2,765 research outputs found
Food insecurity and physical activity among U.S. populations
Get PDFObjectives: Examine the association between food insecurity (FI) and physical activity (PA) in the U.S. population.\ud
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Methods: Accelerometry (PAM) and self-report PA (PAQ) data from NHANES 2003-2006 were used. Those aged less than six years or were older than 65 years, pregnant, with physical limitations, or with family income above 350% of the poverty line were excluded. FI was measured by the USDA Household Food Security Survey Module. Crude and adjusted odd ratios were calculated from logistic regression to identify the association between FI and adherence to the PA recommendation. Crude and adjusted coefficients were calculated from linear regression to identify the association between FI and both sedentary and activity minutes.\ud
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Results: In children, FI was not associated with adherence to PA recommendation measured via PAM or PAQ (p>0.05) but was significantly associated with sedentary minutes (adjusted coefficient=10.74, one-sided p<0.05). Food-insecure children did less moderate-to-vigorous PA than did food-secure children (adjusted coefficient = -5.31, p = 0.032). In adults, FI was significantly associated with PA (adjusted OR=0.722 for PAM and OR=0.839 for PAQ, one-sided p<0.05) but not associated with sedentary minutes (p>0.05)\ud
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Conclusions: FI children were more sedentary and FI adults were less likely to adhere to the PA recommendation than those without FI
Neuronal avalanches differ from wakefulness to deep sleep - evidence from intracranial depth recordings in humans
No full textNeuronal activity differs between wakefulness and sleep states. In contrast, an attractor state, called self-organized critical (SOC), was proposed to govern brain dynamics because it allows for optimal information coding. But is the human brain SOC for each vigilance state despite the variations in neuronal dynamics? We characterized neuronal avalanches – spatiotemporal waves of enhanced activity - from dense intracranial depth recordings in humans. We showed that avalanche distributions closely follow a power law – the hallmark feature of SOC - for each vigilance state. However, avalanches clearly differ with vigilance states: slow wave sleep (SWS) shows large avalanches, wakefulness intermediate, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep small ones. Our SOC model, together with the data, suggested first that the differences are mediated by global but tiny changes in synaptic strength, and second, that the changes with vigilance states reflect small deviations from criticality to the subcritical regime, implying that the human brain does not operate at criticality proper but close to SOC. Independent of criticality, the analysis confirms that SWS shows increased correlations between cortical areas, and reveals that REM sleep shows more fragmented cortical dynamics
Oral History of Bui Van Chuc (aka Quyen Di)
No full textOral History of Bui Van Chuc, who is known by the name of Quyen Di, born in Hanoi, Vietnam in 1948. He migrated with his family to Saigon in 1954 and recalls his education in Vietnam in great detail. Quyen Di became a teacher at Da Lat University and also taught 12th grade in Saigon after he finished his education in Vietnam. He met his wife, who was also a teacher at the same school. They left Vietnam in 1977 as boat refugees and passed through refugee camps in Malaysia and Hong Kong. After arriving in Alaska and then resettled to New Orleans, he decided to move to Orange County, California where he has lived since. He worked in several jobs, including publishing Vietnamese-language publications but has returned to his role as an educator.Recorded Digitall
Workplace physical activity interventions: A systematic review
No full textObjective. To assess the effectiveness of workplace interventions in improving physical activity.\ud
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Data Source. EBSCO research database (and all subdatabases).\ud
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Study Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria. Articles were published from 2000 to 2010 in English, had appropriate designs, and measured employees' physical activity, energy consumption, and/or body mass index (BMI) as primary outcomes. Articles that did not meet the inclusion criteria were excluded.\ud
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Data Extraction. Data extracted included study design, study population, duration, intervention activities, outcomes, and results.\ud
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Data Synthesis. Data were synthesized into one table. Results of each relevant outcome including p values were combined.\ud
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Results. Twelve (60%) of 20 selected interventions reported an improvement in physical activity level, steps, or BMI, and there was one slowed step reduction in the intervention group. Among these, 10 were less than 6 months in duration; 9 used pedometers; 6 applied Internet-based approaches; and 5 included activities targeting social and environmental levels. Seven of 8 interventions with pre-posttest and quasi-experimental controlled design showed improvement on at least one outcome. However, 7 of 12 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) did not prove effective in any outcome.\ud
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Conclusion. Interventions that had less rigorous research designs, used pedometers, applied Internet-based approaches, and included activities at social and environmental levels were more likely to report being effective than those without these characteristics
Capital structure, asset redeployability, top-management compensation and credit risk measurements: The impact of the on and off-balance sheet financing
No full textWith the existence of loopholes in the accounting rules, firms have been able to keep many assets and their corresponding debt off the balance sheets, thus, hiding the true value of debt and firm financial risk (Ketz (2003), Franzen et al. (2009) and Koller et al. (2010)). Graham and Leary (2011) point out that one of the noticeable gaps in the capital structure research area is the mis-measurement of leverage when off-balance sheet financing is excluded. Therefore, this thesis bridges the mis-measurement gap by adjusting leverage for three important off-balance sheet debt equivalents and two on-balance sheet ones. Moreover, this study investigates the relationships between asset redeployability, top-management compensation and both adjusted and non-adjusted leverage as well as examines whether these on and off-balance sheet debt equivalents are reflected in credit risk measurements. Focusing on large US firms from 1996 to 2010, my results show that the off-balance sheet debt equivalents account for significant amounts over total reported debt. Also, there is a considerable gap between reported debt and adjusted debt for debt equivalents, and this gap seems to increase sharply over time. I suggest that these debt equivalents should be considered carefully; otherwise, firms' financial health can be misinterpreted. In addition, I document different results for adjusted and non-adjusted leverage which indicates that existing theories related to the conventional capital structure might not be able to give the same explanations to the adjusted one. Moreover, credit risk measurements do not incorporate all of these debt equivalents in their credit risk assessments; which implies that the market may not be fully aware of the importance of these debt equivalents
Knowledge Integration from Concept to Practice: An Exploratory Study of Designing a Flood Resilient Urban Park in Viet Nam
No full textUrban centres worldwide are affected differently by flooding. In Vietnam this impact is increasingly negative caused by a process of rapid urbanisation. Traditional spatial planning and flood mitigation planning are not able to deal with this growing threat. This article therefore proposes to focus on increasing the participation of local communities in flood control and management. It explores, on the basis of a design studio exercise, how lay knowledge on flooding can be integrated within planning processes. The article presents a theoretical basis for the structured criterion for site selection for a flood resilient urban park from the perspective of science, then discloses the tacit and explicit knowledge of the flood-prone area and finally integrates this knowledge into the design strategies for flood resilient urban park design. Keywords-Analytic Hierarchy Process, AHP, design resilience, flood resilient urban park, knowledge integration. I. BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS A. Traditional Planning and Flood Mitigation Planning in Vietnam HE formal planning of landscapes in Vietnam can be divided into three main branches: 1) overall socioeconomic development planning (on a national to local level); 2) spatial planning (including land use and master planning); and 3) sector planning. In general, the planning framework envisions that the lower-level plans should follow the directions laid out in the upper-level plans. However, experience shows that, in reality, this workflow is often broken up, and planning processes are rather disjointed and characterized by synchronizing low-level between the vertical and horizontal sectors [1]. Moreover, a lack of financial support from government and provincial budgets are obstacles to the monitoring, maintenance, improvement, design, and funding of flood control projects [2]. In the context of the general urbanization, management, and planning challenges in Vietnam, climate change has increased the pressure on local urban governments, with inefficient planning often exceeding their capacities and resources. To Quyen, Le is with the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam and is with the Facult
Applying Grey System Theory to predict default probability in construction industry
No full textThe prediction of business failure is an important and challenging issue that has served as the impulsion for many academic studies over the past decades. The widely applied methods to predict the risk of business failure were based on financial ratio analysis; therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to explore the possibility of applying Grey System Theory for predicting default probability of construction firms by analyzing financial history data. In the present research, the author introduces a framework of the bankruptcy probability valuation relying on the 19 initial financial ratios. First, Synthetic Degree Incidences ρ of considered firms are calculated and combine these ρ values, the default probability of firms as well as the importance of financial ratios as predictors will be identified. In this research scope, the author proposes 3 models correspond with difference history consequence data (3 years, 4 years and 5 years). Then, using ROC curves to point out which one is the most favorable consequence data for model (correspond to the highest AUC value). After the suitable consequence data (4 years) was chosen, the other effected factors like as X0, θ and the combo of key variables were considered. Some warnings as well as recommendations are highlighted for those who concern of applying grey analysis model to forecast default probability of construction firms
Knowledge Integration from Concept to Practice: An Exploratory Study of Designing a Flood Resilient Urban Park in Viet Nam
No full textUrban centres worldwide are affected differently by flooding. In Vietnam this impact is increasingly negative caused by a process of rapid urbanisation. Traditional spatial planning and flood mitigation planning are not able to deal with this growing threat. This article therefore proposes to focus on increasing the participation of local communities in flood control and management. It explores, on the basis of a design studio exercise, how lay knowledge on flooding can be integrated within planning processes. The article presents a theoretical basis for the structured criterion for site selection for a flood resilient urban park from the perspective of science, then discloses the tacit and explicit knowledge of the flood-prone area and finally integrates this knowledge into the design strategies for flood resilient urban park design. Keywords-Analytic Hierarchy Process, AHP, design resilience, flood resilient urban park, knowledge integration. I. BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS A. Traditional Planning and Flood Mitigation Planning in Vietnam HE formal planning of landscapes in Vietnam can be divided into three main branches: 1) overall socioeconomic development planning (on a national to local level); 2) spatial planning (including land use and master planning); and 3) sector planning. In general, the planning framework envisions that the lower-level plans should follow the directions laid out in the upper-level plans. However, experience shows that, in reality, this workflow is often broken up, and planning processes are rather disjointed and characterized by synchronizing low-level between the vertical and horizontal sectors [1]. Moreover, a lack of financial support from government and provincial budgets are obstacles to the monitoring, maintenance, improvement, design, and funding of flood control projects [2]. In the context of the general urbanization, management, and planning challenges in Vietnam, climate change has increased the pressure on local urban governments, with inefficient planning often exceeding their capacities and resources. To Quyen, Le is with the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam and is with the Facult
Benchmarking for continuous improvement in Vietnamese universities: a study in the domain of university governance
No full text© 2016 Dr. Thi Ngoc Quyen DoThe study explored the possibilities for utilising benchmarking for continuous improvement in Vietnamese higher education using a quasi-ethnographic approach. A pilot benchmarking exercise was conducted in the domain of university governance in three public universities in Vietnam to create an authentic setting for the investigation. The research revealed a genuine need for benchmarking between Vietnamese universities, however a complicated mix of socio-cultural, political, and educational factors inhibit effective implementation of the method. The study recommends cultural and model-borrowing approaches to overcome these barriers
Application fuzzy multi-attribute decision analysis method to prioritize project success criteria
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