685 research outputs found
An Exploration of One Girlâs Experiences in Elective Physical Education: Why Does She Continue?
Participation in high school Physical Education (PE) contributes to the overall health of adolescents. However, many girls discontinue enrollment in PE as soon as the mandatory credits are met. Tailored PE courses designed to meet the needs and interests of girls may motivate them to continue participating in PE. This case study explored one girlâs story of her past experiences in PE, as well as her current experiences in a tailored elective PE course. We explored how this girlâs experiences with the course content, learning environment, and assessment affected her perceptions of PE. Findings emphasized the importance of variety within PE course content, a welcoming environment, fair and private assessment, and feelings of confidence, social safety, and competence for girls in PE.La participation aux cours dâĂ©ducation physique Ă lâĂ©cole secondaire contribue Ă la santĂ© gĂ©nĂ©rale des adolescents. Toutefois, plusieurs adolescentes arrĂȘtent de sâinscrire aux cours dâĂ©ducation physique dĂšs quâelles ont obtenu le nombre obligatoire de crĂ©dits. Des cours adaptĂ©s pour rĂ©pondre aux besoins et aux intĂ©rĂȘts des filles pourraient les motiver Ă continuer Ă sâinscrire aux cours dâĂ©ducation physique. Cette Ă©tude de cas porte sur le rĂ©cit dâune adolescente qui raconte, dâune part, ses expĂ©riences dans le passĂ© avec des cours dâĂ©ducation physique et, dâautre part, ses expĂ©riences actuelles dans un cours dâĂ©ducation physique adaptĂ© et facultatif. Nous nous penchons sur ses expĂ©riences relatives au contenu du cours, au milieu dâapprentissage et Ă lâĂ©valuation pour voir dans quelle mesure ces facteurs ont influencĂ© sa perception de lâĂ©ducation physique. Les rĂ©sultats soulignent lâimportance, pour les adolescentes suivant des cours dâĂ©ducation physique, de la variĂ©tĂ© dans le contenu des cours, dâun milieu accueillant, dâune Ă©valuation juste et privĂ©e, et de sentiments de confiance, sĂ©curitĂ© et compĂ©tence.
Effect of selecting for âRobustnessâ on temperament in dairy cows
Increased rates of involuntary culling as a consequence of poorer health and fertility
had led to the conclusion that dairy cows appear to be less ârobustâ or adaptable than
in the past. A way to address these concerns in breeding programs could be to select
for health and welfare by including appropriate traits in a broader breeding index.
However, it is important to consider any consequences that such breeding goals may
have on dairy cow temperament and welfare. There were two phases to this study.
The main objective of phase I was to develop tests for measuring responsiveness to
humans and novelty, aggression at the feedface and sociability in dairy cows for use
on commercial farms. To allow these tests to be used on commercial farm, they must
be short in duration, non-invasive and not disruptive to the daily farming routine,
while at the same time allowing comparisons between an individual cowâs responses
in a number of similar situations.
Results from this study suggested that a standardised human approach test and a
stationary visual object are reliable tests for measuring responsiveness of dairy cows
to changes in their environment. Measuring behaviour at the feedface proved to be an
effective measure of between cow aggression. Inter-animal distance, position in
relation to the herd, behavioural synchrony and presence at the feedface proved
accurate measures of sociability. The remaining part of the study (Phase II) focussed
on assessing how the implantation of a breeding index can affect the temperament of
dairy cows on commercial farms. The tests developed were then recorded on 402
first lactation Holstein-Friesian dairy cows selected from sires that scored high (HI)
and low (LO) for robustness (health, fertility and longevity traits) to produce two
treatment groups on 33 commercial farms. For the purpose of this thesis, only the
results from the assessment of aggressiveness are presented. Continuous focal
sampling was used to record aggressive behaviour during feeding of the HI and LO
cows within the herd. Cows from the HI group were involved in more aggressive
interactions, initiated more aggression and received more aggression than cows from
the LO group. There was a strong influence of management factors influencing
aggression such as the quality of stockmanship, feedface design and nutrition.
In conclusion, daughters from sires scoring high for robustness may be expressing a
greater ability to maintain position at the feedface during an aggressive interaction.
This highlights the importance of assessing the correlated effects of selective
breeding, in this case for robustness, on behavioural traits
Using Age as a Predictor of Chemotypes for Low Sagebrush (\u3cem\u3eArtemisia Arbuscula\u3c/em\u3e): Can Age Help Us Manage Sage-Grouse Foraging Habitat?
The defensive chemistry of plants limit intake by herbivores. In addition, the spatial and temporal variation of plant chemicals constrains habitat use by herbivores. As such, management of herbivores requires that we properly conserve and manage for the most palatable chemical profiles of plants, or chemotypes. However, management of palatable plants requires that we first identify parameters that influence chemotypes. We hypothesized that the age of a plant is one parameter that influences chemotypes and could be managed. To test this hypothesis, we counted the annual ring growth to determine age and used gas chromatography to determine chemotypes of small (tall) and medium (15cm-30cm tall) low sagebrush (Artemisia arbuscula). We focused on low sagebrush as it is a preferred food source for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) at our study site. In addition, we tested whether the circumference at the base of the plant is correlated with annual ring growth. Correlating age and circumference may yield a simple, nonintrusive method to estimate the age of sagebrush in the field without counting annual rings. Understanding how age influences palatability of plants is an important factor in assessing and managing grouse habitat. Using a parameter like age, which may be simple to assess in field, to manage sage-steppe habitats could save time and money. We expect if the younger plants are more palatable, reseeding and replanting could be effective methods to make restored habitats more ideal for foraging grouse. Alternatively, if older plants are more palatable the consequences of mowing and herbicide could dramatically outweigh any potential benefits
Early high flow nasal cannula therapy in bronchiolitis, a prospective randomised control trial (protocol): A Paediatric Acute Respiratory Intervention Study (PARIS)
Background Bronchiolitis imposes the largest health care burden on non-elective paediatric hospital admissions worldwide, with up to 15 % of cases requiring admission to intensive care. A number of previous studies have failed to show benefit of pharmaceutical treatment in respect to length of stay, reduction in PICU admission rates or intubation frequency. The early use of non-invasive respiratory support devices in less intensive scenarios to facilitate earlier respiratory support may have an impact on outcome by avoiding progression of the disease process. High Flow Nasal Cannula (HFNC) therapy has emerged as a new method to provide humidified air flow to deliver a non-invasive form of positive pressure support with titratable oxygen fraction. There is a lack of high-grade evidence on use of HFNC therapy in bronchiolitis. Methods/Design Prospective multi-centre randomised trial comparing standard treatment (standard subnasal oxygen) and High Flow Nasal Cannula therapy in infants with bronchiolitis admitted to 17 hospitals emergency departments and wards in Australia and New Zealand, including 12 non-tertiary regional/metropolitan and 5 tertiary centres. The primary outcome is treatment failure; defined as meeting three out of four pre-specified failure criteria requiring escalation of treatment or higher level of care; i) heart rate remains unchanged or increased compared to admission/enrolment observations, ii) respiratory rate remains unchanged or increased compared to admission/enrolment observations, iii) oxygen requirement in HFNC therapy arm exceeds FiO2ââ„â40 % to maintain SpO2ââ„â92 % (or â„94 %) or oxygen requirement in standard subnasal oxygen therapy arm exceeds >2L/min to maintain SpO2ââ„â92 % (or â„94 %), and iv) hospital internal Early Warning Tool calls for medical review and escalation of care. Secondary outcomes include transfer to tertiary institution, admission to intensive care, length of stay, length of oxygen treatment, need for non-invasive/invasive ventilation, intubation, adverse events, and cost. Discussion This large multicenter randomised trial will allow the definitive assessment of the efficacy of HFNC therapy as compared to standard subnasal oxygen in the treatment of bronchiolitis
Ecological succession and viability of human-associated microbiota on restroom surfaces
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2014. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of American Society for Microbiology for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology (2014), doi:10.1128/AEM.03117-14.Human-associated bacteria dominate the built environment (BE). Following
decontamination of floors, toilet seats, and soap dispensers in 4 public restrooms, in situ
bacterial communities were characterized hourly, daily, and weekly to determine their
successional ecology. The viability of cultivable bacteria, following the removal of
dispersal agents (humans), was also assessed hourly. A late successional community
developed within 5-8 hours on restroom floors, and showed remarkable stability over
weeks to months. Despite late successional dominance by skin- and outdoor-associated
bacteria, the most ubiquitous organisms were predominantly gut-associated taxa, which
persisted following exclusion of humans. Staphylococcus represented the majority of the
cultivable community, even after several hours of human-exclusion. MRSA-associated
virulence genes were found on floors, but were not present in assembled Staphylococcus
pan-genomes. Viral abundances, which were predominantly enterophage, human
papilloma and herpes viruses, were significantly correlated with bacteria abundances, and
showed an unexpectedly low virus-to-bacteria ratio in surface-associated samples,
suggesting that bacterial hosts are mostly dormant on BE surfaces.S.M.G. was supported by an EPA STAR Graduate Fellowship and the National Institutes
of Health Training Grant 5T-32EB-009412. We acknowledge funding from the Alfred P
Sloan Foundationâs Microbiology of the Built Environment Program.2015-05-1
Health and disease markers correlate with gut microbiome composition across thousands of people.
Variation in the human gut microbiome can reflect host lifestyle and behaviors and influence disease biomarker levels in the blood. Understanding the relationships between gut microbes and host phenotypes are critical for understanding wellness and disease. Here, we examine associations between the gut microbiota and ~150 host phenotypic features across ~3,400 individuals. We identify major axes of taxonomic variance in the gut and a putative diversity maximum along the Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes axis. Our analyses reveal both known and unknown associations between microbiome composition and host clinical markers and lifestyle factors, including host-microbe associations that are composition-specific. These results suggest potential opportunities for targeted interventions that alter the composition of the microbiome to improve host health. By uncovering the interrelationships between host diet and lifestyle factors, clinical blood markers, and the human gut microbiome at the population-scale, our results serve as a roadmap for future studies on host-microbe interactions and interventions
Longitudinal analysis reveals transition barriers between dominant ecological states in the gut microbiome.
The Pioneer 100 Wellness Project involved quantitatively profiling 108 participants\u27 molecular physiology over time, including genomes, gut microbiomes, blood metabolomes, blood proteomes, clinical chemistries, and data from wearable devices. Here, we present a longitudinal analysis focused specifically around the Pioneer 100 gut microbiomes. We distinguished a subpopulation of individuals with reduced gut diversity, elevated relative abundance of the genus Prevotella, and reduced levels of the genus Bacteroides We found that the relative abundances of Bacteroides and Prevotella were significantly correlated with certain serum metabolites, including omega-6 fatty acids. Primary dimensions in distance-based redundancy analysis of clinical chemistries explained 18.5% of the variance in bacterial community composition, and revealed a Bacteroides/Prevotella dichotomy aligned with inflammation and dietary markers. Finally, longitudinal analysis of gut microbiome dynamics within individuals showed that direct transitions between Bacteroides-dominated and Prevotella-dominated communities were rare, suggesting the presence of a barrier between these states. One implication is that interventions seeking to transition between Bacteroides- and Prevotella-dominated communities will need to identify permissible paths through ecological state-space that circumvent this apparent barrier
Loss of ATRX in Chondrocytes Has Minimal Effects on Skeletal Development
BACKGROUND:Mutations in the human ATRX gene cause developmental defects, including skeletal deformities and dwarfism. ATRX encodes a chromatin remodeling protein, however the role of ATRX in skeletal development is currently unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We induced Atrx deletion in mouse cartilage using the Cre-loxP system, with Cre expression driven by the collagen II (Col2a1) promoter. Growth rate, body size and weight, and long bone length did not differ in Atrx(Col2cre) mice compared to control littermates. Histological analyses of the growth plate did not reveal any differences between control and mutant mice. Expression patterns of Sox9, a transcription factor required for cartilage morphogenesis, and p57, a marker of cell cycle arrest and hypertrophic chondrocyte differentiation, was unaffected. However, loss of ATRX in cartilage led to a delay in the ossification of the hips in some mice. We also observed hindlimb polydactily in one out of 61 mutants. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:These findings indicate that ATRX is not directly required for development or growth of cartilage in the mouse, suggesting that the short stature in ATR-X patients is caused by defects in cartilage-extrinsic mechanisms
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