Exercise and Cognition—2016

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip D. Tomporowski
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Translational Research ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Physical Activity Intervention ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
School Settings ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact

Physical activity is purported to promote children’s brain health and enhance mental development (1). Three studies were selected for review because of their focus on issues that challenge translational research applications in exercise pediatric science. While some disagreement exists concerning the definition of translational research, most suggest that translational interventions focus on the uptake, implementation, and sustainability of research findings within standard care (2). Translational researchers typically highlight differences that exist between efficacy experiments, which provide evidence that a specific intervention works, and effectiveness experiments, which show that the intervention will reap benefits under real-world conditions. Results obtained from laboratory-based efficacy studies that have examined the relation between exercise and cognition led researchers (3,4) and policy makers to consider the importance of physical activity in school settings. Large-scale studies that assess the impact of various types of school based physical activity intervention on children’s cognitive and academic performance have begun. The initial results have been uneven and suggestive of a lack of benefit for children in authentic school settings. Before drawing such conclusions, however, it will be important for researchers and practitioners to recognize the methodological and measurement issues that challenge attempts to employ laboratory methodologies to academic settings.

Materialism and Green Purchase Intention: A Study of Urban Vietnamese Consumers

2017 ◽  
pp. 89-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mai Nguyen Thi Tuyet ◽  
Hung Nguyen Vu ◽  
Linh Nguyen Hoang ◽  
Minh Nguyen Hoang
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Purchase Intention ◽  
Behavioral Control ◽  
Subjective Norm ◽  
Perceived Behavioral Control ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Tpb Model ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Impact

This study focuses on examining the impact of three components of materialism on green purchase intention for urban consumers in Vietnam, an emerging economy. An extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is applied as the conceptual framework for this study. The hypotheses are empirically tested using survey data obtained from consumers in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. The regression results show support for most of our hypotheses. The findings indicate that two out of three facets of materialism are significant predictors of green purchase intention. Specifically, success is found to be negatively related to purchase intention, while happiness is related positively to the intention. All three antecedents in the TPB model, including attitude towards green purchase, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control are also found to have positive impacts on purchase intention. The research findings are discussed and implications for managers and policy makers are provided.

Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Through Microfinance - A Case of Rural Bangladesh

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Saida Parvin
Keyword(s):  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Case Study Method ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Donor Agencies ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact

Women’s empowerment has been at the centre of research focus for many decades. Extant literature examined the process, outcome and various challenges. Some claimed substantial success, while others contradicted with evidence of failure. But the success remains a matter of debate due to lack of empirical evidence of actual empowerment of women around the world. The current study aimed to address this gap by taking a case study method. The study critically evaluates 20 cases carefully sampled to include representatives from the entire country of Bangladesh. The study demonstrates popular beliefs about microfinance often misguide even the borrowers and they start living in a fabricated feeling of empowerment, facing real challenges to achieve true empowerment in their lives. The impact of this finding is twofold; firstly there is a theoretical contribution, where the definition of women’s empowerment is proposed to be revisited considering findings from these cases. And lastly, the policy makers at governmental and non-governmental organisations, and multinational donor agencies need to revise their assessment tools for funding.

The impact of participant pathways on the effectiveness of a community-based physical activity intervention grounded in motivational interviewing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Wade ◽  
Nicola Brown ◽  
James Steele ◽  
Steven Mann ◽  
Bernadette Dancy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Motivational Interviewing ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Physical Activity Intervention ◽  
Mental Wellbeing ◽  
Community Based ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Time Point

Background: Brief advice is recommended to increase physical activity (PA) within primary care. This study assessed change in PA levels and mental wellbeing after a motivational interviewing (MI) community-based PA intervention and the impact of signposting [SP] and Social Action [SA] (i.e. weekly group support) pathways. Methods: Participants (n=2084) took part in a community-based, primary care PA programme using MI techniques. Self-reported PA and mental wellbeing data were collected at baseline (following an initial 30-minute MI appointment), 12-weeks, six-months, and 12-months. Participants were assigned based upon the surgery they attended to the SP or SA pathway. Multilevel models were used to derive point estimates and 95%CIs for outcomes at each time point and change scores. Results: Participants increased PA and mental wellbeing at each follow-up time point through both participant pathways and with little difference between pathways. Retention was similar between pathways at 12-weeks, but the SP pathway retained more participants at six-months and 12-months. Conclusions: Both pathways produced similar improvements in PA and mental wellbeing, suggesting the effectiveness of MI based PA interventions. However, due to lower resources required yet similar effects, SP pathways are recommended over SA to support PA in primary care settings.

Value assessment of antimicrobials and the implications for development, access, and funding of effective treatments: Australian stakeholder perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Nadine T. Hillock ◽  
Tracy L. Merlin ◽  
Jonathan Karnon ◽  
John Turnidge ◽  
Jaklin Eliott
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Healthcare Resource ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
Value Assessment ◽  
Antimicrobial Drugs ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Stakeholder Perspective ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Potential Use

Abstract Background The frameworks used by Health Technology Assessment (HTA) agencies for value assessment of medicines aim to optimize healthcare resource allocation. However, they may not be effective at capturing the value of antimicrobial drugs. Objectives To analyze stakeholder perceptions regarding how antimicrobials are assessed for value for reimbursement purposes and how the Australian HTA framework accommodates the unique attributes of antimicrobials in cost-effectiveness evaluation. Methods Eighteen individuals representing the pharmaceutical industry or policy-makers were interviewed. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded, and thematically analyzed. Results Key emergent themes were that reimbursement decision-making should consider the antibiotic spectrum when assessing value, risk of shortages, the impact of procurement processes on low-priced comparators, and the need for methodological transparency when antimicrobials are incorporated into the economic evaluation of other treatments. Conclusions Participants agreed that the current HTA framework for antimicrobial value assessment is inadequate to properly inform funding decisions, as the contemporary definition of cost-effectiveness fails to explicitly incorporate the risk of future resistance. Policy-makers were uncertain about how to incorporate future resistance into economic evaluations without a systematic method to capture costs avoided due to good stewardship. Lacking financial reward for the benefits of narrower-spectrum antimicrobials, companies will likely focus on developing broad-spectrum agents with wider potential use. The perceived risks of shortages have influenced the funding of generic antimicrobials in Australia, with policy-makers suggesting a willingness to pay more for assured supply. Although antibiotics often underpin the effectiveness of other medicines, it is unclear how this is incorporated into economic models.

Impact of regulatory announcements on systemic risk in the Indian telecom sector

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1395-1416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sushma Priyadarsini Yalla ◽  
Som Sekhar Bhattacharyya ◽  
Karuna Jain
Keyword(s):  
Risk Premium ◽  
Systemic Risk ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Risk Premiums ◽  
Buffering Hypothesis ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Telecom Sector ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Post 1991, given the advent of liberalization and economic reforms, the Indian telecom sector witnessed a remarkable growth in terms of subscriber base and reduced competitive tariff among the service providers. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of regulatory announcements on systemic risk among the Indian telecom firms. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a two-step methodology to measure the impact of regulatory announcements on systemic risk. In the first step, CAPM along with the Kalman filter was used to estimate the daily β (systemic risk). In the second step, event study methodology was used to assess the impact of regulatory announcements on daily β derived from the first step. Findings The results of this study indicate that regulatory announcements did impact systemic risk among telecom firms. The study also found that regulatory announcements either increased or decreased systemic risk, depending upon the type of regulatory announcements. Further, this study estimated the market-perceived regulatory risk premiums for individual telecom firms. Research limitations/implications The regulatory risk premium was either positive or negative, depending upon the different types of regulatory announcements for the telecom sector firms. Thus, this study contributes to the theory of literature by testing the buffering hypothesis in the context of Indian telecom firms. Practical implications The study findings will be useful for investors and policy-makers to estimate the regulatory risk premium as and when there is an anticipated regulatory announcement in the Indian telecom sector. Originality/value This is one of the first research studies in exploring regulatory risk among the Indian telecom firms. The research findings indicate that regulatory risk does exist in the telecom firms of India.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Gatrell ◽  
Esther Dermott
Keyword(s):  
Social Research ◽  
Visual Methods ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Research Relationships ◽  
The Impact

This introductory chapter explains how different research questions and methods can contribute to better understanding of contemporary fathers, fatherhood, and fathering. Given the enhanced methodological diversity and increased sophistication of methods across the social sciences, embracing qualitative and quantitative approaches, traditional (such as interviewing) and contemporary approaches (such as netnography and visual methods), and general ‘handbooks’ offering basic introductions to social research have limited use for advanced researchers and students. The book aims to link detailed concerns about conducting individual projects to wider methodological debates concerning the value of different forms and sources of data, the negotiation of research relationships, and the impact of research findings on participants, policy makers, employers, and a wider public.

scholarly journals Children’s Weight Gain and Cardiovascular Fitness Loss over the Summer

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 2770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Brusseau ◽  
Ryan Burns
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Physical Activity Intervention ◽  
Cardiovascular Fitness ◽  
The Body ◽  
School Year ◽  
School Based ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Physical Activity Programming ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Health Related Fitness

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of summer breaks on the body composition and cardiovascular fitness of elementary school children who participated in a multi-year school-based physical activity intervention. Participants were 404 children who had their height and weight measured and completed the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) during physical education classes at the beginning and end of the school year for three consecutive years. To examine the effects of time on health-related fitness data, general linear mixed effects models were employed. The results indicate that there was a trend toward an increase in body mass index (BMI) after the summer of 2015 (p = 0.958), and a significant increase in BMI after the summer of 2016 compared to time point 1 (p < 0.001). For PACER laps, there were trends toward decreases in PACER laps after the summers of 2015 (p = 0.515) and 2016 (p = 0.073). Summer breaks tended to attenuate the BMI and PACER lap improvements that were observed during the intervention. While school-based physical activity programming has had some successes in improving health-related fitness markers, the loss of these improvements over the summer is of concern to both practitioners and researchers. It is clear that additional efforts are needed to limit obesogenic behaviors during the summer months.

scholarly journals Unlocking Household Electricity Consumption in Pakistan

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 566
Author(s):  
Khuram Pervez Amber ◽  
Rizwan Ahmad ◽  
Mina Farmanbar ◽  
Muhammad Anser Bashir ◽  
Sajid Mehmood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Power Supply ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Residential Sector ◽  
Average Family Size ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Conclusion Section ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

In Pakistan, data for household electricity consumption are available in the form of monthly electricity bills only, and, therefore, are not helpful in establishing appliance-wise consumption. Further, it does not help in establishing the relationship among the household electricity consumption and various driving factors. This study aimed to unlock the household electricity consumption in Pakistan by analyzing electricity bills and investigating the impact of various socioeconomic, demographic, and dwelling parameters and usage of different appliances. The methodology adopted in this study was survey-based data collection of the residential sector. For this purpose, data were collected from 523 dwellings through surveys and interviews in Mirpur city. The results of the data analysis revealed that the average household electricity consumption is 2469 kWh/year with an average family size of seven and an average floor area of 78.91 m2. Based on possession of various appliances, the households were categorized into four types and their consumption patterns were established and compared. Air Conditioned (AC) houses consume 44% more electricity compared to the non-AC houses, whereas an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) consumes electricity equivalent to an AC. The research findings are useful for policy makers and building designers and are discussed in the conclusion section.

scholarly journals Geographical and logistical factors of sustainable development of rural tourism in the context of regional economy

2016 ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
I. Smyrnov
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Regional Economy ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Rural Tourism ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Tourist Flows ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact

Rural tourism is now seen as an important direction of development of the regional economy. From the perspective of sustainable development rural tourism affects the economic, social and environmental aspects of the regional and local economy. Rural tourism is closely linked with agrotourism, eco-tourism, natural tourism and so on. Sustainable rural tourism can be realized by applying logistic, geographic and marketing approaches as components of sustainable development strategies. Logistics approach is determined by logistic potential of resource base of rural tourism and appropriate tourist flows regulation. In this context in the article the concept of tourism capacity or capacity of the resource base of rural tourism is used. The problem of the definition of tourism pressure on the resource base of rural tourism, particularly in natural landscapes is disclosed. Unlike environmental and recrealogical sciences, which stop at the capacity definition of the resource base of tourism, tourism logistics compares this figure with the existing tourist flows and accordingly determines the safe way of tourism management to ensure its sustainable nature. It was shown that these strategies boil down to two basic types – the further development of tourism in a particular area or limit such activities to conserve the resource base of tourism. Recreational (travel) load is the indicator that reflects the impact of tourism on the resource base of tourism (especially landscape complex), expressed by the number of tourists or tourists-days per area unit or per tourist site for the certain period of time (day, month, season year). There are actual, allowable (the maximum) and destructive (dangerous) types of travel load. The latter can lead recreational area or resource base of rural tourism to destruction. Thus, depending on the intensity of tourism resource base using in rural tourism it may change – according to tourist consumption. Large number of tourists affects the entire range of recreational destinations and their individual components. The most vulnerable part of the environment in this sense is vegetation, except that significant changes may occur with soil, water bodies, air and so on. The geographic dimension of the problem of rural tourism sustainable development includes the concept of zoning, ie the division of the territory, offering to develop rural tourism in several zones with different modes of travel usage – from a total ban (in protected areas) for complete freedom with transitional stages, involving various limit degrees in the development of rural tourism. Marketing approach reflects the application of the curve R. Butler to the stages of development of rural tourism destinations with the release of such steps as: research, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation (also called “saturation”), revival or decline. Shown the models that link the stage of resource base tourist development (under “Curve Butler”), strength of tourism consumption the magnitude of such effects (eg weak (disperse) impact in large scale, strong (concentrated) impact in large scale, strong (concentrated) impact in small scale, weak (disperse) impact in small scale), dynamics of tourism development at the territory.

scholarly journals Science communication between researchers and policy makers. Reflections from a European project

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (03) ◽  
pp. C07 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Rodari ◽  
Karen Bultitude ◽  
Karen Desborough
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
European Project ◽  
Research Outcomes ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Impact

The SCOOP project aimed to maximise the potential for the transfer of research findings into policy using European-funded socio-economic sciences and humanities research. The project incorporated a News Alert Service to communicate policy-relevant elements of research findings to interested stakeholders. It also sought to further develop the skills of researchers to effectively communicate research outcomes to policy makers through a programme of Masterclasses. A series of evaluation surveys were held to both tailor the project outputs to the target audiences, and to measure the impact of project actions on the interactions between SSH researchers and policy makers. Both SCOOP elements were well received, with evidence of improved communication, utilisation of SSH research by policy makers, and greater awareness and proactivity on the part of the researchers. More generally, interviews and questionnaire findings demonstrated that mediators play a crucial role: various intermediaries and interpreters work between policy makers and researchers to put in context the research outcomes and convey information through dedicated channels and formalised processes as well as informal, fluid processes.

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