Individual, social and physical environmental correlates of children's active free-play : a cross-sectional study

Background
Children's unstructured outdoor free-play (or active free-play) has the potential to make an important contribution to children's overall physical activity levels. Limited research has, however, examined physical activity in this domain. This study examined associations between individual, social and physical environmental factors and the frequency with which children play in particular outdoor locations outside school hours. This study also investigated whether the frequency of playing in outdoor locations was associated with children's overall physical activity levels.

Methods
Participants including 8-9 year old children and their parents (n = 187) were recruited from a selection of primary schools of varying socioeconomic status across metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. Parents completed a survey and children's overall physical activity levels were measured by accelerometry. Regression models examined the odds of children playing in various outdoor settings according to particular correlates.

Results
Inverse associations were found between preference for activities not involving physical activity, and the likelihood of children playing in the yard at home on the weekend (OR = 0.65; CI = 0.45,0.95). Positive correlates of children playing in their own street included: parental perceptions that it was safe for their child to play in their street (weekdays [OR = 6.46; CI = 2.84,14.71], weekend days [OR = 6.01; CI = 2.68,13.47]); children having many friends in their neighbourhood (OR = 2.63; CI = 1.21,5.76); and living in a cul-de-sac (weekdays [OR = 3.99; CI = 1.65,9.66], weekend days [OR = 3.49; CI = 1.49,8.16]). Positive correlates of more frequent play in the park/playground on weekdays included family going to the park together on a weekly basis on weekdays (OR = 6.8; CI = 3.4,13.6); and on weekend days (OR = 7.36; CI = 3.6,15.0). No differences in mean mins/day of moderate-vigorous physical activity were found between children in the highest and lowest tertiles for frequency of playing in particular outdoor locations.

Conclusion
The presence of friends, safety issues and aspects of the built environment were reported by parents to be associated with children's active free-play in outdoor locations. Future research needs to further examine associations with time spent in active free-play and objectively-measured overall physical activity levels. It is also important to investigate strategies for developing a supportive social and physical environment that provides opportunities for children to engage in active free-play.

The Early Prevention of Obesity in CHildren (EPOCH) collaboration : an individual patient data prospective meta-analysis

Background
Efforts to prevent the development of overweight and obesity have increasingly focused early in the life course as we recognise that both metabolic and behavioural patterns are often established within the first few years of life. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of interventions are even more powerful when, with forethought, they are synthesised into an individual patient data (IPD) prospective meta-analysis (PMA). An IPD PMA is a unique research design where several trials are identified for inclusion in an analysis before any of the individual trial results become known and the data are provided for each randomised patient. This methodology minimises the publication and selection bias often associated with a retrospective meta-analysis by allowing hypotheses, analysis methods and selection criteria to be specified a priori.

Methods/Design
The Early Prevention of Obesity in CHildren (EPOCH) Collaboration was formed in 2009. The main objective of the EPOCH Collaboration is to determine if early intervention for childhood obesity impacts on body mass index (BMI) z scores at age 18-24 months. Additional research questions will focus on whether early intervention has an impact on children's dietary quality, TV viewing time, duration of breastfeeding and parenting styles. This protocol includes the hypotheses, inclusion criteria and outcome measures to be used in the IPD PMA. The sample size of the combined dataset at final outcome assessment (approximately 1800 infants) will allow greater precision when exploring differences in the effect of early intervention with respect to pre-specified participant- and intervention-level characteristics.

Discussion
Finalisation of the data collection procedures and analysis plans will be complete by the end of 2010. Data collection and analysis will occur during 2011-2012 and results should be available by 2013.

Voices in the human rights dialogue : the individual victim and the Australian Human Rights Commission

Framework for human rights protection in Australia - report of the National Human Rights Consultation Committee - the role of resolution of human rights complaints in the enforcement of human rights - use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) - current role of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) - future role as an advocator and crusader for victims of human rights abuses - need for recognition and protection of the special status of the AHRC.

Selecting the individual numerical scale and prioritization method in the analytic hierarchy process : a 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic approach

The validity of the priority vector used in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) relies on two factors: the selection of a numerical scale and the selection of a prioritization method. The traditional AHP selects only one numerical scale (e.g., the Saaty scale) and one prioritization method (e.g., the eigenvector method) for each particular problem. For this traditional selection approach, there is disagreement on which numerical scale and prioritization method is better in deriving a priority vector. In fact, the best numerical scale and the best prioritization method both rely on the content of the pairwise comparison data provided by the AHP decision makers. By defining a set of concepts regarding the scale function and the linguistic pairwise comparison matrices (LPCMs) of the priority vector and by using LPCMs to unify the format of the input and output of AHP, this paper extends the AHP prioritization process under the 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic model. Based on the extended AHP prioritization process, we present two performance measure criteria to evaluate the effect of the numerical scales and prioritization methods. We also use the performance measure criteria to develop a 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic multicriteria approach to select the best numerical scales and the best prioritization methods for different LPCMs. In this paper, we call this type of selection the individual selection of the numerical scale and prioritization method. We also compare this individual selection with traditional selection by using both random and real data and show better results with individual selection.

What decision rules might pink-footed geese use to depart on migration? An individual-based model

Decisions taken during migration can have a large effect on the fitness of birds. Migration must be accurately timed with food availability to allow efficient fueling but is also constrained by the optimal arrival date at the breeding site. The decision of when to leave a site can be driven by energetics (sufficient body stores to fuel flight), time-related cues (internal clock under photoperiodic control), or external cues (temperature, food resources). An individual based model (IBM) that allows a mechanistic description of a range of departure decision rules was applied to the spring migration of pink-footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) from wintering grounds in Denmark to breeding grounds on Svalbard via 2 Norwegian staging sites. By comparing predicted with observed departure dates, we tested 7 decision rules. The most accurate predictions were obtained from a decision rule based on a combination of cues including the amount of body stores, date, and plant phenology. Decision rules changed over the course of migration with the external cue decreasing in importance and the time-related cue increasing in importance for sites closer to breeding grounds. These results are in accordance with descriptions of goose migration, following the “green-wave”: Geese track the onset of plant growth as it moves northward in spring, with an uncoupling toward the end of the migration if time is running out. We demonstrate the potential of IBMs to study the possible mechanisms underlying stopover ecology in migratory birds and to serve as tools to predict consequences of environmental change.

High individual repeatability and population differentiation in stable isotope ratios in winter-grown collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis feathers

For migrants, we often lack complete information of their spatial distribution year round. Here, we used stable carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen isotope ratios extracted from feathers grown at the wintering sites of the long-distance migratory collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis, to study how individuals from different breeding populations are distributed at the wintering sites. A sub-sample of birds was also sampled in two consecutive years to test for the repeatability of isotope ratios. Birds from the same breeding populations had more similar isotope ratios compared to birds from other nearby populations (10–100 km apart). Furthermore, isotope repeatability within individuals was high, implying that the observed pattern of isotope variation is consistent between years. We put forward two hypotheses for these patterns; 1) strong wintering site philopatry and migratory connectivity, suggesting that migratory connectivity may potentially be found on a much smaller spatial scale than previously considered, and 2) consistent interpopulation differentiation of feeding ecology at their wintering site.

Extended supervision or civil commitment for managing the risk of sexual offenders : public safety and individual rights

Since the early 1990’s, there has been a proliferation of legislative initiatives in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australasia that are intended to improve public protection from high risk sexual offenders. These laws include extended supervision of sexual offenders once released from prison and indefinite involuntary civil commitment to secure treatment facilities following the expiration of a prison sentence. The enactment of these laws has sparked intense debate and numerous legal challenges on a variety of issues, including the need to strike a proper balance between public safety and the rights of individual offenders. Recent challenges to Extended Supervision Orders in New Zealand have included the assertion that this approach is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act. This article compares the use of Extended Supervision Orders in New Zealand to the use of civil commitment of Sexually Violent Predators in the United States, and particularly in California, which currently confines the largest number of offenders under this type of commitment. It is argued that Extended Supervision is more flexible, less intrusive, less punitive, and less costly than civil commitment. The degree to which it is effective in improving public safety remains an empirical question.

Individual factors associated with investigative interviewers' use of non-leading open-ended questions

This thesis represents one of the first research papers to examine individual factors and their association with best-practice investigative interviewing. Findings indicate that adherence to open-ended questioning (arguably one of the most important skills in child abuse interviewing) is largely the by-product of good training rather than personal attributes or job experience per se. maximising interviewer performance is crucial if the quality of evidence obtained from child witnesses is to improve on a global level.

The implementation of mobile technology in organizations : expanding individual use contexts

Mobile computing devices such as personal digital assistants, smart mobile phones, and other handheld computing devices hold much promise in terms of their organizational application. Many existing models of the individual acceptance and implementation of information technology in organizational contexts have been developed in the era of “at the office” computing such as MIS, office automation, groupware, and so forth. We conducted two in-depth case studies of the implementation of mobile technology in healthcare organizations. The studies highlight interrelated individual use contexts due to the mobility of the technology: the individual as employee, as professional, as private user, and as member of society. The cases show that influences emanating from these use contexts impacted on the individual adoption of the technology within the organization. While broad extra-organizational influences are incorporated in some existing individual technology adoption models, we show that it becomes relevant to accommodate these influences more specifically in research models of mobile computing in organizations. Based on the extant literature and the case study data we pave the way toward more comprehensive models of the adoption and implementation of mobile technologies in organizations.

Zebra fingerprints : towards a computer-aided identification system for individual zebra

Information regarding wildlife behavioural patterns provides researchers with clearer understanding of species. Social interactions, breeding habits, feeding and migration trends are key factors influencing decisions in game management and ecological impact assessment. In order to obtain such information researchers must be able to track individual animals over a period of time. One of the commonest methods of identifying individual animals is to tag them with radio, satellite, or GPS transmitters (Mech & Barber, 2002). While these systems are very effective, they are often costly and can be traumatic for tagged animals.