A Study on the Impact of Diet on Unified Fire Authority Firefighter Performance

Objective: This project aimed to examine the impact of nutrition knowledge, dietary intake, and physical activity on firefighters’ performance on their routine physical assessment (RPA). Methodology: Members of the Unified Fire Authority, the largest fire agency in Utah with more than 400 sworn firefighters serving 15 communities representing 440,000 residents, were invited via email to participate in this cross-sectional study. Participants (N=92) completed a 40- question survey that assessed specialized diet adherence, dietary intake, nutrition knowledge (using questions from the General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire;1 point for each correct answer [26 points possible]), regular physical activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaire), and perceived physical performance on their RPA. Based on their responses, participants were categorized into one of two groups: High Performance (performed exceptionally well/very well) and Lower Performance (performed moderately well/slightly well/not well at all). Chi Squared Distributions and Independent t-tests were used to assess group differences. Statistical significance was set at p\u3c0.05. Results: More High Performance firefighters reported eating ≥5 servings of fruits and vegetables (29.2% vs 10.8%, p=0.04) than Lower Performance firefighters. There were no significant differences in prevalence of vigorous physical activity (12.1% vs 17.8%, p=0.27), prevalence of following a specific diet (27.1% vs 21.6%, p=0.57), or nutrition knowledge score (18.7 vs 18.2, p=0.49) when comparing High Performance and Lower Performance firefighters. Conclusions: High Performance firefighters had a higher prevalence of fruit and vegetable consumption. Diet quality, including intake of fruits and vegetables, should be an included strategy for firefighters wishing to improve their physical performance. Future studies should use interviews and lab-based assessments to further assess factors that may influence firefighters’ performance on RPAs

Factors Influencing Dietetic Interns\u27 Dietary Habits During Supervised Practice

Supervised practice is a prerequisite to becoming a registered dietitian. Research suggests that environmental and social factors may affect dietary choices. This focus group research aimed to gather opinions from dietetic interns to understand what factors related to supervised practice, if any, affected their dietary habits. Qualitative data were collected via seven recorded virtual focus groups in which trained moderators facilitated a discussion using a series of controlled questions. Participants, dietetic interns (n = 42) who were currently completing or had completed their supervised practice within the previous six months, attended one of seven virtual focus groups. Each focus group had five to eight participants. Transcripts were separately coded by two trained researchers using a grounded theory approach to identify themes and subthemes. Researchers discussed any disagreements in coding and established a consensus. Elements related to the dietetic internship were observed to influence participants’ dietary choices. Main themes included time, finances, food access and availability, physical and mental effects, non-supervised practice factors, and social factors. Dietetic programs and preceptors should explore ways to raise interns’ awareness and minimize the potential negative impacts of these factors on interns’ dietary habits to improve their overall internship experience

BDSM Disclosure and Stigma Management: Identifying Opportunities for Sex Education

While participation in the activities like bondage, domination, submission/sadism, masochism that fall under the umbrella term BDSM is widespread, stigma surrounding BDSM poses risks to practitioners who wish to disclose their interest. We examined risk factors involved with disclosure to posit how sex education might diffuse stigma and warn of risks. Semi-structured interviews asked 20 adults reporting an interest in BDSM about their disclosure experiences. Most respondents reported their BDSM interests starting before age 15, sometimes creating a phase of anxiety and shame in the absence of reassuring information. As adults, respondents often considered BDSM central to their sexuality, thus disclosure was integral to dating. Disclosure decisions in nondating situations were often complex considerations balancing desire for appropriateness with a desire for connection and honesty. Some respondents wondered whether their interests being found out would jeopardize their jobs. Experiences with stigma varied widely

Markers of Dysglycaemia and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in People without Diabetes: Reykjavik Prospective Study and Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Associations between circulating markers of dysglycaemia and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk in people without diabetes have not been reliably characterised. We report new data from a prospective study and a systematic review to help quantify these associations. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Fasting and post-load glucose levels were measured in 18,569 participants in the population-based Reykjavik study, yielding 4,664 incident CHD outcomes during 23.5 y of mean follow-up. In people with no known history of diabetes at the baseline survey, the hazard ratio (HR) for CHD, adjusted for several conventional risk factors, was 2.37 (95% CI 1.79-3.14) in individuals with fasting glucose > or = 7.0 mmol/l compared to those or = 7 mmol/l at baseline were excluded, relative risks for CHD, adjusted for several conventional risk factors, were: 1.06 (1.00-1.12) per 1 mmol/l higher fasting glucose (23 cohorts, 10,808 cases, 255,171 participants); 1.05 (1.03-1.07) per 1 mmol/l higher post-load glucose (15 cohorts, 12,652 cases, 102,382 participants); and 1.20 (1.10-1.31) per 1% higher HbA(1c) (9 cohorts, 1639 cases, 49,099 participants). CONCLUSIONS: In the Reykjavik Study and a meta-analysis of other Western prospective studies, fasting and post-load glucose levels were modestly associated with CHD risk in people without diabetes. The meta-analysis suggested a somewhat stronger association between HbA(1c) levels and CHD risk

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Comprehensive analysis of chromothripsis in 2,658 human cancers using whole-genome sequencing

Chromothripsis is a mutational phenomenon characterized by massive, clustered genomic rearrangements that occurs in cancer and other diseases. Recent studies in selected cancer types have suggested that chromothripsis may be more common than initially inferred from low-resolution copy-number data. Here, as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we analyze patterns of chromothripsis across 2,658 tumors from 38 cancer types using whole-genome sequencing data. We find that chromothripsis events are pervasive across cancers, with a frequency of more than 50% in several cancer types. Whereas canonical chromothripsis profiles display oscillations between two copy-number states, a considerable fraction of events involve multiple chromosomes and additional structural alterations. In addition to non-homologous end joining, we detect signatures of replication-associated processes and templated insertions. Chromothripsis contributes to oncogene amplification and to inactivation of genes such as mismatch-repair-related genes. These findings show that chromothripsis is a major process that drives genome evolution in human cancer

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

Incidence of and risk factors for motor neurone disease in UK women: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND: Motor neuron disease (MND) is a severe neurodegenerative disease with largely unknown etiology. Most epidemiological studies are hampered by small sample sizes and/or the retrospective collection of information on behavioural and lifestyle factors. METHODS: 1.3 million women from the UK Million Women Study, aged 56 years on average at recruitment, were followed up for incident and/or fatal MND using NHS hospital admission and mortality data. Adjusted relative risks were calculated using Cox regression models. FINDINGS: During follow-up for an average of 9·2 years, 752 women had a new diagnosis of MND. Age-specific rates increased with age, from 1·9 (95% CI 1·3 - 2·7) to 12·5 (95% CI 10·2 - 15·3) per 100,000 women aged 50-54 to 70-74, respectively, giving a cumulative risk of diagnosis with the disease of 1·74 per 1000 women between the ages of 50 and 75 years. There was no significant variation in risk of MND with region of residence, socio-economic status, education, height, alcohol use, parity, use of oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy. Ever-smokers had about a 20% greater risk than never smokers (RR 1·19 95% CI 1·02 to 1·38, p = 0·03). There was a statistically significant reduction in risk of MND with increasing body mass index (p(for trend) = 0·009): obese women (body mass index, 30 kg/m(2) or more) had a 20% lower risk than women of normal body mass index (20 to <25 Kg/m(2))(RR 0·78 95% CI 0·65-0·94; p = 0·03). This effect persisted after exclusion of the first three years of follow-up. INTERPRETATION: MND incidence in UK women rises rapidly with age, and an estimated 1 in 575 women are likely to be affected between the ages of 50 and 75 years. Smoking slightly increases the risk of MND, and adiposity in middle age is associated with a lower risk of the disease