Validation of the Simple Activity Measurement Instrument (SAM) Using Heart Rate and Pedometry; Simple Activity Measurement Instrument (SAM) for Measuring MVPA in Physical Education

In order to battle obesity in our schools, Physical Education standards are working to become more and more in accordance with the Physical Activity Guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the American College of Sports Medicine. Physical Education teachers would benefit from a tool that measures the amount and type of activity that students are involved in while they are in Physical Education. Many of the instruments that teachers use to assess students’ physical activity are too expensive, too difficult and can be time consuming. The purpose of the current study was to test the reliability of a tool developed by Surapiboonchai, Fumey, Reardon, Eldridge and Murray known as the Simple Activity Measurement (SAM) instrument. The instrument was used to assess MVPA during Physical Education classes. 40 students, both male and female, were randomly selected to represent the population (grades 9-12) at Moriarty High School. The students that were observed for MPVA wore a Pyle PHRM34 Heart Rate Monitor along with an Omron HJ-112 Premium Pedometer. The intensity of their activity was recorded on scale from 0-10. The SAM instrument was proven to be valid measurement of physical activity and a high predictor of Heart Rate (r = 0.838, ^ = 0.702, p \u3c 0.05) as well as a valid predictor of accelerator use (r = 0.591, r^ = 0.349). The results of the study show that SAM is an economical and easy instrument to use to assess MVPA in Physical Education classes in grades 9-1

Gender Gaps in Math Performance, Perceived Mathematical Ability and College STEM Education: The Role of Parental Occupation

Employment opportunities in occupations related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, the so-called STEM fields, are predicted to continue growing through time. In addition, STEM occupations also enjoy higher wages on average. Despite these advantages, women remain under-represented in STEM college degree completion and occupations. Encouraging women into the STEM fields has become an important policy concern. We use longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to study gender differences in math achievement and self-perceived math ability and how they may differ by parental occupation type, specifically science related versus non-science related parental occupations. We then study their role on subsequent decision of majoring in a science field in college. Our results corroborate significant gender differences in math test scores and perceived math ability during childhood. Having a parent working in a science related field is associated with a better performance in math but not necessarily higher levels of perceived math ability, given math performance. All three factors, math achievement, perceived math ability, and parental occupation in a science field, are found to be significant predictors of the probability of majoring in science in college. However, estimated effects of higher levels of math achievement are about double for boys than for girls. Estimates of perceived math ability are also slightly larger for boys. In contrast, most of the observed positive effects of having a parent in a science related occupation seem to be concentrated among females. These results suggest a loss in STEM enrollment by otherwise qualified young women and the potential importance that parental role modeling effects or specific human capital parental investments by parents in science occupations could have for encouraging women to major in science fields

REVIEW OF CONCEPT OF PAIN MANAGEMENT IN AYURVEDA

In spite of very advanced researches in Science, Pain still remains the major cause of disability affecting the large number of population in the world. An integrated approach towards Pain Management should possibly answer the grief involved in treating this Symptom of varying degrees. Even Ministry of AYUSH, India has stressed upon this alarming topic and professed its theme as “Pain Management through Ayurveda” for Second National Ayurveda Day. In this article, review of the classical text with special references to pain, and its management through Ayurvedic procedures such as Snehan, Swedan, Agnikarma, Jalaukaavcharan, Vedhankarma, Lepankarma & Bastikarma has been discussed in context to their utility in Pain management. Similarly, The role of Madhur-Amla-Lavan Rasa Aushadhi in Pain management due to Dhatukshayjanya Vataprakopa in view of G-PCR bio-signalling of taste and Pain modulation is also incorporated to explain role of palliative medicines

Chitosan gel film bandages: correlating structure, composition, and antimicrobial properties

Chitosan gel films were successfully obtained by evaporation cast from chitosan solutions in aqueous acidic solutions of organic acids (lactic and acetic acid) as gel film bandages, with a range of additives that directly influence film morphology and porosity. We show that the structure and composition of a wide range of 128 thin gel films, is correlated to the antimicrobial properties, their biocompatibility and resistance to biodegradation. Infrared spectroscopy and solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to correlate film molecular structure and composition to good antimicrobial properties against 10 of the most prevalent Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. Chitosan gel films reduce the number of colonies after 24 h of incubation by factors of ∼105–107 CFU/mL, compared with controls. For each of these films, the structure and preparation condition has a direct relationship to antimicrobial activity and effectiveness. These gel film bandages also show excellent stability against biodegradation with lysozyme under physiological conditions (5% weight loss over a period of 1 month, 2% in the first week), allowing use during the entire healing process. These chitosan thin films and subsequent derivatives hold potential as low-cost, dissolvable bandages, or second skin, with antimicrobial properties that prohibit the most relevant intrahospital bacteria that infest burn injuries

Collaborative Delivery with Energy-Constrained Mobile Robots

We consider the problem of collectively delivering some message from a specified source to a designated target location in a graph, using multiple mobile agents. Each agent has a limited energy which constrains the distance it can move. Hence multiple agents need to collaborate to move the message, each agent handing over the message to the next agent to carry it forward. Given the positions of the agents in the graph and their respective budgets, the problem of finding a feasible movement schedule for the agents can be challenging. We consider two variants of the problem: in non-returning delivery, the agents can stop anywhere; whereas in returning delivery, each agent needs to return to its starting location, a variant which has not been studied before. We first provide a polynomial-time algorithm for returning delivery on trees, which is in contrast to the known (weak) NP-hardness of the non-returning version. In addition, we give resource-augmented algorithms for returning delivery in general graphs. Finally, we give tight lower bounds on the required resource augmentation for both variants of the problem. In this sense, our results close the gap left by previous research.Comment: 19 pages. An extended abstract of this paper was published at the 23rd International Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication Complexity 2016, SIROCCO'1

Diet, microhabitat use, and thermal preferences of Ptychoglossus bicolor (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae) in an organic coffee shade plantation in Colombia

Ptychoglossus bicolor is a small gymnophthalmid lizard distributed in the Magdalena Valley of Colombia. We studied ecological features of diet, microhabitat use, and thermal preferences of a population found in an organic coffee shade plantation at the Cordillera Oriental of the Colombian Andes. The studied population had a diet composed predominantly of isopods. The Relative Importance Index of isopods was 98.8%; there were no significant monthly differences in the full stomach content and volume of isopods eaten during the sampling year, neither between rainy and dry seasons. A large number of lizards were found active in the leaf-litter, buried around coffee tree roots, and under or in rotting logs. Lizard body temperature was positively correlated with substrate temperature and air temperature; sex differences in body temperature were not significant. At the studied locality we did not find lizards out of the coffee fields. Our results suggested that these lizards successfully cope with the conditions offered by the organic coffee areas as a result of the cultivation system. Thus, this population might be vulnerable to any modification of the habitat that changes microhabitat availability and abundance of isopods.Ptychoglossus bicolor es un pequeño lagarto de la familia Gymnophthalmidae, que habita el valle del Río Magdalena de Colombia. Se estudiaron las características ecológicas de la dieta, uso de microhábitat y preferencias termales de una población que habita una plantación de café orgánico bajo sombra en la Cordillera Oriental colombiana. La dieta en esta población está dominada por isópodos. El Índice Valor de Importancia Relativa fue del 98.8% y no hubo diferencias mensuales significativas en el contenido estomacal y el volumen de isópodos consumidos durante el año, ni tampoco entre las estaciones de lluvia y seca. Un gran número de lagartos fueron encontrados activos entre la hojarasca, enterrados junto a las raíces de los árboles y bajo o dentro de troncos en descomposición. La temperatura corporal estuvo positivamente correlacionada con las temperaturas del suelo y del aire y no hubo diferencias significativas en temperatura corporal entre los sexos. En esta localidad no encontramos lagartos fuera de los campos de cultivo de café. Nuestros resultados sugieren que estos lagartos sobrellevan exitosamente las condiciones ofrecidas por los cafetales orgánicos como resultado del sistema de cultivo. Así, esta población podría ser vulnerable a cualquier modificación del hábitat que cambie la disponibilidad de microhábitats y la abundancia de isópodos

Leakage Subspace Precoding and Scheduling for Physical Layer Security in Multi-User XL-MIMO Systems

We investigate the achievable secrecy sum-rate in a multi-user XL-MIMO system, on which user distances to the base station become comparable to the antenna array dimensions. We show that the consideration of spherical-wavefront propagation inherent to these set-ups is beneficial for physical-layer security, as it provides immunity against eavesdroppers located in similar angular directions that would otherwise prevent secure communication under classical planar-wavefront propagation. A leakage subspace precoding strategy is also proposed for joint secure precoding and user scheduling, which allows to improve the secrecy sum-rate compared to conventional zero-forcing based strategies, under different eavesdropper collusion strategies.Comment: 5 pages and 4 figures. This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl