What determines walking of older people in their neighborhood?

Based on literature review and five focus groups, a model was analyzed describing individual, social environmental and physical environmental (perceived) determinants of walking by older people. Aim was to test whether these determinants were significantly associated with the duration of walking by older people (N = 567, 50 - 80 years) in a middle-sized Dutch town. Walking time was best predicted by attitude towards walking (partial correlation in model (partial r) 0.18; p < 0.05), social contacts (partial r 0.12, p < 0.05), perceived quality of life (partial r 0.21 p < 0.01), satisfaction with the demographics of the neighborhood (partial r - 0.14, p < 0.01), and walking outside the neighborhood (partial r 0.28 p < 0.01). The model explained 20% of the total variance in walking time. Conclusion is that individual and social determinants predicted the most variance in walking time and that perceived environmental determinants played only a minor role. Health promotion actions may benefit from these insights

Outdoor play among children in reletion to neighborhood characteristics. A cross-sectional neighborhood observation study.

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although environmental characteristics as perceived by parents are known to be related to children’s outdoor play behavior, less is known about the relation between independently measured neighborhood characteristics and outdoor play among children. The purpose of this study was to identify quantitative as well as qualitative neighborhood characteristics related to outdoor play by means of neighborhood observations.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Questionnaires including questions on outdoor play behavior of the child were distributed among 3,651 parents of primary school children (aged 4–12 years). Furthermore, neighborhood observations were conducted in 33 Dutch neighborhoods to map neighborhood characteristics such as buildings, formal outdoor play facilities, public space, street pattern, traffic safety, social neighborhood characteristics, and general impression. Data of the questionnaires and the neighborhood observations were coupled via postal code of the respondents. Multilevel GEE analyses were performed to quantify the correlation between outdoor play and independently measured neighborhood characteristics.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Parental education was negatively associated with outdoor play among children. Neither the presence nor the overall quality of formal outdoor play facilities were (positively) related to outdoor play among children in this study. Rather, informal play areas such as the presence of sidewalks were related to children’s outdoor play. Also, traffic safety was an important characteristic associated with outdoor play.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study showed that, apart from individual factors such as parental education level, certain modifiable characteristics in the neighborhood environment (as measured by neighborhood observations) were associated with outdoor play among boys and girls of different age groups in The Netherlands. Local policy makers from different sectors can use these research findings in creating more activity-friendly neighborhoods for children.</p

The Association Between the Physical Environment of Primary Schools and Active School Transport

This study examined the relationship between the physical environment characteristics of primary schools and active school transport among 3,438 5- to 12-year-old primary school children in the Netherlands. The environmental characteristics were categorized into four theory-based clusters (function, safety, aesthetics, and destination). The correlations between the clusters and active school transport were examined, and multilevel regression analyses were used to examine the association between the clusters and active school transport. No correlations were found between environmental clusters and active school transport for younger children (age 5-9), but for older children (age 9-12), strong positive correlations were found between aesthetics and active transport as were found for safety and active transport. School neighborhood aesthetics were related to active transport for older primary school children. Presence of parks, good maintenance of green spaces, and absence of litter in the school environment contributed most to the positive association between aesthetics and active school transport. © 2014 SAGE Publication

Extremal behavior of solutions to a stochastic difference equation, with applications to ARCH processes

AbstractWe consider limit distributions of extremes of a process {Yn} satisfying the stochastic difference equation Yn-AnYn−1+Bn, n⩾1,Y0⩾0, where {An, Bn} are i.i.d. R2+-valued random pairs, A special case of interest is when {Yn} is derived from a first order ARCH process. Parameters of the limit law are exhibited; some are hard to calculate explicitly but easy to simulate

Does the component processes task assess text-based inferences important for reading comprehension? A path analysis in primary school children

Using a component processes task (CPT) that differentiates between higher-level cognitive processes of reading comprehension provides important advantages over commonly used general reading comprehension assessments. The present study contributes to further development of the CPT by evaluating the relative contributions of its components (text memory, text inferencing, and knowledge integration) and working memory to general reading comprehension within a single study using path analyses. Participants were 173 third- and fourth-grade children. As hypothesized, knowledge integration was the only component of the CPT that directly contributed to reading comprehension, indicating that the text-inferencing component did not assess inferential processes related to reading comprehension. Working memory was a significant predictor of reading comprehension over and above the component processes. Future research should focus on finding ways to ensure that the text-inferencing component taps into processes important for reading comprehension

Gender differences in mental simulation during sentence and word processing

Text comprehension requires readers to mentally simulate the described situation by reactivating previously acquired sensory and motor information from (episodic) memory. Drawing upon research demonstrating gender differences, favouring girls, in tasks involving episodic memory retrieval, the present study explores whether gender differences exist in mental simulation in children (Grades 4 to 6). In Experiment 1, 99 children performed a sentence–picture verification task measuring mental simulation at sentence level. In Experiment 2, 97 children completed a lexical decision task in which imageability of words was manipulated to measure mental simulation at word level. Only for girls we found faster reaction times for matching versus mismatching sentence–picture pairs (Experiment 1) and high-imageability versus low-imageability words (Experiment 2). The results suggest that girls construct more coherent and vivid mental simulations than boys and rely more heavily on these representations. The results emphasize the importance of including gender into reading comprehension research

The participant journey map: understanding the design of interactive augmented play spaces

Augmented Play Spaces (APS) are (semi-) public environments where playful interaction is facilitated by enriching the existing environment with interactive technology. APS can potentially facilitate social interaction and physical activity in (semi-)public environments. In controlled settings APS show promising effects. However, people’s willingness to engage with APS in situ, depends on many factors that do not occur in aforementioned controlled settings (where participation is obvious). To be able to achieve and demonstrate the positive effects of APS when implemented in (semi-)public environments, it is important to gain more insight in how to motivate people to engage with them and better understand when and how those decisions can be influenced by certain (design) factors. The Participant Journey Map (PJM) was developed following multiple iterations. First, based on related work, and insights gained from previously developed and implemented APS, a concept of the PJM was developed. Next, to validate and refine the PJM, interviews with 6 experts with extensive experience with developing and implementing APS were conducted. The first part of these interviews focused on influential (design) factors for engaging people into APS. In the second part, experts were asked to provide feedback on the first concept of the PJM. Based on the insights from the expert interviews, the PJM was adjusted and refined. The Participant Journey Map consists of four layers: Phases, States, Transitions and Influential Factors. There are two overarching phases: ‘Onboarding’ and ‘Participation’ and 6 states a (potential) participant goes through when engaging with an APS: ‘Transit,’ ‘Awareness,’ ‘Interest,’ ‘Intention,’ ‘Participation,’ ‘Finishing.’ Transitions indicate movements between states. Influential factors are the factors that influence these transitions. The PJM supports directions for further research and the design and implementation of APS. It contributes to previous work by providing a detailed overview of a participant journey and the factors that influence motivation to engage with APS. Notable additions are the detailed overview of influential factors, the introduction of the states ‘Awareness,’ ‘Intention’ and ‘Finishing’ and the non-linear approach. This will support taking into account these often overlooked, key moments in future APS research and design projects. Additionally, suggestions for future research into the design of APS are given.NWO023.013.062Computer Systems, Imagery and Medi

The 3^3He(e, e′'d)p Reaction in qω\omega-constant Kinematics

The cross section for the $^3$He(e, e$'$d)p reaction has been measured as a function of the missing momentum $p_m$ in q$\omega$ -constant kinematics at beam energies of 370 and 576 MeV for values of the three-momentum transfer $q$ of 412, 504 and 604 \mevc. The L(+TT), T and LT structure functions have been separated for $q$ = 412 and 504 \mevc. The data are compared to three-body Faddeev calculations, including meson-exchange currents (MEC), and to calculations based on a covariant diagrammatic expansion. The influence of final-state interactions and meson-exchange currents is discussed. The $p_m$-dependence of the data is reasonably well described by all calculations. However, the most advanced Faddeev calculations, which employ the AV18 nucleon-nucleon interaction and include MEC, overestimate the measured cross sections, especially the longitudinal part, and at the larger values of $q$. The diagrammatic approach gives a fair description of the cross section, but under(over)estimates the longitudinal (transverse) structure function.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Physical activity in non-frail and frail older adults

Introduction: Physical activity (PA) is important for healthy ageing. Better insight into objectively measured PA levels in older adults is needed, since most previous studies employed self-report measures for PA assessment, which are associated with overestimation of PA. Aim: This study aimed to provide insight in objectively measured indoor and outdoor PA of older adults, and in PA differences by frailty levels. Methods: Data were collected among non-frail (N = 74) and frail (N = 10) subjects, aged 65 to 89 years. PA, measured for seven days with accelerometers and GPS-devices, was categorized into three levels of intensity (sedentary, light, and moderate-to-vigorous PA). Results: Older adults spent most time in sedentary and light PA. Subjects spent 84.7%, 15.1% and 0.2% per day in sedentary, light and moderate-to-vigorous PA respectively. On average, older adults spent 9.8 (SD 23.7) minutes per week in moderate-to-vigorous activity, and 747.0 (SD 389.6) minutes per week in light activity. None of the subjects met the WHO recommendations of 150 weekly minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA. Age-, sex- and health status-adjusted results revealed no differences in PA between non-frail and frail older adults. Subjects spent significantly more sedentary time at home, than not at home. Non-frail subjects spent significantly more time not at home during moderate-to-vigorous activities, than at home. Conclusions: Objective assessment of PA in older adults revealed that most PA was of light intensity, and time spent in moderate-to-vigorous PA was very low. None of the older adults met the World Health Organization recommendations for PA. These levels of MVPA are much lower than generally reported based on self-reported PA. Future studies should employ objective methods, and age specific thresholds for healthy PA levels in older adults are needed. These results emphasize the need for effective strategies for healthy PA levels for the growing proportion of older adults