Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development

Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified

Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development

AbstractOptimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was &lt;1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified.</jats:p

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI 2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/images/research_banner_face_lab_290.jpgunderweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesity

Capabilities of local and remote monitoring and control of equipment used in marine ship industry

This article presents two aspects regarding marine equipment control and monitoring. The first one is the issue of remote and local control in the maritime and land industry. The second is the economical and efficient use of redundant devices. This article describes the structure of remote control implemented on vessels. Paper presents an idea of control that combines remote and local control to provide optimal use of redundant devices with simultaneous increase of system reliability. The whole concept is shown on the built physical model with the control and operator panels. The control was implemented using freely programmable controller and HMI panel

Using QOS with PCQ in university laboratories in order to enhance students access to laboratory servers

W pracy przedstawiono metodę konfiguracji sieci lokalnej na potrzeby laboratoriów komputerowych. Zastosowano QoS (ang. Quality of Service) z PCQ (ang. Per Connection Queueing) w celu zapewnienia studentom dostępu o równej przepustowości do serwerów laboratoryjnych. Metoda ta umożliwia zarówno priorytetyzację konkretnego ruchu sieciowego, ograniczanie przepustowości do konkretnych, z góry ustalonych wartości, jak i gwarantowanie prędkości transferu na poziomie przepływności pozostałych użytkowników. Metoda ta jest skalowalna i możliwa do zastosowania w większości routerów programowalnych.The paper presents a method of configuring the computers laboratiories’ local network. The QOS with PCQ was used in order to guarantee an equal bandwith for students connecting to laboratories’ servers. This method allows both prioritizing specific type of network traffic, limiting bandwith to pre-established values and guarantiing the same bandwith for every user. This metod is scalable and can be applied by using most of programmable routers. A basic configuration of QoS with PCQ that made clients get equal bandwith was presented in the second chapter. This configuration consisted of one parent query that created a structure in which sub-queries configured with PCQ were placed. The third chapter showed a configuration that pioritized traffic on specific port (port 22) above other taffic. This configuration was also configured with PCQ to share the bandwith equaly for every client that made prioritized traffic. In order to create the configuration, firewall mangle rules were created to mark connections (upload and download) and to mark packets (packets send or received on port 22 and packets not send or received on this port). The marks were used to allow QoS to select the packets that were ment to be prioritized and give them the highest priority. In collaboration with PCQ the configuration prioritized port 22 traffic while splitting the bandwith equaly amongst clients

Diagnostic benchmarks on dynamic characteristics of thin-walled marine damaged structures

Among structural health monitoring (SHM) methods of thin-walled structures, a vibrodiagnostic method is one of the most promising. The accelerometer recorded responses provide diagnostic information that requires mathematical processing to extract the essential dynamic characteristics. The authors have been looking for new parameters - diagnostic benchmarks which can be applied to non-destructive, automatic testing of thin-walled marine structures (especially their welded joints) like ship hulls. All characteristics have been based on recorded data generated during the vibration tests of welded joints with and without failures. For this purpose, the authors proposed method based on: FFT windowing analysis, benchmark with using 2D or 3D time – frequency dynamic characteristics and the determination of damping decrement in function of time. The work presents the algorithm and exemplary results obtained from the application of proposed method to several selected sample plates with different type of welds

Central management of laboratory workstations’ software based on PiNet system and Raspberry Pi computers

W pracy przedstawiono metodę tworzenia infrastruktury laboratoryjnej pozwalającej, za pośrednictwem serwera, na sieciowe uruchamianie (ang. network booting) różnych programów na stanowiskach laboratoryjnych. Prezentowana metoda wykorzystuje oprogramowanie PiNet do stworzenia instancji systemu operacyjnego Raspbian na serwerze. Metoda ta wykorzystuje także odpowiednio przygotowane jednostki startowe (ang. boot file) umieszczane na kartach pamięci w komputerach typu Raspberry Pi. Dzięki tej konfiguracji, zaraz przy uruchomieniu, urządzenia te łączą się z serwerem i użytkują serwerową instancję Raspbiana. Dla każdego użytkownika pracującego na urządzeniach przygotowywane jest osobne konto, co pozwala na jednoczesną pracę wielu użytkowników w trybie multi-user-mode.The paper presents a metod of creating laboratory infrastructure that allows network booting from a laboratory server. This method uses PiNet software to create a single Raspbian OS instance on the server. By putting network boot files on Raspberry Pis memory cards, it allows Raspberry Pis to use the single Raspbian OS instance that was placed on the server. For every user working on the Raspberry devices there is a user account created. This metod allows multiple users to be logged in at the same time in spite of having only one instance of Raspbian OS. Having only one instance of Raspbian OS makes configuring the laboratory infrastructure easier. The Raspbian placed on the server can be chrooted at any moment to install additional applications, execute bash scripts or edit configuration files. Properly configured Raspbian can be used |to teach programming, networking and managing databases. Moreover Raspbian can be used as a terminal that uses SSH to work on a server ex. to execute queries on PostgreSQL server

State and Space Vectors of the 5-Phase 2-Level VSI

The paper proposes a general description system of the five-phase two-level inverter. The two base methods are presented and discussed. The first one is based on the standard space vector transformation, while the other uses state vectors which enable the definition of the basic physical quantities of the inverter: current and voltage. The proposed notation system offers a general simplification of vector identification. It comprises a standardized proposal of notation and vector marking, which may be extremely useful for the specification of inverter states. The described notation system makes it possible to reach correlation between state and space vectors. It presents space and state vectors using the same digits. These properties suggest that the proposed notation system is a useful mathematical tool and may be really suitable in designing control algorithms. This mathematical tool was verified during simulation tests performed with the use of the Simulation Platform for Power Electronics Systems&mdash;PLECS

On Transducers Localization in Damage Detection by Wave Propagation Method

In this paper, the elastic wave propagation method was used in damage detection in thin structures. The effectiveness and accuracy of the system based on the wave propagation phenomenon depend on the number and localization of the sensors. The utilization of the piezoelectric (PZT) transducers makes possible to build a low-cost damage detection system that can be used in structural health monitoring (SHM) of the metallic and composite structures. The different number and localization of transducers were considered in the numerical and experimental analysis of the wave propagation phenomenon. The relation of the sensors configuration and the damage detection capability was demonstrated. The main assumptions and requirements of SHM systems of different levels were discussed with reference to the damage detection expectations. The importance of the damage detection system constituents (sensors number, localization, or damage index) in different levels of analysis was verified and discussed to emphasize that in many practical applications introducing complicated procedures and sophisticated data processing techniques does not lead to improving the damage detection efficiency. Finally, the necessity of the appropriate formulation of SHM system requirements and expectations was underlined to improve the effectiveness of the detection methods in particular levels of analysis and thus to improve the safety of the monitored structures