Rate of perceived exertion as a tool to monitor cycling exercise intensity in older adults

The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of rate of perceived exertion (RPE) to monitor exercise intensity in older adults. Middle-aged (46.9 +/- 7.0 years, n = 24) and older women (75.5 +/- 3.8 years, n = 29) performed a graded maximal exercise test on a cycle ergometer while RPE, oxygen uptake, heart rate, and blood lactate levels were measured. The Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient between RPE and oxygen uptake for each stage of the graded exercise test was calculated for each participant. The mean coefficient for the older group (r =.954) was similar to that of middle-aged group (r =.963). The autocorrelation coefficient was much lower (r =.411) in the older group than in the middle-aged group (r =.871). Variability in RPE through the graded exercise test was similar between the two groups. In conclusion, RPE was strongly associated with oxygen uptake in the older group. These results indicate that RPE is effective in monitoring exercise intensity in older adults.     

Public Scholarship and Community Engagement in Building Community Food Security: The Case of the University of Kentucky

The current call for public scholarship and community engagement by universities and disciplinary organizations has created opportunities to develop innovative ways to integrate research, instruction, and outreach. This article discusses a collaboration among scholars at the University of Kentucky and alternative agrifood movement organizations that has evolved as they pursue an alternative agrifood system in Kentucky. This collaboration made instructional programs in sociology and the honors world food issues track places in which both students and instructors can examine “problems” of the conventional agrifood system, conduct research, and develop collaborative relationships with community activists. We draw on Burawoy's discussion of public sociology and its interface with professional, critical, and policy sociologies. Supplementing our discussion with literature from social movements and science studies, we demonstrate how this integrated approach can render sociological knowledge and skills useful as critical support of alternative agrifood movements. We argue that the “experiential classroom” is an excellent site for the critical examination within the agrifood movements of oppositional culture. This, in turn, makes possible students' recognition of injustice in the existing agrifood system.     

Development of low-volume,high-intensity,aerobic-type interval training for elderly Japanese men: a feasibility study

Background

The purposes of this study were to identify 1) the feasibility of a novel exercise protocol (elderly Japanese male version of high-intensity interval aerobic training: EJ-HIAT) and 2) its preliminary data (%V?O_2peak, rating of perceived exertion) in comparison with traditional moderate-intensity continuous aerobic training (MICT).

Results

Twenty-one sedentary elderly men, aged 60–69 years, performed two exercise protocols: EJ-HIAT, consisting of 3 sets of 2?3-min cycling at 75?85%V?O_2peak with 1??2-min active rests at 50%V?O_2peak between sets, and MICT, consisting of 40-min cycling at 65%V?O_2peak. The completion rate, defined as the rate of participants who 1) did not demand withdrawal, 2) were not interrupted by the tester, and 3) did not change the workload during either exercise protocol, of EJ-HIAT was similar to that of MICT (EJ-HIAT: 100%, MICT: 95.2%). Maximal perceived exertion ratings assessed by Borg scale were also similar between EJ-HIAT and MICT. However, objectively measured maximal intensity assessed by %V?O_2peak was higher for EJ-HIAT than for MICT (EJ-HIAT: 86.0 ± 5.6%, MICT: 67.1 ± 6.4%).

Conclusion

These results suggested that EJ-HIAT has good feasibility and perceived exertion similar to MICT despite having higher objectively measured intensity than MICT. An intervention aimed as identifying the effects of EJ-HIAT on exercise tolerance should be performed in the future.

Trial registration

UMIN000021185 (February 26, 2016).

     

Records of rat control campaigns in a food market with the largest seafood trading volume worldwide

Urban Ecosystems - Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) and roof rats (Rattus rattus) are among the most common mammals worldwide. Little is known about the effects of season on rat population size,...     

Regional disparities in bonding and bridging social capital: An empirical study of rural and urban Japan

This article investigates regional social capital development by focusing on disparities in bonding and bridging social capital among rural and urban areas of Japan. Rural–urban differences in social capital in Western contexts have been discussed by many studies. Their main finding is that bonding social capital is richer in rural areas and bridging social capital is richer in urban areas. However, the empirical evidence presented in this article suggests that in Japan both bridging and bonding social capital are richer in rural than urban areas, diverging from traditional thinking about these two types of social capital. This finding suggests that urbanization and depopulation in rural areas of Japan have led to changes in people's behavior and their demand for social networks, promoting the development of bridging social capital in rural areas.     

On improved estimation of a gamma shape parameter

This paper deals with improved estimation of a gamma shape parameter from a decision-theoretic point of view. First we study the second-order properties of three estimators – (i) the maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE), (ii) a bias corrected version of the MLE, and (iii) an improved version (in terms of mean squared error) of the MLE. It is shown that all the three estimators mentioned above are second-order inadmissible. Next, we obtain superior estimators which are second order better than the above three estimators. Simulation results are provided to study the relative risk improvement of each improved estimator over the MLE.     

On Second Order Admissibilities in Two-Parameter Logistic Regression Model

In two-parameter family of distribution, conditions for a modified maximum likelihood estimator to be second-order admissible are given. Applying these results to two-parameter logistic regression model, it is shown that the maximum likelihood estimator is always second-order inadmissible and the Rao-Blackwellized minimum logit chi-squared estimator is second-order admissible if and only if the number of the doses is greater than or equal to 6.     

Some comments on escoufier's RV- coefficient as a sensitivity measure in principal component analysis

The RV-coefficient (Escoufier, 1973; Robert and Escoufier, 1976) is studied as a sensitivity coefficient of the subspace spanned by dominant eigenvectors in principal component analysis. We use the perturbation expansion up to second order term of the corresponding projection matrix. The relationship with the measures by Benasseni (1990) and Krzanowski (1979) is also discussed.     

Posttraumatic stress and growth in student service members and veterans: The role of personal growth initiative

ABSTRACT

Objective: This study explored the extent to which personal growth initiative (PGI) may predict posttraumatic stress and growth in student service members/veterans (SSM/V). Participants: Participants were 136 SSM/V (79% men) representing multiple branches of the armed forces. Forty-four percent of participants reported having combat experience. Methods: Data collection occurred from October 2013 to February 2014. Data were collected via a Web-based survey that included demographics and measures of personal growth initiative, posttraumatic stress, posttraumatic growth, and perceived social support. Results: Results indicated that PGI is not a unique predictor of posttraumatic stress but is a unique predictor of higher levels of posttraumatic growth. PGI appears to be at least as important as perceived social support in facilitating growth in SSM/V. Conclusions: This study provides further evidence for PGI's potential to facilitate growth after a traumatic event.