Prevalence of General and Abdominal Obesity in a Nationally Representative Sample of Iranian Children and Adolescents: The CASPIAN-IV Study

Background: Pediatric obesity is one of the predisposing risk factors for many non-communicable diseases. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to estimate the national prevalence of general and abdominal obesity among Iranian children and adolescents. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional nation-wide study was performed in 30 provinces in Iran among 14880 school students aged 6 – 18 years, selected by multistage random cluster sampling. The World Health Organization growth curve was used to categorize Body Mass Index (BMI). Obesity was defined as BMI equal to or higher than the age- and gender-specific 95th percentile; abdominal obesity was considered as waist-to-height ratio of more than 0.5. Results: Data of 13486 out of 14880 invited students were complete (response rate of 90.6%). They consisted of 6543 girls and 75.6% urban residents, and had a mean age of 12.45 (95% CI: 12.40 - 12.51) years. The prevalence rate of general and abdominal obesity was 11.89% (13.58% of boys vs. 10.15% of girls) and 19.12% (20.41% of boys vs. 17.79% of girls), respectively. The highest frequency of obesity was found in the middle school students (13.87% general and 20.84% abdominal obesity). The highest prevalence of general obesity was found in Boushehr (19%) followed by Guilan and Mazandaran (18.3%, 18.3%), while the lowest prevalence was observed in Hormozgan (2.6%). The highest frequency of abdominal obesity was found in Mazandaran (30.2%), Ardabil (29.2%) and Tehran (27.9%). Provinces such as Sistan-Baloochestan (8.4%), Hormozagan (7.4%), and Kerman (11.4%) had the lowest prevalence of abdominal obesity. The Southern and South Eastern provinces had the lowest prevalence of general obesity (2.6% and 5.6%) and abdominal obesity (7.4% and 8.8%). Moreover, the highest prevalence of obesity was found in North and North West Iran by maximum frequency of 18.3% general obesity and 30.2% of abdominal obesity. Conclusions: The results showed a high prevalence of general and abdominal obesity among boys living in the Northern provinces of Iran. The present study provides insights that policy makers should consider action-oriented interventions for prevention and control of childhood obesity at national and sub-national level.

Association of body composition indices with insulin resistance in European adolescents: the HELENA study

Background: The different body components may contribute to the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The aim of the present study was to examine the association of fat mass and fat free mass indices with markers of insulin resistance, independently of each other and giving, at the same time, gender-specific information in a wide cohort of European adolescents. Methods: A cross-sectional study in a school setting was conducted in 925 (430 males) adolescents (14.9 ± 1.2 years). Weight, height, anthropometric, bioimpedance and blood parameters were measured. Indices for fat mass and fat free mass, and homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) were calculated. Multiple regression analyses were performed adjusting for several confounders including fat free mass and fat mass when possible. Results: Indices of fat mass were positively associated with HOMA (all p < 0.01) after adjusting for all the confounders including fat free mass indices, in both sexes. Fat free mass indices were associated with HOMA, in both males and females, after adjusting for center, pubertal status, socioeconomic status and cardiorespiratory fitness, but the associations disappear when including fat mass indices in the adjustment's model. Conclusion: Fat mass indices derived from different methods are positively associated with insulin resistance independently of several confounders including fat free mass indices. In addition, the relationship of fat free mass with insulin resistance is influenced by the amount of fat mass in European adolescents. Nevertheless, future studies should focus not only on the role of fat mass, but also on other body components such as fat free mass because its role could vary depending of the level and distribution of fat mass.

Influência de variáveis sociodemográficas nos comportamentos desviantes

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada no ISPA - Instituto Universitário

Health profile of centenarians in Portugal: a census-based approach

Background: The number of centenarians is rapidly increasing in Europe. In Portugal, it has almost tripled over the last 10 years and constitutes one of the fastest-growing segments of the population. This paper aims to describe the health and sociodemographic characteristics of Portuguese centenarians as given in the 2011 census and to identify sex differences. Methods: All persons living in Portugal mainland and Madeira and Azores islands aged 100 years old at the time of the 2011 census (N = 1,526) were considered. Measures include sociodemographic characteristics and perceived difficulties in six functional domains of basic actions (seeing, hearing, walking, cognition, self-care, and communication) as assessed by the Portuguese census official questionnaires. Results: Most centenarians are women (82.1 %), widowed (82 %), never attended school (51 %), and live in private households (71 %). The majority show major constraints in seeing (67.4 %), hearing (72.3 %), and particularly in their mobility (83.7 % cannot/have great difficulties in walking/climbing stairs and 80.7 % in bathing/dressing). In general, a better outcome was found for reported memory/concentration and understanding, with 39.1 % and 42.5 % presenting no or mild difficulty, respectively. Top-level functioning (no/mild difficulties in all dimensions concurrently) was observed in a minority of cases (5.96 %). Women outnumber men by a ratio of 4.6, and statistically significant differences were found between men and women for all health-related variables, with women presenting a higher percentage of difficulties. Conclusion: Portuguese centenarians experience great difficulties in sensory domains and basic daily living activities, and to a lesser extent in cognition and communication. The obtained profile, though self-reported, is important in considering the potential of social and family participation of this population regardless of their functional and sensory limitations. Based on the observed differences between men and women, gender-specific and gender-sensitive interventions are recommended in order to acknowledge women’s worse overall condition.

Estilos de Liderança dos Diretores Técnicos e Satisfação dos Colaboradores : Estudo realizado em IPSS`s dos Distritos da Guarda e Viseu

Introdução: Este trabalho trata-se de um estudo quantitativo, transversal, descritivo e correlacional. Objetivos: O presente estudo teve como principal objetivo conhecer, na perspetiva dos colaboradores, a relação entre os estilos de liderança utilizados pelos diretores técnicos e a satisfação dos colaboradores em nove IPSS`s dos distritos da Guarda e Viseu, atendendo ainda à relevância de variáveis sociodemográficas e profissionais no âmbito da satisfação no trabalho. Métodos: A amostra é constituída por 85 colaboradores e o instrumento de recolha de dados agrega questões de caracterização sociodemográfica e profissional e duas escalas, já validadas para avaliar: i) o grau de satisfação nas várias dimensões do trabalho (elaborada pelo Instituto da Segurança Social, 2007) e ii) o estilo de liderança dos diretores técnicos (elaborada por Melo, 2004), segundo a perspetiva dos colaboradores. Resultados: Os resultados obtidos indicam que o estilo de liderança relacional é o que promove maior satisfação e o estilo de liderança voltado para a tarefa menor satisfação. Conclusões: O estudo das hipóteses permitiu observar que as variáveis: género, tipo de contrato, tempo de serviço e habilitações literárias interferem na satisfação dos colaboradores com o trabalho.

Prevalencia de sintomatología musculoesqueléticade una empresa outsourcing operativa. Bogotá, Colombia, 2016

La prevalencia de sintomatología osteomuscular en los trabajadores va en aumento. La influencia de factores propios de la labor como la postura, los movimientos repetitivos, el tipo de remuneración y los factores sociodemográficos como la edad, el sexo y el índice de masa corporal pueden influir en la aparición temprana de sintomatología osteomuscular. Objetivo: Determinar la prevalencia de sintomatología musculoesquelética en trabajadores de una empresa Outsourcing operativa en la ciudad de Bogotá Colombia en el año 2016. Métodos: Se realizó un estudio de corte transversal para la estimación de la prevalencia de sintomatología musculoesquelética para lo cual se utilizó una fuente de datos secundaria de 323 trabajadores de una empresa Outsourcing operativa. Se tuvieron en cuenta las variables sociodemográficas y laborales. El análisis descriptivo incluyó el cálculo de la media y los porcentajes. El análisis comparativo se realizó por medio del Test Chi² con una significancia estadística p <0.05 para un intervalo de confianza del 95%. Por último se realizó un análisis de regresión logístico. Resultados: Del total de la población estudiada, la cual fue de 323 personas, el 55.4% de los trabajadores corresponde al sexo femenino y el 44.6% corresponde al sexo masculino. El promedio de edad fue de 30.34 años. El tiempo en el cargo que presentó mayor prevalencia fue entre 13 a 60 meses con un porcentaje de 60,7%. Para el estudio se incluyó la variable de tipo de remuneración con un porcentaje de 58.2% de pago por salario mínimo legal mensual vigente (SMLMV), mientras que el 41.8% de la población recibió pago por destajo. La prevalencia de sintomatología por segmentos en la población fue de 17.3% para espalda baja, el 12,1% para mano y muñeca, el 10.2% para piernas, el 7.7% para espalda alta, el 7,4% para cuello, el 7,1% para hombro, el 6.2% para brazos y antebrazos y el 2,5% para dedos. Se aplicó un modelo de regresión logístico, analizando variables de confusión e interacción, estas últimas no aportaron al modelo. Con la variable tipo de remuneración, se encontró una asociación estadística significativa (P= 0.005) con la sintomatología. Para las demás variables sociodemográficas y extra-laborales no se obtuvieron resultados estadísticamente significativos Conclusión: Teniendo en cuenta los resultados obtenidos en el estudio se encontró asociación estadísticamente significativa entre la sintomatología de los segmentos cuello y manos con la variable sociodemográfica (sexo) y la variable laboral (tipo de remuneración: Destajo). Para las demás variables no se encontró asociación. Se sugiere realizar programas de vigilancia epidemiológica para hacerle seguimiento a esta población y que permitan la prevención de enfermedades de origen laboral.

Tolerance optimization with statistical approach in the CAT environment

Nowadays, product development in all its phases plays a fundamental role in the industrial chain. The need for a company to compete at high levels, the need to be quick in responding to market demands and therefore to be able to engineer the product quickly and with a high level of quality, has led to the need to get involved in new more advanced methods/ processes. In recent years, we are moving away from the concept of 2D-based design and production and approaching the concept of Model Based Definition. By using this approach, increasingly complex systems turn out to be easier to deal with but above all cheaper in obtaining them. Thanks to the Model Based Definition it is possible to share data in a lean and simple way to the entire engineering and production chain of the product. The great advantage of this approach is precisely the uniqueness of the information. In this specific thesis work, this approach has been exploited in the context of tolerances with the aid of CAD / CAT software. Tolerance analysis or dimensional variation analysis is a way to understand how sources of variation in part size and assembly constraints propagate between parts and assemblies and how that range affects the ability of a project to meet its requirements. It is critically important to note how tolerance directly affects the cost and performance of products. Worst Case Analysis (WCA) and Statistical analysis (RSS) are the two principal methods in DVA. The thesis aims to show the advantages of using statistical dimensional analysis by creating and examining various case studies, using PTC CREO software for CAD modeling and CETOL 6σ for tolerance analysis. Moreover, it will be provided a comparison between manual and 3D analysis, focusing the attention to the information lost in the 1D case. The results obtained allow us to highlight the need to use this approach from the early stages of the product design cycle.

‘Wooden Man’? : Masculinities in the Work of J. M. Coetzee (Boyhood, Youth and Summertime)

In seeking to advance the possibility of justice, gender and postcolonial studies have argued for the importance of the study of masculinities, through the acknowledgment that a richer understanding of such gendered formations may provide the basis for recognition of the Other and that, left uncriticised, such formations may be continuously delineated by the reproduction of systems of domination. The current study finds as its object the representations of masculinities in J. M. Coetzee’s Boyhood (1997), Youth (2002) and Summertime (2009). As works of transition in terms of Coetzee’s oeuvre - post-apartheid and post-Disgrace - the trilogy provides an account of the development of a man through several stages of life. While portraying the tensions of different geographical and cultural locations, such as apartheid South Africa and the London of the Sixties, the trilogy articulates the various norms that impact in the formation of gender, particularly of masculinities, through a complex system of power relations. The adherence to such norms is never linear, as the trilogy provides imaginative accounts of the contradictions that assist in the formulation of gender, depicting both the allure and the terror that constitute hegemonic masculinity. Located in the intersection of gender and postcolonial studies, the present study is based on the works by Raewyn Connell on masculinities. Animated by such a critical framework, the main research question of the present study is whether the trilogy advances a notion of masculinity that differs from the traditional rigid model, that is, whether there is resistance to hegemonic masculinity and what the spaces inhabited by the subaltern are. It is suggested that the trilogy presents the reader with instances of resistance to normative formulations of masculinity, by contrasting domination with the possibility of justice, and advancing an understanding of the often fatal consequences of gender norms to one’s sense of being in the world.

Equality Bill: Making it work Policy proposals for specific duties: Policy Statement

The new single Equality Duty represents a next step in equality legislation. The existing public sector equality duties for race, disability and gender were pioneering pieces of legislation which placed the public sector at the forefront of tackling discrimination and inequality.Many have seen the benefits the existing duties have delivered, but now is the time to go further. the aim of this bill is to extend the benefits of the equality duties to the other protected characteristics of age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, and religion or belief.The Equality Duty will require public bodies to think about how they can eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations for all the protected groups.

Work values as predictors of entrepreneurial career intentions: A longitudinal analysis of gender effects

Purpose - Work values are an important characteristic to understand gender differences in career intentions, but how gender affects the relationship between values and career intentions is not well established. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether gender moderates the effects of work values on level and change of entrepreneurial intentions (EI). Design/methodology/approach - In total, 218 German university students were sampled regarding work values and with EI assessed three times over the course of 12 months. Data were analysed with latent growth modelling. Findings - Self-enhancement and openness to change values predicted higher levels and conservation values lower levels of EI. Gender moderated the effects of enhancement and conservation values on change in EI. Research limitations/implications - The authors relied on self-reported measures and the sample was restricted to university students. Future research needs to verify to what extent these results generalize to other samples and different career fields, such as science or nursing. Practical implications - The results imply that men and women are interested in an entrepreneurial career based on the same work values but that values have different effects for men and women regarding individual changes in EI. The results suggest that the prototypical work values of a career domain seem important regarding increasing the career intent for the gender that is underrepresented in that domain. Originality/value - The results enhance understanding of how gender affects the relation of work values and a specific career intention, such as entrepreneurship.

The state of the youth: prisons, drugs and car crashes

By virtue of the volume and nature of their attributions, including secondary school as well as problem-areas such as security and traffic, the Brazilian states are the ultimate responsible entities for young people. This study argues in favour of granting greater freedom for the states to define their own public policy parameters to deal with local features and to increase the degree of learning about such actions at the national level. In empirical terms, the study assesses the impacts of new laws, such as the new traffic code (from the joint work with Leandro Kume, EPGE/FGV doctor’s degree student) and traces the statistics for specific questions like drugs, violence and car accidents. The findings show that these questions produce different results for young men and women.The main characters in these dramas are young single males, suggesting the need for more distinguished public policies according not only to age, but also by gender. The study also reveals that the magnitude of these problems changes according to the youth’s social class. Prisons concern poorer men (except for the functional illiterate) while fatal car accidents and the confessed use of drugs concern upper-class boys.

Percorsi di gender performance: fotografia tra arte e moda dagli anni Novanta ad oggi

My project explores and compares different forms of gender performance in contemporary art and visual culture according to a perspective centered on photography. Thanks to its attesting power this medium can work as a ready-made. In fact during the 20th century it played a key role in the cultural emancipation of the body which (using a Michel Foucault’s expression) has now become «the zero point of the world». Through performance the body proves to be a living material of expression and communication while photography ensures the recording of any ephemeral event that happens in time and space. My questioning approach considers the gender constructed imagery from the 1990s to the present in order to investigate how photography’s strong aura of realism promotes and allows fantasies of transformation. The contemporary fascination with gender (especially for art and fashion) represents a crucial issue in the global context of postmodernity and is manifested in a variety of visual media, from photography to video and film. Moreover the internet along with its digital transmission of images has deeply affected our world (from culture to everyday life) leading to a postmodern preference for performativity over the more traditional and linear forms of narrativity. As a consequence individual borders get redefined by the skin itself which (dissected through instant vision) turns into a ductile material of mutation and hybridation in the service of identity. My critical assumptions are taken from the most relevant changes occurred in philosophy during the last two decades as a result of the contributions by Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze who developed a cross-disciplinary and comparative approach to interpret the crisis of modernity. They have profoundly influenced feminist studies so that the category of gender has been reassessed in contrast with sex (as a biological connotation) and in relation to history, culture, society. The ideal starting point of my research is the year 1990. I chose it as the approximate historical moment when the intersection of race, class and gender were placed at the forefront of international artistic production concerned with identity, diversity and globalization. Such issues had been explored throughout the 1970s but it was only from the mid-1980s onward that they began to be articulated more consistently. Published in 1990, the book "Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity" by Judith Butler marked an important breakthrough by linking gender to performance as well as investigating the intricate connections between theory and practice, embodiment and representation. It inspired subsequent research in a variety of disciplines, art history included. In the same year Teresa de Lauretis launched the definition of queer theory to challenge the academic perspective in gay and lesbian studies. In the meantime the rise of Third Wave Feminism in the US introduced a racially and sexually inclusive vision over the global situation in order to reflect on subjectivity, new technologies and popular culture in connection with gender representation. These conceptual tools have enabled prolific readings of contemporary cultural production whether fine arts or mass media. After discussing the appropriate framework of my project and taking into account the postmodern globalization of the visual, I have turned to photography to map gender representation both in art and in fashion. Therefore I have been creating an archive of images around specific topics. I decided to include fashion photography because in the 1990s this genre moved away from the paradigm of an idealized and classical beauty toward a new vernacular allied with lifestyles, art practices, pop and youth culture; as one might expect the dominant narrative modes in fashion photography are now mainly influenced by cinema and snapshot. These strategies originate story lines and interrupted narratives using models’ performance to convey a particular imagery where identity issues emerge as an essential part of fashion spectacle. Focusing on the intersections of gender identities with socially and culturally produced identities, my approach intends to underline how the fashion world has turned to current trends in art photography and in some case turned to the artists themselves. The growing fluidity of the categories that distinguish art from fashion photography represents a particularly fruitful moment of visual exchange. Varying over time the dialogue between these two fields has always been vital; nowadays it can be studied as a result of this close relationship between contemporary art world and consumer culture. Due to the saturation of postmodern imagery the feedback between art and fashion has become much more immediate and then increasingly significant for anyone who wants to investigate the construction of gender identity through performance. In addition to that a lot of magazines founded in the 1990s bridged the worlds of art and fashion because some of their designers and even editors were art-school graduates encouraging innovation. The inclusion of art within such magazines aimed at validating them as a form of art in themselves supporting a dynamic intersection for music, fashion, design and youth culture: an intersection that also contributed to create and spread different gender stereotypes. This general interest in fashion produced many exhibitions of and about fashion itself at major international venues such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Since then this celebrated success of fashion has been regarded as a typical element of postmodern culture. Owing to that I have also based my analysis on some important exhibitions dealing with gender performance like "Féminin-Masculin" at the Centre Pompidou of Paris (1995), "Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose. Gender performance in photography" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of New York (1997), "Global Feminisms" at the Brooklyn Museum (2007), "Female Trouble" at the Pinakothek der Moderne in München together with the workshops dedicated to "Performance: gender and identity" in June 2005 at the Tate Modern of London. Since 2003 in Italy we have had Gender Bender - an international festival held annually in Bologna - to explore the gender imagery stemming from contemporary culture. In few days this festival offers a series of events ranging from visual arts, performance, cinema, literature to conferences and music. Being aware that any method of research is neither race nor gender neutral I have traced these critical paths to question gender identity in a multicultural perspective taking account of the political implications too. In fact, if visibility may be equated with exposure, we can also read these images as points of intersection of visibility with social power. Since gender assignations rely so heavily on the visual, the postmodern dismantling of gender certainty through performance has wide-ranging effects that need to be analyzed. In some sense this practice can even contest the dominance of visual within postmodernism. My visual map in contemporary art and fashion photography includes artists like Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, Hellen van Meene, Rineke Dijkstra, Ed Templeton, Ryan McGinley, Anne Daems, Miwa Yanagi, Tracey Moffat, Catherine Opie, Tomoko Sawada, Vanessa Beecroft, Yasumasa Morimura, Collier Schorr among others.

Work values as predictors of entrepreneurial career intentions: A longitudinal analysis of gender effects.

Purpose – Work values are an important characteristic to understand gender differences in career intentions, but how gender affects the relationship between values and career intentions is not well established. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether gender moderates the effects of work values on level and change of entrepreneurial intentions (EI). Design/methodology/approach – In total, 218 German university students were sampled regarding work values and with EI assessed three times over the course of 12 months. Data were analysed with latent growth modelling. Findings – Self‐enhancement and openness to change values predicted higher levels and conservation values lower levels of EI. Gender moderated the effects of enhancement and conservation values on change in EI. Research limitations/implications – The authors relied on self‐reported measures and the sample was restricted to university students. Future research needs to verify to what extent these results generalize to other samples and different career fields, such as science or nursing. Practical implications – The results imply that men and women are interested in an entrepreneurial career based on the same work values but that values have different effects for men and women regarding individual changes in EI. The results suggest that the prototypical work values of a career domain seem important regarding increasing the career intent for the gender that is underrepresented in that domain. Originality/value – The results enhance understanding of how gender affects the relation of work values and a specific career intention, such as entrepreneurship.

Transforming Youth Identities: Interactions Across ""Races/Colors/Ethnicities,"" Gender, Class, and Sexualities in Johannesburg, South Africa

In South Africa, and especially in Johannesburg, apartheid's ""racial"" paradigms are being transformed. Fifteen years after the end of apartheid and the elimination of all forms of inequity based on notion of ""race,"" including the abolition of the Immorality Act of 1949 that prohibited mixed marriages, the discourses of youth challenge preestablished boundaries. Today, the South African Constitution gives people the right to proclaim their sexual orientation and to shape their own identities. Through ethnographic observations carried out in Johannesburg and in-depth interviews with young people, this paper explores transforming notions of identity based on ""race/color/ethnicity,"" gender, class, and sexuality. The dynamics and challenges faced by young people with regards to mixed interactions in post-apartheid Johannesburg are analyzed and the paper looks at how "" race,"" gender, and sexuality interact in the various spaces in Johannesburg and how they affect young people's lives, particularly their perceptions of risk, violence, and HIV/AIDS vulnerability.