Physical activity, fitness and adiposity: immigrants versus spanish scholars

El objetivo fue analizar las asociaciones entre los niveles de condición física, patrones de actividad física y adiposidad del alumnado nativo e inmigrante. Se estudiaron 612 niños (8-10 años) de colegios públicos, valorándose mediante pruebas antropométricas, condición física y cuestionario de hábitos de actividad física. Se observó que el alumnado que realizaba mayor actividad física presentaba menor índice de masa corporal y mayor condición física. El alumnado inmigrante presentó menor adiposidad y mayor participación en actividades deportivas. No encontramos diferencias en condición física, salvo en chicas inmigrantes, con mayor fuerza del tren inferior. En conclusión, los inmigrantes del presente estudio parecen poseer un perfil más saludable de condición física, actividad física y adiposidad que los nativos.The objective was to analyse the associations of physical fitness and patterns of physical activity with adiposity in native and foreign. This study was performed with 612 school students (8-10 years). Anthropometric measurements, physical fitness and activity patterns were studied. The results showed that students who practiced more physical activity had lower body mass index and higher levels of fitness. Immigrants had lower adiposity and higher participation in sport activities than native students. No differences between native and foreing students in levels were found, except for immigrant girls, who showed greater lower body strengh than the natives ones. In conclusion, immigrants from this study appear to have a healthier fitness, physical activity and adiposity than natives.Este estudio ha sido financiando por la de la Dirección General de Participación e Innovación Educativa, por la que se aprueban proyectos de investigación e innovación educativa y de elaboración de materiales curriculares de de la Consejería de Educación de Andalucía. RESOLUCIÓN de 14 de julio de 2010 (PIV-038/10), y con una beca del Ministerio de Ciencia e Investigación (JCI-2010-07055)

Physical capacity in youth football players of a profesional club

Las características físicas del fútbol son muy diversas, aunque se reconocen como muy importantes la capacidad de realizar esfuerzos de alta intensidad y la de retrasar la fatiga en la mayor medida posible en esfuerzos intermitentes. Son diversos los trabajos que analizan dichas características en el fútbol profesional, aunque son menores los que analizan las categorías de formación. En el presente estudio se analiza la evolución por categorías de pruebas de salto, velocidad, agilidad y resistencia aeróbica específica, en jugadores de fútbol jóvenes de la cantera de un club profesional de la liga española. Se produjo un incremento de las marcas con la edad, aunque no se observaron diferencias significativas en grupos de edad cercanos, produciéndose una meseta en el rendimiento en la fuerza explosiva y velocidad de aceleración a partir de los 17 años y en la velocidad de desplazamiento y agilidad a los 15 añosPhysical characteristics of football are very different, but are recognized as very important the ability to perform high-intensity efforts and to delay fatigue as much as possible in intermittent efforts. There are several studies that analyze these characteristics in professional football but are less those who analyze the categories of training. In the present study analyzes the evolution of categories of jumping, speed, agility and specific endurance in young soccer players from a professional club of the Spanish league. There was an increase of the marks with age, although no significant differences in age groups encircle. Producing a plateau in performance in explosive strength and acceleration speed from 17 years and in speed and agility at age of 1

A computer-aided diagnosis of multiple sclerosis based on mfVEP recordings.

Introduction: The aim of this study is to develop a computer-aided diagnosis system to identify subjects at differing stages of development of multiple sclerosis (MS) using multifocal visual-evoked potentials (mfVEPs). Using an automatic classifier, diagnosis is performed first on the eyes and then on the subjects. Patients: MfVEP signals were obtained from patients with Radiologically Isolated Syndrome (RIS) (n = 30 eyes), patients with Clinically Isolated Syndrome (CIS) (n = 62 eyes), patients with definite MS (n = 56 eyes) and 22 control subjects (n = 44 eyes). The CIS and MS groups were divided into two subgroups: those with eyes affected by optic neuritis (ON) and those without (non-ON). Methods: For individual eye diagnosis, a feature vector was formed with information about the intensity, latency and singular values of the mfVEP signals. A flat multiclass classifier (FMC) and a hierarchical classifier (HC) were tested and both were implemented using the k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN) algorithm. The output of the best eye classifier was used to classify the subjects. In the event of divergence, the eye with the best mfVEP recording was selected. Results: In the eye classifier, the HC performed better than the FMC (accuracy = 0.74 and extended Matthew Correlation Coefficient (MCC) = 0.68). In the subject classification, accuracy = 0.95 and MCC = 0.93, confirming that it may be a promising tool for MS diagnosis. Chirped-pulse φOTDR provides distributed strain measurement via a time-delay estimation process. We propose a lower bound for performance, after reducing sampling error and compensating phase-noise. We attempt to reach the limit, attaining unprecedented pε/√Hz sensitivities. Conclusion: In addition to amplitude (axonal loss) and latency (demyelination), it has shown that the singular values of the mfVEP signals provide discriminatory information that may be used to identify subjects with differing degrees of the disease.Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e InnovaciónInstituto de Salud Carlos II

Metabolic and Functional Profile of Premenopausal Women With Metabolic Syndrome After Training With Elastics as Compared to Free Weights

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of a strength training program (STP) using free weights (FW) versus elastic tubing (ET) in 62 premenopausal, sedentary women diagnosed with metabolic syndrome (MS). Participants were randomly assigned to the FW or ET experimental group (EG) or a control group whose members remained sedentary. Members of each EG followed their assigned STP for 12 weeks, and biomarkers (BMs) related to MS and motor function (MF) parameters were evaluated. Both EGs showed a significant reduction in C-reactive protein level and a positive trend in the other BMs. Almost all MF parameters increased significantly in both EGs. No positive changes were found in the CG. These results indicate that the implementation of an STP, with either FW or ET, improves both metabolic health and MF and should be considered part of the basic approach to health care in women

CIBERER : Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative

Altres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country. CIBERER's mission is to be a center prioritizing and favoring collaboration and cooperation between biomedical and clinical research groups, with special emphasis on the aspects of genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular research of RDs. This research is the basis for providing new tools for the diagnosis and therapy of low-prevalence diseases, in line with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) objectives, thus favoring translational research between the scientific environment of the laboratory and the clinical setting of health centers. In this article, we intend to review CIBERER's 15-year journey and summarize the main results obtained in terms of internationalization, scientific production, contributions toward the discovery of new therapies and novel genes associated to diseases, cooperation with patients' associations and many other topics related to RD research

Complement component C4 structural variation and quantitative traits contribute to sex-biased vulnerability in systemic sclerosis

Altres ajuts: Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), "A way of making Europe".Copy number (CN) polymorphisms of complement C4 play distinct roles in many conditions, including immune-mediated diseases. We investigated the association of C4 CN with systemic sclerosis (SSc) risk. Imputed total C4, C4A, C4B, and HERV-K CN were analyzed in 26,633 individuals and validated in an independent cohort. Our results showed that higher C4 CN confers protection to SSc, and deviations from CN parity of C4A and C4B augmented risk. The protection contributed per copy of C4A and C4B differed by sex. Stronger protection was afforded by C4A in men and by C4B in women. C4 CN correlated well with its gene expression and serum protein levels, and less C4 was detected for both in SSc patients. Conditioned analysis suggests that C4 genetics strongly contributes to the SSc association within the major histocompatibility complex locus and highlights classical alleles and amino acid variants of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DPB1 as C4-independent signals

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field

Atlas de las praderas marinas de España

Knowledge of the distribution and extent of seagrass habitats is currently the basis of management and conservation policies of the coastal zones in most European countries. This basic information is being requested through European directives for the establishment of monitoring programmes and the implementation of specific actions to preserve the marine environment. In addition, this information is crucial for the quantification of the ecological importance usually attributed to seagrass habitats due to, for instance, their involvement in biogeochemical cycles, marine biodiversity and quality of coastal waters or global carbon budgets. The seagrass atlas of Spain represents a huge collective effort performed by 84 authors across 30 Spanish institutions largely involved in the scientific research, management and conservation of seagrass habitats during the last three decades. They have contributed to the availability of the most precise and realistic seagrass maps for each region of the Spanish coast which have been integrated in a GIS to obtain the distribution and area of each seagrass species. Most of this information has independently originated at a regional level by regional governments, universities and public research organisations, which explain the elevated heterogeneity in criteria, scales, methods and objectives of the available information. On this basis, seagrass habitats in Spain occupy a total surface of 1,541,63 km2, 89% of which is concentrated in the Mediterranean regions; the rest is present in sheltered estuarine areas of the Atlantic peninsular regions and in the open coastal waters of the Canary Islands, which represents 50% of the Atlantic meadows. Of this surface, 71.5% corresponds to Posidonia oceanica, 19.5% to Cymodocea nodosa, 3.1% to Zostera noltii (=Nanozostera noltii), 0.3% to Zostera marina and 1.2% to Halophila decipiens. Species distribution maps are presented (including Ruppia spp.), together with maps of the main impacts and pressures that has affected or threatened their conservation status, as well as the management tools established for their protection and conservation. Despite this considerable effort, and the fact that Spain has mapped wide shelf areas, the information available is still incomplete and with weak precision in many regions, which will require an investment of major effort in the near future to complete the whole picture and respond to demands of EU directives

Clonal chromosomal mosaicism and loss of chromosome Y in elderly men increase vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) had an estimated overall case fatality ratio of 1.38% (pre-vaccination), being 53% higher in males and increasing exponentially with age. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, we found 133 cases (1.42%) with detectable clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations (mCA) and 226 males (5.08%) with acquired loss of chromosome Y (LOY). Individuals with clonal mosaic events (mCA and/or LOY) showed a 54% increase in the risk of COVID-19 lethality. LOY is associated with transcriptomic biomarkers of immune dysfunction, pro-coagulation activity and cardiovascular risk. Interferon-induced genes involved in the initial immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are also down-regulated in LOY. Thus, mCA and LOY underlie at least part of the sex-biased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in aging patients. Given its potential therapeutic and prognostic relevance, evaluation of clonal mosaicism should be implemented as biomarker of COVID-19 severity in elderly people. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, individuals with clonal mosaic events (clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations and/or loss of chromosome Y) showed an increased risk of COVID-19 lethality

Atlas de las praderas marinas de España

Knowledge of the distribution and extent of seagrass habitats is currently the basis of management and conservation policies of the coastal zones in most European countries. This basic information is being requested through European directives for the establishment of monitoring programmes and the implementation of specific actions to preserve the marine environment. In addition, this information is crucial for the quantification of the ecological importance usually attributed to seagrass habitats due to, for instance, their involvement in biogeochemical cycles, marine biodiversity and quality of coastal waters or global carbon budgets. The seagrass atlas of Spain represents a huge collective effort performed by 84 authors across 30 Spanish institutions largely involved in the scientific research, management and conservation of seagrass habitats during the last three decades. They have contributed to the availability of the most precise and realistic seagrass maps for each region of the Spanish coast which have been integrated in a GIS to obtain the distribution and area of each seagrass species. Most of this information has independently originated at a regional level by regional governments, universities and public research organisations, which explain the elevated heterogeneity in criteria, scales, methods and objectives of the available information. On this basis, seagrass habitats in Spain occupy a total surface of 1,541,63 km2, 89% of which is concentrated in the Mediterranean regions; the rest is present in sheltered estuarine areas of the Atlantic peninsular regions and in the open coastal waters of the Canary Islands, which represents 50% of the Atlantic meadows. Of this surface, 71.5% corresponds to Posidonia oceanica, 19.5% to Cymodocea nodosa, 3.1% to Zostera noltii (=Nanozostera noltii), 0.3% to Zostera marina and 1.2% to Halophila decipiens. Species distribution maps are presented (including Ruppia spp.), together with maps of the main impacts and pressures that has affected or threatened their conservation status, as well as the management tools established for their protection and conservation. Despite this considerable effort, and the fact that Spain has mapped wide shelf areas, the information available is still incomplete and with weak precision in many regions, which will require an investment of major effort in the near future to complete the whole picture and respond to demands of EU directives.Versión del edito