The purpose of this study was to identify the possibility of unnoticed reduction in salt content of bread as a basic food in the diet of preschool children. The response of children to less salty ...bread and the role of teachers and teacher assistants in the introduction of novelties into children's nutrition ware studied.
Using hedonic sensory evaluation in the case of bread, the perception of salty taste and responses of preschool children to salt reduction were observed. The combination of quantitative and qualitative data analysis obtained from the case study group, composed of 22 preschool children and 66 teachers and teacher assistants, was studied.
The results show that a 30% salt reduction was not registered by the children, while a 50% reduction of the salt content, compared to the original recipe, though noted, was not disruptive. The perception of taste and development of good eating habits at an early age could be influenced by teachers and teacher assistants' verbal and non-verbal communication.
Salt reduction does not significantly affect the rating of satisfaction with the tested product. Educational personnel must be aware of their decisive influence on children's perception of new and less salty products. Such an approach could represent a basis for creating children's eating habits, which will be of particular importance later in their lives. The findings may possibly result in an update of the national nutrition policy.
Abstract
Purpose
Falls and frailty in the older adults are a considerable public health and socioeconomic problem. Physical activity has an important role in delaying degenerative ageing processes ...and preserving the neuromuscular system’s plasticity. Multicomponent exercise programmes could improve strength (stability), balance, mobility (flexibility) and walking speed; especially if they are carried out for at least some extend of time. Exercise programmes for fall and frailty prevention in community-dwelling older adults should include muscle performance, balance challenging and functional exercises. Slovenia has a long tradition of implementing community organized and structured exercise programmes in Health promotion centres and Healthy clubs. We are establishing new approach of frailty and falls prevention in our elderly population.
Project description
With the collaboration of professionals in the field of sport recreation, health and fitness we constructed new exercise approach called vAdBeCeDa®. According to the WHO guidelines of physical activity and sedentary behaviour and the latest World guidelines for fall prevention and management for older adults, the programme is an addition to the existing Slovenian functional exercise programme called Health Promoting Sport Program ABC®. ABC programme focused especially on developing strength in fundamental movement patterns and influencing aerobic capacity. The supplement includes warm-up exercises adapted to the specific needs and functional status of the elderly, progressive balance-training programme for 12 training units and a set of static stretching exercises with support, due to poor balance. Functional and physical fitness is assed pre and post intervention with Slovenian version of senior fitness test (Jakovljević & Knific, 2015). Programme will be implemented in existing network of Health promotion centres (HPC) and in Healthy clubs (HC) all over the country, where all elderly population could practice on the Slovenian health insurance costs.
Conclusions
The results from many longitudinal studies on effects of multicomponent exercise programmes are encouraging, given that maintenance of physical fitness has a successful, prolonged effect on fall and frailty prevention in older adults. All countries should pursue a lifelong physical activity for elderly, which is achievable with community approach and good collaboration between health and sport sector.
Abstract
Purpose
The most commonly proposed intervention for fall prevention in community-dwelling older adults is a multicomponent exercise programme. This is a structured form of exercise that ...improves muscle performance, balance, proprioception, coordination, mobility, and gait. It usually includes balance and functional exercises versus control. Although it has been suggested that exercise programmes for fall prevention should be performed three or more times per week, no precise guidelines for frequency (F), intensity (I), T(time), and T(type) of a multicomponent exercise programme have been proposed. It has already been pointed out that frequency, type, and time of a multicomponent exercise programme do not explain the effects of balance exercises in older adults. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the reporting of FITT guidelines for a multicomponent exercise programme for fall prevention in community-dwelling older adults, with a focus on intensity.
Methods
Systematic reviews of randomised control trials comparing the effectiveness of structured, multicomponent fall prevention programmes in community-dwelling older adults were included. Studies that focused on a specific condition, such as stroke, were excluded. We included only studies that compared fall rates before and after the multicomponent programme. PubMed, PEDro, EMBASE, Scopus were searched until January 2023.
Results
Preliminary results showed that FITT guidelines for multicomponent exercise were not consistently reported across studies. In particular, exercise intensity was often not reported. Without a valid and reliable measure of exercise intensity, the dose-response relationship for a multicomponent exercise programme should be further investigated.
Conclusions
Limitations of this systematic review include variability in the design of multicomponent interventions and incomplete reporting of FITT in reported studies.
Support/Funding Source
The study is founded from Next Generation EU Recovery and Resilience Facility and resources from National institute of public health Slovenia.
ABSTRACT
Background
Wide variation in fertility rates is observed when using frozen bull semen, even when the bulls have met quality standards for semen production. Therefore, a simple and reliable ...test to assess the freezing potential of bull semen based on the analysis of fresh semen or blood would be of great value. Attention is now turning to assessment of seminal plasma components such as proteins and elements. In the present study, the concentrations of macro- and microelements in fresh bull semen plasma and in serum and their correlation with quality characteristics of fresh semen and with semen quality after freezing and thawing were determined. Ejaculates were collected from 30 mature bulls, and semen volume, concentration, sperm motility, morphology, tail membrane integrity, plasma membrane permeability and DNA fragmentation were determined on the day of collection and after freezing and thawing. The concentrations of macroelements (Na, Mg, K and Ca) and microelements (Cu, Fe, Zn and Se) were determined in the seminal plasma and serum. The semen samples were classified into satisfactory and unsatisfactory groups according to the fresh semen quality.
Results
Zinc and Se levels measured in serum were associated with almost all fresh and frozen-thawed semen quality characteristics, while Fe levels were associated only with acrosomal defects in fresh semen. Zinc and Fe levels in fresh seminal plasma were associated with various quality characteristics of fresh and frozen-thawed semen, while Se level in fresh seminal plasma was not associated with any of the semen quality characteristics.
Conclusions
Microelements were shown to be useful as biomarkers involved in the analysis of bull sperm quality and could be used as an additional tool to predict bull semen quality after freezing and thawing. Our results confirm that the analysis of Zn and Se levels in serum and Zn, Cu and Fe levels in fresh seminal plasma can provide information to discriminate between bull semen samples with spermatozoa with high or low cryotolerance.
The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of parturition type on vitality in newborn puppies, their weight gains, and survival in the first week postpartum. One hundred and ...twenty-three puppies were divided in three groups: vaginal parturition (VP), emergency (EM-CS), and elective cesarean section (EL-CS). Apgar scores were assessed 5, 15, and 60 min postpartum. Lactate and glucose concentrations were measured in amniotic fluid and umbilical blood; cortisol concentrations were measured in amniotic fluid and puppy urine. Puppies' weight gain was tracked daily for 7 days postpartum. Apgar score at 5 and 15 min was significantly better in the VP group. EL-CS puppies had significantly lower umbilical blood and amniotic fluid lactate concentrations compared to the VP group, which also had higher umbilical blood lactate concentration than EM-CS puppies. The cortisol concentration in the amniotic fluid and in urine differed significantly between the groups, with the highest concentration in the EM-CS, followed by the VP group. Glucose concentration in amniotic fluid was higher in the VP group than EM-CS group. The type of parturition had no impact on puppies' weight gain or their survival at birth; however, supportive treatment was provided for non-vital puppies. Non-invasive analysis of puppies' fluids could help in the assessment of the neonatal vitality.
Estrogens have important roles in endometrial cancer (EC) and exert biological effects through the classical estrogen receptors (ERs) ERα and ERβ, and the G-protein-coupled ER, GPER. So far, the ...co-expression of these three types of ERs has not been studied in EC. We investigated ERα, ERβ, GPER mRNA and protein levels, and their intracellular protein distributions in EC tissue and in adjacent control endometrial tissue. Compared to control endometrial tissue, immunoreactivity for ERα in EC tissue was weaker for nuclei with minor, but unchanged, cytoplasmic staining; mRNA and protein levels showed decreased patterns for ERα in EC tissue. For ERβ, across both tissue types, the immunoreactivity was unchanged for nuclei and cytoplasm, although EC tissues again showed lower mRNA and protein levels compared to adjacent control endometrial tissue. The immunoreactivity of GPER as well as mRNA levels of GPER were unchanged across cancer and control endometrial tissues, while protein levels were lower in EC tissue. Statistically significant correlations of estrogen receptor α (
) versus estrogen receptor β (
) and
variant 3,4 versus
and
was seen at the mRNA level. At the protein level studied with Western blotting, there was significant correlation of ERα versus GPER, and ERβ versus GPER. While in clinical practice the expression of ERα is routinely tested in EC tissue, ERβ and GPER need to be further studied to examine their potential as prognostic markers, provided that specific and validated antibodies are available.
Endometrial cancer (EC) is associated with increased estrogen actions. Locally, estrogens can be formed from estrone-sulphate (E1-S) after cellular uptake by organic anion-transporting polypeptides ...(OATP) or organic anion transporters (OAT). Efflux of E1-S is enabled by ATP Binding Cassette transporters (ABC) and organic solute transporter (OST)αβ. Currently, 19 E1-S transporters are known but their roles in EC are not yet understood. Here, we analysed levels of E1-S transporters in Ishikawa (premenopausal EC), HEC-1-A (postmenopausal EC), HIEEC (control) cell lines, in EC tissue, examined metabolism of steroid precursor E1-S, studied effects of OATPs' inhibition and gene-silencing on E1-S uptake, and assessed associations between transporters and histopathological data. Results revealed enhanced E1-S metabolism in HEC-1-A versus Ishikawa which could be explained by higher levels of OATPs in HEC-1-A versus Ishikawa, especially 6.3-fold up-regulation of OATP1B3 (
), as also confirmed by immunocytochemical staining and gene silencing studies, lower
expression and higher levels of sulfatase (STS). In EC versus adjacent control tissue the highest differences were seen for
and
(OSTβ) which were 3.0-fold and 2.1-fold down-regulated, respectively. Immunohistochemistry confirmed lower levels of these two transporters in EC versus adjacent control tissue. Further analysis of histopathological data indicated that
might be important for uptake of E1-S in tumours without lymphovascular invasion where it was 15.6-fold up-regulated as compared to adjacent control tissue. Our results clearly indicate the importance of E1-S transporters in EC pathophysiology and provide a base for further studies towards development of targeted treatment.
Electrochemotherapy (ECT) and/or gene electrotransfer of plasmid DNA encoding interleukin-12 (GET pIL-12) are effective treatments for canine cutaneous, subcutaneous, and maxillofacial tumors. ...Despite the clinical efficacy of the combined treatments of ECT and GET, data on parameters that might predict the outcome of the treatments are still lacking. This study aimed to investigate whether dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasound (DCE-US) results of subcutaneous tumors differ between tumors with complete response (CR) and tumors without complete response (non-CR) in dogs treated with ECT and GET pIL-12. Eight dogs with a total of 12 tumor nodules treated with ECT and GET pIL-12 were included. DCE-US examinations were performed in all animals before and immediately after therapy as well as 8 h and 1, 3, and 7 days later. Clinical follow-up examinations were performed 7 and 14 days, 1 and 6 months, and 1 year after treatment. Numerous significant differences in DCE-US parameters were noted between tumors with CR and non-CR tumors; perfusion and perfusion heterogeneity were lower in CR tumors than in non-CR tumors. Therefore, studies with larger numbers of patients are needed to investigate whether DCE-US results can be used to predict treatment outcomes and to make effective decisions about the need for repeated therapy or different treatment combinations in individual patients.
Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common estrogen-dependent gynecological malignancy in the developed World. To investigate the local formation of estradiol (E2), we first measured the ...concentrations of the steroid precursor androstenedione (A-dione) and the most potent estrogen, E2, and we evaluated the metabolism of A-dione, estrone-sulfate (E1-S), and estrone (E1) in cancerous and adjacent control endometrium. Furthermore, we studied expression of the key genes for estradiol formation via the aromatase and sulfatase pathways. A-dione and E2 were detected in cancerous and adjacent control endometrium. In cancerous endometrium, A-dione was metabolized to testosterone, and no E2 was formed. Both, E1-S and E1 were metabolized to E2, with increased levels of E2 seen in cancerous tissue. There was no significant difference in expression of the key genes of the aromatase (
) and the sulfatase (
) pathways in cancerous endometrium compared to adjacent control tissue. The mRNA levels of
and
were low, and
, which promotes inactivation of E2, was significantly down-regulated in cancerous endometrium, especially in patients with lymphovascular invasion. At the protein level, there were no differences in the levels of STS and HSD17B2 between cancerous and adjacent control tissue by Western blotting, and immunohistochemistry revealed intense staining for STS and HSD17B2, and weak staining for SULT1E1 and HSD17B1 in cancerous tissue. Our data demonstrate that in cancerous endometrium, E2 is formed from E1-S
the sulfatase pathway, and not from A-dione
the aromatase pathway.
Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent inflammatory disease affecting women in their reproductive age. Due to non-specific symptoms, women with endometriosis are often misdiagnosed or are accurately ...diagnosed only after several years. Diagnosis of peritoneal endometriosis is especially challenging and relies only on laparoscopic surgery. To date, different molecules have been proposed as potential non-invasive biomarkers of endometriosis; however, none have been confirmed as clinically useful. Therefore, this study aimed to discover novel plasma biomarker candidates for peritoneal endometriosis using an antibody array platform. This study included patients with endometriosis-like symptoms characterized by the absence (controls) or presence of peritoneal endometriosis (cases) after laparoscopic surgery and histological evaluation. Patients were further divided into secretory and proliferative groups, according to the phase of their menstrual cycle. Their plasma samples were collected and analyzed on an antibody array platform targeting more than 1350 proteins with over 1820 antibodies. In the proliferative group, the analysis revealed three differential proteins between cases and controls: ITB3, ITA2B2, and ACVL-1. In the secretory group, none of the examined proteins reached the log-fold change (logFC) and significance thresholds simultaneously. The potential of the identified differential proteins as plasma biomarker candidates for peritoneal endometriosis should be evaluated on a larger cohort, and their role in endometriosis should be investigated in further studies.
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