Housing Policy,Housing Assistance and the Wellbeing Dividend: Developing an Evidence Base for Post-GFC Economies

This paper discusses the recent evolution, at a time of turmoil within global financial markets, of Australia's housing system and considers the effectiveness of housing assistance responses formulated to assist lo- income Australians. Following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), housing was recast in the public and political consciousness and received substantial policy attention. In this era of rapidly declining housing affordability as well as threats to the supply of housing finance, the Australian Government renewed its approach to housing assistance. The paper examines housing assistance in Australia and assesses individual outcomes in terms of a ‘wellbeing dividend’. It draws upon on a survey of 1700 low-income households to examine individual outcomes for health and wellbeing across three of Australia's major forms of housing assistance. The research clearly shows that while housing assistance makes a positive contribution to wellbeing, not all forms of assistance are equal.     

The impact of household consumption on energy use and CO2 emissions in China

In this paper, the consumer lifestyle approach is applied to analyze the impact of consumption by urban and rural households on energy use and CO₂ emissions for different regions and income levels in China. Grey Model is used to compare the relationship between energy consumption, consumption expenditure and CO₂ emissions for different lifestyles. The results show that direct energy consumption is diverse for urban households and simple for rural households in China. Direct energy consumption and CO₂ emissions are increasing faster for urban than for rural households. Indirect energy consumption and CO₂ emissions for urban households are much greater than the direct consumption values. The total indirect energy consumption and CO₂ emissions differ by regions and the structures are different, but the latter differences are not obvious. The impact of household income is enormous. Indirect energy consumption and CO₂ emissions are higher for high-income than for low-income households. The structural difference for indirect energy consumption and CO₂ emissions for households with different income levels is significant. The higher the income, the more diverse is the energy consumption and CO₂ emission structure. The structures for indirect energy use and CO₂ emissions are diverse for urban households, but simple for rural households.     

Public Lifestyle in the Low-Density City

Much maligned, shopping centres have come to represent many of the negative aspects of low-density areas. They are all too often associated with high car dependency and a paucity of cultural and public amenities. Alex Wall questions this preconception. Could the well-conceived and designed shopping centre actually prove to be urban sprawl's redemption?. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

微生态与健康生活方式

现代社会的都市人,生活质量逐步提升,生活丰富多彩,但是“积极健康”的脚步并没有随之来临,有近70％的人处于亚健康状态,而据公众营养发展中心和中华预防医学会微生态学会发起的“中国人口亚健康与微生态失衡状况调查”显示,亚健康背后的始作俑者——竟是人体微生态失衡!而进一步的研究显示人们的饮食,即人们的健康生活方式是导致微生态失衡与否的最主要的影响因素之一。本文从微生态与健康及健康生活方式、企业在促进健康生活方式推广中的作用以及生化方式到来的问题等方面进行了详细的阐述,并对解决生化方式带来的疾病所应采用的措施提出了建议。     

Review of Behavioral Medicine: Changing Health Lifestyles.

Reviews the book, Behavioral Medicine: Changing Health Lifestyles by Park O. Davidson and Sheena M. Davidson (1980). Since 1969, the Banff International Conferences have served as a "window" on the future applications of behaviour modification principles and techniques. Behavioral Medicine: Changing Health Lifestyles is the "report" of that conference. (the reviewer hastens to point out, however, that the Banff Conference reports are much more than a collection of papers presented at the conference itself. They are chapters written specially for publication.) For a number of years there has been an increasing awareness of and concern with the fact that "lifestyle" plays an important role in health and ill health alike. Faulty habits and behaviours such as smoking, alcohol consumption, overeating, lack of exercise, overwork, etc., may play a critical causal role in the development of physical disorders. At the same time, however, changing these behaviours, and maintaining the changes, has quite often proven to be beyond the skills of even the most talented clinician. The present volume addresses this challenge: the application of behavioural principles to the problems of physical health and illness. The chapters are well written and the usual vagaries of an edited book (such as stylistic differences between authors) have been minimized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

强化节能减排调控全面实现可持续发展

为缓解经济持续高速增长给资源环境带来的巨大压力,中国政府出台了一系列节能减排的政策措施,明确提出了"十一五"节能减排的量化指标,并采取经济、法律和行政等综合手段,充分发挥了宏观调控作用,一举扭转了近年来单位GDP能耗趋升的态势。分析当前节能减排工作的一些客观制约因素和存在问题,提出以下建议:必须以贯彻落实科学发展观、突出节能环保优先的战略地位为前提,统筹节能减排目标与其他发展目标的协调发展,坚持发挥市场机制作用与实施政府宏观调控相结合,建立和完善相关重大节能减排制度,强化节能减排的基础性工作。指出近期以构建节能环保型的生产体系为工作重点,中长期应兼顾节能环保型消费方式的引导。     

Impact of human aging and modern lifestyle on gut microbiota

Human evolution and lifestyle changes caused by the agricultural and industrial revolutions have led to great advances in medicine and increased life expectancy, whilst also profoundly altering the ecological relationships and disease patterns of populations. Studies involving populations that still enjoy a rural way of life and with traits similar to the Paleolithic period reveal them to present a more robust, resistant and diverse gut microbiota, in comparison to highly industrialized civilizations. The human diet has expanded and broadened to include the consumption of high-calorie foods, particularly from animal sources such as game meat and eggs. For some time, authors have been alert to the fact that a modern lifestyle leads to reduced intake of beneficial bacteria, suggesting that nonpathogenic bacteria are being eradicated. Furthermore, therapeutic procedures, including the use of probiotics and prebiotics, have been proposed to lead to recovery of this microbiota, which is altered due to both the ageing process and lifestyle related aspects. Accordingly, this article aims to review the impact of human aging and modern lifestyle on gut microbiota, within an evolutionary, ecological, epidemiological and therapeutic context.     

Planning for Happy Neighborhoods

Problem, research strategy, and findings: There is increasing interest in planning for healthy communities, but little is known about how planners can affect mental health and wellbeing in neighborhoods, although much is known about how planners can affect physical health through neighborhood design. In this review essay, we draw lessons from a cross-disciplinary set of studies to reveal how the neighborhood built environment may affect one aspect of residents' wellbeing: happiness. Providing residents access to open, natural, and green space may directly increase their happiness. Incorporating design features that allow for social interaction and safety also may promote residents' happiness.

Takeaway for practice: Planners have the capacity to contribute to greater opportunities for happiness in neighborhoods. Strategies include integrating happiness-related indicators into health impact assessments and employing a new, participatory neighborhood planning process, the Sustainability Through Happiness Framework.     

Sex Differences in Metabolic Indices and Chronic Neuroinflammation in Response to Prolonged High-Fat Diet in ApoE4 Knock-In Mice

Late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) likely results from combinations of risk factors that include both genetic predisposition and modifiable lifestyle factors. The E4 allele of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is the most significant genetic risk factor for LOAD. A Western-pattern diet (WD) has been shown to strongly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, conditions which have been strongly linked to an increased risk for developing AD. Little is known about how the WD may contribute to, or enhance, the increased risk presented by possession of the ApoE4 allele. To model this interaction over the course of a lifetime, we exposed male and female homozygote ApoE4 knock-in mice and wild-type controls to nine months of a high-fat WD or standard chow diet. At eleven months of age, the mice were tested for glucose tolerance and then for general activity and spatial learning and memory. Postmortem analysis of liver function and neuroinflammation in the brain was also assessed. Our results suggest that behavior impairments resulted from the convergence of interacting metabolic alterations, made worse in a male ApoE4 mice group who also showed liver dysfunction, leading to a higher level of inflammatory cytokines in the brain. Interestingly, female ApoE4 mice on a WD revealed impairments in spatial learning and memory without the observed liver dysfunction or increase in inflammatory markers in the brain. These results suggest multiple direct and indirect pathways through which ApoE and diet-related factors interact. The striking sex difference in markers of chronic neuroinflammation in male ApoE4 mice fed the high-fat WD suggests a specific mechanism of interaction conferring significant enhanced LOAD risk for humans with the ApoE4 allele, which may differ between sexes. Additionally, our results suggest researchers exercise caution when designing and interpreting results of experiments employing a WD, being careful not to assume a WD impacts both sexes by the same mechanisms.     

An Overview of Epigenetics in Obesity: The Role of Lifestyle and Therapeutic Interventions

Obesity has become a global epidemic that has a negative impact on population health and the economy of nations. Genetic predispositions have been demonstrated to have a substantial role in the unbalanced energy metabolism seen in obesity. However, these genetic variations cannot entirely explain the massive growth in obesity over the last few decades. Accumulating evidence suggests that modern lifestyle characteristics such as the intake of energy-dense foods, adopting sedentary behavior, or exposure to environmental factors such as industrial endocrine disruptors all contribute to the rising obesity epidemic. Recent advances in the study of DNA and its alterations have considerably increased our understanding of the function of epigenetics in regulating energy metabolism and expenditure in obesity and metabolic diseases. These epigenetic modifications influence how DNA is transcribed without altering its sequence. They are dynamic, reflecting the interplay between the body and its surroundings. Notably, these epigenetic changes are reversible, making them appealing targets for therapeutic and corrective interventions. In this review, I discuss how these epigenetic modifications contribute to the disordered energy metabolism in obesity and to what degree lifestyle and weight reduction strategies and pharmacological drugs can restore energy balance by restoring normal epigenetic profiles.