The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of physical inactivity among early adolescents and determine if they varied across weight status, gender, and ethnic groups. A population-based sample of 3,636 7th grade students (The CATCH Cohort) participated in an epidemiological study of nutrition, physical activity, and cardiovascular health in 96 schools located in California, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Texas. The weight category distribution of the sample was as follows: 2.1% underweight (BMI < 5th %), 66.5% normal weight (5th [less than or equal to] BMI<85th %), 16.9% at-risk (85th [less than or equal to] BMI<95th %), and 14.5% overweight (BMI[greater than or equal to]95th %). Physical inactivity was a stronger predictor of weight status category than physical activity for the entire sample (excluding underweight students). The model for physical inactivity, based on sedentary minutes, showed positive and negative support having a direct effect upon sedentary minutes, (p<.001). For adolescents with BMI[greater than or equal to]85th %, however, the model for physical inactivity showed only positive support having a direct effect on sedentary minutes (p<0.05). Females with BMI[greater than or equal to]85th % showed positive and negative support having a direct effect (p<.05), and males with BMI[greater than or equal to]85th % showed negative support having a direct effect (p<.01). White adolescents showed positive and negative support having a direct effect (p<.05), and for Hispanic adolescents, positive support had a direct effect (p<.001). This paper concludes that because physical inactivity appears to be a strong predictor of weight status in adolescent populations, interventions should target physical inactivity by influencing self-efficacy and positive and negative support. Furthermore, better measures of physical inactivity beyond TV/video game usage should be developed, and psychosocial variables that are more strongly associated with sedentary behavior than participation in physical activity should be investigated. / text

Research on social capital and physical activity has relied on proxy measures of trust and participation to assess individuals’ social capital. However, less is known about how social network capital is associated with physical inactivity. More recently, the association between neighbourhood context and health behaviours has been highlighted, suggesting that the social and physical environments can enhance or deter physical activity. The purpose of these two studies was to 1) assess and compare the association of trust, participation and network capital with physical inactivity; and 2) to assess the association between neighbourhood factors and physical inactivity in Montreal. These studies used data from the 2008 Montreal Neighbourhood Networks and Health Survey (MoNNET-HA), which consisted of 2707 adults residing in 300 Montreal neighbourhoods. Physical inactivity was assessed using an adapted version of the short International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Social capital was measured in three forms: generalized trust, social participation, and network capital. Network capital was measured using a position generator and consisted of network diversity, upper reachability, and range dimensions. Neighbourhood socioeconomic status and population density were used to assess aspects of the neighbourhood social and built environment. Multilevel logistic regression was used to examine the association of physical inactivity with social capital and neighbourhood factors. In the first study, network diversity (OR: 0.88; 95% CIs: 0.80-0.96), and social participation (OR: 1.81; 95% CIs: 1.08-3.01) were significantly associated with lower odds of physical inactivity. This study directs attention towards the association between network capital and physical inactivity. Further investigation of network capital might lead to a better understanding of how social capital is associated with physical inactivity. In the second study, population density was significantly associated with lower odds of physical inactivity (OR: 0.97 95% C.I: 0.95, 0.99). Further investigation of neighbourhood context is recommended to understand the underlying mechanisms involved in the association of neighbourhood population density and physical inactivity. Greater knowledge of neighbourhood context could lead to the development of supportive neighbourhood social and physical resources that promote and enhance physical activity behaviour. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-08-30 16:22:36.884

In attending to consumption as a defining feature of life in Western societies, existing consumer research has tended to envisage, construct and reproduce ‘the consumer’ as either enthusiastically embracing the delights of the market, or as actively resisting or rebelling against its evils. The extant research has therefore tended to assume a high degree of reflexive conscious engagement in consumption as the norm. In this research, I argue that this might have inadvertently obscured the possibility of non-participation in various aspects of consumption through disinterest. This appears within the field as a theoretical space where people relate to consumption opportunities with rather less reflection or emotion and allows for the choice not to buy to be part of an accepted and unreflected-upon aspect of existence; a diverse shadow-realm of consumer inactivity in which feelings of indifference may be significant. Though a general lack of interest in various aspects of consumption may constitute an ontologically common experience, indifference has remained a largely unnoticed and under-theorised element of social reality in a consumer culture. In this study, I explore the possibilities of indifference in a consumer culture, not as a psychological construct or symptom of pathology but as a lived experience, understood in different ways and constituted through different discursive contexts. In this research, I draw on 29 phenomenological interviews to offer an empiricallygrounded interpretation of what it means to be indifferent to consumption. From the stories the informants shared with me, I articulate how the experience of indifference can appear as a genuine blindness towards a spectacular world of consumption, underpinned by other sociocultural narratives that construct the marketplace as a remote, unfamiliar or unappealing domain. In other stories, experiences of indifference appeared to be maintained by a constant and taken-for-granted adherence to a classification system that denotes consumerism as a powerful source of physical and spiritual pollution. Whilst in other narratives, a general lack of interest in various aspects of consumption revealed a paradoxical desire for a personal identity forged from a dismissal of consumption; a culturally-shaped performance of pseudoindifference that involved refusing ‘consumer activity’ in order to construct a defiantly nonconsumer self. In addressing the cultural narratives and contexts that seem to account for nonconsumption through indifference, this study contributes to wider debates on processes of disengagement and less material living, and invites consumer researchers to develop a greater sensitivity to indifference within sociological accounts of consumption.

Captive animals are sometimes very inactive, which can elicit concern for their welfare. However, inactivity is difficult to interpret in terms of welfare, since while some forms reflect chronic fear (hiding), apathy, or depression-like states, others reflect positive states (e.g. relaxation). This thesis aimed to determine whether high levels or particular sub-types of inactivity indicate poor welfare in fur-farmed mink (Neovison vison), and to identify the specific psychological states involved. These questions were addressed by studying individual differences within populations on three commercial farms, and comparing mink in standard, non-enriched cages to those in enriched cages. Two hypotheses were tested on farms: that the most inactive mink experience chronic stress, and that this would impair reproduction. Inactive females did have smaller litters, a difference that was not attributable simply to their greater body fat. However, there was no evidence of endocrine stress nor increased fear in “glove tests”, and their kits also grew more quickly. This suggests that inactive females do not experience more chronic stress than active females do. Tests of responsiveness to stimuli (measured in terms of contact and orientation) showed that, compared to mink in enriched cages, non-enriched mink were more responsive to all types of stimuli, especially neutral ones. This finding is inconsistent with the hypothesis that inactive individuals in these conditions are apathetic or depressed; instead, it supports the alternative hypothesis that non-enriched cages induce boredom. However, this boredom-like hyper-responsiveness did not co-vary with inactivity levels. Finally, non-enriched cages did not consistently elevate total inactivity. However, they did induce specific types: inactivity in the nest box, lying alert (vs. sleeping), and lying belly down rather than curled up were all more common than in enriched cages. Inactivity in the nest box may reflect hiding; it seemed linked to fearfulness in glove tests and to endocrine stress responses. In sum, while non-enriched conditions induce poor welfare, they do not increase overall inactivity; furthermore, within populations, the welfare of highly inactive individuals is no more compromised than that of their more active counterparts. However, subtypes of inactivity provide more information about welfare than total inactivity. / NSERC (PGS)

Decision, interference and inactivity of an administrative body in the Code of Administrative Justice and the choice of the type of action Abstract This thesis is focused on the concepts of decision, interference and inactivity which determine the material scope of the corresponding actions: action against decision (§ 65 of the Code of Administrative Justice), action against unlawful interference (§ 82 of the Code of Administrative Justice) and action due to inactivity (§ 79 of the Code of Administrative Justice). In this context, the overlaps between such actions arise as a result of problematic interpretation of these concepts: while decision often cannot be distinguished from interference, the type of inactivity and the subsequent choice of action depends on the nature of an act that is not performed. The thesis consists of five parts gradually acquainting with the problematic aspects of the structure of such actions. The introductory part is devoted to the historical context which focuses on a short period in the development of the regulations of administrative justice - between the years 1992 and 2002, i. e. the period immediately preceding the entry into force of the Code of Administrative Justice. The second part of this work is focused on the action against decision considering the concept of...

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"All cold-blooded animals and a large number of warm-blooded ones spend an unexpectedly large proportion of their time doing nothing at all, or at any rate, nothing in particular." (Elton 1927) Many animals are remarkably "lazy", spending >50% of their waking hours "resting" . This is common across all taxa, ecologies, and life histories, including what are commonly considered to be highly industrious animals: the social insects (e.g., Aesop's Fable 'The Grasshopper and the Ant'). This dissertation broadly seeks to explain a phenomenon that has long been observed, but never adequately addressed, by asking: 'why are there 'lazy' ants?' First, I established that inactivity was a real and ecologically relevant phenomenon in the ant Temnothorax rugatulus by testing whether inactivity was a lab artifact. I then showed that inactive workers comprise a behaviorally distinct group of workers that are commonly overlooked in studies looking at colony function, though they typically represent at least half of the individuals within social insect colonies. I then tested a set of mutually non-exclusive hypotheses explaining inactivity in social insects: that (1) inactivity is a form of social "cheating" in which egg-laying workers selfishly invest in their own reproduction rather than contribute to colony fitness, (2) inactive workers comprise a pool of reserve workers used to mitigate the effects of fluctuations in colony workload, (3) inactivity is the result of physiological constraints on worker age such that young and old workers may less active due to inexperience/physical vulnerability, and physiological deterioration respectively, (4) inactive workers are performing an as-yet unidentified function, such as playing a role in communication and acting as food stores, or repletes, and that (5) inactive workers represent the 'slow' end of intra-nest variation in worker 'pace-of-life'. Inactivity is linked to worker age, reproduction, and a potential function as food stores for the colony. These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, and in fact, likely form a 'syndrome' of behaviors common to inactive social insect workers. Their simultaneous contribution to worker inactivity may explain the difficulty in finding a simple answer to this deceptively simple question.

Introdução – A inatividade física tem se tornado um problema de saúde pública principalmente no período da adolescência. Objetivo – Descrever o nível de atividade física em escolares do ensino médio de uma escola da rede estadual de ensino localizada no distrito da Vila Nova Cachoeirinha em São Paulo. Métodos – A amostra foi constituída por 775 adolescentes do ensino médio de uma escola da rede estadual de ensino localizada no distrito da Vila Nova Cachoeirinha em São Paulo. Para coleta de dados foi utilizado o questionário de avaliação da atividade física proposto por FLORINDO et al. (2006), um questionário de avaliação sócio-econômica (ABEP) e parte do questionário de avaliação sobre condições de saúde (MINISTÈRIO DA SAÚDE, 2004). Foi definido como fisicamente inativo o adolescente que se envolveu por um tempo menor do que 300 minutos por semana em atividades físicas, exercícios ou praticas esportivas. Para comparação das proporções foi utilizado o teste Qui-quadrado com nível de significância de p<0,05. Resultados – A proporção de inatividade física nos adolescentes foi de 64,3% (IC 95%: 61,7-66,9). O percentual de inatividade física esteve positivamente associado ao período de estudo, à série acadêmica do aluno, ao grupo etário mais velho, ao nível sócio-econômico, ao uso de tabaco e bebidas alcoólicas, a não participação nas aulas de Educação Física, a falta de incentivo dos pais para a prática de atividades física e ao maior tempo de TV. Por outro lado, o percentual de inatividade física esteve negativamente associado à quantidade de modalidades esportivas praticadas pelos adolescentes e ao tempo de uso de vídeo game/computador. Conclusão - A proporção de adolescentes inativos foi elevada na maioria das variáveis avaliadas, o que demonstra que este grupo apresenta um elevado potencial para o desenvolvimento de programas de intervenção com o objetivo de aumentar o nível de atividade física. / Introduction - The physical inactivity has become a public health problem mainly in adolescence age. Objective – Was to describle the level of physical activity in adolescents from a public school of the district Vila Nova Cachoeirinha in São Paulo – SP. Methods – The sample was constituted by 775 high school adolescents from a public state school situated in the districit of Vila Nova Cachoeirinha in São Paulo. To collect the data, a questionnaire of evaluation of physical activity proposed by FLORINDO et al. (2006), a questionnaire of social and economic evaluation (ABEP) and part of the questionnaire of evaluation about conditions of health (MINISTÉRIO DA SAÚDE, 2004) were used. It was definied as physically inactive the adolescent who is involved by a smaller timer than 300 minutes per week in physical activities, exercises or sports practices. To compare the proportions, the test Qui-square with level of significance of p<0,05 was used. Results - the proportion of inactive adolescents was 64,3% (IC 95%: 61, 7-66,9). The percentage of physical inactivity was positively associated in adolescents the evening classes, in 3rd grade students, in social economic level B, in adolescents who use tobacco, alcoholic beverages, who do not participate of Scholar Physical Education classes, who do not receive incentive from the parents to practice a physical activity and who spend more time watching TV. On the other side, the percentage of physical inactivity is negatively associated to the quantity of sports modality they go in and to the time using video game/computer. Conclusion - The proportion of inactive adolescents was high in the majority of the evaluated variables, which shows that this group presents a high potential for the development of intervention with the aim of increasing the level of physical activity.

Introdução – A inatividade física tem se tornado um problema de saúde pública principalmente no período da adolescência. Objetivo – Descrever o nível de atividade física em escolares do ensino médio de uma escola da rede estadual de ensino localizada no distrito da Vila Nova Cachoeirinha em São Paulo. Métodos – A amostra foi constituída por 775 adolescentes do ensino médio de uma escola da rede estadual de ensino localizada no distrito da Vila Nova Cachoeirinha em São Paulo. Para coleta de dados foi utilizado o questionário de avaliação da atividade física proposto por FLORINDO et al. (2006), um questionário de avaliação sócio-econômica (ABEP) e parte do questionário de avaliação sobre condições de saúde (MINISTÈRIO DA SAÚDE, 2004). Foi definido como fisicamente inativo o adolescente que se envolveu por um tempo menor do que 300 minutos por semana em atividades físicas, exercícios ou praticas esportivas. Para comparação das proporções foi utilizado o teste Qui-quadrado com nível de significância de p<0,05. Resultados – A proporção de inatividade física nos adolescentes foi de 64,3% (IC 95%: 61,7-66,9). O percentual de inatividade física esteve positivamente associado ao período de estudo, à série acadêmica do aluno, ao grupo etário mais velho, ao nível sócio-econômico, ao uso de tabaco e bebidas alcoólicas, a não participação nas aulas de Educação Física, a falta de incentivo dos pais para a prática de atividades física e ao maior tempo de TV. Por outro lado, o percentual de inatividade física esteve negativamente associado à quantidade de modalidades esportivas praticadas pelos adolescentes e ao tempo de uso de vídeo game/computador. Conclusão - A proporção de adolescentes inativos foi elevada na maioria das variáveis avaliadas, o que demonstra que este grupo apresenta um elevado potencial para o desenvolvimento de programas de intervenção com o objetivo de aumentar o nível de atividade física. / Introduction - The physical inactivity has become a public health problem mainly in adolescence age. Objective – Was to describle the level of physical activity in adolescents from a public school of the district Vila Nova Cachoeirinha in São Paulo – SP. Methods – The sample was constituted by 775 high school adolescents from a public state school situated in the districit of Vila Nova Cachoeirinha in São Paulo. To collect the data, a questionnaire of evaluation of physical activity proposed by FLORINDO et al. (2006), a questionnaire of social and economic evaluation (ABEP) and part of the questionnaire of evaluation about conditions of health (MINISTÉRIO DA SAÚDE, 2004) were used. It was definied as physically inactive the adolescent who is involved by a smaller timer than 300 minutes per week in physical activities, exercises or sports practices. To compare the proportions, the test Qui-square with level of significance of p<0,05 was used. Results - the proportion of inactive adolescents was 64,3% (IC 95%: 61, 7-66,9). The percentage of physical inactivity was positively associated in adolescents the evening classes, in 3rd grade students, in social economic level B, in adolescents who use tobacco, alcoholic beverages, who do not participate of Scholar Physical Education classes, who do not receive incentive from the parents to practice a physical activity and who spend more time watching TV. On the other side, the percentage of physical inactivity is negatively associated to the quantity of sports modality they go in and to the time using video game/computer. Conclusion - The proportion of inactive adolescents was high in the majority of the evaluated variables, which shows that this group presents a high potential for the development of intervention with the aim of increasing the level of physical activity.

To determine whether behavioral factors differ among metabolic conditions and self-reported health, and to determine whether self-reported health is a valid predictor of metabolic syndrome (MetS). A total of 2997 individuals (≥ 40 years old) were selected from four biennial U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (2007–2014). A set of weighted logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs)Individuals with light physical activity are more likely to have MetS and report poor health than those with vigorous physical activity with OR = 3.22 (95% CI: 2.23, 4.66) and 4.52 (95% CI: 2.78, 7.33), respectively. Individuals eating poor diet have greater odds of developing MetS and reporting poor health with OR = 1.32 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.66) and 3.13 (95% CI: 2.46, 3.98). The aforementioned relationships remained significant after adjustment for demographic and socio-economic status. A potential intervention strategy will be needed to encourage individuals to aggressively improve their lifestyle to reduce MetS and improve quality of life. Despite the significant association between self-reported health with MetS, a low sensitivity indicated that better screening tools for MetS, diabetes and cardiovascular disease are essential.