Background: The prevalence of physical inactivity has been rising in many countries in recent years, adding to the burden of non-communicable diseases and affecting overall health worldwide. The aim of this study is to determine the impact of physical activity on mortality from ischemic heart disease (IHD) separately for those respondents who were diagnosed with IHD and for those who were not diagnosed with IHD in their baseline health survey. Methods: In the baseline survey (2006–2008), 7100 men and women ages 45–72 were examined within the framework of the international study Health, Alcohol, and Psychosocial Factors in Eastern Europe (HAPIEE). 6770 participants were available for statistical analysis (after excluding 330 respondents due to missing information on study variables). Physical activity was determined by leisure-time physical activities (hours/week). All participants in the baseline survey were followed up for IHD mortality events until December 31, 2018. Results: Using multivariate Cox regression analysis, it was found that moderate and higher levels of physical activity significantly reduced the risk of IHD mortality (HR=0.54 and HR=0.60 respectively) in men who were not diagnosed with IHD at baseline compared with physically inactive subjects. It was found that among men and women who were diagnosed with IHD at baseline, physical activity reduced the risk of mortality from IHD compared with those who were physically inactive (HR=0.54 and HR=0.41 respectively). Using mediation analysis, was found that physical activity directly predicted statistically lower IHD mortality (P<0.05) in men and women. Conclusion: Physical activity was a significant factor that directly predicted statistically lower IHD mortality, regardless of whether subjects had IHD at baseline or not.

Фундук является одним из самых ценных орехов в мире благодаря своим уникальным органолептическим свойствам и питательным характеристикам. Данная работа была направлена ​​на анализ некоторых физико-химических свойств различных сортов фундука, выращиваемых в Закаталы (Азербайджан), а именно Ата-баба, Эльбари, Топкара, Фирован, Насими, Галиб, Мирзебейли, Тала, Даш финтик, Барли, Азери и Сачагли. В целом результаты показали статистически значимые различия между изучаемыми сортами. Плотность ядер в зависимости от сортов фундука варьировала от 0,71 г/см ³ (азери) до 1,03 г/см ^{3 .}(Сачакли). Очищенные плоды Дашфиндыг в среднем были тяжелее (1,64±0,34 г), а очищенные плоды Насими, Калиб, Мирзебейли и Сачакли в среднем легче (0,8±0,23 г, 0,8±0,31 г, 0,8±0,20 г и 0,80 г). ±0,09 г соответственно.В неочищенном виде самыми тяжелыми были орехи Дашфиндык (3,70±0,34 г), а самыми легкими из всех сортов были орехи Насими и Калиб (2,0±0,48 г и 2,0±0,36 г соответственно). - орехи баба составляют 49 масс./ядро, %, у остальных изученных сортов - 33,3-45,3 мас.%. Орехи насими имеют округлую форму (в экваториальной зоне); талы, ата-баба, фирован и азери - округло-продолговатые; топкара , Барли и Даш финдык – продолговатые; Эльбари, Калиб, Мирзебейли и Сачакли – удлиненные. Фирован, Тала и Топкара имеют более толстую скорлупу. Ата-баба значительно опережает другие сорта по выходу ядер (490 кг/1 т орехов) , На втором месте по этому показателю находится Тала (453 кг/1 тонна орехов), на третьем – Топкара (433 кг/1 тонна орехов). По максимальной жирности выделены сорта Мирзебейли (77,00±2,20 г/100 г ядер) и Фирован (75,0±3,08 г/100 ядер), по белку - Сачакли (16,02±0,50 г/100 ядер) и Ата-баба ( выделено 15,92±0,48 г/100 г ядер). Результаты этого исследования помогают лучше понять различия между некоторыми сортами фундука, выращиваемого в Азербайджане, что дает важную информацию для всех участников этого сектора. 50 ед/100 ядер) и Ата-баба (15,92±0,48 г/100 г ядер). Результаты этого исследования помогают лучше понять различия между некоторыми сортами фундука, выращиваемого в Азербайджане, что дает важную информацию для всех участников этого сектора. 50 ед/100 ядер) и Ата-баба (15,92±0,48 г/100 г ядер). Результаты этого исследования помогают лучше понять различия между некоторыми сортами фундука, выращиваемого в Азербайджане, что дает важную информацию для всех участников этого сектора.

This paper presents the light scattering matrices of atmospheric aggregated hexagonal ice particles appearing in cirrus clouds. In this work aggregates consist of the same particles with different spatial orientation and number of these particles. Two types of particle shape were studied: (1) hexagonal column; (2) hexagonal plate. For both shapes we study compact and non-compact cases of arrangement of particles in aggregates. As a result, four sets of aggregates were made: (1) compact columns; (2) non-compact columns; (3) compact plates; (4) non-compact plates. Each set consists of eight aggregates with different number of particles from 2 to 9. For practical reason the bullet-rosette and the aggregate of hexagonal columns with different sizes was also calculated. The light scattering matrices were calculated for the case of arbitrary spatial orientation within the geometrical optics approximation for sets of compact and non-compact aggregates and within the physical optics approximation for two additional aggregates. It was found that light scattering matrix elements for aggregates are depend on arrangement of particles they are consisted.

This study analysed through the perspective of networks the association between physical activity (PA), sedentary behaviour (SB), and cardiovascular risk factors in overweight low-income schoolchildren from the perspective of complex systems. Methods: The sample consisted of 41 overweight children between 6 and 10 years old (56% girls). PA and SB were analysed by accelerometer, and the measures of cardiovascular factor risk were: anthropometric and hemodynamic measurements, body fat, lipid profile and glucose, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), left ven-tricular mass (LVM), and Sokolov-Lyon. Network analysis with Boot-strap-1000 was performed to analyze the association between PA, SB and the cardiovascular risk factors. Results: Moderate to vigorous PA was positive related with Waist circumference (WC; 0.499), HDL-C (0.307), and CRF (0.276), and negatively associated with BMI (-0.251) and Fat (-0.341). For SB, positive associations were seen with WC (0.326), CRF (0.296), LVM (0.250) and Sokolov (0.215). Adicionalment, the centrality indicators highlighted WC as the most important variable in the network. Conclu-sion: Interventions that aim to mitigate the harmful effects of obesity on cardiovascular risk factors in overweight children should consider WC as an important variable in of system.

Postpartum depression (PPD) can predispose to physical and mental health problems in women. However, PPD is associated with health and perceived social support but their causal relationship is unclear. Therefore, this study intended to evaluate the association of PPD with insomnia, mental health, and physical health. Convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from 320 (52.8 %) young and middle aged postpartum women, in the outpatient departments of obstetrics and gynecology in Government Maula Bakhsh Hospital, District Head Quarter in Sargodha, Pakistan. The Edinburgh Postnatal depression scale, Pittsburg sleep quality index, Warwick-Edinburgh mental wellbeing scale, Patient health questionnaire, and Multidimensional scale of perceived social support were used to measure study variables. Results revealed a significant positive relationship of PPD with physical health (r= .45, p=.001), while a negative relationship with insomnia (r= -.24, p<.001), and perceived social support (r= -.38, p=.001). Results further confirmed that perceived social support played a moderating role (β = .97, p=.01) in the relationship between PPD and mental health among females. This study concluded that perceived social support has an important role in PPD and women’s health. The study also concluded that poor health is a risk indicator for identifying aid in the early stages of postpartum among women.

When existing at emulsion interface and continuous phase, dispersibility of water-soluble flexible polymer chains has obvious effect on rheology and dielectric properties of whole emulsion. CNF Pickering emulsion is a good system to research these properties with respect to their microscopic phase structure, dielectric and rheological properties by using cellulose nanofibers (CNF) as water-soluble Pickering emulsifier, liquid Paraffin as oil phase and DDAB as a cationic auxiliary surfactant. The CNF- and DDAB-contents were systematically varied while the water to paraffin oil ratio remained constant to discern the influence of the Pickering emulsifiers. Polarized optical microscopic images revealed that the droplets have tendency to become smaller size for higher CNF content, but bigger size for higher DDAB content, which was proved by the fluorescent analysis for CNF dispersibility with varying DDAB content. The dielectric damping exhibits a minimum, whose value decreases with increasing DDAB- and CNF-content. Increasing the DDAB-content promotes solubilization of CNFs in the aqueous phase and will increase the overall viscosity and yield points. Similarly, a higher CNF-content leads to a higher viscosity and yield point, but at high DDAB-contents the viscosity function exhibits an S-shape at intermediate CNF-content. To evaluate the results further they were compared with CNF-dispersions (without oil-phase), which showed a surfactant effect slightly on maximum stress but strongly on yield stress τy, indicating DDAB can promote the formation of CNF network rather than the viscosity of whole system.

Background Several quantitative studies have found a decline in physical activity in response to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The aim of the present study was to use large-scale free text survey data to qualitatively gain a more in-depth understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical activity, then map barriers and facilitators to the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour (COM-B) Model of Behaviour to aid future intervention development. Methods 17,082 participants provided a response to the free text module, and data from those who mentioned physical activity in any context were included. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and key themes identified. Results 5396 participants provided 7490 quotes related to physical activity. The sample were predominately female (84%), white (97%) and aged <60 years (57%). Seven key themes were identified: the importance of outdoor space, changes in daily routine, impact of COVID-19 restrictions, perceived risks or threats to participation, the importance of physical health, the importance of physical activity for mental health and the use of technology. Conclusion Future physical activity interventions could encourage people to walk outdoors, which is low cost, flexible, and accessible to many. Developing online resources to promote and support physical activity provides a flexible way to deliver quality content to a large audience.

Worldwide, depressive disorder is one of the leading determinants of disability-adjusted life years. Although the benefits associated with physical activity (PA), there is a lack of information related to depression, especially in countries like Czechia, where modern approaches to mental health care only recently emerged. The PA levels were associated with aspects of depression such as clinician-diagnosed history; different severities; continuous depression scores; and specific symptoms that characterize the depression. The multivariable-adjusted Poisson regression models were carried out on 2123 participants (45.3% men, median 48 years). Compared to subjects with insufficient PA, the moderate and high PA levels were inversely associated with clinician-diagnosed depression history (respectively, prevalence rate [PR]= 0.84; 95% CI 0.66-0.82 and PR=0.50; 95% CI 0.36-0.67); and with continuous depression scores (PR=0.85; 95% CI 0.75-0.97; and PR=0.79; 95%CI 0.70-0.90).; but only high PA showed association with depression categories (PR=0.75; 95%CI 0.60-0.95). Depressed mood and worthlessness were the symptoms associated with moderate and high PA. Tiredness, change in appetite, and problems with concentration only with high PA. Although only high PA was sufficient for people intending changes among depression categories, the moderate PA may be enough for slight changes in depressive symptoms, and a good strategy when starting.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a considerable expansion in the way work settings are structured with a continuum emerging between working fully in-person and from home. The pandemic has also exacerbated many risk factors for poor mental health in the workplace, especially in public-facing jobs. Therefore, we sought to test the potential relationship between work setting and self-rated mental health. Methods: We modeled the association of work setting (only working from home, only in-person, hybrid) on self-rated mental health (Excellent/Very Good/Good vs. Fair/Poor) in an online survey of Canadian workers during the 3rd wave of COVID-19. Mediating effects of vaccination, masking, and distancing were explored due to the potential effect of COVID-19 related worries on mental health among those working in-person. Results: Among 1,576 workers, most reported hybrid work (77.2%). Most also reported good self-rated mental health (80.7%). Exclusive work from home (aOR: 2.79, 95%CI:1.90,4.07) and exclusive in-person work (aOR: 2.79, 95%CI: 1.83,4.26) were associated with poorer self-rated mental health than hybrid work. Vaccine status mediated only a small proportion of this relationship (7%), while masking and physical distancing were not mediators. Conclusion: Hybrid work arrangements were associated with positive self-rated mental health. Compliance to vaccination, masking, and distancing did not meaningfully mediate this relationship.

The objective of the present study was to apply an intervention program based on emotional ed-ucation and self-knowledge, in students of the degree in Education to verify changes in wisdom. For this, the 3S-WS questionnaire was administered before and after 8 weeks of intervention, an-alyzing aspects related to affective, cognitive and reflective wisdom. The sample consisted of 100 students (40 men and 60 women, aged between 20 and 29 years). After the intervention program, students improved reflective wisdom without difference between sexes. On the other hand, men had higher values in all variables than women. In conclusion, the program to improve personal development and self-awareness could be useful to improve wisdom (especially reflective wis-dom) in 3rd and 4th year students of the degree in Education, specializing in Physical Education. At the same time, it is intended that these students understand the foundations of the intervention so that in the future it can be replicated in their classrooms and contribute to the sustainable de-velopment of the 2030 Agenda.

The aims of this study were: (1) to analyze the level of agreement of a sample of Italian people with the rights of people with physical and psychical disabilities (PwPHDs and PwPSYDs) to have satisfying sexuality, to marry, to adopt a child; (2) to inquire if PwPSYDs were subject to less recognition than PwPHDs; (3) to verify if socio-demographic characteristics, such as age, sex, education, occupation, geographical origin, relational status, sexual orientation, and religiosity, associated with being against these sexual and parenting rights (SPRs). An online anonymous questionnaire inquired the level of agreement or disagreement with statements regarding the SPRs of PwPHDs and PwPSYDs. 973 participants, aged 18 – 84 years (71.1% females) were considered for analyses; At least 7 out of 10 participants declared in favor of the SPRs of PwPHDs, while the SPRs of PwPSYDs were always subjected to higher underrecognition. Religiosity almost invariably associated to being against the SPRs of PwDs. Being male, of higher age and lower education also associated with lower recognition. A better identification of the less tolerant respondents and of the less recognized categories may allow for specific strategies for promoting the recognition of the SPRs for PwDs.

The paradigm of the Somatic Mutation Theory (SMT) is failing and a new paradigm is in the making but not yet established. What is being challenged is a conceptual approach that involves the entire human biology and the development of chronic diseases. The behavior of breast cancer is well compatible with the concept that the primary tumor is able to control its microscopic metastases, in the same way that an organ (e.g., the liver) is able to control its physiological size. This finding suggested that breast cancer and its metastases may behave as an organoid. The new paradigm under construction considers the origin of tumors as a disturbance in the communication network between tissue cell populations and between cells and extracellular matrix, and supports a systemic approach to the study of both healthy and pathologic tissues. The commentary provides a rationale for the role of physical exercise in the control of tumor dormancy according to a human evolutionary perspective.

A brief review of the history of the problem is intended to trace the progress in the development of scientific views on the structure of water. The discoveries in this area made in the first half of the last century are considered in comparison with modern data. It is shown that due to the de facto ban on the study of the structure of water in 1971, work in this direction was frozen for a long time. The paradox is that many forgotten truths have been independently "rediscovered" in our time, which speaks of their authenticity. On the basis of scientific literature and their own research, the authors come to the conclusion that water under room conditions is a microdispersed system, one phase of which is represented by continuous water, and the other - by polywater, discovered in the 70s of the last century.

The prevalence of overweight/obesity in the adult population in the Philippines has doubled in the past 20 years. Zumba exercise has recently been implemented throughout the Philippines. However, there is scarce information on the effects of Zumba on obesity and Zumba participants’ characteristics in the Philippines. This study described the current practice of Zumba in the Philippines, along with the practitioners’ characteristics, and identified factors associated with Zumba participation. In this observational, cross-sectional study, a structured questionnaire was used to survey 10 Zumba locations in September 2019. Anthropometric measurements of participants were assessed. Respondents included 171 women (88.6%) and 22 men (11.4%), with a mean (±SD) age of 44.1 (± 8.9) years. All respondents answered that Zumba was enjoyable, and some answered “very enjoyable.” Determinants of frequent participation were as follows: being older than the mean age of participants, starting Zumba to enjoy dancing, starting Zumba not to lose weight, shopping mall location, and participation fee required. “To enjoy dance” being a motivation for Zumba practice was identified as a determinant of frequent participation, rather than “to lose weight.” The element of “enjoyable” may strongly influence continuation and frequent participation of Zumba exercise in the Philippines.

Quantification of physical activity (PA) depends on the type of measurement and analysis method making it difficult to compare adherence to PA guidelines. Therefore, test-retest reliability, criterion validity, and stability for self-reported (i.e. questionnaire and diary) and device-based measured (i.e. accelerometry with 10/60 second epochs) PA was compared in 32 adults and 32 children from the SMARTFAMILY study to examine if differences in these measurement tools are systematic. PA was collected during two separate measurement weeks and the relationship for each quality criteria was analyzed using Spearman correlation. Results showed the highest PA values for questionnaires followed by 10-second and 60-second epochs measured by accelerometers. Levels of PA were lowest when measured by diary. Only accelerometry demonstrated reliable, valid, and stable results for the two measurement weeks, the questionnaire yielded mixed results and the diary showed only few significant correlations. Overall, higher correlations for the quality criteria were found for moderate than for vigorous PA and the results differed between children and adults. Since the differences were not found to be systematic, the choice of measurement tools should be carefully considered by anyone working with PA outcomes, especially if vigorous PA is the parameter of interest.

Cyber-Physical Systems form the new backbone of digital ecosystems. Their design can be coupled with engineering activities to facilitate dynamic adaptation and (re-)configuration. Behavior-oriented technologies enable highly distributed and while coupled operation of systems. Utilizing them for digital twins as self-contained design entities with federation capabilities makes them promising candidates to develop and run highly functional CPS. In this paper we discuss mapping CPS components to behavior-based digital twin constituents mirroring integration and implementation through subject-oriented models. These models, inspired by agent-oriented system thinking can be executed and increase transparency at design and runtime. Patterns recognizing environmental factors and operation details facilitate configuration of CPS. Subject-oriented runtime support enable dynamic adaptation and federated use.

Background and objectives: Suicide is a topical issue in Lithuania and all around the world. It is the second most common cause of death among young people. There is a lack of research studies on the psychosocial aspects of adolescent suicide in Lithuania. This study aimed to evaluate demographics, life circumstances, and health conditions as factors related to suicide attempt in adolescents. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was performed at the Children’s Hospital (Vilnius University Santara Clinics). Medical documentation of adolescents treated in this hospital after suicide attempts from January 2011 to April 2018 were analyzed. Results: There were 117 cases of hospitalization due to suicide attempts during this period, and 102 cases were included in the study. There were 83.8% female and 16.2% male patients with an average age of 15.02 ± 1.9 years (p = 0.405); 40.6% of patients lived in divorced families, 17.7% lived in orphanages, 4.2% lived in foster care, 36.4% suffered from parental alcoholism, and 17.2% experienced suicide in their close surroundings. They had comorbidities (girls 72.5%, boys 68.8%), mostly depression (31.3%), were suffering from bullying (54.1%) or violence (26.0%), and 85.4% showed signs of other types of self-harm (girls more often (p < 0.001)). Most of them chose to cut for suicide attempts (86.0% girls, 56.2% boys). In 52.8% of cases, the attempt was spontaneous and 34% relapsed. Thirty-four events occurred in March (18.9%) (p = 0.688). Conclusions: Our study revealed the possible circumstances related to adolescent suicide attempt. Female gender was more common overall and males were more likely to carry out more potentially lethal methods. Other common associated factors were a lack of prosperity in family life, experience of bullying, violence, comorbidities, and the early spring period. Signs of any self-harm could be an indicator of later suicide attempt.

This case study examined changes in body composition, resting metabolic rate (RMR), aerobic capacity, and daily physical activity in a patient who had ulcerative colitis who underwent ileal pouch‒anal anastomosis (IPAA) surgery. Body composition, RMR, and VO2 peak were assessed prior to, 4, 8, and 16 weeks after IPAA surgery. Daily physical activity data was extracted from a wrist-worn activity tracker preoperatively and 16 months postoperatively. At baseline, total body mass was 95.3 kg; body fat, 11.6 %; lean body mass, 81.1 kg; RMR, 2,416 kcal/d; and V̇O2peak, 42.7 mL/kg/min. All values decreased from baseline at 4 weeks postoperatively, body mass was 85.2 kg (-10.5%); body fat, 10.9% (-6.0%); lean body mass, 73.1 kg (-9.9%); RMR 2,210 kcal/d (-8.5%) and V̇O2peak, 25.5 mL/kg/min (-40.3%). At 16 weeks postoperatively, most parameters were near their baseline levels (within 1%-7%); exceptions were V̇O2peak, which was 20.4% below baseline, and RMR, which increased to nearly 20% above baseline. After the patient had an IPAA surgery, his total and lean body masses, RMR, and aerobic capacity were markedly decreased. Daily physical activity decreased postoperatively and likely contributed to the decreased aerobic capacity, which may take longer to recover compared to body composition and RMR parameters.

The generation of vortices around bridge piers can lead to removal of riverbed materials from around piers, especially during flood events and heavy rainfalls, which can compromise the stability of the bridge and consequently its failure, if not properly detected and mitigated. Bridge failures pose serious threats to the local socio-economic and public safety and can cost lives. As such, real-time monitoring and early warning systems for scour-induced bridge failure can serve as a vital tool to protect the community and civil infrastructure against disastrous events. Vibration-base monitoring of bridge scour is an attractive option due to its low cost and relatively easy installation without the need to block the road and close the bridge to traffic. While limited number of previous studies have shown the capabilities of acceleration-based monitoring techniques in this area of research, they generally lack a rigorous framework for data analysis within and relating those to evaluate scour. This paper is an attempt to provide such framework that would enable a fast and low-cost analysis of vibration data within a physical modelling study on a simplified bridge pier. To achieve this, three experiments were conducted on an ideal single-pier scaled model bridge in a hydraulic flume, where water flows at a velocity near the critical velocity for the sand bed which in turn generates a scour hole around the pier. Then, the vibration data recorded using two mounted wireless accelerometers, were used to conduct an operational modal analysis through which the natural frequencies are extracted. The extracted natural frequencies and measured scour depths are then used to provide a chart that relates these two parameters. The results of this study showed the promising capability of the vibration-based data analysis in finding this relationship, indicating an up to around 30-50% reduction in natural frequencies as a result of around 50% scour ratio (ratio of maximum scour depth to buried depth), and beyond 50% scour ratio the natural frequencies remain constant. While the data presented in this paper are preliminary, they clearly show a promising potential for application in real-time monitoring of bridge stability under the effect of local scour and further works are underway to enrich the experimental data and empower the proposed methodologies at the laboratory scale.

Purpose: At a time of a pandemic SARS-CoV2 infection, and in the context of the multiorgan crosstalk widely accepted as a mechanism participating in the pathophysiology of all organs and systems, a correlation between adipose tissue, muscle and the immune system has been investigated. Physical Activity (PA) represents the first line of defence against metabolic diseases and infections, like SARS-CoV2, modulating several crucial functions such as inflammation and immune response. Conversely, obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disorders – all correlated with PA - negatively impact on general health status, including susceptibility to infections. Here we review the complex interplay between type 2 diabetes, obesity, immune response, inflammation and viral infections, such as the current SARS-CoV2, focusing on the molecular mechanisms modulated by exercise. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was completed to identify joint biomarkers previously used to investigate acute and chronic exercise training. Results: we show that PA may counteract/mitigate viral adverse effects. We also describe data suggesting that vitamin D supplementation, frequently observed in practitioners of sport and regular exercise, could represent an additional positive factor in supporting COVID-19 with fighting against the virus. Conclusion: Altogether this evidence confirms that an active lifestyle and PA not only counteract dysmetabolic diseases but could also be effective for counteracting SARS-CoV2 infection. It is therefore essential to persuade people to keep active.

In current efforts to digitize manufacturing and move it into the fourth stage of the industrial revolution, a wide range of integration solutions is being considered to enable manufacturing to adapt to change. In transforming a factory into a self-organized, autonomous factory, companies are currently struggling with rapidly changing requirements and production factors, among other things. This is a particular problem for the human being as an actor within the factory, as the amount of new technologies and protocols increases the training effort. Proprietary interfaces of the control providers, a wide range of different communication protocols, complicate the understanding of the production processes, the evaluation and testability of new use cases and increase the danger of creating silos of knowledge as well as building collaboration barriers. As a solution to these problems, we propose an open software platform and define a way to model use case driven domain specific asset representation (DSA) that focuses on the human being and his needs for representing the factory in a way that it meets his requirements for the current production needs. We therefore conducted research on google scholar on human factors in industry 4.0 and used technologies as well as already existing platforms and their architecture.

Obesity is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality, and food addiction has been considered one of its phenotypes. The study aims to determine the effectiveness of physical activity (PA), exercise, and sedentary behaviour management in attenuating food addiction in obese and overweight healthy adults. A search strategy was undertaken using MEDLINE, CENTRAL, PsycINFO, and CINAHL until April 2019. A total of 295 studies were found from which seven studies, after duplicates were removed, were included. The acute effect of PA of moderate intensity had an effect on attentional bias, craving, and sweet taste perception, although no difference was observed between genders and body mass index groups. No effect was observed on the hedonic and reward value. The acute effects of PA of moderate intensity may be a useful tool to control the levels of food addiction. More research is needed to clarify if this effect also occurs during chronic application, at different doses and types of PA, and for all populations.

Physical measurements might display range values extending towards infinite. The occurrence of infinity in physical equations, such as the black hole singularities, is a troublesome issue that causes many theories to break down when assessing extreme events. Different methods, such as re-normalization, have been proposed to avoid detrimental infinity. Here a novel technique is proposed, based on physical geometrical considerations and the Alexander Horned sphere, that permits to undermine infinity in physical equations. In this unconventional approach, a continuous monodimensional line becomes an assembly of countless bidimensional lines that superimpose in quantifiable knots and bifurcations.

This study used secondary data from the 2017 Korean Community Health Survey to compare the associations of socio-physical environment, social support networks, and social activities with happiness among older adults with three different family types. As per the results, there was a significant difference in happiness index between the three groups (F = 86.688, p < .001). Older adults living alone (odds ratio (OR) = 0.75, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.57–0.99) and those living with family (OR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.65–0.99) showed greater happiness as the frequency of contact with family increased. Older adults living with only their spouse showed an increase in happiness when their contact with friends was higher (OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.56–0.84). It was confirmed that there were differences in factors influencing happiness according to the family type of the older adults in this study. Therefore, the happiness of older adults needs to be adequately ensured, while considering their various circumstances, including family type.

Kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice for patients with end-stage disease. To expand the donor reserve, it is necessary to use marginal/sub optimal donors that provide marginal organs. We retrospectively evaluated the short and long-term outcome of elderly kidney transplantation using allografts with vascular abnormalities. Between January 1999 and December 2018, 740 transplants from cadaveric donors were performed. Thirty-four elderly patients received a kidney transplantation with vascular anatomical variants (Group 1) were compared with 34 patients who received a kidney transplantation with single renal artery (SRA) (Grroup2) pair-matched by age, dialysis age, donor age, comorbidity. All participants completed the Long Form International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) at baseline and after 4, 8, and 12 weeks after transplantation. The overall rate of surgical complications was 17.6% in Group 1 and 20.6% in Group 2, indicating that kidney with vascular anatomical variant might be successfully transplanted. Our data also emphasizes the importance of individualized physical activity in kidney transplantation with multiple arteries. Physical activity should be considered as an essential part of the medical care for renal-transplanted recipients.

Directional modulation (DM), as an emerging promising physical layer security (PLS) technique at the transmitter side with the help of an antenna array, has developed rapidly over decades. In this study, a DM technique using a polarization sensitive array (PSA) to produce the modulation with different polarization states (PSs) at different directions is investigated. A PSA, as a vector sensor, can be employed for more effective DM for an additional degree of freedom (DOF) provided in the polarization domain. The polarization information can be exploited to transmit different data streams simultaneously at the same directions, same frequency, but with different PSs in the desired directions to increase the channel capacity, and with random PSs off the desired directions to enhance PLS. The proposed method has the capability of concurrently projecting independent signals into different specified spatial directions while simultaneously distorting signal constellation in all other directions. The symbol error rate (SER), secrecy rate, and the robustness of the proposed DM scheme are analyzed. Design examples for single- and multi-beam DM systems are also presented. Simulations corroborate that 1) the proposed method is more effective for PLS; 2) the proposed DM scheme is more power-efficient than the traditional artificial noise aided DM schemes; and 3) the channel capacity is significantly improved compared with conventional scalar antenna arrays.

We have used the varying physical constant approach to resolve the flatness problem in cosmology. Friedmann equations are modified to include variability of speed of light, gravitational constant, cosmological constant and the curvature constant. The continuity equation obtained with such modifications includes scale factor dependent cosmological term as well as the curvature term along with the standard energy-momentum term. The result is that as the scale factor tends to zero (i.e. as the big-bang is approached) the universe becomes strongly curved rather than flatter and flatter in the standard cosmology. We have used the supernovae 1a redshift versus distance modulus data to determine the curvature variation parameter of the new model, which yields a better fit to the data than the standard ΛCDM model. The universe is found to be open type with radius of curvature R_c = 1.64 (1+z)^-3.3 c₀/H₀, where z is the redshift, c₀ is the current speed of light and H₀ is the Hubble constant.

In this paper, we first investigate secure communications for a two-hop interference relay system in the wireless Internet of Things (IoT), where K source-destination pairs communicate in the presence of an eavesdropper. Explicitly, we jointly design source, relay and destination matrices upon minimizing total mean-squared error (MSE) of all legitimate destinations while keeping the MSE at eavesdropper above a certain threshold. We illuminate that the joint design of the source, relay and destination matrices subject to both secrecy and transmit power constraints. More specifically, we proposed an efficient iterative distributed algorithm to simplify the process of the joint design for optimal source, relay and destination matrices. Furthermore, the convergence of the iterative distributed algorithm is described. Additionally, the performances of the proposed algorithm, including both its secrecy rate and MSE, are characterized with the aid of simulation results. We demonstrate that our proposed algorithm outperforms the traditional approach. As a benefit, secure communications can be guaranteed by using the proposed algorithm for the multiple input multiple output (MIMO) interference relay IoT network in the presence of an eavesdropper.

Due to its devastating consequences, late life depression is an important public health problem. The aim of the study was the analysis of variables which may potentially influence risk of depression (GDS-SF). Furthermore, the aim was to study possible mediating effect of given variables on the relationship between the total protein concentration and risk of depression in older-adults with chronic diseases, and physical function impairment. The research sample included a total of 132 older adults with chronic conditions and physical function impairments, remaining under a long-term care in residential environment. Negative linear correlation was observed between patients’ physical functionality, total protein concentration, concentration of HDL cholesterol, arm circumference, and the risk of depression. Considerably stronger relationship was observed between total protein concentration, and GDS-SF, in elderly suffering from sensory dysfunction (b = −6.42, 95% CI = −11.27; −1.58). The effect of the mediation between depression risk is correlated to total protein concentration in blood serum, and the mediators are probably low function impairment and low levels of 25 (OH)D vitamin. Cohort control research is suggested to confirm the hypothesis.

Objectives: 1) To describe the cardiovascular health of the construction workers in Hong Kong, 2) to examine the demographic differences in cardiovascular health, and 3) to examine the association between modifiable lifestyle behaviors and cardiovascular conditions. Methods: 626 registered construction workers were included in the analysis. Blood chemistry, blood pressure, weight and height were measured. Face-to-face questionnaire interview was conducted. T-tests and One-way ANOVAs were used to compare the cardiovascular health score, cardiovascular outcomes, and lifestyle behaviors by demographic characteristics. Logistic regressions were performed to assess the cardiovascular outcomes by lifestyle behaviors. Results: Two-thirds of the construction workers failed to achieve three out of the seven “ideal” cardiovascular health indicators. The younger, more educated, and female subjects had better cardiovascular health scores than their counterparts. The ideal fish and seafood consumption was associated with 1) ideal weight status and 2) ideal cholesterol level, whereas less soft drink consumption was associated with ideal cholesterol level. Conclusions: The findings highlighted the importance of promoting cardiovascular health in the construction industry. This study provided insights for future interventions, which should include increasing fish and seafood intake, decreasing soft drink consumption, and enhancing the health literacy amongst older, less educated, and male construction workers.

Education outside the classroom (EOtC) can be beneficial for students. The relationship between biological stress markers and sedentary behavior (SB) plus physical activity (PA) is insufficiently evaluated in school settings. This exploratory study aims to evaluate the association between students’ cortisol, plus circulating cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid (cfDNA) levels, and their SB, light PA (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) during outdoor and indoor classes in different seasons. We assessed data from an education outside the classroom (EOtC) program (n = 48; intervention group [IG], n = 37; control group [CG], n = 11). We sampled data on 3 school-days in three seasons (fall, spring, and summer) in normal teaching indoors (CG) and outdoor lessons (IG) in the forest. SB and PA were evaluated by accelerometry, and cortisol and cfDNA levels by saliva samples. The compositional data analysis approach analyzed SB and PA. Fitted Bayesian hierarchical linear models evaluated the association between cortisol and cfDNA, and SB/LPA/MVPA. A steady decline of cortisol in the outdoor setting is associated with relatively high levels of LPA. SB and MVPA tended to exhibit a similar effect in the indoor setting. CfDNA is positively associated with a relatively high amount of SB in the IG, the same association is likely for LPA and MVPA in both groups. LPA seems to support a healthy cortisol decrease in children during outdoor lessons. The relevance of SB/PA as a composition in relation to students stress response in school should be emphasized. This study facilitates the formulation of straightforward and directed hypotheses for further research.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between healthy lifestyle behaviors, physical fitness and coronary risk factors in university students. 320 male and female (n_m:171; n_f:149) students from a university participated in this study voluntarily. For the determination of body composition and Body Mass Indexes (BMI), subjects’ height, body weight, and skinfold thickness were taken and body fat percentage (%Fat) was determined. Healthy lifestyle behaviors were determined using the healthy lifestyle behaviors questionnaire. Indicators of physical fitness included flexibility (sit-up) (F), muscle strength and endurance (isometric knee (KS), back strength (BS) and a total of shuttle (TS), sprint performance, BMI, and body fat percentage (%fat). Coronary heart disease risk factors included mean arterial blood pressure (systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP)), fasting blood levels of triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), hematocrit (HT), and hemoglobin (HM). Results indicated subjects have normal body mass index, body fat percentage, SBP, DBP, TG, TCF, BS, KS. The results of the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis, indicated that SBP, DBP, TG, TCF, BS, KS for male and female was significantly correlated with flexibility (sit-up) (F), muscle strength and endurance (isometric knee (KS), back strength (BS) and total of shuttle (TS)), sprint performance. (p<0.01; p<0.05), In conclusion, the findings of the present study indicated that physical fitness and healthy lifestyle behaviors play a determinant role in coronary heart disease risk factors for male and female students from a university.

Place attachment is an emotion that people experience in connection to a specific place and it is needed to maintain sustainable neighborhood community. The emotion is affected by various factors, such as experience, function, environment, and satisfaction. This study focuses on commercial structures, which are one feature that characterize the physical environments of neighborhoods. The aim of this study is to determine the effects of commercial activities in different commercial environments on social bonding and place attachment in residents. Two sites were selected for analysis due to their different commercial environments, and path analysis was used to examine the relationships among factors. The results indicate that the type of commercial environment had effects on commercial activities, including shopping frequency, and that commercial activities affected social bonding and place attachment in residents. Also, commercial activities had indirect effects on place attachment through social bonding between residents. These results suggest that the commercial environment is an important element affecting the community and place attachment of residents in neighborhoods.

In this work, we develop a self-consistent physical model of bubbles in a gas solid two-phase flow. Using the Peng-Robonson state equation and a detailed specific heat ratio equation of bubbles, we obtain the kinetic equations of the bubbles on the basis of the Ergun equation, thermodynamic equations, and kinetic equations. It is found that the specific heat ratio of bubbles in such systems strongly depends on bubble pressures and temperatures, which play an important role in the characteristics of the bubbles. The theoretical studies show that with increasing height in the systems, the gas flow rate shows a downward trend. Moreover, the larger particles in the gas solid flows are, the greater the gas velocity is. The bubble sizes increase with the increasing heights of the gas solid systems, and then decrease. The bubble velocity is affected by the gas velocity and the bubble size, which gradually increase and eventually quasi-stabilize. This shows that gas and solid phases in a gas solid two-phase flow interact with each other and a self-consistent system comes into being. The theoretical results have exhibited important value as a guide for understanding the properties and effects of bubbles in gas solid two-phase flows.

The need to alleviate the difficulties of abstraction and improve students’ achievement in Physical Geography informed this research. This study investigated the Effects of Mastery Learning Strategy and Learning Retention on Senior Secondary School Students’ Achievement in Physical Geography. The study adopted the quasi experimental non-equivalent pre-test, post-test control group design. The Multi-stage sampling technique at four levels was used to select four co-educational secondary schools in Ganye Educational Zone in Nigeria. The sample for the study was 218 Senior Secondary School two (SS II) students offering Geography from four intact classes in the four selected secondary schools. The instrument used for data collection was “Physical Geography Achievement and Retention Test” (PGART). The reliability of the instrument was established using Kendall tau b statistic. This gave a reliability index of 0.74. Data collected were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U and t-Test. The results showed that Mastery Learning Strategy has the potentials to improve students’ learning outcomes, retention and achievement in all spheres of cognitive domain in Physical Geography better than the Conventional Method. Hence the need to incorporate this teaching strategy during instruction so that learners would be guided to learn meaningfully and be assisted to retain content learnt in Geography.

o estudo visa explicar os efeitos diferentes entre as equações de multiplicação, soma, divisão e subtração. Nesse sentido, as equações de multiplicação e soma desenvolvem um novo elemento ou fato, enquanto isso, as equações de divisão expressar informações dentro do elemento ou fato, a subtração é a seleção de elemento ou fato Alem disso, para uma equação de multiplicação e soma resulta no novo elemento ou fato é necessario dependência de conceitos físicos específicos, sem alteração extrema, pois resultaria na alteração do elemento ou fato. vale ressaltar, a importância de valores fixos na equação para descreve a natureza específica do elemento ou fato. O estudo possibilita o entendimento das equações em aberta(sem solução) na matematica e fisica, além de compreender equações existentes. O estudo faz referência à teoria da necessidade obrigatória e teoria da diferenças entre elementos.

Cloud computing transformed IT organizations with its on-demand model, notably Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Cloud providers manage extensive physical devices, consuming substantial energy and bandwidth for data traffic during virtual machine deployment. Balancing energy and bandwidth are critical. This thesis presents BOHGOA integrated with ACO to optimize virtual machine placement in clouds, simultaneously considering bandwidth and energy. It yields Pareto-optimal solutions for this trade-off. Using CloudSim, BOHGOA outperformed GA, ACO, and FFD algorithms, reducing bandwidth consumption by 54.14%, 32.11%, 57.47% (240 VMs) and 38.12%, 22.76%, 47.05% (500 VMs) respectively. Additionally, it decreased physical machine energy usage by 37.70%, 34.01%, 40.14% (240 VMs) and 27.50%, 22.28%, 30.52% (500 VMs) respectively. These results underscore BOHGOA's effectiveness in optimizing cloud VM placement.

Lifestyle interventions halt the progression of prediabetes to frank type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, the feasibility of a diabetes prevention program promoting tailored interventions on a national scale and conducted by primary care physicians is unclear. To explore this issue, general practitioners dislocated in ten different regions throughout Italy enrolled random subjects without known metabolic diseases to identify individuals with prediabetes and prescribe them an intervention based on physical activity. Using a simple stepwise approach, people referring to their primary care physician for any reason were screened for their diabetes risk with a web-based app of the Findrisc questionnaire. Those at risk for T2D, i.e. with a Findrisc score > 9, were invited to come back after overnight fasting to measure fasting glycaemia (FG). Those with 100 ≤ FG < 126 mg/dL were considered as people with prediabetes and compiled the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q) to then receive a personalized prescription of physical activity. Overall, 5928 people were enrolled and compiled the questionnaire. Of these, 2895 (48.8 %) were at risk for T2D. Among these, FG was measured in 2168 subjects (participation rate 75%). The numbers of individuals with undetected prediabetes and T2D according to FG were 755 and 79 (34.8% and 3.6% of those assessing FG), respectively. Of the 755 subjects in the prediabetes range, 739 compiled the PAR-Q and started a personalized program of physical activity (participation rate 97%). Physicians involved in the study reported a mean of 6 minutes to perform the screening. Overall, these data suggest the feasibility of a national diabetes prevention program developed by general practitioners using a simple stepwise approach starting from a web-app to intercept individuals with prediabetes.

This paper introduces an innovative framework for the integration of artificial empathy into robot swarms to enhance communication and cooperation. The proposed model relies on fuzzy state vectors to represent the knowledge and environment of individual agents, accommodating uncertainties in the real world. Utilizing similarity measures, the model compares states, enabling empathetic reasoning for synchronized swarm behavior. A practical application example demonstrates the model’s efficacy in a robot swarm striving for a common goal. The evaluation methodology involves the Open Source Physical-based Experimentation Platform (OPEP), emphasizing empirical validation in real-world scenarios. The paper proposes a transitional environment that allows automated and repeatable execution of experiments on a swarm of robots using physical devices.

Seismic velocity inversion is one of the most critical issues in the field of seismic exploration and has long been the focus of numerous experts and scholars. In recent years, the advancement of machine learning technologies has infused new vitality into the research of seismic velocity inversion and yielded a wealth of research outcomes. Typically, seismic velocity inversion based on machine learning lacks control over physical processes and interpretability. Starting from wave theory and the physical processes of seismic data acquisition, this paper proposes a method for seismic velocity model inversion based on Physical Embedding Recurrent Neural Networks. Firstly, the wave equation is a mathematical representation of the physical process of acoustic waves propagating through a medium, and the finite difference method is an effective approach to solving the wave equation. With this in mind, we introduce the architecture of recurrent neural networks to describe the finite difference solution of the wave equation, realizing the embedding of physical processes into machine learning. Secondly, in seismic data acquisition, the propagation of acoustic waves from multiple sources through the medium represents a high-dimensional causal time series (wavefield snapshots), where the influential variable is the velocity model, and the received signals are the observations of the wavefield. This forms a forward modeling process as the forward simulation of the wavefield equation, and the use of error back-propagation between observations and calculations as the velocity inversion process. Through time-lapse inversion and incorporating the causal information of wavefield propagation, the non-uniqueness issue in velocity inversion is mitigated. Through mathematical derivations and theoretical model analyses, the effectiveness and rationality of the method are demonstrated. In conjunction with simulation results for complex models, the method proposed in this paper can achieve velocity inversion in complex geological structures.

Physical activity is especially important of children's everyday life with chronic disease. The aim of the study was to show whether asthma is a barrier to physical activity in our society. The correlation between the severity of the disease, body mass index, and physical activity were analyzed, and, parents' opinion whether children should participate in active sports was assessed. Physical activity of children with asthma was analyzed by questionnaires and activity-measuring armbands. 93 parents and their children were involved in the survey, while 20 children were wearing the armband. The age of children was 12.6±3.5 years (mean±SD), 69.9% were boys, 30.1% were girls. 93.4% of the respondents participated in physical education program and 56.5% also attended sporting activities on a regular basis. 61.2% of the children had mild, 37.6% moderate, and 1.2% severe asthma. 6.5% of the respondents stated that their illness had been consistently or frequently limiting the performance concerning their school or home duties over the past 4 weeks. Twelve percent of parents felt that physical activity was not appropriate in the context of this disease. We conclude, that fear of the consequences of physical activity depends largely on education which should involve their parents, teachers and coaches.

Bounded number theory says that number is not infinite; that is, the number is limited. To come to a conclusion about limited number, one needs to understand the meaning of math and varying spaces, so one needs to understand that math and spaces interact. A matemática tem a função de descrever com precisão o mundo, onde os números representam elementos ou fatos que racionalmente elementos ou fatos pertencem ao espaço, e os espaços têm propriedades que os diferenciem de outros espaços; portanto, não há nenhum elemento ou fato infinito devido a diferenças nas propriedades dos espaços não permite o elemento ou fato em todos os espaços.

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) play an essential role in today’s production processes, leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance operations such as optimization, anomaly detection, and predictive maintenance. This article reviews a cognitive architecture for artificial intelligence, which has been developed to establish a standard framework for integrating AI solutions into existing production processes. Given that machines in these processes continuously generate large streams of data, Online Machine Learning (OML) was identified as a crucial extension to the existing architecture. To substantiate this claim, real-world experiments using a slitting machine were conducted to compare the performance of OML with traditional Batch Machine Learning. The evaluations clearly indicate that OML adds significant value to CPS and is strongly recommeded as an extension of related architectures such as the cognitive architecture for AI discussed in this article. Additionally, surrogate model-based optimization is employed to determine the optimal hyperparameter settings for the corresponding OML algorithms, aiming to achieve peak performance in their respective tasks.

Chemical and mechanical properties of plasma-assisted nitrided (PAN), TiN cathodic arc coated, and PAN with TiN coated samples were thoroughly evaluated on tool steel samples of 1.2379. The evaluation involved SEM, nano-indentation, profilometer, micro scratch, and corrosion tests. The results revealed that PAN treatment alters the roughness of the surface, while it has minimal impact on the coefficient of friction. However, it increases the substrate's hardness, making it twice as hard and three times more resilient against scratch tests, along with improved corrosion resistance. TiN-coated samples are four times harder than untreated ones, but they exhibit a higher elastic modulus (E), leading to a lower H/E index. The most promising results were obtained with PAN+TiN treatment, combining high hardness (H) with lower E, resulting in a high H/E index, a crucial criterion for wear resistance. These samples also demonstrated superior scratch hardness and corrosion resistance, despite being thinner and rougher.

Despite limited research on the effects of a combined physical exercises on static and proactive postural control and neuromuscular functions in older adults with sarcopenic obesity (SO), this study addresses the gap by examining the efficacy of a 4-month Total Mobility Plus (TMP) regimen. The study enrolled 40 older adults with SO, split into an intervention group (n=25, mean age = 76.1 ± 3.5 years; mean BMI = 34.4 ± 4.0 kg/m²) and a control group (n=25, mean age = 75.9 ± 5.4 years; mean BMI = 32.9 ± 2.3 kg/m²). Participants in the IG engaged in 60-minute TMP sessions three times a week for four months, while the CG maintained their typical daily activities. Standardized evaluations were performed before and after the intervention, including the Romberg and Timed Up and Go (TUG) tests, Center of pressure (CoP) parameters during different conditions, muscle activation and strength of plantar and dorsal flexors. Post-intervention results revealed significant reduction of the standing time measured in the Romberg (-15.6%, p<0.05), and TUG (-34.6%, p<0.05) tests. Additionally, CoP area and velocity, were notably reduced in various conditions (p<0.05). Postural control improvements were associated with an increase of strength and decrease of ankle muscle activation. These findings validate the TMP program as a safe and effective method for enhancing static and proactive postural control and neuromuscular capabilities in older adults with SO.

Ovulatory infertility is a serious clinical problem whose direct causes are still largely unknown. In addition to pathologies that make it impossible for a couple to establish a pregnancy, there are a number of other factors that have a bearing on fertility, including lifestyle factors, particularly diet. Although numerous studies have been performed linking such factors with ovulatory infertility, most of them lack the necessary clinical significance, focusing instead on observational data and establishing associative relationships. This paper includes a literature review focusing on connections between lifestyle factors such as diet, physical exercise, oxidative stress, sleep, and supplementation, and ovulatory infertility. Special emphasis was given to issues such as obesity and insulin resistance and their mutual relationship with other factors linked to ovulatory infertility. In addition, making use of the conclusions of literature review, the authors propose a classification of relationships between ovulation disorders and lifestyle factors in ovulatory infertility based on the WHO classification of ovulation disorders, and indicate areas that merit further research. The data presented in the paper shows that the issues of proper diet and physical exercise are those that would merit from robust clinical studies focused specifically on ovulation infertility, while studies concerning the relationship between oxidative stress, sleep, and supplementation and ovulatory infertility do not seem to be promising directions as far as clinical significance is concerned.

Physical activity (PA) is a modifiable factor that may have an influence on the course of Parkinson’s disease (PD). This study aimed to apply a simple behavioral intervention to encourage PD sufferers to increase their everyday physical activity and assess which parameters of motor functions will be improved. The research covered 50 PD patients (28 men and 22 women) aged 40-81 years (65.38 ± 9.23), with a duration of the disease 2-4 years, in stages 1-3 on the Hoehn and Yahr scale. The patients were randomly divided into two groups: the experimental group with behavioral therapy, and the control group without intervention. During 12 weeks the patients from the experimental group had five phone conversations. Each conversation lasted 15 minutes and was an interview about the subjects’ physical activity in the last month. The results were assessed by the Timed Up and Go test (TUG), Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) – part III, FIR (Functional Index “Repty” – own modification of Functional Independence Measure (FIM)), Functional Ambulation Category (FAC) and International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The results showed that spontaneous physical activity increased in the experimental group and motor functions improved. Physical activity improvement depended on age, body mass index, and gender.

This study aimed to investigate the influence of cranio-cervical position on the electromyographical activity of the core muscles during the prone plank exercise. Twenty healthy participants were enrolled in this study. Muscle activation was registered using surface electromyography (sEMG) in the rectus abdominis (RA), external oblique (EO), internal oblique (IO) and lumbar portion of erector spinae (LES). Three prone plank conditions were randomly evaluated, varying the position of the cranio-cervical segment during the prone plank performance (NEUTRAL, FLEXION and EXTENSION). sEMG signals of each individual muscle, Total Intensity (TI) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were analysed with statistical significance set at P&lt;0.05. FLEXION revealed significantly higher TI values compared to NEUTRAL and EXTENSION (p = 0.000; effect size (ES) &gt; 0.90). The RA presented larger activation in FLEXION compared to the other variations (p &lt; 0.05; ES &gt;0.70). FLEXION elicited a greater response compared to NEUTRAL for both sides of EO when compared to EXTENSION, and also for both sides of IO compared to the other conditions. Both FLEXION and EXTENSION reported higher RPE values compared to NEUTRAL. Cranio-cervical segment position influenced the electromyographical activation of core musculature, showing highest values when performing prone plank in a cranio-cervical flexion.

Various studies on the physical characteristics of the canopy gaps in tropical and subtropical regions but that in the mangrove swamp forest in Malaysia is little known. The objectives of this study are to assess the canopy gaps physical characteristics (size, form, direction), to assess the changes in soil physical characteristics and microenvionment in and around the canopy gaps. Five canopy gaps were selected formed by lightning strikes, gaps size and shapes were determined using the portable Global Positioning System and photographic images were analysed using ForestCrown. Result shows that canopy gap opening has increased the total light reaching the forest floor, changed the canopy gap microenvironment. Strong correlation between canopy opening percentage and temperature of gaps explains the changes of canopy gaps characteristics. These changes have contributed to new seedling germination, regeneration and maintaining the canopy gap dynamics.

Background: Schizophrenia is a mental disorder associated with inflammatory and oxidative stress markers such as lactate; in addition, the rate of physical inactivity in this population is very high, which leads to physical and metabolic alterations. Aims: This study measured the effect of assisted physical exercise over lactate levels in schizophrenia. Methods: Stable outpatients with schizophrenia and a group of Healthy controls received two different programs of Physical exercise (Aerobic and Functional) in a clinical trial. Results: Patients had higher lactate compared to healthy controls before and after intervention, and had higher rate of lactate increase after activity. The finding of increased lactate in schizophrenia detected before and after physical exercise deserve further attention in biomarker studies and in the development of physical rehabilitation in schizophrenia, suggesting different profile of oxidative metabolism after physical exercise. Basal increased lactate may reflect mitochondrial dysfunction or metabolic dysregulation, and the higher rate of increase may reflect a different metabolic and oxidative process. Conclusion: The finding is in line with recent studies as surrogate of mitochondrial dysfunction in schizophrenia and points to the need of additional studies on mitochondrial activity in schizophrenia, and to additional care in the design of physical interventions in schizophrenia.

The current study is to examine the disparities in physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB), and stress levels in Korean adolescents concerning changes in their perception of family socio-economic status (SES) during COVID-19. Among a total of 6144 Korean adolescents aged 12 to 18, the participants were categorized into two groups based on their responses regarding changes in their family SES during COVID-19: Lower SES (n = 3072) and Non-changed SES (n = 3072), with matching in terms of age, gender, and BMI. All variables were assessed using the 16th year (2020) of the Korean Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 26.0 version, employing independent t-tests to examine anthropometrics’ differences and multinominal logistic regression to predict the impact of perception of family SES on PA, SB, and stress while comparing the two groups. The significance level was set at α = 0.05. Adolescents in the Lower SES group were less likely to engage in vigorous-intensity PA (VPA) and muscular strength activities compared to those in the Non-changed SES group (p < 0.001) and were 2.3 times more likely to experience a very-severe stress level than the Non-changed SES group (p < 0.001). These results shed light on the importance of promoting VPA and muscular strength activities in adolescents for their physical and mental well-being, particularly during potential future pandemics. Understanding the impact of perceived SES changes on health behaviors can inform targeted interventions and support strategies to improve the health outcomes of adolescents during challenging times.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a tool to measure the performance of a Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) based on a Balanced Scorecard (BSC). The SAMP converts organizational objectives into asset management objectives, also specifies the role of the asset management system and brings support to achieve asset management objectives. The SAMP becomes the heart of the organization and integrates with long-term, medium-term, and short-term financial plans integrated with same term activity plans. In the SAMP, the balance among performance, costs and risks is also taken into consideration in order to achieve the organization’s objectives. On the other side, the SAMP is a guide to set the asset management objectives while describing the role of the Asset Management System (AMS) in meeting those objectives. While SAMP is the central figure of AMS, it is important to measure its performance and needs to be build and improved through an iterative process, what means that is not just a document, it is “the document”, and should be treated as a “living being” that needs to adapt to internal and external changes quickly. The BSC is an excellent tool where, through the appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the progress can be measured, and is supported by four perspectives: Financial; Customer; Internal Process; and Learning and Growth.

This article explores the behavioral geography of the Hajj pilgrimage, focusing on the impact of the physical environment on pilgrims' behavior. Using qualitative research and analyzing religious literature and online publications, the study reveals significant findings. The spatial arrangement of the Grand Mosque, including the central courtyard and pillars, influences pilgrims' behavior during the Tawaf ritual. Environmental factors such as crowds and noise affect pilgrims' experiences, evoking anxiety while enhancing the ceremony's spiritual significance. Cultural and religious beliefs also shape pilgrims' behavior during the circumambulation. This study provides valuable insights into the multifaceted factors shaping pilgrims' behavior during the Hajj, including spatial organization, cultural influences, and social interactions. The findings can inform improvements in infrastructure, crowd management, and services to enhance the overall pilgrimage experience.

Environmental psychology plays an important role in the overall development of human mental health. Student activism and health concerns also arose about the human health costs associated with a healthy built environment. This research focuses on recent design "trends", active design, and their relationship to environmental psychology and campus health. This study investigates how an active design approach can improve the environmental psychology of universities to achieve a healthy campus for students to be healthy. The total student participants are 428, 176 male (41.2%) and 251 female (58.8%), from ten university campuses. The methodology is a questionnaire survey including an active design approach based on physical activity categories with SPSS analyses. The results of this study revealed that only 19.7% of students were active on campus, 74.6% active off campus, and 5.7% active on and off campus. Students are more interested in social activity than in mental and physical activity. In addition, the ob-stacles to students' physical inactivity are lack of time, opportunities on campus and the psychological feeling of anxiety, depression and tension due to social activity and work performance in universities. In conclusion, a model is designed to demonstrate the relationship between environmental psychology and active design variables

Burkina Faso is a sub-Saharan African country with a high poverty rate that has quadruplicated its population in the last half fifty years, that is, from 4.5 to 18 million inhabitants. Such demographic changes together with an intense migration process from rural areas to large cities, among other issues, are contributing to a rapid process of socio-cultural transformation. In this context, changes in both traditional and contemporary housing are analyzed and a complete ther-mo-hygrometric evaluation is carried out by processing significant data from on-site measure-ments to shed new light on the response of the said dwellings to the environmental and local cultural values. Results show that the introduction of land ownership linked to climate change and the increasing scarcity of natural resources are forcing native ethnic groups to modify their traditional ways of life, threatening their subsistence. Consequently, we can prove that the new building typologies are not in the least suitable for the climatic conditions nor the rich cultural heritage of Burkina Faso. This fact, negatively affects the possibility of revitalizing vernacular and environmentally-oriented solutions for the contemporary world and the necessary advance to-wards a more sustainable architecture.

Importance and need for cyber security have increased in folds since a decade. Indirectly, the country’s security depends on the country’s cyber-physical systems. Attackers are becoming more innovative, and attacks are becoming undetectable, causing huge risks to the systems. In this scenario, intelligent and evolving detection methods should be introduced to replace the basic and outworn ones. This article discusses about new-age intelligence and smart techniques dealing with artificial intelligence (AI) models. Artificial intelligence for cyber security is reviewed, and the performance of machine learning models (ML) and deep learning (DL) models are analysed. A real-time case study of stealthy local covert attacks with false data injection attacks is implemented on the DC-DC converter. A deep learning model is designed to mitigate cyber attacks, and its performance is evaluated.

Objective: Physical inactivity is linked to chronic illnesses and disabilities among workers, especially those in high demanding jobs like teachers. Despite the global prominence of sedentary behaviour research, studies drawing the relationships between physical inactivity and multimorbidity among working teacher populations in low-and middle-countries remain untapped. This study assessed the sedentariness and health status of primary school teachers in Cape Coast Metropolis in Ghana. Method: This cross-sectional survey employed 1109 primary school teachers from the Cape Coast Metropolis in the Central Region of Ghana, using convenient sampling method. Results: Generally, the teachers were highly sedentary and reported poor health status. Other results showed no difference in sedentariness across gender, t (1107) = -0.32, p > .05. However, female teachers suffer more pain and discomfort, [t (1103.51) = - 3.07, p < .05, anxiety and depression, [t (1099.56) = - 2.85, p < .000,)], and poor health status [t (1107) = 2.14, p < .05, than their male counterparts. Also, pain and discomfort, anxiety and depression, health status and years of work significantly predicted sedentariness among the teachers, F (4, 1104) = 5.966, p=.00, R = .145, R2 = .029, adjusted R2 = .018. Conclusion: The findings suggest that individualized or personalized interventions are urgently needed to promote regular physical activity to improve the health status and reduce associated complications on the health and well-being, especially among the female primary school teachers. Given the health risks of sedentary lifestyle, behavioral interventions at the person-level (i.e., individualized- routine weekly physical activity programmes) and built environmental restructuring (e.g., creation of walkways to encourage regular walking) could be done to physical activity behavior among teachers within the Cape Coast Metropolis, and perhaps beyond.

Sensors and actuators are fundamental units in Cyber-Physical and Internet of Things systems. Because they are included in a variety of systems, using many technologies, it is very useful to characterize their functions abstractly by describing them as Abstract Entity Patterns (AEPs), that are patterns that describe abstract conceptual entities. For concreteness, we study them here in the context of autonomous cars. An autonomous car is a complex system because, in ad-dition to its own complex design, it interacts with other vehicles and with the surrounding in-frastructure. To handle these functions, it must incorporate various technologies from different sources. An autonomous car is an example of a Cyber-Physical System, where some of its func-tions are performed by Internet of Things units. Sensors are extensively used in autonomous cars to measure physical quantities; actuators are commanded by controllers to perform appro-priate physical actions. From AEPs we can derive concrete patterns, a structure combining re-lated AEPs is an Entity Solution Frame (ESF). Both sensors and actuators are susceptible to mali-cious attacks due to the large attack surface of the system where they are used. Our work is in-tended to make autonomous cars more secure, which also increases their safety. Our final objec-tive is to build a Security Solution Frame for sensors and actuators of autonomous cars that will facilitate their secure design. A Security Solution Frame is a solution structure that groups to-gether and organizes related security patterns. This article is the first stage of a secure unit that can be used to design not only secure autonomous cars but also any system where sensors and actuators are used. This paper concentrates on AEPs and ESFs for sensors and actuators; that is, on the functional aspects of these devices.

Cyber-physical security is vital for protecting key computing infrastructure against cyber attacks. Individuals, corporations, and society can all suffer considerable digital asset losses due to cyber attacks, including Data loss, theft, financial loss, reputation harm, company interruption, infrastructure damage, ransomware attacks, and espionage. A cyber-physical attack harms both digital and physical assets. Cyber-physical system security is more challenging than software-level cyber security because it requires physical inspection and monitoring. This paper proposes an innovative and effective algorithm to strengthen Cyber-Physical Security (CPS) with minimal human intervention. It is a Human Activity Recognition (HAR)-based approach where a GoogleNet-BiLSTM network hybridization has been used to recognize suspicious activities in cyber-physical infrastructure perimeter. The proposed HAR-CPS algorithm classifies suspicious activities from real-time video surveillance with an average accuracy of 73.15%. It incorporates Machine Vision at the IoT Edge (Mez) technology to make the system latency tolerant. Dual-layer security has been ensured by operating the proposed algorithm and GoogleNet-BiLSTM hybrid network from a cloud server, which ensures the security of the proposed security system. The innovative optimization scheme makes it possible to strengthen cyber-physical security with $4.29 per month only.

Osteosarcopenic adiposity (OSA) syndrome denotes the confluence of bone, muscle, and adipose tissue deterioration. Being a complex entity, numerous uncertainties about OSA still exist, despite the extensive research on the topic. Our objectives were to evaluate human studies addressing dietary intake/nutritional status, and the quantity/types of physical activity related to OSA. The search in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases was conducted to examine relevant articles published from inception to the end of December 2022, utilizing the MeSH strings in the search strategy. Only studies published in English and conducted in humans (≥18 years) without chronic conditions (cancers, kidney/liver disease) or pregnancy, were used. Book chapters, abstracts-only, and studies in which participants did not have all three body composition components measured to identify OSA, or when body composition components could not be related to the independent/exposure variables were excluded. A total of n = 1020 articles were retrieved from all three databases and eight more from the reference lists. After exclusion of duplicates and other unsuitable articles, n = 23 studies were evaluated. Among those, eleven were from epidemiological or cross-sectional studies relating nutrients/dietary intake or nutritional status with OSA. Another four examined the relationship between serum biomarkers (vitamin D and ferritin) with OSA, while eight articles presented the results of the interventional studies with resistance training. Overall, higher protein, calcium, potassium, and vitamins D and C intakes emerged as nutrients positively modifying OSA, along with diet higher in fruits and low-fat dairy foods. Higher serum vitamin D and ferritin were respectively positively and negatively related to OSA. Resistance training was a safe intervention yielding several beneficial outcomes for the OSA syndrome in older women.

Cempo Ireng (Oryza sativa L. var. Cempo Ireng) is one of the black rice variety in Indonesia that consumed as functional food, not as a staple food because of the black rice contains anthocyanin pigment which has beneficial to human health. High concentration of anthocyanin reaching 393.93 ppm cause black color in the pericarp layer of Cempo Ireng which make this variety as an antioxidant source, low glycemic index, and free of gluten, leading to have higher price in the rice market. However, most of the farmers are not cultivate Cempo Ireng due to the longer vegetative phase up to 150 days compared to the white rice varieties which only takes 90 days, the taller phenotype of Cempo Ireng cause problems in cultivation, and also the purple color of Cempo Ireng attract birds and earhead bug (Leptocorisa oratorius) to feed on black rice caryopsis that cause severe yield loss. Transgenic methods, mutation technique, intensification systems, and physical treatment have been applied in Cempo Ireng to overcome those lack characteristics. In the future, Cempo Ireng also has a big potential to become a parent in cross breeding program because of the positive characters. The aim of this review is to describe the potential of Cempo Ireng in rice breeding program for improving food sustainability.

To examine the association of sleep quality and work from home with physical inactivity (PI) in leisure time during Covid-19 pandemic. A population-based household survey was conducted in two Bra-zilian municipalities from October to December 2020. Leisure-time physical activity (PA) was self-reported, and individuals who practiced less than 150 minutes of moderate PA or 75 minutes of vigorous PA weekly were classified as PI. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). WFH was assessed by: "Currently, how is your work routine regarding location? Associations were investigated using logistic regression and directed acyclic graphs (DAG) for the multivariate models. A total of 1,750 adults were interviewed, 69.1% were PI and 51.9% had poor sleep quality. Furthermore, 79.8% were not in WFH. In multivariate analysis, leisure PI was associated with poor sleep quality (OR:1.59: 95% CI: 1.02-2.48), and not being in WFH (OR:1.62: 95% CI: 1.05-2.50). When performing the combined analysis between these two factors, and who were not in WFH were four times more likely to be PI at leisure (OR=4.22;95%CI:2.05-8.65). The results indicate a high prevalence of PI, with poor quality sleep and non-WFH associated with leisure PI. These combined factors exacer-bated the occurrence of PI.

This article aims to systematically review the available evidence concerning the relationship between basal metabolism (BM), body composition (BC), and physical activity (PA) with central obesity. The search strategy was carried out using Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, and SciELO following the PRISMA guidelines. The STROBE checklist and the Jadad scale for quality assessment were also used. A total of 1382 studies were initially identified being 25 publications eligible for systematic data extraction. Individual studies showed that adults with waist circumference (WC) above 88 cm in women and above 102 in men had a higher risk of metabolic alterations related to high absolute energy expenditure and less maximum oxygen consumption (VO2 max). Participants with central obesity presented a high percentage of body fat (BF%) between 30.6% and 41.6%. Most of the PA intervention studies reported reductions in WC between 1.3 and 5.8 cm. In conclusion, there is a direct relationship between the components of BM with central obesity and a direct association between central obesity and BF%. PA is a protective factor that needs to be promoted to reduce WC and control central obesity as a public health problem. PROSPERO ID registration: CRD42021232917.

This research is aimed at the knowledge of the effectiveness of the material resources in the sensa-tions of exploratory procedures in 365 older people who take part in the physical activity that the Sport Municipal Institute (SMI) offers in the different sports centers assigned to it in the city of Se-ville, using a descriptive design and with a questionnaire developed and validated previously by the Delphi method; showing the relationship between the basic emotions that seniors experience when handling sport, and the materials. So it is claimed that exist a relation between older people, which practice exercise with the materials that they use on it.

This paper investigates how agroecology in Africa is researched for two purposes. First, we present evidence of links between agroecology and food and nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa. Second, we investigate which pathways of influence are dominant in the existing research and which pathways are under-represented. To achieve these objectives we anchor our analysis within feminist economics, thereby making use of the concepts of social reproduction and agency in our analysis of the literature. By employing a systematic literature review of empirical studies from African countries, starting from 1996 to 2020, we consolidate evidence that agroecology has contributed to food and nutrition security by acting toward sustainability at the farm level. However, our review shows in a second step that social and household dimensions of agroecology at the level of households and territories are not well documented in research linking agroecology to food security and nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa. Given that sustainable production practices such as agroecological practices are not mutually exclusive from the social activities of farmers and cultural contexts in which farmers are embedded, it is important to consider social and ecological processes concomitantly when assessing the value of Agroecology programs.

L-asparaginase (ASNase) is an aminohydrolase currently used in the pharmaceutical and food industries. Enzyme immobilization is an exciting option for both applications, allowing a more straightforward recovery and increased stability. High surface area and customizable porosity make carbon xerogels (CXs) promising materials for ASNase immobilization. This work describes the influence of contact time, pH, and ASNase concentration on the immobilization yield (IY) and relative recovered activity (RRA) using Central Composite Design methodology. The most promising results were obtained using CX with an average pore size of 4 nm (CX-4), reaching IY and RRA of 100%. At the optimal conditions, the ASNase-CXs biocomposite was characterized and evaluated in terms of kinetic properties and operational, thermal and pH stabilities. The immobilized ASNase onto CX-4 retained 71% of its original activity after six continuous reaction cycles, showed a good thermal stability at 37 °C (RRA of 91% after 90 min) and was able to adapt to both acidic and alkaline environments. Finally, the results indicated a 3.9-fold increase in the immobilized ASNase affinity for the substrate, confirming the potential of CXs as a support for ASNase and as a cost-effective tool for subsequent use in the therapeutic and food sectors.

Recently, it was reported that the physical cross-linking exhibited by some biopolymers could provide multiple benefits to biomedical applications. In particular, grafting thermoresponsive polymers onto biopolymers may enhance the degradability or offer other features, as ther-mothickening behavior. Thus, different interactions will affect the different hydrogen bonds and interactions from the physical cross-linking of CMC, the lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs), and the presence of the ions. This work focuses on the study of blends composed of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), poly(N-ethylacrylamide), and carboxymethyl cellulose in water and water/methanol. The molecular features, the thermoresponsive behavior, and gelation phenomena are deeply studied. The ratio defined by both homopolymers will alter the final properties and the gelation of the final structures, showing that the presence of the hydrophilic groups modifies the number and contributions of the diverse hydrogen bonds.

Introduction: The Elevation Training Mask 2.0 (ETM) has been introduced as a novel tool to allow for respiratory muscle training and altitude exposure during exercise that can improve performance and hematological markers in elite and well-trained athletes. Thus, the aim of the present study was to assess the effect of wearing ETM while training on erythropoietin (EPO), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), peak oxygen consumption (VO2max), lactate, and 1000-m kayaking performance in elite Kayaking girls. Methods: Thirty elite Kayaking girls (14 to 18-year-old) were equally and randomly assigned into mask, no mask, and control groups. The mask and no-mask groups completed 8 weeks of repeated sprint training, while the control group performed their routine kayaking training programs. Pre- and post-training tests included EPO, VEGF, VO2max, lactate, and 1000-m kayaking performance. Results: 1000-m time trial significantly decreased for mask (p < 0.001) and control (p = 0.035) groups, and was significantly lower in mask group than control (p = 0.014) and no mask (p = 0.009) groups. EPO did not show any significant changes for all groups. VEGF was increased significantly for mask (p = 0.04) and no mask (p = 0.014) groups. Lactate was decreased significantly for mask group (p = 0.025). VO2max increased significantly for no mask group (p = 0.021). Conclusion: Wearing the ETM while participating in 8 weeks of repeated sprint training might improve specific blood markers and endurance performance, especially anaerobic pathways. Performing repeated sprint training while wearing ETM has the potential to enhance performance in Kayak racing.

For the past few decades, researchers have been intrigued with glassy polymers, which have applications ranging from gas separations to corrosion protection to drug delivery systems. The techniques employed to examine the sorption and diffusion of small molecules in glassy polymers are the subject of this review. Diffusion models in glassy polymers are regulated by Fickian and non-Fickian diffusion, with non-Fickian diffusion being more prevalent. The characteristics of glassy polymers are determined by sorption isotherms, and different models have been proposed in the literature to explain sorption in glassy polymers during the last few years. This review also includes the applications of glassy polymer. Despite having so many applications, current researchers still have difficulty in implementing coating challenges due to issues like as physical ageing, which is briefly discussed in the review.

Physical inactivity increases the risk of many adverse health conditions, including the world’s major non-communicable diseases, such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and breast and colon cancers, shortening life expectancy. There are minimal medical care and personal trainers’ methods to monitor a patient’s actual physical activity types. To improve activity monitoring, we propose an artificial-intelligence-based approach to classify the physical movement activity patterns. In more detail, we employ two deep learning (DL) methods, namely a deep feed-forward neural network (DNN) and a deep recurrent neural network (RNN) for this purpose. We evaluate the proposed models on two physical movement datasets collected from several volunteers who carried tri-axial accelerometer sensors. The first dataset is from the UCI machine learning repository, which contains 14 different activities-of-daily-life (ADL) and is collected from 16 volunteers who carried a single wrist-worn tri-axial accelerometer. The second dataset includes ten other ADLs and is gathered from 8 volunteers who placed the sensors on their hips. Our experiment results show that the RNN model provides the accuracy performance compared to the state-of-the-art methods in classifying the fundamental movement patterns with an overall accuracy of 84.89% and an overall F1-score of 82.56%. Our results indicate that the proposed method will provide the medical doctors and trainers a promising way to precisely track and understand a patient’s physical activities for better treatment.

Enhance®Fitness (EF) is an evidence-based exercise program recommended for management of osteoarthritis (OA). However, access to EF is limited in rural areas. Accordingly, we evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of remotely delivered EF in rural, community-dwelling older adults with symptomatic knee OA. A single arm pilot trial of remotely delivered EF classes was conducted. Videoconferencing was used to livestream the instructor-led, 1-hour EF classes 3 days/week for 12 weeks. Outcomes were assessed at baseline and immediately post-intervention. A total of 15 participants were enrolled with a median age of 70 years (interquartile range [IQR]: 67-75) and 14 (93%) were women. Median EF class attendance rate was 91% (IQR: 85-94%). Knee pain, as measured by the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), improved significantly from baseline to 12-week endpoint (mean difference=-11.4 [95% CI:-20.9, -2.0); P=0.02). In addition, participants’ self-reported knee function improved significantly (mean difference in KOOS Function score=-11.8 [95% CI:-18.4, -5.2]; P&lt;0.01) as well as their physical capacity (mean difference in Timed Up and Go test time=1.8 seconds [95% CI: 0.2, 3.4]; P=0.03). All participants (100%) were very satisfied with remotely delivered EF classes and there were no serious adverse events. Findings from this pilot trial indicate that remotely delivered EF is feasible and acceptable in rural older adults with knee OA.

Strategies implemented worldwide to contain COVID-19 outbreaks varied in severity across different countries, and established a new normal for work and school life (i.e. from home) for many people, reducing opportunities for physical activity. Positive relationships of physical activity with both mental and physical health are well recognised, therefore the aim was to ascertain how New Zealand’s lockdown restrictions impacted physical activity and mental health and wellbeing. Participants (n=4007; mean±SD: age 46.5±14.7y, 72% female, 80.7% New Zealand European) completed (10–26 April 2020) an online amalgamated survey (Qualtrics): International Physical Activity Questionnaire: Short Form; Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-9; World Health Organization-Five Well-being Index; Stages of Change Scale. Positive dose response relationships between physical activity levels and wellbeing scores were demonstrated for estimates that were unadjusted (moderate activity OR 3.79, CI 2.88-4.92; high activity OR 8.04, CI 6.07-10.7) and adjusted (confounding variables: age, gender, socioeconomic status, time sitting, co-morbidities) (moderate activity 1.57, CI 1.11-2.52; high activity 2.85, CI 1.97-4.14). The study results support previous research demonstrating beneficial effects of regular physical activity on mental health and wellbeing. Governments may use such results to promote meeting physical activity guidelines in order to protect mental health and wellbeing during the ongoing COVID-19 and future pandemics.

With a longer-term goal of addressing the comparative behavior of the aqueous halides F$^-$, Cl$^-$, Br$^-$, and I$^-$ on the basis of quasi-chemical theory (QCT), here we study structures and free energies of hydration clusters for those anions. We confirm that energetically optimal $(\mathrm{H_2O})_n\mathrm{X}$ clusters, with X = Cl$^-$, Br$^-$, and I$^-$, exhibit \emph{surface} hydration structures. Computed free energies based on optimized surface hydration structures utilizing a harmonic approximation, typically (but not always) disagree with experimental free energies. To remedy the harmonic approximation, we utilize single-point electronic structure calculations on cluster geometries sampled from an AIMD (\emph{ab initio} molecular dynamics) simulation stream. This \emph{rough-landscape} procedure is broadly satisfactory and suggests unfavorable ligand crowding as the physical effect corrected. Nevertheless, this procedure can break down when $n \gtrsim 4$, with the characteristic discrepancy resulting from a relaxed definition of clustering in the identification of $(\mathrm{H_2O})_n\mathrm{X}$ clusters, including ramified structures natural in \emph{physical cluster theories.} With ramified structures, the central equation for the present rough-landscape approach can acquire some inconsistency. Extension of these physical cluster theories in the direction of QCT should remedy that issue, and should be the next step in this research direction.

This study examined the effect of an educational hybrid physical education (PE) intervention on cognitive performance and academic achievement in adolescents. A 9-month group-randomized controlled trial was conducted in 150 participants (age: 14.63 ± 1.38) allocated into control group (CG, n = 37) and experimental group (EG, n = 113). Inhibition, verbal fluency, planning and academic achievement were assessed. Significant differences were observed in the post-test for cognitive inhibition, verbal fluency in animals, and the average from verbal fluency in favour of the EG. With regard to the intervention, verbal fluency in animals, verbal fluency in vegetables, the average of verbal fluency, cognitive inhibition, language, the average of all subjects, the average of all subjects except PE, and the average from the core subjects) increased significantly in the EG. The last five variables (the academic ones and cognitive inhibition) also increased in the CG, in addition to mathematics. This study contributes to the knowledge by suggesting that both methodologies produced improvements in the measured variables, but the use of a hybrid program based on TPSR and gamification strategies produce improvements in cognitive performance, specifically through the cognitive inhibition and verbal fluency.

The aim of the study was to examine the use of video-based communication and its association with loneliness, mental health and quality of life in older adults (60-69 years versus 70+ years) during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in Norway, UK, USA and Australia during April/May 2020, and 836 participants in the relevant age groups were included in the analysis. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between use of video-based communication tools and loneliness, mental health and quality of life within age groups, while adjusting by sociodemographic variables. Video-based communication tools were found to be more often used among participants aged 60-69 years (60.1%), compared to participants aged 70 or above (51.8%, p < 0.05). Adjusting for all variables, use of video-based communication was associated with less loneliness (β = -0.12, p < 0.01) and higher quality of life (β = 0.14, p < 0.01) among participants aged 60-69 years, while no associations occurred for participants in the oldest age group. The use of video-based communication tools was therefore associated with favorable psychological outcomes among participants in their sixties, but not among participants in the oldest age group. The study results support the notion that age may influence the association between use of video-based communication tools and psychological outcomes amongst older people.

We present a new Multiple-Observations (MO) helper data scheme for secret-key binding to an SRAM PUF. This MO scheme binds a single key to multiple enrollment observations of the SRAM PUF. Performance is improved in comparison to classic schemes which generate helper data based on a single enrollment observation. The performance increase can be explained by the fact that the reliabilities of the different SRAM cells are modeled (implicitly) in the helper data. We prove that the scheme achieves secret-key capacity for any number of enrollment observations, and, therefore it is optimal. We evaluate performance of the scheme using Monte Carlo simulations, where an off-the-shelf LDPC code is used to implement the linear error-correcting code. Another scheme that models the reliabilities of the SRAM cells is the so-called Soft-Decision (SD) helper data scheme. The SD scheme considers the one-probabilities of the SRAM cells as an input, which in practice are not observable. We present a new strategy for the SD scheme that considers the binary SRAM-PUF observations as an input instead and show that the new strategy is optimal and achieves the same reconstruction performance as the MO scheme. Finally, we present a variation on the MO helper data scheme that updates the helper data sequentially after each successful reconstruction of the key. As a result, the error-correcting performance of the scheme is improved over time.

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) resulted in lockdowns and social distancing measures enforced by governments. Using a cross-sectional design, this study aimed to identify changes in adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) and physical activity (PA) and associations with personality, during lockdown in Qatar. A sample of 543 participants was recruited online between April and May 2020. Results showed a reduction in Mediterranean diet (MD) adherence during lockdown (5.9 ± 0.08) compared to before lockdown (6.1 ± 0.08) (p ˂ 0.001). Although there was an increase in the percentage of participants who consumed ≥4 tablespoons olive oil per day (9% vs 12%; p ˂ 0.001), vegetables (54.3% vs 58.7%; p = 0.005), legumes (11.8% vs 15.3%; p = 0.007) and sofrito (70.9% vs 77.3%; p ˂ 0.001), there was also a significant decrease in the percentage of participants who consumed fresh fruit (39.4% vs 15.8%; p ˂ 0.001) and fish/seafood (5.9% vs 3.9%; p = 0.035) and an increase in saturated fat consumption (45.9% vs 53.8%; p ˂ 0.001), during lockdown compared to before lockdown. Participants who scored high in the extraversion personality dimension had a higher MD adherence (B = 0.84; 95% CI = 0.04, 1.64; p = 0.039) before lockdown compared to participants who scored high in the agreeableness personality dimension, although this difference did not reach statistical significance during lockdown. Those who scored high in openness had the lowest change in MD adherence score (B = -0.31; 95% CI = -0.58, -0.04; p = 0.026). Total PA (B = -506.26; 95% CI = -678.60, -333.92; p ˂ 0.001), vigorous activity (B = -155.95; 95% CI = -274.64, - 38.21; p = 0.010), moderate activity (B = -93.04; 95% CI = -148.07, -38.01; p = 0.010) and walking (B = -257.27; 95% CI = -337.87, -176.67; p ˂ 0.001) were decreased during lockdown, while sitting was increased compared to before lockdown (B = 940.91, 95% CI = 831.9, 1049.90; p ˂ 0.001). Openness was positively associated with all PA (B = 562.2; 95% CI = 62.7, 106.7; p = 0.027), including walking (B = 241.7; 95 % CI = 29.4, 454.0; p = 0.026) and negatively associated with sitting (B= -303.4; 95% CI = -590.0; -16.8; p = 0.038) when compared to those with high agreeableness scores, before lockdown. During lockdown, the time spent sitting was lower in those with high scores on neuroticism when compared to those with high agreeableness scores (B= -619.5; 95 % CI = -1215,-23.9; p = 0.042). Differential changes in lifestyle habits by personality dimensions during lockdown, suggest the need to tailor lifestyle interventions based on people’s personality types, for more effective lifestyle change.

Tree decline resulting from climate change results in physiological weaknesses, attack by harmful pests and pathogen, and threatens forest ecosystem stability. In the work described here, the effects of drought on wood density, tree ring width, and variations in vessel morphology were investigated in Persian oak (Quercus brantii) in the forests of the Zagros Mountains, Ilam province, western Iran. Radial discs were cut from trunks of declined and healthy trees and wood blocks cut radially from the sapwood, heartwood, and juvenile core. Observations were made on transverse sections from the blocks using microscopy. In trees with decline symptoms, wood density was greater than the healthy trees. Furthermore, declining trees had the narrowest ring width, reduced vessel diameter, vessel area, and highest number of vessels and tylose in pith towards bark. It was concluded that changes in anatomical features are associated with the weakening of the trees and are components in declining tree health.

The time’s arrow of macroscopic physical phenomenon is reflected by irreversible physical process, which essentially occurs from small probability state to high probability state. In this paper, simplified models are proposed to understand the macroscopic physical process. In order to describe the information of a physical system, we defined the full self-information as "information height" to describe the complexity or difficulty of a macrostate of physical system. In this way, the direction of macroscopic physical process is from high information height to low information height. We can judge the direction of physical process by the information height. If we want the macroscopic physical process to evolve from the low information height state to the high information height state, the system need to add extra information and corresponding energy to increase the information height.

Obesity is a serious problem of our society. A long-term positive trend in body weight gain continues to persist. Paediatric obesity arises from a changed lifestyle of children, characterised by an important restriction of their spontaneous physical activity. A lack of physical activity is one of the most important causes of paediatric obesity associated with a number of serious disorders. The paper evaluates the effect of physical activity on obesity in second stage pupils of elementary schools in the region of Ústí nad Labem. In their research survey, the authors determine the incidence of obesity and overweight as well as the relationship between physical activity and obesity in second stage pupils of elementary schools in the region of Ústí nad Labem. The data collection was based on questions of the CAV 2001 questionnaire and BMI-for-age. As revealed by the research survey, problems with obesity and overweight are present particularly in boys. Only a third of boys and girls engage in sufficient physical activity. At the same time, differences were shown in the study group where groups with higher BMI values had lower values of physical activity. Subsequently, a relationship was shown between those who use their bicycle as a means of transport and spend their leisure time bicycling at the same time. More than two thirds of the study subjects reported using a bicycle as a means of transport and using their bicycle in their leisure time as a means of being active; 93% of these subjects had normal body weight. Our results confirm the continued pandemic prevalence of obesity and indicate that appropriate physical activity should be included in the everyday life of children both at school and outside of school.

Currently, in the scientific literature there is a great interest on the study of strategies to implement patient-centered care. One of the main tools for this is the therapeutic relationship. Some studies suggest that the perception of the environment in which the physical therapy treatment takes place can influence the perception of its quality. A qualitative study using focus groups was performed. Two researchers conducted the focus groups, using a topic guide with predetermined questions. The focus group discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically using a modified grounded theory approach. The setting was three hospitals and six public health centers located in Spain. The inclusion criteria were patients who had received a minimum of 15 physical therapy sessions and with no communication impairments. Thirty-one participants in four focus groups. Participants described a series of specific experiences relating to the environment, which they felt were influential in the establishment of therapeutic patient-centered relationships, including eight physical factors and five organizational factors. The results of this study highlight environmental factors that affect the quality of the therapeutic patient-centered relationship in physical therapy and emphasize the need for physical therapists and administrators to rethink the situation and propose strategies for improvement.

Low levels of physical activity (PA) and sedentarism are associated with the onset of different pathologies and health problems. Regular physical activity has been linked with being beneficial to the health of the general population. Within this framework of analysis, the aim of the present study is to analyse the existing association between the time spent doing physical activity and the expressed motives for doing so, from which the first innovative aspect of the paper emerges: the use of the time spent doing PA as a study variable of the phenomenon. The data analysed come from the latest special Eurobarometer survey about the sport and physical activity done in Europe. Using an exploratory factorial analysis and a structural equations model, we were able to find a six-dimensional factorial model that explains the reasons for doing PA, demonstrating that there is no relationship between the reasons for and time spent doing PA. Therefore, motivation is not a variable that explains the time spent doing PA and another type of variable must be used to explain the phenomenon if PA is to be incentivised.

The landscape of centralized cloud computing is now changing to distributed and decentralized clouds with promising impacts on energy consumption, resource availability, resilience, and customer experience. This research highlights the impacts of emerging IT trends, namely, 5G wireless technology, blockchain, and industrial Artificial Intelligence (AI) in development and realization of the next generation of cloud computing. Integration of these technologies in cyber-physical system and cloud manufacturing paradigms is explained and a unified edge-fog-cloud architecture is proposed for successful implementation in manufacturing systems.

Along with environmental pollutions, urban planning has been connected to public health. The research indicates that the quality of built environments plays an important role in reducing mental disorders and overall health. The structure and shape of the city are considered as one of the factors influencing happiness and health in urban communities and the type of the daily activities of citizens. The aim of this study was to promote physical activity in the main structure of the city via urban design in a way that the main form and morphology of the city can encourage citizens to move around and have physical activity within the city. Functional, physical, cultural-social, and perceptual-visual features are regarded as the most important and effective criteria in increasing physical activities in urban spaces based on literature review. The environmental quality of urban spaces and their role in the physical activities of citizens in urban spaces were assessed by using the questionnaire tool and analytical network process (ANP) of structural equation modeling. Further, the space syntax method was utilized to evaluate the role of the spatial integration of urban spaces on improving physical activities. Based on the results, the consideration of functional diversity, spatial flexibility and integration, security, and the aesthetic and visual quality of urban spaces plays an important role in improving the physical health of citizens in urban spaces. Further, more physical activities, including motivation for walking and consequently, the sense of public health and happiness, were observed in the streets having higher linkage and space syntax indexes with their surrounding texture.

The incidence of cancer in organ transplant patients is higher than in the non-transplanted population. The incidence increases with increasing age. The use of Fludeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/CT (PET/CT) is sensitive and specific to detect PTLD LD compared with conventional CT imaging. We analyzed the medical data of 127 patients aged over 60 years, who underwent heart transplantation in the above period, who have been practicing early CT-PET for diagnostic purposes between February 2007 and October 2018. Of 127 consecutive patients who underwent CT-PET, SUVs up than 4, were found in 84 patients of which 20 were affected by PTLDs, seven patients were affected by chronic non neoplastic inflammatory diseases, the remainder were affected by other neoplasms. The favorable effect of physical activity programs on cardiorespiratory and psychomotor function occur in all patients. In conclusion, CT-PET at the first doubts about the possibility of the development of neoplasms has allowed a diagnosis and then a treatment more quickly. Education in behavioral norms that improve the patient's quality of life is necessary.

Future cyber-physical systems may extend over broad geographical areas, like cities or regions, thus requiring the deployment of large real-time networks. A strategy to guarantee predictable communication over such networks is to synthesize an offline time-triggered communication schedule. However, this synthesis problem is computationally hard (NP-complete), and existing approaches do not scale satisfactorily to the required network sizes. This article presents a segmented offline synthesis method which substantially reduces this limitation, being able to generate time-triggered schedules for large hybrid (wired and wireless) networks. We also present a series of algorithms and optimizations that increase the performance and compactness of the obtained schedules while solving some of the problems inherent to segmented approaches. We evaluate our approach on a set of realistic large-size multi-hop networks, significantly larger than those considered in the existing literature. The results show that our segmentation reduces the synthesis time up to two orders of magnitude.

Based on historical facts, revisited from a present-day perspective, and on the documented opinions of the scientists involved in the discovery themselves, strong arguments are given in favor of a proposal to include prominent astronomer Vesto Slipher to the suggested addition of Georges Lemaître's name to Hubble's law on the expansion of the Universe, and thus eventually call it Hubble-Lemaître-Slipher's (HLS) law.

Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) is the integration of computation and physical process that makes a complete system such as the physical components, networked systems, embedded computers and software and linking together of devices and sensors for information sharing. Cyber Physical Systems are Smart Systems that comprises of the merging and integration of Industry Control Systems, Critical Infrastructures, Internet of Things (IoT) and Embedded Systems. Major industries such as the Chemical and Industrial Plants, Aviation Systems, National Grid, the Stock Exchange, Military Systems, and others depends heavily on these Cyber Physical Systems for financial and economic growth. The benefits of CPS nationally and globally are in the areas of Manufacturing, Energy, Transport, Healthcare and Communication. Cyber Physical Systems incorporates Physical systems, Digital systems and Human elements on network infrastructures to provide interactive systems. However, these three key components the Physical systems, Digital systems and Human elements may have inherent threats and vulnerabilities on them that may run the risk of being compromise, exploited, attacked or hacked. Cybercriminals in their quest to bring down these systems and may cause disruption of services either for fame, revenge, political motive, economic war, cyber terrorism and cyber war. The study seeks to review the risks that are associated with these three key components Physical systems, Digital systems and Human elements. The study considered four main risk mitigation goals for this purpose, and these are Business Value, Organizational Requirements, Threat Agent and Impact based on the review results. We used Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) to determine the relative importance of these goals that contributes to developing cybercrime and rich in CPS. For the results, the prioritized goals are then used to assess the risks using a semi-quantitative approach to determine the net threat level.

To understand the health impacts of “hikikomori” lifestyle and to establish its first comprehensive health profile, a cross-sectional study was designed to measure how well the cases of hikikomori youths of Hong Kong were living, in terms of social, mental and physical aspects. This study involved 104 eligible participants at age 19.02 year-old who had completed the set of questionnaires and a series of anthropometric and physical health measurements. Despite SF36 score of 84.0 indicated good physical functioning in general, participants were lived sedentarily with high incidence of hypertension at 15.4% and prehypertension at 31.7%. Occurrence of hypertension in cases living as hikikomori >6 months was 3-times higher than those newly onset cases. The blood pressure levels were correlated with age and all obesity index parameters measured including waist circumference and body mass index. Half of the hypertensive cases involved the elevation of systolic blood pressure, which suggested higher odds of cardiovascular complications. Participants were mentally stable living with moderate levels of perceived stress and state anxiety, but borderline clinical depression. In conclusion, the hikikomori lifestyle could be a risk behavior that may harm the younger generation physically by promoting obesity and hypertension and probably other chronic illnesses.

Many middle-aged and older adults (MAOA) do not engage in sufficient physical activity (PA) despite its well-documented benefits for healthy aging. Existing PA interventions often fail to reach or engage the target population effectively. This study investigates MAOA's preferences for recruitment strategies to optimize the reach and uptake of PA interventions, thereby enhancing their impact on healthy aging and public health. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 39 MAOA participants (69% female, mean age = 69.46, SD = 7.07), guided by McGuire's Theory on Persuasive Communication. Factors related to the source, message content, channel, receiver characteristics, and target behavior of recruitment strategies were analyzed. Findings suggest a preference for trustworthy sources (e.g., healthcare professionals over commercial entities) and positive, non-ageist messaging. MAOA vary in channel preferences but emphasize the importance of personalization. Despite heterogeneity, MAOA commonly perceive themselves as sufficiently active, necessitating improving knowledge on what constitutes sufficient PA, and easy enrollment or trying-out interventions. Tailoring recruitment strategies to diverse MAOA segments, based on age, seems crucial for effective engagement. Future research could explore quantitative research into how communication factors relate to various target population characteristics.

Soil organic matter (SOM) is important for the global carbon cycle, and hyperspectral remote sensing has proven a promising method for fast SOM content estimation. However, soil physical properties significantly affect the sensitivity of satellite hyperspectral imaging to SOM, leading to poor generalization ability of the estimation model. This study aims to improve the spatiotemporal transferability of the SOM prediction model by alleviating the coupling effect of soil physical properties on the spectra. Based on satellite hyperspectral images and soil physical variables, including soil moisture (SM), soil surface roughness (root mean squared height, RMSH), and soil bulk weight (SBW), a soil spectral correction strategy was established based on the information unmixing method. Two important grain-producing areas in Northeast China were selected as study areas to verify the performance and transferability of the spectral correction model and SOM content prediction model. The results showed that soil spectral corrections based on fourth-order polynomials and the XG-Boost algorithm had excellent accuracy and generalization ability, with residual predictive deviations (RPD) exceeding 1.4 in almost all bands. In addition, when the soil spectral correction strategy was adopted, the accuracy of the SOM prediction model and the generalization ability after model migration were significantly improved. The SOM prediction accuracy based on the XG-Boost corrected spectrum was the highest, with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.76, root mean square error (RMSE) of 5.74 g/kg, and RPD of 1.68. The prediction accuracy, R2, RMSE, and RPD of the model after migration were 0.72, 6.71 g/kg, and 1.53, respectively. Compared with the direct migration prediction of the model, adopting the soil spectral correction strategy based on fourth-order polynomials and XG-Boost reduced the RMSE of the SOM prediction results by 57.90% and 60.27%, respectively. The performance comparison highlighted the advantages of considering soil physical properties in regional-scale SOM prediction.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an orphan disease characterized by progressive degeneration of spinal alpha motor neurons. In recent years, nusinersen and several other drugs have been approved for the treatment of this disease. Transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) modulates spinal neuronal networks, resulting in changes in locomotion and posture in patients with severe spinal cord injury and stroke. We hypothesize that tSCS can activate motor neurons that are intact and restored by medication, slow the decline in motor activity, and contribute to the development of motor skills in SMA patients. Thirty-seven children and adults with SMA types 2 and 3 participated in the study. The median duration of drug treatment was over 20 months. Application of tSCS was performed during physical therapy for 20-40 minutes per day for ~12 days. Outcome measures were specific SMA motor scales, goniometry of contractured joints, forced vital capacity. Significant increases in motor function, improved respiratory function, and decreased contracture were observed in both types 2 and 3 SMA participants. The magnitude of functional changes was not associated with participants age. Further studies are needed to elucidate the reasons for the beneficial effects of spinal cord electrical stimulation in SMA.

Thermaikos Gulf (TG) is a semi-enclosed, river-influenced, marine system situated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, sustaining both urban coastal regions and ecologically preserved natural areas. Facing a plethora of environmental and anthropogenic pressures, the TG serves as a critical nexus where human activities intersect with marine ecosystems. The second largest city of Greece, Thessaloniki, is located in the northern part of the gulf, while a large environmentally protected zone with multiple river deltas is lying along its western coasts. The quality and health of the TG’s marine environment are tightly linked to the socioeconomic activities of the coastal communities comprising approximately 1.5 million inhabitants. The main features of TG’s environmental dynamics and ecological status have been scrutinized by dedicated research endeavours during the last 50 years. This review synthesizes the seminal findings of these investigations, offering an evaluation of their contribution to research, their present collective impact, and their trajectory toward the future. A severe deterioration of the TG’s environmental quality was detected in the 1970s and 1980s when treatment of urban wastewater was completely absent. A steady trend of recovery was observed after the 1990s, however without achieving, so far, the goal of a “good environmental state”, mandated by national legislation and European directives. The most important research gaps and uncertainties are also discussed and specific recommendations for the improvement of monitoring and understanding about the physical, biochemical, and ecological state of the gulf are provided. The most significant discrepancy is related to the fragmentary monitoring of the TG in both space (partial coverage) and time (temporal gaps), which has been intensified after 2010 due to the reduced funding for environmental research and protection under the severe Greek economic recession. This review aspires to highlight the importance of bolstering monitoring initiatives that can provide continuous observations and further understanding on the TG's ecological and physicochemical conditions. Targeted recommendations, aimed at ameliorating the fragmented monitoring processes, are also provided, advocating for a holistic approach that can safeguard the ecological integrity of the Thermaikos Gulf and uphold its role as a crucial link to marine biodiversity and sustainability in the Mediterranean basin.

Background Popular movement-based injury risk screens have been shown to lack predictive precision, leading to interest in multifactorial models. Furthermore, there is a lack of research regarding injury risk assessment for those currently or planning to be recreationally active. This study aims to provide injury risk insights by analyzing multifactorial injury risk models and as-sociated clinical measures in the U.S. population. Methods Data related to injury, inflammatory markers, physical functioning, body composition, physical activity, and other variables from 21,033 respondents were extracted from NHANES. Odds ratios for self-reported injury were calculated for single predictors and risk models. Case-control and principal component analyses (PCA) were conducted to elucidate confounders and identify risk factor clusters, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to test the precision of a risk factor cluster to identify pain points and functional difficulties. Results Sociodemographic, individual, and lifestyle factors were strongly associated with higher odds of injury. Increases in fibrinogen and C-reactive protein were significantly associated with all risk groups. Membership to the high-risk group (age over 40, obesity, no muscle-strengthening activities, sedentary lifestyle, and low back pain) predicted at least one functional difficulty with 67.4% sensitivity and 87.2% specificity. In the injury group, bone turnover markers were higher, yet confounded by age and there was a significantly higher prevalence of self-reported osteoporosis compared to the control. In males, low testosterone was associated with injury, and higher estradiol was associated with pain and functional difficulties. In females, higher levels of follicle-stimulating hormone were associated with functional difficulties. PCA revealed four high-risk profiles, with markers and activities showing distinct loadings. Conclusion A comprehensive approach to injury risk assessment should consider the nexus of aging, lifestyle, and chronic disease to enhance tailored injury prevention strategies, fostering safe and effective physical activity participation and reducing the burden of musculoskeletal disorders.

How hands-on gardening impacts behaviors including healthy eating and physical activity during early childhood can be of critical importance for preventing early onsets of obesity. This research investigates how participating in hands-on gardening impacts preschoolers’ (3-5 years old) physical activity (measured by accelerometers) in childcare centers in the Semi-Arid Climate Zone. The research was conducted in eight licensed childcare centers located in West Texas with 149 children (n=149). Four childcare centers in the experimental group received hands-on garden interventions; the other four in the control group did not. In both experimental (intervention) and control (non-intervention) centers, children wore Actigraph GT3X+ accelerometers continuously for 5 days before and for 5 days after intervention (a total of 10 days). Results show that the duration of sedentary behavior of children in the experimental (intervention) group significantly decreased compared to children in the control (non-intervention) group. The finding suggests that the positive effects of childcare hands-on gardening on physical activity extend to semi-arid climate zones where gardening is challenging due to high temperatures and lack of annual rainfall. The research emphasizes the critical need to incorporate hands-on gardening in childcare centers as an obesity prevention strategy nationally in the U.S. and beyond.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of Blazepod technology when incorporated with various training regimens on the essential elements of physical fitness in volleyball, such as agility, speed, visual response time, and vertical leap. Thirty-six participants (age :17.33±0.48 y, height: 183.78±6.34 cm, weight: 77.14±5.16 kg) were in-volved in this study. In randomized design, three equal groups with two experimental groups and one control group were involved in the study over a period of six weeks: (GE1) used Blazepod technology to workout at a low level; (GE2) used Blazepod technology to workout at a higher intensity; (CG) did not employ Blazepod technology, but it adhered to the same fundamental training curriculum. We conducted agility, speed, reaction time, and vertical jump tests before, midway and after the study to determine optimal training volume, intensity, and frequency. A significant main effect of time (P0.01), and time×group interaction (P>0.001) were found for all tests. Post hoc test showed that the two experimental groups gadget significantly improved in all performance variables (P

Shoulder tendinopathies produce pain and reduce functionality. The aim of this randomized clinical trial was to analyze the effects of Percutaneous electrolysis (PE), Percutaneous peripheral Nerve Stimulation (PNS) and eccentric exercise (EE), on pain (NPRS), strength, electromyographic activity, ultrasound characteristics of the tendon (echogenicity, thickness and hypervascularization) and functionality (DASH and SPADI) on individuals with supraspinatus tendinopathy. Participants (n=50) were divided into two groups, they received 4 treatment sessions, one per week, of PE and PNS (n=25) or 10 treatment sessions of TENS and US (n=25). Both groups performed EE program consisted of 3 sets of 10 repetitions of each of the 3 exercises, twice a day, during the 4 weeks. Follow-up was carried out at 4, 12 and 24 weeks after the start of the intervention. There are statistically significant differences in the analysis between groups (p&lt;0.001) in the post-treatment and follow-up measurements favorable to the PE+PNS+EE treatment on pain (NPRS), strength, supraspinatus electromyographic amplitude, ultrasound characteristics of the tendon (echogenicity, thickness and hypervascularization) and DASH and SPADI questionnaires. The combined treatment PE, PNS and EE is an effective option in the clinical management of tendinopathies, with positive results in the short and long term on the variables studied.

Mangroves offer vital ecological advantages including air and water filtration, coastal and estuarine habitat provision, sediment stabilization, and wave energy absorption. Their intricate root systems play a key role in safeguarding shorelines from tsunamis and erosive storms by dissipating wave energy. Moreover, mangroves shield against boat wakes and wind-waves, bolstering shoreline defense. Wave dissipation is a function of forest width, tree diameter, and forest density. Restoration efforts of juvenile mangroves in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon (IRL) aim to reduce wave energy in areas vulnerable to erosion. Physical model testing of wave dissipation through mangroves is limited due to the complexity in representing the mangrove structure, where prop roots are non-uniform in both diameter and location. Previous studies have quantified wave dissipating effects through use of scaled and parameterized mangrove structures. This study measures the dissipation effects of live mangroves in a wave flume, forced by conditions representative of the IRL. These measurements are used to validate a parameterized dowel model. Error between wave attenuation factors for the live mangrove and dowel system was on average 2.5%. Validation of the modularized dowel system allowed for further parameterized testing to understand forest structure effects, such as sediment stabilization and wave attenuation.

Purposes: Engaging in regular physical activity has been consistently linked to improved physical health and academic performance. Despite its known benefits, there is a concerning trend of decreased physical activity among children globally. The study primarily aims to investigate the level of physical activity among junior high school students in Taiyuan and analyze the main affecting factors from a socio-ecological perspective. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted, involving 650 junior high school students from 7 schools in Taiyuan, and 648 valid questionnaires were collected. Physical activity levels were assessed using the Children’s Leisure Activities Study Survey Questionnaire. Factors influencing physical activity were evaluated through the Student Perceived Factors Affecting Physical Activity Questionnaire. Results: In this study, students from the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades participated in physical activities, averaging 214.5 minutes per week in moderate-intensity and 25 minutes in high-intensity activities, cumulatively averaging 280 minutes weekly. Notably, a significant disparity (p<0.05) was observed in the combined duration of moderate and high-intensity activities, with male students engaging more time compared to their female counterparts (307.500 vs 255.000 minutes). This variance extended across different grades, particularly evident in 8th graders who recorded the highest weekly high-intensity activity duration (31.000 minutes) and overall physical activity time (320.500 minutes), surpassing the 7th graders. Furthermore, an exploratory factor analysis of a 32-item questionnaire, designed to identify determinants of physical activity, revealed six principal components. These components were found to positively correlate with both moderate and high-intensity physical activities. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the necessity for educational institutions and community programmes to provide engaging physical activities, especially during weekends. It highlights the importance of tailoring physical education curricula to address gender and grade differences and investing in quality sports equipment and facilities by schools and local governments.

The fifth Industrial revolution (I5.0) prioritizes resilience and sustainability, integrating cognitive cyber-physical systems and advanced technologies to enhance machining processes. Numerous research studies have been conducted to optimize machining operations by identifying and reducing the sources of uncertainty and estimating the optimal cutting parameters. Virtual modeling and Tool Condition Monitoring (TCM) methodologies have been developed to assess the cutting states during machining processes. With a precise estimation of cutting states, the safety margin necessary to deal with the uncertainties can be reduced, resulting in improved process productivity. This paper reviews the recent advances in high-performance machining systems with a focus on the cyber-physical models developed for the cutting operation of difficult-to-cut materials using cemented carbide tools. An overview of the literature and background on the advances in the offline and online process optimization approaches have been presented. Process optimization objectives such as tool life utilization, dynamic stability, enhanced productivity, improved machined part quality, and reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions are independently investigated for the offline and online optimization methods. Addressing the critical objectives and constraints prevalent in industrial applications, the paper explores the challenges and opportunities inherent in developing a robust cyber-physical optimization system