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Background/objective: The Active Healthy Kids 2018 Hong Kong Report Card provides ev idence-based assessment across 12 indicators of physical activity behaviors, sleep, and related community and government initiatives for children and youth. Methods: The systematic development process provided by the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance was used. The best available data from the past 10 years were reviewed by a panel of experts. According to predefined benchmarks, letter grades were assigned to 12 indicators (Overall Physical Activity, Organized Sport Participation, Active Play, Active Transportation, Sedentary Behaviors, Physical Fitness, Sleep, Family, School, Community and Environment, Government, and Obesity). Results: Three of the five activity behaviors received C- or C grades: Overall Physical Activity (C-), Sedentary Behaviors (C-), and Organized Sport Participation (C). Active Transportation was graded B þ . Same to the 2016 Hong Kong Report Card, Active Play could not be graded. School and Government were graded C. Family and Community and Environment was graded D- and B, respectively. Three new indicators were added after the 2016 Report Card and they were graded from C- (Sleep) to D (Physical Fitness) or D- (Obesity). Conclusions: Children and youth in Hong Kong have low physical activity and physical fitness levels and high sedentary behaviors despite a generally favorable community environment. A high prevalence of obesity and low levels of family support warrant more public health action. Researchers should address the surveillance gap in active play and peer support.

CrN thin films with an N/Cr ratio of 95% were deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering onto (0001) sapphire substrates. X-ray diffraction and pole figure texture analysis show CrN (111) epitaxial growth in a twin domain fashion. By changing the nitrogen versus argon gas flow mixture and the deposition temperature, thin films with different surface morphologies ranging from grainy rough textures to flat and smooth films were prepared. These parameters can also affect the CrN(x )system, with the film compound changing between semiconducting CrN and metallic Cr2N through the regulation of the nitrogen content of the gas flow and the deposition temperature at a constant deposition pressure. Thermoelectric measurements (electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient), scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy imaging confirm the changing electrical resistivity between 0.75 and 300 m omega cm, the changing Seebeck coefficient values between 140 and 230 mu VK-1, and the differences in surface morphology and microstructure as higher temperatures result in lower electrical resistivity while gas flow mixtures with higher nitrogen content result in single phase cubic CrN. ; Funding Agencies|European Research Council under the European Community/ERC [335383]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University [2009 00971]; Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) through the Future Research Leaders 5 program; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation under the Wallenberg Academy Fellows program; Swedish Research Council (VR) [2016-03365]; European Union; Danish Innovation Fund for the NanoCaTe project [604647]; Danish Innovation Fund for the CTEC project [1305-00002B]

Las redes tróficas describen las interacciones presa-depredador que ocurren en un hábitat determinado. Son herramientas útiles para analizar la complejidad y la estabilidad, así como la relación entre estas propiedades, en ecosistemas naturales. En este trabajo se estudió la estabilidad, medida mediante la conectividad (C=L/S2, donde S es el número de especies y L el número de interacciones), y la relación complejidad-estabilidad a través de 314 redes tróficas empíricas, considerando distintos ecosistemas (dulceacuícolas, marinos y terrestres) con un amplio rango de complejidad. Para esto se consideraron dos indicadores de estabilidad, modularidad y el índice 'Quasi-Sign Stability', que fueron evaluados de manera general mediante una prueba no paramétrica (Kruskal-Wallis), y por tipo de ecosistema mediante comparaciones pareadas post-hoc (prueba de Wilcoxon). Los resultados muestran diferencias significativas en los indicadores de estabilidad analizados según el tipo de ecosistema. Con base en la modularidad, el orden creciente de estabilidad fue: redes marinas, dulceacuícolas y terrestres; con base en el índice 'Quasi-Sign Stability': terrestres, marinas y dulceacuícolas. La relación complejidad-estabilidad fue diferente no solo de acuerdo al indicador de estabilidad considerado, sino también al tipo de ecosistema. De esta manera, se sugiere que es fundamental considerar la multidimensionalidad de la estabilidad al evaluarla específicamente y en el contexto de la relación complejidad-estabilidad en redes tróficas, al igual que el tipo de ecosistema

Background: The Hong Kong Government released a Reference Framework (RF-HT) for Hypertension Care for Adults in Primary Care Settings since 2010. No studies have evaluated its adoption by primary care physicians (PCPs) since its release. Aim: We aimed to evaluate the level of PCPs' adoption of the RF-HT and the potential barriers of its use in family practice. Design and setting: A cross-sectional study was conducted by a self-administered validated survey among all PCPs in Hong Kong through various means. Methods: We assessed the level of and factors associated with its adoption by multivariate logistic regression modelling. Result: A total of 3,857 invitation episodes were sent to 2,297 PCPs in 2014–2015. We received 383 completed questionnaires. The average score of adoption was 3.43 out of 4.00, and 47.5% of PCPs highly adopted RF-HT in their daily consultations. Male practitioners (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.524, 95% CI = 0.290–0.948, p = 0.033) and PCPs of public sector (aOR = 0.524, 95% CI = 0.292–0.940, p = 0.030) were significantly less likely to adopt the RF-HT. PCPs with higher training completion or being academic fellow are more likely to adopt RF-HT than those who were "nil to basic training completion" (aOR = 0.479, 95% CI = 0.269–0.853, p = 0.012) or "higher trainee" (aOR = 0.302, 95% CI = 0.093–0.979, p = 0.046). Three most-supported suggestions on RF-HT improvement were simplification of RF-HT, provision of pocket version and promoting in patients. Conclusion: Among PCP respondents, the adoption level of the RF-HT was high. These findings also highlighted some factors associated with its adoption that could inform targeted interventions for enhancing its use in clinical practice.

Introduction As of 3rd June 2021, Malaysia is experiencing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. In response, the federal government has implemented various non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) under a series of Movement Control Orders and, more recently, a vaccination campaign to regain epidemic control. In this study, we assessed the potential for the vaccination campaign to control the epidemic in Malaysia and four high-burden regions of interest, under various public health response scenarios. Methods A modified susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered compartmental model was developed that included two sequential incubation and infectious periods, with stratification by clinical state. The model was further stratified by age and incorporated population mobility to capture NPIs and micro-distancing (behaviour changes not captured through population mobility). Emerging variants of concern (VoC) were included as an additional strain competing with the existing wild-type strain. Several scenarios that included different vaccination strategies (i.e. vaccines that reduce disease severity and/or prevent infection, vaccination coverage) and mobility restrictions were implemented. Results The national model and the regional models all fit well to notification data but underestimated ICU occupancy and deaths in recent weeks, which may be attributable to increased severity of VoC or saturation of case detection. However, the true case detection proportion showed wide credible intervals, highlighting incomplete understanding of the true epidemic size. The scenario projections suggested that under current vaccination rates complete relaxation of all NPIs would trigger a major epidemic. The results emphasise the importance of micro-distancing, maintaining mobility restrictions during vaccination roll-out and accelerating the pace of vaccination for future control. Malaysia is particularly susceptible to a major COVID-19 resurgence resulting from its limited population immunity due to the country's historical success in ...

Introduction: As of 3rd June 2021, Malaysia is experiencing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. In response, the federal government has implemented various non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) under a series of Movement Control Orders and, more recently, a vaccination campaign to regain epidemic control. In this study, we assessed the potential for the vaccination campaign to control the epidemic in Malaysia and four high-burden regions of interest, under various public health response scenarios. Methods: A modified susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered compartmental model was developed that included two sequential incubation and infectious periods, with stratification by clinical state. The model was further stratified by age and incorporated population mobility to capture NPIs and micro-distancing (behaviour changes not captured through population mobility). Emerging variants of concern (VoC) were included as an additional strain competing with the existing wild-type strain. Several scenarios that included different vaccination strategies (i.e. vaccines that reduce disease severity and/or prevent infection, vaccination coverage) and mobility restrictions were implemented. Results: The national model and the regional models all fit well to notification data but underestimated ICU occupancy and deaths in recent weeks, which may be attributable to increased severity of VoC or saturation of case detection. However, the true case detection proportion showed wide credible intervals, highlighting incomplete understanding of the true epidemic size. The scenario projections suggested that under current vaccination rates complete relaxation of all NPIs would trigger a major epidemic. The results emphasise the importance of micro-distancing, maintaining mobility restrictions during vaccination roll-out and accelerating the pace of vaccination for future control. Malaysia is particularly susceptible to a major COVID-19 resurgence resulting from its limited population immunity due to the country's historical success in ...