My Student Body: Effects of an Internet-Based Prevention Program to Decrease Obesity Among College Students

Abstract

Objective: To determine the impact of My Student Body (MSB)–Nutrition, an Internet-based obesity prevention program for college students. Participants: Three hundred and twenty ethnically diverse undergraduate students were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: MSB-Nutrition program, an on-campus weight management course, and a comparison group. Methods: Students completed baseline and follow-up surveys regarding their nutrition and physical activity behaviors, self-efficacy, stress, attitudes, and body weight. Results: Compared with the on-campus course and a comparison group, the MSB-Nutrition program increased fruit and vegetable consumption, reduced stress, and increased fruit and vegetable self-efficacy but had no significant effect on students’ exercise self-efficacy, exercise behavior, or weight loss. Conclusions: The MSB-Nutrition program was effective in changing students’ nutrition behaviors but had no effect on physical activity behaviors or weight loss. Suggestions for improving Internet-based interventions aimed at decreasing obesity rates among college students are offered.     

Intensive child case management: Work roles and activities

This paper presents findings from a project undertaken to explore the implementation of one rural state's intensive child case management program for families with children with severe emotional and behavioral disabilities. Interviews with 20 child case management staff were conducted for the purpose of describing perceived work roles and activities. Thematic and content analysis of staff interviews revealed differences in staff perceptions regarding the role of the case manager, the ideal work activities of the case manager, and the barriers to achieving the ideal work activities. The discussion focuses on social work practice and policy implications for the provision of intensive child case management programs, and provides recommendations for areas of further inquiry.     

高原山区人口分布特征及其主要影响因素——基于毕节地区的Panel Data计量模型分析

本文基于1987～2007年毕节地区八个县市经济、社会和资源环境方面的面板数据,考察了资源环境、经济水平和社会发展等因素对毕节人口分布变动的影响。研究发现,毕节各县市的人口总量和人口密度稳步增加,呈现协同式的增长态势,但各县市之间增长速度快慢不一,显示了区域间的差异;自然环境因素对人口地域分布变动的影响日趋减弱,但是减小的幅度并不大,说明了自然环境因素对人口分布变动的影响是根深蒂固的;经济水平和社会发展因素对人口密度变动的影响越来越大,其中尤以人均GDP和医疗条件变量更为显著;就人口密度的动态变化影响而言,除了受资源环境、社会经济发展因素的共同影响之外,毕节各个县市还表现出其个体显著差异的特征。     

北京市优质公共资源配置与人口疏解研究

文章分析了北京市优质公共资源配置与人口分布现状,并提出实现中心城人口疏解的相应对策。指出,人口迁移的一个重要因素是各种优质公共资源的吸引。北京的教育、医疗卫生、文化、体育、公共交通等优质公共资源在中心城高度聚集是导致人口在中心城聚集的一个重要原因。为此,要疏解中心城人口,需采取如下措施:政府主导,在新城高标准配置优质公共资源;优先疏解中心城教育、医疗资源;强化轨道交通的引导作用,降低新城居民出行的成本。     

计划生育政策的人口效应

文章试图估计计划生育政策使我国少生了多少人。利用1980~2008年世界140多个国家的数据来模拟在没有计划生育政策影响下经济社会变量与人口变量的相关关系,并据此对中国无计划生育条件下的总和生育率进行测算。将测算出来的无计划生育条件下的总和生育率和中国实际总和生育率分别代入模型进行人口模拟,比较无计划生育条件下和现实条件下人口增长的不同过程和结果。研究表明:无计划生育条件下,我国2008年生育率水平的预测值大概在2.5左右。1972~2008年间,排除经济社会发展的影响,单纯由于计划生育的作用,中国少生了4.58亿人。     

Urban risks due to climate change in the Andean municipality of Pasto,Colombia: A Bayesian network approach

The current trends of climate change will increase people's exposure to urban risks related to events such as landslides, floods, forest fires, food production, health, and water availability, which are stochastic and very localized in nature. This research uses a Bayesian network (BN) approach to analyze the intensity of such urban risks for the Andean municipality of Pasto, Colombia, under climate change scenarios. The stochastic BN model is linked to correlational models and local scenarios of representative concentration trajectories (RCP) to project the possible risks to which the municipality of Pasto will be exposed in the future. The results show significant risks in crop yields, food security, water availability and disaster risks, but no significant risks on the incidence of acute diarrheal diseases (ADD) and acute respiratory infections (ARI), whereas positive outcomes are likely to occur in livestock production, influenced by population growth. The advantage of the BN approach is the possibility of updating beliefs in the probabilities of occurrence of events, especially in developing, intermediate cities with information-limited contexts.     

Widening the gap: White ignorance,race relations and the consequences for Aboriginal people in Australia

White ignorance has a critical impact on race relations and is implicated in the maintenance of Aboriginal disadvantage. Addressing this ignorance is a largely overlooked capacity-building opportunity within Australia's non-Aboriginal population. It warrants consideration as a key component of strategies targeting Aboriginal disadvantage. Despite the established links between race relations and Aboriginal well-being, Aboriginal perspectives on non-Aboriginal people rarely feature in public discourse on “Aboriginal problems.” This paper draws on data from 180 in-depth interviews with 44 Aboriginal people in Darwin on the topic of White Australian people, culture and race relations. It reports Aboriginal perceptions of White Australian ignorance across areas of great symbolic and practical significance to Aboriginal people's lives. Their experience is that most White Australians are ignorant of the history of colonisation and the complexities of its aftermath. They are ignorant of Aboriginal law, cultures and languages, and of the extent of their own ignorance. The call to address White ignorance subverts assumptions about whose ignorance and capacity must be dealt with in order to progress national goals of reconciliation, address Aboriginal disadvantage and achieve justice and equality for Aboriginal people.     

What Prompts Policy Change? Comparative Analyses of Efforts to Create Age-Friendly Cities in 14 Cities in Indonesia

Four years after an age-friendly city (AFC) assessment across Indonesia, this article presents a comparative analysis of policy changes that have taken place across different AFC dimensions and factors associated with more and less change. Nine of fourteen cities initiated changes, ranging from public declarations, regulations, and creation or expansion of services. Our findings suggest that the AFC assessment can offer a means to engage policy makers, which in turn may facilitate city-level change, particularly for larger cities with more substantive budgets and more consolidated rather than dispersed leadership; however, no single factor represented a sufficient or necessary condition for change.