Wearable activity monitors and goals: Perceptions on physical activity, attitudes and motivational outcomes

Evidence attesting to the benefits of wearable activity monitors for increasing PA has been reported (USDHHS, 2018). Goal setting is one behavior change technique that often accompanies wearable activity monitors and has been deemed an essential component to any health behavior change intervention (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2014). Specific to PA behavior, goal setting has been deemed effective regardless of age, sex, and activity status (McEwan et al., 2016). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if affective goals confer unique benefits on physical activity (PA), attitudes and behavioral regulations consistent with the Organismic Integration Theory (OIT; Ryan & Deci, 2017) among users of wearable activity monitors. Affective goals were compared with instrumental goals, step count and a no goal condition. Adopting a randomized experimental post-test only design, undergraduate students (N = 153) were assigned to one of eight conditions. Participants read a scenario then completed a battery of questionnaires housed on a secure online interface. Differences by condition were not found for short- or long-term PA or attitudes (p’s >.05). Differences were noted for extrinsic regulation (p = 0.025; ηp2 = .105). Results indicated that extrinsic regulation was higher in the no goal condition when compared to most other conditions. These findings imply that goal setting, regardless of type, may offset increases in extrinsic motivation associated with the use of wearable activity monitors. Users of wearable activity monitors looking to improve PA, positive attitudes and motivation associated with PA may benefit by utilizing goal setting in combination with other commonly used BCTs. A further investigation upon goal setting and users of wearable activity monitors is warranted

Defining Technology for Learning: Cognitive and Physical Tools of Inquiry

This essay explores definitions of technology and educational technology. The authors argue the following points: 1. Educational stakeholders, and the public at large, use the term technology as though it has a universally agreed upon definition. It does not, and how technology is defined matters. 2. For technology in schools to support student learning, it must to be defined in a way that describes technology as a tool for problem-solving. 3. Integration of technology, particularly when paired with teacher-centered practices, has the potential of reinforcing and heightening the negative consequences of a conception of learning that positions students as recipients of knowledge instead constructors of knowledge. Essay concludes with a call for leaders in the field of educational technology to provide guidance by adopting a definition that encapsulates the third point above

The Modern and the Celestial: Re-Imagining Hawthorne’s ‘The Celestial Railroad’

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s commentary through his works of fiction are said to be timeless. However, what would his fiction look like in response to the direction that society has taken since he has passed? This thesis seeks to illustrate Nathaniel Hawthorne’s sentiments in regards to modern society. Through close analysis of Hawthorne’s works, his life, and his morals, his ideas have been illustrated in a contemporary reimagining of one of Hawthorne’s most profound satires, “The Celestial Railroad.” In this re-write, modern technologies and mentalities are brought into consideration in accordance to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ideals

UR-49 Coronary Artery Segmentation Using Convolutional Neural Network

The project contributes to the advancement of medical imaging technology by overcoming the challenges associated with segmenting coronary arteries from ICA images. By leveraging deep learning algorithms, the system can effectively extract coronary arteries with high accuracy, providing valuable information for CAD diagnosis and treatment planning. Accurate and efficient coronary artery segmentation can improve the workflow of cardiologists and enhance the quality of patient care. A robust automated segmentation model could potentially reduce the time and resources required for manual annotation by experienced cardiologists, leading to cost savings and increased efficiency in clinical settings. Additionally, the developed model could be integrated into the education system with an interactive GUI for cardiologists to draw and learn the anatomical structure of the coronary artery system

Young Adults Entering the Economy

This anthology is written with the hopes of educating the public about the current state of the economy and how Generation Z is entering it. This paper goes over the basics of their financial behavior, the negative affects of education monopolies, financial schemes, and new technology that Gen Z has brought to the table

Anonymous Complaint Aggregation for Secure Messaging

Private messaging platforms provide strong protection against platform eavesdropping, but malicious users can use privacy as cover for spreading abuse and misinformation. In response, researchers have proposed mechanisms to trace back the source of a user-reported message (CCS ’19,’21). Unfortunately, the threat model considered by initial proposals allowed a single user to compromise the privacy of another user whose legitimate content the reporting user did not like. Recent work has attempted to mitigate this side effect by requiring a threshold number of users to report a message before its origins can be identified (NDSS ’22). However, the state of the art scheme requires the introduction of probabilistic data structures and only achieves a “fuzzy” threshold guarantee. This paper introduces a new threshold source tracking technique and accompanying efficient implementation that allows a private messaging platform, with the cooperation of a third-party moderator, to operate a threshold reporting scheme with exact thresholds.Master of Scienc

Alcohol involvement in aggression between intimate partners in New Zealand: a national cross-sectional study

Objectives: To examine the role of alcohol at the time of aggressive incidents between intimate partners in the general population by gender, by estimating (1) prevalence and severity of aggression, and drinking at the time, (2) associations of drinking at the time of the aggression with reported severity, anger and fear, and (3) association of usual drinking patterns with partner aggression. Design: A national survey of 18-70-year-olds using an electoral roll sample obtained self-reported alcohol consumption, partner’s alcohol consumption and details of the most severe partner aggression by the respondent and towards the respondent in the past 2 years. The mean scores for associated severity, anger and fear were analysed by gender and alcohol involvement. Multinomial models estimated associations of drinking patterns with aggression to and from the respondent. Results: The response rate was 49% (n=1925). Men and women reported similar prevalence of victimisation and perpetration of aggression (11-15%). Alcohol was involved in more than 25% of incidents, and reported more by women than by men, particularly male-only drinking when the respondent was the victim. Women reported greater severity, anger and fear with victimisation than men, and drinking was associated with greater reported severity. Heavy episodic drinking by respondents was associated with a threefold increase in victimisation and doubling of perpetration of aggression involving alcohol. Heavy episodic drinking by either partner was also associated with drinking being involved in reported aggression. Conclusions: The experience of intimate-partner aggression in a cross-section of households differs by gender and the involvement of alcohol, and ‘counts’ of aggressive acts in a population-based survey do not reflect the reality of gender differences. Heavy episodic drinking patterns are associated with more aggression involving alcohol within relationships, and alcohol involvement is associated with increased severity

Electrified heat and transport: energy demand futures, their impacts on power networks and what it means for system flexibility

Demand electrification, system flexibility and energy demand reduction (EDR) are three central tenets of most energy system decarbonisation pathways in the UK and other high-income countries. However, their combined impacts on local energy systems remain understudied. Here, we investigate the impact of different UK energy demand future scenarios on the loading of local electricity networks, and the ability of electrified demand to act flexibly in (i) mitigating the need for network reinforcement and (ii) shifting demand around according to variable tariffs reflecting wider system needs. These scenarios are used to drive spatially- and temporally-explicit technology uptake and energy demand modelling for heating and transport in a localised context, for application to a local electricity network. A particular case study energy network in Scotland, representative of many networks in the UK and Northern Europe, is selected to demonstrate the method. On the basis of the presented case study, which considered a typical winter demand day, energy futures based on EDR policies were found on average to reduce evening transformer loading by up to 16%. Further reductions of up to 43% were achieved with flexible smart charging and up to 69% with the use of vehicle-to-grid. Therefore, we find that policies focused on EDR can mitigate the need for reinforcement of electricity networks against the backdrop of demand electrification. However, flexibility in electricity demand contributes a larger difference to a network’s ability to host electrified heat and transport than relying solely on EDR. When used in tandem, policies that simultaneously pursue EDR and electricity system flexibility are shown to have the greatest benefits. Despite these benefits, peak electricity demand is very likely to increase significantly relative to the current baseline. Therefore, widespread reinforcement is required to local electricity networks in the net-zero transition and, accordingly, urgent investment is required to support the realisation of the UK’s legally-binding climate goals

Theory of tunable pH sensitive vesicles of anionic and cationic lipids or anionic and neutral lipids

The design of vesicles which become unstable at an easily tuned value of pH is of great interest for targeted drug delivery. We present a microscopic theory for two forms of such vesicles. A model of lipids introduced by us previously is applied to a system of ionizable, anionic lipid, and permanently charged, cationic lipid. We calculate the pH at which the lamellar phase becomes unstable with respect to an inverted hexagonal one, a value which depends continuously on the system composition. Identifying this instability with that displayed by unilamellar vesicles undergoing fusion, we obtain very good agreement with the recent experimental data of Hafez et al., Biophys. J. 2000 79: 1438-1446, on the pH at which fusion occurs vs. vesicle composition. We explicate the mechanism in terms of the role of the counter ions. This understanding suggests that a system of a neutral, non lamellar forming lipid stabilized by an anionic lipid would serve equally well for preparing tunable, pH sensitive vesicles. Our calculations confirm this. Further, we show that both forms of vesicle have the desirable feature of exhibiting a regime in which the pH at instability is a rapidly varying function of the vesicle composition.Comment: five figures, to appear in Biophys.