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The impact of COVID-19 on social life has been drastic and global. However, the different numbers of cases and different actions in different countries have been leading to various interesting yet unexplored effects on human behavior. In the present study, we compare the physical activity and recreational screen time of a representative sample of 1711 4- to 17-year-olds before and during the strictest time of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Germany. We found that sports activity declined whereas recreational screen time increased. However, a substantial increase in habitual physical activities leads to an overall increase in physical activity among children and adolescents in Germany. The effects differ in size but not in their direction between age groups and are stable for boys and girls. We conclude from this natural experiment that physical activity among children and adolescents is highly context-driven and mutual and does not act as a functional opposite to recreational screen time.

Accurate navigation to a desired goal requires consecutive estimates of spatial relationships between the current position and future destination throughout the journey. Although neurons in the hippocampal formation can represent the position of an animal as well as its nearby trajectories 1 – 7 , their role in determining the destination of the animal has been questioned 8 , 9 . It is, thus, unclear whether the brain can possess a precise estimate of target location during active environmental exploration. Here we describe neurons in the rat orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) that form spatial representations persistently pointing to the subsequent goal destination of an animal throughout navigation. This destination coding emerges before the onset of navigation, without direct sensory access to a distal goal, and even predicts the incorrect destination of an animal at the beginning of an error trial. Goal representations in the OFC are maintained by destination-specific neural ensemble dynamics, and their brief perturbation at the onset of a journey led to a navigational error. These findings suggest that the OFC is part of the internal goal map of the brain, enabling animals to navigate precisely to a chosen destination that is beyond the range of sensory perception. Dedicated cells in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex map an animal s instantaneous position in space; by contrast, its future goal location is represented in the orbitofrontal cortex, a structure within the broader circuit.

Background Adequate physical activity is essential to maintain and improve physical health, including in adolescents and young adults. A significant part of physical activity is sports activity. However, few longitudinal studies cover the transition from adolescence to early adulthood. Therefore, the aim is to assess how the maintenance or a change in sports activity during this transition relates to physical fitness, BMI, and recurrent pain. Methods Data of 947 adolescents aged 11 - 17 years (53 % girls) from the Momo baseline (2003 - 2006) that were followed up at MoMo Wave 1 (2009 - 2012) were used. Sports activity was categorized (> 240 min/wk sports activity vs. ≤ 240 min/wk) and change patterns over time were calculated (maintain active, maintain passive, increasing, decreasing). Separate ANOVAs were used to analyze the difference in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), push-ups, standing long jump, and BMI at wave 1 between the sports activity groups. A logistic regression was used to assess the difference in the occurrence of recurrent headaches at wave 1 between groups. All analyses were controlled for sex and age, and post-Hoc-Tests were conducted where applicable. Results The analysis revealed significant differences between the activity groups at the follow-up for CRF (F(3, 502) = 13.65, p < .001), push-ups (F(3, 599) = 10.45, p < .001), and standing long jump (F(3, 601) = 12.03, p < .001). There were no significant differences in BMI between the groups (F(3, 610) = 0.08, p = .970). The odds for the low active group were two times higher to report recurrent headaches at the second measure compared to the consistently active ones. Conclusion Participating in sports regularly from adolescence to early adulthood is associated with the strongest health benefits. Nevertheless, those who were less active initially but increased their sports activity had similar health outcomes, highlighting the importance of sports activity as part of a healthy lifestyle in young adulthood.

With digitalization and virtual entertainment being the megatrends of the 21st century, there is reasonable concern about the role of physical activity (PA) in the daily life of children and adolescents. To identify risk-groups with insufficient PA and to guide interventions, continuous and representative tracking of PA is crucial. In this paper, representative PA data of children and adolescents from the Motorik-Modul (MoMo) baseline study (2003-2006, N = 4,528) is compared to those of Wave 2 (2014-2017, N = 3,708). Participants aged 4-17 were drawn out of 167 sample points in Germany and the data was weighted to ensure representativeness for Germany. Organized (sports clubs and schools) and unorganized (unorganized sports and playing outside) PA was measured by questionnaire and stratified by sex, age, and socioeconomic status. Contrary to common expectation, overall PA remained stable among youths in the past ten years, however, there is an ongoing trend towards organized forms of PA at the expense of unorganized sports and playing outside. Besides different trends in settings, there is inequality in PA distribution among socioeconomic status and gender, unequally pronounced in different settings. (Autor).

Reduced physical activity (PA) and prolonged screen time (ST) negatively influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL), a protective factor against illness and mortality. Studies addressing the relationship between PA, ST, and mental health in youth are scarce, especially in times with high mental health burdens like the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this examination was to investigate whether PA, ST, and HRQoL before COVID-19 predict PA, ST, and HRQoL during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants from the Motorik-Modul Study (MoMo; N = 1711; Mage = 10.36 (SD = 4.04) years, female = 49.8%; healthy weight = 76.8%) self-reported their PA and ST as well as HRQoL both before and during COVID-19. Relationships of all variables, from before to during COVID-19, were investigated through a path prediction model. Results showed all variables during COVID-19 were predicted by the respective levels before COVID-19, independent of gender and age. Cross-lags revealed a negative influence of before COVID-19 ST on during COVID-19 PA. HRQoL before COVID-19 was positively associated with during COVID-19 PA in children younger than 10 years and females, but not in adolescents and boys. As age- and gender-independent negative influence of before COVID-19 ST on during COVID-19 PA has been detected, health policy may be advised to focus on a general reduction in ST instead of PA enhancement to ensure high PA levels.

Background As children show a more complex but less structured movement behavior than adults, assessment of their many spontaneous and impulsive movements is a challenge for physical activity (PA) assessment. Since neither questionnaires nor accelerometers enable optimal detection of all facets of PA, a multimodal, combined approach of self-reported and device-based methods is recommended. Based on the number of days on which the participants reached the physical activity (PA) values given in the WHO guideline, this study examines 1) the difference between self-reported and device-based, measured PA and 2) whether PA differences between age and gender groups obtained by two methods are comparable. Methods Participants aged 6–17 years were randomly chosen and data were collected representatively at 167 sample points throughout Germany within the Motorik-Modul Study. PA of n  = 2694 participants (52.3% female) was measured using the ActiGraph accelerometer (ACC) and a physical activity questionnaire (PAQ). The sample was divided into three age groups (6–10 yrs. n  = 788, 11–13 yrs. n  = 823, 14–17 yrs. n  = 1083). Numbers of days per week with at least 60 min moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) were analyzed for both methods. Results Only every 25th respondent (4%) reaches the WHO standard of 60 min MVPA every day if measured with ACC. Self-reported PA was slightly higher (9%) (mean PAQ  = 3.82 days; mean ACC  = 2.34 days; F method  = 915.85; p =  <.001; f Cohen  = .64). The differences between the methods are significantly smaller in younger children than in the older age groups ( F age  = 264.2, p  < .001; f Cohen  = .48). The older the subjects are, the lower is the proportion of those who meet the WHO guideline on each day, with girls meeting the guideline less frequently than boys in all age groups. Conclusion Children and adolescents living in Germany show a very low adherence to the WHO guideline on PA. While younger children are much more active with their free play, especially children over 10 years of age and especially girls should be the target of programs to increase PA.

IntroductionRegular physical activity (PA) and good motor performance are essential for children’s physical and mental health. However, historical trends suggest that levels of PA and motor performance in children and adolescents are at a low point. The relationships between PA, motor performance, health and their respective determinants, as well as their individual development throughout childhood and adolescence, are not yet fully understood. Therefore, continuous monitoring of PA, motor performance and health is needed to identify vulnerable subpopulations and provide data for policy-makers and health promotion professionals. The Motorik Monitoring 2.0-Study aims to analyse the developmental, historical and periodic trends in motor performance and PA, as well as the underlying determinants, in children and adolescents in Germany.Methods and analysisA representative sample of children and adolescents aged 4–17 years is drawn across 195 sample points in Germany. The assessment, carried out by test instructors, includes (1) a PA questionnaire covering different settings, including determinants, (2) anthropometric measures, (3) fine and gross motor performance tests focusing on coordination, flexibility, strength and endurance, (4) 24 hours device-based measured physical behaviour by accelerometry for 1 week and (5) a health interview focusing on health behaviour, physical and mental health as well as socioeconomic status. In addition, external data may be linked to the study using geographical information systems (eg, area deprivation, access to sports facilities). Analyses will be conducted using mixed-effects models to account for the nationwide structure of the study.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Results will be published in open-access scientific journals and disseminated at congresses for scientists, policy-makers and stakeholders.Trial registration numberThe study was registered in the NFDI4health database (https://csh.nfdi4health.de/resource/1034). The NFDI4health database is a central platform of the National Research Data Infrastructure for Personal Health Data. It is used to collect, manage and provide health data for scientific research and facilitates access to high-quality data for epidemiological and clinical studies.

Lithium niobate is a material of special interest for its challenging functional properties, which can suit various applications. However, high quality 200‐mm LixNb1‐xO3 thin film grown on sapphire substrate have never been reported so far which limits these potential applications. This paper reports the efficient optimization of high quality LiNbO3 thin film deposition on sapphire (001) substrate through chemical beam vapor deposition in a combinatorial configuration. With this technique, flow ratio of Li/Nb can be tuned from ≈0.25 to ≈2.45 on a single wafer. Various complementary characterizations (by means of diffraction, microscopy and spectroscopy techniques) have been performed at different areas of the film (different cationic ratios) in order to investigate the impact of the cationic stoichiometry deviation on the film properties. Close to cationic stoichiometry (LiNbO3), the epitaxial films are of high quality (single phase in spite of two in‐plane domains, low mosaicity of 0.04°, low surface roughness, refractive index and band gap close to bulk values). Deviating from the stoichiometry conditions, secondary phases are detected (LiNb3O8 for Nb‐rich flow ratios, and Li3NbO4 with partial amorphization for Li‐rich flow ratios). LiNbO3 films are of high interest for various key applications in data communications among others. chemical beam vapor deposition in a combinatorial configuration allows a fine tuning of Li/Nb flow ratio from ≈0.25 to ≈2.45 on a single wafer. This approach produces high quality LiNbO3 thin film on sapphire (001) substrate with light propagation behaviour promising for photonic applications.

In addition to screening for cardiovascular risk factors we are sending patients for 24 h blood pressure monitoring as nocturnal dipping is an associated risk factor. 5 Carotid stenosis can cause distal hypoperfusion increasing the risk of the ischaemic cascade producing NAION, 6 thus carotid Dopplers are also requested.