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Hovenia dulcis (H. dulcis) Thunb., which is distributed in Korea, China, and Japan, has been known to show hepatoprotective and free radical scavenging effects and enhance physical activity. Therefore, the objectives of this present study were to determine the anti-fatigue activity of hot-water extract from H. dulcis peduncle, and to find the reason why H. dulcis extract (HDE)-ingested mice had enhanced physical activity against swimming performance. The mice orally administrated with HDE (HDE-mice) dramatically enhanced their swimming time compared to the control mice. HDE significantly decreased serum levels of stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in mice. The levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were dramatically decreased in gastrocnemius muscle from both 100 mg/kg of HDE (LHDE) and 200 mg/kg of HDE (HHDE)-ingested mice compared to the control mice. The liver activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) were significantly increased in HHDE-mice with increasing tendency in LHDE-mice. In addition, HHDE-mice significantly decreased the levels of blood glucose, total cholesterol (T-Chol), and triglyceride (TG). These results suggest that HDE had a significant anti-fatigue effect via its anti-stress and antioxidant activities, and thereby enhanced physical activity in swimming performance.

Herb supplements are widely used by Asian athletes; however, there are no studies evaluated the co-effects of exercise and herb supplements on hepatic failure. In this study, D-GalN/LPS-induced fulminant hepatic failure was used to examine whether there are synergistic or antagonistic effects of exercise and Cordyceps sinensis (CS). Mice were randomly divided into eight groups: control, swimming exercise for four weeks, D-GalN/LPS challenge, swimming exercise plus D-GalN/LPS, 20 mg/kg or 40 mg/kg CS pretreated for four weeks plus D-GalN/LPS, and swimming exercise combined with 20 mg/kg or 40 mg/kg CS pretreatment plus D-GalN/LPS. Either exercise or 40 mg/kg CS pretreatment alone significantly decreased D-GalN/LPS-induced TNF-α, AST, NO, apoptotic-related proteins, and hepatocyte apoptosis. Exercise or 40 mg/kg CS alone increased the IL-10 and D-GalN/LPS-suppressed Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) level. However, no protective or worse effect was observed in the mice treated with exercise preconditioning combined 40 mg/kg CS compared to those receive exercise alone or CS alone. TNF-α, AST, NO level, caspase-3 activity, and hepatocytes apoptosis were not significantly different in the exercise combined with 40 mg/kg CS compared to mice challenged with D-GalN/LPS. The IL-10 level was significantly decreased after D-GalN/LPS stimulation in the mice received exercise combined with 40 mg/kg CS, indicating the combination strongly reduced the anti-inflammatory effect. In summary, preconditioning exercise or CS pretreatment alone can protect mice from septic liver damage, but in contrast, the combination of exercise and CS does not produce any benefit. The antagonistic interactions between exercise and CS imply taking CS is not recommended for people who undertake regular exercise.

Training has great significance and should be an integral part of the daily routines of all elite athletes. Training allows the body to gradually develop strength and endurance, increase skill levels, and build trust, motivation, and ambition. The risk factors in sports training sessions include fragile or low self-confidence, Breakdowns in self-assurance, and high expectations are considered an important factors. In this paper, Dynamic Activity Adaptive Physical Fuzzy Model (DAAPFM) is proposed to become better athletes and meet their mental challenges. Mel does time-frequency analysis, and they tend to experience anxiety about performance. Fuzzy wrapping optimization analysis is integrated with DAAPFM to build confidence in the belief in one’s ability to execute a task or win an event. The experimental results show that the data fusion approach can analyze the activities of athletes effectively. The simulation results give the average accuracy of the classification of sports activity 99.40% framework’s efficiency to gradually develop strength and endurance, increase skill levels, and build trust, motivation, and ambition.

Knee osteoarthritis is highly prevalent in middle-aged and older people, and biomechanical interventions include modifications of the gait and activities of daily living (ADL). This study investigated the effects of gait and ADL modifications compared with conventional exercise for improving knee function in community-dwelling middle-aged and older people. Fifty middle-aged and older people were randomly allocated to the control ($n=22$) or intervention ($n=28$) groups. The control group performed conventional straight leg raising and knee joint range of motion exercises, and the intervention group modified their gait by decreasing the knee adduction moment and increasing hip muscle activities, and performed range of motion exercises in a bathtub. In both groups, the program was implemented for 12 weeks. The Japan knee OA measure score, walking speed, and hip abduction strength significantly improved in both the control and intervention groups. The health-related quality of life (Short Form 8: SF-8) was significantly improved in the intervention group compared with the control group. Gait and ADL modifications achieved effects similar to those of conventional knee joint exercise, and might be more effective for improving physical function-related quality of life.

Purpose: Identifying factors related to low-back pain (LBP) can facilitate its management. However, information on how physical activity (PA) level, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and anthropometric characteristics are related to LBP-associated health indices in individuals with chronic LBP (CLBP) is scarce. This study explored how PA level, HRQoL and anthropometric indices are related to CLBP-related disability in a Nigerian population.

Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 100 individuals with CLBP who were receiving treatment in physiotherapy out-patient clinics of selected tertiary hospitals, and 95 apparently healthy individuals. PA level, disability level and HRQoL were measured using standardized procedures.

Results: Disability level inversely correlated with physical component score (PCS) of HRQoL ($r=-0.84$; $p<0.001$), mental component score (MCS) of HRQoL ($r=-0.46$; $p<0.001$), pain intensity ($r=-0.84$; $P<0.001$) and PA level ($r=-0.39$; $p<0.001$), but positively correlated with duration of pain ($r=0.81$; $p<0.001$) among individuals with CLBP. PCS of HRQoL ($\beta =-1.68$; $p<0.001$) solely accounted for 71% of the prediction of disability level.

Conclusion: PA level and HRQoL decrease with increasing CLBP-related disability with the PCS of HRQoL being mostly affected. Individuals with CLBP may need to be motivated against their health problem, and be encouraged to participate in PA.

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Artificial Intelligence: saving lives and securing the future.

The best pill for cancer patients: An exercise regime.

Across the divide: Multidisciplinary team to achieve better outcomes for breast cancer patients.

The state of cancer research in Asia.

Clinical utility of and access to cancer molecular diagnostics in Asia.

Reprogramming the immune system against cancer.

Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is used as a marker of autonomic nervous system activity which may be related to mental and/or physical activity. HRV features can be extracted by detecting QRS complexes from an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. The difficulties in QRS complex detection are due to the artifacts and noises that may appear in the ECG signal when subjects are performing their daily life activities such as exercise, posture changes, climbing stairs, walking, running, etc. This study describes a strong computation method for real-time QRS complex detection. The detection is improved by the prediction of the position of $R$ waves by the estimation of the RR intervals lengths. The estimation is done by computing the intensity of the electromyogram noises that appear in the ECG signals and known here in this paper as ECG Trunk Muscles Signals Amplitude (ECG-TMSA). The heart rate (HR) and ECG-TMSA increases with the movement of the subject. We use this property to estimate the lengths of the RR intervals. The method was tested using famous databases, and also with signals acquired when an experiment with 17 subjects from our laboratory. The obtained results using ECG signals from the MIT-Noise Stress Test Database show a QRS complex detection error rate (ER) of 9.06%, a sensitivity of 95.18% and a positive prediction of 95.23%. This method was also tested against MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database, the result are 99.68% of sensitivity and 99.89% of positive predictivity, with ER of 0.40%. When applied to the signals obtained from the 17 subjects, the algorithm gave an interesting result of 0.00025% as ER, 99.97% as sensitivity and 99.99% as positive predictivity.

According to a study of health centers across the country, the physical health state is evaluated through a log-based, multi-access physical monitoring program and the accompanying challenges they face in their lifestyle. The deficiency of important nutrients is causing organ degradation, which in turn causes a wide range of health issues, especially for newborns, children, and adults. The physical activities of children and teenagers must be constantly monitored to eliminate issues in their lives through a smart environment. Physical monitoring systems with many access points, information needs, and accurate health-status diagnoses are becoming increasingly important in today’s fast-paced world. In eliminating problems from their lives, a smart environment must constantly monitor the physical activities of children and teenagers. There is a growing need for physical monitoring systems with multiple access points, information needs, and accurate health-status diagnoses in today’s human–robot interactive communication process rapidly changing world. Smart-log patches incorporating researchers have developed and tested sensors for the Internet of Things (IoT) in this study. The smart-log patch is a Bayesian deep learning network system that is based on edge computing (BDLN-EC) to infer and recognize various physical data gathered from people. Deep learning-driven wireless communication is described in signal analysis, encoding and decoding, security and privacy, channel estimation, and compression sensing. Deep learning-driven wireless connectivity intuitions and methodologies are the focus of our work. Wearable IoT systems with multimedia capabilities have been tested and evaluated for accuracy, efficacy, error, and energy usage.

Background: Various factors, inherited and acquired, are associated with habitual spinal postures.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships between trunk muscle endurance, anthropometry and physical activity/inactivity and the sagittal standing lumbopelvic posture in pain-free young participants.

Methods: In this study, 112 healthy young adults (66 females), with median (IQR) age of 20 years (18.2–22 years), without low back pain, injury or trauma were included. Lumbar curve (LC) and sacral slope (SS) angles were measured in standing with a mobile phone application (iHandy level). Anthropometric, physical activity/inactivity levels (leisure-time sport involvement and sitting hours/day) and abdominal (plank prone bridge test) and paraspinal (Sorensen test) isometric muscle endurance measures were collected.

Results: LC and SS angles correlated significantly ($r=0.80$, $p<0.001$). Statistically significant differences for both LC ($p=0.023$) and SS ($p=0.013$) angles were identified between the male and female participants. A significant negative correlation was identified between the abdominal endurance time and LC ($r=-0.27$, $p=0.004$); however, the power of this result (56%) was not sufficiently high. The correlation between abdominal endurance and SS was non-significant ($r=-0.17$, $p=0.08$). In addition, no significant associations were identified between either of the sagittal lumbopelvic angles (LC–SS) in standing and the participants’ body mass index (BMI), paraspinal endurance, leisure-time sport involvement or sitting hours/day.

Conclusion: The potential role of preventive exercise in controlling lumbar lordosis via enhancement of the abdominal muscle endurance characteristics requires further confirmation. A subsequent study, performed in a larger population of more diverse occupational involvement and leisure-time physical activity levels, is proposed.

Background: Stress and sedentary lifestyles negatively impact the physical fitness of overweight and obese female university students. Physical activity has been shown to promote psychological as well as physical wellness. However, the effects of Surya Namaskar (SN) yoga on stress and physical fitness remain unclear.

Objective: This study aimed to compare the physical fitness, anthropometric measures, and perceived stress between the SN yoga training program group and the control group.

Methods: In a randomized controlled study, 44 overweight and obese female university students participated. For 8 weeks, the exercise group received training in SN yoga, whereas the control group was not permitted to participate in any form of exercise. At baseline and after 8 weeks of training, all participants completed the Thai Perceived Stress Scale-10 (T-PSS-10), and assessed the body mass index (BMI), waist–hip ratio, body fat percentage, maximum oxygen consumption (VO₂max), and muscle strength and flexibility. We used the dependent t-test or Wilcoxon sign rank test to examine the differences between the T-PSS-10 and physical fitness within each group. The statistical differences of all parameters between the two groups were compared using an independent t-test or a Mann–Whitney U test. A p-$\mathrm{\text{value}}<0.05$ was considered statistically significant.

Results: Compared to the baseline, the SN yoga group’s post-training period had a significant increase ($p<0.05$) in forward back flexibility, hand grip strength, leg strength, and VO₂max, while a significant decrease ($p<0.05$) in T-PSS-10 scores and BMI. In addition, we found a significant difference between the both groups in forward back flexibility and T-PSS-10 scores in the post-training period ($p=0.015$ and $p=0.009$, respectively).

Conclusion: This study’s findings demonstrated that SN yoga is a useful exercise for enhancing overweight and obese female university students’ perceived stress scales and physical fitness.

Weight control via dietary caloric restriction and/or physical activity has been demonstrated in animal models for cancer prevention. However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Body weight loss due to negative energy balance significantly reduces some metabolic growth factors and endocrinal hormones such as IGF-1, leptin, and adiponectin, but enhances glucocorticoids, that may be associated with anti-cancer mechanisms. In this review, we summarized the recent studies related to weight control and growth factors. The potential molecular targets focused on those growth factors- and hormones-dependent cellular signaling pathways are further discussed. It appears that multiple factors and multiple signaling cascades, especially for Ras-MAPK-proliferation and PI3K-Akt-anti-apoptosis, could be involved in response to weight change by dietary calorie restriction and/or exercise training. Considering prevalence of obesity or overweight that becomes apparent over the world, understanding the underlying mechanisms among weight control, endocrine change and cancer risk is critically important. Future studies using "-omics" technologies will be warrant for a broader and deeper mechanistic information regarding cancer prevention by weight control.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has impacted cities around the world. Global cities theory suggests that cities articulated to the global economy should be affected by such flows similarly. We start from this perspective and examine the impacts and outcomes of COVID-19 in three global cities: New York City, London and Tokyo. Our results focus on the speed, intensity, scale and characteristics of COVID-19 related cases and deaths in these cities and their respective countries. We find that while there are similarities between the experiences of global cities, there are also significant differences. The differences can be partially explained by policy, socio-economic and cultural differences. Our findings suggest that cities articulated to the global system could benefit from developing their own locally unique early warning and emergency response system, integrated with but separate from national systems.

The main objective of this paper is to employ some multifactorial data mining techniques for studying the direct and indirect effects of the physical activity intensity on persons’ health-related well-being. The availability of such a data-driven modeling and simulation interface enables analysts and decision makers to boost their decision by better understanding the types and levels of relationships between the main factors promoting the well-being of individuals. The data mining investigation is conducted at the CHU Gabriel Montpied (Clermont-Ferrand, France) on a population of employees, composed of medical and nonmedical staff. An observation-like study is conducted with the main aim of assessing direct and indirect effects of the physical activity intensity on the population’s health. This is especially performed by examining the significance of associations between physical activity indices and a set of their medical records. One of the main models resulting from data mining in this paper links cardiovascular risks to a set of exogenous variables including work and sport activity indices. The empirical results are consistent with many recent findings emphasizing the role of increasing high and intermediate levels of physical activity among health public-sector employees to effectively fight some diabetic and cardiovascular diseases.

This review of the epidemiological evidence for diet and physical activity and the risk of cancer primarily summarises the recommendations of the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR). Recommendations include the topics of: body fatness, plant foods, animal foods, alcoholic drinks, dietary supplements, and physical activity. For each of these recommendations we review the level of evidence used to determine the final recommendations, discuss potential limitations of dietary and physical activity measures, and review the study designs that underpin the existing evidence base. In addition, we briefly describe the biological mechanisms underlying the hypotheses around diet and physical activity and cancer and finally we describe more recent research published since the release of the WCRF/AICR recommendations.

There is “convincing” or “probable” evidence of the positive relationship between cancer and: body and abdominal fatness; alcohol; red and processed meats; and high-dose beta-carotene supplements. There is “convincing” or “probable” evidence of a protective effect of consumption of fruit and vegetables; calcium and selenium; and physical activity on cancer risk. Lifestyle modification has the potential to result in a substantial reduction in cancer incidence. If this potential is to be realised, policies and programmes that modify behavioural and environmental factors are required.

Cancer survivors may benefit from lifestyle interventions which can mitigate their increased risk of other health problems after a diagnosis of cancer, including heart disease, diabetes and functional impairment.

There is emerging evidence that weight management and physical activity will positively impact on key outcomes measures for cancer survivors; including quality of life, cancer recurrence and survival rates. Although dietary supplement use is very common among cancer survivors, there are very few studies documenting the effect nutritional supplements have on cancer recurrence and survival.

Overall, lifestyle interventions have the potential to improve the health and wellbeing of cancer survivors, in particular for women with breast cancer. Key recommendations for cancer survivors include:

• maintaining a healthy body weight;

• being physically active;

• eating more vegetables and fruit; and

• limiting or avoiding alcohol consumption.

These recommendations are consistent with evidence-based advice on reducing the risk of cancer and with national dietary recommendations to promote general health and need to be considered in the context of a cancer survivor's individual health and social circumstances. Further research is required to determine the efficacy and effectiveness of specific lifestyle interventions designed for breast cancer survivors, as well as for survivors of other forms of cancer.

An epidemic of obesity has been spreading in countries at all levels of income as a result of new dietary habits and sedentary ways of life, fuelling chronic diseases and premature mortality. The majority of the population, and 1 in 5 children, are today overweight or obese in the OECD area. Rates vary nearly 10-fold across OECD countries alone, but have been growing at similar paces worldwide.

An increased demand for medical care, as well as adverse social and labor market impacts, make obesity a top public health priority and a major cause for concern for governments worldwide. The rationale for government intervention to correct some of the causes of obesity epidemic is still debated, but rests mainly on information failures, social spill-over effects of lifestyle choices, and inconsistent time preferences, as well as on the links between obesity and social disadvantage.

Several population-based prevention policies can be expected to generate substantial health gains and future reductions of health-care expenditures. These include price incentives; health information and communication strategies; measures to regulate the labelling, marketing, and nutritional contents of foods; and measures to increase physical activity, including changes in transportation and living environment.