Using visual methods to understand physical activity maintenance following cardiac rehabilitation

© 2015 Hardcastle et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Few studies have explored the factors associated with long-term maintenance of exercise following cardiac rehabilitation. The present study used auto-photography and interviews to explore the factors that influence motivation and continued participation in physical activity among post cardiac rehabilitation patients. Twenty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted alongside participant-selected photographs or drawings with participants that had continued participation in physical activity for at least two years following the cardiac rehabilitation programme. Participants were recruited from circuit training classes in East Sussex in the UK. Thematic content analysis revealed seven main themes: fear of death and ill health avoidance, critical incidents, overcoming aging, social influences, being able to enjoy life, provision of routine and structure, enjoyment and psychological well-being. Fear of death, illness avoidance, overcoming aging, and being able to enjoy life were powerful motives for continued participation in exercise. The social nature of the exercise class was also identified as a key facilitator of continued participation. Group-based exercise suited those that continued exercise participation post cardiac rehabilitation and fostered adherence

The geomorphology and evolution of intermittently open and closed estuaries in large embayments in Victoria, Australia

Intermittently open and closed estuaries (IOCE) are common landforms on open-ocean microtidal coasts. They are often viewed as evolutionary end members of open estuaries where all the accommodation space has been infilled by sediment. While IOCE are typically recognised to form in wave-dominated, microtidal environments, they can also form within embayments where the relative balance between waves and tides is highly spatially, and temporally, variable. This study examines the geomorphology and infill of two such embayed IOCE in Victoria, southern Australia, in order to assess how these systems compare to their open ocean counterparts in order to gain an understanding of the boundary conditions of such landforms. It is found that IOCE's can occur in embayments where there is sufficient energy to form a beach berm. The infill of these systems broadly follows the transgressive – stillstand pathways of open-coast systems, but the facies are modulated by the size of the catchment and open-ocean wave exposure. These boundary conditions also affect the evolution of the coastal plain in which the embayed IOCE may form and in turn the estuary planform. The entrance dynamics of these estuaries are highly variable, and it appears that they may switch between permanently open or closed states in relation to modification of boundary conditions such as roughness. It is inferred that the relative tidal range (RTR) of the marine environment at the estuary mouth is an important determination of entrance condition with the observed systems being close to the maximum RTR value on the open coast at which these landforms can exist

DNA sensor associated type I Interferon signalling is increased in ulcerative colitis and induces JAK-dependent inflammatory cell death in colonic organoids

DNA sensor pathways can initiate inflammasome, cell death and type I interferon (IFN) signalling in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs); including type I interferonopathies. We investigated the involvement of these pathways in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC); by analysing expression of DNA sensor, inflammasome, and type I IFN biomarker genes in colonic mucosal biopsy tissue from control (n=31), inactive UC (n=31), active UC (n=33) and a UC single cell RNA-Seq dataset. The effects of type I IFN (IFN-β), IFN-γ and TNF-α on gene expression, cytokine production and cell death were investigated in human colonic organoids. In organoids treated with cytokines alone, or in combination with NLRP3, caspase or JAK inhibitors, cell death was measured, and supernatants were assayed for IL-1β/IL-18/CXCL10. The expression of DNA sensor pathway genes - PYHIN family members (AIM2, IFI16, MNDA, PYHIN1), as well as ZBP1, cGAS and DDX41 were increased in active UC and expressed in a cell type restricted pattern. Inflammasome genes (CASP1, IL1B, IL18), type I IFN inducers (STING, TBK1, IRF3), IFNB1 and type I IFN biomarker genes (OAS2, IFIT2, MX2) were also increased in active UC. Co-treatment of organoids with IFN-β or IFN-γ and TNFα increased expression of IFI16, ZBP1, CASP1, cGAS and STING, induced cell death and IL-1β/IL-18 secretion. This inflammatory cell death was blocked by the JAK inhibitor tofacitinib but not by inflammasome or caspase inhibitors. Increased type I IFN activity may drive elevated expression of DNA sensor genes and JAK-dependent but inflammasome-independent inflammatory cell death of colonic epithelial cells in UC