Age- and sex-specific reference percentile curves for accelerometry-measured physical activity in healthy European children and adolescents.

Unlabelled: Physical activity measured by accelerometry (PA-accelerometry) is used as an indicator of physical capacity in chronic diseases. Currently, only fragmented age ranges of reference percentile curves are available for European children and adolescents. This study aimed to provide age- and sex-specific percentiles for physical activity measured by hip-worn accelerometry derived throughout the full age range of European children and adolescents.

External workload and cognitive performance of a tactical military scenario-based field exercise.

Introduction: Military personnel must manage a multitude of competing physiological and cognitive stressors while maintaining high levels of performance. Quantifying the external workload and cognitive demands of tactical military field exercises closely simulating operational environments, will provide a better understanding of stressors placed on personnel to inform evidence-based interventions.

Methods: Thirty-one soldiers completing a dismounted 48 hours tactical field exercise, participated in the study.

Aqueous carbonation of peridotites for carbon utilisation: a critical review.

Peridotite and serpentinites can be used to sequester CO emissions through mineral carbonation. Olivine dissolution rate is directly proportional with temperature, presence of CO, surface area of mineral particles and presence of ligands and is inversely proportional to pH. Olivine dissolution is better under air flow and increases seven times when rock-inhibiting fungus (Knufia petricola) is used.

A systematic literature review of evidence for the use of assistive exoskeletons in defence and security use cases.

Advances in assistive exoskeleton technology, and a boom in related scientific literature, prompted a need to review the potential use of exoskeletons in defence and security. A systematic review examined the evidence for successful augmentation of human performance in activities deemed most relevant to military tasks. Categories of activities were determined through literature scoping and Human Factors workshops with military stakeholders.

Development of physical employment standards of specialist paramedic roles in the National Ambulance Resilience Unit (Naru).

Aim: To develop evidence-based role-specific physical employment standards and tests for National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) specialist paramedics.

Methods: Sixty-two (53 men, 9 women) paramedics performed an array of (1) realistic reconstructions of critical job-tasks (criterion job performance); (2) simplified, easily-replicable simulations of those reconstructions and; (3) fitness tests that are portable and/or practicable to administer with limited resources or specialist equipment. Pearson's correlations and ordinary least products regression were used to assess relationships between tasks and tests.