High intensity interval training exercise-induced physiological changes and their potential influence on metabolic syndrome clinical biomarkers: a meta-analysis

Abstract: Background: Despite the current debate about the effects of high intensity interval training (HIIT), HIIT elicits big morpho-physiological benefit on Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) treatment. However, no review or meta-analysis has compared the effects of HIIT to non-exercising controls in MetS variables. The aim of this study was to determine through a systematic review, the effectiveness of HIIT on MetS clinical variables in adults. Methods: Studies had to be randomised controlled trials, lasting at least 3 weeks, and compare the effects of HIIT on at least one of the MetS clinical variables [fasting blood glucose (BG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C) triglyceride (TG), systolic (SBP) or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and waist circumference (WC)] compared to a control group. The methodological quality of the studies selected was evaluated using the PEDro scale. Results: Ten articles fulfilled the selection criteria, with a mean quality score on the PEDro scale of 6.7. Compared with controls, HIIT groups showed significant and relevant reductions in BG (− 0.11 mmol/L), SBP (− 4.44 mmHg), DBP (− 3.60 mmHg), and WC (− 2.26 cm). Otherwise, a slight increase was observed in HDL-C (+ 0.02 mmol/L). HIIT did not produce any significant changes in TG (− 1.29 mmol/L). Conclusions: HIIT improves certain clinical aspects in people with MetS (BG, SBP, DBP and WC) compared to people with MetS who do not perform physical exercise. Plausible physiological changes of HIIT interventions might be related with large skeletal muscle mass implication, improvements in the vasomotor control, better baroreflex control, reduction of the total peripheral resistance, increases in excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, and changes in appetite and satiety mechanisms

Minerales de Mn-Co-Ni en las lateritas De Cuba oriental: resultados preliminares

En los yacimientos de lateritas niquelíferas, el Ni y Co pueden ser incorporados en óxidos e hidróxido s de Mn, donde han precipitados mediante reacciones redox (Elias et al., 1981). Además de asbolanas (ricas en Ni y ricas en Co), otros minerales que contienen Co son heterogenita y litioforita (Chukhrov et al., 1 983; Manceau et al., 1987; Llorca y Monchoux, 1991)

Genetic polymorphism of miR-196a-2 is associated with bone mineral density (BMD)

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally regulate the translation of messenger RNAs. Given the crucial role of miRNAs in gene expression, genetic variants within miRNA-related sequences may affect miRNA function and contribute to disease risk. Osteoporosis is characterized by reduced bone mass, and bone mineral density (BMD) is a major diagnostic proxy to assess osteoporosis risk. Here, we aimed to identify miRNAs that are involved in BMD using data from recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on femoral neck, lumbar spine and forearm BMD. Of 242 miRNA-variants available in the GWAS data, we found rs11614913:C > T in the precursor miR-196a-2 to be significantly associated with femoral neck-BMD (p-value = 9.9 × 10-7, β = −0.038) and lumbar spine-BMD (p-value = 3.2 × 10-11, β = −0.061). Furthermore, our sensitivity analyses using the Rotterdam study data showed a sex-specific association of rs11614913 with BMD only in women. Subsequently, we highlighted a number of miR-196a-2 target genes, expressed in bone and associated with BMD, that may mediate the miRNA function in BMD. Collectively, our results suggest that miR-196a-2 may contribute to variations in BMD level. Further biological investigations will give more insights into the mechanisms by which miR-196a-2 control expression of BMD-related genes

Direct Magnetic Evidence, Functionalization, and Low-Temperature Magneto-Electron Transport in Liquid-Phase Exfoliated FePS3

Magnetism and the existence of magnetic order in a material is determined by its dimensionality. In this regard, the recent emergence of magnetic layered van der Waals (vdW) materials provides a wide playground to explore the exotic magnetism arising in the two-dimensional (2D) limit. The magnetism of 2D flakes, especially antiferromagnetic ones, however, cannot be easily probed by conventional magnetometry techniques, being often replaced by indirect methods like Raman spectroscopy. Here, we make use of an alternative approach to provide direct magnetic evidence of few-layer vdW materials, including antiferromagnets. We take advantage of a surfactant-free, liquid-phase exfoliation (LPE) method to obtain thousands of few-layer FePS3 flakes that can be quenched in a solvent and measured in a conventional SQUID magnetometer. We show a direct magnetic evidence of the antiferromagnetic transition in FePS3 few-layer flakes, concomitant with a clear reduction of the Néel temperature with the flake thickness, in contrast with previous Raman reports. The quality of the LPE FePS3 flakes allows the study of electron transport down to cryogenic temperatures. The significant through-flake conductance is sensitive to the antiferromagnetic order transition. Besides, an additional rich spectra of electron transport excitations, including secondary magnetic transitions and potentially magnon-phonon hybrid states, appear at low temperatures. Finally, we show that the LPE is additionally a good starting point for the mass covalent functionalization of 2D magnetic materials with functional molecules. This technique is extensible to any vdW magnetic familyE.B. acknowledges funds from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación in Spain (RTI2018-096075-A-C22, RYC2019- 028429-I). E.M.P. thanks the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PID2020-116661RB-I00) and Comunidad de Madrid (P2018/NMT-4367). M.G.H. and A.C.-G. acknowledge funds from European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Graphene Core3-Grant agreement no. 881603 Graphene-based disruptive technologies), EU FLAGERA through the project To2Dox (JTC-2019-009), and Comunidad de Madrid through the project CAIRO-CM project (Y2020/NMT-6661). A.C.-G. also acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 755655, ERC-StG 2017 project 2D-TOPSENSE) and the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Spain) through the project PID2020-115566RB-I00. M.L.R.G. acknowledges support by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through Research Project PID 2020- 113753RB-100. The National Centre for Electron Microscopy (ELECMI National Singular Scientific Facility) is also acknowledge for provision of access to corrected aberration microscopy facilities. CzechNanoLab Research Infrastructure supported by MEYS CR (LM2018110) is acknowledge

The Overall Coefficient of the Two-loop Superstring Amplitude Using Pure Spinors

Using the results recently obtained for computing integrals over (non-minimal) pure spinor superspace, we compute the coefficient of the massless two-loop four-point amplitude from first principles. Contrasting with the mathematical difficulties in the RNS formalism where unknown normalizations of chiral determinant formulae force the two-loop coefficient to be determined only indirectly through factorization, the computation in the pure spinor formalism can be smoothly carried out.Comment: 29 pages, harvmac TeX. v2: add reference

Estimation of Genetic Relationships Between Individuals Across Cohorts and Platforms:Application to Childhood Height

Combining genotype data across cohorts increases power to estimate the heritability due to common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), based on analyzing a Genetic Relationship Matrix (GRM). However, the combination of SNP data across multiple cohorts may lead to stratification, when for example, different genotyping platforms are used. In the current study, we address issues of combining SNP data from different cohorts, the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) and the Generation R (GENR) study. Both cohorts include children of Northern European Dutch background (N = 3102 + 2826, respectively) who were genotyped on different platforms. We explore imputation and phasing as a tool and compare three GRM-building strategies, when data from two cohorts are (1) just combined, (2) pre-combined and cross-platform imputed and (3) cross-platform imputed and post-combined. We test these three strategies with data on childhood height for unrelated individuals (N = 3124, average age 6.7 years) to explore their effect on SNP-heritability estimates and compare results to those obtained from the independent studies. All combination strategies result in SNP-heritability estimates with a standard error smaller than those of the independent studies. We did not observe significant difference in estimates of SNP-heritability based on various cross-platform imputed GRMs. SNP-heritability of childhood height was on average estimated as 0.50 (SE = 0.10). Introducing cohort as a covariate resulted in ≈2 % drop. Principal components (PCs) adjustment resulted in SNP-heritability estimates of about 0.39 (SE = 0.11). Strikingly, we did not find significant difference between cross-platform imputed and combined GRMs. All estimates were significant regardless the use of PCs adjustment. Based on these analyses we conclude that imputation with a reference set helps to increase power to estimate SNP-heritability by combining cohorts of the same ethnicity genotyped on different platforms. However, important factors should be taken into account such as remaining cohort stratification after imputation and/or phenotypic heterogeneity between and within cohorts. Whether one should use imputation, or just combine the genotype data, depends on the number of overlapping SNPs in relation to the total number of genotyped SNPs for both cohorts, and their ability to tag all the genetic variance related to the specific trait of interest

Genomic adaptations to aquatic and aerial life in mayflies and the origin of insect wings

The evolution of winged insects revolutionized terrestrial ecosystems and led to the largest animal radiation on Earth. However, we still have an incomplete picture of the genomic changes that underlay this diversification. Mayflies, as one of the sister groups of all other winged insects, are key to understanding this radiation. Here, we describe the genome of the mayfly Cloeon dipterum and its gene expression throughout its aquatic and aerial life cycle and specific organs. We discover an expansion of odorant-binding-protein genes, some expressed specifically in breathing gills of aquatic nymphs, suggesting a novel sensory role for this organ. In contrast, flying adults use an enlarged opsin set in a sexually dimorphic manner, with some expressed only in males. Finally, we identify a set of wing-associated genes deeply conserved in the pterygote insects and find transcriptomic similarities between gills and wings, suggesting a common genetic program. Globally, this comprehensive genomic and transcriptomic study uncovers the genetic basis of key evolutionary adaptations in mayflies and winged insects