Association between multiple cardiovascular comorbidities and the prevalence of Heart attack among peripheral arterial disease patients in rural Central Appalachia.

Background: Myocardial infarction (MI), also known as heart attack, is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among the heart diseases spectrum. It results from an insufficient supply of blood to the heart muscles. According to the United States (U.S.) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 610 000 people die of heart disease in the U.S. every year. Myocardial infarction contributes 370 000 of these deaths annually. Every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. experience heart attack. This burden is disproportionately distributed within the U.S. population. The rate of heart disease in Central Appalachia is 249 per 100 000, 42% higher than the national rate. Exploring further within the region, rural areas experience higher heart disease mortality rates; 27% higher than the region’s metro counties. According to 2018 America Health Ranking, the prevalence of heart attack in Tennessee is 5.9%, compared to the 4.9% nationwide, with the majority of the burden seen among adults aged ≥65 years and with a 1:1.8 female to male ratio. Patients with heart disease often have other comorbid conditions such as peripheral arterial disease (PAD), hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemias, which contribute immensely to this chronic condition. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the association between cardiovascular comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension and dyslipidemia, and the prevalence of heart attack among patients with PAD in rural Central Appalachia. Methods: We used a cross-sectional data of patients diagnosed with PAD in the Central Appalachian region. A total of 13455 patients with PAD were recruited using ICD 9 and 10 search terms for PAD from the electronic medical records (EMR) system between January 1, 2008, and April 30, 2018. Descriptive statistics of the variables were extracted. The association between the comorbidities, including hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, body mass index(BMI) and the prevalence of MI was determined using a binomial logistic regression model. All analysis was done using IBM SPSS statistics 25. Results: Of the total 13455 patients with PAD, 3045 had MI (37.7% female and 62.3% male) with a mean age of 69±10.5years. While 93% had hypertension, 56% had diabetes. For the lipids, the mean of HDL, Cholesterol, and LDL among participants with a history of MI is 40.99mg/dl±13, 156.32mg/dl±45, 82.08mg/dl±36.35 respectively. The results of binomial logistic regression with stratification based on gender shows that female patients with diabetes had 86% increased odds of MI [OR: 1.858, C.I: 1.308-2.638, p-value=0.001), and for female hypertensives, 4.51 times increased odds of MI was found (C.I: 1.576-12.895, p-value=0.005). The male diabetics and hypertensives showed a similarly increased odds of MI with (OR 1.138, C.I: 0.870-1.489 p-value=0.345) and (OR 3.697C.I: 1.559-8.736, p-value=0.003) respectively. No significant association was found among the various lipid profiles examined. Conclusion: The results showed that female PAD patients with hypertension and diabetes have a significantly increased likelihood of having MI. In contrast, male with PAD also showed increased likelihood (although to a lesser degree) of MI in those with hypertension, but not those with diabetes. These findings underscore the importance of a proactive approach to preventive care and adequate control among PAD patients with diabetes and hypertension in a bid to curbing the morbidity and mortality associated with myocardial infarction among residents in Central Appalachia

Education can improve the negative perception of a threatened long-lived scavenging bird, the Andean condor

Human-wildlife conflicts currently represent one of the main conservation problems for wildlife species around the world. Vultures have serious conservation concerns, many of which are related to people's adverse perception about them due to the belief that they prey on livestock. Our aim was to assess local perception and the factors influencing people's perception of the largest scavenging bird in South America, the Andean condor. For this, we interviewed 112 people from Valle Fértil, San Juan province, a rural area of central west Argentina. Overall, people in the area mostly have an elementary education, and their most important activity is livestock rearing. The results showed that, in general, most people perceive the Andean condor as an injurious species and, in fact, some people recognize that they still kill condors. We identified two major factors that affect this perception, the education level of villagers and their relationship with livestock ranching. Our study suggests that conservation of condors and other similar scavengers depends on education programs designed to change the negative perception people have about them. Such programs should be particularly focused on ranchers since they are the ones who have the worst perception of these scavengers. We suggest that highlighting the central ecological role of scavengers and recovering their cultural value would be fundamental to reverse their persecution and their negative perception by people.Fil: Cailly Arnulphi, Verónica Beatríz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; ArgentinaFil: Lambertucci, Sergio Agustin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Borghi, Carlos Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; Argentin

Daily protein-polyphenol ingestion increases daily myofibrillar protein synthesis rates and promotes early muscle functional gains during resistance training

This is the final version. Available on open access from the American Physiological Society via the DOI in this recordFactors underpinning the time-course of resistance-type exercise training (RET) adaptations are not fully understood. The present study hypothesized that consuming a twice-daily protein-polyphenol beverage (PPB; n=15; age, 24 ± 1 years; BMI, 22.3 ± 0.7 kg·m-2) previously shown to accelerate recovery from muscle damage and increase daily myofibrillar protein synthesis (MyoPS) rates would accelerate early (10 sessions) improvements in muscle function and potentiate quadriceps volume and muscle fiber cross-sectional area (fCSA) following 30 unilateral RET sessions in healthy, recreationally active, adults. Versus isocaloric placebo (PLA; n=14; age, 25 ± 2 years; BMI, 23.9 ± 1.0 kg·m-2), PPB increased 48 h MyoPS rates after the first RET session measured using deuterated water (2.01 ± 0.15 %·d-1 vs. 1.51 ± 0.16 , respectively; P<0.05). Additionally, PPB increased isokinetic muscle function over 10 sessions of training relative to the untrained control leg (%U) from 99.9 ± 1.8 pre-training to 107.2 ± 2.4 %U at session 10 (versus 102.6 ± 3.9 to 100.8 ± 2.4 %U at session 10 in PLA; interaction P<0.05). Pre-to-post-training, PPB increased type II fCSA (PLA: 120.8 ± 8.2 to 109.5 ± 8.6 %U; PPB: 92.8 ± 6.2 to 108.4 ± 9.7 %U; interaction P<0.05), but the gain in quadriceps muscle volume was similar between groups. Similarly, PPB did not further increase peak isometric torque, muscle function or MyoPS measured post-training. This suggests that although PPB increases MyoPS and early adaptation, it may not influence longer term adaptations to unilateral RET.University of ExeterNational Institute of AgingNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR

Mycoprotein ingestion stimulates protein synthesis rates to a greater extent than milk protein in rested and exercised skeletal muscle of healthy young men: a randomized controlled trial.

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from American Society for Nutrition via the DOI in this record.BACKGROUND: Mycoprotein is a fungal-derived sustainable protein-rich food source, and its ingestion results in systemic amino acid and leucine concentrations similar to that following milk protein ingestion. OBJECTIVE: We assessed the mixed skeletal muscle protein synthetic response to the ingestion of a single bolus of mycoprotein compared with a leucine-matched bolus of milk protein, in rested and exercised muscle of resistance-trained young men. METHODS: Twenty resistance-trained healthy young males (age: 22 ± 1 y, body mass: 82 ± 2 kg, BMI: 25 ± 1 kg·m-2) took part in a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group study. Participants received primed, continuous infusions of L-[ring-2H5]phenylalanine and ingested either 31 g (26.2 g protein: 2.5 g leucine) milk protein (MILK) or 70 g (31.5 g protein: 2.5 g leucine) mycoprotein (MYCO) following a bout of unilateral resistance-type exercise (contralateral leg acting as resting control). Blood and m. vastus lateralis muscle samples were collected before exercise and protein ingestion, and following a 4-h postprandial period to assess mixed muscle fractional protein synthetic rates (FSRs) and myocellular signaling in response to the protein beverages in resting and exercised muscle. RESULTS: Mixed muscle FSRs increased following MILK ingestion (from 0.036 ± 0.008 to 0.052 ± 0.006%·h-1 in rested, and 0.035 ± 0.008 to 0.056 ± 0.005%·h-1 in exercised muscle; P <0.01) but to a greater extent following MYCO ingestion (from 0.025 ± 0.006 to 0.057 ± 0.004%·h-1 in rested, and 0.024 ± 0.007 to 0.072 ± 0.005%·h-1 in exercised muscle; P <0.0001) (treatment × time interaction effect; P <0.05). Postprandial FSRs trended to be greater in MYCO compared with MILK (0.065 ± 0.004 compared with 0.054 ± 0.004%·h-1, respectively; P = 0.093) and the postprandial rise in FSRs was greater in MYCO compared with MILK (Delta 0.040 ± 0.006 compared with Delta 0.018 ± 0.005%·h-1, respectively; P <0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The ingestion of a single bolus of mycoprotein stimulates resting and postexercise muscle protein synthesis rates, and to a greater extent than a leucine-matched bolus of milk protein, in resistance-trained young men. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as 660065600.Quorn Food

Vegan and omnivorous high protein diets support comparable daily myofibrillar protein synthesis rates and skeletal muscle hypertrophy in young adults.

This is the final version. Available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.Data availability: Data described in the manuscript may be made available upon request, pending application.BACKGROUND: It remains unclear whether non-animal-derived dietary protein sources (and therefore vegan diets) can support resistance training-induced skeletal muscle remodeling to the same extent as animal-derived protein sources. METHODS: In Phase 1, 16 healthy young adults (m = 8, f = 8; age: 23 ± 1 y; BMI: 23 ± 1 kg/m2) completed a 3-d dietary intervention (high protein, 1.8 g·kg bm-1·d-1) where protein was derived from omnivorous (OMNI1; n = 8) or exclusively non-animal (VEG1; n = 8) sources, alongside daily unilateral leg resistance exercise. Resting and exercised daily myofibrillar protein synthesis (MyoPS) rates were assessed using deuterium oxide. In Phase 2, 22 healthy young adults (m = 11, f = 11; age: 24 ± 1 y; BMI: 23 ± 0 kg/m2) completed a 10 wk, high-volume (5 d/wk), progressive resistance exercise program while consuming an omnivorous (OMNI2; n = 12) or non-animal-derived (VEG2; n = 10) high-protein diet (∼2 g·kg bm-1·d-1). Muscle fiber cross-sectional area (CSA), whole-body lean mass (via DXA), thigh muscle volume (via MRI), muscle strength, and muscle function were determined pre, after 2 and 5 wk, and postintervention. OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether a high-protein, mycoprotein-rich, non-animal-derived diet can support resistance training-induced skeletal muscle remodeling to the same extent as an isonitrogenous omnivorous diet. RESULTS: Daily MyoPS rates were ∼12% higher in the exercised than in the rested leg (2.46 ± 0.27%·d-1 compared with 2.20 ± 0.33%·d-1 and 2.62 ± 0.56%·d-1 compared with 2.36 ± 0.53%·d-1 in OMNI1 and VEG1, respectively; P 0.05). Resistance training increased lean mass in both groups by a similar magnitude (OMNI2 2.6 ± 1.1 kg, VEG2 3.1 ± 2.5 kg; P > 0.05). Likewise, training comparably increased thigh muscle volume (OMNI2 8.3 ± 3.6%, VEG2 8.3 ± 4.1%; P > 0.05), and muscle fiber CSA (OMNI2 33 ± 24%, VEG2 32 ± 48%; P > 0.05). Both groups increased strength (1 repetition maximum) of multiple muscle groups, to comparable degrees. CONCLUSIONS: Omnivorous and vegan diets can support comparable rested and exercised daily MyoPS rates in healthy young adults consuming a high-protein diet. This translates to similar skeletal muscle adaptive responses during prolonged high-volume resistance training, irrespective of dietary protein provenance. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03572127.Marlow Foods Ltd

Information sharing impact of stochastic diffusion search on differential evolution algorithm

This work details the research aimed at applying the powerful resource allocation mechanism deployed in stochastic diffusion search (SDS) to the differential evolution (DE), effectively merging a nature inspired swarm intelligence algorithm with a biologically inspired evolutionary algorithm. The results reported herein suggest that the hybrid algorithm, exploiting information sharing between the population elements, has the potential to improve the optimisation capability of classical DE algorithms. This claim is verified by running several experiments using state-of-the-art benchmarks. Additionally, the significance of the frequency within which SDS introduces communication and information exchange is also investigated

Asteroseismology and Interferometry

Asteroseismology provides us with a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of stellar structure and evolution. Recent developments, including the first systematic studies of solar-like pulsators, have boosted the impact of this field of research within Astrophysics and have led to a significant increase in the size of the research community. In the present paper we start by reviewing the basic observational and theoretical properties of classical and solar-like pulsators and present results from some of the most recent and outstanding studies of these stars. We centre our review on those classes of pulsators for which interferometric studies are expected to provide a significant input. We discuss current limitations to asteroseismic studies, including difficulties in mode identification and in the accurate determination of global parameters of pulsating stars, and, after a brief review of those aspects of interferometry that are most relevant in this context, anticipate how interferometric observations may contribute to overcome these limitations. Moreover, we present results of recent pilot studies of pulsating stars involving both asteroseismic and interferometric constraints and look into the future, summarizing ongoing efforts concerning the development of future instruments and satellite missions which are expected to have an impact in this field of research.Comment: Version as published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review, Volume 14, Issue 3-4, pp. 217-36