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Background Knowing what facilitates and hinders physical activity behaviour across domains (leisure, travel, work or education, and household) is central for the development of actions for more active lifestyles. Thus, the aim of this systematic review of reviews was to summarize the evidence on barriers and facilitators of domain-specific physical activity. Methods We included systematic reviews with or without meta-analysis that investigated the association between modifiable barriers and facilitators and levels of domain-specific physical activity. Reviews published until September 2020 were retrieved from PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, Regional Library of Medicine (BIREME), and PsycNET, and from the reference list of selected articles. Each review was screened by two independent reviewers for eligibility. Data extracted from selected papers included methodological aspects (number of primary studies, study designs, and age groups); physical activity domains and barriers and facilitators investigated; and direction of association. For each pair of barrier/facilitator and domain-specific physical activity, we recorded the number of positive, negative, and null associations reported across reviews. Quality assessment of each systematic review was performed using the AMSTAR-2 tool. Results Forty-four systematic reviews were selected. The evidence base was largest for leisure-time followed by travel-related physical activity. A very small number of reviews included physical activity in work, educational and domestic settings. Across all physical activity domains, factors related to the built environment were more abundant in the reviews than intra and interpersonal factors. Very consistent positive associations were observed between a range of intrapersonal factors and leisure-time physical activity, as well as moderately consistent evidence of positive association for general social support and support from family members. Evidence of moderate consistency was found for the positive association between transport-related physical activity and positive beliefs about consequences, walkability, and existence of facilities that support active travel. Evidence on barriers and facilitators for physical activity at work, educational, and domestic settings was limited in volume and consistency. Conclusions Efforts and resources are required to diversify and strength the evidence base on barriers and facilitators of domain-specific physical activity, as it is still limited and biased towards the leisure domain and built environment factors. Trial registration PROSPERO CRD42020209710.

The deregulation process of the electricity sector has led to competition in wholesale and retail markets. In particular, retailers submit bids to wholesale markets to satisfy the energy needs associated with portfolios of end-use customers. This paper describes a strategic process for retailers bidding in a wholesale market composed of a day-ahead market, an intraday market, and a balancing market. It considers a market design that involves a hybrid model for the intraday market, based on daily auctions and a continuous procedure. The paper also presents a computational study to illustrate and test both the market design and the strategic bidding process of retailers. The results confirm the advantages of considering a continuous intraday market, show that bidding in short-term markets is more beneficial than bidding in medium-term markets, and indicate important aspects to consider when selecting customers to add to the portfolios of retailers.

Electrical energy can be traded in liberalized organized markets or by negotiating private bilateral contracts. Competitive markets are central systems where market players can purchase and sell electrical energy. Bilateral contracting consists typically in a private negotiation of power over several months or years between two parties. Price-based demand response considers the active participation of consumers in electricity markets. Consumers adopt demand response programs when responding to market prices or tariffs, as they change over time. Those tariffs can be proposed by retailers by considering their load shape goals, influencing consumers to change their behavior. Consumers may adopt strategies from two different groups, namely by curtailing energy at times of high prices (e.g., peak and intermediate periods) and rescheduling energy away from those times to other times (shifting). This article considers bilateral contracting in electricity markets with demand response. It investigates how curtailment and shifting affect the energy quantity and energy cost of consumers that adopt a time-of-use tariff involving three block periods (i.e., base, intermediate and peak periods). The results indicate that consumers respond to changes in energy price according to their consumption flexibility, while retailers do not always change energy price in response to consumers’ efforts to change their consumption patterns. On average, by considering a 5% consumption reduction in the intermediate and peak periods by a consumer agent, a retailer agent reduces the energy price only by 1.5%.

Several indigenous cattle breeds in Sweden are endangered. Conservation of their genetic diversity and genomic characterization is a priority. Whole-genome sequences (WGS) with a mean coverage of 25X, ranging from 14 to 41X were obtained for 30 individuals of the breeds Fjällko, Fjällnära, Bohuskulla, Rödkulla, Ringamåla, and Väneko. WGS-based genotyping revealed 22,548,028 variants in total, comprising 18,876,115 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 3,671,913 indels. Out of these, 1,154,779 SNPs and 304,467 indels were novel. Population stratification based on roughly 19 million SNPs showed two major groups of the breeds that correspond to northern and southern breeds. Overall, a higher genetic diversity was observed in the southern breeds compared to the northern breeds. While the population stratification was consistent with previous genome-wide SNP array-based analyses, the genealogy of the individuals inferred from WGS based estimates turned out to be more complex than expected from previous SNP-array based estimates. Polymorphisms and their predicted phenotypic consequences were associated with differences in the coat color phenotypes between the northern and southern breeds. Notably, these high-consequence polymorphisms were not represented in SNP arrays, which are used routinely for genotyping of cattle breeds. This study is the first WGS-based population genetic analysis of Swedish native cattle breeds. The genetic diversity of native breeds was found to be high. High-consequence polymorphisms were linked with desirable phenotypes using whole-genome genotyping, which highlights the pressing need for intensifying WGS-based characterization of the native breeds.

Human rhinoviruses (HRV) are common cold viruses associated with exacerbations of lower airways diseases. Although viral induced epithelial damage mediates inflammation, the molecular mechanisms responsible for airway epithelial damage and dysfunction remain undefined. Using experimental HRV infection studies in highly differentiated human bronchial epithelial cells grown at air-liquid interface (ALI), we examine the links between viral host defense, cellular metabolism, and epithelial barrier function. We observe that early HRV-C15 infection induces a transitory barrier-protective metabolic state characterized by glycolysis that ultimately becomes exhausted as the infection progresses and leads to cellular damage. Pharmacological promotion of glycolysis induces ROS-dependent upregulation of the mitochondrial metabolic regulator, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α), thereby restoring epithelial barrier function, improving viral defense, and attenuating disease pathology. Therefore, PGC-1α regulates a metabolic pathway essential to host defense that can be therapeutically targeted to rescue airway epithelial barrier dysfunction and potentially prevent severe respiratory complications or secondary bacterial infections. Epithelial host defense to rhinovirus infections is enhanced by targeting the mitochondrial metabolic regulator, PGC-1a. Using metabolomics and proteomics, Michi et al show that human airway epithelial cells mount a barrier-protective early glycolysis-shift in response to rhinovirus, and that by targeting PGC-1a early in infection, epithelial barrier function, viral defense and pathology are improved.

Challenges remain to ensure access to diagnosis and treatment ten years into continuous cancer prevention, control, and oral health policies. This study aims to analyze the oncology and oral health policies in force regarding the process of implanting oral cancer-related care components. Ten policies were analyzed under the lenses of the Structuration Theory, besides data on the supply of services between 2002 and 2017. Low coverage and inadequate regional distribution were highlighted in primary and secondary health care levels, despite increased funding and number of services. Unequal distribution of performed surgeries was identified in tertiary care. The limitation of home care services has hindered users' access to palliative care. A convergence was identified between the analyzed policies and concern with the regulation of authoritative resources and the increase of allocative resources, which stirred the expansion of services. Investments should be made in the expansion, regionalization, and universalization of services. A possible setback in these policies could aggravate the situation and contribute to the increase in health inequalities.

This study evaluated the use of multiomics data for classification accuracy of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Three approaches were used and compared in terms of prediction accuracy: (1) whole-genome prediction (WGP) using SNP marker information only, (2) whole-methylome prediction (WMP) using methylation profiles only, and (3) whole-genome/methylome prediction (WGMP) with combining both omics layers. The number of SNP and of methylation sites varied in each scenario, with either 1, 10, or 50% of these preselected based on four approaches: randomly, evenly spaced, lowest p value (genome-wide association or epigenome-wide association study), and estimated effect size using a Bayesian ridge regression (BRR) model. To remove effects of high levels of pairwise linkage disequilibrium (LD), SNPs were also preselected with an LD-pruning method. Five Bayesian regression models were studied for classification, including BRR, Bayes-A, Bayes-B, Bayes-C, and the Bayesian LASSO. Adjusting methylation profiles for cellular heterogeneity within whole blood samples had a detrimental effect on the classification ability of the models. Overall, WGMP using Bayes-B model has the best performance. In particular, selecting SNPs based on LD-pruning with 1% of the methylation sites selected based on BRR included in the model, and fitting the most significant SNP as a fixed effect was the best method for predicting disease risk with a classification accuracy of 0.975. Our results showed that multiomics data can be used to effectively predict the risk of RA and identify cases in early stages to prevent or alter disease progression via appropriate interventions.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the major cause of end-stage liver disease (LD) worldwide. The aim of this study was to assess sustained virological response (SVR) rates in a real-world cohort of patients with HCV infection treated with interferon-free direct antiviral agents (DAA). All patients with genotypes 1, 2 or 3 HCV infection who started interferon-free treatment at a university hospital from December 2015 through July 2017 were included. The primary outcome was SVR at post-treatment week 12 by intention-to-treat (ITT) and modified ITT (mITT) analysis. Five hundred twenty seven patients were enrolled, 51.6% with cirrhosis. Most patients received sofosbuvir + daclatasvir + ribavirin (60.7%) and sofosbuvir + simeprevir (25.6%). Overall SVR rates were 90.5% for ITT and 96% for mITT. SVR rates were higher in non-cirrhotic (94.2% in ITT and 96.8% in mITT) versus cirrhotic patients (87.1% in ITT and 95.2% in mITT). In ITT and mITT assessments, SVR rates were higher in patients with Child-Pugh A (n = 222, 88.7% and 95.7%, respectively) versus Child-Pugh B or C (n = 40, 80% and 90%, respectively); SVR rates were higher in patients with genotype 1 (n = 405, 92.1% and 98.2%), followed by genotype 2 (n = 13, 84.6% and 92.7%) and genotype 3 (n = 109, 84.4% and 88.4%). Lower comorbidity index (p = 0.0014) and absence of cirrhosis (p = 0.0071) were associated with SVR. Among cirrhotic patients, lower Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (p = 0.0258), higher albumin (p = 0.0015), and higher glomerular filtration rate (p = 0.0366) were related to SVR. Twenty-two cirrhotic patients (8%) had clinical liver decompensation during treatment. Complications of advanced LD were responsible for discontinuation of treatment and death in 12 and 7 patients, respectively. Treatment with all-oral DAA achieved high SVR rates, particularly in patients without cirrhosis and few comorbidities. Advanced LD is associated to poor outcome, such as treatment failure and death.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in investment in renewable energy sources, leading to the decarbonization of the electricity sector. Accordingly, a key concern is the influence of this process on future electricity market prices, which are expected to decrease with the increasing generation of renewable power. This is important for both current and future investors, as it can affect profitability. To address these concerns, a long-term analysis is proposed here to examine the influence of the future electricity mix on Iberian electricity prices in 2030. In this study, we employed artificial intelligence forecasting models that incorporated the main electricity price-driven components of MIBEL, providing accurate predictions for the real operation of the market. These can be extrapolated into the future to predict electricity prices in a scenario with high renewable power penetration. The results, obtained considering a framework featuring an increase in the penetration of renewables into MIBEL of up to 80% in 2030, showed that electricity prices are expected to decrease by around 50% in 2030 when compared to 2019, and there will be a new pattern of electricity prices throughout the year due to the uneven distribution of renewable electricity. The study’s findings are relevant for ongoing research on the unique challenges of energy markets with high levels of renewable generation.

In the present work, a strategic multi-scenario EV ultra-fast charging station (CS) planning framework is designed to provide advantages to charging station owners, Distribution Network Operators, and EV owners. Locations of CSs are identified using zonal division and the Voltage Stability Index strategy. The number of chargers is determined using the Harris Hawk Optimization (HHO) technique while minimizing the installation, operational costs of CS, and energy loss costs considering all the power system security constraints. To ensure a realistic planning model, uncertainties in EV charging behavior and electricity prices are managed through the 2m-Point Estimate Method. This method produces multiple scenarios of uncertain parameters, which effectively represent the actual dataset, thereby facilitating comprehensive multi-scenario planning. This study incorporates annual EV and system load growth in a long-term planning model of ten years, ensuring the distribution network meets future demand for sustainable transportation infrastructure. The proposed research work is tested on a 33-bus distribution network and a 51-bus real Indian distribution network. To evaluate the financial and environmental benefits of the planning, a cost-benefit analysis in terms of the Return-on-Investment index and a carbon emission analysis are performed, respectively. Furthermore, to prove the efficacy of the HHO technique, the results are compared with several existing algorithms.