Metabolic consequences of exercise-induced muscle damage.

Exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) is commonly experienced following either a bout of unaccustomed physical activity or following physical activity of greater than normal duration or intensity. The mechanistic factor responsible for the initiation of EIMD is not known; however, it is hypothesised to be either mechanical or metabolic in nature. The mechanical stress hypothesis states that EIMD is the result of physical stress upon the muscle fibre. In contrast, the metabolic stress model predicts that EIMD is the result of metabolic deficiencies, possibly through the decreased action of Ca(2+)-adenosine triphosphatase. Irrespective of the cause of the damage, EIMD has a number of profound metabolic effects. The most notable metabolic effects of EIMD are decreased insulin sensitivity, prolonged glycogen depletion and an increase in metabolic rate both at rest and during exercise. Based on current knowledge regarding the effects that various types of damaging exercise have on muscle metabolism, a new model for the initiation of EIMD is proposed. This model states that damage initiation may be either metabolic or mechanical, or a combination of both, depending on the mode, intensity and duration of exercise and the training status of the individual

The influence of cooking methods on the antioxidant status of Tetrapleura tetrapetra

Africa is blessed with a rich array of local spices such as Tetrapleura tetraptera. The culinary uses of T. tetraptera are many. The seed of Uhiokirihio is majorly used in the preparation of ‘Banga’ (palm fruit) soup, meat pepper soup and other types of soup in the southern part of Nigeria. It is also commonly used in soups of nursing mothers to prevent post-partum contractions. The rich antioxidant activity of this spice has been reported. There is, however, a dearth of information on the effect of different cooking methods on its antioxidant activity. This study, therefore, evaluated the effect of cooking methods on the antioxidant status of the seeds of Tetrapleura tetraptera. The raw seeds of the spice were both toasted and boiled separately for 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes, respectively. The samples were analysed for anti-nutrients, vitamin contents and antioxidant properties. Anti-nutrient evaluation of the ethanolic (80% ethanol) extract revealed that both toasting and boiling time caused significant (p<0.05) variations in all the anti-nutrients studied. Total phenolics increased (p<0.05) from 20.80mg/100g to 28.53mg/100g for toasted samples and from 20.80mg/100g to 30.51mg/100g for boiled samples, respectively. Both cooking methods caused significant reduction in the phytate and tannin levels of the seeds. At the end of the cooking processes, tannin level was reduced by 62.07 % for boiling and 75.68 % for toasting treatment. The cooking methods led to significant reduction in both the vitamin C and β- carotene levels of the samples. Boiling for 20 min caused a 91.98% decrease in vitamin c and a 59.52 % decrease in β-carotene while toasting reduced these nutrients by 86.73 % and 39.88 %, respectively. Antioxidant activity as measured by DPPH scavenging activity and FRAP showed a significant rise with increase in cooking time. The DPPH activity of the toasted samples increased from 22.06μg/ml to 27.64 μg/ml while the boiled samples increased from 22.06μg/ml to 43.26μg/ml. It was observed that boiling led to a greater increase in total phenolics and antioxidant activity than toasting. It could, therefore, be concluded that cooking T. tetraptera seeds would improve its antioxidant properties

Making MRI available for patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices: growing need and barriers to change

More than half of us will need a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan in our lifetimes. MRI is an unmatched diagnostic test for an expanding range of indications including neurological and musculoskeletal disorders, cancer diagnosis, and treatment planning. Unfortunately, patients with cardiac pacemakers or defibrillators have historically been prevented from having MRI because of safety concerns. This results in delayed diagnoses, more invasive investigations, and increased cost. Major developments have addressed this-newer devices are designed to be safe in MRI machines under specific conditions, and older legacy devices can be scanned provided strict protocols are followed. This service however remains difficult to deliver sustainably worldwide: MRI provision remains grossly inadequate because patients are less likely to be referred, and face difficulties accessing services even when referred. Barriers still exist but are no longer technical. These include logistical hurdles (poor cardiology and radiology interaction at physician and technician levels), financial incentives (re-imbursement is either absent or fails to acknowledge the complexity), and education (physicians self-censor MRI requests). This article therefore highlights the recent changes in the clinical, logistical, and regulatory landscape. The aim of the article is to enable and encourage healthcare providers and local champions to build MRI services urgently for cardiac device patients, so that they may benefit from the same access to MRI as everyone else. KEY POINTS: • There is now considerable evidence that MRI can be provided safely to patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs). However, the volume of MRI scans delivered to patients with CIEDs is fifty times lower than that of the estimated need, and patients are approximately fifty times less likely to be referred. • Because scans for this patient group are frequently for cancer diagnosis and treatment planning, MRI services need to develop rapidly, but the barriers are no longer technical. • New services face logistical, educational, and financial hurdles which can be addressed effectively to establish a sustainable service at scale

The Epidemiological features of lymphoid malignancies in Benin City, Nigeria: a 15 years study

Introduction: Lymphoid malignancies compose a wide spectrum of different morphologic and clinical syndromes known to vary widely throughout the world. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and time trends of lymphoid malignancies. Methods: A 15 (May 1st 1996-April 30th 2010) years study of all patients who had lymph node biopsy at the Department of Haematology and Pathology, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. Results: The 391 patients had a male preponderance (M:F; 1.6:1). An increase in the lymphoid malignant cases was noted from 95 cases in the first 5-year interval (1996-2000) to 179 cases in the last 5-year interval (2006-2010) giving an average increase of 84.0%. Non-Hodgkins lymphoma (61.1%) and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (18.2%) were the most frequent followed by Hodgkin’s lymphoma and myeloma with equal proportions of 9.0% each. A positive correlation with a significant linear trends was obtained (r=0.1949, p<0.0001). Geographic areas at risk were found mainly in patients residing in Delta State (67.0%) which is a major oil producing state and Edo State (30.4%) where the hospital is located, both in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Conclusion: Future research into environmental agents and genetic makeup/HLA typing of patients can be carried out

Impact of exercise-nutritional state interactions in patients with type 2 diabetes

Introduction This study examines the role of nutritional status during exercise training in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus by investigating the effect of endurance-type exercise training in the fasted versus the fed state on clinical outcome measures, glycemic control, and skeletal muscle characteristics in male type 2 diabetes patients. Methods Twenty-five male patients (glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), 57 ± 3 mmol·mol−1 (7.4% ± 0.3%)) participated in a randomized 12-wk supervised endurance-type exercise intervention, with exercise being performed in an overnight-fasted state (n = 13) or after consuming breakfast (n = 12). Patients were evaluated for glycemic control, blood lipid profiles, body composition and physical fitness, and skeletal muscle gene expression. Results Exercise training was well tolerated without any incident of hypoglycemia. Exercise training significantly decreased whole-body fat mass (−1.6 kg) and increased high-density lipoprotein concentrations (+2 mg·dL−1), physical fitness (+1.7 mL·min−1·kg−1), and fat oxidation during exercise in both groups (PTIME 0.05). HbA1c concentrations significantly decreased after exercise training (PTIME < 0.001), with a significant greater reduction after consuming breakfast (−0.30% ± 0.06%) compared with fasted state (−0.08% ± 0.06%; mean difference, 0.21%; PTIME × GROUP = 0.016). No interaction effects were observed for skeletal muscle genes related to lipid metabolism or oxidative capacity. Conclusions Endurance-type exercise training in the fasted or fed state do not differ in their efficacy to reduce fat mass, increase fat oxidation capacity, and increase cardiorespiratory fitness and high-density lipoprotein concentrations or their risk of hypoglycemia in male patients with type 2 diabetes. HbA1c seems to be improved more with exercise performed in the postprandial compared with the postabsorptive state

On sigma-subnormality criteria in finite sigma-soluble groups

[EN] Let sigma = {sigma(i) : i is an element of I} be a partition of the set P of all prime numbers. A subgroup X of a finite group G is called sigma-subnormal in G if there is a chain of subgroups X = X-0 subset of X-1 subset of center dot center dot center dot subset of X-n = G where for every j = 1,..., n the subgroup X j-1 is normal in X j or X j /CoreX j ( X j-1) is a si -group for some i. I. In the special case that s is the partition of P into sets containing exactly one prime each, the sigma-subnormality reduces to the familiar case of subnormality. In this paper some sigma-subnormality criteria for subgroups of s-soluble groups, or groups in which every chief factor is a sigma(i)-group, for some sigma(i) sigma s, are showed.The first and third authors are supported by the grant PGC2018-095140-B-I00 from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades and the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion, Spain, and FEDER, European Union and Prometeo/2017/057 of Generalitat (Valencian Community, Spain). The second author was supported by the State Program of Science Researchers of the Republic of Belarus (Grant 19-54 "Convergence-2020").Ballester-Bolinches, A.; Kamornikov, SF.; Pedraza Aguilera, MC.; Pérez-Calabuig, V. (2020). On sigma-subnormality criteria in finite sigma-soluble groups. Revista de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales Serie A Matemáticas. 114(2):1-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-020-00824-4S191142Amberg, B., Franciosi, S., De Giovanni, F.: Products of Groups. Oxford Mathematical Monographs. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1992)Ballester-Bolinches, A., Ezquerro, L.M.: Classes of Finite Groups, Vol. 584 of Mathematics and its Applications. Springer, New York (2006)Ballester-Bolinches, A., Kamornikov, S.F., Pedraza-Aguilera, M.C., Yi, X.: On -subnormal subgroups of factorised finite groups (Preprint)Casolo, C.: Subnormality in factorizable finite soluble groups. Arch. Math. 57, 12–13 (1991)Doerk, K., Hawkes, T.: Finite Soluble Groups. Walter De Gruyter, Berlin (1992)Fumagalli, Francesco: On subnormality criteria for subgroups in finite groups. J. Lond. Math. Soc. 76(2), 237–252 (2007)Kamornikov, S.F., Shemetkova, O.L.: On $${{\cal{F}}}$$-subnormal subgroups of a finite factorised group. Probl. Phys. Math. Tech. 1, 61–63 (2018)Khukhro, E.I., Mazurov, V.D.: Unsolved Problems in Group Theory. The Kourovka notebook. Institut Matematiki SO RAN, Novosibirsk, No. 19 (2018)Lennox, J.C., Stonehewer, S.E.: Subnormal Subgroups of Groups. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1987)Maier, R.: Um problema da teoria dos subgrupos subnormais. Bol. Soc. Bras. Mat. 8(2), 127–130 (1977)Maier, R., Sidki, R.: A note on subnormality in factorizable finite groups. Arch. Math. 42, 97–101 (1984)Skiba, A.N.: A generalization of a Hall theorem. J. Algebra Appl. 15(4), 13 (2016)Skiba, A.N.: On $$\sigma$$-subnormal and $$\sigma$$-permutable subgroups of finite groups. J. Algebra 436, 1–16 (2015)Skiba, A.N.: On -properties of finite groups I. Probl. Phys. Math. Tech. 4, 89–96 (2014)Skiba, A.N.: On -properties of finite groups II. Probl. Phys. Math. Tech. 3(24), 70–83 (2015)Skiba, A.N.: On some arithmetic properties of finite groups. Note Mat. 36, 65–89 (2016)Wielandt, H.: Subnormalität in faktorisierten endlichen Grupppen. J. Algebra 69, 305–311 (1981

Semantic distillation: a method for clustering objects by their contextual specificity

Techniques for data-mining, latent semantic analysis, contextual search of databases, etc. have long ago been developed by computer scientists working on information retrieval (IR). Experimental scientists, from all disciplines, having to analyse large collections of raw experimental data (astronomical, physical, biological, etc.) have developed powerful methods for their statistical analysis and for clustering, categorising, and classifying objects. Finally, physicists have developed a theory of quantum measurement, unifying the logical, algebraic, and probabilistic aspects of queries into a single formalism. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first to show that when formulated at an abstract level, problems from IR, from statistical data analysis, and from physical measurement theories are very similar and hence can profitably be cross-fertilised, and, secondly, to propose a novel method of fuzzy hierarchical clustering, termed \textit{semantic distillation} -- strongly inspired from the theory of quantum measurement --, we developed to analyse raw data coming from various types of experiments on DNA arrays. We illustrate the method by analysing DNA arrays experiments and clustering the genes of the array according to their specificity.Comment: Accepted for publication in Studies in Computational Intelligence, Springer-Verla