Effectiveness of the vital aging program to promote active aging in Mexican older adults

Introduction: Aging is not only a population phenomenon but also an experience and an individual reality. Vital Aging® is a program that considers active aging as the lifelong adaptatio process of maximizing health and independence, physical and cognitive functioning, positive affect regulation and control, and social engagement. Through its different versions and editions, it has demonstrated being an effective program to promote active aging. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the “face-to-face” and “combined” versions of the program to promote active aging in Mexican older adults trial. Methods: Seventy-six older adults aged 60 years and over participated in a quasi-experimental study and were recruited in a senior center to participate in the two experimental conditions: Vital Aging face-to-face (VA-FF) (n=35) and Vital Aging combined (VA-C; multimedia/face-toface) (n=15), and the remaining 26 adults were assigned to a control group. Pretest and posttest assessments were performed after the theoretical–practical intervention. Mean differences and size effects were calculated for estimating the effect of the program. Results: At the end of the study, participants showed improvements in the active aging outcome measures. Positive effects were observed in the frequency of intellectual, cultural – artistic, and social activities, perceptions of aging, satisfaction with social relationships, and self-efficacy for aging. Additionally, those who participated in VA-FF showed better memory performance, meta-memory, and a trend to report less memory problems, while older persons in VA-C showed a trend to have better life satisfaction. No effects were observed in physical activity, frequency of social relationships, and subjective health. Conclusion: Findings show that the Vital Aging program in face-to-face and combined versions encourages active aging in Mexican older persons. These results are in general similar to those found in editions performed in Spain, revealing its consistency as a cross-cultural practical initiative for promoting active agingProject PSI2014-52464-P from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) in Spain supported this wor

On competitive bidding: scoring and position probability graphs

Iso-score curves graph (iSCG) and mathematical relationships between Scoring Parameters (SP) and Forecasting Parameters (FP) can be used in Economic Scoring Formulas (ESF) used in tendering to distribute the score among bidders in the economic part of a proposal. Each contracting authority must set an ESF when publishing tender specifications and the strategy of each bidder will differ depending on the ESF selected and the weight of the overall proposal scoring. The various mathematical relationships and density distributions that describe the main SPs and FPs, and the representation of tendering data by means of iSCGs, enable the generation of two new types of graphs that can be very useful for bidders who want to be more competitive: the scoring and position probability graphs

Location and associated carbon storage of erosional escarpments of seagrass Posidonia mats

Seagrasses of the genus Posidonia can form an irregular seascape due to erosional processes exposing thick walls of organic matter-rich soils. However, little is known about the location and characteristics of these particular formations. Here we provide comprehensive estimates of organic carbon (Corg) storage in Posidonia oceanica and Posidonia australis meadows, while providing insight into their location and mechanisms of formation, and highlighting future research directions. Erosional reef escarpments are restricted to shallow highly productive P. oceanica meadows from the Mediterranean Sea and P. australis meadows from the Indian Ocean, and sustain the existence of Corg-rich deposits in surrounding meadows. The thickness of the mat escarpments can reach up to 3 m and their length can vary from few to hundreds of meters. Mechanisms of formation appear to differ among sites, from naturally-induced escarpments by wave action and/or tidal flow to human-induced escarpments by dredging activities. The inter-twined remains of seagrass shoots within the sediment matrix consolidate the sandy substrate and hold the exposed Posidonia mat escarpments together, maintaining a semi-rigid structure. This phenomenon is unusual but of exceptional importance in marine biogeochemical cycles, revealing the largest Corg sinks among seagrasses worldwide (ranging from 15 to 176 kg Corg m−2 in 2 m-thick mats accumulated at 2–249 g Corg m−2 yr−1 over 300–3000 yr)

Determination and characterization of quinolones in foodstuffs of animal origin by CE-UV, LC-UV, LC-Fl, LC-MS and LC-MS/MS

In this work methods for the multiresidue determination of the series of quinolones include in the European regulation in food of animal origin are de veloped and validated in line with Commission Decision 2002/657/EC in terms of linearity, decision limit, capability detection, precision and stability. Mult iresidue methods were established to allow the determination of quinolones covered by EU legislation in 2377/90/EC in muscle of chicken, turkey, pig and cow, plasma of cow and pig, liver of pig and milk of cow. First an extraction step was optimized and a SPE step was applied to clean!up and preconcentrate quinolones prior to their separation by CE or LC and determination by CE!UV, LC!UV, LC!Fl, LC!MS with different ion sources (ESI ,ApCI) and different mass analyser (Q, ToF) and LC!E SI!QqQ tandem mass spectrometry. The limits of quantification obtained are always lower than Maxim um Residue Limit (MRL) established by EU for quinolones in animal products and they can be applied to the control of quinolones in foodstuffs of animal origin . Finally the proposed methods were applied to determine quinolones in samples of turkey and pig muscle, pig plasma and milk of cow. Excellent quality parameters and reduced time of analysis were obtained when LC!ESI!MS/MS is used, although the others techniques presented too satisfactory results

A Monte Carlo study of leading order scaling corrections of phi^4 theory on a three dimensional lattice

We present a Monte Carlo study of the one-component $\phi^4$ model on the cubic lattice in three dimensions. Leading order scaling corrections are studied using the finite size scaling method. We compute the corrections to scaling exponent $\omega$ with high precision. We determine the value of the coupling $\lambda$ at which leading order corrections to scaling vanish. Using this result we obtain estimates for critical exponents that are more precise than those obtained with field theoretic methods.Comment: 20 pages, two figures; numbers cited from ref. 23 corrected, few typos correcte

Dynamic Quality Monitoring System to Assess the Quality of Asphalt Concrete Pavement

With the rapid development of new technologies, such as big data, the Internet of Things (IoT) and intelligent sensing, the traditional asphalt pavement construction quality evaluation method has been unable to meet the needs of road digital construction. At the same time, the development of such technologies enables a new management system for asphalt pavement construction. In this study, firstly, the dynamic quality monitoring system of asphalt concrete pavement is established by adopting the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, intelligent sensing, the IoT and 5G technology. This allows key technical indicators to be collected and transmitted for the whole process of asphalt mixture, which includes the mixing plant, transport vehicle, paving and compaction. Secondly, combined with AHP and the entropy weight (EW) method, the index combination weight is calculated. The comprehensive index for the pavement digital construction quality index (PCQ) is proposed to reflect the impact of monitoring indicators on pavement quality. An expert decision-making model is formed by using the improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm coupled with radial basis function neural network (RBF). Finally, the digital monitoring index and pavement performance index are connected to establish a full-time and multi-dimensional digital construction quality evaluation model. This study is verified by a database created from the digital monitoring data of pavement construction collected from a highway construction project. The system proposed in this study can accurately reflect the quality of pavement digital construction and solve the lag problem existing in the feedback of construction site