Background: Physical activity throughout the school day may help reduce the risk of childhood obesity. Semi-structured recess is a unique approach to create more physical activity. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the physical activity and enjoyment of urban school children during traditional unstructured recess and semi-structured recess. Method: Children from the Southwestern US (N = 165) wore a NL-1000 piezoelectric accelerometer during their 15-minute lunch recess. Children participated in both their traditional unstructured (no structure and no equipment) recess and semi-structured (organized games and equipment) recess. An enjoyment scale was completed after both types of recess formats. Results: During unstructured recess, children accumulated 1028 ± 356 steps and 4.59 ± 2.2 minutes of MVPA compared to 1156 ± 434 steps and 5.44 ± 2.76 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during semi-structured recess. Paired sample t-tests revealed that children took significantly more steps (t = −4.98; p < 0.001) and MVPA (t = −5.940; p < 0.001) during semi-structured recess. No significant differences were found for enjoyment (p = 0.847) between recesses. Conclusions: It is important for schools to consider creative, semi-structured recess opportunities to increase step counts and time in MVPA (while maintaining enjoyment) and reinforce recess as an important component of a comprehensive school physical activity program.

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Abstract. As part of the Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility (ATR-NSUF) program, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has developed in-house capabilities to fabricate, test, and qualify new and enhanced temperature sensors for irradiation testing. Clearly, temperature sensor selection for irradiation tests will be determined based on the irradiation environment and budget. However, temperature sensors now offered by INL include a wide array of melt wires in small capsules, silicon carbide monitors, commercially available thermocouples, and specialized high temperature irradiation resistant thermocouples containing doped molybdenum and niobium alloy thermoelements. In addition, efforts have been initiated to develop and evaluate ultrasonic thermometers for irradiation testing. This array of temperature monitoring options now available to ATR and other Material and Test Reactor (MTR) users fulfills recent customer requests.

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Abstract-Many of the sensors deployed at materials and test reactors cannot withstand the high flux/high temperature test conditions often requested by users at U.S. test reactors, such as the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at the Idaho National Laboratory. To address this issue, an instrumentation development effort was initiated as part of the ATR National Scientific User Facility in 2007 to support the development and deployment of enhanced in-pile sensors. This paper provides an update on this effort. Specifically, this paper identifies the types of sensors currently available to support in-pile irradiations and those sensors currently available to ATR users. Accomplishments from new sensor technology deployment efforts are highlighted by describing new temperature and thermal conductivity sensors now available to ATR users. Efforts to deploy enhanced in-pile sensors for detecting elongation and real-time flux detectors are also reported, and recently-initiated research to evaluate the viability of advanced technologies to provide enhanced accuracy for measuring key parameters during irradiation testing are noted.