Validity and normative data for thirty-second chair stand test in elderly community-dwelling Hong Kong Chinese

It is important to establish valid field measures of lower body strength in the elderly, and to provide representative normative values that are culturally specific in order to help health professionals in the risk assessment of this group. A sample of 1,038 elderly Hong Kong Chinese undertook a 30-sec chair stand test (30CST), with a subsample of 143 completing isometric measures of maximal hip flexion and knee extension, plus a habitual physical activity questionnaire. The 30CST was significantly, yet only weakly, correlated with the isometric strength measures (r ∼ 0.3-0.4), but accurately discriminated between levels of habitual physical activity and across ages in decades. The normative values generated provide useful data for health screening in this elderly Hong Kong population, but do not compare well with their healthier US counterparts. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.postprin

Patterns of physical exercise and contributing factors among Hong Kong older adults

Key Messages 1. Studies suggest that regular physical activity and exercise offer a significant opportunity to enhance years of active independent life for older individuals. However, the majority of local respondents have a relatively sedentary lifestyle and were not getting adequate physical activity and exercise, though many recognised the health benefits of being active. 2. Compared with their relatively active American counterparts, in terms of strength, flexibility and agility, the respondents of this study fared unfavourably, with mean values in the 20-30 percentile score or lower. 3. More than 80% of elderly adults regularly participated in sports activities, the majority of whom engaged in only a low-to-moderate level of physical exercise mainly due to limited choices and time allocation for such activity. Nearly 17% of the respondents engaged in walking as a leisure activity; a substantial proportion included completion of their household activities (shopping, visiting friends) in what they termed ‘walking’. As walking confers many health benefits, its promotion in the immediate environments of the elderly is practical and undoubtedly health enhancing. 4. Findings suggested that cognitive-perceptual factors, ie perceived ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of doing exercise, selfefficacy of exercise, stages of change and perceived barriers to exercise were all influential variables contributing to engagement in sports activity. Longitudinal studies are needed to understand the causal and temporal relations between these variables. 5. Health promotion programmes to educate older adults about the benefits of engaging in physical activity with respect to their self-efficacy are crucial. Education can enhance individual’s knowledge and/or awareness concerning the health benefits of physical activity and exercise. Those who are deprived and less educated should receive more attention from policymakers and service providers.published_or_final_versio

The potential use of crushed waste glass as a sustainable alternative to natural and manufactured sand in geotechnical applications

The increasing price and diminishing reserves of construction sand encourage a need to develop its sustainable and cost-effective replacement, helping the transition towards a circular economy. Waste glass is a derivative of natural sand and could potentially show similar geotechnical behaviour. Using crushed waste glass (CWG) as an alternative to traditional sand would potentially offer a double-duty benefit by helping to address the geo-environmental challenges of natural sand depletion and disposal of ever-increasing waste glass, together. This study investigated the geotechnical, mineralogical and morphological behaviour of CWG and compared it with that of natural sand (NS) and manufactured sand (MS). The geotechnical characterisation results showed that the behaviour of CWG is similar to the other two sands studied, with CWG showing the highest permeability and abrasion resistance. Surprisingly, the shear strength testing showed that the friction angle of CWG was higher under saturated conditions than under dry conditions, indicating the stability of CWG under saturated conditions. The mineralogical analysis was conducted using x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy and revealed that silica is the dominant mineral in all three materials, indicating a similarity in their chemical composition. The morphological analysis was performed to quantify the particle shape of each material in terms of roundness index using digital images obtained through an optical microscope. The results demonstrated that MS showed the highest particle angularity, followed by CWG and NS. Overall, it was concluded that CWG could potentially act as a next-generation alternative and smart geomaterial, replacing traditional sands in several geotechnical applications

Intelectin contributes to allergen-induced IL-25, IL-33, and TSLP expression and type 2 response in asthma and atopic dermatitis.

The epithelial and epidermal innate cytokines IL-25, IL-33, and thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) have pivotal roles in the initiation of allergic inflammation in asthma and atopic dermatitis (AD). However, the mechanism by which the expression of these innate cytokines is regulated remains unclear. Intelectin (ITLN) is expressed in airway epithelial cells and promotes allergic airway inflammation. We hypothesized that ITLN is required for allergen-induced IL-25, IL-33, and TSLP expression. In two asthma models, Itln knockdown reduced allergen-induced increases in Il-25, Il-33, and Tslp and development of type 2 response, eosinophilic inflammation, mucus overproduction, and airway hyperresponsiveness. Itln knockdown also inhibited house dust mite (HDM)-induced early upregulation of Il-25, Il-33, and Tslp in a model solely inducing airway sensitization. Using human airway epithelial cells, we demonstrated that HDM-induced increases in ITLN led to phosphorylation of epidermal growth factor receptor and extracellular-signal regulated kinase, which were required for induction of IL-25, IL-33, and TSLP expression. In two AD models, Itln knockdown suppressed expression of Il-33, Tslp, and Th2 cytokines and eosinophilic inflammation. In humans, ITLN1 expression was significantly increased in asthmatic airways and in lesional skin of AD. We conclude that ITLN contributes to allergen-induced Il-25, Il-33, and Tslp expression in asthma and AD

Single-channel electroencephalographic recording in children with developmental coordination disorder: Validity and influence of eye blink artifacts

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Revisiting Scalar and Pseudoscalar Couplings with Nucleons

Certain dark matter interactions with nuclei are mediated possibly by a scalar or pseudoscalar Higgs boson. The estimation of the corresponding cross sections requires a correct evaluation of the couplings between the scalar or pseudoscalar Higgs boson and the nucleons. Progress has been made in two aspects relevant to this study in the past few years. First, recent lattice calculations show that the strange-quark sigma term $\sigma_s$ and the strange-quark content in the nucleon are much smaller than what are expected previously. Second, lattice and model analyses imply sizable SU(3) breaking effects in the determination on the axial-vector coupling constant $g_A^8$ that in turn affect the extraction of the isosinglet coupling $g_A^0$ and the strange quark spin component $\Delta s$ from polarized deep inelastic scattering experiments. Based on these new developments, we re-evaluate the relevant nucleon matrix elements and compute the scalar and pseudoscalar couplings of the proton and neutron. We also find that the strange quark contribution in both types of couplings is smaller than previously thought.Comment: 17 pages, Sec. II is revised and the pion-nucleon sigma term extracted from the scattering data is discussed. Version to appear in JHE

Kaolin clay reinforced with a granular column containing crushed waste glass or traditional construction sands

Installation of granular columns is a cost-effective and versatile in situ technique to improve the shear strength, settlement, and drainage behaviour of weak soils. It involves backfilling vertical boreholes in the ground with granular materials stiffer than the native soil, such as stone or compacted sand. However, the massive use and overexploitation of sand and natural aggregates have depleted their reserves in recent decades, causing damage to the environment, creating sand shortages and skyrocketing their price. Hence, it is essential to develop a sustainable alternative to natural aggregates to construct granular columns. The ever-increasing stockpiles of waste glass could be a potential replacement for natural sand in several geotechnical construction applications, noting that both materials have a similar chemical composition. Using crushed waste glass (CWG) as an alternative to traditional natural and manufactured (quarried) sands in granular columns could offer a multi75 pronged benefit by recycling non-biodegradable waste (glass) and by conserving a depleting natural resource (sand). Using a large direct shear (LDS) machine, this study investigated the shear strength behaviour of kaolin (to represent a typical weak soil) reinforced with a central granular column. Three different materials were separately used to backfill the column, including natural sand (NS), manufactured sand (MS) and CWG. The results revealed that the geocomposites containing the CWG column have the highest peak friction angle and relatively greater shear strength under high normal stresses, favouring the potential use of CWG as a green alternative to traditional sands in backfilling granular columns, ultimately supporting resource conservation, waste recycling and the paradigm shift towards a circular economy

A Mechanistic Modeling Framework for Predicting Metabolic Interactions in Complex Mixtures

Background: Computational modeling of the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of chemicals is now theoretically able to describe metabolic interactions in realistic mixtures of tens to hundreds of substances. That framework awaits validation

Abrasive water jet drilling of advanced sustainable bio-fibre-reinforced polymer/hybrid composites : a comprehensive analysis of machining-induced damage responses

This paper aims at investigating the effects of variable traverse speeds on machining-induced damage of fibre-reinforced composites, using the abrasive water jet (AWJ) drilling. Three different types of epoxy-based composites laminates fabricated by vacuum bagging technique containing unidirectional (UD) flax, hybrid carbon-flax and carbon fibre-reinforced composite were used. The drilling parameters used were traverse speeds of 20, 40, 60 and 80 mm/min, constant water jet pressure of 300 MPa and a hole diameter of 10 mm. The results obtained depict that the traverse speed had a significant effect with respect to both surface roughness and delamination drilling-induced damage responses. Evidently, an increase in water jet traverse speed caused an increase in both damage responses of the three samples. Significantly, the CFRP composite sample recorded the lowest surface roughness damage response, followed by C-FFRP, while FFRP exhibited the highest. However, samples of FFRP and hybrid C-FFRP recorded lowest and highest delamination damage responses, respectively. The discrepancy in both damage responses, as further validated with micrographs of colour video microscopy (CVM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray micro-computed tomography (X-ray μCT), is attributed to the different mechanical properties of the reinforced fibres, fibre orientation/ply stacking and hybridisation of the samples.Peer reviewe