PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Brian D Fisher

Publications and source records attributed to Brian D Fisher.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

BC Walks: replication of a communitywide physical activity campaign.

INTRODUCTION: Individuals not engaging in recommended amounts of moderate-intensity physical activity are deemed insufficiently active and are at greater risk of chronic disease. Social marketing strategies may promote positive changes in physical activity levels among insufficiently active individuals. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was used to determine whether the results of a previous communitywide physical activity social marketing campaign conducted in Wheeling, WVa (population, 31,420) could be replicated in the larger community of Broome County, New York (population, 200,536). BC Walks promoted 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity daily walking among insufficiently active residents of Broome County, New York, aged 40 to 65 years. Promotion activities included paid advertising, media relations, and community health activities. Impact was determined by preintervention and postintervention random-digit-dial cohort telephone surveys in intervention and comparison counties. We assessed demographics, walking behavior, moderate and vigorous physical activity, and campaign awareness. RESULTS: The paid advertising included 4835 television and 3245 radio gross rating points and 10 quarter-page newspaper advertisements. News media relations resulted in 28 television news stories, 5 radio stories, 10 newspaper stories, and 125 television news promotions. Exposure to the campaign was reported by 78% of Broome County survey respondents. Sixteen percent of Broome County participants changed from nonactive to active walkers; 11% changed from nonactive to active walkers in the comparison county (adjusted odds ratio, 1.71; 95% confidence interval, 0.99-2.95). Forty-seven percent of Broome County respondents reported any increase in total weekly walking time, compared with 36% for the comparison county (adjusted odds ratio, 1.66; 95% confidence interval, 1.14-2.44). CONCLUSION: The BC Walks campaign replicated the earlier Wheeling Walks initiative, although increases in walking were smaller in the BC Walks campaign.

Adult↗

Multiple-object tracking is based on scene, not retinal, coordinates.

This study tested whether multiple-object tracking-the ability to visually index objects on the basis of their spatiotemporal history-is scene based or image based. Initial experiments showed equivalent tracking accuracy for objects in 2-D and 3-D motion. Subsequent experiments manipulated the speeds of objects independent of the speed of the scene as a whole. Results showed that tracking accuracy was influenced by object speed but not by scene speed. This held true whether the scene underwent translation, zoom, rotation, or even combinations of all 3 motions. A final series of experiments interfered with observers' ability to see a coherent scene by moving objects at different speeds from one another and by distorting the perception of 3-D space. These reductions in scene coherence led to reduced tracking accuracy, confirming that tracking is accomplished using a scene-based, or allocentric, frame of reference.

Adult↗

Increased muscle proteolysis after local trauma mainly reflects macrophage-associated lysosomal proteolysis.

Rat gastrocnemius showed increased protein degradation (+75-115%) at 48 h after traumatic injury. Injured muscle showed increased cathepsin B activity (+327%) and mRNA encoding cathepsin B (+670%), cathepsin L (+298%), cathepsin H (+159%), and cathepsin C (+268%). In in situ hybridization, cathepsin B mRNA localized to the mononuclear cell infiltrate in injured muscle, and only background levels of hybridization were observed either over muscle cells in injured tissue or in uninjured muscle. Immunogold/electron microscopy showed specific staining for cathepsin B only in lysosome-like structures in cells of the mononuclear cell infiltrate in injured muscle. Muscle cells were uniformly negative in the immunocytochemistry. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (granulocyte-macrophage gelatinase) mRNA and activity were not present in uninjured muscle but were expressed after trauma. There was no activation of the ATP-ubiquitin-proteasome-dependent proteolytic pathway in injured muscle, by contrast to diverse forms of muscle wasting where the activity of this system and the expression of genes encoding ubiquitin and proteasome elements rise. These results suggest that proteolytic systems of the muscle cells remain unstimulated after local injury and that lysosomal enzymes of the inflammatory infiltrated cells are likely to be the major participant in protein catabolism associated with local trauma.

Animals↗

Low-fat milk and high-fiber bread availability in food stores in urban and rural communities.

As part of the Albany Prevention Research Center's Core Project to understand environmental influences on a healthy lifestyle, all food stores in downtown Albany (N=79) and rural Columbia and Greene counties (N=177) in New York State were visited and surveyed for their availability of low-fat milk and high-fiber bread. Stores in the rural community were significantly (P < .01) more likely to stock low-fat milk (71%) and high-fiber bread (55%) than stores in Albany (40% and 33%, respectively). The rural community also had a significantly higher population ratio of "healthy milk & bread (M&B) stores" (carrying both items) than Albany (7.6 vs 3.9 per 10,000 residents). Urban healthy M&B stores were more likely to be a convenience store and accept food stamps, whereas rural healthy M&B stores were more likely to be a gas station store and offer off-street parking. Multiple logistic regression analysis found that healthy M&B stores were inversely associated with proportions of ethnic/racial minorities in the census block group (CBG). More than 80 percent of minorities in Albany resided in a CBG without a healthy M&B store. Urban residents in predominantly minority neighborhoods were most likely to encounter environmental barriers to obtain healthy staple food, and intervention should be tailored to aid this population.

Animals↗