Correlation between Fitness and Fatness in 6-14-year Old Serbian School Children

Lack of physical activity and/or physical fitness are some reasons epidemiologists suggest for increase in childhood obesity in the last 20 years, with clear correlation between body composition and physical activity and/or physical fitness yet to be determined. The objectives of the study were to (a) investigate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Serbian school children and (b) determine the relationship between indicators of physical activity and body fatness in Serbian school children aged 6-14 years. The study subjects included a representative sample of Serbian elementary school children (n=1, 121—754 boys and 367 girls—aged 6.2-14.1 years), all of whom were recruited in the OLIMP (Obesity and Physical Activity among Serbian School Children) study. Anthropometric and physical fitness values, including body mass index (BMI), waist-circumference, body-fat, and aerobic capacity, were measured in all the children. Significant differences were found between male and female children regarding the prevalence of obesity (6.8% vs 8.2%, p<0.05, boys and girls respectively). Boys had significantly lower body mass, BMI, waist-circumference, sum of six skinfolds, and body-fat compared to their female counterparts (p<0.05). The highest level of weight, BMI, body-fat, and waist-circumference observed in a 14-year old girl (96.3 kg, 40.5 kg/m2, 54.5%, 91.4 cm respectively) implies the existence of extreme obesity in Serbian school children. The negative relationship between body-fat and maximal oxygen (VO2max) uptake was moderately high (r=-0.76; p<0.05). The study has shown a high prevalence of adiposity among Serbian school children, with a strong negative relationship between aerobic fitness and body fatness. Data of the study emphasize the necessity to identify children with weight problems and to develop early interventions to improve physical activity in children and prevent the increase of childhood obesity

Morphological Characteristics of Breast and Thigh Muscles of Autochthonous Breeds of Chickens

Morphological characteristics of skeletal muscles of autochthonous breeds of chickens are very important for meat quality and comparison with current hybrids for intensive production. The autochthonous breeds used in the experiment were Sombor crested and Banat naked neck, both sexes. For the purposes of morphological examination, tissue samples were taken from the thigh muscle (m. biceps femoris) and muscles of the breast (m. pectoralis profundus) of 5 male and female animals of each breed. After a standard histological procedure for conventional light microscopy, samples were stained with hematoxylin - eosin. After the processing of the samples for the histochemical analysis, samples were stained with the enzyme succinate - dehydrogenase (SDH) with the aim of determining the presence of different muscle cell types (red, white and intermediate). Morphological parameters, in this study, were diameter of muscle cells, nucleocytoplasmic ratio of muscle cells, volume density of connective tissue within the muscle and the presence of red, white and intermediate muscle cell types. Comparison of diameters of muscle cells thigh and breast muscles between Sombor crested and Banat naked neck have showed that kind of muscle, race or gender have no significant effect on the differences in this parameter. There were no statistically significant differences in the nucleo-cytoplasmic ratio of the volume density of the connective tissue of muscles. Red muscle cells were, in both autochthonous breeds, significantly more represented in m. biceps femoris than m. pectoralis profundus. The results of this study indicate that no differences were observed between autochthonous breeds in morphological parameters for examined breast and thigh muscle

Medical data processing and analysis for remote health and activities monitoring

Recent developments in sensor technology, wearable computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and wireless communication have given rise to research in ubiquitous healthcare and remote monitoring of human\u2019s health and activities. Health monitoring systems involve processing and analysis of data retrieved from smartphones, smart watches, smart bracelets, as well as various sensors and wearable devices. Such systems enable continuous monitoring of patients psychological and health conditions by sensing and transmitting measurements such as heart rate, electrocardiogram, body temperature, respiratory rate, chest sounds, or blood pressure. Pervasive healthcare, as a relevant application domain in this context, aims at revolutionizing the delivery of medical services through a medical assistive environment and facilitates the independent living of patients. In this chapter, we discuss (1) data collection, fusion, ownership and privacy issues; (2) models, technologies and solutions for medical data processing and analysis; (3) big medical data analytics for remote health monitoring; (4) research challenges and opportunities in medical data analytics; (5) examples of case studies and practical solutions

Biosorptive removal of Pb2+, Cd2+ and Zn2+ ions from water by agenaria vulgaris shell

Lagenaria vulgaris (LV) shell was used as a biosorbent for the removal of heavy metal ions, Pb2+, Cd2+ and Zn2+, from aqueous solutions. Experiments were carried out under batch conditions. The effects of contact time, initial pH, temperature and stirring speed on removal efficiency are presented. Sorption of the investigated metals was fast, reaching equilibrium after about 5 to 10 min, depending on the metal. Biosorption was highly pH-dependent, and the optimal pH for investigated metals was in the range of 4.5 to 6.0. The effects of temperature demonstrated that biosorption of the metals is a chemical process. SEM analysis revealed interesting morphological changes after acid refinement of the raw biosorbent and metal uptake that is related to the chemical nature of the biosorption process. EDX analysis of Lagenaria vulgaris biosorbent(LVB) before and after metal sorption revealed that the ion exchange mechanism was the principal sorption process. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis has shown that major functional groups (carboxyl and hydroxyl) on the biosorbent surface took part in the metal ion uptake process as active sites. The results obtained showed that Lagenaria vulgaris based biosorbent could be used as an effective and low-cost pre-treatment step for removal of toxic metals from wastewaters

Correlation between Fitness and Fatness in 6-14-year Old Serbian School Children

Lack of physical activity and/or physical fitness are some reasons epidemiologists suggest for increase in childhood obesity in the last 20 years, with clear correlation between body composition and physical activity and/or physical fitness yet to be determined. The objectives of the study were to (a) investigate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Serbian school children and (b) determine the relationship between indicators of physical activity and body fatness in Serbian school children aged 6-14 years. The study subjects included a representative sample of Serbian elementary school children (n=1,121\u2014754 boys and 367 girls\u2014aged 6.2-14.1 years), all of whom were recruited in the OLIMP (Obesity and Physical Activity among Serbian School Children) study. Anthropometric and physical fitness values, including body mass index (BMI), waist-circumference, body-fat, and aerobic capacity, were measured in all the children. Significant differences were found between male and female children regarding the prevalence of obesity (6.8% vs 8.2%, p&lt;0.05, boys and girls respectively). Boys had significantly lower body mass, BMI, waist-circumference, sum of six skinfolds, and body-fat compared to their female counterparts (p&lt;0.05). The highest level of weight, BMI, body-fat, and waist-circumference observed in a 14-year old girl (96.3 kg, 40.5 kg/m2, 54.5%, 91.4 cm respectively) implies the existence of extreme obesity in Serbian school children. The negative relationship between body-fat and maximal oxygen (VO2max) uptake was moderately high (r=-0.76; p&lt;0.05). The study has shown a high prevalence of adiposity among Serbian school children, with a strong negative relationship between aerobic fitness and body fatness. Data of the study emphasize the necessity to identify children with weight problems and to develop early interventions to improve physical activity in children and prevent the increase of childhood obesity

Entanglement dynamics of two qubits under the influence of external kicks and Gaussian pulses

We have investigated the dynamics of entanglement between two spin-1/2 qubits that are subject to independent kick and Gaussian pulse type external magnetic fields analytically as well as numerically. Dyson time ordering effect on the dynamics is found to be important for the sequence of kicks. We show that "almost-steady" high entanglement can be created between two initially unentangled qubits by using carefully designed kick or pulse sequences

Aerobic capacity and respiratory patterns are better in recreational basketball-engaged university students than age-matched untrained males

Study aim: To asses and compare the aerobic capacity and respiratory parameters in recreational basketball-engaged university students with age-matched untrained young adults. Material and methods: A total of 30 subjects were selected to took part in the study based on recreational-basketball activity level and were assigned to a basketball (BG: N = 15, age 22.86 ± 1.35 yrs., body height 185.07 ± 5.95 cm, body weight 81.21 ± 6.15 kg) and untrained group (UG: N = 15, age 22.60 ± 1.50 yrs., body height 181.53 ± 6.11 cm, body weight 76.89 ± 7.30 kg). Inspiratory vital capacity (IVC), forced expiration volume (FEV1), FEV1/IVC ratio, maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), ventilatory threshold (VO2VT) and time to exhaustion, were measured in all subjects. Student T-test for independent Sample and Cohen's d as the measure of the effect size were calculated. Results: Recreational basketball-engaged students (EG) reached significantly greater IVC (t = 7.240, p &lt; 0.001, d = 1.854), FEV1 (t = 10.852, p &lt; 0.001, d = 2.834), FEV1/IVC ratio (t = 6.370, p &lt; 0.001, d = 3.920), maximal oxygen consumption (t = 9.039, p &lt; 0.001, d = 3.310), ventilatory threshold (t = 9.859, p &lt; 0.001, d = 3.607) and time to exhaustion (t = 12.361, p &lt; 0.001, d = 4.515) compared to UG. Conclusions: Long-term exposure to recreational basketball leads to adaptive changes in aerobic and respiratory parameters in male university students

A study of the distribution of phylogenetically conserved blocks within clusters of mammalian homeobox genes

Genome sequencing efforts of the last decade have produced a large amount of data, which has enabled whole-genome comparative analyses in order to locate potentially functional elements and study the overall patterns of phylogenetic conservation. In this paper we present a statistically based method for the characterization of these patterns in mammalian DNA sequences. We have applied this approach to the study of exceptionally well conserved homeobox gene clusters (Hox), based on an alignment of six species, and we have constructed a map of Hox cataloguing the conserved fragments, along with their locations in relation to the genes and other landmarks, sometimes showing unexpected layouts

Properties of lanthanum doped BaTiO3 produced from nanopowders

Pure and barium titanate (BT) powders doped with different lanthanum concentration were prepared by the polymeric precursor method (Pechini process) which was carried out as a three-stage process from organometallic complexes. Sintering of pressed powders was performed at 1300 8C for 2, 4 and 8 h. XRD analysis showed cubic BT powders with crystallite sizes between 20 and 25 nm and tetragonal crystal structure of BT ceramics. The influence of sintering time on grain growth was fairly obvious. It was found that lanthanum doping has significant effect on powders particle size and ceramics grain size. The influence of lanthanum concentration on grain size inhibition, improving the dielectric properties of BT ceramics was detected. The relation between sintering time, grain size, structure and electrical properties of the BT ceramics was analyzed