Search

Exercise Is Medicine® On Campus (EIM-OC) is a worldwide initiative from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) to promote physical activity (PA) at universities. California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) implemented this initiative in Fall 2019 with offerings to students and employees. For employees, an “Introduction to Resistance Training Class” was offered. Participants attended classes two times per week, with the sessions lasting approximately fifty minutes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the EIM-OC employee Introduction to Resistance Training class for its effectiveness on increasing PA, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy. The research design was pre-post, with participants completing online questionnaires before and after the course. The Godin Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire (LTPQ), Resistance Training Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectancy Questionnaire, and Self-Efficacy and the Maintenance of Exercise Participation in Older Adults Questionnaire were included. The training class had a total of 14 female participants, 12 of which completed the pre- and post-questionnaires. There was a significant increase (t=-3.2, df=11, p=.004) in resistance training self-efficacy score following the course (M=3.52±1.03 versus M=4.31±.56). Resistance training outcome expectancy score was also statistically significant (t=-2.54, df=11, p=.01) following the course (M=4.48±.53 versus M=4.71±.37). There were increases in strenuous exercise days, physical activity scores, and future resistance training self-efficacy, although they were not statistically significant. The results of this study indicate that employee exercise classes, as part of the EIM-OC initiative, can be effective in increasing resistance training self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy. These indicators are important for individuals to maintain lifelong PA therefore future programming and research on EIM-OC should continue. KEYWORDS: Exercise Is MedicineⓇ-On Campus; Resistance Training; Physical Activity; Exercise; Worksite Health Promotion Program; Self-Efficacy; Outcome Expectancy; Employees; California State University, Monterey Bay

On-site robotic construction not only has the potential to enable architectural assemblies that exceed the size and complexity practical with laboratory-based prefabrication methods, but also offers the opportunity to leverage context-specific, locally sourced materials that are inexpensive, abundant, and low in embodied energy. We introduce a process for constructing dry stone walls in situ, facilitated by a customized autonomous hydraulic excavator. Cabin-mounted LiDAR sensors provide for terrain mapping, stone localization and digitization, and a planning algorithm determines the placement position of each stone. As the properties of the materials are unknown at the beginning of construction, and because error propagation can hinder the efficacy of pre-planned assemblies with non-uniform components, the structure is planned on-the-fly: the desired position of each stone is computed immediately before it is placed, and any settling or unexpected deviations are accounted for. We present the first result of this geometric- and motion-planning process: a 3-m-tall wall composed of 40 stones with an average weight of 760 kg., Construction Robotics, 4

The Crustacean Society Mid-Year Meeting (TSC 2019), 26-30 May 2019, Hong Kong.-- 1 page, Order Decapoda consists of more than 8,000 species of crustaceans (phylum Arthropoda) that include shrimps, lobsters, crayfish, crab.... Despite their importance in terms of economic as well as ecological value, decapod crustacean’s neuropeptidergic components are currently not well characterized. The advancement of next generation sequencing technology has given the research community a tool to predict neuropeptides with an unprecedented pace. On the contrary, for neuropeptide’s receptors, specifically G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), the characterization process is hindered due to the complexity of their structure. The traditional approach using molecular phylogenetics has several weaknesses including (1): manual curated GPCRs list that might bias the result, (2) is time and computationally demanding in increment of data size. In the current study, we present a hybrid approach of clustering and phylogenetics analysis to annotate the putative GPCRs in 10 different decapod species including Cancer borealis, Carcinus maenas, Cherax quadricarinatus, Eriochier sinensis, Gecarcinus lateralis, Homarus americanus, Nephrops norvegicus, Palinurus ornatus, Penaeus monodon, and Procambarus clarkii. This approach included clustering of GPCRs based on similarity, then validating the results at a finer resolution using phylogenetic analysis. A web browser that allow data mining (which includes the sequence of GPCRs, expression pattern, as well as gene ontology annotation) is also presented. This study provides a framework to further understand the roles of GPCRs in decapod crustaceans. Given that identification and annotation of GPCRs is hindered by the complexity of this large gene family, our hybrid approach can streamline further discovery at a greater pace and higher accuracy

Exercise dependence (EXD) has been documented in several types of athletes and physically active individuals, yet prevalence rates in cyclists are unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine primary and secondary variants of EXD in cyclists. Cross-sectional survey. Cyclists recruited from the Sea Otter Classic bike races (N = 179; M age = 32.47 years, SD = 12.94; 69.83% male; 74.30% Caucasian) completed measures of race history, exercise dependence, eating disorder risk, and exercise amount. Prevalence of at-risk for primary EXD was 8.24% and secondary EXD was 1.18%. A majority of participants reported being symptomatic of primary EXD (70.0%). A high proportion of cyclists may be experiencing symptoms of primary EXD and few exhibit eating disorder risk. Results may inform coaches and therapists about risk for exercise pathology in cyclists.

Penaeid prawn aquaculture is the largest decapod crustacean industry worldwide, with a production of ~2.5 million tonnes/year, of which the tiger prawn Penaeus monodon accounts for 29%. To improve the overall production and therefore revenue in penaeid aquaculture, Research and Development focuses on improving growth rates and the total tonnage produced. The first two result chapters in this thesis focus on improving growth rates in penaeid aquaculture by targeting the fact penaeid female growth is superior to that of males and therefore attempting to develop a commercially viable biotechnology to produce all-female monosex populations. Advancement in our understanding of the androgenic gland (AG), a male-specific endocrine gland in crustaceans, and its secreted insulin-like AG hormone (IAG), has enabled the development of monosex populations in the paleomonid freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii. However, despite recent attempts, no successful monosex culture has been reported in any commercially significant marine penaeids. We produced a P. monodon recombinant IAG (rPm-IAG) and tested it in vivo to induce masculinisation, but to no avail. To determine if additional factors were needed together with IAG in inducing masculinisation, we investigated AG specific transcripts using RNA-Seq analysis. We identified several highly expressed AG specific transcripts related to sexual development, previously shown to play a role in testis development and maintenance, and insulin binding. We propose that these AG specific transcripts may be required in addition to IAG in order to induce masculinisation in P. monodon. Following on from this hypothesis, the second results chapter describes the use of AG cells in an attempt to induce masculinisation. After exhaustive attempts in P. monodon we found that injected AG cells did not induce sex change in sexually undifferentiated post larvae. We performed a retrospective comparative analysis that attempts to reconcile these contrasting results, aided by RNA-Seq analysis. We identified penaeid-specific duplication in IAG, as well as duplication in the IAG receptor, unique to P. monodon. These duplications do not occur in paleomonids, suggesting neo-functionalization of IAG and its receptor in penaeids, perhaps hinting that a stricter regulation over sexual differentiation occurs in penaeids which is governed upstream of the AG, at the sex determination cascade. Evidently, other studies indicate that doublesex and mab-3 related transcription factors (Dmrts), the single most conserved factors in the sex determination pathway across animals, infer tighter regulation of IAG expression in a penaeid as compared with M. rosenbergii. Taken together, we conclude that sexual manipulations in penaeids should focus on the sex determination cascade factors, upstream IAG.