"Science in a democracy": the contested status of vaccination in the Progressive Era and the 1920s

In the first decades of the twentieth century, a heterogeneous assortment of groups and individuals articulated scientific, political, and philosophical objections to vaccination. They engaged in an ongoing battle for public opinion with medical and scientific elites, who responded with their own counterpropaganda. These ideological struggles reflected fear that scientific advances were being put to coercive uses and that institutions of the state and civil society were increasingly expanding into previously private realms of decision making, especially child rearing. This essay analyzes the motivations and tactics of antivaccination activists and situates their actions within the scientific and social climate of the Progressive Era and the 1920s. Their actions reveal how citizens of varied ideological persuasions, activists and nonactivists alike, viewed scientific knowledge during a period of swift and unsettling change, when the application of biologic products seemed to hold peril as well as promise.     

Evaluating the sustainability of SPARK physical education: a case study of translating research into practice

Dissemination and sustainability of evidence-based physical education programs (PE) has been studied rarely. The sustainability of a health-related PE program (SPARK) was independently evaluated in 111 elementary schools in 7 states. Surveys were mailed to schools that had received SPARK curriculum books, training and follow-up (response rate = 47%). Up to 80% of schools that adopted SPARK PE reported sustained use up to 4 years later. Schools using SPARK had more frequent PE classes. Sustained use was related to support from the principal, not previously having a standard PE program, having adequate equipment, and teachers being physically active. Program sustainability was similar in advantaged and disadvantaged schools. Evidence-based PE programs can be sustained up to 4 years.     

A single session of resistance exercise does not reduce postprandial lipaemia

This study investigated the effect of a single session of resistance exercise on postprandial lipaemia. Eleven healthy normolipidaemic men with a mean age of 23 (standard error = 1.4) years performed two trials at least 1 week apart in a counterbalanced randomized design. In each trial, participants consumed a test meal (1.2 g fat, 1.1 g carbohydrate, 0.2 g protein and 68 kJ x kg(-1) body mass) between 08.00 and 09.00 h following a 12 h fast. The afternoon before one trial, the participants performed an 88 min bout of resistance exercise. Before the other trial, the participants were inactive (control trial). Resistance exercise was performed using free weights and included four sets of 10 repetitions of each of 11 exercises. Sets were performed at 80% of 10-repetition maximum with a 2 min work and rest interval. Venous blood samples were obtained in the fasted state and at intervals for 6 h postprandially. Fasting plasma triacylglycerol (TAG) concentration did not differ significantly between control (1.03 +/- 0.13 mmol x l(-1)) and exercise (0.94 +/- 0.09 mmol x l(-1)) trials (mean +/- standard error). Similarly, the 6 h total area under the plasma TAG concentration versus time curve did not differ significantly between the control (9.84 +/- 1.40 mmol l(-1) x 6 h(-1)) and exercise (9.38 +/- 1.12 mmol x l(-1) x 6 h(-1)) trials. These findings suggest that a single session of resistance exercise does not reduce postprandial lipaemia.     

Contextual cues and depth of processing in short prose passages

Two experiments compared context and depth-of-processing strategies applied to the learning of short aurally presented prose passages. In the first study, contextual orientation led to significantly higher recall than a continue-paragraph condition, and both strategy groups performed significantly better than a nonstrategy control group. In the second experiment, continuing paragraphs was superior to generating contextual theme statements, with both strategies again superior to the controls. These results were discussed in terms of the ways in which processing demands effect memory for connected discourse.