The purpose of this paper was to analyze the relationship between body composition and cognitive functioning in an elderly people's sample. A total of 106 older adults between the ages of 60 and 79 ...were involved in physical activity (
= 67.57; SD = 4.96). About 31.10% were men (
= 33) and 68.90% were women (
= 73). The instruments used to assess cognitive capacity were the Trail Making Test (forms A and B), the Stroop Test, and the Attention Test d2. The body composition of the participants was evaluated by electrical bioimpedance. Correlation analysis, linear regression (successive steps), and cluster analysis were carried out to analyze the relationships between the different measures. The results showed significant relationships between the analyzed variables. In addition, muscle mass predicted the cognitive functioning values. These results suggest that healthy lifestyles, including physical activity, are essential for well-being and quality of life in older people. In addition, it appears from the results found that it would be necessary for these lifestyles to contribute to preserving their level of physical condition, because of the possible impact it would have on their health.
Data mining is seen as a set of techniques and technologies allowing to extract, automatically or semi-automatically, a lot of useful information, models, and tendencies from a big set of data. ...Techniques like "clustering," "classification," "association," and "regression"; statistics and Bayesian calculations; or intelligent artificial algorithms like neural networks will be used to extract patterns from data, and the main goal to achieve those patterns will be to explain and to predict their behavior. So, data are the source that becomes relevant information. Research data are gathered as numbers (quantitative data) as well as symbolic values (qualitative data). Useful knowledge is extracted (mined) from a huge amount of data. Such kind of knowledge will allow setting relationships among attributes or data sets, clustering similar data, classifying attribute relationships, and showing information that could be hidden or lost in a vast quantity of data when data mining is not used. Combination of quantitative and qualitative data is the essence of mixed methods: on one hand, a coherent integration of result data interpretation starting from separate analysis, and on the other hand, making data transformation from qualitative to quantitative and 1 vice versa. A study developed shows how data mining techniques can be a very interesting complement to mixed methods, because such techniques can work with qualitative and quantitative data together, obtaining numeric analysis from qualitative data based on Bayesian probability calculation or transforming quantitative into qualitative data using discretization techniques. As a study case, the Psychological Inventory of Sports Performance (IPED) has been mined and decision trees have been developed in order to check any relationships among the "Self-confidence" (AC), "Negative Coping Control" (CAN), "Attention Control" (CAT), "Visuoimaginative Control" (CVI), "Motivational Level" (NM), "Positive Coping Control" (CAP), and "Attitudinal Control" (CACT) factors against gender and age of athletes. These decision trees can also be used for future data predictions or assumptions.
The long-term clinical evolution of prediabetes and post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) is unknown.
We analysed, in this cohort study, the reversibility, stability and progression of PTDM and ...prediabetes in 672 patients using repeated oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs) for ≤5 years.
Most patients were on tacrolimus, steroids and mycophenolate. About half developed either PTDM or prediabetes. The incidence of PTDM was 32% and bimodal: early PTDM (≤3 months) and late PTDM. Early PTDM reverted in 31%; late PTDM developed in patients with post-transplant prediabetes. The use of OGTTs was necessary to detect around half of PTDM. Pretransplant obesity was a major risk factor for early PTDM, for its persistence and for late PTDM {odds ratio OR 1.18 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.09-1.28}. At 3 months, higher HbA1c promoted OR 2.37 (95% CI 1.38-4.06), while insulin sensitivity protected against OR 0.64 (95% CI 0.48-0.86) late PTDM. At 3 months, 28% had prediabetes; of these, 36% remained stable, 43% normalized and 21% developed late PTDM. Pretransplant obesity OR 1.20 (95% CI 1.04-1.39) and higher HbA1c OR 3.80 (95% CI 1.45-9.94) at 3 months promoted while insulin sensitivity protected against OR 0.57 (95% CI 0.34-0.95) evolution from prediabetes to late PTDM. Immunosuppressive levels or acute rejection did not influence PTDM. Most (84%) of the patients with normal tests at 3 months remained stable without evolving into PTDM; 14% developed prediabetes.
PTDM and prediabetes are very common in renal transplantation. Classic metabolic factors like obesity, prediabetes and insulin resistance promote the evolution of PTDM and prediabetes. Patients with normal glucose metabolism rarely develop PTDM. OGTT is necessary to detect PTDM and prediabetes and thus should be included in clinical practice.
Obesity is a widely prevalent pathology with a high exponential growth worldwide. Altered lipid accumulation by adipose tissue is one of the main causes of obesity and exploring lipid homeostasis in ...this tissue may represent a source for the identification of possible therapeutic targets. The study of the proteome and the post-translational modifications of proteins, specifically acetylation due to its involvement in energy metabolism, may be of great interest to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity. The objective of this study was to characterize the subcutaneous and omental adipose tissue acetylome in conditions of obesity and insulin resistance and to describe the importance of acetylation of key molecules in adipose tissue to use them as therapeutic targets. The results describe for the first time the acetylome of subcutaneous and omental adipose tissue under physiological and physiopathological conditions such as obesity and insulin resistance. New evidence showed different acetylation patterns between two main depots and highlight the molecular complexity of adipose tissue. Results showed changes in FABP4 acetylation in subcutaneous fat in relation to insulin resistance, thus unveiling a potential marker of depot-specific dysfunctional expansion in obesity-associated metabolic disease. Furthermore, it is shown that the acetylation of FABP4 affects its function, modulating the capacity of differentiation in adipocytes. In conclusion, this study demonstrates a profound, depot-specific alteration of adipose tissue acetylome, wherein the acetylation of FABP4 may play a key role in adipocyte differentiation and lipid accumulation.
•There wasn’t significant partition of resources between males and females of vaquita.•Matures individuals showed a more selective feeding spectrum than immatures.•The niche analysis results ...suggested changes in the vaquita’s habitat and prey composition.•The vaquita had a high trophic level and feeding mainly on benthic prey.
The worldwide smallest cetacean, the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), is on the verge of extinction with fewer than 20 individuals left as of summer 2018. The main cause of mortality is bycatch by entanglement in illegal gillnets and environmental changes. Habitat disturbances have negatively impacted prey diversity, and therefore, the vaquita’s feeding success. We investigated the trophic niche of the vaquita and its variability from 1985 to 1993 by quantifying δ13C and δ15N values from bone samples (n = 33). We reconstructed part of vaquita’s refuge food web and identified some prey items. Between 1985 and 1993 the vaquita’s isotopic ellipses shifted moderately, δ13C and δ15N without significant differences, suggesting variations in habitat baseline values and probably prey composition. We observed a high overlap in the ellipses between males and females, suggesting that both sexes were feeding in the same geographic area over several years and with similar prey composition. Together, our results indicate that the vaquita is a generalist high-TL consumer, feeding on benthic and small pelagic prey it maintained similar mean δ15N values for years. Given these results, conservation efforts should intensify to protect the biodiversity of the Upper Gulf of California and the surviving vaquita.
Blood OX40-expressing CD4 T-cells from antiretroviral (ART)-treated people living with HIV (PWH) were found to be enriched for clonally-expanded HIV sequences, hence contributing to the HIV ...reservoir. OX40-OX40L is also a checkpoint regulator of inflammation in multiple diseases. We explored gut mucosal OX40+CD4+ T-cells and their potential significance in HIV disease.
Biopsies of caecum and terminal-ileum of ART-treated PWH (n = 32) were obtained and mucosal damage and HIV reservoir were assessed. Mucosal OX40+ and Ki67+ CD4 T-cell subsets, as well as several tissue T-cell subsets modulating mucosal integrity and homeostasis (Th17, Th22, Treg, Tc17, Tc22, IL17+TCRγδ, IL22+TCRγδ) were quantified. Inflammatory-related markers, T-cell activation and thymic output were also determined in blood samples. Correlations were explored using Spearman rank test and corrected for multiple comparisons by Benjamini-Hochberg.
Compared to healthy controls, a high frequency of mucosal, mainly caecum, CD4 T-cells were OX40+ in PWH. Such frequency strongly correlated with nadir CD4 (r = -0.836; p < 0.0001), CD4/CD8 ratio (r = -0.630; p = 0.002), caecum mucosal damage (r = 0.606; p = 0.008), caecum Th22 (r = -0.635; p = 0.002), caecum Th17 (r = 0.474; p = 0.03) and thymic output (r = -0.686; p < 0.001). It also correlated with Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and blood CD4 T-cell activation and tended to with mucosal HIV reservoir.
High frequencies of caecum OX40+CD4 T-cells are found in people with HIV (PWH) and successful viral control. Interestingly, this cellular subset reflects key markers of disease and peripheral T-cell activation, as well as HIV-driven mucosal damage. OX40+CD4 T-cells deserve further investigation since they could expand because of T-cell homeostatic proliferation and relate to the Th22/Th17 gut mucosal ratio.
Urbanization projects, understood as those supplying basic services for cities, such as drinking water, sewers, communication services, power, and lighting, are normally short-term extremely ...scattered actions, and it can be difficult to track their environmental impact. The present article’s main contribution is to employ the project budgets of public urbanization work to provide an instrument for environmental improvement, thereby helping public procurement, including sustainability criteria. Two urban projects in Seville, Spain are studied: the first substitutes existing services, and the second also includes gardens and playgrounds in the street margins. The methodology finds the construction elements that must be controlled in each project from the perspective of three indicators: carbon, water footprints, and embodied energy. The main impacts found are due to only four construction units: concrete, aggregates, asphalt, and ceramic pipes for the sewer system, that represent 70% or more of the total impact in all indicators studied. The public developer can focus procurement on those few elements in order to exert a lower impact and to significantly reduce the environmental burden of urbanization projects.
The aim of this study was to analyze the seed characteristics and nutritional composition of five pine nut
samples from two Mexican states. Morphometry, proximal composition, phenolic compounds, and ...antioxidant capacity were determined. Samples differed in several morphometric trails, but important differences were documented between SMCH and JCZH samples from Hidalgo State. JCZH and FMH had the highest contents of water, lipids, protein, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity, while CMCC population from Chihuahua State had presented the highest content of ash and carbohydrates. Morphometry and chemical composition data were subjected to clustering analysis. This analysis showed that SMCH and LFCH from Hidalgo State were well separated from the JCZH and FMH populations from Hidalgo State, which showed a strong similarity between them, while the CMCC from Chihuahua State was the most distant population. Principal components analysis showed that the variables that strongly contributed to PC1 were the antioxidant activity determined by FRAP assay, flavonoids, and water content. These data have provided biochemical markers that could help to establish phylogenetic associations between populations, and also to reveal potentially account as an alternative source for dietary nutrition.
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