Evaluating the impact of physical activity apps and wearables: interdisciplinary review

Background: Although many smartphone apps and wearables have been designed to improve physical activity, their rapidly evolving nature and complexity present challenges for evaluating their impact. Traditional methodologies, such as randomized controlled trials (RCTs), can be slow. To keep pace with rapid technological development, evaluations of mobile health technologies must be efficient. Rapid alternative research designs have been proposed, and efficient in-app data collection methods, including in-device sensors and device-generated logs, are available. Along with effectiveness, it is important to measure engagement (ie, users’ interaction and usage behavior) and acceptability (ie, users’ subjective perceptions and experiences) to help explain how and why apps and wearables work. Objectives: This study aimed to (1) explore the extent to which evaluations of physical activity apps and wearables: employ rapid research designs; assess engagement, acceptability, as well as effectiveness; use efficient data collection methods; and (2) describe which dimensions of engagement and acceptability are assessed. Method: An interdisciplinary scoping review using 8 databases from health and computing sciences. Included studies measured physical activity, and evaluated physical activity apps or wearables that provided sensor-based feedback. Results were analyzed using descriptive numerical summaries, chi-square testing, and qualitative thematic analysis. Results: A total of 1829 abstracts were screened, and 858 articles read in full. Of 111 included studies, 61 (55.0%) were published between 2015 and 2017. Most (55.0%, 61/111) were RCTs, and only 2 studies (1.8%) used rapid research designs: 1 single-case design and 1 multiphase optimization strategy. Other research designs included 23 (22.5%) repeated measures designs, 11 (9.9%) nonrandomized group designs, 10 (9.0%) case studies, and 4 (3.6%) observational studies. Less than one-third of the studies (32.0%, 35/111) investigated effectiveness, engagement, and acceptability together. To measure physical activity, most studies (90.1%, 101/111) employed sensors (either in-device [67.6%, 75/111] or external [23.4%, 26/111]). RCTs were more likely to employ external sensors (accelerometers: P=.005). Studies that assessed engagement (52.3%, 58/111) mostly used device-generated logs (91%, 53/58) to measure the frequency, depth, and length of engagement. Studies that assessed acceptability (57.7%, 64/111) most often used questionnaires (64%, 42/64) and/or qualitative methods (53%, 34/64) to explore appreciation, perceived effectiveness and usefulness, satisfaction, intention to continue use, and social acceptability. Some studies (14.4%, 16/111) assessed dimensions more closely related to usability (ie, burden of sensor wear and use, interface complexity, and perceived technical performance). Conclusions: The rapid increase of research into the impact of physical activity apps and wearables means that evaluation guidelines are urgently needed to promote efficiency through the use of rapid research designs, in-device sensors and user-logs to assess effectiveness, engagement, and acceptability. Screening articles was time-consuming because reporting across health and computing sciences lacked standardization. Reporting guidelines are therefore needed to facilitate the synthesis of evidence across disciplines

Summary of Workshop to Review an OMB Report on Regulatory Risk Assessment and Management

Summary of the results of an invitational workshop conducted to peer review the 1990 OMB report, CURRENT REGULATORY ISSUES IN Risk ASSESSMENT AND Risk MANAGENMENTIN REGULATORY PROGRAM OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, APRIL 1, 1990 - MARCH 31, 1991

Development of virtue ethics based security constructs for information systems trusted workers

Despite an abundance of research on the problem of insider threats only limited success has been achieved in preventing trusted insiders from committing security violations. Virtue ethics may be a new approach that can be utilized to address this issue. Human factors such as moral considerations and decisions impact information system design, use, and security; consequently they affect the security posture and culture of an organization. Virtue ethics based concepts have the potential to influence and align the moral values and behavior of Information Systems workers with those of an organization in order to provide increased protection of IS assets. This study examines factors that affect and shape the ethical perspectives of individuals trusted with privileged access to personal, sensitive, and classified information. An understanding of these factors can be used by organizations to assess and influence the ethical intentions and commitment of information systems trusted workers. The overall objective of this study’s research is to establish and refine validated virtue ethics based constructs which can be incorporated into theory development and testing of the proposed Information Systems security model. The expectation of the researcher is to better understand the personality and motivations of individuals who pose an insider threat by providing a conceptual analysis of character traits which influence the ethical behavior of trusted workers and ultimately Information System security

Outer-Sphere Effects on Reduction Potentials of Copper Sites in Proteins: The Curious Case of High Potential Type 2 C112D/M121E Pseudomonas aeruginosa Azurin

Redox and spectroscopic (electronic absorption, multifrequency electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and X-ray absorption) properties together with X-ray crystal structures are reported for the type 2 Cu^(II) C112D/M121E variant of Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurin. The results suggest that Cu^(II) is constrained from interaction with the proximal glutamate; this structural frustration implies a “rack” mechanism for the 290 mV (vs NHE) reduction potential measured at neutral pH. At high pH (~9), hydrogen bonding in the outer coordination sphere is perturbed to allow axial glutamate ligation to Cu^(II), with a decrease in potential to 119 mV. These results highlight the role played by outer-sphere interactions, and the structural constraints they impose, in determining the redox behavior of transition metal protein cofactors

High-Potential C112D/M121X (X = M, E, H, L) Pseudomonas aeruginosa Azurins

Site-directed mutagenesis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurin C112D at the M121 position has afforded a series of proteins with elevated Cu^(II/I) reduction potentials relative to the CuII aquo ion. The high potential and low axial hyperfine splitting (Cu^(II) electron paramagnetic resonance A|) of the C112D/M121L protein are remarkably similar to features normally associated with type 1 copper centers

Tropical cyclone motion and surrounding parameter relationships

December 1975.Includes bibliographical references.Sponsored by NOAA 04-5-022-14

NMDAR-Activated PP1 Dephosphorylates GluN2B to Modulate NMDAR Synaptic Content.

In mature neurons, postsynaptic N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are segregated into two populations, synaptic and extrasynaptic, which differ in localization, function, and associated intracellular cascades. These two pools are connected via lateral diffusion, and receptor exchange between them modulates synaptic NMDAR content. Here, we identify the phosphorylation of the PDZ-ligand of the GluN2B subunit of NMDARs (at S1480) as a critical determinant in dynamically controlling NMDAR synaptic content. We find that phosphorylation of GluN2B at S1480 maintains NMDARs at extrasynaptic membranes as part of a protein complex containing protein phosphatase 1 (PP1). Global activation of NMDARs leads to the activation of PP1, which mediates dephosphorylation of GluN2B at S1480 to promote an increase in synaptic NMDAR content. Thus, PP1-mediated dephosphorylation of the GluN2B PDZ-ligand modulates the synaptic expression of NMDARs in mature neurons in an activity-dependent manner, a process with profound consequences for synaptic and structural plasticity, metaplasticity, and synaptic neurotransmission

Letter from Squire Gray Eyes & John M. Armstrong to James B. Finley

Squire Gray Eyes and John M. Armstrong write to Finley reporting that the enemy is at work at the mission in Wyandot City. Evidently, the Southern missionaries are dividing the Indians concerning membership in the MEC North vs. the MEC South. Our slave dealing missionaries are willing to resort to any means whatever to maintain their grasp upon the Indians. A meeting was recently held attended by nonprofessors, slave dealers, infidels, inebriates, and backsliders. This group sent a letter to the Ohio Conference stating that the Indians in the Kansas Mission had decided to align themselves with the MEC South, in direct opposition to the previous letter sent by the valid congregation requesting alignment with the MEC North. Squire Gray Eyes and John Armstrong bewail the actions of this unofficial, invalid group. Abstract Number - 783https://digitalcommons.owu.edu/finley-letters/2289/thumbnail.jp

Matched detectors as definers of force

Although quantum states nicely express interference effects, outcomes of experimental trials show no states directly; they indicate properties of probability distributions for outcomes. We prove categorically that probability distributions leave open a choice of quantum states and operators and particles, resolvable only by a move beyond logic, which, inspired or not, can be characterized as a guess. By recognizing guesswork as inescapable in choosing quantum states and particles, we free up the use of particles as theoretical inventions by which to describe experiments with devices, and thereby replace the postulate of state reductions by a theorem. By using the freedom to invent probe particles in modeling light detection, we develop a quantum model of the balancing of a light-induced force, with application to models and detecting devices by which to better distinguish one source of weak light from another. Finally, we uncover a symmetry between entangled states and entangled detectors, a dramatic example of how the judgment about what light state is generated by a source depends on choosing how to model the detector of that light.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figs, LaTeX; new Introduction; new material in Secs. 4 & 5; new Sec. 6; 1 new figure, added reference

Electron Transfer Reactivity of Type Zero Pseudomonas aeruginosa Azurin

Type zero copper is a hard-ligand analogue of the classical type 1 or blue site in copper proteins that function as electron transfer (ET) agents in photosynthesis and other biological processes. The EPR spectroscopic features of type zero Cu^(II) are very similar to those of blue copper, although lacking the deep blue color, due to the absence of thiolate ligation. We have measured the rates of intramolecular ET from the pulse radiolytically generated C3−C26 disulfide radical anion to the Cu^(II) in both type zero C112D/M121L and type 2 C112D Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurins in pH 7.0 aqueous solutions between 8 and 45 °C. We also have obtained rate/temperature (10−30 °C) profiles for ET reactions between these mutants and the wild-type azurin. Analysis of the rates and activation parameters for both intramolecular and intermolecular ET reactions indicates that the type zero copper reorganization energy falls in a range (0.9−1.1 eV) slightly above that for type 1 (0.7−0.8 eV), but substantially smaller than that for type 2 (>2 eV), consistent with XAS and EXAFS data that reveal minimal type zero site reorientation during redox cycling