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Recent research has documented the relationship between the promotion of 'ideal', 'fit' bodies in social media, body image and associated body concerns and conditions. This article expands this scholarship, focusing specifically on gender, body disaffection and social media. Thus far, body disaffection has mostly been understood through a psychological framing, as a pathology residing within an individual and strongly associated with poor body image because of internalizing media images. In this paper, drawing on feminist new materialism, I offer a framing of body disaffection as a relational phenomenon. The paper draws on a mixed method study in England, with over 1000 young people examining their experiences with a range of digital health technologies. I focus specifically on their engagement with social media, to explore the relationship between ideal images and body concerns. Far from being a simple process of internalization of negative perceptions or image one has of their body, disaffection is formed through the body via a complex process of entanglement with social media and other elements. I outline how disaffection materialises as part of an assemblage of elements, including discourses, humans, bodies, digital objects and platforms. The paper reveals how entanglements with social media can generate powerful affects such as shame, pleasure and belonging along gendered lines, which may have significant implications for young people's relationships with their bodies. I analyse how social media events focused on the 'transformation' of bodies generate powerful affects, which open or limit capacities for what 'boys' or 'girls' bodies might become in deeply gendered and sometimes harmful ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last thirty years have seen significant advances in cognitive and behavioural psychotherapies and their application in health care/clinical practices. The papers included in this Special Issue describe the adaptations of ACT for HIV, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), and Eating Disorders (EDs); two engage technology in intervention delivery. The third ACT paper involved a Randomised Controlled Trial of a digital, gamified intervention for women and girls at high risk for developing an eating disorder. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a contemporary cognitive and behavioural therapy that is grounded in functional contextualism and is process-based [[5]]. [Extracted from the article]

In recent years, there has been a significant amount of research on tiltrotor multicopter unmanned aerial vehicles (TM-UAVs) in aerial robotics. Despite the varying frame types of TM-UAVs, they all still aim to decouple the propeller from the body, which means that the propeller's attitude control is independent of the body's attitude control. On the one hand, this solves the issue of multicopter unmanned aerial vehicles (M-UAVs) being limited by small roll and pitch angles, thereby improving flight performance. On the other hand, it addresses the drawbacks of M-UAVs as typical underactuated systems. However, the fact still remains that it cannot significantly change thrust direction, thus providing the necessary wrench direction for aerial manipulation. This paper presents a pitch-axis tiltrotor quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) design named Tilt-X, which can maximize horizontal pulling force and yaw moment when used as an aerial manipulator. This design contributes to tasks such as pushing, pulling, and twisting. The reliability of the design has been demonstrated through dynamic modeling and experimental validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Constructing a contactless pig mass estimation method through computer vision technology can help us to adjust our pig breeding program to improve production efficiency. Due to the complexity of the actual production environment, there are few reports on pig mass estimation in an unconstrained environment. In this study, we constructed a pig mass estimate model based on deep learning without constraint. The experimental results proved that the pig body mass estimation model constructed in this paper can quickly and accurately obtain the body mass of pigs. The model can evaluate the body quality of sows in real-time in an unconstrained environment, thereby providing data support for grading and adjusting breeding plans, and has broad application prospects. The body mass of pigs is an essential indicator of their growth and health. Lately, contactless pig body mass estimation methods based on computer vision technology have gained attention thanks to their potential to improve animal welfare and ensure breeders' safety. Nonetheless, current methods require pigs to be restrained in a confinement pen, and no study has been conducted in an unconstrained environment. In this study, we develop a pig mass estimation model based on deep learning, capable of estimating body mass without constraints. Our model comprises a Mask R-CNN-based pig instance segmentation algorithm, a Keypoint R-CNN-based pig keypoint detection algorithm and an improved ResNet-based pig mass estimation algorithm that includes multi-branch convolution, depthwise convolution, and an inverted bottleneck to improve accuracy. We constructed a dataset for this study using images and body mass data from 117 pigs. Our model achieved an RMSE of 3.52 kg on the test set, which is lower than that of the pig body mass estimation algorithm with ResNet and ConvNeXt as the backbone network, and the average estimation speed was 0.339 s·frame−1 Our model can evaluate the body quality of pigs in real-time to provide data support for grading and adjusting breeding plans, and has broad application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much existing research investigates embodiment and body image in individualised terms, new research in youth studies takes a wider view. How are young people's experiences of embodiment entangled with sociocultural and structural influences? How do young people come to develop a sense of embodied identity in contexts that teem with hostile and unattainable body ideals? How are possibilities for affirming and affirmative embodiment navigated by young people—especially those living outside prevailing appearance norms? In this paper, we engage with these questions, drawing insights from an in-depth, collaborative research project designed to understand what supports and constrains hauora and wellbeing for young people in Aotearoa (New Zealand). First, we analyse young people's accounts thematically, identifying three prevailing systems of cultural privilege that regulate embodiment. These include processes of racialisation and gendering, as well as cisnormative, heteronormative, ableist and healthist logics. Second, we work closely with one young person's interview, exploring how her narrative unsettles prevailing norms of appearance and embodiment. By spotlighting what young people themselves tell us about their bodies and embodied experiences, this paper demonstrates the value of an embodiment lens for youth and wellbeing studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture affects individuals' perceptions and experiences of their bodies. In order to provide the most effective solutions to body image-related issues, it is necessary to understand cultures and their influences on body image in various populations. This paper focuses on the effects of culture on body image. Therefore, a systematic literature search following PRISMA guidelines was performed in the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, yielding 2064 articles published between 1990 and 2023. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 54 articles were selected. Our findings showed a strong influence of culture on body image, highlighting the impact of societal expectations on individuals' mental well-being. Western cultures, with their preference for thinness, differ from non-Western ideals. The findings also showed the impact of regional variations within the same culture and society on body image. Furthermore, the study found that the young demographic, especially females, is the most vulnerable to body image issues; however, emerging research within our review also indicates a growing concern among males. This study underscores the necessity of culturally considering interventions to address body image issues, which are integral to improving mental health concerns like body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, depression, low self-esteem, and anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates how natural language processing methods can support the computer-aided rapid assessment of young adults suffering from anorexia nervosa. We applied natural language processing and machine learning techniques to develop methods that classified body image notes into four categories (sick/healthy, past tense, irony, and sentiment) and analyzed personal vocabulary. The datasets consisted of notes from 115 anorexic patients, 85 healthy participants, and 50 participants with head and neck cancer. To evaluate the usefulness of the proposed approach, we interviewed ten professional psychologists who were experts in eating disorders, eight direct (first contact) staff, and fourteen school counselors and school psychologists. The developed tools correctly differentiated the individuals suffering from anorexia nervosa, which was reflected in the linguistic profile and the results of the machine learning classification of the body image notes. The developed tool also received a positive evaluation from the psychologists specializing in treating eating disorders, school psychologists, and nurses. The obtained results indicate the potential of using natural language processing techniques for the computer-aided rapid assessment of a person's condition in terms of anorexia nervosa. This method could be applied as both a screening tool and for the regular monitoring of people at risk of eating disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media representations and dominant social constructions of the 'ideal' physique for young women are often framed through a Westernised lens that focuses on heteronormative, White able-bodied aesthetics of beauty and femininity. Until very recently, the imagery available for young women to connect with and aspire to has been highly limited, failing to represent the embodied cultural beliefs that Indigenous and culturally-minoritised young women may have towards the gendered body. In this paper, we draw upon focus groups (wānanga) and digital diaries with young, physically active Māori and Pasifika wāhine (women) in Aotearoa New Zealand, to reveal how they are making meaning out of dominant framings of beauty, and drawing upon cultural knowledge to refuse such portrayals, instead reclaiming power in their own bodies. Working at the intersection of Mana Wahine and Masi methodologies, this article amplifies the voices of young Māori and Pasifika wāhine who actively participate in sport and/or physical activity, embrace and appreciate their strong brown bodies, and are critically reading and rejecting dominant Western framings of beauty and femininity. In so doing, this paper contributes to a growing international dialogue about the need for new culturally-informed understandings of body image by young women from Indigenous and culturally marginalised communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a late medieval example to show that images of nature can also be images of the human body. It presents the Anthropologium de hominis dignitate by the Leipzig magister Magnus Hundt (1449–1519). The Anthropologium is a text that prominently integrates the human body into its conception of man and its account of human dignity. The body is not presented as a prison of the soul, but as a perfectly balanced physical counterpart to the soul. The paper shows how Hundt's reflections were influenced by his commitment to the Thomistic school. Moreover, it reveals how the elevated Imago Dei thesis provides a justification for the study of the human body. Hundt is shown to offer nothing less than a theological–philosophical legitimation for practising medicine. In doing so, he also incorporates images of nature in a literal sense, insofar as he includes images of the human body in his book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precision dairy farming technology is widely used to improve the management efficiency and reduce cost in large-scale dairy farms. Machine vision systems are non-contact technologies to obtain individual and behavioral information from animals. However, the accuracy of image-based individual identification of dairy cows is still inadequate, which limits the application of machine vision technologies in large-scale dairy farms. There are three key problems in dairy cattle identification based on images and biometrics: (1) the biometrics of different dairy cattle may be similar; (2) the complex shooting environment leads to the instability of image quality; and (3) for the end-to-end identification method, the identity of each cow corresponds to a pattern, and the increase in the number of cows will lead to a rapid increase in the number of outputs and parameters of the identification model. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes a cascaded dairy individual cow identification method based on DeepOtsu and EfficientNet, which can realize a breakthrough in dairy cow group identification accuracy and speed by binarization and cascaded classification of dairy cow body pattern images. The specific implementation steps of the proposed method are as follows. First, the YOLOX model was used to locate the trunk of the cow in the side-looking walking image to obtain the body pattern image, and then, the DeepOtsu model was used to binarize the body pattern image. After that, primary classification was carried out according to the proportion of black pixels in the binary image; then, for each subcategory obtained by the primary classification, the EfficientNet-B1 model was used for secondary classification to achieve accurate and rapid identification of dairy cows. A total of 11,800 side-looking walking images of 118 cows were used to construct the dataset; and the training set, validation set, and test set were constructed at a ratio of 5:3:2. The test results showed that the binarization segmentation accuracy of the body pattern image is 0.932, and the overall identification accuracy of the individual cow identification method is 0.985. The total processing time of a single image is 0.433 s. The proposed method outperforms the end-to-end dairy individual cow identification method in terms of efficiency and training speed. This study provides a new method for the identification of individual dairy cattle in large-scale dairy farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eating disorders (EDs) and disordered eating behaviours (DEBs) are significant health problems related to body image and weight dissatisfaction among adolescents and young adults worldwide. During this stage of sensitive development, these behaviours may hinder the optimal growth process and can consequently lead to wasting, stunting, and micronutrient deficiencies. However, there is a limited amount of literature on DEB among Arab populations, particularly in Saudi Arabia. This review aims to assess the prevalence of EDs/DEB and to develop a clear understanding of the epidemiology of such conditions among adolescents and youth in Saudi Arabia. Five databases were systematically searched and 14 papers met the inclusion criteria. The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) was the predominant tool used for evaluating aberrant eating behaviours, indicating a high prevalence of EDs/DEB ranging from 10.2% to 48.1%. The highest prevalence of EDs/DEB was reported in the eastern region ranging from 29.4% to 65.5%. In terms of age and sex, the prevalence was higher among older students compared to younger school students and males reported more Eds/DEB compared to female students. These disorders are found to be prevalent in Saudi Arabia, and the risk of developing such conditions is high across the whole age range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an essential medical imaging modality that provides excellent soft-tissue contrast and high-resolution images of the human body, allowing us to understand detailed information on morphology, structural integrity, and physiologic processes. However, MRI exams usually require lengthy acquisition times. Methods such as parallel MRI and Compressive Sensing (CS) have significantly reduced the MRI acquisition time by acquiring less data through undersampling k-space. The state-of-the-art of fast MRI has recently been redefined by integrating Deep Learning (DL) models with these undersampled approaches. This Systematic Literature Review (SLR) comprehensively analyzes deep MRI reconstruction models, emphasizing the key elements of recently proposed methods and highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. This SLR involves searching and selecting relevant studies from various databases, including Web of Science and Scopus, followed by a rigorous screening and data extraction process using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. It focuses on various techniques, such as residual learning, image representation using encoders and decoders, data-consistency layers, unrolled networks, learned activations, attention modules, plug-and-play priors, diffusion models, and Bayesian methods. This SLR also discusses the use of loss functions and training with adversarial networks to enhance deep MRI reconstruction methods. Moreover, we explore various MRI reconstruction applications, including non-Cartesian reconstruction, super-resolution, dynamic MRI, joint learning of reconstruction with coil sensitivity and sampling, quantitative mapping, and MR fingerprinting. This paper also addresses research questions, provides insights for future directions, and emphasizes robust generalization and artifact handling. Therefore, this SLR serves as a valuable resource for advancing fast MRI, guiding research and development efforts of MRI reconstruction for better image quality and faster data acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep within online forums, we often stumble across body shaming. Words like "fat" and "ugly" are tossed around, hurting those they target. But can we peel back the layers of these online communities? In this study, social network analysis is used to shine a light on body shaming on Reddit, a well-known online platform. This paper presents a comprehensive social network analysis of body shaming on Reddit, one of the largest online platforms. The research delves into the intricacies of body shaming by identifying key actors, communities, and patterns of behavior and communication related to body shaming. The results show how behavior and communication differ across Reddit's various subgroups, and how user activity and the length of comments can vary. Through the application of topic modeling, the main subjects discussed in each subgroup were identified. This enables an understanding of what drives discussions about body shaming. The findings provide valuable insights into the spread and normalization of harmful behaviors and attitudes related to body shaming, which can inform the development of targeted interventions aimed at reducing this harmful behavior and promoting more positive and inclusive attitudes towards body image and weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to discuss the implications of body talk and socio-cultural pressure for the internalisation of a thin body image in purchase decisions, shopping habits and other outcomes of body dissatisfaction, in particular the proneness to avoid human/social interaction in retail contexts and proneness to engage in corrective, compensatory or compulsive shopping behaviour. This paper conducted an online questionnaire that measured the following constructs: body mass index; Socio-cultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale-4 (SATAQ-4), Body Appreciation Scale (BAS-2), Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale (ACSS), Compulsive Buying Follow-up Scale (CBFS), proneness to avoid social interaction in retail contexts, and the intention to purchase a list of products and services as a compensation for body dissatisfaction. A structural equations model supported the hypotheses proposing the influence of BAS-2 and SATAQ-4 (the internalisation of thin/athletic body and the social comparison induced by family, peers and media) upon the outcomes of social-interaction avoidance, ACSS and CBFS. Nevertheless, BAS-2 only influences social-interaction avoidance. This paper provides several recommendations to brand managers highlighting the social responsibility role of brand advertising in enhancing positive body appreciation, mitigating the psychological damage caused by socio-cultural pressure and preventing the stigmatisation bias against obese people.

A growing number of studies have used virtual reality (VR) for the assessment and treatment of body image disturbances (BIDs). This study, conducted in a community sample of adolescents, documents the convergent and discriminant validity between (a) the traditional paper-based Figure Rating Scale (paper-based FRS), (b) the VR-based Body Rating Scale (eLoriCorps-IBRS 1.1), and (c) the mobile app-based Body Rating Scale (eLoriCorps-IBRS 1.1-Mobile). A total of 93 adolescents (14 to 18 years old) participated in the study. Body dissatisfaction and body distortion were assessed through the paper-based FRS, the eLoriCorps-IBRS 1.1 and the eLoriCorps-IBRS 1.1-Mobile. Eating disorder symptoms, body image avoidance, and social physique anxiety were also measured. Correlation analyses were performed. Overall, the results showed a good and statistically significant convergence between allocentric perspectives as measured by the paper-based FRS, the eLoriCorps-IBRS 1.1 and the eLoriCorps-IBRS 1.1-Mobile. As expected, the egocentric perspective measured in VR produced different results from the allocentric perspective, and from cognitive–attitudinal–affective dimensions of BIDs, with the exception of body distortion. These differences support the discriminant validity of the egocentric perspective of eLoriCorps-IBRS 1.1 and are consistent with emerging evidence, highlighting a difference between experiencing the body from an egocentric (i.e., the body as a subject) and allocentric (i.e., the body as an object) perspective. The egocentric perspective could reflect a perceptual–sensory–affective construction of BIDs, whereas allocentric measures seem to be more related to a cognitive–affective–attitudinal construction of BIDs. Moreover, the results support the validity of the eLoriCorps-IBRS 1.1-Mobile with promising perspectives of implementation among young populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our objective was to assess the perception of body image and physical activity in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of 74,270 papers found on 13 search engines between 12 August 2020, and 2 November 2021, we identified six studies (n = 1392 and 1097 were women). We found several results on the perception of both variables during the pandemic. First, physical activity tended to decrease or have negative changes, either because they dedicated less time to it, decreased the type of intensity or because they dedicated more time to sedentary activities. In addition, women were more physically active than men, since men perceived a decrease in their levels of physical activity. Secondly, there were also slight changes in the perception of body image; several students perceived that they gained weight and others had an increase in their BMI. It is even noted that those who were physically active or who were older in the population studied had a better perception of their actual physical condition. Similarly, we found that a concern for body image and even negative changes in the perception of appearance during confinement were reported. In conclusion, we found changes in the perception of physical activity and body image in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, managing a group of satellites or robot manipulators requires coordinating their motion and work in a cooperative way to complete complex tasks. The attitude motion coordination and synchronization problems are challenging since attitude motion evolves in non-Euclidean spaces. Moreover, the equation of motions of the rigid body are highly nonlinear. This paper studies the attitude synchronization problem of a group of fully actuated rigid bodies over a directed communication topology. To design the synchronization control law, we exploit the cascade structure of the rigid body's kinematic and dynamic models. First, we propose a kinematic control law that induces attitude synchronization. As a second step, an angular velocity-tracking control law is designed for the dynamic subsystem. We use the exponential coordinates of rotation to describe the body's attitude. Such coordinates are a natural and minimal parametrization of rotation matrices which almost describe every rotation on the Special Orthogonal group S O (3) . We provide simulation results to show the performance of the proposed synchronization controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orthodontic treatment is a common dental treatment. A complete treatment often takes several years and is costly. In order to increase the degree of satisfaction and reduce the gap between the expectations of the patient and the limitations of orthodontics, orthodontists and patients should have sufficient communication. A simulation system can provide a good channel for communication between orthodontists and patients. This paper proposes a 3D dentist–patient communication system for the simulation of orthodontics in advance. The system collects the clinical paradigms of orthodontic cases, which must contain photos from before, during, and after maxillofacial treatment. This research simulates treatment processes by tuning a 3D virtual model of the oral and maxillofacial areas, including the face, mouth, and teeth, to demonstrate the processes of clinical paradigms. These 3D models could be edited and synthesized to generate new 3D models for simulation with the 3DS Max tool. In addition, the proposed system provides a function for the orthodontist to manually operate the 3D virtual model, such as tooth arrangement, morphing of the gums with movement of the teeth, the placement (attachment) of arch-wires and brackets, and changes of facial appearance. The orthodontist can demonstrate the treatment processes, show movements of the teeth, and answer possible questions from the patient about the treatment processes by using the 3D model. To show the effectiveness of the proposed system, a questionnaire about the system was also used to demonstrate its acceptance, usability, and validity. Qualitative interviews with dentists and questionnaires for patients about the system are both performed. The results showed that the proposed system is an effective vehicle for communication between patients and orthodontists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millimeter-wave (MMW) imaging has a tangible prospect in concealed weapon detection for security checks. Typically, a one-dimensional (1D) linear antenna array with mechanical scanning along a perpendicular direction is employed for MMW imaging. To achieve high-resolution imaging, the target under test needs to keep steady enough during the mechanical scanning process since slight movement can induce large phase variation for MMW systems, which will result in a blurred image. However, in the scenario of imaging of a human body, sometimes it is difficult to meet this requirement, especially for the elderly. Such blurred MMW images would reduce the detection accuracy of the concealed weapons. In this paper, we propose a deblurring method based on cycle-consistent adversarial network (Cycle GAN). Specifically, the Cycle GAN can learn the mapping between the blurred MMW images and the focused ones. To minimize the effect of the shaking blur, we introduce an identity loss. Moreover, a mean squared error loss (MSE loss) is utilized to stabilize the training, so as to obtain more refined deblurred results. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can efficiently suppress the blurring effect in the MMW image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) caused by repetitive working postures in industrial sites have emerged as one of the biggest problems in the field of industrial health. The risk of MSDs caused by the repetitive working postures of workers is quantitatively evaluated by using NLE (NIOSH Lifting Equation), OWAS (Ovako Working-posture Analysis System), RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment), REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment), etc. Methods used for the working posture analysis include vision-based analysis and motion capture analysis. Vision-based analysis is a method where an expert with ergonomics knowledge watches and manually analyzes recorded working images. Although the analysis is inexpensive, it takes a lot of time to analyze. In addition, the analyst's subjective opinions or mistakes may be reflected in the results, so it may be somewhat unreliable. On the other hand, motion capture analysis can obtain more accurate and consistent results, but its measurement equipment is very expensive and it requires a large space for measurement. In this paper, we propose a computer-based automated REBA system that can evaluate, automatically and consistently, working postures in order to supplement the shortcomings of these existing methods. The CREBA system uses the body detection learning model of MediaPipe to detect the worker's area in the recorded images and sets the body area based on the position of the face, detected using the face tracking learning model. In the set area, the positions of joints are tracked using the posture tracking learning model, and the angles of joints are calculated based on the joint positions using the inverse kinematics, and then by automatically calculating the degree of load of the working posture with the REBA evaluation method. In order to verify the accuracy of the evaluation results of the CREBA system, we compared them with the experts' vision-based REBA evaluation results. The result of the experiment showed a slight difference of about 1.0 points between the evaluation results of the expert group and those of the CREBA system. It is expected that the ergonomic analysis method for the working posture used in this study will reduce workers' labor intensity and improve their safety and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an approach to suppressing the elastic vibration and propellant sloshing in attitude control of a high slenderness ratio rocket. The main method is to combine a variable-gain robust observer with a variable structure controller for the purpose of attitude stability and elastic vibration suppression. A variable-gain robust observer is designed to reconstruct the attitude variable and complex multi-order elastic state. In this way, each order elastic vibration can be transformed into an additional attitude with the attitude characteristics of the rocket, which is easy to control. The reconstructed rocket body with an additional attitude is treated as the input of the designed variable structure controller to output the control signal. Under the simultaneous action between the variable-gain robust observer and variable structure controller, attitude stability is achieved for the rocket considering multi-order elastic vibration, and the propellant sloshing in the launch vehicle storage tank can be suppressed simultaneously. According to the simulation results, the proposed method produces a satisfactory stabilization outcome on each order of elastic vibration (especially low-order elastic vibration) and is better than a single variable structure controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite advances in our understanding of the behavioral and molecular factors that underlie the onset and maintenance of Eating Disorders (EDs), it is still necessary to optimize treatment strategies and establish their efficacy. In this context, over the past 25 years, Virtual Reality (VR) has provided creative treatments for a variety of ED symptoms, including body dissatisfaction, craving, and negative emotions. Recently, different researchers suggested that EDs may reflect a broader impairment in multisensory body integration, and a particular VR technique—VR body swapping—has been used to repair it, but with limited clinical results. In this paper, we use the results of a systematic review employing PRISMA guidelines that explore inner body perception in EDs (21 studies included), with the ultimate goal to analyze the features of multisensory impairment associated with this clinical condition and provide possible solutions. Deficits in interoception, proprioception, and vestibular signals were observed across Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa, suggesting that: (a) alteration of inner body perception might be a crucial feature of EDs, even if further research is needed and; (b) VR, to be effective with these patients, has to simulate/modify both the external and the internal body. Following this outcome, we introduce a new therapeutic approach—Regenerative Virtual Therapy—that integrates VR with different technologies and clinical strategies to regenerate a faulty bodily experience by stimulating the multisensory brain mechanisms and promoting self-regenerative processes within the brain itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the comorbidity patterns leading to suffering behavioural eating disorders (BED) that are identifiable in the early stages of life, can help prevent their becoming chronic, as well as preventing the consequences deriving from the cost and effectiveness of intervention programs. The paper focuses mainly on analysing the association between behavioural/emotional risk factors and body image, body satisfaction and diet in school children, as well as confirming whether there are differences based on sex. Several questionnaires (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and several items of Health Behaviour in School-age Children) including these variables were distributed and completed by the 647 adolescents (16 year olds on average) who took part in the research project. The findings confirmed a differentiated risk profile in adolescent girls in that they had greater prevalence of emotional symptoms as a general psychopathological trait, although this was offset with their prosocial behaviour. Additionally, the findings also allowed us to conclude that the factors that predict vulnerability to BEDs are sex, the presence of emotional symptoms and social and behavioural issues. At the end of this paper, we discuss some implications and consequences that should be taken into account for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) remains best known as the creator of Peter Pan (1904), celebrated as a whimsical eccentric who wrote sad stories about lost children. In his own day, however, he was respected as Scotland's leading dramatist and a trenchant social critic. His writings from the years following the First World War are much darker in tone than his earlier work, as a series of intense personal bereavements shook his aesthetic embrace of Christian Humanism. God exists in Barrie's post-war works as the presence of absence, a vacancy where the divine ought to be but where an inexplicable experience of bereavement hangs instead. This paper considers the nature of God's absence in two of Barrie's major post-war works, the drama Mary Rose (1920) and the lecture Courage (1922), through the interrelated images of the crucified body of Christ and the absent λόγος. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first-person perspective, developed by Husserl for the scientific study of consciousness, consists of formal categories which can be used both for the analyses of consciousness as such and its concrete forms. Evidence (Evidenz), the central category in this approach, characterizes consciousness as knowledge. This paper presents the phenomenology of changes in perception and embodiment which lead to evidence for religious/spiritual experience (RE). Such change develops over time via contemplative practice, but also can be a part of spontaneous RE. Because of the presence of evidence, RE containing the change of perception are presentational (as distinct from appresentative). This temporally extended evidence concerns reality's giving of itself, granted that the main distinction between religious and non-religious experience is in the kind of reality to which they refer: physical in the case of non-religious, and 'ultimate' in the case of religious experience. Involving flesh and the reversibility of the body, the change in such complex RE also entails the transmutation of emotion from negative to positive. I compare these findings with Husserl's analysis of religious experience in HUA XVII, and argue that grounding religious experience in the preconceived idea of God, as Husserl does, limits RE to regressive forms which do not constitute knowledge. Such experiences remain teleologically directed at the world-horizon. By contrast, REs grounded in change of perception have a different teleology and do constitute knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: 'Images of Self' (IOS) is a recently developed and evaluated art therapy program of 15 sessions to reduce difficulties in 'sense of self', 'emotion regulation', 'flexibility', and 'social behavior' of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). In this paper, it is explored whether change in the child's behaviors corresponds to the therapist's actions during IOS and 15 weeks later. (2) Method: In a repeated case study design, twelve children and seven therapists participated. Art therapists monitored their own and the children's behavior by applying two observation instruments: the OAT (Observation of a child with autism in Art Therapy) and EAT (Evaluation of Art Therapist's behavior when working with a child with autism). Child behaviors during art making were—individually and as a group—compared with therapist's actions at three moments during the program. (3) Results: Ten of twelve children showed a substantial or moderate positive behavior change considering all OAT subscales at the end of the program and 15 weeks after treatment. Improvement of 'social behavior' stood out. Halfway treatment art therapists most prominently showed support of 'emotion regulation', 'flexibility', and 'social behavior'. Clear one-on-one relationships between changes in children's behavior and actions of therapists could not be identified. (4) Conclusion: The study provides new insights in the AT treatment process by monitoring children's and therapists' behavior. The art making itself and the art therapy triangle (child, art making, therapist) offer opportunities to improve verbal and nonverbal communication skills of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle's body attitude has a great influence on some specific underwater tasks, such as topographic prospecting, target detection, etc. Therefore, this paper investigates an improved integral sliding mode control (IISMC)-based attitude controller for AUV with model uncertainties and external disturbances to improve the ability of attitude tracking for AUV. To reduce the influence of strong interference on the integral term, the Gaussian function is introduced in integral sliding mode controller. Moreover, the Lyapunov function is used to prove the stability of IISMC-based attitude control law. Finally, the numerical simulations on MATLAB/Simulink are provided to demonstrate the proposed IISMC has smaller tracking error and converges faster than Sliding Mode Control (SMC) and Integral Sliding Mode Control (ISMC)-based attitude-control laws under different disturbances. Better yet, the effectiveness of the proposed IISMC-based attitude control law is tested in field experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of human activities from videos is important for many applications. For such a task, three-dimensional (3D) depth images or image sequences (videos) can be used, which represent the positioning information of the objects in a 3D scene obtained from depth sensors. This paper presents a framework to create foreground–background masks from depth images for human body segmentation. The framework can be used to speed up the manual depth image annotation process with no semantics known beforehand and can apply segmentation using a performant algorithm while the user only adjusts the parameters, or corrects the automatic segmentation results, or gives it hints by drawing a boundary of the desired object. The approach has been tested using two different datasets with a human in a real-world closed environment. The solution has provided promising results in terms of reducing the manual segmentation time from the perspective of the processing time as well as the human input time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study sought to address the use of computer-aided diagnosis and therapy for anorexia nervosa. This paper presents the means by which the use of natural language processing methods can augment the work of psychologists. Method: We evaluated this method based on its efficacy when diagnosing anorexia nervosa. Using natural language processing and machine learning, we developed methods for analyzing five basic emotions, analyzing a patient's body perception, and detecting six potential areas of difficulties for computer support of psychological diagnosis of anorexia. We surveyed 43 psychologists to obtain feedback on these tools. Results: We evaluated efficacy in terms of patient relationship, substantive aspects of the diagnosis, and diagnostic procedures. In terms of patient relationship, we found a noticeable decrease in the patient's resistance and better support in verifying the substantive scope of the diagnostic thesis. Discussion: The presented methods can be a supporting tool for monitoring the diagnostic process and increasing the degree of self-diagnosis and self-reflection by the patient. This tool can increase the accuracy of the diagnostic process by reducing patient resistance. This will increase access to the patient's psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Adolescents and young women become increasingly aware of their bodies through images presented to them through social structures during their developmental stage. These images may drive them toward unhealthy behaviors including overeating, starving, and skin bleaching. This paper is part of a study that examined the Older Adolescent Banyankole Girl's Response to the socio-cultural constructions of body image in The Ankole Region, Uganda. It aimed to understand the self-perceptions of adolescent girls of their body image within Ankole society., Methods: The study collected narrative interviews of 30 adolescent and young adult females (16-24) recruited from various institutions of learning as well as the Ankole community of southwestern Uganda., Results: Adolescent girls' perceptions of beauty were influenced by pull and push factors that included beauty expectations, beauty comparisons, relationships, and dietary habits that keep them oscillating between traditional and contemporary beauty ideals. Findings suggest that young women could benefit from social shifting of focus from physical appearance to other valuable developmental assets., Conclusion: Government-sponsored programs that provide education and positive media messages may be beneficial to building the self-esteem of young women.

Digital Image Correlation (DIC) has found widespread use in measuring full-field displacements and deformations experienced by a body from images captured of it. Stereo-DIC has received significantly more attention than two-dimensional (2D) DIC since it can account for out-of-plane displacements. Although many aspects of Stereo-DIC that are shared in common with 2D DIC are well documented, there is a lack of resources that cover the theory of Stereo-DIC. Furthermore, publications which do detail aspects of the theory do not detail its implementation in practice. This literature gap makes it difficult for newcomers to the field of DIC to gain a deep understanding of the Stereo-DIC process, although this knowledge is necessary to contribute to the development of the field by either furthering its capabilities or adapting it for novel applications. This gap in literature acts as a barrier thereby limiting the development rate of Stereo-DIC. This paper attempts to address this by presenting the theory of a subset-based Stereo-DIC framework that is predominantly consistent with the current state-of-the-art. The framework is implemented in practice as a 202 line MATLAB code. Validation of the framework shows that it performs on par with well-established Stereo-DIC algorithms, indicating it is sufficiently reliable for practical use. Although the framework is designed to serve as an educational resource, its modularity and validation make it attractive as a means to further the capabilities of DIC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine cross-cultural differences in body stigmatization between the individualistic Christian culture of guilt (Poland) and the collectivistic Buddhist/Confucian culture of honor and shame (Vietnam). The study included 1290 university students from Poland ( n = 586) and Vietnam ( n = 704). Subjects filled in the body esteem scale and the perceived stigmatization questionnaire, and body measurements were collected to calculate anthropometric indices. Participants from Vietnam were less satisfied with their appearance than their Polish peers. Men in both countries assessed themselves more favorably. No anthropometric index predicted body esteem in Vietnamese women, while only indices related to fat levels were predictors in Polish women. Men with a V-shaped body assessed themselves as stronger and as having a better physical condition. A possible explanation of the observed cross-cultural differences is that interdependent self-construal makes young adults in collectivistic societies more susceptible to criticism, and the Confucian values of modesty and shame lead to them not perceiving their bodies as sexual objects. The Christian sense of guilt does not influence the perception of sexuality. Absence of friendly behavior mediated the relation between anthropometric indices and body esteem in both cultures.

Objective : To assess the scientific evidence on the relationship between body image and body weight control in overweight ≥55-year-old adults. Methods: The literature search was conducted on MEDLINE database via PubMed, using terms related to body image, weight control and body composition. Inclusion criteria were scientific papers, written in English or Spanish, made on older adults. Exclusion criteria were eating and psychological disorders, low sample size, cancer, severe diseases, physiological disorders other than metabolic syndrome, and bariatric surgery. Results: Fifty-seven studies were included. Only thirteen were conducted exclusively among ≥55-year-old adults or performed analysis adjusted by age. Overweight perception was related to spontaneous weight management, which usually concerned dieting and exercising. More men than women showed over-perception of body image. Ethnics showed different satisfaction level with body weight. As age increases, conformism with body shape, as well as expectations concerning body weight decrease. Misperception and dissatisfaction with body weight are risk factors for participating in an unhealthy lifestyle and make it harder to follow a healthier lifestyle. Body image disturbance also made it more likely to underreport calorie intake. Conclusions: Aging is associated with a decrease in weight concerns and lower overweight perception, especially in women. However, when designing a program to improve body image in overweight ≥55-year-old adults, three items ought to be considered: physical activity, dietary and behavioral treatments.

Background: Current and former athletes are one of the most at-risk population groups for disordered eating (DE), impacting their dietary practices, body composition, performance and health during and following their athletic careers. Few comprehensive DE screening tools exist for this group. To help address this, the current study utilised a mixed-methods approach of Classic Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) to develop and validate a DE screening tool suitable for current and former athletes. Methods: Novel scale development methodologies were used to develop and assess the validity (content, face, cross-cultural, construct), test-retest reliability, internal consistency reliability, factor analysis and Rasch analysis of a new DE scale. Results: A new validated Athletic Disordered Eating (ADE) screening tool was created, with 17 items and four subscales (food control, bingeing, body control, body discontent), with an internal consistency reliability of 0.91, excellent content and construct validity, an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient of 0.97 and excellent Rasch model fit. Conclusions: The ADE screening tool has been dually developed for research purposes and as a clinically applicable screening tool to detect DE in current and former athletes and is suitable for a global use across sporting categories, diverse genders and levels of competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and Feeding or Eating Disorders (FEDs) often coexist during adolescence with reciprocal influences on their clinical picture. The present study aimed to identify differences and similarities in the clinical presentation of young patients with both conditions compared to those with the two non-comorbid disorders. Methods: We consecutively recruited forty-five female patients aged between 11 and 18 at our third-level hospital and subdivided them into three groups (NSSI: n = 15; FED: n = 15; NSSI + FED: n = 15). Patients underwent a full clinical assessment. Results: Based on our results, the NSSI + FED group was characterized by higher rates of binging/purging behaviors, greater prevalence of Cyclothymic Disorder, and a more severe clinical presentation compared to the non-comorbid groups. Moreover, higher levels of suicidal ideation were found in the NSSI + FED group. Pharmacological treatment patterns also differed, with SSRI being prescribed more frequently to NSSI + FED patients while mood stabilizers were prescribed more frequently to NSSI ones. A Principal Component Analysis identified four main dimensions: "Body Image" impairment was more pronounced in NSSI + FED patients, indicating negative attitudes towards their own body; "Metacognition" deficits were higher in NSSI than FED. Conclusions: The present study underscores distinctive clinical features in patients with comorbid NSSI and FED, emphasizing the urgent need for tailored intervention strategies focusing on specific symptom domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This narrative review examines the interplay among body image perceptions, social media influence, physical measurements, and their impact on psychological well-being, focusing on the roles of cultural and gender differences and the need to understand the research methodologies employed in this field. In the age of digital proliferation, platforms like Instagram and Facebook have reshaped body image concerns, often leading to increased dissatisfaction and psychological distress due to constant exposure to idealized images and a culture of social comparison. Physical attributes such as weight, height, and BMI are scrutinized under societal standards of health and attractiveness, contributing to a spectrum of mental health issues including low self-esteem, depression, and eating disorders. This examination reveals how cultural norms and gender expectations further complicate body image perceptions, affecting individuals differently based on societal and personal ideals. It synthesizes current research and types of methods to illuminate how these factors together influence mental health and self-esteem, advocating for comprehensive interventions and policy measures aimed at mitigating body dissatisfaction and promoting a healthier, more inclusive understanding of body image. By delving into the complexities of body image satisfaction and its psychological implications, this review highlights the necessity of addressing these concerns within public health and social policy frameworks, underscoring the importance of a multifaceted approach to enhance individual and societal well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) presents significant challenges in aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgery, impacting patient outcomes and well-being. Understanding its prevalence and associated factors is crucial for effective patient care. (2) Methods: A systematic review of national and international databases on body dysmorphic disorder, plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery, reconstructive surgery, and prevalence yielded 999 studies between 1878 and April 2024. Inclusion criteria focused on studies reporting prevalence while excluding those with small sample sizes (<20 participants), unclear diagnostic criteria for BDD, and non-English accessibility. (3) Results: A meta-analysis using a random effects model was conducted on 65 studies involving 17,107 patients to estimate the prevalence of BDD. The overall estimated prevalence of BDD was 18.6%; 10,776 (62.9%) were females, with a mean age of 35.5 ± 11.7 years. Subgroup meta-analysis found significant variability in effect sizes across countries and types of specialty, of which Brazil showed the highest proportion and dermatology exhibited the smallest. Meta-regression analysis found no significant relationship between the year of publication and prevalence rates. (4) Conclusions: Our findings update the current literature on BDD prevalence in aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgery. We emphasize the importance of proactive screening and multidisciplinary care approaches to address the complex challenges posed by patients with BDD. Further research is needed to explore evolving trends in BDD prevalence and factors influencing its expression across different cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The risk of DEB is more prevalent in girls, particularly during adolescence. The onset of DEB can be triggered by many inter-related factors, including biological, social, parental, and psychosocial. To date, very little is known about the determinants of DEBs in Saudi adolescent girls. Using a qualitative analysis, this study explored potential determinants of DEB among adolescent girls in Riyadh. Eighteen semi-structured interviews were carried out with adolescent girls (mean age = 14.06, SD = 0.87) who reported a high risk of DEB (EAT-26 ≥ 20) in intermediate and secondary schools in Riyadh. The mean weight was 51 kg (SD = 11.8) with BMI ranging from 14.18 kg/m2 to 27.51 kg/m2. EAT-26 scores ranged from 21 to 42 (M = 26.8, SD = 5.6). Data were transcribed and revised, then themes and sub-themes were assigned using MAXQDA 24. The most common DEBs reported were dieting and binging, followed by induced vomiting. Major themes were related to negative cognitions, conscious imitation/copying behaviours, bullying, comparisons, and negative comments. Some participants identified the possibility of biological and familial factors in increasing the likelihood of DEB. Our findings provide a framework that could be used to increase understanding of DEB and inform the development of interventions to address underlying causes of DEB in Saudi adolescent girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social media have become integral in adolescents' lives, presenting both opportunities and risks, especially concerning psychiatric issues like eating disorders, prevalent in this vulnerable age group. Methods: This qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews with seven adolescent girls (aged 15–17) diagnosed with eating disorders. Interviews covered seven predefined topics, recorded and transcribed for thematic analysis. Results: Participants identified four key themes: exposure to selective content, biased interpretation, behavioural adaptation, and evolving perspectives during recovery. They highlighted social media's role in exacerbating body dissatisfaction and altering behaviours related to eating disorders. Conclusions: This research underscores the critical need for awareness and guidance in adolescents' social media use to mitigate negative impacts, emphasizing the potential link between exposure to specific content and cognitive-behavioural changes in those with eating disorders. Further investigation is warranted to deepen our comprehension of these dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Body image perception can significantly influence various aspects of adolescent lives. The study analyzed the relationship between body image satisfaction and sports participation in adolescents, examining various factors that contribute to body image concerns and their implications for sports engagement. Methods: A total of 237 schoolchildren were recruited from lower secondary Italian schools. Anthropometric characteristics were measured directly. Assessment of body image perception was performed using Body Silhouette Charts for preadolescent children. The Italian version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents questionnaire was administered to assess physical activity (PA) levels at school and during leisure time in the last 7 days. Analysis of variance was used to test differences in PA levels, while multiple regression models were carried out to assess possible predictors of body dissatisfaction. Results: In total, 42.6% of children were not satisfied with their figure and 23.2% were very dissatisfied; among them, the vast majority would have liked to be thinner. The dissatisfaction and satisfaction were similar in boys and girls. The frequency of satisfaction with one's body image was higher in children who practiced extracurricular sports compared to those who did not. The percentage of dissatisfaction with one's body image was similar in the two groups, but the frequency of children being very dissatisfied was double in the group that does not practice extracurricular sport (31.2% vs. 17.7%). Body dissatisfaction increases with increasing body mass index in both genders but decreases in children involved in extracurricular sports. Conclusions: Encouraging teenagers to engage in regular physical activity should be a key component of therapies supporting positive body image. This study found a relationship between extracurricular sports and body image satisfaction, suggesting that physical activity protects teenagers' body image satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to generate defect images of body parts using a GAN (generative adversarial network) and compare and analyze the performance of the YOLO (You Only Look Once) v7 and v8 object detection models. The goal is to accurately judge good and defective products. Quality control is very important in the automobile industry, and defects in body parts directly affect vehicle safety, so the development of highly accurate defect detection technology is essential. This study ensures data diversity by generating defect images of car body parts using a GAN and through this, compares and analyzes the object detection performance of the YOLO v7 and v8 models to present an optimal solution for detecting defects in car parts. Through experiments, the dataset was expanded by adding fake defect images generated by the GAN. The performance experiments of the YOLO v7 and v8 models based on the data obtained through this approach demonstrated that YOLO v8 effectively identifies objects even with a smaller amount of data. It was confirmed that defects could be detected. The readout of the detection system can be improved through software calibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human body generates infrared radiation through the thermal movement of molecules. Based on this phenomenon, infrared images of the human body are often used for monitoring and tracking. Among them, key point location on infrared images of the human body is an important technology in medical infrared image processing. However, the fuzzy edges, poor detail resolution, and uneven brightness distribution of the infrared image of the human body cause great difficulties in positioning. Therefore, how to improve the positioning accuracy of key points in human infrared images has become the main research direction. In this study, a multi-scale convolution fusion deep residual network (Mscf-ResNet) model is proposed for human body infrared image positioning. This model is based on the traditional ResNet, changing the single-scale convolution to multi-scale and fusing the information of different receptive fields, so that the extracted features are more abundant and the degradation problem, caused by the excessively deep network, is avoided. The experiments show that our proposed method has higher key point positioning accuracy than other methods. At the same time, because the network structure of this paper is too deep, there are too many parameters and a large volume of calculations. Therefore, a more lightweight network model is the direction of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical activity (PA), mental health, and body image are some important health topics in the transgender population that have been recently discussed and appear to play a crucial role in the quality of life of the trans population. This study aims to elucidate the complex interplay of these variables and their implications for the well-being of trans individuals. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 75 Portuguese transgender individuals (M = 23.68; SD ± 6.59) were recruited to participate in this study. The participants completed three questionnaires related to the assessment of physical activity (IPAQ), depressive and anxious symptomatology (HADS), and satisfaction with body image (BISQp). Results: Trans individuals showed a total energy expenditure of 3316.40 metabolic equivalent tasks (METS), had a moderate level of anxiety symptomatology, and low levels of satisfaction with body image. Satisfaction with body image was negatively associated with anxiety (r = −0.441, p < 0.01) and depression symptomatology (r = −0.600, p < 0.01). Conclusions: The implementation of inclusive programs that promote body acceptance and coping strategies, particularly within the context of physical exercise, may help alleviate distress related to body image dissatisfaction while also addressing underlying anxiety and depression symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eating disorders and body image concerns are increasingly prevalent issues among young individuals, with medical students being particularly vulnerable due to heightened stress levels. This study enrolled 879 medical students to investigate these concerns. The KomPAN questionnaire was utilized to assess dietary habits and knowledge, the Body Esteem Scale (BES) to evaluate body satisfaction, and The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) to identify eating disorders. A higher level of nutritional knowledge was found to be statistically significantly associated with attempts at excessive calorie restriction among women (β = 0.0864) and negatively among men (β = −0.2039). Moreover, it was negatively associated with self-control of food intake only among men (β = −0.2060). Furthermore, a higher BMI was associated with attempts of excessive calorie restriction in both women and men (β = 0.1052 and β = 0.1656, respectively) and negatively with self-control of food intake (β = −0.0813 and β = −0.1453, respectively). A higher BMI was associated with poorer body esteem across all variables in both genders, except for upper body strength among men. Nutritional knowledge did not correspond with any of these variables, while dietary quality was positively associated with physical condition in women and with physical condition, physical attractiveness, and upper body strength in men. Our study findings suggest that dietary interventions could be improved by considering gender-based behavioral differences and focusing on portion control for individuals with a higher BMI. Caution is warranted in extrapolating the results to the general population due to the specific nature of the study population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spirituality-centered cognitive therapy refers to the way in which people search for and express the meaning and purpose of their lives, as well as experience connection with themselves, others, nature, and spirituality. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of spirituality-centered cognitive therapy on body image, sexual function, disease perception, and disturbing thoughts in women after mastectomy. This was semi-experimental research, which was conducted via a pre-test–post-test method and had a control group. The samples included 85 women with breast cancer who had undergone mastectomy, and, based on the inclusion criteria, 78 individuals were randomly selected and were then divided into two groups (39 individuals in the intervention group and 39 individuals in the control group). The intervention group received eight 120 min sessions of spirituality-centered cognitive therapy, and the control group did not receive any training. Data were collected using questionnaires on illness perception, body image, sexual function, and rumination and were then analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measurements using SPSS-24. Before the training, there was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in the scores obtained by the scales. After the intervention, the mean scores in all scales except sexual function were significantly different from the control group. Therefore, spirituality-centered cognitive therapy may be useful for improving negative psychological symptoms among women in Iran with breast cancer after mastectomy surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since psychological and social factors are especially prominent among the multiple causes of eating disorders, we argue that school, a meeting place among equals and thus a locus for the transmission of values and attitudes, can play an important role in preventing these disorders. This article's main objective is to verify whether the physical education (PE) class can become an arena for transferring and learning that prevent eating disorders, analyzing teachers' perceptions of the program development "Psychology for Nutrition and Physical Activity in the Prevention of Eating Disorders" (P-NAF) and specifically: (1) analyzing what teachers know and believe about preventing eating disorders; (2) analyzing the relationship between PE sessions and the acquisition of skills for the prevention of eating disorders; and (3) verifying whether the strategies proposed in the program P-NAF help teachers develop skills for the prevention of eating disorders. We conducted semi-structured interviews with physical education teachers (six women and six men) from five educational institutions in southern Spain. We organized their responses into four blocks: (1) self-esteem, (2) social skills, (3) satisfaction with body image, and (4) nutrition. The results show that physical education teachers are poorly trained in eating disorders, in their detection, as well as their treatment. In particular, there is little communication between health professionals and teachers to provide the information needed to develop effective intervention programs. However, after participating in the Psychology for Nutrition and Physical Activity program, the teachers improved both their knowledge and educational tools when it comes to transmitting that knowledge. We conclude that this program is effective in its objectives and that it should be presented more widely to physical education teachers who work directly with young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to enhance the matting performance in multi-person dynamic scenarios, we introduce a robust, real-time, high-resolution, and controllable human video matting method that achieves state of the art on all metrics. Unlike most existing methods that perform video matting frame by frame as independent images, we design a unified architecture using a controllable generation model to solve the problem of the lack of overall semantic information in multi-person video. Our method, called ControlMatting, uses an independent recurrent architecture to exploit temporal information in videos and achieves significant improvements in temporal coherence and detailed matting quality. ControlMatting adopts a mixed training strategy comprised of matting and a semantic segmentation dataset, which effectively improves the semantic understanding ability of the model. Furthermore, we propose a novel deep learning-based image filter algorithm that enforces our detailed augmentation ability on both matting and segmentation objectives. Our experiments have proved that prior information about the human body from the image itself can effectively combat the defect masking problem caused by complex dynamic scenarios with multiple people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes is one of the fastest spreading diseases in the 21st century. The aim of the study is twofold: (1) to find differences in personality traits, self-esteem, body-esteem, and imagery between healthy women and women with diabetes; (2) to verify whether there are differences in the analyzed factors among women with diabetes who engage in sports compared to those who do not. We used 3 questionnaires: Imagination in Sport—short form, Self-Esteem Scale (SES), and BFIS Personality, which were tested online. We found that women with diabetes were characterized by significantly higher neuroticism, lower extraversion, and higher conscientiousness (marginally significant). We also found that women with diabetes who practice sport rated their bodies more highly in terms of sexual attractiveness and made better use of imagined affirmations than women without diabetes who were not active. Our study provides new insights into diabetics in terms of women navigating the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Cancer stands as a leading cause of death globally and remains a significant threat to public health in developed nations. With an anticipated rise in cancer cases, the number of survivors is also expected to increase, many of whom grapple with distorted body image perception. Addressing the common poor quality of life among cancer patients and survivors necessitates monitoring emotions and body perception to mitigate psychological burdens. Given the strain on healthcare resources, exploring automated screening methods for cancer patients is crucial. This article proposes leveraging Natural Language Processing for monitoring body image perception in enterally fed patients with head and neck or upper gastrointestinal tract cancers, offering potential advancements in care delivery and patient support within oncology settings. Background: Psycho-oncology care has emerged as a significant concern in contemporary oncology practice, given its profound impact on patient psychological well-being. Patients undergoing treatment for head–neck or upper gastrointestinal tract cancers often experience complex emotional and psychological challenges, necessitating specialized support and intervention. Traditional approaches to psycho-oncological care may be limited in their ability to comprehensively assess and address patients' needs. Therefore, exploring innovative methodologies, such as leveraging natural language processing (NLP) elements, is crucial to enhancing the effectiveness of psycho-oncological interventions. Methods: In this study, we developed a method utilizing natural language processing (NLP) elements to augment psycho-oncological care for patients with head–neck or upper gastrointestinal tract cancers. The method aimed to facilitate vocabulary, sentiment, and intensity analysis of five basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear), as well as to explore potential areas of difficulty such as body image, pain, and self-esteem. We conducted research involving 50 patients across three treatment stages. Results: Our method facilitated the identification of characteristic features at each treatment stage, aiding in the tailoring of appropriate therapies to individual patient needs. The results offer insights valuable to psychologists and psychiatrists for expedited diagnosis and intervention, potentially influencing therapy outcomes. Additionally, the data may inform treatment decisions by addressing patient-specific concerns. Furthermore, our method holds promise for optimizing the allocation of psychological care resources, particularly at the initial stages of patient contact. Limitations: The main problem in the research was the fairly wide age range of participants, which explains the potential diversity of vocabulary. Conclusion: In conclusion, our study demonstrates the potential utility of integrating natural language processing (NLP) elements into psycho-oncological care for patients with head–neck or upper gastrointestinal tract cancers. The developed method offers a novel approach to comprehensively assessing patients' emotional states and areas of difficulty, thereby facilitating tailored interventions and treatment planning. These findings underscore the importance of continued research and innovation in psycho-oncology to enhance patient care and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood overweight and obesity is a worldwide problem and to treat it parents' detection has to be improved. The MapMe Body Image Scales (BIS) are a visual tool developed to improve parental perception of child weight in the United Kingdon (UK) based on British growth reference criteria. The aim of this study was to make a transcultural adaptation and validation of the MapMe BIS in Spain based on International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) cut offs A descriptive cross-sectional study was done. First, a translation and cultural adaptation was carried out. A total of 155 10–11-year-old children and their parents participated in this study. Children were measured to calculate their weight status, Body Mass Index (BMI), Body Fat Percentage (BFP) and Waist Circumference (WC), and their parents completed a purpose designed questionnaire about their perception and satisfaction of child's body weight status using the adapted BIS. Test-retest reliability, criterion validity and concurrent validity of the adapted BIS were analyzed. This study shows that the adapted MapMe BIS has good psychometric properties and is a suitable visual scale to assess parental perception of weight status in 10 and 11-year-old children in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]