CLINICAL EFFECT OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE ON DISEASE PREVENTION IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

ABSTRACT Introduction: College students face increasing pressure in all aspects of study and life. They urgently need a way to relieve stress. Physical exercise is the best choice for college students to relieve stress. Objective: To explore the relationship between physical exercise and disease prevention in college students. Methods: The article conducts a logistic regression analysis of physical exercise in college students and analyzes the relationship between the physical exercise factors and the occurrence of physical diseases. Results: The incidence of disease in students participating in physical exercise is low. The prevalence of diabetes, obesity, and hyperlipidemia decreased with the increase of physical activity intensity. Conclusions: Diligently participation in physical exercises can help college students resist diseases. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies -investigation of treatment results.

Clothing Insulation Rate and Metabolic Rate Estimation for Individual Thermal Comfort Assessment in Real Life

Satisfactory indoor thermal environments can improve working efficiencies of office staff. To build such satisfactory indoor microclimates, individual thermal comfort assessment is important, for which personal clothing insulation rate (Icl) and metabolic rate (M) need to be estimated dynamically. Therefore, this paper proposes a vision-based method. Specifically, a human tracking-by-detection framework is implemented to acquire each person’s clothing status (short-sleeved, long-sleeved), key posture (sitting, standing), and bounding box information simultaneously. The clothing status together with a key body points detector locate the person’s skin region and clothes region, allowing the measurement of skin temperature (Ts) and clothes temperature (Tc), and realizing the calculation of Icl from Ts and Tc. The key posture and the bounding box change across time can category the person’s activity intensity into a corresponding level, from which the M value is estimated. Moreover, we have collected a multi-person thermal dataset to evaluate the method. The tracking-by-detection framework achieves a mAP50 (Mean Average Precision) rate of 89.1% and a MOTA (Multiple Object Tracking Accuracy) rate of 99.5%. The Icl estimation module gets an accuracy of 96.2% in locating skin and clothes. The M estimation module obtains a classification rate of 95.6% in categorizing activity level. All of these prove the usefulness of the proposed method in a multi-person scenario of real-life applications.

How Perceived Sensory Dimensions of Forest Park Are Associated with Stress Restoration in Beijing?

A growing number of studies suggest that the perceived sensory dimensions (PSDs) of green space are associated with stress restoration offered by restorative environment. However, there is little known about PSDs and stress restoration as well as their relationship to forest park. To fill this gap, an on-site questionnaire survey was conducted in three forest parks in Beijing, as a result of which a total number of 432 completed responses were collected and analyzed. The mean values of PSDs were used to represent PSDs of forest park. Using independent sample t-test and ANOVA, this study analyzed the individual characteristics that affected PSDs and stress restoration. Linear mixed model was used to identify the relationship between PSDs and stress restoration of forest park, which took into account the interactions of stress level and PSDs. The results showed that: (1) the perceived degree of PSDs in forest park from strong to weak was Serene, Space, Nature, Rich in species, Prospect, Refuge, Social and Culture, which varied with visitors’ gender, age, level of stress, visit frequency, activity intensity, visit duration and commuting time; (2) in PSDs, Refuge, Serene, Social and Prospect had significantly positive effects on the stress restoration of forest parks (3) there was no significant difference in the effect of the eight PSDs on the stress restoration between different stress groups; (4) stress restoration was influenced by visitors’ gender, age, visit frequency and visit duration. These findings can offer references for managers to improve the health benefits of forest park for visitors, and can enrich the knowledge about PSDs and stress restoration.

Objectively-measured step cadence and walking patterns in a rural African setting: a cross-sectional analysis

Objectives To investigate free-living, accelerometry-derived step cadence and walking strategy parameters in 263 adult women (19-56 years) within a rural African setting. Participants were categorised into weight groups: Under-Normal Weight (UW/NW: <25 kg.m−2), Overweight-Obese (OW/OB: ≥25 kg.m−2). From the minute-by-minute uni-axial accelerometry data, outcomes describing physical activity intensity, step volume, step cadence and step bouts were extracted. In addition, walking pattern parameters for step bout length and step cadence were determined. Results Average step volume was 13568 steps.day−1, and >85% of participants were classified as active-to-highly-active. Overall, ≈45% of daily steps was accumulated in the low-to-moderate intensity range. Peak cadence indices were higher in the UW/NW group (p≤0.0112). For both groups, 75% of steps were accumulated in bouts >15 minutes, and 95% of bouts were accumulated at 1-39 steps.minute−1. The UW/NW group employed a more varied step cadence, and higher cadences contributed more to step accumulation than the OW/OB group (p≤0.05). There were no significant group differences in bout length strategy parameters (p≥0.0861). Despite no difference between the weight groups in step volume, there were differences in some step cadence indices which reflect higher step intensities, and in cadence strategies chosen to accumulate steps.

Physical Activity Levels in Physical Education Lessons at Singapore Primary School

Physical education (PE) lessons are the appropriate occasions to promote physical activity for children. Although the moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels during PE lessons were investigated in several countries, MVPA levels during PE lessons were never reported at Singapore primary schools. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate physical activity intensity levels during PE lessons at a Singapore primary school. A total of 93 students (40 girls) voluntary participated in the study: 28 in Grade 1, 39 in Grade 4, and 26 in Grade 6. They were asked to wear an accelerometer on their non-dominant hand in two PE lessons to measure physical activity levels objectively. They also completed questionnaires on their experiences during the PE lessons. The average of the MVPA levels time (%) in the scheduled lesson time across the three grades was 46.98 ± 5.25%, but the average of the MVPA levels time (%) in the actual lesson time was 69.74 ± 7.31%. These results indicated that it would be possible to achieve the recommended MVPA time in PE lessons. The findings of this study would be useful for PE teachers to reflect whether their PE lessons are efficient to promote primary school student’s physical activity levels.

Variations in δ13CDIC and influencing factors in a shallow macrophytic lake on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau: implications for the lake carbon cycle

The primary sources of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in water are carbonate materials and CO produced during the biological processing of organic matter. The application of carbon isotope techniques to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems can accurately elucidate carbon fluxes and other carbon cycle processes in these systems. Lake ecosystems on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau are fragile and sensitive to changes in climate and environment. This study explored the relationship between the carbon isotopic composition (δC) of the DIC (δC) in the Genggahai Lake, the lake environment, and the climate of the watershed based on the observed physicochemical parameters of water in areas with different types of submerged macrophyte communities, combined with changes in the temperature and precipitation during the same period. Overall, the δC of the Genggahai Basin exhibited a large range of values, with an average δC for inflowing spring water (δC) of –11.1 ‰, which was the most negative, followed by an average δC value of –10.8 ‰ for that from the Shazhuyu River (δC) and an averageδC value of –6.91 ‰ for lake water (δC). Variations in the photosynthetic activity intensity of different aquatic plants yield significantly changing δC values in areas with varied aquatic plant communities. Hydrochemical observations revealed that δC and aquatic plant photosynthesis primarily affected the differences in the δC values of the Genggahai Lake, thereby identifying them as the key components of the lake carbon cycle.

Impact of Early-Commenced and Continued Sports Training on the Precuneus in Older Athletes

Intervention studies on sedentary older adults have demonstrated that commencing physical exercise at an older age has a positive effect on brain structure. Although this suggests that older athletes with lifelong sports training have larger gray matter volume (GMV) in some brain regions compared to age-matched non-athletes, evidence in the literature is scarce. Moreover, it remains unclear whether a larger GMV is associated with training intensity or period of training in life. To address these gaps in the literature, we compared regional brain GMV between 24 older athletes (mean age, 71.4 years; age at the commencement of sports training, 31.2 years, continuous sports training, 40.0 years; current training time, 7.9 h/week) and 24 age-matched non-athletes (mean age, 71.0 years). The period of sports training and the current training time of the athletes were assessed. Both groups were evaluated for physical activity intensity as well as cognitive and motor performance. Although no group differences were noted in cognitive and motor performance, athletes reported higher physical activity intensity than non-athletes. Whole-brain structural analysis revealed a significantly larger GMV in several brain regions in athletes. Notably, the GMV of the precuneus in athletes was positively correlated with earlier commencement of sports training and training duration but was negatively correlated with current training time. Our findings demonstrate that early-commenced and continued sports training predicts structural maintenance of the precuneus in old age. Our results also suggest that excessive training time in old age may have a negative impact on the GMV of the precuneus; thereby delineating how the precuneus is associated with lifelong sports training in older athletes.

Associations Between Perceived Physical and Mental Fatigability and Life Space Mobility in Older Men: The MrOS Study

Physical performance and fatigue can limit mobility within the larger environment (life-space mobility). It is unknown whether perceived fatigability, fatigue anchored to activity intensity and duration, is independently associated with life-space. We assessed this cross-sectionally in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS; N=1,681, Meanage=85±4.1). The Pittsburgh Fatigability Scale (PFS, range: 0-50) measured physical (Mean=16.2±9.5) and mental fatigability (Mean=7.5±8.0). Life Space Assessment scores (range: 0-120, higher=greater life-space) incorporated level, frequency, and assistance used for life-space mobility (Mean=84.3±22.0). Compared to the lowest fatigability strata (Physical: PFS 0-4; Mental: PFS 0-3, modeled separately), men in the two highest physical strata (PFS 20-24: B=-4.10±1.67; PFS≥25: B=-6.23±1.72; p’s≤.05) and men in the three highest mental strata reported significantly lower life-space mobility (PFS 13-15: B=-3.42±1.74; PFS 16-19: B=-5.38±1.83; PFS≥20: B=-7.96±1.66, p’s≤.05), adjusted for physical performance and health covariates. Our results provide evidence linking fatigability and real-world mobility, independent of physical health, in older men.