8 results
Understanding children’s perspectives of the influences on their dietary behaviours
- Mei Jun Chan, Gabrielle Wann Nii Tay, Gayatri Kembhavi, Jubilee Lim, Salome A Rebello, Hazyl Ng, Congren Lin, May C Wang, Falk Müller-Riemenschneider, Mary Foong-Fong Chong
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- Journal:
- Public Health Nutrition / Volume 25 / Issue 8 / August 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 February 2022, pp. 2156-2166
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Objective:
This study aimed to examine the intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental and macrosystem influences on dietary behaviours among primary school children in Singapore.
Design:A qualitative interpretive approach was used in this study. Focus group discussions guided by the socio-ecological model (sem), of which transcripts were analysed deductively using the sem and inductively using thematic analysis to identify themes at each sem level.
Setting:Two co-educational public primary schools in Singapore.
Participants:A total of 48 children (n 26 girls) took part in the semi-structured focus group discussions. Their mean age was 10·8 years (sd = 0·9, range 9–12 years), and the majority of the children were Chinese (n 36), along with some Indians (n 8) and Malays (n 4).
Results:Children’s knowledge of healthy eating did not necessarily translate into healthy dietary practices and concern for health was a low priority. Instead, food and taste preferences were pivotal influences in their food choices. Parents had a large influence on children with regards to their accessibility to food, their attitudes and values towards food. Parental food restriction led to some children eating in secrecy. Peer influence was not frequently reported by children. Competitions in school incentivised children to consume fruits and vegetables, but reinforcements from teachers were inconsistent. The proximity of fast-food chains in the neighbourhood provided children easy access to less healthy foods. Health advertisements on social media rather than posters worked better in drawing children’s attention.
Conclusions:Findings highlighted important factors that should be considered in future nutrition interventions targeting children.
Twelve - Populism and community organising in Hong Kong
- Edited by Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Victoria, Jim Ife, Western Sydney University, Peter Westoby, Queensland University of Technology
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- Book:
- Populism, Democracy and Community Development
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 18 December 2021
- Print publication:
- 02 December 2020, pp 207-226
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter explores the potential responses of community development practice to the proliferation of populist practices in Hong Kong. Populism is an under-researched area in the community development field in Hong Kong, despite the increasing prominence of populism globally and the rising popularity of populist practice in Hong Kong since its return to China in 1997. Studies of populism, particularly right-wing populism, have developed the ‘globalisation loser’ hypothesis (Kriesi et al, 2008; Ramiro and Gomez, 2017). According to this hypothesis, disadvantaged groups, which in the present context include young people, who are frequent users of community development programmes, support right-wing populism. Currently, community workers in Hong Kong are unprepared to respond to this phenomenon. This study is the first stage of a research project examining the implications of populism for community development practice in Hong Kong.
The rest of this chapter is organised as follows. The next section presents a review of the literature on populism, its core features and types, and the meaning of right-wing populism. The social context that has facilitated the growth of populism in recent years is analysed. To contextualise the study, the productivist welfare regime of Hong Kong and the resultant characteristics of community development services in Hong Kong are outlined. The subsequent section presents the research methodology and the findings. The implications of the proliferation of right-wing populism and populist practices for different types for community development are then discussed.
Studies of populism
Studies of populism have revealed its existence in the US since the early 20th century in the form of agrarian populism (see Kazin, 1998; Emejulu and Scanlon, 2016). Left-wing populism has been a feature of South American countries since the mid-20th century (Seligson, 2007; Waller et al, 2017). Among European countries, Ireland is renowned for the populist discourses in its political arena (Suiter, 2016; Ramiro and Gomez, 2017), but populism has been marginal in other European countries since World War II, as right-wing populism was the dominant ideology leading to that war, at least in Germany and Italy (Gonzalez-Vicente and Carroll, 2017; Ottmann, 2017).
Primary diagnoses and outcomes of emergency department visits in older people with dementia: a hospital-based retrospective study in Taiwan
- Pei-Chao Lin, Li-Chan Lin, Hsiu-Fen Hsieh, Yao-Mei Chen, Pi-Ling Chou, Chien-Hsun Li
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- Journal:
- International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 32 / Issue 1 / January 2020
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 29 April 2019, pp. 97-104
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Objectives:
The objectives of this study were to investigate the primary diagnoses and outcomes of emergency department visits in older people with dementia and to compare these parameters with those in older adults without dementia.
Design and Setting:This hospital-based retrospective study retrieved patient records from a hospital research database, which included the outpatient and inpatient claims of two hospitals.
Participants:The patient records were retrieved from the two hospitals in an urban setting. The inclusion criteria were all patients aged 65 and older who had attended the two hospitals as an outpatient or inpatient between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2016. Patients with dementia were identified to have at least three reports of diagnostic codes, either during outpatient visits, during emergency department visits, or in hospitalized database records. The other patients were categorized as patients without dementia.
Measurements:The primary diagnosis during the emergency department visit, cost of emergency department treatment, cost of hospital admission, length of hospital stay, and diagnosis of death were collected.
Results:A total of 149,203 outpatients and inpatients aged 65 and older who were admitted to the two hospitals were retrieved. The rate of emergency department visits in patients with dementia (23.2%) was lower than that in those without dementia (48.6%). The most frequent primary reason for emergency department visits and the main cause of patient death was pneumonia. Patients with dementia in the emergency department had higher hospital admission rates and longer hospital stays; however, the cost of treatment did not show a significant difference between the two groups.
Conclusions:Future large and prospective studies should explore the severity of disease in older people with dementia and compare results with older adults without dementia in the emergency department.
Maternal PUFA status and offspring allergic diseases up to the age of 18 months
- Ya-Mei Yu, Yiong-Huak Chan, Philip C. Calder, Antony Hardjojo, Shu-E Soh, Ai Lin Lim, Helena L. Fisk, Oon Hoe Teoh, Anne Goh, Seang-Mei Saw, Kenneth Kwek, Peter D. Gluckman, Keith M. Godfrey, Yap-Seng Chong, Lynette Pei-Chi Shek, An Pan, Mary Foong Fong Chong, Hugo P. S. van Bever
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- Journal:
- British Journal of Nutrition / Volume 113 / Issue 6 / 28 March 2015
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 09 March 2015, pp. 975-983
- Print publication:
- 28 March 2015
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Studies have suggested that maternal PUFA status during pregnancy may influence early childhood allergic diseases, although findings are inconsistent. We examined the relationship between maternal PUFA status and risk of allergic diseases in early childhood in an Asian cohort. Maternal plasma samples from the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes mother–offspring cohort were assayed at 26–28 weeks of gestation for relative abundance of PUFA. Offspring (n 960) were followed up from 3 weeks to 18 months of age, and clinical outcomes of potential allergic diseases (rhinitis, eczema and wheezing) were assessed by repeated questionnaires. Skin prick testing (SPT) was also performed at the age of 18 months. Any allergic disease with positive SPT was defined as having any one of the clinical outcomes plus a positive SPT. The prevalence of a positive SPT, rhinitis, eczema, wheezing and any allergic disease with positive SPT was 14·1 % (103/728), 26·5 % (214/808), 17·6 % (147/833), 10·9 % (94/859) and 9·4 % (62/657), respectively. After adjustment for confounders, maternal total n-3, n-6 PUFA status and the n-6:n-3 PUFA ratio were not significantly associated with offspring rhinitis, eczema, wheezing, a positive SPT and having any allergic disease with positive SPT in the offspring (P>0·01 for all). A weak trend of higher maternal n-3 PUFA being associated with higher risk of allergic diseases with positive SPT in offspring was observed. These findings do not support the hypothesis that the risk of early childhood allergic diseases is modified by variation in maternal n-3 and n-6 PUFA status during pregnancy in an Asian population.
Contributors
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- By Aakash Agarwala, Linda S. Aglio, Rae M. Allain, Paul D. Allen, Houman Amirfarzan, Yasodananda Kumar Areti, Amit Asopa, Edwin G. Avery, Patricia R. Bachiller, Angela M. Bader, Rana Badr, Sibinka Bajic, David J. Baker, Sheila R. Barnett, Rena Beckerly, Lorenzo Berra, Walter Bethune, Sascha S. Beutler, Tarun Bhalla, Edward A. Bittner, Jonathan D. Bloom, Alina V. Bodas, Lina M. Bolanos-Diaz, Ruma R. Bose, Jan Boublik, John P. Broadnax, Jason C. Brookman, Meredith R. Brooks, Roland Brusseau, Ethan O. Bryson, Linda A. Bulich, Kenji Butterfield, William R. Camann, Denise M. Chan, Theresa S. Chang, Jonathan E. Charnin, Mark Chrostowski, Fred Cobey, Adam B. Collins, Mercedes A. Concepcion, Christopher W. Connor, Bronwyn Cooper, Jeffrey B. Cooper, Martha Cordoba-Amorocho, Stephen B. Corn, Darin J. Correll, Gregory J. Crosby, Lisa J. Crossley, Deborah J. Culley, Tomas Cvrk, Michael N. D'Ambra, Michael Decker, Daniel F. Dedrick, Mark Dershwitz, Francis X. Dillon, Pradeep Dinakar, Alimorad G. Djalali, D. John Doyle, Lambertus Drop, Ian F. Dunn, Theodore E. Dushane, Sunil Eappen, Thomas Edrich, Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, Jason M. Erlich, Lucinda L. Everett, Elliott S. Farber, Khaldoun Faris, Eddy M. Feliz, Massimo Ferrigno, Richard S. Field, Michael G. Fitzsimons, Hugh L. Flanagan Jr., Vladimir Formanek, Amanda A. Fox, John A. Fox, Gyorgy Frendl, Tanja S. Frey, Samuel M. Galvagno Jr., Edward R. Garcia, Jonathan D. Gates, Cosmin Gauran, Brian J. Gelfand, Simon Gelman, Alexander C. Gerhart, Peter Gerner, Omid Ghalambor, Christopher J. Gilligan, Christian D. Gonzalez, Noah E. Gordon, William B. Gormley, Thomas J. Graetz, Wendy L. Gross, Amit Gupta, James P. Hardy, Seetharaman Hariharan, Miriam Harnett, Philip M. Hartigan, Joaquim M. Havens, Bishr Haydar, Stephen O. Heard, James L. Helstrom, David L. Hepner, McCallum R. Hoyt, Robert N. Jamison, Karinne Jervis, Stephanie B. Jones, Swaminathan Karthik, Richard M. Kaufman, Shubjeet Kaur, Lee A. Kearse Jr., John C. Keel, Scott D. Kelley, Albert H. Kim, Amy L. Kim, Grace Y. Kim, Robert J. Klickovich, Robert M. Knapp, Bhavani S. Kodali, Rahul Koka, Alina Lazar, Laura H. Leduc, Stanley Leeson, Lisa R. Leffert, Scott A. LeGrand, Patricio Leyton, J. Lance Lichtor, John Lin, Alvaro A. Macias, Karan Madan, Sohail K. Mahboobi, Devi Mahendran, Christine Mai, Sayeed Malek, S. Rao Mallampati, Thomas J. Mancuso, Ramon Martin, Matthew C. Martinez, J. A. Jeevendra Martyn, Kai Matthes, Tommaso Mauri, Mary Ellen McCann, Shannon S. McKenna, Dennis J. McNicholl, Abdel-Kader Mehio, Thor C. Milland, Tonya L. K. Miller, John D. Mitchell, K. Annette Mizuguchi, Naila Moghul, David R. Moss, Ross J. Musumeci, Naveen Nathan, Ju-Mei Ng, Liem C. Nguyen, Ervant Nishanian, Martina Nowak, Ala Nozari, Michael Nurok, Arti Ori, Rafael A. Ortega, Amy J. Ortman, David Oxman, Arvind Palanisamy, Carlo Pancaro, Lisbeth Lopez Pappas, Benjamin Parish, Samuel Park, Deborah S. Pederson, Beverly K. Philip, James H. Philip, Silvia Pivi, Stephen D. Pratt, Douglas E. Raines, Stephen L. Ratcliff, James P. Rathmell, J. Taylor Reed, Elizabeth M. Rickerson, Selwyn O. Rogers Jr., Thomas M. Romanelli, William H. Rosenblatt, Carl E. Rosow, Edgar L. Ross, J. Victor Ryckman, Mônica M. Sá Rêgo, Nicholas Sadovnikoff, Warren S. Sandberg, Annette Y. Schure, B. Scott Segal, Navil F. Sethna, Swapneel K. Shah, Shaheen F. Shaikh, Fred E. Shapiro, Torin D. Shear, Prem S. Shekar, Stanton K. Shernan, Naomi Shimizu, Douglas C. Shook, Kamal K. Sikka, Pankaj K. Sikka, David A. Silver, Jeffrey H. Silverstein, Emily A. Singer, Ken Solt, Spiro G. Spanakis, Wolfgang Steudel, Matthias Stopfkuchen-Evans, Michael P. Storey, Gary R. Strichartz, Balachundhar Subramaniam, Wariya Sukhupragarn, John Summers, Shine Sun, Eswar Sundar, Sugantha Sundar, Neelakantan Sunder, Faraz Syed, Usha B. Tedrow, Nelson L. Thaemert, George P. Topulos, Lawrence C. Tsen, Richard D. Urman, Charles A. Vacanti, Francis X. Vacanti, Joshua C. Vacanti, Assia Valovska, Ivan T. Valovski, Mary Ann Vann, Susan Vassallo, Anasuya Vasudevan, Kamen V. Vlassakov, Gian Paolo Volpato, Essi M. Vulli, J. Matthias Walz, Jingping Wang, James F. Watkins, Maxwell Weinmann, Sharon L. Wetherall, Mallory Williams, Sarah H. Wiser, Zhiling Xiong, Warren M. Zapol, Jie Zhou
- Edited by Charles Vacanti, Scott Segal, Pankaj Sikka, Richard Urman
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- Book:
- Essential Clinical Anesthesia
- Published online:
- 05 January 2012
- Print publication:
- 11 July 2011, pp xv-xxviii
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Control of an Outbreak of Pandrug-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Colonization and Infection in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
- Pei-Chun Chan, Li-Min Huang, Hui-Chi Lin, Luan-Yin Chang, Mei-Ling Chen, Chun-Yi Lu, Ping-Ing Lee, Jung-Min Chen, Chin-Yun Lee, Hui-Jui Pan, Jann-Tay Wang, Shan-Chwen Chang, Yee-Chun Chen
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- Journal:
- Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology / Volume 28 / Issue 4 / April 2007
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 02 January 2015, pp. 423-429
- Print publication:
- April 2007
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Objective.
To investigate the potential reservoir and mode of transmission of pandrug-resistant (PDR) Acinetobacter baumannii in a 7-day-old neonate who developed PDR A. baumannii bacteremia that was presumed to be the iceberg of a potential outbreak.
Design.Outbreak investigation based on a program of prospective hospital-wide surveillance for nosocomial infection.
Setting.A 24-bed neonatal intensive care unit in a 2,200-bed major teaching hospital in Taiwan that provides care for critically ill neonates born in this hospital and those transferred from other hospitals.
Interventions.Samples from 33 healthcare workers' hands and 40 samples from the environment were cultured. Surveillance cultures of anal swab specimens and sputum samples were performed for neonates on admission to the neonatal intensive care unit and every 2 weeks until discharge. The PDR A. baumannii isolates, defined as isolates resistant to all currently available systemic antimicrobials except polymyxin B, were analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Control measures consisted of implementing contact isolation, reinforcing hand hygiene adherence, cohorting of nurses, and environmental cleaning.
Results.One culture of an environmental sample and no cultures of samples from healthcare workers' hands grew PDR A. baumannii. The positive culture result involved a sample obtained from a ventilation tube used by the index patient. During the following 2 months, active surveillance identified PDR A. baumannii in 8 additional neonates, and isolates from 7 had the same electrokaryotype. Of the 9 neonates colonized or infected with PDR A. baumannii, 1 died from an unrelated condition. Reinforcement of infection control measures resulted in 100% adherence to proper hand hygiene protocol. The outbreak was stopped without compromising patient care.
Conclusions.In the absence of environmental contamination, transient hand carriage by personnel who cared for neonates colonized or infected with PDR A. baumannii was suspected to be the mode of transmission. Vigilance, prompt intervention and strict adherence to hand hygiene protocol were the key factors that led to the successful control of this outbreak. Active surveillance appears to be an effective measure to identify potential transmitters and reservoirs of PDR A. baumannii.
Surface Deformation of Metal Films Under Controlled Pressure for Generating Ultra-flat Metal Surfaces
- Logeeswaran Vj, Mei-Lin Chan, M.Saif Islam, David A. Horsley, Wei Wu, Shih Yuan Wang, R. Stanley Williams
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- Journal:
- MRS Online Proceedings Library Archive / Volume 990 / 2007
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 February 2011, 0990-B08-22
- Print publication:
- 2007
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We present a technique to generate ultra-smooth surfaces and direct pattern imprinting on thin metal films by flattening the bumps and spikes of a freshly vacuum deposited metal film. The technique was implemented by using a small footprint mechanical imprint press that has the capability to vary the applied pressure from 100MPa to 600MPa. The mechanical press was incorporated with a tactile force sensor that enabled direct monitoring of the applied pressure. We demonstrated the feasibility of the technique on an e-beam evaporated silver (Ag) metal film with thickness ranging from 150Å (optically thin) to 1000Å (optically thick). The film was deposited on double-polished (100)-oriented silicon surface and double-polished borosilicate glass, resulting in a varying degree of film smoothness. The surface morphology of the pressed thin film was then studied using atomic force microscopy and SEM. Our demonstration with the e-beam evaporated silver thin film exhibits the potential for applications in decreasing the scattering-induced losses in optical metamaterials, plasmonic nanodevices and electrical shorts in molecular-scale electronic devices.
Realization of 3D Isotropic Negative Index Materials using Massively Parallel and Manufacturable Microfabrication and Micromachining Technology
- Logeeswaran VJ, M. Saif Islam, Mei Lin Chan, David A Horsley, Wei Wu, Shih-Yuan Wang, R. Stanley Williams
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- Journal:
- MRS Online Proceedings Library Archive / Volume 919 / 2006
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 February 2011, 0919-J02-01
- Print publication:
- 2006
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In this paper, we present a method to realize a three dimensional (3D) homogeneous and isotropic negative index materials (3D-NIMs) fabricated using a low cost and massively parallel manufacturable microfabrication and microassembly technique. The construction of self-assembled 3D-NIM array was realized through two dimensional (2-D) planar microfabrication techniques exploiting the as-deposited residual stress imbalance between a bi-layer consisting of e-beam evaporated metal (650nm of chromium) and a structural layer of 500nm of low stress silicon nitride deposited by LPCVD on a silicon substrate.
A periodic continuation of a single rectangular unit cell consisting of split-ring resonators (SRR) and wires were fabricated to generate a 3D assembly by orienting them along all three Cartesian axes. The thin chromium and silicon nitride bi-layer is formed as hinges. The strain mismatch between the two layers curls the structural layer (flap) containing the SRR upwards. The self-assembled out-of-plane angular position depends on the thickness and material composing the bi-layer. This built-in stress-actuated assembly method is suitable for applications requiring a thin dielectric layer for the SRR. The split-ring resonators and other structures are created on the membrane which is then assembled into the 3-D configuration.