The impact of rainfall and school break time policies on physical activity in 9-10 year old British children: a repeated measures study.

BACKGROUND: The weather may be a driver of seasonal patterns in children's physical activity (PA). A better understanding of the relationships between weather and PA may help increase children's PA. This study aims to examine the association between PA and rainfall in 9-10 year old children, and how it may be modified by school policies. METHODS: 1794 participants in the SPEEDY study in Norfolk, UK recorded PA using ActiGraph accelerometers over up to six days in the summer term of 2007. Multilevel regression models were used to determine the day-by-day association between rainfall and minutes spent sedentary, in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), and average counts per minute (cpm) over the whole day (07:00-21:00) and the lunchtime period (12:00-14:00). School policies for break times in bad weather were fitted as interaction terms with rainfall. RESULTS: Relative to days with no rain, children spent 9.4 minutes (95%CI 7.0 to 11.9) fewer in MVPA, were sedentary for 13.6 minutes (8.8 to 18.4) more, and accumulated 85.9 cpm (66.2 to 105.5) fewer over the whole day on the wettest days. Children allowed to play outside in wet weather showed the lowest lunchtime PA levels on the wettest days, undertaking 9.8 minutes (6.2 to 13.5) fewer MVPA, 16.1 minutes (10.3 to 21.9) more sedentary, and accumulating 408.0 cpm (250.9 to 565.1) fewer than those allowed to be active indoors. CONCLUSIONS: Rainfall is negatively associated with PA in primary school children, but providing indoor physical activities in wet weather may help children maintain physical activity levels irrespective of rainfall.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Diet and bone mineral density study in postmenopausal women from the TwinsUK registry shows a negative association with a traditional English dietary pattern and a positive association with wine

Background: The effect of diet on bone mineral density (BMD) remains controversial, mainly because of difficulties in isolating dietary factors from the confounding influences of age, lifestyle, and genetic factors. Objective: The aim of this study was to use a novel method to examine the relation between BMD and diet. Design: A co-twin control study design with linear regression modeling was used to test for associations between BMD and habitual intakes of calcium, vitamin D, protein, and alcohol plus 5 previously identified dietary patterns in postmenopausal women from the TwinsUK registry. This approach exploited the unique matching of twins to provide an estimate of an association that was not confounded by age, genetic background, or shared lifestyle. Results: In >2000 postmenopausal women (BMD data on 1019, 1218, and 1232 twin pairs at the hip neck, hip, and spine, respectively), we observed a positive association between alcohol intake (from wine but not from beer or spirits) and spine BMD (P = 0.01) and a negative association with a traditional 20th-century English diet at the hip neck (P = 0.01). Both associations remained borderline significant after adjustment for mean twin-pair intakes (P = 0.04 and P = 0.055, respectively). Other dietary patterns and intakes of calcium, vitamin D, and protein were unrelated to BMD. Conclusion: Our results showed that diet has an independent but subtle effect on BMD; wine intake was positively associated with spine BMD, whereas a traditional (20th-century) English diet had a negative association with hip BMD

Impact of Raman amplification on a 2 Tb/s coherent WDM system

The impact of hybrid erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA)/Raman amplification on a spectrally efficient coherent-wavelength-division-multiplexed (CoWDM) optical communication system is experimentally studied and modeled. Simulations suggested that 23-dB Raman gain over an unrepeatered span of 124 km single-mode fiber would allow a decrease of the mean input power of ~6 dB for a fixed bit-error rate (BER). Experimentally we demonstrated 1.2-dB Q-factor improvement for a 2-Tb/s seven-band CoWDM with backward Raman amplification. The system delivered an optical signal-to-noise ratio of 35 dB at the output of the receiver preamplifier providing a worst-case BER of 2 × 10 -6 over 49 subcarriers at 42.8 Gbaud, leaving a system margin (in terms of Q -factor) of ~4 dB from the forward-error correction threshold

Habitual intake of flavonoid subclasses and risk of colorectal cancer in two large prospective cohorts

Background: Flavonoids inhibit the growth of colon cancer cells in vitro. In a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial, the Polyp Prevention Trial, a higher intake of one sub-class, flavonols, was significantly associated with reduced risk of recurrent advanced adenoma. Most previous prospective studies on colorectal cancer evaluated only a limited number of flavonoid sub-classes and intake ranges, yielding inconsistent results.  Objective: To examine whether higher habitual dietary intakes of flavonoid subclasses (flavonols, flavones, flavanones, flavan-3-ols and anthocyanins) are associated with lower risk of colorectal cancer.  Design: Using data from validated food frequency questionnaires administered every four years and an updated flavonoid food composition database flavonoid intakes were calculated for 42,478 male participants from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and for 76,364 female participants from the Nurses’ Health Study.  Results: During up to 26 years of follow-up, 2,519 colorectal cancer cases (1,061 in men, 1,458 in women) were documented. Intakes of flavonoid subclasses were not associated with risk of colorectal cancer in either cohort. Pooled multivariable adjusted relative risks (95% confidence interval) comparing the highest with the lowest quintile were 1.04 (0.91, 1.18) for flavonols; 1.01 (0.89, 1.15) for flavones; 0.96 (0.84, 1.10) for flavanones; 1.07 (0.95, 1.21) for flavan-3-ols; and 0.98 (0.81, 1.19) for anthocyanins (all p-values for heterogeneity by sex >0.19). In subsite analyses, flavonoid intake was also not associated with colon or rectal cancer risk.  Conclusion: Our findings do not support the hypothesis that a higher habitual intake of any flavonoid sub-class decreases the risk of colorectal cancer

What is traditional acupuncture - exploring goals and processes of treatment in the context of women with early breast cancer

Background: Despite the increasing popularity of acupuncture, there remains uncertainty as to its effectiveness and how it brings about change. Particular questions are posed over whether acupuncture research has sufficient model validity and reflects acupuncture as practised. Exploring traditional acupuncture (TA) in practice should help to expose processes essential to the theory of TA. The aim of this study was to examine what TA practitioners aim to achieve, their rationale and how they follow this through in their practice. Methods: A longitudinal study of TA for women with early breast cancer (EBC) was performed. Study participants comprised 14 women with EBC and two experienced TA practitioners, all taking part in in-depth interviews, conducted before and after receipt of up to 10 treatment sessions, and analysed using grounded theory methods. Additional data came from practitioner treatment logs and diaries. Results: Practitioners sought long-term goals of increasing strength and enabling coping as well as immediate relief of symptoms. They achieved this through a continuous process of treatment, following through the recursive and individualized nature of TA and adjusted, via differential diagnosis, to the rapidly fluctuating circumstances of individual women. Establishing trust and good rapport with the women aided disclosure which was seen as essential in order to clarify goals during chemotherapy. This process was carefully managed by the practitioners and the resultant therapeutic relationship was highly valued by the women. Conclusion: This study provided insight into the interdependent components of TA helping to demonstrate the multiple causal pathways to change through the continuous process of new information, insights and treatment changes. A good therapeutic relationship was not simply something valued by patients but explicitly used by practitioners to aid disclosure which in turn affected details of the treatment. The therapeutic relationship was therefore a vital and integral part of the treatment process

Dual-specificity phosphatase 5 controls the localized inhibition, propagation, and transforming potential of ERK signaling

Deregulated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling drives cancer growth. Normally, ERK activity is self-limiting by the rapid inactivation of upstream kinases and delayed induction of dual-specificity MAP kinase phosphatases (MKPs/DUSPs). However, interactions between these feedback mechanisms are unclear. Here we show that, although the MKP DUSP5 both inactivates and anchors ERK in the nucleus, it paradoxically increases and prolongs cytoplasmic ERK activity. The latter effect is caused, at least in part, by the relief of ERK-mediated RAF inhibition. The importance of this spatiotemporal interaction between these distinct feedback mechanisms is illustrated by the fact that expression of oncogenic BRAF(V600E), a feedback-insensitive mutant RAF kinase, reprograms DUSP5 into a cell-wide ERK inhibitor that facilitates cell proliferation and transformation. In contrast, DUSP5 deletion causes BRAF(V600E)-induced ERK hyperactivation and cellular senescence. Thus, feedback interactions within the ERK pathway can regulate cell proliferation and transformation, and suggest oncogene-specific roles for DUSP5 in controlling ERK signaling and cell fate

Genetic Connectivity and Diversity of a Protected, Habitat-Forming Species:Evidence Demonstrating the Need for Wider Environmental Protection and Integration of the Marine Protected Area Network

Funding Information: This work was largely funded by Heriot-Watt University (James Watt Scholarship) and NatureScot (formerly Scottish Natural Heritage). Additional funding was received from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) and their support is gratefully acknowledged. MASTS was funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Clinical features and molecular genetic analysis in a Turkish family with oral white sponge nevus

Oral white sponge nevus (WSN) is a rare autosomal dominant benign condition, characterized by asymptomatic spongy white plaques. Mutations in Keratin 4 (KRT4) and 13 (KRT13) have been shown to cause WSN. Familial cases are uncommon due to irregular penetrance. Thus, the aim of the study was: a) to demonstrate the clinical and histopathological features of a three-generation Turkish family with oral WSN b) to determine whether KRT4 or KRT13 gene mutation was the molecular basis of WSN. Out of twenty members of the family ten were available for assessment. Venous blood samples from six affected and five unaffected members and 48 healthy controls were obtained for genetic mutational analysis. Polymerase chain reaction was used to amplify all exons within KRT4 and KRT13 genes. These products were sequenced and the data was examined for mutations and polymorphisms. Varying presentation and severity of clinical features were observed. Analysis of the KRT13 gene revealed the sequence variant Y118D as the disease-causing mutation. One patient revealed several previously unreported polymorphisms including a novel mutation in exon 1 of the KRT13 gene and a heterozygous deletion in exon 1 of KRT4. This deletion in the KRT4 gene was found to be a common polymorphism reflecting a high allele frequency of 31.25% in the Turkish population. Oral WSN may manifest variable clinical features. The novel mutation found in the KRT13 gene is believed to add evidence for a mutational hotspot in the mucosal keratins. Molecular genetic analysis is required to establish correct diagnosis and appropriate genetic consultation