533 research outputs found
Correlates of Active School Transport Immediately Before and After the Transition from Primary to Secondary School: A Pilot-Study
The transition from primary to secondary school is a major life event associated with large decreases in physical activity levels. Cross-sectional studies also suggest that secondary school students are less likely to engage in active school transport (AST; e.g. walking and cycling to/from school). To our knowledge, no longitudinal study has previously examined the correlates of AST immediately before and after the school transition. This pilot-study assessed: 1) the concordance between child- and parent-perceived barriers to AST (with Spearman correlations); 2) the associations of AST with child- and parent-perceived barriers to AST, parental neighborhood selection factors and socio-demographic characteristics (using Fisher’s exact test). Participants were recruited in four K-6 schools (where children are required to change school after grade 6) located in census tracts with varying population density in Ottawa (Canada). All assessments were done at baseline and follow-up with respectively 49 and 29 participants. Substantial concordance was found between child- and parent-perceived barriers to AST at baseline, but not at follow-up; this might reflect the novelty of the route and the secondary school environment. Distance between home and school was the strongest barrier to AST while road safety concerns and the perception of having too much stuff to carry were also important barriers to AST. Children were more likely to engage in AST when their parents reported that they chose their neighborhood so that their children could easily walk or bike to school; thus future studies should take parental neighborhood selection into account. These findings should contribute to inform future research informing the development of policies and interventions to promote AST
The origin of the E+ transition in GaAsN alloys
Optical properties of GaAsN system with nitrogen concentrations in the range
of 0.9-3.7% are studied by full-potential LAPW method in a supercell approach.
The E+ transition is identified by calculating the imaginary part of the
dielectric function. The evolution of the energy of this transition with
nitrogen concentration is studied and the origin of this transition is
identified by analyzing the contributions to the dielectric function from
different band combinations. The L_1c-derived states are shown to play an
important role in the formation of the E+ transition, which was also suggested
by recent experiments. At the same time the nitrogen-induced modification of
the first conduction band of the host compound are also found to contribute
significantly to the E+ transition. Further, the study of several model
supercells demonstrated the significant influence of the nitrogen potential on
the optical properties of the GaAsN system.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Acute Sedentary Behaviour and Markers of Cardiometabolic Risk: A Systematic Review of Intervention Studies
North Americans spend half their waking hours engaging in sedentary behaviour. Although several recent interventions suggest that short bouts of uninterrupted sedentary behaviour may result in acute increases in cardiometabolic risk, this literature has not been reviewed systematically. This study performed a systematic review of the impact of uninterrupted sedentary behaviour lasting ≤7 days on markers of cardiometabolic risk (insulin sensitivity, glucose tolerance, and fasting insulin, glucose, and lipid levels) in humans. Interventions were identified through systematic searches of Medline and Embase and screened by 2 independent reviewers. A total of 25 interventions were identified that examined the impact of imposed sedentary behaviour on biomarkers of interest. The majority of these studies focused on healthy young men, with very little identified research on females or other age groups. We found consistent, moderate quality evidence that uninterrupted sedentary behaviour ≤7 days results in moderate and deleterious changes in insulin sensitivity, glucose tolerance, and plasma triglyceride levels. In contrast, there is inconsistent, very low-quality evidence linking uninterrupted sedentary behaviour with changes in insulin, glucose, and HDL- and LDL-cholesterol levels. These findings suggest that uninterrupted bouts of sedentary behaviour should be avoided in order to prevent or attenuate transient increases in metabolic risk
Biofuels Production from Biomass by Thermochemical Conversion Technologies
Agricultural biomass as an energy resource has several environmental and economical advantages and has potential to substantially contribute to present days’ fuel demands. Currently, thermochemical processes for agricultural biomass to energy transformation seem promising and feasible. The relative advantage of thermochemical conversion over others is due to higher productivity and compatibility with existing infrastructure facilities. However, the majority of these processes are still under development phase and trying to secure a market share due to various challenges, right from suitable infrastructure, raw material, technical limitations, government policies, and social acceptance. The knowledge at hand suggests that biomass can become a sustainable and major contributor to the current energy demands, if research and development are encouraged in the field of thermochemical conversion for various agricultural biomass types. This paper intends to explore the physical and chemical characteristics of biofuel substitutes of fossil fuels, potential biomass sources, and process parameters for thermochemical conversion
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Non-Cattle Confinement Buildings: Monitoring, Emission Factors and Mitigation
The rings of n-dimensional polytopes
Points of an orbit of a finite Coxeter group G, generated by n reflections
starting from a single seed point, are considered as vertices of a polytope
(G-polytope) centered at the origin of a real n-dimensional Euclidean space. A
general efficient method is recalled for the geometric description of G-
polytopes, their faces of all dimensions and their adjacencies. Products and
symmetrized powers of G-polytopes are introduced and their decomposition into
the sums of G-polytopes is described. Several invariants of G-polytopes are
found, namely the analogs of Dynkin indices of degrees 2 and 4, anomaly numbers
and congruence classes of the polytopes. The definitions apply to
crystallographic and non-crystallographic Coxeter groups. Examples and
applications are shown.Comment: 24 page
Nonlinear magnetoinductive transmission lines
Power transmission in one-dimensional nonlinear magnetic metamaterials driven
at one end is investigated numerically and analytically in a wide frequency
range. The nonlinear magnetic metamaterials are composed of varactor-loaded
split-ring resonators which are coupled magnetically through their mutual
inductances, forming thus a magnetoiductive transmission line. In the linear
limit, significant power transmission along the array only appears for
frequencies inside the linear magnetoinductive wave band. We present
analytical, closed form solutions for the magnetoinductive waves transmitting
the power in this regime, and their discrete frequency dispersion. When
nonlinearity is important, more frequency bands with significant power
transmission along the array may appear. In the equivalent circuit picture, the
nonlinear magnetoiductive transmission line driven at one end by a relatively
weak electromotive force, can be modeled by coupled
resistive-inductive-capacitive (RLC) circuits with voltage-dependent
capacitance. Extended numerical simulations reveal that power transmission
along the array is also possible in other than the linear frequency bands,
which are located close to the nonlinear resonances of a single nonlinear RLC
circuit. Moreover, the effectiveness of power transmission for driving
frequencies in the nonlinear bands is comparable to that in the linear band.
Power transmission in the nonlinear bands occurs through the linear modes of
the system, and it is closely related to the instability of a mode that is
localized at the driven site.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, submitted to International Journal of
Bifurcation and Chao
Active School Transport among Children from Canada, Colombia, Finland, South Africa, and the United States: A Tale of Two Journeys
Walking and biking to school represent a source of regular daily physical activity (PA). The objectives of this paper are to determine the associations of distance to school, crime safety, and socioeconomic variables with active school transport (AST) among children from five culturally and socioeconomically different country sites and to describe the main policies related to AST in those country sites. The analytical sample included 2845 children aged 9–11 years from the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment. Multilevel generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate the associations between distance, safety and socioeconomic variables, and the odds of engaging in AST. Greater distance to school and vehicle ownership were associated with a lower likelihood of engaging in AST in sites in upper-middle- and high-income countries. Crime perception was negatively associated to AST only in sites in high-income countries. Our results suggest that distance to school is a consistent correlate of AST in different contexts. Our findings regarding crime perception support a need vs. choice framework, indicating that AST may be the only commuting choice for many children from the study sites in upper-middle-income countries, despite the high perception of crime
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