280 research outputs found
Honoring Veterans Means Funding Suicide Prevention
Many Americans may not know that it was Dwight D. Eisenhower who in 1954 issued the official proclamation celebrating the service of all veterans by designating Nov. 11, formerly known as Armistice Day, in honor of our vets. Eisenhower, of course, was supreme commander of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II and commander in chief as the 34th president of the United States.
In Ike’s words, “on that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.”
This Veterans Day, millions of Americans thank a veteran for serving our nation, but during the hour-long service at the local elementary school or church cemetery, a veteran or active-duty member of the armed forces will take his own life: The harsh reality is that the average suicide rate today among all those who are serving or have served is more than 20 per day — 17 are veterans. [excerpt
Validation of a Measure of Weight-Related Quality of Life in a Community Sample of Normal Weight, Overweight, and Obese 4th and 5th Grade Students
The current study extends the quality of life assessment literature by examining the reliability and validity of a disease-specific instrument in a sample of nontreatment-seeking school aged children with overweight and obesity. Participants were 4th and 5th grade students recruited from six Kansas elementary schools. Results of the current study were consistent with the initial evaluation of Sizing Me Up and revealed a five-factor first-order factor structure for the 22-item measure with one second-order factor representing a total score. Consistent with study hypotheses and the available literature, factorial invariance could not be established between a sample of children with healthy weight (n = 168) and the primary sample (n = 134) of children with overweight and obesity. Good evidence for convergent validity within Sizing Me Up factors as well as with similar constructs measured by a general quality of life instrument were revealed. The Sizing Me Up also demonstrated evidence for criterion-related validity with BMI%ile. The current study also advances the quality of life assessment literature by empirically testing the assumption that disease-specific measures assess different constructs than general quality of life measures. Study hypotheses that Sizing Me Up assesses weight-related quality of life constructs were supported. Finally, reliabilities for the five-factor Sizing Me Up factor structure were acceptable for research purposes. However, the scales are unacceptable for clinical use and only the total score should be used with individual children
The Collapse of the Wien Tail in the Coldest Brown Dwarf? Hubble Space Telescope Near-Infrared Photometry of WISE J085510.83-071442.5
We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) near-infrared photometry of the
coldest known brown dwarf, WISE J085510.83071442.5 (WISE 08550714). WISE
08550714 was observed with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) aboard HST using
the F105W, F125W, and F160W filters, which approximate the , , and
near-infrared bands. WISE 08550714 is undetected at F105W with a
corresponding 2 magnitude limit of 26.9. We marginally detect
WISE 08550714 in the F125W images (S/N 4), with a measured magnitude
of 26.41 0.27, more than a magnitude fainter than the band magnitude
reported by Faherty and coworkers. WISE J08550714 is clearly detected in the
F160W band, with a magnitude of 23.90 0.02, the first secure detection of
WISE 08550714 in the near-infrared. Based on these data, we find that WISE
08550714 has extremely red F105WF125W and F125WF160W colors relative
to other known Y dwarfs. We find that when compared to the models of Saumon et
al. and Morley et al., the F105WF125W and F125WF160W colors of WISE
08550714 cannot be accounted for simultaneously. These colors likely
indicate that we are seeing the collapse of flux on the Wien tail for this
extremely cold object.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Developing Empirical Decision Points to Improve the Timing of Adaptive Digital Health Physical Activity Interventions in Youth: Survival Analysis
A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Background: Current digital health interventions primarily use interventionist-defined rules to guide the timing of intervention delivery. As new temporally dense data sets become available, it is possible to make decisions about the intervention timing empirically.
Objective: This study aimed to explore the timing of physical activity among youth to inform decision points (eg, timing of support) for future digital physical activity interventions.
Methods: This study comprised 113 adolescents aged between 13 and 18 years (mean age 14.64, SD 1.48 years) who wore an accelerometer for 20 days. Multilevel survival analyses were used to estimate the most likely time of day (via odds ratios and hazard probabilities) when adolescents accumulated their average physical activity. The interacting effects of physical activity timing and moderating variables were calculated by entering predictors, such as gender, sports participation, and school day, into the model as main effects and tested for interactions with the time of day to determine conditional main effects of these predictors.
Results: On average, the likelihood that a participant would accumulate a typical amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity increased and peaked between 6 PM and 8 PM before decreasing sharply after 9 PM. Hazard and survival probabilities suggest that optimal decision points for digital physical activity programs could occur between 5 PM and 8 PM.
Conclusions: Overall, the findings of this study support the idea that the timing of physical activity can be empirically identified and that these markers may be useful as intervention triggers.Society of Pediatric Psycholog
Three New Cool Brown Dwarfs Discovered with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and an Improved Spectrum of the Y0 Dwarf WISE J041022.71+150248.4
As part of a larger search of Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) data
for cool brown dwarfs with effective temperatures less than 1000 K, we present
the discovery of three new cool brown dwarfs with spectral types later than T7.
Using low-resolution, near-infrared spectra obtained with the NASA Infrared
Telescope Facility and the Hubble Space Telescope we derive spectral types of
T9.5 for WISE J094305.98+360723.5, T8 for WISE J200050.19+362950.1, and Y0: for
WISE J220905.73+271143.9. The identification of WISE J220905.73+271143.9 as a Y
dwarf brings the total number of spectroscopically confirmed Y dwarfs to
seventeen. In addition, we present an improved spectrum (i.e. higher
signal-to-noise ratio) of the Y0 dwarf WISE J041022.71+150248.4 that confirms
the Cushing et al. classification of Y0. Spectrophotometric distance estimates
place all three new brown dwarfs at distances less than 12 pc, with WISE
J200050.19+362950.1 lying at a distance of only 3.9-8.0 pc. Finally, we note
that brown dwarfs like WISE J200050.19+362950.1 that lie in or near the
Galactic plane offer an exciting opportunity to measure their mass via
astrometric microlensing.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa
Driven Pile Capacity in Clay and Drilled Shaft Capacity in Rock from Field Load Tests
In this study, two case histories of deep foundations are discussed, including driven piles and drilled shafts. The first case history is an assessment of driven pile capacity in clay. As part of selecting the deep foundation system, steel pipe, concrete, and timber piles were driven at the site. Static compression and uplift load tests were performed on the concrete and timber piles, while only static compression tests were performed on the steel pipe piles. Measured pile capacities from the static load tests were compared to predicted pile capacities, which were obtained from empirical design methods employing laboratory and in-situ test results. The data demonstrate that the traditional alpha method results in somewhat conservative predictions for the test piles, regardless of whether the values of undrained shear strength (su) are obtained directly from the unconfined compression (UC) test or are inferred from a correlation with the CPTU as equivalent direct simple shear (DSS) values of su. The second case study involves an evaluation of the axial and lateral capacities of drilled shafts in rock to support a concrete gated dam. The test drilled shafts were step-tapered from 5.5-ft diameter through the soil zone to 5-ft diameter in the rock socket. Axial and lateral load tests were performed on drilled shafts embedded in soft to medium hard clayey shale and claystone overlain by granular alluvium. The data demonstrate that longstanding methods of determining ultimate side resistance are conservative relative to the measured values, as are customary presumptive values, but that predictions using one evolving method can be unconservative in the absence of field verification. In addition, the shafts performed satisfactorily under the applied design load, exhibiting minimal lateral deflection within the rock socket
WISE J163940.83-684738.6: A Y Dwarf identified by Methane Imaging
We have used methane imaging techniques to identify the near-infrared
counterpart of the bright WISE source WISEJ163940.83-684738.6. The large proper
motion of this source (around 3.0arcsec/yr) has moved it, since its original
WISE identification, very close to a much brighter background star -- it
currently lies within 1.5" of the J=14.90+-0.04 star 2MASS16394085-6847446.
Observations in good seeing conditions using methane sensitive filters in the
near-infrared J-band with the FourStar instrument on the Magellan 6.5m Baade
telescope, however, have enabled us to detect a near-infrared counterpart. We
have defined a photometric system for use with the FourStar J2 and J3 filters,
and this photometry indicates strong methane absorption, which unequivocally
identifies it as the source of the WISE flux. Using these imaging observations
we were then able to steer this object down the slit of the FIRE spectrograph
on a night of 0.6" seeing, and so obtain near-infrared spectroscopy confirming
a Y0-Y0.5 spectral type. This is in line with the object's
near-infrared-to-WISE J3--W2 colour. Preliminary astrometry using both WISE and
FourStar data indicates a distance of 5.0+-0.5pc and a substantial tangential
velocity of 73+-8km/s. WISEJ163940.83-684738.6 is the brightest confirmed Y
dwarf in the WISE W2 passband and its distance measurement places it amongst
the lowest luminosity sources detected to date.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, 20 September
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Parents’ Perspectives on the Theoretical Domains Framework Elements Needed in a Pediatric Health Behavior App: A Crowdsourced Social Validity Study
A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Background: Most pediatric studies do not include parent stakeholders in the design of the intervention itself and many pediatric
mobile health (mHealth) interventions are not meaningfully disseminated after the trial period ends. Consequently, the consumer
desire for mobile apps targeting pediatric health behavior is likely to be met by commercial products that are not based in theory
or evidence and may not take stakeholder preferences into account.
Objective: The aim was to assess parent preference for mobile app features that map onto specific Theoretical Domains
Framework (TDF) elements.
Methods: This study was a crowdsourced social validity study of 183 parents who were asked to rate their preferences for
mobile app features that correspond to elements of the TDF. The TDF organizes a large number of theoretical models and
constructs into three components: (1) capability, (2) motivation, and (3) opportunity. Parents of children were recruited through
Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Results: The majority of participants were Caucasian and mean age was 36.9 (SD 8.0) years. Results revealed broad acceptability
of communication, motivation, and opportunity domains. However, the degree to which each domain was valued varied within
behavioral category. Parents demonstrated a preference for increasing procedural knowledge for physical activity and diet behaviors
over sleep (F2,545=5.18, P=.006). Similarly, parents valued self-monitoring as more important for physical activity than sleep
(F2,546=4.04, P=.02). When asked about the value of features to help children develop skills, parents preferred those features for
dietary behavior over sleep (F2,546=3.57, P=.03). Parents perceived that goal-setting features would be most useful for physical
activity over sleep and diet (F2,545=5.30, P=.005). Incentive features within the app were seen as most useful for physical activity
over sleep (F2,546=4.34, P=.01).
Conclusions: This study presents a low-cost strategy for involving a large number of stakeholders in the discussion of how
health behavior theory should be applied in a mHealth intervention. Our approach is innovative in that it took a scientific framework
(ie, TDF) and made it digestible to parents so that they could then provide their opinions about features that might appear in a
future app. Our survey items discriminated between various health behaviors allowing stakeholders to communicate the different
health behaviors that they would like a TDF feature to change. Moreover, we were able to develop a set of consumer opinions
about features that were directly linked to elements of the TDF
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