Position guidelines and evidence base concerning determinants of childhood obesity with a European perspective

Childhood obesity is one of the most pressing global public health issues, with rates increasing fastest in countries at low levels of income. Obesity occurring during childhood is likely to persist throughout the life course, and it is a cause of increased disease risk from the early years of life. This supplement is the result of collaborations involving a large and multidisciplinary group of researchers that were established in the context of the ongoing European Horizon 2020 project Science and Technology in childhood Obesity Policy (STOP). The aim, as in the entire STOP project, is to generate evidence that can support better policies to tackle the problem of childhood obesity in Europe and elsewhere. Quality of life and health well-being concerning children needs to consider personalized, population, and planetary facets to tackle childhood obesity at early stages of life, for in-deep phenotyping, integrating personalized medicine and precision public health interventions at global levels. This supplement contributes to this aim. © 2021 The Authors. Obesity Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of World Obesity Federation

Application of data augmentation techniques towards metabolomics

Niemann–Pick Class 1 (NPC1) disease is a rare and debilitating neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disease (LSD). Metabolomics datasets of NPC1 patients available to perform this type of analysis are often limited in the number of samples and severely unbalanced. In order to improve the predictive capability and identify new biomarkers in an NPC1 disease urinary dataset, data augmentation (DA) techniques based on computational intelligence have been employed to create synthetic samples, i.e. the addition of noise, oversampling techniques and conditional generative adversarial networks. These techniques have been used to evaluate their predictive capacities on a set of urine samples donated by 13 untreated NPC1 disease and 47 heterozygous (parental) carrier control participants. Results on the prediction have also been obtained using different machine learning classification models and the partial least squares techniques. These results provide strong evidence for the ability of DA techniques to generate good quality synthetic data. Results acquired show increases in sensitivity of 20%–50%, an F1 score of 6%–30%, and a predictive capacity of 0.3 (out of 1). Additionally, more conventional forms of multivariate data analysis have been employed. These have allowed the detection of unusual urinary metabolite profiles, and the identification of biomarkers through the use of synthetically augmented datasets. Results indicate that urinary branched-chain amino acids such as valine, 3-aminoisobutyrate and quinolinate, may be employable as valuable biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognostic monitoring of NPC1 diseaseThe authors acknowledge the support from MINECO (Spain) through grants TIN2017-88728-C2-1-R and PID2020-116898RB-I00 (MICINN), from Universidad de Málaga y Junta de Andalucía through grant UMA20-FEDERJA-045, and from Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga – IBIMA (all including FEDER funds). Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA

Estudio sobre la prevalencia del burnout en los médicos del Área Sanitaria de Talavera de la Reina

ObjetivoDeterminar el grado de burnout, o desgaste profesional, en los médicos del Área Sanitaria de Talavera de la Reina y los factores asociadosDiseñoEstudio descriptivo transversalSujetosMédicos dedicados a la atención primaria (AP) (n = 106) y atención especializada (AE) (n = 129)MedicionesCuestionario Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) y encuesta con variables sociodemográficas y sugerencias. Ambos anónimos y autoadministrablesResultadosContestaron 144 médicos (61,27%), 63 de AP y 81 de AE, varones el 72,2% y con una media de edad de 45 años (con una escasa variabilidad entre AP y AE). La media de años trabajados fue de 18,65. Realizan guardias 102 (70,83%). El tipo de contrato es fijo en 85 (59,02%), interino en 49 (34,02%) y "otros" en 10(6,94%). Presenta burnout el 76,4% de los profesionales (moderado en el 38,9% y alto en el 37,5%). Resulta estadísticamente significativa la diferencia entre burnout de AP y AE (el 85,7 frente al 69,1%). En el resto de las variables estudiadas edad, sexo, estado civil, realización de guardias no encontramos diferencias significativas. Como sugerencias para mitigar el burnout destacan la petición de apoyo de mejoras laborales, un mayor reconocimiento personal y profesional, la implicación de la Administración y la Gerencia, la remuneración económica, facilitar formación e investigación, etcConclusiones.El grado de desgaste profesional (burnout) es muy elevado en nuestra área, con un mayor porcentaje en AP que en AEObjectiveTo determine the degree of burnout or professional wear-and-tear in doctors from the Talavera de la Reina Health Area and linked factorsDesignTransversal, descriptive studyParticipantsDoctors in primary care (PC)(n=106) and specialist care (SC) (n=129)Measurements and ResultsMaslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) questionnaire and a survey with social and demographic variables and suggestions. Both were anonymous and self-administeredResults144 (61.27%) answered, 63 from PC and 81 SC. 72.2% were male, with a meanage of 45 (with little variability between PC and SC). Average years worked were 18.65.102 (70.83%) worked cover. 85 (59.02%) had an indefinite contract, 49 (34.02%) a temporary one, and 10 (6.94%) other kinds.76.4% of the professionals suffered burnout(moderate in 38.9% and high in 37.5%). The difference between PC and SC burnout(85.7% vs 69.1%) was statistically significant.In the remaining variables studied (age, sex, marital status, working of cover shifts…) we found no significant differences. Among suggestions to mitigate burnout were demands to support improvements in working conditions, greater personal and professional recognition, involvement of the government and management, economic remuneration,providing more training and research, etcConclusionsProfessional wear-and-tear or burnout is very high in our area, and is higher in PC than in S

Association of physical activity levels and prevalence of major degenerative diseases: Evidence from the national health and nutrition examination survey (NHANES) 1999–2018

Objectives: Degenerative diseases are associated with lower healthy life expectancy and higher mortality. Physical activity (PA) has demonstrated a fundamental role in the prevention and control of several pathologies associated to the aging process. The aim of this study was to analyze the association of PA with the prevalence of sarcopenia, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis in non-institutionalized American population. Methods: Cross-sectional study carried out in participants aged ≥50 years from the 1999–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Sarcopenia was defined using appendicular lean mass adjusted for body mass index (ALM:BMI; men 1800 MET-min/week was associated with reduced odds for osteoporosis; and performing 150–1800 MET-min/week of PA was associated with reduced odds for osteoarthritis after adjust the results by several confounders. Conclusions: The benefits of PA in sarcopenia, osteoporosis, and osteoarthritis prevention are evident among Americans aged ≥50 years

A cross-sectional analysis of the association between physical activity, depression, and all-cause mortality in Americans over 50 years old

Depression is estimated to be the second leading cause of disability in the United States and is associated with a 52% increased risk of death. Lifestyle components may have an important role in depression pathogenesis. The aims of this study were to analyze the association of meeting the physical activity (PA) recommendation guidelines and depression, and to analyze the all-cause mortality risk of the joint association of PA and depression. This cross-sectional study included 7201 participants from the 2007–2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey aged ≥ 50 years and linked to National Death Index records through December 31, 2015. Depression was defined as a score ≥ 10 using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). PA was self-reported, and total PA was used to classify participants as more active (≥ 600 MET-min/week) or less active (< 600 MET-min/week). The odds ratios for depression were examined according to be more active or less active. The hazard ratios (HR) for the association of PA level and depression status with all-cause mortality were examined. Being more active was associated with reduced odds for depression. Compared with less active participants with depression, those who were more active and having depression had HR 0.45 (95% CI 0.22, 0.91, p = 0.026) for all-cause mortality. Being more active is associated with lower odds for depression and seems to be a protective factor against the increased all-cause mortality risk due to depression

Ultrastrong waveguide QED with giant atoms

Quantum optics with giant emitters has shown a new route for the observation and manipulation of non-Markovian properties in waveguide QED. In this paper we extend the theory of giant atoms, hitherto restricted to the perturbative light-matter regime, to deal with the ultrastrong-coupling regime. Using static and dynamical polaron methods, we address the low-energy subspace of a giant atom coupled to an Ohmic waveguide beyond the standard rotating-wave approximation. We analyze the equilibrium properties of the system by computing the atomic frequency renormalization as a function of the coupling characterizing the localization-delocalization quantum phase transition for a giant atom. We show that virtual photons dressing the ground state are nonexponentially localized around the contact points but decay as a power law. The dynamics of an initially excited giant atom is studied, pointing out the effects of ultrastrong coupling on the Lamb shift and the spontaneous emission decay rate. Finally, we comment on the existence of the so-called oscillating bound states beyond the rotating-wave approximatio