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Bilateral gait symmetry is an essential requirement for normal walking since asymmetric gait patterns increase the risk of falls and injuries. While human gait control heavily relies on the contribution of sensory inputs, the role of sensory systems in producing symmetric gait has remained unclear. This study evaluated the influence of vision as a dominant sensory system on symmetric gait production. Ten healthy adults performed treadmill walking with and without vision. Twenty-two gait parameters including ground reaction forces, joint range of motion, and other spatial–temporal gait variables were evaluated to quantify gait symmetry and compared between both visual conditions. Visual block caused increased asymmetry in most parameters of ground reaction force, however mainly in the vertical direction. When vision was blocked, symmetry of the ankle and knee joint range of motion decreased, but this change did not occur in the hip joint. Stance and swing time symmetry decreased during no-vision walking while no significant difference was found for step length symmetry between the two conditions. This study provides a comprehensive analysis to reveal how the visual system influences bilateral gait symmetry and highlights the important role of vision in gait control. This approach could be applied to investigate how vision alters gait symmetry in patients with disorders to help better understand the role of vision in pathological gaits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to compare the effect of a land-based and a swimming-based exercise program on balance abilities in children with autism. Thirty children were voluntarily selected and randomly assigned to karate exercise, aquatic training and control groups. Participants practiced for 10 weeks, 2 sessions of 60 min per week. Before and after the 10-week intervention, static and dynamic balance tests were administered. The results showed that both interventions had a significant effect on balance abilities (p < 0.001); interestingly, we found the greater improvement in balance performance in kata techniques group. Due to the importance of balance performance on daily functions, communication and interaction skills, karate and swimming exercises can be the valuable interventions added to autism's daily programs.

Background: The objective of this current research is to examine the impacts of a physical activity intervention on sleep quality and executive functions. Specifically, we will examine whether moderate-intensity resistance training has a more beneficial impact on sleep quality and executive functions among a sample of male adolescent than an active control condition. Method: Male children, aged 12-14 years as participants were enlisted to participate in the ongoing intervention study. Subsequently, they were randomly allocated to either a resistance training or to an active control condition. Participants were under go sleep quality and executive function tests included inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility at the start of the study, eight weeks following the interventions conclusion, and once more, four weeks later during the follow-up period. The resistance intervention was consist of three 45min group sessions per week, across eight consecutive weeks. Results: Result showed that compared to an active control condition and compared to the baseline, participating in the resistance training program lead to significant improvements in sleep quality and execution functions over time. Conclusion: The findings of the present study have the potential to provide guidance to physical educators, parents or to children themselves regarding the question of how they can effectively improve their sleep, physical fitness and cognitive performance, which in turn might have a positive effect on their academic function and their perceived quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ports as one the most important parts of the maritime transport system play a paramount role in world trade. The set of designed and implemented processes in ports can significantly impact the surrounding environment. Therefore, the environmental consequences associated with a variety of activities and processes in ports can threaten sustainable global development. Thus, this study was designed and conducted with the aim of developing a tool for environmental performance evaluation in ports. Twenty-five experts in the field of environment and marine sciences participated in the present study. The study was conducted in three rounds based on the Delphi technique in the years 2019-2020. The index of coefficient variation (CV) and acceptance criteria for each of the parameters in this study were considered <20% and 4≤, respectively. The validity of this tool was evaluated using the content validity index (CVI) and content validity ratio (CVR). In addition, its reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. CV index in the third round of this Delphi was 0.08. Therefore, the green ports performance evaluation questionnaire was developed with six factors and 32 parameters after three Delphi rounds. These six factors of environmental performance included reactive performance (5 parameters), proactive performance (5 parameters), sustainability (5 parameters), sociocultural (6 parameters), economic (5 parameters), and governance (6 parameters). The results of the validity evaluation showed that the CVR and CVI of this developed questionnaire were 0.875 and 0.906, respectively. In addition, based on Cronbach's alpha coefficient, the reliability of this tool was estimated to be α=0.92. The findings indicated that the developed tool for evaluating the environmental performance in ports had good validity and reliability. Therefore, this tool can be used as an acceptable estimator of the ports' environmental performance in the maritime transport system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appropriate environmental performance is considered one of the most important indicators in the sustainable development of organizations and industries. Evaluating the environmental performance in ports as one of the two main parts of the maritime transport system is of particular importance. Therefore, the current study was designed and conducted to develop a method for evaluating the environmental performance of ports based on the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP). In the present study, 22 experts in the field of environment and marine sciences were selected in 2020. Firstly, various studies on the factors affecting the environmental performance of ports were reviewed. Secondly, a questionnaire was designed to assess ports' environmental performance. Thirdly, this questionnaire was developed using the Delphi technique. Finally, by determining the weight of each parameter, the method of environmental performance assessment in ports was developed based on the FAHP. The final normalized weights for six environmental performance factors including reactive and proactive performance, sustainability, socio-cultural, economic, and governance were estimated 0.202, 0.241, 0.226, 0.070, 0.080, and 0.182. Additionally, it was found that each of the parameters had a different weight and impact on these factors. The highest and lowest impact on the environmental performance index belonged to environmental risk assessment (weight=0.217), cultural effects, and justice (weight=0.107). In the current study, a new method was developed for evaluating the environmental performance of ports based on six factors, 32 parameters, and FAHP. Therefore, this method may provide an effective step in reducing environmental impacts and improving the level of environmental performance in ports to achieve the goal of green port. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Active lifestyle during pregnancy will have a constant impact on mother and Infant. The research aimed to investigate the effects of maternal activity during pregnancy on the child's cognitive development during the three months after birth. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 40 mother-child pairs were selected and randomly divided into two experimental group and control group. The experimental group benefited from 16 sessions of 50 minutes of physical intervention and control group did not have regular physical activity. Finally, the infants of two groups were evaluated by Ages-Stage questionnaire (ASQ 3) in two periods of one and three months. In order to examine the hypothesis, they were used repeated measure analysis of variance and independent t test for the investigation of differences between the two groups. All statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS-22 software. Results: The results showed that maternal physical exercise in the experimental group improved the problem solving skills and the main effect of time (F=27.55, P=0.001) and group (F=78.13, P=0.001) was significant. Conclusion: The obtained results confirmed that physical activity during pregnancy can increase the infant's cognitive development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results of previous studies on Parameter Precuing Technique suggested a relationship between reaction time (RT) and number and nature of precued parameters. Most of these studies only examined aiming movements as the experimental tasks. The present study was designed in order to test the effect of the nature of precued parameters on RT in a force production task. A mixed 3 factorial design was performed on non athlete right handed volunteer students (n=16; age=20 to 25). Having applied "Parameter Precuing Apparatus", subjects performed 2400 trials over 5 sessions on successive days (4 blocks of 120 trials per session) under different precued conditions of precuing. The task required production of defined isometric force (3 or 6 kg) toward inside or outside, with the right or left upper limb as quickly and accurately as possible after displaying the stimulus preceded by the precue. The subjects' RT in different levels of independent variable were analyzed by using 3 factor experiments (nature of precued parameter*gender*session) with repeated measures on two of the factors (type of precued parameter & session). It was found that the main effects of nature of precued parameter and session were significant (p<0.05); but the main effect of gender, interaction of nature of precued parameter and gender, and gender and session were not significant (p>0.05). The results are discussed in relation to their significance in the context of current theories and hypotheses on movement programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]