Encouraging arm use in stroke survivors: the impact of smart reminders during a home-based intervention.

Background: Upper limb impairment post-stroke often leads to a predominant use of the less affected arm and consequent learned disuse of the affected side, hindering upper limb outcome. Wearable sensors such as accelerometers, combined with smart reminders (i.e.

Discriminatory Accuracy of Fracture Risk Assessment Tool in Asian Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: This review explores the discriminative ability of fracture risk assessment tool (FRAX) in major osteoporotic fracture (MOF) and hip fracture (HF) risk prediction and the densitometric diagnosis of osteoporosis in Asian populations.

Methods: We systematically searched the EMBASE, Cochrane, and PubMed databases from the earliest indexing date to January 2024. Studies were included if FRAX was used to identify future osteoporotic fractures or a densitometric diagnosis of osteoporosis in an Asian population and reported the area under the curve (AUC) values.

Steps to Avoid Falls in the Elderly - a TECHnology Enhanced Intervention (SAFE-TECH) study: randomized controlled trial protocol for a community-based, multi-component fall prevention program.

Background: Falls and fall-related injuries among older adults in Singapore are a serious health problem that require early intervention. In previous research, exercise interventions have been effective in improving functional outcomes and reducing falls for a broad group of older adults. However, results from multi-domain, multi-component falls prevention programs for high fall risk older adults in the community remain equivocal.

Harnessing street shade to mitigate heat stress: An in-situ parallel investigation under extreme heat conditions in tropical Singapore.

In the face of global rising temperatures and excessive urban heat, developing effective heat mitigation strategies has become increasingly urgent. Street shade, a typical cooling shelter for urban dwellers, has been primarily investigated for outdoor thermal comfort but not extensively under extreme heat conditions. This study explores the cooling efficacy of diverse street shade types in mitigating urban heat, thereby facilitating cities and their residents' adaptation to climatic shifts.

"Men Need Role Models": Exploring the Facilitators and Barriers for Yoga Participation Among Men.

Yoga is a holistic form of physical activity taken up for various reasons, including physical and mental health, and sometimes spirituality. Despite the growing popularity of yoga as a form of health-enhancing physical activity, data show the uptake among men to be consistently low compared to women. To gain an understanding of barriers and facilitators for yoga uptake and adherence among men, four focus group discussions (three male groups, one female group) and three individual interviews were undertaken.

Segmentation methods for quantifying X-ray Computed Tomography based biomarkers to assess hip fracture risk: a systematic literature review.

Background: The success of using bone mineral density and/or FRAX to predict femoral osteoporotic fracture risk is modest since they do not account for mechanical determinants that affect bone fracture risk. Computed Tomography (CT)-based geometric, densitometric, and finite element-derived biomarkers have been developed and used as parameters for assessing fracture risk. However, to quantify these biomarkers, segmentation of CT data is needed.

A novel framework for elucidating the effect of mechanical loading on the geometry of ovariectomized mouse tibiae using principal component analysis.

Introduction: Murine models are used to test the effect of anti-osteoporosis treatments as they replicate some of the bone phenotypes observed in osteoporotic (OP) patients. The effect of disease and treatment is typically described as changes in bone geometry and microstructure over time. Conventional assessment of geometric changes relies on morphometric scalar parameters.

Top-funded companies offering digital health interventions for the prevention and treatment of depression: a systematic market analysis.

Background: Digital innovations can reduce the global burden of depression by facilitating timely and scalable interventions. In recent years, the number of commercial Digital Health Interventions for Depression (DHIDs) has been on the rise. However, there is limited knowledge on their content and underpinning scientific evidence.

Complexities and challenges of translating intervention success to real world gait in people with Parkinson's disease.

Background: Unstable gait leading to falls negatively impacts the quality of life in many people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Systematic review evidence provides moderate to strong evidence of efficacy for a wide range of physiotherapy-based interventions to reduce gait impairment. However, outcomes have often focused on gait assessments conducted in controlled laboratory or clinical environments.

Strategic naps in automated driving - Sleep architecture predicts sleep inertia better than nap duration.

At higher levels of driving automation, drivers can nap during parts of the trip but must take over control in others. Awakening from a nap is marked by sleep inertia which is tackled by the NASA nap paradigm in aviation: Strategic on-flight naps are restricted to 40 min to avoid deep sleep and therefore sleep inertia. For future automated driving, there are currently no such strategies for addressing sleep inertia.

Health knowledge after stroke in Switzerland: a survey among health professionals on current practice and suggestions for the implementation of a technology-based educational program for stroke survivors.

Background: It is estimated that 1 in 4 stroke survivors will experience a second stroke. Educating patients about risk factors for stroke and a generally healthier lifestyle may help prevent recurrent strokes, which are a burden on society and the healthcare system. The goals of this paper were to investigate the estimated level of knowledge of stroke patients regarding their disease, the methods of information commonly used in clinical practice, the topics that should be included in an educational program aimed at improving health knowledge among stroke survivors, and how such a program could be delivered with the help of technology-based education (i.

Spaced Digital Education for Health Professionals: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Spaced digital education applies digital tools to deliver educational content via multiple, repeated learning sessions separated by prespecified time intervals. Spaced digital education appears to promote acquisition and long-term retention of knowledge, skills, and change in clinical behavior.

Objective: The aim of this review was to assess the effectiveness of spaced digital education in improving pre- and postregistration health care professionals' knowledge, skills, attitudes, satisfaction, and change in clinical behavior.

Finger-specific effects of age on tapping speed and motor fatigability.

Introduction: Increased motor fatigability is a symptom of many neuromuscular and neurodegenerative disorders. However, it is difficult to pinpoint pathological motor fatigability, since the phenomena has not yet been fully characterized in the healthy population. In this study, we investigate how motor fatigability differs across age.

ExTraCT - Explainable trajectory corrections for language-based human-robot interaction using textual feature descriptions.

Introduction: In human-robot interaction (HRI), understanding human intent is crucial for robots to perform tasks that align with user preferences. Traditional methods that aim to modify robot trajectories based on language corrections often require extensive training to generalize across diverse objects, initial trajectories, and scenarios. This work presents ExTraCT, a modular framework designed to modify robot trajectories (and behaviour) using natural language input.

Translating the behaviour change technique taxonomy version 1 into Spanish: Methodology and validation.

Background: Precise and unequivocal specification of intervention content is key to facilitating the accumulation and implementation of knowledge. The Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy v1 (BCTTv1) is the most widely used classification of behaviour change techniques (BCTs), providing a shared, standardized vocabulary to identify the active ingredients of behavioural interventions. However, the BCTTv1 is only available in English and this hampers its broad use and adoption.

Sleeping behaviors are determined by lockdown and not work-from-home arrangements.

Lockdowns and work-from-home arrangements became abrupt realities for people at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, considering the case of Singapore, we study how peoples' sleep behaviors-which are closely linked to their mental health-varied as a result. However, different from most studies, this paper uses household electricity consumption data to estimate the sleeping behaviors of nearly 10,000 households in the city-state.

Dynamic causal modelling highlights the importance of decreased self-inhibition of the sensorimotor cortex in motor fatigability.

Motor fatigability emerges when challenging motor tasks must be maintained over an extended period of time. It is frequently observed in everyday life and affects patients as well as healthy individuals. Motor fatigability can be measured using simple tasks like finger tapping at maximum speed for 30 s.

Non-pharmaceutical interventions and epigenetic aging in adults: Protocol for a scoping review.

Introduction: Aging is the strongest risk factor for most chronic diseases. The rising burden of an aging population and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), contributes to escalating costs for society. Several non-pharmaceutical interventions can lower the risk of NCDs, including common mental disorders (CMDs), and may slow down biological aging, as evidenced by outcome markers such as epigenetic clocks.

The social factors shaping community microgrid operation.

When extreme weather events result in power blackouts, the critical electricity needs of a community can continue to be met by utilizing localized energy resources. The collective setup of these resources is referred to as a microgrid. Here, we carry out a survey to study the preferences of 1021 US residents on how the finite energy stored in a community microgrid should be rationed amongst various participating households during prolonged blackouts.

Influence of virtual reality and task complexity on digital health metrics assessing upper limb function.

Background: Technology-based assessments using 2D virtual reality (VR) environments and goal-directed instrumented tasks can deliver digital health metrics describing upper limb sensorimotor function that are expected to provide sensitive endpoints for clinical studies. Open questions remain about the influence of the VR environment and task complexity on such metrics and their clinimetric properties.

Methods: We aim to investigate the influence of VR and task complexity on the clinimetric properties of digital health metrics describing upper limb function.

Enhancing protein extraction from heterotrophic Auxenochlorella protothecoides microalgae through emerging cell disruption technologies combined with incubation.

This study evaluated pulsed electric fields (PEF) and ultrasonication (US) combined with incubation to enhance cell disruption and protein extraction from Auxenochlorella protothecoides, comparing them to conventional high-pressure homogenization (HPH). A 5 h incubation enhanced protein yield by 79.4 % for PEF- and 27.

A holistic lifestyle mobile health intervention for the prevention of type 2 diabetes and common mental disorders in Asian women with a history of gestational diabetes: a randomised control trial with 3-year follow-up protocol.

Background: Women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are 12-fold more likely to develop type 2 diabetes (T2D) 4-6 years after delivery than women without GDM. Similarly, GDM is associated with the development of common mental disorders (CMDs) (e.g.

Resilience indices from a family of recovery functions.

Defining and measuring resilience using a unified framework has been a topic of intense research. This article presents a perspective on how resilience could be quantitatively assessed through a set of indices. It starts with a brief explanation of resilience in the context of supply chain and a quick summary of existing quantitative measures of resilience.