Using Wireless Pedometers to Measure Children’s Physical Activity: How Reliable is the Fitbit Zip?

The purpose of this study is to examine the reliability of wireless pedometers in measuring elementary school children’s physical activity. Activity measurement using a wireless pedometer Fitbit ZipTM was compared to activity measurement using Yamax Digi-WalkerTM SW701 for a group of randomly selected 25 children in Grades 3, 4, and 5. Fitbit ZipTM wireless pedometers were found to have an appropriate degree (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994) of accuracy and reliability compared to the Yamax Digi-WalkerTM SW701 pedometer. The Fitbit ZipTM wireless pedometer collected more step counts than the Yamax Digi-WalkerTM SW701 pedometer; however, the difference was not statistically significant. Participants reported that they preferred wearing the Fitbit ZipTM to the Yamax Digi-WalkerTM SW701 because the Fitbit ZipTM was more comfortable to wear and less likely to fall off. Participants also reported being more motivated to move while wearing the Fitbit ZipTM

READY TO LEARN: THE IMPACT OF THE MORNING BLAST PHYSICAL ACTIVITY INTERVENTION ON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a physical activity intervention programme, named “Morning Blast”, on elementary school students’ math learning and daily physical activity. The Morning Blast intervention programme was a 16-week cardiovascular endurance emphasized physical activity program that students voluntarily participated in before the school day. Participants that volunteered, did so for the duration of the program. Methods: This mixed-methods study included seven educators and 83 students (n=90). The students were all children who were enrolled in Grades 3, 4, and 5 in a semi-rural elementary school in the United States. Data were collected through focus-group interviews, surveys, quantitative analysis of step counts, and from quasi-experimental research design. Results: Students in the experimental group were found to have: (1) increased scores on math standard score, (2) greater confidence in their academic ability, and (3) had more accumulated steps compared to students in the control group. Students in the experimental group also reported that they were more “ready to learn” after completing the physical activity intervention. This finding was also confirmed by their teachers. Conclusion: This study demonstrates how an increase in physical activity during the morning time has positive benefits for students throughout the school day

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The purpose of this study is to examine the reliability of wireless pedometers in measuring elementary school children’s physical activity. Activity measurement using a wireless pedometer Fitbit ZipTM was compared to activity measurement using Yamax Digi-WalkerTM SW701 for a group of randomly selected 25 children in Grades 3, 4, and 5. Fitbit ZipTM wireless pedometers were found to have an appropriate degree (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994) of accuracy and reliability compared to the Yamax Digi-WalkerTM SW701 pedometer. The Fitbit ZipTM wireless pedometer collected more step counts than the Yamax Digi-WalkerTM SW701 pedometer; however, the difference was not statistically significant. Participants reported that they preferred wearing the Fitbit ZipTM to the Yamax Digi-WalkerTM SW701 because the Fitbit ZipTM was more comfortable to wear and less likely to fall off. Participants also reported being more motivated to move while wearing the Fitbit ZipTM

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival