Αξιολόγηση της ισορροπίας στο άθλημα της Ενόργανης Γυμναστικής - Μια συστηματική ανασκόπηση

Η ενόργανη γυμναστική είναι Ολυμπιακό άθλημα που απαιτεί πολύωρη προπόνηση των αθλητών και αθλητριών από νεαρή ηλικία. Η ισορροπία αποτελεί μία από τις βασικότερες παραμέτρους στο άθλημα της ενόργανης γυμναστικής και μαζί με άλλες κινητικές δεξιότητες παίζει σημαντικό ρόλο στην επιτυχή εκτέλεση των αθλητικών δεξιοτήτων καθώς και στην πρόληψη τραυματισμών(Sabin, Ebersole, Martindale, Price & Broglio, 2010).Η ισορροπία αποτελεί έναν συνδυασμό έμφυτης αίσθησης και ανάπτυξης σωματικής και πνευματικής προπόνησης. Η μέθοδος η οποία χρησιμοποιήθηκε για την υλοποίηση αυτής της εργασίας ήταν η συστηματική ανασκόπηση βιβλιογραφικών αναφορών για τη συγκέντρωση και επεξεργασία όλων των πληροφοριών σχετικά με την αξιολόγηση της ισορροπίας στο άθλημα της ενόργανης γυμναστικής. Η αναζήτηση βάσεων δεδομένων (PubMed, Sport Discus) απέδωσε 3770 πιθανές μελέτες. Με βάση τα δεδομένα ένταξης (μελέτες από το 1980 έως το 2022, πλήρες κείμενο δημοσιευμένο στα αγγλικά, η μελέτη αφορούσε αθλητές και αθλήτριες ενόργανης οι οποίοιαξιολογήθηκαν στη δυναμική ισορροπία με την άσκηση της κατακόρυφης στήριξης στα χέρια. Τελικά αξιολογήθηκαν 13 μελέτες πλήρους κειμένου, με συνολικά 271 συμμετέχοντες. Μετά την ανάλυση των αποτελεσμάτων, συμπεραίνεται ότι η χρήση της της κατακόρυφης στήριξης στα χέρια αποτελεί μία βασική δεξιότητα για την αξιολόγηση της δυναμικής ισορροπίας.Gymnastics is an Olympic sport that requires long hours of training from a young age. Balance is one of the most basic parameters in the sport of gymnastics and together with other motor skills plays an important role in the successful execution of sports skills as well as in the prevention of injuries (Sabin, Ebersole, Martindale, Price &Broglio, 2010). Balance along with control of the body's center of gravity is one of the key elements necessary to produce superior athletic performance. It is a combination of innate sense and development of physical and mental training. The method used for the implementation of this study was a systematic review of literature references to collect and process all information on the assessment of balance in the sport of gymnastics. The search of databases (PubMed, Sport Discus) yielded 18,057 potential studies. Based on inclusion data (studies from 1980 to 2022, full text published in English, the study involved male and female gymnasts who were assessed in dynamic balance with the handstand exercise. Finally, they assessed 5239 full text studies, with a total of 271 participants After analyzing the results, it is concluded that the use of handstand is an essential skill for the assessment of dynamic balance

Intervention of an Upgraded Ventilation System and Effects of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Air Quality at Birmingham New Street Railway Station

High NO2 concentrations (long term average of 383 µg/m3 in 2016/2017) recorded at Birmingham New Street railway station have resulted in the upgrade of the bi-directional fan system to aid wind dispersion within the enclosed platform environment. This paper attempts to examine how successful this intervention has been in improving air quality for both passengers and workers within the station. New air pollution data in 2020 has enabled comparisons to the 2016/2017 monitoring campaign revealing a 23–42% decrease in measured NO2 concentrations. The new levels of NO2 are below the Occupational Health standards but still well above the EU Public Health Standards. This reduction, together with a substantial decrease (up to 81%) in measured Particulate Matter (PM) concentrations, can most likely be attributed to the new fan system effectiveness. Carbon Monoxide levels were well below Occupational and Public Health Standards at all times. The COVID19 pandemic “initial lockdown” period has also allowed an insight into the resultant air quality at lower rail-traffic intensities, which produced a further reduction in air pollutants, to roughly half the pre-lockdown concentrations. This study shows the scope of improvement that can be achieved through an engineering solution implemented to improve the ventilation system of an enclosed railway station. Further reduction in air pollution would require additional approaches, such as the removal of diesel engine exhaust emissions via the adoption of electric or diesel-electric hybrid powered services

Health impact assessment for air pollution in the presence of regional variation in effect sizes: the implications of using different meta-analytic approaches

The estimated health effects of air pollution vary between studies, and this variation is caused by factors associated with the study location, hereafter termed regional heterogeneity. This heterogeneity raises a methodological question as to which studies should be used to estimate risks in a specific region in a health impact assessment. Should one use all studies across the world, or only those in the region of interest? The current study provides novel insight into this question in two ways. Firstly, it presents an up-to-date analysis examining the magnitude of continent-level regional heterogeneity in the short-term health effects of air pollution, using a database of studies collected by Orellano et al. (2020). Secondly, it provides in-depth simulation analyses examining whether existing meta-analyses are likely to be underpowered to identify statistically significant regional heterogeneity, as well as evaluating which meta-analytic technique is best for estimating region-specific estimates. The techniques considered include global and continent-specific (sub-group) random effects meta-analysis and meta-regression, with omnibus statistical tests used to quantify regional heterogeneity. We find statistically significant regional heterogeneity for 4 of the 8 pollutant-outcome pairs considered, comprising NO2, O3 and PM2.5 with all-cause mortality, and PM2.5 with cardiovascular mortality. From the simulation analysis statistically significant regional heterogeneity is more likely to be identified as the number of studies increases (between 3 and 30 in each region were considered), between region heterogeneity increases and within region heterogeneity decreases. Finally, while a sub-group analysis using Cochran's Q test has a higher median power (0.71) than a test based on the moderators' coefficients from meta-regression (0.59) to identify regional heterogeneity, it also has an inflated type-1 error leading to more false positives (median errors of 0.15 compared to 0.09)

London Hybrid Exposure Model: Improving Human Exposure Estimates to NO2 and PM2.5 in an Urban Setting.

Here we describe the development of the London Hybrid Exposure Model (LHEM), which calculates exposure of the Greater London population to outdoor air pollution sources, in-buildings, in-vehicles, and outdoors, using survey data of when and where people spend their time. For comparison and to estimate exposure misclassification we compared Londoners LHEM exposure with exposure at the residential address, a commonly used exposure metric in epidemiological research. In 2011, the mean annual LHEM exposure to outdoor sources was estimated to be 37% lower for PM2.5 and 63% lower for NO2 than at the residential address. These decreased estimates reflect the effects of reduced exposure indoors, the amount of time spent indoors (∼95%), and the mode and duration of travel in London. We find that an individual's exposure to PM2.5 and NO2 outside their residential address is highly correlated (Pearson's R of 0.9). In contrast, LHEM exposure estimates for PM2.5 and NO2 suggest that the degree of correlation is influenced by their exposure in different transport modes. Further development of the LHEM has the potential to increase the understanding of exposure error and bias in time-series and cohort studies and thus better distinguish the independent effects of NO2 and PM2.5

Health effects of climate change (HECC) in the UK: 2023 report. Chapter 4. Impacts of climate change and policy on air pollution and human health

•Air pollution is one of the greatest environmental risks to public health in the UK and is associated with an estimated 29,000 to 43,000 deaths a year. Chapter 4 considers the relationship between climate change and outdoor air pollution and includes new analyses of the health burden from long-term and short-term exposure to air pollution. The chapter was led by expert scientists in the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), with contributions from experts in the University of Edinburgh, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and University College London. •Key outdoor air pollutants include particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3). Exposure to these is known to reduce life expectancy and is associated with a range of negative health effects, including respiratory and cardiovascular disease. People who live near busy roads are generally exposed to higher concentrations of air pollution. Some people are more susceptible to the health effects of air pollution including those with pre-existing cardiovascular and respiratory disease, young people, pregnant women, older people and low income communities. •Climate change will have an impact on air pollution. Changes in weather patterns, particularly temperature, rainfall and wind speed, are expected to have an effect on dispersal and concentrations of PM and O3. However, climate change mitigation measures that reduce emissions of greenhouse gases will help reduce air pollutants and lead to improvements in health outcomes. Evidence shows that emissions of air pollutants will be the dominant driver of air pollution concentrations over the coming decades. In this context, the analyses in the chapter focus on air pollutant emissions rather than climate change projections. •Future air quality in the UK will be determined by recent policy announcements and new legislation, such as the Environment Act 2021, the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023, and the Air Quality Strategy (England), the Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill, Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 strategy and Clean Air strategy for Northern Ireland. In 2018, the UK government published the 25 Year Environment Plan, which set out the framework and vision for reducing emissions of key air pollutants by setting or meeting legally binding targets. •Analysis of the impacts of air quality controls over the next 2 decades indicate that by 2050, exposure to PM2.5 will decrease by between 28% and 36%, and NO2 exposure will decrease by between 35% and 49%, depending on the region. By 2050, annual mortality attributable to the effects of long-term exposure to PM2.5 and NO2 is projected to decrease roughly by between 25% and 37% compared with a 2018 baseline, depending on future demographic change in the UK. Reducing emissions, therefore, results in benefits to population health. However, due to the complex chemistry in the air, as NO2 levels decrease, there can be local increases in O3 in urban centres, which may increase some harms to health. The analyses in the chapter show that annual estimated emergency respiratory hospital admissions associated with short-term Chapter 4. Impacts of climate change and policy on air pollution and human health 3 effects from O3 exposure are projected to increase by between 4% and 12% by 2050 from a 2018 baseline of 60,488, depending on demographic change. •Overall, these projections reflect significant improvements in outdoor air quality and associated reductions in the burden of long-term health impacts arising from recent and upcoming air quality controls, and the greater the efforts to mitigate emissions of air pollutants, the greater the improvement in air quality. •The results presented in the chapter have several implications for public health. Although air pollutant emission controls will reduce concentrations of some air pollutants (such as PM2.5 and NO2), there may be local increases in O3, which may be exacerbated during heatwaves. Therefore, provision of localised alerting and monitoring will become particularly important. Ensuring that public health professionals and other stakeholders have accessible and high quality information to provide health advice and raise awareness will continue to be important. •This chapter highlights several priority research gaps, including the need to: • develop modelling techniques that consider climate-driven changes in both pollutant emissions and meteorology at spatial resolutions sufficient to quantify exposures to improve health impact assessment projections • develop an evidence base estimating the economic benefits associated with improvements in health from air pollution reduction as a result of strategies to tackle climate change • undertake further work to consider the potential combined effects of air pollution and other environment stressors that may be affected by climate change, such as heat and aeroallergens • advance our understanding of how climate change-driven behavioural change could modify personal exposure to air pollution, such as increased time spent outdoors in warmer temperatures •The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and UKHSA are undertaking a comprehensive review of how to communicate air quality information. The aim is to ensure members of the public, and vulnerable groups in particular, have what they need to protect themselves. UKHSA has also been developing an Air Pollution Exposure Surveillance (APES) vulnerability indicator which aims to indicate areas where population vulnerability to air pollution is elevated