The Effect of High Intensity Exercise Training Verses Low Intensity Exercise Training on Fractionated Plasma High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol

Exercise training is thought to result in an elevation of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and the cardioprotective subfraction HDL{dollar}\sb2{dollar}. Twenty-five healthy women (39 {dollar}\pm{dollar} 7.8 yrs; 70 {dollar}\pm{dollar} 14 kg) walked two miles three times per week for 12 weeks to examine the effect of exercise intensity on the HDL profile. The L.I. group (N = 12) walked at 60% of the heart rate reserve (HRR) and the H.I. group (N = 13) walked at 80% HRR both maintaining the prescribed distance and frequency. A 22% increase in total HDL (from 32 {dollar}\pm{dollar} 6 to 39 {dollar}\pm{dollar} 8 mg/dl) and a 35% increase in HDL{dollar}\sb2{dollar} (from 14 {dollar}\pm{dollar} 3 to 19 {dollar}\pm{dollar} 9 mg/dl) was elicited as a result of the walking program (p {dollar}\u3c{dollar}.005). Slight increases in HDL{dollar}\sb3{dollar} were also observed. However, no significant differences in total HDL or HDL{dollar}\sb2{dollar} were observed between the L.I. and H.I. groups. These findings demonstrate an exercise induced enhancement of the cardioprotective mechanism thought to be associated with the HDL{dollar}\sb2{dollar} subfraction. Moreover, it appears that walking at 80% of the HRR offers no advantage over walking at 60% of the HRR in enhancing the HDL profile

Improvement of in vitro and early in utero porcine clone development after somatic donor cells are cultured under hypoxia

Genetically engineered pigs serve as excellent biomedical and agricultural models. To date, the most reliable way to generate genetically engineered pigs is via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), however, the efficiency of cloning in pigs is low (1–3 percent). Somatic cells such as fibroblasts frequently used in nuclear transfer utilize the tricarboxylic acid cycle and mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation for efficient energy production. The metabolism of somatic cells contrasts with cells within the early embryo, which predominately use glycolysis. We hypothesized that fibroblast cells could become blastomere-like if mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation was inhibited by hypoxia and that this would result in improved in vitro embryonic development after SCNT. In a previous study, we demonstrated that fibroblasts cultured under hypoxic conditions had changes in gene expression consistent with increased glycolytic/gluconeogenic metabolism. The goal of this pilot study was to determine if subsequent in vitro embryo development is impacted by cloning porcine embryonic fibroblasts cultured in hypoxia. Here we demonstrate that in vitro measures such as early cleavage, blastocyst development, and blastocyst cell number are improved (4.4 percent, 5.5 percent, and 17.6 cells, respectively) when donor cells are cultured in hypoxia before nuclear transfer. Survival probability was increased in clones from hypoxic cultured donors compared to controls (8.5 vs. 4.0 [plus or minus] 0.2). These results suggest that the clones from donor cells cultured in hypoxia are more developmentally competent and this may be due to improved nuclear reprogramming during somatic cell nuclear transfer

Infant and Child Mortality in India in the Last Two Decades: A Geospatial Analysis

Studies examining the intricate interplay between poverty, female literacy, child malnutrition, and child mortality are rare in demographic literature. Given the recent focus on Millennium Development Goals 4 (child survival) and 5 (maternal health), we explored whether the geographic regions that were underprivileged in terms of wealth, female literacy, child nutrition, or safe delivery were also grappling with the elevated risk of child mortality; whether there were any spatial outliers; whether these relationships have undergone any significant change over historical time periods.The present paper attempted to investigate these critical questions using data from household surveys like NFHS 1992-1993, NFHS 1998-1999 and DLHS 2002-2004. For the first time, we employed geo-spatial techniques like Moran's-I, univariate LISA, bivariate LISA, spatial error regression, and spatiotemporal regression to address the research problem. For carrying out the geospatial analysis, we classified India into 76 natural regions based on the agro-climatic scheme proposed by Bhat and Zavier (1999) following the Census of India Study and all estimates were generated for each of the geographic regions.This study brings out the stark intra-state and inter-regional disparities in infant and under-five mortality in India over the past two decades. It further reveals, for the first time, that geographic regions that were underprivileged in child nutrition or wealth or female literacy were also likely to be disadvantaged in terms of infant and child survival irrespective of the state to which they belong. While the role of economic status in explaining child malnutrition and child survival has weakened, the effect of mother's education has actually become stronger over time

Cupules and geomorphological phenomena

Comments on Cupules by Robert G. Bednarik, RAR 25: 61-100