Cancer prevention, aerobic capacity, and physical functioning in survivors related to physical activity: a recent review

According to recent published reports, over 12 million new cases of cancer were estimated worldwide for 2007. Estimates from 2008 predict that cancer will account for 22.8% of all deaths in the US. Another report stated 50% to 75% of cancer deaths in the US are related to smoking, poor dietary choices, and physical inactivity. A 2004 report indicated obesity and/or a sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of developing several types of cancer. Conversely, several large-scale cohort studies point to the positive relationship between physical activity and a reduction in cancer risk. In addition, research over the last few years has clearly shown cardiorespiratory benefits, increases in quality of life (QOL), and increases in physical functioning for cancer survivors who engage in exercise programs. Thus, the purpose of this review is to highlight three areas related to cancer and physical activity. First, information concerning the prevention of cancer through physical activity is addressed. Second, recent studies identifying changes in volume of oxygen uptake (VO2) and/or cardiorespiratory functioning involving exercise with cancer survivors is presented. Third, studies identifying changes in cancer survivors’ physical functional capacity and QOL are presented. Finally, a summary of the review is offered

Comparisons of College Students’ Enjoyment in Physical Activity & Exergames

The purpose of this study was to compare college students’ enjoyment levels in three domains of activity (traditional physical activities, exergames, and non-exergames). Volunteers (n = 141) from a Midwestern university completed an online survey composed of a modified version of the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES). Significant differences were detected across the three domains regarding level of enjoyment, F(2, 232) = 32.49, p < .001, with the highest enjoyment levels reported in the traditional physical activity domain. Additional results revealed that Wii Sports (49%) and Just Dance (29%) had the highest percentage of use with exergamers, while non-exergame participants reported playing video games such as Pokémon, Zelda, Mario Kart, Madden (59%), and Clash of Clans (25%). These results suggest that traditional physical activities and exergaming activities are psychologically enjoyable pursuits for college-aged individuals that can help increase their physical health and quality of life

Energy constrained transport maximization across a fluid interface

With enhancing mixing in micro- or nanofluidic applications in mind, the problem of maximizing fluid transport across a fluid interface subject to an available energy budget is examined. The optimum cross-interface perturbing velocity is obtained explicitly in the time-periodic instance using an Euler-Lagrange constrained optimization approach. Numerical investigations which calculate transferred lobe areas and cross-interface flux are used to verify that the predicted strategy achieves optimum transport. Explicit active protocols for achieving this optimal transport are suggested.Sanjeeva Balasuriya, Matthew D. Fin

Effects of end-stage osteoarthritis on markers of skeletal muscle Long INterspersed Element-1 activity

Objective: Long INterspersed Element-1 (L1) is an autonomous transposable element in the genome. L1 transcripts that are not reverse transcribed back into the genome can accumulate in the cytoplasm and activate an inflammatory response via the cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAS)-STING pathway. We examined skeletal muscle L1 markers as well as STING protein levels in 10 older individuals (63 ± 11 y, BMI= 30.2 ± 6.8 kg/m2) with end-stage osteoarthritis (OA) undergoing total hip (THA, n= 4) or knee (TKA, n= 6) arthroplasty versus 10 young, healthy comparators (Y, 22 ± 2 y, BMI= 23.2 ± 2.5 kg/m2). For OA, muscle was collected from surgical (SX) and contralateral (CTL) sides whereas single vastus lateralis samples were collected from Y. Results: L1 mRNA was higher in CTL and SX compared to Y (p \u3c 0.001 and p= 0.001, respectively). Protein expression was higher in SX versus Y for ORF1p (p= 0.002) and STING (p= 0.022). While these data are preliminary due to limited n-sizes and the lack of a BMI-matched younger control group, higher L1 mRNA expression, ORF1p and STING protein are evident in older versus younger adults. More research is needed to determine whether cGAS-STING signaling contributes to heightened muscle inflammation during aging and/or OA

Needs, trends, and advances in scintillators for radiographic imaging and tomography

Scintillators are important materials for radiographic imaging and tomography (RadIT), when ionizing radiations are used to reveal internal structures of materials. Since its invention by R\"ontgen, RadIT now come in many modalities such as absorption-based X-ray radiography, phase contrast X-ray imaging, coherent X-ray diffractive imaging, high-energy X- and $\gamma-$ray radiography at above 1 MeV, X-ray computed tomography (CT), proton imaging and tomography (IT), neutron IT, positron emission tomography (PET), high-energy electron radiography, muon tomography, etc. Spatial, temporal resolution, sensitivity, and radiation hardness, among others, are common metrics for RadIT performance, which are enabled by, in addition to scintillators, advances in high-luminosity accelerators and high-power lasers, photodetectors especially CMOS pixelated sensor arrays, and lately data science. Medical imaging, nondestructive testing, nuclear safety and safeguards are traditional RadIT applications. Examples of growing or emerging applications include space, additive manufacturing, machine vision, and virtual reality or `metaverse'. Scintillator metrics such as light yield and decay time are correlated to RadIT metrics. More than 160 kinds of scintillators and applications are presented during the SCINT22 conference. New trends include inorganic and organic scintillator heterostructures, liquid phase synthesis of perovskites and $\mu$m-thick films, use of multiphysics models and data science to guide scintillator development, structural innovations such as photonic crystals, nanoscintillators enhanced by the Purcell effect, novel scintillator fibers, and multilayer configurations. Opportunities exist through optimization of RadIT with reduced radiation dose, data-driven measurements, photon/particle counting and tracking methods supplementing time-integrated measurements, and multimodal RadIT.Comment: 45 pages, 43 Figures, SCINT22 conference overvie

Moyal star product approach to the Bohr-Sommerfeld approximation

The Bohr-Sommerfeld approximation to the eigenvalues of a one-dimensional quantum Hamiltonian is derived through order $\hbar^2$ (i.e., including the first correction term beyond the usual result) by means of the Moyal star product. The Hamiltonian need only have a Weyl transform (or symbol) that is a power series in $\hbar$, starting with $\hbar^0$, with a generic fixed point in phase space. The Hamiltonian is not restricted to the kinetic-plus-potential form. The method involves transforming the Hamiltonian to a normal form, in which it becomes a function of the harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian. Diagrammatic and other techniques with potential applications to other normal form problems are presented for manipulating higher order terms in the Moyal series.Comment: 27 pages, no figure

Genetic overlap between diagnostic subtypes of ischemic stroke

Background and Purpose: Despite moderate heritability, the phenotypic heterogeneity of ischemic stroke has hampered gene discovery, motivating analyses of diagnostic subtypes with reduced sample sizes. We assessed evidence for a shared genetic basis among the 3 major subtypes: large artery atherosclerosis (LAA), cardioembolism, and small vessel disease (SVD), to inform potential cross-subtype analyses. Methods: Analyses used genome-wide summary data for 12 389 ischemic stroke cases (including 2167 LAA, 2405 cardioembolism, and 1854 SVD) and 62 004 controls from the Metastroke consortium. For 4561 cases and 7094 controls, individual-level genotype data were also available. Genetic correlations between subtypes were estimated using linear mixed models and polygenic profile scores. Meta-analysis of a combined LAA-SVD phenotype (4021 cases and 51 976 controls) was performed to identify shared risk alleles. Results: High genetic correlation was identified between LAA and SVD using linear mixed models (rg=0.96, SE=0.47, P=9×10-4) and profile scores (rg=0.72; 95% confid

Pharmacogenetic meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of LDL cholesterol response to statins

Statins effectively lower LDL cholesterol levels in large studies and the observed interindividual response variability may be partially explained by genetic variation. Here we perform a pharmacogenetic meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in studies addressing the LDL cholesterol response to statins, including up to 18,596 statin-treated subjects. We validate the most promising signals in a further 22,318 statin recipients and identify two loci, SORT1/CELSR2/PSRC1 and SLCO1B1, not previously identified in GWAS. Moreover, we confirm the previously described associations with APOE and LPA. Our findings advance the understanding of the pharmacogenetic architecture of statin response

Identification of additional risk loci for stroke and small vessel disease: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies

BACKGROUND: Genetic determinants of stroke, the leading neurological cause of death and disability, are poorly understood and have seldom been explored in the general population. Our aim was to identify additional loci for stroke by doing a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies. METHODS: For the discovery sample, we did a genome-wide analysis of common genetic variants associated with incident stroke risk in 18 population-based cohorts comprising 84 961 participants, of whom 4348 had stroke. Stroke diagnosis was ascertained and validated by the study investigators. Mean age at stroke ranged from 45·8 years to 76·4 years, and data collection in the studies took place between 1948 and 2013. We did validation analyses for variants yielding a significant association (at p<5 × 10(-6)) with all-stroke, ischaemic stroke, cardioembolic ischaemic stroke, or non-cardioembolic ischaemic stroke in the largest available cross-sectional studies (70 804 participants, of whom 19 816 had stroke). Summary-level results of discovery and follow-up stages were combined using inverse-variance weighted fixed-effects meta-analysis, and in-silico lookups were done in stroke subtypes. For genome-wide significant findings (at p<5 × 10(-8)), we explored associations with additional cerebrovascular phenotypes and did functional experiments using conditional (inducible) deletion of the probable causal gene in mice. We also studied the expression of orthologs of this probable causal gene and its effects on cerebral vasculature in zebrafish mutants. FINDINGS: We replicated seven of eight known loci associated with risk for ischaemic stroke, and identified a novel locus at chromosome 6p25 (rs12204590, near FOXF2) associated with risk of all-stroke (odds ratio [OR] 1·08, 95% CI 1·05-1·12, p=1·48 × 10(-8); minor allele frequency 21%). The rs12204590 stroke risk allele was also associated with increased MRI-defined burden of white matter hyperintensity-a marker of cerebral small vessel disease-in stroke-free adults (n=21 079; p=0·0025). Consistently, young patients (aged 2-32 years) with segmental deletions of FOXF2 showed an extensive burden of white matter hyperintensity. Deletion of Foxf2 in adult mice resulted in cerebral infarction, reactive gliosis, and microhaemorrhage. The orthologs of FOXF2 in zebrafish (foxf2b and foxf2a) are expressed in brain pericytes and mutant foxf2b(-/-) cerebral vessels show decreased smooth muscle cell and pericyte coverage. INTERPRETATION: We identified common variants near FOXF2 that are associated with increased stroke susceptibility. Epidemiological and experimental data suggest that FOXF2 mediates this association, potentially via differentiation defects of cerebral vascular mural cells. Further expression studies in appropriate human tissues, and further functional experiments with long follow-up periods are needed to fully understand the underlying mechanisms

Evaluation of Musical Creativity and Musical Metacreation Systems

The field of computational creativity, including musical metacreation, strives to develop artificial systems that are capable of demonstrating creative behavior or producing creative artefacts. But the claim of creativity is often assessed, subjectively only on the part of the researcher and not objectively at all. This article provides theoretical motivation for more systematic evaluation of musical metacreation and computationally creative systems and presents an overview of current methods used to assess human and machine creativity that may be adapted for this purpose. In order to highlight the need for a varied set of evaluation tools, a distinction is drawn among three types of creative systems: those that are purely generative, those that contain internal or external feedback, and those that are capable of reflection and self-reflection. To address the evaluation of each of these aspects, concrete examples of methods and techniques are suggested to help researchers (1) evaluate their systems' creative process and generated artefacts, and test their impact on the perceptual, cognitive, and affective states of the audience, and (2) build mechanisms for reflection into the creative system, including models of human perception and cognition, to endow creative systems with internal evaluative mechanisms to drive self-reflective processes. The first type of evaluation can be considered external to the creative system and may be employed by the researcher to both better understand the efficacy of their system and its impact and to incorporate feedback into the system. Here we take the stance that understanding human creativity can lend insight to computational approaches, and knowledge of how humans perceive creative systems and their output can be incorporated into artificial agents as feedback to provide a sense of how a creation will impact the audience. The second type centers around internal evaluation, in which the system is able to reason about its own behavior and generated output. We argue that creative behavior cannot occur without feedback and reflection by the creative/metacreative system itself. More rigorous empirical testing will allow computational and metacreative systems to become more creative by definition and can be used to demonstrate the impact and novelty of particular approaches