ESTIMATING CALORIC EXPENDITURE USING THE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY INDEX (PAI) IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS PERFORMING A MULTISTAGE MAXIMAL EXERCISE TEST

PURPOSE: The primary purposes of this investigation were (a) to examine the validity of the PAI, (b) to develop a statistical model to predict cumulative Kcal expenditure using PAI as the predictor variable and (c) to develop a statistical model to predict total Kcal expenditure using PAItotal and selected physiological and behavioral measures as the predictor variables for children and adolescents performing load incremented maximal treadmill exercise. The secondary purpose of the study was to develop a prediction model to estimate total Kcal expenditure using the PAI (session) alone and in combination with selected physiological measures as the predictor variables. METHODS: Eighty-four children and adolescents (12.5±2.4 yrs) performed a maximal Bruce treadmill (TM) protocol. During TM, heart rate (HR), oxygen consumption (VO2), rating of perceived exertion (RPE-overall), pedometer step count, and Kcal expenditure were measured. Post-TM, RPE-session was obtained and a physical activity questionnaire administered. The PAI, PAItotal, and PAI (session) were calculated as: PAI = Cumulative step count x RPE-overall PAItotal = Total step count x RPE-overall at test termination PAI (session) = Total step count x RPE-session RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses revealed a strong, positive relation between the PAI score and VO2 in L.min-1(r=0.607, p<0.05), VO2 in mL.kg-1.min-1 (r=0.725, p<0.05) and HR in beats.min-1 (r=0.755, p<0.05). These findings established a high level of concurrent validity for the PAI. The following models to predict Kcal expenditure were developed: Model I : Cumulative Kcal = 21.632 + 0.006(PAI) p<0.05, SEE=17.59, r=0.74, r2=0.54. Model II : Total Kcal = -11.59+0.002(PAItotal)+27.245(VO2max) p<0.05, SEE=15.37, r=0.86, r2=0.739. Model V : Total Kcal = 38.6 + 0.004(PAIsession), p<0.05, SEE=24.23, r=0.36, r2=0.13. Model VI : Total Kcal = -64.759+26.998(VO2max)+0.305(HRmax)+0.001 (PAIsession) p<0.05, SEE=10.46, r = 0.918 , r2 = 0.842. In comparison to the PAI (session), PAI was a stronger predictor of Kcal expenditure during a load incremented treadmill protocol in a sample of children and adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: The PAI has public health implications, provides an easy tool to estimate total physical activity load (i.e. volume x intensity) and predicts Kcal expenditure in children and adolescents performing standard treadmill exercise protocols. Generalizability of findings is limited to healthy children and adolescents performing load incremented maximal treadmill exercise

Deterritorialisations of Desire: “Transgressive” Sexuality as Filipino Anti-Imperialist Resistance in Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters

In The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture (first published in 1987), Franco Moretti cites the bildungsroman genre of “development” and/ or “coming of age” narrative as a specifically European literary phenomenon that constitutes “the ‘symbolic form’ of modernity” 1. According to Moretti, the bildungsroman is the emblematic literary form that embodies a moment in Western development, prompting him to open his book with “Youth is, so to speak, modernity’s ‘essence,’ the sign of a world that seeks its meaning in the future rather than in the past” 2. Offering a list of Western texts to push the notion that modernity and forwards-movement are specifically European traits immortalized in the bildungsroman, Moretti names his protagonists: Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, Austin’s Elizabeth Bennet, Stendhal’s Julien Sorel, Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Balzac’s Rastignac, etc

Generic Numerical Tornado Model for Common Interpretation of Existing Experimental Simulators

There are difficulties in making a common interpretation of results of similar experiments done in different experimental tornado simulation facilities. This is primarily because of the differences in vortex generation mechanisms utilized as well as geometric differences in these facilities. Therefore, in an attempt to facilitate a universal interpretation of results, a generic numerical tornado model, representing the three major existing experimental tornado simulators, is developed in this study. The three experimental simulators in consideration are VorTECH at Texas Tech University, Tornado Simulator at Iowa State University and WindEEE Dome at Western University as representatives of “Ward” type, “top-down” type and “3-D wind chamber” type facilities, respectively. First, the three experimental facilities and their corresponding flow-fields are replicated using CFD simulations and then the differences and similarities in their flow-fields are identified. It is demonstrated that it is possible to link different experimental facilites through a generic numerical model by characterizing a tornado-like vortex using parameters strictly obtained from the flow-field, as opposed to the common practice of using geometric dimensions of the experimental facilities to extract these parameters. This part of the study requires an extensive parametrization to characterize these vortices, hence computationally effective and reasonably accurate Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) is used. Further, the potential application of this generic numerical model to bluff-body aerodynamics and wind load evaluation is demonstrated by using a more accurate Large Eddy Simulation technique. While the results show some minor but explainable discrepancy with experimentally obtained data, the proposed generic numerical model displays a promise towards its application for preliminary tornadic aerodynamic data generation

Android matters: Apocalyptic technology and hegelian dystopia in Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner (1982).

This essay critically evaluates the present moment of representation in social media of various subjects by looking back and interrogating past representations of technology and otherness in Hollywood cinema. Specifically, I argue that Ridley Scott’s cult classic film Bladerunner (1982) offers us a window into thinking about technology -as-other as portrayed in a historical moment that charted out the rise of neoliberalism under Ronald Reagan in the USA and Margaret Thatcher in the UK. I draw on G.W.F. Hegel’s theorization of human subjectivity and power relations in his master -slave dialectic to analyze the relationship between humans and synthetic androids, also known as replicants, in the film. In engaging Hegel’s analysis of power and servitude, I reveal myriad discourses of gazing that structure power not only within the narrative of the science fiction film, but moreover between the audience and the images. I conclude that the network of gazes between androids and humans highlight the ways in which human consciousness too is fabricated as well as mediated in and through the other(s)