Encouraging Physical Activity Among Retirement Community Residents - The Role of Campus Commitment, Programming, Staffing, Promotion, Financing and Accreditation

Despite the well-established benefits of physical activity for older adults, seniors ages 75 and above are among the most sedentary of Americans. Continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) seem ideal settings for creating physical activity promoting environments. We report on results of a nationally representative sample survey of CCRCs that are members of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. Campuses with more physical activity opportunities on campus or in the outside community, more physical activity-related staff, better physical activity facilities and activities, more types of sources to finance the costs of physical activity, and more channels to promote physical activity tend to have more physically active residents. Campuses in which management places more importance on encouraging physical activity among residents also have more physically active residents.This project was funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Propulsion in cubomedusae : mechanisms and utility

© The Author(s), 2013. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PLoS ONE 8 (2013): e56393, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056393.Evolutionary constraints which limit the forces produced during bell contractions of medusae affect the overall medusan morphospace such that jet propulsion is limited to only small medusae. Cubomedusae, which often possess large prolate bells and are thought to swim via jet propulsion, appear to violate the theoretical constraints which determine the medusan morphospace. To examine propulsion by cubomedusae, we quantified size related changes in wake dynamics, bell shape, swimming and turning kinematics of two species of cubomedusae, Chironex fleckeri and Chiropsella bronzie. During growth, these cubomedusae transitioned from using jet propulsion at smaller sizes to a rowing-jetting hybrid mode of propulsion at larger sizes. Simple modifications in the flexibility and kinematics of their velarium appeared to be sufficient to alter their propulsive mode. Turning occurs during both bell contraction and expansion and is achieved by generating asymmetric vortex structures during both stages of the swimming cycle. Swimming characteristics were considered in conjunction with the unique foraging strategy used by cubomedusae.This work was supported by an ONR MURI award (N000140810654) and National Science Foundation grant OCE 0623508 to JHC, SPC, JOD. And the work was supported by the Roger Williams University Foundation to Promote Scholarship

Presence and visibility of outdoor and indoor physical activity features and participation in physical activity among older adults in retirement communities

Available online at http://www.haworthpress.com/web/JHE © 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. doi: 10.1300/J081v19n03_08In this paper we examine how the presence and visibility of outdoor and indoor physical activity resources (e.g., walking path/trail, outdoor tennis courts, gardens, etc.) influences participation in physical activity among elderly residents in non-profit continuing care retirement communities and other senior housing communities. This paper reports findings from a survey of 800 such communities. A social ecological model was used to study the relationships between the environment and physical activity behavior. A fifty-two percent response rate (n=398) was obtained. Campuses with more attractive outdoor and physical activity facilities had more residents participating in different types of physical activity.Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF

Active Living by Design:Creating Activity-Enhancing Residential Settings

The focus of this study is to identify planning, programming and design factors in residential settings that encourage people over 50 to remain active, such as site selection, connection to the surrounding community, site design and walking paths, interior layout and circulation and provision of activity spaces, as well as more subtle factors such as overall wayfinding and ambience

Peninsular Florida Stream Systems: Guidance for their Classification and Restoration

This project was performed to improve understanding of key physical and ecological attributes of natural streams in peninsular Florida in order to derive a practical process-based classification system; and also to provide design aids to assist with stream restoration in rural settings. Fifty-six of the best remaining stream systems in the peninsula were selected for monitoring of more than 120 quantitative variables known to associate with key stream system processes. The sites covered a wide range of physical gradients including soil drainage condition, drainage area, and valley slope, and were observed at watershed, valley, channel and patch scales. Hierarchical cluster analyses were conducted on the full dataset and various subsets to derive the classification groups. Variables were winnowed to a small group explaining the vast majority of stream variability using principal components analysis. The classification system defines streams based on their hydrobiogeomorphology (HBG) and is hierarchical in scale; first categorizing an area within three watershed soil drainage conditions, then based on valley slope, and finally on channel and floodplain surfaces and their dimensions. Regional curve regressions were developed for use in natural channel design. Practical applications of the system for restoration design and construction are presented

Peninsular Florida Stream Systems: Guidance for their Classification and Restoration

This project was performed to improve understanding of key physical and ecological attributes of natural streams in peninsular Florida in order to derive a practical process-based classification system; and also to provide design aids to assist with stream restoration in rural settings. Fifty-six of the best remaining stream systems in the peninsula were selected for monitoring of more than 120 quantitative variables known to associate with key stream system processes. The sites covered a wide range of physical gradients including soil drainage condition, drainage area, and valley slope, and were observed at watershed, valley, channel and patch scales. Hierarchical cluster analyses were conducted on the full dataset and various subsets to derive the classification groups. Variables were winnowed to a small group explaining the vast majority of stream variability using principal components analysis. The classification system defines streams based on their hydrobiogeomorphology (HBG) and is hierarchical in scale; first categorizing an area within three watershed soil drainage conditions, then based on valley slope, and finally on channel and floodplain surfaces and their dimensions. Regional curve regressions were developed for use in natural channel design. Practical applications of the system for restoration design and construction are presented

Comparision of turning dynamics during bell contraction and expansion of <i>Chiropsella bronzie</i> (circles) and <i>Chironex fleckeri</i> (diamonds).

<p>(A) The effect of medusan size on turning angle during bell contraction and expansion. (B) The effect of total turn magnitude on turning angle during bell contraction and expansion. (C) The effect of total turn magnitude on turning rate during contraction and expansion. The difference in turning rate (rate_expansion – rate_contraction) was calculated to illustrate the relative difference between the two phases. Positive versus negative values indicate the bell mostly turned during expansion versus contraction, respectively.</p

Percent change in diameter of bell sections for different sized <i>Chiropsella bronzie</i> and <i>Chironex fleckeri</i>.

<p>Lengths indicated in cm. for each figure represent maximum bell diameters during relaxation. Values represent mean (± st. dev.) diameters among three consecutive swimming cycles. Sketches are bell outlines during maximum expansion (black) and contraction (grey) for the smallest and largest individual examined of each species.</p

Momentum flux (A and B) and relative momentum flux (C and D) of fluid entrained at the velarium and the jet flow from the bell.

<p>As the size of <i>Chiropsella</i> increased the contribution of the entrained flow to the starting vortex increased. The contribution of the entrained flow for <i>Chironex</i> was large at all sizes but also increased with bell diameter.</p