Physical Activity Promotion, Assessment, and Engagement in Clinical Settings in the United States

Physical inactivity is an important contributor to morbidity and all-cause mortality and the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee recommended that physicians increase their role in physical activity assessment and promotion to combat physical inactivity and related comorbidities. Healthcare providers are increasingly called upon to initiate physical activity promotion with their patients to manage conditions like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Still, recent reports indicate that less than half of primary care visits include some type of physical activity promotion. Although the National Physical Activity Plan includes some recommendations for clinicians and the healthcare sector on physical activity promotion, it does not include a detailed assessment of the evidence and the processes for standardizing physical activity-related care in the clinical setting. The presented dissertation expands our understanding of exercise promotion in the clinical setting by having: 1) closely examined published studies with focus on how physical activity promotion is conducted, by whom, and under what circumstances in the clinical setting; 2) evaluating the effectiveness of physical activity promotion in the clinical setting, and 3) piloting a weight management tablet application developed to increase patient activation and engagement in the clinic setting at West Virginia University (WVU) Medicine. This dissertation contributes to the evolving field of physical activity assessment, promotion, and counseling in clinical settings. The findings emphasize the importance of integrating physical activity as a standard of care, leveraging technology to enhance assessment and promotion, and the potential of specialized personnel in delivering interventions. The use of theoretical frameworks and interdisciplinary collaboration can further enhance the effectiveness of these interventions. This work sets the stage for future research that can advance healthcare practices, improve patient outcomes, and address the growing burden of chronic diseases associated with physical inactivity

The Nd Break-Up Process in Leading Order in a Three-Dimensional Approach

A measurement of total and fiducial inclusive W and Z boson production cross sections in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=8 TeV is presented. Electron and muon final states are analyzed in a data sample collected with the CMS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 18.2 +/- 0.5 inverse picobarns. The measured total inclusive cross sections times branching fractions are sigma(pp to W X) B(W to l nu ) = 12.21 +/- 0.03 (stat.) +/- 0.24 (syst.) +/- 0.32 (lum.) nb and sigma(pp to Z X) B(Z to l+ l-) = 1.15 +/- 0.01 (stat.) +/- 0.02 (syst.) +/- 0.03 (lum.) nb for the dilepton mass in the range of 60 to 120 GeV. The measured values agree with next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD cross section calculations. Ratios of cross sections are reported with a precision of 2%. This is the first measurement of inclusive W and Z boson production in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s)=8 TeV

Measurement of the W+W- cross section in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and limits on anomalous WW gamma and WWZ couplings

A measurement of W+W- production in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.92 +/- 0.11 inverse femtobarns. The W+W- candidates consist of two oppositely charged leptons, electrons or muons, accompanied by large missing transverse energy. The W+W- production cross section is measured to be 52.4 +/- 2.0 (stat.) +/- 4.5 (syst.) +/- 1.2 (lum.) pb. This measurement is consistent with the standard model prediction of 47.0 +/- 2.0 pb at next-to-leading order. Stringent limits on the WW gamma and WWZ anomalous triple gauge-boson couplings are set

Energy calibration and resolution of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter in pp collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 7 TeV

The energy calibration and resolution of the electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) of the CMS detector have been determined using proton-proton collision data from LHC operation in 2010 and 2011 at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s)=7 TeV with integrated luminosities of about 5 inverse femtobarns. Crucial aspects of detector operation, such as the environmental stability, alignment, and synchronization, are presented. The in-situ calibration procedures are discussed in detail and include the maintenance of the calibration in the challenging radiation environment inside the CMS detector. The energy resolution for electrons from Z-boson decays is better than 2% in the central region of the ECAL barrel (for pseudorapidity abs(eta)<0.8) and is 2-5% elsewhere. The derived energy resolution for photons from 125 GeV Higgs boson decays varies across the barrel from 1.1% to 2.6% and from 2.2% to 5% in the entraps. The calibration of the absolute energy is determined from Z to e+e- decays to a precision of 0.4% in the barrel and 0.8% in the endcaps

Measurement of the top-quark mass in all-jets ttˉt\bar{t} events in pp collisions at s\sqrt{s}=7 TeV

The mass of the top quark is measured using a sample of $t\bar{t}$ candidate events with at least six jets in the final state. The sample is selected from data collected with the CMS detector in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=7 TeV in 2011 and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3.54 inverse femtobarns. The mass is reconstructed for each event employing a kinematic fit of the jets to a $t\bar{t}$ hypothesis. The top-quark mass is measured to be 173.49 $\pm$ 0.69 (stat.) $\pm$ 1.21 (syst.) GeV. A combination with previously published measurements in other decay modes by CMS yields a mass of 173.54 $\pm$ 0.33 (stat.) $\pm$ 0.96 (syst.) GeV