The Necessity of Leisure and Physical Activity

Educational Objectives 1. Explain the value and benefit of physical and leisure activity across the lifespan, regardless of physical limitations. 2. Identify barriers to participation in physical and leisure activity. 3. Discuss strategies to engage and maintain physical and recreational activity participation

The glia response after peripheral nerve injury: A comparison between Schwann cells and olfactory ensheathing cells and their uses for neural regenerative therapies

The peripheral nervous system (PNS) exhibits a much larger capacity for regeneration than the central nervous system (CNS). One reason for this difference is the difference in glial cell types between the two systems. PNS glia respond rapidly to nerve injury by clearing debris from the injury site, supplying essential growth factors and providing structural support; all of which enhances neuronal regeneration. Thus, transplantation of glial cells from the PNS is a very promising therapy for injuries to both the PNS and the CNS. There are two key types of PNS glia: olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), which populate the olfactory nerve, and Schwann cells (SCs), which are present in the rest of the PNS. These two glial types share many similar morphological and functional characteristics but also exhibit key differences. The olfactory nerve is constantly turning over throughout life, which means OECs are continuously stimulating neural regeneration, whilst SCs only promote regeneration after direct injury to the PNS. This review presents a comparison between these two PNS systems in respect to normal physiology, developmental anatomy, glial functions and their responses to injury. A thorough understanding of the mechanisms and differences between the two systems is crucial for the development of future therapies using transplantation of peripheral glia to treat neural injuries and/or disease.Griffith Health, School of Nursing and MidwiferyFull Tex

Classroom Level Effects of Children’s Prior Participation in Child Care

Previous research indicates that children who spend many hours in early child care exhibit more externalizing behavior problems than children who spend less time in child care. Concern has been expressed regarding the cumulative effect of these problem behaviors on elementary school classes. We collected information about children’s child-care histories from parents of first through fourth graders (N = 429) and about classroom functioning from their teachers (N = 31). We analyzed associations between the proportion of children in the class who had spent many hours in care prior to school entry and teachers’ reports of the time they spent in instruction and management, the difficulty they had in teaching and managing the class and the frequency of students’ positive and negative behavior in the classroom. No significant associations were found to support the contention that prior child-care participation negatively affects classroom functioning

The Influence of Hormonal Contraception on Vitamin D Supplementation on Serum 25(OH)D3 Status in Premenopausal Women: A Prospective Double-Blind Placebo Random Controlled Trial

Background: A number of cross-sectional studies have highlighted a potential benefit of estrogen-containing contraception on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels. The purpose of the present prospective study was to determine whether oral vitamin D3 supplementation significantly increases serum 25(OH)D more for women taking the estrogen-containing oral contraception than those not taking this medication. Methods: Thirty-eight premenopausal adult females aged 18 - 45 years old were recruited from a university campus; exclusion criteria included those presently taking vitamin D supplementation, those who stopped or started taking oral contraception in last 6 months and those taking any other form of contraception. A prospective doubleblind placebo design was implemented; the dependent variable was serum 25(OH)D and the independent variables were using or not using oral estrogen-containing contraception, and vitamin D3 or placebo supplementation. Participants were tested 4 weeks apart, and blood samples were collected using a capillary blood spot sample method and analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. An independent technician prepared the identical supplement bottles with either 100 placebo pills or 100 active vitamin D3 pills (1,000 IU per pill) and participants randomly selected a supplement bottle. Results: Baseline measurements of 25(OH)D were non-significantly 11% higher in those taking estrogen. ANOVA results revealed a significant two-way interaction between supplementation group (treatment vs. placebo) and treatment period (before vs. after) (P < 0.001), demonstrating a substantial rise in serum 25(OH)D for the treatment group compared with the placebo group. The results also identified a three-way interaction (P = 0.014) on serum 25(OH)D between the three independent variables, with the vitamin D oral contraception group having significantly greater serum 25(OH)D increases (from 45.9 to 98.3 nmol/L) compared with those not taking oral contraception (44.2 - 69.6 nmol/L) (P = 0.019). Conclusions: The estrogen-containing oral contraception increases serum 25(OH)D in premenopausal women with a magnified effect in those taking vitamin D supplementation. Future studies need to examine the relationship between estrogen, vitamin D supplementation, serum 25(OH)D, 1,25(OH)D, parathyroid hormone and other markers of bone metabolisms

The CCAP KnowledgeBase : linking protistan and cyanobacterial biological resources with taxonomic and molecular data

Peer reviewe

Calendars, Cemeteries and the Evolution of Colonial Culture

Calendars, Cemeteries and the Evolution of Colonial Cultur

Treading the (corporate) board. A critical analysis of organisational diversity discourse

My aims in this thesis, in terms of analysing the persistence of gendered occupational segmentation in the UK, are three-fold. The first is to explore the extent to which organisational diversity discourse is the outcome of essentialist, binary thinking; the second is to examine whether essentialism can be analysed as a form of identity thinking; and the third is to assess whether and in what ways that analysis can contribute to feminist organisation studies and critical diversity scholarship. To achieve those aims, I carried out a critical discourse analysis of the diversity discourse of 30 FTSE 100 companies, highlighting the essentialism that underpins it, and the ways in which organisations have conflated biological and cultural essentialism. By drawing on Theodor Adorno’s theory of negative dialectics, I argue that this essentialism can be analysed and understood in terms of the identity thinking that permeates organisational discourse such that women are classified and categorised according to their supposed natural, biological characteristics. However, as organisations have mistaken the natural for the cultural and the cultural for the natural, they have come to assume that the object of women’s biology (the body or the natural) equates to the concept of their sexed and gendered characteristics (the social or the cultural). Adorno, on the other hand, argues that under non-identity thinking, “objects do not go into their concepts without leaving a remainder” (Adorno, 1973: 5). I suggest that Adorno’s theory contributes to feminist scholarship by shifting the focus away from the binary thinking inherent within the sex/gender dualism and onto the identity thinking that produced it in the first place. I contribute to critical diversity and feminist organisation studies scholarship by moving away from an analysis of corporate diversity discourse focused largely on difference, inclusion and poststructuralism respectively to an analysis highlighting its identarian, subjectivistic and hierarchical nature