Motor Competency And Physical Activity in Young Ambassadors of Physical Education

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the TGMD-2 can identify the children in the Young Ambassadors (YA) program as competent in their motor skills, and determine if there is a link between the overall physical activity level of the children in YA and their motor competency scores. It was hypothesized that the TGMD-2 would misclassify YA participants as having average motor competence due to their participation in non-traditional motor skills, and that children with higher levels of physical activity would score higher on the TGMD-2. 12 participants were recruited from the Tacoma Public Schools 2017 YA program. Two trained researchers completed all the testing as described in the manual, each administering the same portion of the test. Following completion of the TGMD-2, each participant was fitted with an Actigraph activity monitor, which was worn for five consecutive days to track physical activity levels. Descriptive scores on the TGMD-2 ranged from below average to above average, with no significant difference between locomotor and object control scores (p=0.898). No correlation was found between physical activity levels and TGMD-2 locomotor scores (R =0.09, p=0.767) or object control score (R= 0.09, p=0.781). This study demonstrates that proficiency in complex non-traditional motor skills and high activity levels do not correlate with average or above average scores on the test. The TGMD-2 may not be the best tool for measuring motor proficiency in specific populations of children that practice non-traditional motor skills in their activities

Evaluation of a Teaching Assistant Program for Third-Year Pharmacy Students

Objectives. To determine if a teaching assistant (TA) program for third-year pharmacy students (PY3s) improves confidence in teaching abilities. Additionally, 3 assessment methods (faculty, student, and TA self-evaluations) were compared for similarities and correlations

The Impact of Illicit ADHD Medication Use on Dietary Choices and Mental Distress Among College Students

Students on college campuses use ADHD medications illicitly, often to increase their focus, concentration, and memory in an attempt to better their academic performance. These psychostimulants have an appetite suppressive effect that make them attractive for use by many college students. Psychostimulants impact the brain circuitry in a way that impacts mental health, which in turn impact eating behaviors that may lead to disordered eating. The brain reward circuits affected by ADHD medication may play a role in “pleasure-seeking behavior and food cravings.” Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between ADHD medications, dietary choices and mental distress. Data has been collected from over 600 undergraduate students from several U.S. colleges. Data collection is ongoing. The survey included questions on dietary patterns, exercise practices, frequency of specific food group consumption, mental health, and ADHD medication use. Data was collected using a Google Survey and analyzed using Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient in SPSS, Version 25.0. Our results suggest that there is a bidirectional relationship between ADHD medications, dietary choices and mental distress.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2021/1026/thumbnail.jp

Motor competency and physical activity in elementary school aged children who participate in nontraditional sports

One after school program, Youth Ambassadors of Physical Education (YA), is designed to promote physical activity in school age children to help combat the growing levels of childhood inactivity. However, this program utilizes skills that are vastly different from the locomotor and object control skills assessed with the Test of Gross Motor Development. Purpose: The purpose of this study it to determine whether the TGMD-2 can identify the children in YA as competent in their motor skills. This study also examines if there is a link between the overall physical activity level of the children in YA and their motor competency scores. Approach: 12 participants for this study were recruited from the 2017 Youth Ambassadors Program (YA) sponsored by the Tacoma public schools. Following completion of the TGMD-2, each participant was fitted with an activity monitor for a period of five days. Results: Descriptive scores on the TGMD-2 range from below average to above average, representing scores from the 25th percentile for children of the same age and gender to the 95th percentile. No correlation was found between physical activity levels and TGMD-2 scores. All participants of YA logged activity levels significantly exceeding the CDC recommendations, both during the weekday and on the weekends Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the factors of high activity levels and proficiency in complex motor skills do not correlate with average or above average scores on the test. The TGMD-2 may not be the best tool for measuring motor proficiency in specific populations of children that practice non-traditional motor skills in their activities

A Hydrodynamic-Sediment Transport Numerical Model for the Waipaoa Shelf, New Zealand: Model Archive

These files are compressed versions of input files, model code, and output used for two publications: Moriarty, J. M., Harris, C. K., and Hadfield, M. G. (2014). A hydrodynamic and sediment transport model for the Waipaoa Shelf, New Zealand: Sensitivity of fluxes to spatially-varying erodibility and model nesting. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 2 (2): 336-369. Doi:10.3390/jmse2020336 Moriarty, J. M., Harris, C. K., and Hadfield, M. G. (2015). Event-to-seasonal sediment dispersal on the Waipaoa River Shelf, New Zealand: A numerical modeling study. Continental Shelf Research, 110: 108-123. Doi: 10.1016/j.csr2015.10.005 Compressed files with the .gz file extension can be opened with Gzip GNU software (open source). Compressed files with the .tar file extension can be opened with Gzip Tar software (open source). Many of the input / output files use the NetCDF (Network Common Data Form) file format. These have "nc" as a file extension and can be read using a variety of open source tools: see http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs/ . For information about the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), its model code and input / output, see www.myroms.org

Patient characteristics associated with objective measures of digital health tool use in the United States: A literature review.

The study sought to determine which patient characteristics are associated with the use of patient-facing digital health tools in the United States.We conducted a literature review of studies of patient-facing digital health tools that objectively evaluated use (eg, system/platform data representing frequency of use) by patient characteristics (eg, age, race or ethnicity, income, digital literacy). We included any type of patient-facing digital health tool except patient portals. We reran results using the subset of studies identified as having robust methodology to detect differences in patient characteristics.We included 29 studies; 13 had robust methodology. Most studies examined smartphone apps and text messaging programs for chronic disease management and evaluated only 1-3 patient characteristics, primarily age and gender. Overall, the majority of studies found no association between patient characteristics and use. Among the subset with robust methodology, white race and poor health status appeared to be associated with higher use.Given the substantial investment in digital health tools, it is surprising how little is known about the types of patients who use them. Strategies that engage diverse populations in digital health tool use appear to be needed.Few studies evaluate objective measures of digital health tool use by patient characteristics, and those that do include a narrow range of characteristics. Evidence suggests that resources and need drive use

Recent pace of change in human impact on the world's ocean.

Humans interact with the oceans in diverse and profound ways. The scope, magnitude, footprint and ultimate cumulative impacts of human activities can threaten ocean ecosystems and have changed over time, resulting in new challenges and threats to marine ecosystems. A fundamental gap in understanding how humanity is affecting the oceans is our limited knowledge about the pace of change in cumulative impact on ocean ecosystems from expanding human activities - and the patterns, locations and drivers of most significant change. To help address this, we combined high resolution, annual data on the intensity of 14 human stressors and their impact on 21 marine ecosystems over 11 years (2003-2013) to assess pace of change in cumulative impacts on global oceans, where and how much that pace differs across the ocean, and which stressors and their impacts contribute most to those changes. We found that most of the ocean (59%) is experiencing significantly increasing cumulative impact, in particular due to climate change but also from fishing, land-based pollution and shipping. Nearly all countries saw increases in cumulative impacts in their coastal waters, as did all ecosystems, with coral reefs, seagrasses and mangroves at most risk. Mitigation of stressors most contributing to increases in overall cumulative impacts is urgently needed to sustain healthy oceans