The Health Related Components of Physical Fitness in People with Visual Impairment: A Systematic Review

Visual impairment is becoming progressively more common in America’s aging society. Physical inactivity contributes to the development of chronic health conditions. Therefore, it is important to understand the relationship between visual impairment and its impact on health related physical activity and fitness. The purpose of this systematic review is to examine the prevalence of physical activity and the five components of physical fitness in the visually impaired population. This review was limited to articles addressing individuals with “visual impairment,” as defined by the National Eye Institute. The data abstracted included documentation of visual impairment, physical activity rates, physical fitness measures, gender, age, number of participants, and sample size. Results confirm that persons with visual impairment tend to participate in physical activity significantly less than their sighted counterparts and are often less physically fit, especially in regards to body composition, cardiovascular endurance, and muscular strength. Consensus within the research attributes this decreased physical fitness to the lack of sufficient physical activity within the population. The observed lack of physical activity warrants intentionally improving upon the many physiopsychological and social factors which prevent visually impaired children and adults from having equal access to opportunities to engage regularly in physical fitness activities

Engineering Exchange: the democratic imperative for researchers to engage with local communities.

Engineering knowledge is more important than ever, but it needs to be responsive and accessible to a wider range of democratic actors if it is to solve societies’ most challenging problems. Typically framed by the interests of large institutional and industrial actors, engineering research has been much less successful in directly engaging with local communities. Sarah Bell outlines the core purpose of the Engineering Exchange (EngEx), recently established at UCL to expand the impact of engineering research and redress the balance for democracy in technological societies

The spatial manifestation of neoliberal discourse: mapping Chicago\u27s education reform debate

During the last decade, after thirty years of disinvestment in public education, the United States has rigorously implemented high stakes testing, the results of which have provided public school officials, politicians, and real estate developers with an identifiable pool of failing schools. This thesis focuses on the school choice debate as it plays out in Chicago\u27s news media by exploring the city of Chicago\u27s early implementation of school choice policy and by considering school choice policy as part of the larger neoliberal spatial project. The hegemonic naturalization of school spaces as failures or successes in Chicago has been perpetuated by an elite few who have access to the space-creating process of journalism (news reporting and opinion articles). These labels that schools take on have been a large part of the rationalization for Renaissance 2010, Chicago\u27s most powerful piece of school choice policy. Renaissance 2010 (2004-2010) was an initiative that gave city officials the power to close 60-70 traditional public schools and replace them with 100 school choice schools, two-thirds of which are privately-run charter and contract schools. The research conducted in this thesis contributes to understanding how the dominant discourse surrounding the school choice policy debate manifests itself spatially, both in physical and theoretical space. This paper presents the school choice policy debate as it is deliberated in the news media by mapping, in physical and discursive space, the emergence of these discourses from news media as they shape the spatial identity of Chicagoans. The resulting maps and analysis show that the discourse of the spatial project of school choice policies in Chicago pathologizes the education spaces (schools and neighborhoods) that serve lower-income African American Chicagoans

Screening for Unhealthy Alcohol Use: Implementation of Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI) in Primary Care using the AUDIT-C

Background: In 2021, the NIAAA reported that alcohol use disorder affected 29.5 million Americans. Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI) is an evidence-based prevention strategy, recommended by the USPSTF, to reduce alcohol consumption. Unfortunately, less than 50% of patients receive advice from their provider about the harms of excessive alcohol use. This study aimed to implement an effective SBI process in a rural primary care setting utilizing the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test—Consumption (AUDIT-C) tool while addressing known barriers to proper implementation. Methods: Donabedian\u27s Structure-Process-Outcome (SPO) framework for Quality Assessment guided this quality improvement design. Intervention planning included considerations for how closely the three components are related and affect each other. This project used a mixed methods convergent design to evaluate an intervention designed to increase the use of SBI in a primary care setting. Reviewed data included the rate of screenings, number of positive screenings, and frequency of completed brief interventions. Interventions: Before implementing the new SBI process, providers and ancillary staff attended an in-person education session. The EMR populated the AUDIT-C screening tool into patient charts that were scheduled for an annual wellness or annual Medicare visit. Brief interventions were to be conducted for patients with a positive screening, nevertheless, the option to complete that step and how to complete the intervention was left to the discretion of each provider. Provider and ancillary staff completed pre- and post-implementation surveys to further assess screening practices and provider perceptions of barriers and facilitators to screening. Results: The screening rate with AUDIT-C was 78.0% compared to 98.0% with the method utilized before the initiative. However, the overall rate of positive screenings doubled with the use of AUDIT-C. Audited charts did not include documented data to suggest that a brief intervention occurred pre- or post-intervention. Survey responses showed that most providers (54.5%) were only slightly familiar with the USPSTF recommendations for SBI, but the same number also indicated that their role in screening was very important. Most ancillary staff (72.7%) responded that they neither agreed nor disagreed that the use of AUDIT-C increased the time it took to complete their job. Providers reported time and patient-related factors (ex. discomfort and truthfulness) as barriers to screening with AUDIT-C. Conclusions: The provision of brief intervention as part of SBI continues to face challenges despite an increased identification of patients with unhealthy alcohol use utilizing the AUDIT-C tool. Ensuring that providers have adequate knowledge is an important next step to increase their ability to perform brief intervention with increased frequency. Further studies that offer suggestions for overcoming perceived barriers should help increase the utilization of SBI in primary care

What Happens in a Hook Up?: Young Women's Behaviors, Emotions, and Pleasures

“Hook ups” are common among adolescents and young adults on college campuses. Prior research positions women as risking a lot when they hook up, including physical, emotional, and social costs, while they stand to benefit little from hook ups. Additionally, research shows that women do not often experience orgasms during hook ups, but little is known about women’s pleasure in hook ups outside their rates of orgasm. The current studies sought to better understand what women’s experiences in hook ups consist of in terms of behaviors, emotions, and pleasures. Study 1 (discussed in Chapter 3) asked young women (N=23) to perform a card-sort in relation to their actual and desired behaviors and emotions in their most recent hook up. Results from Study 1 show that women reported desiring more oral and manual sex and more orgasms from a variety of sexual activities. Study 2 (discussed in Chapter 4) asked young college women (N=23) to participate in in-depth interviews regarding their sexual pleasure during hook ups with men. Results from Study 2 revealed that women reported that they experienced a range of different pleasures in their hook ups with men, including but not limited to orgasm. Women in Study 2 also discussed how the norms of hook up culture impacted their ability to prioritize or pursue their own sexual pleasure, and how men violated the norm of reciprocity. Study 3 (discussed in Chapter 5) surveyed young college women (N=102) about their behaviors, emotions, and pleasures in hook ups. Results from Study 3 revealed that a typical hook up involved a range of sexual behaviors; women reported giving oral sex more often than they received it. Women in Study 3 also reported frequent positive emotions in relation to their hook ups and fewer negative emotions in contrast to prior research. Results from Study 3 also showed that while a typical hook up included men’s orgasm, women rarely experienced orgasm in their hook ups. Women who reported engaging in a greater number of hook ups in Study 3 were more likely to experience a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction and a greater likelihood of receiving oral sex from their partner. Across the three studies, women reported positive emotions in relation to their hook ups, but reported greater desire for more reciprocity, oral and manual sex, and orgasms during their hook ups with men. Results are discussed in relation to women’s sexual freedom to prioritize their own pleasure amidst a sexual milieu that privileges men’s pleasure during sexual encounters.  PHDPsychology and Women's StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144134/1/sarahnb_1.pd

The Impact of Hyper-Connection Through Smartphone Usage on Friendship Satisfaction in College Students

This literature review explores smartphone use among college students. It examines how this usage creates hyper-connection, which is the state of being available for communication anywhere and at any time. I will examine the effects of hyper-connection on the well-being of college students. Hyper-connection is operationalized through the lens of constant availability, fear of missing out, friendship satisfaction, and face-to-face interactions. Furthermore, I will discuss the cyclical nature of the relationships between these variables. The conclusion outlines the limitations of current research and possibilities for future research in this area