Effect of aquatic resistance interval training and dietary education program on physical and psychological health in older women: Randomized controlled trial

Due to demographic changes, the world’s population is progressively aging. The physiological deterioration of the older adult may lead to reduced balance capacity and increased risk of falls, among others, due to the prevalence of degenerative diseases. Physical exercise can be effective in reducing the risk of disease and slowing functional decline in older people. The aim of the research is to test the effects of aquatic resistance training and dietary education on health indicators, strength, balance, functional autonomy, perception of satisfaction with life. Thirty-four participants aged 69 ± 4 years were randomly assigned into two groups: experimental (aquatic resistance interval training) and control group (no intervention). The intervention consisted of resistance training in an aquatic environment carried out for 14 weeks (three sessions per week: 60 min each). All variables were analyzed twice; pre - post intervention. Aquatic resistance training has positive effects on strength (p < 0.001), functional self-sufficiency (p < 0.001) and aerobic capacity (p < 0.001), however, no significant differences were observed in the perception of satisfaction with life and balance. Research results suggest that older women who engage in regular, scheduled aquatic resistance training have greater autonomy in performing activities of daily living, agility, gait control, and body composition variables (lower fat compartment and greater muscle mass)

Acute Effects of Work Rest Interval Duration of 3 HIIT Protocols on Cycling Power in Trained Young Adults

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is described as a succession of short duration and maximum or near-maximum intensity efforts, alternated by recovery periods during which exercise continues at a lower intensity (active recovery) or is interrupted (passive recovery). Our objective was to evaluate the acute responses of three HIIT protocols of different work/rest interval times over the total time of the session, with self-selectable load and up to exhaustion, “all out”.The sample was composed of 22 male participants (n = 22) between 19 and 24 years old. The HIIT protocol consisted of one of the three HIIT protocols, of 30, 60 and 90 s density ratio 1:1 and with passive rest, with a total exercise duration of 10 min. The test was performed in a cycloergometer set in workload mode independent of the pedaling frequency. The comparison of the three HIIT protocols shows that the duration of the work/rest intervals, starting from 30 s of work, in the cycloergometer, there are no significant differences in the levels of lactate concentration in the blood, nor in the heart rate, since a similar amount is obtained in the three protocols. The percentage of maximum power developed reached in each HIIT protocol is related to the duration of the working intervals

Frecuencia de entrenamiento en circuito de alta intensidad y dieta. Efectos sobre rendimiento y salud en adultos activos: Ensayo Controlado Aleatorizado

Introduction: High intensity circuit training (HICT) has been proven to be one of the most efficient methods to improve physical and physiological parameters using short training sessions. The objective of this study was to discern the effects of a 6-week HICT program in active persons, modifying the training frequency. Methods: Group A trained two days a week (n=7), group B trained 3 days a week (n=7), while the control group did not perform any training (n=7). All groups followed a diet program adapted to the strength training requirements. The training sessions were comprised of 4 series of 10 self-loading exercises, including sprints and supporting materials, with 1-2 minute rests between series, exerting an 80-95% maximum cardiac frequency intensity. A 1:1 training load density was used, with 20-25 second intervals between work and recovery. Results: Groups A and B significantly improved in body composition and strength tests (bench press and back squats), com­pared to the control group as well as in the intragroup analysis when comparing before and after the intervention. However, no significant differences were observed when comparing the two experimental groups. No changes in blood pressure were observed in any inter- or intragroup analysis. Conclusion: An adapted nutritional program and a 2-day/week HICT program seems to be sufficient in order to obtain signi­ficant improvements in strength and body composition in healthy active subjects, although blood pressure was not affected.Introducción: El entrenamiento en circuito de alta intensidad (HICT) ha demostrado ser uno de los métodos de entrenamiento más eficaces por la mejora de parámetro físicos y fisiológicos utilizando cortos periodos de entrenamiento. El objetivo de este estudio fue conocer los efectos de un programa de 6 semanas de entrenamiento HICT en personas activas, modificando la frecuencia de entrenamiento. Método: El grupo A entrenó con una frecuencia de 2 días a la semana (n=7), el grupo B (n=7) 3 días a la semana y el grupo control no realizó ningún entrenamiento (n=7). Ambos grupos siguieron un programa dietético adaptado a los requerimientos de los entrenamientos de fuerza. Realizaron un mismo entrenamiento compuesto de 4 series de 10 ejercicios con auto-cargas, con material auxiliar y carreras, con descanso de 1 y 2 minutos entre las series, a una intensidad entre el 80-95% de la FC máx. Se utilizó una densidad de la carga de entrenamiento de 1:1 con intervalos de trabajo y recuperación de 20 a 25 segundos. Resultados: Los grupos A y B mostraron, en comparación al grupo control, mejoras en la composición corporal y en los test de fuerza (press de banca y sentadilla) antes y después de la intervención con HICT. Sin embargo, no se obtuvieron diferencias cuando se compararon los resultados obtenidos entre ambos grupos experimentales. Las diferencias se observaron frente al grupo control, ya que tanto el grupo A como el grupo B mostraron mejoras significativas en la composición corporal y la fuerza. La presión arterial no presentó diferencias en las comparaciones inter e intragrupo. Conclusión: Un programa dietético nutricional adaptado y una frecuencia de entrenamiento de HICT de dos días parece ser suficiente para obtener mejoras en la fuerza y la composición corporal, aunque no para mejorar la presión arterial en sujetos sanos activos

The TeamPlay project : analysing and optimising time, energy, and security for cyber-physical systems

Funding: This work was supported by the EU Horizon-2020 project TeamPlay (https://www.teamplay-h2020.eu), grant #779882.Non-functional properties, such as energy, time, and security (ETS) are becoming increasingly important for the programming of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). This paper describes TeamPlay, a research project funded under the EU Horizon 2020 programme between January 2018 and June 2021.TeamPlay aimed to provide the system designer with a toolchain for developing embedded applications where ETS properties are first-class citizens, allowing the developer to reflect directly on energy, time and security properties at the source code level. In this paper we give an overview of the TeamPlay methodology, introduce the challenges and solutions of our approach and summarise the results achieved. Overall, applying our TeamPlay methodology led to an improvement of up to 18% performance and 52% energy usage over traditional approaches.Postprin

May Measurement Month 2019: An analysis of blood pressure screening results from Argentina

The Argentinean Society of Hypertension, in agreement with the May Measurement Month (MMM) initiative of the International Society of Hypertension, implemented for the third consecutive year a hypertension screening campaign. A volunteer cross-sectional survey was carried out in public spaces and health centres during the month of May 2019 across 33 cities in Argentina. Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure (BP) ≥140 mmHg and/or diastolic BP ≥90 mmHg based on the mean of the second and third BP measurements, or in those on treatment for high BP. A total of 94 523 individuals (53.9 ± 17.8 years old, 55 231women and 39 292 men), were evaluated. The age and sex standardized mean BP was 124.7/77.2 mmHg. Among participants, 34.7% were overweight (25-29.9 m/kg2) and 28.7% had obesity (≥30 m/kg2). Individuals identified as being overweight had BP 3/2 mmHg higher and individuals with obesity 6/4 mmHg higher than those with normal weight. The prevalence of hypertension was 52.5%. Although 81.1% were aware and 77.7% were on antihypertensive treatment, only 46.0% of all individuals with hypertension had their BP controlled. Moreover, 19.8% of those not on any antihypertensive medication were found with raised BP. The low level of control of hypertension generates the critical need for the development of community-based prevention strategies reinforcing strategies to increase the awareness and control of hypertension.Fil: Salazar, Martin Rogelio Enrique. Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial; ArgentinaFil: Garcia Vazquez, Fortunato. Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial; ArgentinaFil: Espeche, Walter. Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial; ArgentinaFil: Marquez, Diego. Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial; ArgentinaFil: Becerra, Pedro. Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial; ArgentinaFil: Martinez Marissi, Evangelina. Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial; ArgentinaFil: Sorasio, Viviana B.. Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial; ArgentinaFil: Staffieri, Gustavo J.. Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial; ArgentinaFil: Kalbermatter, Arnoldo. Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial; ArgentinaFil: De Cerchio, Alejandro E.. Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial; ArgentinaFil: Beaney, Thomas. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Partington, Giles. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Poulter, Neil R.. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Marín, Marcos. Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial; ArgentinaFil: Ennis, Irene Lucia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares "Dr. Horacio Eugenio Cingolani". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Centro de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares "Dr. Horacio Eugenio Cingolani"; Argentina. Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial; Argentin

Effects of a moderate-to-high intensity resistance circuit training on fat mass, functional capacity, muscular strength, and quality of life in elderly: A randomized controlled trial

Physical exercise is considered an important intervention for promoting well-being and healthy aging. The objective was to determine the effects of moderate-to-high intensity resistance circuit training on different parameters of body composition, functional autonomy, muscular strength and quality of life in elderly. A randomized controlled trial was conducted. A total of 45 subjects (27 females, 18 males) aged between 65–75 years old from Murcia (Spain) were divided by sex, and randomly to experimental group (n = 33, mean age 69 ± 3.2 years old) receiving 12 weeks of moderate-to-high intensity resistance circuit training and control group (n = 33, mean age 70 ± 4.1 years old) receiving no exercise intervention. Intra-group comparison, the experimental group showed a significant increment of lean body mass in women and men, which also presented a decrease of fat mass. Both sex presented a significant improve in functional autonomy, and significately higher values of muscular strength. But no changes were observed regarding quality of life in these groups. The control group did not show any differences pre and post-intervention in women, but in men presented an increment of body mass index and total weight post-intervention. No changes were showed in the other variables. Similar results were founded at inter-group comparison. The moderate-to-high intensity resistance circuit training showed increase in total lean body mass, improvements in functional capacity and significantly increase in upper and lower muscular strength in women and men. Progressive resistance circuit training should be promoted for the elderly as it has the potential to improve physical performance, thereby prolonging healthy independent aging.This research has been supported by Catholic University of San Antonio, Murcia (UCAM) under grant [PMAFI/03/12]

Novel genes and sex differences in COVID-19 severity

[EN] Here, we describe the results of a genome-wide study conducted in 11 939 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) positive cases with an extensive clinical information that were recruited from 34 hospitals across Spain (SCOURGE consortium). In sex-disaggregated genome-wide association studies for COVID-19 hospitalization, genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10−8) was crossed for variants in 3p21.31 and 21q22.11 loci only among males (P = 1.3 × 10−22 and P = 8.1 × 10−12, respectively), and for variants in 9q21.32 near TLE1 only among females (P = 4.4 × 10−8). In a second phase, results were combined with an independent Spanish cohort (1598 COVID-19 cases and 1068 population controls), revealing in the overall analysis two novel risk loci in 9p13.3 and 19q13.12, with fine-mapping prioritized variants functionally associated with AQP3 (P = 2.7 × 10−8) and ARHGAP33 (P = 1.3 × 10−8), respectively. The meta-analysis of both phases with four European studies stratified by sex from the Host Genetics Initiative (HGI) confirmed the association of the 3p21.31 and 21q22.11 loci predominantly in males and replicated a recently reported variant in 11p13 (ELF5, P = 4.1 × 10−8). Six of the COVID-19 HGI discovered loci were replicated and an HGI-based genetic risk score predicted the severity strata in SCOURGE. We also found more SNP-heritability and larger heritability differences by age (<60 or ≥60 years) among males than among females. Parallel genome-wide screening of inbreeding depression in SCOURGE also showed an effect of homozygosity in COVID-19 hospitalization and severity and this effect was stronger among older males. In summary, new candidate genes for COVID-19 severity and evidence supporting genetic disparities among sexes are provided.S

Basin-wide variation in tree hydraulic safety margins predicts the carbon balance of Amazon forests

Funding: Data collection was largely funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) project TREMOR (NE/N004655/1) to D.G., E.G. and O.P., with further funds from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES, finance code 001) to J.V.T. and a University of Leeds Climate Research Bursary Fund to J.V.T. D.G., E.G. and O.P. acknowledge further support from a NERC-funded consortium award (ARBOLES, NE/S011811/1). This paper is an outcome of J.V.T.’s doctoral thesis, which was sponsored by CAPES (GDE 99999.001293/2015-00). J.V.T. was previously supported by the NERC-funded ARBOLES project (NE/S011811/1) and is supported at present by the Swedish Research Council Vetenskapsrådet (grant no. 2019-03758 to R.M.). E.G., O.P. and D.G. acknowledge support from NERC-funded BIORED grant (NE/N012542/1). O.P. acknowledges support from an ERC Advanced Grant and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. R.S.O. was supported by a CNPq productivity scholarship, the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP-Microsoft 11/52072-0) and the US Department of Energy, project GoAmazon (FAPESP 2013/50531-2). M.M. acknowledges support from MINECO FUN2FUN (CGL2013-46808-R) and DRESS (CGL2017-89149-C2-1-R). C.S.-M., F.B.V. and P.R.L.B. were financed by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES, finance code 001). C.S.-M. received a scholarship from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq 140353/2017-8) and CAPES (science without borders 88881.135316/2016-01). Y.M. acknowledges the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and ERC Advanced Investigator Grant (GEM-TRAITS, 321131) for supporting the Global Ecosystems Monitoring (GEM) network (gem.tropicalforests.ox.ac.uk), within which some of the field sites (KEN, TAM and ALP) are nested. The authors thank Brazil–USA Collaborative Research GoAmazon DOE-FAPESP-FAPEAM (FAPESP 2013/50533-5 to L.A.) and National Science Foundation (award DEB-1753973 to L. Alves). They thank Serrapilheira Serra-1709-18983 (to M.H.) and CNPq-PELD/POPA-441443/2016-8 (to L.G.) (P.I. Albertina Lima). They thank all the colleagues and grants mentioned elsewhere [8,36] that established, identified and measured the Amazon forest plots in the RAINFOR network analysed here. The authors particularly thank J. Lyod, S. Almeida, F. Brown, B. Vicenti, N. Silva and L. Alves. This work is an outcome approved Research Project no. 19 from ForestPlots.net, a collaborative initiative developed at the University of Leeds that unites researchers and the monitoring of their permanent plots from the world’s tropical forests [61]. The authros thank A. Levesley, K. Melgaço Ladvocat and G. Pickavance for ForestPlots.net management. They thank Y. Wang and J. Baker, respectively, for their help with the map and with the climatic data. The authors acknowledge the invaluable help of M. Brum for kindly providing the comparison of vulnerability curves based on PAD and on PLC shown in this manuscript. They thank J. Martinez-Vilalta for his comments on an early version of this manuscript. The authors also thank V. Hilares and the Asociación para la Investigación y Desarrollo Integral (AIDER, Puerto Maldonado, Peru); V. Saldaña and Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (IIAP) for local field campaign support in Peru; E. Chavez and Noel Kempff Natural History Museum for local field campaign support in Bolivia; ICMBio, INPA/NAPPA/LBA COOMFLONA (Cooperativa mista da Flona Tapajós) and T. I. Bragança-Marituba for the research support.Tropical forests face increasing climate risk1,2, yet our ability to predict their response to climate change is limited by poor understanding of their resistance to water stress. Although xylem embolism resistance thresholds (for example, Ψ50) and hydraulic safety margins (for example, HSM50) are important predictors of drought-induced mortality risk3-5, little is known about how these vary across Earth's largest tropical forest. Here, we present a pan-Amazon, fully standardized hydraulic traits dataset and use it to assess regional variation in drought sensitivity and hydraulic trait ability to predict species distributions and long-term forest biomass accumulation. Parameters Ψ50 and HSM50 vary markedly across the Amazon and are related to average long-term rainfall characteristics. Both Ψ50 and HSM50 influence the biogeographical distribution of Amazon tree species. However, HSM50 was the only significant predictor of observed decadal-scale changes in forest biomass. Old-growth forests with wide HSM50 are gaining more biomass than are low HSM50 forests. We propose that this may be associated with a growth-mortality trade-off whereby trees in forests consisting of fast-growing species take greater hydraulic risks and face greater mortality risk. Moreover, in regions of more pronounced climatic change, we find evidence that forests are losing biomass, suggesting that species in these regions may be operating beyond their hydraulic limits. Continued climate change is likely to further reduce HSM50 in the Amazon6,7, with strong implications for the Amazon carbon sink.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Expansion of Signal Transduction Pathways in Fungi by Extensive Genome Duplication

International audienceno abstrac

Natural History of MYH7-Related Dilated Cardiomyopathy

BACKGROUND Variants in myosin heavy chain 7 (MYH7) are responsible for disease in 1% to 5% of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM); however, the clinical characteristics and natural history of MYH7-related DCM are poorly described. OBJECTIVES We sought to determine the phenotype and prognosis of MYH7-related DCM. We also evaluated the influence of variant location on phenotypic expression. METHODS We studied clinical data from 147 individuals with DCM-causing MYH7 variants (47.6% female; 35.6 +/- 19.2 years) recruited from 29 international centers. RESULTS At initial evaluation, 106 (72.1%) patients had DCM (left ventricular ejection fraction: 34.5% +/- 11.7%). Median follow-up was 4.5 years (IQR: 1.7-8.0 years), and 23.7% of carriers who were initially phenotype-negative developed DCM. Phenotypic expression by 40 and 60 years was 46% and 88%, respectively, with 18 patients (16%) first diagnosed at <18 years of age. Thirty-six percent of patients with DCM met imaging criteria for LV noncompaction. During follow-up, 28% showed left ventricular reverse remodeling. Incidence of adverse cardiac events among patients with DCM at 5 years was 11.6%, with 5 (4.6%) deaths caused by end-stage heart failure (ESHF) and 5 patients (4.6%) requiring heart transplantation. The major ventricular arrhythmia rate was low (1.0% and 2.1% at 5 years in patients with DCM and in those with LVEF of <= 35%, respectively). ESHF and major ventricular arrhythmia were significantly lower compared with LMNA-related DCM and similar to DCM caused by TTN truncating variants. CONCLUSIONS MYH7-related DCM is characterized by early age of onset, high phenotypic expression, low left ventricular reverse remodeling, and frequent progression to ESHF. Heart failure complications predominate over ventricular arrhythmias, which are rare. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier on behalf of the American College of Cardiology Foundation