Easily visible colonies of bacteria continued to form on plates inoculated with soil and incubated for 24 weeks. Using two different media, 13% and 29% of easily visible colonies appeared after more ...than 12 weeks. In addition, 10% and 18% of all colonies had diameters of 25-200 µm (mini-colonies), which could not be readily seen with the unaided eye. Members of soil bacterial groups that are only rarely cultured, such as members of the subclass Rubrobacteridae of the phylum Actinobacteria, members of subdivisions 1 and 2 of the phylum Acidobacteria and members of three subphyla of the phylum Chloroflexi, were more abundant among the easily visible colonies and mini-colonies that developed after > 12 weeks of incubation. Our results indicate that there is a hidden culturable diversity of soil bacteria that may require laboratory study at colony sizes and incubation periods outside those commonly anticipated by most microbiologists. Working at these scales increases the likelihood of obtaining cultures from groups of soil bacteria that have generally eluded laboratory study by cultivation methods.
New Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines Tremblay, Mark S; Warburton, Darren E.R; Janssen, Ian ...
Applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism,
02/2011, Letnik:
36, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP), in cooperation with ParticipACTION and other stakeholders, and with support from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), has developed the new ...Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines for Children (aged 5-11 years), Youth (aged 12-17 years), Adults (aged 18-64 years), and Older Adults (aged ≥65 years). The new guidelines include a preamble to provide context and specific guidelines for each age group. The entire guideline development process was guided by the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument, which is the international standard for clinical practice guideline development. Thus, the guidelines have gone through a rigorous and transparent developmental process;; we based the recommendations herein on evidence from 3 systematic reviews, and the final guidelines benefitted from an extensive online and in-person consultation process with hundreds of stakeholders and key informants, both domestic and international. Since 2006, the products of our efforts resulted in the completion of 21 peer-reviewed journal articles (including 5 systematic reviews) that collectively guided this work. The process that Canadian researchers undertook to update the national physical activity guidelines represents the most current synthesis, interpretation, and application of the scientific evidence to date.
Background
Reducing inequalities in health is an enduring global public health challenge. Worryingly in England, inequalities across some groups and places are worsening, highlighted and exacerbated ...by the Covid-19 pandemic. While there has been growing interest in exploring public understandings of health inequalities, few studies have explored the views of young people. Our study seeks to redress this by exploring young people's perspectives of inequalities in health.
Methods
Working with existing youth organisations, we recruited young people (aged 13-21) from six youth groups in areas of high deprivation across three geographical locations in England. Each group took part in three interlinked focus groups (n = 18), the majority of which were run online using video conferencing platforms. Focus groups were co-delivered with partnering youth organisations during 2021. They involved participatory concept mapping activities, and the discussion of health related news articles.
Results
Key themes emerged around young people's perspectives of: i) factors influencing health within their local area; ii) understandings of inequalities in health; and iii) key messages to convey to those with a role in addressing health inequalities at a place level.
Conclusions
Our study highlights the importance of exploring and understanding young people's perspectives of inequalities in order to better shape policies which are supported by the communities and people they impact.
Key messages
Young people have a nuanced, experiential understanding of key factors influencing their health and inequalities in health within their local areas.
Building upon young people’s understandings of inequalities in health provides opportunities to mobilise support for policies seeking to change the distribution of key social determinants.
KAE609 (1'R,3'S)-5,7'-dichloro-6'-fluoro-3'-methyl-2',3',4',9'-tetrahydrospiroindoline-3,1'-pyridol3,4-bindol-2-one is a potent, fast-acting, schizonticidal agent being developed for the treatment of ...malaria. After oral dosing of KAE609 to rats and dogs, the major radioactive component in plasma was KAE609. An oxidative metabolite, M18, was the prominent metabolite in rat and dog plasma. KAE609 was well absorbed and extensively metabolized such that low levels of parent compound (≤11% of the dose) were detected in feces. The elimination of KAE609 and metabolites was primarily mediated via biliary pathways (≥93% of the dose) in the feces of rats and dogs. M37 and M23 were the major metabolites in rat and dog feces, respectively. Among the prominent metabolites of KAE609, the isobaric chemical species, M37, was observed, suggesting the involvement of an isomerization or rearrangement during biotransformation. Subsequent structural elucidation of M37 revealed that KAE609, a spiroindolone, undergoes an unusual C-C bond cleavage, followed by a 1,2-acyl shift to form a ring expansion metabolite M37. The in vitro metabolism of KAE609 in hepatocytes was investigated to understand this novel biotransformation. The metabolism of KAE609 was qualitatively similar across the species studied; thus, further investigation was conducted using human recombinant cytochrome P450 enzymes. The ring expansion reaction was found to be primarily catalyzed by cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4 yielding M37. M37 was subsequently oxidized to M18 by CYP3A4 and hydroxylated to M23 primarily by CYP1A2. Interestingly, M37 was colorless, whereas M18 and M23 showed orange yellow color. The source of the color of M18 and M23 was attributed to their extended conjugated system of double bonds in the structures.
The contribution of genetic polymorphisms to bone mineral density (BMD) and fracture risk in women is a controversial topic. We evaluated the effect of the XbaI and PvuII polymorphisms of the ...estrogen receptor α to BMD and fracture risk in a meta‐analysis, including published data and additional information from investigators. Five thousand eight hundred thirty‐four women from 30 study groups were analyzed with fixed and random effects models. The PvuII polymorphism was not associated with BMD at any skeletal site examined and 95% CIs exclude effects over 0.015 g/cm2 for both the femoral neck and the lumbar spine. Conversely, XX homozygotes (women carrying two copies of the gene variant without an XbaI restriction site) consistently had higher BMD than other subjects. The magnitude of the effect was similar in the femoral neck and lumbar spine (0.014 g/cm2 95% CI, 0.003–0.025 and 0.015 g/cm2 95% CI, 0.000–0.030, respectively; no between‐study heterogeneity for either). Total body BMD was also significantly higher in XX homozygotes (by 0.039 g/cm2 and 0.029 g/cm2 compared with Xx and xx, respectively). Available data on fractures suggested a protective effect for XX (odds ratio OR, 0.66 95% CI, 0.47–0.93 among 1591 women), but not PP (OR, 0.93 95% CI, 0.72–1.18 among 2229 women). In summary, we have found that XX homozygotes may have higher BMD and also a decreased risk of fractures when compared with carriers of the x allele, whereas the PvuII polymorphism is not associated with either BMD or fracture risk.
Objectives
The aims of the present study were to investigate a combination of magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) and vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE) or MRE and fibrosis score 4 ...(FIB-4) in the detection of significant fibrosis in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
Methods
Between November 5, 2021, and March 4, 2022, a total of 119 consecutive patients with MASLD were included. Liver stiffness was measured using liver biopsy, MRE, VCTE, and FIB-4. Data were collected from outpatient visit charts. Significant fibrosis was defined as ≥ stage 2 fibrosis.
Results
All 119 MASLD patients were Caucasian, and their median age was 55 years. MRE, VCTE, and FIB-4 demonstrated significant accuracy in the detection of significant fibrosis with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.848 ± 0.036 (
p
< 0.001), 0.632 ± 0.052 (
p
= 0.012), and 0.664 ± 0.051 (
p
= 0.001), respectively. However, the diagnostic performance of MRE was superior compared to that of VCTE (AUC difference: 0.216 ± 0.053,
p
< 0.001) and FIB-4 (AUC difference: 0.184 ± 0.058,
p
= 0.001). With logistic regression analysis, it was determined that when compared to MRE alone, a combination of MRE and TE (
p
= 0.880) or MRE and FIB-4 (
p
= 0.455) were not superior for detecting significant fibrosis.
Conclusions
MRE alone is an accurate and non-invasive method for the identification of MASLD patients with significant fibrosis.
Clinical relevance statement
Magnetic resonance elastography alone accurately detects significant fibrosis in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.
Key Points
• In routine clinical practice, several non-invasive biochemical-based biomarkers and imaging methods are widely used to assess liver fibrosis in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.
• Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is more accurate than vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE) or fibrosis score 4 (FIB-4) for assessing liver fibrosis and identifying significant fibrosis in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.
• The combination of MRE and VCTE or MRE and FIB-4 was not superior to MRE alone.
Vaccination of children and young people against SARS-CoV-2 is recommended in some countries. Scarce data have been published on immune responses induced by COVID-19 vaccines in people younger than ...18 years compared with the same data that are available in adults.
COV006 is a phase 2, single-blind, randomised, controlled trial of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) in children and adolescents at four trial sites in the UK. Healthy participants aged 6–17 years, who did not have a history of chronic respiratory conditions, laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, or previously received capsular group B meningococcal vaccine (the control), were randomly assigned to four groups (4:1:4:1) to receive two intramuscular doses of 5 × 1010 viral particles of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or control, 28 days or 84 days apart. Participants, clinical investigators, and the laboratory team were masked to treatment allocation. Study groups were stratified by age, and participants aged 12–17 years were enrolled before those aged 6–11 years. Due to the restrictions in the use of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 in people younger than 30 years that were introduced during the study, only participants aged 12–17 years who were randomly assigned to the 28-day interval group had received their vaccinations at the intended interval (day 28). The remaining participants received their second dose at day 112. The primary outcome was assessment of safety and tolerability in the safety population, which included all participants who received at least one dose of the study drug. The secondary outcome was immunogenicity, which was assessed in participants who were seronegative to the nucleocapsid protein at baseline and received both prime and boost vaccine. This study is registered with ISRCTN (15638344).
Between Feb 15 and April 2, 2021, 262 participants (150 57% participants aged 12–17 years and 112 43% aged 6–11 years; due to the change in the UK vaccination policy, the study terminated recruitment of the younger age group before the planned number of participants had been enrolled) were randomly assigned to receive vaccination with two doses of either ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (n=211 n=105 at day 28 and n=106 at day 84) or control (n=51 n=26 at day 28 and n=25 at day 84). One participant in the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 day 28 group in the younger age bracket withdrew their consent before receiving a first dose. Of the participants who received ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, 169 (80%) of 210 participants reported at least one solicited local or systemic adverse event up to 7 days following the first dose, and 146 (76%) of 193 participants following the second dose. No serious adverse events related to ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 administration were recorded by the data cutoff date on Oct 28, 2021. Of the participants who received at least one dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, there were 128 unsolicited adverse events up to 28 days after vaccination reported by 83 (40%) of 210 participants. One participant aged 6–11 years receiving ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 reported a grade 4 fever of 40·2°C on day 1 following first vaccination, which resolved within 24 h. Pain and tenderness were the most common local solicited adverse events for all the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and capsular group B meningococcal groups following both doses. Of the 242 participants with available serostatus data, 14 (6%) were seropositive at baseline. Serostatus data were not available for 20 (8%) of 262 participants. Among seronegative participants who received ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and pseudoneutralising antibody titres at day 28 after the second dose were higher in participants aged 12–17 years with a longer interval between doses (geometric means of 73 371 arbitrary units AU/mL 95% CI 58 685–91 733 and 299 half-maximal inhibitory concentration IC50; 95% CI 230–390) compared with those aged 12–17 years who received their vaccines 28 days apart (43 280 AU/mL 95% CI 35 852–52 246 and 150 IC50 95% CI 116–194). Humoral responses were higher in those aged 6–11 years than in those aged 12–17 years receiving their second dose at the same 112-day interval (geometric mean ratios 1·48 95% CI 1·07–2·07 for anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and 2·96 1·89–4·62 for pseudoneutralising antibody titres). Cellular responses peaked after a first dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 across all age and interval groups and remained above baseline after a second vaccination.
ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 is well tolerated and immunogenic in children aged 6–17 years, inducing concentrations of antibody that are similar to those associated with high efficacy in phase 3 studies in adults. No safety concerns were raised in this trial.
AstraZeneca and the UK Department of Health and Social Care through the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research.
Guidelines recommend active fever prevention for 72 hours after cardiac arrest. Data from randomized clinical trials of this intervention have been lacking.
We randomly assigned comatose patients who ...had been resuscitated after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest of presumed cardiac cause to device-based temperature control targeting 36°C for 24 hours followed by targeting of 37°C for either 12 or 48 hours (for total intervention times of 36 and 72 hours, respectively) or until the patient regained consciousness. The primary outcome was a composite of death from any cause or hospital discharge with a Cerebral Performance Category of 3 or 4 (range, 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating more severe disability; a category of 3 or 4 indicates severe cerebral disability or coma) within 90 days after randomization. Secondary outcomes included death from any cause and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment score (range, 0 to 30, with higher scores indicating better cognitive ability) at 3 months.
A total of 393 patients were randomly assigned to temperature control for 36 hours, and 396 patients were assigned to temperature control for 72 hours. At 90 days after randomization, a primary end-point event had occurred in 127 of 393 patients (32.3%) in the 36-hour group and in 133 of 396 patients (33.6%) in the 72-hour group (hazard ratio, 0.99; 95% confidence interval, 0.77 to 1.26; P = 0.70) and mortality was 29.5% in the 36-hour group and 30.3% in the 72-hour group. At 3 months, the median Montreal Cognitive Assessment score was 26 (interquartile range, 24 to 29) and 27 (interquartile range, 24 to 28), respectively. There was no significant between-group difference in the incidence of adverse events.
Active device-based fever prevention for 36 or 72 hours after cardiac arrest did not result in significantly different percentages of patients dying or having severe disability or coma. (Funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation; BOX ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03141099.).
Objective
To examine whether a lifestyle intervention in pregnancy limits gestational weight gain (GWG) and provides measurable health benefits for mother and newborn.
Design
Randomised controlled ...trial.
Setting
Healthcare clinics of southern Norway.
Population
Healthy, non‐diabetic, nulliparous women, aged ≥18 years, with a body mass index of ≥19 kg/m2, and with a singleton pregnancy at ≤20 weeks of gestation.
Methods
Women were randomised to an intervention group (with dietary counselling twice by telephone and access to twice‐weekly exercise groups) or to a control group (with standard prenatal care). Participants were measured three times during pregnancy and at delivery, and newborns were measured at delivery. Hospital records were reviewed for outcomes of pregnancy and delivery. Assessors were blinded to group allocation. Analysis was performed by intention to treat, assessing GWG using the Student's t–test and linear mixed models, and comparing proportions using the chi‐square test.
Main outcome measures
GWG, rates of pregnancy complications and operative deliveries, and newborn birthweight.
Results
A total of 606 women were randomised. Of these, 591 were analysed, with 296 in the intervention group and 295 in the control group. At term, the mean GWG from pre‐pregnancy was 14.4 kg for the intervention group and 15.8 kg for the control group (mean difference 1.3 kg; 95% confidence interval, 95% CI 0.3–2.3 kg; P = 0.009). There was no significant difference between groups in the frequency of pregnancy complications or operative deliveries. The intervention demonstrated no effect on the mean birthweight of term infants, or on the proportion of large newborns.
Conclusions
The Norwegian Fit for Delivery lifestyle intervention in pregnancy had no measurable effect on obstetrical or neonatal outcomes, despite a modest but significant decrease in GWG.
Tweetable
Norwegian Fit for Delivery RCT: reduced gestational weight gain, unchanged birthweight and obstetric outcomes.
Tweetable
Norwegian Fit for Delivery RCT: reduced gestational weight gain, unchanged birthweight and obstetric outcomes.
Recent efforts have been concentrated in the development of models to understand and predict the impact of environmental changes on hydrological cycle and water resources in arid and semi-arid ...regions. In this context, remote sensing data have been widely used to initialize, to force, or to control the simulations of these models. However, for several reasons, including the difficulty in establishing relationships between observational and model variables, the potential offered by satellite data has not been fully used. As a matter of fact, a few hydrological studies that use remote sensing data emanating from different sources (sensors, platforms) have been performed. In this context, the SUDMED programme has been designed in 2002 to address the issue of improving our understanding about the hydrological functioning of the Tensift basin, which is a semi-arid basin situated in central Morocco. The first goal is model development and/or refinement, for investigating the hydrological responses to future scenario about climate change and human pressure. The second aim is the effective use of remote sensing observations in conjunction with process models, to provide operational prognostics for improving water-resource management. The objective of this paper is to present the SUDMED programme, its objectives, and its thrust areas, and to provide an overview of the results obtained in the first phase of the programme (2002-2006). Finally, the lessons learned, future objectives, and unsolved issues are presented.
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