The Effects of Yoga and Aerobic Exercise on Concentration and Feeling-States

The impacts of yoga and aerobic exercise on level of concentration and change in feeling-states were examined in this study. They hypothesis was that concentration and feeling-states would improve over a yoga and aerobic exercise session, but yoga, a combination of exercise and meditation, was expected to produce greater positive changes than aerobic exercise. Participants included 70 students from Roger Williams University, 27 male and 43 female. 34 took part in 30 minutes of yoga and 36 took part in 30 minutes of aerobic exercise. Concentration levels and feeling-states improved significantly over sessions of both yoga and aerobic exercise sessions equally. Results indicate that aerobic exercise and yoga both produce positive changes in concentration, stress, energy, and well-being while only yoga produces improvements in mood and self-satisfaction

Oxidative stability of corn oil with elevated tocotrienols

Oxidation of tocotrienol enriched corn oil was measured for primary oxidative products, lipid hydroperoxides and quantified by peroxide value (PV). Oxidative Stability Index (OSI) was used to determine the induction period (hrs) by indirect measurement of volatile secondary oxidation products, mainly formic acid. Vitamin E stripped corn oil samples were spiked with individual tocotrienols or tocopherols (collectively, tocols) at concentrations between 100 and 5,000 ppm. A positive relationship was observed between the concentration of all tocols and inhibition of the formation of secondary products. Gamma tocotrienol (γ-T3) provided the most protection, with delta tocopherol (δ-T) and delta tocotrienol (δ-T3) providing similar protection. Alpha tocotrienol (α-T3) and alpha tocopherol (α-T) followed a similar trend but with diminishing capacity at concentrations higher than 700 ppm. The change in mean daily peroxide value increased as α- tocopherol and α- tocotrienol concentrations increased. When compared against the non-spiked, stripped control oil, both α- tocopherol and α- tocotrienol demonstrated better antioxidant effects at lower concentrations and actually promoted oxidation at concentrations at 700 ppm and above. These effects were not observed with the γ- and δ- tocols. Crude oils from corn kernels, both control and that expressing a homogentisate geranylgeranyl transferase (HGGT) gene, were tested for oxidative stability. No pro-oxidant effects were observed in the modified crude corn oil containing up to 5,000 ppm tocotrienols (6,200 ppm total tocotrienols and tocopherols) when compared to the control crude corn oil containing 300 ppm tocotrienols (1,500 ppm total tocols)

Subjective theories towards learning forms in work environment

In der betrieblichen Fort- und Weiterbildung werden heute eine Vielzahl von Lern- und Trainingsformen eingesetzt, die sich deutlich in ihren Anforderungen und Angeboten an den Lernenden unterscheiden. Wie sich ein Lernender in einer Lernumwelt bewegt und welche Lernformen er wie nutzt, hängt aber weniger von den objektiven Eigenschaften dieser ab, als vielmehr von den subjektiven Repräsentationen bzw. Theorien des Lernenden über die Lernformen. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung wurden in einem Wirtschaftsunternehmen Lernende nach Ihrem Lernvorgehen und der Wahl der Lernform befragt. In einer qualitativen Analyse wurden die wesentlichen inhaltstragenden Elemente erarbeitet und die subjektiven Theorien der Lernenden über Lernen in ihrer Arbeitsumwelt rekonstruiert. Dabei zeigt sich, daß die pädagogische Psychologie bisher zuwenig Antworten darauf hat, wie Lernformen in die Arbeitswelt zu integrieren sind, um den Bedürfnissen der Lernenden entgegenzukommen. (DIPF/Orig.)A great variety of learning and training forms are offered by companies in their education programs today. These forms differ greatly from each other in their requirements and contents. How a learner behaves in a certain learning environment, which learning forms she/he uses and how she/he uses them depends less on the objective characteristics of the learning form than on the subjective theories of the learner towards these forms. In this study employees of a company, who were engaged in training programs, were questioned about their way of learning and their choice of learning forms. The basic contextual elements were determined based on a qualitative analysis and the subjective attitudes of the learners concerning learning in the work environment were reconstructed. It was shown that educational psychology has few answers to offer to questions concerning how learning forms can be integrated into the work environment were reconstructed. It was shown that educational psychology has few answers to offer to questions concerning how learning forms can be integrated into the work environment in order to meet the needs of the learners. (DIPF/Orig.

4D magnetic resonance imaging applications towards MR-guided proton therapy of pancreatic cancer

Abdominal organ motion compromises the targeting accuracy of proton therapy of pancreatic cancer. Time-resolved volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (4D-MRI) is a promising technology to visualize organ motion and deformation while providing a high soft-tissue contrast and avoiding additional imaging doses. The aim of this thesis is to quantify motion-induced impacts on dosimetry, based on 4D-MRI, and to determine suitable strategies to improve the treatments. For this purpose, a method was developed that utilizes repeated 4D-MRI measurements to analyze motion-induced impacts on dosimetry along the treatment course in proton therapy. The clinical impact of organ motion was evaluated in a patient cohort by statistical analyses. Moreover, counter-strategies to mitigate the motion-induced dosimetric impacts were investigated using abdominal corsets or beam-gating. Fractionation helps to reduce the motion-induced tumor underdosage substantially. However, especially for patients with large motion amplitudes, further motion mitigation may be required. Physical compression by abdominal corsets and beam-gating with certain pre-selected gating criteria showed high potential to improve the dose distributions. The developed method allows an effective evaluation of the motion-induced dosimetric uncertainties and is applicable in both pre-treatment and prospective real-time MR-guided proton therapy scenarios with online MR imaging during irradiation