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Application of exercise snacks across youth, adult and clinical populations:A scoping review
Get PDFBackground: Interest in ‘exercise snacks’ has increased, yet a comprehensive and holistic review of this novel concept is lacking. We aimed to map global research on ‘exercise snacks’, across youth, adult and clinical populations through a scoping review.Methods: A systematic search was conducted in six databases. Grey literature searches were also conducted. Studies whereby participants were prescribed a structured bout of intense exercise dispersed across the day, or the exercise was explicitly defined as a form of ‘snacks’, in any setting were included. We used the Consensus on Exercise Reporting Template (CERT) to assess the completeness of exercise descriptions. Data were recorded into spreadsheets, then descriptively analyzed and summarized in graphic form. Results: The 45 publications meeting our inclusion criteria represented 33 original studies. These 33 studies enrolled a total of 1118 participants, with a median sample size of 24. Studies were categorized as either acute (n=12) or chronic (n=21) trials with both trial types performed across a wide range of participant ages (range 8.7 to 78 years) but mostly conducted on healthy adults and older adults. The majority of studies (20/33) defined the concept as ‘exercise snacks’, with study context being predominantly the laboratory or home. A wide variety of exercise modes (e.g., cycling, stair climbing, body weight exercises) and comparator conditions (e.g., moderate intensity continuous exercise, prolonged sitting, non-exercise controls) were used. ‘Exercise snack’ intensity was prescribed more frequently than it was reported, and, of the available data, mean intensity was estimated at 76.9% of maximal heart rate and 5.2 Arbitrary Units (AU) on the Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) CR10 scale. Study outcome measures were predominantly cardiovascular, metabolic, muscular, and psychological, with studies mostly adhering to the CERT, though there was underreporting of detail for the exercise provider, motivation strategies, adverse events and intervention fidelity.Conclusion: The ‘exercise snack’ concept is being increasingly used to cover an array of exercise models. The most common protocols to date utilize body weight exercises or stair climbing. We recommend ‘exercise snacks’ terminology is consistently used to describe protocols whereby short, purposeful structured exercise is dispersed throughout the day. Future studies should provide detailed descriptions of their ‘exercise snacks’ model, through exercise and adverse event reporting checklists. <br/
Sex-specific effects of early-life adversity on adult fitness in a wild mammal
Get PDFEarly-life adversity influences adult fitness across vertebrate species. In polygynous systems with intense intrasexual competition, males may be more sensitive to conditions experienced during development. However, the importance of different aspects of the early-life environment and how their effects differ between the sexes remains poorly understood. Here, we used a long-Term study of wild Soay sheep to characterize the early-life environment in terms of weather, infection risk, resource competition and maternal investment, and test the hypothesis that males are more vulnerable to early adversity. Birth weight, reflective of maternal investment and conditions during gestation, positively predicted lifetime breeding success in both sexes, suggesting a classic 'silver spoon' effect, though the effects were stronger in males. Males that experienced increased resource competition in their first year had lower lifetime breeding success, suggesting lasting negative consequences of nutritional stress, but there was no association in females. By contrast, challenging weather in the first winter of life was associated with stronger viability selection, with males surviving these harsh conditions having higher adult fitness. Our findings further evidence the important long-Term fitness consequences of early-life adversity in wild vertebrates, demonstrating distinct aspects of the early environment may shape fitness in different and sex-specific ways.</p
Sensitivity of the clinical high-risk and familial high-risk approaches for psychotic disorders - a systematic review and meta-analysis
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Psychosis prediction has been a key focus of psychiatry research for over 20 years. The two dominant approaches to identifying psychosis risk have been the clinical high-risk (CHR) and the familial high-risk (FHR) approaches. To date, the real-world sensitivity of these approaches - that is, the proportion of all future psychotic disorders in the population that they identify - has not been systematically reviewed.METHODS: We systematically reviewed and meta-analysed studies in MEDLINE, Embase, PsychINFO, and Web of Science (from inception until September 2024) that reported data on the sensitivity of CHR and FHR approaches - i.e., individuals with a psychosis diagnosis preceded by a CHR diagnosis or a history of parental psychosis (PROSPERO: CRD42024542268).RESULTS: We identified four CHR studies and four FHR studies reporting relevant data. The pooled estimate of the sensitivity of the CHR approach was 6.7% (95% CI: 1.5-15.0%) and of the FHR approach was 6.5% (95% CI: 4.4-8.9%). There was a high level of heterogeneity between studies. Most FHR studies had a low risk of bias, but most CHR studies had a high risk of bias.CONCLUSION: Pooled data suggest that CHR and FHR approaches, each, capture only about 6-7% of future psychotic disorders. These findings demonstrate the need for additional approaches to identify risk for psychosis.</p
An integrated study of ramie (Boehmeria nivea), and its wild, cultivated and feral form
Get PDFFeralization, the re-establishment of wild populations from domesticated ancestors, can involve multiple parallel character reversions, and potentially also rampant gene flow with cultivated and/or naturally wild material. It hence poses great challenges for infraspecific classification, which may impede crop development, but studies on these issues are rare. Ramie (Boehmeria nivea; Urticaceae) is an important fiber crop worldwide. It has been traditionally divided into 2-4 varieties, but these are controversial. Here, 78 wild and feral individuals were sampled from 12 Chinese provinces, plus 11 cultivated individuals from farmland. We employed an integrative taxonomy approach combining multiple lines of evidence from morphology, phylogenomics, and ecology to investigate the intraspecific subdivision of B. nivea. A chi-square test of qualitative morphological characters significantly distinguished three varieties within B. nivea: var. nivea, var. tenacissima, and the recently described var. strigosa, comprising mainly cultivated, mainly feralized, and only naturally wild material respectively. The PCoA and random forest analyses indicated differences between var. strigosa and the other two varieties. However, quantitative characters could not distinguish the three varieties. None of the three varieties was monophyletic based on the phylogeny of plastome data, whereas var. strigosa was weakly supported as monophyletic based on nuclear ribosomal DNA (18S-ITS1-5.8S-ITS2-26S). Ecological niche modelling showed overlap between the potential distribution areas of var. nivea and var. tenacissima, but neither overlapped with var. strigosa. These analyses collectively demonstrate the distinctiveness of var. strigosa, but mostly did not fully separate var. nivea from var. tenacissima. Hence var. strigosa is a biologically meaningful variety, but var. tenacissima should, be synonymised within var. nivea. These results should aid the breeding and improvement of new varieties of ramie and highlight the value of integrative taxonomic methods in examining infraspecific subdivisions within species that include cultivated and feralized material
High performance imputation of structural and single nucleotide variants using low-coverage whole genome sequencing
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Whole genome sequencing (WGS), despite its advantages, is yet to replace methods for genotyping single nucleotide variants (SNVs) such as SNP arrays and targeted genotyping assays. Structural variants (SVs) have larger effects on traits than SNVs, but are more challenging to accurately genotype. Using low-coverage WGS with genotype imputation offers a cost-effective strategy to achieve genome-wide variant coverage, but is yet to be tested for SVs.METHODS: Here, we investigate combined SNV and SV imputation with low-coverage WGS data in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). As the reference panel, we used genotypes for high-confidence SVs and SNVs for n = 365 wild individuals sampled from diverse populations. We also generated 15 × WGS data (n = 20 samples) for a commercial population external to the reference panel, and called SVs and SNVs with gold-standard approaches. An imputation method selected for its established performance using low-coverage sequencing data (GLIMPSE) was tested at WGS depths of 1 × , 2 × , 3 × , and 4 × for samples within and external to the reference panel.RESULTS: SNVs were imputed with high accuracy and recall across all WGS depths, including for samples out-with the reference panel. For SVs, we compared imputation based purely on linkage disequilibrium (LD) with SNVs, to that supplemented with SV genotype likelihoods (GLs) from low-coverage WGS. Including SV GLs increased imputation accuracy, but as a trade-off with recall, requiring 3-4 × depth for best performance. Combining strategies allowed us to capture 84% of the reference panel deletions with 87% accuracy at 1 × depth. We also show that SV length affects imputation performance, with provision of SV GLs greatly enhancing accuracy for the longest SVs in the dataset.CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the promise of reference panel imputation using low-coverage WGS, including novel opportunities to enhance the resolution of genome-wide association studies by capturing SVs.</p
Seeking inspiration through human-LLM interaction
Get PDFLarge language model (LLM) systems have been shown to stimulate creative thinking among creators, yet empirical research on whether users can seek inspiration in their everyday lives through these technologies is lacking. This paper explores which attributes of LLMs influence inspiration-seeking processes. Focusing on use cases of travel, cooking, and self-care, we interviewed 20 participants as they explored scenarios of these use cases using LLMs. Thematic analysis revealed that the vast data of LLMs inspires users with unexpected ideas, many of which were highly personalized, and inspired participants towards being motivated to act. Participants were also sensitive to the deficiencies of LLMs, and noted how ethical issues associated with these technologies could negatively impact them applying inspirational ideas into practice. We discuss the behavioral patterns of users actively seeking inspiration via LLMs, and provide design opportunities for LLMs that make the inspiration-seeking process more human-centric
Social motor synchrony and interactive rapport in autistic, non-autistic, and mixed-neurotype dyads
Get PDFDuring social interactions, people often mirror each other's movements and gestures, a process called synchrony. This synchrony helps foster a sense of connection, understanding, and ease in communication. While research suggests that autistic people may show less synchrony in their movements compared to non-autistic people, the implications of this difference for building rapport remain unclear. Specifically, it is unknown whether synchrony plays a similar role in rapport-building for autistic individuals as it does for non-autistic individuals, particularly in interactions with autistic versus non-autistic partners. This study had three goals to investigate whether synchrony is lower in conversations involving at least one autistic person; to explore the relationship between synchrony and rapport; and to compare how much autistic and non-autistic people rely on synchrony to feel connected. The findings suggest that while synchrony positively influences rapport more strongly in non-autistic interactions, autistic individuals may rely less on synchrony for rapport. These results highlight differences in how social connection is built, offering deeper insight into social interactions for autistic and non-autistic people.</p
A Novel Terabit Grid-of-Beam Optical Wireless Multi-User Access Network with Beam Clustering
Get PDFIn this paper, we put forward a proof of concept for sixth generation (6G) Terabit infrared (IR) laser-based indoor optical wireless networks. We propose a novel double-tier access point (AP) architecture based on an array of arrays of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) to provide a seamless grid-of-beam (GoB) coverage with multi-Gb/s per beam. We present systematic design and thorough analytical modeling of the AP architecture, which are then applied to downlink system modeling using non-imaging angle diversity receivers (ADRs). We propose static beam clustering with coordinated multi-beam joint transmission (CoMB-JT) for network interference management and devise various clustering strategies to address inter-beam interference (IBI) and inter-cluster interference (ICI). Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) schemes are also adopted to handle intra-cluster interference, and the resulting signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and achievable data rate are derived. The network performance is studied in terms of spatial distributions and statistics of the downlink SINR and data rate through extensive computer simulations. The results demonstrate that data rates up to 15 Gb/s are achieved within the coverage area and a properly devised clustering strikes a balance between the sum rate and fairness depending on the number of users.</p
Clinical‐year veterinary students are most likely to be confident and competent in calving procedures after blending simulator practicals with videos
Get PDFBackground Veterinary students require more safe practice of calving scenarios, however, effects of a high-fidelity calving simulator practical (SIM) and/or videos (CAL) on student calving confidence (CONF) and competence (COMP) are unknownMethods Fourth year clinical veterinary students received no teaching beyond previous lectures (LEC, n=60), CAL (n=59), SIM (n=96), or CAL&SIM (n=85). Students scored their confidence in 13 individual calving tasks before and after teaching delivery and were subsequently skill-tested by internal (faculty) or external/peer/technical OSCE assessors (non-faculty).Results Higher cumulative CONF scores required practical exposure (SIM 42.3 [95% CI 40.9–43.8], CAL&SIM 44.3 [42.8–45.7] versus LEC 33.3 [31.2–35.5] and CAL 35.4 [33.5–37.4]; p<0.05), while videos already improved the OSCE pass rate (CAL 73%, SIM 84%, CAL&SIM 87% versus LEC 40%; p<0.05). Blending CAL&SIM achieved the highest odds of students being ‘confident/very confident’ (OR 18.5, p<0.001) and passing the OSCE (OR 11.8, p<0.001) with smaller positive effects of experience and baseline confidence on CONF, or non-faculty assessors on COMP (OR 2-4, p<0.01).Limitations Benefits of improved student CONF and COMP in real-life calving scenarios are likely but unknown.Conclusions Best preparation for managing calving scenarios is blending simulator videos with the practical.<br/
Weeping as the Addolorata:Popular devotion at the margins of Europe
Get PDFThis article is about female devotees of the Addolorata (Our Lady of Sorrows) and the tears shed on Good Friday on the streets of the Old Town of Palermo, Sicily. Recently criticized by some Church authorities as overly sentimental and inauthentic, such weeping has become a site of tension in efforts to modernize or contain this popular ritual. These critiques echo historical attempts to regulate female embodied ‘excesses’ and reflect Orientalizing discourses that frame Southern Italian religiosity as backward, in light of Palermo’s liberal rebranding as a post-mafia, cosmopolitan city. Yet women’s tears resist full domestication, flowing between female devotees, allowing them to embody the divine and to forge alternative modes of relatedness that transcend male confraternal forms and the nuclear family. Through ethnographic attention to the effects of tears, this article examines the potentiality of these bodily fluids, as well as the gendered and class-based exclusions of liberal cosmopolitanism in a place that has been cast as insufficiently European
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