The impact of Pilates exercise for depression symptoms in female patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The Pilates exercise has recently become an increasingly popular way of exercise in female patients since it is an attractive and low-cost physical exercise modality. Pilates may be a beneficial method of exercise for female patients with depression and anxiety symptoms. However, to date, there has been no attempt to collate this literature. This review aims to systematically assess and meta-analyze the efficacy of Pilates exercise for female patients with depression and anxiety symptoms and inform evidence-based guidelines for exercise prescription. METHODS: Five electronic databases (Scopus, MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library) were systematically searched up to January 2023 to examine randomized controlled trials (RCTs) focused on the effects of Pilates exercise for female patients with depressive disorders and individuals with elevated levels of depression were included. The primary outcomes were the severity of depression, and the secondary outcomes were anxiety. Statistical analyses were performed using Stata version 15.1 software with a 95% confidence interval (Registration number: CRD42023426522), and the PEDRO Scale was used to evaluate the risk of bias for RCT. RESULTS: 18 RCTs with 827 female patients were included. The methodological quality of the RCTs was considered an A level in 4 studies, B level in 13, studies, and C level in 1 study investigation. The meta-analysis showed that there was moderate evidence for the Pilates exercise significantly improved the severity of depression symptoms (SMD = -0.73; 95% CI -0.86 to -0.59; P < .01) and anxiety symptoms (SMD = -0.62; 95% CI -0.79 to -0.46; P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: Pilates exercise could reduce levels of depression and anxiety in female patients with depression and anxiety symptoms. Pilates exercise can be used as a potential ancillary program to improve depression and anxiety symptoms for female patients.

Design and implementation of plasma electron density measurements based on FPGA with all-phase FFT for tokamak devices.

Plasma electron density is one of the most fundamental parameters when studying tokamak plasma physics, which is widely used in plasma control systems and plasma physics analyses. A hydrogen cyanide laser interferometer is generally applied to measure the plasma electron density in many tokamak devices. Therein, the plasma electron density is calculated by measuring the phase difference between the reference signal and the detector signal. This work provides a new way to realize real-time measurements of the plasma electron density with a phase comparator and processing system based on a field-programmable gate array chip. The system integrates a signal processing module, an all-phase fast Fourier transform (ap-FFT) module realized via matrix operations and phase comparisons, and a network communication module all in one board. This work concludes that the ap-FFT is robust and accurate for phase calculations compared with a windowing FFT. A data-reuse method and a phase shift method are proposed to improve the time resolution and phase range. The phase error is less than 0.1° and the time resolution is 0.025 ms, which is better than hardware methods and traditional software methods. This system is highly flexible with reduced design costs to meet the requirements of a tokamak, which can provide a valuable reference for other tokamak and phase difference comparisons.

Noise characterization and compensation for a charge-coupled-device-based pyrometer.

The pyrometer based on the charge coupled device (CCD) is a cost-effective and widely used system for temperature measurement in various industrial fields. However, due to the inter-element sensitivity deviations of the CCD-array detector and the influence of various types of noise, the digital signal output of the CCD sensor itself is not completely equal to the ideal value as expected. In this work, based on a classical calibration method, the inter-element sensitivity deviations, dark current, shot noise, and readout-quantization noise for a CCD-based pyrometer are characterized, and the influence of these noises on the temperature measurement accuracy is evaluated quantitatively. Furthermore, the non-uniformity correction coefficient for each pixel is obtained by a simple segment correction method to reduce the inter-element sensitivity deviations, and meanwhile, the Kalman filter is introduced to remove the temperature fluctuations caused by these noises. Experimental results show that mean value of the spatial standard deviation of temperature measurement results in the total measurement range (800-1200 °C) is only 2.2 °C after non-uniformity correction, and the temperature fluctuations can be reduced from 26.6 to 1.98 °C based on the Kalman filter.

Optical inspection path planning for large liquid crystal glass substrate detection instrument.

A large liquid crystal glass substrate detection instrument usually uses the air flotation platform to support a glass substrate. The glass substrate will be deformed by air pressure on the air flotation platform, which will affect the accuracy of detection. In this paper, combined with the characteristics of the detection method of the detection instrument, an optimal detection scanning path with the minimum deflection variation range of the glass substrate is planned so as to minimize the influence of glass substrate deformation on the detection accuracy. In theory, the calculation model of the deflection variation ranges of different paths on the glass substrate is established, the numerical method is used to solve it, and finally, the optimal scanning path for the optical inspection is obtained. The experimental results verify the correctness of the model.

Microstructure, mechanical properties and springback behaviour of Ti­6Al­4V alloy connection rod for spinal fixation device.

The effect of annealing condition on microstructure, mechanical properties and springback behaviour was examined in the connection rod of Ti-6Al-4V alloy for spinal fixation devices. Compared with the deformed microstructure in the sample before annealing, relatively few equiaxed grains were present after annealing at 1003 K after 1.8 ks, and a considerable amount appeared at 7.2 ks. When annealing time was extended to 36 ks, the recrystallised grains further grew. Vickers hardness, tensile strength and bending strength decreased with increasing annealing time, whereas the elastic and bending moduli showed no significant change with annealing time of up to 7.2 ks and then slightly decreased at 36 ks. The springback ratio was closely associated with strength and modulus and applied bending deflection. The springback ratio reached the highest and lowest values in the sample before and after annealing for 7.2 ks, respectively. A good combination of strength, modulus and springback ratio was obtained in the sample after annealing for 7.2 ks.