The Decline of Physical Activity with Age in School-Aged Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Single-Center Cross-Sectional Observational Study

Maintaining physical activity is important for children with cerebral palsy (CP). This study examined whether age predicted habitual physical activity (HPA) or cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in school-aged children with CP and clarified the relationship between HPA and CRF. We utilized cross-sectional data from 39 children with CP (18 girls and 21 boys; mean age 7.44 years; mean body weight 24.76 kg; mean body mass index 15.97 kg/m2; hemiplegic or diplegic CP). The participants wore an accelerometer (ActiGraph) for five days to measure HPA, physical activity energy expenditure (kcal/kg/d), sedentary physical activity (%SPA), light physical activity, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (%MVPA), and activity counts (counts/min). Participants underwent cardiopulmonary exercise tests on a treadmill using a modified Naughton protocol. Linear regression and correlation analyses were performed. p-value (two-tailed) \u3c 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Age was positively associated with SPA. MVPA negatively correlated with resting heart rate (HR), and activity counts were negatively correlated with resting HR. In conclusion, our study found strong evidence of a negative association between HPA and age in school-aged children with CP. It highlights the importance of creating and improving recreational opportunities that promote physical activity in all children with CP, regardless of whether they are considered therapeutic

Toward a compact hybrid brain-computer interface (BCI): Performance evaluation of multi-class hybrid EEG-fNIRS BCIs with limited number of channels.

It has been demonstrated that the performance of typical unimodal brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) can be noticeably improved by combining two different BCI modalities. This so-called "hybrid BCI" technology has been studied for decades; however, hybrid BCIs that particularly combine electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) (hereafter referred to as hBCIs) have not been widely used in practical settings. One of the main reasons why hBCI systems are so unpopular is that their hardware is generally too bulky and complex. Therefore, to make hBCIs more appealing, it is necessary to implement a lightweight and compact hBCI system with minimal performance degradation. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of implementing a compact hBCI system with significantly less EEG channels and fNIRS source-detector (SD) pairs, but that can achieve a classification accuracy high enough to be used in practical BCI applications. EEG and fNIRS data were acquired while participants performed three different mental tasks consisting of mental arithmetic, right-hand motor imagery, and an idle state. Our analysis results showed that the three mental states could be classified with a fairly high classification accuracy of 77.6 ± 12.1% using an hBCI system with only two EEG channels and two fNIRS SD pairs

A Ternary Hybrid EEG-NIRS Brain-Computer Interface for the Classification of Brain Activation Patterns during Mental Arithmetic, Motor Imagery, and Idle State

Supplementary information for the research articl

Physical Activity Energy Expenditure Predicts Quality of Life in Ambulatory School-Age Children with Cerebral Palsy

Background: Participation in physical activities is positively associated with better quality of life in children with cerebral palsy (CP). The objective of this study was to elucidate the relationship between the intensity of habitual physical activity (HPA) measured with an accelerometer and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in school-age children with CP. Method: A secondary analysis of the cross-sectional data of 46 ambulatory children with CP was conducted. The participants wore an accelerometer for seven days to measure HPA: activity counts (counts/min) and physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE, kcal/kg/day), as well as %moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (%MVPA), %light intensity physical activity (%LPA), and %sedentary physical activity (%SPA) were measured. Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) 4.0 Generic Core Scales and Child Health Questionnaire Parent Form 50 Questions (CHQ-PF50) were used to measure HRQOL. A Pearson analysis and a hierarchical regression analysis were performed. Results: PAEE significantly predicted the results of the PedsQL(child) physical domain (β = 0.579, p = 0.030), PedsQL(child) emotional domain (β = 0.570, p = 0.037), PedsQL(child) social domain (β = 0.527, p = 0.043), and PedsQL(child) total (β = 0.626, p = 0.017). However, other HPA parameters could not predict any other HRQOL. Conclusions: PAEE could be used as a biomarker in studies on HRQOL and HPA in ambulatory school-age children with CP

Sulfur-incorporated carbon quantum dots with a strong long-wavelength absorption band

In this work, we synthesize sulfur-incorporated carbon quantum dots (S-CQDs) and report the effect of sulfur on their electronic structure. Sulfur provides the density of states or emissive trap states for photoexcited electrons, and hence improves absorbance and photoluminescence intensity in the long-wavelength (similar to 500 nm) regime. The formation of the emissive trap states in the band-gap is confirmed by time-resolved emission decay spectroscopy. It is revealed that the emissive trap states prolong the fluorescence lifetime of low energy (similar to 2.5 eV) photoexcited electrons. To explore further the change in the band-gap energy, we demonstrate charge transport in S-CQD films that serve as the channels of field-effect transistors (FETs). The turn-on voltage of the S-CQD-based FETs decreases with the increase of the sulfur concentration, which is consistent with the optical changes. Our results establish a technical basis to incorporate heterogeneous atoms into CQDs and examine the related changes made to their optoelectronic properties. This method would open up new prospects to control the band-gap energy of CQDs in mild conditions, and hence promote their applications in imaging agents and optoelectronic devices.open114747sciescopu

Data_Sheet_1_Novel hybrid visual stimuli incorporating periodic motions into conventional flickering or pattern-reversal visual stimuli for steady-state visual evoked potential-based brain-computer interfaces.pdf

In this study, we proposed a new type of hybrid visual stimuli for steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), which incorporate various periodic motions into conventional flickering stimuli (FS) or pattern reversal stimuli (PRS). Furthermore, we investigated optimal periodic motions for each FS and PRS to enhance the performance of SSVEP-based BCIs. Periodic motions were implemented by changing the size of the stimulus according to four different temporal functions denoted by none, square, triangular, and sine, yielding a total of eight hybrid visual stimuli. Additionally, we developed the extended version of filter bank canonical correlation analysis (FBCCA), which is a state-of-the-art training-free classification algorithm for SSVEP-based BCIs, to enhance the classification accuracy for PRS-based hybrid visual stimuli. Twenty healthy individuals participated in the SSVEP-based BCI experiment to discriminate four visual stimuli with different frequencies. An average classification accuracy and information transfer rate (ITR) were evaluated to compare the performances of SSVEP-based BCIs for different hybrid visual stimuli. Additionally, the user's visual fatigue for each of the hybrid visual stimuli was also evaluated. As the result, for FS, the highest performances were reported when the periodic motion of the sine waveform was incorporated for all window sizes except for 3 s. For PRS, the periodic motion of the square waveform showed the highest classification accuracies for all tested window sizes. A significant statistical difference in the performance between the two best stimuli was not observed. The averaged fatigue scores were reported to be 5.3 ± 2.05 and 4.05 ± 1.28 for FS with sine-wave periodic motion and PRS with square-wave periodic motion, respectively. Consequently, our results demonstrated that FS with sine-wave periodic motion and PRS with square-wave periodic motion could effectively improve the BCI performances compared to conventional FS and PRS. In addition, thanks to its low visual fatigue, PRS with square-wave periodic motion can be regarded as the most appropriate visual stimulus for the long-term use of SSVEP-based BCIs, particularly for window sizes equal to or larger than 2 s.</p

Freestanding Luminescent Films of Nitrogen-Rich Carbon Nanodots toward Large-Scale Phosphor-Based White-Light-Emitting Devices

In this work, nitrogen-rich carbon nanodots (CNDs) are prepared by the emulsion-templated carbonization of polyacrylamide. The formation mechanism and chemical structure are investigated by infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. Transmission electron microscopy also reveals that the obtained CNDs have well-developed graphitic structure and narrow size distribution without any size selection procedure. We vary the molecular weight of the polymer to control the size of the CNDs and finally obtain the CNDs rendering bright visible light under UV illumination with a high quantum yield of 40%. Given that the CNDs are worth utilizing in phosphor applications, we fabricate large-scale (20 X 20 cm) freestanding luminescent films of the CNDs based on a poly(methyl methacrylate) matrix. The polymer matrix can not only provide mechanical support but also disperse the CNDs to prevent solid-state quenching. For practical application, we demonstrate white LEDs consisting of the films as color converting phosphors and InGaN blue LEDs as illuminators. Such white LEDs exhibit no temporal degradation in the emission spectrum under practical operation conditions. This study would suggest a promising way to exploit the luminescence from solid-state CNDs and offer strong potential for future CND based solid-state lighting systems.X11128118sciescopu

Performance Enhancement of a Brain-Computer Interface using High-Density Multi-Distance NIRS

This study investigated the effectiveness of using high-density multi-distance source-detector (SD) separations in near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for enhancing the performance of functional NIRS (fNIRS)-based brain-computer interface (BCI). The NIRS system that was used for the experiment is capable of measuring signals from four SD separations: 15, 21.2, 30 and 33.5 mm; this allowed the measurement of hemodynamic response alterations at various depths. Fifteen participants were asked to perform mental arithmetic and word chain tasks to induce task-related hemodynamic response variations or asked to stay relaxed to acquire a baseline signal. To evaluate the degree of BCI performance enhancement by the high-density channel configuration, the classification accuracy obtained using the typical low-density lattice SD arrangement was compared with that obtained using the high-density SD arrangement, while maintaining the SD separation at 30 mm. The analysis results demonstrated that the use of high-density channel configuration did not result in noticeable enhancement of classification accuracy; however, combining hemodynamic variations measured by two multi-distance SD separations resulted in significant enhancement of the overall classification accuracy. The results of this study indicate that the use of high-density multi-distance SD separations is likely to provide a new method of enhancing the performance of an fNIRS-BCI

Role of autophagy in betaine-promoted hepatoprotection against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in mice

Betaine, a compound found in plants and sea foods, is known to be beneficial against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), but its hepatoprotective and anti-steatogenic mechanisms have been not fully understood. In the present study, we investigated the mechanisms underlying betaine-mediated alleviation of NAFLD induced by a choline-deficient, L-amino acid-defined, high-fat diet (CDAHFD) in mice, with special focus on the contribution of betaine-stimulated autophagy to NAFLD prevention. Male ICR mice were fed a CDAHFD with or without betaine (0.2–1% in drinking water) for 1 week. Betaine ameliorated the CDAHFD-induced fatty liver by restoring sulfur amino acid (SAA)-related metabolites, such as S-adenosylmethionine and homocysteine, and the phosphorylation of AMPK and ACC. In addition, it reduced the CDAHFD-induced ER stress (BiP, ATF6, and CHOP) and apoptosis (Bax, cleaved caspase-3, and cleaved PARP); however, it induced autophagy (LC3II/I and p62) which was downregulated by CDAHFD. To determine the role of autophagy in the improvement of NAFLD, chloroquine (CQ), an autophagy inhibitor, was injected into the mice fed a CDAHFD and betaine (0.5 % in drinking water). CQ did not affect SAA metabolism but reduced the beneficial effects of betaine as shown by the increases of hepatic lipids, ER stress, and apoptosis. Notably, the betaine-induced improvements in lipid metabolism determined by protein levels of p-AMPK, p-ACC, PPARα, and ACS1, were reversed by CQ. Thus, the results of this study suggest that the activation of autophagy is an important upstream mechanism for the inhibition of steatosis, ER stress, and apoptosis by betaine in NAFLD