The effect of an unstructured, moderate to vigorous, before-school physical activity program in elementary school children on academics, behavior, and health

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Physical inactivity has been deemed a significant, contributing factor to childhood overweight and obesity. In recent years, many school systems removed recess and/or physical education from their curriculum due to growing pressure to increase academic scores. With the vast majority of children’s time spent in school, alternative strategies to re-introduce physical activity back into schools are necessary. A creative yet underutilized solution to engage children in physical activity may be in before-school programs. The objective of the proposed study is to examine the effect of an unstructured, moderate to vigorous, before-school physical activity program on academic performance, classroom behavior, emotions, and other health related measures.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>Children in 3rd–5th grade will participate in a before-school (7:30–8:15 a.m.), physical activity program for 12 weeks, 3 days a week. Children will be able to choose their preferred activity and asked to sustain physical activity of moderate to vigorous intensity with individual heart rate monitored during each session.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The proposed study explores an innovative method of engaging and increasing physical activity in children. The results of this study will provide evidence to support the feasibility of an unstructured, moderate to vigorous, before-school physical activity program in children and provide insight regarding the ideal physical activity intensity and duration necessary to achieve a positive increase in academic performance.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01505244</p

The Ursinus Weekly, October 19, 1966

Salem witch trial to be presented • Y announces Fall activities: Discussions highlight year • Alumni return to U.C. campus: Parties, luncheons, and game • Evening School expands • New faces among faculty: Seven depts. make additions • Homecoming Queens • Trade Commissioner speaks • Editorial • Pep rallies? Students never notice as cheerleaders, band play on; Kids talk during exercises • Super cools disillusion frustrated frosh • Society of the Sigma Xi • M.S.G.A. trial results • Fetterolf men go athletic • Book review • Radio station may offer solution to campus communication problems: Student opinion to dictate length of daily shows • Curfew for women attacked • For Wismer concert Swingle Singers coming: Maturing Agency can now afford major artists • Booters top E. Baptist but lose to Lehigh • Undefeated Wilkes blanks Bears, 24-0 • Bruins top Hopkins on Parents Day, 22-20 • Hockey team wins three openers • JVs win 3 lose 1: 2-1 loss to E-Burg is their first defeat in two years • Ursinus hockey team beats Gettysburg • U.C. hockey squad exhibits poor form while defeating Penn 1-0 • Greek gleaningshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1192/thumbnail.jp

The Wyoming Survey for H-alpha. I. Initial Results at z ~ 0.16 and 0.24

The Wyoming Survey for H-alpha, or WySH, is a large-area, ground-based, narrowband imaging survey for H-alpha-emitting galaxies over the latter half of the age of the Universe. The survey spans several square degrees in a set of fields of low Galactic cirrus emission. The observing program focuses on multiple dz~0.02 epochs from z~0.16 to z~0.81 down to a uniform (continuum+line) luminosity at each epoch of ~10^33 W uncorrected for extinction (3sigma for a 3" diameter aperture). First results are presented here for 98+208 galaxies observed over approximately 2 square degrees at redshifts z~0.16 and 0.24, including preliminary luminosity functions at these two epochs. These data clearly show an evolution with lookback time in the volume-averaged cosmic star formation rate. Integrals of Schechter fits to the extinction-corrected H-alpha luminosity functions indicate star formation rates per co-moving volume of 0.009 and 0.014 h_70 M_sun/yr/Mpc^3 at z~0.16 and 0.24, respectively. The formal uncertainties in the Schechter fits, based on this initial subset of the survey, correspond to uncertainties in the cosmic star formation rate density at the >~40% level; the tentative uncertainty due to cosmic variance is 25%, estimated from separately carrying out the analysis on data from the first two fields with substantial datasets.Comment: To appear in the Astronomical Journa

IL-2 and IL-6 cooperate to enhance the generation of influenza-specific CD8 T cells responding to live influenza virus in aged mice and humans

An age-related decline in cytolytic activity has been described in CD8+ T cells and we have previously shown that the poor CD8+ effector T cell responses to influenza A/H3N2 challenge result from a decline in the proportion and function of these cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL). Here, we describe that addition of exogenous cytokines to influenza-stimulated PBMC from both aged mice and humans, enhances the generation of influenza specific CD8 CTL by increasing their proliferation and survival. Our data show that the addition of IL-2 and IL-6 to splenocytes from mice previously infected with influenza virus restores the aged CD8+ T cell response to that observed in young mice. In humans, IL-2 plus IL-6 also reduces the proportion of apoptotic effector CD8+ T cells to levels resembling those of younger adults. In HLA-A2+ donors, MHC Class I tetramer staining showed that adding both exogenous IL-2 and IL-6 resulted in greater differentiation into influenza-specific effector CD8+ T cells. Since this effect of IL-2/IL-6 supplementation can be reproduced with the addition of Toll-like receptor agonists, it may be possible to exploit this mechanism and design new vaccines to improve the CD8 T cell response to influenza vaccination in older adults

Running Biomechanics and Knee Cartilage Health in ACLR Patients

Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) patients are more likely to subsequently suffer from knee osteoarthritis than non-ACLR counterparts. Exercise is thought to influence articular cartilage, however, it is unclear how running biomechanics are associated with femoral cartilage thickness and composition in ACLR patients. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between running biomechanics and measures of femoral articular cartilage condition (thickness and composition) in ACLR patients and control subjects. METHODS: We used ultrasound and MRI (T2 mapping sequence) to measure articular cartilage thickness and composition, respectively, for 20 ACLR patients (age: 23 ± 3 yrs; mass: 70 ± 10 kg; time post-ACLR: 14.6 ± 6.1 months) and 20 matched controls (age: 22 ± 2 yrs; mass: 67 ± 11 kg). After these measures, all participants completed a 30-minute run on a force-instrumented treadmill. Correlational analyses were used to explore relationships between running biomechanics (vertical ground reaction force (vGRF)) and femoral cartilage thickness and composition (T2 relaxation time). The present procedures were approved by the appropriate institutional board and all subjects provided informed consent before data collection was performed. RESULTS: Significant positive correlations existed for the control subjects only between peak vGRF and overall (r = 0.34; p \u3c 0.01), medial (r = 0.23; p \u3c 0.01), lateral (r = 0.39; p = 0.02), and intercondylar (r = 0.31; p \u3c 0.01) femoral thickness. The ACLR patients showed significant negative correlations between T2 relaxation time for the central-medial region of the femoral condyle, and peak vGRF (r = −0.53; p = 0.01) and vertical impulse due to the vGRF (r = −0.46; p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: These findings offer some limited support for the idea that femoral articular cartilage benefits from increase vGRF during running. This is evidenced by the increased thickness for the control subjects and decreased T2 relaxation time (indicative of increased free-flowing water in the cartilage) for the ACLR patients, as running vGRF increased

HST/ACS Emission Line Imaging of Low Redshift 3CR Radio Galaxies I: The Data

We present 19 nearby (z<0.3) 3CR radio galaxies imaged at low- and high-excitation as part of a Cycle 15 Hubble Space Telescope snapshot survey with the Advanced Camera for Surveys. These images consist of exposures of the H-alpha (6563 \AA, plus [NII] contamination) and [OIII] 5007 \AA emission lines using narrow-band linear ramp filters adjusted according to the redshift of the target. To facilitate continuum subtraction, a single-pointing 60 s line-free exposure was taken with a medium-band filter appropriate for the target's redshift. We discuss the steps taken to reduce these images independently of the automated recalibration pipeline so as to use more recent ACS flat-field data as well as to better reject cosmic rays. We describe the method used to produce continuum-free (pure line-emission) images, and present these images along with qualitative descriptions of the narrow-line region morphologies we observe. We present H-alpha+[NII] and [OIII] line fluxes from aperture photometry, finding the values to fall expectedly on the redshift-luminosity trend from a past HST/WFPC2 emission line study of a larger, generally higher redshift subset of the 3CR. We also find expected trends between emission line luminosity and total radio power, as well as a positive correlation between the size of the emission line region and redshift. We discuss the associated interpretation of these results, and conclude with a summary of future work enabled by this dataset.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ