Passive Time Research Articles

Optimization of STAR-RIS-Assisted Hybrid NOMA mmWave Communication

Simultaneously reflecting and transmitting reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (STAR-RIS) has recently emerged out as prominent technology that exploits the transmissive property of RIS to mitigate the half-space coverage limitation of conventional RIS operating on millimeter-wave (mmWave). In this paper, we study a downlink STAR-RIS-based multi-user multiple-input single-output (MU-MISO) mmWave hybrid non-orthogonal multiple access (H-NOMA) wireless network, where a sum-rate maximization problem has been formulated. The design of active and passive beamforming vectors, time and power allocation for H-NOMA is a highly coupled non-convex problem. To handle the problem, we propose an optimization framework based on alternating optimization (AO) that iteratively solves active and passive beamforming sub-problems. Channel correlations and channel strength-based techniques have been proposed for a specific case of two-user optimal clustering and decoding order assignment, respectively, for which analytical solutions to joint power and time allocation for H-NOMA have also been derived. Simulation results show that: 1) the proposed framework leveraging H-NOMA outperforms conventional OMA and NOMA to maximize the achievable sum-rate; 2) using the proposed framework, the supported number of clusters for the given design constraints can be increased considerably; 3) through STAR-RIS, the number of elements can be significantly reduced as compared to conventional RIS to ensure a similar quality-of-service (QoS).

Passive and social screen time in children with autism and in association with obesity.

Screen time has been identified as a risk factor for childhood obesity, but the media landscape has evolved rapidly. Children with autism tend to be heavy users of screens and have an elevated prevalence of obesity. We know little about screen use patterns among children with autism vs. typically developing (TD) peers and in association with obesity. Baseline data from 10,842 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognition Development Study was used to characterize time spent with child-reported passive screen use (television/movies/watching videos), playing video games, and using social media. Duration of screen time by autism status and gender was summarized as mean time per day; obesity was defined using CDC/WHO criteria. A propensity score analysis was used to create a matched dataset for analysis. Overall, 1.7% of children were was identified as having autism. Significant mean differences were observed by autism status and gender for both passive viewing and playing video games. Compared to TD children, boys with autism spent more time (2.9 vs. 2.3 h, p < 0.001) watching TV, movies or videos, as did girls (3.0 vs. 2.0 h, p = 0.002). Compared to TD peers, boys with autism reported more video game time (102.7 vs. 77.5 min, p = 0.001), as did girls with autism (64.4 vs. 37.9 min, p = 0.03); girls with autism also spent more time on social media sites or video chat (45.5 vs. 21.9 min, p = 0.04). Overall, obesity prevalence increased with increasing screen time duration, significantly for passive screen time (p-value = 0.002) and texting (p-value = 0.02). Associations between obesity and screen time duration did not differ by autism status. Children with autism spend more time playing video games and on passive and social screen activities than their TD peers, with some variations by gender. High rates of social media use among girls with autism and multiplayer video game use among both boys and girls with autism may challenge the notion that the high levels of screen time reflect social isolation in the group. Given potential positive aspects of screen time in children with autism movement to focus on content and context is appropriate.

Modulation Recognition Method for Underwater Acoustic Communication Signals Based on Passive Time Reversal-Autoencoder with the Synchronous Signals.

In the process of the modulation recognition of underwater acoustic communication signals, the multipath effect seriously interferes with the signal characteristics, reducing modulation recognition accuracy. The existing methods passively improve the accuracy from the perspective of selecting appropriate signal features, lacking specialized preprocessing for suppressing multipath effects. So, the accuracy improvement of the designed modulation recognition models is limited, and the adaptability to environmental changes is poor. The method proposed in this paper actively utilizes common synchronous signals in underwater acoustic communication as detection signals to achieve passive time reversal without external signals and designs a passive time reversal-autoencoder to suppress multipath effects, enhance signals' features, and improve modulation recognition accuracy and environmental adaptability. Firstly, synchronous signals are identified and estimated. Subsequently, a passive time reversal-autoencoder is designed to enhance power spectrum and square spectrum features. Finally, a modulation classification is performed using a convolutional neural network. The model is trained in simulation channels generated by Bellhop and tested in actual channels which are different from the training period. The average recognition accuracy of the six modulated signals is improved by 10% compared to existing passive modulation recognition methods, indicating good environmental adaptability as well.

COVID-19-related anxiety and the role of social media among Canadian youth.

Current literature indicates that safety measures, including lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, severely disrupted our lifestyle, marked by increased screen time. The increased screen time is mostly associated with exacerbated physical and mental wellbeing. However, the studies that examine the relationship between specific types of screen time and COVID-19-related anxiety among youth are limited. We examined the usage of passive watching, social media, video games, and educational screen time and COVID-19-related anxiety at the 5-time points (Early-Spring 2021, Late-Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, and Spring 2022) among youth in Southern Ontario, Canada (N = 117, mean age = 16.82, male = 22%, non-White = 21%) and investigated the role of 4 types of screen time in COVID-19 related anxiety. COVID-related anxiety was measured using the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS). Descriptive statistics examined the binary relationships between demographic factors, screen time, and COVID-related anxiety. Also, partially adjusted and fully adjusted binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between the types of screen time and COVID-19-related anxiety. During the late Spring of 2021, when the provincial safety restrictions were most stringent, screen time was the highest among the 5 data collection time points. Further, adolescents experienced the highest COVID-19-related anxiety during this period. On the other hand, young adults experienced the highest COVID-19-related anxiety during Spring 2022. In a partially adjusted model (accounting for other types of screen time), engaging in 1-5 h per day on social media increased the likelihood of experiencing COVID-19-related anxiety compared to those who spend less than 1 h per day (OR = 3.50, 95%CI = 1.14-10.72, p < 0.05). Other types of screen time was not significantly associated with COVID-19-related anxiety. In a fully adjusted model (accounting for age, sex and ethnicity besides four types on screen time), 1-5 h per day of social media remained significantly associated with COVID-19-related anxiety (OR = 4.08, 95%CI = 1.22-13.62, p < 0.05). Our findings suggest that COVID-19-related anxiety is associated with youth engagement in social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinicians, parents, and educators should work collaboratively to provide developmentally appropriate approaches to reduce the negative social media impact on COVID-19-related anxiety and promote/foster resiliency in our community during the recovery period.

Cancer survival (SURVCANCER BRAZIL): Analysis of 132,621 cases from 19 hospital-based registries in southernmost Brazilian state comparing public and private insurance.

6632 Background: Brazilian data for cancer survival are scarce. Therefore, we aimed to describe the 5-year overall survival (OS) of individuals with public and private insurance from Rio Grande do Sul/RS (Brazil) diagnosed with the 17 most incident tumors in the country. Methods: Data from 19 of the 27 hospital-based cancer registries from RS were integrated with the Brazilian Information System data. Individuals with confirmed cancer diagnoses between 2005-2017 were included. Passive follow-up time was calculated as the difference between diagnosis and death (from any cause) or censure date. Survival was estimated by Kaplan-Meier method. Comparison between the survival of individuals assisted by public or private insurance was evaluated using hazard ratios (HR) estimated by multivariate Frailty and Cox regression models with adjustments for age, sex, and economic status. Results: 5-year OS was higher for patients with private health insurance for 13 of the 17 cancers studied. Conclusions: The survival trends among cancer patients assisted by public and private health insurance systems reveal vast differences that may be likely attributable to differences in access to early diagnosis and optimum treatment. We hope our results will help government officials understand that ongoing cancer survival surveillance is an indispensable source of information and a key policy tool for public health decisions. [Table: see text]

Parents’ Access to Flexible Work Arrangements and Time in Active Caregiving Activities

Greater access to flexible work arrangements is considered a solution to many working parents’ challenges balancing the demands of work and family, yet it remains unclear whether such arrangements are associated with parents’ time in the active caregiving activities linked to children’s development and parents’ notions of quality time. We examine this question using data from the American Time Use Survey and Leave and Job Flexibilities Module (2017–2018) ( n = 1,874 mothers, n = 1,756 fathers) and linear regression and inverse probability weighting techniques. Results indicate that access to flextime is associated with more active caregiving time for mothers but not fathers. They also provide suggestive evidence that flexplace is associated with more active caregiving time for mothers and fathers and strong evidence that it is associated with more passive caregiving time for both parents. The findings highlight the importance of expanding parents’ access to flexible work options, and the limits of doing so.

Associations of Passive and Mentally Active Screen Time With Perceived School Performance of 197,439 Adolescents Across 38 Countries.

To examine the associations of passive (ie, television) and active (ie, electronic games, computer use) screen time (ST) with perceived school performance of adolescents across gender. Data were from the 2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey conducted across 38 European countries and Canada. Perceived school performance was assessed using an item and dichotomized as high (good/very good) versus the remainder (average/below-average as reference). Participants reported hours per day of time spent watching television, playing electronic games, and using a computer in their free time. Multilevel logistic regression was used to estimate the associations. A total of 197,439 adolescents (average age 13.6 [standard deviation 1.63] years; 51% girls) were analyzed. Multivariable modeling showed that engaging in >2 h/d of ST was progressively and adversely associated with high performance in both boys and girls. Adolescents reporting >4 h/d of television time (≤1 h/d as reference) had 32% lower odds in boys (odds ratio [OR] 0.68; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.65-0.71) and 39% lower odds in girls (OR 0.61; 95% CI, 0.58-0.65) of reporting high performance. Playing electronic games for >4 h/d was associated with high performance with odds being 38% lower in boys (OR 0.62; 95% CI, 0.59-0.66) and 45% lower in girls (OR 0.55; 95% CI, 0.52-0.57). Sex differences in the estimates were mixed. High screen use, whether active or passive, was adversely associated with perceived high school performance, with association estimates being slightly stronger in girls than boys, and for mentally active than passive screen use. Discouraging high levels of screen use of any type could be beneficial to school performance.

Comparison of external load indicators between official matches and sport-specific training in semi-professional soccer players: focus on intensity and strength.

The aim of this study was to investigate any differences in External Load indicators (ELi) between Official Matches (OM) and sport-specific tasks in semi-professional soccer players. 1932 observations among 28 semi-professional soccer players (FC Palermo, Italy, age: 25±6 years, height: 183±6 cm, weight: 75.2±7 kg) were collected through GPS devices (Qstarz BT-Q1000EX, 10 Hz) and the related software (LaGalaColli V: 8.6.4.3) during the season 2019-2020. Participants were monitored during OM, Friendly Matches (FM), Small Sided Games (SSG), and Match-Based Exercises (MBE), considering the percentage of intense accelerations (%int acc), percentage of intense decelerations (%int dec), and Passive Recovery time /min (PrT/m) as Eli. We detected the highest mean value for PrT/m in OM and the lowest in MBE and SSG (18.36±4.38 and 13.4±5.26 and 13.4±4.29 (s/min), respectively). The lowest mean values of %int acc and %int dec were found in OM and the highest in SSG (8.64±1.52 vs 13.02±3.14 and 9.25±1.56 vs 15.68±3.14, for %int acc and %int dec, respectively). Significant differences between the four tasks for all the ELi considered (p<0.001). The posthoc pairwise comparisons revealed significant differences for all the ELi between all tasks (p<0.001) except for the %int acc between MBE vs FM (p=0.003). No significant difference was found in PrT/m between MBE vs FM and SSG vs FM. ELi are in accordance with the performance model by achieving better values in training than OM, suggesting the fundamental role of GPS for monitoring external load in soccer.

External load profile during different sport-specific activities in semi-professional soccer players

BackgroundGlobal Positioning System (GPS) devices are widely used in soccer for monitoring external load (EL) indicators with the aim of maximizing sports performance.The aim of this study was to investigate the EL indicators differences in players of different playing positions (i.e., central backs, external strikers, fullbacks, midfielders, strikers, wide midfielder) between and within different sport-specific tasks and official matches.Methods1932 observations from 28 semi-professional soccer players (age: 25 ± 6 years, height: 183 ± 6 cm, weight: 75.2 ± 7 kg) were collected through GPS devices (Qstarz BT-Q1000EX, 10 Hz) during the season 2019–2020. Participants were monitored during Official Match (OM), Friendly Matches (FM), Small Sided Games (SSG), and Match-Based Exercises (MBE). Metabolic (i.e., metabolic power, percentage of metabolic power > 35w, number of intense actions per minute, distance per minute, passive recovery time per minute) and neuromuscular indicators (i.e., percentage of intense accelerations, percentage of intense decelerations, change of direction per min > 30°) were recorded during each task.ResultsStatistically significant differences were detected in EL indicators between playing positions within each task and between tasks. In particular, results from the two-way ANOVA tests showed significant interaction, but with small effect size, in all the EL indicators between playing positions for each task and within tasks. Moreover, statistical differences, but with small effect size, between playing positions were detected in each task and for each EL indicator. Finally, the strongest statistical differences (with large effect size) were detected between tasks for each EL indicator. Details of the Tukey post-hoc analysis reporting the pairwise comparisons within and between tasks with playing positions are also provided.ConclusionIn semi-professional soccer players, different metabolic and neuromuscular performance were detected in different playing position between and within different tasks and official matches. Coaches should consider the different physical responses related to different physical tasks and playing position to design the most appropriate training program.

Connecting technologies and nature: Impact and opportunities for digital media use in the context of at-home family environmental learning

Individuals increasingly rely on digital media technologies to learn about and access new information. Yet, despite the dramatic rise in electronic media use among youth and adults, our understanding of its impact, opportunities, and challenges within environmental education remains limited, especially in home contexts. Using a learning ecology framework, we conducted a two-week diary study with 58 diverse adult caretakers, asking them to engage in environmental learning moments with their children. Drawing on qualitative reports of those moments, we found that families relied heavily on digital technologies to support their child’s environmental learning, frequently to supplement other activities or spark rich discussions. Findings illustrate how the digitalization of environmental education can extend beyond passive screen time. Overall, this study reveals the critical role of family conversations and shared digital technologies in supporting environmental learning.

Feeding, television, and sleep behaviors at one year of age in a diverse sample

BackgroundHealthy lifestyle behaviors that can prevent adverse health outcomes, including obesity, are formed in early childhood. This study describes feeding, television, and sleep behaviors among one-year-old infants and examines differences by sociodemographic factors. MethodsCaregivers of one-year-olds presenting for well care at two clinics, control sites for the Greenlight Study, were queried about feeding, television time, and sleep. Adjusted associations between sociodemographic factors and behaviors were performed by modified Poisson (binary), multinomial logistic (multi-category), or linear (continuous) regression models. ResultsOf 235 one-year-olds enrolled, 81% had Medicaid, and 45% were Hispanic, 36% non-Hispanic Black, 19% non-Hispanic White. Common behaviors included 20% exclusive bottle use, 32% put to bed with bottle, mean daily juice intake of 4.1 ± 4.6 ounces, and active television time 45 ± 73 min. In adjusted analyses compared to Hispanic caregivers, non-Hispanic Black caregivers were less likely to report exclusive bottle use (odds ratio: 0.11, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.03–0.39), reported 2.4 ounces more juice (95% CI 1.0–3.9), 124 min more passive television time (95% CI 60–188), and 37 min more active television time (95% CI 10–64). Increased caregiver education and higher income were associated with 0.4 (95% CI 0.13–0.66) and 0.3 (95% CI 0.06–0.55) more servings of fruits and vegetables per day, respectively. ConclusionIn a diverse sample of one-year-olds, caregivers reported few protective behaviors that reduce the risk for adverse health outcomes including obesity. Differences in behavior by race/ethnicity, income, and education can inform future interventions and policies. Future interventions should strive to create culturally effective messaging to address common adverse health behaviors.

Identification of Typical Ecosystem Types by Integrating Active and Passive Time Series Data of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, China.

The identification of ecosystem types is important in ecological environmental assessment. However, due to cloud and rain and complex land cover characteristics, commonly used ecosystem identification methods have always lacked accuracy in subtropical urban agglomerations. In this study, China's Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) was taken as a study area, and the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data were used as the fusion of active and passive remote sensing data with time series data to distinguish typical ecosystem types in subtropical urban agglomerations. Our results showed the following: (1) The importance of different features varies widely in different types of ecosystems. For grassland and arable land, two specific texture features (VV_dvar and VH_diss) are most important; in forest and mangrove areas, synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data for the months of October and September are most important. (2) The use of active time series remote sensing data can significantly improve the classification accuracy by 3.33%, while passive time series remote sensing data improves by 4.76%. When they are integrated, accuracy is further improved, reaching a level of 84.29%. (3) Time series passive data (NDVI) serve best to distinguish grassland from arable land, while time series active data (SAR data) are best able to distinguish mangrove from forest. The integration of active and passive time series data also improves precision in distinguishing vegetation ecosystem types, such as forest, mangrove, arable land, and, especially, grassland, where the accuracy increased by 21.88%. By obtaining real-time and more accurate land cover type change information, this study could better serve regional change detection and ecosystem service function assessment at different scales, thereby supporting decision makers in urban agglomerations.

Bluetooth, Floor-Plan, and Microelectromechanical Systems-Assisted Wide-Area Audio Indoor Localization System: Apply to Smartphones

During the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in the audio-based indoor localization approach, which has benefited from the high precision, high privacy, and high security of the passive time difference of arrival positioning. However, the limited bandwidth and complexity in real-time ID encoding and decoding make it difficult to achieve wide-area (>1500 m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> ) localization in off-the-shelf smartphones. Plenty of previous work applied to a single region localization only with a small range. In this article, a hybrid acoustic signal transmission architecture based on frequency division multiple access, time division multiple access, and space division multiple access is perfected to cover the acoustic signal to a wider range. With the prior information of the Bluetooth and floor-plan, smartphones estimate which cell themselves are located in accurately. An enhanced particle filter algorithm, along with the microelectromechanical systems-based pedestrian dead reckoning and the floor-plan restraint, was proposed to make the smartphones tracking smarter and more robust. The proposed prototype system provided submeter-level localization accuracy and stable 1-Hz update rate in several typical wide indoor environments with less infrastructure, which demonstrates some values of reference and application owing to the work of this article.

Associations between adolescent sleep difficulties and active versus passive screen time across 38 countries

BackgroundHigh screen use has been adversely linked with mental wellbeing; however, little is known about how active versus passive screen time are associated with sleep-onset difficulties among adolescents. MethodsWe analysed data from 38 European and North American countries that participated in the 2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. Difficulties in falling sleep were assessed using a self-reported item with a 5-point Likert scale, and then dichotomised. Participants reported h/day of discretional time spent watching television, electronic gaming, and computer use. ResultsOf the 195,668 participants (Mage 13.59 [1.62] years; 51 % girls), about 25 % of girls reported sleep-onset difficulties, while the rate was 18 % in boys. Adolescents who played electronic games >4 h/day (≤1 h/day as reference) had 30 % higher odds in boys (OR 1.30; 95 % CI: 1.23–1.38) and 38 % higher odds in girls (OR 1.38; 95 % CI: 1.31–1.45) of reporting sleep difficulties. High computer use (>4 h/day) increased the odds of sleep difficulties by 41 % in boys (OR 1.41, 95 % CI: 1.33–1.49) and 61 % in girls (OR 1.61, 95 % CI: 1.53–1.69). Similarly, high television time (>4 h/day) had increased the odds of sleep difficulties by 15 % in boys (OR 1.15, 95 % CI: 1.08–1.22) and 19 % in girls (OR 1.19, 95 % CI: 1.12–1.25). LimitationsCross-sectional analyses cannot establish causality of the associations. ConclusionsHigher levels of recreational screen use of any type were associated with sleep-onset difficulties among adolescents with adverse effects being more prevalent in active than passive screen time. Prospective research with objective measures is warranted to understand causality of these relationships.

Associations between Sedentary Time and Sedentary Patterns and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Chinese Children and Adolescents.

The increase in sedentary behavior in children and adolescents has become a worldwide public health problem. This study aimed to explore the associations between sedentary time (ST) and sedentary patterns (SP) and the cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) of Chinese children and adolescents. The CRF of 535 participants was determined using a 20-m shuttle run test. ST and SP were measured with accelerometers. Questionnaires were used to investigate the different types of ST. Multiple linear regression models were used to test the associations between ST and SP and CRF. In this study, only some ST and SP indicators were found to be significantly associated with CRF in girls. With each additional 10 min of screen time or passive traffic time, VO2max decreases by 0.06 mL/kg/min (B = −0.006, 95% CI: −0.010~−0.001) and 0.31 mL/kg/min (B = −0.031, 95% CI: −0.061~−0.002), respectively, with MVPA control. With each additional 10 min of breaks in ST or duration of breaks in ST, VO2max increases by 0.41 mL/kg/min (B = 0.041, 95% CI: 0.007~0.076) and 0.21 mL/kg/min (B = 0.021, 95% CI: 0.007~0.035), respectively, with control total ST. Breaks in ST (B = 0.075, 95% CI: 0.027~0.123) and the duration of breaks in ST (B = 0.021, 95% CI: 0.012~0.146) were positively correlated with CRF when controlling for LPA, but these associations were not significant when controlling for MVPA (B = 0.003, 95% CI: −0.042~0.048; B = 0.001, 95% CI: −0.024~0.025). The total ST of children and adolescents was found to not be correlated with CRF, but when ST was divided into different types, the screen time and passive traffic time of girls were negatively correlated with CRF. More breaks in ST and the duration of breaks in ST were positively associated with higher CRF in girls. MVPA performed during breaks in ST may be the key factor affecting CRF. Schools and public health departments should take all feasible means to actively intervene with CRF in children and adolescents.

In silico and in vivo Biological Evaluation of Chenopodium quinoa on Scopolamine Induced Memory Impairment in Mice

Aims: The present research is focused on screening in vivo and insilico anti- amnesic activity of the ethanolic extract of seeds of Chenopodium quinoa. To establish the exact the mechanism of action, the phytochemical constituents of the extract were subjected to in silico studies using schrodinger and pass software.&#x0D; Methodology: The powdered material of seeds of Chenopodium quinoa were dried and extracted with ethanol by soxhlation technique. In vivo evaluation of anti- amnesic activity of the ethanolic extract of seeds of Chenopodium quinoa was carried using Transfer latency by Elevated plus maze, Novel object recognition test and Passive avoidance time by cook’s pole climbing apparatus. The major phytoconstituents were subjected to molecular docking using PDB ID: 1EVE, 6N33, 2FV5 and 6W2X. Prediction studies for biological activities, adverse effects, direct and possible targets and using PASS (Predictions of activity spectra for substances) online software.&#x0D; Results: The extract was administered at doses (200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg) showed significant anti- amnesic activity. The prolongation of the transfer latency time (secs) in the elevated plus-maze test is as an indicator for impairment of learning and memory. In Novel objective recognition test the time of memorizing the familiar object with that of the novel object and time taken for each animal to recognize the novel object compare to familiar object is noted. The results revealed that Quercetin, Beta sitosterol, Kaempferol, Dimethyl sulphide, Myristic acid, Palmitic acid, Stigmasterol, Lenolenic acid, Pentadecanoic acid, Tocopherols, Arachidonic acid and standard Donepezil have got highest glide scores against PDB ID: 1EVE, 6N33, 2FV5 and 6W2X. The ADME results revealed the higher oral bioavailability. The major phytoconstituents were subjected to prediction studies for biological activities, adverse effects, direct and possible targets and using PASS (Predictions of activity spectra for substances) online software.&#x0D; Conclusion: From in vivo and in silico results it is evident that ethanolic extract seeds of Chenopodium quinoa possessed significant anti- amnesic activity.

Development of Neuronal Excitability of the Bushy Cells in Anteroventral Cochlear Nucleus of Rats

The ultrafast and precise single-onset action potential (AP) of the bushy cells (BCs) in the anteroventral cochlear nucleus (AVCN) plays an important role in precise processing of temporal auditory information for localizing sound sources and communication cues. The specialized properties of high conductance of the low-voltage-activated potassium (K⁺_LVA) channel contribute to generate ultrafast and precise single-onset APs in BCs. However, the developmental changes of K⁺_LVA distribution and their contributions to shape neuronal excitability of BCs remain unclear. Therefore, we investigated the developmental changes in neuronal excitability of BCs and K⁺_LVA distribution at different developmental periods. Using electrophysiological recording, we first characterized the firing pattern of BCs in response to a sequence of current injections at different developmental periods. The expression of the K⁺_LVA subunit Kv1.1 in AVCN was examined with Western blot. The results indicated that BCs showed single-onset AP firing patterns and paused multiple APs firing patterns at the postnatal time of day 7 (P7) and were then refined into single-onset firing patterns at P14 and P21. With development, the active membrane properties, including latency and half-width of AP, and passive membrane properties, including capacitance, input resistance, and time constant, were significantly decreased. Furthermore, the refinement of firing patterns in BCs was correlated with the upregulation of the Kv1.1 channel in AVCN. In summary, the present study indicated that BCs optimize precise and single-onset firing with development, possibly driven by the changes in membrane properties and upregulation of Kv1.1 in AVCN.

The impact of different types of screen time on school-aged children’s quality of life and participation

Introduction This study investigated the impact of different types of screen time on quality of life and participation in school-aged children. Method Twenty-nine typically developing children (mean age: 9.34 [Formula: see text] 1.37, range: 8–14 years) and 20 of their parents completed the Children Screen Time Use Report, the KIDSCREEN-52 and the Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth. Spearman rho correlations and linear regressions with bootstrapping were used to assess associations between screen time, health-related quality of life and activity participation. Results Regression analysis identified that passive screen time was a significant predictor of various KIDSCREEN-52 domains: physical wellbeing ( b = −0.445, SE B = 0.008, p = .016), autonomy ( b = −0.445, SE B = 0.011, p = .016) and social acceptance ( b = 0.447, SE B = 0.007, p = .048). Educational, social and passive screen time were positively correlated with increased participation in home, community and school activities, respectively. Conclusion Findings suggest that passive screen time was mostly predictive of lower quality of life levels. However, passive, educational and social screen time positively correlate with participation in typically developing school-aged children. These findings assist occupational therapists to understand the impact of screen time on health and participation in children.

Physical activity, screen time and the incidence of neck and shoulder pain in school-aged children

This study investigated the associations of accelerometer-measured physical activity, sedentary time and screen time with the incidence of neck and shoulder pain in school-aged children over a two-year follow-up. Children (aged 10–15) were measured at baseline 2013 (T0) (n = 970) and at follow-ups 2014 (T1) and 2015 (T2). Neck and shoulder pain frequency and screen time were determined with a web-based questionnaire. Daytime moderate to vigorous physical activity and sedentary time were measured with an accelerometer. Logistic regression was applied, and the results were adjusted for age, gender, body mass index and bedtime. Accelerometer-measured physical activity or sedentary time at baseline were not associated with the incidence of neck and shoulder pain at the two-year follow-up. Associations of neck and shoulder pain incidence with overall screen time (p = 0.020), and especially with passive gaming time (p = 0.036) and social media time (p = 0.023) were found at the first but not the second follow-up. The neck and shoulder pain incidence associated with overall screen time, passive gaming time and social media time at the first follow-up. The importance of limiting screen time, should be explored in order to find new approaches in preventing neck and shoulder pain in school-aged children.

Associations between social media use and cognitive abilities: Results from a large-scale study of adolescents

In adolescence, smartphone use in general and social media use in particular has often been associated with negative effects, such as higher anxiety levels and body dissatisfaction. Other outcomes – such as fundamental cognitive abilities and skills (e.g., intelligence, information processing, spatial perception) – have rarely been the focus of research. Here, we analysed data from a large sample of adolescents (12–16 years; N > 12,000) who performed a series of psychometric tests ranging from intelligence, spatial perception, and information processing, to practical numeracy, and compared their test results with their social media usage (average active and passive time per day, problematic social media use). We additionally applied a random-forest model approach, useful for designs with many predictors and expected small effect sizes. Almost all associations did not outperform known age- and sex-differences on social media use; that is, effect sizes were small-to-tiny and had low importance in the random-forest analyses compared to dominant demographic effects. Negative effects of social media use may have been overstated in past research, at least in samples with adolescents.