Effects of the Prima anti-bullying program on victimization, classroom peer context and defending behavior Marloes van Verseveld, Minne Fekkes, Ruben Fukkink & Ron Oostdam Background and aims Victimization among children is associated with adverse effects on their physical and psychological health and many schools attempt to reduce bullying. The Dutch school-wide anti-bullying program ‘Prima’ was developed based on techniques and scientific insights that are known to be effective. We investigate the effects of the Prima anti-bullying program on students’ victimization, defending behavior, and the classroom peer context in Grades 3-6. Methods The study participants included 4,368 students from 32 primary schools. The schools were randomly assigned to three conditions. Condition A was offered a teacher-training, an online screening tool for bullying behavior, and a set of practice- and evidence-based guidelines to deal with difficult bullying situations. Condition B included all of condition A plus a series of eight student lessons. Condition C was the control group. A questionnaire was filled out by the students before and after the intervention. Program effects were based on self- and peer-reports. Results Prima reduced students’ peer-reported victimization and the level of isolated students in the classroom. Students in the intervention conditions also reported significantly higher levels of self-efficacy to defend victimized students in their classroom compared to students in the control condition. A trend effect of Prima was observed for students who were nominated as defender of victimized students by peers. The intervention condition with student lessons showed larger effects. Conclusions Our results suggest that Prima reduced victimization in intervention schools, especially in intervention schools that provided student lessons about bullying. The positive outcomes support previous findings on the effectiveness of Prima. Furthermore, our study underlines the importance to include student lessons in whole school anti-bullying programs that focus on creating a positive group norm and pro-social and defending behaviors.
MULTIFILE
Background: This follow-up study investigated the year-round effects of a four-week randomized controlled trial using different types of feedback on employees’ physical activity, including a need-supportive coach intervention. Methods: Participants (n=227) were randomly assigned to a Minimal Intervention Group (MIG; no feedback), a Pedometer Group (PG; feedback on daily steps only), a Display Group (DG; feedback on daily steps, on daily moderateto-vigorous physical activity [MVPA] and on total energy expenditure [EE]), or a Coaching Group (CoachG; same as DG with need supportive coaching). Daily physical activity level (PAL; Metabolic Equivalent of Task [MET]), number of daily steps, daily minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), active daily EE (EE>3 METs) and total daily EE were measured at five time points: before the start of the 4-week intervention, one week after the intervention, and 3, 6, and 12 months after the intervention. Results: For minutes of MVPA, MIG showed higher mean change scores compared with the DG. For steps and daily minutes of MVPA, significantly lower mean change scores emerged for MIG compared with the PG. Participants of the CoachG showed significantly higher change scores in PAL, steps, minutes of MVPA, active EE, total EE compared with the MIG. As hypothesized, participants of the CoachG had significantly higher mean change scores in PAL and total EE compared with groups that only received feedback. However, no significant differences were found for steps, minutes of MVPA and active EE between CoachG and PG. Conclusions: Receiving additional need-supportive coaching resulted in a higher PAL and active EE compared with measurement (display) feedback only. These findings suggest to combine feedback on physical activity with personal coaching in order to facilitate long-term behavioral change. When it comes to increasing steps, minutes of MVPA or active EE, a pedometer constitutes a sufficient tool. Trial registration: Clinical Trails.gov NCT01432327. Date registered: 12 September 2011
Music interventions are used for stress reduction in a variety of settings because of the positive effects of music listening on both physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure, and hormonal levels) and psychological stress experiences (e.g., restlessness, anxiety, and nervousness). To summarize the growing body of empirical research, two multilevel meta-analyses of 104 RCTs, containing 327 effect sizes and 9,617 participants, were performed to assess the strength of the effects of music interventions on both physiological and psychological stress-related outcomes, and to test the potential moderators of the intervention effects. Results showed that music interventions had an overall significant effect on stress reduction in both physiological (d = .380) and psychological (d = .545) outcomes. Further, moderator analyses showed that the type of outcome assessment moderated the effects of music interventions on stress-related outcomes. Larger effects were found on heart rate (d = .456), compared to blood pressure (d = .343) and hormone levels (d = .349). Implications for stress-reducing music interventions are discussed.
Our unilateral diet has resulted in a deficiency of specific elements/components needed for well-functioning of the human body. Especially the element magnesium is low in our processed food and results in neuronal and muscular malfunctioning, problems in bone heath/strength, and increased chances of diabetes, depression and cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, it has also been recognized that magnesium plays an important role in cognitive functioning (impairment and enhancement), especially for people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson disease, Alzheimer, etc). Recently, it has been reported that magnesium addition positively effects sleep and calmness (anti-stress). In order to increase the bioavailability of magnesium cations, organic acids such as citrate, glycerophosphate and glycinate are often used as counterions. However, the magnesium supplements that are currently on the market still suffer from low bio-availability and often do not enter the brain significantly.The preparation of dual/multiple ligands of magnesium in which the organic acid not only functions as a carrier but also has synergistically/complementary biological effects is widely unexplored and needs further development. As a result, there is a strong need for dual/multiple magnesium supplements that are non-toxic, stable, prepared via an economically and ecologically attractive route, resulting in high bioavailability of magnesium in vivo, preferably positively influencing cognition/concentration
Lipids, proteins and biological active compounds that are present in insects can serve as nutrient source for poultry production. Because of the potential benefit effects of using insects as feed additives, we must consider the effects of gut microbiome on the insect affects itself, and the expected effect on the microbiome of the broilers that consume these insects. This is specifically important in the situation where live insects are fed to poultry, without prior processing. In this proposal we describe to study whether larvae fed to broilers will affect their microbiome in a positive way for practical applications in poultry industry. Hence, a pilot proof-of-concept study will be carried out as basis for a follow-up proposal for a larger project in the future, that we also like to set-up within this project. In that follow-up proposal, focus will be on the effect of different substrates for insects, on the insect microbiome, to spike insects with specific bacteria and to track their microbiome dynamics over time, and the effect of these insects used as a feed additive on the broiler gut microbiome. This study will provide results on if live Black Soldier Fly larvae (BSFL) can affect the broiler gut microbiome in a positive way, and relevant outcomes will be exploited in a follow-up research proposal in which these effects will be unraveled in detail for adoption by the industry. The project is a collaboration between cooperative insect company RavenFeed and NGN Pro-active both with knowledge on BSFL rearing, Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) with knowledge on insect diseases and microbiome analysis, Schothorst Feed Research (SFR) highly experienced in poultry nutrition research and having unique poultry facilities, and Aeres University of Applied Sciences Dronten (AHD) with research facilities for BSFL rearing under experimental conditions.
CRISPR/Cas genome engineering unleashed a scientific revolution, but entails socio-ethical dilemmas as genetic changes might affect evolution and objections exist against genetically modified organisms. CRISPR-mediated epigenetic editing offers an alternative to reprogram gene functioning long-term, without changing the genetic sequence. Although preclinical studies indicate effective gene expression modulation, long-term effects are unpredictable. This limited understanding of epigenetics and transcription dynamics hampers straightforward applications and prevents full exploitation of epigenetic editing in biotechnological and health/medical applications.Epi-Guide-Edit will analyse existing and newly-generated screening data to predict long-term responsiveness to epigenetic editing (cancer cells, plant protoplasts). Robust rules to achieve long-term epigenetic reprogramming will be distilled based on i) responsiveness to various epigenetic effector domains targeting selected genes, ii) (epi)genetic/chromatin composition before/after editing, and iii) transcription dynamics. Sustained reprogramming will be examined in complex systems (2/3D fibroblast/immune/cancer co-cultures; tomato plants), providing insights for improving tumor/immune responses, skin care or crop breeding. The iterative optimisations of Epi-Guide-Edit rules to non-genetically reprogram eventually any gene of interest will enable exploitation of gene regulation in diverse biological models addressing major societal challenges.The optimally balanced consortium of (applied) universities, ethical and industrial experts facilitates timely socioeconomic impact. Specifically, the developed knowledge/tools will be shared with a wide-spectrum of students/teachers ensuring training of next-generation professionals. Epi-Guide-Edit will thus result in widely applicable effective epigenetic editing tools, whilst training next-generation scientists, and guiding public acceptance.
