showing 36 of ~574560 from 574555 documents
Older Physical Education Teachers’ Wellbeing at Work and Its Challenges
2022
This article examines older physical education (PE) teachers’ wellbeing over the course of their career in Finland. The study highlights challenges to physical and mental functioning as well as how teachers respond to these challenges. The six interviewees were over 55-year-old PE teachers, whose career had lasted for more than 30 years. Qualitative methods were used in the collection, transcription and analysis of the research data. The qualitative analysis consisted of a series of interpretations that visualised the world described by the interviewees. All the research participants had physical problems that affected their teaching and make teachers consider a potential career c…
Teacher as creator: Orchestrating the learning environment to promote learner development
2022
Sociocultural theory (SCT) is a powerful basis for exploring and guiding L2 (second/foreign language) learner development. For the most part, however, the focus of classroom SCT-L2 has been on single activities, for example, teacher mediation of learners’ writing process or peer scaffolding. In this paper, we expand on these studies, building on Vygotsky’s (1997) metaphor of teacher as a creator of learner development. We propose how activities (1) where agency for guiding development lies with learners, (2) where the teacher takes the lead in guiding learner development, and (3) where opportunities for development emerge in dialogical interaction between the teacher and learners can be or…
Palliative Care Needs and Clinical Features Related to Short-Term Mortality in Patients Enrolled in a Heart Failure Unit
2022
(1) Background: Heart failure (HF) is a chronic and complex pathology requiring continuous patient management due to clinical instability, associated comorbidity, and extensive pharmacological treatment. Its unpredictable course makes the advanced stages challenging to recognize and raises the need for palliative care. This study aims to identify palliative care needs in HF patients and describe clinical features related to short-term mortality. (2) Methods: A descriptive, observational, cross-sectional, and retrospective study was carried out in an HF unit of a Spanish tertiary hospital. Patients’ socio-demographic and clinical data were collected from clinical records, and different…
Triple-Negativity Identifies a Subgroup of Patients with Better Overall Survival in Essential Thrombocythemia
2022
Essential thrombocythemia, as defined by the WHO in 2016, is a Philadelphia-negative chronic myeloproliferative neoplasm showing a better prognosis than polycythemia vera and myelofibrosis. In a variable percentage, patients with essential thrombocythemia show none of the known driver-gene mutations that may occur on JAK2, CALR, and MPL genes. Such patients are classified as triple-negative and their clinical features and prognosis have not been described with precision yet. In this study, we evaluated some of the characteristics of this population by comparing them with those of patients with driver-gene mutated ET. Data from 266 consecutive essential thrombocythemia patients were analysed…
Recent extreme drought events in the Amazon rainforest: assessment of different precipitation and evapotranspiration datasets and drought indicators
2022
Over the last decades, the Amazon rainforest has been hit by multiple severe drought events. Here, we assess the severity and spatial extent of the extreme drought years 2005, 2010 and 2015/16 in the Amazon region and their impacts on the regional carbon cycle. As an indicator of drought stress in the Amazon rainforest, we use the widely applied maximum cumulative water deficit (MCWD). Evaluating nine state-of-the-art precipitation datasets for the Amazon region, we find that the spatial extent of the drought in 2005 ranges from 2.2 to 3.0 (mean =2.7) ×106 km2 (37 %–51 % of the Amazon basin, mean =45 %), where MCWD indicates at least moderate drought conditions (relative MCWD anomaly <-0…
The association of cannabis use with fast-food consumption, overweight, and obesity among adolescents aged 12-15 years from 28 countries
2022
Background: Cannabis legalization and use have risen globally. However, the association between cannabis use, eating behaviors and body weight among adolescents is yet unexplored. Objectives: This study examined the association between cannabis use, fast-food consumption, overweight and obesity in 28 countries using data from the 2010–2016 Global School-Based Student Health Survey. Methods: Multivariable logistic regression and meta-analysis were performed among a sample of 83,726 adolescents (48.7% females) aged 12–15 years, mean (SD) age of 13.8 (0.9) years. Results: The overall prevalence of cannabis use (in past 30 days) and fast-food consumption (in past 7 days) were 2.8% and 57.3% res…
Modular Platform of Carbohydrates-modified Supramolecular Polymers Based on Dendritic Peptide Scaffolds.
2022
Glycopeptide supramolecular polymers displaying multivalent carbohydrates are particularly suitable for immune-relevant biomaterials, due to the important functions of carbohydrates in mediating cell-cell communication and modulating immune responses. However, the diversity and complexity of carbohydrates limited the generation of glycopeptide supramolecular monomers. Thereby, a modular platform of presenting various carbohydrates, especially more complex oligosaccharides, is highly desirable but remains underexplored. Here, we first prepared the linear amphiphilic glycopeptides that self-assembled into spherical nanoparticles and worm-like nanoparticles. Furthermore, the dendritic glycopep…
Plasma Dynamics Characterization for Improvement of Resonantly Enhanced Harmonics Generation in Indium and Tin Laser-Produced Plasmas
2022
R.A.G. is grateful to H. Kuroda for providing the access to the laser facility. As a Center of Excellence, the Institute of Solid State Physics at the University of Latvia received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement no. 739508, project CAMART².
Advances on Prevention and Screening of Gynecologic Tumors: Are We Stepping Forward?
2022
According to 2020 comprehensive global cancer statistics published by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, gynecologic malignancies accounted overall for 16 [...]
Outcome Analysis From a Multicenter Registry on Unibody Stent-Graft System for the Treatment of Spontaneous Infrarenal Acute Aortic Syndrome (MURUSSI…
2022
Purpose: This study reports the outcomes from a Multicenter Registry on unibody stent-graft system for the treatment of spontaneous infrarenal acute aortic syndrome (MURUSSIAS registry). Materials and methods: The retrospective MURUSSIAS registry included spontaneous infrarenal acute aortic dissection (IAAS) managed with the unibody stent-graft system (AFX endovascular AAA system; Endologix Inc., Irvine, California) outside the current instruction for use. IAAS considered aortic dissection (AD), intramural hematoma (IMH), and penetrating aortic ulcer (PAU). Indications to IAAS treatment were symptoms, associated dilated abdominal aorta (>3 cm), rapidly-growing (>0.5 cm/6 months) aorta…
Interventions for Improving Long COVID-19 Symptomatology: A Systematic Review
2022
Introduction: Although the understanding of several aspects of long COVID-19 syndrome is increasing, there is limited literature regarding the treatment of these signs and symptoms. The aim of our systematic review was to understand which therapies have proved effective against the symptoms of long COVID-19. Methods: A systematic search for randomized controlled or clinical trials in several databases was conducted through 15 May 2022. Specific inclusion criteria included: (1) intervention studies, either randomized controlled (RCTs) or clinical trials; (2) diagnosis of long COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization criteria; (3) presence of long COVID-19 for at least 12 weeks af…
A Spatially Resolved Study of Hard X-Ray Emission in Kepler’s Supernova Remnant: Indications of Different Regimes of Particle Acceleration
2022
Abstract Synchrotron X-ray emission in young supernova remnants (SNRs) is a powerful diagnostic tool to study the population of high-energy electrons accelerated at the shock front and the acceleration process. We performed a spatially resolved spectral analysis of NuSTAR and XMM-Newton observations of the young Kepler’s SNR, aiming to study in detail its nonthermal emission in hard X-rays. We selected a set of regions all around the rim of the shell and extracted the corresponding spectra. The spectra were analyzed by adopting a model of synchrotron radiation in the loss-limited regime, to constrain the dependence of the cutoff energy of the synchrotron radiation on the shock velocity. We …
Optimal design of viscoelastic tuned mass dampers for structures exposed to coloured excitations
2022
Dynamic interaction between primary and secondary structures can alter the response of buildings, bridges and other civil engineering structures to external stressors such as earthquakes and windstorms. TMDs (tuned mass dampers) are a well-known example of passive control devices that exploit this concept. A TMD consists of a secondary mass attached to the primary structure through a linear or nonlinear link. Various formulations exist to optimize the performance of TMDs, depending on the chosen criterion. Typically, the TMD is optimized considering the steady-state amplitude of motion of the primary structure, e.g., when subjected to monochromatic harmonic excitation (H∞ criterion) or whit…
Fasting renders immunotherapy effective against low-immunogenic breast cancer while reducing side effects
2022
Immunotherapy is improving the prognosis and survival of cancer patients, but despite encouraging out-comes in different cancers, the majority of tumors are resistant to it, and the immunotherapy combinations are often accompanied by severe side effects. Here, we show that a periodic fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) can act on the tumor microenvironment and increase the efficacy of immunotherapy (anti-PD-L1 and anti-OX40) against the poorly immunogenic triple-negative breast tumors (TNBCs) by expanding early exhausted effector T cells, switching the cancer metabolism from glycolytic to respiratory, and reducing collagen depo-sition. Furthermore, FMD reduces the occurrence of immune-related adve…
A Curcumin-BODIPY Dyad and Its Silica Hybrid as NIR Bioimaging Probes
2022
In this paper we describe the synthesis of a novel bichromophoric system in which an efficient photoinduced intercomponent energy transfer process is active. The dyad consists of one subunit of curcumin and one of BODIPY and is able to emit in the far-red region, offering a large Stokes shift, capable of limiting light scattering processes for applications in microscopy. The system has been encapsulated in MCM-41 nanoparticles with dimensions between 50 and 80 nm. Both the molecular dyad and individual subunits were tested with different cell lines to study their effective applicability in bioimaging. MCM-41 nanoparticles showed no reduction in cell viability, indicating their biocompatibil…
Environmental Assessment of an Innovative High-Performance Experimental Agriculture Field
2022
To increase food availability, optimizing production systems and reducing burdens related to human activities is essential in a scenario of population growth and limited natural resources. In this context, the life cycle methodology can represent a valuable asset for assessing the environmental performance of agricultural products and services. This study sought to investigate and characterize potential impacts of an experimental tomato field at the University of Perugia and evaluate if the production increment obtained using high-reflective mulching compensated for the emissions caused by this extra component. The first-year crop campaign was the baseline reference to measure the system’s …
A proposal for improving the elastic behaviour of dogbone
2022
The Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connections are one of the prequalified connections approved by international standards and adopted to improve the seismic behaviour of steel Moment Resisting Frames (MRF) also protecting the joint between beams and columns. This goal is reached by locally reducing the resistance of a selected portion of the beam element by suitably trimming the flanges, to promote in that portion the onset of plastic deformations. In the framework of RBS, the most important typology proposed is the so-called dogbone (DB) connections that are widely diffused in seismic engineering. The essential advantages of DB are related to the protection of the welded cross section between…
ALLOPURINOL BLOCKS AORTIC ANEURYSM IN A MOUSE MODEL OF MARFAN SYNDROME VIA REDUCING AORTIC OXIDATIVE STRESS
2022
ABSTRACTBackgroundIncreasing evidence indicates that redox stress participates in MFS aortopathy, though its mechanistic contribution is little known. We reported elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and NADPH oxidase NOX4 upregulation in MFS patients and mouse aortae. Here we address the contribution of xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR), which catabolizes purines into uric acid and ROS in MFS aortopathy.Methods and ResultsIn aortic samples from MFS patients, XOR protein expression, revealed by immunohistochemistry, increased in both the tunicae intima and media of the dilated zone. In MFS mice (Fbn1C1041G/+), aortic XOR mRNA transcripts and enzymatic activity of the oxidase form (X…
Un enfoque jurídico de las políticas públicas en bibliotecas escolares: una pieza más del engranaje democrático
2022
Las bibliotecas escolares representan un oasis de cultura y crecimiento intelectual de los niños y niñas. Las políticas orientadas a su implantación y crecimiento son fundamentales para el correcto aprendizaje del alumnado y su posterior inserción en las sociedades democráticas. Para analizar el desarrollo y protección de estas bibliotecas se analiza la normativa nacional y autonómica sobre la materia, así como el modo práctico en el que se llevan a cabo estas políticas. Así, se observa que se han desarrollado actuaciones tendentes a censurar y limitar el acceso a obras infantiles, antes que priorizar la existencia de un catálogo amplio y propiciatorio de escenarios que integren todas las s…
The diagnostic role of pathergy test in patients with Behçet's disease from the Western Europe.
2022
The aim of the study is to evaluate the frequency and features of positive pathergy test (PPT) in Italy, its role in the diagnosis of Behçet's disease (BD), and any association with other BD-related manifestations. 52 BD patients, 52 patients with axial spondyloarthritis (ax-SpA), and 26 healthy controls (HCs) underwent intradermal injection of normal saline and intradermal needle soaked with fresh self-saliva. The results of pathergy tests were statistically analysed in the light of demographic, clinical, and therapeutic features of subjects enrolled. Pathergy test performed with saline resulted always negative in all groups. Skin prick test using self-saliva resulted in the occurrence of …
A conceptual model of mindful organizing for effective safety and crisis management. The role of organizational culture
2022
AbstractThe Covid-19 pandemic has involved nations world-wide in the necessity to manage and control the spread of infection, and challenged organizations to effectively counteract an unchartered medical crisis while preserving the safety of workers. While the pandemic and geopolitical turmoil caused by the war in Ukraine are recent examples of complex environments that require effective safety and crisis management, organizations may generally need to find ways to deal with the unexpected and reliably perform in the face of fluctuations. Mindful organizing (MO) is defined as the collective capability to detect discriminatory details about emerging issues and act swiftly in response to thes…
Examining the critical factors that influence the success of construction and demolition waste reverse logistics operations
2022
The reverse logistics (RL) performance of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) differs significantly between countries. Although some countries are successfully circular, other countries are still far behind; with C&DW being largely directed to landfills or being illegally dumped. There is a lack of guidelines on the requirements for transitioning countries towards C&DW diversion, and little attention has been given to the factors that influence the success of C&DW RL and increased circularity. This study aims to develop a framework that helps in structuring and assessing the success of C&DW RL on a regional level and serves as a guide for transitioning developing co…
Joint Investigation with Ground Penetrating Radar and Infrared Thermography as a Diagnostic Support for the Restoration of Two Wall Mosaics in the Ch…
2022
The church of S. Mary of the Admiral in Palermo, known as “La Martorana” and very famous for its Byzantine mosaics, has been a World Heritage site since 2015. The mosaic system of the church includes several groups of figures and scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary. From the western part of the ancient church only two mosaics survive, detached from their original position, and are now located in two internal chapels. On the occasion of several restoration works, these two mosaic panels were investigated with non-invasive techniques, in order to provide diagnostic support to the restoration and consolidation interventions. The investigations were aimed at detecting any air po…
Optogenetic Control of Bacterial Expression by Red Light
2022
In optogenetics, as in nature, sensory photoreceptors serve to control cellular processes by light. Bacteriophytochrome (BphP) photoreceptors sense red and far-red light via a biliverdin chromophore and, in response, cycle between the spectroscopically, structurally, and functionally distinct Pr and Pfr states. BphPs commonly belong to two-component systems that control the phosphorylation of cognate response regulators and downstream gene expression through histidine kinase modules. We recently demonstrated that the paradigm BphP from Deinococcus radiodurans exclusively acts as a phosphatase but that its photosensory module can control the histidine kinase activity of homologous receptors.…
Intermediate Isolation System for the seismic retrofit of existing masonry buildings
2022
This paper deals with the potentials of Intermediate Isolation Systems (IIS) for retrofitting masonry buildings by means of a vertical extension, isolated at its base, and realized on the rooftop of the existing structure. By carefully defining the dynamic properties of the superstructure and isolation system, in previous papers the authors have demonstrated that this passive technique is able to reduce a priori the seismic demand on the existing building. For this reason, the non-linear behavior has been only assumed for the isolation system, with the masonry structure in the elastic field. This result has been validated by carrying out spectrum-compatible time history analyses on the 3D F…
COVID-19 and the Pancreas: A Narrative Review.
2022
The outbreak of COVID-19, initially developed in China in early December 2019, has rapidly spread to other countries and represents a public health emergency of international concern. COVID-19 has caused great concern about respiratory symptoms, but it is worth noting that it can also affect the gastrointestinal tract. However, the data on pancreatic involvement during SARS-CoV-2 infection are limited. The prevalence and severity of pancreatic damage and acute pancreatitis, as well as its pathophysiology, are still under debate. Moreover, the possible implication of pancreatic damage as an apparent adverse effect of COVID-19 therapies or vaccines are issues that need to be addressed. Finall…
Setting up of a machine learning algorithm for the identification of severe liver fibrosis profile in the general US population cohort
2022
Background: The progress of digital transformation in clinical practice opens the door to transforming the current clinical line for liver disease diagnosis from a late-stage diagnosis approach to an early-stage based one. Early diagnosis of liver fibrosis can prevent the progression of the disease and decrease liver-related morbidity and mortality. We developed here a machine learning (ML) algorithm containing standard parameters that can identify liver fibrosis in the general US population.Materials and methods: Starting from a public database (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, NHANES), representative of the American population with 7265 eligible subjects (control populati…
A Population-Based 3D Atlas of the Pathological Lumbar Spine Segment
2022
The spine is the load-bearing structure of human beings and may present several disorders, with low back pain the most frequent problem during human life. Signs of a spine disorder or disease vary depending on the location and type of the spine condition. Therefore, we aim to develop a probabilistic atlas of the lumbar spine segment using statistical shape modeling (SSM) and then explore the variability of spine geometry using principal component analysis (PCA). Using computed tomography (CT), the human spine was reconstructed for 24 patients with spine disorders and then the mean shape was deformed upon specific boundaries (e.g., by ±3 or ±1.5 standard deviation). Results dem…
A Crystalline 1D Dynamic Covalent Polymer
2022
The synthesis of crystalline one-dimensional polymers provides a fundamental understanding about the structure??? property relationship in polymeric materials and allows the preparation of materials with enhanced thermal, mechanical, and conducting properties. However, the synthesis of crystalline one-dimensional polymers remains a challenge because polymers tend to adopt amorphous or semicrystalline phases. Herein, we report the synthesis of a crystalline one-dimensional polymer in solution by dynamic covalent chemistry. The structure of the polymer has been unambiguously confirmed by microcrystal electron diffraction that together with charge transport studies and theoretical calculations…
Relationship between time from symptom's onset to diagnosis and prognosis in patients with symptomatic colorectal cancer
2022
Multicenter study [Abstract] Background: Controversy exists regarding the relationship of the outcome of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) with the time from symptom onset to diagnosis. The aim of this study is to investigate this association, with the assumption that this relationship was nonlinear and with adjustment for multiple confounders, such as tumor grade, symptoms, or admission to an emergency department. Methods: This multicenter study with prospective follow-up was performed in five regions of Spain from 2010 to 2012. Symptomatic cases of incident CRC from a previous study were examined. At the time of diagnosis, each patient was interviewed, and the associated hospital and …
Sorterius - An augmented reality app for encouraging outdoor physical activity for people with intellectual disabilities
2022
Many with intellectual disabilities (ID) have difficulties adhering to current physical activity guidelines. The goal of this study was to develop a mobile app for assisting people with ID to be more physically active. We implemented a solution that combines the digital and real world using augmented reality (AR). Eight people working with people with ID (special education teachers, social workers, psychologists, and researchers) tested the app and completed a usability test. Results indicate that a mobile app focusing on everyday life scenarios can have a potential value for the targeted user group, but AR solutions can be challenging. publishedVersion
Seizure Prediction Using EEG Channel Selection Method
2022
Seizure prediction using intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) is still challenging because of complicated signals in spatial and time domains. Feature selection in the spatial domain (i.e., channel selection) has been largely ignored in this field. Hence, in this paper, a novel approach of iEEG channel selection strategy combined with one-dimensional convolutional neural networks (1D-CNN) was presented for seizure prediction. First, 15-sec and 30-sec iEEG segments with an increasing number of channels (from one channel to all channels) were sequentially fed into 1D-CNN models for training and testing. Then, the channel case with the best classification rate was selected for each partici…
Eight Hypotheses on Technology Use and Psychosocial Wellbeing: A Bicultural Phenomenological Study of Gaming during the COVID-19 Pandemic
2022
AbstractIn this nonconfirmatory qualitative study, we pursued a range of hypotheses regarding how gaming operates in the lives and psychosocial wellbeing of those who actively play videogames during a crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Informed by an explorative survey (N = 793), interpretive phenomenological analysis was applied to interview data from actively gaming Chinese (n = 10) and Finnish (n = 10) participants. Our findings demonstrate how the general increase of pandemic-time gaming did not manifest in all player groups, but in some life contexts gaming activity rather decreased along with reformations in subjective meaning hierarchies and values. Ultimately, eight subo…
About some difficulties with the functional forms of Lorenz curves
2022
We study to what extent some functional form assumption on the Lorenz curve are amenable to calculating headcount poverty, or poverty threshold, the key concept to determine a poverty index. The difficulties in calculating it have been underestimated. We must choose some functional forms for the Lorenz concentration curve. We examine three families of one-parameter functional forms to estimate Lorenz curves: power (elementary and Pareto), exponential (elementary and Gupta) and fractional (Rohde). Computing these numerical functions may be difficult and impose some restrictions on their domain of definition, may impose to use some numerical approximation methods. The elementary power and exp…
Localization in Structured Environments with UWB Devices without Acceleration Measurements, and Velocity Estimation Using a Kalman–Bucy Filter
2022
In this work, a novel scheme for velocity and position estimation in a UWB range-based localization system is proposed. The suggested estimation strategy allows to overcome two main problems typically encountered in the localization systems. The first one is that it can be suitable for use in environments where the GPS signal is not present or where it might fail. The second one is that no accelerometer measurements are needed for the localization task. Moreover, to deal with the velocity estimation problem, a suitable Kalman–Bucy filter is designed and it is compared, experimentally, with a particle filter by showing the features of the two algorithms in order to be used in a localization …
Identification of proprioceptive thalamocortical tracts in children: comparison of fMRI, MEG, and manual seeding of probabilistic tractography
2022
Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. Studying white matter connections with tractography is a promising approach to understand the development of different brain processes, such as proprioception. An emerging method is to use functional brain imaging to select the cortical seed points for tractography, which is considered to improve the functional relevance and validity of the studied connections. However, it is unknown whether different functional seeding methods affect the spatial and microstructural properties of the given white matter connection. Here, we compared functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalography, and manual seedin…