A Comparison of Physical Activity and Sedentary Lifestyle of University Employees through ActiGraph and IPAQ-LF

Introduction: The benefits of participating in physical activity (PA) are wide-ranging, such as lowering the risk of diabetes and anxiety. Employees’ engagement in PA can also benefit their employers due to the potential reduction in absenteeism and increased productivity. However, the PA levels and sedentary behaviour of university employees are yet to be examined using a mixed methods approach. This study aimed to monitor the PA and sedentary lifestyle (SL) of university employees’ objectively and subjectively for a whole week. Methods: Sixty-four employees (male = 33; female = 31) wore a PA monitor for a whole week and simultaneously completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Long Form (IPAQ-LF) to evaluate light, moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and SL amongst employees from different job roles such as Academics, Administration, and Professionals Service. Results: The ActiGraph results determined that employees engaged in significantly more light PA, and MVPA compared to the self-reported IPAQ-LF (p 0.05). However, there were significant differences across gender light PA Z = –6.139, p = .001, MVPA Z = –4.962, p = .001 but no significant differences in SL Z = –.869, p = .385. Also, there were significant differences across job roles light PA, MVPA (p 0.05). Discussion and conclusion: Findings suggest, IPAQ-LF presented lower light PA, MVPA, and SL than ActiGraph. Thus, considering the impact of prolonged SL on health and wellbeing, future research is needed to explore the challenges this population faces regarding PA engagement and propose potential interventions to reduce SL amongst university employees

Factors Associated with Periodontitis in Younger Individuals: A Scoping Review

Periodontitis is a disease that affects many young adults, and if left untreated, it can have lasting and permanent effects on an individual’s oral health. The purpose of this scoping review was to review the recent literature to identify factors that place young individuals at risk of stage II or III periodontitis. Using the PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews, three databases were systematically searched for peer-reviewed human studies published in English that investigated risk factors associated with stage II and/or III periodontitis in individuals less than 40 years of age. This review excluded abstracts, literature reviews, including narrative, scoping, and systematic reviews and meta-analyses, conference proceedings, letters to the editor, and editorials. The authors then extracted data from the relevant studies using a predefined form to summarize the aims, design, results, risk factors examined, and the type and severity of periodontitis. Among a total of 2676 articles screened, only three articles met the review’s inclusion criteria. Of these articles, one was a longitudinal case-control study and two were cross-sectional studies. Identified risk factors associated with stage II or III periodontitis included self-reported bleeding when brushing, low bone mineral density, being overweight, and smoking in young adults. Of note, only three studies met the inclusion criteria, suggesting a gap in the research literature

Putting health workers at the centre of health system investments in COVID-19 and beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the implications of chronic underinvestment in health workforce development, particularly in resource-constrained health systems. Inadequate health workforce diversity, insufficient training and remuneration, and limited support and protection reduce health system capacity to equitably maintain health service delivery while meeting urgent health emergency demands. Applying the Health Worker Life Cycle Approach provides a useful conceptual framework that adapts a health labour market approach to outline key areas and recommendations for health workforce investment-building, managing and optimising-to systematically meet the needs of health workers and the systems they support. It also emphasises the importance of protecting the workforce as a cross-cutting investment, which is especially important in a health crisis like COVID-19. While the global pandemic has spurred intermittent health workforce investments required to immediately respond to COVID-19, applying this 'lifecycle approach' to guide policy implementation and financing interventions is critical to centering health workers as stewards of health systems, thus strengthening resilience to public health threats, sustainably responding to community needs and providing more equitable, patient-centred care

Translating the Statistical Representation of the Effects of Education Interventions Into More Readily Interpretable Forms

This paper is directed to researchers who conduct and report education intervention studies. Its purpose is to stimulate and guide them to go a step beyond reporting the statistics that emerge from their analysis of the differences between experimental groups on the respective outcome variables. With what is often very minimal additional effort, those statistical representations can be translated into forms that allow their magnitude and practical significance to be more readily understood by the practitioners, policymakers, and even other researchers who are interested in the intervention that was evaluated

Heated nuclear matter, condensation phenomena and the hadronic equation of state

The thermodynamic properties of heated nuclear matter are explored using an exactly solvable canonical ensemble model. This model reduces to the results of an ideal Fermi gas at low temperatures. At higher temperatures, the fragmentation of the nuclear matter into clusters of nucleons leads to features that resemble a Bose gas. Some parallels of this model with the phenomena of Bose condensation and with percolation phenomena are discussed. A simple expression for the hadronic equation of state is obtained from the model.Comment: 12 pages, revtex, 1 ps file appended (figure 1

Design management: changing roles of the professions

This paper sets out to explore how recent changes in procurement in construction have affected the roles that professions play in the design process. It discusses how professions that traditionally took the role of design manager now find themselves participating within previously unforeseen contexts, working in multidisciplinary teams led by contractors and with changed responsibilities at the design stage. Supply chain members who were not previously involved during the early project phases are being engaged at the earliest phases of the project life cycle and even taking leadership roles while designers sometimes work as supply chain partners. A study of design in construction and other sectors shows that in dealing with design management issues it is critical to deepen appreciation for the unique characteristics of design and the design process. The paper argues that contractors and designers taking on design management roles in a dynamic industry seeking to explore best practice and innovative approaches to procurement and in the delivery of projects need to acquire new skills, management education and develop the necessary qualities

Cross-Clade Protective Immune Responses to Influenza Viruses with H5N1 HA and NA Elicited by an Influenza Virus-Like Particle

Background. Vaccination is a cost-effective counter-measure to the threat of seasonal or pandemic outbreaks of influenza. To address the need for improved influenza vaccines and alternatives to egg-based manufacturing, we have engineered an influenza virus-like particle (VLP) as a new generation of non-egg or non-mammalian cell culture-based candidate vaccine. Methodology/Principal Findings. We generated from a baculovirus expression system using insect cells, a non-infectious recombinant VLP vaccine from both influenza A H5N1 clade 1 and clade 2 isolates with pandemic potential. VLPs were administered to mice in either a one-dose or two-dose regimen and the immune responses were compared to those induced by recombinant hemagglutinin (rHA). Both humoral and cellular responses were analyzed. Mice vaccinated with VLPs were protected against challenge with lethal reassortant viruses expressing the H5N1 HA and NA, regardless if the H5N1 clade was homologous or heterologous to the vaccine. However, rHA-vaccinated mice showed considerable weight loss and death following challenge with the heterovariant clade virus. Protection against death induced by VLPs was independent of the pre-challenge HAI titer or cell-mediated responses to HA or M1 since vaccinated mice, with low to undetectable cross-clacle HAI antibodies or cellular responses to influenza antigens, were still protected from a lethal viral challenge. However, an apparent association rate of antibody binding to HA correlated with protection and was enhanced using VLPs, particularly when delivered intranasally, compared to rHA vaccines. Conclusion/Significance. This is the first report describing the use of an H5N1 VLP vaccine created from a clade 2 isolate. The results show that a non-replicating virus-like particle is effective at eliciting a broadened, cross-clade protective immune response to proteins from emerging H5N1 influenza isolates giving rise to a potential pandemic influenza vaccine candidate for humans that can be stockpiled for use in the event of an outbreak of H5N1 influenza

Flexible electronics: The next ubiquitous platform

Thin-film electronics in its myriad forms has underpinned much of the technological innovation in the fields of displays, sensors, and energy conversion over the past four decades. This technology also forms the basis of flexible electronics. Here we review the current status of flexible electronics and attempt to predict the future promise of these pervading technologies in healthcare, environmental monitoring, displays and human-machine interactivity, energy conversion, management and storage, and communication and wireless networks