Neck circumference and clustered cardiovascular risk factors in children and adolescents: Cross-sectional study

Objective Early detection of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, such as obesity, is crucial to prevent adverse long-term effects on individuals'' health. Therefore, the aims were: (1) to explore the robustness of neck circumference (NC) as a predictor of CVD and examine its association with numerous anthropometric and body composition indices and (2) to release sex and age-specific NC cut-off values to classify youths as overweight/obese. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting 23 primary schools and 17 secondary schools from Spain. Participants 2198 students (1060 girls), grades 1-4 and 7-10. Measures Pubertal development, anthropometric and body composition indices, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP, respectively), cardiorespiratory fitness, blood sampling triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), glucose and inflammatory markers. Homoeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR) and cluster of CVD risk factors were calculated. Results NC was positively correlated with all anthropometric and body composition indices. NC was negatively associated with maximum oxygen consumption (R 2 =0.231, p<0.001 for boys; R 2 =0.018, p<0.001 for girls) and positively associated with SBP, DBP, TC/HDL-c, TG, HOMA, complement factors C-3 and C-4, leptin, adiponectin and clustered CVD risk factor in both sexes (R 2 from 0.035 to 0.353, p<0.01 for boys; R 2 from 0.024 to 0.215, p<0.001 for girls). Moreover, NC was positively associated with serum C reactive protein, LDL-c and visfatin only in boys (R 2 from 0.013 to 0.107, p<0.05). Conclusion NC is a simple, low-cost and practical screening tool of excess of upper body obesity and CVD risk factors in children and adolescents. Paediatricians can easily use it as a screening tool for overweight/obesity in children and adolescents. For this purpose, sex and age-specific thresholds to classify children and adolescents as normal weight or overweight/obese are provided

Genomic mutation profile in progressive chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients prior to first-line chemoimmunotherapy with FCR and rituximab maintenance (REM)

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) is the most prevalent leukemia in Western countries and is notable for its variable clinical course. This variability is partly reflected by the mutational status of IGHV genes. Many CLL samples have been studied in recent years by next-generation sequencing. These studies have identified recurrent somatic mutations in NOTCH1, SF3B1, ATM, TP53, BIRC3 and others genes that play roles in cell cycle, DNA repair, RNA metabolism and splicing. In this study, we have taken a deep-targeted massive sequencing approach to analyze the impact of mutations in the most frequently mutated genes in patients with CLL enrolled in the REM (rituximab en mantenimiento) clinical trial. The mutational status of our patients with CLL, except for the TP53 gene, does not seem to affect the good results obtained with maintenance therapy with rituximab after front-line FCR treatment

Spread of a SARS-CoV-2 variant through Europe in the summer of 2020.

Following its emergence in late 2019, the spread of SARS-CoV-21,2 has been tracked by phylogenetic analysis of viral genome sequences in unprecedented detail3–5. Although the virus spread globally in early 2020 before borders closed, intercontinental travel has since been greatly reduced. However, travel within Europe resumed in the summer of 2020. Here we report on a SARS-CoV-2 variant, 20E (EU1), that was identified in Spain in early summer 2020 and subsequently spread across Europe. We find no evidence that this variant has increased transmissibility, but instead demonstrate how rising incidence in Spain, resumption of travel, and lack of effective screening and containment may explain the variant’s success. Despite travel restrictions, we estimate that 20E (EU1) was introduced hundreds of times to European countries by summertime travellers, which is likely to have undermined local efforts to minimize infection with SARS-CoV-2. Our results illustrate how a variant can rapidly become dominant even in the absence of a substantial transmission advantage in favourable epidemiological settings. Genomic surveillance is critical for understanding how travel can affect transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and thus for informing future containment strategies as travel resumes. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited

Dietary animal and plant protein intakes and their associations with obesity and cardio-metabolic indicators in European adolescents: The HELENA cross-sectional study

Background: Previous studies suggest that dietary protein might play a beneficial role in combating obesity and its related chronic diseases. Total, animal and plant protein intakes and their associations with anthropometry and serum biomarkers in European adolescents using one standardised methodology across European countries are not well documented. Objectives: To evaluate total, animal and plant protein intakes in European adolescents stratified by gender and age, and to investigate their associations with cardio-metabolic indicators (anthropometry and biomarkers). Methods: The current analysis included 1804 randomly selected adolescents participating in the HELENA study (conducted in 2006-2007) aged 12.5-17.5 y (47% males) who completed two non-consecutive computerised 24-h dietary recalls. Associations between animal and plant protein intakes, and anthropometry and serum biomarkers were examined with General linear Model multivariate analysis. Results: Average total protein intake exceeded the recommendations of World Health Organization and European Food Safety Authority. Mean total protein intake was 96 g/d (59% derived from animal protein). Total, animal and plant protein intakes (g/d) were significantly lower in females than in males and total and plant protein intakes were lower in younger participants (12.5-14.9 y). Protein intake was significantly lower in underweight subjects and higher in obese ones; the direction of the relationship was reversed after adjustments for body weight (g/(kg.d)). The inverse association of plant protein intakes was stronger with BMI z-score and body fat percentage (BF%) compared to animal protein intakes. Additionally, BMI and BF% were positively associated with energy percentage of animal protein. Conclusions: This sample of European adolescents appeared to have adequate total protein intake. Our findings suggest that plant protein intakes may play a role in preventing obesity among European adolescents. Further longitudinal studies are needed to investigate the potential beneficial effects observed in this study in the prevention of obesity and related chronic diseases

The SeqCOVID-Spain consortium: unravelling the dynamics of the COVID-19 first epidemic wave in Spain

Póster presentado a la Applied Bioinformatics and Public Health Microbiology 2021 Virtual Conference, celebrada del 5 al 7 de mayo de 2021.The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world since the beginning of 2020. Spain is among the European countries with the highest incidence of the disease during the first pandemic wave. We established a multidisciplinary consortium to monitor and study the evolution of the epidemic, with the aim of contributing to decision making and stopping rapid spreading across the country. We present the results for 2170 sequences from the first wave of the SARS-Cov-2 epidemic in Spain, representing 12% of diagnosed cases until 14th March. This effort allows us to document at least 500 initialintroductions, between early February-March from multiple international sources. Importantly, we document the early raise of two dominant genetic variants in Spain (Spanish Epidemic Clades), named SEC7 and SEC8, likely amplified by superspreading events. In sharp contrast to other non Asian countries those two variants were closely related to the initial variants of SARS-CoV-2 described in Asia and represented 40% of the genome sequences analyzed. The two dominant SECs were widely spread across the country compared to other genetic variants with SEC8 reaching a 60% prevalence just before the lockdown. Employing Bayesian phylodynamic analysis, we inferred a reduction in the effective reproductive number of these two SECs from around 2.5 to below 0.5 after the implementation of strict public-health interventions in mid-March. The effects of lockdown on the genetic variants of the virus are reflected in the general replacement of pre-existing SECs by a new variant at the beginning of the summer season. Our results reveal a significant difference in the genetic makeup of the epidemic in Spain and support the effectiveness of lockdown measures in controlling virus spread even for the most successful genetic variants.This work was funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III project COV20/00140, Spanish National Research Council project CSIC-COV19-021, Ministerio de Ciencia PID2019-104477RB-I00 and ERC StG 638553 to IC, and BFU2017-89594R to FGC. MC is supported by Ramón y Cajal program from Ministerio de Ciencia and grants RTI2018-094399-A-I00 and SEJI/2019/011.Peer reviewe

Ideal cardiovascular health and inflammation in European adolescents: The HELENA study

Background and aims Inflammation plays a key role in atherosclerosis and this process seems to appear in childhood. The ideal cardiovascular health index (ICHI) has been inversely related to atherosclerotic plaque in adults. However, evidence regarding inflammation and ICHI in adolescents is scarce. The aim is to assess the association between ICHI and inflammation in European adolescents. Methods and results As many as 543 adolescents (251 boys and 292 girls) from the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence (HELENA) study, a cross-sectional multi-center study including 9 European countries, were measured. C-reactive protein (CRP), complement factors C3 and C4, leptin and white blood cell counts were used to compute an inflammatory score. Multilevel linear models and multilevel logistic regression were used to assess the association between ICHI and inflammation controlling by covariates. Higher ICHI was associated with a lower inflammatory score, as well as with several individual components, both in boys and girls (p < 0.01). In addition, adolescents with at least 4 ideal components of the ICHI had significantly lower inflammatory score and lower levels of the study biomarkers, except CRP. Finally, the multilevel logistic regression showed that for every unit increase in the ICHI, the probability of having an inflammatory profile decreased by 28.1% in girls. Conclusion Results from this study suggest that a better ICHI is associated with a lower inflammatory profile already in adolescence. Improving these health behaviors, and health factors included in the ICHI, could play an important role in CVD prevention

The European Solar Telescope

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project aimed at studying the magnetic connectivity of the solar atmosphere, from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere. Its design combines the knowledge and expertise gathered by the European solar physics community during the construction and operation of state-of-the-art solar telescopes operating in visible and near-infrared wavelengths: the Swedish 1m Solar Telescope, the German Vacuum Tower Telescope and GREGOR, the French Télescope Héliographique pour l'Étude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires, and the Dutch Open Telescope. With its 4.2 m primary mirror and an open configuration, EST will become the most powerful European ground-based facility to study the Sun in the coming decades in the visible and near-infrared bands. EST uses the most innovative technological advances: the first adaptive secondary mirror ever used in a solar telescope, a complex multi-conjugate adaptive optics with deformable mirrors that form part of the optical design in a natural way, a polarimetrically compensated telescope design that eliminates the complex temporal variation and wavelength dependence of the telescope Mueller matrix, and an instrument suite containing several (etalon-based) tunable imaging spectropolarimeters and several integral field unit spectropolarimeters. This publication summarises some fundamental science questions that can be addressed with the telescope, together with a complete description of its major subsystems

Modelización de las condiciones de transporte y conservación prolongada en frutas y hortalizas

Este documento se generó a partir de la VI Reunión de la Red Temática FRUTURA de CYTED realizada en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina del 26 al 30 de Setiembre de 2011. Organizado por el Laboratorio de Calidad y Postcosecha de Frutas y Hortalizas de la E.E.A. Balcarce del INTA, el programa de esta reunión se enmarcó dentro del principal objetivo de la Red, que es el desarrollo de un sistema integral de mejora de la calidad y seguridad de las frutas durante la manipulación, el transporte y la comercialización, mediante nuevas tecnologías de inspección y monitorización