Designing Multifunctional Urban Green Spaces: An Inclusive Public Health Framework.

Evidence of the wide range of health benefits associated with the use of urban green space (UGS) continues to grow. Despite this evidence, many UGS designs do not adopt a community-inclusive approach that utilizes evidence-based public health strategies to maximize potential health benefits. This research focused on testing a multidisciplinary, community-involved public health framework to drive the UGS design process.

New Advances on Wellness Therapies Using Integrated Health Focusing on Nature.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to provide you, the reader, with an overview of new advancements in wellness therapies using integrative health focusing on nature [...

Accelerometer-measured versus self-reported physical activity in college students: implications for research and practice.

Objective: To determine the level of moderate-vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) assessed via self-report and accelerometer in the college population, and to examine intrapersonal and contextual variables associated with physical activity (PA).

Participants: Participants were 77 college students at a university in the northwest sampled between January 2011 and December 2011.

Methods: Participants completed a validated self-report measure of PA and measures of athletic identity and benefits and barriers to exercise.

Cognitive and locomotor/exploratory behavior after chronic exercise in the olfactory bulbectomy animal model of depression.

Despite the evidence that exercise improves cognitive behavior in animal models, little is known about these beneficial effects in animal models of pathology. We examined the effects of activity wheel (AW) running on contextual fear conditioning (CFC) and locomotor/exploratory behavior in the olfactory bulbectomy (OBX) model of depression, which is characterized by hyperactivity and changes in cognitive function. Twenty-four hours after the conditioning session of the CFC protocol, the animals were tested for the conditioned response in a conditioned and a novel context to test for the effects of both AW and OBX on CFC, but also the context specificity of the effect.

Effect of ambient temperature on cardiovascular drift and maximal oxygen uptake.

Purpose: This study tested the hypothesis that the magnitude of cardiovascular (CV) drift and decrease in maximal oxygen uptake (V[spacing dot above]O2max) would be greater at 35 degrees C than at 22 degrees C.

Methods: The increase in HR and decrease in stroke volume (SV) between 15 and 45 min of cycling at 59.2 +/- 1.

Cardiovascular drift is related to reduced maximal oxygen uptake during heat stress.

Introduction/purpose: This study investigated whether the progressive rise in heart rate (HR) and fall in stroke volume (SV) during prolonged, constant-rate, moderate-intensity exercise (cardiovascular drift, CVdrift) in a hot environment is associated with a reduction in VO(2max).

Methods: CVdrift was measured in nine male cyclists between 15 and 45 min of cycling at 60% VO(2max) in 35 degrees C that was immediately followed by measurement of VO(2max). VO(2max) also was measured after 15 min of cycling on a separate day, so that any change in VO(2max) between 15 and 45 min could be associated with the CVdrift that occurred during that time interval.