A NARRATIVE REVIEW ON MINDFULNESS PRACTICES IN OPTIMIZING PERFORMANCE AMONG SPORTS INDIVIDUALS

Mindfulness practice has become an increasingly popular intervention in optimizing athletic performance in sports. Numerous studies have reported on applying mindfulness for improving the performance of various sports such as tennis, table tennis, shooting, cricket, archery, golf, running, hockey, swimming, and cycling. This narrative review addresses different existing mindfulness programs that enhance sports performance, the outcome measures of mindfulness therapy, and identifies the anxiety and depression that affect the performance of sports individuals. To cope with the issues, the efficacy of mindfulness in performance enhancement and future research directions on mindfulness needs attention

Analyzing Post-Disaster Reconstruction Stakeholder Networks: Malaysian rural housing

This article uses the social network analysis to identify resource coordination and information exchange of stakeholders in the inter-organizational network by studying the project-related interactions of rural housing reconstruction in Temerloh, Pahang that were funded by the Malaysian government, His Majesty the King and NGO. The data was collected through content analysis and interviews with 23 government agencies, NGOs, and community stakeholders. Findings from the analysis established that government agencies had the highest actor centralities, with the Rural Development Ministry and the local government level being the most central among the government agencies, whereas the homeowners had the lowest centralities. Keywords: post-disaster housing reconstruction, social network analysis, rural Malaysia eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2023. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under the responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v8i23.4511

Short-term cytotoxicity of zinc oxide nanoparticles on Chlorella vulgaris

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are widely used in industrial and personal care products. The use of these nanoparticles (NPs) has created residues that contaminate the environment, thus cytotoxicity studies of the NPs in biological system is required. Most of the recent cytotoxicity studies has however focused on long-term exposure of the NPs to the biological system. In this study, the cytotoxicity effects of short-term exposure of ZnO NPs to Chlorella vulgaris are reported. The algal cells were exposed to 10, 50, 100, 150, and 200 mg/L of ZnO NPs for 12 h. The toxicity effects of ZnO NPs were then determined through the changes in fluorescence emission of chlorophyll, algal biomass and the viable cell count. The results showed a decrease in the chlorophyll content, algal biomass and cell viability after treatment with ZnO NPs as compared with control. Through this study, the effects of ZnO NPs to C. vulgaris were confirmed. The significant responses of the algal cells to ZnO NPs in a short duration of exposure reflect the potential of the algal cells to be used as bioindicators of ZnO NPs in the aquatic environment

Children’s and adolescents’ rising animal-source food intakes in 1990–2018 were impacted by age, region, parental education and urbanicity

Animal-source foods (ASF) provide nutrition for children and adolescents’ physical and cognitive development. Here, we use data from the Global Dietary Database and Bayesian hierarchical models to quantify global, regional and national ASF intakes between 1990 and 2018 by age group across 185 countries, representing 93% of the world’s child population. Mean ASF intake was 1.9 servings per day, representing 16% of children consuming at least three daily servings. Intake was similar between boys and girls, but higher among urban children with educated parents. Consumption varied by age from 0.6 at <1 year to 2.5 servings per day at 15–19 years. Between 1990 and 2018, mean ASF intake increased by 0.5 servings per week, with increases in all regions except sub-Saharan Africa. In 2018, total ASF consumption was highest in Russia, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey, and lowest in Uganda, India, Kenya and Bangladesh. These findings can inform policy to address malnutrition through targeted ASF consumption programmes.publishedVersio

Incident type 2 diabetes attributable to suboptimal diet in 184 countries

The global burden of diet-attributable type 2 diabetes (T2D) is not well established. This risk assessment model estimated T2D incidence among adults attributable to direct and body weight-mediated effects of 11 dietary factors in 184 countries in 1990 and 2018. In 2018, suboptimal intake of these dietary factors was estimated to be attributable to 14.1 million (95% uncertainty interval (UI), 13.8–14.4 million) incident T2D cases, representing 70.3% (68.8–71.8%) of new cases globally. Largest T2D burdens were attributable to insufficient whole-grain intake (26.1% (25.0–27.1%)), excess refined rice and wheat intake (24.6% (22.3–27.2%)) and excess processed meat intake (20.3% (18.3–23.5%)). Across regions, highest proportional burdens were in central and eastern Europe and central Asia (85.6% (83.4–87.7%)) and Latin America and the Caribbean (81.8% (80.1–83.4%)); and lowest proportional burdens were in South Asia (55.4% (52.1–60.7%)). Proportions of diet-attributable T2D were generally larger in men than in women and were inversely correlated with age. Diet-attributable T2D was generally larger among urban versus rural residents and higher versus lower educated individuals, except in high-income countries, central and eastern Europe and central Asia, where burdens were larger in rural residents and in lower educated individuals. Compared with 1990, global diet-attributable T2D increased by 2.6 absolute percentage points (8.6 million more cases) in 2018, with variation in these trends by world region and dietary factor. These findings inform nutritional priorities and clinical and public health planning to improve dietary quality and reduce T2D globally.publishedVersio

Construct Validity and Internal Consistency Reliability of Mental Health Monitoring Instrument for Technical University Students

This study was conducted to generate empirical evidence on the construct validity and internal consistency reliability of the item of a mental health instrument. Construct validity through the Face validity and content validity by expert looking at the items in the questionnaire and agreeing that the item is valid measure of the concept. However these studies more focus on the validation stage (quantitative data) of the research instrument. The reliability was examined by analysis SPSS to determine the internal consistency reliability using Cronbach’s Alpha. A Validation study with a random sample of 50 respondents undergraduate students from University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM). The internal consistency reliability of the construct depression, anxiety, stress and fear was very impressive with Cronbach’s alpha value in the range 0.847 to 0.865. Each item from each constructs, only seven items from overall 40 items with the weak coefficient correlation but each item still in the good internal consistency reliability with the range 0.8 to 0.9. In conclusion, this study has established valid construct for development of instrument for assessing the mental health level to improved mental health well-being and academic performance.&nbsp

Cytotoxic effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles on cyanobacterium Spirulina (Arthrospira) platensis

Background The extensive usage of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) in industrial and consumer products raises the risk of releasing their residues into the aquatic environment. The presence of ZnO NPs in the aquatic environment could potentially cause cytotoxic effects on aquatic organisms. Thus, investigating the cytotoxic effects of ZnO NPs on microalgae, which form the base for the food web of aquatic biota, is essential to gain information regarding the ecotoxicological effects of metallic oxide nanoparticles in the aquatic ecosystem. Therefore, the present study has investigated in detail the assorted cytotoxic effects of ZnO NPs on S. platensis using various concentrations of ZnO NPs (10–200 mg/L) from 6 to 96 h to explore the dose- and time-dependent cytotoxic effects. Methods The cytotoxic effects were all assessed through quantification of loss in cell viability, reduction in biomass and decrease in photosynthetic pigments such as chlorophyll-a, carotenoids and phycocyanin. The surface interactions of nanoparticles and the subsequent morphological alterations on algal cells were examined by optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The intracellular alterations of algal cells were studied using transmission electron microscopy. Furthermore, Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectrum was obtained to investigate the involvement of algal surface biomolecules in surface binding of ZnO NPs on algal cells. Results The treatment of ZnO NPs on S. platensis exhibited a typical concentration- and time-dependent cytotoxicity. Results showed a significant (p < 0.05) cytotoxicity from 24 h onwards for all tested concentrations of ZnO NPs. The maximum cytotoxicity on algal cells was achieved at 96 h of exposure to ZnO NPs. In comparison with control, the algal cells that interacted with 200 mg/L of ZnO NPs for 96 h showed 87.3 ± 1% loss in cell viability, 76.1 ± 1.7% reduction in algal biomass, 92.5 ± 2.2%, 76.2 ± 2.2% and 74.1 ± 3.4% decrease in chlorophyll-a, carotenoids and phycocyanin contents respectively. Our study confirmed the cytotoxicity of ZnO NPs through the algal growth inhibition with 72 h EC10 and EC50 values of 1.29 and 31.56 mg/L, respectively. The microscopic examinations of the algal cells that interacted with ZnO NPs showed severe cell membrane and intracellular damage. The SEM EDX spectrum of ZnO NPs treated algal biomass evidenced the surface accumulation of zinc in the biomass. Finally, the FTIR spectrum confirmed the involvement of amino, hydroxyl and carboxylic groups of algal cell wall in the surface interaction of ZnO NPs on the algal cells. Discussion The results showed that the treatment of ZnO NPs on S. platensis triggered substantial cytotoxicity and caused cell death. Hence, S. platensis could be potentially used as a bioindicator for testing toxicity of ZnO NPs in aquatic environment

Enhanced conflict monitoring via a short-duration, video-assisted deep breathing in healthy young adults: an event-related potential approach through the Go/NoGo paradigm

Objectives Practitioners of mindfulness are reported to have greater cognitive control especially in conflict monitoring, response inhibition and sustained attention. However, due to the various existing methods in each mindfulness practices and also, the high commitment factor, a barrier still exists for an individual to pick up the practices. Therefore, the effect of short duration deep breathing on the cognitive control is investigated here. Methods Short duration guided deep breathing videos consisting of 5, 7 and 9 min respectively were created and used on subjects training. The effect on cognitive control was assessed using a Go/NoGo task along with event-related potential (ERP) measurements at Fz, Cz, and Pz. Results From the study, the significant outcome showed at the follow-up session in which participants engaged for 5 min deep breathing group showed a profound NoGo N2 amplitude increment as compared to the control group, indicating an enhanced conflict monitoring ability. An inverse relationship between the NoGo N2 amplitude and the breathing duration is observed as well at the follow-up session. Conclusion These results indicated the possibility of performing short duration deep breathing guided by a video to achieve an enhanced conflict monitoring as an alternative to other mindfulness practices and 5 min is found to be the optimum practice duration. Significant This study is the first to establish a relationship between deep breathing and conflict monitoring through ERP. The study population of young adults taken from the same environment reduces the variance in ERP results due to age and environment. Limitation A larger sample size would provide a greater statistical power. A longer duration of deep breathing should be investigated to further clarify the relationship between the practice duration and the NoGo N2 amplitude. The result can be split by gender and analyzed separately due to the different brain structure of males and females