Tackling Obesity via Workplace Health Promotion

The Curtin University Healthy Lifestyle Program is a worksite health promotion program that has been advocating a healthy supportive environment by encouraging healthy behaviours for 20 years. A multifaceted approach has been used with an Accredited Practising Dietitian available for one-to-one dietary consults with staff and an email newsletter "Eat for Life" distributed to staff which focused on healthy lifestyle changes such as choosing healthy food more often and increasing physical activity, and environmental changes to make healthy choices easier on campus. The staff restaurant and student guild catering outlets agreed to modify their menus, based on recommendations made by staff and students in the Nutrition Program and provided more healthy food choices.In 2003 a weekly weightloss support group was introduced. Lunchtime seminars attracted interest in the group while also raising awareness of the need to eat healthy food and increase physical activity especially walking. Participants liked the group sessions as they "kept you on track","learnt from other's tips and pitfalls" and gained extra support from other staff at work and the Curtin Healthy Lifestyle Program. Two star participants lost 20kg each over a year via their new healthier lifestyle

Hsp70 sequences indicate that choanoflagellates are closely related to animals

AbstractOver 130 years ago, James-Clark [1, 2] noted a remarkable structural similarity between the feeding cells of sponges (choanocytes) and a group of free-living protists, the choanoflagellates. Both cell types possess a single flagellum surrounded by a collar of fine tentacles [3]. The similarity led to the hypothesis that sponges, and, by implication, other animals, evolved from choanoflagellate-like ancestors. Phylogenetic analysis of ribosomal DNA neither supports nor refutes this hypothesis [4–6]. Here, we report the sequence of an hsp70 gene and pseudogene from the freshwater choanoflagellate Monosiga ovata. These represent the first nuclear-encoded protein-coding sequences reported for any choanoflagellate. We find that Monosiga and most bilaterian hsp70 genes have high GC contents that may distort phylogenetic tree construction; therefore, protein sequences were used for phylogenetic reconstruction. Our analyses indicate that Monosiga is more closely related to animals than to fungi. We infer that animals and at least some choanoflagellates are part of a clade that excludes the fungi. This is consistent with the origin of animals from a choanoflagellate-like ancestor

Comparative effects of selected non-caffeinated rehydration sports drinks on short-term performance following moderate dehydration

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The effect of moderate dehydration and consequent fluid replenishment on short-duration maximal treadmill performance was studied in eight healthy, fit (VO_2max= 49.7 ± 8.7 mL kg^-1min^-1) males aged 28 ± 7.5 yrs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study involved a within subject, blinded, crossover, placebo design. Initially, all subjects performed a baseline exercise test using an individualized treadmill protocol structured to induce exhaustion in 7 to 10 min. On each of the three subsequent testing days, the subjects exercised at 70-75% VO_2maxfor 60 min at 29-33°C, resulting in a dehydration weight loss of 1.8-2.1% body weight. After 60 min of rest and recovery at 22 C, subjects performed the same treadmill test to voluntary exhaustion, which resulted in a small reduction in VO_2maxand a decline in treadmill performance by 3% relative to the baseline results. Following another 60 min rest and recovery, subjects ingested the same amount of fluid lost in the form of one of three lemon-flavored, randomly assigned commercial drinks, namely Crystal Light (placebo control), Gatorade^®and Rehydrate Electrolyte Replacement Drink, and then repeated the treadmill test to voluntary exhaustion.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>VO_2maxreturned to baseline levels with Rehydrate, while there was only a slight improvement with Gatorade and Crystal Light. There were no changes in heart rate or ventilation with all three different replacement drinks. Relative to the dehydrated state, a 6.5% decrease in treadmill performance time occurred with Crystal Light, while replenishment with Gatorade, which contains fructose, glucose, sodium and potassium, resulted in a 2.1% decrease. In contrast, treatment with Rehydrate, which comprises fructose, glucose polymer, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, amino acids, thiols and vitamins, resulted in a 7.3% increase in treadmill time relative to that of the dehydrated state.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results indicate that constituents other than water, simple transportable monosaccharides and sodium are important for maximal exercise performance and effective recovery associated with endurance exercise-induced dehydration.</p

High elevation of the ‘Nevadaplano’ during the Late Cretaceous

During the Late Cretaceous, central Nevada may have been a high elevation plateau, the Nevadaplano; some geodynamic models of the western US require thickened crust and high elevations during the Mesozoic to drive the subsequent tectonic events of the Cenozoic while other models do not. To test the hypothesis of high elevations during the late Mesozoic, we used carbonate clumped isotope thermometry to determine the temperature contrast between Late Cretaceous to Paleocene carbonates atop the putative plateau in Nevada versus carbonates from relatively low paleoelevation central Utah site. Lacustrine carbonates from the Nevada site preserve summer temperatures ∼13 °C cooler than summer temperatures from paleosol carbonates from the Utah site, after correcting for ∼1.2 °C of secular climatic cooling between the times of carbonate deposition at the two sites. This ∼13 °C temperature difference implies an elevation difference between the two sites of ∼2.2–3.1 km; including uncertainties from age estimation and climate change broadens this estimate to ⩾2 km. Our findings support crustal thickness estimates and Cenozoic tectonic models that imply thickened crust and high elevation in Nevada during the Mesozoic

"The daily grunt": middle class bias and vested interests in the 'Getting in Early' and 'Why Can't They Read?' reports.

It is a long-standing and commonly held belief in the UK and elsewhere that the use of elite forms of language reflects superior intellect and education. Expert opinion from sociolinguistics, however, contends that such a view is the result of middle-class bias and cannot be scientifically justified. In the 1960s and 1970s,such luminaries as Labov (1969) and Trudgill (1975) were at pains to point out to educationalists, with some success, that this 'deficit 'view of working-class children's communicative competence is not a helpful one. However, a close reading of recent think-tank reports and policy papers on language and literacy teaching in schools reveals that the linguistic deficit hypothesis has resurfaced and is likely to influence present-day educational policy and practice. In this paper I examine in detail the findings, claims and recommendations of the reports and I argue that they are biased, poorly researched and reflect the vested interests of certain specialist groups, such as speech and language therapists and companies who sell literacy materials to schools. I further argue that we need to, once again, inject the debate with the social dimensions of educational failure, and we need to move away from the pathologisation of working-class children's language patterns

The effects of different arsenic species in relation to straighthead disease in rice

The effects of inorganic arsenic on plants, the mechanisms involved in the uptake and transport of arsenic and how inorganic arsenic enters food chains are well documented. Regulatory limits have been established to control the inorganic arsenic concentrations in certain foods including rice. There is, however, a knowledge gap with respect to dimethylarsenic concentrations. In this study rice was grown hydroponically and exposed to varying DMA concentrations. High levels of DMA were detrimental to rice plants whereby plants showed symptoms consistent with Straighthead disease, a disease that results in dramatic yield losses.Australian Government ResearchTraining Program ANU OCG Travel Scholarshi