Environ Sci Process Impacts
February 2025
This paper provides an overview of the INGENIOUS (UnderstandING the sourcEs, traNsformations and fates of IndOor air pollUtantS) project, aiming to better understand air pollution in homes. Although our homes are the microenvironment in which we spend most of our time, we know relatively little about the sources, transformation processes and fates of indoor air pollutants, or our exposure to them. INGENIOUS aims to address this knowledge gap by delivering: an indoor emissions inventory for UK homes; comprehensive air pollutant measurements in 310 homes in Bradford using a combination of low cost-sensors and more advanced air quality instrumentation; an analysis of the impact of indoor air pollution on outdoor air quality and using mobile measurements; insight into future indoor air quality using detailed air pollution models; identification of indoor air pollutants that warrant further toxicological study; and better understanding of the barriers and facilitators for behaviour that drives improved indoor air quality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAtten Percept Psychophys
February 2025
Human observers can often judge emotional or affective states from bodily motion, even in the absence of facial information, but the mechanisms underlying this inference are not completely understood. Important clues come from the literature on "biological motion" using point-light displays (PLDs), which convey human action, and possibly emotion, apparently on the basis of body movements alone. However, most studies have used simplified and often exaggerated displays chosen to convey emotions as clearly as possible.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The 'agentic demand' of population health interventions (PHIs) refers to the capacity, resources and freedom to act that interventions demand of their recipients to benefit, which have a socio-economical pattern. Highly agentic interventions, e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Relative to outdoor air pollution, there is little evidence examining the composition and concentrations of indoor air pollution and its associated health impacts. The INGENIOUS project aims to provide the comprehensive understanding of indoor air pollution in UK homes.
Methods And Analysis: 'Real Home Assessment' is a cross-sectional, multimethod study within INGENIOUS.
Background: The agentic demand of population health interventions (PHIs) might influence how interventions work. Highly agentic interventions (eg, information campaigns) rely on recipients noticing and responding to the intervention. Resources required for individuals to benefit from highly agentic interventions have a socioeconomical pattern, thus agentic demand might affect intervention effectiveness and equity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Lockdown measures, including school closures, due to the COVID-19 pandemic have caused widespread disruption to children's lives. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of a national lockdown on children's physical activity using seasonally matched accelerometry data.
Methods: Using a pre/post observational design, 179 children aged 8 to 11 years provided physical activity data measured using hip-worn triaxial accelerometers worn for 5 consecutive days prepandemic and during the January to March 2021 lockdown.
Background: This article reports the methods and findings for Aotearoa New Zealand's 2022 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth indicators, and on inequities within these indicators.
Methods: Grades were assigned to indicators using the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance criteria depending on data availability, and inequities reported based on gender, ethnicity, disability status, area-level socioeconomic deprivation, urbanicity, and school year. Two additional indicators were included in this report card: Sleep, and Physical literacy.
Background: Evaluations of school-based activity behaviour interventions suggest limited effectiveness on students' device-measured outcomes. Teacher-led implementation is common but the training provided is poorly understood and may affect implementation and student outcomes. We systematically reviewed staff training delivered within interventions and explored if specific features are associated with intervention fidelity and student activity behaviour outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is increasing recognition of the need for more comprehensive surveillance data, including information on physical activity of all intensities, sedentary behavior, and sleep. However, meeting this need poses significant challenges for current surveillance systems, which are mainly reliant on self-report.
Objective: The primary objective of this project is to develop and evaluate the feasibility of a sensor-based system for use in the surveillance of physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep (SurPASS) at a national level in Denmark.
Objective: This study aimed to examine the prevalence of adolescent active travel to school (ATS) across 31 countries and territories in Asia, overall and by age group, sex and body mass index (BMI) category.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Setting: 31 Asian countries.
Background: Physical activity (PA) declines during childhood. Important sources of PA are active travel, organised sport and physical education (PE), but it is unclear how these domain-specific PA sources contribute to (changes in) daily moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) in young people. This study aimed to examine (1) the cross-sectional association between domain-specific physical activity (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRegular participation in physical activity is essential for children's physical, mental, and cognitive health. Neighborhood environments may be especially important for children who are more likely to spend time in the environment proximal to home. This article provides an update of evidence for associations between children's physical activity behaviors and objectively assessed environmental characteristics derived using geographical information system (GIS)-based approaches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although it is globally known that Japan has high prevalence of active school travel among children, there are few international studies on Japanese children's school travel. Moreover, only few studies have focused on the differences in their mode of travel between to-school and from-school. This study examined the associations of neighborhood built, safety, and social environments with walking to/from school among elementary school-aged children in Chiba, Japan.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDried persimmons contain abundant insoluble tannins comprised of non-extractable proanthocyanidins (NEPAs). To determine the beneficial function of NEPAs, we studied the bile acid-binding ability of NEPAs using in vitro and in vivo experiments. For the in vitro evaluation, 70% (v/v) acetone-insoluble solids (AIS) with different NEPA levels was prepared from persimmon fruits during drying.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to systematically identify, map out, and describe geographical information systems (GIS)-based approaches that have been employed to measure children's neighborhood geographies for physical activity behaviors. Forty studies were included, most were conducted in the USA. Heterogeneity in GIS methods and measures was found.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
December 2020
Travelling to school by car diminishes opportunities for physical activity and contributes to traffic congestion and associated noise and air pollution. This meta-analysis examined sociodemographic characteristics and built environment associates of travelling to school by car compared to using active transport among New Zealand (NZ) adolescents. Four NZ studies (2163 adolescents) provided data on participants' mode of travel to school, individual and school sociodemographic characteristics, distance to school and home-neighbourhood built-environment features.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActive school travel contributes to children's physical, mental and social wellbeing. The prevalence of children's active school travel, however, has been declining in many developed countries. Gaining insights into school culture and environments in relation to school travel behaviour is crucial to inform interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChildren's independent mobility is declining internationally. Parents are the gatekeepers of children's independent mobility. This mixed methods study investigates whether parent perceptions of the neighbourhood environment align with objective measures of the neighbourhood built environment, and how perceived and objective measures relate to parental licence for children's independent mobility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Active school travel (AST) is influenced by multiple factors including built and social environments, households and individual variables. A holistic theory such as Mitra's Behavioural Model of School Transportation (BMST) is vital to comprehensively understand these complex interrelationships. This study aimed to assess direct and indirect associations between children's AST and environmental, household and child factors based on the BMST using structural equation modelling (SEM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCompositional data techniques are an emerging method in physical activity research. These techniques account for the complexities of, and interrelationships between, behaviours that occur throughout a day (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis systematic review summarised and evaluated the evidence for associations between school travel modes in children aged 5-13 years and perceived physical environments as well as social and sociodemographic characteristics. A computerised electronic search was performed for English articles published between January 2000 and July 2017. Data were extracted, study quality was assessed, and findings were analysed using a vote-counting technique.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: New Zealand children's physical activity, including independent mobility and active travel, has declined markedly over recent decades. The Neighbourhoods for Active Kids (NfAK) study examines how neighbourhood built environments are associated with the independent mobility, active travel, physical activity and neighbourhood experiences of children aged 9-12 years in primary and intermediate schools across Auckland, New Zealand's largest city.
Methods And Analysis: Child-specific indices of walkability, destination accessibility and traffic exposure will be constructed to measure the built environment in 8 neighbourhoods in Auckland.
Kilding, AE, Dobson, BP, and Ikeda, E. Effects of acutely intermittent hypoxic exposure on running economy and physical performance in basketball players. J Strength Cond Res 30(7): 2033-2042, 2016-The aim of this study was to determine the effect of short duration intermittent hypoxic exposure (IHE) on physical performance in basketball players.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe density of dendritic spines is sexually dimorphic and variable throughout the female estrous cycle in the rat posterodorsal medial amygdala (MePD), a relevant area for the modulation of reproductive behavior in rats. The local synaptic activity differs between hemispheres in prepubertal animals. Here we used serial section transmission electron microscopy to produce 3D reconstructions of dendritic shafts and spines to characterize synaptic contacts on MePD neurons of both hemispheres in adult males and in females along the estrous cycle.
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