However, little is known about 'move more, sit less' programs for workers in other types of jobs and industries, such as shift workers. This formative research examines the perceptions of a 'sit less, move more' program in an Australian Emergency Call Centre that operates 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.  Methods: Participants were employees (N = 39, 72% female, 50% aged 36-55 years) recruited from Emergency Services control centres located in New South Wales, Australia. The 'sit less, move more' intervention, consisting of emails, posters and timer lights, was co-designed with the management team and tailored to the control centre environment and work practices, which already included electronic height-adjustable sit-stand workstations for all call centre staff. Participants reported their perceptions and experiences of the intervention in a self-report online questionnaire, and directly to the research team during regular site visits. Questionnaire topics included barriers and facilitators to standing while working, mental wellbeing, effects on work performance, and workplace satisfaction. Field notes and open-ended response data were analysed in an iterative process during and after data collection to identify the main themes.  Results: Whilst participants already had sit-stand workstations, use of the desks in the standing position varied and sometimes were contrary to expectations (e.g, less tired standing than sitting; standing when experiencing high call stress). Participants emphasised the "challenging" and "unrelenting" nature of their work. They reported sleep issues ("always tired"), work stress ("non-stop demands"), and feeling mentally and physically drained due to shift work and length of shifts. Overall, participants liked the initiative but acknowledged that their predominantly sitting habits were entrenched and work demands took precedence.  Conclusions: This study demonstrates the low acceptability of a 'sit less, move more' program in shift workers in high stress environments like emergency call centres. Work demands take priority and other health concerns, like poor sleep and high stress, may be more salient than the need to sit less and move more during work shifts

Differential expression of presynaptic genes in a rat model of postnatal hypoxia: relevance to schizophrenia

Obstetric complications play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. However, the biological consequences during neurodevelopment until adulthood are unknown. Microarrays have been used for expression profiling in four brain regions of a rat model of neonatal hypoxia as a common factor of obstetric complications. Animals were repeatedly exposed to chronic hypoxia from postnatal (PD) day 4 through day 8 and killed at the age of 150 days. Additional groups of rats were treated with clozapine from PD 120–150. Self-spotted chips containing 340 cDNAs related to the glutamate system (“glutamate chips”) were used. The data show differential (up and down) regulations of numerous genes in frontal (FR), temporal (TE) and parietal cortex (PAR), and in caudate putamen (CPU), but evidently many more genes are upregulated in frontal and temporal cortex, whereas in parietal cortex the majority of genes are downregulated. Because of their primary presynaptic occurrence, five differentially expressed genes (CPX1, NPY, NRXN1, SNAP-25, and STX1A) have been selected for comparisons with clozapine-treated animals by qRT-PCR. Complexin 1 is upregulated in FR and TE cortex but unchanged in PAR by hypoxic treatment. Clozapine downregulates it in FR but upregulates it in PAR cortex. Similarly, syntaxin 1A was upregulated in FR, but downregulated in TE and unchanged in PAR cortex, whereas clozapine downregulated it in FR but upregulated it in PAR cortex. Hence, hypoxia alters gene expression regionally specific, which is in agreement with reports on differentially expressed presynaptic genes in schizophrenia. Chronic clozapine treatment may contribute to normalize synaptic connectivity

DNA methylation and mRNA expression of SYN III, a candidate gene for schizophrenia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The synapsin III (<it>SYN III</it>) gene on chromosome 22q is a candidate gene for schizophrenia susceptibility due to its chromosome location, neurological function, expression patterns and functional polymorphisms.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This research has established the mRNA expression of <it>SYN III </it>in 22 adult human brain regions as well as the methylation specificity in the closest CpG island of this gene. The methylation specificity studied in 31 brain regions (from a single individual) was also assessed in 51 human blood samples (representing 20 people affected with schizophrenia and 31 normal controls) including a pair of monozygotic twin discordant for schizophrenia and 2 non-human primates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results show that the cytosine methylation in this genomic region is 1) restricted to cytosines in CpG dinucleotides 2) similar in brain regions and blood and 3) appears conserved in primate evolution. Two cytosines (cytosine 8 and 20) localized as the CpG dinucleotide are partially methylated in all brain regions studied. The methylation of these sites in schizophrenia and control blood samples was variable. While cytosine 8 was partially methylated in all samples, the distribution of partial to complete methylation at the cytosine 20 was 22:9 in controls as compared to 18:2 in schizophrenia (p = 0.82). Also, there is no difference in methylation between the affected and unaffected member of a monozygotic twin pair.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The variation in <it>SYN III </it>methylation studied is 1) not related to schizophrenia in the population sample or a monozygotic twin pair discordant for schizophrenia and 2) not related to the mRNA level of <it>SYN IIIa </it>in different human brain regions.</p

Glutamatergic deficits and parvalbumin-containing inhibitory neurons in the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We have previously reported that the expression of the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) for the NR2A subunit of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) class of glutamate receptor was decreased in a subset of inhibitory interneurons in the cerebral cortex in schizophrenia. In this study, we sought to determine whether a deficit in the expression of NR2A mRNA was present in the subset of interneurons that contain the calcium buffer parvalbumin (PV) and whether this deficit was associated with a reduction in glutamatergic inputs in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in schizophrenia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined the expression of NR2A mRNA, labeled with a ³⁵S-tagged riboprobe, in neurons that expressed PV mRNA, visualized with a digoxigenin-labeled riboprobe via an immunoperoxidase reaction, in twenty schizophrenia and twenty matched normal control subjects. We also immunohistochemically labeled the glutamatergic axon terminals with an antibody against vGluT1.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The density of the PV neurons that expressed NR2A mRNA was significantly decreased by 48-50% in layers 3 and 4 in the subjects with schizophrenia, but the cellular expression of NR2A mRNA in the PV neurons that exhibited a detectable level of this transcript was unchanged. In addition, the density of vGluT1-immunoreactive boutons was significantly decreased by 79% in layer 3, but was unchanged in layer 5 of the PFC in schizophrenia.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest that glutamatergic neurotransmission via NR2A-containing NMDA receptors on PV neurons in the PFC may be deficient in schizophrenia. This may disinhibit the postsynaptic excitatory circuits, contributing to neuronal injury, aberrant information flow and PFC functional deficits in schizophrenia.</p

Search for gravitational waves associated with gamma-ray bursts detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO–Virgo run O3b

We search for gravitational-wave signals associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Fermi and Swift satellites during the second half of the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (2019 November 1 15:00 UTC–2020 March 27 17:00 UTC). We conduct two independent searches: a generic gravitational-wave transients search to analyze 86 GRBs and an analysis to target binary mergers with at least one neutron star as short GRB progenitors for 17 events. We find no significant evidence for gravitational-wave signals associated with any of these GRBs. A weighted binomial test of the combined results finds no evidence for subthreshold gravitational-wave signals associated with this GRB ensemble either. We use several source types and signal morphologies during the searches, resulting in lower bounds on the estimated distance to each GRB. Finally, we constrain the population of low-luminosity short GRBs using results from the first to the third observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. The resulting population is in accordance with the local binary neutron star merger rate

DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE PALM OIL FARMING IN THE KRUENG KEREUTO WATERSHED

This research was conducted in the Krueng Kereuto watershedfrom October - November 2022. The objectives of this study were: to assess the suitability of land for oil palm plantations, to examine the effect of oil palm-based farming types on erosion and to analyze agrotechnology. The observation locations are on land map units 1, 3, 4, 5, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28. The research method used in this research is a survey method which consists of four stages, namely: 1) the preparation stage 2) preliminary survey stage, 3) main survey stage and 4) data analysis and results presentation stage.The results showed that the assessment of land suitability for oil palm plantations in the Krueng Keureto watershed consisted of a moderately suitable class (S2) and a marginal suitable class (S3), with the limiting factor for oxygen availability (oa), namely obstructed drainage, nutrient retention limiting factor (nr) namely base saturation, pH and C-organic and the limiting factor for erosion hazard (eh) is the slope.The results of the erosion calculation show that the highest erosion prediction value occurs in the use of mixed gardens and shrubs.The predictive value of erosion on scrub land use (SST 3, 4, 5) ranged from 11.82 - 192.04 tonnes ha-1yr-1. This value is still far above the tolerable erosion value (ETol), which is 21.50 - 24.96 tons ha-1 year-1. Erosion prediction on mixed garden land use (SST 1, 20 and 21) ranges from 27.50 - 365.38 ton ha-1 year-1, this prediction value is still above the ETol value, namely 15.50 – 20.40 tons ha-1 year-1