Evaluation of a brief pilot nutrition and exercise intervention for the prevention of weight gain in general practice patients

Objective To pilot-test a brief written prescription recommending lifestyle changes delivered by general practitioners (GPs) to their patients.Design The Active Nutrition Script (ANS) included five nutrition messages and personalised exercise advice for a healthy lifestyle and/or the prevention of weight gain. GPs were asked to administer 10 scripts over 4 weeks to 10 adult patients with a body mass index (BMI) of between 23 and 30 kg m&minus; 2. Information recorded on the script consisted of patients\u27 weight, height, waist circumference, gender and date of birth, type and frequency of physical activity prescribed, and the selected nutrition messages. GPs also recorded reasons for administering the script. Interviews recorded GPs views on using the script.Setting General practices located across greater Melbourne.Subjects and results Nineteen GPs (63% female) provided a median of nine scripts over 4 weeks. Scripts were administered to 145 patients (mean age: 54 &plusmn; 13.2 years, mean BMI: 31.7 &plusmn; 6.3 kg m&minus; 2; 57% female), 52% of whom were classified as obese (BMI &gt;30 kg m&minus; 2). GPs cited &lsquo;weight reduction&rsquo; as a reason for writing the script for 78% of patients. All interviewed GPs (90%, n = 17) indicated that the messages were clear and simple to deliver.Conclusions GPs found the ANS provided clear nutrition messages that were simple to deliver. However, GPs administered the script to obese patients for weight loss rather than to prevent weight gain among the target group. This has important implications for future health promotion interventions designed for general practice.<br /

Effect of elevated CO2 on peanut performance in a semi-arid production region

With the intensification and frequency of heat waves and periods of water deficit stress, along with rising atmospheric carbon dioxide [CO2], understanding the seasonal leaf-gas-exchange responses to combined abiotic factors will be important in predicting crop performance in semi-arid production systems. In peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), the availability of developmental stage physiological data on the response to repeated water deficit stress periods in an elevated [CO2] (EC) environment is limited and necessary to improve crop model predictions. Here, we investigated the effects of season-long EC (650 µmol CO2 m−2 s−1) on the physiology and productivity of peanut in a semi-arid environment. This study was conducted over two-growing seasons using field-based growth chambers to maintain EC conditions, and impose water-stress at three critical developmental stages. Our results showed that relative to ambient [CO2] (AC), long-term EC during water-stress episodes, increased leaf-level light-saturated CO2 assimilation (Asat), transpiration efficiency (TE), vegetative biomass, and pod yield by 58%, 73%, 58%, and 39%, respectively. Although leaf nitrogen content was reduced by 16%, there was 41% increase in maximum Rubisco carboxylation efficiency in EC, indicating that there was minimal photosynthetic down-regulation. Furthermore, long-term EC modified the short-term physiological response (Asat) to rapid changes in [CO2] during the water-stress episodes, generating a much greater change in EC (54%) compared to AC (10%). Additionally, long-term EC generated a 23% greater Asat compared to the short-term EC during the water-stress episodes. These findings indicate high levels of physiological adjustment in EC, which may increase drought resilience. We concluded that EC may reduce the negative impacts of repeated water-stress events at critical developmental stages on rain-fed peanut in semi-arid regions. These results can inform current models to improve the projections of peanut response to future climates

Bridging Alone: Religious Conservatism, Marital Homogamy, and Voluntary Association Membership

This study characterizes social insularity of religiously conservative American married couples by examining patterns of voluntary associationmembership. Constructing a dataset of 3938 marital dyads from the second wave of the National Survey of Families and Households, the author investigates whether conservative religious homogamy encourages membership in religious voluntary groups and discourages membership in secular voluntary groups. Results indicate that couples’ shared affiliation with conservative denominations, paired with beliefs in biblical authority and inerrancy, increases the likelihood of religious group membership for husbands and wives and reduces the likelihood of secular group membership for wives, but not for husbands. The social insularity of conservative religious groups appears to be reinforced by homogamy—particularly by wives who share faith with husbands

Eating disorders in weight-related therapy (EDIT): protocol for a systematic review with individual participant data meta-analysis of eating disorder risk in behavioural weight management

The Eating Disorders In weight-related Therapy (EDIT) Collaboration brings together data from randomised controlled trials of behavioural weight management interventions to identify individual participant risk factors and intervention strategies that contribute to eating disorder risk. We present a protocol for a systematic review and individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis which aims to identify participants at risk of developing eating disorders, or related symptoms, during or after weight management interventions conducted in adolescents or adults with overweight or obesity. We systematically searched four databases up to March 2022 and clinical trials registries to May 2022 to identify randomised controlled trials of weight management interventions conducted in adolescents or adults with overweight or obesity that measured eating disorder risk at pre- and post-intervention or follow-up. Authors from eligible trials have been invited to share their deidentified IPD. Two IPD meta-analyses will be conducted. The first IPD meta-analysis aims to examine participant level factors associated with a change in eating disorder scores during and following a weight management intervention. To do this we will examine baseline variables that predict change in eating disorder risk within intervention arms. The second IPD meta-analysis aims to assess whether there are participant level factors that predict whether participation in an intervention is more or less likely than no intervention to lead to a change in eating disorder risk. To do this, we will examine if there are differences in predictors of eating disorder risk between intervention and no-treatment control arms. The primary outcome will be a standardised mean difference in global eating disorder score from baseline to immediately post-intervention and at 6- and 12- months follow-up. Identifying participant level risk factors predicting eating disorder risk will inform screening and monitoring protocols to allow early identification and intervention for those at risk

Kipling's famine-romance: masculinity, gender and colonial biopolitics in “William the Conqueror”

This essay concentrates on one of Kipling’s short-stories, ‘William the Conqueror’, first published in an American women’s magazine, and speculates on how a female audience might have caused Kipling to modify his (conventional) depiction of Anglo-Indian gender-relations. Drawing on Giorgio Agamben’s work and reviewing the history of colonial famine-relief, I suggest that the formal conjunction of the romance genre with the unusual setting of a famine-relief camp is the key to Kipling’s ‘gender-transactions’ in this story, and can be read as an indicator of the ‘biopolitical’ logic of the camp as a space of sovereign exception