Different doses of supplemental vitamin D maintain interleukin-5 without altering skeletal muscle strength: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in vitamin D sufficient adults

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Supplemental vitamin D modulates inflammatory cytokines and skeletal muscle function, but results are inconsistent. It is unknown if these inconsistencies are dependent on the supplemental dose of vitamin D. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the influence of different doses of supplemental vitamin D on inflammatory cytokines and muscular strength in young adults.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Men (<it>n </it>= 15) and women (<it>n </it>= 15) received a daily placebo or vitamin D supplement (200 or 4000 IU) for 28-d during the winter. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), cytokine concentrations and muscular (leg) strength measurements were performed prior to and during supplementation. Statistical significance of data were assessed with a two-way (time, treatment) analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures, followed by a Tukey's Honestly Significant Difference to test multiple pairwise comparisons.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Upon enrollment, 63% of the subjects were vitamin D sufficient (serum 25(OH)D ≥ 30 ng/ml). Serum 25(OH)D and interleukin (IL)-5 decreased (<it>P </it>< 0.05) across time in the placebo group. Supplemental vitamin D at 200 IU maintained serum 25(OH)D concentrations and increased IL-5 (<it>P </it>< 0.05). Supplemental vitamin D at 4000 IU increased (<it>P </it>< 0.05) serum 25(OH)D without altering IL-5 concentrations. Although serum 25(OH)D concentrations correlated (<it>P </it>< 0.05) with muscle strength, muscle strength was not changed by supplemental vitamin D.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In young adults who were vitamin D sufficient prior to supplementation, we conclude that a low-daily dose of supplemental vitamin D prevents serum 25(OH)D and IL-5 concentration decreases, and that muscular strength does not parallel the 25(OH)D increase induced by a high-daily dose of supplemental vitamin D. Considering that IL-5 protects against viruses and bacterial infections, these findings could have a broad physiological importance regarding the ability of vitamin D sufficiency to mediate the immune systems protection against infection.</p

On Second-Order Monadic Monoidal and Groupoidal Quantifiers

We study logics defined in terms of second-order monadic monoidal and groupoidal quantifiers. These are generalized quantifiers defined by monoid and groupoid word-problems, equivalently, by regular and context-free languages. We give a computational classification of the expressive power of these logics over strings with varying built-in predicates. In particular, we show that ATIME(n) can be logically characterized in terms of second-order monadic monoidal quantifiers

On handling urban informality in southern Africa

In this article I reconsider the handling of urban informality by urban planning and management systems in southern Africa. I argue that authorities have a fetish about formality and that this is fuelled by an obsession with urban modernity. I stress that the desired city, largely inspired by Western notions of modernity, has not been and cannot be realized. Using illustrative cases of top–down interventions, I highlight and interrogate three strategies that authorities have deployed to handle informality in an effort to create or defend the modern city. I suggest that the fetish is built upon a desire for an urban modernity based on a concept of formal order that the authorities believe cannot coexist with the “disorder” and spatial “unruliness” of informality. I question the authorities' conviction that informality is an abomination that needs to be “converted”, dislocated or annihilated. I conclude that the very configuration of urban governance and socio-economic systems in the region, like the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, renders informality inevitable and its eradication impossible

MMP1 and MMP7 as Potential Peripheral Blood Biomarkers in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Naftali Kaminski and colleagues find increased levels of specific proteins in the bloodstream of individuals with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and suggest that these proteins may ultimately provide a biomarker for the disease

Statistical Mechanics of Horizontal Gene Transfer in Evolutionary Ecology

The biological world, especially its majority microbial component, is strongly interacting and may be dominated by collective effects. In this review, we provide a brief introduction for statistical physicists of the way in which living cells communicate genetically through transferred genes, as well as the ways in which they can reorganize their genomes in response to environmental pressure. We discuss how genome evolution can be thought of as related to the physical phenomenon of annealing, and describe the sense in which genomes can be said to exhibit an analogue of information entropy. As a direct application of these ideas, we analyze the variation with ocean depth of transposons in marine microbial genomes, predicting trends that are consistent with recent observations using metagenomic surveys.Comment: Accepted by Journal of Statistical Physic

Varieties of living things: Life at the intersection of lineage and metabolism

publication-status: Publishedtypes: Articl