On time-reckoning in old Saami culture

Time-reckoning in old Saami culture was an orientation towards macrocosmos and microcosmos, conditioned by factors in the ecological environment affecting the course of man's practical activity. In a society or a culture where hunting and fishing and breeding animals were the chief occupations, the concepts were influenced by the circumstances surrounding these activities. The concepts of time and time-reckoning were connected with a special content—winter and summer—caused by the biocosmic rhythm. Fauna and flora gave the indications of the coming season. Among these the bear' s hibernation was a stable and prominent sign, due to his extreme sensitivity towards the biocosmic rhythm. We can call this an ecological measuring of time, well-fitting to the different occupations of a hunter, his settlement and life-style of the main seasons. As the bear was linked to the points of time when light and darkness were shifting, the bear became an important factor in old Saami culture for the orientation on both macrocosmic and microcosmic level

Registration of ultrasound volumes based on Euclidean distance transform

During neurosurgical operations, surgeons can decide to acquire intraoperative data to better proceed with the removal of a tumor. A valid option is given by ultrasound (US) imaging, which can be easily obtained at subsequent surgical stages, giving therefore multiple updates of the resection cavity. To improve the efficacy of the intraoperative guidance, neurosurgeons may benefit from having a direct correspondence between anatomical structures identified at different US acquisitions. In this context, the commonly available neuronavigation systems already provide registration methods, which however are not enough accurate to overcome the anatomical changes happening during resection. Therefore, our aim with this work is to improve the registration of intraoperative US volumes. In the proposed methodology, first a distance mapping of automatically segmented anatomical structures is computed and then the transformed images are utilized in the registration step. Our solution is tested on a public dataset of 17 cases, where the average landmark registration error between volumes acquired at the beginning and at the end of neurosurgical procedures is reduced from 3.55mm to 1.27mm

En öppen stad, en ej befästad

Vår tid är urbanitetens epok. Människor vill komma till staden. Utflyttningen från landsbygd till stad tycks vara en social omvandlingsprocess utan ände. I dagens Sverige bor 84 procent av befolkningen i städer. På tvåhundra år har förhållandet mellan stad och landsbygd nästan vänts i sin motsats. Någon gång under 1930-talets början passerade antalet stadsboende landsbygdens befolkning. Det som hände i Sverige för 70 år sedan händer i dag på global nivå. Under 2005 beräknas antalet människor som bor i en stad någonstans i världen passera det antal som bor på landsbygden. Och det är inte i Nord som den största tillväxten av stadsbefolkningar sker, utan i Syd. Bilden av Syd som det rurala, jordbrukshushållande och efterblivna – i kontrast till bilden av Nord som det urbana, industriella och i utveckling stadda – känns allt mer förfelad. Det är i Syd som de verkligt stora städerna formligen exploderar fram. Men denna omkastning innebär inte en utvecklingsväg som följer det sätt på vilket storstäder i Nord växte fram. Det paradoxala för storstäderna i Syd är att det inte alltid är industrialiseringen som driver fram urbaniseringen. Stor- eller megastäderna i Syd närs av en bräcklig informell sektor. Denna utveckling av en "informaliserad" sektor på arbetsmarknaden – med lågbetalda och osäkra tjänstearbeten – är inte något som enbart sker i Syd. Det som tycks karaktärisera västvärldens metropoler är just framväxten av denna typ av arbeten, samtidigt som industrijobben är på tillbakagång. Samtidigt blir storstäderna allt viktigare för de globala ekonomiska flödena – och självmedvetenheten om detta faktum hos städernas makthavare växer i samma utsträckning. Städer konkurrerar med andra städer om att attrahera kapital och arbetskraft. Staden blir ett varumärke som ska säljas in på städernas marknad, med hjälp av stadsmiljöer som passar en framväxande kreativ klass

Correction to: Being active with a total hip or knee prosthesis: a systematic review into physical activity and sports recommendations and interventions to improve physical activity behavior

Objectives: Regular physical activity (PA) is considered important after total hip and knee arthroplasty (THA/TKA). Objective was to systematically assess literature on recommendations given by healthcare professionals to persons after THA and TKA and to provide an overview of existing interventions to stimulate PA and sports participation. Methods: A systematic review with a narrative synthesis including articles published between January 1995 and January 2021 reporting on recommendations and interventions. The PubMed, Embase, CINAHL and PsycInfo databases were systematically searched for original articles reporting on physical activity and sports recommendations given by healthcare professionals to persons after THA and TKA, and articles reporting on interventions/programs to stimulate a physically active lifestyle after rehabilitation or explicitly defined as part of the rehabilitation. Methodological quality was assessed with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). The review was registered in Prospero (PROSPERO:CRD42020178556). Results: Twenty-one articles reported on recommendations. Low-impact activities were allowed. Contact sports, most ball sports, and martial arts were not recommended. One study informed on whether health-enhancing PA recommendations were used to stimulate persons to become physically active. No studies included recommendations on sedentary behavior. Eleven studies reported on interventions. Interventions used guidance from a coach/physiotherapist; feedback on PA behavior from technology; and face-to-face, education, goal-setting, financial incentives and coaching/financial incentives combined, of which feedback and education seem to be most effective. For methodological quality, 18 out of 21 (86%) articles about recommendations and 7 out of 11 (64%) articles about interventions scored yes on more than half of the MMAT questions (0–5 score). Conclusion: There is general agreement on what kind of sports activities can be recommended by healthcare professionals like orthopedic surgeons and physiotherapists. No attention is given to amount of PA. The same is true for limiting sedentary behavior. The number of interventions is limited and diverse, so no conclusions can be drawn. Interventions including provision of feedback about PA, seem to be effective and feasible

Being active with a total hip or knee prosthesis: a systematic review into physical activity and sports recommendations and interventions to improve physical activity behavior

Objectives Regular physical activity (PA) is considered important after total hip and knee arthroplasty (THA/TKA). Objective was to systematically assess literature on recommendations given by healthcare professionals to persons after THA and TKA and to provide an overview of existing interventions to stimulate PA and sports participation. Methods A systematic review with a narrative synthesis including articles published between January 1995 and January 2021 reporting on recommendations and interventions. The PubMed, Embase, CINAHL and PsycInfo databases were systematically searched for original articles reporting on physical activity and sports recommendations given by healthcare professionals to persons after THA and TKA, and articles reporting on interventions/programs to stimulate a physically active lifestyle after rehabilitation or explicitly defined as part of the rehabilitation. Methodological quality was assessed with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). The review was registered in Prospero (PROSPERO:CRD42020178556). Results Twenty-one articles reported on recommendations. Low-impact activities were allowed. Contact sports, most ball sports, and martial arts were not recommended. One study informed on whether health-enhancing PA recommendations were used to stimulate persons to become physically active. No studies included recommendations on sedentary behavior. Eleven studies reported on interventions. Interventions used guidance from a coach/physiotherapist; feedback on PA behavior from technology; and face-to-face, education, goal-setting, financial incentives and coaching/financial incentives combined, of which feedback and education seem to be most effective. For methodological quality, 18 out of 21 (86%) articles about recommendations and 7 out of 11 (64%) articles about interventions scored yes on more than half of the MMAT questions (0-5 score). Conclusion There is general agreement on what kind of sports activities can be recommended by healthcare professionals like orthopedic surgeons and physiotherapists. No attention is given to amount of PA. The same is true for limiting sedentary behavior. The number of interventions is limited and diverse, so no conclusions can be drawn. Interventions including provision of feedback about PA, seem to be effective and feasible

Amount and type of physical activity and sports from one year forward after hip or knee arthroplasty—A systematic review

Introduction After rehabilitation following total hip or knee arthroplasty (THA/TKA), patients are advised to participate in physical activity (PA) and sports. However, profound insight into whether people adopt a physically active lifestyle is lacking. Aim is to gain insight into the performed amount and type of PA (including sports) and time spent sedentarily by persons after THA/ TKA. Methods A systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD42020178556). Pubmed, Cinahl, EMBASE and PsycInfo were systematically searched for articles reporting on amount of PA, and on the kind of activities performed between January 1995-January 2021. Quality of the articles was assessed with the adapted tool from Borghouts et al. Results The search retrieved 5029 articles, leading to inclusion of 125 articles reporting data of 123 groups; 53 articles reported on subjects post-THA, 16 on post-hip-resurfacing arthroplasty, 40 on post-TKA, 15 on post-unicompartimental knee arthroplasty and 12 on a mix of arthroplasty types. With respect to quality assessment, 14 articles (11%) met three or fewer criteria, 29 (24%) met four, 32 (26%) met five, 42 (34%) met six, and 6 (5%) met seven out of the eight criteria. PA levels were comparable for THA and TKA, showing a low to moderately active population. Time spent was mostly of low intensity. Roughly 50% of -subjects met health-enhancing PA guidelines. They spent the largest part of their day sedentarily. Sports participation was relatively high (rates above 70%). Most participation was in low-impact sports at a recreational level. Roughly speaking, participants were engaged in sports 3 hours/week, consisting of about three 1-hour sessions. Conclusion Activity levels seem to be low; less than half of them seemed to perform the advised amount of PA following health-enhancing guidelines Sports participation levels were high. However, many articles were unclear about the definition of sports participation, which could have led to overestimation

The effects of physical training without equipment on pain perception and balance in the elderly: a randomized controlled trials

Background: Research supports a link between exercise and falls prevention in the older population. Objectives: Our aims were to evaluate pain perception and balance skills in a group of elderly subjects and to examine the consequences of a standardized equipment-free exercise program intervention on these variables. The study utilized a randomized controlled trial method. Methods: 92 subjects were recruited from a rural Sicilian village (Resuttano, Sicily, Italy). Subjects were randomly split into two groups, an experimental group (EG; n= 49) and a control group (CG; n =43). Qualified fitness instructors delivered the standardized physical exercise program for the EG whilst the CG did not receive this exercise intervention. The Berg Balance Scale and the Oswestry Disability Index were administered in both groups before (T0) and after the intervention (T1). Results: At T1, the EG group significantly improvement in balance (p<0.0001) and pain perception (p<0.0001). No significant differences were found within the CG both in BBS and ODI, respectively. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that a 13-weeks standardized exercise equipment-free program is effective in improving balance and perception of pain in the elderly. This type of intervention can consequently provide a low cost strategy to counteract the rate of disability in elderly