Effectiveness of a machine-assisted healthy physical fitness promotion program for community elderly.

BACKGROUND: Maintaining physical fitness is important for health of the elderly. How to implement an effective and efficient model is a practical issue. A healthy physical fitness promotion program with machine-assisted exercises was designed for elderly and executed in a community in 2015 and 2016. The program was implemented for 10 to 12 weeks with two (group 1) or three (group 2) sessions per week, and functional fitness tests were conducted before, at the end, and 3 months after the training. This study is to investigate the effectiveness of machine-assisted physical fitness promotion program for the community elderly. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the participants' data, including sex, age, height, weight, waist-hip ratio, grip strength, back stretch, chair sit-and-reach, 30-second chair stand, 30-second arm curl, 2-minute step, single-leg standing, 8-ft up-and-go, and body composition. The differences in test results before, at the end, and 3 months after the training and the percentage change at different time intervals between the two groups were compared. RESULTS: After training, body mass index in group 2 and the test completion time for 8-ft up-and-go in group 1 decline significantly; furthermore, significant increase was noted in the height and number of times of 2-minute step in both groups, and grip strength, number of times of their 30-second arm curl, and 30-second chair stand in group 2. The training effect sustained 3 months after the training in height and number of times of 2-minute step in both groups, and grip strength, number of times of their 30-second arm curl, and 30-second chair stand in group 2. CONCLUSION: This study discovered that 10 to 12 weeks of machine-assisted exercise training can improve the elderly community members' body composition, muscle strength, muscle endurance, agility, dynamic balance, and cardiorespiratory endurance. Moreover, with three sessions per week, its effects were even maintained for 3 months after the training.

The complete mitochondrial genome of the cryptic "lineage A" big-fin reef squid, Sepioteuthis lessoniana (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae) in Indo-West Pacific.

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the cryptic "lineage A" big-fin reef squid, Sepioteuthis lessoniana (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae) has been sequenced by the next-generation sequencing method. The assembled mitogenome consists of 16,605 bp, which includes 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, and 2 ribosomal RNAs genes. The overall base composition of "lineage A" S. lessoniana is 37.5% for A, 17.4% for C, 9.1% for G, and 35.9% for T and shows 87% identities to "lineage C" S. lessoniana. It is also noticed by its high T + A content (73.4%), two non-coding regions with TA tandem repeats. The complete mitogenome of the cryptic "lineage A" S. lessoniana provides essential and important DNA molecular data for further phylogeography and evolutionary analysis for big-fin reef squid species complex.

Modeling factors predictive of functional improvement following acute stroke.

BACKGROUND: Predicting functional improvement at an early stage after stroke is critical to setting treatment goals and strategies. The aim of this study was to identify factors that can predict motor function improvement at 3 months and 6 months poststroke. METHODS: Forty-four patients with stroke were included in the study. We recorded age, interval between stroke onset and initiation of physical therapy, stroke type, history of diabetes or cardiovascular disease, functional status prior to stroke, cognition, motivation, walking ability, eating ability, hemineglect, sensory function, and brain lesion site as predictive factors. The Stroke Rehabilitation Assessment of Movement, Berg Balance Scale, Timed Up & Go Test, and the 6-Minute Walk Test were conducted upon intake and at 3 months and 6 months poststroke. Patients were assigned to a progressive group or a nonprogressive group based on their improvement in four functional measures. Variables for which there were significant group differences were used for stepwise discriminant analysis as determining factors and for setting the prediction model. RESULTS: Patient age, history of diabetes, functional status prior to stroke, and motivation were predictive factors of functional progress at 3 months poststroke. Motivation and functional status prior to stroke predicted functional progress at 6 months poststroke. By comparing the discriminant function values of the progressive and nonprogressive groups, functional improvement can be predicted. CONCLUSION: Functional status prior to stroke and motivation are predictive of functional outcome at 3 months and 6 months poststroke. We have provided a formula that can be used to predict a patient's progress and then set treatment goals and programs accordingly.