Discrepancies in accelerometer-measured physical activity in children due to cut-point non-equivalence and placement site

Abstract This study examined dissonance in physical activity (PA) between two youth-specific hip-derived intensity cut-points for the Actiwatch (AW), and compared PA between hip and wrist placements using site-specific cut-points. Twenty-four children aged 11.2?±?0.5 years wore the AW on the right hip and non-dominant wrist during a typical school day. Minutes of sedentary behaviour and vigorous activity were greater using Puyau et al. (2002) cut-points, but light, moderate, and moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) were greater when derived using Puyau et al. (2004) cut-points (P?相似文献   

Prevalence of childhood sexual abuse among incarcerated males in county jail

OBJECTIVE: The current study examined the prevalence and characteristics of childhood sexual abuse in a jailed-based population. METHODOLOGY: A retrospective, self-reported survey was administered over an 8-week period to a random sample of 100 men who were incarcerated in a county jail in Southeastern Texas. The survey included questions about childhood sexual experiences before and after puberty, drug history and use, and sexual risk-taking behaviors. RESULTS: Of the 100 male inmates who participated in this study, 59% reported experiencing some form of sexual abuse before puberty, and all such instances occurred before or at the age of 13 years. The first episode of childhood sexual abuse began at an average age of 9.6 years (SD = 2.4), and ended at an average age of 13.0 years (SD = 2.3). Kissing and touching without intercourse (64%) was the common pattern of sexual abuse experience reported. The total number of perpetrators was 165, with 10% male and 90% female. Friends (n = 72) and family (n = 56) were the most frequent perpetrators. CONCLUSION: Childhood sexual abuse may be more prevalent among inmates than among males in the general population. These results show a high percentage of inmates who report a history of childhood sexual abuse; this rate is higher than those reported by other studies for incarcerated males. The findings support the belief held by professionals in the criminal justice field that a significant number of incarcerated males may have been victims of sexual abuse.     

Effectiveness of the Student Success Course on Persistence,Retention, Academic Achievement,and Student Engagement

ABSTRACT

Despite a great increase in the numbers of students enrolling in higher education, specifically at community colleges, the successful completion rates for these students has remained static since the 1970s. When reviewing strategies to increase student retention and successful completion, the Student Success Course (SSC) has emerged as a promising and prominent strategy for community colleges. Given that, the purpose of this sequential mixed methods study was to determine if participation in a SSC influences persistence, retention, academic achievement, and student engagement on a community college campus. Data were collected from a purposeful sample of 197 SSC participants at a middle sized community college in southeast Texas and compared to a matched sample of 235 non-SSC participants. Twelve former SSC participants were also interviewed in an attempt to build a more empirical understanding of the impact of the SSC on student engagement and, thus, the students’ decisions to remain in college. Results of this study indicate that a relationship exists between participation in the SSC and persistence, retention, academic achievement in English and mathematics, and student engagement. Additionally, participants claim that taking the SSC not only altered their perceptions of the importance of the course, but their social and study skills as well.     

An Instructional Strategy to Introduce Pedagogical Content Knowledge Using Venn Diagrams

This paper describes the use of a three-circle Venn diagram as a vehicle for introducing pre-service elementary teachers to pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Each circle of the diagram represents pedagogy, content and context individually. The overlap of any two circles represents the interaction between the circles. For example, the overlap of pedagogy and context relates to the ways that each of these general topics influences the other. The overlap of all three circles represents a complete lesson that is an integration of the three major components of PCK. The Venn diagram is an easily remembered graphic illustration of PCK that can be useful in planning lessons. The use of this graphic organizer in a science capstone course required of all pre-service elementary teachers is described.     

Center Stage: Performing a Needs Assessment of Campus Research Centers and Institutes

Outreach to research centers and institutes is often overlooked in academic libraries. This article discusses a needs assessment conducted by the Liaison Services Department at the University of Houston Libraries that reviewed library services to centers and institutes at the University of Houston's main campus. The assessment was conducted for two purposes: to build collaborations with centers and to determine how the libraries might create new services and/or market existing services to meet the centers and institutes' growing research needs.     

Managing and Coding References for Systematic Reviews and Scoping Reviews in EndNote

This article describes a novel approach for using EndNote to manage and code references in the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews and scoping reviews. The process is simple and easy for reviewers new to both EndNote and systematic reviews. This process allows reviewers to easily conduct and report systematic reviews in line with the internationally recognized PRISMA reporting guidelines and also facilitates the overall task of systematic or scoping review conduct and reporting from the initial search through to structuring the results, discussion, and conclusions in a rigorous, reproducible, and user-friendly manner.     

Identifying Children with Persistent Developmental Dyscalculia from a 2‐min Test of Symbolic and Nonsymbolic Numerical Magnitude Processing

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a mathematical learning disability that occurs in around 5%–7% of the population. At present, there are only a handful of screening tools to identify children that might be at risk of developing DD. The present study evaluated the classification accuracy of one such tool: The Numeracy Screener, a 2‐min test of symbolic (Arabic numerals) and nonsymbolic (dot arrays) discrimination ability. A sample of 222 children who demonstrated persistent deficits (n = 55), inconsistent deficits (n = 51), or typical performance (n = 116) on standardized tests of math achievement over multiple observations was tested. The Numeracy Screener correctly classified children in all three groups. Notably, the symbolic condition has greater sensitivity in discriminating children with persistent DD from the other two groups. Screening tools that assess early numeracy skills may be promising for identifying children at risk for developing severe mathematical difficulties.     

Government policy and technical choice in the West German reactor programme

This paper gives a concise historical account of government policy in the development of nuclear power reactors in West Germany. In addition to published sources, information is drawn from the minutes of government advisory bodies and from interviews with individuals involved in policymaking. It is found that the decentralization of decision-making was a key factor in the relative success of the West German reactor programme. Government support was given in a way that left the essential technical and commercial decisions with manufacturers and utilities. The development work for the eventual successful light-water reactor was a largely self-financed effort of firms commanding a strong technical and commercial tradition in power plant construction. The utilities based their decisions on the basis of internationally available technology independent of, and initially even against, the programmes devised by the government. In the period up to the year 1972, less than ten percent of government expenditure for reactor development was spent on types that are now in commercial use, i.e. on light-water reactors, while the bulk was given to reactor types that have a chance for commercial application only in the longer term, such as the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor and the fast breeder reactor.