Events Calendar

Details: Please join us to learn about the many opportunities for graduate study in the School of Public Health. Come meet the faculty, hear from current students,learn about the application process and requirements, and find the graduate program that's right for you. Schedule at a Glance: * Dean's Welcome * Overview of the SPH and Graduate Programs * Student Panel * Break-out Sessions

Details: Dr. Judith Deutsch will give the inaugural Honors Lecture. The talk will trace the evolution from concept to prototype of a lower extremity robotic virtual reality system originally designed for discrete lower extremity training, but found to also improve walking. The theoretical basis for the system, as well as the nuts and bolts of creating it, will be described. The iterative research process of validation, proof of concepts, user studies and finally a randomized controlled trial will be discussed. The challenges with translating the system into clinical practice and current research alternatives will be presented.

Details: Joy Bauer, MS, RD, CDN has built one of the largest nutrition centers in the country. Located in Manhattan and Westchester, Joy Bauer Nutrition, provides counseling to both adults and children dealing with a variety of nutritional concerns. Join the School of Public Health and Joy Bauer '86 during Homecoming weekend! Joy Bauer will speak about her career path since graduating from Maryland. Learn more about this accomplished Terp's career! This is a PASSPORT event. Click on link..

Details: It's breakfast with Mrs. Fridge

Details: Title: The Effects of Low-Volume/Moderate-Intensity Aerobic Training on Metabolic Syndrome Components in Previously Sedentary Washington DC Obese Minority Adolescents. Abstract: Physical activity declines are thought to significantly contribute to recent surges in adolescent-onset obesity and type 2 diabetes. Physical inactivity is especially prevalent in minority groups where rates are as high as 42% among Black adolescent females. Minority populations are additionally at increased risk of obesity-related complications and subject to decreased longevity and quality-adjusted life years relative to White peers. Twenty-five obese, sedentary and insulin-resistant Black and Latino adolescents (14-18 years) were recruited to determine the effects of two-months of low-volume/moderate-intensity aerobic training. Frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance testing (FSIVGTT), fasting blood withdraw, body composition assessment by dual-energy x-ray absorbiometry (DEXA) and cardiorespiratory fitness testing (VO2Peak) were performed before and after training. The following will be assessed for training response: 1) insulin sensitivity (SI) by use of MinMod Millennium pharmokinetic modeling software; 2) fibrinolytic activity by fibrin plate assay; 3) chronic low-grade systemic inflammation by C-reactive protein assay. The training program is expected to induce improvements in the aforesaid metabolic syndrome components despite minimal changes in body mass. Findings will be of interest as the incidences of physical inactivity, obesity and metabolic syndrome are increasing rapidly in Washington DC minority youth and the effects of aerobic training on these phenotypes have not been examined in this high risk population. Proposal Committee Members: Dr. James Hagberg (Chair), Dr. Eric Hoffman, and Dr. Ben Hurley

Details: Title: Multi-digit human prehension Abstract:The current dissertation addresses the central nervous system (CNS) strategies to solve kinetic redundancy in multi-digit static prehension under different geometries of hand-held objects and systematically varied mechanical constraints such as translation and rotation of the hand-held object. A series of experiments conducted for this dissertation tested the following hypotheses suggested in the current literatures for multi-digit human static prehension: Hierarchical organization hypothesis, principle of superposition hypothesis, proximity hypothesis, and mechanical advantage hypothesis. (1) Forces and moments produced by fingers during circular object prehension were grouped into two independent subsets: one subset related to grasping stability control and the other associated with rotational equilibrium control. This result supports the principle of superposition hypothesis. Individual fingers acted synergistically to compensate each others errors. This result confirms the hierarchical organization hypothesis in circular object prehension. (2) During fixed object prehension of a rectangular object, the closer the non-task fingers positioned to the task finger, the greater the forces produced by the non-task fingers. However, during free object prehension, the non-task fingers with longer moment arms produced greater forces. The former and latter results support the proximity hypothesis and the mechanical advantage hypothesis, respectively. (3) The grasping stability control and rotational equilibrium control were decoupled during fixed object prehension as well as free object prehension. This result supports the principle of superposition hypothesis regardless of the mechanical constraints provided for these two prehension types. (4) During torque production, the fingers with longer moment arms produced greater forces when the fingers acted as agonists for the torque production. Therefore, the mechanical advantage hypothesis was supported for agonist fingers. (5) Coupling of thumb normal force and virtual finger normal force was not necessitated when horizontal translation of hand-held object was mechanically fixed. However, the coupling of two normal forces was always observed regardless of given translational constraints, and these two normal forces were independent to other mechanical variables such as tangential forces and moments. This result supports the principle of superposition hypothesis in static prehension under varied combinations of translational constraints. Committee Members: Jae Kun Shim, Ph.D., Chair, John J. Jeka, Ph.D. (KNES), Ben F. Hurley, Ph.D. (KNES), Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky, Ph.D. (KNES, PSU), Adam H. Hsieh, Ph.D. (BIOE), and Min Qi Wang, Ph.D. (CHED)