Practical Guidance for Interventions in Adults with Metabolic Syndrome: Diet and Exercise vs. Changes in Body Composition

(1) Objective: to establish practical guidance for the design of future clinical trials in MS (metabolic syndrome) patients aged 18 and older, based on a systematic review of randomized clinical trials connecting diet, physical exercise and changes in body composition. (2) Method: this systematic review of randomized clinical trials (RCT) is based on the guidelines recommended by PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses). Criteria of selection: ≥18 years of age; patients diagnosed with MS; intervention programs including diet, physical exercise and/or modifications in the style of life as treatment, as well as the magnitude of changes in body composition (BC); randomized clinical trial published between 2004 and 2018. (3) Results: the multidisciplinary interventions describe major changes in BC, and the recurring pattern in these clinical trials is an energy reduction and control in the percentage of intake of macronutrients along with the performance of regularly structured exercise; the most analyzed parameter was waist circumference (88.9% of the trials), followed by body weight (85.2%), BMI (77.8%) and body fat (55.6%). (4) Conclusions: The analysis of the information here reported sheds light for the design of future clinical trials in adults with MS. The best anthropometric parameters and units of measurement to monitor the interventions are related to dietary and physical exercise interventions. A list of practical advice that is easy to implement in daily practice in consultation is here proposed in order to guarantee the best results in changes of body composition.This research has been partially funded by “Generalitat Valenciana”, Grant GV/2017/177 and VIGROB-309 (University of Alicante)

The SNP at −592 of human IL-10 gene is associated with serum IL-10 levels and increased risk for human papillomavirus cervical lesion development

BACKGROUND: Women with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) persistence are characterized by high levels of IL-10 at cervix. We have determined whether polymorphisms of IL-10 gene promoter might be associated with increased risk of squamous intraepithelial cervical lesions (SICL) and whether exist significative differences of IL-10 mRNA expression at cervix and systemic and serum IL-10 protein between SICL cases and non-Cervical Lesions (NCL). METHODS: Peripheral blood samples from SICL (n = 204) and NCL (n = 166) were used to detect IL-10 promoter polymorphisms at loci -592A/C (rs1800872), -819C/T (rs1800871), -1082A/G (rs1800896), -1352A/G (rs1800893), by allelic discrimination and to evaluate serum IL-10 protein. Cervical epithelial scrapings from NCL and biopsies from SICLs were used for HPV-typing and to evaluate IL-10 mRNA expression level. The systemic and local IL-10 mRNA expression levels were measured by real time-PCR. Genotypic and allelic frequencies of the selected polymorphisms were analyzed by logistic regression, adjusting by age and HPV-genotype, to determine the association with SICL. RESULTS: No significant differences were found between genotype frequencies at loci −819, -1082, and −1352. Individuals carrying at least one copy of risk allele A of polymorphism −592 had a two-fold increased risk of developing SICL [adjusted odds ratio (OR), 2.02 (95% CI, 1.26-3.25), p = 0.003], compared to NCL. The IL-10 mRNA expression and serum IL-10 protein, were significantly higher in SICL cases (p < 0.01), being higher in patients carrying the risk allele A. CONCLUSIONS: The −592 polymorphism is associated with increased risk of SICL and can serve as a marker of genetic susceptibility to SICL among Mexican women. According to IL-10 levels found in SICL, IL-10 can be relevant factor for viral persistence and progression disease

Overview of recent TJ-II stellarator results

The main results obtained in the TJ-II stellarator in the last two years are reported. The most important topics investigated have been modelling and validation of impurity transport, validation of gyrokinetic simulations, turbulence characterisation, effect of magnetic configuration on transport, fuelling with pellet injection, fast particles and liquid metal plasma facing components. As regards impurity transport research, a number of working lines exploring several recently discovered effects have been developed: the effect of tangential drifts on stellarator neoclassical transport, the impurity flux driven by electric fields tangent to magnetic surfaces and attempts of experimental validation with Doppler reflectometry of the variation of the radial electric field on the flux surface. Concerning gyrokinetic simulations, two validation activities have been performed, the comparison with measurements of zonal flow relaxation in pellet-induced fast transients and the comparison with experimental poloidal variation of fluctuations amplitude. The impact of radial electric fields on turbulence spreading in the edge and scrape-off layer has been also experimentally characterized using a 2D Langmuir probe array. Another remarkable piece of work has been the investigation of the radial propagation of small temperature perturbations using transfer entropy. Research on the physics and modelling of plasma core fuelling with pellet and tracer-encapsulated solid-pellet injection has produced also relevant results. Neutral beam injection driven Alfvénic activity and its possible control by electron cyclotron current drive has been examined as well in TJ-II. Finally, recent results on alternative plasma facing components based on liquid metals are also presented. ISSN:0029-5515 ISSN:1741-432

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolution of clines in defense in 47% of cities throughout the world. Variation in the strength of clines was explained by environmental changes in drought stress and vegetation cover that varied among cities. Sequencing 2074 genomes from 26 cities revealed that the evolution of urban-rural clines was best explained by adaptive evolution, but the degree of parallel adaptation varied among cities. Our results demonstrate that urbanization leads to adaptation at a global scale