Validation of MET estimates and step measurement using the ActivPAL physical activity logger

The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of the metabolic equivalent (MET) equation and step rate function of the ActivPAL? physical activity logger in a group of females. Using a standard treadmill protocol, 62 females aged 15-25 years walked on a treadmill at speeds between 3.2 and 7.0 km · h(-1) while wearing an ActivPAL. Oxygen consumption was measured using expired gas analysis at each speed and METs for each speed were estimated based on each participant's own resting metabolic rate. A sub-set of 18 participants also wore an Actigraph. Results showed that the in-built equation in the ActivPAL significantly underestimated (P < 0.001) METs under treadmill conditions at higher intensities. The ActivPAL equation is based on step rate yet the relationship between counts and measured METs (r = 0.76; P < 0.001) is stronger than that between steps and measured METs (r = 0.59; P < 0.001). Both the ActivPAL and Actigraph step functions showed no significant difference (P > 0.05) to video recorded step rate except at the slowest walking speed where the Actigraph significantly underestimated steps (P < 0.05). The development of a new equation based on the counts-METs relationship that includes a variety of speeds and activities would be useful. The ActivPAL step function performs better than the Actigraph at the slowest walking speed under treadmill conditions.     

Are governments complying with transparency? Findings from 15 years of evaluation

How well do governments comply with their own transparency statutes? Alarmingly, answers to this question are in short supply because of patchy comparative data. This study begins to address this gap by analyzing an exhaustive compilation of 265 transparency compliance evaluations (i.e. audits) authored by NGOs, academics, and government oversight authorities across Latin America between 2003 and 2018. Aggregating data on patterns of evaluation and public sector compliance with transparency statutes, we find modest increases in compliance over time, strikingly low compliance with passive transparency compliance (i.e. governmental responses to citizen requests) at the local versus national levels of government, and significantly higher compliance scores when government oversight agencies act as evaluators. Our data also reveal worrying gaps in evaluation efforts. Evaluators tend to focus far more on active transparency (i.e. website-based disclosure) than passive transparency, more on national level governments than subnational governments, and preponderantly on the executive as opposed to legislative or judicial branches of government. Textual analyses show that education is the most evaluated policy theme, with financial policies and social services close behind. In presenting the first large-scale cross-national assessment of transparency compliance, the current study brings to light trends in the effectiveness of transparency regimes and patterns of transparency evaluation across Latin America.     

Note-taking within MetaTutor: interactions between an intelligent tutoring system and prior knowledge on note-taking and learning

Hypermedia learning environments (HLE) unevenly present new challenges and opportunities to learning processes and outcomes depending on learner characteristics and instructional supports. In this experimental study, we examined how one such HLE—MetaTutor, an intelligent, multi-agent tutoring system designed to scaffold cognitive and metacognitive self-regulated learning (SRL) processes—interacts with learner’s prior domain knowledge to affect their note-taking activities and subsequent learning outcomes. Sixty (N = 60) college students studied with MetaTutor for 120 min and took notes on hypermedia content of the human circulatory system. Log-files and screen recordings of learner-system interactions were used to analyze notes for several quantitative and qualitative variables. Results show that most note-taking was a verbatim copy of instructional content, which negatively related to the post-test measure of learning. There was an interaction between prior knowledge and pedagogical agent scaffolding, such that low prior knowledge students took a greater quantity of notes compared to their high prior knowledge counterparts, but only in the absence of MetaTutor SRL scaffolding; when agent SRL scaffolding was present, the note-taking activities of low prior knowledge students were statistically equivalent to the number of notes taken by their high prior knowledge counterparts. Theoretical and instructional design implications are discussed.