An exploration of the aspects of physical activity and exercise motives that confer risk versus protection from disordered eating outcomes

A long-standing health initiative has been the recommendation for individuals to engage in regular physical activity because of its numerous physical and mental health benefits. However, engaging in “excessive exercise” is a compensatory behavior found in eating disorders. The present study sought to better understand exercise as both a health- and risk-behavior. Undergraduates (N = 1010) completed an online survey assessing disordered eating and exercise behavior. Results revealed that among individuals who engaged in a low level of physical activity, exercising for socializing reasons conferred risk for disordered eating, whereas higher socializing exercise motives were associated with lower disordered eating behavior. Findings suggest that it may be particularly useful to know how often individuals engage in exercise when they have high socializing motives. Future research should examine the Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale (EBBS) to investigate individuals’ simultaneous reasons for engaging in exercise and barriers to participating in exercise

Evaluation of HIRED Vocational Programming at Broadway High School, Minneapolis

This report summarizes an evaluation of HIRED and Broadway High School's vocational training partnership program for pregnant and parenting teens, conducted in Fall of 2007. The primary aim of this evaluation was to describe the experiences of former students and determine the effects of this program on their lives after school. Methods for collecting data included document reviews, interviews, focus groups, and a survey. Of 79 former students on the mailing list, 15 participated in either in-depth interviews or a focus group. Qualitative data was collected and analyzed to uncover and illuminate similarities of experience and significant patterns. Although there were no clear patterns in job, education, or MFIP cash grant status, a few significant themes emerged from the qualitative data, including: participant knowledge of and distinction between HIRED and Minneapolis Public School offerings, a connection between HIRED involvement and goal specificity, highly positive views of HIRED caseworkers, identification of a connection between HIRED coursework and 'real life', and an overwhelming interest in helping professions.Conducted on behalf of HIRED. Supported by the Northside Seed Grant Program (NSG), a program of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), University of Minnesota

AML IN REMISSION, ORIGINATING FROM MDS-RARS-T, EXPANDS THE UNDERLYING JAK2 V617F MUTATED CLONE

A mutation in the JAK2 gene is commonly found in patients with MPN, which can sometimes lead to secondary AML. In this case study, we are reporting on an interesting case of secondary AML originating from MDS-RARS-T. The patient had no gross chromosomal changes, and we found that he was JAK2 V617F-mutated. His BM showed 53% of myeloid blasts. After the induction of combined therapy of Venetoclax and Azacytidine, a complete remission of the disease was achieved. However, instead of the expected decrease in the mutated JAK2 alleles, we documented a rise from the initial 55% to 79% of mutated alleles. This can be explained by the fact that treatment for AML targets only one subclone

Neural encoding of felt and imagined touch within human posterior parietal cortex

In the human posterior parietal cortex (PPC), single units encode high-dimensional information with partially mixed representations that enable small populations of neurons to encode many variables relevant to movement planning, execution, cognition, and perception. Here we test whether a PPC neuronal population previously demonstrated to encode visual and motor information is similarly selective in the somatosensory domain. We recorded from 1423 neurons within the PPC of a human clinical trial participant during objective touch presentation and during tactile imagery. Neurons encoded experienced touch with bilateral receptive fields, organized by body part, and covered all tested regions. Tactile imagery evoked body part specific responses that shared a neural substrate with experienced touch. Our results are the first neuron level evidence of touch encoding in human PPC and its cognitive engagement during tactile imagery which may reflect semantic processing, sensory anticipation, and imagined touch.

The human primary somatosensory cortex encodes imagined movement in the absence of sensory information

Classical systems neuroscience positions primary sensory areas as early feed-forward processing stations for refining incoming sensory information. This view may oversimplify their role given extensive bi-directional connectivity with multimodal cortical and subcortical regions. Here we show that single units in human primary somatosensory cortex encode imagined reaches in a cognitive motor task, but not other sensory–motor variables such as movement plans or imagined arm position. A population reference-frame analysis demonstrates coding relative to the cued starting hand location suggesting that imagined reaching movements are encoded relative to imagined limb position. These results imply a potential role for primary somatosensory cortex in cognitive imagery, engagement during motor production in the absence of sensation or expected sensation, and suggest that somatosensory cortex can provide control signals for future neural prosthetic systems

Optimal Configuration of Redundant Inertial Sensors for Navigation and FDI Performance

This paper considers the optimal sensor configuration for inertial navigation systems which have redundant inertial sensors such as gyroscopes and accelerometers. We suggest a method to determine the optimal sensor configuration which considers both the navigation and FDI performance. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to show the performance of the suggested optimal sensor configuration method

Neuroevolution of Actively Controlled Virtual Characters - An Experiment for an Eight-Legged Character

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