Dietary fibre and fatty acids in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk and progression: a systematic review.

Dietary intake attracts increasing interest in the risk for and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In particular, dietary fatty acids have drawn specific attention for their immunomodulating The study aimed to review the current evidence on the potential roles of fibre or fatty acid intake in the risk and progression of COPD. Pubmed, Cochrane Collaboration Database and conference databases for original adults addressing the association between fibre or fatty acid intake and terms of risk, lung function and respiratory symptoms were searched. articles were included of which four reported on dietary fibre and five acids. Data of studies could not be pooled because of methodological Greater intake of dietary fibre has been consistently associated with COPD risk, better lung function and reduced respiratory symptoms. associations between fatty acids and COPD are inconsistent. Dietary deserves further attention in developing COPD prevention and managemen

Muscle Quality is More Impaired in Sarcopenic Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

BACKGROUND: Quadriceps muscle fiber atrophy and a loss of oxidative type I muscle fibers and mitochondrial content often occur in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which adversely affects exercise performance. Sarcopenia is an age-related syndrome characterized by wasting and weakness of muscle mass. We recently showed in a large cohort of patients that COPD-related sarcopenia, in particular in male patients, was not only associated with impaired quadriceps muscle strength but also with decreased exercise performance endurance, which could imply involvement of altered muscle fiber type composition. Hence, we hypothesized that both the fiber atrophy and loss of oxidative muscle fibers are more pronounced in sarcopenic compared with nonsarcopenic patients with COPD. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate quadriceps muscle fiber-type characteristics in relation to presence of sarcopenia in patients with COPD and in healthy age-matched controls. DESIGN: For this retrospective cross-sectional study, body composition (assessed by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) and quadriceps muscle biopsy (fiber type distribution and sizes) data were collected from 45 patients with COPDs (aged 42-77 years) and 52 healthy controls (aged 50-77 years). Sarcopenia was based on assessment of appendicular skeletal muscle mass index. RESULTS: Sarcopenia was found in 5.8% of healthy controls and in 31.1% of patients with COPD (P < .01). The proportion of oxidative type I fibers and size of type IIx muscle fibers were decreased in patients with COPD, and the sarcopenic subgroup showed a further decreased proportion as well as a lower size of type I fibers. CONCLUSIONS: Type I muscle fiber proportion is lower in sarcopenic compared with nonsarcopenic patients with COPD. Longitudinal studies may elucidate if the loss of muscle oxidative phenotype drives or accelerates the process of muscle wasting

Continuous affect state annotation using a joystick-based user interface

Ongoing research at the DLR (German Aerospace Center) aims to employ affective computing techniques to ascertain the emotional states of users in motion simulators. In this work, a novel user feedback interface employing a joystick to acquire subjective evaluation of the affective experience is presented. This interface allows the subjects to continuously annotate their affect states, elicited in this scenario by watching video clips. Several physiological parameters (e.g. heart rate, electrodermal activity, respiration rate, etc.) were acquired during the viewing session. A statistical analysis is presented, which shows expected patterns in data that validate the design and methodology of the experiment and lay the groundwork for further experiments to be undertaken at the DLR