Revealing deterministic structures in click-evoked otoacoustic emissions.
Click-evoked otoacoustic emissions (CEOAEs) were studied by means of recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) and were found to be endowed with a relevant amount of deterministic structuring. Such a structure showed highly significant correlation with the clinical evaluation of the signal over a data set including 56 signals. Moreover, 1) one of the RQA variables, Trend, was very sensitive to phase transitions in the dynamical regime of CEOAEs, and 2) appropriate use of principal component analysis proved able to isolate the individual character of the studied signals. These results are of general interest for the study of auditory signal transduction and generation mechanisms.
Influence of Geographical Area and Living Setting on Children's Weight Status, Motor Coordination, and Physical Activity
This study was aimed (i) to examine the effect of living setting (rural vs. urban), geographical area (North vs. Center vs. South), and gender (boys vs. girls) on weight status, motor coordination, and physical activity (PA) level of Italian school-age children; (ii) to examine differences in the neighborhood walkability of different school areas from different geographical areas and living settings; and (iii) to examine whether motor coordination, PA level, geographical areas, living setting, neighborhood walkability, and gender could predict children's weight status. We assessed anthropometric parameters, gross motor coordination, and PA level in 1,549 children aged between 8 and 13 years…