Predicting neck pain in Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilots

Objective: Fighter pilots frequently report neck pain and injury, and although risk factors have been suggested, the relationships between risk factors and neck pain have not been quantified. The aim of this study was to identify personal and work behaviors that are significantly associated with neck pain in fighter pilots.
Methods: Eighty-two Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilots were surveyed about their flying experience, neck pain prevalence, and prevention. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to fit models between pilots' neck pain during and after flight and a range of personal and work characteristics.
Results: In-flight neck pain was very weakly, yet positively associated with flight hours. Duration of postflight pain was positively associated with the weekly desktop work hours and the sum of preventative actions taken in flight. The duration pilots were considered temporarily medically unfit for flying was positively associated with pilots' age and their weekly desktop work hours.
Discussion: The risk factors identified by the current study should guide neck pain prevention for fighter pilots. In particular, reducing desktop working hours as well as incorporating specific neck-strengthening exercises and in-flight bracing actions should be considered by agencies to help alleviating neck pain in their pilots

Expanding children's food experiences : the impact of a school-based kitchen garden program

Objective: Evaluate achievement of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program in increasing child appreciation of diverse, healthy foods.

Design: Comparative 2-year study.

Setting: Six program and 6 comparison primary schools in rural and metropolitan Victoria, Australia, matched for socioeconomic status and size.

Participants: A total of 764 children in grades 3 to 6 (8–12 years of age) and 562 parents recruited. Retention rates at follow-up included 85% children and 75% parents.

Intervention: Each week of the school year, children spent 45 to 60 minutes in a garden class and 90 minutes in a kitchen class.

Phenomenon of interest: Program impact on children’s willingness to try new foods, capacity to describe foods, and healthy eating.

Analysis: Qualitative data analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Quantitative data analyzed using random-effects linear regressions adjusted for school clustering.

Results: Child and parent qualitative and quantitative measures (if never tried before, odds ratio 2.0; confidence interval, 1.06–3.58) showed increases in children’s reported willingness to try new foods. No differences in articulation of food descriptions (program vs comparison groups). Qualitative evidence showed that the program extended its influence to healthy eating, but this was not reflected in the quantitative evidence.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings indicate program success in achieving its primary objective, meriting further program research.

The association between alcohol interventions and Dui incidents in Geelong, Victoria

Introduction and aims : Driving under the influence of alcohol is a major public health problem, every year affecting the lives of billions around the world - and not least in Australia. Since 2001, several Traffic Accident Commission (TAC), police, and community interventions have been implemented in Geelong, Australia to curb drink driving. The current paper aims to assess the impact of 13 alcohol interventions on drink-driving rates in the Geelong region of Australia. The interventions comprised seven TAC media campaigns, three Victoria Police operations, two community interventions targeting licensed premises, and the alcohol interlock program.

Method : This study examined two types of Victoria Police frequency data: Driving under the influence (DUI) offences, and roadside preliminary breath testing (PBT) rates. Multiple regressions were carried out to determine if any of the interventions were significantly associated with frequency fluctuations in the data.

Results : Of the 13 alcohol interventions examined, three TAC campaigns and one Victoria Police operation precipitated significant decreases in drink-driving rates, while another three TAC campaigns were associated with significant increases in drink-driving rates. Over one in five (22.5%) had recorded prior DUI offences.

Conclusions : The most promising approach to curbing DUI-rates in Geelong, appear to be through informative media campaigns which show people specific settings where they might become mildly intoxicated without being aware of it, such as TAC’s ‘Education 1’ campaign. However, there remains a worrying level of recidivist drink drivers in Geelong suggesting the need for tailored approaches.

An empirical study of the world price of sustainability

The core goal of this study is to empirically investigate whether there is a “world price” of corporate sustainability. This is assessed in the context of standard asset pricing models—in particular, by asking whether a risk premium attaches to a sustainability factor after controlling for the Fama–French factors. Both time-series and cross-sectional tests are formulated and applied. The results show that (1) global Fama–French factors have strong power to explain global equity returns and (2) sustainability investments have no significant impact on global equity returns. The absence of a significant relationship between sustainability and returns implies that large institutional investors are free to implement sustainability mandates without fear of breaching their fiduciary duties from realising negative returns due to incorporating a sustainability investment process.

Walkable area within which destinations matter : differences between Australian and Japanese cities

Adults’ walking for transport is important for health benefits and can be associated with availability of destinations such as shops and services within a walking distance of 10 to 15 minutes from home. However, relevant evidence is mostly from Western countries. This study examined associations of destinations with walking for transport in Australian and Japanese cities. Data were collected from Adelaide, Australia (n = 2508), and 4 Japanese cities (n = 1285). Logistic regressions examined associations of self-reported walking for transport with the number of destination types within walk-distance categories. Walking was significantly associated with the number of destination types within a 10-minute walk from home for Australia and with the number of destination types within a 6- to 20-minute walk for Japan. Further research is needed on why walking by residents of Japanese cities can be influenced by more distant local destinations than in Australia to inform physical activity–related environmental and policy initiatives.

Deep in the desert: merging the desert and the spiritual through 4WD tourism

Our paper positions four-wheel drive (4WD) travel into the Australian desert by veteran or dedicated travellers as a spiritual experience in three ways: by considering the desert itself as a sacred space; the experience of such a journey as a form of ‘nature religion’; and by viewing the actual journey itself as pilgrimage. Our argument is informed by interviews with expert 4WDers to the desert. Our study might be useful in designing sustainable strategies for 4WD desert tourism, as well as for scholars from a variety of disciplines such as sustainability and environment studies, religious studies and tourism studies, to name a few.

PANIC in the presence of uncertainty about the deterministic trend

Most macroeconomic and financial panel variables are trending. However, because of the well-known power problem in the presence of incidental trends, many researchers gamble that their unit root test regressions can be ran without such trends, thereby running the risk of obtaining spurious results. This article takes one of the most general and popular panel unit root tests, known as PANIC, and shows how it can be modified to account for the uncertainty regarding the deterministic trend.

Use of respiration rates of scyphozoan jellyfish to estimate their effects on the food web

One of the main objectives of research on jellyfish is to determine their effects on the food web. They are voracious consumers that have similar diets to those of zooplanktivorous fish, as well as eating microplankton and ichthyoplankton. Respiration rates (RRs) can be used to estimate the amount of food needed to balance metabolism, and thereby estimate minimum ingestion. We compiled RRs for scyphozoan medusae in three suborders (Semeaostomeae, Rhizostomeae, and Coronatae) to determine if a single regression could relate RRs to mass for diverse scyphomedusan species. Temperature (7–30°C) was not a significant factor. RRs versus wet weight (WW) regressions differed significantly for semeaostome and rhizostome medusae; however, RRs versus carbon mass over five-orders of magnitude did not differ significantly among suborders. RRs were isometric against medusa carbon mass, with data for all species scaling to the power 0.94. The scyphomedusa respiration rate (SRR) regression enables estimation of RR for any scyphomedusa from its carbon mass. The error of the SRR regression was ±72%, which is small in comparison with the 1,000-fold variation in field sampling. This predictive equation (RR in ml O2 d−1 = 83.37 * g C0.940) can be used to estimate minimum ingestion by scyphomedusae without exhaustive collection of feeding data. In addition, effects of confinement on RRs during incubation of medusae were tested. Large medusae incubated in small container volumes (CV) relative to their size (ratios of CV:WW < 50) had RRs ~one-tenth those of medusae in relatively larger containers. Depleted oxygen during incubation did not depress RRs of the medusae; however, swimming may have been restricted and respiration reduced in consequence. We briefly review other problems with RR experiments and suggest protocols and limitations for estimating ingestion rates of jellyfish from metabolic rates.

Non-nested tests of a GDP-augmented Fama–French model versus a conditional Fama–French model in the Australian stock market

We extend Vassalou (2003) by conditioning the Fama–French model with the same macroeconomic variables used to construct a GDP factor. The motivation for doing so is to ascertain whether the ability of the GDP-augmented model to explain equity returns is actually due to news about future GDP growth or whether it is due to the macroeconomic conditioning variables used to construct the GDP factor. We compare the performance of a GDP-enhanced Fama–French model with the conditional Fama–French model using non-nested testing techniques. We find that the GDP-augmented model considerably underperforms the conditional version of the model.

Analyzing track sprint cyclists' performances using position-specific maximal-torque and power-cadence relationships

Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of maximal Torque-Cadence (T-C) and Power-Cadence (P-C) relationships, for the performances of world class track sprint cyclists. If these relationships are affected by the function of the lower limb muscles, the ability of cyclists to generate torque and power at a given cadence may vary depending on their riding position. During sprint events (individual and team sprints and Keirin), cyclists alternate between standing and seated positions. The T-C and P-C relationships may change with the position adopted by the cyclists. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the necessity to define position specific maximal T-C and P-C relationships. METHODS: Eight junior elite track cyclists from the National Talent Identification squad undertook two inertial-load tests that consisted of four all-out sprints each. One test was undertaken at the velodrome in a standing position on a carbon fibre track bike, and the other test was completed in a seated position on an air-braked stationary ergometer. A calibrated SRM power meter interfaced to a custom instrumentation package was used for all mechanical measurements. Maximal T-C and P-C relationships were analysed to calculate maximal Torque (T0), maximal Power (Pmax) and optimal pedalling cadence (PCopt). RESULTS: All individual T-C and P-C relationships obtained for both body positions were fitted by linear regressions (r2=0.95 ± 0.02) and second order polynomials (r2=0.96 ± 0.01), respectively. T0 was higher (209 ± 2.2N.m vs. 177.0 ± 3.9N.m, p<0.05), PCopt was lower (112.5 ± 11.4rpm vs. 120.1 ± 6.7rpm, p<0.05), and Pmax was higher (1261 ± 235W vs. 1076 ± 183W, p<0.05) in standing position compared to seated position. CONCLUSION: Analysis of track sprint cyclists’ performances can be improved by the determination of position-specific maximal T-C and P-C relationships .

Hybrid prediction method for solar power using different computational intelligence algorithms

Computational Intelligence (CI) holds the key to the development of smart grid to overcome the challenges of planning and optimization through accurate prediction of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). This paper presents an architectural framework for the construction of hybrid intelligent predictor for solar power. This research investigates the applicabil- ity of heterogeneous regression algorithms for 6 hour ahead solar power availability forecasting using historical data from Rockhampton, Australia. Real life solar radiation data is collected across six years with hourly resolution from 2005 to 2010. We observe that the hybrid prediction method is suitable for a reliable smart grid energy management. Prediction reliability of the proposed hybrid prediction method is carried out in terms of prediction error performance based on statistical and graphical methods. The experimental results show that the proposed hybrid method achieved acceptable prediction accuracy. This potential hybrid model is applicable as a local predictor for any proposed hybrid method in real life application for 6 hours in advance prediction to ensure constant solar power supply in the smart grid operation.

Longitudinal predictors of frequent vegetable and fruit consumption among socio-economically disadvantaged Australian adolescents

Adequate vegetable and fruit consumption is necessary for preventing nutrition-related diseases. Socio-economically disadvantaged adolescents tend to consume relatively few vegetables and fruits. However, despite nutritional challenges associated with socio-economic disadvantage, a minority of adolescents manage to eat vegetables and fruit in quantities that are more in line with dietary recommendations. This investigation aimed to identify predictors of more frequent intakes of fruits and vegetables among adolescents over a 2-year follow-up period. Data were drawn from 521 socio-economically disadvantaged (maternal education ≤Year 10 of secondary school) Australian adolescents aged 12–15 years. Participants were recruited from 37 secondary schools and were asked to complete online surveys in 2004/2005 (baseline) and 2006/2007 (follow-up). Surveys comprised a 38-item FFQ and questions based on Social Ecological models examining intrapersonal, social and environmental influences on diet. At baseline and follow-up, respectively, 29% and 24% of adolescents frequently consumed vegetables (≥2 times/day); 33% and 36% frequently consumed fruit (≥1 time/day). In multivariable logistic regressions, baseline consumption strongly predicted consumption at follow-up. Frequently being served vegetables at dinner predicted frequent vegetable consumption. Female sex, rarely purchasing food or drink from school vending machines, and usually being expected to eat all foods served predicted frequent fruit consumption. Findings suggest nutrition promotion initiatives aimed at improving eating behaviours among this at-risk population and should focus on younger adolescents, particularly boys; improving adolescent eating behaviours at school; and encouraging families to increase home availability of healthy foods and to implement meal time rules.