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Validity and Reliability of Fitbit Flex for Step Count, Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity and Activity Energy Expenditure
Get PDFObjectives
To examine the validity and reliability of the Fitbit Flex against direct observation for measuring steps in the laboratory and against the Actigraph for step counts in free-living conditions and for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and activity energy expenditure (AEE) overall.
Methods
Twenty-five adults (12 females, 13 males) wore a Fitbit Flex and an Actigraph GT3X+ during a laboratory based protocol (including walking, incline walking, running and stepping) and free-living conditions during a single day period to examine measurement of steps, AEE and MVPA. Twenty-four of the participants attended a second session using the same protocol.
Results
Intraclass correlations (ICC) for test-retest reliability of the Fitbit Flex were strong for walking (ICC = 0.57), moderate for stair stepping (ICC = 0.34), and weak for incline walking (ICC = 0.22) and jogging (ICC = 0.26). The Fitbit significantly undercounted walking steps in the laboratory (absolute proportional difference: 21.2%, 95%CI 13.0–29.4%), but it was more accurate, despite slightly over counting, for both jogging (6.4%, 95%CI 3.7–9.0%) and stair stepping (15.5%, 95%CI 10.1–20.9%). The Fitbit had higher coefficients of variation (Cv) for step counts compared to direct observation and the Actigraph. In free-living conditions, the average MVPA minutes were lower in the Fitbit (35.4 minutes) compared to the Actigraph (54.6 minutes), but AEE was greater from the Fitbit (808.1 calories) versus the Actigraph (538.9 calories). The coefficients of variation were similar for AEE for the Actigraph (Cv = 36.0) and Fitbit (Cv = 35.0), but lower in the Actigraph (Cv = 25.5) for MVPA against the Fitbit (Cv = 32.7).
Conclusion
The Fitbit Flex has moderate validity for measuring physical activity relative to direct observation and the Actigraph. Test-rest reliability of the Fitbit was dependant on activity type and had greater variation between sessions compared to the Actigraph. Physical activity surveillance studies using the Fitbit Flex should consider the potential effect of measurement reactivity and undercounting of steps
The Edge of Expertise: Test Writes Think Aloud
Get PDFWhat does it mean to be an expert within a given field? This paper gives an overview of a small-scale research study which explores this question through the prism of one very specific domain – listening test item writing in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Considerable attention has been given by different researchers to outcomes - the ESOL tests themselves - but very little consideration has been given to process: how the tests are produced by item writers. This research uses frameworks frequently found in expertise studies (see, for example, Ericsson et al. 2006) and concurrent-verbalisation (think-aloud) data-gathering techniques (for example, Bowles, 2010) to illuminate processes involved in listening test item writing. It compares the way small groups of novice and experienced test writers undertake the same item-writing task. The findings indicate that, although expertise in test writing is highly individualised, a number of identifiable strategies and practices are associated with expert outcomes.
The paper will summarize the ways in which the insights from this study have the potential to inform ESOL test-writer training and it will also make an introductory case for using concurrent verbalization to shed light on the cognitive operations used by experts in many different domains
Authority, Autonomy and Automation: The Irreducibility of Pedagogy to Information Transactions
Get PDFThis paper draws attention to the tendency of a range of technologies to reduce pedagogical interactions to a series of datafied transactions of information. This is problematic because such transactions are always by definition reducible to finite possibilities. As the ability to gather and analyse data becomes increasingly fine-grained, the threat that these datafied approaches over-determine the pedagogical space increases. Drawing on the work of Hegel, as interpreted by 20th century French radical philosopher Alexandre Kojève, this paper develops a model of relational pedagogy which highlights three points of incompatibility with a datafied learning environment reduced to finite measures.
Firstly: Kojève’s accont of authority in Hegel posits two aspects to the mimetic relation between teacher and student: recognition and realisation, which belong to the ipseity or about-self-ness of the subject, and are incompatible with a general definition of data. Secondly, the Hegelian approach to human historical time, in particular the assertion that time and desire are begun in the future, not the past, renders it incompatible with mathematical time as used in data processing. Finally, from these it is possible to derive a distinctive notion of the work of pedagogy, grounded in Kojève’s realist reading of Hegel, irreducible to information processing.
In consequence of this threefold irreducibility, the paper draws attention to a need for relations of human pedagogical work to be inherent in the design of educational technologies and highlights the dangers of presuming a machine intelligence model in the design of learning environments
Intra-Renal Hemodynamic Changes After Habitual Physical Activity in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease
Get PDFBackground: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is considered a silent epidemic with a continuously growing prevalence around the world. Due to uremia many functional and morphological abnormalities occur in almost all systems. Mostly affected, the cardiovascular system, leads to diminished cardiac function that affects patients’ functional capacity and physical activity levels, reducing survival and increasing all-cause mortality. Systematic exercise training ameliorates uremia induced body deficits and significantly improves the survival of CKD patients. Intradialytic exercise training has been recommended as a complementary therapeutic modality equally important to hemodialysis. Methods: The aim of this systematic review is to provide an update on recent advances in our understanding of how exercise training improves functionality of the cardiovascular system through the hemodynamic changes induced by habitual or intradialytic and/or home-based exercise training programs. Results: Systematic exercise training induces beneficial adaptive responses and influences many sensitive physiological biomarkers, such as oxidative stress biomarkers that are implicated in the development of atherosclerosis. Additionally, exercise training decreases the cardiovascular risk by improving the autonomic nervous system activity and the left ventricular function and by reducing nontraditional risk factors such as epicardial adipose tissue. It seems that all these central and peripheral adaptations to exercise training significantly contribute to improvements in functional capacity and exercise tolerance among CKD patients and result in the risk reduction of CKD-associated disorders. Conclusion: Exercise training could serve as a complimentary therapeutic strategy in CKD patients while health care providers should motivate patients to engage in any type of exercise training programs
Systemic redox imbalance in Chronic Kidney Disease: a systematic review
Get PDFPatients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) experience an imbalance between oxygen reactive species (ROS) production and antioxidant defenses leading to cell and tissue damage However, it remains unclear in which stage of renal insufficiency the redox imbalance
becomes more profound. The aim of this systematic review was to provide an update on recent advances in our understanding of how the redox status changes in the progression of renal disease from pre-dialysis stages 1 to 4, to end-stage 5 and whether the various treatments and dialysis modalities influence the redox balance. A systematic review was conducted searching PubMed and Scopus by using the Cochrane and PRISMA guidelines. In total, thirty nine studies met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Even from an earlystage, an imbalance in redox status is evident and as the kidney function worsens it becomes more profound. Hemodialysis therapy per se seems to negatively influence the redox status bythe elevation of lipid peroxidation markers, protein carbonylation and impairing erythrocyte antioxidant defense. However other dialysis modalities do not so far appear to confer advantages. Supplementation with antioxidants might assist, and should be considered as an early intervention to halt premature atherogenesis development at an early stage of CK
Brain and Cardiorespiratory Responses to Exercise in Hot and Thermoneutral Conditions
Get PDFThe aim of this study was to test whether or not concurrent evaluations of brain (electroencephalography [EEG]) and cardiorespiratory responses to exercise are influenced by environmental conditions. Ten adult male participants performed a standardised incremental exercise test to exhaustion on a cycle ergometer in an environment controlled laboratory on two separate occasions, in a randomised order; one in a hot condition (34.5C) and one in a thermoneutral condition (20C). EEG, heart rate and expired air were collected throughout. EEG data were decontaminated for artefacts, log-transformed and expressed as aggregated alpha and beta power responses across electrodes reflecting the frontal cortex of the brain. Performance outcomes showed there was no difference in 2 peak across Hot (42.5 ml/kg/min) and Neutral (42.8 ml/kg/min) conditions, although ventilatory threshold (VT) occurred at a lower threshold (68%) in Hot, compared with Neutral condition (74%) (p<0.05). EEG alpha and beta wave responses both demonstrated significant increases from baseline to VT (p<0.01). EEG beta-band activity was significantly elevated in the heat compared to the Neutral condition. In conclusion, elevated EEG beta-band activity in response to incremental exercise in the heat suggests that beta-band activation and cortical awareness increases as exercise becomes increasingly intense
Antioxidant responses following active and passive smoking of tobacco and electronic cigarettes
Get PDFCONTEXT:
It has been indicated that acute active and passive tobacco cigarette smoking may cause changes on redox status balance that may result in significant pathologies. However, no study has evaluated the effects of active and passive e-cigarette smoking on redox status of consumers.
OBJECTIVE:
To examine the acute effects of active and passive e-cigarette and tobacco cigarette smoking on selected redox status markers.
METHODS:
Using a randomized single-blind crossover design, 30 participants (15 smokers and 15 nonsmokers) were exposed to three different experimental conditions. Smokers underwent a control session, an active tobacco cigarette smoking session (smoked 2 cigarettes within 30-min) and an active e-cigarette smoking session (smoked a pre-determined number of puffs within 30-min using a liquid with 11 ng/ml nicotine). Similarly, nonsmokers underwent a control session, a passive tobacco cigarette smoking session (exposure of 1 h to 23 ± 1 ppm of CO in a 60 m(3) environmental chamber) and a passive e-cigarette smoking session (exposure of 1 h to air enriched with pre- determined number of puffs in a 60 m(3) environmental chamber). Total antioxidant capacity (TAC), catalase activity (CAT) and reduced glutathione (GSH) were assessed in participants' blood prior to, immediately after, and 1-h post-exposure.
RESULTS:
TAC, CAT and GSH remained similar to baseline levels immediately after and 1-h-post exposure (p > 0.05) in all trials.
CONCLUSIONS:
Tobacco and e-cigarette smoking exposure do not acutely alter the response of the antioxidant system, neither under active nor passive smoking conditions. Overall, there is not distinction between tobacco and e-cigarette active and passive smoking effects on specific redox status indices
Tourism policy and residents' well-being in Cyprus: Opportunities and challenges for developing an inside-out destination management approach
Get PDFThe paper explores how Cyprus can increase its competitiveness, sustaining its magnitude and attractive attributes, and ensuring residents’ well-being. The study
evaluates the suitability of an ‘inside-out’ planning approach to island tourism development. Eleven interviews were conducted with tourism policy-makers and stakeholders complemented by documentary analysis of official policy sources.Findings indicate that Cyprus tourism policy addresses only indirectly residents’ well-being, and therefore a policy re-orientation focusing on local prosperity is needed. It is proposed that an ‘inside-out’ approach stemming from the kind of development that locals want for improving their quality of life can foster islands’
socio-cultural revitalisation. An ‘inside-out’ approach can redirect Cyprus tourism policy to focus on alternative forms of tourism such as rural/special interest tourism.
However, to reconfigure its tourism product, Cyprus should remedy the ‘top-down’ and bureaucratic planning processes that create challenges for the sustainable
development of tourism. The adoption of an ‘inside-out’ approach can enable‘bottom-up’ decision-making by empowering residents to partake in local communities’ tourism planning intending to improve life quality. Broadly, these conditions need to be further examined within the context of small island destinations in order to find the means for implementing their repositioning/rebranding driven by a local focus aimed at enhancing residents’ wellbeing
