A Combined Sleep Hygiene and Mindfulness Intervention to Improve Sleep and Well-Being During High-Performance Youth Tennis Tournaments

Purpose: To investigate the effects of combined sleep hygiene recommendations and mindfulness on actigraphy-based sleep parameters, perceptual well-being, anxiety, and match outcomes during high-performance junior tennis tournaments. Methods: In a randomized crossover design, 17 high-performance junior tennis players completed the baseline, control, and intervention (INT) conditions across 3 separate weeks. The baseline consisted of unassisted, habitual sleep during a regular training week, and the control was unassisted sleep during a tournament week. The players attended a sleep education workshop and completed a nightly sleep hygiene protocol during a tournament week for the INT. Analysis was performed on the weekly means and on the night prior to the first match of the tournament (T-1). Results: Significant differences were observed for increased time in bed, total sleep time, and an earlier bedtime (P P > .05, d > 1.00) was evident for decreased worry on T-1 of the INT. Small effect sizes were also evident for improved mood, cognitive anxiety, and sleep rating across the INT week. The match performance outcomes remained unchanged (P > .05). Conclusions: Sleep hygiene INTs increase the sleep duration of high-performance junior tennis players in tournament settings, including the night prior to the tournament’s first match. The effects on perceptual well-being and anxiety are unclear, although small trends suggest improved mood, despite no effect on generic match performance outcomes.</jats:p

Exploring or Avoiding Novel Food Resources? The Novelty Conflict in an Invasive Bird

For an animal invading a novel region, the ability to develop new behaviors should facilitate the use of novel food resources and hence increase its survival in the new environment. However, the need to explore new resources may entail costs such as exposing the animal to unfamiliar predators. These two opposing forces result in an exploration-avoidance conflict, which can be expected to interfere with the acquisition of new resources. However, its consequences should be less dramatic in highly urbanized environments where new food opportunities are common and predation risk is low. We tested this hypothesis experimentally by presenting three foraging tasks to introduced common mynas (Acridotheres tristis) from environments with low and high urbanization levels from Australia. Individuals from the highly urbanized environments, where mynas are both more opportunistic when foraging and less fearful to predators, resolved a technical task faster than those from less urbanized environments. These differences did not reflect innovative ‘personalities’ and were not confounded by sex, morphology or motivational state. Rather, the principal factors underlying differences in mynas' problem-solving ability were neophobic-neophilic responses, which varied across habitats. Thus, mynas seem to modulate their problem-solving ability according to the benefits and costs of innovating in their particular habitat, which may help us understand the great success of the species in highly urbanized environments

Change in left ventricular geometry during antihypertensive treatment in children with primary hypertension

The pattern of the left ventricle (LV) has important significance in adults with hypertension. The aim of the present study was to analyze changes and determinants of LV geometry after 1 year of antihypertensive treatment in children with primary hypertension (PH) in relation to metabolic abnormalities and anthropometrical parameters. In 86 children (14.1 ± 2.4 years) with newly diagnosed PH, LV geometry and biochemical parameters before and after 12 months of standard antihypertensive therapy were assessed. At baseline, normal LV geometry (NG) was found in 42 (48.9%), concentric remodeling (CR) in 4 (4.6%), concentric hypertrophy (CH) in 8 (9.3%), and eccentric hypertrophy (EH) in 32 (37.2%) patients. The prevalence of NG in patients with severe hypertension was significantly lower than in patients with ambulatory hypertension. There were no differences in dipping status in relation to LV geometry. Patients with CH and EH were more viscerally obese than patients with NG. Patients with CH had higher diastolic blood pressure in comparison with EH patients (p < 0.05). The main predictor of relative wall thickness (RWT) was the triglycerides to high density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL) ratio (R2 = 0.319, β = 0.246, p = 0.004). Patients received 12 months of antihypertensive treatment, either lifestyle modification only (n = 37) or lifestyle modification plus antihypertensive medications (n = 49) if severe ambulatory hypertension or target organ damage were present. After 12 months of treatment the prevalence of EH (37.2% vs 18.6%, p = 0.003) decreased but prevalence of CH did not change. Patients in whom RWT decreased also decreased waist circumference and TG/HDL; the main predictor of RWT decrease was a decrease of the TG/HDL ratio (β = 0.496, R2 = 0.329, p = 0.002). In adolescents with PH, LV geometry is related to central obesity and insulin resistance. Decrease of abdominal obesity and insulin resistance are the most important predictors of normalization of LV geometry, however CH has lower potential to normalize LV geometry

The desmosome and pemphigus

Desmosomes are patch-like intercellular adhering junctions (“maculae adherentes”), which, in concert with the related adherens junctions, provide the mechanical strength to intercellular adhesion. Therefore, it is not surprising that desmosomes are abundant in tissues subjected to significant mechanical stress such as stratified epithelia and myocardium. Desmosomal adhesion is based on the Ca2+-dependent, homo- and heterophilic transinteraction of cadherin-type adhesion molecules. Desmosomal cadherins are anchored to the intermediate filament cytoskeleton by adaptor proteins of the armadillo and plakin families. Desmosomes are dynamic structures subjected to regulation and are therefore targets of signalling pathways, which control their molecular composition and adhesive properties. Moreover, evidence is emerging that desmosomal components themselves take part in outside-in signalling under physiologic and pathologic conditions. Disturbed desmosomal adhesion contributes to the pathogenesis of a number of diseases such as pemphigus, which is caused by autoantibodies against desmosomal cadherins. Beside pemphigus, desmosome-associated diseases are caused by other mechanisms such as genetic defects or bacterial toxins. Because most of these diseases affect the skin, desmosomes are interesting not only for cell biologists who are inspired by their complex structure and molecular composition, but also for clinical physicians who are confronted with patients suffering from severe blistering skin diseases such as pemphigus. To develop disease-specific therapeutic approaches, more insights into the molecular composition and regulation of desmosomes are required