Using Theory to Develop Healthy Choices in Motion, a Comprehensive, Experiential Physical Activity Curriculum.

Background: Research has shown that engaging in regular physical activity supports physiologic, metabolic, and immunologic processes, as well as quality of life. However, few youth in the United States meet the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommendation of 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity every day. School-based programs can be an effective avenue for engaging youth in physical activity, particularly when the design of the health education is based on theory, research, and practice. The purpose of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate a theory-driven physical activity curriculum for the Shaping Healthy Choices Program (SHCP) using a systematic approach. Methods: The experiential, inquiry-based physical activity curriculum, Healthy Choices in Motion (HCIM), was developed with an optional technology enhancement using Backward Design. A questionnaire to assess the curriculum's effect on physical activity knowledge was developed and assessed for content validity, internal consistency (α = 0.84), and test-retest reliability (r = 0.73). The curriculum was piloted in two phases among upper elementary-aged youth: to ensure the learning goals were met (Pilot I) and to determine the curriculum's impact on physical activity knowledge, behavior, and self-efficacy (Pilot II). Pilot II was implemented among eight 4th and 5th-grade classrooms participating in the UC CalFresh Nutrition Education Program: (1) Comparison (no intervention) (n = 25); (2) SHCP only (n = 22); (3) SHCP + HCIM (n = 42); (4) SHCP + HCIM with technology enhancement (n = 47). Analyses included unadjusted ANOVA and Bonferroni for multiple comparisons and paired t-test (p < 0.05). Results: Through the use of a methodical design approach, a comprehensive physical activity curriculum, called HCIM, was developed. Youth participating in HCIM improved physical activity knowledge compared to youth receiving no intervention (+2.8 points, p = 0.009) and youth only in the SHCP (+3.0 points, p = 0.007). Youth participating in HCIM with technology enhancement demonstrated improvements compared to youth only in the SHCP (+2.3 points, p = 0.05). Conclusion: Improvements in physical activity knowledge in youth participating in HCIM may contribute to improvements in physical activity and should be further explored in conjunction with behavioral measurements

Elastic cavitation, tube hollowing, and differential growth in plants and biological tissues

Elastic cavitation is a well-known physical process by which elastic materials under stress can open cavities. Usually, cavitation is induced by applied loads on the elastic body. However, growing materials may generate stresses in the absence of applied loads and could induce cavity opening. Here, we demonstrate the possibility of spontaneous growth-induced cavitation in elastic materials and consider the implications of this phenomenon to biological tissues and in particular to the problem of schizogenous aerenchyma formation

Interpersonal prosodic correlation in frontotemporal dementia.

Communication accommodation describes how individuals adjust their communicative style to that of their conversational partner. We predicted that interpersonal prosodic correlation related to pitch and timing would be decreased in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). We predicted that the interpersonal correlation in a timing measure and a pitch measure would be increased in right temporal FTD (rtFTD) due to sparing of the neural substrate for speech timing and pitch modulation but loss of social semantics. We found no significant effects in bvFTD, but conversations including rtFTD demonstrated higher interpersonal correlations in speech rate than healthy controls

Linearly Parameterized Bandits

We consider bandit problems involving a large (possibly infinite) collection of arms, in which the expected reward of each arm is a linear function of an $r$-dimensional random vector $\mathbf{Z} \in \mathbb{R}^r$, where $r \geq 2$. The objective is to minimize the cumulative regret and Bayes risk. When the set of arms corresponds to the unit sphere, we prove that the regret and Bayes risk is of order $\Theta(r \sqrt{T})$, by establishing a lower bound for an arbitrary policy, and showing that a matching upper bound is obtained through a policy that alternates between exploration and exploitation phases. The phase-based policy is also shown to be effective if the set of arms satisfies a strong convexity condition. For the case of a general set of arms, we describe a near-optimal policy whose regret and Bayes risk admit upper bounds of the form $O(r \sqrt{T} \log^{3/2} T)$.Comment: 40 pages; updated results and reference

Emotions in context: examining pervasive affective sensing systems, applications, and analyses

Pervasive sensing has opened up new opportunities for measuring our feelings and understanding our behavior by monitoring our affective states while mobile. This review paper surveys pervasive affect sensing by examining and considering three major elements of affective pervasive systems, namely; “sensing”, “analysis”, and “application”. Sensing investigates the different sensing modalities that are used in existing real-time affective applications, Analysis explores different approaches to emotion recognition and visualization based on different types of collected data, and Application investigates different leading areas of affective applications. For each of the three aspects, the paper includes an extensive survey of the literature and finally outlines some of challenges and future research opportunities of affective sensing in the context of pervasive computing

Conflict of Interest Policies at Canadian Universities: Clarity and Content

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : ESPUM - Dép. médecine sociale et préventive - Travaux et publications]Abstract Discussions of conflict of interest (COI) in the university have tended to focus on financial interests in the context of medical research; much less attention has been given to COI in general or to the policies that seek to manage COI. Are university COI policies accessible and understandable? To whom are these policies addressed (faculty, staff, students)? Is COI clearly defined in these policies and are procedures laid out for avoiding or remedying such situations? To begin tackling these important ethical and governance questions, our study examines the COI policies at the Group of Thirteen (G13) leading Canadian research universities. Using automated readability analysis tools and an ethical content analysis, we begin the task of comparing the strengths and weaknesses of these documents, paying particular attention to their clarity, readability, and utility in explaining and managing COI.This study was supported by a grant from the Institute of Genetics of the Canadian Institutes of Health Researc

The impact of emotional well-being on long-term recovery and survival in physical illness: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis synthesized studies on emotional well-being as predictor of the prognosis of physical illness, while in addition evaluating the impact of putative moderators, namely constructs of well-being, health-related outcome, year of publication, follow-up time and methodological quality of the included studies. The search in reference lists and electronic databases (Medline and PsycInfo) identified 17 eligible studies examining the impact of general well-being, positive affect and life satisfaction on recovery and survival in physically ill patients. Meta-analytically combining these studies revealed a Likelihood Ratio of 1.14, indicating a small but significant effect. Higher levels of emotional well-being are beneficial for recovery and survival in physically ill patients. The findings show that emotional well-being predicts long-term prognosis of physical illness. This suggests that enhancement of emotional well-being may improve the prognosis of physical illness, which should be investigated by future research

Feasibility of Implementing a School Nutrition Intervention That Addresses Policies, Systems, and Environment

We conducted a process evaluation of the Shaping Healthy Choices Program, a multicomponent school-based nutrition program, when implemented in partnership with University of California (UC) CalFresh and UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE). There were positive impacts on participating students, but results varied across counties, possibly due to variation in fidelity to the curriculum and implementation of program components. Our evaluation identified the strength of UCCE in delivering nutrition education and a need for additional support and training for building capacity to effect change in school policies, systems, and environment. Because educators throughout Extension are working to integrate programs addressing policies, systems, and environment, our results may have applicability in other Extension programs

The association of negative mood with automatic and effortful facial expression mimicry

The natural process of mimicking the facial expressions of others is well established, as are the deficits in this reflexive behavior for individuals with clinical disorders such as depression. This study examines the extent of this deficit in non-clinical individuals with high transient negative mood, and whether it extends to both automatic and effortful emotion expression behavior. One hundred and thirty-six participants were shown happy, sad, and neutral faces, while electromyography (EMG) recorded facial muscle responses. Automatic (reflexive) mimicry was assessed while participants simply viewed facially expressive photographs, while effortful mimicry was monitored when individuals were told to intentionally copy the expressions in the photographs. Results indicated that high levels of negative mood were primarily associated with deficits in effortful mimicry of happy expressions, although some similar evidence was found in automatic mimicry of happy faces. Surprisingly, there were also ties between negative moods and inaccuracies in effortful mimicry of sad expressions (but not automatic mimicry). Inaccurate automatic and effortful mimicry were also tied with lower self-reported social support and greater loneliness. These results indicate that even in healthy individuals, transient and minor changes in negative mood are tied to deficiencies in facial mimicry at both the automatic and effortful level