Summary
What is already known about this subject
Short sleep duration is a risk factor for obesity.
Television (TV) in the bedroom has been shown to be associated with excess body weight in children.
...Children increasingly use other electronic entertainment and communication devices (EECDs) such as video games, computers, and smart phones.
What this study adds
Access to and night‐time use of EECDs are associated with shortened sleep duration, excess body weight, poorer diet quality, and lower physical activity levels.
Our findings reinforce existing recommendations pertaining to TV and Internet access by the American Academy of Pediatrics and suggest to have these expanded to restricted availability of video games and smart phones in children's bedrooms.
Background
While the prevalence of childhood obesity and access to and use of electronic entertainment and communication devices (EECDs) have increased in the past decades, no earlier study has examined their interrelationship.
Objective
To examine whether night‐time access to and use of EECDs are associated with sleep duration, body weights, diet quality, and physical activity of Canadian children.
Methods
A representative sample of 3398 grade 5 children in Alberta, Canada, was surveyed. The survey included questions on children's lifestyles and health behaviours, the Harvard Youth/Adolescent Food Frequency questionnaire, a validated questionnaire on physical activity, and measurements of heights and weights. Random effect models were used to assess the associations of night‐time access to and use of EECDs with sleep, diet quality, physical activity, and body weights.
Results
Sixty‐four percent of parents reported that their child had access to one or more EECDs in their bedroom. Access to and night‐time use of EECDs were associated with shortened sleep duration, excess body weight, poorer diet quality, and lower physical activity levels in a statistically significant manner.
Conclusions
Limiting the availability of EECDs in children's bedrooms and discouraging their night‐time use may be considered as a strategy to promote sleep and reduce childhood obesity.
Within the United Kingdom's National Health System (NHS), patients suffering from obesity may be provided with bariatric surgery. After receiving surgery many of these patients require further ...support to continue to lose more weight or to maintain a healthy weight. Remotely monitoring such patients' physical activity and other health-related variables could provide healthworkers with a more 'ecologically valid' picture of these patients' behaviours to then provide more personalised support. The current study assesses the feasibility of two smartphone apps to do so. In addition, the study looks at the barriers and facilitators patients experience to using these apps effectively.
Participants with a BMI > 35 kg/m
being considered for and who had previously undergone bariatric surgery were recruited. Participants were asked to install two mobile phone apps. The 'Moves' app automatically tracked participants' physical activity and the 'WLCompanion' app prompted participants to set goals and input other health-related information. Then, to learn about participants' facilitators and barriers to using the apps, some participants were asked to complete a survey informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework. The data were analysed using regressions and descriptive statistics.
Of the 494 participants originally enrolled, 274 participants data were included in the analyses about their activity pre- and/or post-bariatric surgery (ages 18-65, M = 44.02, SD ± 11.29). Further analyses were performed on those 36 participants whose activity was tracked both pre- and post-surgery. Participants' activity levels pre- and post-surgery did not differ. In addition, 54 participants' survey responses suggested that the main facilitator to their continued use of the Moves app was its automatic nature, and the main barrier was its battery drain.
The current study tracked physical activity in patients considered for and who had previously undergone bariatric surgery. The results should be interpreted with caution because of the small number of participants whose data meet the inclusion criteria and the barriers participants encountered to using the apps. Future studies should take note of the barriers to develop more user-friendly apps.
ClinicalTrials.gov- NCT01365416 on the 3rd of June 2011.
Elderly humans are more susceptible to bacterial infections because of declining immune status. We have investigated the effect of aging on neutrophil bactericidal responses, comparing neutrophil ...function in healthy, young (23-35 years) and elderly (>65 years) volunteers. Superoxide generation in response to fMLP was slightly increased in neutrophils from elderly donors, and serum from the elderly was able to opsonize E. coli efficiently. In contrast, phagocytic index was significantly lower in neutrophils from the elderly, compared with young donors (P<0.005). CD11a and CD11b expression was not affected by age, but CD16 was significantly reduced in neutrophils from elderly donors (P<0.0001). CD16 expression and phagocytic index were measured in the same neutrophils using FITC-labeled E. coli, PE-conjugated anti-CD16 antibody, and CD16 expression correlated with phagocytic index (r=0.83; P<0.05). In elderly patients with bacterial infection, CD16 expression remained low. We propose that reduced neutrophil CD16 expression and phagocytosis contribute to human immunesenescence.
Objectives. Lactoferrin is an iron-binding protein that is released from activated neutrophils at sites of inflammation and has anti-microbial as well as anti-inflammatory properties. This study set ...out to determine whether lactoferrin can delay neutrophil apoptosis and could act as a survival factor for neutrophils in SF. Methods. Human peripheral blood and SF neutrophils were incubated with iron-free lactoferrin and apoptosis determined after 9 h. SF from patients with RA was added to isolated neutrophils, with or without immunodepletion of lactoferrin, and effects on neutrophil apoptosis determined. Levels of lactoferrin in SF were assessed and related to disease duration and markers of disease activity. Results. Iron-free lactoferrin significantly delayed apoptosis of peripheral blood neutrophils, in a concentration-dependent manner after 9 h in culture (P < 0.04). Lactoferrin could also delay apoptosis of neutrophils isolated from SF of patients with RA. SF from patients with established RA delayed apoptosis of peripheral blood neutrophils and this effect was significantly reduced by depletion of lactoferrin (P < 0.03). Lactoferrin levels in SF from patients with established RA did not correlate with disease severity, but did correlate with markers of inflammation (CRP) and with the presence of RF. SF from patients with arthritis of <12 weeks duration did not contain significant levels of lactoferrin. Conclusion. Lactoferrin contributes to extended neutrophil survival in the rheumatoid joint in the established phase of RA but not in very early arthritis.
Hydroxyapatite (Ca
10
(PO
4
)
6
(OH)
2
) coatings are often made in a two-step process, where hydroxyapatite is firstly synthesized, and then applied as a coating for different applications. One way ...to make the process more efficient, is to combine the synthesis and coating processes into a single step. Plasma spray is a common method used to apply hydroxyapatite as a coating, as it is a fast and controlled method of coating materials. The aim of the present study was to investigate the inflight reaction of calcium carbonate (CaCO
3
) and brushite (CaHPO
4
·2H
2
O) to synthesize hydroxyapatite using plasma spray. Various plasma spray parameters were used to observe their effect on the quantity of hydroxyapatite produced in the coating. Phase analysis was carried out using XRD, and the morphology of the coatings was observed using SEM. Plasma spray coatings containing hydroxyapatite, tetracalcium phosphate (Ca
4
(PO
4
)
2
O) and calcium oxide (CaO) were successfully made from the reaction between the precursor powders. The plasma spray parameters which influenced the particle velocity were found to have the largest effect on the quantity of hydroxyapatite produced in the coating. The plasma temperature was also found to affect the amount of hydroxyapatite produced.
The use of local anesthetics to reduce acute postoperative pain has a long history, but recent reports have not been systematically reviewed. In addition, the need to include only those clinical ...studies that meet minimum standards for randomization and blinding must be adhered to. In this review, we have applied stringent clinical study design standards to identify publications on the use of perioperative local anesthetics. We first examined several types of peripheral nerve blocks, covering a variety of surgical procedures, and second, we examined the effects of intentionally administered IV local anesthetic (lidocaine) for suppression of postoperative pain. Thirdly, we have examined publications in which vascular concentrations of local anesthetics were measured at different times after peripheral nerve block procedures, noting the incidence when those levels reached ones achieved during intentional IV administration. Importantly, the very large number of studies using neuraxial blockade techniques (epidural, spinal) has not been included in this review but will be dealt with separately in a later review. The overall results showed a strongly positive effect of local anesthetics, by either route, for suppressing postoperative pain scores and analgesic (opiate) consumption. In only a few situations were the effects equivocal. Enhanced effectiveness with the addition of adjuvants was not uniformly apparent. The differential benefits between drug delivery before, during, or immediately after a surgical procedure are not obvious, and a general conclusion is that the significant antihyperalgesic effects occur when the local anesthetic is present during the acute postoperative period, and its presence during surgery is not essential for this action.
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