Features of the UK childcare environment and associations with preschooler's in-care physical activity.

OBJECTIVE: Features of the childcare environment may influence children's in-care physical activity (PA). We assessed the association between UK preschool care-provider, environmental and policy factors and 3-4-year-olds' average daily in-care sedentary behaviour (SED) and PA. METHODS: In 2013, we used accelerometers to measure the in-care SED/ PA of 201 3-4-year-old children (51% female) in 30 preschools in Cambridgeshire, UK, (average wear time: (mean ± SD) 4.2 ± 1.3 week-days). We assessed the childcare environment using the Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation tool; demographic and carer information was taken from questionnaires. We used three-level mixed-effects regression analyses (adjusted for sex, in-care time and travel mode to care) to determine the association between childcare factors and children's in-care average daily minutes/hour spent SED, in light PA (LPA) and in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA). RESULTS: Children spent 5.6 ± 2.5 h in care per day on average; clustering of PA within preschools was limited (ICCs: 0.003-0.05). Fully adjusted models showed that active opportunities were positively associated with children's in-care SED. No associations with in-care LPA and MVPA were observed. CONCLUSION: Few care-provider, environmental and policy factors were associated with children's in-care activity. UK childcare policies advocating child-driven play, moving freely indoors and outdoors, may be more conducive to individual children's PA.We thank all children and their parents who participated in the SPACE study. In addition, we thank Kate Westgate and Stefanie Mayle from the physical activity technical team at the MRC Epidemiology Unit for their assistance in processing the accelerometer data, and members of the field team who conducted data collection. This work was conducted by the Medical Research Council [Unit Programme numbers MC_UU_12015/7; MC_UU_12015/4] and the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence. Funding from the British Heart Foundation, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, and Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged (CEDAR grant number: RES-590-28-0002). No financial disclosures were reported by the authors of this paper.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2015.12.00

Interfacial areas and gas hold-ups in bubble columns and packed bubble columns at elevated pressures

Interfacial areas and gas hold-ups have been determined at pressures up to 1.85 MPa in a bubble column with a diameter of 85.5 mm and for superficial gas velocities between 1 and 10 cm s−1. In some experiments the bubble column was packed with glass cylinders of length 5.0 mm and diameter 4.0 mm. The interfacial areas were determined by the chemical method using the model reaction between CO2 and aqueous diethanolamine (DEA) and hold-ups by observation of height differences.\ud \ud The interfacial areas in the packed bubble column are unaffected by pressure. The gas hold-ups as well as the interfacial areas in the bubble column increase with increasing operating pressure. The magnitude of the pressure influence depends on the superficial gas velocity. The positive influence of pressure on the gas hold-ups and the interfacial in the bubble column originates from the formation of smaller bubbles at the gas distributor

Hydrogen-powered road vehicles : the health benfits and drawbacks of a new fuel

Because of the political, social and environmental problems associated with dependency on fossil fuels, there is considerable interest in alternative energy sources. Hydrogen is regarded as a promising option, particularly as a fuel for road vehicles. The Dutch Energy Research Centre (ECN) recently published a vision of the future, in which it suggested that by 2050 more than half of all cars in the Netherlands could be running on hydrogen. A switch to using hydrogen as the primary energy source for road vehicles would have far-reaching social consequences. As with all technological developments, opportunities would be created, but drawbacks would inevitably be encountered as well. Some of the disadvantages associated with hydrogen are already known, and are to some degree manageable. It is likely, however, that other drawbacks would come to light only once hydrogen-powered cars were actually in use. With that thought in mind, and in view of the social significance of a possible transition to hydrogen, it was decided that the Health Council should assess the positive and negative effects that hydrogen use could have on public health. It is particularly important to make such an assessment at the present early stage in the development of hydrogen technologies, so that gaps in existing scientific knowledge may be identified and appropriate strategies may be developed for addressing such gaps. This report has been produced by the Health and Environment Surveillance Committee, which has special responsibility for the identification of important correlations between environmental factors and public health

Environmental determinants of active travel in youth: a review and framework for future research.

BACKGROUND: Many youth fail to meet the recommended guidelines for physical activity. Walking and cycling, forms of active travel, have the potential to contribute significantly towards overall physical activity levels. Recent research examining the associations between physical activity and the environment has shown that environmental factors play a role in determining behaviour in children and adolescents. However, links between the environment and active travel have received less attention. METHODS: Twenty four studies were identified which examined the associations between the environment (perceived or objectively measured) and active travel among youth aged 5-18 years. Findings were categorised according to the location of the environmental measure examined; attributes of the neighbourhood, destination and the route between home and destination. RESULTS: Results from the reviewed studies indicated that youth active travel is positively associated with social interactions, facilities to assist active travel and urban form in the neighbourhood as well as shorter route length and road safety en-route. A conceptual framework is presented which highlights the associations between active travel behaviours and environmental factors, drawing upon both existing and hypothesised relationships. CONCLUSION: We provide a review of the available literature and present a novel theoretical framework that integrates the environment into the wider decision making process around travel choices for children and adolescents. Further work should explore associations where gaps in understanding have been identified, and account for the main moderators of behaviour so hypothesised associations can be confirmed.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Evaluation of coagulation activation after Rhinovirus infection in patients with asthma and healthy control subjects: an observational study

Background Asthma exacerbations are frequently triggered by rhinovirus infections. Both asthma and respiratory tract infection can activate haemostasis. Therefore we hypothesized that experimental rhinovirus-16 infection and asthmatic airway inflammation act in synergy on the haemostatic balance. Methods 28 patients (14 patients with mild allergic asthma and 14 healthy non-allergic controls) were infected with low-dose rhinovirus type 16. Venous plasma and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL fluid) were obtained before and 6 days after infection to evaluate markers of coagulation activation, thrombin-antithrombin complexes, von Willebrand factor, plasmin-antiplasmin complexes, plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1, endogenous thrombin potential and tissue factor-exposing microparticles by fibrin generation test, in plasma and/or BAL fluid. Data were analysed by nonparametric tests (Wilcoxon, Mann Whitney and Spearman correlation). Results 13 patients with mild asthma (6 females, 19-29 y) and 11 healthy controls (10 females, 19-31 y) had a documented Rhinovirus-16 infection. Rhinovirus-16 challenge resulted in a shortening of the fibrin generation test in BAL fluid of asthma patients (t = -1: 706 s vs. t = 6: 498 s; p = 0.02), but not of controls (t = -1: 693 s vs. t = 6: 636 s; p = 0.65). The fold change in tissue factor-exposing microparticles in BAL fluid inversely correlated with the fold changes in eosinophil cationic protein and myeloperoxidase in BAL fluid after virus infection (r = -0.517 and -0.528 resp., both p = 0.01). Rhinovirus-16 challenge led to increased plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 levels in plasma in patients with asthma (26.0 ng/mL vs. 11.5 ng/mL in healthy controls, p = 0.04). Rhinovirus-16 load in BAL showed a linear correlation with the fold change in endogenous thrombin potential, plasmin-antiplasmin complexes and plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1. Conclusions Experimental rhinovirus infection induces procoagulant changes in the airways of patients with asthma through increased activity of tissue factor-exposing microparticles. These microparticle-associated procoagulant changes are associated with both neutrophilic and eosinophilic inflammation. Systemic activation of haemostasis increases with Rhinoviral load