Search Results (6,498)

Background: Motor decline associated with ageing compromises mobility, postural control and the ability, thereby increasing risk among older adults. Biomechanical characterization of movement, particularly using non-linear methods, offers a process-oriented approach capable of detecting subtle changes in motor coordination. The MIND&GAIT programme has previously demonstrated benefits in physical function in frail older individuals; however, its potential to improve motor coordination parameters that underpin fall risk remains insufficiently explored. Objectives: To analyse the impact of the MIND&GAIT program on motor coordination during sit-to-stand (STS) and walking tasks, two daily activities strongly associated with fall risk, using advanced non-linear and biomechanical metrics in institutionalized older adults. Methods: Fourteen institutionalized older adults (82.21 ± 7.14 years) participated. Three-dimensional acceleration and angular velocity were recorded using inertial sensors. Motor variability and predictability were quantified using the multivariate Lyapunov exponent (LyEM) and multivariate incremental entropy (MIE). STS (30 s) and walking-in-place (2 min) tasks were assessed pre- and post-intervention following a three-month, thrice-weekly programme. Results: Although no statistically significant differences emerged (ps > 0.05), trends were observed suggesting increases in LyEM during STS and in both MIE and LyEM during walking were found post-intervention. These exploratory findings may indicate enhanced motor complexity, stability and adaptability, features associated with reduced fall vulnerability. Conclusions: Despite the absence of statistical significance, the biomechanical trends observed suggest improvements in motor coordination patterns relevant to fall risk reduction in institutionalized older adults following the MIND&GAIT programme. These findings highlight the potential of structured exercise-based interventions for promoting safer movement behaviors in frail populations. Full article

Background/Objectives: Treatment disruptions and discontinuations during systemic cancer therapy are common and can compromise treatment delivery and outcomes. Structured exercise and mind–body interventions improve cancer-related symptoms, but their impact on treatment disruptions and discontinuations remains unclear. This secondary analysis of the IMPROVE trial evaluated whether participation in Integrative Medicine at Home (IM@Home), a digital multimodal mind–body and structured exercise program, was associated with differences in treatment discontinuation and related treatment disruption outcomes among patients undergoing systemic therapy. Methods: A total of 127 adults with solid tumors were randomized to IM@Home (n = 64) or enhanced usual care (EUC; n = 63) for 12 weeks. Treatment discontinuation, dose delays, dose reductions, and overall treatment disruptions were compared between arms using chi-square tests and regression models adjusted for cancer type and disease stage. Results: In unadjusted analyses, treatment discontinuation occurred less frequently in the IM@Home group compared with EUC (9.4% vs. 22.6%; p = 0.043), but this association was attenuated after adjustment for cancer type and disease stage (aOR 0.41, 95% CI 0.13–1.17; p = 0.105). The proportion of patients experiencing any treatment disruption, as well as rates of dose delays and dose reductions, did not differ significantly between groups (p = 0.16, p = 0.18, and p = 0.85, respectively). In contrast, IM@Home participants experienced fewer treatment disruption events per patient (adjusted RR 0.58, 95% CI 0.35–0.96; p = 0.036). Conclusions: These exploratory findings suggest that digital structured exercise and mind–body programs may help mitigate treatment interruptions during systemic cancer therapy and should be explored further in an adequately powered prospective trial to confirm these promising findings. Full article

The consolidation of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the journalistic sector, to the point that its ethical dimension is being altered. However, the mission and values of the media in the face of the current emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) have barely been explored. Bearing this in mind, it is important to understand not only how journalists perceive AI, but also to examine the role that the media assign to themselves and the audience’s participation in this context. This research explores the roles defined by a sample of leading media outlets (n = 21) in seven countries in Western Europe and North America: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. To this end, a discursive content analysis is applied to three newspapers (printed or digital) per country. The findings reflect differences between countries and media outlets, within a common trend of prioritizing responsibility as the primary editorial value, followed by truthfulness. We also found scant direct references to AI regulation, alongside the development of participatory interactivity within readership established by the media outlet. Furthermore, greater participation of audiences was observed in publicly funded publications, granting audiences a deliberative role. Full article

This preliminary qualitative study explores how Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) practitioners conceptualise resilience and how these conceptualisations influence the selection of intervention strategies aimed at fostering resilience in clients. Three CBT therapists participated in extensive Free Association interviews, with professional experience ranging from three to fourteen years. Data were generated using the Grid Elaboration Method to elicit detailed accounts and were analysed using Thematic Analysis. Three overarching themes were constructed: Self-Concept as a Core Psychological Resource for Resilience; Positive Adaptation as a Contextual and Relational Process; Integrating Traditional and Third-Wave CBT Approaches in Resilience-Building. Our findings provide a nuanced account of how CBT therapists understand resilience and outline how mindfulness-based and CBT-informed interventions are employed to enhance resilience in clinical practice. The study supports existing research highlighting the definitional ambiguity of resilience and its influence on the selection of therapeutic interventions according to the skills prioritised in therapy. In addition, the findings extend current knowledge by demonstrating a relationship between therapists’ held notions of resilience and their lived experiences and underscore the significance of three psychological resources in resilience-focused work: self-esteem, self-compassion, and self-awareness. Distinct contributions of this paper include a social-psychological driven examination of resilience in CBT, foregrounding therapists’ meaning-making processes and demonstrating how theoretical understandings, rather than protocol adherence alone, shape clinical intervention. Full article

This research is an analysis of the relationship between sustainable urbanization and economic inequality through smart city initiatives in developing countries such as India. Rapid urbanization in developing countries tends to have a detrimental impact on socioeconomic inequalities, and the effort to build smart cities may inadvertently increase exclusion when it is not planned with inclusiveness in mind. To reach this goal, an integrated Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approach using a combination of AHP, TOPSIS, and DEMATEL is adopted to systematically identify, assess, and identify the key criteria that affect the inclusive urban development. This study’s results show that infrastructure, governance, digital accessibility, and social inclusion play a key role in mitigating urban disparities and facilitating sustainable development. In particular, good governance and the availability of equitable digital infrastructure appear to be one of the critical factors in the reduction in inequalities and long-term urban resilience. This research provides policy-oriented insights for policymakers in designing inclusive smart city policies in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as theoretical contributions to urban sustainability research. Full article

Background: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition with increasing prevalence of adult diagnoses in Denmark. ADHD is characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. Conventional treatment is primarily pharmacological. Many adults with ADHD face challenges in maintaining structure in daily life and have an increased risk of developing stress, anxiety, and depression. Winter bathing is gaining popularity and is associated with improvements in mood, sleep quality, and the ability to handle stress. Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore how winter bathing was experienced to affect the mental well-being of five adults diagnosed with ADHD. Methods: A qualitative research design was used, with participant observation and semi-structured interviews with five participants in April 2025. Additional data were obtained through interviews with a psychologist and an ADHD mentor. Empirical data were thematically analysed, followed by theoretical analysis. Results: Six themes were revealed: Mental calmness: peace of mind and relief from racing thoughts; Bodily awareness and connection to the body; Joy: sustained positivity; Nature: essential for motivation and general mind–body calmness; Coping with and managing everyday life better; and Winter bathing as a supplement or alternative to medication for anxiety, depression and ADHD. Conclusions: Five adults with ADHD experienced winter bathing as a meaningful and motivating non-pharmacological intervention that strengthened their mental well-being and quality of life. Winter bathing promoted general mind–body calmness, sustained joy, bodily connection, and mental coping, and was used as a supplement or alternative to medication. Nature emerged as a key motivational factor enhancing presence and well-being. Full article

Shop-floor weld inspection may appear to be a solved problem until a camera is deployed near a galvanized-sheet MIG welding line. The seam reflects light, the texture changes from frame to frame, and the defects of interest are often small and visually subtle. Additionally, the hardware near the line is rarely a data-center GPU. With those constraints in mind, this paper presents YOLO-MIG, a compact detector built on YOLOv10n for weld-seam inspection in practical production conditions. We make three focused changes to the baseline: a C2f-EMSCP backbone block to better preserve weak defect cues with modest parameter growth, a BiFPN neck to keep small-target information alive during feature fusion, and a C2fCIB head to clean up predictions that otherwise get distracted by seam edges and illumination artifacts. On a workshop-collected dataset containing 326 original images, with the training subset expanded through augmentation to 2608 labeled samples in total, YOLO-MIG achieves 98.4% mAP@0.5 and 56.29% mAP@0.5:0.95 on the test set while remaining lightweight (1.83 M parameters, 3.87 MB FP16 weights). Compared with YOLOv10n, the proposed model improves mAP@0.5 by 9.36 points and mAP@0.5:0.95 by 4.89 points, while reducing parameters, GFLOPs, and model size by 43.4%, 19.9%, and 29.9%, respectively. The results suggest that YOLO-MIG is not only accurate but also realistic to deploy at the edge for intelligent weld quality control. Full article

This article explores how Buddhist theories of mind-nature can inform ethical design in artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on AI as a supportive condition for human awakening and self-realization. Drawing on the doctrine of no-self, it argues that AI should not be treated as an autonomous moral subject, but as a contingent mirror of human data, design, and intention. Although present AI does not possess prajñā, it can serve as a mindfulness aid by making patterns of thought, emotion, and desire more visible. Building on the Five Precepts and Ten Wholesome Deeds, the paper proposes design and oversight principles oriented toward non-harm, truthful communication, fairness, and the reduction of greed, hatred, and delusion in digital environments. It concludes that AI ethics is inseparable from the human moral agency, and that cultivating a “digital Pure Land” depends on the moral choices of decision-makers, engineers, policy-makers, and users, thereby linking technical governance to spiritual practice. Full article

Valorisation of rabbit biodiversity plays a significant role in enhancing production by preserving genetic diversity, which is crucial for maintaining adaptability and resilience in rabbit populations, thereby supporting sustainable development and conservation efforts. With this in mind, the present research aimed at comparing live performance, carcass traits, meat quality and muscle fibre characteristics of different rabbit genotypes. Forty-five weaned rabbits (15 commercial hybrids—C; 15 Burgundy Fawn crosses—BF; 15 Vienna Blue crosses—VB) were farmed until slaughter (n = 15 replicated cages/rabbit genotype). The slaughter age was scheduled when all genotypes reached the same live weight (approx. 2800 g). After slaughtering and carcass dissection, the hind legs and longissimus lumborum muscles were excised and subjected to different evaluations. Hind legs were exploited for physicochemical analyses, while longissimus lumborum muscles were used for physical evaluations and for fibre typing, morphometric traits and enzymatic activity. As a direct response to the experimental design, results highlighted that the three genotypes exhibited different slaughter ages. Commercial hybrids displayed the fastest growth cycle, but they showed an efficiency comparable to that of VB crosses (p > 0.05). Genotypes displayed some differences in carcass characteristics, namely perirenal fat (p < 0.01) and hind leg weight (p < 0.05). The physical characteristics of meat were overall similar in the three genotypes, except for biceps femoris L*, which showed the highest value in the BF group. Meat chemical composition differed depending on the genotype, with BF rabbits having the highest ether extract (p < 0.05) content. The three genotypes displayed an overall similar fatty acid profile with some minor differences: VB rabbits had the highest C18:2 n-6 proportion (p < 0.01) and thus n-6/n-3 (p < 0.05). Cholesterol content was the highest in C rabbits (p < 0.05). Overall, the present research highlighted that BF and VB genotypes provided interesting potentialities which would be further valorised in rural farming conditions, given their higher resilience and adaptability than commercial hybrids. Full article

Background: Chronic pain is a prevalent and disabling condition that affects physical health but also cognitive domains. Executive functions, including inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, essentials for self-regulation, treatment adherence, and coping with symptoms, are particularly compromised. Physiotherapy interventions, traditionally aimed at physical outcomes, may also influence executive functions; however, their impact remains unclear. Objective: This review aimed to synthesize current evidence regarding the effects of physiotherapy-related interventions on executive function in adults with chronic pain. Methods: The review followed the Cochrane Handbook and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) guidelines, and the protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42024611800). A comprehensive search was performed. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) included adults with chronic pain (≥3 months) whose executive function outcomes were evaluated after physiotherapy-based interventions. Results: Out of 12,391 records, 10 randomized controlled trials were included. Populations primarily had fibromyalgia, chronic low back pain, and chronic musculoskeletal pain. Interventions encompassed transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), neurofeedback, structured exercise, and multimodal physical-cognitive-mindfulness training. Intervention durations ranged from one session to 16 weeks. Executive function was assessed with diverse neuropsychological tests. tDCS improved attention, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. Exercise interventions showed benefits in working memory and inhibitory control. Conclusions: Preliminary evidence suggests that physiotherapy interventions, particularly anodal tDCS and structured exercise, may improve executive functions in individuals with chronic pain. Future trials should incorporate long-term follow-up. Integrating cognitive targets into physiotherapy may enhance the multidimensional management of chronic pain. Full article

Background/Objective: Mind–body programs teaching mindfulness-based techniques have benefits for incarcerated people, as do programs in which individuals teach yoga to their incarcerated peers. However, there are no studies of comprehensive programs that combine a variety of self-care techniques with group support and enable people in prison to enhance their own well-being and then share what they have learned with their peers. This study evaluated the effects of such a training program in the United States. Methods: Thirty-eight incarcerated men and women began the 8-day mind–body medicine training and 31 completed the training. Mind–body techniques taught included soft belly breathing, meditation, autogenics and biofeedback, guided imagery, mindful eating, self-expression through drawings and writing, and genograms. Outcomes included resilience, depression, anxiety, stress, coping self-efficacy, optimism, meaning in life, and purpose in life. Outcomes were measured before and after the training, and at a 6-month follow-up. Results: There were significant improvements in resilience, depression, anxiety, stress, coping self-efficacy, optimism, the presence of meaning in life, and purpose in life after the training. All of these improvements were maintained at follow-up. The most frequently practiced skills both after the training and at follow-up were soft belly breathing, meditation, and mindful eating. Conclusions: The training provided participants with skills that had a lasting positive benefit on numerous aspects of their own well-being and trained them to teach the skills to their incarcerated peers. The results of this uncontrolled study suggest that the mind–body medicine training program may be helpful to incarcerated people in other prison systems. Full article

Background/Objectives: Lucid dreaming—dreaming with the awareness that one is dreaming—has been explored from many perspectives, including those of cognitive neuroscience and various ancient cultural traditions. Lucid dreaming appears within the Tibetan-Buddhist literature together with dream yoga, a set of contemplative practices aimed at cultivating lucidity during dreams along with other qualities such as visual imagination, somatic awareness, and cognitive flexibility. These practices include deity visualization, which is the practice of bringing to mind a detailed image of a being whose qualities the practitioner wishes to cultivate. We examined whether it is possible to induce a lucid dream of Chenrezig, the ultimate embodiment of compassion in a Tibetan-Buddhist context. Methods: Five participants slept in the sleep laboratory for 7 overnight sessions with polysomnographic recording and auditory reminders to visualize Chenrezig during REM sleep. Results: Lucid dreams were reported by two participants. A frequent lucid dreamer with no prior Tibetan-Buddhist training experienced a lucid dream that included a visualization of Chenrezig following auditory cueing during REM sleep. A monastic participant with no prior history of lucid dreaming reported their first-ever lucid dream on the night following their laboratory session. Conclusions: This exploratory study illustrates, via collaborative research including monastic scholars trained in neuroscience, that dream content can be intentionally shaped using an approach that integrates contemplative visualization practices with modern techniques of dream engineering. Full article

Learning engagement is essential in vocational education that can help in students’ development and equip them academically and professionally. The present study aimed to elucidate the dynamic interplay of perceived social support and engagement in learning among Chinese vocational students, examining a chain of mediation of emotional resilience and mindfulness and the moderating role of depression. A questionnaire was administered to 1545 Chinese vocational students. The evidence from this study suggested that (1) the perceived social support had a significant positive direct effect on learning engagement; (2) emotional resilience and mindfulness are chain mediators linking perceived social support to learning engagement; and (3) there was a significant moderating effect of depression on the mindfulness-to-engagement pathway. In particular, the facilitative effects of mindfulness on engagement in learning in cases of increased depression levels were comparably undermined. These results are useful in explaining the psychological processes underlying the effects of perceived social support on learning engagement among students in Chinese vocational colleges. Beyond the theoretical value, the evidence helps vocational educators develop more precise interventions for both learning support and mental well-being. Full article

Endometriosis and PCOS are both leading causes of female infertility, each affecting approximately 10% of reproductive-aged women worldwide. Both conditions markedly impair quality of life by affecting physical health, emotional well-being, mental health, and social functioning, and they impose a substantial economic burden through surgical treatments, assisted reproductive technologies, and work absenteeism. Insulin resistance (IR) plays a key role in the pathogenesis of both disorders by promoting chronic low-grade inflammation and disrupting sex hormone homeostasis. Consequently, interventions targeting metabolic dysfunction and inflammatory processes may improve clinical outcomes. In this context, the kynurenine system—the primary metabolic pathway of tryptophan degradation—has emerged as a potential mechanistic link between inflammation, metabolic disturbances, and reproductive disorders. Chronic inflammation and psychological stress can enhance kynurenine pathway activation, leading to immune dysregulation, oxidative stress, altered neuroendocrine signaling, and impaired ovarian function. Dysregulated kynurenine metabolism has also been associated with IR and mood disturbances, which are common features of endometriosis and PCOS. Physical activity (PA) is widely recognized for its anti-inflammatory, metabolic, and stress-reducing effects. Emerging evidence suggests that PA may also modulate the kynurenine system by shifting tryptophan metabolism toward neuroprotective pathways. Various exercise modalities—including aerobic, resistance, and mind–body exercises—have shown beneficial effects; however, well-designed long-term studies are still needed. The aim of this review is to synthesize and critically evaluate the published literature on the effects of PA on IR, inflammation, kynurenine metabolism, and reproductive health in women with endometriosis and PCOS. Full article

Background: Previous research has found that mindfulness-based techniques are beneficial for reducing stress in heavy-drinking individuals. However, the underlying neurobiology of these stress-reducing effects are unclear. Moreover, much of the research examining neurobiological correlates of mindfulness has used static functional connectivity, suggesting that brain activity goes unchanged for the entire length of an MRI scan. Methods: In the current study, we used a state-based dynamic functional connectivity model to examine brain states during either a 10 min mindfulness session or resting control that followed an individually tailored stress imagery task. Using a hidden semi-Markov model (HSMM), six brain states and the associated dynamics of state traversal were estimated for a population of moderate-to-heavy drinkers (N = 32). We modeled the 36 Schaefer atlas regions spanning the salience and default mode networks, and the HSMM characterized each state by its distinct multivariate pattern of activity and covariance structure. Group differences in dwell times, transition behavior, and overall state dynamics were evaluated using permutation tests and mixed-effects models. Results: Participants that experienced the mindfulness session had more transitions and longer time spent in states in which the salience network was more active. Participants assigned to the control group had more transitions and increased time spent in states in which nodes of the default mode network were more active. Moreover, for control participants, increased occupancy time to SN-dominant states was associated with lower perceived stress. Conclusions: Using HSMM provided a unique insight into network connectivity during mindful states; we believe it offers a novel approach to testing and optimizing mindful-based therapies. Full article