1,721,017 research outputs found
EPHESUS: E-bikes Pedalling for Healthy, Ecological and Smart Urban Sustainability
No full textThe high rate of air pollution represents a significant threat to health across the world. At the same time, the level of sedentarism is significantly increasing. In this scenario, new active transportation strategies are needed to address both these problems and e-bikes may be the answer to this need. E-bikes represent a way to promote green sustainable transport capable of facing urban congestion and pollution problems. On the other hand, since e-bikes provide electric assistance only when the rider is pushing on the pedals, they promote a low-moderate physical activity that may enhance health and reduce sitting time. This paper suggests a prototype of a smart e-bike in its initial design stages, which is tailor-made for all users. Our e-bikes will be provided with an intelligent system capable of automatically changing the assistance level based on specific physiological and environmental parameters
Urbanisation processes and new towns in contemporary China: A critical understanding from a decentred view
No full textAbstract
The article discusses the results of research on Chinese new towns focusing on three places: Tongzhou New Town, located in the eastern suburban expansion of Beijing; Zhaoqing New Area, currently being built approximately 20 km from the old city of Zhaoqing (Guandong Province); and Zhengdong New District, located near Zhengzhou (inland Henan Province). Tongzhou, Zhaoqing and Zhengdong have absolutely nothing in common: location, size, spaces, economies, inhabitants, or when and how they were built. However, studying these places allowed us to iden- tify two issues that still seem to be in need of investigation both empirically and theoretically: the spatial features and regional scaling-up of the Chinese urbanisation processes. While presenting these issues, on the one hand, the article emphasises their specificity in the investigated contexts and, on the other, it transcends these specific cases in order to question urban studies beyond the (alleged) exceptionality of Chinese urbanisation. By adopting this approach, Chinese new towns become an object of study as well as a specific viewpoint from which to examine contem- porary urbanisation and radically re-discuss old categories, conceptualisations and even the epis- temology of the urban
Impact of daily fasting duration on body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors during a time-restricted eating protocol: a randomized controlled trial
Full text linkBackground: Time-restricted eating (TRE) is a dietary regimen that limits food intake for at least 12 h daily. Unlike other fasting protocols, TRE does not dictate what or how much to eat but rather focuses on the timing of meals. This approach has been previously demonstrated to improve body composition in individuals with obesity or metabolic impairments. However, its impact on body composition and cardiometabolic factors in healthy individuals remains unclear. Furthermore, the optimal fasting duration is still debated. Thus, we aimed to compare the effects of 8 weeks of different fasting durations on body composition and biochemical parameters in metabolically healthy, non-trained individuals using a parallel randomized controlled trial. Methods: Forty-one volunteers were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental groups: TRE 16:8 (16 h of fasting,8 h of eating), TRE 14:10 (14 h of fasting,10 h of eating), TRE 12:12 (12 h of fasting,12 h of eating) or a normal diet group (ND; no dietary restriction). Participants underwent body composition measurements and blood tests for lipid profiles (i.e., total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and triglycerides), fasting glucose, leptin, and anabolic hormones (i.e., insulin and testosterone) levels. Data were analyzed using both intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) analysis to account for compliance. A two-way ANOVA for repeated measures was employed to assess interactions between time and group. Results: In the ITT analysis, TRE 16:8 reduced body mass (-2.46%, p = 0.003) and absolute fat mass (-8.65%, p = 0.001) with no changes in lean soft tissue and in calorie intake. These results were consistent with the PP analysis which included 8 participants in TRE 16:8, 5 in TRE 14:10, 9 in TRE 12:12, and the entire ND group. Participants in the TRE 16:8 group spontaneously reduced their total caloric intake, although this reduction was not statistically significant. None of the other measurements significantly changed after 8 weeks. Conclusions: Our results suggest that a 16-hour fasting window, even without caloric restriction, may be a viable strategy for improving body composition in healthy and non-trained individuals, whereas a shorter fasting period may be insufficient to produce significant changes in a healthy population. Trial registration: NCT, NCT04503005. Registered 4 August 2020, https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04503005
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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