Segregating the Distinct Effects of Sedentary Behavior and Physical Activity on Older Adults' Cardiovascular Profile: Part 2-Isotemporal Substitution Approach.

The aim of the study was to provide an isotemporal substitution model to predict how changes in physical behavior may affect the cardiovascular parameters (CVPs) of older adults. Methods: Participants wore a thigh-mounted accelerometer for 7 days. Phenotype of the carotid, brachial, and popliteal artery was conducted using ultrasound. Isotemporal substitution was used to simulate the degree to which replacing 1 hour of physical behavior with another would affect CVP. Results: Substitution of sedentary behavior with Standing and sporadic moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA accumulated in bouts <10 min) would reduce resting heart rate [−6.20 beats per minute (−12.1 to −0.22) and −3.72 beats per minute (−7.01 to −0.44), respectively]. Substitution of sedentary behavior with light-intensity physical activity would reduce carotid artery diameter [−0.54 mm (−1.00 to −0.07)]. Substitution of Standing with sporadic MVPA would increase popliteal artery diameter [1.31 mm (0.11 to 2.51)]. Conclusions: Our modeling suggests that an accumulation of MVPA bouts that are shorter than the recommended 10-minute minimum may still improve CVP, with lower intensity physical activity also influencing CVP. Our findings are a promising avenue for lifestyle interventions in older adults to reduce the aging effects on CVP for those who cannot engage or sustain sufficient MVPA

Influences of carbohydrate plus amino acid supplementation on differing exercise intensity adaptations in older persons: skeletal muscle and endocrine responses

Losses in physiological function in healthy ageing occur partly as a consequence of reduced protein intake and partly as a consequence of less than 30-min/day of moderate to vigorous physical activity. The current study aimed to compare the effects of two different intensities of resistance training in healthy older adults, whose habitual dietary intake was supplemented with carbohydrate and amino acid preparations. We hypothesised that although intensive exercise with appropriate carbohydrate and amino acid supplementation would result in the most profound impact on in vivo markers of healthy physiologic and endocrine functions in previously sedentary older individuals, the effectiveness of the less intense exercise prescription with supplementation would also result in beneficial adaptations over and above findings of previous studies on low intensity exercise alone. Twenty-nine older adults (out of 32) completed the study after being randomly assigned to low (SUP-LowR, i.e., ∼40% 1RM; n=16) versus high resistance training (SUP-HighR, i.e., ∼80% 1RM; n=13) for 12 weeks. A carbohydrate supplement was ingested immediately before and during every exercise session and an amino acid cocktail was ingested post-exercise. Neither intervention significantly impacted upon body composition assessed using: Body mass index, waist/hip ratio and bioelectric impedance. Muscle strength increased similarly in the two groups with the SUP-HighR protocol showing 46±8%, 10.8±4.4% and 26.9± 4.9% (P<0.01) improvements in 1-RM strength, unilateral and bilateral knee extension torque, respectively, compared with 39±2%, 9.4±3.7% and 29.5± 8.2% (P<0.01) increments in the same measures in the SUP-LowR group. Lean muscle thickness however, showed a greater benefit of the SUP-LowR protocol (8.7±3.9% increase, P<0.05) compared with the SUP-HighR protocol, which elicited no significant change. In terms of functional abilities, only the standing-from-lying (SFL) test exhibited an improvement in rate in the SUP-HighR group (-11.4%, P< 0.05). The SUP-LowR group, on the other hand, showed significant improvements in the get-up-andgo (-8.7±3.6%, P<0.05), the SFL (-4.7% change, P=0.05) and the 6-min walk (7.2±2.2% increase in distance covered, P<0.01) tests. Following overnight fasting, serum levels of glucose changed significantly (-13±4.7% decrease, P<0.01) in SUP-LowR. Serum levels of insulin (-25±5.3% decrease, P=0.05), neuropeptide Y (-24±15.3% decrease, P=0.02), and IGFBP-3 (-11±6.6% decrease, P=0.03), changed significantly in SUP-HighR. Circulating levels of interleukin-6, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and insulin- like growth factor 1 did not alter significantly in either intervention group. These data suggest that whilst both interventions were beneficial in older persons, the end targets as well as metabolic and hormonal adaptations are different. The supplementation plus low exercise regimen tended to impact on muscle hypertrophy combined with increased habitual function. Supplementation plus high-intensity exercise regimen improved markers of strength, but not to a significantly greater extent than supplementation plus low intensity exercise. © American Aging Association 2010

Identification of furfural resistant strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces paradoxus from a collection of environmental and industrial isolates

Background Fermentation of bioethanol using lignocellulosic biomass as a raw material provides a sustainable alternative to current biofuel production methods by utilising waste food streams as raw material. Before lignocellulose can be fermented it requires physical, chemical and enzymatic treatment in order to release monosaccharides, a process that causes the chemical transformation of glucose and xylose into the cyclic aldehydes furfural and hydroxyfurfural. These furan compounds are potent inhibitors of Saccharomyces fermentation, and consequently furfural tolerant strains of Saccharomyces are required for lignocellulosic fermentation. Results This study investigated yeast tolerance to furfural and hydroxyfurfural using a collection of 71 environmental and industrial isolates of the baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its closest relative Saccharomyces paradoxus. The Saccharomyces strains were initially screened for growth on media containing 100 mM glucose and 1.5 mg ml-1 furfural. Five strains were identified that showed a significant tolerance to growth in the presence of furfural and these were then screened for growth and ethanol production in the presence of increasing amounts (0.1-4 mg ml-1) of furfural. Conclusions Of the five furfural tolerant strains S. cerevisiae NCYC 3451 displayed the greatest furfural resistance, and was able to grow in the presence of up to 3.0 mg ml-1 furfural. Furthermore, ethanol production in this strain did not appear to be inhibited by furfural, with the highest ethanol yield observed at 3.0 mg ml-1 furfural. Although furfural resistance was not found to be a trait specific to any one particular lineage or population, three of the strains were isolated from environments where they might be continually exposed to low levels of furfural through the on-going natural degradation of lignocelluloses, and would therefore develop elevated levels of resistance to these furan compounds. Thus these strains represent good candidates for future studies of genetic variation relevant to understanding and manipulating furfural resistance and in the development of tolerant ethanologenic yeast strains for use in bioethanol production from lignocellulose processing

Why Current Statistical Approaches to Ransomware Detection Fail

The frequent use of basic statistical techniques to detect ransomware is a popular and intuitive strategy; statistical tests can be used to identify randomness, which in turn can indicate the presence of encryption and, by extension, a ransomware attack. However, common file formats such as images and compressed data can look random from the perspective of some of these tests. In this work, we investigate the current frequent use of statistical tests in the context of ransomware detection, primarily focusing on false positive rates. The main aim of our work is to show that the current over-dependence on simple statistical tests within anti-ransomware tools can cause serious issues with the reliability and consistency of ransomware detection in the form of frequent false classifications. We determined thresholds for five key statistics frequently used in detecting randomness, namely Shannon entropy, chi-square, arithmetic mean, Monte Carlo estimation for Pi and serial correlation coefficient. We obtained a large data set of 84,327 files comprising of images, compressed data and encrypted data. We then tested these thresholds (taken from a variety of previous publications in the literature where possible) against our dataset, showing that the rate of false positives is far beyond what could be considered acceptable. False positive rates were often above 50% and even above 90% on several occasions. False negative rates were also generally between 5% and 20%, numbers which are also far too high. As a direct result of these experiments, we determine that relying on these simple statistical approaches is not good enough to detect ransomware attacks consistently. We instead recommend the exploration of higher-order statistics such as skewness and kurtosis for future ransomware detection techniques

Segregating the Distinct Effects of Sedentary Behavior and Physical Activity on Older Adults' Cardiovascular Structure and Function: Part 1-Linear Regression Analysis Approach

Background: Physical behavior [PB, physical activity (PA), and sedentary behavior (SB)] can adjust cardiovascular mortality risk in older adults. The aim of this study was to predict cardiovascular parameters (CVPs) using 21 parameters of PB. Methods: Participants [n = 93, 73.8 (6.23) y] wore a thigh-mounted accelerometer for 7 days. Phenotype of the carotid, brachial, and popliteal arteries was conducted using ultrasound. Results: Sedentary behavior was associated with one of the 19 CVPs. Standing and light-intensity PA was associated with 3 and 1 CVP, respectively. Our prediction model suggested that an hourly increase in light-intensity PA would be negatively associated with popliteal intima-media thickness [0.09 mm (95% confidence interval, 0.15 to 0.03)]. sMVPA [moderate–vigorous PA (MVPA), accumulated in bouts <10 min] was associated with 1 CVP. 10MVPA (MVPA accumulated in bouts ≥10 min) had no associations. W50% had associations with 3 CVP. SB%, alpha, true mean PA bout, daily sum of PA bout time, and total week 10MVPA each were associated with 2 CVP. Conclusions: Patterns of PB are more robust predictors of CVP than PB (hours per day). The prediction that popliteal intima-media thickness would be negatively associated with increased standing and light-intensity PA engagement suggests that older adults could obtain health benefits without MVPA engagement

Wave vision

The basic applications of radio waves are communication an

MSH3 polymorphisms and protein levels affect CAG repeat instability in huntington's disease mice

Expansions of trinucleotide CAG/CTG repeats in somatic tissues are thought to contribute to ongoing disease progression through an affected individual's life with Huntington's disease or myotonic dystrophy. Broad ranges of repeat instability arise between individuals with expanded repeats, suggesting the existence of modifiers of repeat instability. Mice with expanded CAG/CTG repeats show variable levels of instability depending upon mouse strain. However, to date the genetic modifiers underlying these differences have not been identified. We show that in liver and striatum the R6/1 Huntington's disease (HD) (CAG)~100 transgene, when present in a congenic C57BL/6J (B6) background, incurred expansion-biased repeat mutations, whereas the repeat was stable in a congenic BALB/cByJ (CBy) background. Reciprocal congenic mice revealed the Msh3 gene as the determinant for the differences in repeat instability. Expansion bias was observed in congenic mice homozygous for the B6 Msh3 gene on a CBy background, while the CAG tract was stabilized in congenics homozygous for the CBy Msh3 gene on a B6 background. The CAG stabilization was as dramatic as genetic deficiency of Msh2. The B6 and CBy Msh3 genes had identical promoters but differed in coding regions and showed strikingly different protein levels. B6 MSH3 variant protein is highly expressed and associated with CAG expansions, while the CBy MSH3 variant protein is expressed at barely detectable levels, associating with CAG stability. The DHFR protein, which is divergently transcribed from a promoter shared by the Msh3 gene, did not show varied levels between mouse strains. Thus, naturally occurring MSH3 protein polymorphisms are modifiers of CAG repeat instability, likely through variable MSH3 protein stability. Since evidence supports that somatic CAG instability is a modifier and predictor of disease, our data are consistent with the hypothesis that variable levels of CAG instability associated with polymorphisms of DNA repair genes may have prognostic implications for various repeat-associated diseases

Combined effects of time spent in physical activity, sedentary behaviors and sleep on obesity and cardio-metabolic health markers: a novel compositional data analysis approach

<div><p>The associations between time spent in sleep, sedentary behaviors (SB) and physical activity with health are usually studied without taking into account that time is finite during the day, so time spent in each of these behaviors are codependent. Therefore, little is known about the combined effect of time spent in sleep, SB and physical activity, that together constitute a composite whole, on obesity and cardio-metabolic health markers. Cross-sectional analysis of NHANES 2005–6 cycle on N = 1937 adults, was undertaken using a compositional analysis paradigm, which accounts for this intrinsic codependence. Time spent in SB, light intensity (LIPA) and moderate to vigorous activity (MVPA) was determined from accelerometry and combined with self-reported sleep time to obtain the 24 hour time budget composition. The distribution of time spent in sleep, SB, LIPA and MVPA is significantly associated with BMI, waist circumference, triglycerides, plasma glucose, plasma insulin (all p<0.001), and systolic (p<0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (p<0.003), but not HDL or LDL. Within the composition, the strongest positive effect is found for the proportion of time spent in MVPA. Strikingly, the effects of MVPA replacing another behavior and of MVPA being displaced by another behavior are asymmetric. For example, re-allocating 10 minutes of SB to MVPA was associated with a lower waist circumference by 0.001% but if 10 minutes of MVPA is displaced by SB this was associated with a 0.84% higher waist circumference. The proportion of time spent in LIPA and SB were detrimentally associated with obesity and cardiovascular disease markers, but the association with SB was stronger. For diabetes risk markers, replacing SB with LIPA was associated with more favorable outcomes. Time spent in MVPA is an important target for intervention and preventing transfer of time from LIPA to SB might lessen the negative effects of physical inactivity.</p></div