Plyometric training on sand improved both jumping and sprinting ability and induced less muscle soreness. A grass surface seems to be superior in enhancing CMJ performance while the sand surface showed a greater improvement in SJ. Therefore, plyometric training on different surfaces may be associated with different training-induced effects on some neuromuscular factors related to the efficiency of the stretch-shortening cycle.

Background and Objectives: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe disease where the patients lost the body function below the level of lesion. Neurorehabilitative exercise leads to improvements in physical functions such as strength, range of motion, transfers, wheelchair mobility, and gait. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of overground gait training using an active powered exoskeleton. Materials and Methods: Patients affected of SCI admitted to our rehabilitation unit have been studied. We used an active powered exoskeleton (Ekso). Training occurred each day for 5 days a week for a total of 4 weeks. Patients were trained for at least twenty sessions, with a duration of 45-60 min each session. Patients were scored with the 6 min walking test (6MWT) before and after treatment to evaluate the movement and Ashwort scale was used to test spasticity. Psychological tests were also performed to focus on depression (Beck Depression Inventory) and on self-perception (Body Uneasiness Test-A). Results: Thirteen patients were studied (mean age 31 ± 10.4; ten males and three females), who were affected by SCI with motor complete/incomplete lesions (seven complete, six incomplete), according to the American Spinal Injury Association guidelines. All patients completed the overground gait training for all 4 weeks without collateral effects. The motor recovery evaluated with the 6MWT in incomplete motor patients described a statistical significant recovery in terms of meters and absence of rest, especially in thoracic and lumbar level lesions (48/114 m [improvement 137.5%]; 98/214 m [improvement 118.37%], P < 0.05). We did not find any difference in terms of spasticity using the Ashworth Scale. After the treatment, we found in all patients a great improvement in mood disorders and body perception. Conclusions: The overground training with the exoskeleton is a promising therapeutical approach for SCI patients, which can increase both motor and psychological aspects.

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In recent years, studying and predicting mobility patterns in urban environments has become increasingly important as accurate and timely information on current and future vehicle flows can successfully increase the quality and availability of transportation services (e.g., sharing services). However, predicting the number of incoming and outgoing vehicles for different city areas is challenging due to the nonlinear spatial and temporal dependencies typical of urban mobility patterns. In this work, we propose STREED-Net, a novel autoencoder architecture featuring time-distributed convolutions, cascade hierarchical units and two distinct attention mechanisms (one spatial and one temporal) that effectively captures and exploits complex spatial and temporal patterns in mobility data for short-term flow prediction problem. The results of a thorough experimental analysis using real-life data are reported, indicating that the proposed model improves the state-of-the-art for this task.