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- Creators: College of Health Solutions
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Given increasing utility of numerical models to examine urban impacts on meteorology and climate, there exists an urgent need for accurate representation of seasonally and diurnally varying anthropogenic heating data, an important component of the urban energy budget for cities across the world. Incorporation of anthropogenic heating data as inputs to existing climate modeling systems has direct societal implications ranging from improved prediction of energy demand to health assessment, but such data are lacking for most cities. To address this deficiency we have applied a standardized procedure to develop a national database of seasonally and diurnally varying anthropogenic heating profiles for 61 of the largest cities in the United Stated (U.S.). Recognizing the importance of spatial scale, the anthropogenic heating database developed includes the city scale and the accompanying greater metropolitan area.
Our analysis reveals that a single profile function can adequately represent anthropogenic heating during summer but two profile functions are required in winter, one for warm climate cities and another for cold climate cities. On average, although anthropogenic heating is 40% larger in winter than summer, the electricity sector contribution peaks during summer and is smallest in winter. Because such data are similarly required for international cities where urban climate assessments are also ongoing, we have made a simple adjustment accounting for different international energy consumption rates relative to the U.S. to generate seasonally and diurnally varying anthropogenic heating profiles for a range of global cities. The methodological approach presented here is flexible and straightforwardly applicable to cities not modeled because of presently unavailable data. Because of the anticipated increase in global urban populations for many decades to come, characterizing this fundamental aspect of the urban environment – anthropogenic heating – is an essential element toward continued progress in urban climate assessment.
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Background: The transition from the home to college is a phase in which emerging adults shift toward more unhealthy eating and physical activity patterns, higher body mass indices, thus increasing risk of overweight/obesity. Currently, little is understood about how changing friendship networks shape weight gain behaviors. This paper describes the recruitment, data collection, and data analytic protocols for the SPARC (Social impact of Physical Activity and nutRition in College) study, a longitudinal examination of the mechanisms by which friends and friendship networks influence nutrition and physical activity behaviors and weight gain in the transition to college life.
Methods: The SPARC study aims to follow 1450 university freshmen from a large university over an academic year, collecting data on multiple aspects of friends and friendship networks. Integrating multiple types of data related to student lives, ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) are administered via a cell phone application, devilSPARC. EMAs collected in four 1-week periods (a total of 4 EMA waves) are integrated with linked data from web-based surveys and anthropometric measurements conducted at four times points (for a total of eight data collection periods including EMAs, separated by ~1 month). University databases will provide student card data, allowing integration of both time-dated data on food purchasing, use of physical activity venues, and geographical information system (GIS) locations of these activities relative to other students in their social networks.
Discussion: Findings are intended to guide the development of more effective interventions to enhance behaviors among college students that protect against weight gain during college.
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This paper studies the effect of targeted observations on state and parameter estimates determined with Kalman filter data assimilation (DA) techniques. We first provide an analytical result demonstrating that targeting observations within the Kalman filter for a linear model can significantly reduce state estimation error as opposed to fixed or randomly located observations. We next conduct observing system simulation experiments for a chaotic model of meteorological interest, where we demonstrate that the local ensemble transform Kalman filter (LETKF) with targeted observations based on largest ensemble variance is skillful in providing more accurate state estimates than the LETKF with randomly located observations. Additionally, we find that a hybrid ensemble Kalman filter parameter estimation method accurately updates model parameters within the targeted observation context to further improve state estimation.
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Methods: This study was a randomized, wait-list, control trial with assessments at baseline and post-intervention (week 4). Participants were asked to meditate using Calm for 10 minutes per day. A p value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: The majority of participants (n=19) stated using Calm helped them cope with the stress of PA school. The intervention group participated in meditation for an average of 76 minutes/week. There were significant differences in all outcomes for the intervention group (all p ≤0.06). There was a significant interaction between group and time factors in emotional exhaustion (p=.016) and depersonalization (p=.025).
Conclusions: Calm is a feasible way to reduce burnout in PA students. Our findings provide information that can be applied to the design of future studies.
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The mission of EZ-Sit is to alleviate pain and increase comfort by creating a product that allows users to put their feet up when sitting for long periods of time. This product will connect to any single stem office chair with ease and will provide users with the ability to put their feet up whenever and wherever they work. Our goal is to empower individuals to pursue their goals without the hindrance of discomfort that comes with sitting for extended periods of time. At EZ-Sit we believe that no one’s productivity should be impeded due to the pain caused by a sedentary work life. We hope that this product will bring about physical well being in the workplace so individuals can focus on the day ahead of them. At EZ-Sit, our values include personal health, affordability, and productivity. Personal health is one of our core principles because we believe that people should not have to endure pain while sitting in order to get their work done. We value the integrity of the hard work that many people show while trying to pursue their dreams. We believe this strong drive for personal or professional growth should not have the consequences of pain. We also believe that our solution should be accessible to all regardless of financial situations. Our Vision at EZ-Sit is to create awareness around healthy sitting practices in addition to how these practices can boost productivity and can prevent burnout. We want to encourage people to take a stand about their sitting habits. Our analysis of the foot rest industry shows that this is not the first product of its kind, but the EZ-Sit is certainly the most accessible. Footrests exist all over the internet and in stores, but all of them are independent of the actual chair. These foot rests are one size-fits all and provide no physiological benefits to users who are either too short or too tall. In addition there are chairs on the market that have a built-in footrest. These chairs, however, are very expensive. This effectively excludes a whole portion of the market who do not have the means to invest in the product. We plan on marketing to young professionals who fall into the age range of eighteen to twenty-eight years old. We want to emphasize that taking care of your body while pursuing your goals is not something to be taken lightly. When we have a working model we plan on using social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok to show how the product works as well as educate individuals around the health benefits of this product. Because this product is new to the market it is important for users to understand why it is different from other footrests in the market. Social media will also help to differentiate our product from the others by showing comparisons. We also plan on utilizing slogans that resonate without demographics such as “EZ-Sit, That’s It!” in order to grab the attention of our target audience.