75 research outputs found
The Use of Wearable Sensors to Promote Physical Activities in the Smart City
No full textBackground: Despite the growing body of research on mHealth, particularly apps, their effectiveness in improving health outcomes remains uncertain. However, their versatility, adaptability, and potential for long-term prevention highlight them as valuable tools to support active aging strategies across different life stages. Understanding their role in health management and improvement is crucial for optimising their adoption and impact in different populations.
Methods: The five studies investigated 1) the effectiveness of mobile apps for health in healthy adults (systematic review), 2) if and how young adults use apps and wearables for health purposes (cross-sectional web-survey conducted in Italy), 3) young adults’ experience of use of apps and wearables for health purposes (focus groups study), 4) adults’ experience of use of apps and wearables for health purposes (interview study) and 5) older adults’ ideal active ageing intervention supported by technology (interview study).
Results: Study 1 could not assess the effectiveness of apps for healthy adults for improving physical activity and/or diet due to the poor methodological quality of the available studies. Study 2 reported that while half of the sample used apps or wearables for health, mostly for monitoring rather than improving health variables, daily use was common. It also highlighted the most important characteristics in apps and wearables for young adults. Study 3 revealed that young adults view apps and wearables as important for health management and prefer an integrated tool that addresses both medical and non-medical aspects. However, some negative experiences emerged, indicating areas for improvement. Study 4 showed that adults use these technologies for both monitoring and health improvement, but reported occasional stress related to their use. Study 5 outlined older adults' ideal active aging intervention, providing practical guidelines for designing multidimensional programs that incorporate wearable devices.
Conclusions: Health apps and wearables are widely used and valued across different life stages, with varying preferences and applications. Their potential to support lifelong active aging interventions, starting in young adulthood with a preventive approach and evolving to meet changing needs, makes them promising tools for public health. Future research should assess the long-term adoption and effectiveness of these technologies across different age groups to better tailor them to individual and societal needs
Maps, lists and classifications: the work of Luca Vitone between image and word on the traces of Joseph Cornell and Georges Perec.
No full textThis article examines the fundamental relationship between word and image in Luca Vitone's artistic research and practice. In particular, it analyses and tries to assess the relationship between images (including photographs and maps) with specific verbal forms as lists, classifications and categories and suggests that these verbal forms in contemporary artworks are employed as artistic techniques that engage with traditional artistic genres (portrait, landscape and genre-painting). Leuzzi traces two fundamental sources of inspiration in Vitone's use of the list and classification: the American artist Joseph Cornell and the Oulipo writer Georges Perec. The author focuses on the role and nature of the relationship between verbal lists and images in some of Vitone's most renown artworks including Wide City (1998), Wider City (2006), Liberi tutti! (1996, 1997, 2008), Nulla da dire solo da essere (2004) and Nel nome del padre (with Cesare Viel, 2001). The full text of this article is in Italian
A Relational Unsupervised Approach to Author Identification
No full textIn the last decades speaking and writing habits have changed.
Many works faced the author identification task by exploiting frequencybased
approaches, numeric techniques or writing style analysis. Following
the last approach we propose a technique for author identification
based on First-Order Logic. Specifically, we translate the complex data
represented by natural language text to complex (relational) patterns
that represent the writing style of an author. Then, we model an author
as the result of clustering the relational descriptions associated to the
sentences. The underlying idea is that such a model can express the typical
way in which an author composes the sentences in his writings. So,
if we can map such writing habits from the unknown-author model to
the known-author model, we can conclude that the author is the same.
Preliminary results are promising and the approach seems viable in real
contexts since it does not need a training phase and performs well also
with short texts
Representation and identity in contemporary women artists' video.
No full textThis essay is an initial study that examines selected contemporary video artworks addressing identity and representation by contemporary Italian women artists. The author shows how these women artists seek to avoid the objectification and sanitisation of the traditional iconographies involving women in patriarchal Catholic systems. Selected works by Elisabetta Di Sopra, Francesca Fini, and Mariateresa Sartori are discussed by comparing elements from works by earlier generations of feminist video artists, such as Pipilotti Rist, Elaine Shemilt, and Catherine Elwes. Drawing on theories of both video and feminist art, this article examines how the development of a new aesthetic in early women's video art practice in the 1970s and 1980s is still relevant to the task of critically examining and assessing aesthetics in video today, and how video remains a key tool used to experiment with the remediation of women's representation and identity
Assessment of shoulder functional movements through inertial measurement units for tele-rehabilitation: a quaternion-based approach
No full textTelerehabilitation improves accessibility and accelerates recovery: in this context, Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) are promising wearable sensors for remote movement data collection, which allows to evaluate how closely exercise repetitions align with a prescribed trajectory. Current data processing methods for this purpose include data-driven approaches, requiring exercise-specific training through large amount of data, or distance-based methods with unbounded output, not easy to interpret. This study proposes a novel algorithm which combines the versatility of a bounded output score with numerical stability of quaternions. Data from an IMU-based device were acquired during the execution of human functional shoulder movements by both a young and elderly group of participants. Outputs from the application of the proposed methodology on collected data from same or different movements were statistically compared, revealing ability of discriminating repetitions of the same or of different movements (p<0.01, rrb effect size = 0.97, contrast ratio 1.7). The proposed algorithm was also confronted with the traditional approaches by statistically comparing outputs from comparison matrices rescaled in equal range of values, and results indicated mild differences in performance (rrb effect size < 0.5). Future works may involve integrating this approach into a functioning telerehabilitation system and obtaining feedback on the usability from real users
Self/portraits:the Mirror, the Self and the Other. Identity and Representation in Early Women’s Video Art in Europe
No full textIn this chapter, the author discusses how the category of the self-portrait is significant to critically interpret and contextualise many relevant women artists and early video artworks, which engaged in and tried to defy some tropes and topoi of this genre from various perspectives. In this respect, video art became a tool to de-territorialise the genre of self-portraiture, as a means for female artists to actively position themselves in art history and to further challenge the art historical canon in general.
Drawing from theoretical approaches by video, film and feminist authors and art historians as Rosalind Krauss, Laura Mulvey, Catherine Elwes and Marsha Meskimmon, this chapter includes the analysis of case studies by some of the most relevant European women video pioneers including Nan Hoover, Ziva Kraus, Marianne Heske, Elaine Shemilt, Tamara Krikorian, Klara Kuchta, Anna Valeria Borsari and Federica Marangoni
Personality traits and levels of anxiety and depression among martial artists : a cross-sectional study
No full textBackground: In recent years, fighting arts (e.g., Karate, Judo, Jujitsu, Boxe) have gained broader attention due to their multiple benefits, involving both physical and psychological enhancements for practitioners. Despite that, studies revolving around specific psychological characteristics such as personality traits are scarce. This study explored potential connections between the personality traits of practitioners and the specific fighting art they engage in, and investigated levels of anxiety and depression in fighting artists. Methods: A web-based cross-sectional survey instrument was developed and disseminated across the entire Italian territory. Participants were eligible if adults (> 18 years old) engaged in any fighting arts for a minimum of one year, with no additional restrictions. The survey employed the Big Five Inventory (BFI) with 44 questions to explore personality traits using the OCEAN model, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to explore anxiety and depression levels. Results: A total of 770 questionnaires were collected from July to September 2023. Participants were mainly men (M = 571, 74.5%; F = 199, 25.8%; mean age 45.2 ± 14.8), and most of the participants practised in the North of Italy (N = 493, 64.0%). The mean age of practice was 28.5 ± 14.9 years and the most practised fighting arts were Judo (N = 349, 45.3%), Karate (N = 272, 35.3%) and Jujitsu (N = 42, 5.5%). Personality traits were identified as openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism and the results were as follows: O) 40.1 ± 6.30; C) 37.1 ± 5.78; E) 28.2 ± 5.64; A) 35.1 ± 5.08; N) 19,8 ± 5,51. Anxiety and depression scored respectively 5.93 ± 3.14 and 3.67 ± 2.74. Conclusions: Fighting artists exhibit elevated levels of positive personality traits, such as openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness. Conversely, neuroticism tends to be lower among them. Moreover, anxiety and depression levels among fighting artists are lower than the Italian normative values. Fighting arts, particularly Karate and Judo, emerge as promising avenues for adults seeking innovative or complementary strategies to foster positive personality traits (e.g., openness, conscientiousness) while mitigating anxiety and depression. Future studies could explore other personality traits, including Machiavellianism, and explore additional psychological characteristics such as aggressiveness to provide a more comprehensive understanding
Inertial Measurement Units for shoulder functional assessment in telerehabilitation systems: a preliminary study
No full textThe use of Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) as sensors in wearable devices for human movement monitoring helps the development of remote rehabilitation systems. Pathologies of musculoskeletal system can affect the execution of the basic activities of daily living (ADL), hence in rehabilitation treatments it is important to also evaluate functional gestures related to ADL execution. In this work, we assess the capability of an IMU-based device to detect abnormalities in motor patterns of the shoulder joint during the execution of functional movements. Results from a preliminary assessment suggest good possibilities of detecting differences in motor patterns. The final direction of this work should be to integrate the findings in a telerehabilitation system as an indicator of functionality of the shoulder joints
The added value of devices to pelvic floor muscle training in radical post-prostatectomy stress urinary incontinence: A systematic review with metanalysis
No full textPurposeTo investigate the role of pelvic floor devices (e.g., biofeedback, electrical stimulation, magnetic stimulation, or their combination) as adjunctive treatments in pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) in stress urinary incontinence (SUI) after radical prostatectomy.Materials and methodsA systematic review with meta-analysis. We searched for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and prospective non-randomised studies investigating the effectiveness of pelvic floor devices as an adjunctive treatment for SUI symptoms assessed with weight pad-test or standardised questionnaires. To assess the risk of bias (RoB) and overall certainty of evidence, the RoB 2.0 or the ROBINS-I, and the GRADE approach were used.ResultsEleven RCTs met our eligibility criteria. One was at a ‘low’ RoB, one had ‘some concerns’, while nine were at a ‘high’ RoB. Two meta-analyses were conducted to analyse the pooled results of six RCTs included. Specifically, two RCTs reported at week 4 with a 1h pad test a mean difference of 0.64 (95% CI = [-13.09, 14.36]), and four RCTs reported at week 12 with a 24h pad test a mean difference of -47.75 (95% CI = [-104.18, 8.69]). The heterogeneity was high in both analyses (I2 = 80.0%; I2 = 80.6%). The overall level of certainty was very low.ConclusionsIn line with our results, we cannot conclude whether pelvic floor devices add any value as adjunctive treatment in the management of SUI after radical prostatectomy. Future studies require more comprehensive and standardised approaches to understand whether these devices are effective
Exploring knowledge, perception, and use of surface electromyography in physiotherapy post graduate trainees in Italy: a single center preliminary survey
No full textIntroductionSurface electromyography (sEMG) is a non-invasive technique that records muscle electrical activity using skin-surface electrodes, aiding physiotherapists in assessing and treating muscular and neuromuscular conditions. Despite its potential, sEMG remains underutilized in Italy. This study aims to evaluate Italian physiotherapists’ knowledge and use of sEMG, specifically among those who completed the Master's Degree in Rehabilitation of Musculoskeletal and Rheumatological Disorders at the University of Genoa.MethodsThis cross-sectional study, approved by the University of Genoa's Ethical Committee, utilized an anonymous web survey to gather data from physiotherapy students in the master's program. The survey, developed based on the International Handbook of Survey Methodology, consisted of 12 questions covering demographics, previous sEMG experience, the importance of sEMG in practice and research, and educational satisfaction. Data collection spanned from January to May 2024, with a response rate of 72.7% (93 participants). Descriptive analysis was used to summarize the data.ResultsThe average age of respondents was 26.5 years, with 55.9% being male. Only 3.2% reported using sEMG in their practice. While 46.2% considered sEMG moderately important for practice, 40.9% deemed it extremely important for research. Most participants felt their undergraduate education inadequately prepared them for using sEMG, with 81.7% rating their preparation as insufficient. Although the master's program improved sEMG knowledge, 66.7% indicated no significant proficiency gain.ConclusionItalian physiotherapists view sEMG mainly as a research tool rather than a clinical one. The findings highlight the need for curriculum reforms to enhance both theoretical and practical sEMG education. Simplifying and standardizing sEMG protocols and integrating sEMG training into physiotherapy curricula are essential steps to better prepare clinicians for its clinical application.Introduction: Surface electromyography (sEMG) is a non-invasive technique that records muscle electrical activity using skin-surface electrodes, aiding physiotherapists in assessing and treating muscular and neuromuscular conditions. Despite its potential, sEMG remains underutilized in Italy. This study aims to evaluate Italian physiotherapists’ knowledge and use of sEMG, specifically among those who completed the Master's Degree in Rehabilitation of Musculoskeletal and Rheumatological Disorders at the University of Genoa. Methods: This cross-sectional study, approved by the University of Genoa's Ethical Committee, utilized an anonymous web survey to gather data from physiotherapy students in the master's program. The survey, developed based on the International Handbook of Survey Methodology, consisted of 12 questions covering demographics, previous sEMG experience, the importance of sEMG in practice and research, and educational satisfaction. Data collection spanned from January to May 2024, with a response rate of 72.7% (93 participants). Descriptive analysis was used to summarize the data. Results: The average age of respondents was 26.5 years, with 55.9% being male. Only 3.2% reported using sEMG in their practice. While 46.2% considered sEMG moderately important for practice, 40.9% deemed it extremely important for research. Most participants felt their undergraduate education inadequately prepared them for using sEMG, with 81.7% rating their preparation as insufficient. Although the master's program improved sEMG knowledge, 66.7% indicated no significant proficiency gain. Conclusion: Italian physiotherapists view sEMG mainly as a research tool rather than a clinical one. The findings highlight the need for curriculum reforms to enhance both theoretical and practical sEMG education. Simplifying and standardizing sEMG protocols and integrating sEMG training into physiotherapy curricula are essential steps to better prepare clinicians for its clinical application
- …
