Purpose:
To evaluate the presence of gamification in popular mobile applications and whether principles from behavioral economics were incorporated in the design.
Design:
The top 50 ranked free ...health and fitness applications were downloaded. Gamification elements were predetermined through literature review, and applications were evaluated for their presence.
Setting:
App Store by Apple Inc.
Measures:
Presence of gamification, type of game element, and use of behavioral economic principles.
Analysis:
We classified the types and frequencies of targeted behaviors and features of gamification. Use of behavioral economic principles focused on designing rewards or points using loss aversion (allocated upfront and could be lost), variable reinforcement (not allocated constantly), and probability inflation (using drawings or lottery designs).
Results:
Gamification was used by 64% of mobile applications. Most applications that included gamification (97%) targeted behaviors related to physical activity and weight loss. Applications focused on other areas such as reproductive health, meditation, and sleep used gamification less often (11%). Game elements used most commonly included goal setting (78%), social influences (78%), and challenges (63%), while less common elements included points (6%) and levels (3%). No applications incorporated behavioral economics principles specified in the study.
Conclusions:
Gamification was commonly used by popular health and fitness mobile applications, but none used the specified behavioral economic principles to design rewards or points. Mobile applications could potentially improve their use if their design better leveraged principles from behavioral economics.
Experiments linking neonicotinoids and declining bee health have been criticized for not simulating realistic exposure. Here we quantified the duration and magnitude of neonicotinoid exposure in ...Canada’s corn-growing regions and used these data to design realistic experiments to investigate the effect of such insecticides on honey bees. Colonies near corn were naturally exposed to neonicotinoids for up to 4 months—the majority of the honey bee’s active season. Realistic experiments showed that neonicotinoids increased worker mortality and were associated with declines in social immunity and increased queenlessness over time. We also discovered that the acute toxicity of neonicotinoids to honey bees doubles in the presence of a commonly encountered fungicide. Our work demonstrates that field-realistic exposure to neonicotinoids can reduce honey bee health in corn-growing regions.
Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) produces undistorted three‐dimensional information of the maxillofacial skeleton, including the teeth and their surrounding tissues with a lower effective ...radiation dose than computed tomography. The aim of this paper is to: (i) review the current literature on the applications and limitations of CBCT; (ii) make recommendations for the use of CBCT in Endodontics; (iii) highlight areas of further research of CBCT in Endodontics.
Clean and safe water is a fundamental human need for multi-faceted development of society and a thriving economy. Brisk rises in populations, expanding industrialization, urbanization and extensive ...agriculture practices have resulted in the generation of wastewater which have not only made the water dirty or polluted, but also deadly. Millions of people die every year due to diseases communicated through consumption of water contaminated by deleterious pathogens. Although various methods for wastewater treatment have been explored in the last few decades but their use is restrained by many limitations including use of chemicals, formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs), time consumption and expensiveness. Nanotechnology, manipulation of matter at a molecular or an atomic level to craft new structures, devices and systems having superior electronic, optical, magnetic, conductive and mechanical properties, is emerging as a promising technology, which has demonstrated remarkable feats in various fields including wastewater treatment. Nanomaterials encompass a high surface to volume ratio, a high sensitivity and reactivity, a high adsorption capacity, and ease of functionalization which makes them suitable for application in wastewater treatment. In this article we have reviewed the techniques being developed for wastewater treatment using nanotechnology based on adsorption and biosorption, nanofiltration, photocatalysis, disinfection and sensing technology. Furthermore, this review also highlights the fate of the nanomaterials in wastewater treatment as well as risks associated with their use.
Symmetry breaking and the emergence of order is one of the most fascinating phenomena in condensed matter physics. It leads to a plethora of intriguing ground states found in antiferromagnets, Mott ...insulators, superconductors, and density-wave systems. Exploiting states of matter far from equilibrium can provide even more striking routes to symmetry-lowered, ordered states. Here, we demonstrate for the case of elemental chromium that moderate ultrafast photoexcitation can transiently enhance the charge-density-wave (CDW) amplitude by up to 30% above its equilibrium value, while strong excitations lead to an oscillating, large-amplitude CDW state that persists above the equilibrium transition temperature. Both effects result from dynamic electron-phonon interactions, providing an efficient mechanism to selectively transform a broad excitation of the electronic order into a well-defined, long-lived coherent lattice vibration. This mechanism may be exploited to transiently enhance order parameters in other systems with coupled degrees of freedom.
Reduced sleep duration has been increasingly reported to predict obesity. However, timing and regularity of sleep may also be important. In this study, the cross-sectional association between ...objectively measured sleep patterns and obesity was assessed in two large cohorts of older individuals.
Wrist actigraphy was performed in 3053 men (mean age: 76.4 years) participating in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study and 2985 women (mean age: 83.5 years) participating in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures. Timing and regularity of sleep patterns were assessed across nights, as well as daytime napping.
Greater night-to-night variability in sleep duration and daytime napping were associated with obesity independent of mean nocturnal sleep duration in both men and women. Each 1 h increase in the standard deviation of nocturnal sleep duration increased the odds of obesity 1.63-fold (95% confidence interval: 1.31-2.02) among men and 1.22-fold (95% confidence interval: 1.01-1.47) among women. Each 1 h increase in napping increased the odds of obesity 1.23-fold (95% confidence interval: 1.12-1.37) in men and 1.29-fold (95% confidence interval: 1.17-1.41) in women. In contrast, associations between later sleep timing and night-to-night variability in sleep timing with obesity were less consistent.
In both older men and women, variability in nightly sleep duration and daytime napping were associated with obesity, independent of mean sleep duration. These findings suggest that characteristics of sleep beyond mean sleep duration may have a role in weight homeostasis, highlighting the complex relationship between sleep and metabolism.
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is one of the most aggressive cancers diagnosed amongst women with a high rate of treatment failure and a poor prognosis. Mitochondria have been found to be key ...players in oncogenesis and tumor progression by mechanisms such as altered metabolism, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and evasion of apoptosis. Therefore, mitochondrial infusion is an area of interest for cancer treatment. Studies in vitro and in vivo demonstrate mitochondrial-mediated reduction in glycolysis, enhancement of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), reduction in proliferation, and an enhancement of apoptosis as effective anti-tumor therapies. This review focuses on mitochondrial dysregulation and infusion in malignancies, such as TNBC.
Worldwide dissemination of extended-spectrum -lactamase (ESBL)-producing
Escherichia coli
constitutes an emerging global health issue, with animal food products contributing as potential reservoirs. ...ESBL
E. coli
infection is associated with the high mortality and mobility rate in developing countries due to less susceptibility to antibiotics. The present study aimed to elucidate the molecular characteristics and sequence-based analysis of ESBL
E. coli
in the Gujarat state of India. This study included 108
E. coli
strains were isolated from different poultry farms (broiler and layer) in the Banaskantha District. PCR was employed to identify genotypic ESBL-producing antimicrobial resistance genes. Overall, a high occurrence of ESBL genes was found in poultry farms due to the high usage of antimicrobials. The PCR analysis revealed that 79.62% of isolates were detected positive with one or more ESBL genes. Among them,
bla
TEM
(63.88%) was found to be the predominant genotype, followed by
bla
SHV
(30.55%) and
bla
OXA
(28.70%). In the
bla
CTX-M
group, a higher occurrence was observed in
bla
CTX-M-9
(23.14%), followed by
bla
CTX-M-2
(24.07%) and
bla
CTX-M-1
(22.22%). We used the whole-genome sequencing (WGS) method to evaluate the antimicrobial resistance genes, virulence factors, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), plasmid replicons, and plasmid-mediated AMR genes of one ESBL
E. coli
isolated. We examined the genetic relatedness of a human pathogenic
E. coli
strain by comparing its sequence with the broad geographical reference
E. coli
sequences.
Escherichia coli
ST 681 was determined using multi-locus sequence typing. We compared our findings to the reference sequence of
Escherichia coli
str. K- 12 substr. MG1655. We found 24,937 SNPs with 21,792 in the genic region, 3,145 in the intergenic region, and six InDels across the genome. The WGS analysis revealed 46 antimicrobial resistance genes and seven plasmid-mediated AMR genes
viz.
,
tetA
,
qnrS1, dfrA14
,
sul2
,
aph(3”)-lb
,
aph(6)-ld
, and
Aph(3’)-la
. The ST 681 was found to have
Cib
,
traT
, and
terC
virulence factors and two plasmid replicons, IncFII(pHN7A8) and IncI1-I(Alpha). This study revealed a higher occurrence of ESBL
E. coli
detected in poultry.
The spin-phonon interaction in spin density wave (SDW) systems often determines the free energy landscape that drives the evolution of the system. When a passing energy flux, such as photoexcitation, ...drives a crystalline system far from equilibrium, the resulting lattice displacement generates transient vibrational states. Manipulating intermediate vibrational states in the vicinity of the critical point, where the SDW order parameter changes dramatically, would then allow dynamical control over functional properties. Here we combine double photoexcitation with an X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) probe to control and detect the lifetime and magnitude of the intermediate vibrational state near the critical point of the SDW in chromium. We apply Landau theory to identify the mechanism of control as a repeated partial quench and sub picosecond recovery of the SDW. Our results showcase the capabilities to influence and monitor quantum states by combining multiple optical photoexcitations with an XFEL probe. They open new avenues for manipulating and researching the behaviour of photoexcited states in charge and spin order systems near the critical point.
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