IDENTIFYING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AN ONLINE DANCE-SPECIFIC PROTOCOL ON ALIGNMENT AND MUSCLE ACTIVATION IN UNIVERSITY DANCE MAJORS

Sagittal pelvic alignment is a key component in a dancer’s ability to perform the physical tasks required of a dancer. To maintain and improve sagittal pelvic alignment and overall fitness, dancers must cross-train in other forms of fitness modalities to improve technique, flexibility, strength, and reduce injury occurrence. Few dance-specific conditioning protocols have been tested, and no dance-specific conditioning protocols have been tested in an online format for effectiveness in improving sagittal pelvic alignment and lower extremity muscle activation. We hypothesize dancers who receive online supplemental training as a dance-specific conditioning intervention will have improved pelvic alignment and lower-extremity muscle activation compared to dancers in the control group participating in an active self-selected fitness routine. The purpose of the study is to compare the effects of online dance-specific supplemental training versus the control group on pelvic alignment changes and lower-extremity muscle activation in university level dancers. 24 university level dancers (12 intervention group, 12 control group) participated in a 6-week dance-specific intervention protocol given in an asynchronous and synchronous online format. Interaction effects were observed through group by time 2x2 repeated measures ANOVAs, p<0.05. The 24 participants completed identical pre- and post-test kinematic and muscle analysis to assess sagittal pelvic alignment and muscle activation at various points during three dance phrases, two ballet phrases and one modern phrase. The intervention group showed an improvement of 2.4° (p<0.05) in sagittal pelvic alignment through an interaction effect in ballet phrase 2, fifth position back. There was also a demonstrated group effect for the erector spinae in ballet phrase 2. However, these were the only two points of statistical significance and we were unable to identify the effectiveness of this protocol given in an online format. These findings suggest that a 6-week online dance-specific conditioning protocol is insufficient at improving pelvic alignment and muscle activation in dancers

Deep Chandra and multicolor HST observations of the jets of 3C 371 and PKS 2201+044

This paper presents multiwavelength imaging and broad-band spectroscopy of the relativistic jets in the two nearby radio galaxies 3C 371 and PKS 2201+044, acquired with Chandra, HST, VLA, and Merlin. Radio polarization images are also available. The two sources stand out as "intermediate'' between FRIs and FRIIs; their cores are classified as BL Lacs, although broad and narrow optical emission lines were detected at times. The multiwavelength images show jet morphologies with the X-ray emission peaking closer to the nucleus than the longer wavelengths. The jets are resolved at all wavelengths in a direction perpendicular to the jet axis. The jets SEDs are consistent with a single spectral component from radio to X-rays, interpreted as synchrotron emission. The SEDs show a progressive softening from the inner to the outer regions of the jet, indicating that the electron break energy moves to lower energies with distance from the core. Overall, the X-ray and multiwavelength properties of the jets of 3C 371 and PKS 2201+044 appear intermediate between those of FRIs and FRIIs.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 28 pages (emulateapj5), 17 figure

Biological & Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office : a domain-specific repository for oceanographic data from around the world [poster]

Presented at AGU Ocean Sciences, 11 - 16 February 2018, Portland, ORThe Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO) is a domain-specific digital data repository that works with investigators funded under the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences and Office of Polar Programs to manage their data free of charge. Data managers work closely with investigators to satisfy their data sharing requirements and to develop comprehensive Data Management Plans, as well as to ensure that their data will be well described with extensive metadata creation. Additionally, BCO-DMO offers tools to find and reuse these high-quality data and metadata packages, and services such as DOI generation for publication and attribution. These resources are free for all to discover, access, and utilize. As a repository embedded in our research community, BCO-DMO is well positioned to offer knowledge and expertise from both domain trained data managers and the scientific community at large. BCO-DMO is currently home to more than 9000 datasets and 900 projects, all of which are or will be submitted for archive at the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Our data holdings continue to grow, and encompass a wide range of oceanographic research areas, including biological, chemical, physical, and ecological. These data represent cruises and experiments from around the world, and are managed using community best practices, standards, and technologies to ensure accuracy and promote re-use. BCO-DMO is a repository and tool for investigators, offering both ocean science data and resources for data dissemination and publication.NSF #143557

A survey of extended radio jets with Chandra and HST

We present the results from an X-ray and optical survey of a sample of 17 radio jets in AGN performed with Chandra and HST. The sample was selected from the radio and is unbiased toward detection at shorter wavelengths, but preferentially it includes beamed sources. We find that X-ray emission is common on kpc-scales, with over half radio jets exhibiting at least one X-ray knot on the Chandra images. The distributions of the radio-to-X-ray and radio-to-optical spectral indices for the detected jets are similar to the limits for the non-detections,suggesting all bright radio jets have X-ray counterparts which will be visible in longer observations. Comparing the radio and X-ray morphologies shows that the majority of the X-ray jets have structures that closely map the radio. Analysis of the SED of the jet knots suggest the knots in which the X-ray and radio morphologies track each other produce X-rays by IC scattering of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The remaining knots produce X-rays by the synchrotron process. Spectral changes are detected along the jets, with the ratio of the X-ray-to-radio and optical-to-radio flux densities decreasing from the inner to the outer regions. This suggests the presence of an additional contribution to the X-ray flux in the jet's inner part, either from synchrotron or IC of the stellar light. Alternatively, in a pure IC/CMB scenario, the plasma decelerates as it flows from the inner to the outer regions. Finally, the X-ray spectral indices for the brightest knots are flat, indicating that the bulk of the luminosity of the jets is emitted at GeV energies, and raising the interesting possibility of future detections with GLAST.Comment: 26 pages, 6 ps figures, 6 jpeg figures (1 replaced); accepted for publication in Ap

Self-Reported Pain in Male and Female Iraq/Afghanistan-Era Veterans: Associations with Psychiatric Symptoms and Functioning

Objective. To examine pain symptoms and co-occurring psychiatric and functional indices in male and female Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans. Design. Self-reported data collection and interviews of Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans who participated in a multisite study of postdeployment mental health. Setting. Veterans were enrolled at one of four participating VA sites. Subjects. Two thousand five hundred eighty-seven male and 662 female Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans. Methods. Nonparametric Wilcoxon rank tests examined differences in pain scores between male and female veterans. Chi-square tests assessed differences between male and female veterans in the proportion of respondents endorsing moderate to high levels of pain vs no pain. Multilevel regression analyses evaluated the effect of pain on a variety of psychiatric and functional measures. Results. Compared with males, female veterans reported significantly higher mean levels of headache (P \u3c 0.0001), muscle soreness (P \u3c 0.008), and total pain (P \u3c 0.0001), and were more likely to report the highest levels of headache (P \u3c 0.0001) and muscle soreness (P \u3c 0.0039). The presence of pain symptoms in Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans was positively associated with psychiatric comorbidity and negatively associated with psychosocial functioning. There were no observed gender differences in psychiatric and functional indices when levels of pain were equated. Conclusions. Although female Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans reported higher levels of pain than male veterans overall, male and female veterans experienced similar levels of psychiatric and functional problems at equivalent levels of reported pain. These findings suggest that pain-associated psychological and functional impacts are comparable and consequential for both male and female veterans

Detection of an X-ray jet in 3C 371 with Chandra

We report the detection at X-rays of the radio/optical jet of 3C 371, from a short (10 ks) Chandra exposure in March 2000. We also present a new MERLIN observation at 1.4 GHz together with a renalysis of the archival HST WFPC2 F555W image. Despite the limited signal-to-noise ratio of the Chandra data, the X-ray morphology is clearly different from that of the radio/optical emission, with the brightest X-ray knot at 1.7" from the nucleus and little X-ray emission from the brightest radio/optical knot at 3.1". We construct the spectral energy distributions for the two emission regions at 1.7" and 3.1". Both show that the X-ray flux is below the extrapolation from the radio-to-optical continuum, suggesting moderately beamed synchrotron from an electron population with decreasing high energy cut-off as a plausible emission mechanism.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures (Figure 1 is a color GIF file); accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. High resolution (postscript) version of figure 1 at: http://www.astro.brandeis.edu/BRAG/pubs

Environmental factors and risk of aggressive prostate cancer among a population of New Zealand men - a genotypic approach

Prostate cancer is one of the most significant health concerns for men worldwide. Numerous researchers carrying out molecular diagnostics have indicated that genetic interactions with biological and behavioral factors play an important role in the overall risk and prognosis of this disease. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are increasingly becoming strong biomarker candidates to identify susceptibility to prostate cancer. We carried out a gene × environment interaction analysis linked to aggressive and non-aggressive prostate cancer (PCa) with a number of SNPs. By using this method, we identified the susceptible alleles in a New Zealand population, and examined the interaction with environmental factors. We have identified a number of SNPs that have risk associations both with and without environmental interaction. The results indicate that certain SNPs are associated with disease vulnerability based on behavioral factors. The list of genes with SNPs identified as being associated with the risk of PCa in a New Zealand population is provided in the graphical abstrac

Prioritizing Tanzania’s agricultural development policy to build smallholder climate resilience. Final report for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations 22: Risk-explicit and Evidence-based Policy Prioritization (REAP)

Faced with myriad options, Sub-Saharan Africa policy makers struggle to prioritize actions. Commonly used modeling approaches perform poorly in data scare conditions or focus intently on tools at hand. Policies, by consequence, report ‘wish lists’, making them a challenge to implement given resource constraints. Here, we evaluate the potential of using an alternative approach, Bayesian Networks (BNs), to prioritize agricultural policy actions, specifically modeling seven ‘Investment Areas’ listed in Tanzania’s Agriculture Sector Development Programme II