Special Article: Physical Activity, Physical Fitness, and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Childhood

In adults, physical activity and exercise training are associated with reduced cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, a reduced likelihood of developing adverse cardiovascular risk factors, and improved insulin sensitivity. In childhood, participation in appropriate physical activity may prevent the development of cardiovascular risk factors in the future and complement treatment of existing cardiovascular risk factors, including hypertension, dyslipidemia, and overweight. Exercise in children can also significantly improve insulin sensitivity independent of weight loss. These e fects are mediated in overweight children by increases in lean body mass relative to fat mass and associated improvements in inflammatory mediators, endothelial function, and the associated adverse hormonal milieu

Developing tools to promote culturally competent compassion, courage, and intercultural communication in healthcare

Background: Compassion is an important concept in healthcare, and in addition, care should be delivered in a culturally competent manner, taking into account the values, culture, and health beliefs of the individual. However, the training of nurses and other healthcare professionals may not adequately equip them to practice in a manner which is both compassionate and culturally competent. In this paper, we report on the development of three learning tools, designed to promote the skills and strengthen the capacity of nurses and healthcare professionals to provide culturally competent and compassionate care. Methods: The project involved the participation of six European countries in the development of three learning tools, covering culturally competent compassion, culturally competent courage, and intercultural communication. The principles which informed the methodology derive from the previous work on the Papadopoulos, Tilki and Taylor (PTT) model of transcultural nursing and cultural competence, and were also informed by the Intercultural Education of Nurses in Europe (IENE1 & IENE2) projects. Each partner country was required to produce one tool for each topic area, based on guidance provided by the project co-ordinator, leading to the development of eighteen tools in total. The tools were administered mainly to student nurses to test their feasibility. Results: The emerging tools contained important theoretical and practical components, whereby innovative learning methods and case studies were included. Student nurses enjoyed using the tools, and enjoyed their flexibility. The learning tools enabled students to become stimulated and to engage together leading to a positive learning experience. Discussion: The tools allow for a positive learning experience and reflection of good practice to take place. The flexibility and content of the tools allows for them to be of equal value to other healthcare professionals as well as nursing staff. Conclusion: The tools were initially utilised mainly with student nurses and were received with a positive response. Work is now in place to further implement the tools and evaluate the longer term effects among a range of healthcare professionals and service user health outcomes

Core Formation in Dwarf Halos with Self Interacting Dark Matter: No Fine-Tuning Necessary

We investigate the effect of self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) on the density profiles of $V_{\rm max} \simeq 40~km~s^{-1}$ isolated dwarf dark matter halos -- the scale of relevance for the too big to fail problem (TBTF) -- using very high-resolution cosmological zoom simulations. Each halo has millions of particles within its virial radius. We find that SIDM models with cross sections per unit mass spanning the range \sigma/m = $0.5 - 50$ $cm^2~g^{-1}$ alleviate TBTF and produce constant density cores of size 300-1000 pc, comparable to the half-light radii of $M_\star$ ~ $10^{5-7}$ $M_\odot$ dwarfs. The largest, lowest density cores develop for cross sections in the middle of this range, \sigma/m ~ $5-10~cm^2~g^{-1}$. Our largest SIDM cross section run (\sigma/m = $50~cm^2~g^{-1}$) develops a slightly denser core owing to mild core-collapse behavior, but it remains less dense than the CDM case and retains a constant density core profile. Our work suggests that SIDM cross sections as large or larger than $50~cm^2~g^{-1}$ remain viable on velocity scales of dwarf galaxies ($v_{\rm rms}$ ~ $40~km~s^{-1}$). The range of SIDM cross sections that alleviate TBTF and the cusp/core problem spans at least two orders of magnitude and therefore need not be particularly fine-tuned.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Forecasting basketball players’ performance using sparse functional data

Statistics and analytic methods are becoming increasingly important in basketball. In particular, predicting players’ performance using past observations is a considerable challenge. The purpose of this study is to forecast the future behavior of basketball players. The available data are sparse functional data, which are very common in sports. So far, however, no forecasting method designed for sparse functional data has been used in sports. A methodology based on two methods to handle sparse and irregular data, together with the analogous method and functional archetypoid analysis is proposed. Results in comparison with traditional methods show that our approach is competitive and additionally provides prediction intervals. The methodology can also be used in other sports when sparse longitudinal data are available

Preliminary Evaluation of Lectins as Fluorescent Probes of Seed Structure and Composition

Several commercially available fluoresceinisothiocyanate and rhodamine isothiocyanateconjugated plant lectins have been applied to cereal and oilseed tissues to permit identification and localization of specific structures and carbohydrates by fluorescence microscopy . Ulex europeaus Agglutinin I (UEAl) and Ricinis communis Agglutinin I (RCA I) showed specificity for the amyloids in rapeseed cotyledonary cell walls . Wheat Germ Agglutinin (WGA) bound to rapeseed coat mucilage, as well as fungal hyphae in infected wheat . Lens culinaris Agglutinin (LCA) bound only to starch in cereal sections, and at higher magnifications of isolated starch granules , the annular structure was clearly visible

Electromagnetic and corpuscular emission from the solar flare of 1991 June 15: Continuous acceleraton of relativistic particles

Data on X-,γ-ray, optical and radio emission from the 1991 June 15 solar flare are considered. We have calculated the spectrum of protons that producesγ-rays during the gradual phase of the flare. The primary proton spectrum can be described as a Bessel-function-type up to 0.8 GeV and a power law with the spectral index ≈3 from 0.8 up to 10 GeV or above. We have also analyzed data on energetic particles near the Earth. Their spectrum differed from that of primary protons producingγ-ray line emission. In the gradual phase of the flare additional pulses of energy release occurred and the time profiles of cm-radio emission andγ-rays in the 0.8–10 MeV energy band and above 50 MeV coincided. A continuous and simultaneous stochastic acceleration of the protons and relativistic electrons at the gradual phase of the flare is considered as a natural explanation of the data

Fractal-like Distributions over the Rational Numbers in High-throughput Biological and Clinical Data

Recent developments in extracting and processing biological and clinical data are allowing quantitative approaches to studying living systems. High-throughput sequencing, expression profiles, proteomics, and electronic health records are some examples of such technologies. Extracting meaningful information from those technologies requires careful analysis of the large volumes of data they produce. In this note, we present a set of distributions that commonly appear in the analysis of such data. These distributions present some interesting features: they are discontinuous in the rational numbers, but continuous in the irrational numbers, and possess a certain self-similar (fractal-like) structure. The first set of examples which we present here are drawn from a high-throughput sequencing experiment. Here, the self-similar distributions appear as part of the evaluation of the error rate of the sequencing technology and the identification of tumorogenic genomic alterations. The other examples are obtained from risk factor evaluation and analysis of relative disease prevalence and co-mordbidity as these appear in electronic clinical data. The distributions are also relevant to identification of subclonal populations in tumors and the study of the evolution of infectious diseases, and more precisely the study of quasi-species and intrahost diversity of viral populations

Neurofilaments form flexible bundles during neuritogenesis in culture and in mature axons in situ

Neurofilaments (NFs) undergo cation-dependent phospho-mediated associations with each other and other cytoskeletal elements that support axonal outgrowth. Progressive NF-NF associations generate a resident, bundled population that undergoes exchange with transporting NFs. We examined the properties of bundled NFs. Bundles did not always display a fully linear profile but curved and twisted at various points along the neurite length. Bundles retracted faster than neurites and retracted bundles did not expand following extraction with Triton, indicating that they coiled passively rather than due to pressure from the cell. Bundles consisted of helically wound NFs, which may provide flexibility necessary for turning of growing axons during pathfinding. Interactions between NFs and other cytoskeletal elements may be disrupted en masse during neurite retraction or regionally during remodeling. It is suggested that bundles within long axons that cannot be fully retracted into the soma could provide maintain proximal support yet still allow more distal flexibility for remodeling and changing direction during pathfinding

Space Launch System Booster Separation Supersonic Powered Testing with Surface and Off-Body Measurements

A wind tunnel test was run in the NASA Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel simulating the separation of the two solid rocket boosters (SRB) from the core stage of the NASA Space Launch System (SLS). The test was run on a 0.9% scale model of the SLS Block 1B Cargo (27005) configuration and the SLS Block 1B Crew (28005) configuration at a Mach of 4.0. High pressure air was used to simulate plumes from the booster separation motors located at the nose and aft skirt of the two boosters. Force and moment data were taken on both SRBs and on the core stage. Schlieren still photos and video were recorded throughout testing. A set of points were acquired using Cross-correlation Doppler Global Velocimetry (CCDGV) readings to get 3 component velocity measurements between the core and the left-hand SRB. The CCDGV laser was utilized to record flow visualization in the same location, between the core and the left-hand SRB. Pressure Sensitive Paint data were taken on a separate set of runs. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) runs were computed on a subset of the wind tunnel data points for comparison. A combination of the force/moment, CCDGV and Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) data (as well as schlieren images) at the CFD-specified test conditions will be used te the CFD simulations that will be used to build an SLS booster separation database flight conditions