showing 36 of ~574560 from 574555 documents
Effects of Minimalist Footwear and Foot Strike Patterns on Plantar Pressure during a Prolonged Running
2022
The use of minimalist shoes (MS) in running involves changes in running mechanics compared to conventional shoes (CS), but there is still little research analysing the effects of this footwear on plantar pressure, which could help to understand some risk injury factors. Moreover, there are no studies examining the effects of a prolonged running and foot strike patterns on baropodometric variables in MS. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse the changes produced using MS on plantar pressure during a prolonged running, as well as its interaction with the time and foot strike pattern. Twenty-one experienced minimalist runners (age 38 ± 10 years, MS running experience 2 ± 1 years) ran…
Sleep problems and subjective cognitive complaints among middle-aged and older adults in 45 low- and middle-income countries
2022
Background: Currently, a small body of evidence suggests that sleep problems are positively associated with subjective cognitive complaints (SCC). However, no studies on this topic exist from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Thus, we investigated the association between sleep problems and SCC in a large sample of middle-age and older adults from 45 LMICs. Methods: Cross-sectional, predominantly nationally representative, community-based data were analyzed from the World Health Survey. Sleep problems (such as difficulties falling asleep, waking up frequently during the night or waking up too early in the morning) in the last 30 days were self-reported. Two questions on subjective me…
Flow with Nature treatment for depression: Participants’ experiences
2022
This study examined Flow with Nature (FWN) treatment, which is an integrative intervention (rehabilitation) based on eco and environmental psychology, psychotherapeutic theories and professional psychological practice. FWN is intended for depression rehabilitation with the help of social support, nature environments and FWN exercises. Exercises encourage sensing the environment, mindful awareness, psychological processing and focusing on the future. The FWN treatment proceeds in separate stages (horizon, growth and path), which emphasise nature, group (social support) and FWN exercises differently. This study focused on the experiences of the participants in the FWN treatment. Finnish adult…
A mediational analysis of adverse experiences in childhood and quality of life in adulthood
2022
Objectives: This study examined associations of three prevalent adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) - parents' problematic alcohol use (PPAU), parental separation/divorce, and lack of support from a trusted adult-with adult quality of life (QoL), and potential mediators of associations. Methods: Data were from a representative survey (N = 28,047) in Norway that assessed ACEs, QoL, and potential mediators: enduring perceptions of childhood hardships (Difficult Childhood Questionnaire; DCQ), current mental distress, and current social isolation. Latent regression analyses examined potential mediators. Results: Each ACE was positively associated with perceptions of childhood as difficult (hig…
Mode I translaminar fracture toughness of high performance laminated biocomposites reinforced by sisal fibers: Accurate measurement approach and lay-…
2022
Abstract The present work performs a systematic experimental analysis of the translaminar fracture behavior of high performance biocomposites constituted by green epoxy reinforced by sisal fibers, by varying the main influence parameters as fiber concentration and lay-up. Despite the corrective function properly introduced to take into account the anisotropy as well as the use of the equivalent crack length, the study shows that the LEFM does not give accurate estimations of the fracture toughness, because the extension of the near tip damaged zone is higher than the singular dominated one. Accurate estimations can be obtained instead by the proposed modified area method that takes into acc…
Evaluation of menstrual irregularities after COVID-19 vaccination: Results of the MECOVAC survey
2022
Abstract We investigated menstrual irregularities after the first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Women answered a customised online questionnaire (ClinicalTrial.gov ID: NCT05083065) aimed to assess the vaccine type, the phase of the menstrual cycle during which the vaccine was administered, the occurrence of menstrual irregularities after the first and second doses, and how long this effect lasted. We excluded women with gynaecological and non-gynaecological diseases, undergoing hormonal and non-hormonal treatments, in perimenopause or menopause, as well as those who had irregular menstrual cycles in the last 12 months before vaccine administration. According to our data analysis…
Electrical readout microwave-free sensing with diamond
2022
While nitrogen-vacancy (NV-) centers have been extensively investigated in the context of spin-based quantum technologies, the spin-state readout is conventionally performed optically, which may limit miniaturization and scalability. Here, we report photoelectric readout of ground-state cross-relaxation features, which serves as a method for measuring electron spin resonance spectra of nanoscale electronic environments and also for microwave-free sensing. As a proof of concept, by systematically tuning NV centers into resonance with the target electronic system, we extracted the spectra for the P1 electronic spin bath in diamond. Such detection may enable probing optically inactive defects …
Blisters and calluses from rowing : prevalence, perceptions and pain tolerance
2022
Background and Objectives: Rowing is a sport that involves constant gripping, pulling/pushing, and rotational movements of the hands, in a cyclic periodic manner with every stroke, with hundreds of strokes being taken within a short period of time. Dermatological issues on rowers’ hands (fingers and palms) in the form of blisters and calluses are common knowledge within the community, but their prevalence and the rower’s perceptions and pain tolerance to them has never been systematically evaluated. This work addresses these lacunae. Materials and Methods: Analysis of data collected from a survey on a sample of competitive (117) and noncompetitive rowers (28) who row on-water (total 145). R…
Enhanced anticancer effect of quercetin microparticles formulation obtained by spray drying
2022
This study unravels a formulation made of food-based microparticles (MPs) able to control the release of quercetin, a natural anticancer compound, which activity is only limited by its poor aqueous solubility and consequent low bioavailability. To solve this issue, a spray-dried micro delivery system was developed using a bench mini spray dryer B290 Buchi. The resulting MPs were only manufactured with foodderived ingredients such as whey proteins and milk, avoiding the use of any other synthetic material. These microparticles were characterised with a testing campaign encompassing either the physical–chemical characterisation with SEM, DSC and DLS, or the technological and biological featur…
Decagram-Scale Synthesis of Multicolor Carbon Nanodots: Self-Tracking Nanoheaters with Inherent and Selective Anticancer Properties
2022
Carbon nanodots (CDs) are a new class of carbon-based nanoparticles endowed with photoluminescence, high specific surface area, and good photothermal conversion, which have spearheaded many breakthroughs in medicine, especially in drug delivery and cancer theranostics. However, the tight control of their structural, optical, and biological properties and the synthesis scale-up have been very difficult so far. Here, we report for the first time an efficient protocol for the one-step synthesis of decagram-scale quantities of N,S-doped CDs with a narrow size distribution, along with a single nanostructure multicolor emission, high near-infrared (NIR) photothermal conversion efficiency, and sel…
The quality of recovery after erector spinae plane block in patients undergoing breast surgery: a randomized controlled trial
2022
Abstract Background The erector spinae plane (ESP) block has recently been shown to effectively alleviate postoperative pain and reduce opioid consumption in breast surgery patients. However, data are still limited concerning the quality of recovery in patients following this procedure. Methods This study was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) performed in a university hospital. We randomly allocated patients to one of three groups: ESP, SHAM, and control (CON). Procedures in the ESP and SHAM blocks were performed ipsilaterally with 0.375% ropivacaine or 0.9% saline (0.4 mL/kg). Our primary outcome was the assessment of the patient’s improvement with quality-of-recovery 40 (QoR-40) a day a…
Quadrivalvular non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis in a patient with clear cell cervical cancer
2022
Non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis (NBTE) is a rare finding, which is mostly associated with malignant diseases leading to hypercoagulability. We report the case of a severe quadruple valve non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis in a patient with clear cell cervical cancer.
The Synthetic Scaffolds for Ventral Hernia Repair: Perspectives for Regenerative Surgery—Systematic Review
2022
AbstractVentral hernia (VH) frequently affects patients after abdominal surgery. The use of a mesh is often recommended. Different materials are described, from synthetic non-resorbable meshes to biological meshes. New generation meshes, also named scaffolds, aim to combine the advantages of both materials. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the cytological, histological, biomechanical, and clinical outcomes of the use of the newest resorbable synthetic scaffolds in VH repair, based on experimental studies in a pre-clinical setting. A systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and t…
Nutritional symbionts enhance structural defence against predation and fungal infection in a grain pest beetle
2022
ABSTRACT Many insects benefit from bacterial symbionts that provide essential nutrients and thereby extend the hosts’ adaptive potential and their ability to cope with challenging environments. However, the implications of nutritional symbioses for the hosts’ defence against natural enemies remain largely unstudied. Here, we investigated whether the cuticle-enhancing nutritional symbiosis of the saw-toothed grain beetle Oryzaephilus surinamensis confers protection against predation and fungal infection. We exposed age-defined symbiotic and symbiont-depleted (aposymbiotic) beetles to two antagonists that must actively penetrate the cuticle for a successful attack: wolf spiders (Lycosidae) an…
The mediating role of emotion regulation in transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy for emotional disorders in primary care: Secondary analyses…
2022
Background: Emotional disorders are highly prevalent in primary care. Transdiagnostic cognitive behavior therapy (TD-CBT) is a promising treatment of emotional disorders. In this study, we evaluated several emotion regulation strategies as potential mediators of treatment outcomes in a clinical sample of primary care. Methods: A total of 1061 primary care patients were included in a randomized clinical trial comparing treatment- as-usual (TAU) to TD-CBT+TAU. Of these, 631 (TAU=316; TD-CBT+TAU=315) completed the full treatment and all pre- and post-treatment scales to assess symptoms (anxiety, depression, somatization), emotion regulation strategies (worry, rumination, negative metacognition…
Monikerroksinen ja -ääninen kaupunki : näkökulmia humanistiseen kaupunkitutkimukseen
2022
Lebesgue-type decomposition for sesquilinear forms via differences
2022
Definitions of regularity and singularity are proposed for sesquilinear forms with respect to a non-negative one and a correspondent Lebesgue-type decomposition is proved. In contrast to other Lebesgue-type decompositions established in the literature for sesquilinear forms with generic sign, the underlying idea in this paper is to write symmetric forms as the difference of non-negative sesquilinear forms.
Unien elävä perintö : Lectio precursoria 12.11.2021 Jyväskylän yliopistossa
2022
EUROMEDITERRANEAN BIOMEDICAL JOURNAL (EMBJ) TO SUPPORT THE INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR GRANTS FROM THE ITALIAN INSTITUTE OF HEALTH DEDICATED TO YOUNG RESE…
2022
EuroMediterranean Biomedical Journal (EMBJ) can be considered both a scientific journal and a learning tool for “researchers-in-training” coming from Euro-Mediterranean Countries and other areas of the globe. We announce the launch of an international call for grants from Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS, the Italian National Institute Health), reserved to young Italian and foreign researchers. We strongly encourage the junior researchers that have authored manuscripts published in EMBJ to consider the application to this extraordinary opportunity.
The effect of wind on jumping distance in ski jumping depends on jumpers’ aerodynamic characteristics
2022
Several studies have suggested re-evaluation of the wind compensation system (WCS) of the International Ski Federation (FIS). It was introduced in 2009, and since then, the system has been modified considerably, but major shortcomings have still remained. The present study compared the effect of tail/head wind on two reference jumps with different aerodynamic properties (Cd and Cl) during the flight phase. Jump distance and total tangential wind speed data of world cup competitions of the season 2020/2021 were used to analyse the FIS WCS and to offer basic information of wind effects. The correlation between the total tangential wind speed and the jump distance varied strongly among the ana…
Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding in semen of 36 males with symptomatic, asymptomatic, and convalescent infection during the first and second wav…
2022
: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), has been identified in the human testis, but the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through sexual intercourse still needs to be defined. The goal of our study was to determine if SARS-CoV-2 is detectable in the semen of patients suffering or recovering from coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), still testing positive at nasopharyngeal swabs but showing mild or no symptoms at the time of sampling. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in semen was performed by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and nested PCR targeting open reading frame (ORF) 1ab. Medical …
Direct RNA Nanopore Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 Extracted from Critical Material from Swabs
2022
In consideration of the increasing prevalence of COVID-19 cases in several countries and the resulting demand for unbiased sequencing approaches, we performed a direct RNA sequencing (direct RNA seq.) experiment using critical oropharyngeal swab samples collected from Italian patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 from the Palermo region in Sicily. Here, we identified the sequences SARS-CoV-2 directly in RNA extracted from critical samples using the Oxford Nanopore MinION technology without prior cDNA retrotranscription. Using an appropriate bioinformatics pipeline, we could identify mutations in the nucleocapsid (N) gene, which have been reported previously in studies conducted in other countri…
Two examples related to conical energies
2022
In a recent article we introduced and studied conical energies. We used them to prove three results: a characterization of rectifiable measures, a characterization of sets with big pieces of Lipschitz graphs, and a sufficient condition for boundedness of nice singular integral operators. In this note we give two examples related to sharpness of these results. One of them is due to Joyce and M\"{o}rters, the other is new and could be of independent interest as an example of a relatively ugly set containing big pieces of Lipschitz graphs.
Bureaucratic, Professional and Managerial Power in University Tenure Track Recruitment
2022
AbstractIn this chapter, our interest lies in analysing the different powers in recruitment and, particularly, how they are manifested in the new tenure track model in technical fields in Finland. Traditionally, recruitment in higher education has mostly relied on the bureaucratic application of processes and on academics, representing professional power, evaluating academic merit. The new university legislation, granting universities more autonomy in recruiting, has allowed the development of increasingly strategic recruitment models. The novel tenure track recruitment criteria exceed traditional notions of individual merits to include assessments of the strategic visions of universities a…
Impact of diabetes mellitus on outcomes in patients with myocardial infarction according to varying degrees of left ventricular systolic dysfunction.
2022
Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is known to contribute to unfavorable short- and long-term outcomes in patients with myocardial infarction (MI). Particularly poor outcomes are associated with left ventricular systolic dysfunction after an MI. The aim of our study was to compare the short- and long-term outcomes of MI in patients with DM and varied degrees of left ventricular systolic dysfunction with the corresponding outcomes in a non-diabetic control group. Methods: This analysis focused on patients with MI registered in the Polish National Registry of Acute Coronary Syndrome between 2009 and 2011. For the purposes of this analysis, diabetic patients were additionally stratified into t…
Analysis of particles size distributions in Mg(OH)2 precipitation from highly concentrated MgCl2 solutions
2022
Magnesium is a raw material of great importance, which attracted increasing interest in the last years. A promising route is to recover magnesium in the form of Magnesium Hydroxide via precipitation from highly concentrated Mg2+ resources, e.g. industrial or natural brines and bitterns. Several production methods and characterization procedures have been presented in the literature reporting a broad variety of Mg(OH)2 particle sizes. In the present work, a detailed experimental investigation is aiming to shed light on the characteristics of produced Mg(OH)2 particles and their dependence upon the reacting conditions. To this purpose, two T-shaped mixers were employed to tune and control the…
Strategies of Eliciting Young People’s Affective and Quick Participation in a Youth Magazine’s Instagram Community
2022
Traditional media have merged with social media and pursue to produce engaging content and form relationships with online audiences. At the same time, social media has allowed young people a venue to practice their basic needs of interaction, identity, and self-expression, and provides communities of shared issues and social/political aspirations. By analysing the Instagram post caption data of the largest Finnish (girls’) youth magazine, this case study investigated what posting strategies used by the magazine elicited youth participation, and how do the strategies and participation align with young people’s media and online communication preferences. The study found the magazine to use va…
Museari: Art in a Virtual LGBT Museum Promoting Respect and Inclusion
2022
Museari is an online museum dedicated to upholding human rights and sexual diversity through art, history, and education. Museari was born in 2015 and since then more than 70 exhibitions have been presented. This paper analyzes Museari's interest in teacher training, something that has been especially positive during the Covid-19 pandemic. The objective of the research is to reflect on the opportunity to use a virtual museum to address issues of art and education. For data collection, we used assessment instruments specific to the case study, such as diagnoses, discussions, focus groups, and participant observation. We highlight museum’s positive reception by the students, particularly the …
Enzymatic Synthesis and Antimicrobial Activity of Oligomer Analogues of Medicinal Biopolymers from Comfrey and Other Species of the Boraginaceae Fami…
2022
This study reports the first enzymatic synthesis leading to several oligomer analogues of poly[3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)glyceric acid]. This biopolymer, extracted from plants of the Boraginaceae family has shown a wide spectrum of pharmacological properties, including antimicrobial activity. Enzymatic ring opening polymerization of 2-methoxycarbonyl-3-(3,4-dibenzyloxyphenyl)oxirane (MDBPO) using lipase from Candida rugosa leads to formation of poly[2-methoxycarbonyl-3-(3,4-dibenzyloxyphenyl)oxirane] (PMDBPO), with a degree of polymerization up to 5. Catalytic debenzylation of PMDBPO using H2 on Pd/C yields poly[2-methoxycarbonyl-3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)oxirane] (PMDHPO) without loss in molecul…
Creating and Reenacting Controllable 3D Humans with Differentiable Rendering
2022
This paper proposes a new end-to-end neural rendering architecture to transfer appearance and reenact human actors. Our method leverages a carefully designed graph convolutional network (GCN) to model the human body manifold structure, jointly with differentiable rendering, to synthesize new videos of people in different contexts from where they were initially recorded. Unlike recent appearance transferring methods, our approach can reconstruct a fully controllable 3D texture-mapped model of a person, while taking into account the manifold structure from body shape and texture appearance in the view synthesis. Specifically, our approach models mesh deformations with a three-stage GCN traine…
Association between Asthma Control and Exposure to Greenness and Other Outdoor and Indoor Environmental Factors: A Longitudinal Study on a Cohort of …
2022
Achieving and maintaining asthma control (AC) is the main goal of asthma management. Indoor and outdoor environmental factors may play an important role on AC. The aim of this longitudinal study was to evaluate the association between AC and exposure to greenness and other outdoor or indoor environmental factors in a cohort of asthmatic children. This study involved 179 asthmatic children (5–16 years). Parents were interviewed through a modified version of the SIDRIA questionnaire. AC was assessed at each visit. Exposure to greenness was measured using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). A logistic regression model was applied for assessing risk factors for uncontrolled…
Deflation-Corrected Estimators of Reliability
2022
Underestimation of reliability is discussed from the viewpoint of deflation in estimates of reliability caused by artificial systematic technical or mechanical error in the estimates of correlation (MEC). Most traditional estimators of reliability embed product–moment correlation coefficient (PMC) in the form of item–score correlation (Rit) or principal component or factor loading (λi). PMC is known to be severely affected by several sources of deflation such as the difficulty level of the item and discrepancy of the scales of the variables of interest and, hence, the estimates by Rit and λi are always deflated in the settings related to estimating reliability. As a short-cut to deflation-c…
Intraoperative transfusion practices and perioperative outcome in the European elderly: A secondary analysis of the observational ETPOS study
2022
PLOS ONE 17(1), e0262110 (2022). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0262110
Q-bonacci words and numbers
2022
We present a quite curious generalization of multi-step Fibonacci numbers. For any positive rational $q$, we enumerate binary words of length $n$ whose maximal factors of the form $0^a1^b$ satisfy $a = 0$ or $aq > b$. When $q$ is an integer we rediscover classical multi-step Fibonacci numbers: Fibonacci, Tribonacci, Tetranacci, etc. When $q$ is not an integer, obtained recurrence relations are connected to certain restricted integer compositions. We also discuss Gray codes for these words, and a possibly novel generalization of the golden ratio.
Stiffness Estimation and Adaptive Control for Soft Robots
2022
Nonostante la sorprendente crescita nello sviluppo dei robot ispirati alla natura, tra cui i cosiddetti soft robot, il potenziale di questi sistemi, che hanno intrinseche capacità di adattamento, non è ancora stato sfruttato a pieno. La ricerca ha principalmente considerato il controllo in retroazione della posizione dei giunti del robot, lasciando la gestione della cedevolezza di questi ultimi ancora in anello aperto. Peraltro, le attuali limitazioni nel processo di produzione degli attuatori a cedevolezza variabile e l'inevitabile variabilità nel tempo degli elementi elastici costitutivi, i quali sono soggetti ad usura e deformazione plastica, rendono il problema della determinazione prec…