What determines weight loss behaviour and body weight satisfaction in Australia? Evidence from the HILDA survey

This thesis undertakes an empirical investigation to identify factors that influence the decision to undertake weight loss behaviour using the nationally representative HILDA dataset. Although many factors influenced the decision, the findings suggested that body weight satisfaction was the greatest determinant of weight loss dieting. This thesis therefore conducted a further empirical study to analyse the determinants of body weight satisfaction. A rank-hypothesis was found to better predict variation in body weight satisfaction levels than the absolute value of the individual's Body Mass Index (BMI) or the relative-norm hypothesis, which are commonly reported in the literature.

The effect of alcohol on the body: Under the limit drink driving rehabilitation program

This video was prepared as a teaching resource for CARRS-Q's Under the Limit Drink Driving Rehabilitation Program

Whole-Body Imaging with Single-Cell Resolution by Tissue Decolorization

The development of whole-body imaging at single-cell resolution enables system-level approaches to studying cellular circuits in organisms. Previous clearing methods focused on homogenizing mismatched refractive indices of individual tissues, enabling reductions in opacity but falling short of achieving transparency. Here, we show that an aminoalcohol decolorizes blood by efficiently eluting the heme chromophore from hemoglobin. Direct transcardial perfusion of an aminoalcohol-containing cocktail that we previously termed CUBIC coupled with a 10 day to 2 week clearing protocol decolorized and rendered nearly transparent almost all organs of adult mice as well as the entire body of infant and adult mice. This CUBIC-perfusion protocol enables rapid whole-body and whole-organ imaging at single-cell resolution by using light-sheet fluorescent microscopy. The CUBIC protocol is also applicable to 3D pathology, anatomy, and immunohistochemistry of various organs. These results suggest that whole-body imaging of colorless tissues at high resolution will contribute to organism-level systems biology.

The space of make: A topological account of the studio

Approaches to art-practice-as-research tend to draw a distinction between the processes of creative practice and scholarly reflection. According to this template, the two sites of activity – studio/desk, work/writing, body/mind – form the ‘correlative’ entity known as research. Creative research is said to be produced by the navigation of world and thought: spaces that exist in a continual state of tension with one another. Either we have the studio tethered to brute reality while the desk floats free as a site for the fluid cross-pollination of texts and concepts. Or alternatively, the studio is characterized by the amorphous, intuitive play of forms and ideas, while the desk represents its cartography, mapping and fixing its various fluidities. In either case, the research status of art practice is figured as a fundamentally riven space. However, the nascent philosophy of Speculative Realism proposes a different ontology – one in which the space of human activity comprises its own reality, independent of human perception. The challenge it poses to traditional metaphysics is to rethink the world as if it were a real space. When applied to practice-led research, this reconceptualization challenges the creative researcher to consider creative research as a contiguous space – a topology where thinking and making are not dichotomous points but inflections in an amorphous and dynamic field. Instead of being subject to the vertical tension between earth and air, a topology of practice emphasizes its encapsulated, undulating reality – an agentive ‘object’ formed according to properties of connectedness, movement and differentiation. Taking the central ideas of Quentin Meillassoux and Graham Harman as a point of departure, this paper will provide a speculative account of the interplay of spatialities that characterise the author’s studio practice. In so doing, the paper will model the innovative methodological potential produced by the analysis of topological dimensions of the studio and the way they can be said to move beyond the ‘geo-critical’ divide.

Description of body posture during Static load bearing exercises for individuals with transfemoral amputation fitted with bone-anchored prosthesis

The rehabilitation programs of bone-anchorage prostheses relying either on the OPRA (Integrum, Sweden) or the ILP (Orthodynamics, Germany) fixation involve some forms of static load bearing exercises (LBE). So far, most of biomechanical studies of these static LBEs focused on the direct measurements of the actual forces and moments applied on the OPRA fixation of individuals with transfemoral amputation (TFA). To date, the proof-of-concept of an apparatus to conduct these kinetic measurements has been presented, along with some preliminary data. The understanding of the kinetic data is essential to improve rehabilitation programs as well as the design of upcoming loading frames. However, kinetic information alone is difficult to interpret without concomitant kinematic data. The purpose of this preliminary study was to introduce a qualitative analysis describing the different body postures during LBE for a group of TFAs.

Comparison of Body Composition Assessment Methods in Breast Cancer Survivors

Purpose/Objectives: To examine and compare the reliability of four body composition methods commonly used in assessing breast cancer survivors. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: A rehabilitation facility at a university-based comprehensive cancer center in the southeastern United States. Sample: 14 breast cancer survivors aged 40-71 years. Methods: Body fat (BF) percentage was estimated via bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA), air displacement plethysmography (ADP), and skinfold thickness (SKF) using both three- and seven-site algorithms, where reliability of the methods was evaluated by conducting two tests for each method (test 1 and test 2), one immediately after the other. An analysis of variance was used to compare the results of BF percentage among the four methods. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to test the reliability of each method. Main Research Variable: BF percentage. Findings: Significant differences in BF percentage were observed between BIA and all other methods (three-site SKF, p < 0.001; seven-site SKF, p < 0.001; ADP, p = 0.002). No significant differences (p > 0.05) in BF percentage between three-site SKF, seven-site SKF, and ADP were observed. ICCs between test 1 and test 2 for each method were BIA = 1, ADP = 0.98, three-site SKF = 0.99, and seven-site SKF = 0.94. Conclusions: ADP and both SKF methods produce similar estimates of BF percentage in all participants, whereas BIA overestimated BF percentage relative to the other measures. Caution is recommended when using BIA as the body composition method for breast cancer survivors who have completed treatment but are still undergoing adjuvant hormonal therapy. Implications for Nursing: Measurements of body composition can be implemented very easily as part of usual care and should serve as an objective outcome measure for interventions designed to promote healthy behaviors among breast cancer survivors. - See more at: https://onf.ons.org/onf/38/4/comparison-body-composition-assessment-methods-breast-cancer-survivors#sthash.5djfTS1Q.dpuf

The fluid nature of action research

Action research is a fluid, unfolding process of research. It involves cycles of questioning, gathering data, critical reflection and deciding on a course of action (Stringer, 2008). Through action research, educators research their own practice in their own setting. They learn from their experiences as the action research cycles progress, and apply new learning to practice.

Wake angle for surface gravity waves on a finite depth fluid

Linear water wave theory suggests that wave patterns caused by a steadily moving disturbance are contained within a wedge whose half-angle depends on the depth-based Froude number $F_H$. For the problem of flow past an axisymmetric pressure distribution in a finite-depth channel, we report on the apparent angle of the wake, which is the angle of maximum peaks. For moderately deep channels, the dependence of the apparent wake angle on the Froude number is very different to the wedge angle, and varies smoothly as $F_H$ passes through the critical value $F_H=1$. For shallow water, the two angles tend to follow each other more closely, which leads to very large apparent wake angles for certain regimes.

Predicting people’s intention to donate their body to medical science and research

Predictors of people’s intention to register with a body bequest program for donating their deceased body to medical science and research were examined using standard theory of planned behavior (TPB) predictors (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control) and adding moral norm, altruism, and knowledge. Australian students (N = 221) at a university with a recently established body bequest program completed measures of the TPB’s underlying beliefs (behavioral, normative, and control beliefs) and standard and extended TPB predictors, with a sub-sample reporting their registration-related behavior 2 months later. The standard TPB accounted for 43.6%, and the extended predictors an additional 15.1% of variance in intention. The significant predictors were attitude, subjective norm, and moral norm, partially supporting an extended TPB in understanding people’s body donation intentions. Further, important underlying beliefs can inform strategies to target prospective donors.

Who owns your body? Patricia Piccinini and the future of bioethics

This article analyses some popular cultural representations of biotechnology, especially the artistic work of the Australian artist Patricia Piccinini to reflect on the role of law, technology and ethics in relation to bodily material. Her view that "with creation...comes an obligation to care for the result", so evident in her poignant pictures, is a sober reminder to us of our responsibilities in regulating new technologies.

Influence of habitual physical activity on gastric emptying in healthy males and relationships with body composition and energy expenditure

Although a number of studies have examined the role of gastric emptying (GE) in obesity, the influences of habitual physical activity level, body composition and energy expenditure (EE) on GE have received very little consideration. In this study, we have compared GE in active and inactive males, and we have characterised relationships with body composition (fat and fat free mass) and EE. Forty-four males (Active: n=22, Inactive: n=22; range BMI 21-36kg/m2; range percent fat mass 9-42%) were studied, with GE of a standardised (1676 kJ) pancake meal being assessed by 13C-octanoic acid breath test, body composition by air displacement plethysmography, resting metabolic rate (RMR) by indirect calorimetry and activity EE (AEE) by accelerometry. Results showed that GE was faster in active compared to inactive males (mean ±SD half time (t1/2): Active: 157±18 and Inactive: 179±21 min, p<0.001). When data from both groups were pooled, GE t1/2 was associated with percent fat mass (r=0.39, p<0.01) and AEE (r =-0.46, p<0.01). After controlling for habitual physical activity status, the association between AEE and GE remained, but not that for percent fat mass and GE. BMI and RMR were not associated with GE. In summary, faster GE is considered to be a marker of a habitually active lifestyle in males, and is associated with a higher AEE and lower percent fat mass. The possibility that GE contributes to a gross physiological regulation (or dysregulation) of food intake with physical activity level deserves further investigation.

A tensor-based morphometry study of genetic influences on brain structure using a new fluid registration method

We incorporated a new Riemannian fluid registration algorithm into a general MRI analysis method called tensor-based morphometry to map the heritability of brain morphology in MR images from 23 monozygotic and 23 dizygotic twin pairs. All 92 3D scans were fluidly registered to a common template. Voxelwise Jacobian determinants were computed from the deformation fields to assess local volumetric differences across subjects. Heritability maps were computed from the intraclass correlations and their significance was assessed using voxelwise permutation tests. Lobar volume heritability was also studied using the ACE genetic model. The performance of this Riemannian algorithm was compared to a more standard fluid registration algorithm: 3D maps from both registration techniques displayed similar heritability patterns throughout the brain. Power improvements were quantified by comparing the cumulative distribution functions of the p-values generated from both competing methods. The Riemannian algorithm outperformed the standard fluid registration.

Statistically assisted fluid registration algorithm - SAFIRA

In this paper, we develop and validate a new Statistically Assisted Fluid Registration Algorithm (SAFIRA) for brain images. A non-statistical version of this algorithm was first implemented in [2] and re-formulated using Lagrangian mechanics in [3]. Here we extend this algorithm to 3D: given 3D brain images from a population, vector fields and their corresponding deformation matrices are computed in a first round of registrations using the non-statistical implementation. Covariance matrices for both the deformation matrices and the vector fields are then obtained and incorporated (separately or jointly) in the regularizing (i.e., the non-conservative Lagrangian) terms, creating four versions of the algorithm. We evaluated the accuracy of each algorithm variant using the manually labeled LPBA40 dataset, which provides us with ground truth anatomical segmentations. We also compared the power of the different algorithms using tensor-based morphometry -a technique to analyze local volumetric differences in brain structure- applied to 46 3D brain scans from healthy monozygotic twins.

A lagrangian formulation for statistical fluid registration

We defined a new statistical fluid registration method with Lagrangian mechanics. Although several authors have suggested that empirical statistics on brain variation should be incorporated into the registration problem, few algorithms have included this information and instead use regularizers that guarantee diffeomorphic mappings. Here we combine the advantages of a large-deformation fluid matching approach with empirical statistics on population variability in anatomy. We reformulated the Riemannian fluid algorithmdeveloped in [4], and used a Lagrangian framework to incorporate 0 th and 1st order statistics in the regularization process. 92 2D midline corpus callosum traces from a twin MRI database were fluidly registered using the non-statistical version of the algorithm (algorithm 0), giving initial vector fields and deformation tensors. Covariance matrices were computed for both distributions and incorporated either separately (algorithm 1 and algorithm 2) or together (algorithm 3) in the registration. We computed heritability maps and two vector and tensorbased distances to compare the power and the robustness of the algorithms.