Relationship between psychological and biological factors and physical activity and exercise behaviour in Filipino students

The aim of the present study was threefold. Firstly, it investigated whether a general measure or specific measure of motivational orientation was better in describing the relationship between motivation and exercise behaviour. Secondly, it examined the relationship between the four most popular indirect methods of body composition assessment and physical activity and exercise patterns. Thirdly, the interaction between motivation and body composition on physical activity and exercise behaviour was explored in a sample of 275 Filipino male and female students. Males were found to have higher levels of exercise whereas females had higher levels of physical activity. Furthermore, general self-motivation together with body weight and percentage body fat were found to be the best predictor of exercise behaviour whereas the tension/pressure subscale of the ‘Intrinsic Motivation Inventory’ (IMI) was the best predictor of levels of physical activity. However, significant gender differences were observed. That is, for the males only self-motivation and for the females only body weight and BMI predicted exercise behaviour. Also, tension/pressure predicted physical activity levels for the females but not the males. No inverse relationship was found between the four body composition measures and exercise and physical activity behaviour. The results support the notion that the psychobiological approach might be particularly relevant for high intensity exercise situations but also highlights some important gender differences. Finally, the results of this study emphasise the need for more cross-cultural research

Ecosystem health: new goals for environmental management

269 p.This book brings together leading ecologists, philosophers, and economists to analyze the issuees surrounding the concept of health as it relates to ecosystems. Both theorectical and practical aspects of what constitutes a healthy ecosystem are examined - philosophical and ethical underpinnings as well as implications for public policy and ecosystems management.http://gbic.tamug.edu/request.ht

Coding of subregions for content-based scalable video

10.1109/76.554441IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology71256-260ITCT

Video Coding with Motion-Compensated Interpolation for CD-ROM Applications

This memorandum discusses the compression of digital video signals at bit-rates around 1 Mbps for interactive playback applications. The coding algorithm is required not only to provide good-quality reconstruction of complex material but also to facilitate interactivity with the bit-stream at the decoder. The algorithm proposed in the paper is based on the well-known technique of motion-compensated prediction error. This basic approach is considerably enhanced with motion-compensated interpolation of skipped video frames and selective coding of the interpolation errors. The interactivity requirements are met by partitioning the video sequence into segments each comprised of a small number of frames. Different ways of encoding a segment are examined. An arrangement is selected that has one intra-coded frame in the center of the segment and a symmetrical pattern of predicted and interpolated frames on the two sides of the intra-coded frame. Segments of length 9 and 15 frames are evaluated. While the shorter segment leads to faster interactivity and simpler decoder implementation, the associated picture quality is much inferior to that obtained with the longer segment. Finally, a rough design of the decoder, suitable for VLSI implementation, is outlined. The algorithm has been designed to encode and reproduce 30 frames per second, non-interlaced, 352 pels by 240 lines, which is related to te CCIR 601 format in a straightforward way