The relationship between vitamin D status and muscle strength in young healthy adults from sunny climate countries currently living in the northeast of Scotland

Summary: The current study examined the relationship between vitamin D status and muscle strength in young healthy adults: residents (>6 months) and newcomers (0–3 months), originally from sunny climate countries but currently living in the northeast of Scotland. Our longitudinal data found a positive, albeit small, relationship between vitamin D status and knee extensor isometric strength.  Introduction: Vitamin D has been suggested to play a role in muscle health and function, but studies so far have been primarily in older populations for falls prevention and subsequent risk of fractures.  Methods: Vitamin D status was assessed in a healthy young adults from sunny climate countries (n = 71, aged 19–42 years) with 56% seen within 3 months of arriving in Aberdeen [newcomers; median (range) time living in the UK = 2 months (9–105 days)] and the remainder resident for >6 months [residents; 23 months (6–121 months)]. Participants attended visits every 3 months for 15 months. At each visit, fasted blood samples were collected for analysis of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], parathyroid hormone (PTH), carboxy-terminal collagen crosslinks (CTX) and N-terminal propeptide of type I collagen (P1NP). Maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) were performed for grip strength (both arms) and for maximal isometric strength of the knee extensors (right knee).  Results: There were small seasonal variations in 25(OH)D concentrations within the newcomers and residents, but no seasonal variation in bone turnover markers. There was a positive, albeit small, association between 25(OH)D and knee extensor maximal isometric strength. Mixed modelling predicted that for each 1 nmol/L increase in 25(OH)D, peak torque would increase by 1 Nm (p = 0.04).  Conclusions: This study suggests that vitamin D may be important for muscle health in young adults migrating from sunnier climates to high latitudes, yet the potential effect is small

Diabetic Kidney Disease in FVB/NJ Akita Mice: Temporal Pattern of Kidney Injury and Urinary Nephrin Excretion

Akita mice are a genetic model of type 1 diabetes. In the present studies, we investigated the phenotype of Akita mice on the FVB/NJ background and examined urinary nephrin excretion as a marker of kidney injury. Male Akita mice were compared with non-diabetic controls for functional and structural characteristics of renal and cardiac disease. Podocyte number and apoptosis as well as urinary nephrin excretion were determined in both groups. Male FVB/NJ Akita mice developed sustained hyperglycemia and albuminuria by 4 and 8 weeks of age, respectively. These abnormalities were accompanied by a significant increase in systolic blood pressure in 10-week old Akita mice, which was associated with functional, structural and molecular characteristics of cardiac hypertrophy. By 20 weeks of age, Akita mice developed a 10-fold increase in albuminuria, renal and glomerular hypertrophy and a decrease in the number of podocytes. Mild-to-moderate glomerular mesangial expansion was observed in Akita mice at 30 weeks of age. In 4-week old Akita mice, the onset of hyperglycemia was accompanied by increased podocyte apoptosis and enhanced excretion of nephrin in urine before the development of albuminuria. Urinary nephrin excretion was also significantly increased in albuminuric Akita mice at 16 and 20 weeks of age and correlated with the albumin excretion rate. These data suggest that: 1. FVB/NJ Akita mice have phenotypic characteristics that may be useful for studying the mechanisms of kidney and cardiac injury in diabetes, and 2. Enhanced urinary nephrin excretion is associated with kidney injury in FVB/NJ Akita mice and is detectable early in the disease process

Genome-wide association study for refractive astigmatism reveals genetic co-determination with spherical equivalent refractive error : the CREAM consortium

Peer reviewe

Measurement of inclusive and differential cross sections for single top quark production in association with a W boson in proton-proton collisions at s \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

A preprint version of the article is available at arXiv:2208.00924v2 [hep-ex], https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.00924v2 . Comments: Replaced with the published version. Added the journal reference and the DOI. All the figures and tables, including additional supplementary figures, can be found at https://cms-results.web.cern.ch/cms-results/public-results/publications/TOP-21-010 (CMS Public Pages). Report number: CMS-TOP-21-010, CERN-EP-2022-158.Measurements of the inclusive and normalised differential cross sections are presented for the production of single top quarks in association with a W boson in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data used were recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC during 2016-2018, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb^{−1}. Events containing one electron and one muon in the final state are analysed. For the inclusive measurement, a multivariate discriminant, exploiting the kinematic properties of the events is used to separate the signal from the dominant tt¯ background. A cross section of 79.2 ± 0.9 (stat) +7.7−8.0 (syst) ± 1.2 (lumi) pb is obtained, consistent with the predictions of the standard model. For the differential measurements, a fiducial region is defined according to the detector acceptance, and the requirement of exactly one jet coming from the fragmentation of a bottom quark. The resulting distributions are unfolded to particle level and agree with the predictions at next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics.SCOAP3