Assessing the Effectiveness of eHealth Interventions to Manage Multiple Lifestyle Risk Behaviors Among Older Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Developing adverse lifestyle behaviors increases the risk of a variety of chronic age-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, and Alzheimer disease. There is limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of eHealth-based multiple health behavior change (MHBC) interventions to manage lifestyle risk behaviors. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this systematic evaluation was to assess the effectiveness of eHealth MHBC interventions in changing ≥2 major lifestyle risk behaviors in people aged ≥50 years. METHODS: The literature search was conducted in 6 electronic databases-PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and SPORTDiscus-from inception to May 1, 2024. Eligible studies were randomized controlled trials of eHealth interventions targeting ≥2 of 6 behaviors of interest: alcohol use, smoking, diet, physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior, and sleep. RESULTS: A total of 34 articles with 35 studies were included. eHealth-based MHBC interventions significantly increased smoking cessation rates (odds ratio 2.09, 95% CI 1.62-2.70; P<.001), fruit intake (standardized mean difference [SMD] 0.18, 95% CI 0.04-0.32; P=.01), vegetable intake (SMD 0.17, 95% CI 0.05-0.28; P=.003), self-reported total PA (SMD 0.22, 95% CI 0.02-0.43; P=.03), and objectively measured moderate to vigorous PA (SMD 0.25, 95% CI 0.09-0.41; P=.002); in addition, the interventions decreased fat intake (SMD -0.23, 95% CI -0.33 to -0.13; P<.001). No effects were observed for alcohol use, sedentary behavior, or sleep. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to test the robustness of the pooled results. Moreover, the certainty of evidence was evaluated using the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) framework. CONCLUSIONS: eHealth-based MHBC interventions may be a promising strategy to increase PA, improve diet, and reduce smoking among older adults. However, the effect sizes were small. Further high-quality, older adult-oriented research is needed to develop eHealth interventions that can change multiple behaviors. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews CRD42023444418; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42023444418.

Association of daily step counts and step intensity with fear of falling in Chinese community-dwelling older women.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between objectively measured step counts, step intensity and FOF in community-dwelling older Chinese women. Cross-sectional analyses were conducted on pooled data (n = 1101) from the baseline survey of the Physical Activity and Health Study (PAHIOWS). Step counts and step intensity were measured using wGT3X-BT accelerometers, and FOF was categorized into two levels (low and high) for logistic regression analysis. Higher step counts were significantly and negatively associated with FOF; however, after adjusting for step intensity, the association was no longer statistically significant. On the contrary, higher step intensity was negatively associated with FOF independent of step counts. This finding may provide new insights into the physical activity management of FOF in older women.

[Estimating polysaccharide content with hyperspectral in Dendrobium of ficinale].

The objectives in the present paper were to study the relationship between the polysaccharide content and the spectrum, aimed at finding a non destructive testing method for the measurement of polysaccharide content Materials in this study were from tissue culture seedlings under different treatments and domesticated plants in different growth stages. In the study, 36 samples were used to build estimation models and another 11 as test samples to examine the models. The relationship between the spectrum and polysaccharide content was investigated by partial least squares regression (PLSR) and factor analysis. The results show that (1) there was stronger correlation between derivative reflectance and polysaccharide content, and the sensitive wavebands mainly concentrated in the visible region. (2) The PLSR model has a high precision, while its prediction accuracy is lower. The models of factor analysis have higher prediction accuracy, the RPD of the model based on spectral reflectance is 2.269 and that of derivative reflectance is 2.305.

Comparative effectiveness of interventions on promoting physical activity in older adults: A systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Background: Despite the well-established health benefits of physical activity, a large population of older adults still maintain sedentary life style or physical inactivity. This network meta-analysis (NMA) aimed to compare the effectiveness of wearable activity tracker-based intervention (WAT), electronic and mobile health intervention (E&MH), structured exercise program intervention (SEP), financial incentive intervention (FI) on promoting physical activity and reducing sedentary time in older adults. Methods: The systematic review based on PRISMA guidelines, a systematic literature search of PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, EMbase, Cochrane Library, Scopus were searched from inception to December 10th 2022. The randomized controlled trials (RCT) were included. Two reviewers independently conducted study selection, data extraction, risk of bias and certainty of evidence assessment. The effect measures were standard mean differences (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) in daily steps, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time. Results: A total of 69 studies with 14,120 participants were included in the NMA. Among these included studies, the results of daily steps, MVPA and sedentary time was reported by 55, 25 and 15 studies, respectively. The NMA consistency model analysis suggested that the following interventions had the highest probability (surface under the cumulative ranking, SUCRA) of being the best when compared with control: FI + WAT for daily steps (SUCRA = 96.6%; SMD = 1.32, 95% CI:0.77, 1.86), WAT + E&MH + SEP for MVPA (SUCRA = 91.2%; SMD = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.36, 1.52) and WAT + E&MH + SEP for sedentary time (SUCRA = 80.3%; SMD = -0.50, 95% CI: -0.87, -0.14). The quality of the evidences of daily steps, MVPA and sedentary time was evaluated by very low, very low and low, respectively. Conclusions: In this NMA, there's low quality evidence that financial incentive combined with wearable activity tracker is the most effective intervention for increasing daily steps of older adults, wearable activity tracker combined with electronic and mobile health and structured exercise program is the most effective intervention to help older adults to increase MVPA and reduce sedentary time.

Simulation and prediction of changes in tree species composition in subtropical forests of China using a nonlinear difference equation system model.

Changes in tree species composition are one of the key aspects of forest succession. In recent decades, significant changes have occurred in the tree species composition of subtropical forests in China, with a decrease in coniferous trees and an increase in broad-leaved trees. This study focuses on Zhejiang Province, located in the subtropical region of China, and utilizes seven inventories from the National Continuous Forest Inventory (NCFI) System spanning 30 years (1989-2019) for modeling and analysis. We categorized tree species into three groups: pine, fir, and broadleaf. We used the proportion of biomass in a sample plot as a measure of the relative abundance of each tree species group. A novel nonlinear difference equation system (NDES) model was proposed. A NDES model was established based on two consecutive survey datasets. A total of six models were established in this study. The results indicated that during the first two re-examination periods (1989-1994, 1994-1999), there was significant fluctuation in the trend of tree species abundance, with no consistent pattern of change. During the latter four re-examination periods (1999-2004, 2004-2009, 2009-2014, 2014-2019), a consistent trend was observed, whereby the abundance of the pine group and the fir group decreased while the abundance of the broad-leaved group increased. Moreover, over time, this pattern became increasingly stable. Although the abundances of the pine group and the fir group have been steadily declining, neither group is expected to become extinct. The NDES model not only facilitates short-term, medium-term, and even long-term predictions but also employs limit analysis to reveal currently obscure changing trends in tree species composition.

The association between physical activity and fear of falling among community-dwelling older women in China: the mediating role of physical fitness.

Background: This study aimed to explore the association between physical activity (PA) and fear of falling (FOF) and to determine whether this relationship was mediated by physical fitness (PF) in community-dwelling older women. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, a total of 1,108 older women were recruited. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and light physical activity (LPA) were objectively measured by accelerometers. Physical fitness indicators including body mass index (BMI), forced vital capacity, choice reaction time, grip strength, sit and reach, and five times sit-to-stand were measured. FOF was evaluated by the Chinese version of the activities-specific balance confidence scale. A stepwise linear regression model analysis was used for mediation analysis, and bootstrap analysis was used to verify the mediation effects. Result: The Pearson correlation coefficient results suggested that MVPA was significantly and negatively correlated with FOF while LPA was not correlated with FOF. Logistic regression analysis suggested a significant association between MVPA, BMI, forced vital capacity, choice reaction time, sit and reach, grip strength, five times sit-to-stand, and FOF. The mediation analysis showed a negative relationship between MVPA and FOF. BMI completely mediated the relationship between MVPA and FOF while sit and reach, five times sit-to-stand, and forced vital capacity partially mediated the relationship between MVPA and FOF. Conclusion: Accumulation of more daily MVPA was associated with reducing the odds of FOF in community-dwelling older women. PF indicators fully or partially mediate the relationship between MVPA and FOF. Therefore, more intervention efforts should focus on the promotion of MVPA to improve PF and thus reduce FOF among older women.

Study on soil-water characteristic curves in the profiles of collapsing walls of typical granite Benggang in southeast China.

Benggang with steep collapsing walls is one of the worst soil erosion problems in South China. The collapse of walls is the most critical process in Benggang development. This is mainly due to the soil water properties. The soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) is a key indicator for analyzing soil moisture, but the SWCC and its mechanism of influence in collapsing walls remain obscure. A pressure plate meter was used for drying experiments to research the SWCCs of undisturbed soils of five layers (from top to bottom: red soil layer, transition layer I, sand soil layer, transition layer II and detrital layer) of two typical collapsing walls. The van Genuchten (VG) model can be fitted to the SWCCs for different layers (NSE ≥ 0.90). With increasing soil depth, the parameters a and θ s first decreased and then increased, the parameters n first increased and then decreased, θ r declined as the soil depth increased. These findings illustrate that soil water holding capacity decreases with increasing soil depth. The bottom of the soil is weak in water retention and water can easily reach saturation, resulting in a decline in soil stability, thus promoting soil collapse and finally inducing upper soil collapse. Furthermore, gravel content and particle morphology are factors that should not be neglected for SWCCs. The results of this study provide a theoretical basis for understanding the process of wall collapse in Benggang landforms in South China.

[Hyperspectral Bambusoideae discrimination based on Mann-Whitney non-parametric test and SVM].

In the present study, based on the leaf-level hyperspectral data of MaoZhu, LeiZhu and XiaoShunZhu, We come up with two solutions to discrimination through the theory of non-parametric test and pattern recognition; the first one is that optimal discriminating band between bambusoideae species is extracted by Mann-Whitney non-parametric test, the other is that bambusoideae species is discriminated by the support vector machine. The research results showed that (1) the optimal discriminating band between MaoZhu and LeiZhu is around 503-655, 689-732, 757-1 000, 1 038-1 084, 1 238-1 311, 1 404-1 591, 1682-1 800, 1 856-1 904, and 1 923-2 500 nm; the optimal discriminating band between MaoZhu and XiaoShunZhu is around 350-386, 731-1 430, 1 584-1 687, and 1 796-1 873 nm; the optimal discriminating band between LeiZhu and XiaoShunZhu is around 355-356, 498-662, 689-745, and 1 344-2 500 nm; and it can eliminate 30.0%, 57.7%, and 35.8% of the invalid distinction between bands by Mann-Whitney non-parametric test method. (2) In these optimal discriminating bands, we found that the accuracy of bambusoideae discrimination is 98.4%, 93.5%, and 95.1%, the generalization accuracy is 93.3%, 90.0%, and 86.7% by sequential minimal optimization algorithm. It indicates that this method is valid for selecting feature band and discriminating bambusoideae species.

[Hyperspectral feature band selection based on mean confidence interval and tree species discrimination].

In the present study, based on the leaf-level hyperspectral data of BaiMu, LeiZhu and WuHuanZi, the authors come up with two solutions through the theory of statistics; the first one is that optimal discriminating band between tree species is extracted by mean interval confidence, the other one is that tree species is discriminated by the Manhattan distance and the Min Max interval similarity. The research results showed that (1) the optimal discriminating bands between BaiMu and LeiZhu are around 350-446, 497-527, 553-1 330, 1 355-2 400 and 2 436-2 500 nm; the optimal discriminating bands between BaiMu and WuHuanZi are around 434-555, 580-1 903, 1 914-2 089, 2 172-2 457 and 2 475-2 500 nm; the optimal discriminating bands between LeiZhu and WuHuanZi are around 434-555, 580-1 903, 1 914-2 089, 2 172-2 457 and 2 475-2 500 nm; and this result is helpful for us to find maximum difference to identifying tree species respectively. (2) In these optimal discriminating bands, we find that the Manhattan distance between the same species is far less than the different species; but the Min-Max interval similarity between the same species is far more than the different species, so this result could help us to discriminate and identify different types of tree species effectively.

[Using fractal dimensions of hyperspectral curves to analyze the healthy status of vegetation].

The reflectance spectral curves of leaves can reflect many information of vegetation growth, and its variation maybe means that the healthy status of vegetation will change. Many spectral feature parameters such as red edge position, height of green peak, depth of red band absorption, the area of red edge and some vegetation index have been used to describe this change. However, the change of vegetation healthy status is not some feature parameters, but a comprehensive variation of the whole curve. So, a comprehensive index maybe has more value to describe the change of hyperspectral curve of vegetation and indicates its healthy status. Fractal is an appropriate mathematical tool, and fractal dimension can be used to explain the comprehensive variation of a curve. Therefore, in the present study, fractal theory was used to analyze the healthy status of different vegetation. Firstly, analytical spectral devices (ASD) were used to measure the hyperspectral curves of different vegetations with different healthy status. Secondly, spectral curves were analyzed, and some parameters which can really reflect different healthy status were obtained. Finally, the fractal dimension of reflectance spectral curves inside a spectral band zone between 450 and 780nm was computed by variation method, and the relationship between fractal dimensions and spectral feature parameters was established. The research results showed that (1) the hyperspectral curves of vegetation have fractal feature, and their fractal dimensions gradually decrease with the health deterioration of leaves, (2) fractal dimension has positive correlation with the height of green peak, the depth of red band absorption and the area of red edge, (3) multivariate analysis showed that fractal dimensions have a significant linear relationship with the three spectral feature parameters just mentioned above. So, the fractal dimension of hyperspectral curve can serve as a new comprehensive parameter to analyze quantitatively the healthy status of vegetations.

[Study on relationships between total chlorophyll with hyperspectral features for leaves of Pinus massoniana forest].

In the present study, the authors built the relationships between the total chlorophyll and hyperspectral features of P. massoniana. The research results showed that (1) chlorophyll content has a good linear relationship with spectral reflectance around 527, 703, 1 364 and 1 640 nm, and this result is helpful for us to select some important bands when monitoring P. massoniana by remote sensing image; (2) all of the nine kinds of spectral feature parameters including red edge position, mean reflectance of red edge, mean reflectance around red edge position, red edge slope, red edge area, absorption depth of red band, green peak height, red edge normalized difference vegetation index and red edge vegetation stress index, have exponential function relationship (r = 0.5-0.7) with the total chlorophyll; (3) the total chlorophyll content can be predicted by multivariate model by the nine spectral feature parameters, and partial least-squares regression model have higher prediction accuracy than the traditional multivariate linear model. The model's root mean square (RMS) is 0.008 8, and mean absolute percentage error is 0.761 7%. During the growth of vegetation, biochemical parameters such as chlorophyll have vital function, for example, it can indicate the health status or pathological feature. So, the models mentioned just above will help us understand the ecological process of P. massoniana forest and provide valuable reference for monitoring P. massoniana and pine wood nematode disease by remote sensing technique.

Fingerprint analysis of Cirsium japonicum DC. using high performance liquid chromatography.

In many areas of China Cirsium setosum is used as Cirsium japonicum DC. Although the two herbs have similar appearance and many similar compounds, they are totally different medicinal material, and have different pharmacodynamic actions. The fingerprint spectrum can be a good tool to distinguish the two herbs and control the quality of Cirsium japonicum DC. In this paper, the chemical fingerprint of Cirsium japonicum DC was established using raw materials from 15 origins in China. The chromatographic separations were obtained by a SHIM-PACK VP-ODS column (150 mm×4.6 mm i.d., 5 µm) using gradient elution, and run time of 80 min. The peak of linarin was considered as the control peak. The experimental data were analyzed with the software of Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprint of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Version 2004A) and the quality control system of both the overall qualitative similarities and the overall quantitative similarities of traditional Chinese medicine chromatographic fingerprints.