Physical activity, overweight and central adiposity in Swedish children and adolescents: the European Youth Heart Study

BACKGROUND: The aim of this work was to study the associations of physical activity (PA) and other factors predisposing to overweight, with overweight and central adiposity in children and adolescents. METHODS: A total of 557 Swedish children (9.5 +/- 0.3 y) and 517 adolescents (15.6 +/- 0.4 y) from the European Youth Heart Study participated in this study. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine the associations of PA, as measured by accelerometry, and other determinants (i.e. television viewing, birth weight, maternal educational level and parental overweight) with total and central adiposity. Body mass index and waist circumference cut-off values proposed by the IOTF and the Bogalusa Heart Study (i.e. waist measures for predicting risk factors clustering, hereinafter called high-risk waist circumference), respectively, were used. Fatness was estimated from skinfold thicknesses and dichotomized using the 85th sex- and age-specific percentile (high/low). RESULTS: Children and adolescents who had a low level (first tertile) of vigorous PA, were more likely to be overweight (including obesity) and to have a high-risk waist circumference, than those with a high level (third tertile) of vigorous PA. Similarly, those subjects who had a low or middle level (second tertile) of total PA were more likely to be overweight than those who had a high level of total PA. Among the PA variables, only vigorous PA was associated with high total fatness. Birth weight and television viewing, were also associated with higher odds of having a high-risk waist circumference, but these associations were attenuated once either total or vigorous PA variable was included in the model. Those subjects who had two overweight parents were more likely to be overweight and to have a high-risk waist circumference independently of PA variables, compared to those whose parents were not overweight. CONCLUSION: Low levels of total PA and especially vigorous PA may play an important role in the development of overweight and excess of central adiposity in children and adolescents, independently of a number of factors such as television viewing and birth weight. In addition, the data suggest that the association between television viewing and central fat deposition could be attenuated if enough vigorous PA is accumulated. Longitudinal and intervention studies are needed to confirm these findings.This study was supported by grants from the Stockholm County Council. FBO and JRR were supported by grants from the Consejo Superior de Deportes (109/UPB31/03, 13/UPB20/04), Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia de España (AP2003-2128, AP2004-2745), EU DG Sanco, project ALPHA (2006120), and the Margit and Folke Pehrzon Foundation

Counting states and the Hadron Resonance Gas: Does X(3872) count?

We analyze how the renowned X(3872), a weakly bound state right below the D¯D∗threshold, should effectively be included in a hadronic representation of the QCD partition function. This can be decided by analyzing the D¯D∗scattering phase-shifts in the JPC=1++channel and their contribution to the level density in the continuum from which the abundance in a hot medium can be determined. We show that in a purely molecular picture the bound state contribution cancels the continuum providing a vanishing occupation number density at finite temperature and the X (3872) does not count below the Quark-Gluon Plasma crossover happening at T∼150MeV. In contrast, within a coupled-channels approach, for a non vanishing c¯ccontent the cancellation does not occur due to the onset of the X (3940) which effectively counts as an elementary particle for temperatures above T _250MeV. Thus, a direct inclusion of the X (3872) in the Hadron Resonance Gas is not justified. We also estimate the role of this cancellation in X (3872) production in heavy-ion collision experiments in terms of the corresponding pT distribution due to a finite energy resolution.This work has been partially funded by the Span-ish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad and European ERDF funds (Grant No. FIS2014-59386-P, FPA2016-77177-C2-2-P and FIS2017-85053-C2-1-P ), the Agencia de Innovacion y Desarrollo de Andalucia (Grant No. FQM225), and by Junta de Castilla y León and European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) under Contract no. SA041U16

Arabidopsis DEMETER-LIKE proteins DML2 and DML3 are required for appropriate distribution of DNA methylation marks

Cytosine DNA methylation is a stable epigenetic mark for maintenance of gene silencing across cellular divisions, but it is a reversible modification. Genetic and biochemical studies have revealed that the Arabidopsis DNA glycosylase domain-containing proteins ROS1 (REPRESSOR OF SILENCING 1) and DME (DEMETER) initiate erasure of 5-methylcytosine through a base excision repair process. The Arabidopsis genome encodes two paralogs of ROS1 and DME, referred to as DEMETER-LIKE proteins DML2 and DML3. We have found that DML2 and DML3 are 5-methylcytosine DNA glycosylases that are expressed ina wi de range of plant organs. We analyzed the distribution of methylation marks at two methylated loci in wild-type and dmlmu tant plants. Mutations in DML2 and/or DML3 lead to hypermethylation of cytosine residues that are unmethylated or weakly methylated in wild-type plants. In contrast, sites that are heavily methylated in wild-type plants are hypomethylated in mutants. These results suggest that DML2 and DML3 are required not only for removing DNA methylation marks from improperly-methylated cytosines, but also for maintenance of high methylation levels in properly targeted sites

Anti-aging therapy through fitness enhancement

Physical exercise is proposed as a highly effective means of treating and preventing the main causes of morbidity and mortality – most of which are associated with aging – in industrialized countries. Low physical fitness is an important risk factor for cardiovascular and all-causes morbidity and mortality; indeed, it is even a predictor of these problems. When properly measured, the assessment of physical fitness can be a highly valuable indicator of health and life expectancy and, therefore, should be performed routinely in the clinical setting. Individually adapted training programs could be prescribed based on fitness assessment results and an adequate knowledge of patient lifestyle and daily physical activity. Such training programs would allow people to develop their maximum physical potential, improve their physical and mental health, and attenuate the negative consequences of aging

Special issue “Diabetic nephropathy: Diagnosis, prevention and treatment”

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the main cause of end-stage renal disease. DN is a complex disease mediated by genetic and environmental factors, and many cellular and molecular mechanisms are involved in renal damage in diabetes. There are no biomarkers that reflect the severity of the underlying renal histopathological changes and can e ectively predict the progression of renal damage and stratify the risk of DN among individuals with diabetes mellitus. Current therapeutic strategies are based on the strict control of glucose and blood pressure levels and, although there are new anti-diabetic drugs, these treatments only retard renal damage progression, being necessary novel therapies. In this Special Issue, there are several comprehensive reviews and interesting original papers covering all these topics, which would be of interest to the growing number of readers of the Journal of Clinical MedicineEditors are funding by Grants from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III(ISCIII) and Fondos FEDER European Union (PI17/00119 and Red de Investigación Renal (REDINREN): RD16/0009, to M.R-O), Comunidad de Madrid (“NOVELREN” B2017/BMD-3751 to M.R-O); the José Castillejo grant (CAS19/00133 to R.R.R-D); the “Juan de la Cierva Formacion” training program of the Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO) supported the salary of SR-M (FJCI-2016-29050); Sociedad Española de Nefrologia (S.E.N. to M.R-O). Grants PAI 82140017 to C.L. of Chile; IMPROVE-PD project (“Identification and Management of Patients atRisk–Outcome and Vascular Events in Peritoneal Dialysis”) funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 812699 to M.R.O

Low-pH cement mortar-bentonite perturbations in a small-scale pilot laboratory experiment

This article has been published in a revised form in Clay Minerals [http://doi.org/10.1180/clm.2018.16]. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative worksA novel method to perform small-scale laboratory experiments that reproduce concrete–bentonite and concrete–groundwater interactions has been developed. Such interfaces will prevail in engineered barrier systems used for isolation of nuclear waste. With the goal of optimizing the experimental method, this work has analysed the geochemical interaction of distilled water, low-pH cement mortar and FEBEX-bentonite for 75 days. Limited but evident reactivity between the materials was observed, mainly decalcification in cement mortar, carbonation at the interface with bentonite and Mg enrichment in bentonite. These results are consistent with the state-of-the-art literature and were used to validate this small-scale pilot laboratory experiment to establish the basis for further studies comparing the behaviour of different buffer and cement materialsThe research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Training 305 Programme of the EURATOM (H2020-NFRP-2014/2015) under grant agreement n° 662147 (CEBAMA

Review of criterion-referenced standards for cardiorespiratory fitness: what percentage of 1 142 026 international children and youth are apparently healthy?

Purpose To identify criterion-referenced standards for cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF); to estimate the percentage of children and youth that met each standard; and to discuss strategies to help improve the utility of criterion-referenced standards for population health research. Methods A search of four databases was undertaken to identify papers that reported criterion-referenced CRF standards for children and youth generated using the receiver operating characteristic curve technique. A pseudo-dataset representing the 20-m shuttle run test performance of 1 142 026 children and youth aged 9–17 years from 50 countries was generated using Monte Carlo simulation. Pseudo-data were used to estimate the international percentage of children and youth that met published criterion-referenced standards for CRF. Results Ten studies reported criterion-referenced standards for healthy CRF in children and youth. The mean percentage (±95% CI) of children and youth that met the standards varied substantially across age groups from 36%±13% to 95%±4% among girls, and from 51%±7% to 96%±16% among boys. There was an age gradient across all criterion-referenced standards where younger children were more likely to meet the standards compared with older children, regardless of sex. Within age groups, mean percentages were more precise (smaller CI) for younger girls and older boys. Conclusion There are several CRF criterion-referenced standards for children and youth producing widely varying results. This study encourages using the interim international criterion-referenced standards of 35 and 42 mL/kg/min for girls and boys, respectively, to identify children and youth at risk of poor health—raising a clinical red flag