Introducing novel approaches for examining the variability of individuals’ physical activity

Tudor-Locke and colleagues previously assessed steps/day for 1 year. The aim of this study was to use this data set to introduce a novel approach for the investigation of whether individual’s physical activity exhibits periodicity fluctuating round a mean and, if so, the degree of fluctuation and whether the mean changes over time. Twenty-three participants wore a pedometer for 365 days, recorded steps/day and whether the day was a workday. Fourier transform of each participant’s daily steps data showed the physical activity had a periodicity of 7 days in half of the participants, matching the periodicity of the workday pattern. Activity level remained stable in half of the participants, decreased in ten participants and increased in two. In conclusion, the 7-day periodicity of activity in half of the participants and correspondence with the workday pattern suggest a social or environmental influence. The novel analytical approach introduced herein allows the determination of the periodicity of activity, the degree of variability in activity that is tolerated during day-to-day life and whether the activity level is stable. Results from the use of these methodologies in larger data sets may enable a more focused approach to the design of interventions that aim to increase activity.     

Research characteristics on health law in China: Social network analysis

To determine the nature and extent of the emerging field of “health law” scholarship in China, we retrieved 2956 publications about various aspects of health law published up through 2014 in 268 journals from the “Chinese Social Science Citation Index” and from the list of Chinese “Core Journals” maintained by the Peking University Library. By bibliometric analysis, we observed some interesting results which were different from our expectations. The collaboration network among Chinese health law (CHL) authors was relatively small, loose, unstable and early in its development. Kan Tian and Lixin Yang were leading authors, Renmin University of China was the primary institution, and Beijing was the predominant region studying Chinese health law (CHL). Kan Tian ranked 1st in the collaboration network and Lixin Yang published the most number of articles on CHL. Comprehensive universities made up the majority of institutions studying CHL, while medical colleges did not focus on health law research, possibly due to medical schools focusing mainly on clinical education and not attaching as much importance to social and humanistic aspects of medicine. Food safety, health administration, and the general principles of civil law were the main areas of focus in CHL research, which is basically in line with what we expected.     

Ten Salient Practices of Undergraduate Research Mentors: A Review of the Literature

This paper identifies salient practices of faculty mentors of undergraduate research (UR) as indicated in the extensive literature of the past two decades on UR. The well-established benefits for students involved in UR are dependent, first and foremost, on high-quality mentoring. Mentorship is a defining feature of UR. As more and different types of colleges and universities strive to meet student demand for authentic scholarly experiences, it is imperative to identify what effective UR mentors do in order to ensure student engagement, quality enhancement, retention, and degree-completion. We offer an original analysis of the literature on UR mentoring in which we identify 10 significant “lessons learned,” or evidence-based practices of effective UR mentors that apply broadly across disciplines, students, institutions, and mentoring approaches.