Use of a Functional Movement Screening Tool to Determine Injury Risk in Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Athletes

Context: Participation in athletic teams and events can lead to injury. As the difficulty in stunts and acrobatic maneuvers increase so does the risk for injury. With this emerging sport and the skills needed to participate, it is important to identify those athletes at risk. Yet, it is unknown whether a functional screening or proprioceptive tool can be used to predict injury in this population. Objective: The purpose of this study sought to determine if compensatory movement patterns predispose acrobatics and tumbling athletes to injury, and to determine if a functional movement screening (FMS) and Lower Quarter Y Balance Test (LQ-YBT) could predict potential injury risk in the sport population. Design: This is a prospective exploratory study to screen for potential injury in the sport of acrobatics and tumbling. Setting: The testing took place in an axillary space at a DII University. Only one clinician administered the testing. Patients and Other Participants: A total of 22 participants (age 19.25yrs +/- 0.91, height 161.97 +/-7.03cm, weight 62.53 +/- 8.71kg) from an acrobatics and tumbling team were used in the study. All participants volunteered for the study, were current student-athletes at a NCAA DII institution with a physical on file and participants on a NCATA recognized Acrobatics and Tumbling team. Intervention: Scores on the FMS and LQ-YBT were calculated for NCATA Division II acrobatic and tumbling student-athletes at the start of the competitive season. The participants were asked to complete the seven movement patterns and three clearing tests of the FMS along with the LQ-YBT test in three directions. The participants were given a total of three practice trials for each test. Screening data was gathered over a two week period at the beginning of the season. Results. The mean FMS score and standard deviation for all subjects was 15.9 +/-1.87 (maximum score 21). The mean and standard deviation for all subjects were 98.36 +/-11.63 for the right and 99.24 +/-12.01 for the left. Cox Snell R2 was used to determine the percentage of the variables used to fit the model. Years of competition and total accounted injury produced a Cox Snell R 2 (0.276) and OR= 1.451 (CI95=0.980 to 2.149) for years of competition. FMS Final, LQYBT (R) and LQYBT (L): Cox Snell R2 (0.259), FMS Final not significant (P=0.36) OR= 1.983 (CI95=1.045 to 3.763). FMS Cut (≤14, ≤15) and total accounted injury: Cox Snell R2 (0.342) and significant (P=0.028) OR 28.335 (CI95=1.429 to 561.997) for FMS Cut (≤14, ≤15). Conclusion: Compensatory fundamental movement patterns, increased skill and years of competition can increase the risk of injury in acrobatics and tumbling athletes. A score of 14 or less on the FMS tool paired with a higher number of previous injury resulted in a 28-fold increase in risk of injury in collegiate acrobatics and tumbling athletes

Giving New Meaning to ‘Watch What You Eat’: An Argument for FTC Regulation of Television Junk Food Advertising Targeting Children

Article published in the Michigan State University School of Law Student Scholarship Collection

Modeling adsorption and diffusion of atomic oxygen on the Ag(111) surface using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations

Oxidized silver surfaces are widely used as industrial heterogeneous catalysts to oxidize small organic compounds, such as ethylene. While surface-adsorbed oxygen is known to participate in catalysis, it has been suggested that ‘subsurface’ oxygen adsorbed in the near-surface region of silver also plays important roles in surface reconstruction and reactivity. However, the formation, motion, and chemical behavior of subsurface oxygen in silver are not well understood. In the present work, a kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulation has been developed using the Python programming language to computationally model the diffusion kinetics of atomic oxygen (AO) at the Ag(111) surface. This simulation allows AO to move between various high-symmetry sites on the surface and in the subsurface of Ag(111). The diffusion rates required for the simulation have been calculated using density functional theory (DFT). The DFT-KMC simulation determines the relative populations of surface oxygen versus subsurface oxygen at various surface temperatures and oxygen coverages, promoting better understanding of the catalyst structure under different reaction conditions. Overall, our kinetic model describes the adsorption and diffusion of oxygen at both the surface and subsurface and helps to elucidate the role of subsurface oxygen in the structural and catalytic properties of silver

A Delphi Study Regarding Assessment of Intelligence in the Presence of Autism

Research has indicated children with autistic disorder often demonstrate below average intelligence. Others have suggested intelligence of the autistic population has been underestimated. A gap in the current literature reflects the need to examine the accuracy of assessment of intelligence of children with autistic disorder. The research questions underlying this study addressed tools professionals use to assess intelligence of children with autistic disorder, how tools are selected, the level of confidence in the accuracy of results, and what level of consensus exists among experts. This Delphi study used a panel of 20 autistic disorder experts and 3 rounds of surveys to establish expert consensus of practices for gaining an accurate measure of intelligence and to determine if an appropriate tool is available to measure intelligence of children with autistic disorder. This study was based on the Lockean inquiring systems philosophical perspective with a sequential, exploratory, mixed methods design and employed the constant comparative method for data analysis. Emergent themes included strategies used for assessing intelligence in this population, barriers to determining accurate results, and methods for mitigating the influence of barriers. With moderate to strong consensus among participants, the findings demonstrated lack of availability of an appropriate measure of intelligence for children with autistic disorder. This study has the potential to contribute to positive social change with findings justifying the development of an appropriate assessment tool which will enhance life opportunities of children with autistic disorder when more accurate measures lead to appropriate placement in academic, vocational, and social settings

The influence of poverty on children's school experiences : pupils' perspectives

This study examined the potential influence of policies and practices on the ability of children from low-income families to participate fully in the school day. Pupils from six schools participated in 71 focus groups and revealed a range of barriers affecting their school experience: transport costs and limited support; clothing costs, stigma and enforcement of school dress codes; material barriers to learning at school and home; concerns about free school meals; missing out on school trips, clubs and events. Findings on school uniform were an important catalyst towards a recent policy change in Scotland in increasing the school clothing grant

Cationized magnetoferritin enables rapid labeling and concentration of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria in magnetic cell separation columns

In order to identify pathogens rapidly and reliably, bacterial capture and concentration from large sample volumes into smaller ones are often required. Magnetic labeling and capture of bacteria using a magnetic field hold great promise for achieving this goal, but the current protocols have poor capture efficiency. Here, we present a rapid and highly efficient approach to magnetic labeling and capture of both Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria using cationized magnetoferritin (cat-MF). Magnetic labeling was achieved within a 1-min incubation period with cat-MF, and 99.97% of the labeled bacteria were immobilized in commercially available magnetic cell separation (MACS) columns. Longer incubation times led to more efficient capture, with S. aureus being immobilized to a greater extent than E. coli. Finally, low numbers of magnetically labeled E. coli bacteria (<100 CFU per ml) were immobilized with 100% efficiency and concentrated 7-fold within 15 min. Therefore, our study provides a novel protocol for rapid and highly efficient magnetic labeling, capture, and concentration of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. IMPORTANCE Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a significant global challenge. Rapid identification of pathogens will retard the spread of AMR by enabling targeted treatment with suitable agents and by reducing inappropriate antimicrobial use. Rapid detection methods based on microfluidic devices require that bacteria are concentrated from large volumes into much smaller ones. Concentration of bacteria is also important to detect low numbers of pathogens with confidence. Here, we demonstrate that magnetic separation columns capture small amounts of bacteria with 100% efficiency. Rapid magnetization was achieved by exposing bacteria to cationic magnetic nanoparticles, and magnetized bacteria were concentrated 7-fold inside the column. Thus, bacterial capture and concentration were achieved within 15 min. This approach could be extended to encompass the capture and concentration of specific pathogens, for example, by functionalizing magnetic nanoparticles with antibodies or small molecule probes

The center for creative conservation: fostering novel collaborations for regional sustainability

Broad environmental and social forces are affecting our regional ecosystems and impacting the communities who depend on them in diverse ways. Addressing these complex social-ecological challenges necessitates growth in the collective wisdom of society. The Center for Creative Conservation at the University of Washington is addressing this need by promoting innovative solutions to complex environmental problems through fostering collaborations across broadly diverse disciplines, sectors, and communities. We strive to learn and apply best practices of transdisciplinarity, meaning authentically engaging different modes of knowing toward novel and integrated ideas, methods, and applications. For example, we convene medical researchers with ecologists, urban planners, educators, and environmental justice advocates to understand how contact with nature benefits human health, and how we can design green cities, educational programs, and policies that simultaneously support conservation, health, and social equity goals. We support a group of Tribal researchers and community members, climate scientists, science communicators, anthropologists, and artists working to illustrate the consequences of climate change through filming a human-centered story about the effects of sea level rise on a Native village. We also support a group of archaeologists, ethnobotanists, Native elders, and tribal educators who are developing a program to reintroduce the Native land management practices of burning and digging needed to maintain camas prairie ecosystems. In these and other initiatives, we create and support opportunities for researchers, practitioners, and community members to share knowledge, generate cross-cutting solutions, build relationships, and collectively build social-ecological resilience. We are excited to share outcomes and lessons learned from two years of work, and look forward to engaging in new collaborations with our Salish Sea colleagues

Non ictal onset zone: A window to ictal dynamics

The focal and network concepts of epilepsy present different aspects of electroclinical phenomenon of seizures. Here, we present a 23-year-old man undergoing surgical evaluation with left fronto-temporal electrocorticography (ECoG) and microelectrode-array (MEA) in the middle temporal gyrus (MTG). We compare action-potential (AP) and local field potentials (LFP) recorded from MEA with ECoG. Seizure onset in the mesial-temporal lobe was characterized by changes in the pattern of AP-firing without clear changes in LFP or ECoG in MTG. This suggests simultaneous analysis of neuronal activity in differing spatial scales and frequency ranges provide complementary insights into how focal and network neurophysiological activity contribute to ictal activity