Essential elements of physical fitness analysis in male adolescent athletes using machine learning.

Physical fitness (PF) includes various factors that significantly impacts athletic performance. Analyzing PF is critical in developing customized training methods for athletes based on the sports in which they compete. Previous approaches to analyzing PF have relied on statistical or machine learning algorithms that focus on predicting athlete injury or performance. In this study, six machine learning algorithms were used to analyze the PF of 1,489 male adolescent athletes across five sports, including track & field, football, baseball, swimming, and badminton. Furthermore, the machine learning models were utilized to analyze the essential elements of PF using feature importance of XGBoost, and SHAP values. As a result, XGBoost represents the highest performance, with an average accuracy of 90.14, an area under the curve of 0.86, and F1-score of 0.87, demonstrating the similarity between the sports. Feature importance of XGBoost, and SHAP value provided a quantitative assessment of the relative importance of PF in sports by comparing two sports within each of the five sports. This analysis is expected to be useful in analyzing the essential PF elements of athletes in various sports and recommending personalized exercise methods accordingly.

The introduction to air pollution on pregnancy outcome (APPO) study: a multicenter cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: The air pollution on pregnancy outcome (APPO) study is a prospective hospital-based cohort study designed to investigate the maternal and fetal effects of a particulate matter with an aerodynamic below 10 µm (PM10) and PM2.5 (below 2.5 µm) exposure. This study aims to analyze a relationship between particulate matter and adverse pregnancy outcomes and to find related biomarkers and develop management guidelines. METHODS: About 1,200 pregnant women are recruited for 3 years (from January 2021 to December 2023) from seven university hospitals to investigate the effects of particulate matter on pregnancy complications and adverse pregnancy outcomes. We collect biological samples by 5 mL of maternal venous blood and 15 mL of urine in each trimester of pregnancy, and 5 mL of umbilical cord blood and 2×2×2 cm of placental tissue are collected after delivery. In addition, by applying PM10 and PM2.5 concentration values and time-activity patterns from the time weighted average model, the individual predicted exposure of air pollution for the pregnant women are obtained. RESULTS: The average exposure of PM10 and PM2.5 of the participants in the entire period of pregnancy, was exceeded the World Health Organization air quality guidelines (an annual level, PM10 >15 µg/m3, PM2.5 >5 µg/m3). Moreover, it was revealed that the PM concentration was increasing toward the 3rd trimester of pregnancy. CONCLUSION: The APPO study will be able to identify the degree of exposure to air pollution in pregnant women and use it as basic data for estimating individual exposure to particulate matter. And the results of the APPO study will facilitate in the development of health management for pregnant women against air pollution.

Re-Visiting Maximal Heart Rate Prediction Using Cross-Validation in Population Aged 7-55 Years.

The primary purpose of the present study was to re-visit HRmax prediction by two commonly used equations (i.e., Fox's and Tanaka's equation) compared to the direct measured HRmax using the large sample size of Asians. The second aim of the study was to focus on suggesting new equations for the Asian population by separating gender and specific age groups. A total of 672 participants aged from 7 to 55 years were recruited for the study (male: 280 and female: 392), and the maximal graded exercise test with Bruce protocol was used to measure HRmax. All data obtained from the study were analyzed by SPSS 25.0. Additionally, three statistical analysis methods (i.e., Mean Absolute Percent Errors (MAPE), Bland-Altman plots, and equivalence testing) were utilized to confirm the consistency between the measured HRmax and the two prediction equations. The main finding was that two equations showed significant differences in predicting the HRmax of Korean aged from 7 to 55 years. The outcome of children aged from 7 to 14 was a different fit in the agreement compared to other age groups. Fox's equation had the best fit in the average of the difference closer to zero and completely included within the equivalence zone, but females over 15 years old revealed higher errors than males in the values calculated by the two equations compared to the direct measured HRmax. Consequently, the study demonstrated that both equations tended to overestimate the HRmax for males and females over 15 years old, and the two universal equations were not suitable to predict the HRmax of Koreans except for children aged from 7 to 14 years. The new HRmax prediction equations suggested in this study will more accurately predict the HRmax of Asians, and additional analyses should be examined the cross-validity of the developed HRmax equation by age and gender in the future study.

Clinical outcome and influencing factor for repeat lumbar discectomy for ipsilateral recurrent lumbar disc herniation.

OBJECTIVE: Recurrent herniation following disc excision has been reported in 5-15% of patients. There have been numerous studies of recurrent disc herniation, but these have analyzed mixed patient populations. We designed this study to analyze the factors that influencing the clinical results, and efficiency of repeat discectomy for recurrent lumbar disc herniation occurring at the same level and on the same side after primary discectomy. METHODS: Between 1990 and 2011, a total of 52 patients who underwent repeat discectomy for recurrent lumbar disc herniation were retrospectively analyzed. Clinical outcomes were measured with Macnab criteria and visual analog scale (VAS score). Clinical parameters were also analyzed for influencing factors for outcome. RESULTS: Based on Macnab criteria, an excellent surgical outcome was achieved in 28 cases (54%), a good outcome in 22 cases (42%), a fair outcome in 1 case (2%), and a poor outcome in 1 case (2%). Based on VAS score, 47 of 52 patients (90%) showed more than 4 score improvement. Age, sex, diabetes mellitus, smoking, time interval between repeat and primary discectomy, duration of recurrent symptoms, and extent of disc herniation did not significantly affect Macnab criteria and VAS score. However, a traumatic event showed less VAS score improvement whereas not affecting on Macnab criteria. CONCLUSION: Conventional open lumbar discectomy performed as repeat surgery for recurrent herniation showed satisfactory results. Based on the results of this study, repeat discectomy can be recommended for the management of recurrent lumbar disc herniation. Further study is needed to evaluate factors related to the outcomes of repeat discectomy.