Abstract Background The ideal cardiovascular health (iCVH) construct consists of 4 health behaviours and 3 health factors and is strongly related to later cardiovascular disease. However, the ...prevalence of iCVH in European adolescents is currently unknown. Methods The Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence (HELENA) study is a cross-sectional, multicentre study conducted in 9 European countries during 2006–2007 and included 3528 adolescents (1683 boys and 1845 girls) between 12.5 and 17.5 years of age. Status (ideal vs. non-ideal) for the health behaviours (smoking status, body mass index, physical activity and diet) and health factors (total cholesterol, blood pressure and fasting glucose) were determined. Results Overall, the prevalence of ideal health behaviours was low; non-smoking (60.9% ideal), body mass index (76.8%), physical activity (62.1%), and diet (1.7%). The prevalence of ideal health factors was; total cholesterol (65.8%), blood pressure (62.0%) and plasma glucose (88.8%). Conclusions The low prevalence of iCVH behaviours, especially diet and physical activity, identified in European adolescents is likely to influence later cardiovascular health which strongly motivates efforts to increase ideal health behaviours in this population.
Introduction
The MEGA (MEchanism underlying the Genesis and evolution of Asthma) project is a multicenter cohort study carried out in eight Spanish hospitals, gathering clinical, physiological, and ...molecular data from patients with asthma and multimorbidities in order to gain insight into the different physiopathological mechanisms involved in this disorder.
Material and Methods
We report the baseline clinical and physiological characteristics and biomarker measures of adult participants in the project with the aim of better understanding the natural history and underlying mechanisms of asthma as well as the associated multimorbidities across different levels of severity. We carried out a detailed clinical examination, pulmonary function testing, measurement of fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), blood counts, induced sputum, skin prick tests, chest computed tomography scan, asthma questionnaires, and multimorbidity assessment in 512 asthmatic patients.
Results
When compared to patients with milder disease, severe asthmatic patients showed greater presence of symptoms, more exacerbations, lower asthma control, increased airflow obstruction, and higher frequency of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps, severe rhinitis, anxiety and depression, gastroesophageal reflux, and bronchiectasis.
Conclusion
The MEGA project succeeded in recruiting a high number of asthma patients, especially those with severe disease, who showed lower control and higher frequency of multimorbidities.
We studied which physiological and kinanthropometric characteristics determine climbing performance in 16 high-level sports climbers aged 29.9 ± 4.9 years. Body composition parameters were measured ...with dual energy X-ray absorptiometry scanner. We also measured kinanthropometric and physical fitness parameters. The sex-specific 75th percentile value of onsight climbing ability was used to divide the sample into expert (<75th) and elite (≥75th) climbers. All the analyses were adjusted by sex. The 75th percentile value of onsight climbing ability was 7b in women and 8b in men. There were no differences between expert and elite climbers in the studied variables, except in climbing time to exhaustion and bone mineral density. Elite climbers had a significantly higher time to exhaustion than the expert group (770.2 ± 385 vs. 407.7 ± 150 s, respectively,
P
= 0.001). These results suggest that, among climbers with a high level of performance, as those analysed in this study, climbing time to exhaustion is a major determinant of climbing performance.
The ethanolic fermentation of liquid fractions (hydrolysates) issued from dilute acid pre-treatment of olive tree biomass by Pichia stipitis is reported for the first time. On the one side, P. ...stipitis has been reported as the most promising naturally occurring C5 fermenting microorganism; on the other side, olive tree biomass is a renewable, low cost, and lacking of alternatives agricultural residue especially abundant in Mediterranean countries. The study was performed in two steps. First, the fermentation performance of P. stipitis was evaluated on a fermentation medium also containing the main inhibitors found in these hydrolysates (acetic acid, formic acid, and furfural), as well as glucose and xylose as carbon sources. The effect of inhibitors, individually or in a mixture, on kinetic and yield parameters was calculated. In a second step, hydrolysates obtained from 1% (w/w) sulfuric acid pre-treatment of olive tree biomass at 190°C for 10 min were used as a real fermentation medium with the same microorganism. Due to inhibition, effective fermentation required dilution of the hydrolysate and either overliming or activated charcoal treatment. Results show that ethanol yields obtained from hydrolysates, ranging from 0.35 to 0.42 g/g, are similar to those from synthetic medium, although the process proceeds at lower rates. Inhibiting compounds affect the fermentation performance in a synergistic way. Furfural is rapidly assimilated by the yeast; acetic acid and formic acid concentrations decrease slowly during the process. Activated charcoal or overliming detoxification improve the fermentability of diluted hydrolysates.
The electrostatic potential distribution across single, isolated, colloidal heterostructured nanorods (NRs) with component materials expected to form a p–n junction within each NR has been measured ...using scanning Kelvin probe microscopy (SKPM). We compare CdS to bicomponent CdS-CdSe, CdS-PbSe, and CdS-PbS NRs prepared via different synthetic approaches to corroborate the SKPM assignments. The CdS-PbS NRs show a sharp contrast in measured potential across the material interface. We find the measured built-in potential within an individual NR to be attenuated by long-range electrostatic forces between the sample substrate, cantilever, and the measuring tip. Surface potential images were deconvoluted to yield built-in potentials ranging from 375 to 510 meV in the heterostructured NRs. We deduce the overall built-in potential as well as the charge distribution across each segment of the heterostructured NRs by combining SKPM data with simulations of the system.
α-Klotho protein is a powerful predictor of the aging process and lifespan. Although lowered circulating soluble α-Klotho levels have been observed in aged non-healthy individuals, no specific ...reference values across a wide range of ages and sex using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) are available for larger cohorts of healthy individuals. The present analytical cross-sectional study was aimed to establish the reference values of soluble α-Klotho serum levels in healthy adults by age and sex groups. A total of 346 (59% women) healthy individuals aged from 18 to 85 years were recruited. Subjects were divided by sex and age as: (i) young (18−34.9 years), (ii) middle-aged (35−54.9 years), and (iii) senior (55−85 years) individuals. The soluble α-Klotho levels were measured in serum using ELISA. Senior adults were the age-group that presented the lowest soluble α-Klotho serum levels (p < 0.01), with age showing a negative association with soluble α-Klotho serum levels (p < 0.001). No differences between sexes were observed. Therefore, soluble α-Klotho levels were especially decreased—regardless of sex—in our cohort of healthy individuals because of the physiological decline derived from the aging process. We recommend routine assessments of soluble α-Klotho levels using ELISA as a simple and cheap detectable marker of aging that improves quality of life in the elderly.
Intensive lipid-lowering therapy may induce coronary atherosclerosis regression. Nevertheless, the factors underlying the effect of lipid-lowering therapy on disease regression remain poorly ...characterized. Our aim was to determine which characteristics of atherosclerotic plaque are associated with a greater reduction in coronary plaque burden (PB) after treatment with alirocumab in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia.
The ARCHITECT study (Effect of Alirocumab on Atherosclerotic Plaque Volume, Architecture and Composition) is a phase IV, open-label, multicenter, single-arm clinical trial to assess the effect of the treatment with alirocumab for 78 weeks on the coronary atherosclerotic PB and its characteristics in subjects with familial hypercholesterolemia without clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Participants underwent a coronary computed tomographic angiography at baseline and a final one at 78 weeks. Every patient received alirocumab 150 mg subcutaneously every 14 days in addition to high-intensity statin therapy.
One hundred and four patients were enrolled. Median age was 53.3 (46.2-59.4) years and 54 were women (51.9%). The global coronary PB changed from 34.6% (32.5%-36.8%) at entry to 30.4% (27.4%-33.4%) at follow-up, which is -4.6% (-7.7% to -1.9%;
<0.001) reduction. A decrease in the percentage of unstable core (fibro-fatty+necrotic plaque; from 14.1 7.9-22.3 to 8.0 6.4-10.6; -6.6%;
<0.001) was found. A greater PB (β, 0.36 0.13-0.59;
=0.002) and a higher proportion of unstable core (β, 0.15 0.08-0.22;
<0.001) were significantly related to PB regression.
Treatment with alirocumab in addition to high-intensity statin therapy might produce a greater PB regression in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia with higher baseline PB and in those with larger unstable core. Further studies are needed to corroborate the hypothesis raised by these results.
URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT05465278.
We test the hypotheses proposed by Gentry and Schnitzer that liana density and basal area in tropical forests vary negatively with mean annual precipitation (MAP) and positively with seasonality. ...Previous studies correlating liana abundance with these climatic variables have produced conflicting results, warranting a new analysis of drivers of liana abundance based on a different dataset. We compiled a pan-tropical dataset containing 28,953 lianas (> 2.5 cm diam.) from studies conducted at 13 Neotropical and 11 Paleotropical dry to wet lowland tropical forests. The ranges in MAP and dry season length (DSL) (number of months with mean rainfall < 100 mm) represented by these datasets were 860-7250 mm/yr and 0-7 mo, respectively. Pan-tropically, liana density and basal area decreased significantly with increasing annual rainfall and increased with increasing DSL, supporting the hypotheses of Gentry and Schnitzer. Our results suggest that much of the variation in liana density and basal area in the tropics can be accounted for by the relatively simple metrics of MAP and DSL.
A series of oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG)-terminated monolayers were prepared by photo-activated grafting of OEG-alkenes with the general formula CH 2 CH(CH 2 ) m (OCH 2 CH 2 ) n OCH 3 (abbreviated ...as Cm+2EGn , m = 8, 9; n = 3–7) on hydrogen-terminated silicon (111) surfaces using different deposition conditions. The films were characterized by contact-angle goniometry, ellipsometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and tested for protein resistance. Films prepared under a higher vacuum showed a higher thickness and exhibited better protein resistance with increasing ethylene glycol (EG) units. Remarkably, the films prepared from C10EGn were generally thicker than those from their corresponding homologues C11EGn , and displayed better resistance to protein adsorption, which were probably due to the odd–even effect from the alkyl chain. Prepared under high vacuum conditions (∼10 −5 mbar), the C10EG7 films with a thickness of 40 Å adsorbed <0.8% (the detection limit of N 1s XPS) monolayer of fibrinogen in a standard assay. The films remained protein-resistant (adsorbed <3% monolayer of fibrinogen) even after 28 days in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at 37 °C or 17 days in MC3T3-E1 cell culture with 10% fetal bovine serum at 37 °C. Therefore, the C10EG7 films prepared under high vacuum conditions represent the most protein-resistant and stable films on non-oxidized silicon substrates.
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