More Than “Just” Walking: An Observational Study of Dog-Related Physical Activities

Dog ownership has been shown to correlate with physical activity (PA). However, knowledge about the intensities of dog-related PA (drPA) is still lacking. To investigate the duration and intensity of drPA in consideration of PA guidelines, an observational study of dog owners (DO) was conducted. For this purpose, DO were recruited in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan regions of Cologne, Germany. A total of 44 male and female DO (18–64 years) without cardiovascular or cardiopulmonary diseases participated in the study. Validated questionnaires were used to determine the PA profile and relationship of DO to their dog. Participants reported their drPA in an activity diary. Steps were determined by a pedometer. A heart rate (HR) monitor was used to analyze HR and percentage of maximum HR (HRmax) during all drPA. Overall, drPA makes up a large part of the duration of the overall PA recorded. HR and percentage of HRmax were significantly lower during dog walking (DW) than during other drPA. Nearly 90% of DW time was performed at light or very light intensity. No correlation between objectively measured PA and attachment to the dog was found. Two single case analyses show that other drPA reach high intensity levels and thus can be rated as moderate to vigorous intensity activities. The current investigation demonstrates that DW alone is insufficient to reach PA guidelines. Consequently, other drPA might have more beneficial effects than DW. In future investigations, the role of other types of drPA on PA levels needs to be taken into consideration to improve PA status in healthy populations

Who uses height-adjustable desks? - Sociodemographic, health-related, and psycho-social variables of regular users

Wallmann-Sperlich B, Bipp T, Bucksch J, Froboese I. Who uses height-adjustable desks? - Sociodemographic, health-related, and psycho-social variables of regular users. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 2017;14(1): 26

The perception of the neighborhood environment changes after participation in a pedometer based community intervention

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study was to investigate whether the perception of the neighbourhood environment alters when changing the physical activity behaviour through a pedometer intervention.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The intervention was implemented for 15 weeks in a small village in Germany, and was based on the individual baseline activity level. Eighty-two inhabitants participated in the study and completed an environmental questionnaire before and after the intervention. Results showed that after the intervention the participants perceived a lower distance to local facilities, a higher availability of bike lanes and infrastructures, a better maintenance of infrastructure, a better network and a safer traffic situation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This suggests that a change in the levels of physical activity merges the levels of exposure to the environment which results in different environmental perceptions.</p

Addressing the pain-points of single-use intensified multi-product downstream and liquid processing in a dancefloor production room layout

The sales of biologics will reach over $300 billion in 2020 and the market continues to have accelerated double-digit growth under the COVID-19 burden, thus biopharmaceutical companies continue to pipeline biologics for a mounting global patient base. Nevertheless, biologics are changing and the needs of their manufacturing are changing with them. Emerging biologics (e.g., antibody–drug conjugates, viral vectors, mRNA, bi/multi-specifics) are coming with complex or lean manufacturing requirements. Additionally, the global market is searching for more affordable & sustainable biologics and biosimilars, creating an increasingly competitive space within the emerging countries who seek to manufacture locally. The BioPhorum Operations Group (BPOG), a cross-industry organization of biopharmaceutical end users and suppliers collected biopharmaceutical industry drivers stating; - 90% reduction in capital expenditure (CAPEX) and manufacturing costs in the next decade. - reduce product changeover times by 90% to improve responses to variability in demand - drive down new facility build times by 70% The question is, how does this translate to actionable and prioritized points of improvement for a biological implementer & supplier to work on? With this general need in mind, combining Design Thinking methodology and insights from single-use biological manufacturing users were gathered through an extended survey with key biopharma industry companies and institutes representing the various user groups. All interviewee responses were populated, to enable the categorization and sorting of distinct user perceptions of likes, pain-points, and benefits. The outcome of the survey was thestarting point to define what are the critical components for a sustainable technology roadmap to address the needs for the rapidly intensifying biologics manufacturing market. In the presented work will be an overview of these validated pain-points, an explanation of the corresponding technology characteristic which address the underlying user need and a journey along the downstream purification steps. The format will be interactive with feedback questions and presentation of anonymous answers from the audience. The presentation will finish with concluding remarks on how sustainable single use processing could benefit the manufacturing of biologics

Socio-demographic, behavioural and cognitive correlates of work-related sitting time in German men and women

Background: Sitting time is ubiquitous for most adults in developed countries and is most prevalent in three domains: in the workplace, during transport and during leisure time. The correlates of prolonged sitting time in workplace settings are not well understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the gender-specific associations between the socio-demographic, behavioural and cognitive correlates of work-related sitting time. Methods: A cross-sectional sample of working German adults (n = 1515; 747 men; 43.5 ± 11.0 years) completed questionnaires regarding domain-specific sitting times and physical activity (PA) and answered statements concerning beliefs about sitting. To identify gender-specific correlates of work-related sitting time, we used a series of linear regressions. Results The overall median was 2 hours of work-related sitting time/day. Regression analyses showed for men (β = -.43) and for women (β = -.32) that work-related PA was negatively associated with work-related sitting time, but leisure-related PA was not a significant correlate. For women only, transport-related PA (β = -.07) was a negative correlate of work-related sitting time, suggesting increased sitting times during work with decreased PA in transport. Education and income levels were positively associated, and in women only, age (β = -.14) had a negative correlation with work-related sitting time. For both genders, TV-related sitting time was negatively associated with work-related sitting time. The only association with cognitive correlates was found in men for the belief ‘Sitting for long periods does not matter to me’ (β = .10) expressing a more positive attitude towards sitting with increasing sitting durations. Conclusions: The present findings show that in particular, higher educated men and women as well as young women are high-risk groups to target for reducing prolonged work-related sitting time. In addition, our findings propose considering increasing transport-related PA, especially in women, as well as promoting recreation-related PA in conjunction with efforts to reduce long work-related sitting times

Excitation-transcription coupling in skeletal muscle: the molecular pathways of exercise

Muscle fibres have different properties with respect to force, contraction speed, endurance, oxidative/glycolytic capacity etc. Although adult muscle fibres are normally post-mitotic with little turnover of cells, the physiological properties of the pre-existing fibres can be changed in the adult animal upon changes in usage such as after exercise. The signal to change is mainly conveyed by alterations in the patterns of nerve-evoked electrical activity, and is to a large extent due to switches in the expression of genes. Thus, an excitation-transcription coupling must exist. It is suggested that changes in nerve-evoked muscle activity lead to a variety of activity correlates such as increases in free intracellular Ca2+ levels caused by influx across the cell membrane and/or release from the sarcoplasmatic reticulum, concentrations of metabolites such as lipids and ADP, hypoxia and mechanical stress. Such correlates are detected by sensors such as protein kinase C (PKC), calmodulin, AMP-activated kinase (AMPK), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor δ (PPARδ), and oxygen dependent prolyl hydroxylases that trigger intracellular signaling cascades. These complex cascades involve several transcription factors such as nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT), myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2), myogenic differentiation factor (myoD), myogenin, PPARδ, and sine oculis homeobox 1/eyes absent 1 (Six1/Eya1). These factors might act indirectly by inducing gene products that act back on the cascade, or as ultimate transcription factors binding to and transactivating/repressing genes for the fast and slow isoforms of various contractile proteins and of metabolic enzymes. The determination of size and force is even more complex as this involves not only intracellular signaling within the muscle fibres, but also muscle stem cells called satellite cells. Intercellular signaling substances such as myostatin and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) seem to act in a paracrine fashion. Induction of hypertrophy is accompanied by the satellite cells fusing to myofibres and thereby increasing the capacity for protein synthesis. These extra nuclei seem to remain part of the fibre even during subsequent atrophy as a form of muscle memory facilitating retraining. In addition to changes in myonuclear number during hypertrophy, changes in muscle fibre size seem to be caused by alterations in transcription, translation (per nucleus) and protein degradation

Physical Activity during Work, Transport and Leisure in Germany - Prevalence and Socio-Demographic Correlates

Background This study aimed 1) to provide data estimates concerning overall moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) as well as MVPA during work, transport and leisure in Germany and 2) to investigate MVPA and possible associations with socio-demographic correlates. Methods A cross-sectional telephone survey interviewed 2248 representative participants in the age of 18–65 years (1077 men; 42.4±13.4 years; body mass index: 25.3±4.5kg•m−2) regarding their self-reported physical activity across Germany. The Global Physical Activity Questionnaire was applied to investigate MVPA during work, transport and leisure and questions were answered concerning their demographics. MVPA was stratified by gender, age, body mass index, residential setting, educational and income level. To identify socio-demographic correlates of overall MVPA as well as in the domains, we used a series of linear regressions. Results 52.8% of the sample achieved physical activity recommendations (53.7% men/52.1% women). Overall MVPA was highest in the age group 18–29 years (p<.05), in participants with 10 years of education (p<.05) and in participants with lowest income levels <1.500€ (p<.05). Regression analyses revealed that age, education and income were negatively associated with overall and work MVPA. Residential setting and education was positively correlated with transport MVPA, whereas income level was negatively associated with transport MVPA. Education was the only correlate for leisure MVPA with a positive association. Conclusions The present data underlines the importance of a comprehensive view on physical activity engagement according to the different physical activity domains and discloses a need for future physical activity interventions that consider socio-demographic variables, residential setting as well as the physical activity domain in Germany