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Interventions that involve parents to improve children's weight-related nutrition intake and activity patterns - what nutrition and activity targets and behaviour change techniques are associated with intervention effectiveness?
No full textParent involvement is an important component of obesity prevention interventions. However, the best way to support parents remains unclear. This review identifies interventions targeting parents to improve children’s weight status, dietary and/or activity patterns, examines whether intervention content and behaviour change techniques employed are associated with effectiveness. Seventeen studies, in English, 1998–2008, were included. Studies were evaluated by two reviewers for study quality, nutrition/activity content and behaviour change techniques using a validated quality assessment tool and behaviour change technique taxonomy. Study findings favoured intervention effectiveness in 11 of 17 studies. Interventions that were considered effective had similar features: better study quality, parents responsible for participation and implementation, greater parental involvement and inclusion of prompt barrier identification, restructure the home environment, prompt self-monitoring, prompt specific goal setting behaviour change techniques. Energy intake/density and food choices were more likely to be targeted in effective interventions. The number of lifestyle behaviours targeted did not appear to be associated with effectiveness. Intervention effectiveness was favoured when behaviour change techniques spanned the spectrum of behaviour change process. The review provides guidance for researchers to make informed decisions on how best to utilize resources in interventions to support and engage parents, and highlights a need for improvement in intervention content reporting practices.
Mechanisms of transforming growth factor β1/Smad signalling mediated by mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways in keloid fibroblast
No full textBackground Keloids are recognized as benign tumours characterized by fibroblastic proliferation and accumulation of extracellular matrix, especially collagen deposition. The transforming growth factor (TGF)-ß1/Smad pathway plays an important role in keloid pathogenesis; however the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Objectives To define further the mechanisms of TGF-ß1/Smad signal transduction mediated by mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), including the extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 pathways, in keloid fibroblasts. Methods In the absence or presence of three MAPK (ERK, JNK and p38)-specific inhibitors, keloid fibroblasts were stimulated with exogenous TGF-ß1 to activate Smad signalling. Smad protein expression was measured by immunoprecipitation/immunoblotting and immunofluorescence; plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 transcriptional activity was measured by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis. Results TGF-ß1 induced Smad2/3 phosphorylation at both the C-terminal and the linker region, thus promoting formation of the Smad2/3/4 complex and nuclear translocation, and PAI-1 mRNA expression in keloid fibroblasts; in addition, TGF-ß1 decreased inhibitory Smad7 expression. Meanwhile, the p38 inhibitor significantly inhibited Smad2/3 phosphorylation, especially at the linker region, and furthermore blocked Smad2/3/4 complex formation, and thus decreased PAI-1 mRNA expression; decreased Smad7 expression induced by TGF-ß1 was also reversed by the p38 inhibitor. The ERK and JNK inhibitors interrupted Smad2/3/4 complex translocation into the nucleus and consequently decreased PAI-1 mRNA expression. Conclusions These results suggested that the ERK, JNK and p38 pathways mediate TGF-ß1/Smad signal transduction and might be considered as specific targets of drug therapy for keloids.
Pre-hospital and in-hospital parameters and outcomes in patients with traumatic brain injury : a comparison between German and Australian trauma registries
No full textPharmacists' role in targeted cancer therapy in Australia and implications for pharmacy education
No full textObjectives. To investigate the pharmacists’ role in providing targeted therapies to patients and its implications for pharmacy education. Methods. Nine pharmacy faculty members, 12 clinical pharmacists, and 4 oncologists from across Australia and New Zealand participated in semistructured interviews, which were analysed using the framework method. Results. Education about targeted therapies was seen as being important, although content about pharmacodiagnostic tests was taught inconsistently among 7 universities. Issues including funding, clinical and diagnostic validity of tests, and time taken for turnaround of tests were perceived as impediments to the acceptance by clinicians of the utility of pharmacodiagnostic tests. Conclusions. Pharmacists may be the ideal professionals to interpret test results and provide counselling for patients to assist them in compliance with targeted cancer therapies. Pharmacy education in cancer therapies is critical to training pharmacists who can assist patients in the correct use of these therapies.
Summer thermal resistance measurement of timber framed roofing systems and benefits of reflective paints
No full textDesigning outdoor mixed reality hardware systems
No full textDeveloping usable and robust mixed reality systems requires unique human–computer interaction techniques and customized hardware systems. The design of the hardware is directed by the requirements of the rich 3D interactions that can be performed using immersive mobile MR systems. Geometry modeling and capture, navigational annotations, visualizations, and training simulations are all enhanced using augmented computer graphics. We present the design guidelines that have led us through 10 years of evolving mobile outdoor MR hardware systems.
Requirements for a software process maintenance framework for executive information systems in the telecommunications industry
No full textThis paper presents the interview findings of the current situation in software development for Executive Information Systems (EIS) in the Thai telecommunications industry and identifies critical success factors (CSFs) that can serve as requisite requirements for a software process maintenance framework in this context. The results show that software development teams do not perceive existing formal routines as an efficient way to manage software development processes and eventually to deliver quality results. One of the factors that play a central role in quality software development is an efficient software process. Efficiency requires project management activities to enable the proper task execution. Unfortunately, existing agile methods, e.g., Scrum and XP offer only inadequate support for project management, e.g., limited support for subcontracting and developing software that demands high level of quality control. For continuously efficient software processes, this study thus proposes a framework aimed at the establishment and improvement of software development processes covering adequate software engineering and project management perspectives. The overall goal of the resulting framework therefore is to contribute to the improvement of software process development.
A feasibility study of adopting wireless video for wearable computing
No full textWireless technology can be adopted in wearable computing to facilitate many important applications, including the elimination of cabling and offloading process-intensive tasks to powerful servers remotely. However, a crucial challenge of adopting wireless technologies for wearable computing is the extra latency, which may be a critical issue for real-time mixed and augmented reality applications using optical or video see-through devices. This paper investigates the impact of latency while adopting video coding techniques to reduce wireless traffic. Trade-offs between processing complexity and latency for different augmented reality applications are investigated in this paper. Two video coding techniques using (1) standard H.264 video codec which yields superior compression efficiency, and (2) compressing sensing based video codec which demands low encoding complexity, are compared in this paper. The study investigates the feasibility of adopting low latency or low complexity design of future wearable devices facilitating optical or video see-through features.