ANKLE JOINT COMPLEX KINEMATIC AND KINETIC ADAPTATION DURING THIRTY-MINUTES OF TREADMILL RUNNING: A CASE STUDY

The purpose of this study was to assess kinematic and kinetic adaptation during a 30 min run. It was hypothesized that kinematics and kinetics would adapt at different rates. A recreationally trained runner with approximately 10 years of running experience was recruited for the study. Three dimensional kinematic and kinetic variables were assessed during a 30 min run. All measures exhibited varied adaptation trends with most measures not stabilizing during the exercise period. A longer running period may be needed in running gait analysis to produce a more comprehensive adaptation profile

Exercise Intensity and Energy Expenditure of a Simulated-sport Exergame versus Real-world Sport

Despite the multitude of local and national health initiatives aimed at increasing physical activity levels in the United States, there remains a dire need to aid individuals and families in adopting regular physical activity regimens. This lack of activity necessitates the use of novel and innovative methods for encouraging regular physical activity, such as the use of simulated-sport exergames. However, it is unclear whether these games can generate comparable physiological states of exercise to those seen within the actual sports they are simulating. Using data taken from a larger study, the purpose of the current study was to objectively compare physiological measures of exercise intensity and energy expenditure for a simulated-sport exergame versus its respective real-world sport, using the sport of racquetball. Undergraduate students (n = 103) who did not regularly exercise were provided with twice weekly, 30-minute training sessions for a new sport (racquetball) and were randomized into three different conditions of introductory training (None, Exergame, and Traditional Training) over an eight week period. This introductory training took place during Weeks 1 – 4, then all groups were transitioned into playing the actual sport of racquetball. The exergame group required participants to play a racquetball exergame for introductory training, while the traditional training group played the sport of racquetball on a racquetball court. The third group served as a control and came to introductory training sessions at the university activity center, but was only required to read or study. All participants were fitted with accelerometers during participation in order to measure levels of activity (via accelerometer counts), exercise intensity, steps taken and calories burned. As expected, analyses revealed that the traditional training group showed greater levels of all outcomes than all other groups during Weeks 1-4. Contrary to expectations, the exergame group did not show greater activity levels or energy expenditure than the control group at any time. All groups showed similar levels of activity once transitioned into playing actual racquetball. These findings support previous literature suggesting that an actual sport can produce significantly greater activity levels than its exergame counterpart. These results also provide evidence that exergames produce levels of activity that fall well below those suggested by ACSM minimum exercise guidelines. Future interventions should use these results by limiting the use of exergames to the introductory phase of training

Assessing Ozone-Related Health Impacts under a Changing Climate

Climate change may increase the frequency and intensity of ozone episodes in future summers in the United States. However, only recently have models become available that can assess the impact of climate change on O(3) concentrations and health effects at regional and local scales that are relevant to adaptive planning. We developed and applied an integrated modeling framework to assess potential O(3)-related health impacts in future decades under a changing climate. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration–Goddard Institute for Space Studies global climate model at 4° × 5° resolution was linked to the Penn State/National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model 5 and the Community Multiscale Air Quality atmospheric chemistry model at 36 km horizontal grid resolution to simulate hourly regional meteorology and O(3) in five summers of the 2050s decade across the 31-county New York metropolitan region. We assessed changes in O(3)-related impacts on summer mortality resulting from climate change alone and with climate change superimposed on changes in O(3) precursor emissions and population growth. Considering climate change alone, there was a median 4.5% increase in O(3)-related acute mortality across the 31 counties. Incorporating O(3) precursor emission increases along with climate change yielded similar results. When population growth was factored into the projections, absolute impacts increased substantially. Counties with the highest percent increases in projected O(3) mortality spread beyond the urban core into less densely populated suburban counties. This modeling framework provides a potentially useful new tool for assessing the health risks of climate change

Long-term effect of diuretic-based therapy on fatal outcomes in subjects with isolated systolic hypertension with and without diabetes.

Diuretic-based antihypertensive therapy is associated with the development of diabetes but with improved clinical outcomes. It has been proposed that the duration of clinical trials has been too short to detect the adverse effects of diabetes. We assessed the long-term mortality rate of subjects in the Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly Program (n = 4,732) who were randomized to stepped-care therapy with 12.5 to 25.0 mg/day of chlorthalidone or matching placebo. If blood pressure remained above the goal, atenolol or matching placebo was added. At a mean follow-up of 14.3 years, cardiovascular (CV) mortality rate was significantly lower in the chlorthalidone group (19%) than in the placebo group (22%; adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.854, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.751 to 0.972). Diabetes at baseline (n = 799) was associated with increased CV mortality rate (adjusted HR 1.659, 95% CI 1.413 to 1.949) and total mortality rate (adjusted HR 1.510, 95% CI 1.347 to 1.693). Diabetes that developed during the trial among subjects on placebo (n = 169) was also associated with increased CV adverse outcome (adjusted HR 1.562, 95% CI 1.117 to 2.184) and total mortality rate (adjusted HR 1.348, 95% CI 1.051 to 1.727). However, diabetes that developed among subjects during diuretic therapy (n = 258) did not have significant associations with CV mortality rate (adjusted HR 1.043, 95% CI 0.745 to 1.459) or total mortality rate (adjusted HR 1.151, 95% CI 0.925 to 1.433). Diuretic treatment in subjects who had diabetes was strongly associated with lower long-term CV mortality rate (adjusted HR 0.688, 95% CI 0.526 to 0.848) and total mortality rate (adjusted HR 0.805, 95% CI 0.680 to 0.952). Thus, chlorthalidone-based treatment improved long-term outcomes, especially among subjects who had diabetes. Subjects who had diabetes associated with chlorthalidone had no significant increase in CV events and had a better prognosis than did those who had preexisting diabetes

Ears of the Armadillo: Global Health Research and Neglected Diseases in Texas

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) have\ud been recently identified as significant public\ud health problems in Texas and elsewhere in\ud the American South. A one-day forum on the\ud landscape of research and development and\ud the hidden burden of NTDs in Texas\ud explored the next steps to coordinate advocacy,\ud public health, and research into a\ud cogent health policy framework for the\ud American NTDs. It also highlighted how\ud U.S.-funded global health research can serve\ud to combat these health disparities in the\ud United States, in addition to benefiting\ud communities abroad

Interpersonal and affective dimensions of psychopathic traits in adolescents : development and validation of a self-report instrument

We report the development and psychometric evaluations of a self-report instrument designed to screen for psychopathic traits among mainstream community adolescents. Tests of item functioning were initially conducted with 26 adolescents. In a second study the new instrument was administered to 150 high school adolescents, 73 of who had school records of suspension for antisocial behavior. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a 4-factor structure (Impulsivity α = .73, Self-Centredness α = .70, Callous-Unemotional α = .69, and Manipulativeness α = .83). In a third study involving 328 high school adolescents, 130 with records of suspension for antisocial behaviour, competing measurement models were evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis. The superiority of a first-order model represented by four correlated factors that was invariant across gender and age was confirmed. The findings provide researchers and clinicians with a psychometrically strong, self-report instrument and a greater understanding of psychopathic traits in mainstream adolescents

Delineation of prognostic biomarkers in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in American men(1,2). Screening for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has led to earlier detection of prostate cancer(3), but elevated serum PSA levels may be present in non-malignant conditions such as benign prostatic hyperlasia (BPH). Characterization of gene-expression profiles that molecularly distinguish prostatic neoplasms may identify genes involved in prostate carcinogenesis, elucidate clinical biomarkers, and lead to an improved classification of prostate cancer(4-6). Using microarrays of complementary DNA, we examined gene-expression profiles of more than 50 normal and neoplastic prostate specimens and three common prostate-cancer cell lines. Signature expression profiles of normal adjacent prostate (NAP), BPH, localized prostate cancer, and metastatic, hormone-refractory prostate cancer were determined. Here we establish many associations between genes and prostate cancer. We assessed two of these genes-hepsin, a transmembrane serine protease, and pim-1, a serine/threonine kinase-at the protein level using tissue microarrays consisting of over 700 clinically stratified prostate-cancer specimens. Expression of hepsin and pim-1 proteins was significantly correlated with measures of clinical outcome. Thus, the integration of cDNA microarray, high-density tissue microarray, and linked clinical and pathology data is a powerful approach to molecular profiling of human cancer.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62849/1/412822a0.pd

Consequences of converting graded to action potentials upon neural information coding and energy efficiency

Information is encoded in neural circuits using both graded and action potentials, converting between them within single neurons and successive processing layers. This conversion is accompanied by information loss and a drop in energy efficiency. We investigate the biophysical causes of this loss of information and efficiency by comparing spiking neuron models, containing stochastic voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels, with generator potential and graded potential models lacking voltage-gated Na+ channels. We identify three causes of information loss in the generator potential that are the by-product of action potential generation: (1) the voltage-gated Na+ channels necessary for action potential generation increase intrinsic noise and (2) introduce non-linearities, and (3) the finite duration of the action potential creates a ‘footprint’ in the generator potential that obscures incoming signals. These three processes reduce information rates by ~50% in generator potentials, to ~3 times that of spike trains. Both generator potentials and graded potentials consume almost an order of magnitude less energy per second than spike trains. Because of the lower information rates of generator potentials they are substantially less energy efficient than graded potentials. However, both are an order of magnitude more efficient than spike trains due to the higher energy costs and low information content of spikes, emphasizing that there is a two-fold cost of converting analogue to digital; information loss and cost inflation

A mechanism for the inhibition of DNA-PK-mediated DNA sensing by a virus

The innate immune system is critical in the response to infection by pathogens and it is activated by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) binding to pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). During viral infection, the direct recognition of the viral nucleic acids, such as the genomes of DNA viruses, is very important for activation of innate immunity. Recently, DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK), a heterotrimeric complex consisting of the Ku70/Ku80 heterodimer and the catalytic subunit DNA-PKcs was identified as a cytoplasmic PRR for DNA that is important for the innate immune response to intracellular DNA and DNA virus infection. Here we show that vaccinia virus (VACV) has evolved to inhibit this function of DNA-PK by expression of a highly conserved protein called C16, which was known to contribute to virulence but by an unknown mechanism. Data presented show that C16 binds directly to the Ku heterodimer and thereby inhibits the innate immune response to DNA in fibroblasts, characterised by the decreased production of cytokines and chemokines. Mechanistically, C16 acts by blocking DNA-PK binding to DNA, which correlates with reduced DNA-PK-dependent DNA sensing. The C-terminal region of C16 is sufficient for binding Ku and this activity is conserved in the variola virus (VARV) orthologue of C16. In contrast, deletion of 5 amino acids in this domain is enough to knockout this function from the attenuated vaccine strain modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA). In vivo a VACV mutant lacking C16 induced higher levels of cytokines and chemokines early after infection compared to control viruses, confirming the role of this virulence factor in attenuating the innate immune response. Overall this study describes the inhibition of DNA-PK-dependent DNA sensing by a poxvirus protein, adding to the evidence that DNA-PK is a critical component of innate immunity to DNA viruses