Hasil untuk "Recreation. Leisure"

M. Manfredo, B. Driver, M. Tarrant

Shuyao Wu, Delong Li, Zhonghao Zhang

Urban parks play a vital role in delivering various essential ecosystem services that significantly contribute to the well-being of urban populations. However, there is quite a limited understanding of how people value these ecosystem services differently. Here, we investigated the relationships among nine ecosystem service demands in urban parks across China using a large-scale survey with 20,075 responses and a point-allotment experiment. We found particularly high preferences for air purification and recreation services at the expense of other services among urban residents in China. These preferences were further reflected in three distinct demand bundles: air purification-dominated, recreation-dominated, and balanced demands. Each bundle delineated a typical group of people with different representative characteristics. Socio-economic and environmental factors, such as environmental interest and vegetation coverage, were found to significantly influence the trade-off intensity among service demands. These results underscore the necessity for tailored urban park designs that address diverse service demands with the aim of enhancing the quality of urban life in China and beyond sustainably.

Kornelia Kaźmierkiewicz, Martyna Chojnacka, Marta Ewelina Lis et al.

Introduction and aim of the study: Neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, represent a significant health challenge. Therapies are being sought that could delay the development of these diseases and also mitigate their course. Fulvic acid, which is an organic humic compound with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, has attracted increasing interest in the context of treating neurodegenerative diseases. Our study aims to evaluate the effects of fulvic acid on neurodegenerative diseases, mainly Alzheimer's disease, and to determine its therapeutic potential. Materials and methods: The paper is based on an analysis of studies available in databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and other scientific databases. Clinical trials, preclinical studies, and review papers on the use of fulvic acid in the context of Alzheimer's disease were searched. Conclusions: Fulvic acid, due to its anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective abilities, shows promising potential in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, especially in terms of slowing down the loss of cognitive function and protecting against neurodegeneration. It is advisable to conduct further studies aimed at a more thorough evaluation of the efficacy and safety of fulvic acid in the context of the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Nita Bandyopadhyay, Tuhin Das, Suvra Mondal

Background. Yoga, an ancient practice rooted in Indian culture, has gained global recognition for its physical and mental health benefits. Among its practices, Surya Namaskar (SN) stands out as a holistic yogic Sun Salutation exercise combining postures, breathing, and mindfulness, offering physical vitality, mental calmness, and a practical solution to the challenges posed by modern sedentary lifestyles. Objectives. The objective of the present systematic review was to analyze the effect of SN on overall health and wellness of healthy adults. Materials and methods. A comprehensive search was conducted in five major databases, namely Scopus, PubMed, PubMed Central, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect, using the terms such as “Surya Namaskar”, “Sun Salutation”,“Surya Namaskar and physical fitness”, “Surya Namaskar for adults”, “Sun Salutation for overall health and wellness”,and “Surya Namaskar and sedentary lifestyle”. The articles published in English between 2011 and 2024 were considered in the current review. The systematic search and reporting adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies was used to analyze the methodological quality of the included articles. Results. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 117 articles were initially retrieved, out of which 11 were finally included, encompassing data from 445 healthy adults from three countries, aged between 18 and 65 years. The duration of the SN intervention varied from four to 24 weeks, with session frequency ranging from three days per week to daily, and a diverse number of cycles. The methodological quality analysis revealed that two articles were of strong, six of moderate, and the remaining three of weak quality. Conclusions. This systematic review concludes that the practice of the yogic Sun Salutation exercise (SN) is beneficial for improving and maintaining physical fitness, physiological health, and psychological well-being, which determine the overall health and wellness of healthy adults.

Huseyin Harmankaya, Adrian Brietzke, Rebecca Pham-Xuan et al.

The ability to engage in other activities during the ride is considered by consumers as one of the key reasons for the adoption of automated vehicles. However, engagement in non-driving activities will provoke occupants' motion sickness, deteriorating their overall comfort and thereby risking acceptance of automated driving. Therefore, it is critical to extend our understanding of motion sickness and unravel the modulating factors that affect it through experiments with participants. Currently, most experiments are conducted on public roads (realistic but not reproducible) or test tracks (feasible with prototype automated vehicles). This research study develops a method to design an optimal path and speed reference to efficiently replicate on-road motion sickness exposure on a small test track. The method uses model predictive control to replicate the longitudinal and lateral accelerations collected from on-road drives on a test track of 70 m by 175 m. A within-subject experiment (47 participants) was conducted comparing the occupants' motion sickness occurrence in test-track and on-road conditions, with the conditions being cross-randomized. The results illustrate no difference and no effect of the condition on the occurrence of the average motion sickness across the participants. Meanwhile, there is an overall correspondence of individual sickness levels between on-road and test-track. This paves the path for the employment of our method for a simpler, safer and more replicable assessment of motion sickness.

Ruizhe Wang, Chunliang Hua, Tomakayev Shingys et al.

The photorealistic reconstruction and rendering of architectural scenes have extensive applications in industries such as film, games, and transportation. It also plays an important role in urban planning, architectural design, and the city's promotion, especially in protecting historical and cultural relics. The 3D Gaussian Splatting, due to better performance over NeRF, has become a mainstream technology in 3D reconstruction. Its only input is a set of images but it relies heavily on geometric parameters computed by the SfM process. At the same time, there is an existing abundance of raw 3D models, that could inform the structural perception of certain buildings but cannot be applied. In this paper, we propose a straightforward method to harness these raw 3D models to guide 3D Gaussians in capturing the basic shape of the building and improve the visual quality of textures and details when photos are captured non-systematically. This exploration opens up new possibilities for improving the effectiveness of 3D reconstruction techniques in the field of architectural design.

Bridget Casey, Greg Marston, Dhaval Vyas

Supporting practices around self-care is crucial for enabling older adults to continue living in their own homes and ageing in place. While existing assistive technology and research concerning self-care practices have been centered on a medicalized viewpoint, it neglects a holistic perspective of older adults' preferences in self-care. This paper presents a study involving 12 older adults aged 65 and above in a semi-structured interview study, where we aimed to understand participants' practices around self-care. Our findings show that self-care in such cases involves activities across the physical, emotional and psychological, social, leisure and spiritual domains. This paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the daily self-care practices of older adults including an updated self-care framework identifying key aspects, and a set of design implications for self-care assistive technologies.

Ali Shirali, Moritz Hardt

ImageNet was famously created from Flickr image search results. What if we recreated ImageNet instead by searching the massive LAION dataset based on image captions alone? In this work, we carry out this counterfactual investigation. We find that the resulting ImageNet recreation, which we call LAIONet, looks distinctly unlike the original. Specifically, the intra-class similarity of images in the original ImageNet is dramatically higher than it is for LAIONet. Consequently, models trained on ImageNet perform significantly worse on LAIONet. We propose a rigorous explanation for the discrepancy in terms of a subtle, yet important, difference in two plausible causal data-generating processes for the respective datasets, that we support with systematic experimentation. In a nutshell, searching based on an image caption alone creates an information bottleneck that mitigates the selection bias otherwise present in image-based filtering. Our explanation formalizes a long-held intuition in the community that ImageNet images are stereotypical, unnatural, and overly simple representations of the class category. At the same time, it provides a simple and actionable takeaway for future dataset creation efforts.

Gastón P. Fernández

This paper examines whether personality influences the allocation of resources within households. To do so, I model households as couples who make Pareto-efficient allocations and divide resources according to a distribution function. Using a sample of Dutch couples from the LISS survey with detailed information on consumption, labor supply, and personality traits at the individual level, I find that personality affects intrahousehold allocations through two channels. Firstly, the level of these traits acts as preference factors that shape individual tastes for consumed goods and leisure time. Secondly, by testing distribution factor proportionality and the exclusion restriction of a conditional demand system, I observe that differences in personality between spouses act as distribution factors. Specifically, these differences in personality impact the allocation of resources by affecting the bargaining process within households. For example, women who are relatively more conscientious, have higher self-esteem, and engage more cognitively than their male partners receive a larger share of intrafamily resources.

Ahmed Adel Mannaa, Akram Abd Alaziz Sayed, Amr Moustafa Yehia et al.

Dorota Pazik, Katarzyna Kosecka, Patryk Rudziński et al.

Pregnancies after kidney transplantation are considered high risk. Preconceive care is crucial for favorable mother-fetal outcome but also for good renal graft function. Herein, we report a case of kidney transplant recipient secondary to lupus nephritis with three consecutive successful pregnancies and excellent graft function after 16 post-transplant years. Preconception care included two protocolar biopsies performed prior to immunosuppressive treatment modifications. No signs of rejections were found in either biopsy, no additional treatment was necessary, and the patient was safely converted from mycophenolate mofetil to azathioprine. First pregnancy was naturally conceived, its course was uncomplicated and a healthy female newborn wasdelivered via vaginal birth. Within one year after delivery the patient presented proteinuria, borderline changes were found in the biopsy of allograft and were treated with immunosuppression augmentation and ACEI.  At 7th post implantation year, after surveillance biopsy showing no signs of rejection and appropriate pharmacotherapy adjustments, second pregnancy occurred from in vitro fertilization (IVF). It was complicated with deep vein thrombosis, intrauterine growth restriction and premature birth in 32nd week of gestation. Three months after delivery, the patient conceived spontaneously, third pregnancy course was uncomplicated. Close follow up, including protocol and indication biopsies, allowed to preserve excellent graft function in the context of multiple immunosuppressive treatment adjustments. Here we present a case where natural conception and in vitro fertilization intertwine without harming the transplanted organ.

Ryan Handley, Bert Guerra, Rukkmini Goli et al.

Social VR has experienced tremendous growth in the commercial space recently as an emerging technology for rich interactions themed around leisure, work, and relationship building. As a result, the state of social VR application design has become rapidly obfuscated, which complicates identification of design trends and uncommon features that could inform future design, and hinders inclusion of new voices in this design space. To help address this problem, we present a taxonomy of social VR application design choices as informed by 44 commercial and prototypical applications. Our taxonomy was informed by multiple discovery strategies including literature review, search of VR-themed subreddits, and autobiographical landscape research. The taxonomy elucidates various features across three design areas: the self, interaction, and the environment.

José Augusto Dalmonte Malacarne, Pedro Henrique Melo de Carvalho, Mariane Ferreira dos Santos Araújo et al.

RESUMO O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar os discursos e imagens sobre a Educação Física Escolar presentes no Guia de Atividade Física para a População Brasileira. Realizou-se uma pesquisa documental, de abordagem qualitativa, a partir da análise do discurso e do conteúdo visual envolvendo o capítulo. A Educação Física Escolar, nas recomendações do guia, assume uma visão funcionalista e utilitarista do movimento humano. Entende-se o avanço promovido pelo guia, sobretudo ao incentivar e valorizar a Educação Física Escolar no Brasil. Contudo, é fundamental transformar o discurso vigente, de caráter predominantemente biomédico, em uma abordagem que valorize a cultura corporal em suas múltiplas contribuições para a formação dos estudantes.

Leanne M Hassett, N. Shields, J. Cole et al.

Objectives The objective of this study was to describe and compare the amount and type of leisure-time physical activity, and motivations and barriers to participation among adults with and without a disability. Methods Analysis of deidentified data from an Australian cross-sectional national telephone-based survey (October 2015 to June 2018) of sport and physical recreation participation over the previous 12 months, and barriers and motivations to participation. Descriptive statistics (incorporating weighted proportions), χ2 tests and regression analyses were conducted to describe aspects of participation and compare those with and without self-reported disability. Results Of the 54 343 adults surveyed, 15% reported a disability. Adults with a disability were half as likely to meet physical activity guidelines through sport and/or physical recreation than adults without a disability (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.51 to 0.57). A greater proportion of adults with a disability participated in physical recreation only (40% vs 31%; χ2=187; p<0.001), whereas a greater proportion of adults without a disability participated in sport only (20% vs 12%; χ2=188; p<0.001). Adults with a disability were more motivated than adults without a disability to try a new activity for physical health or fitness benefits (55% vs 46%; χ2=36; p<0.001). The most reported barrier to participation for adults with a disability not currently participating in sport and/or physical recreation was poor health or injury (62%), whereas for adults without a disability it was lack of time/too many other commitments (43%). Conclusion Adults with a disability are less physically active and report different physical activity profiles and barriers to being active than adults without a disability. Urgent action is required to address this discrepancy.

Johannes Hermes, C. Haaren, D. Schmücker et al.

A. Rigolon, Mariela Fernandez, Brandon Harris et al.

Abstract Socioeconomic and racial-ethnic inequities in access to recreation settings are widely considered environmental justice (EJ) issues. Researchers in leisure, geography, urban planning, and other disciplines have published important theoretical contributions on EJ related to recreation and parks, but such contributions have not been examined conjointly to identify their broader implications. In this article, we use an integrated definition of EJ that includes distributional, procedural, and interactional justice to connect previous theoretical perspectives on EJ about recreation and parks. First, we present an ecological model of recreation that recognizes EJ. We use the ecological model to systematically analyze the policy, physical, social, and perceived environmental factors and the individual factors that impact marginalized people’s recreation participation. Second, we connect the EJ model to theory-relevant literature about recreation and parks. Third, we present future research areas on EJ for recreation and parks with key implications for advancing justice through policy change.

Alejandro Ramírez-Arroyo, Luz García, Antonio Alex-Amor et al.

This article presents a novel application of the t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) clustering algorithm to the telecommunication field. t-SNE is a dimensionality reduction (DR) algorithm that allows the visualization of large dataset into a 2D plot. We present the applicability of this algorithm in a communication channel dataset formed by several scenarios (anechoic, reverberation, indoor and outdoor), and by using six channel features. Applying this artificial intelligence (AI) technique, we are able to separate different environments into several clusters allowing a clear visualization of the scenarios. Throughout the article, it is proved that t-SNE has the ability to cluster into several subclasses, obtaining internal classifications within the scenarios themselves. t-SNE comparison with different dimensionality reduction techniques (PCA, Isomap) is also provided throughout the paper. Furthermore, post-processing techniques are used to modify communication scenarios, recreating a real communication scenario from measurements acquired in an anechoic chamber. The dimensionality reduction and classification by using t-SNE and Variational AutoEncoders (VAE) show good performance distinguishing between the recreation and the real communication scenario. The combination of these two techniques opens up the possibility for new scenario recreations for future mobile communications. This work shows the potential of AI as a powerful tool for clustering, classification and generation of new 5G propagation scenarios.

Ashwin Ahuja, Andrea Ferlini, Cecilia Mascolo

Navigation systems are used daily. While different types of navigation systems exist, inertial navigation systems (INS) have favorable properties for some wearables which, for battery and form factors may not be able to use GPS. Earables (aka ear-worn wearables) are living a momentum both as leisure devices, and sensing and computing platforms. The inherent high signal to noise ratio (SNR) of ear-collected inertial data, due to the vibration dumping of the musculoskeletal system; combined with the fact that people typically wear a pair of earables (one per ear) could offer significant accuracy when tracking head movements, leading to potential improvements for inertial navigation. Hence, in this work, we investigate and propose PilotEar, the first end-to-end earable-based inertial navigation system, achieving an average tracking drift of 0.15 m/s for one earable and 0.11 m/s for two earables.

Taras Didukh

<p>The influence of the anti-religious campaign of the Soviet government on confessional life of the Roman Catholic Church is examined in the article, based on the study of special literature and involvement and complex analysis of the archival sources. Changes that took place in the Roman Catholic denomination due to pressure of the Soviet authorities on it, in particular reduction of its network in the western regions ofUkrainein 1958–1964, are analyzed.</p>

Reza Mousavi, Bin Gu

On April 16th, The White House launched "Opening up America Again" (OuAA) campaign while many U.S. counties had stay-at-home orders in place. We created a panel data set of 1,563 U.S. counties to study the impact of U.S. counties' stay-at-home orders on community mobility before and after The White House's campaign to reopen the country. Our results suggest that before the OuAA campaign stay-at-home orders brought down time spent in retail and recreation businesses by about 27% for typical conservative and liberal counties. However, after the launch of OuAA campaign, the time spent at retail and recreational businesses in a typical conservative county increased significantly more than in liberal counties (15% increase in a typical conservative county Vs. 9% increase in a typical liberal county). We also found that in conservative counties with stay-at-home orders in place, time spent at retail and recreational businesses increased less than that of conservative counties without stay-at-home orders. These findings illuminate to what extent residents' political ideology could determine to what extent they follow local orders and to what extent the White House's OuAA campaign polarized the obedience between liberal and conservative counties. The silver lining in our study is that even when the federal government was reopening the country, the local authorities that enforced stay-at-home restrictions were to some extent effective.