Clinical trials

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a motorized prosthesis can improve mobility in individuals with amputation. The main question it aims to answer is: * Does motorized prosthesis improve ambulation speed, balance, control, or efficiency when performing everyday activities? * What problems arise when using a motorized prosthesis? Researchers will compare mobility of the participants when using and not using the motorized prosthesis to see if mobility and/or function improves. Participants will perform various activities with and without the motorized prosthesis including: * Walking at a mild incline/decline (0°-15°) on treadmill or over-ground * Ascending or descending stairs * Stand to sit and sit to stand transitions * All terrain walking over ground * Turning * Any combination of the above-mentioned activities

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether a music-based intervention can improve mental and physical health and strengthen coping skills among adults living in residential care settings in northern Arizona. The main questions it aims to answer are: Does participation in the music-based intervention reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and pain?, and Does participation increase the use of music as a coping strategy and improve overall well-being? Researchers will compare participants' pre-intervention and post-intervention responses to determine whether the music classes are associated with improvements in health and coping outcomes. Participants will: Attend a 6-week music class held once per week for one hour; participate in active music activities such as drumming and rhythm exercises; complete a brief survey before and after the intervention. Some participants are also invited to complete a short interview about their experiences.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether Spanish-speaking caregivers can learn to teach science vocabulary to their children with the use and educational app and a short training video with target words. The children will take language, speech, and hearing tests, as well as science and vocabulary pretests with a speech-language pathologist. You will be asked to answer some questions about your language use in the house and other places. If you and your child qualify for the study, the researcher will randomly place you a group to 1) use the app, or 2) use books. Since you are chosen at random, there is no way of knowing which group you and your child will be in before you start. Participants will take part in an 11-week study (3 weeks of testing at the beginning, middle, and end of study, and 8 weeks of intervention). The testing will be conducted in a place that is comfortable for your child (home, school, university clinic). The intervention can be done at home (researchers will not be present for this part of the study, but we will be available to support you or answer questions). We want you to play (group 1) or read (group 2) with your child two times a week (\~30 minutes) and send the audio recording of your interaction to our researchers.

Exercise places serious demands on the body. These demands are fundamentally caused by increases in oxygen demand and the consequent increase in body temperature. These demands are met by several physiological responses, including increases in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and blood flow. These responses must be proportional to the increase in demand and some signal must relay information from the muscle to the brain. Group III/IV afferents do just this. They relay information about the muscle (movement, temperature, acidity, etc.) up to the brain so that appropriate responses are mounted. There is strong evidence in animals that group III/IV afferents play a key role in making breathing easier (decreasing airway resistance) and initiating sweating and blood flow responses. There has been no research on the role of group III/IV afferents on these fundamental exercise responses in humans. The investigators propose to isolate the role of group III/IV afferents on regulate airway resistance, sweating and blood flow responses to exercise in humans.

The first specific aim is to quantify improvement in ankle muscle function and functional mobility following targeted ankle resistance gait training in ambulatory children with cerebral palsy (CP). The primary hypothesis for the first aim is that targeted ankle resistance training will produce larger improvements in lower-extremity motor control, gait mechanics, and clinical measures of mobility assessed four- and twelve-weeks post intervention compared to standard physical therapy and standard gait training. The second specific aim is to determine the efficacy of adaptive ankle assistance to improve capacity and performance during sustained, high-intensity, and challenging tasks in ambulatory children with CP. The primary hypothesis for the second aim is that adaptive ankle assistance will result in significantly greater capacity and performance during the six-minute-walk-test and graded treadmill and stair stepping protocols compared to walking with ankle foot orthoses and walking with just shoes.

The goal of this study is to learn if a culturally relevant health promotion curricula prevents obesity among 4th graders in rural tribal schools. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1) Does the health promotion curricula intervention increase diet and physical activity behaviors in 4th grade students? Researchers will compare 4th grade classes who will receive intervention at two intervention schools to 4th grades at two comparison schools who will not receive the intervention. All participants will have their skin carotenoids assessed using Veggie Meter, complete 24-hour diet recall via telephone, height and weight measured, body composition, answer two surveys about perceptions of their school environment practices and diet patterns at school, wear accelerometers for 7 days

This project aims to address healthcare disparities among Navaho people diagnosed with hypertension or prehypertension through three main objectives. Firstly, it identifies and shares insights on healthcare access disparities affecting Navaho individuals experiencing nonadherence to hypertension treatment. Secondly, the proposal develops a telehealth solution based on factors identified as knowledge gaps caused by healthcare access disparities in hypertension management; we will use the factors to design a series of engaging minigames that can be incorporated into the larger CardioCare Quest. These minigames will be co-designed with end users and clinicians. Finally, the proposal conducts comprehensive qualitative and quantitative assessments of user experiences, perceptions, and challenges with CardioCare Quest.

Life in space is completely void of physical and environmental stress. It is well known that living things need regular physical stress (e.g. exercise) to remain strong, functional and healthy. More and more research is showing that regular environmental stress, for example heat and hypoxia, can further improve physical health. Astronauts aboard the international space station (ISS) exercise for 1-2 hours every day to avoid physical deconditioning that would otherwise cause them to age rapidly in space. Although physical exercise is very effective in remedying this deconditioning, today's astronauts still have physiological changes that indicate accelerated aging. This is a cause for concern given NASA's priority to travel to mars within the next decade; a mission that will require at least double the duration in space for our astronauts. The investigators think that the complete absence of environmental stress, i.e., heat, may be contributing to the accelerated aging that occurs during spaceflight. Our study will assess the health effects of adding heat stress to exercise that could be performed in space by astronauts. The goal is to inform best practice for astronauts to avoid physical deconditioning during long-duration spaceflight. This information will also be relevant to life on earth as spaceflight is a model of inactivity here on earth. Therefore, the potential benefits of adding heat stress will likely translate to life in space and on earth.

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the impacts of using a mobile health app, the Qoyangnuptu Intervention App (QI App) a Southwestern Tribal Community. The main questions it aims to answer are: In American Indian/Alaska Native communities with unique cultural characteristics, how should a youth-focused sociotechnical behavioral health intervention be designed to encourage sustained engagement and positively impact indicators of behavioral health?; How can interactive technical interventions be designed to best support sustained community engagement in a challenged network environment? Participants will: * Receive daily guidance and encouragement to use the app from an anonymous, trained peer mentor * Be able to ask their peer mentors questions in a monitored one-on-one chat in the QI app or in a monitored group chat in the QI app * Log their mood and stress level on the app once per day * Practice mindfulness skills as directed in the QI app, including guided breathing, meditation, drawing, coloring, and walking * Practice Hopi cultural activities like running using the QI app to help track progress towards team mileage goals

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the impacts of participating in a peer mentor program in a Southwestern Tribal Community. The main questions it aims to answer are: * In American Indian/Alaska Native communities with unique cultural characteristics, how should a youth-focused sociotechnical behavioral health intervention be designed to encourage sustained engagement and positively impact indicators of behavioral health?; * How can interactive technical interventions be designed to best support sustained community engagement in a challenged network environment? Participants will: * Be trained as peer mentors * Be trained in how to use the QI App to communicate with mentees * Guide daily conversation prompts with a group of 3 mentees via the QI App * Provide daily encouragement to mentees to engage with mindfulness activities on the QI App

The investigators propose to conduct a randomized controlled trial with a wait-list control to determine efficacy in reducing risk of obesity and related disease in Native American employees of Twin Arrows Casino. Participants will be randomly assigned to the experimental group or the wait-list control. The experimental group will receive a 12-week mNDPR nutrition intervention with culturally relevant materials. Five NAU Masters of Public Health (MPH) students will be trained in Motivational Interviewing and the mNDPR nutrition protocol to serve as Lifestyle Coaches. These students will lead weekly, group-based coaching sessions with up to 15 participants each at Twin Arrows Casino. Participants will be assigned to their designated group based on their availability. The 12 weekly group sessions will be scheduled to accommodate various work shifts (day, night, and swing). The first group session will be 2-hours long to serve as an 'immersion', followed by weekly 1-hour sessions, all led by the Lifestyle Coaches. The Lifestyle Coaches will use Motivational Interviewing techniques to assist participants to develop personal goals. Lifestyle Coaches will also provide nutrition education, specifically using the mNDPR protocol. Participants in the wait-list control will receive the same intervention after the experimental group completes their 12-week intervention. In addition to measures at weeks 0 and 13, a 24-hour diet recall will be conducted in week 26 for the experimental group to explore long-term durability of diet quality changes.