NEXTGEN: A serious game showcasing circular economy in the urban water cycle

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordData availability: Data will be made available on request.Understanding the Circular Economy for water is challenging. It requires being acquainted with the individual components involved in the urban water cycle such as stormwater, water conveyance, groundwater, water drainage, wastewater treatment and discharge. In addition, to appreciate benefits and tradeoffs in the context of Circular Economy, one also needs to factor the interrelations between water and other factors such as material recovery, energy use, expenses, and environmental impacts. On top of it, the fact that each catchment has a different geography, hydrology and urban setup can lead to difficulties in transferring gathered knowledge to other situations. In response to this challenge of developing a holistic understanding of applying Circular Economy to the urban water cycle, the NextGen Serious Game has been created. It is a simulation based online educational tool with a digital user interface that allows participants to explore the implications of applying circular economy strategies such as “Reduce” (for waste), Reuse (for materials), and Recovery (of energy though biogas generation) to the water urban cycle in different virtual catchments representing different settings. Several physical and online game-playing events took place where participants were able to take the appropriate measures to maximise Circular Economy for water when a virtual catchment was exposed to challenging scenarios, e.g., lower rainfalls and population growth. The players included students, environmental scientists, engineers, policy makers, and members of the public. The serious game was successfully used as a teaching tool in student classrooms (leading to an average improvement of about 26% in the number of correct answers). Furthermore, it made an effective debate facilitation tool contributing to the discussion of a multi-disciplinary expert panel by bringing new insights to the discussion. Finally, the Serious Game was used to organize the first e-sport competitive tournament between water professionals at an industry conference, paving the way for a novel form of engagement. This is a considerable contribution to public understanding at a time where the water industry struggles to sensitize a wider audience to the problems and reality of water in the context of climate change, growing resources scarcity, and environmental decline.European Union Horizon 202

Physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, and metabolic syndrome in adolescents: A cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In adults, there is a substantial body of evidence that physical inactivity or low cardiorespiratory fitness levels are strongly associated with the development of metabolic syndrome. Although this association has been studied extensively in adults, little is known regarding this association in adolescents. The aim of this study was to analyze the association between physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness levels with metabolic syndrome in Brazilian adolescents.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A random sample of 223 girls (mean age, 14.4 ± 1.6 years) and 233 boys (mean age, 14.6 ± 1.6 years) was selected for the study. The level of physical activity was determined by the Bouchard three-day physical activity record. Cardiorespiratory fitness was estimated by the Leger 20-meter shuttle run test. The metabolic syndrome components assessed included waist circumference, blood pressure, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting plasma glucose levels. Independent Student <it>t</it>-tests were used to assess gender differences. The associations between physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness with the presence of metabolic syndrome were calculated using logistic regression models adjusted for age and gender.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A high prevalence of metabolic syndrome was observed in inactive adolescents (males, 11.4%; females, 7.2%) and adolescents with low cardiorespiratory fitness levels (males, 13.9%; females, 8.6%). A significant relationship existed between metabolic syndrome and low cardiorespiratory fitness (OR, 3.0 [1.13-7.94]).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The prevalence of metabolic syndrome is high among adolescents who are inactive and those with low cardiorespiratory fitness. Prevention strategies for metabolic syndrome should concentrate on enhancing fitness levels early in life.</p

National physical education curriculum: motor and cardiovascular health related fitness in Greek adolescents

Background: State school physical education (PE) programmes are common throughout Greece. However, it is not known if the main objectives of the Greek PE curriculum are achieved. Objective: To assess the current national PE curriculum in relation to selected motor and cardiovascular health related fitness parameters. Methods: A sample of 84 Greek schoolboys (mean (SD) age 13.6 (0.3) years, height 160.7 (8.6) cm, weight 50 (10.8) kg) volunteered. Forty three indicated participation only in school PE classes and habitual free play (PE group). The remaining 41 were involved in extracurricular organised physical activities in addition to school PE and habitual free play (PE+ group). The subjects underwent anthropometric, motor (flexibility, balance, standing broad jump, hand grip, sit ups, and plate tapping), and cardiovascular health related (percentage body fat, aerobic fitness, and physical activity) fitness assessments. Results: Children in the PE group had inferior motor and cardiovascular health related fitness profiles compared with those in the PE+ group. Body fat (20.3 (8.8) v 13.9 (3.5); p<0.001), aerobic fitness (34.7 (3.7) v 43.9 (4.2); p<0.001), and time spent in intensive physical activity (0.2 (0.2) v 0.7 (0.3); p<0.001) showed the greatest differences between the two groups. In the pupils in the PE group, these were lower than the levels proposed to be necessary to combat future health risks. Adjustments for confounding variables showed a decrease in the significance of motor fitness, but not in cardiovascular health related parameters. Conclusions: The national PE curriculum for Greek secondary schools does not achieve the required levels of motor and cardiovascular health related fitness and should be reconsidered

A three year study of coronary heart disease risk factors in Greek adolescents

We examined the prevalence of 14 modifiable CHD risk factors in a sample of 210 provincial Greek children as they progressed from age 12 to 14. It was found that 46.2% of boys and 49.5%,of girls (p > 0.05) exhibited three or more risk factors at their 12th year, with values of 42% for boys and 51.1% (p > 0.05) for girls for their 13th year, and 29.4% for boys and 55% (p < 0.001) for girls in their 14th year. Risk factors with the highest prevalence in both sexes included low vigorous physical activity, low aerobic fitness, and elevated body fatness. The fact that boys exhibited progressively fewer risk factors with age was mainly attributed to increased time spent on vigorous physical activity (P < 0.001) and higher predicted oxygen intake (P < 0.001) with a concomitant decrease in body fat (P < 0.001). The opposite pattern demonstrated by girls was primarily due to elevated predicted % body fat (P < 0.05), % saturated fat intake (P < 0.05), total cholesterol (TC; P < 0.001), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C; P < 0.001), and decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)/TC; P < 0.001). In conclusion, a high percentage of young adolescent Greek boys and girls exhibit three or more modifiable CHD risk factors. However, as the children progress from age 12 to 14, gender differences emerge regarding the development of their CHD risk profiles. The present data support the notion that preventive strategies for combating CHD should begin early in life

The prevalence of selected modifiable coronary heart disease risk factors in 12-year-old Greek boys and girls

The prevalence of 14 selected modifiable coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors was determined in randomly selected adolescent boys (n = 117) and girls (n = 93) from provincial Greece. Based on published criteria thresholds for CHD, 45% of boys and 50% of girls exhibited three or more risk factors with time spent on "vigorous" activities, low cardiorespiratory fitness and fatness being among the most frequent in both sexes. Stronger associations were found between cardiorespiratory fitness and time spent on "vigorous" rather than "moderate-to-vigorous" activities in both boys and girls. Regression analysis indicated that energy expenditure (P < .01) in boys and energy expenditure (P < .05) and energy intake (P < .01) in girls could alone explain about 60% of the body-fat related findings in either group. Broadly based primary prevention strategies aimed at children should concentrate on reducing the overall energy intake and increasing the time spent on "vigorous" activities if future Greek adult CHD mortality is to be reduced

Towards Circular Water Neighborhoods: Simulation-Based Decision Support for Integrated Decentralized Urban Water Systems

Centralized urban water management currently faces multiple challenges, both at the supply side and the demand side. These challenges underpin the need to progress to the decentralization of urban water, where multiple distributed technologies (water-aware appliances, rainwater harvesting, greywater recycling, sustainable urban drainage) are applied in an integrated fashion and as a supplement to centralized systems to design more resilient neighborhoods. However, the methods and tools to assess the performance of these distributed solutions and provide management support for integrated projects are still few and mostly untested in real, combined cases. This study presents a simulation-based framework for the quantitative performance assessment of decentralized systems at a neighborhood scale, where different technologies can be linked together to provide beneficial effects across multiple urban water cycle domains. This framework links an urban water cycle model, which provides a scenario-based simulation testbed for the response of the whole system, with key performance indicators that evaluate the performance of integrated decentralized solutions at a neighborhood scale. The demonstrated framework is applied to provide an ex ante evaluation of SUPERLOCAL, a newly developed area in Limburg, the Netherlands, designed as a circular, water-wise neighborhood where multiple decentralized technologies are combined

Longitudinal preventive-screening cutoffs for metabolic syndrome in adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: To detect metabolic risk factor cutoff points in adolescence for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome that develops at the age of 17 years (MS17). DESIGN: This study adopted a 6-year design incorporating four data collection time points (TPs). Volunteers were assessed prospectively at the ages of 12, 13, 14 and 17. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 210, 204, 198 and 187 schoolchildren volunteered at the first (TP(1)=12 years old), second (TP2=13 years old), third (TP3=14 years old) and fourth (TP4=17 years old) data collection TP, respectively. MEASUREMENTS: At each data collection TP, anthropometrical, biological and lifestyle data were obtained. Identical protocols were used for each assessment conducted by the same trained investigators. RESULTS: A total of 12% of the participants were diagnosed with MS17, the majority of them being boys (P<0.05). The prevalence of the syndrome increased directly with the degree of obesity. Using body mass index (BMI), adiposity and/or aerobic fitness levels in both genders, MS17 could be correctly diagnosed as early as TP1. No such cutoff points were found for high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure and fasting plasma glucose levels. CONCLUSION: With respect to the data presented, it has been established that the calculated longitudinal preventive-screening cutoffs allow successful diagnosis of metabolic syndrome in adolescents using BMI, adiposity or aerobic fitness levels in both sexes. Adoption of such pediatric guidelines may help mitigate future increase in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome