723 research outputs found
Correlates of sport participation in adults with long-standing illness or disability
Background Little is known about why people with a long-standing illness/disability are less likely to participate in sport than others. This study aimed to identify for the first time sport participation levels and their correlates among Northern Ireland (NI) adults who report a long-standing illness/disability.
Method Using data collected in the Continuous Household Survey, an annual survey of a random sample of the NI population, during 2007–2011, we examined responses for the total sample, those with a long-term illness/disability and those with no long-term health issues. We conducted univariate binary regression analysis for the whole sample and for those with a long-standing illness or disability, using sport participation as the dependent variable, and then carried significant variables into a multivariate analysis.
Results The sample included 13 683 adults; 3550 (26%) reported a long-term illness or disability. Multivariate analysis showed that, for the total sample and for those with a long-standing illness or disability, sport participation correlated positively with being male, aged <56 years, having a household car/van, health being ‘fairly good’/‘good’ in the previous year, doing work and living in an urban location. Also, for those with a long-standing illness or disability, being single and less socioeconomically deprived correlated positively with sport participation.
Conclusions The findings suggest that more focused efforts may promote sport participation for people with a long-standing illness or disability who are female, older, not working, living rurally, married/cohabiting, socioeconomically deprived and report having had poor health in the past year. Our findings should inform public health policy and help in developing initiatives to support sport participation and reduce health inequalities
Behaviour change techniques in home-based cardiac rehabilitation: A systematic review
Background Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programmes offering secondary prevention for cardiovascular disease (CVD) advise healthy lifestyle behaviours, with the behaviour change techniques (BCTs) of goals and planning, feedback and monitoring, and social support recommended. More information is needed about BCT use in home-based CR to support these programmes in practice.
Aim To identify and describe the use of BCTs in home-based CR programmes.
Design and setting Randomised controlled trials of home-based CR between 2005 and 2015 were identified by searching MEDLINE®, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Cochrane Database.
Method Reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts for eligibility. Relevant data, including BCTs, were extracted from included studies. A meta-analysis studied risk factor change in home-based and comparator programmes.
Results From 2448 studies identified, 11 of good methodological quality (10 on post-myocardial infarction, one on heart failure, 1907 patients) were included. These reported the use of 20 different BCTs. Social support (unspecified) was used in all studies and goal setting (behaviour) in 10. Of the 11 studies, 10 reported effectiveness in reducing CVD risk factors, but one study showed no improvement compared to usual care. This study differed from effective programmes in that it didn’t include BCTs that had instructions on how to perform the behaviour and monitoring, or a credible source.
Conclusion Social support and goal setting were frequently used BCTs in home-based CR programmes, with the BCTs related to monitoring, instruction on how to perform the behaviour, and credible source being included in effective programmes. Further robust trials are needed to determine the relative value of different BCTs within CR programmes
Failure of a numerical quality assessment scale to identify potential risk of bias in a systematic review: A comparison study
Constraints on Galileon-induced precessions from solar system orbital motions
We use latest data from solar system planetary orbital motions to put
constraints on some Galileon-induced precessional effects. Due to the
Vainshtein mechanism, the Galileon-type spherically symmetric field of a
monopole induces a small, screened correction proprtional to \sqrt{r} to its
usual r^-1 Newtonian potential which causes a secular precession of the
pericenter of a test particle. In the case of our solar system, latest data
from Mars allow to constrain the magnitude of such an interaction down to
\alpha <= 0.3 level. Another Galileon-type effect which might impact solar
system dynamics is due to an unscreened constant gradient induced by the
peculiar motion of the Galaxy. The magnitude of such an effect, depending on
the different gravitational binding energies of the Sun and the planets, is \xi
<= 0.004 from the latest bounds on the supplementary perihelion precession of
Saturn.Comment: LaTex2e, 11 pages, 1 table, no figures, 35 references. To appear in
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (JCAP
MobiQ: A modular Android application for collecting social interaction, repeated survey, GPS and photographic data
The MobiQ app for Android smartphones is a feature-rich application enabling a novel approach to data collection for longitudinal surveys. It combines continuous automatic background data collection with user supplied data. It can prompt users to complete questionnaires at regular intervals, and allows users to upload photographs for social research projects. The app has the capability to collect GPS location data, and calls and text frequency (excluding content) unobtrusively. The app transmits data to a secure cloud rather than storing research data on the phone, but can also store data temporarily if a data connection is unavailable; hence, MobiQ offers data security advantages over text- or web-based surveys using phones. MobiQ has been pilot tested in the field in a social science research project and is able to collect longitudinal social research data. Due to its modular and flexible design, MobiQ can easily be adapted to suit different research questions. Furthermore, its core design approach which allows for long-term power efficient data collection can be re-used outside the social sciences domain for other kinds of smartphone-based data-driven projects. Projects that have a requirement for communications-based, sensors-based, user-based data collection or any combination of these may find our code and design approach beneficial. For example, MobiQ code and architecture has been successfully adapted to build an app for a project investigating smartphone-based implicit authentication for mobile access control
Herwig++ Status Report
Herwig++ is the successor of the event generator HERWIG. In its present version 2.2.1 it provides a program for full LHC event generation which is superior to the previous program in many respects. We briefly summarize its features and describe present work and some future plans
HI in Local Group analogs: what does it tell us about galaxy formation?
We present the results of our HI survey of six loose groups of galaxies
analogous to the Local Group. The survey was conducted using the Parkes
telescope and the Australia Telescope Compact Array to produce a census of all
the gas-rich galaxies and potential analogs to the high-velocity clouds (HVCs)
within these groups down to M(HI)<10^7 M(sun) as a test of models of galaxy
formation. We present the HI mass function and halo mass function for these
analogous groups and compare them with the Local Group and other environments.
We also demonstrate that our non-detection of HVC analogs in these groups
implies that they must have low HI masses and be clustered tightly around
galaxies, including around our own Milky Way, and are not distributed
throughout the Local Group.Comment: 5 pages, To appear in ESO Astrophysics Symposia: "Groups of Galaxies
in the Nearby Universe
Distance Estimation in Cosmology
In this paper we outline the framework of mathematical statistics with which
one may study the properties of galaxy distance estimators. We describe, within
this framework, how one may formulate the problem of distance estimation as a
Bayesian inference problem, and highlight the crucial question of how one
incorporates prior information in this approach. We contrast the Bayesian
approach with the classical `frequentist' treatment of parameter estimation,
and illustrate -- with the simple example of estimating the distance to a
single galaxy in a redshift survey -- how one can obtain a significantly
different result in the two cases. We also examine some examples of a Bayesian
treatment of distance estimation -- involving the definition of Malmquist
corrections -- which have been applied in recent literature, and discuss the
validity of the assumptions on which such treatments have been based.Comment: Plain Latex version 3.1, 18 pages + 2 figures, `Vistas in Astronomy'
in pres
Optical Spectra of SNR Candidates in NGC 300
We present moderate-resolution (<5A) long-slit optical spectra of 51 nebular
objects in the nearby Sculptor Group galaxy NGC 300 obtained with the 2.3 meter
Advanced Technology Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia. Adopting
the criterion of [SII]/Ha>=0.4 to confirm supernova remnants (SNRs) from
optical spectra, we find that of 28 objects previously proposed as SNRs from
optical observations, 22 meet this criterion with six showing [SII]/Ha of less
than 0.4. Of 27 objects suggested as SNRs from radio data, four are associated
with the 28 previously proposed SNRs. Of these four, three (included in the 22
above) meet the criterion. In all, 22 of the 51 nebular objects meet the
[SII]/Ha criterion as SNRs while the nature of the remaining 29 objects remains
undetermined by these observations.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc
- …