Maternal perception of weight status in first-born Australian toddlers aged 12–16 months – the NOURISH and SAIDI cohorts

Background The preference amongst parents for heavier infants is in contrast to obesity prevention efforts worldwide. Parents are poor at identifying overweight in older children, but few studies have investigated maternal perception of weight status amongst toddlers and none in the Australian setting. Methods Mothers (n = 290) completed a self-administered questionnaire at child age 12–16 months, defining their child's weight status as underweight, normal weight, somewhat overweight or very overweight. Weight-for-length z-score was derived from measured weight and length, and children categorized as underweight, normal weight, at risk overweight or obese (WHO standards). Objective classification was compared with maternal perception of weight status. Mean weight-for-length z-score was compared across categories of maternal perception using one-way ANOVA. Multinomial logistic regression was used to determine child or maternal characteristics associated with inaccurate weight perception. Results Most children (83%) were perceived as normal weight. Twenty nine were described as underweight, although none were. Sixty-six children were at risk of overweight, but 57 of these perceived as normal weight. Of the 14 children who were overweight, only 4 were identified as somewhat overweight by their mother. Compared with mothers who could accurately classify their normal weight child, mothers who were older had higher odds of perceiving their normal weight child as underweight, while mothers with higher body mass index had slightly higher odds of describing their overweight/at risk child as normal weight. Conclusion The leaner but healthy weight toddler was perceived as underweight, while only the heaviest children were recognized as overweight. Mothers unable to accurately identify children at risk are unlikely to act to prevent further excess weight gain. Practitioners can lead a shift in attitudes towards weight in infants and young children, promoting routine growth monitoring and adequate but not rapid weight gain.

Student perception of a new integrated anatomy practical program: Does students' prior learning make a difference?

While there is evidence that science and non-science background students display small differences in performance in basic and clinical sciences, early in a 4-year, graduate entry medical program, this lessens with time. With respect to anatomy knowledge, there are no comparable data as to the impact previous anatomy experience has on the student perception of the anatomy practical learning environment. A study survey was designed to evaluate student perception of the anatomy practical program and its impact on student learning, for the initial cohort of a new medical school. The survey comprised 19 statements requiring a response using a 5-point Likert scale, in addition to a free text opportunity to provide opinion of the perceived educational value of the anatomy practical program. The response rate for a total cohort of 82 students was 89%. The anatomy practical program was highly valued by the students in aiding their learning of anatomy, as indicated by the high mean scores for all statements (range: 4.04-4.7). There was a significant difference between the students who had and had not studied a science course prior to entering medicine, with respect to statements that addressed aspects of the course related to its structure, organization, variety of resources, linkage to problem-based learning cases, and fairness of assessment. Nonscience students were more positive compared to those who had studied science before (P levels ranging from 0.004 to 0.035). Students less experienced in anatomy were more challenged in prioritizing core curricular knowledge. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The Perception of Light: Understanding Architectural Lighting Design

Light is essential to life and vision; without light, nothing exists. It plays a pivotal role in the world of architectural design and is used to generate all manner of perceptions that enhance the designed environment experience. But what are the fundamental elements that designers rely upon to generate light enhanced experiences? How are people’s perceptions influenced by designed light schemas? In this book Dr. Marisha McAuliffe highlights the relationship that exists between light source and surface and how both create quality of effect in the built environment. Concepts relating to architectural lighting design history, theories, research, and generation of lighting design schemes to create optimal experiences in architecture, interior architecture and design are all explored in detail. This book is essential reading for both the student and the professional working in architectural lighting, particularly in terms of qualitative perception oriented lighting design

A Comparison of Managers’ Perception of Short-Termism in Finland, Sweden and the U.S

Increased media exposure to layoffs and corporate quarterly financial reporting have created arguable a common perception – especially favored by the media itself – that the companies have been forced to improve their financial performance from quarter to quarter. Academically the relevant question is whether companies themselves feel that they are exposed to short-term pressure to perform even if it means that they have to compromise company’s long-term future. This paper studies this issue using results from a survey conducted among the 500 largest companies in Finland. The results show that companies in general feel moderate short-term pressure, with reasonable dispersion across firms. There seems to be a link between the degree of pressure felt, and the firm’s ownership structure, i.e. we find support for the existence of short-term versus long-term owners. We also find significant ownership related differences, in line with expectations, in how such short-term pressure is reflected in actual decision variables such as the investment criteria used.

Perception of time-varying signals: timbre and phonetic JND of diphthong

In this paper we propose a linear time-varying model for diphthong synthesis based on linear interpolation of formant frequencies. We, thence, determine the timbre just-noticeable difference (JND) for diphthong /a I/ (as in ‘buy’) with a constant pitch excitation through perception experiment involving four listeners and explore the phonetic JND of the diphthong. Their JND responses are determined using 1-up-3-down procedure. Using the experimental data, we map the timbre JND and phonetic JND onto a 2-D region of percentage change of formant glides. The timbre and phonetic JND contours for constant pitch show that the phonetic JND region encloses timbre JND region and also varies across listeners. The JND is observed to be more sensitive to ending vowel /I/ than starting vowel /a/ in some listeners and dependent on the direction of perturbation of starting and ending vowels.

The algorithm on automated aromaticity perception of molecules

It is important to detect the aromaticity of structures during the process of structure elucidation and output. In this paper, an alogrithm was proposed to detect the aromaticity of structures by the use of algorithm on ring identification. The results show that it could be used to identify most of the aromatic structure. It have been used as constraints of Expert System on Elucidation Structure of Organic Compounds(ESESOC) and a good result has been achieved.