The impact of active workstations on workplace productivity and performance: a systematic review

Active workstations have been recommended for reducing sedentary behavior in the workplace. It is important to understand if the use of these workstations has an impact on worker productivity. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the effect of active workstations on workplace productivity and performance. A total of 3303 articles were initially identified by a systematic search and seven articles met eligibility criteria for inclusion. A quality appraisal was conducted to assess risk of bias, confounding, internal and external validity, and reporting. Most of the studies reported cognitive performance as opposed to productivity. Five studies assessed cognitive performance during use of an active workstation, usually in a single session. Sit-stand desks had no detrimental effect on performance, however, some studies with treadmill and cycling workstations identified potential decreases in performance. Many of the studies lacked the power required to achieve statistical significance. Three studies assessed workplace productivity after prolonged use of an active workstation for between 12 and 52 weeks. These studies reported no significant effect on productivity. Active workstations do not appear to decrease workplace performance

The association between cardiorespiratory fitness and cardiometabolic risk in children is mediated by abdominal adiposity: the HAPPY study

Background: It is unclear whether cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is independently linked to cardiometabolic risk in children. This study investigated a) the association between CRF level and presence of cardiometabolic risk disorders using health-related cut points, and b) whether these associations were mediated by abdominal adiposity in children. Methods: This was a cross-sectional design study. Anthropometry, biochemical parameters and CRF were assessed in 147 schoolchildren (75 girls) aged 10-14 years. CRF was determined using a maximal cycle ergometer test. Children were classified as ‘fit’ or ‘unfit’ according to published thresholds. Logistic regression was used to investigate the odds of having individual and clustered cardiometabolic risk factors according to CRF level and whether abdominal adiposity mediated these associations. Results: Children classified as unfit had increased odds of presenting individual and clustered cardiometabolic risk factors (p 0.05). Conclusions: This study suggests that the association between CRF and cardiometabolic risk is mediated by abdominal adiposity in 10-14 year-old children and that abdominal adiposity may be a more important determinant of adverse cardiometabolic health in this age group

Effects of breaking up prolonged sitting following low and high glycaemic index breakfast consumption on glucose and insulin concentrations

Purpose: Breaking up prolonged sitting can attenuate the postprandial rise in glucose and insulin. Whether such effects are dependent of the glycaemic index (GI) of the consumed carbohydrate is unknown. This study examined the acute effects of breaking up prolonged sitting following a low GI and a high GI breakfast on postprandial glucose and insulin concentrations. Procedures: Fourteen adult males aged 22.1 ± 1.2 years completed four, 4 h experimental conditions: high GI breakfast followed by uninterrupted sitting (HGI-SIT), low GI breakfast followed by uninterrupted sitting (LGI-SIT), high GI breakfast followed by 2 min activity breaks every 20 min (HGI-ACT), and low GI breakfast followed by 2 min activity breaks every 20 min (LGI-ACT). Positive incremental area under the curve (iAUC) for glucose and insulin (mean [95% CI]) for each 4h experimental condition was calculated. Statistical analyses were completed using linear mixed models. Results: The sitting × breakfast GI interaction was not significant for glucose positive iAUC (P=0.119). Glucose positive iAUC (mmol/L4 h−1) was significantly lower in the activity breaks conditions than the uninterrupted sitting conditions (2.07 [2.24, 2.89] vs. 2.56 [1.74, 2.40], respectively, P=0.004) and significantly lower in the low GI conditions than the high GI conditions (2.13 [1.80, 2.45] vs. 2.51 [2.18, 2.84], respectively, P=0.022). Insulin concentrations did not differ between conditions (P ≥ 0.203). Conclusions: Breaking up prolonged sitting and lowering breakfast GI independently reduced postprandial glucose responses. This indicates that interrupting prolonged sitting and reducing dietary GI are beneficial approaches for reducing cardiometabolic disease risk

Sport policy and English primary physical education: the role of professional football clubs in outsourcing

Sports policy in England has led to considerable recent investment in Primary Physical Education (PE) via the ‘PE and Sport Premium’. An outcome of this has been growth in the outsourcing – handing over control of services to external agencies – of PE, including sport coaches from professional football clubs’ community programmes. Despite the growing research on healthy stadia, we know very little about the work performed by community arms of professional clubs in relation to delivering Primary PE. This article discusses the challenges of outsourcing PE to coaches who work for professional football clubs, while offering some evidence related to the employment and development of sports coaches. Given that the evidence of sport coaches’ involvement in Primary PE is limited and that funding and outsourcing it likely to continue England until (at least) 2020, it is important and timely to discuss critically the role of professional football clubs within the current sport policy

Interleukin-10 Induces Apoptosis in Developing Mast Cells via a Mitochondrial, STAT3-dependent Pathway

Objective. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of interleukin-10 on mast cell development from bone marrow progenitors.Materials and Methods. Unseparated mouse bone marrow cells were cultured in IL-3+SCF, giving rise to mast cells and monocytes/macrophages. The addition of IL-10, and the use of Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription (STAT)3-deficient bone marrow cells were employed to measure the effects of IL-10 and STAT3 expression on cell viability, proliferation, and differentiation. Bax-deficient and Bcl-2 transgenic bone marrow cells were used to determine the importance of the mitochondria in IL-10-mediated effects.Overview. Mast cells arise from hematopoietic stem cells and continue development in either connective tissue or mucosa. Th2 cytokines have been implicated in the regulation of mast cell development and subsequent function. Mast cells have also been shown to be essential players in many Th2 immune responses. In the following study we investigate the effects of the Th2 cytokine IL-10 on mast cell development from isolated bone marrow progenitors. The addition of IL-10 to whole murine bone marrow greatly reduced cell numbers and altered the phenotype of the developing progenitor cells. The reduction in cell numbers was due to apoptosis, as judged by DNA fragmentation and caspase activation. The apoptosis observed included alteration in mitochondrial membrane potential. Furthermore, apoptosis could be reduced by the overexpression of Bcl-2 or by ablating p53 expression. Utilizing a flox/cre system we found that IL-10 mediated apoptosis required expression of Stat-3, since Stat-3 deficient bone marrow cells did not undergo apoptosis in response to IL-10. In this study we also observed significant alterations in the mast cell growth factor receptors IL-3R and c-kit. The loss of these growth factor receptors may explain the apoptosis induced by IL-10. These data demonstrate the potent regulatory capabilities of Th2 cytokines on mast cells, a central effector in the Th2 response

The Rise of the Industrial Rural Tenant Laborers and the Rise of the Industrial Economy: Historical Ethnography of the Heminitz Property ,Site (36LH267), Upper Macungie Township, Lehigh County,Pennsylvania

This paper presents the results of excavations at the Heminitz Property Site (36LH267), a rural domestic site in Upper Macungie Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; Excavation, .\u27of several spatially and temporally discrete features and midden deposits in yards surrounding the house produced 6,875 artifacts. Documentary research revealed that the ca. 1843 house was intended to house tenant families engaged in agricultural labor. Analysis of the archaeological and documentary records associated with this site and the region shows that inthe mid-1800s, agricultural laborers possessed similar material. culture to neighboring independent farmers, while subsisting at a lower level of consumption. The transiiionfromagricultural to manufacturing labor occurred at the Heminitz Property Site in the mid-18/!Os, a time period\u27 that saw an increase in the quantity and value of domestic artifacts acquired by the site\u27s occupants. Archaeological and documentary data indicate that manufacturing laborers were materially betteT off than agricultural workers, though these benefits most likely came at the expense of chronic, low~l~erdebtto local storeowners. This investigation suggests the existence of a rural agrarian culture in\u27which individualsimd families could participate in differently, according to their particular economic circumstances

Sitting time and risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Context: Whether physical activity attenuates the association of total daily sitting time with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes incidence is unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the association of total daily sitting time with CVD and diabetes with and without adjustment for physical activity. Evidence Acquisition: PubMed, Web of Science, BASE, MEDLINE, Academic Search Elite and ScienceDirect were searched for prospective studies published between 1st January 1989 and 15th February 2019 examining the association of total daily sitting time with CVD or diabetes outcomes. Data extraction and  study quality assessments were conducted by two independent reviewers. Pooled Hazard Ratios (HRs) were calculated using a fixed-effects model. The quality assessment and meta-analytic procedures were completed in 2018. Evidence Synthesis: Nine studies with 448,285 40 participants were included. Higher total daily sitting time was associated with a significantly increased risk of CVD (HR 1.29; 95%CI 1.27-1.30, p=<0.001) and diabetes (HR 1.13; 95%CI 1.04-1.22, p=<0.001) incidence when physical activity was not adjusted for. The increased risk for diabetes was unaffected when adjusting for physical activity (HR 1.11;  95%CI 1.01-1.19, p=<0.001). For CVD, the increased risk was attenuated but remained significant (HR 1.14; 95%CI 1.04-1.23, p=<0.001). Conclusions: Higher levels of total daily sitting time are associated with an increased risk of CVD and diabetes, independent of physical activity. Reductions in total daily sitting may thus be recommended in public health guidelines

Beneficial postprandial lipaemic effects of interrupting sedentary time with high-intensity physical activity versus a continuous moderate-intensity physical activity bout: a randomised crossover trial

Objectives To compare the postprandial cardiometabolic response to prolonged sitting, continuous moderate-intensity physical activity (PA) followed by prolonged sitting, and interrupting prolonged sitting with hourly high-intensity PA breaks. Design Three-condition randomised crossover trial. Methods Fourteen sedentary and inactive adults aged 29 ± 9 years took part in three, 8-h conditions: (1) prolonged sitting (SIT), (2) a continuous 30-min moderate-intensity PA bout followed by prolonged sitting (CONT-SIT), and (3) sitting interrupted hourly with 2 min 32 s high-intensity PA bouts (SIT-ACT). The treadmill PA in conditions 2 and 3 were matched for energy expenditure. Two standardised test meals were consumed during each condition. Incremental area under the curve (iAUC) for each 8-h condition was calculated for glucose, insulin, triglyceride, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations. Statistical analyses were completed using linear mixed models. Results Compared with SIT, SIT-ACT lowered triglyceride iAUC by 2.23 mmol/L ∙ 8 h (95% CI −4.33, −0.13) and raised HDL-C iAUC by 0.99 mmol/L ∙ 8 h (0.05, 1.93) (all p ≤ 0.038). There was no significant difference in triglyceride or HDL-C iAUC between CONT-SIT and SIT or SIT-ACT (p ≥ 0.211). There were no significant differences between conditions for glucose or insulin iAUC (p ≥ 0.504). Conclusions This study suggests that interrupting prolonged sitting with hourly high-intensity PA breaks acutely improves postprandial triglyceride and HDL-C concentrations compared with prolonged sitting, whereas a continuous moderate-intensity PA bout does not

The structure of epitaxial V2O3 films and their surfaces : a medium energy ion scattering study

Medium energy ion scattering, using 100 keV H+ incident ions, has been used to investigate the growth of epitaxial films, up to thicknesses of ~200 Å, of V2O3 on both Pd(111) and Au(111). Scattered-ion energy spectra provide a measure of the average film thickness and the variations in this thickness, and show that, with suitable annealing, the crystalline quality is good. Plots of the scattering yield as a function of scattering angle, so-called blocking curves, have been measured for two different incidence directions and have been used to determine the surface structure. Specifically, scattering simulations for a range of different model structures show poor agreement with experiment for half-metal (….V’O3V) and vanadyl (….V’O3V=O) terminations, with and without surface interlayer relaxations. However, good agreement with experiment is found for the modified oxygen-termination structure, first proposed by Kresse et al., in which a subsurface V half-metal layer is moved up into the outermost V buckled metal layer to produce a VO2 overlayer on the underlying V2O3, with an associated layer structure of ….O3VV’’V’O3

Dietary fat and total energy intake modifies the association of genetic profile risk score on obesity: evidence from 48 170 UK Biobank participants

Background: Obesity is a multifactorial condition influenced by both genetics and lifestyle. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the association between a validated genetic profile risk score for obesity (GPRS-obesity) and body mass index (BMI) or waist circumference (WC) was modified by macronutrient intake in a large general population study. Methods: This study included cross-sectional data from 48 170 white European adults, aged 37–73 years, participating on the UK Biobank. Interactions between GPRS-obesity, and macronutrient intake (including total energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate and dietary fibre intake) and its effects on BMI and WC were investigated. Results: The 93-SNPs genetic profile risk score was associated with a higher BMI (β:0.57 kg.m−2 per standard deviation (s.d.) increase in GPRS, [95%CI:0.53–0.60]; P=1.9 × 10−183) independent of major confounding factors. There was a significant interaction between GPRS and total fat intake (P[interaction]=0.007). Among high fat intake individuals, BMI was higher by 0.60 [0.52, 0.67] kg.m−2 per s.d. increase in GPRS-obesity; the change in BMI with GPRS was lower among low fat intake individuals (β:0.50 [0.44, 0.57] kg.m-2). Significant interactions with similar patterns were observed for saturated fat intake (High β:0.66 [0.59, 0.73] versus Low β:0.49 [0.42, 0.55] kg.m-2, P-interaction=2 × 10-4), and total energy intake (High β:0.58 [0.51, 0.64] versus Low β:0.49 [0.42, 0.56] kg.m−2, P-interaction=0.019), but not for protein intake, carbohydrate intake and fiber intake (P-interaction &gt;0.05). The findings were broadly similar using WC as the outcome. Conclusions: These data suggest that the benefits of reducing the intake of fats and total energy intake, may be more important in individuals with high genetic risk for obesity