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Aim: To evaluate the effects of a physical activity programme on sedentary behaviour and physical activity in ambulant individuals with Rett syndrome (RTT). Method: In this multicentre randomized waitlist‐controlled trial, we recruited 43 ambulatory individuals with RTT in Australia and Denmark. Adequate baseline data were obtained from 38 participants (mean age 20 years, range 6–41, SD 10 years 6 months, one male). All completed the trial. Participants received 12 weeks of usual care (n = 19) or a goal‐based, telehealth‐supported programme in which activities occurred in their familiar environments (n = 19). Sedentary time and daily steps were assessed at baseline, post‐test, and 12‐week follow‐up. The data analyst was blinded to group allocation. Results: Sedentary time decreased in the intervention group by 2.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] −6.0 to 0.6) and increased in the control group by 1.3% (95% CI −4.8 to 7.4). Intervention and control groups increased the number of their steps per day by 264.7 (95% CI −72.2 to 601.5) and 104.8 (95% CI −178.1 to 387.7) respectively. No significant differences were found on any outcomes at post‐test. There were three minor adverse events. Interpretation: A goal‐based telehealth intervention seemed to produce small improvements in physical activity for individuals with RTT. Families require more support to increase these individuals' extremely low physical activity levels. What this paper adds: A telehealth‐supported intervention may produce small changes in physical activity in Rett syndrome (RTT).Increasing physical activity in individuals with RTT is challenging for caregivers.Families require substantial out‐of‐home support to increase their children's activity levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: Social engagement is an important active aging strategy to promote older adults' mental health. The purposes of this study were to compare social engagement in older populations around the world and explore associations with mental health outcomes. Materials and methods: An international cross‐sectional survey was conducted from 2017 to 2019. Data were retrieved from The International Social Survey Programme for a secondary data analysis across 30 countries. This study applied the Taxonomy of Social Activities and its six levels as operational definitions for a consistent concept of social engagement for international comparisons. Results: In total, 9403 older adults with a mean age of 72.85 ± 6.40 years responded. The highest levels of older adults' social engagement were found in Switzerland, Thailand, and New Zealand. Older adults of a higher age, with a lower educational level, who were permanently sick or disabled, who had no partner, who were widowed or whose civil partner had died, who lived alone, and who had lower self‐placement in society had significantly lower social engagement than did their counterparts. In the regression model, older adults' social engagement positively predicted general health, self‐accomplishment, and life satisfaction, but negatively predicted loneliness and depression. Conclusions: In aging societies worldwide, encouraging older adults' social engagement would be beneficial to promote mental health. Implications for nursing practice and health policies: Community professional nurses can develop strategies of social engagement based on the needs and sociodemographic factors of older adults to improve their mental health. Developing efficient strategies and local policies by learning from successful experiences in other countries is important to promote social engagement in aging societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open Dialogue is an alternative approach to service provision for people experiencing mental health problems. Training and implementation of dialogical ways of working require that professionals disposition themselves as experts and 'unlearn' traditional therapeutic relations. This study explored trainees' discussions of their expectations of Open Dialogue as they commence their training. Four focus groups, two in Australia and two in Denmark, were analysed thematically. We generated the theme 'shared concern' with four sub‐themes: (1) 'A democratising alternative', (2) 'Waiting and listening', (3) 'Acknowledging many kinds of expertise' and (4) 'Personal participation'. Rather than learning a therapeutic technique, 'shared concern' in dialogical practices emphasised a collaborative approach to manage ubiquitous uncertainty and a political commitment to addressing inequities in service delivery. This variance from usual reasons to undertake training has implications for course design and delivery that have yet to be considered. Practitioner points: The theme 'shared concern' was generated from across the focus groups, which was well aligned with the doxa of Open DialogueTrainees emphasised their experience of Open Dialogue as a moral counterapproach to traditional healthcare with less emphasis on the actual psychotherapeutic practices [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine inclusion and status as potential mediators in the relationships between extraversion and agreeableness, on the one hand, and life satisfaction, on the other hand. Previous research has shown that agreeableness is less strongly related to life satisfaction compared to extraversion. We argue that the relatively weak association between agreeableness and life satisfaction is due to the fact that, even though this personality trait is positively related to inclusion, it is only weakly related to status. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) and survey data from Australia, Denmark and Sweden, we test five hypotheses about the linkages between these personality traits, inclusion, status and life satisfaction. Our results show that both extraversion and agreeableness are positively associated with life satisfaction and that this association is much stronger for extraversion. Furthermore, our results show that extraversion is reliably associated with both inclusion and status, whereas agreeableness is a reliable predictor of inclusion but not of status. Turning to our mediation analysis, our main results demonstrate that the relationship between extraversion and life satisfaction is fully mediated by both inclusion and status, whereas the relationship between agreeableness and life satisfaction is partially mediated by inclusion. Our mediation analysis further shows that agreeableness has a negative direct effect on life satisfaction over and above the positive indirect effect through inclusion. Our findings highlight the role of both inclusion and status as important mediators in the relationships between extraversion and agreeableness, on the one hand, and life satisfaction, on the other hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the area of education and training, different configurations of government with different institutional structures may produce similar or quite different educational and employment outcomes. Other factors come into play in assessing outcomes. For example, young people's transitions from education to work are shaped by a variety of structural and institutional relations in education and the labour market. We argue that analysis of developments in approaches to education and training benefits from including these perspectives. This article explores these differences and similarities in a comparative transnational context across two continents. The article suggests that it not useful, whether from a policy or scholarly perspective, to link education and employment without examining the role and type of the welfare state, including the role and type of capitalism within that state, and the relationship of the welfare state to transition systems. With these concerns as our focus, the article has two objectives. The first is to establish some links between comparative research on transition systems and the literatures on welfare state regimes and varieties of capitalism. The second is to draw out some of these links with two concrete and contrasting examples in a comparative manner, focussing on Denmark and Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2011; 18:1358-1370 © 2011 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Abstract The maturation of emergency medicine (EM) as a specialty has coincided with dramatic increases in emergency department (ED) visit rates, both in the United States and around the world. ED crowding has become a public health problem where periodic supply and demand mismatches in ED and hospital resources cause long waiting times and delays in critical treatments. ED crowding has been associated with several negative clinical outcomes, including higher complication rates and mortality. This article describes emergency care systems and the extent of crowding across 15 countries outside of the United States: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Italy, The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Catalonia (Spain), Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The authors are local emergency care leaders with knowledge of emergency care in their particular countries. Where available, data are provided about visit patterns in each country; however, for many of these countries, no national data are available on ED visits rates or crowding. For most of the countries included, there is both objective evidence of increases in ED visit rates and ED crowding and also subjective assessments of trends toward higher crowding in the ED. ED crowding appears to be worsening in many countries despite the presence of universal health coverage. Scandinavian countries with robust systems to manage acute care outside the ED do not report crowding is a major problem. The main cause for crowding identified by many authors is the boarding of admitted patients, similar to the United States. Many hospitals in these countries have implemented operational interventions to mitigate crowding in the ED, and some countries have imposed strict limits on ED length of stay (LOS), while others have no clear plan to mitigate crowding. An understanding of the causes and potential solutions implemented in these countries can provide a lens into how to mitigate ED crowding in the United States through health policy interventions and hospital operational changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In hyolithids the skeleton consists of four elements: a conch, an operculum and a pair of long, logarithmically curved ‘spines’ called helens. These last elements are rarely preserved, and have therefore remained poorly known and enigmatic. We have studied three-dimensionally preserved helens of the species ‘ Hyolithes’ lanceolatus, from the Permian of New South Wales, Australia, and ‘ Hyolithes’ groenwalli, from the Cambrian of Bornholm, Denmark. Helens were massive calcareous elements. Their original microstructure, herein reported for the first time, consisted of concentric lamellae surrounding a narrow elongated core, which may have been rich in organic matter. This concentric pattern resulted from the successive accretion of shell material at the proximal, internal portion of helens. This growth model is in accordance with helen morphology and with the presence of a characteristic surface sculpture of overlapping lamellae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the stationarity of the correlation coefficients between the monthly returns of the share market indices from selected countries from January 1970 to December 1977 after adjusting for exchange gains and losses. The inter-country correlation coefficients were calculated over one-year, two-year and four-year to test for stationarity. The inter-country correlation coefficients were all important at the five percent level over the eight-year period of study. The results on the stationarity of the inter-correlation coefficients between Australia and Japan for four year sub-periods and between Denmark and South Africa, Japan and New Zealand, and New Zealand and the U.S. for the final two year sub-periods were different at the five per cent level. Correlations between Australia and Germany, Australia and the U.S., and Denmark and the U.S. indicate that none of the inter-country correlation coefficients was time dependent at the five per cent level.

The author asserts that general practice in Australia has lots to share about clinical care, research and education and learn from other countries that will strengthen its health care system to ensure universal health coverage. He mentions the adoption of the "Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" document which includes the call for universal health coverage. He cites the progress of other countries like Cuba and Denmark on ensuring universal health coverage.