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Background: Interdependencies of health, fitness, cognition, and emotion can promote or inhibit mobility. This study aimed to analyse pathways and interactions between individual subjective and objective physical performance, cognition, and emotions with activities of daily living (ADLs) as mobility indicators in multimorbid nursing home residents., Methods: The study included n = 448 (77.1% females, age = 84.1 ± 7.8 years) nursing home residents. To describe the participant's demographics, frailty, number of falls, and participating institutions' socioeconomic status (SES) were assessed. ADLs were measured with the Barthel Index (BI; dependent variable). Independent variables included objective physical performance, subjective physical performance, cognition, and emotions. A structural equation model (SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation was conducted with AMOS. Direct and indirect effects were estimated using standardized coefficients (significance level of 0.05)., Results: Indices showed (Chi 2 (148) = 217, PCMIN/DF = 1.47; p < .001; Comparative Fit Index = .940; Tucker Lewes Index = .902, RMSEA = .033) that the model fitted the data adequately. While there was no direct association between emotions, subjective physical performance, and ADLs, objective physical performance and cognition predicted higher ADLs (p < .01). Emotions had a strong relationship with subjective physical performance, and cognition had a moderate relationship with objective physical performance., Discussion and Conclusion: Objective performance and cognition predicted higher functional status, as expressed by higher BI scores. ADLs, such as mobility, dressing, or handling tasks, require motor and cognitive performance. Subjective performance is an important predictor of ADLs and is only partly explained by objective performance, but to a large extent also by emotions. Therefore, future interventions for nursing home residents should take a holistic approach that focuses not only on promoting objective physical and cognitive performance but also on emotions and perceived physical performance., Trial Registration: Trial registration number: DRKS00014957., (© 2023. European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity (EGRIPA).)

Some of the online explainer videos for physics present misconceptions as scientifically correct explanations. Even so, some of these videos achieve good ratings on online platforms. A possible reason is that explainer videos with misconceptions foster an "illusion of understanding"-the mistaken belief that a topic has been understood. Misconceptions close to everyday experiences might appear more attractive than scientifically correct explanations. This experimental study ( N  = 149 physics learners with a low prior knowledge on average, sample of convenience) was conducted to explore this effect. Two explainer videos were developed to be comparable in terms of comprehensibility and duration. The explanatory approach was the only difference between the two videos. While the experimental group watched a video introducing the concept of force using misconceptions, the control group watched a scientifically correct video. Learners from the experimental group developed an equal belief of understanding, but more misconceptions and fewer scientifically correct conceptions than those from the control group. We argue that this illusion of understanding might become problematic (a) in physics instruction because students who have watched a misleading video might regard further teaching in school as irrelevant, and (b) learners might tend to rate videos including misconceptions better on an online platform like YouTube. Future studies should examine these two possible consequences., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no competing interests., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, many universities switched to fully online teaching. This unexpected switching to online teaching was challenging for both teachers and students, and restrictions that were put in place because of pandemic made this challenge even greater. However, new ways of teaching might also open new opportunities for students' learning. The research question driving our study was as follows: how do students regulate their learning and specifically their choice of resources and peer learning in university mathematics classes that are fully taught online as offered during the COVID-19 pandemic? We report on a longitudinal, qualitative study in which students recorded a brief audio diary twice a week over one whole semester (14 weeks). We focused on three students who completed 70 interviews in total and finished the semester with varying degrees of success. The results show how the students structured their studying (e.g., the roles that deadlines or synchronous teaching events played). They illustrate the strengths and limitations of digital materials provided by the lecturer and the use of complementary media. Further, the pandemic uncovered the double-edged role of simple, often anonymous exchanges (e.g., via Discord servers), with few binding forces for either side, and the significance of stable learning partnerships for students' success. Our research highlights aspects that should be focal points when comparing traditional instruction and online instruction during the pandemic from a self-regulatory perspective. Practical implications refer to how these aspects can be combined sensibly in fully online courses, but also in blended learning contexts., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

The formalization and solution of supplier selection problems (SSPs) based on sustainable (economic, environmental, and social) indicators have become a fundamental tool to perform a strategic analysis of the whole supply chain process and maximize the competitive advantage of firms. Over the last decade, sustainability issues have been often considered in combination with resilient indexes leading to the study of sustainable-resilient supplier selection problems (SRSSPs). The current research on sustainable development, particularly concerned with the strong impact that the recent COVID-19 pandemic has had on supply chains, has been paying increasing attention to the resilience concept and its role within SSPs. This study proposes a hybrid fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method to solve SRSSPs. The fuzzy best-worst method is used first to determine the importance weights of the selection criteria. A combined grey relational analysis and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is used next to evaluate the suppliers in a fuzzy environment. Triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs) are used to express the weights of criteria and alternatives to account for the ambiguity and uncertainty inherent to subjective evaluations. However, the proposed method can be easily extended to other fuzzy settings depending on the uncertainty facing managers and decision-makers. A real-life application is presented to demonstrate the applicability and efficacy of the proposed model. Sixteen evaluation criteria are identified and classified as economic, environmental, social, or resilient. The results obtained through the case study show that "pollution control," "environmental management system," and "risk awareness" are the most influential criteria when studying SRSSPs related to the manufacturing industry. Finally, three different sensitivity analysis methods are applied to validate the robustness of the proposed framework, namely, changing the weights of the criteria, comparing the results with those of other common fuzzy MCDM methods, and changing the components of the principal decision matrix., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Green supply chain management considers the environmental effects of all activities related to the supply chain, from obtaining raw materials to the final delivery of finished goods. Selecting the right supplier is a critical decision in green supply chain management. We propose a fuzzy green supplier selection model for sustainable supply chains in reverse logistics. We define a novel hierarchical fuzzy best-worst method (HFBWM) to determine the importance weights of the green criteria and sub-criteria selected. The fuzzy extension of Shannon's entropy, a more complex evaluation method, is also used to determine the criteria weights, providing a reference comparison benchmark. Several hybrid models integrating both weighting techniques with fuzzy versions of complex proportional assessment (COPRAS), multi-objective optimization by ratio analysis plus the full multiplicative form (MULTIMOORA), and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) are designed to rank the suppliers based on their ability to recycle in reverse logistics. We aggregate these methods' ranking results through a consensus ranking model and illustrate the capacity of relatively simple methods such as fuzzy COPRAS and fuzzy MOORA to provide robust rankings highly correlated with those delivered by more complex techniques such as fuzzy MULTIMOORA. We also find that the ranking results obtained by these hybrid models are more consistent when HFBWM determines the weights. A case study in the asphalt manufacturing industry is presented to demonstrate the proposed methods' applicability and efficacy., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The location-inventory-routing modeling is an integrated and comprehensive approach to the interconnected location planning, inventory management, and vehicle routing problems in supply chain management. Supplier selection and order allocation are critical operational and strategic decisions in green supply chains. Green supply chain management is an environmental approach to sourcing and production that considers sustainability in every supply chain stage. In this study, a novel bi-objective mixed-integer linear programming model is formulated to solve the location-inventory-routing problems in green supply chains with low-carbon emissions under uncertainty. The proposed model is used for supplier selection and order allocation by considering the location priorities, heterogeneous vehicle routing, storage needs, uncertain demand, and backorder shortage. The formulated bi-objective model is solved with a weighted fuzzy multi-objective solution approach coupled with a novel intelligent simulation algorithm to ensure the feasibility of the solution space. We generate and solve different-sized problems to demonstrate the applicability and efficacy of the proposed model., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background and Aims: One reason for the controversial discussion of whether the dual task (DT) walking paradigm has an added value for diagnosis in clinical conditions might be the use of different gait measurement systems. Therefore, the purpose was 1) to detect DT effects of central gait parameters obtained from five different gait analysis devices in young and old adults, 2) to assess the consistency of the measurement systems, and 3) to determine if the absolut and proportional DT costs (DTC) are greater than the system-measurement error under ST., Methods: Twelve old (72.2 ± 7.9y) and 14 young adults (28.3 ± 6.2y) walked a 14.7-m distance under ST and DT at a self-selected gait velocity. Interrater reliability, precision of the measurement and sensitivity to change were calculated under ST and DT., Results: An age effect was observed in almost all gait parameters for the ST condition. For DT only differences for stride length (p < .029, ɳ 2 p  = .239) as well as single and double limb support (p = .036, ɳ 2 p  = .227; p = .034, ɳ 2 p  = .218) remained. The measurement systems showed a lower absolute agreement compared to consistency across all systems., Conclusions: When reporting DT effects, the real changes in performance and random measurement errors should always be accounted for. These findings have strong implications for interpreting DT effects., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Developing countries scramble to contain and mitigate the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and world leaders demand equitable distribution of vaccines to trigger economic recovery. Although numerous strategies, including education, quarantine, and immunization, have been used to control COVID-19, the best method to curb this disease is vaccination. Due to the high demand for COVID 19 vaccine, developing countries must carefully identify and prioritize vulnerable populations and rationalize the vaccine allocation process. This study presents a mixed-integer linear programming model for equitable COVID-19 vaccine distribution in developing countries. Vaccines are grouped into cold, very cold, and ultra-cold categories where specific refrigeration is required for their storage and distribution. The possibility of storage for future periods, facing a shortage, budgetary considerations, manufacturer selection, order allocation, time-dependent capacities, and grouping of the heterogeneous population are among the practical assumptions in the proposed approach. Real-world data is used to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the mathematical programming approach proposed in this study., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe above authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021.)

There is an increasing interest in product recovery, closed-loop supply chains, and reverse logistics (RL) for mitigating environmental impairment. Although RL is becoming a mandatory policy in developed countries, it is still in an embryonic stage in some industrial sectors of emerging economies. The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) identify the critical factors to the successful implementation of RL in the Brazilian pharmaceutical care process (PCP) and (2) determine the cause-and-effect relationships among them. We use snowball sampling to select the relevant RL studies and deductive reasoning and classification to identify the critical factors and a grey decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) to evaluate the cause-and-effect relationships among them. The study revealed management, collaboration, information technology, infrastructure, policy, financial and economic, end-of-life management practices, and logistic performance factors as the most relevant factors to the successful implementation of RL in the Brazilian PCP. The end-of-life management practices were identified as the most critical factor, and information technology was identified as the least critical factor. We further determined the end-of-life management practices and policy have the strongest casual relationship. The municipal PCP coordinators can use the findings of this study to formulate mitigating strategies to identify and eliminate barriers to the successful implementation of RL in the Brazilian PCP.

The construction industry routinely extracts vast quantities of materials and releases deleterious pollutant emissions to the biosphere. In this study, we propose an integrated data envelopment analysis (DEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) method to measure the performance of eco-friendly building materials in green construction management. Initially, we use the LCA method and environmental impact analysis to identify alternative green flooring systems and relevant sustainability criteria. We then use factor analysis to further evaluate these criteria and choose the most significant sustainability factors. Finally, a DEA model and a new enhanced Russell model (ERM) is proposed to measure the performance of the green flooring systems with factor analysis.

Purpose: An increased posterior tibia plateau angle is associated with increased risk for anterior cruciate ligament injury and re-rupture after reconstruction. The aims of this study were to determine whether the tibia plateau angle correlates with dynamic anterior tibia translation (ATT) after an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and whether the tibia plateau angle correlates with aspects of knee kinematics and kinetics during jump landing., Methods: Thirty-seven patients after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with autograft hamstring tendon were included. Knee flexion angle and knee extension moment during single leg hops for distance were determined using a motion capture system and the dynamic ATT with its embedded method. The medial and lateral posterior tibia plateau angle were measured using MRI. Moreover, passive ATT was measured using the KT-1000 arthrometer., Results: A weak negative correlation was found between the maximal dynamic ATT and the medial tibia plateau angle (p = 0.028, r = - 0.36) and between the maximal knee flexion angle and the lateral tibia plateau angle (p = 0.025, r = - 0.37) during landing. Patients with a smaller lateral tibia plateau angle show larger maximal knee flexion angle during landing than the patients with larger lateral tibia plateau angle. Also, the lateral tibia plateau angle is associated the amount of with muscle activity., Conclusion: The posterior medical tibia plateau angle is associated with dynamic ATT. The maximal knee flexion angle and muscle activity are associated with the posterior lateral tibia plateau angle., Level of Evidence: III.

Purpose: It has been reported that there is no correlation between anterior tibia translation (ATT) in passive and dynamic situations. Passive ATT (ATTp) may be different to dynamic ATT (ATTd) due to muscle activation patterns. This study aimed to investigate whether muscle activation during jumping can control ATT in healthy participants., Methods: ATTp of twenty-one healthy participants was measured using a KT-1000 arthrometer. All participants performed single leg hops for distance during which ATTd, knee flexion angles and knee flexion moments were measured using a 3D motion capture system. During both tests, sEMG signals were recorded., Results: A negative correlation was found between ATTp and the maximal ATTd (r = - 0.47, p = 0.028). An N-Way ANOVA showed that larger semitendinosus activity was seen when ATTd was larger, while less biceps femoris activity and rectus femoris activity were seen. Moreover, larger knee extension moment, knee flexion angle and ground reaction force in the anterior-posterior direction were seen when ATTd was larger., Conclusion: Participants with more ATTp showed smaller ATTd during jump landing. Muscle activation did not contribute to reduce ATTd during impact of a jump-landing at the observed knee angles. However, subjects with large ATTp landed with less knee flexion and consequently showed less ATTd. The results of this study give information on how healthy people control knee laxity during jump-landing., Level of Evidence: III.

This study explores key features of bromine and iodine metabolism in the filamentous brown alga and genomics model Ectocarpus siliculosus. Both elements are accumulated in Ectocarpus, albeit at much lower concentration factors (2-3 orders of magnitude for iodine, and < 1 order of magnitude for bromine) than e.g. in the kelp Laminaria digitata. Iodide competitively reduces the accumulation of bromide. Both iodide and bromide are accumulated in the cell wall (apoplast) of Ectocarpus, with minor amounts of bromine also detectable in the cytosol. Ectocarpus emits a range of volatile halogenated compounds, the most prominent of which by far is methyl iodide. Interestingly, biosynthesis of this compound cannot be accounted for by vanadium haloperoxidase since the latter have not been found to catalyze direct halogenation of an unactivated methyl group or hydrocarbon so a methyl halide transferase-type production mechanism is proposed.

In this study, we examined a third variable effect on the relationship of personality traits, especially neuroticism and the salutogenetic concept sense of coherence. Specifically, we were interested in the moderating role of religious trust (RT) and transcendence perception operationalized as daily spiritual experiences (DSE) on the aforementioned relationship among religious individuals. We applied a cross-sectional study among a sample of 8594 pastoral workers using standardized questionnaires. Multiple regression and moderator analysis displayed the relationships between big five personality variables and sense of coherence. Neuroticism was identified as a negative predictor to sense of coherence, indicating impairment on this psychological resource. RT and DSE appear to function as moderators that buffer the negative effects of neuroticism on sense of coherence among religious persons. This is an interesting finding because people with expressions of neurotic personality tendencies often struggle to find helpful methods of coping and may find a helpful resource in the concepts studied here.

Task allocation, and task switching have an important effect on the efficiency of distributed, locally controlled systems such as social insect colonies. Both efficiency and workload distribution are global features of the system which are not directly accessible to workers and can only be sampled locally by an individual in a distributed system. To investigate how the cost of task switching affects global performance we use social wasp societies as a metaphor to construct a simple model system with four interconnected tasks. Our goal is not the accurate description of the behavior of a given species, but to seek general conclusions on the effect of noise and time delay on a behavior that is partitioned into subtasks. In our model a nest structure needs to be constructed by the cooperation of individuals that carry out different tasks: builders, pulp and water foragers, and individuals storing water. We report a simulation study based on a model using delay-differential equations to analyze the trade-off between task switching costs and keeping a high degree of adaptivity in a dynamic, noisy environment. Combining the methods of time-delayed equations and stochastic processes we are able to represent the influence of swarm size and task switching sensitivity. We find that the system is stable for reasonable choices of parameters but shows oscillations for extreme choices of parameters and we find that the system is resilient to perturbations. We identify a trade-off between reaching equilibria of high performance and having short transients.

Enzyme catalyzed phosphate transfer is a part of almost all metabolic processes. Such reactions are of central importance for the energy balance in all organisms and play important roles in cellular control at all levels. Mutases transfer a phosphoryl group while nucleases cleave the phosphodiester linkages between two nucleotides. The subject of our present study is the Lactococcus lactis β-phosphoglucomutase (β-PGM), which effectively catalyzes the interconversion of β-D-glucose-1-phosphate (β-G1P) to β-D-glucose-6-phosphate (β-G6P) and vice versa via stabile intermediate β-D-glucose-1,6-(bis)phosphate (β-G1,6diP) in the presence of Mg(2+). In this paper we revisited the reaction mechanism of the phosphoryl transfer starting from the bisphosphate β-G1,6diP in both directions (toward β-G1P and β-G6P) combining docking techniques and QM/MM theoretical method at the DFT/PBE0 level of theory. In addition we performed NEB (nudged elastic band) and free energy calculations to optimize the path and to identify the transition states and the energies involved in the catalytic cycle. Our calculations reveal that both steps proceed via dissociative pentacoordinated phosphorane, which is not a stabile intermediate but rather a transition state. In addition to the Mg(2+) ion, Ser114 and Lys145 also play important roles in stabilizing the large negative charge on the phosphate through strong coordination with the phosphate oxygens and guiding the phosphate group throughout the catalytic process. The calculated energy barrier of the reaction for the β-G1P to β-G1,6diP step is only slightly higher than for the β-G1,6diP to β-G6P step (16.10 kcal mol(-1) versus 15.10 kcal mol(-1)) and is in excellent agreement with experimental findings (14.65 kcal mol(-1)).

Although neurophysiological aspects have become more important in sports and exercise sciences in the last years, it was not possible to measure cortical activity during performance outside a laboratory due to equipment limits or movement artifacts in particular. With this pilot study we want to investigate whether Electroencephalography (EEG) data obtained in a laboratory golf putting performance differ from a suitable putting task under field conditions. Therefore, parameters of the working memory (frontal Theta and parietal Alpha 2 power) were recorded during these two conditions. Statistical calculations demonstrated a significant difference only for Theta power at F4 regarding the two putting conditions "field" and "laboratory". These findings support the idea that brain activity patterns obtained under laboratory conditions are comparable but not equivalent to those obtained under field conditions. Additionally, we were able to show that the EEG methodology seems to be a reliable tool to observe brain activity under field conditions in a golf putting task. However, considering the still existing problems of movement artifacts during EEG measurements, eligible sports and exercises are limited to those being relatively motionless during execution. Further studies are needed to confirm these pilot results.

Ribonuclease enzymes (RNases) play key roles in the maturation and metabolism of all RNA molecules. Computational simulations of the processes involved can help to elucidate the underlying enzymatic mechanism and is often employed in a synergistic approach together with biochemical experiments. Theoretical calculations require atomistic details regarding the starting geometries of the molecules involved, which, in the absence of crystallographic data, can only be achieved from computational docking studies. Fortunately, docking algorithms have improved tremendously in recent years, so that reliable structures of enzyme-ligand complexes can now be successfully obtained from computation. However, most docking programs are not particularly optimized for nucleotide docking. In order to assist our studies on the cleavage of RNA by the two most important ribonuclease enzymes, RNase A and RNase H, we evaluated four docking tools-MOE2009, Glide 5.5, QXP-Flo+0802, and Autodock 4.0-for their ability to simulate complexes between these enzymes and RNA oligomers. To validate our results, we analyzed the docking results with respect to the known key interactions between the protein and the nucleotide. In addition, we compared the predicted complexes with X-ray structures of the mutated enzyme as well as with structures obtained from previous calculations. In this manner, we were able to prepare the desired reaction state complex so that it could be used as the starting structure for further DFT/B3LYP QM/MM reaction mechanism studies.

Induction of matrix synthesis by low-level laser has been demonstrated extensively. However, the question of dose- or power intensity-dependency is under-investigated. To address this issue we chose human osteoblast cell cultures and measured their alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity after laser irradiation. The cell cultures were irradiated periodically by 690 nm radiation via optical transmission fiber-based laser needles, reaching into the culture dishes. The osteoblasts showed no induction of ALP activity when we used a single laser needle stimulation with a laser irradiance of 51 mW/cm(2), an increase of approximately 43% at 102 mW/cm(2) irradiance (two needles per well) and a ninefold increase at 204 mW/cm(2) irradiance (four needles per well), leaving the temperature of the culture medium unaffected. We concluded that the osteoblastic response in ALP activity to a laser stimulus shows a logarithmic relationship, with a distinct threshold, rather than a linear dose-dependency. Secondly, the laser irradiance, rather than the dose, is relevant for the impact of the laser.

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is one of the fastest enzymes known, even though the active site is buried inside the protein at the end of a 20-A deep narrow gorge. Among the great variety of crystal structures of this enzyme, both in the absence and presence of various ligands and proteins, the structure of a complex of AChE with the pseudo-irreversible inhibitor Mf268 is of particular interest, as it assists in the proposal of a back door for product clearance from the active site. Binding of Mf268 to AChE results in the carbamoylation of Ser200 and liberation of an eseroline-fragment as the leaving group. The crystal structure of the AChE-Mf268 complex, however, proves that eseroline has escaped from the enzyme, despite the fact that the Ser-bound inhibitor fragment blocks the gorge entrance. The existence of alternative routes other than through the gorge for product clearance has been postulated but is still controversially discussed in the literature, as an experimental proof for such a back door is still missing. We have used Monte Carlo-based molecular docking methods in order to examine possible alternative pathways that could allow eseroline to be released from the protein after being cleaved from the substrate by Ser200. Based on our results, a short channel at the bottom of the gorge seems to be the most probable back-door site, which begins at amino acid Trp84 and ends at the enzyme surface in a cavity close to amino acid Glu445. [Figure: see text].

Acetylcholinesterase plays a key role in the development of Alzheimer's disease as this enzyme is responsible for cleavage of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, and, according to recent investigations, also promotes aggregation of beta-amyloid peptides, which causes plaque formation in synaptic areas. We have performed a molecular modeling study to investigate bis-galanthamine derivatives connected by a methylene spacer of varying length as dual acting acetylcholinesterase ligands. Our results suggest that such ligands indeed can interact simultaneously with both biological functions of the enzyme and should therefore serve as the basis for a further development of bis-functional Alzheimer drugs.