Stair walking is obesity-associated: Rate of ascending and descending the stairs at an underground train station in Munich, Germany

Daily stair walking is a time-efficient everyday activity that improves cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle strength, body composition, blood pressure, lipid profiles, and is associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality. However, more than one in three adult Europeans is physically inactive in their everyday life and the exemplary current rate of stair walking in Germany is not known. Therefore, 2,521 people were monitored climbing the stairs or using a parallel escalator over a period of one week in an underground train station in Munich, Germany (January 3rd to 9th, 2022). 53.4% were women and 46.6% men, 30.7% (N = 774) were classified as obviously overweight-obese. 9.1% (N = 229) of all people counted used the ascending stairs - these were slightly more male than female and a total of 19 persons who were obviously overweight-obese. On two observation days, the pedestrians' mode of descent (stairs/escalator) was also recorded on 457 people, of whom 28% (N = 128) were categorized as obviously overweight-obese. With an equal gender distribution, 27.8% (N = 127) of the people counted used the descending stairs, including 22 obviously overweight-obese people. A very small proportion of adults used the stairs in our exemplary sample (every eleventh chose the stairs for ascent and every fourth chose the stairs for descent), which confirms the high development potential for promoting short repetitive bouts of non-exercise physical activity in everyday life - also for overweight-obese people. Internalize the mantra: Stairs are good friends and not enemies

Improvements on coronal hole detection in SDO/AIA images using supervised classification

We demonstrate the use of machine learning algorithms in combination with segmentation techniques in order to distinguish coronal holes and filaments in SDO/AIA EUV images of the Sun. Based on two coronal hole detection techniques (intensity-based thresholding, SPoCA), we prepared data sets of manually labeled coronal hole and filament channel regions present on the Sun during the time range 2011 - 2013. By mapping the extracted regions from EUV observations onto HMI line-of-sight magnetograms we also include their magnetic characteristics. We computed shape measures from the segmented binary maps as well as first order and second order texture statistics from the segmented regions in the EUV images and magnetograms. These attributes were used for data mining investigations to identify the most performant rule to differentiate between coronal holes and filament channels. We applied several classifiers, namely Support Vector Machine, Linear Support Vector Machine, Decision Tree, and Random Forest and found that all classification rules achieve good results in general, with linear SVM providing the best performances (with a true skill statistic of ~0.90). Additional information from magnetic field data systematically improves the performance across all four classifiers for the SPoCA detection. Since the calculation is inexpensive in computing time, this approach is well suited for applications on real-time data. This study demonstrates how a machine learning approach may help improve upon an unsupervised feature extraction method.Comment: in press for SWS

THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PHYSICAL SELF CONCEPT, SPORT AND GENDER IN ALGERIAN ADOLESCENTS

This study aims to clarify the impact of sport specialty in physical self concept and gender, and also the difference in the dimension of the physical self concept. A sample of research is made up of 169 sportsmen in different disciplines from Chlef ’s sport league with an average age of 18.3± 2.45 (soccer , volleyball, athleticism). The Physical self-description questionnaire (PSDQ) was used to measure the concept of physical self-according to multidimensional perspectives. The research results have demonstrated that the kind of sport discipline practiced by high level players has an impact on their understanding of their physical selves, and the second results might assert the general approximation which we are about to speak about. Gender issue influences self-esteem in relation to individuals, yet in the field of sport, we realize that males and females are equal at the level of all other dimensions of the questioner

Ritual Machines I & II: Making Technology at Home

Changing patterns of both work-related mobility and domestic arrangements mean that ‘mobile workers’ face challenges to support and engage in family life whilst travelling for work. Phatic devices offer some potential to provide connection at a distance alongside existing communications infrastructure. Through a bespoke design process, incorporating phases of design ethnography, critical technical practice and provotyping we have developed Ritual Machines I and II as material explorations of mobile workers’ lives and practices. In doing this we sought to reflect upon the practices through which families accomplish mobile living, the values they place in technology for doing ‘family’ at a distance and to draw insights in to the potential roles of digital technology in supporting them. We frame the design of our phatic devices in discussion of processes of bespoke design, offer advice on supporting mobile workers when travelling and articulate the values of making a technology at home when designing for domestic and mobile settings

Response of serum C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor-α, and heat shock protein 70 levels to trachyspermum copticum and selected swimming training

Regular physical activity is the best defense against many diseases, illnesses, and abnormalities. Aerobic exercise and the consumption of herbal supplements strengthen the body's immune and defense systems. This study aimed to investigate the effect of a period of swimming endurance training with trachyspermum copticum (Ajwain) consumption on serum levels of some inflammatory factors in young men in a randomized clinical trial. The statistical population included all male students less than 25 years of age at the Islamic Azad University of Varamin Phishva, Iran. Among them, sample sizes of 60 people were selected by simple random sampling and were divided into four groups of 15 people each: trachyspermum copticum + training, trachyspermum copticum, training, and control. The training program included endurance swimming for 10 weeks either with or without the addition of trachyspermum copticum. Serum concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), C-reactive protein (CRP), and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) were measured in two-time stages before and after the study period. The level of CRP inflammatory index, TNF-α cytokine, and HSP70 were lower among the training + trachyspermum copticum than in the control group and other experimental groups. Endurance swimming training and trachyspermum copticum with anti-inflammatory properties strengthened the immune system, increased antioxidant defense, and decreased inflammatory markers. Also, the level of physical activity has improved this condition by improving endothelial function

Does the obesity-associated adipokine leucine-rich alpha2-glycoprotein 1 (LRG1) have a regulatory role of the skeletal muscle adaptive response to exercise?

Dear Editor-in-ChiefOverweight and obesity are considered as the most important lifestyle-related diseases today such that they are known as the fifth leading causes of death worldwide according to the published statistics. Moreover, as previous studies have shown, low-grade chronic inflammation is among the symptoms of these diseases and plays a key role in the pathogenesis of various physical problems and chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases (Safaei et al., 2021).Meanwhile, new evidence suggests that leucine-rich α 2-glycoprotein 1 (LRG1) proinflammatory factor, an important upstream signaling pathway of transforming growth factor⁃β (TGF⁃β), will cause several pathological processes (Zou et al., 2022). In other words, it can be stated that LRG1, alone or in combination with other known factors, is considered as a potential biomarker for inflammation and obesity. There is a positive relationship between high levels of LRG1 and obesity, while low levels of plasma LRG1 predict weight loss in surgery for obesity and metabolic diseases (Pek et al., 2018). Investigation of the importance and the relationship of this issue in a broad study on 2,058 patients with type 2 diabetes showed that higher plasma LRG1 levels in women than men have a significant relationship with several risk factors for cardiovascular disease, namely arterial stiffness, endothelial dysfunction, systolic blood pressure, obesity, kidney disease, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (Pek et al., 2018; Zou et al., 2022). A recent 8-year longitudinal study also found that pigment epithelial-derived factor and plasma LRG1 mediated the inverse relationship between skeletal muscle mass and chronic kidney disease progression in patients with type 2 diabetes (Low et al., 2021). In other words, there is a positive correlation between high LRG1 levels in blood serum and adipose stores and high levels of body-mass-index (BMI), visceral adipose tissue, and waist circumference of obese people. According to these results and laboratory observations, LRG1 has been assumed to increase fat accumulation via suppression of fatty acids catabolism and inducing lipid biosynthesis through sterol regulatory element-binding transcription factor 1 activation or may enable hyperglycemia by decreasing expression of insulin receptor substrates (IRS1 and IRS2) (He et al., 2021).On the other hand, consistent with the findings of studies showing the high serum levels of LRG1, it is possible that LRG1 binds preferentially to liver cells. With this assumption, LRG1 is considered a new adipokine that can play a role in obesity conditions by regulating an almost unique cross-talk between adipose tissue and the liver. More broad research is required to know whether LRG1 also exerts metabolic functions in physiological circumstances or not. However, the results of a study on LRG1 knockout mice with a high-fat diet revealed weight loss, smaller fat cell size, and preservation of brown adipose tissue in this type of mice. In other words, an increase in LRG1 gene expression during the process of fat lipogenesis can play an important role in regulating energy homeostasis (He et al., 2021; MacCannell et al., 2021). However, changing lifestyle by performing regular physical activity and a balanced diet have been introduced as a useful solution to prevent obesity. In this regard, a recent study on the elderly with an average BMI of 34 ± 1 kg / m2 showed that exercise combined with diet resulted in an 8-10 % weight loss in these individuals, indicating the possibility that molecular changes in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) coactivator 1α (PGC-1α) pathway can help transport fat and oxidize it in the skeletal muscles of older and obese people and in some ways regulate insulin resistance (Mulya et al., 2017).Previous research studies have referred to the key role of PGC-1α in regulating mitochondrial function and helping regulate cellular energy status by enabling cellular energy in conditions when the body needs energy, such as fasting, performing exercise activities, or inhibiting it when the body has enough energy available. However, the evidence obtained regarding the role of PGC-1α and its relationship with LRG1 gene expression in obesity therapy showed that LRG1 expression in white adipose tissue reduced in mice model of insulin - resistant type II diabetes and obesity following treatment with PPARγ agonists (Muise et al., 2008). Moreover, evidence regarding the positive effects of exercise activity and the role of PGC-1α showed that probably five proteins, including interleukin 15 (IL-15), fibronectin type III domain- containing protein 5 (FNDC5), vascular endothelial growth factor B (VEGF-B), LRG1, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 4 (TIMP4), secreted in skeletal muscles, increase following endurance exercise activity and contribute to longevity as well (Boström et al., 2012).Considering the evidence presented, LRG1 seems to play a key role in the pathogenesis of obesity. However, more broad research is required to better understand its relationship with other transcription factors, vital signaling pathways in this process, as well as the important effect of type, intensity, and duration of exercise activity, and type of diet in regulating its expression and its regulatory role in cross-talk with other organs to prevent obesity (Yang et al., 2021)

Telocytes and sarcopenia: Possible effects of exercise training

Dear Editor-in-Chief Recently, telocytes (TCs) have been identified in various organs of the body, which are unique stromal cells (Manetti et al., 2019). Telopodes (very long and thin cytoplasmic projections) in TCs connect directly with other TCs and adjacent structures (including blood vessels, nerve endings, smooth muscles, glandular elements) through direct homo- and heterocellular junctions, or extracellular vesicles. Studies also show that TC damage and dysfunction is involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, especially aging, and may be considered as therapeutic agents in the future (Chaitow, 2017). On the other hand, the evidence suggests that sarcopenia and fertility-related aging syndromes, due to their complex etiology, make pharmacological or nutritional prescriptions ineffective in their prevention and treatment (Kwak & Kwon, 2019). Therefore, the use of multidimensional strategies such as exercise programs with nutritional interventions may be more effective in preventing these age-related diseases (Nascimento et al., 2019; Pascual-Fernández et al., 2020). Research suggests that TCs may play a critical role in such matters as cross-talk preservation, regenerative mechanisms, and support for localized stem cell differentiation. In 2021, Ravalli et al. examined the presence of TCs in the anterior tibialis muscle of healthy rats under the endurance training protocol compared with sedentary rats. TCs in this study included CD34/CD117 and CD34/vimentin, which were identified by double-positive immunofluorescence staining technique. They showed that TCs in sedentary rats decreased significantly after 16 weeks. In contrast, trained rats showed a constant number of TCs after 16 weeks. In short, it can be stated that the protective relationship between TCs and regular sports activity may present new opportunities in the field of regenerative medicine and supports the hypothesis that a possible adaptative stimulus for TCs in sarcopenia and other musculoskeletal disorders is the promotion of physical activity (Ravalli et al., 2021; Rocha et al., 2021).In order to support the repair and reconstruction of skeletal muscle, studies performed by transmission electron microscopy also show that there is a close spatial relationship between TCs and satellite cells in adult skeletal muscle. This association is probably due to the intracellular signaling mechanism of endocrine and paracrine, and although their exact function in skeletal muscle regeneration has not yet been fully understood, TCs containing vascular endothelial growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta has been discovered in the interstitial part of skeletal muscle. In this way, TCs play an important role in promoting satellite cell self-renewal, vascular stability, facilitating angiogenesis, and preventing fibrosis (Cretoiu & Popescu, 2014; Manetti et al., 2019; Yin et al., 2013).It is important to note that as age increases, skeletal muscle mass and potential for post-injury regeneration decrease. However, the role of intrinsic changes in satellite cells in these reductions has been controversial because studies have documented a decrease in the number of satellite cells with increasing age in mice. On the other hand, some results indicate that there is not significant reduction in this case. Moreover, evidence suggests that the potential for innate regeneration of satellite cell pools is impaired with age. Although the number of satellite cells in old muscle decreases, the inherent myogenic potential and self-renewal capacity of satellite cells remain unchanged. Factors that can play a role in the activation and differentiation of satellite cells are: paired/homeodomain box transcription factors PAX3 and PAX7 and basic helix-loop-helix myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) such as MYF5, MRF4, MYOD (Myogenic determination gene number 1) and myogenin (Arpke et al., 2021; Mierzejewski et al., 2020).Unlike satellite cells and fibroblasts, skeletal muscle TCs express the c-kit cell surface marker. TC-specific antigenic markers are not yet fully understood; however, CD34 is currently used as the most reliable marker to detect TCs at the site of light microscopy, also known as TCs/CD34 + stromal cells (Manetti et al., 2019; Yin et al., 2013). The positive effects of regular physical activity on the number of satellite cells have been expressed, at the same time, skeletal muscle that contracts and relaxes is likely to be affected by the mechanical support of TCs during exercise (Ceccarelli et al., 2017; Kondo & Kaestner, 2019). Studies have shown evidence and conclusions about TCs, although, little research has been done on TCs in mammalian skeletal muscle tissue. At present, there is no direct experimental evidence and results that conclusively support a TCs-satellite cells morpho-functional interaction following skeletal muscle injury (Manetti et al., 2019). However, due to the beneficial role of exercise on satellite cells and TCs in the prevention of age-related muscle disorders, there are still many issues that need to be addressed, including identifying TC-specific biomarkers and their role in sarcopenia. Therefore, the role of regular physical activity on new interstitial cells such as TCs will be a new treatment for age-related diseases such as sarcopenia, which requires further investigations (Ravalli et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2016)

Closed-Loop Process Control for Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication and Deposition Processes

A closed-loop control method for an electron beam freeform fabrication (EBF(sup 3)) process includes detecting a feature of interest during the process using a sensor(s), continuously evaluating the feature of interest to determine, in real time, a change occurring therein, and automatically modifying control parameters to control the EBF(sup 3) process. An apparatus provides closed-loop control method of the process, and includes an electron gun for generating an electron beam, a wire feeder for feeding a wire toward a substrate, wherein the wire is melted and progressively deposited in layers onto the substrate, a sensor(s), and a host machine. The sensor(s) measure the feature of interest during the process, and the host machine continuously evaluates the feature of interest to determine, in real time, a change occurring therein. The host machine automatically modifies control parameters to the EBF(sup 3) apparatus to control the EBF(sup 3) process in a closed-loop manner

Cross-talk between skeletal muscle and placenta during pregnancy: Possible effects of exercise training

Dear Editor-in-ChiefDuring pregnancy, regular physical activity contributes to the health of the mother and fetus, which is due to the effect of exercise on the mother's physiological regulation, growth, and optimal function of the fetal placenta. But the mechanism of this effect is unknown. Recently, studies have shown that exercise can connect multiple tissues through the tissue secretomes. Muscle tissue secreting myokine can affect distant tissues such as the liver, adipose tissue, brain, skin, and even the placenta. However, other tissues can also affect muscle tissue. The human placenta as multifunctional organ releases large amounts of hormones, cytokines, placental proteins, non-coding RNAs, as well as extracellular vesicles into the mother's bloodstream (Adam et al., 2017). Exosomes are nanometer-sized extracellular vesicles produced by the endosomal pathway and packed with tissue-specific molecules. Because these nanoparticles can selectively target specific cells and transmit their contents to receptor cells, they form an integral pathway from cell-to-cell communication (Valadi et al., 2007). For example, exosomes secreted from the placenta reduce insulin sensitivity in muscle tissue and improve glucose metabolism in skeletal muscles during pregnancy (Nair et al., 2018). Since exercise itself is effective in improving insulin sensitivity, especially during pregnancy, it seems that one of the mechanisms involved could be the regulation of placental exosome secretion and its effect on muscle tissue, which has not been studied so far.Evidence suggests that skeletal muscle during exercise by secreting endocrine factors such as myokines affect liver, adipose tissue, and placenta during pregnancy. Moreover, myokines can improve glucose and fat metabolism in mother’s body (Laurens, Bergouignan, & Moro, 2020).  So far, more than 600 myokines have been identified, the most important of which is irisin. This factor is secreted from muscle tissue and can affect the metabolism of other tissues, including white adipose tissue. It has also been reported that the level of this myokine can increase during pregnancy. The vital involvement of irisin in various key metabolic pathways increases attention to considering the effects of this myokine during pregnancy. Maternal circulating levels of irisin were measured in the range of 5-50 nM (Seven et al., 2019). In pregnant women during normal pregnancy, this factor is significantly higher than irisin levels in non-pregnant women. The potential role of circulation irisin on placenta is currently unknown. Since muscle contraction and exercise cause a significant increase in irisin expression (Sousa, Improta-Caria, & Souza, 2021), it seems that exercise during pregnancy with an increase in irisin also affects the placenta, which needs further investigation.Recently, it was observed that maternal exercise stimulates the expression of myokine and adipokine apelin in addition to adipose tissue and skeletal muscle in human placenta. The new "exerkine" apelin appears to play a regulatory role in response to exercise during pregnancy in metabolic health (such as energy metabolism, fluid homeostasis, blood pressure, etc.) and fetal muscle development (Son et al., 2020). Furthermore, Bhattacharjee et al. in a current human study showed that regularly physically active women during pregnancy have a significantly increased placental expression of the myokine vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its VEGF receptor-1 compared to inactive women (Bhattacharjee et al., 2021). Further research is needed to assess the cross-talk between apelin and VEGF and the placenta in more details.Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is also a key regulator of endocrine and paracrine glucose and lipid metabolism, which is secreted from muscle tissue and can affect other tissues, including the placenta. FGF21 appears to affect the placenta through FGFRs and co-receptor β-klotho (Sun, Sherrier, & Li, 2021). Therefore, according to the evidence, it seems that the study of cross-talk subtypes of the endocrine family of FGFs (FGF19, FGF21, FGF23) and especially FGF21 with klotho protein along with the intervention of physical activity is a new topic to identify the mechanism. The effects of exercise on the human placenta need to be examined more closely (Bhattacharjee, Mohammad, & Adamo, 2021)