Fit in PE: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Elementary Physical Education

As of 2013, obesity was considered the most critical health issue facing children in the United States. With the potential to provide 97% of American children with regular physical activity, elementary school physical education classes could play a crucial role in preventing obesity and improving health among youth. Despite the drastic need, only 3.8% of elementary schools provide daily physical education. Budget cuts commonly lead to the elimination of physical education specialist positions, which puts the responsibility of teaching the subject into the hands of classroom teachers. Because many classroom teachers have not received professional preparation in physical education, they lack the knowledge and confidence to incorporate the subject into their curriculum. Additionally, classroom teachers commonly avoid teaching physical education because it takes time away from the core subjects in which students must show adequate yearly progress. Even though studies suggest reducing time spent on academic subjects by as much as an hour each day does not negatively affect standardized testing scores and increasing physical education time can actually increase academic success, teachers are still reluctant to dedicate class time to physical education. Because many teachers fear taking time away from core subjects will cause standardized testing scores to suffer, an interdisciplinary approach to physical education is a practical solution. However, there is a lack of resources that provide guidelines for this methodology. To address this need, a website with interdisciplinary strategies for incorporating physical education into other subject areas was created

The Effects of Simulations on Global Empathy

The learning outcomes for college curricula typically emphasize the development of a greater understanding of and empathy for people who come from diverse cultural backgrounds. In this research project the Alexandrian Inventory, a pretest/posttest survey instrument, was administered to undergraduate students to examine which simulations used in two courses were associated with the greatest changes in students’ global empathy. An analysis of the data did not reveal a clear, statistically significant association between the simulations and empathy indicators

Ertrag und Qualitätsparameter von Winterweizensorten aus biologischer und konventioneller Züchtung in Luxemburg

Thirteen winter wheat varieties (Triticum aestivum L.) bred in conventional breeding programs and seven varieties from organic breeding were tested under organic conditions in two locations in 2009/10 and 2010/11 in Luxembourg. The objective was to analyze whether these conditions, organic varieties perform better than conventional ones. Grain yield (dt ha-1), protein content (%) and Zeleny sedimentation value were analyzed. The effect of the factor variety was statistically significant at a probability level of 0.05 for the three traits. For grain yield, the variety x year x location interaction was significant. For protein content, the variety x year interaction was significant. Location x year interaction was significant for sedimentation value. Results indicate that organic varieties generally lead to lower grain yields with higher baking quality (protein content and sedimentation value) than conventional varieties. However, a large range of grain yields, protein contents and sedimentation values were observed for both categories

School Bullying and Health Risk Behavior Outcomes among Adolescents in Florida

Background: School bullying is a major social and public health threat as it presents a variety of developmental and psychological adolescent hazards that stretch into adulthood problems. Bullying victimization has been linked with a plethora of adverse health risk behavior outcomes. Purpose: To examine the association between bullying (in-person and electronic) and health risk behaviors related to school violence, mental and sexual health risks, substance abuse, and weight control practices. Methods: Data were drawn from the Florida Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). A 4-level variable was generated using the in-person and electronic bullying questions resulting in four mutually exclusive bullying categories. Logistic regression analyses, stratified by sex, examined the relationship between bullying and health risk behaviors related to violence, mental health, substance abuse, and weight-related factors after adjusting for race and grade. Results: Rates of victimization among students varied; 6.4% of students reported being bullied both in-person and electronically, 7.6% reported in-person bullying only, 4.4% reported being electronically bullied only, and 81.6% were uninvolved. Bullying was associated with almost all the health risk behavior outcomes studied with a few exceptions. Experiencing both kinds of bullying was most strongly associated with forced sexual intercourse for female adolescents as compared to suicide attempts for male adolescents. Discussion: Schools should provide safe and supportive environments and implement policies to prevent the long-term harmful effects of bullying

Background Pressure Profiles for Sonic Boom Vehicle Testing in the NASA Glenn 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel

In an effort to identify test facilities that offer sonic boom measurement capabilities, an exploratory test program was initiated using wind tunnels at NASA research centers. The subject of this report is the sonic boom pressure rail data collected in the Glenn Research Center 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel. The purpose is to summarize the lessons learned based on the test activity, specifically relating to collecting sonic boom data which has a large amount of spatial pressure variation. The wind tunnel background pressure profiles are presented as well as data which demonstrated how both wind tunnel Mach number and model support-strut position affected the wind tunnel background pressure profile. Techniques were developed to mitigate these effects and are presented

Sensitivity to Visual‐Tactile Colocation on the Body Prior to Skilled Reaching in Early Infancy

Two experiments examined perceptual colocation of visual and tactile stimuli in young infants. Experiment 1 compared 4‐ (n = 15) and 6‐month‐old (n = 12) infants’ visual preferences for visual‐tactile stimulus pairs presented across the same or different feet. The 4‐ and 6‐month‐olds showed, respectively, preferences for colocated and noncolocated conditions, demonstrating sensitivity to visual‐tactile colocation on their feet. This extends previous findings of visual‐tactile perceptual colocation on the hands in older infants. Control conditions excluded the possibility that both 6‐ (Experiment 1), and 4‐month‐olds (Experiment 2, n = 12) perceived colocation on the basis of an undifferentiated supramodal coding of spatial distance between stimuli. Bimodal perception of visual‐tactile colocation is available by 4 months of age, that is, prior to the development of skilled reaching

IL-4 engagement of the type 1 IL-4 receptor complex enhances mouse eosinophil migration to eotaxin-1 in vitro

Background Previous work from our laboratory demonstrated that IL-4Rα expression on a myeloid cell type was responsible for enhancement of Th2-driven eosinophilic inflammation in a mouse model of allergic lung inflammation. Subsequently, we have shown that IL-4 signaling through type I IL-4 receptors on monocytes/macrophages strongly induced activation of the IRS-2 pathway and a subset of genes characteristic of alternatively activated macrophages. The direct effect(s) of IL-4 and IL-13 on mouse eosinophils are not clear. The goal of this study was determine the effect of IL-4 and IL-13 on mouse eosinophil function. Methods Standard Transwell chemotaxis assay was used to assay migration of mouse eosinophils and signal transduction was assessed by Western blotting. Results Here we determined that (i) mouse eosinophils express both type I and type II IL-4 receptors, (ii) in contrast to human eosinophils, mouse eosinophils do not chemotax to IL-4 or IL-13 although (iii) pre-treatment with IL-4 but not IL-13 enhanced migration to eotaxin-1. This IL-4-mediated enhancement was dependent on type I IL-4 receptor expression: γC-deficient eosinophils did not show enhancement of migratory capacity when pre-treated with IL-4. In addition, mouse eosinophils responded to IL-4 with the robust tyrosine phosphorylation of STAT6 and IRS-2, while IL-13-induced responses were considerably weaker. Conclusions The presence of IL-4 in combination with eotaxin-1 in the allergic inflammatory milieu could potentiate infiltration of eosinophils into the lungs. Therapies that block IL-4 and chemokine receptors on eosinophils might be more effective clinically in reducing eosinophilic lung inflammation

Arterial stiffness and wave reflection 1 year after a pregnancy complicated by hypertension.

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) later in life. The authors investigated the association of HDP with blood pressure (BP) and arterial stiffness 1-year postpartum. Seventy-four participants, 33 with an HDP and 41 with uncomplicated pregnancies, were examined using applanation tonometry to measure BP, carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), and augmentation index (AIx). On average, women with HDP had a 9 mm higher systolic BP (