1,240 research outputs found
The effect of dance mat exergaming systems on physical activity and health – related outcomes in secondary schools: results from a natural experiment
Background: Exergaming has been proposed as an innovative method for physical activity promotion. However, large effectiveness studies are rare. In January 2011, dance mat systems were introduced in secondary schools in two districts in England with the aim of promoting an innovative opportunity for physical activity. The aim of this natural experiment was to examine the effect of introducing the dance mat exergaming systems on physical activity and health-related outcomes in 11–13 year old students using a non-randomised controlled design and mixed methods. Methods: Participants were recruited from five schools in intervention districts (n = 280) and two schools in neighbouring control districts (n = 217). Data on physical activity (accelerometer), anthropometrics (weight, BMI and percentage of body fat), aerobic fitness (20-m multistage shuttle run test), health-related quality of life (Kidscreen questionnaire), self-efficacy (children’s physical activity self-efficacy survey), school attendance, focus groups with children and interviews with teachers were collected at baseline and approximately 12 months follow-up. Results: There was a negative intervention effect on total physical activity (-65.4 cpm CI: -12.6 to -4.7), and light and sedentary physical activity when represented as a percentage of wear time (Light: -2.3% CI: -4.5 to 0.2; Sedentary: 3.3% CI: 0.7 to 5.9). However, compliance with accelerometers at follow-up was poor. There was a significant positive intervention effect on weight (-1.7 kg, 95% CI: -2.9 to -0.4), BMI (-0.9 kg/m2, 95% CI: -1.3 to -0.4) and percentage of body fat (-2.2%, 95% CI: -4.2 to -0.2). There was also evidence of improvement in some health-related quality of life parameters: psychological well-being (2.5, 95% CI: 0.1 to 4.8) and autonomy and parent relation (4.2, 95% CI: 1.4 to 7.0). Conclusions: The implementation of a dance mat exergaming scheme was associated with improvement in anthropometric measurements and parameters of health-related quality of life. However, the mechanisms of these benefits are unclear as there was insufficient data from physical activity to draw robust conclusions. Qualitative findings suggest that there was declining support for the initiative over time, meaning that potential benefits may not have been achieved
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SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF POTENTIAL RADIOACTIVE RELEASES TO THE ATMOSPHERE FOLLOWING HYPOTHETICAL REACTOR ACCIDENTS.
Neutron Knockout Reactions
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY 81-14339 and by Indiana Universit
First Report of Soybean Vein Necrosis Disease Caused by Soybean vein necrosis-associated virus in Wisconsin and Iowa
Several viral diseases of soybean (Glycine max) have been identified in the north-central U.S. soybean production area, which includes Wisconsin and Iowa (2). Previously, Soybean vein necrosis disease (SVND) caused by Soybean vein necrosis-associated virus was reported in Arkansas, Tennessee, and other southern states (4). In September 2012, soybean plants with symptoms similar to those reported for SVND (4) were observed in fields across Wisconsin and Iowa. Symptoms included leaf-vein and leaf chlorosis, followed by necrosis of the leaf veins and eventually necrosis of the entire leaf. Six samples with symptoms indicative of SVNaV were collected from research plots located at the West Madison Agricultural Research Station located in Madison, WI. An additional three samples were collected from three locations in central Iowa. Total RNA extracted from each sample using the Trizol Plus RNA purification kit (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) was used to generate complementary DNA (cDNA) using the iScript cDNA synthesis kit (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules, CA) following the manufacturers\u27 suggested protocols. The resulting cDNA was used as template in a PCR with SVNaV-specific primers, SVNaV-f1 and SVNaV-r1 (3). PCRs of two of the six Wisconsin samples and two Iowa samples were positive. Amplification products were not detected in the other five samples. The amplification products from the four strongly positive samples were purified using the Wizard SV Gel and PCR Purification Kit (Promega, Madison, WI) following the manufacturer\u27s suggested protocol and were subjected to automated sequencing (University of Wisconsin Biotechnology Center or Iowa State University, DNA Sequencing Facilities). BLASTn (1) alignments of the 915-bp consensus sequence revealed 98% and \u3e99% identity of the Wisconsin and Iowa samples, respectively, with the ‘S’ segment of the SVNaV ‘TN’ isolate (GenBank Accession No. GU722319.1). Samples from the same leaf tissue used above, were subjected to serological tests for SVNaV using antigen coated-indirect ELISA (3). Asymptomatic soybeans grown in the greenhouse were used as a source of leaves for negative controls. These tests confirmed the presence of SVNaV in eight symptomatic soybean leaflets collected in Wisconsin and Iowa. The asymptomatic control and one Iowa sample, which was also PCR-negative, were also negative by serological testing. Six additional samples from soybean fields in as many Wisconsin counties (Fond Du Lac, Grant, Green, Juneau, Richland, Rock) tested positive for SVNaV using specific primers that amplify the ‘L’ segment (4). The sequenced amplification products (297-bp) showed 99 to 100% homology to the L segment of the TN isolate (GU722317.1). To our knowledge, this is the first report of SVNaV associated with soybean and the first report of SVND in Wisconsin and Iowa. Considering that little is known about SVNaV, it is assumed that it is like other Tospoviruses and can cause significant yield loss (4). Soybean is a major cash crop for Wisconsin and Iowa, and infection by SVNaV could result in potential yield loss in years where epidemics begin early and at a high initial inoculum level
Disks, Tori, and Cocoons: Emission and Absorption Diagnostics of AGN Environments
One of the most important problems in the study of active galaxies is
understanding the detailed geometry, physics, and evolution of the central
engines and their environments. The leading models involve an accretion disk
and torus structure around a central dense object, thought to be a supermassive
black hole. Gas found in the environment of AGN is associated with different
structures: molecular accretion disks, larger scale atomic tori, ionized and
neutral "cocoons" in which the nuclear regions can be embedded. All of them can
be studied at radio wavelengths by various means. Here, we summarize the work
that has been done to date in the radio band to characterize these structures.
Much has been learned about the central few parsecs of AGN in the last few
decades with contemporary instruments but the picture remains incomplete. In
order to be able to define a more accurate model of this region, significant
advances in sensitivity, spectral and angular resolution, and bandpass
stability are required. The necessary advances will only be provided by the
Square Kilometer Array and we discuss the possibilities that these dramatic
improvements will open for the study of the gas in the central region of AGN.Comment: To appear in "Science with the Square Kilometer Array," eds. C.
Carilli and S. Rawlings, New Astronomy Reviews (Elsevier: Amsterdam); 17
pages, 7 figures (four of them in separate gif/tif files) The full paper with
high resolution images can be downloaded from
http://www.astron.nl/~morganti/Papers/AGNenvironment.ps.g
On Deterministic Sketching and Streaming for Sparse Recovery and Norm Estimation
We study classic streaming and sparse recovery problems using deterministic
linear sketches, including l1/l1 and linf/l1 sparse recovery problems (the
latter also being known as l1-heavy hitters), norm estimation, and approximate
inner product. We focus on devising a fixed matrix A in R^{m x n} and a
deterministic recovery/estimation procedure which work for all possible input
vectors simultaneously. Our results improve upon existing work, the following
being our main contributions:
* A proof that linf/l1 sparse recovery and inner product estimation are
equivalent, and that incoherent matrices can be used to solve both problems.
Our upper bound for the number of measurements is m=O(eps^{-2}*min{log n, (log
n / log(1/eps))^2}). We can also obtain fast sketching and recovery algorithms
by making use of the Fast Johnson-Lindenstrauss transform. Both our running
times and number of measurements improve upon previous work. We can also obtain
better error guarantees than previous work in terms of a smaller tail of the
input vector.
* A new lower bound for the number of linear measurements required to solve
l1/l1 sparse recovery. We show Omega(k/eps^2 + klog(n/k)/eps) measurements are
required to recover an x' with |x - x'|_1 <= (1+eps)|x_{tail(k)}|_1, where
x_{tail(k)} is x projected onto all but its largest k coordinates in magnitude.
* A tight bound of m = Theta(eps^{-2}log(eps^2 n)) on the number of
measurements required to solve deterministic norm estimation, i.e., to recover
|x|_2 +/- eps|x|_1.
For all the problems we study, tight bounds are already known for the
randomized complexity from previous work, except in the case of l1/l1 sparse
recovery, where a nearly tight bound is known. Our work thus aims to study the
deterministic complexities of these problems
(d,n) Reaction Studies at 80 MeV
This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHy 87-1440
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