Effects of repetition of a car-driving pedal maneuver and neural output in older adults.

Understanding the ability of older adults to control pedal position angle and investigating whether this ability can be enhanced through practice may contribute to the prevention of traffic accidents. This study aimed to investigate repetitive effects on variability of the pedal position and neural drive during car-pedal operation in older adults. Thirteen older and 11 young adults performed 105 (21 sets × 5 repetitions) pedal angle control tasks with plantar flexor contraction.

Association between force fluctuation during isometric ankle abduction and variability of neural drive in peroneus muscles.

Analyzing motor unit (MU) activities of peroneus muscles may reveal the causes of force control deficits of ankle eversion. This study aimed to examine peroneus muscles' MU discharge characteristics and associations between force fluctuation and variability of the neural drive in healthy participants. Thirty-one healthy males participated in this study.

Validity of segmental bioelectrical impedance analysis for estimating fat-free mass in children including overweight individuals.

This study examined the validity of segmental bioelectrical impedance (BI) analysis for predicting the fat-free masses (FFMs) of whole-body and body segments in children including overweight individuals. The FFM and impedance (Z) values of arms, trunk, legs, and whole body were determined using a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and segmental BI analyses, respectively, in 149 boys and girls aged 6 to 12 years, who were divided into model-development (n = 74), cross-validation (n = 35), and overweight (n = 40) groups. Simple regression analysis was applied to (length)/Z (BI index) for each of the whole-body and 3 segments to develop the prediction equations of the measured FFM of the related body part.

Comparison of the status of overweight/obesity among the youth of local Shanghai, young rural-to-urban migrants and immigrant origin areas.

Background: Obesity in adolescents and children has become a global public health problem and lots of factors influence the status of obesity and overweight. The present study aims to compare the health-related factors which could influence the obesity in Chinese children and adolescents in three different groups which including the local developed city group, rural-to-urban migrants group and immigrants origin areas group.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study consisted of 2457 children and adolescents aged 7-10 years old including 914 rural-to-urban migrants subjects, 795 local Shanghai subjects and 748 from immigrant origin areas.