The National Football League-225 Bench Press Test and the Size-Weight Illusion

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record.The purpose of this study was to test reports that size and arrangement manipulations of weight plates (i.e., inducing a size-weight illusion [SWI]) would have an effect on athletic weightlifting performance. The participants were 72 experienced, weight-trained collegiate American football players. Across 3 weeks, each athlete performed three different repetitions-to-fatigue bench press tests (NFL-225, SWI-225, and SWI-215). A multiple regression revealed a positive association between participants' strength relative to the test load and repetitions for NFL-225 and SWI-215, but no association with SWI-225. To explore these results, players were ranked into quartiles based on their one-repetition maximum relative to 102.27 kg (225 lb), and a 3 × 4 repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted. The primary finding was a significant Test Condition × Quartile interaction ( p = .004). Bonferroni-corrected pairwise comparisons revealed that Quartile 4 (those with lowest strength relative to test load) completed more repetitions for SWI-225 compared with NFL-225 ( p = .049). These results suggest that alternate weight plate arrangements may be beneficial for those whose bench press load is near the lifter's one-repetition maximum. However, variations of the SWI do not appear to affect the performance of repetitions-to-fatigue bench press tests for the majority of collegiate American football players

Lifestyle factors and ovarian cancer outcomes

Purpose: Few studies have reported on the lifestyle characteristics of ovarian cancer survivors. The objectives of this study were to characterize the associations between physical activity (PA) and body size (BS) with health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and ovarian cancer recurrence in a sample of regional and distal stage ovarian cancer survivors. Methods: Epithelial ovarian cancer survivors in their first clinical remission, with no evidence of recurrent disease were identified from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center tumor registry. A total of 51 survivors consented to participate in a battery of self-reported questionnaires. Trained staff collected data on anthropometric and recurrence data were collected from the tumor registry. Generalized linear models were used to assess the relationship between PA, BS, and HRQOL. Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the associations between PA, BS, and recurrence-free survival. Results: Most (59%) women were overweight or obese (BMI \u3c 25 kg/m2) , 49% met current guidelines for PA (150 minutes of moderate to vigorous PA/week), and 29% displayed characteristics of abdominal obesity (\u3e88 centimeters). Women who were not obese reported significantly higher (better) overall HRQOL (point difference = 10.8, P \u3c 0.05) and mental health (point difference = 12.4, P \u3c 0.05) scores than women who were obese. Elevated waist circumference and physical activity were not significantly associated with HRQOL outcomes and we did not find any associations between lifestyle behaviors and recurrence free survival (all P \u3e 0.05). Conclusions: Ovarian cancer survivors with characteristics of overall and abdominal obesity may be at risk for deficits in HRQOL and could benefit from interventions designed to reduce weight. More research is needed to determine whether meeting guidelines for physical activity is associated with improvements in health outcomes this population

DNP FINAL REPORT: THE IMPACT OF THE CARE COORDINATION MANAGEMENT TOOL ON CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL HEALTH CARE NEEDS

Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) population, account for 30% of spending or $233.5 billion of the costs (Bui et al., 2017). Identifying barriers to care in the CSHCN population can be multi-faceted and complex incorporating high utilization of time, and clinical resources. This project aims to evaluate the impact of care coordination, and utilization on the CSHCN population through a Patient-centered Medical Home, use of embedded case management assessing this population through using the evidence-based Care Coordination Management Tool (CCMT). CSHCN (N=117) and families were assessed using the CCMT at every interaction from September 1, 2020 – November 30, 2020. All assessment data was recorded in Driscoll Health Plan (DHP) EPIC electronic medical record (EMR). Eight RNs completed assessments on 117 CSHCN at each encounter. Utilization indicates a decrease of 13$280,172.38. Measurement of coordination activities were 41% parent education, 29% communication improvement, 21% investigation of services, 7% authorization, and 1% authorization review. By category, 29% of needs were related to utilization authorizations, 23% related to disease education, 16% referral for community resources, 18% education on Medicaid and 14% related to a behavioral health follow-up. This project reveals that assigned case managers utilizing a standardized evidence-based tool can impact costs of care, parent satisfaction, and quality of life for the CSHCN patient

The organic seed regulations framework in Europe – current status and recommendations for future development

Organic agriculture regulations, in particular European regulation EC 889/2008, prescribe the use of organically produced seed. For many cultivated plants, however, organic seed is often not available. This is mainly because investment in organic plant breeding and seed production has been low in the past. To bridge the gap between organic seed supply and demand, national and European regulations define certain circumstances under which organic producers are permitted to use non-organically produced seed. While the organic sector currently depends on these concessions, they also threaten to impede a further increase in the demand for organic seed, thereby potentially restraining present and future investment in organic seed production and plant breeding. We review the current status of the organic seed regulations framework by analysing key issues such as the role of the national derogation regimes, the role of expert groups, databases and seed prices. Key points are that (a) the situation of the organic seed sector has improved over the last few years; however, (b) reporting on organic seed to the EU by different countries needs to be harmonised; (c) the success of the organic seed sector depends critically on the implementation and improvement of national expert groups; and (d) to protect genetic diversity, the use of local varieties and landraces should not be impeded by organic seed regulations

Just Culture – A Case of Mistaken Identity

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/edwk22/1006/thumbnail.jp

The trans-contextual model: Perceived learning and performance motivational climates as analogues of perceived autonomy support

The trans-contextual model of motivation (TCM) proposes that perceived autonomy support in physical education (PE) predicts autonomous motivation within this context, which, in turn, is related to autonomous motivation and physical activity in leisure-time. According to achievement goal theory perceptions of learning and performance, motivational climate in PE can also affect autonomous motivation in PE. The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of an integrated approach of perceptions of motivational climate in PE by incorporating aspects of perceptions of motivational climate from achievement goal frameworks on autonomous motivation in PE within the TCM. High school students (N = 274) completed self-report measures of perceived autonomy support, perceived learning, and performance motivational climate and autonomous motivation in PE. Follow-up measures of autonomous motivation in a leisure-time context were taken along with measures of attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and intentions from the theory of planned behaviour 1 week later. Self-reported physical activity behaviour was measured 5 weeks later. The results of the path analyses indicated that perceived learning climate was the strongest predictor of autonomous motivation in PE and leisure-time contexts and mediated the effect of perceived autonomy support on autonomous motivation in PE. Perceived performance climate showed no significant effect on autonomous motivation in PE and leisure-time. Results also confirmed the premises of TCM regarding the effect of autonomous motivation in leisure-time on leisure-time physical activity and the mediating role of the planned behaviour theory variables

Chirped pulse Raman amplification in warm plasma: towards controlling saturation

Stimulated Raman backscattering in plasma is potentially an efficient method of amplifying laser pulses to reach exawatt powers because plasma is fully broken down and withstands extremely high electric fields. Plasma also has unique nonlinear optical properties that allow simultaneous compression of optical pulses to ultra-short durations. However, current measured efficiencies are limited to several percent. Here we investigate Raman amplification of short duration seed pulses with different chirp rates using a chirped pump pulse in a preformed plasma waveguide. We identify electron trapping and wavebreaking as the main saturation mechanisms, which lead to spectral broadening and gain saturation when the seed reaches several millijoules for durations of 10's - 100's fs for 250 ps, 800 nm chirped pump pulses. We show that this prevents access to the nonlinear regime and limits the efficiency, and interpret the experimental results using slowly-varying-amplitude, current-averaged particle-in-cell simulations. We also propose methods for achieving higher efficiencies.close0

Children and older adults exhibit distinct sub-optimal cost-benefit functions when preparing to move their eyes and hands

"© 2015 Gonzalez et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited"Numerous activities require an individual to respond quickly to the correct stimulus. The provision of advance information allows response priming but heightened responses can cause errors (responding too early or reacting to the wrong stimulus). Thus, a balance is required between the online cognitive mechanisms (inhibitory and anticipatory) used to prepare and execute a motor response at the appropriate time. We investigated the use of advance information in 71 participants across four different age groups: (i) children, (ii) young adults, (iii) middle-aged adults, and (iv) older adults. We implemented 'cued' and 'non-cued' conditions to assess age-related changes in saccadic and touch responses to targets in three movement conditions: (a) Eyes only; (b) Hands only; (c) Eyes and Hand. Children made less saccade errors compared to young adults, but they also exhibited longer response times in cued versus non-cued conditions. In contrast, older adults showed faster responses in cued conditions but exhibited more errors. The results indicate that young adults (18 -25 years) achieve an optimal balance between anticipation and execution. In contrast, children show benefits (few errors) and costs (slow responses) of good inhibition when preparing a motor response based on advance information; whilst older adults show the benefits and costs associated with a prospective response strategy (i.e., good anticipation)

Social, environmental and psychological factors associated with objective physical activity levels in the over 65s

Objective: To assess physical activity levels objectively using accelerometers in community dwelling over 65 s and to examine associations with health, social, environmental and psychological factors. Design: Cross sectional survey. Setting: 17 general practices in Scotland, United Kingdom. Participants: Random sampling of over 65 s registered with the practices in four strata young-old (65–80 years), old-old (over 80 years), more affluent and less affluent groups. Main Outcome Measures: Accelerometry counts of activity per day. Associations between activity and Theory of Planned Behaviour variables, the physical environment, health, wellbeing and demographic variables were examined with multiple regression analysis and multilevel modelling. Results: 547 older people (mean (SD) age 79(8) years, 54% female) were analysed representing 94% of those surveyed. Accelerometry counts were highest in the affluent younger group, followed by the deprived younger group, with lowest levels in the deprived over 80 s group. Multiple regression analysis showed that lower age, higher perceived behavioural control, the physical function subscale of SF-36, and having someone nearby to turn to were all independently associated with higher physical activity levels (R2 = 0.32). In addition, hours of sunshine were independently significantly associated with greater physical activity in a multilevel model. Conclusions: Other than age and hours of sunlight, the variables identified are modifiable, and provide a strong basis for the future development of novel multidimensional interventions aimed at increasing activity participation in later life.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe