Blood Pressure,Fitness, and Lipid Profiles of Rural Women in the Wellness for Women Project

Purpose: This study examined whether rural women, who had a high prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension upon enrollment in a wellness program, would also have a high prevalence of other cardiovascular disease risk factors such as low fitness and/or dyslipidemia. Methods: Data were analyzed from 225 rural women, ages 50-69, enrolled in a healthy eating and activity clinical trial. Cardiovascular health histories, fitness measures, blood pressure, and fasting blood serum samples were collected following standardized protocols at rural research offices. Chi-square and MANOVA were performed to examine differences in health characteristics, lipids, and fitness across blood pressure categories. Results: Fitness indicators of estimated VO_2max, 1-mile walk time, and resting heart rate differed between the blood pressure groups, with those in the prehypertensive and hypertensive groups having less desirable profiles than those in the normotensive group. Triglyceride levels of 150 mg/dL or greater, were observed in 36%, 32%, and 16.7% of women who had hypertensive, prehypertensive, and normal blood pressures, respectively. Conclusions: The need for routine blood pressure screenings by practitioners is reinforced by finding that rural women screened via PAR-Q and/or physician clearance had a high prevalence of prehypertensive and hypertensive blood pressures, in addition to low fitness and nonoptimal triglycerides. Practitioners need to provide counselling based on results and refer to other providers as appropriate.Key Words: blood pressure, lipids, fitness, rural women     

Establishing a successful physical activity program to recruit and retain women

Increasingly, health organisations and governing bodies in developed countries are paying serious attention to the problem of adult inactivity. Many of the programs designed to increase levels of activity, particularly amongst target populations, such as women, have not been systematically assessed for their effectiveness in recruiting women and helping them maintain activity levels. The purpose of this study was to determine what attracted and sustained women to participate in physical activity programs. Responses from a survey to sport and recreation program providers identified 64 successful programs in the state of Victoria, Australia. Eight of these programs were purposively selected for case study analysis. Data was collected from a focus group with women participants from each of these eight programs. Six core themes emerged from inductive content analysis of the focus groups. The most frequent participant responses related to the social aspects of the exercise environment. Women in the focus groups valued instructor professionalism and instructors’ technical knowledge, however, it was their awareness and sensitivity that participants appreciated most. This exploratory study is important because it reflects the voices of women talking about what made physical activity programs successful for them. The study raises critical questions that should be examined systematically through large-scale survey research and field-based intervention studies, which in turn should stimulate program development to encourage women in physical activity.     

Sex Bias and the Validity of Believed Differences between Male and Female Interscholastic Athletic Coaches

Abstract

Previous research indicates that young athletes as well as athletic administrators hold gender-role stereotypical beliefs about coaches that disfavor females. The validity of two such beliefs (lack of qualified female coaches and time constraints due to family responsibilities) was examined in a statewide survey of 256 female and 296 male interscholastic coaches and a nationwide survey of 2,719 male and 1,449 female interscholastic coaches. Statistical analyses (p < .001) indicated that female coaches were (a) more qualified than their male counterparts with respect to coaching experience with female teams, professional training, and professional experience; (b) as qualified as male coaches with regard to intercollegiate playing experience; and (c) less qualified than male coaches with respect to high school playing experience and coaching experience with male teams. Findings also indicated that male rather than female coaches more often experienced time constraints due to family responsibilities.     

Online Plagiarism Training Falls Short in Biology Classrooms

Online plagiarism tutorials are increasingly popular in higher education, as faculty and staff try to curb the plagiarism epidemic. Yet no research has validated the efficacy of such tools in minimizing plagiarism in the sciences. Our study compared three plagiarism-avoidance training regimens (i.e., no training, online tutorial, or homework assignment) and their impacts on students’ ability to accurately discriminate plagiarism from text that is properly quoted, paraphrased, and attributed. Using pre- and postsurveys of 173 undergraduate students in three general ecology courses, we found that students given the homework assignment had far greater success in identifying plagiarism or the lack thereof compared with students given no training. In general, students trained with the homework assignment more successfully identified plagiarism than did students trained with the online tutorial. We also found that the summative assessment associated with the plagiarism-avoidance training formats (i.e., homework grade and online tutorial assessment score) did not correlate with student improvement on surveys through time.     

Assessing Standards in the “Real” Kindergarten Classroom

The importance of using standards as key components in the curriculum is documented in both popular and professional literature. One aspect of integrating standards into the curriculum is the role of assessment. The focus of this paper is to prepare early childhood teachers to assess children's knowledge of the standards within the routines and centers provided in the kindergarten learning environment. Teachers can use this information to develop authentic assessment strategies which typically occurs in a child's learning during center and group time.     

美国图书馆的今天:实践、趋势与挑战

目前,美国的图书馆一般都订有策略性规划,有自己的人事分类体系,建立了内部切磋交流机制和组织机构,十分重视用户工作。其发展呈现如下一些趋势:越来越多地使用电子服务方式;注重书目的双重作用;大力开展远程教育和原文传递服务;推行馆舍联合使用和采编外包及联合购买,等等。不断变化的形势,也给美国的图书馆提出了新的挑战,如如何处理科技消费问题、经费预算不稳和馆员短缺问题、资源价格高居不下和网上色情问题,等等。     

Medicine and surgery in the Livre des Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois de Jérusalem

The Livre des Assises, written in the thirteenth century in Acre, not only provides insights into the practice of medicine and surgery in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, but also suggests that the licensing and regulation of doctors reflected contemporary Islamic practice.