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Chronic exposure to high tibiofemoral joint (TFJ) contact forces can be detrimental to knee joint health. Load carriage increases TFJ contact forces, but it is unclear whether medial and lateral tibiofemoral compartments respond similarly to incremental load carriage. The purpose of our study was to compare TFJ contact forces when walking with 15% and 30% added body weight. Young healthy adults (n = 24) walked for 5 minutes with no load, 15% load, and 30% load on an instrumented treadmill. Total, medial, and lateral TFJ contact peak forces and impulses were calculated via an inverse dynamics informed musculoskeletal model. Results of 1-way repeated measures analyses of variance (α =.05) demonstrated total, medial, and lateral TFJ first peak contact forces and impulses increased significantly with increasing load. Orthogonal polynomial trends demonstrated that the 30% loading condition led to a curvilinear increase in total and lateral TFJ impulses, whereas medial first peak TFJ contact forces and impulses responded linearly to increasing load. The total and lateral compartment impulse increased disproportionally with load carriage, while the medial did not. The medial and lateral compartments responded differently to increasing load during walking, warranting further investigation because it may relate to risk of osteoarthritis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined associations between effortful control, a trait marker of self-regulation, adaptive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system functioning (as reflected by the cortisol awakening response [CAR]), and concurrent and longitudinal depressive problems, in a sample of preadolescent Latino youth (N = 119, mean age = 11.53 years, 59% girls). We hypothesized that trait readiness for self-regulation (specifically effortful control) could be related to physiological state readiness for self-regulation (as measured using the Cortisol Awakening Response or CAR), and that both may counter depressive problems. We found that youth's CAR was positively associated with effortful control, and negatively with youth depressive problems. Effortful control and youth depressive problems were also negatively associated. Longitudinal relations of CAR and effortful control on depressive problems at T2 were not significant in the structural equation model after controlling for T1 depressive problems, although these variables were significant in the bivariate correlations. Results suggest that both trait regulation and physiological regulation may counter depressive problems in Latino youth.

This study examined the relationship between the accuracy of parental reporting of children's sleep duration compared to objectively measured child sleep and tested whether any discrepancies were related to childhood obesity prevalence in a sample of Latinx families (N = 119). A paired sample t-test revealed that parents significantly overestimated their child's sleep duration by 1.33 hours, t (86) = 6.69, p <.001. Using a one-way ANOVA, no significant differences were found in children's BMI percentile when grouped by the parent's accuracy of their child's sleep duration F (3, 83) =.76, p =.52. A potential, although non-significant, trend regarding parent accuracy and child BMI may merit further examination. Future research should seek to determine if the discrepancy in parent reported child sleep duration is indeed linked with increased child BMI and if this knowledge could be used in targeted intervention efforts to reduce childhood obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary aim of this study was to examine associations between executive functioning (EF) and child weight status (categorized from body mass index [BMI] percentiles) in a sample of preschool children. Participants included 80 preschool children (mean age = 4.17 years, female = 52%). Hierarchical regression analyses as well as analysis of covariance were used to test hypotheses. Overall, results indicated that children with higher EF scores (on a composite score of three underlying EF components) had lower BMI percentiles and were more likely to be categorized as normal weight. Follow-up analyses revealed that only one individual EF component, cognitive flexibility, was significantly related to BMI percentile and weight status. Although the study sample was relatively small, findings suggest that this relation needs to be explored more in depth to understand how and why it is related and how that relation may be affected by intervention.

Although high school completion rates for Latinx adolescents have improved, rural Latinx youth experience more barriers to academic success than their urban counterparts. Using a culturally informed model, we tested prospective associations between adolescents' Wave 1 familism values (cultural values emphasizing the importance of family relationships and connections) and Wave 2 academic competencies in a sample of predominantly rural Latinx adolescents (N = 123) in the U.S. Midwest. We also examined whether youth-reports of mother's and father's warm parenting at Wave 1 and 2 moderated these associations. Familism values predicted higher self-reported school attachment and academic aspirations and expectations. Neither maternal nor paternal warmth predicted school attachment, academic aspirations, or academic expectations. Maternal warmth at Wave 2, but not at Wave 1, moderated the positive associations between familism and academic aspirations and expectations. These associations were more pronounced under circumstances of low maternal warmth. Paternal warmth did not significantly moderate the proposed associations predicting academic aspirations and expectations. Paternal warmth at Wave 1, but not at Wave 2, moderated the positive association between familism and school attachment. This association was stronger in the context of low paternal warmth. Results emphasize the joint roles of culture and parenting context for fostering academic competence in Latinx youth living in primarily rural regions of the Midwest during a critical developmental stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on statistics from the WHO and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, an estimated 43.3 million people have blindness and 295 million have moderate and severe vision impairment globally as of 2020, statistics expected to increase to 61 million and 474 million respectively by 2050, staggering numbers. Blindness and low vision (BLV) stultify many activities of daily living, as sight is beneficial to most functional tasks. Assistive technologies for persons with blindness and low vision (pBLV) consist of a wide range of aids that work in some way to enhance one's functioning and support independence. Although handheld and head-mounted approaches have been primary foci when building new platforms or devices to support function and mobility, this perspective reviews potential shortcomings of these form factors or embodiments and posits that a body-centered approach may overcome many of these limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]