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Physical Activity, Mental Health and Wellbeing During the First COVID-19 Containment in New Zealand: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Strategies implemented worldwide to contain COVID-19 outbreaks varied in severity across different countries, and established a new normal for work and school life (i.e., from home) for many people, reducing opportunities for physical activity. Positive relationships of physical activity with both mental and physical health are well recognised, and therefore the aim was to ascer-tain how New Zealand’s lockdown restrictions impacted physical activity, mental health and well-being. Participants (n = 4007; mean ± SD: age 46.5 ± 14.7 years, 72% female, 80.7% New Zealand European) completed (10–26 April 2020) an online amalgamated survey (Qualtrics): International Physical Activity Questionnaire: Short Form; Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-9; World Health Organisation-Five Well-Being Index; Stages of Change Scale. Positive dose–response relationships between physical activity levels and wellbeing scores were demonstrated for estimates that were unadjusted (moderate activity OR 3.79, CI 2.88–4.92; high activity OR 8.04, CI 6.07–10.7) and adjusted (confounding variables: age, gender, socioeconomic status, time sitting and co-morbidities) (moderate activity 1.57, CI 1.11–2.52; high activity 2.85, CI 1.97–4.14). The study results support pre-vious research demonstrating beneficial effects of regular physical activity on mental health and wellbeing. Governments may use these results to promote meeting physical activity guidelines in order to protect mental health and wellbeing during the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and future pandemics.</p
Short-Term occupations at high elevation during the Middle Paleolithic at Kalavan 2 (Republic of Armenia)
The Armenian highlands encompasses rugged and environmentally diverse landscapes and is characterized by a mosaic of distinct ecological niches and large temperature gradients. Strong seasonal fluctuations in resource availability along topographic gradients likely prompted Pleistocene hominin groups to adapt by adjusting their mobility strategies. However, the role that elevated landscapes played in hunter-gatherer settlement systems during the Late Pleistocene (Middle Palaeolithic [MP]) remains poorly understood. At 1640 m above sea level, the MP site of Kalavan 2 (Armenia) is ideally positioned for testing hypotheses involving elevation-dependent seasonal mobility and subsistence strategies. Renewed excavations at Kalavan 2 exposed three main occupation horizons and ten additional low densities lithic and faunal assemblages. The results provide a new chronological, stratigraphical, and paleoenvironmental framework for hominin behaviors between ca. 60 to 45 ka. The evidence presented suggests that the stratified occupations at Kalavan 2 locale were repeated ephemerally most likely related to hunting in a high-elevation within the mountainous steppe landscape
The Queen of Navarre and a Queen from Navarre:Comparing the experience of queenship of Leonor de Trastámara and Joan of Navarre
This article offers an intensive comparison of two queen consorts, Leonor de Trastámara, consort of Carlos III of Navarre (r. 1387-1425) and her sister-in-law, Joan of Navarre, consort of Henry IV of England (r. 1399-1413). Key similarities and differences in their lives and experience of queenship are revealed by an examination of the major ceremonies that marked their tenure as consort and their personal exercise of the queen’s office. As well as bringing greater illumination to their individual lives, the comparison also deepens our understanding of queenship, not only in Navarre and England, but more broadly in the later middle age
Intersectional approaches to gender-based violence in universities: Experiences and interventions
Obstacles and Opportunities for Female Power and Sovereignty
This piece discusses the position of female heiresses and regnant queens, examining the structural and situational factors which can either aid an heiress in coming to the throne or conversely bar her accession. While the majority of the examples here will be drawn from premodern Europe, consideration is given to global examples to give a wider perspective of the continuity of experience of female heiresses and rulers in different temporal and culturalsettings
The Aortic-Femoral Arterial Stiffness Gradient is Blood Pressure Independent in Older Adults: An Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study
Elevated Skin pH Is Associated with an Increased Permeability to Synthetic Urine
PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the permeability of the skin following cleansing activities and its susceptibility to synthetic urine penetration. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: Ten healthy volunteers (aged 22-58 years) participated in the study, which was conducted in a university bioengineering laboratory. METHODS: Tape stripping and sodium lauryl sulfate were used to simulate the physical and chemical irritation exacerbated by frequent cleansing activities, respectively. An untreated site also was selected to evaluate responses of intact skin. Synthetic urine was then applied for a period of 2 hours. Measurements of transepidermal water loss and skin pH were taken at baseline and after each challenge. To quantify the permeability of the skin following exposure, desorption curves of transepidermal water loss were measured and skin surface water loss was calculated. RESULTS: Chemically irritated skin, characterized by increased pH (7.34 ± 0.22), demonstrated an increased permeability to urine, as reflected by a significant increase in mean skin surface water loss (46,209 ± 15,596 g/m2) compared to both the intact (14,631 ± 6164 g/m2) and physically irritated (14,545 ± 4051 g/m2) skin (P =.005 in both cases). In contrast, the differences between the intact and physically irritated skin were not significant (P =.88). CONCLUSION: Permeability of the skin to irritants is influenced by the status of the skin and its acid mantle. These highlight the need to reevaluate the frequency of cleansing activities, along with the choice of product in clinical settings, favoring the use of pH-balanced cleansers.</p