Managing interactions between household food security and preschooler health:

Food security does not assure good nutrition. The nutritional status of an individual is influenced not only by food but also by nonfood factors, such as clean water, sanitation, and health care. The effect of all of these factors must be considered in efforts to rid the world of malnutrition. Food security will result in good nutrition only if nonfood factors are effectively dealt with. In this paper, Lawrence Haddad, Saroj Bhattarai, Maarten Immink, and Shubh Kumar show how malnutrition among preschool children is determined by a complex interaction of illness and lack of food. The authors look at three countries —Ethiopia, Pakistan, and the Philippines — to study how food availability and diarrhea interact and what this interaction means for preschooler malnutrition. Their results show that the links between food consumption, diarrhea, and malnutrition are stronger than most economic studies have assumed. When diarrhea is prevalent, the effects of food shortages on child malnutrition are worse, and when food is scarce, the effects of diarrhea on child malnutrition are worse.Food security Ethiopia., Malnutrition in children Ethiopia., Food security Pakistan., Malnutrition in children Pakistan., Food security Philippines., Malnutrition in children Philippines.,

The effects of yoga on shoulder and spinal actions for women with breast cancer-related lymphoedema of the arm: A randomised controlled pilot study

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Abstract Background: We aimed to evaluate the effect of an 8-week yoga intervention on the shoulder and spinal actions of women with breast cancer-related arm lymphoedema. Method: A randomised controlled pilot trial. The intervention group (n = 12) completed eight weeks of daily yoga sessions while the control group (n = 11) continued with best current care including information on compression sleeves, skin care, risks of temperature variations and recommended safe use of affected arm. Lumbo-pelvic posture, range of motion (ROM) in the shoulder and spine, and strength in shoulder and pectoral major and minor, and serratus anterior were taken at baseline, week 8 and after a 4-week follow-up. Outcome assessors were blinded to allocation. Results: At week eight the intervention group had an improvement in lumbo-pelvic posture, as indicated by a reduction in pelvic obliquity compared to the control group (mean difference = −8.39°, 95 % CI: −15.64 to −1.13°, p = 0.023). A secondary finding was that strength in shoulder abduction significantly increased following the yoga intervention in both the affected (9.5 kg; CI: 0.34 to 18.66, p = 0.042) and non-affected arm (11.58 kg; CI: 0.25 to 22.91; p = 0.045). There were no significant between group changes in any ROM measures as a result of the yoga intervention. Conclusion: This pilot study demonstrates that participation in yoga may provide benefits for posture and strength in women with Breast Cancer Related Lymphoedema. The improvements may be attributed to the focus of yoga on overall postural and functional movement patterns. Further trials with longer intervention that follow this methodology are warranted. Trial registration: The Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12611000202965. Keywords: Yoga, Arm lymphoedema, Breast cancer, Range of motion, Strength testing Abbreviations: BCRL, Breast cancer related lymphoedema; ROM, Range of motion; QOL, Quality of life; RCT, Randomised controlled trial; BIS, Bioimpedance spectroscopy; LPSI, Left posterior superior iliac spine; RPSI, Right posterior superior iliac spine; LACR, Left acromion; RACR, Right acromio

Pertussis Immunization Before 24 Weeks of Pregnancy: Maternal Antibody Transfer, Reactogenicity and Acceptance

In this thesis, we describe several aspects of early maternal tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccination before 24 weeks of pregnancy in order to protect the infant against severe pertussis in the first months of life. Data from a longitudinal cohort study after maternal Tdap vaccination between 20-24 weeks of gestation were compared with a reference cohort after Tdap vaccination between 30-33 weeks of gestation. Pertussis-specific antibodies in term infants were compared with those of preterm infants, together with reactogenicity and acceptance of maternal Tdap vaccination before 24 weeks of gestation. The results indicate that vaccination before 24 weeks of gestation is suboptimal for transplacental antibody transfer and leads to two-fold lower antibody concentrations at the age of two months in term-born infants, compared with vaccination at 30-33 weeks. In early premature infants, i.e. born before 32 weeks of gestation, this may be up to 3-fold lower antibody levels, while in late-preterm infants, i.e. born after 32 weeks of gestation, similar antibody concentrations were found in preterm infants. The side reactogenicity and acceptance were unaffected by earlier administration of Tdap-vaccination during pregnancy. More research is needed to investigate whether the impared transfer may lead to a weaker protection against pertussis. Beside the results of the cohort study, this thesis also describes antibody transfer after maternal Tdap vaccination in pregnant women with chronic inflammatory diseases who use immune-modulating medication. Also, the pertussis incidence in the Caribbean part of the Netherlands was estimated based on a serosurveillance study from 2017, which implicates that up to 8% of adolescents were recently infected by Bordettella pertussis

Reliability of a maximum effort inertia flywheel squat protocol

The purpose of this study was to determine the inter-day test-retest reliability of a multi-repetition maximum effort inertia flywheel (IFw) squat test, and to identify the association between maximal performance in an IFw squat test and a 6-repetition maximum (RM) back-squat. Twelve subjects completed three sessions of squat testing: one session to determine back-squat 6RM and two sessions on the IFw. Reflective markers were attached to landmarks of the lower body to calculate repetition velocity, and the activation of lower body musculature was captured with eight electromyography (EMG) electrodes. IFw squat test load and velocity variables showed moderate-excellent test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.69 – 0.95). EMG variables between the two IFw sessions showed a negative poor-moderate positive reliability (ICC = -0.27 – 0.66). Significance for all statistical testing was set at p < 0.05. There was no significant association for maximal loads between the two testing modalities (IFw vs. 6RM; p = 0.137 – 0.192), however a significant relationship was identified between back-squat 6RM load and IFw in mean concentric velocity in session 2 (p = 0.011, r = 0.705) and final repetition velocity in both IFw sessions (p = 0.023, r = 0.648 vs p = 0.026, r = 0.635). The IFw squat test showed moderate-excellent reliability. The poor correlations between IFw and back-squat 6RM performance variables indicate that IFw specific performance tests should be used to guide IFw load prescription in training settings

Instantaneous effects of mindfulness meditation on tennis return performance in elite junior athletes completing an implicitly sequenced serve return task

Single-session meditation augmentation of sport-specific skill performance was tested with elite junior tennis athletes. Athletes completed one of two styles of mindfulness meditation (focused attention or open-monitoring) or a control listening condition prior to performing an implicitly sequenced tennis serve return task involving the goal of hitting a target area placed at the “T” of the service court. Unbeknownst to athletes, six distinct serves followed a repeating second-order conditional sequence for two task blocks before the sequence was altered in a third transfer block. Task performance was operationalised as serve return outcome and analysed using beta regression modelling. Models analysed group by block differences in the proportion of returned serves (i.e., non-aces), returns placed in the service court, and target hits. Contrary to previous laboratory findings, results did not support meditation-related augmentation of performance and/or sequence learning. In fact, compared to control, meditation may have impaired performance improvements and acquisition of serve sequence information. It is possible that the effects of single-session meditation seen in laboratory research may not extend to more complex motor tasks, at least in highly-trained adolescents completing a well-learned skill. Further research is required to elucidate the participant, task, and meditation-related characteristics that might promote single-session meditation performance enhancement.      &nbsp

Instantaneous effects of mindfulness meditation on tennis return performance in elite junior athletes completing an implicitly sequenced serve return task

Single-session meditation augmentation of sport-specific skill performance was tested with elite junior tennis athletes. Athletes completed one of two styles of mindfulness meditation (focused-attention or open-monitoring) or a control listening condition prior to performing an implicitly sequenced tennis serve return task involving the goal of hitting a target area placed on the service court. Unbeknownst to athletes, six distinct serves followed a repeating second-order conditional sequence for two task blocks before the sequence was altered in a third transfer block. Task performance was operationalized as serve return outcome and analyzed using beta regression modeling. Models analyzed group by block differences in the proportion of returned serves (i.e., non-aces), returns placed in the service court, and target hits. Contrary to previous laboratory findings, results did not support meditation-related augmentation of performance and/or sequence learning. In fact, compared to control, meditation may have impaired performance improvements and acquisition of serve sequence information. It is possible that the effects of single-session meditation seen in laboratory research may not extend to more complex motor tasks, at least in highly-trained adolescents completing a well-learned skill. Further research is required to elucidate the participant, task, and meditation-related characteristics that might promote single-session meditation performance enhancement

Hypohydration alters pre-frontal cortex haemodynamics, but does not impair motor learning

It is unknown how hypohydration influences fine motor performance training and motor learning. Here, 30 participants (aged 19-46 years) were randomly assigned to a hypohydration (HYPO) or control (CON) group (both n = 15). Moderate hypohydration (~ 2.4% loss in body mass) was produced in HYPO via active dehydration before a 46 min fluid restricted rest period was undertaken. The conclusion of rest coincided with when CON attended the facilities. Both groups undertook a discrete sequence production task consisting of 6 training blocks, and returned ~ 300 min later to complete a delayed retention and transfer test while euhydrated. Bilateral pre-frontal cortex (PFC) haemodynamics were assessed using functional near-infrared spectroscopy throughout training and delayed learning assessments. Response time improved across training (P P = 0.22). Analysis of training PFC haemodynamics revealed a significant group by block interaction for oxygenated (O2Hb; P P = 0.77). In training block 1, bilateral O2Hb was higher in HYPO (P = 0.02), while bilateral O2Hb increased in CON between blocks 2-3 and 5-6 (both P ≤ 0.03). During the delayed retention and transfer test, no group differences or interactions were found in response time, response error, or PFC haemodynamics (all P ≥ 0.27). Moderate hypohydration does increase PFC activation during motor skill learning, however, this appears to be transient and of little consequence to training or delayed retention or transfer performance

Nontraditional export crops in Guatemala: effects on production, consumption, and nutrition

Vegetable trade Guatemala., Exports Guatemala., Farms, Small Guatemala., Food supply Guatemala., Agricultural laborers Guatemala., Household surveys Guatemala.,

Inhibitory control during light, moderate and hard exercise intensity levels following mindfulness integrated exercise cognitive training

Evidence suggests that inhibitory control during high intensity exercise is suppressed. Mindfulness and aerobic exercise forms of cognitive training have been shown to enhance inhibitory control and might serve to reduce loss of inhibitory control during high exercise intensity. However, it is unclear whether they may have synergistic effects for cognitive enhancement. Our aims were to investigate effects of exercise intensity on inhibitory control and to test if integrating mindfulness techniques into exercise training provided heightened enhancement of inhibitory control over exercise training alone. Fifty-five active, healthy young adults (30 females; 23 ± 4 years) completed a Go/NoGo task while simultaneously stationary cycling at light, moderate and hard intensities before and after completing multiple brief sessions of cognitive training based on mindfulness and exercise, or exercise alone. A third, control condition completed reading in place of exercise and mindfulness training. Go/NoGo task error rates, response latency and intraindividual variance in response latency did not differ significantly between exercise intensity conditions.  Moreover, there was no significant effect of, or differences between, cognitive training conditions on Go/NoGo task performance. Inhibitory control during exercise is not influenced by exercise intensity, at least at the intensity levels induced in this experiment. Furthermore, exercise and mindfulness + exercise does not appear to lend benefits to inhibitory control in situations where inhibitory control during exercise is already high