Accuracy of Wrist-Worn Monitors while Walking in Lower Limb Prosthetic Users

TACSM Abstract Accuracy of Wrist-Worn Monitors while Walking in Lower Limb Prosthetic Users BRIAN G. BURKHOLDER and JOHN D. SMITH Department of Counseling, Health, & Kinesiology, Texas A&M University-San Antonio, San Antonio, TX Category: Undergraduate Advisor / Mentor: Smith, John ([email protected]) ABSTRACT Wrist-worn activity monitors are extremely popular among the general population. These monitors are used to track activity for purposes to lose weight, get healthy, improve performance, and other reasons. While many studies have looked at the accuracy of these monitors in individuals without amputations, there has yet to be any that have examined these monitors in those who use lower-limb prosthetics. PURPOSE: to determine the accuracy of wrist-worn activity monitors in individuals using lower-limb prosthetics. METHODS: Thirty-four men and women (Age: 48.8±14.2 yrs, Ht: 176.9±11.5 cm, Wt: 88.3±21.1 kg, BMI: 28.3±5.3) with right-, left-leg, or bilateral above and below the knee amputations were fitted with a Polar Loop (PL) and a Fitbit ChargeTM (FC) on the left wrist, and an Omron HJ-112 (OM) pedometer on the left hip. After resetting the monitors, they then walked 140m at a self-selected pace followed by the investigator who counted steps with a standard lab hand-tally counter for actual counts (AC). At the conclusion of the walk, step counts were recorded from all devices. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to determine differences in counts registered by the monitors and those registered by AC. Single measure intraclass correlation (ICC) from a two-way random effects ANOVA was used to assess the agreement between AC and monitor counts, with ≥ 0.90 considered high agreement, 0.80 to 0.89 moderate agreement, and ≤ 0.79 low agreement. Bland-Altman plots of AC vs. counts registered by the monitors were used to provide an indication of over/under representation of steps and agreement between the measures. Percent error was calculated as [(counts detected by monitor – AC) / AC] x 100. Alpha was set at .05 for all statistical tests. RESULTS: There was a significant difference between counts, F(3, 30)=8.8, p=.001, with pairwise comparisons indicating PL was significantly lower than AC, p=.001. There was no significant difference between AC and FC (p\u3e.05) or between AC and OM (p\u3e.05). Agreement according to ICC between AC and PL was low (α=.71, ICC=.42 to .86), between AC and FC was moderate (α =.81, ICC=.61 to .90), and between AC and OM was high (α =.93, ICC=.86 to .97). Bland Altman plots indicate lowest agreement between AC and PL, and with highest agreement between AC and OM. Percent error was greatest with PL (16±12%), lower with FC (8.9±8.9%), and least with OM (4.1±7.3%). CONCLUSION: It seems that for this population who might consider wearing either the PL or the FC, the FC would be a better choice given its greater accuracy. Interestingly, the OM is the superior device for counting steps

Measurements of the ClO radical vibrational band intensity and the ClO + ClO + M reaction product

There is considerable interest in the kinetics and concentrations of free radicals in the stratosphere. Chlorine monoxide is a critically important radical because of its role in catalytic cycles for ozone depletion. Depletion occurs under a wide variety of conditions including the Antarctic spring when unusual mechanisms such as the BrO sub x/ClO sub x, ClO dimer (Cl sub 2 O sub 2), and ClO sub x/HO sub x cycles are suggested to operate. Infrared spectroscopy is one of the methods used to measure ClO in the stratosphere (Menzies 1979 and 1983; Mumma et al., 1983). To aid the quantification of such infrared measurements, researchers measured the ClO ground state fundamental band intensity

Riesz transform characterization of Hardy spaces associated with Schr\"odinger operators with compactly supported potentials

Let L=-\Delta+V be a Schr\"odinger operator on R^d, d\geq 3. We assume that V is a nonnegative, compactly supported potential that belongs to L^p(R^d), for some p>d/2. Let K_t be the semigroup generated by -L. We say that an L^1(R^d)-function f belongs to the Hardy space H_L^1 associated with L if sup_{t>0} |K_t f| belongs to L^1(R^d). We prove that f\in H_L^1 if and only if R_j f \in L^1(R^d) for j=1,...,d, where R_j= \frac{d}{dx_j} L^{-1/2} are the Riesz transforms associated with L.Comment: 6 page

Bromine measurements in ozone depleted air over the Arctic Ocean

In situ measurements of ozone, photochemically active bromine compounds, and other trace gases over the Arctic Ocean in April 2008 are used to examine the chemistry and geographical extent of ozone depletion in the arctic marine boundary layer (MBL). Data were obtained from the NOAA WP-3D aircraft during the Aerosol, Radiation, and Cloud Processes affecting Arctic Climate (ARCPAC) study and the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) study. Fast (1 s) and sensitive (detection limits at the low pptv level) measurements of BrCl and BrO were obtained from three different chemical ionization mass spectrometer (CIMS) instruments, and soluble bromide was measured with a mist chamber. The CIMS instruments also detected Br2. Subsequent laboratory studies showed that HOBr rapidly converts to Br2 on the Teflon instrument inlets. This detected Br2 is identified as active bromine and represents a lower limit of the sum HOBr + Br2. The measured active bromine is shown to likely be HOBr during daytime flights in the arctic. In the MBL over the Arctic Ocean, soluble bromide and active bromine were consistently elevated and ozone was depleted. Ozone depletion and active bromine enhancement were confined to the MBL that was capped by a temperature inversion at 200–500 m altitude. In ozone-depleted air, BrO rarely exceeded 10 pptv and was always substantially lower than soluble bromide that was as high as 40 pptv. BrCl was rarely enhanced above the 2 pptv detection limit, either in the MBL, over Alaska, or in the arctic free troposphere

Laboratory evaluation of the effect of nitric acid uptake on frost point hygrometer performance

Chilled mirror hygrometers (CMH) are widely used to measure water vapour in the troposphere and lower stratosphere from balloon-borne sondes. Systematic discrepancies among in situ water vapour instruments have been observed at low water vapour mixing ratios (<5 ppm) in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UT/LS). Understanding the source of the measurement discrepancies is important for a more accurate and reliable determination of water vapour abundance in this region. We have conducted a laboratory study to investigate the potential interference of gas-phase nitric acid (HNO<sub>3</sub>) with the measurement of frost point temperature, and consequently the water vapour mixing ratio, determined by CMH under conditions representative of operation in the UT/LS. No detectable interference in the measured frost point temperature was found for HNO<sub>3</sub> mixing ratios of up to 4 ppb for exposure times up to 150 min. HNO<sub>3</sub> was observed to co-condense on the mirror frost, with the adsorbed mass increasing linearly with time at constant exposure levels. Over the duration of a typical balloon sonde ascent (90–120 min), the maximum accumulated HNO<sub>3</sub> amounts were comparable to monolayer coverage of the geometric mirror surface area, which corresponds to only a small fraction of the actual frost layer surface area. This small amount of co-condensed HNO<sub>3</sub> is consistent with the observed lack of HNO<sub>3</sub> interference in the frost point measurement because the CMH utilizes significant reductions (>10%) in surface reflectivity by the condensate to determine H<sub>2</sub>O

Pollutant dispersion in a developing valley cold-air pool

Pollutants are trapped and accumulate within cold-air pools, thereby affecting air quality. A numerical model is used to quantify the role of cold-air-pooling processes in the dispersion of air pollution in a developing cold-air pool within an alpine valley under decoupled stable conditions. Results indicate that the negatively buoyant downslope flows transport and mix pollutants into the valley to depths that depend on the temperature deficit of the flow and the ambient temperature structure inside the valley. Along the slopes, pollutants are generally entrained above the cold-air pool and detrained within the cold-air pool, largely above the ground-based inversion layer. The ability of the cold-air pool to dilute pollutants is quantified. The analysis shows that the downslope flows fill the valley with air from above, which is then largely trapped within the cold-air pool, and that dilution depends on where the pollutants are emitted with respect to the positions of the top of the ground-based inversion layer and cold-air pool, and on the slope wind speeds. Over the lower part of the slopes, the cold-air-pool-averaged concentrations are proportional to the slope wind speeds where the pollutants are emitted, and diminish as the cold-air pool deepens. Pollutants emitted within the ground-based inversion layer are largely trapped there. Pollutants emitted farther up the slopes detrain within the cold-air pool above the ground-based inversion layer, although some fraction, increasing with distance from the top of the slopes, penetrates into the ground-based inversion layer.Peer reviewe

Association of treatment satisfaction and psychopathological sub-syndromes among involuntary patients with psychotic disorders

Publisher's version: http://www.springerlink.com/content/rx24036274667t10

Wide-Field Survey of Emission-line Stars in IC 1396

We have made an extensive survey of emission-line stars in the IC 1396 HII region to investigate the low-mass population of pre-main sequence (PMS) stars. A total of 639 H-alpha emission-line stars were detected in an area of 4.2 deg^2 and their i'-photometry was measured. Their spatial distribution exhibits several aggregates near the elephant trunk globule (Rim A) and bright-rimmed clouds at the edge of the HII region (Rim B and SFO 37, 38, 39, 41), and near HD 206267, which is the main exciting star of the HII region. Based on the extinction estimated from the near-infrared (NIR) color-color diagram, we have selected pre-main sequence star candidates associated with IC 1396. The age and mass were derived from the extinction corrected color-magnitude diagram and theoretical pre-main sequence tracks. Most of our PMS candidates have ages of < 3 Myr and masses of 0.2-0.6 Mo. Although it appears that only a few stars were formed in the last 1 Myr in the east region of the exciting star, the age difference among subregions in our surveyed area is not clear from the statistical test. Our results may suggest that massive stars were born after the continuous formation of low-mass stars for 10 Myr. The birth of the exciting star could be the late stage of slow but contiguous star formation in the natal molecular cloud. It may have triggered to form many low-mass stars at the dense inhomogeneity in and around the HII region by a radiation-driven implosion.Comment: 48 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in A

Comparative algological and bacteriological examinations on biofilms developed on different substrata in a shallow soda lake

According to the European Water Framework Directives, benthic diatoms of lakes are a tool for ecological status assessment. In this study, we followed an integrative sample analysis approach, in order to find an appropriate substratum for the water qualification-oriented biomonitoring of a shallow soda lake, Lake Velencei. Six types of substrata (five artificial and one natural), i.e., andesite, granite, polycarbonate, old reed stems, Plexiglass discs and green reed, were sampled in May and in November. We analysed total alga and diatom composition, chlorophyll a content of the periphyton, surface tension and roughness of the substrata and carbon source utilisation of microbial communities. Water quality index was calculated based on diatom composition. Moreover, using a novel statistical tool, a self-organising map, we related algal composition to substratum types. Biofilms on plastic substrates deviated to a great extent from the stone and reed substrata, with regard to the parameters measured, whereas the biofilms developing on reed and stone substrata were quite similar. We conclude that for water quality monitoring purposes, sampling from green reed during springtime is not recommended, since this is the colonization time of periphyton on the newly growing reed, but it may be appropriate from the second half of the vegetation period. Stone and artificially placed old reed substrata may be appropriate for biomonitoring of shallow soda lakes in both spring and autumn since they showed in both seasons similar results regarding all measured features