Comparing Calorie Expenditure and Rating of Perceived Exertion between the Curve and a Motorized Treadmill

The purpose of this study was to determine if any difference in Calorie expenditure and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) exists when walking on the Curve or a motorized treadmill. Recruitment of participants was done through recruitment flyers placed on campus. After indicating interest, participants’ eligibility was determined by the PAR-Q and being unfamiliar with walking on the Curve. Twelve participants volunteered for the study (five males, seven females). The mean age of participants was 22.58 years ± 2.31 and mean weight was 76.96kg ± 16.19. On testing days, each participant was fitted with a polar heart rate monitor and the K4 b2 metabolic gas analyzer (K4). The order of tests was randomly assigned. The warm up consisted of walking at 3 MPH until steady state heart rate was reached which took approximately three minutes. The actual test consisted of walking at 3 MPH for 10 minutes on each treadmill. Oxygen consumption was collected on a breath-by-breath basis by the K4. Calorie expenditure was reported using the formula of one liter of Oxygen consumed equals five Calories. Calorie expenditure was then totaled over 10 minutes. RPE was obtained during the last minute of each exercise bout. To determine whether there was a significant difference in Calorie expenditure and RPE while walking under the two conditions, two paired samples t-tests were performed. Alpha level was set at p ≤ .05. The results of the t-tests showed a significant increase in Calorie expenditure (t = 17.73, p \u3c .0001) and RPE (t = 5.45, p = 0.0002) while participants walked on the Curve. This study confirmed the Curve advertisement that someone walking on the Curve will burn more Calories than someone walking on a treadmill at the same speed

Heat recovery from mineworkings: opportunities in the Glasgow area

Glasgow is one of many locations within the United Kingdom once dotted with a number of thriving coal mines. Before the suitability of the water stored in mines can be determined for use in ground source heat pump (GSHP) heating applications, it is essential to rule out any risk of contamination caused by exposure to this water. This study examines water samples obtained from boreholes drilled directly above abandoned and flooded mine workings. It indicates that the chemistry of the water flooding the mines beneath Glasgow is suitable for use in GSHP heating applications. The development of such systems in the future could help bring Glasgow forward in its ambition to become one of Europe’s top 10 sustainable cities by the year 2020, as well as helping to transform previously neglected and impoverished areas of the city, to areas full of potential by creating a number of jobs, homes and opportunities for the people living in this area. </jats:p

Achieving Universal Coverage Through Comprehensive Health Reform: The Vermont Experience -- Report of Findings

Presents findings on the role of Vermont's health reform programs in increasing insurance coverage between 2005 and 2009. Examines changes by insurance type, contributing factors such as outreach campaigns, financial sustainability, and implications

Geographical Access to Child and Family Healthcare Services and Hospitals for Africa-Born Migrants and Refugees in NSW, Australia; A Spatial Study.

Background: African-born migrants and refugees arriving from fragile states and countries with political and economic challenges have unique health needs requiring tailored healthcare services and support. However, there is little investigation into the distribution of this population and their spatial access to healthcare in Australia. This paper reports on research that aimed to map the spatial distribution of Africa-born migrants from low and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs) and refugees in New South Wales (NSW) and access to universal child and family health (CFH) services and hospitals. Methods: We analysed the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016 Census data and Department of Social Services 2018 Settlement data. Using a Geographic Information System mapping software (Caliper Corporation. Newton, MA, USA), we applied data visualisation techniques to map the distribution of Africa-born migrants and refugees relative to CFH services and their travel distance to the nearest service. Results: Results indicate a spatial distribution of 51,709 migrants from LLMICs in Africa and 13,661 refugees from Africa live in NSW, with more than 70% of the total population residing in Sydney. The Africa-born migrant and refugee population in Sydney appear to be well served by CFH services and hospitals. However, there is a marked disparity between local government areas. For example, the local government areas of Blacktown and Canterbury-Bankstown, where the largest number of Africa-born migrants and refugees reside, have more uneven and widely dispersed services than those in Sydney’s inner suburbs. Conclusion: The place of residence and travel distance to services may present barriers to access to essential CFH services and hospitals for Africa-born refugees and migrants. Future analysis into spatial-access disadvantages is needed to identify how access to health services can be improved for refugees and migrants

BODY KINEMATICS DURING SINGLE-LEG LANDING FROM VARYING HEIGHTS AND DISTANCES – IMPLICATIONS FOR NON-CONTACT ACL INJURIES: CASE REPORT

Single-leg landing is seen as one of the primary mechanisms of non-contact ACL injuries during sports. The objective of this study is to determine how body kinematics varies with changes to landing heights and distances, in order to make inferences based on body kinematics to risk of non-contact ACL injuries. Spearman’s correlation coefficient among selected body kinematics was determined. It was observed that the peak vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) decreased with increasing distance of landing for the male subject, but increased with increasing distance for the female subject. It was observed that knee flexion is highly correlated to landing height (&#961;=0.78), and moderately correlated to distance (&#961;=–0.65) for the female subject. Knee flexion moderately correlated to landing height and distance (&#961;=0.65 and &#961;=-0.58, respectively) for the male subject

A spatial dashboard for Alzheimer's disease in New South Wales

© 2017 The authors and IOS Press. This paper illustrates a proof of concept scenario for the application of comprehensive data visualisation methods in the rapidly changing aged care sector. The scenario we explored is population ageing and the dementias with an emphasis on the spatial effects of change over time at the Statistical Area 2 (SA2) level for the state of New South Wales. We did this using a combination of methods, culminating in the use of the Tableau software environment to explore the intersections of demography, epidemiology and their formal cost of care implications. In addition, we briefly illustrate how key infrastructure data can be included in the same data management context by showing how service providers can be integrated and mapped in conjunction with other analyses. This is an innovative and practical approach to some of the complex issues already faced in the health and aged care sectors which can only become more pronounced as population ageing progresses

Topological Isomorphisms of Human Brain and Financial Market Networks

Although metaphorical and conceptual connections between the human brain and the financial markets have often been drawn, rigorous physical or mathematical underpinnings of this analogy remain largely unexplored. Here, we apply a statistical and graph theoretic approach to the study of two datasets – the time series of 90 stocks from the New York stock exchange over a 3-year period, and the fMRI-derived time series acquired from 90 brain regions over the course of a 10-min-long functional MRI scan of resting brain function in healthy volunteers. Despite the many obvious substantive differences between these two datasets, graphical analysis demonstrated striking commonalities in terms of global network topological properties. Both the human brain and the market networks were non-random, small-world, modular, hierarchical systems with fat-tailed degree distributions indicating the presence of highly connected hubs. These properties could not be trivially explained by the univariate time series statistics of stock price returns. This degree of topological isomorphism suggests that brains and markets can be regarded broadly as members of the same family of networks. The two systems, however, were not topologically identical. The financial market was more efficient and more modular – more highly optimized for information processing – than the brain networks; but also less robust to systemic disintegration as a result of hub deletion. We conclude that the conceptual connections between brains and markets are not merely metaphorical; rather these two information processing systems can be rigorously compared in the same mathematical language and turn out often to share important topological properties in common to some degree. There will be interesting scientific arbitrage opportunities in further work at the graph-theoretically mediated interface between systems neuroscience and the statistical physics of financial markets