1.5 million pound load cell calibration and H-area thrust measuring system Technology report

System for calibration of load cells and design and development of thrust measuring syste

Ohio Economic Insects and Related Anthropods

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Pre-pregnancy predictors of hypertension in pregnancy among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in north Queensland, Australia; a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND Compared to other Australian women, Indigenous women are frequently at greater risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. We examined pre-pregnancy factors that may predict hypertension in pregnancy in a cohort of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in north Queensland. METHODS Data on a cohort of 1009 Indigenous women of childbearing age (15–44 years) who participated in a 1998–2000 health screening program in north Queensland were combined with 1998–2008 Queensland hospitalisations data using probabilistic data linkage. Data on the women in the cohort who were hospitalised for birth (n = 220) were further combined with Queensland perinatal data which identified those diagnosed with hypertension in pregnancy. RESULTS Of 220 women who gave birth, 22 had hypertension in the pregnancy after their health check. The mean age of women with and without hypertension was similar (23.7 years and 23.9 years respectively) however Aboriginal women were more affected compared to Torres Strait Islanders. Pre-pregnancy adiposity and elevated blood pressure at the health screening program were predictors of a pregnancy affected by hypertension. After adjusting for age and ethnicity, each 1 cm increase in waist circumference showed a 4% increased risk for hypertension in pregnancy (PR 1.04; 95% CI; 1.02-1.06); each 1 point increase in BMI showed a 9% adjusted increase in risk (1.09; 1.04-1.14). For each 1 mmHg increase in baseline systolic blood pressure there was an age and ethnicity adjusted 6% increase in risk and each 1 mmHg increase in diastolic blood pressure showed a 7% increase in risk (1.06; 1.03-1.09 and 1.07; 1.03-1.11 respectively). Among those free of diabetes at baseline, the presence of the metabolic syndrome (International Diabetes Federation criteria) predicted over a three-fold increase in age-ethnicity-adjusted risk (3.5; 1.50-8.17). CONCLUSIONS Pre-pregnancy adiposity and features of the metabolic syndrome among these young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women track strongly to increased risk of hypertension in pregnancy with associated risks to the health of babies.Sandra K Campbell, John Lynch, Adrian Esterman and Robyn McDermot

The influence of distributed leadership on teachers' organizational commitment: a multilevel approach

In the present study the effects of a cooperative leadership team, distributed leadership, participative decision-making, and context variables on teachers' organizational commitment are investigated. Multilevel analyses on data from 1522 teachers indicated that 9% of the variance in teachers' organizational commitment is attributable to differences between schools. The analyses revealed that especially the presence of a cooperative leadership team and the amount of leadership support played a significantly positive key role in predicting teachers' organizational commitment. Also, participative decision-making and distribution of the supportive leadership function had a significant positive impact on teachers' organizational commitment. In contrast, distribution of the supervisory leadership function and teachers' job experience had a significant negative impact

The relation between school leadership from a distributed perspective and teachers' organizational commitment: examining the source of the leadership function

Purpose: In this study the relationship between school leadership and teachers’ organizational commitment is examined by taking into account a distributed leadership perspective. The relation between teachers’ organizational commitment and contextual variables of teachers’ perceptions of the quality and the source of the supportive and supervisory leadership function, participative decision making, and cooperation within the leadership team are examined. Research Design: A survey was set up involving 1,522 teachers from 46 large secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). Because the data in the present study have an inherent hierarchical structure, that is, teachers are nested into schools, hierarchical linear modeling techniques are applied. Findings: The analyses reveal that 9% of the variance in teachers’ organizational commitment is attributable to differences between schools. Teachers’ organizational commitment is mainly related to quality of the supportive leadership, cooperation within the leadership team, and participative decision making. Who performed the supportive leadership function plays only a marginally significant positive role. The quality of the supervisory leadership function and the role of the leadership team members in this function were not significantly related to teachers’ organizational commitment. Conclusions: The implications of the findings are that to promote teachers’ organizational commitment teachers should feel supported by their leadership team and that this leadership team should be characterized by group cohesion, role clarity, and goal orientedness. Recommendations for further research are provided

The relationship between the perception of distributed leadership in secondary schools and teachers' and teacher leaders' job satisfaction and organizational commitment

This study investigates the relation between distributed leadership, the cohesion of the leadership team, participative decision-making, context variables, and the organizational commitment and job satisfaction of teachers and teacher leaders. A questionnaire was administered to teachers and teacher leaders (n=1770) from 46 large secondary schools. Multiple regression analyses and path analyses revealed that the study variables explained significant variance in organizational commitment. The degree of explained variance for job satisfaction was considerably lower compared to organizational commitment. Most striking was that the cohesion of the leadership team and the amount of leadership support was strongly related to organizational commitment, and indirectly to job satisfaction. Decentralization of leadership functions was weakly related to organizational commitment and job satisfaction

Loss of Kruppel-like factor 3 (KLF3/BKLF) leads to upregulation of the insulin-sensitizing factor adipolin (FAM132A/CTRP12/C1qdc2)

Krüppel-like factor 3 (KLF3) is a transcriptional regulator that we have shown to be involved in the regulation of adipogenesis in vitro. Here, we report that KLF3-null mice are lean and protected from diet-induced obesity and glucose intolerance. On a chow diet, plasma levels of leptin are decreased, and adiponectin is increased. Despite significant reductions in body weight and adiposity, wild-type and knockout animals show equivalent energy intake, expenditure, and excretion. To investigate the molecular events underlying these observations, we used microarray analysis to compare gene expression in Klf3(+/+) and Klf3(-/-) tissues. We found that mRNA expression of Fam132a, which encodes a newly identified insulin-sensitizing adipokine, adipolin, is significantly upregulated in the absence of KLF3. We confirmed that KLF3 binds the Fam132a promoter in vitro and in vivo and that this leads to repression of promoter activity. Further, plasma adipolin levels were significantly increased in Klf3(-/-) mice compared with wild-type littermates. Boosting levels of adipolin via targeting of KLF3 offers a novel potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of insulin resistance

Recent patterns in chronic disease mortality in remote living Indigenous Australians

Background: Despite the well-recognised Indigenous-non-Indigenous health disparity, some reports suggest improvements in Indigenous mortality. Our aim was to quantify Indigenous mortality in Outer Regional (OR), Remote (R), and Very Remote (VR) areas in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory and changes in mortality from 1998 to 2005

The tactical mimicry of social enterprise strategies: acting ‘as if’ in the everyday life of third sector organizations

Using England as a paradigmatic case of the „enterprising up ‟ of the third sector through social enterprise policies and programs, this article sheds light on resistance as enacted through dramaturgical identification with government strategies. Drawing from a longitudinal qualitative research study, which is interpreted via Michel de Certeau‟s theory of the everyday, we present the case study of Teak, a charitable regeneration company, to illustrate how its Chief Executive Liam „acted as ‟ a social entrepreneur in order to gain access to important resources. We establish „tactical mimicry ‟ as a sensitizing concept to suggest that third sector practitioners ‟ identification with the normative premises of „social enterprise ‟ is part of a parasitical prosaics geared toward appropriating public money. While tactical mimicry conforms to strategies only in order to exploit them, its ultimate aim is to increase potentials of collective agency outside the direct influence of power. The contribution we make is threefold: first, we extend the recent debate on productive resistance by highlighting how „playing the game ‟ without changing existing relations of power can nevertheless produce largely favorable outcomes. Second, we suggest that recognition of the productive potential of tactical mimicry requires methodologies which pay attention to the spatial and temporal dynamics of resistance. And third, we argue that explaining „social enterprise‟ without consideration of the non-discursive, mainly financial resources made available to those who identify with it, necessarily risks overlooking a crucial element of the dramaturgical dynamic of discourse