Health education for Somali Bantu refugees via home visits

Background: Somali Bantu refugees, with unique health information needs, created challenges for health and social service providers. Objectives: A service innovation was developed (i) to raise awareness, especially among local health and social service providers, about the Bantu refugees’ presence in the community, their culture, and their information needs and (ii) to deliver needed health information, emphasizing child health, to the Bantu mothers in their homes. Methods: The project consisted of: (i) a community conference targeting local health and social service providers, describing the refugees’ presence in the community, their culture, and information needs. (ii) Focus groups conducted with members of the Bantu population elicited additional information needs. (iii) Curriculum was developed based on identified needs, and (iv) the curriculum was delivered to the refugees in their homes. A clinical informationist and MP3 technology enhanced the project. Findings: Conference attendees’ evaluation responses indicated improved understanding of Bantu culture. Focus groups’ identification of health information needs provided a framework for the health education curriculum. A project website made educational materials available to other healthcare providers. Conclusions: The project raised awareness of the Bantus’ presence, culture, and information needs. Identification of other unmet needs demonstrated that additional support for refugees is required.     

Training in culture: the case of aikido education and meaning-making outcomes in Japan and the United States

This study investigated whether a relationship existed between instructional style and points of emphasis in the training context of the martial art aikido and the perceptions which practitioners of aikido generated for aikido-related concepts. The findings were gathered within and compared across aikido training settings in two cultures — Japan and the United States. Analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data gathered for this investigation revealed several potent differences between the manner in which Japanese and American aikido practitioners represented their understandings of aikido-related concepts. Differences in the manner in which aikido practitioners in Japan and the United States represented their understandings of aikido reflected the teaching emphasis observed in the respective cultures. It was concluded that aikido instructors represented the values of their own culture in the context of aikido training, and thus served as important mediating forces influencing the meaning which practitioners generated for aikido. An additional finding revealed that in neither culture were participants able to accurately represent how practitioners in the “other” culture structured their understandings of aikido. It was reasoned that both cultural groups generated faulty perceptions of how the “other” group understood aikido because they utilized a similar pattern of projection, using their own meanings of aikido to represent the understandings of practitioners in the “other” cultural group.     

The relationship between peak height velocity and physical performance in youth soccer players

Longitudinal changes in height, weight and physical performance were studied in 33 Flemish male youth soccer players from the Ghent Youth Soccer Project. The players' ages at the start of the study ranged from 10.4 to 13.7 years, with a mean age of 12.2 +/- 0.7 years. Longitudinal changes were studied over a 5 year period. Peak height velocity and peak weight velocity were determined using non-smoothed polynomials. The estimations of peak height velocity, peak weight velocity and age at peak height velocity were 9.7 +/- 1.5 cm x year-1, 8.4 +/- 3.0 kg x year-1 and 13.8 +/- 0.8 years, respectively. Peak weight velocity occurred, on average, at the same age as peak height velocity. Balance, speed of limb movement, trunk strength, upper-body muscular endurance, explosive strength, running speed and agility, cardiorespiratory endurance and anaerobic capacity showed peak development at peak height velocity. A plateau in the velocity curves was observed after peak height velocity for upper-body muscular endurance, explosive strength and running speed. Flexibility exhibited peak development during the tear after peak height velocity. Trainers and coaches should be aware of the individual characteristics of the adolescent growth spurt and the training load should also be individualized at this time.     

The role of effort in moderating the anxiety-performance relationship: Testing the prediction of processing efficiency theory in simulated rally driving

We tested some of the key predictions of processing efficiency theory using a simulated rally driving task. Two groups of participants were classified as either dispositionally high or low anxious based on trait anxiety scores and trained on a simulated driving task. Participants then raced individually on two similar courses under counterbalanced experimental conditions designed to manipulate the level of anxiety experienced. The effort exerted on the driving tasks was assessed though self-report (RSME), psychophysiological measures (pupil dilation) and visual gaze data. Efficiency was measured in terms of efficiency of visual processing (search rate) and driving control (variability of wheel and accelerator pedal) indices. Driving performance was measured as the time taken to complete the course. As predicted, increased anxiety had a negative effect on processing efficiency as indexed by the self-report, pupillary response and variability of gaze data. Predicted differences due to dispositional levels of anxiety were also found in the driving control and effort data. Although both groups of drivers performed worse under the threatening condition, the performance of the high trait anxious individuals was affected to a greater extent by the anxiety manipulation than the performance of the low trait anxious drivers. The findings suggest that processing efficiency theory holds promise as a theoretical framework for examining the relationship between anxiety and performance in sport.     

Steps counts among middle school students vary with aerobic fitness level

The purpose of this study was to examine if steps/day taken by middle school students varied based on aerobic fitness classification. Middle school students (N = 223; 112 girls, 111 boys) were assigned to three aerobic fitness categories (HIGH, MOD, LOW) based on results of the FlTNESSGRAM PACER test. Four weekdays of pedometer monitoring determined activity levels (steps/day). Boys accumulated significantly more steps/day than girls, 11,589 +/- 3,270 and 10,232 +/- 2,517 steps/day, respectively; F(1,219) = 16.0, p < .001, eta2 = .055. There were no differences in steps/day between grades. HIGH fit participants accumulated significantly more steps/day, F(2, 217) = 12.2, p < .101, eta2 = .101, than moderately fit and low fit participants (approximately 1,491 and ; 2,867 steps/day, respectively). Middle school students who participated in sports in addition to physical education (PE) accumulated significantly more steps/day (approximately 980 steps/day) than those participating in PE only, F(1, 219) = 10.0, p < .01, eta2 = .044. Although the relationship between physical activity and aerobic fitness was moderate (0.35; p < .01), these data demonstrated significant differences in accumulated steps/day among youth of varying aerobic fitness levels. Whether improved fitness levels were the result of additional activity or the cause of it remains to be determined. Regardless, the fittest middle school students were also the most active and accumulated a significant amount of steps/day through organized extracurricular physical activities.     

Knee extensor and flexor torque development with concentric and eccentric isokinetic training

This study assessed muscular torque and rate of torque development following concentric (CON) or eccentric (ECC) isokinetic training. Thirty-eight women were randomly assigned to either CON or ECC training groups. Training consisted of knee extension and flexion of the nondominant leg three times per week for 20 weeks (SD = 1). Eccentric training increased ECC knee extension and flexion peak torque more than CON training. The ECC group improved acceleration time and time to peak torque with ECC movements versus the CON group. Slow-velocity ECC isokinetic training yielded greater ECC and similar CON torque development gains versus CON training over the course of 20 weeks in young women.     

An On-line Search for Optimum Operating Conditions of Noisy Systems

Optimum process operating conditions are often achieved by on-line computer programming. A general method has been developed which is capable of optimizing processes whose responses are corrupted by random error. The method is particularly useful for application to processes whose response functions contain sharp ridges. Application to ridge and non-ridge systems gives the same results in each case showing that the rate of convergence of the search is totally unaffected by the presence of a ridge. An accelarated gradient method is used which obtains its derivatives from a quadratic interpolation. The inability of the gradient method to move along a ridge is overcome by projecting a straight line through points on the ridge to obtain new starting points for a gradient search. Points on the ridge are located by finding the stationary point of the polynomial which is constructed by regression through points found by the gradient search. The method is applied to several test functions known to the literature—a fast convergence rate is obtained for a wide range of noise levels.