The presence of fatigue has been shown to modify running biomechanics. Overall in terms of gender, women are at lower risk than men for sustaining running-related injuries, although it depends on the ...factors taken into account. One possible reason for these differences in the injury rate and location might be the dissimilar running patterns between men and women. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of fatigue and gender on the kinematic and ground reaction forces (GRF) parameters in recreational runners. Fifty-seven participants (28 males and 29 females) had kinematic and GRF variables measured while running at speed of 3.3 m s
before and after a fatigue test protocol. The fatigue protocol included (1) a running Course-Navette test, (2) running up and down a flight of stairs for 5 min, and (3) performance of alternating jumps on a step (five sets of 1 minute each with 30 resting seconds between the sets). Fatigue decreased dorsiflexion (14.24 ± 4.98° in pre-fatigue and 12.65 ± 6.21° in fatigue condition,
< 0.05) at foot strike phase in females, and plantar flexion (-19.23 ± 4.12° in pre-fatigue and -18.26 ± 5.31° in fatigue condition,
< 0.05) at toe-off phase in males. These changes led to a decreased loading rate (88.14 ± 25.82 BW/s in pre-fatigue and 83.97 ± 18.83 BW/s in fatigue condition,
< 0.05) and the impact peak in females (1.95 ± 0.31 BW in pre-fatigue and 1.90 ± 0.31 BW in fatigue condition,
< 0.05), and higher peak propulsive forces in males (-0.26 ± 0.04 BW in pre-fatigue and -0.27 ± 0.05 BW in fatigue condition,
< 0.05) in the fatigue condition. It seems that better responses to impact under a fatigue condition are observed among women. Further studies should confirm whether these changes represent a strategy to optimize shock attenuation, prevent running injuries and improve running economy.
The biology of H2S is a still developing area of research and several biological functions have been recently attributed to this gaseous molecule in many physiological systems, including the ...cardiovascular, urogenital, respiratory, digestive and central nervous system (CNS). H2S exerts anti‐inflammatory effects and can be considered an endogenous mediator with potential effects on gastrointestinal motility. During the last few years, we have investigated the role of H2S as a regulator of gastrointestinal motility using both animal and human tissues. The aim of the present work is to review published data regarding the potential role of H2S as a signalling molecule regulating physiopathological processes in gastrointestinal motor function. H2S is endogenously produced by defined enzymic pathways in different cell types of the intestinal wall including neurons and smooth muscle. Inhibition of H2S biosynthesis increases motility and H2S donors cause smooth muscle relaxation and inhibition of propulsive motor patterns. Impaired H2S production has been described in animal models with gastrointestinal motor dysfunction. The mechanism(s) of action underlying these effects may include several ion channels, although no specific receptor has been identified. At this time, even though there is much experimental evidence for H2S as a modulator of gastrointestinal motility, we still do not have conclusive experimental evidence to definitively propose H2S as an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the gastrointestinal tract, causing nerve‐mediated relaxation.
Purpose
Fall prevention is a major health concern for the ageing population. Sarcopenia is considered a risk factor for falls. Some instruments, such as Time Up and Go (TUG), are used for screening ...risk. The use of sensors has also been shown to be a viable tool that can provide accurate, cost‐effective, and easy to manage assessment of fall risk. One novel sensor for assessing fall risk in older people is the Fallskip device. The present study evaluates the performance of the FallSkip device against the TUG method in fall risk screening and assesses its measurement properties in sarcopenic older people.
Methods
A cross‐sectional study was made in a sample of community‐dwelling sarcopenic and non‐sarcopenic older people aged 70 years or over.
Results
The study sample consisted of 34 older people with a mean age of 77.03 (6.58) years, of which 79.4% (n = 27) were females, and 41.2% (n = 14) were sarcopenic. The Pearson correlation coefficient between TUG time and FallSkip time was 0.70 (p < 0.001). The sarcopenic individuals took longer in performing both TUG and FallSkip. They also presented poorer reaction time, gait and sit‐to‐stand – though no statistically significant differences were observed. The results in terms of feasibility, acceptability, reliability and validity in sarcopenic older people with FallSkip were acceptable.
Conclusions
The FallSkip device has suitable metric properties for the assessment of fall risk in sarcopenic community‐dwelling older people. FallSkip analyses more parameters than TUG in assessing fall risk and has greater discriminatory power in evaluating the risk of falls.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The role of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) as a putative endogenous signalling molecule in the gastrointestinal tract has not yet been established. We investigated the effect of ...D,L‐propargylglycine (PAG), an inhibitor of cystathionine γ‐lyase (CSE), amino‐oxyacetic acid (AOAA) and hydroxylamine (HA), inhibitors of cystathionine β‐synthase (CBS) on rat colonic motility.
EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH Immunohistochemistry, H2S production, microelectrode and organ bath recordings were performed on rat colonic samples without mucosa and submucosa to investigate the role of endogenous H2S in motility.
KEY RESULTS CSE and CBS were immunolocalized in the colon. H2S was endogenously produced (15.6 ± 0.7 nmol·min−1·g−1 tissue) and its production was strongly inhibited by PAG (2 mM) and AOAA (2 mM). PAG (2 mM) caused smooth muscle depolarization and increased spontaneous motility. The effect was still recorded after incubation with tetrodotoxin (TTX, 1 µM) or Nω‐nitro‐L‐arginine (L‐NNA, 1 mM). AOAA (2 mM) caused a transient (10 min) increase in motility. In contrast, HA (10 µM) caused a ‘nitric oxide‐like effect’, smooth muscle hyperpolarization and relaxation, which were antagonized by 1H‐1,2,4oxadiazolo4,3‐αquinoxalin‐1‐one (ODQ, 10 µM). Neither spontaneous nor induced inhibitory junction potentials were modified by AOAA or PAG.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS We demonstrated that H2S is endogenously produced in the rat colon. PAG and AOAA effectively blocked H2S production. Our data suggest that enzymatic production of H2S regulates colonic motility and therefore H2S might be a third gaseous inhibitory signalling molecule in the gastrointestinal tract. However, possible non‐specific effects of the inhibitors should be considered.
Concerns have been raised about intraseasonal waning of the protection conferred by influenza vaccination.
During four influenza seasons, we consecutively recruited individuals aged 18years or older ...who had received seasonal influenza vaccine and were subsequently admitted to the hospital for influenza infection, asassessed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. We estimated the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of influenza infection by date of vaccination, defined by tertiles, as early, intermediate or late vaccination. We used a test-negative approach with early vaccination as reference to estimate the aOR of hospital admission with influenza among late vaccinees. We conducted sensitivity analyses by means of conditional logistic regression, Cox proportional hazards regression, and using days between vaccination and hospital admission rather than vaccination date.
Among 3615 admitted vaccinees, 822 (23%) were positive for influenza. We observed a lower risk of influenza among late vaccinees during the 2011/2012 and 2014/2015A(H3N2)-dominant seasons: aOR=0.68 (95% CI: 0.47–1.00) and 0.69 (95% CI: 0.50–0.95). We found no differences in the risk of admission with influenza among late versus early vaccinees in the 2012/2013A(H1N1)pdm09-dominant or 2013/2014B/Yamagata lineage-dominant seasons: aOR=1.18 (95% CI: 0.58–2.41) and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.56–1.72). When we restricted our analysis to individuals aged 65years or older, we found a statistically significant lower risk of admission with influenza among late vaccinees during the 2011/2012 and 2014/2015A(H3N2)-dominant seasons: aOR=0.61 (95% CI: 0.41–0.91) and 0.69 (95% CI: 0.49–0.96). We observed 39% (95% CI: 9–59%) and 31% (95% CI: 5–50%) waning of vaccine effectiveness among participants aged 65years or older during the two A(H3N2)-dominant seasons. Similar results were obtained in the sensitivity analyses.
Waning of vaccine protection was observed among individuals aged 65years old or over in two A(H3N2)-dominant influenza seasons.
Hydrophilins are a wide group of proteins whose defining characteristics are high hydrophilicity index (> 1.0) and high glycine content (> 6%). The transcripts of most hydrophilins accumulate in ...response to water deficit in organisms such as plants, fungi and bacteria. In plants, most of the known Late Embryogenesis Abundant (LEA) proteins belong to this group (Garay-Arroyo et al., Journal of Biological Chemistry 275, 5668-5674, 2000). To gain insight into the function of hydrophilins, an in vitro assay was developed in which the enzymes malate dehydrogenase (MDH) or lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) are subjected to controlled partial water removal. Subtle changes in conformation during partial water removal were detected using 1-anilinonaphtalene-8-sulphonate (ANS), a fluorescent probe, whose emission at 460 nm increases when bound to hydrophobic groups. The results show that water limitation conditions imposed in this in vitro assay induce changes in MDH or LDH protein structures, which correlate with enzyme inactivation. It is also shown that plant, fungal and bacterial hydrophilins are able to protect enzymatic activities from water-loss effects in this in vitro system, in a wide range of water potentials. In addition, the data in this work indicate that the presence of hydrophilins also avoids the MDH and LDH conformational modifications caused during the assay. These results show that hydrophilins are able to protect enzymatic activities from inactivation due to in vitro partial water limitation and thus suggest a function for these proteins in vivo.
Two non-
Saccharomyces wine yeast strains,
Hanseniaspora guilliermondii 11104 and
Pichia anomala 10590, selected as good producers of acetate esters when grown on synthetic microbiological medium, ...have been tested in wine fermentations as mixed cultures together with
Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Wines produced using mixed cultures showed levels of acetaldehyde, acetic acid, glycerol and total higher alcohols within the ranges described for wine, whereas an increase in acetate ester concentrations was found. Ethyl acetate was the main ester produced, and isoamyl acetate and 2-phenylethyl acetate made up the next largest group of ester compounds in the wines analysed.
H. guilliermondii 11104 was found to be a strong producer of 2-phenylethyl acetate in both pure and mixed cultures whereas
S. cerevisiae was the best producer of ethyl esters. Mixed cultures did not influence ethyl ester levels at all.
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•TFC membranes were prepared using 6FDA-DAM:DABA-PIwith different content of carboxylic acid.•TFC membranes were thermally annealed for 1 h at 300 °C to form charge-transfer ...complexes.•TFC membranes were aged under CO2/CH4 conditions to evaluate the long-term membrane performance.•During the aging time (180 h) membrane permeabilities slightly decrease by a maximum loss of 5.8%.
6FDA based polyimides possess outstanding properties, with a high free volume fraction entailing in high permselectivity properties for gas separation processes. However, they are very sensitive to aging process. Copolyimdes 6FDA–DAM:DABA were synthesized using different ratios of diamines: (9:1), (3:1) and (2:1) and the homopolyimide 6FDA–DAM. Thin Film Composite membranes were prepared and thermally annealed at 300 °C for 1 h to improve CO2 induced plasticization resistance. For exploring the future applications of these polymers, long–term performance studies of TFC membranes are absolutely needed. For this purpose, TFC membranes were tested for 180 h at 35 °C using a 50/50 vol./vol. CO2/CH4 feed composition at 8 bars of transmembrane pressure and aging was done under similar conditions. As a result, a more accurate behavior of long–term performance under working conditions can be disclosed. Overall, the drop of performance of all TFC membranes was minor, if it is compared with other studies of aging under ambient conditions. It is explained because polymeric materials experience certain swelling under continuous working conditions due to the presence CO2 and they cannot rearrange themselves as fast as under ambient conditions. 6FDA based polyimides are optimal candidates for industrial applications without losing their properties over extended period of time.
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