Discordance of international adiposity classifications in Australian boys and girls - The LOOK study

Background: Various charts based on body mass index (BMI) and per cent body fat (%BF) are used to classify childhood body composition but outcomes may vary.

Aim: The study investigated variation in incidences of childhood obesity as depicted by four classification charts.

Subjects and methods: BMI and DXA-derived %BF were assessed in 741 children. Incidences of overweight and obesity were compared between two BMI charts and two bioelectrical impedance (BIA)-based %BF charts.

Results: The International Obesity Task Force (IOTF)-adopted BMI chart designated 21%, 6% (boys), and 26%, 9% (girls) as overweight and obese, respectively. Corresponding figures using the USA CDC BMI chart were 27%, 11% (boys) and 27%, 12% (girls). Using a USA-derived %BF chart incidences were 17%, 2% (boys) and 21%, 8% (girls) and using a UK-derived %BF chart 51%, 24% (boys) and 53%, 36% (girls). Sensitivity of BMI varied according to the %BF reference chart.

Conclusions: In contrast to the BMI-based charts, there were considerable variations in depicted incidences of obesity between the %BF-based charts. These discordances were considered to result from previously reported variation within and between BIA and DXA %BF assessments underlying the charts. The present study highlights the need for valid, reliable, unchanging BIA and DXA procedures.

Good governance - not just for the big boys governance in organizations in New Zealand

Good governance is recognized as a fundamental indicator of the success of a company. For a small- midsized company, this is particularly so, as such companies must be able to competitively demonstrate their flexibility in the face of market forces. This flexibility is the primary advantage they hold over larger firms (Dalton, Daily, Ellstrand and Johnson, 1998). Such companies, however, can find it difficult to attract good directors (Daum and Neff, 2003) and this makes developing improved strategies of governance a challenge. Taylor, Chait and Holland suggest top directors are not attracted to small/ medium companies because “the stakes remain low, the meetings process-driven, the outcomes ambiguous, and the deliberations insular” (Taylor, Chait and Holland, 2001). We suggest that the attraction of quality directors is a uniquely impacting situation for small and mid-size firms, as it is there where additional management resources should be needed most urgently. Directors on the boards of small-medium sized businesses are often lagging behind directors of large companies in that they are less likely to be independent external directors and are less likely to represent a diversity of attributes (Dalton, Daily, Ellstrand and Johnson, 1998). Arthur Levitt, former United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chair, describes the culture of medium sized business directorships as a “kind of a fraternity of CEOs who serve on one another's boards” (Stainburn, 2005). In addition, evidence suggests directors of small- medium businesses are often insufficiently trained for the role. Uncertain directors may, for example, be unwilling to ask crucial questions of managers before making major decisions. “Board members sometimes are made to feel that asking a thorny question or advancing an alternative opinion is disloyal to the administration” (Taylor, Chait and Holland, 2001). Small and medium businesses, however, are a growing contributor to the national economies of countries internationally. In New Zealand, small and medium-size firms recording large GDP values, ahead of many large businesses, which makes our investigation into good governance practices of SMEs relevant to suggest areas in which these firms can improve their governance policies and practices. We have reviewed more than 2,000 directors, executives and investors in New Zealand, making this one of the largest non-government surveys in governance. Supported by 16 large corporate organizations, such as KPMG, Business New Zealand, Simpson Grierson, Brook Asset Management, Porter Novelli, Sheffield and ‘Management’ Magazine, this work suggests that the current processes through which directors are selected and trained to serve on Boards of small and medium businesses needs to be altered. We are also concerned over the lack of director education and the close involvement of the Chief Executives as members of the Boards. There is a general concern over the lack of director independence and whether directors are effective in their roles. We are recommending an alternative process for SMEs to select directors, which will hopefully expand the available pool of directors in quantity and quality.

Tennis playing initiated before puberty leads to greater skeletal benefits in peri-pubertal boys than girls when training is maintained

Introduction: The purpose of the study was to compare the exercise-induced changes in bone mass and geometry between boys and girls.

Methods: Eighty competitive tennis players (43 boys, 37 girls) aged 7–19 years participated. Pubertal status was self-assessed using Tanner stages (TS 1–5). The dominant and nondominant humeri were compared for DXA-derived bone mass (BMC) and MRI-derived bone geometry [total bone area (TA), medullary area (MA) and cortical bone area (CA)].

Results/Discussion: Exercise-induced side-to-side differences in BMC, TA and CA were significant from TS1 to 5 in boys and girls (p < 0.06). Pre-pubertal (TS1) girls and boys show similar side-to-side difference in BMC after adjustment for training volume (19% vs. 15%, ns). Similar findings were found forTA and CA. In contrast, during puberty (TS2-4) boys displayed greater side-to-side differences than girls for BMC (27% vs. 18%, p < 0.05), TA (13–15% vs. 8%, p < 0.05) and CA (32% vs. 20%, p < 0.01), even after adjustment for tennis history. Girls partly compensated for the lack of an exercise-induced increase in bone size by a reduction of the medullary cavity on the dominant side (−5.5 to −13%, p < 0.05). In post-puberty (TS 5 or postmenarche), the size of the medullary cavity remained smaller on the dominant side in girls (−5% to −9%, p = 0.1–0.05??) whereas no such reduction was observed in boys.

Conclusion: Regular exercise initiated before puberty and maintained throughout puberty leads to greater skeletal benefits in peri-pubertal boys than girls for bone mass and bone size, two of the major determinants of bone strength.

Fruit consumption of boys (8–11 years) is related to preference for sour taste

The present study investigated whether the most preferred balance between sweet and sour taste of children (n=50, 9.2±0.9 yrs of age) are related to their consumption of fruit. Taste preferences were measured with a rank-by-elimination procedure with seven sweet orangeades that differed in added citric acid (i.e. 0.009−0.065 M). Fruit consumption was assessed with a questionnaire that was completed by the children's parents. Results showed that boys' but not girls' most preferred balance between sweet and sour taste was positively correlated with their consumption of fruit: that is, the more added citric acid was preferred the more fruit was consumed. We conclude that preference for high concentrations of citric acid in a sweet context may be associated with the consumption of fruit in boys. In girls, the optimal balance between sweet and sour taste seems to be of less importance; their consumption of fruit may be more influenced by their parents, availability and health related motives.

Feminine transports and transformations : textual performances of Australian women convicts and emigrants from 1788 to 1850

While scholars have critiqued early representations of the white colonial female in the form of the novel, short story, or historical narrative, analyses of poetry tend to be located only on that produced in Australia and often in light of a nascent national identity. This article examines how poetic renditions of the desolate woman might be viewed as part of imperialism's mythologising process, displacing more worrying versions of womanhood in relation to the new colonies. While social anxieties over the identity of the white colonial female would result in highly controlled productions of the female convict and female emigrant, this article demonstrates how they also prove unstable and point to a disruptive reality beyond language.

Do boys do the atopic march while girls dawdle?

Background
The atopic march hypothesis suggests that infants with eczema are at increased risk of asthma. Others argue that eczema is not a risk factor for asthma unless there is also sensitization or early wheezing.
Objective
To examine the role of infantile eczema as a predictor of risk of childhood asthma, while allowing for the effects of early wheeze, sensitization, and sex, both as independent effects and possible effect modifiers.
Methods
A total of 620 infants with a family history of allergic disease was recruited. Eczema and wheeze was prospectively documented to 2 years of age. Sensitization was determined by skin prick tests at 6, 12, and 24 months to 6 common food and inhalant allergens. Interviews were conducted at 6 and 7 years to ascertain current asthma.
Results
Sufficiently complete data were available for 403 children. Eczema within the first 2 years of life was clearly associated with an increased risk of childhood asthma in boys (adjusted odds ratio, 2.45; 95% CI, 1.31-4.46) but not in girls (odds ratio, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.43-1.77; P for interaction = .031) even with adjustment for the effects of early allergic sensitization and wheeze. If these relationships are causal, an intervention to prevent eczema in boys might reduce the incidence of childhood asthma by as much as 28%.
Conclusion
Eczema in the first 2 years of life is associated with an increased risk of childhood asthma in boys, but there is no evidence of this in girls.

Little boys : the potency of peer culture in shaping masculinities

This study explores the peer group understandings of five male friends between the ages of six and eight years and seeks to examine the ways in which the group’s social dynamics interact to define, regulate and maintain dominant and collective understandings of masculinities. Within a self-selected affinity context, and drawing on their lived and imagined experiences, the boys’ enact and interpret their social worlds. Adopting the principles of ethnography within a framework of feminist poststructuralism and drawing on theories of ‘groupness’ and gender(ed) embodiment, the boys’ understandings of masculinities are captured and interpreted. The key analytic foci are directed towards examining the role of power in the social production of collective schoolboy knowledges, and understanding the processes through which boys subjectify and are subjectified, through social but also bodily discourses. The boys’ constructions of peer group masculinities are (re)presented through a narrative methodology which foregrounds my interpretation of the group’s personal and social relevances and seeks to be inductive in ways that ‘bring to life’ the boys’ stories. The study illuminates the potency of peer culture in shaping and regulating the boys’ dominant understandings of masculinity. Within this culture strong essentialist and hierarchical values are imported to support a range of gender(ed) and sexual dualisms. Here patriarchal adult culture is regularly mimicked and distorted. Underpinned by constructions of ‘femininity’ as the negative ‘other’, dominant masculinities are embodied, cultivated and championed through physical dominance, physical risk, aggression and violence. Through feminist poststructural analysis which enables a theorising of the boys’ subjectivities as fluid, tenuous and often characterised by contradiction and resistance, there exists a potential for interrupting and re-working particular masculinities. Within this framework, more affirmative but equally legitimate understandings and embodiments can be explored. The study presents a warrant for working with early childhood affinity groups to disrupt and contest the dominance and hierarchy of peer culture in an effort to counter-act broader gendered and heterosexist global, state and institutional structures. Framing these assertions is an understanding of the peer context as not only self-limiting and productive of hierarchies, but enabling and generative of affirmative subjectivities.

Prevention of body concerns and risk behaviours in adolescent boys

Overall, this thesis was designed to explore the nature of adolescent boys' body image, the effects of body image on body change strategies and psychological adjustment, and the factors that influence body image. The first study examined body image in 362 adolescent boys. Body image was considered in terms of attitudes to different body parts and attributes, including, lower, middle and upper body, as well as weight, shape and muscles. The relationships between Body Mass Index (BMI), body image, sociocultural messages, psychological adjustment and body change strategies, including strategies to decrease weight and increase muscles using food and exercise, drive for thinness, bulimic attitudes and behaviour, excessive exercise, food supplements to lose weight, increase muscles and steroids, were also investigated. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the role of body image, sociocultural messages and psychological adjustment to predict satisfaction with different body attributes and body change strategies. The findings from study one led to the development of a program aimed at preventing the development of unhealthy attitudes and behaviours among adolescent boys. Study two involved the implementation and evaluation of this prevention program. One hundred and twenty one boys participated in the program. The program was based on social-cognitive theory, and included a focus on accepting differences and the development of self-esteem. The boys who participated in the program indicated some change in existing attitudes and showed less development of risk behaviours relative to the control group. The implications of the findings from this thesis in relation to future research, as well as the prevention of adolescent boys' body image problems are discussed.

Many versions of masculine : an exploration of boys' identity formation through digital storytelling in an afterschool program

Both scholarly literature and popular media often depict predominantly negative and one-dimensional images of boys, especially African-American boys. Predictions of these boys’ anticipated difficulties in school and adulthood are equally prevalent. This paper reports qualitative research that features case studies of nine urban boys of color, aged nine to eleven, who participated in an afterschool program where they learned to create digital multimedia texts. Drawing on an analysis of the children’s patterns of participation, their multimodal products, and their social and intellectual growth over time, the study revealed that these children demonstrated many versions of male selves, and that their digital stories narrated these identities in ways that often challenged hegemonic versions of masculinity. These enactments of identity were made possible by the ways that their afterschool social space structured their activities, as well as by the symbolic means and subject matters privileged in that space, principally digital multimodal narratives and popular culture. At a time when afterschool programs are under pressure to become extensions of the school day, this research argues for recognition of and support for the different functions such programs can serve when structured as alternative spaces for learning and identity formation.