A Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Medicine (STEM+M) identity, a form of social identity, is the extent to which an individual feels accepted in the STEM+M career fields. The development ...of a strong STEM+M identity hinges largely on one's perceived self-efficacy in STEM+M and can be bolstered by associating STEM+M with other areas in which an individual already exhibits self-efficacy. In this study, a basketball camp served as a platform for STEM+M education in an effort to link participants' self-efficacy in basketball to STEM+M concepts where they may feel less self-efficacious. Over the first 2 years of the program, known as the Youth Sports Lab (YSL), two cohorts of underrepresented minority (URM) middle school students attended a 4-day long basketball camp hosted at Columbia University in partnership with Harlem- and Albany-based afterschool programs. The camp consisted of basketball training, jump plate fabrication, data collection, invited speakers, and group-based research projects. Our hypotheses were that participation in the program would lead to improved (1) familiarity, (2) perceived importance, and (3) interest in STEM+M. Participant responses, gathered from a 17-question Likert-scale survey administered before and after the camp, demonstrated 10 questions with significantly increased responses due to the program. The results support the conclusion that the sports-based engineering program increased STEM+M identity in the URM cohort. Future improvements to the program will include midyear student engagement and long-term follow-up.
The number of people who run to achieve competitive performance has increased, encouraging the scientific community to analyze the association of factors that can affect a runner performance.
Is ...there association between running spatiotemporal and angular kinematics with the physiological markers of endurance performance during a cardiorespiratory exercise test?
This was an observational cross-sectional study with 40 distance runners simultaneously submitted to a running biomechanical analysis and cardiorespiratory exercise test on a treadmill. Mixed models were developed to verify the association between angular kinematic data obtained by the Movement Deviation Profile and the running spatiotemporal data with oxygen consumption and ventilatory thresholds.
Spatiotemporal variables .e., step frequency Odds Ratio 0.09 0.06–0.12 95 % Confidence Interval, center of mass vertical displacement Odds Ratio 0.10 0.07–0.14 95 % Confidence Interval, and step length Odds Ratio −0.01 -0.01 to −0.00 95 % Confidence Interval were associated with VO2. Also, step frequency Odds Ratio 1.03 1.01–1.05 95 % Confidence Interval was associated with the first ventilatory threshold, and angular running kinematics Movement Deviation Profile analysis Odds Ratio 1.47 1.13–1.91 95 % Confidence Interval was associated with peak of exercise during the cardiorespiratory exercise test.
Our findings demonstrated that: both higher step frequency and center of mass vertical displacement are associated with the increase of oxygen demand; step frequency is associated with the first ventilatory threshold, due to the entrainment mechanism and angular kinematic parameters are associated with peak aerobic speed. Future studies could also compare the biomechanical and physiological characteristics of different groups of distance runners. This could help identify the factors that contribute to oxygen demands during running and performance across different ages, genders, and levels of competition.
•Study examines running kinematics and endurance performance.•Spatiotemporal variables affect oxygen consumption and VT1.•Angular kinematics (MDP analysis) was associated with peak of exercise and speed.•Findings suggest ways to improve running economy and performance.
The Zagros orogenic belt, one of the most prominent and famous collisional belts in the central part of the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic chain, is located between the southern margin of the Central ...Iranian microcontinent and the northern margin of the Arabian plate. The structural architecture and folds and faults relationships of a significant segment of the south-central part of the Zagros' hinterland are investigated in this study through stereoscopy of aerial photographs, interpretations of satellite images, consideration of the major ground topographic variations, and field research. This research found that there must have been at least two major deformation events: (1) a ductile phase, which is older than the Eocene, and (2) a semi-brittle deformation stage, which is younger than the early Miocene and is represented by thrusting, folding, and strike-slip faulting. The presence of numerous fault-related folds and fold-accommodation faults in this area demonstrates the close kinematic relationship between folding and faulting. Based on the topographic changes, a major hidden tear fault and a basement hidden back thrust, which play important roles in the architecture of the area, have been suggested.
Chemical and physical properties of the environment control cell proliferation, differentiation, or apoptosis in the long term. However, to be able to move and migrate through a complex ...three-dimensional environment, cells must quickly adapt in the short term to the physical properties of their surroundings. Interactions with the extracellular matrix (ECM) occur through focal adhesions or hemidesmosomes via the engagement of integrins with fibrillar ECM proteins. Cells also interact with their neighbors, and this involves various types of intercellular adhesive structures such as tight junctions, cadherin-based adherens junctions, and desmosomes. Mechanobiology studies have shown that cell-ECM and cell-cell adhesions participate in mechanosensing to transduce mechanical cues into biochemical signals and conversely are responsible for the transmission of intracellular forces to the extracellular environment. As they migrate, cells use these adhesive structures to probe their surroundings, adapt their mechanical properties, and exert the appropriate forces required for their movements. The focus of this review is to give an overview of recent developments showing the bidirectional relationship between the physical properties of the environment and the cell mechanical responses during single and collective cell migration.
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