Prevalence and correlates of achieving recommended physical activity levels among children living in rural South Asia—A multi-centre study

Background: We report the prevalence of recommended physical activity levels (RPALs) and examine the correlates of achieving RPALs in rural South Asian children and analyse its association with anthropometric outcomes. Methods: This analysis on rural South Asian children aged 5–14 years (n = 564) is a part of the Chronic Disease Risk Factor study conducted at three sites in India (Chennai n = 146; Goa n = 218) and Bangladesh (Matlab; n = 200). Data on socio-demographic and lifestyle factors (physical activity (PA); diet) were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaires, along with objective anthropometric measurements. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine whether RPALs (active travel to school (yes/no); leisure-time PA ≥ 1 h/day; sedentary-activity ≤ 2 h/day) were associated with socio-demographic factors, diet and other forms of PA. Multivariate linear regression models were used to investigate associations between RPALs and anthropometrics (BMI- and waist z-scores). Results: The majority of children (71.8 %) belonged to households where a parent had at least a secondary education. Two-thirds (66.7 %) actively travelled to school; 74.6 % reported ≥1 h/day of leisure-time PA and 55.7 % had ≤2 h/day of sedentary-activity; 25.2 % of children reported RPALs in all three dimensions. Older (10–14 years, OR = 2.0; 95 % CI: 1.3, 3.0) and female (OR = 1.7; 95 % CI: 1.1, 2.5) children were more likely to travel actively to school. Leisure-time PA ≥ 1 h/day was more common among boys (OR = 2.5; 95 % CI: 1.5, 4.0), children in Matlab, Bangladesh (OR = 3.0; 95 % CI: 1.6, 5.5), and those with higher processed-food consumption (OR = 2.3; 95 % CI: 1.2, 4.1). Sedentary activity ≤ 2 h/day was associated with younger children (5–9 years, OR = 1.6; 95 % CI: 1.1, 2. 4), children of Goa (OR = 3.5; 95 % CI: 2.1, 6.1) and Chennai (OR = 2.5; 95 % CI: 1.5, 4.3) and low household education (OR = 2.1; 95 % CI: 1.1, 4.1). In multivariate analyses, sedentary activity ≤ 2 h/day was associated with lower BMI-z-scores (β = −0.3; 95 % CI: −0.5, −0.08) and lower waist-z-scores (β = −1.1; 95 % CI: −2.2, −0.07). Conclusion: Only one quarter of children in these rural areas achieved RPAL in active travel, leisure and sedentary activity. Improved understanding of RPAL in rural South Asian children is important due to rapid socio-economic transition

TANGO2 Deficiency Disorder: Two Cases of Developmental Delay Preceding Metabolic Crisis

Background: TANGO2 deficiency disorder is a rare genetic disease caused by biallelic defects in TANGO2 gene. Methods: We report the clinical phenotype of two children with TANGO2 deficiency disorder. Results: Patient 1 is a female child presenting with developmental delay and microcephaly during the second year of life, who evolved with severe cognitive impairment, facial dysmorphisms, spastic paraparesis, and atonic seizures. At age 13 years, she was hospitalized due to an episode of rhabdomyolysis complicated with cardiac arrhythmia and hypothyroidism. Patient 2 is a female child with dysmorphic facial features, cleft palate, and developmental delay who was diagnosed with DiGeorge syndrome. At age three years, she presented with an acute episode of severe rhabdomyolysis in the context of human herpesvirus 6 infection. After the resolution of this acute episode, she maintained recurrent muscle weakness with axial hypotonia and progressive spasticity of the lower extremities. In both patients, diagnosis of TANGO2 deficiency disorder was only confirmed after an acute metabolic crisis. Conclusions: A high index of suspicion for TANGO2 deficiency disorder is needed in patients with developmental delay or other neurological symptoms and episodic rhabdomyolysis.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Critical Look at Innovation Profile and Its Relationship with Pharmaceutical Industry

Background: The pharmaceutical sector undertakes extensive research and development (R&D). Pharmaceutical industries have continued to launch an appreciable number of new medicines, different pharmaceutical formulations, new indications and other innovations that contribute to the growth of this sector. New novel medicines are increasingly essential for continued success given the number of standard medicines now available as low cost generics or biosimilars. Consequently, innovation is a fundamental element in pharmaceutical company competition. Not all innovations though are the same size, type or category with differentiation of innovation essential for commercial success. However, given the wide range of definitions used in the literature, the framing may diffuse. Currently, there are several types and categories of innovation are deficiently harmonized and poorly stratified resulting in analysis trends and provide major obstacles to innovation’s differentiation and in assessing the company's innovative dominant characteristic in the sector. The objective of this study is to stratify and organize, didactically, the field of definitions and concepts of innovation and provide a structural and operational delineation, from a critical point of view, for the classifications of innovation applied to the pharmaceutical industr

Associations between active travel and adiposity in rural India and Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Data on use and health benefits of active travel in rural low- and middle- income country settings are sparse. We aimed to examine correlates of active travel, and its association with adiposity, in rural India and Bangladesh. METHODS: Cross sectional study of 2,122 adults (≥18 years) sampled in 2011-13 from two rural sites in India (Goa and Chennai) and one in Bangladesh (Matlab). Logistic regression was used to examine whether ≥150 min/week of active travel was associated with socio-demographic indices, smoking, oil/butter consumption, and additional physical activity. Adjusting for these same factors, associations between active travel and BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio were examined using linear and logistic regression. RESULTS: Forty-six percent of the sample achieved recommended levels of physical activity (≥150 min/week) through active travel alone (range: 33.1 % in Matlab to 54.8 % in Goa). This was more frequent among smokers (adjusted odds ratio 1.36, 95 % confidence interval 1.07-1.72; p = 0.011) and those that spent ≥150 min/week in work-based physical activity (OR 1.71, 1.35-2.16; p < 0.001), but less frequent among females than males (OR 0.25, 0.20-0.31; p < 0.001). In fully adjusted analyses, ≥150 min/week of active travel was associated with lower BMI (adjusted coefficient -0.39 kg/m(2), -0.77 to -0.02; p = 0.037) and a lower likelihood of high waist circumference (OR 0.77, 0.63-0.96; p = 0.018) and high waist-to-hip ratio (OR 0.72, 0.58-0.89; p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Use of active travel for ≥150 min/week was associated with being male, smoking, and higher levels of work-based physical activity. It was associated with lower BMI, and lower risk of a high waist circumference or high waist-to-hip ratio. Promotion of active travel is an important component of strategies to address the growing prevalence of overweight in rural low- and middle- income country settings

Stable marriage and roommates problems with restricted edges: complexity and approximability

In the Stable Marriage and Roommates problems, a set of agents is given, each of them having a strictly ordered preference list over some or all of the other agents. A matching is a set of disjoint pairs of mutually acceptable agents. If any two agents mutually prefer each other to their partner, then they block the matching, otherwise, the matching is said to be stable. We investigate the complexity of finding a solution satisfying additional constraints on restricted pairs of agents. Restricted pairs can be either forced or forbidden. A stable solution must contain all of the forced pairs, while it must contain none of the forbidden pairs. Dias et al. (2003) gave a polynomial-time algorithm to decide whether such a solution exists in the presence of restricted edges. If the answer is no, one might look for a solution close to optimal. Since optimality in this context means that the matching is stable and satisfies all constraints on restricted pairs, there are two ways of relaxing the constraints by permitting a solution to: (1) be blocked by as few as possible pairs, or (2) violate as few as possible constraints n restricted pairs. Our main theorems prove that for the (bipartite) Stable Marriage problem, case (1) leads to View the MathML source-hardness and inapproximability results, whilst case (2) can be solved in polynomial time. For non-bipartite Stable Roommates instances, case (2) yields an View the MathML source-hard but (under some cardinality assumptions) 2-approximable problem. In the case of View the MathML source-hard problems, we also discuss polynomially solvable special cases, arising from restrictions on the lengths of the preference lists, or upper bounds on the numbers of restricted pairs

The helicase HAGE prevents interferon-a-induced PML expression in ABCB5+ malignant melanoma-initiating cells by promoting the expression of SOCS1

The tumour suppressor PML (promyelocytic leukaemia protein) regulates several cellular pathways involving cell growth, apoptosis, differentiation and senescence. PML also has an important role in the regulation of stem cell proliferation and differentiation. Here, we show the involvement of the helicase HAGE in the transcriptional repression of PML expression in ABCB5 + malignant melanoma-initiating cells (ABCB5 + MMICs), a population of cancer stem cells which are responsible for melanoma growth, progression and resistance to drug-based therapy. HAGE prevents PML gene expression by inhibiting the activation of the JAK-STAT (janus kinase-signal transducers and activators of transcription) pathway in a mechanism which implicates the suppressor of cytokine signalling 1 (SOCS1). Knockdown of HAGE led to a significant decrease in SOCS1 protein expression, activation of the JAK-STAT signalling cascade and a consequent increase of PML expression. To confirm that the reduction in SOCS1 expression was dependent on the HAGE helicase activity, we showed that SOCS1, effectively silenced by small interfering RNA, could be rescued by re-introduction of HAGE into cells lacking HAGE. Furthermore, we provide a mechanism by which HAGE promotes SOCS1 mRNA unwinding and protein expression in vitro

Ruthenium complex containing 1,3-thiazolidine-2-thione inhibits hepatic cancer stem cells by suppressing Akt/mTOR signalling and leading to apoptotic and autophagic cell death

\ua9 2024 The AuthorsHepatic cancer is one of the main causes of cancer-related death worldwide. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a unique subset of cancer cells that promote tumour growth, maintenance, and therapeutic resistance, leading to recurrence. In the present work, the ability of a ruthenium complex containing 1,3-thiazolidine-2-thione (RCT), with the chemical formula [Ru(tzdt)(bipy)(dppb)]PF6, to inhibit hepatic CSCs was explored in human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells. RCT exhibited potent cytotoxicity to solid and haematological cancer cell lines and reduced the clonogenic potential, CD133+ and CD44high cell percentages and tumour spheroid growth of HepG2 cells. RCT also inhibited cell motility, as observed in the wound healing assay and transwell cell migration assay. RCT reduced the levels of Akt1, phospho-Akt (Ser473), phospho-Akt (Thr308), phospho-mTOR (Ser2448), and phospho-S6 (Ser235/Ser236) in HepG2 cells, indicating that interfering with Akt/mTOR signalling is a mechanism of action of RCT. The levels of active caspase-3 and cleaved PARP (Asp214) were increased in RCT-treated HepG2 cells, indicating the induction of apoptotic cell death. In addition, RCT modulated the autophagy markers LC3B and p62/SQSTM1 in HepG2 cells and increased mitophagy in a mt-Keima-transfected mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cell model, and RCT-induced cytotoxicity was partially prevented by autophagy inhibitors. Furthermore, mutant Atg5-/- MEFs and PentaKO HeLa cells (human cervical adenocarcinoma with five autophagy receptor knockouts) were less sensitive to RCT cytotoxicity than their parental cell lines, indicating that RCT induces autophagy-mediated cell death. Taken together, these data indicate that RCT is a novel potential anti-liver cancer drug with a suppressive effect on CSCs

Resistance Profile of Salmonella spp. to Third Generation Cephalosporins and Quinolones in Chicken Carcasses from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

ABSTRACT Salmonella spp. is one of the major bacterial causes of foodborne gastroenteritis in humans. The aim of this study was to investigate antimicrobial susceptibility to cephalosporins and quinolones, and to identify the genetic mechanisms related to this resistance in strains of Salmonella spp. Seventy chicken carcass samples were collected from slaughterhouses in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The phenotypic profile was detected by the disk-diffusion method and the search for genes encoding betalactamases, and resistance to quinolones was evaluated by PCR. The search for mutations in gyrA and parC was carried out by sequencing these genes. Eleven strains of Salmonella spp. of different serotypes were isolated. All the strains were resistant to at least one of the antimicrobials tested, and 63.64% (7/11) showed resistance to three or more antimicrobials. In the phenotypic test for ESBL production, 36.36% (4/11) of the strains were considered positive. PCR detected the resistance genes bla CMY-2, qnrB, bla CTX-M, and bla TEM. Among the isolates, 45.45% (5/11) simultaneously presented the bla CTX-M, bla TEM, qnrB genes and a mutation (Thr-57→Ser) in parC. Point mutations in the parC gene were detected in all the analyzed samples. Genes such as bla SHV, qnrA, qnrC, qnrD, qnrS, aac(6’)-Ib, qepA, and oqxAB were not detected. The study identified Salmonella spp. resistant to cephalosporins and quinolones, with resistance genes and mutations in parC, highlighting concerns about the adoption of biosecurity measures, responsible use of antimicrobials, and surveillance of resistant strains in the poultry chain

Power grip, pinch grip, manual muscle testing or thenar atrophy - which should be assessed as a motor outcome after carpal tunnel decompression? A systematic review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Objective assessment of motor function is frequently used to evaluate outcome after surgical treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). However a range of outcome measures are used and there appears to be no consensus on which measure of motor function effectively captures change. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify the methods used to assess motor function in randomized controlled trials of surgical interventions for CTS. A secondary aim was to evaluate which instruments reflect clinical change and are psychometrically robust.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The bibliographic databases Medline, AMED and CINAHL were searched for randomized controlled trials of surgical interventions for CTS. Data on instruments used, methods of assessment and results of tests of motor function was extracted by two independent reviewers.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty-two studies were retrieved which included performance based assessments of motor function. Nineteen studies assessed power grip dynamometry, fourteen studies used both power and pinch grip dynamometry, eight used manual muscle testing and five assessed the presence or absence of thenar atrophy. Several studies used multiple tests of motor function. Two studies included both power and pinch strength and reported descriptive statistics enabling calculation of effect sizes to compare the relative responsiveness of grip and pinch strength within study samples. The study findings suggest that tip pinch is more responsive than lateral pinch or power grip up to 12 weeks following surgery for CTS.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although used most frequently and known to be reliable, power and key pinch dynamometry are not the most valid or responsive tools for assessing motor outcome up to 12 weeks following surgery for CTS. Tip pinch dynamometry more specifically targets the thenar musculature and appears to be more responsive. Manual muscle testing, which in theory is most specific to the thenar musculature, may be more sensitive if assessed using a hand held dynamometer – the Rotterdam Intrinsic Handheld Myometer. However further research is needed to evaluate its reliability and responsiveness and establish the most efficient and psychometrically robust method of evaluating motor function following surgery for CTS.</p