Increased neurocardiological interplay after mindfulness meditation: a brain oscillation-based approach.

Background: Brain oscillations facilitate interaction within the brain network and between the brain and heart activities, and the alpha wave, as a prominent brain oscillation, plays a major role in these coherent activities. We hypothesize that mindfully breathing can make the brain and heart activities more coherent in terms of increased connectivity between the electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) signals.

Methods: Eleven participants (28-52 years) attended 8 weeks of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training.

Differences in fall-related characteristics across cognitive disorders.

Approximately 40-60% of falls in the elderly lead to injuries, resulting in disability and loss of independence. Despite the higher prevalence of falls and morbidity rates in cognitively impaired individuals, most fall risk assessments fail to account for mental status. In addition, successful fall prevention programmes in cognitively normal adults have generally failed in patients with cognitive impairment.

Modulation of Visual Contrast Sensitivity with tRNS across the Visual System, Evidence from Stimulation and Simulation.

Transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) has been shown to significantly improve visual perception. Previous studies demonstrated that tRNS delivered over cortical areas acutely enhances visual contrast detection of weak stimuli. However, it is currently unknown whether tRNS-induced signal enhancement could be achieved within different neural substrates along the retino-cortical pathway.

Development of "LvL UP 1.0": a smartphone-based, conversational agent-delivered holistic lifestyle intervention for the prevention of non-communicable diseases and common mental disorders.

Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and common mental disorders (CMDs) are the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Lifestyle interventions mobile apps and conversational agents present themselves as low-cost, scalable solutions to prevent these conditions. This paper describes the rationale for, and development of, "LvL UP 1.

Physical inference of falling objects involves simulation of occluded trajectories in early visual areas.

Humans possess an intuitive understanding of the environment's physical properties and dynamics, which allows them to predict the outcomes of physical scenarios and successfully interact with the physical world. This predictive ability is thought to rely on mental simulations and has been shown to involve frontoparietal areas. Here, we investigate whether such mental simulations may be accompanied by visual imagery of the predicted physical scene.

Holistic mHealth interventions for the promotion of healthy ageing: protocol for a systematic review.

Introduction: Maintaining physical and mental health is essential for healthy ageing. It can be supported by modifying lifestyle factors such as physical activity and diet. Poor mental health, in turn, contributes to the opposing effect.

Exploring the potential of mobile health interventions to address behavioural risk factors for the prevention of non-communicable diseases in Asian populations: a qualitative study.

Background: Changing lifestyle patterns over the last decades have seen growing numbers of people in Asia affected by non-communicable diseases and common mental health disorders, including diabetes, cancer, and/or depression. Interventions targeting healthy lifestyle behaviours through mobile technologies, including new approaches such as chatbots, may be an effective, low-cost approach to prevent these conditions. To ensure uptake and engagement with mobile health interventions, however, it is essential to understand the end-users' perspectives on using such interventions.

Evaluating Conversational Agents for Mental Health: Scoping Review of Outcomes and Outcome Measurement Instruments.

Background: Rapid proliferation of mental health interventions delivered through conversational agents (CAs) calls for high-quality evidence to support their implementation and adoption. Selecting appropriate outcomes, instruments for measuring outcomes, and assessment methods are crucial for ensuring that interventions are evaluated effectively and with a high level of quality.

Objective: We aimed to identify the types of outcomes, outcome measurement instruments, and assessment methods used to assess the clinical, user experience, and technical outcomes in studies that evaluated the effectiveness of CA interventions for mental health.

Social media and internet search data to inform drug utilization: A systematic scoping review.

Introduction: Drug utilization is currently assessed through traditional data sources such as big electronic medical records (EMRs) databases, surveys, and medication sales. Social media and internet data have been reported to provide more accessible and more timely access to medications' utilization.

Objective: This review aims at providing evidence comparing web data on drug utilization to other sources before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital health metrics reveal upper limb impairment profiles in ARSACS.

Objective: Adults with autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS) often present with reduced upper limb coordination affecting their independence in daily life. Previous studies in ARSACS identified reduced performance in clinical assessments requiring fine and gross dexterity as well as prehension. However, the kinematic and kinetic aspects underlying reduced upper limb coordination in ARSACS have not been systematically investigated yet.

A single bout of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise improves motor learning in premanifest and early Huntington's disease.

Introduction: Cardiorespiratory exercise has emerged as a promising candidate to modify disease progression in Huntington's disease (HD). In animal models, exercise has been found to alter biomarkers of neuroplasticity and delay evidence of disease, and some interventions-including exercise-have shown benefits in human HD patients. In healthy human populations, increasing evidence suggests that even a single bout of exercise can improve motor learning.

Exploring the Perceptions of mHealth Interventions for the Prevention of Common Mental Disorders in University Students in Singapore: Qualitative Study.

Background: Mental health interventions delivered through mobile health (mHealth) technologies can increase the access to mental health services, especially among university students. The development of mHealth intervention is complex and needs to be context sensitive. There is currently limited evidence on the perceptions, needs, and barriers related to these interventions in the Southeast Asian context.

An online method to monitor hand muscle tone during robot-assisted rehabilitation.

Robot-assisted neurorehabilitation is becoming an established method to complement conventional therapy after stroke and provide intensive therapy regimes in unsupervised settings (e.g., home rehabilitation).

Symplectic encoders for physics-constrained variational dynamics inference.

We propose a new variational autoencoder (VAE) with physical constraints capable of learning the dynamics of Multiple Degree of Freedom (MDOF) dynamic systems. Standard variational autoencoders place greater emphasis on compression than interpretability regarding the learned latent space. We propose a new type of encoder, based on the recently developed Hamiltonian Neural Networks, to impose symplectic constraints on the inferred a posteriori distribution.

The effect of flight phase on electrodermal activity and gaze behavior: A simulator study.

Current advances in airplane cockpit design and layout are often driven by a need to improve the pilot's awareness of the aircraft's state. This involves an improvement in the flow of information from aircraft to pilot. However, providing the aircraft with information on the pilot's state remains an open challenge.

An interpretable machine learning approach to multimodal stress detection in a simulated office environment.

Background And Objective: Work-related stress affects a large part of today's workforce and is known to have detrimental effects on physical and mental health. Continuous and unobtrusive stress detection may help prevent and reduce stress by providing personalised feedback and allowing for the development of just-in-time adaptive health interventions for stress management. Previous studies on stress detection in work environments have often struggled to adequately reflect real-world conditions in controlled laboratory experiments.

Reliability, validity and clinical usability of a robotic assessment of finger proprioception in persons with multiple sclerosis.

Background: Multiple sclerosis often leads to proprioceptive impairments of the hand. However, it is challenging to objectively assess such deficits using clinical methods, thereby also impeding accurate tracking of disease progression and hence the application of personalized rehabilitation approaches.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate test-retest reliability, validity, and clinical usability of a novel robotic assessment of hand proprioceptive impairments in persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS).

Design and validation of a novel online platform to support the usability evaluation of wearable robotic devices.

Wearable robotic devices (WRD) are still struggling to fulfill their vast potential. Inadequate daily life usability is one of the main hindrances to increased technology acceptance. Improving usability evaluation practices during the development of WRD could help address these limitations.

Perception of Size and Mass Relationships of Moving and Stationary Object in Collision Events in 10-to-11-Month-Old Infants.

Around 5.5-6.5 months of age, infants first attend to object size and perceive its mass cues in simple collision events.

Resilience analysis of cyber-physical systems: A review of models and methods.

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are monitored and controlled by a computing and communicating core. This cyber layer enables better management of the controlled subsystem, but it also introduces threats to the security and protection of CPSs, as demonstrated by recent cyberattacks. The resulting governance and policy emphasis on cybersecurity is reflected in the academia by a vast body of literature.

The field of human building interaction for convergent research and innovation for intelligent built environments.

Human-Building Interaction (HBI) is a convergent field that represents the growing complexities of the dynamic interplay between human experience and intelligence within built environments. This paper provides core definitions, research dimensions, and an overall vision for the future of HBI as developed through consensus among 25 interdisciplinary experts in a series of facilitated workshops. Three primary areas contribute to and require attention in HBI research: humans (human experiences, performance, and well-being), buildings (building design and operations), and technologies (sensing, inference, and awareness).

Advocating for Implementation of the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity: Challenges and Support Requirements.

Background: There is limited understanding of the challenges experienced and supports required to aid effective advocacy of the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (GAPPA). The purpose of this study was to assess the challenges experienced and supports needed to advocate for the GAPPA across countries of different income levels.

Methods: Stakeholders working in an area related to the promotion of physical activity were invited to complete an online survey.

Reporting Cultural Adaptation in Psychological Trials - The RECAPT criteria.

Background: There is a lack of empirical evidence on the level of cultural adaptation required for psychological interventions developed in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies to be effective for the treatment of common mental disorders among culturally and ethnically diverse groups. This lack of evidence is partly due to insufficient documentation of cultural adaptation in psychological trials. Standardised documentation is needed in order to enhance empirical and meta-analytic evidence.

Temporal characterization of biocycles of mycelium-bound composites made from bamboo and Pleurotus ostreatus for indoor usage.

Mycelium-bound composites (MBCs) are materials obtained by growing fungi on a ligno-cellulosic substrate which have various applications in packaging, furniture, and construction industries. MBCs are particularly interesting as they are sustainable materials that can integrate into a circular economy model. Indeed, they can be subsequently grown, used, degraded, and re-grown.

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) in Hypoxia Improves Maximal Aerobic Capacity More Than HIIT in Normoxia: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Meta-Regression.

The present study aimed to determine the effect of high intensity interval training (HIIT) in hypoxia on maximal oxygen uptake (VO) compared with HIIT in normoxia with a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA)-accordant meta-analysis and meta-regression. Studies which measured VO following a minimum of 2 weeks intervention featuring HIIT in hypoxia versus HIIT in normoxia were included. From 119 originally identified titles, nine studies were included ( = 194 participants).