Comparing the Effects of Rest and Massage on Return to Homeostasis Following Submaximal Aerobic Exercise: a Case Study

Introduction: Postexercise massage can be used to help promote recovery from exercise on the cellular level, as well as systemically by increasing parasympathetic activity. No studies to date have been done to assess the effects of massage on postexercise metabolic changes, including excess postexercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of massage recovery and resting recovery on a subject’s heart rate variability and selected metabolic effects following a submaximal treadmill exercise session. Methods: One healthy 24-year-old female subject performed 30 minutes of submaximal treadmill exercise prior to resting or massage recovery sessions. Metabolic data were collected throughout the exercise sessions and at three 10 minute intervals postexercise. Heart rate variability was evaluated for 10 minutes after each of two 30-minute recovery sessions, either resting or massage. Results: Heart rate returned to below resting levels (73 bpm) with 30 and 60 minutes of massage recovery (72 bpm and 63 bpm, respectively) compared to 30 and 60 minutes of resting recovery (77 bpm and 74 bpm, respectively).  Heart rate variability data showed a more immediate shift to the parasympathetic state following 30 minutes of massage (1.152 LF/HF ratio) versus the 30-minute resting recovery (6.91 LF/HF ratio). It took 60 minutes of resting recovery to reach similar heart rate variability levels (1.216 LF/HF) found after 30 minutes of massage. Ventilations after 30 minutes of massage recovery averaged 7.1 bpm compared to 17.9 bpm after 30 minutes of resting recovery. Conclusions: No differences in EPOC were observed through either the resting or massage recovery based on the metabolic data collected. Massage was used to help the subject shift into parasympathetic activity more quickly than rest alone following a submaximal exercise session.

Cohesin Is Limiting for the Suppression of DNA Damage–Induced Recombination between Homologous Chromosomes

Double-strand break (DSB) repair through homologous recombination (HR) is an evolutionarily conserved process that is generally error-free. The risk to genome stability posed by nonallelic recombination or loss-of-heterozygosity could be reduced by confining HR to sister chromatids, thereby preventing recombination between homologous chromosomes. Here we show that the sister chromatid cohesion complex (cohesin) is a limiting factor in the control of DSB repair and genome stability and that it suppresses DNA damage–induced interactions between homologues. We developed a gene dosage system in tetraploid yeast to address limitations on various essential components in DSB repair and HR. Unlike RAD50 and RAD51, which play a direct role in HR, a 4-fold reduction in the number of essential MCD1 sister chromatid cohesion subunit genes affected survival of gamma-irradiated G2/M cells. The decreased survival reflected a reduction in DSB repair. Importantly, HR between homologous chromosomes was strongly increased by ionizing radiation in G2/M cells with a single copy of MCD1 or SMC3 even at radiation doses where survival was high and DSB repair was efficient. The increased recombination also extended to nonlethal doses of UV, which did not induce DSBs. The DNA damage–induced recombinants in G2/M cells included crossovers. Thus, the cohesin complex has a dual role in protecting chromosome integrity: it promotes DSB repair and recombination between sister chromatids, and it suppresses damage-induced recombination between homologues. The effects of limited amounts of Mcd1and Smc3 indicate that small changes in cohesin levels may increase the risk of genome instability, which may lead to genetic diseases and cancer

Evaluating Active U: an Internet-mediated physical activity program.

Background: Engaging in regular physical activity can be challenging, particularly during the winter months. To promote physical activity at the University of Michigan during the winter months, an eight-week Internet-mediated program (Active U) was developed providing participants with an online physical activity log, goal setting, motivational emails, and optional team participation and competition. Methods: This study is a program evaluation of Active U. Approximately 47,000 faculty, staff, and graduate students were invited to participate in the online Active U intervention in the winter of 2007. Participants were assigned a physical activity goal and were asked to record each physical activity episode into the activity log for eight weeks. Statistics for program reach, effectiveness, adoption, and implementation were calculated using the Re-Aim framework. Multilevel regression analyses were used to assess the decline in rates of data entry and goal attainment during the program, to assess the likelihood of joining a team by demographic characteristics, to test the association between various predictors and the number of weeks an individual met his or her goal, and to analyze server load. Results: Overall, 7,483 individuals registered with the Active U website (≈16% of eligible), and 79% participated in the program by logging valid data at least once. Staff members, older participants, and those with a BMI < 25 were more likely to meet their weekly physical activity goals, and average rate of meeting goals was higher among participants who joined a competitive team compared to those who participated individually (IRR = 1.28, P < .001). Conclusion: Internet-mediated physical activity interventions that focus on physical activity logging and goal setting while incorporating team competition may help a significant percentage of the target population maintain their physical activity during the winter months

Yeast as a model to investigate the mitochondrial role in adaptation to dietary fat and calorie surplus

Several research strategies are focused towards understanding the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms that regulate uptake, synthesis, deposition, and mobilization of lipids, in the context of energy homeostasis. Because of the complexity of the problem, major input comes from the use of model systems. The aim of this work was to test the feasibility of using yeast as a model organism for studies related to dietary challenges due to high fat diet and investigate the correlation between FA metabolism and oxidative metabolism. In particular, we ask to what extent the utilization of oleic acid is dependent on mitochondrial function. We studied growth on oleic acid as a sole carbon source, and oleate stress (growth in 2 and 5% oleate) in both laboratory (BY4741 wild-type and Δsco1, Δsco2, Δtgl3, Δtgl4 mutants) and natural strains, comparing the growth phenotypes with the respiratory behaviour for each strain. We confirmed that respiratory competence is fundamental for growth on oleic acid, since the respiratory deficient mutant Δsco1 was unable to grow on oleic acid. In order to understand if the ability to use oleate as carbon source and adapt to high oleate concentrations is a general trait for the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genus, we also studied some natural strains, both diploid and haploid, identifying two meiotic derivatives of SGU90 as unable to grow in oleic acid as a sole carbon source. We investigate some aspects of mitochondrial metabolism in order to gain insights on this new finding

Prognostic importance of plasma total magnesium in a cohort of cats with azotemic chronic kidney disease

BACKGROUND: Hypomagnesemia is associated with increased mortality and renal function decline in humans with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Magnesium is furthermore inversely associated with fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23), an important prognostic factor in CKD in cats. However, the prognostic significance of plasma magnesium in cats with CKD is unknown. OBJECTIVES: To explore associations of plasma total magnesium concentration (tMg) with plasma FGF23 concentration, all-cause mortality, and disease progression in cats with azotemic CKD. ANIMALS: Records of 174 client-owned cats with IRIS stage 2-4 CKD. METHODS: Cohort study. Cats with azotemic CKD were identified from the records of two London-based first opinion practices (1999-2013). Possible associations of baseline plasma tMg with FGF23 concentration and risks of death and progression were explored using, respectively, linear, Cox, and logistic regression. RESULTS: Plasma tMg (reference interval, 1.73-2.57 mg/dL) was inversely associated with plasma FGF23 when controlling for plasma creatinine and phosphate concentrations (partial correlation coefficient, -0.50; P < .001). Hypomagnesemia was observed in 12% (20/174) of cats, and independently associated with increased risk of death (adjusted hazard ratio, 2.74; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.35-5.55; P = .005). The unadjusted associations of hypermagnesemia (prevalence, 6%; 11/174 cats) with survival (hazard ratio, 2.88; 95% CI, 1.54-5.38; P = .001), and hypomagnesemia with progressive CKD (odds ratio, 17.7; 95% CI, 2.04-154; P = .009) lost significance in multivariable analysis. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Hypomagnesemia was associated with higher plasma FGF23 concentrations and increased risk of death. Measurement of plasma tMg augments prognostic information in cats with CKD, but whether these observations are associations or causations warrants further investigation

Indirect Reciprocity under Incomplete Observation

Indirect reciprocity, in which individuals help others with a good reputation but not those with a bad reputation, is a mechanism for cooperation in social dilemma situations when individuals do not repeatedly interact with the same partners. In a relatively large society where indirect reciprocity is relevant, individuals may not know each other's reputation even indirectly. Previous studies investigated the situations where individuals playing the game have to determine the action possibly without knowing others' reputations. Nevertheless, the possibility that observers of the game, who generate the reputation of the interacting players, assign reputations without complete information about them has been neglected. Because an individual acts as an interacting player and as an observer on different occasions if indirect reciprocity is endogenously sustained in a society, the incompleteness of information may affect either role. We examine the game of indirect reciprocity when the reputations of players are not necessarily known to observers and to interacting players. We find that the trustful discriminator, which cooperates with good and unknown players and defects against bad players, realizes cooperative societies under seven social norms. Among the seven social norms, three of the four suspicious norms under which cooperation (defection) to unknown players leads to a good (bad) reputation enable cooperation down to a relatively small observation probability. In contrast, the three trustful norms under which both cooperation and defection to unknown players lead to a good reputation are relatively efficient

Collapse of superconductivity in a hybrid tin-graphene Josephson junction array

When a Josephson junction array is built with hybrid superconductor/metal/superconductor junctions, a quantum phase transition from a superconducting to a two-dimensional (2D) metallic ground state is predicted to happen upon increasing the junction normal state resistance. Owing to its surface-exposed 2D electron gas and its gate-tunable charge carrier density, graphene coupled to superconductors is the ideal platform to study the above-mentioned transition between ground states. Here we show that decorating graphene with a sparse and regular array of superconducting nanodisks enables to continuously gate-tune the quantum superconductor-to-metal transition of the Josephson junction array into a zero-temperature metallic state. The suppression of proximity-induced superconductivity is a direct consequence of the emergence of quantum fluctuations of the superconducting phase of the disks. Under perpendicular magnetic field, the competition between quantum fluctuations and disorder is responsible for the resilience at the lowest temperatures of a superconducting glassy state that persists above the upper critical field. Our results provide the entire phase diagram of the disorder and magnetic field-tuned transition and unveil the fundamental impact of quantum phase fluctuations in 2D superconducting systems.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure

Longitudinal grey and white matter changes in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease

Behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia are characterised by progressive brain atrophy. Longitudinal MRI volumetry may help to characterise ongoing structural degeneration and support the differential diagnosis of dementia subtypes. Automated, observer-independent atlas-based MRI volumetry was applied to analyse 102 MRI data sets from 15 bvFTD, 14 AD, and 10 healthy elderly control participants with consecutive scans over at least 12 months. Anatomically defined targets were chosen a priori as brain structures of interest. Groups were compared regarding volumes at clinic presentation and annual change rates. Baseline volumes, especially of grey matter compartments, were significantly reduced in bvFTD and AD patients. Grey matter volumes of the caudate and the gyrus rectus were significantly smaller in bvFTD than AD. The bvFTD group could be separated from AD on the basis of caudate volume with high accuracy (79% cases correct). Annual volume decline was markedly larger in bvFTD and AD than controls, predominantly in white matter of temporal structures. Decline in grey matter volume of the lateral orbitofrontal gyrus separated bvFTD from AD and controls. Automated longitudinal MRI volumetry discriminates bvFTD from AD. In particular, greater reduction of orbitofrontal grey matter and temporal white matter structures after 12 months is indicative of bvFTD