Handicapped from birth? Why women golfers are traditionally a fairway behind

Examines the values and assumptions that underpin and validate the subordinate status of women in Australian golf, and shows how longstanding structures, systems and practices continue to sustain existing class and gender hierarchies. Solutions require a major change in golfing culture and tradition.

Television time and continuous metabolic risk in physically active adults

Purpose: Among Australian adults who met the public health guideline for the minimum health-enhancing levels of physical activity, we examined the dose-response associations of television-viewing time with continuous metabolic risk variables.

Methods: Data were analyzed on 2031 men and 2033 women aged >= 25 yr from the 1999-2000 Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle study without clinically diagnosed diabetes or heart disease, who reported at least 2.5 h·wk-1 of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity. Waist circumference, resting blood pressure, and fasting and 2-h plasma glucose, triglycerides, and high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were measured. The cross-sectional associations of these metabolic variables with quartiles and hours per day of self-reported television-viewing time were examined separately for men and for women. Analyses were adjusted for age, education, income, smoking, diet quality, alcohol intake, parental history of diabetes, and total physical activity time, as well as menopausal status and current use of postmenopausal hormones for women.

Results: Significant, detrimental dose-response associations of television-viewing time were observed with waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, and 2-h plasma glucose in men and women, and with fasting plasma glucose, triglycerides, and HDL-C in women. The associations were stronger in women than in men, with significant gender interactions observed for triglycerides and HDL-C. Though waist circumference attenuated the associations, they remained statistically significant for 2-h plasma glucose in men and women, and for triglycerides and HDL-C in women.

Conclusions: In a population of healthy Australian adults who met the public health guideline for physical activity, television-viewing time was positively associated with a number of metabolic risk variables. These findings support the case for a concurrent sedentary behavior and health guideline for adults, which is in addition to the public health guideline on physical activity.

Perceptions of representatives of public, private, and community sector institutions of the barriers and enablers for physically active transport

Active transport bridges many shared concerns in the public health and transport sectors. To positively affect opportunities for active transport, public health and transport professionals are engaging with other sectors, including urban planning, housing, recreation, retail, education, and employer groups. A first step in such inter-sectoral collaboration is to understand the perceptions of key players in all of these sectors. This paper describes the results of structured interviews with senior and middle-level administrators from public, private, and community groups in a rapidly developing region in Queensland, Australia, to assess the perceived barriers and enablers to active transport. Key themes emerged relating to infrastructure delivery, public transport services, walk- and cycle-friendly community attributes, political leadership and government coordination, and societal travel norms and culture. There were also themes relating to limits due to resources and limited relevant technical expertise, institutional and practitioner cultures, and agencies not identifying with their roles in active transport. Policies and cross-government initiatives were seen to hold promise, including economic incentives and built environment guidelines, campaigns targeting public attitudes and opinions, and community participation in policy-making. These elements are potential keys to positively promoting comprehensive active transport initiatives among gatekeepers and leaders across different sectors.

Physically based simulation of heterogeneous deformable models using XFEM

This paper addresses the problem of heterogeneous deformable model accuracy using the finite element methods (FEM). Classic FEM uses predefined shape functions for interpolation and does not account easily for regions of discontinuities. Extended finite element methods (XFEM) use enrichment functions to compensate for the change in an element degrees of freedom (DoFs) in deformable objects. The XFEM is an accurate and fast method as no remeshing is required. In this study we investigate the performance of XFEM and demonstrate how it may be applied to discontinuities of materials that exist in heterogeneous (piece-wise homogeneous) models. The results show realistic stress prediction compared to modeling the same objects with classic FEM.

Characteristics of physically active and inactive men from low socioeconomic communities and housing estates : a qualitative study using the socioecological model

This qualitative study compares experiences of men from low socioeconomic status (SES) communities who achieved sufficient physical activity (PA) with those who did not. The socioecological model of health guided interviews with men (n=25) and community health workers (n=4) to explore individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, environmental and policy influences on PA participation. Men generally reported that they had poor health, financial barriers, were unfamiliar with community PA facilities and programs, had limited social support, and lived in unsafe neighbourhoods. There were clear differences between active and inactive men. Inactive men described their inability to cope with poor health, and consequent perceptions of disconnection. They did not identify positive PA outcomes and seemed consumed by stressful life situations. Active men identified barriers to existing programs such as the exclusive culture of PA facilities. It is important that personal circumstances are understood, and financial and cultural barriers addressed to promote PA among men from low SES communities.

Fiber-specific responses of muscle glycogen repletion in fasted rats physically active during recovery from high-intensity physical exertion

Mild physical activity performed immediately after a bout of intense exercise in fasting humans results in net glycogen breakdown in their slow oxidative (SO) muscle fibers and glycogen repletion in their fast twitch (FT) fibers. Because several animal species carry a low proportion of SO fibers, it is unclear whether they can also replenish glycogen in their FT fibers under these conditions. Given that most skeletal muscles in rats are poor in SO fibers (<5%), this issue was examined using groups of 24-h fasted Wistar rats (n = 10) that swam for 3 min at high intensity with a 10% weight followed by either a 60-min rest (passive recovery, PR) or a 30-min swim with a 0.5% weight (active recovery, AR) preceding a 30-min rest. The 3-min sprint caused 61–79% glycogen fall across the muscles examined, but not in the soleus (SOL). Glycogen repletion during AR without food was similar to PR in the white gastrocnemius (WG), where glycogen increased by 71%, and less than PR in both the red and mixed gastrocnemius (RG, MG). Glycogen fell by 26% during AR in the SOL. Following AR, glycogen increased by 36%, 87%, and 37% in the SOL, RG, and MG, respectively, and this was accompanied by the sustained activation of glycogen synthase and inhibition of glycogen phosphorylase in the RG and MG. These results suggest that mammals with a low proportion of SO fibers can also replenish the glycogen stores of their FT fibers under extreme conditions combining physical activity and fasting.

Subjective job task analyses for physically demanding occupations : what is best practice?

Workers in physically demanding occupations (PDOs) are frequently subjected to physical selection tests. To avoid legal ramifications, workplaces must be able to show that any personnel selection procedures reflect the inherent requirements of the job. A job task analysis (JTA) is fundamental in determining the work tasks required for employees. To date, there are no published instructions guiding PDO researchers on how to conduct job task analyses. Job task analysis research for non-PDOs offers some insight into the expected reliability and validity of data obtained on the most prevalent task domains in job analysis (importance, frequency, time spent and difficulty). This review critiques such research, and the existing published material on JTA of PDOs, and provides recommendations for future research and practice.

'You're no-one if you're not a netball girl' : rural and regional living adolescent girls' negotiation of physically active identities

Despite the widely articulated health implications of physical inactivity, declines in youth participation levels, particularly for adolescent girls, have fuelled social and moral panics about the importance of regular physical activity. Recent attempts to explain these participation trends have focused on the institutional and cultural discourses that are drawn on to construct particular identities and social practices connected with sport, physical education and leisure interests. In this paper we report on the findings of data collected through interview and focus group sessions with 138 females ranging from 14 to 16 years of age across six rural and regional communities in the state of Victoria, Australia. Adopting a feminist poststructuralist methodology and drawing on the work of Foucault, we explore the impact that dominant discourse-power relations operating in the context of rural and regional sport and physical education can have in the negotiation of physically active identities for adolescent girls.

Trunk postures and upper-body muscle activation during physically demanding wildfire suppression tasks

This study examined the trunk postures and upper-body muscle activations during four physically demanding wildfire suppression tasks. Bilateral, wireless surface electromyography was recorded from the trapezius and erector spinae muscles of nine experienced, wildfire fighters. Synchronised video captured two retroreflective markers to allow for quantification of two-dimensional sagittal trunk flexion. In all tasks, significantly longer time was spent in the mild and severe trunk flexion (p ≤ 0.002) compared to the time spent in a neutral posture. Mean and peak muscle activation in all tasks exceeded previously established safe limits. These activation levels also significantly increased through the performance of each task (p < 0.001). The results suggest that the wildfire suppression tasks analysed impose significant musculoskeletal demand on firefighters. Fire agencies should consider developing interventions to reduce the exposure of their personnel to these potentially injurious musculoskeletal demands.

A physically based phenomenological model for deformation twinning in magnesium alloy

A partial differential equation is developed that captures the evolution of key characteristics of tensile twinning in magnesium base alloys. The objective is to provide a framework for ascertaining the effects of hardening – due to grain refinement, precipitation and dislocation substructure – on twin volume fraction, thickness and length. The model is developed with the help of observations made on alloy AZ31. It is shown that it is necessary to consider the nucleation of twins at locations where neighbouring twins impinge on the grain boundary. The model provides a reasonable approximation for the role of grain size on twinning. It predicts a period of low apparent work hardening following yielding and shows that this should be more extensive for finer grain sizes, in agreement with experiment. Finally, some predictions are made on the effect of changing the resistance to twinning.