Recently, it has been reported that osteocalcin (OC), in particular its undercarboxylated (ucOC) form, is not only a bone remodeling marker but also an active hormone that intercedes glucose ...metabolism in humans. This study aimed to determine the impact of an exercise intervention on ucOC, adiponectin, leptin, and insulin resistance (measured by HOMA-IR). PubMed, CINAHL, Medline, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases and reference lists of included studies were searched. Twenty-two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of exercise training impact in adults were included in the analysis. Results showed an overall significant increase in serum ucOC (MD: 0.15 ng/ml; 95% CI: 0.05 to 0.25) and adiponectin (MD: 2.83 mg/ml; 95% CI: 1.67 to 3.98), a significant decline in leptin (MD: − 4.89 pg/ml; 95% CI: − 6.94 to − 2.84), fasting glucose (MD: − 2.29 mg/dl; 95% CI: − 4.04 to − 0.54), fasting insulin (MD, − 8.90 μIU/ml; 95% CI: − 13.81 to − 3.98), and HOMA-IR (MD: − 1.96; 95% CI: − 3.11 to − 0.80). However, after removal of studies that had prescribed a balanced diet along with exercise intervention, total OC (TOC) levels also increased in the exercise group compared with the control group (MD: 0.36 ng/ml; 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.65). Our findings demonstrate that exercise-induced increases in ucOC are the probable cause of increased adiponectin. Additionally, increases in ucOC itself are probably due to changes in leptin levels and other factors, rather than its direct impact on bone and its osteoblastic activity. Further studies are required to clarify the mechanisms underlying the impact of exercise training on ucOC, adipocytokines, and insulin resistance.
Several implementations of electrochemical systems are being considered within the electrochemistry and climate change framework. Besides emerging tasks such as CO2 capture 6,7,8 and conversion ...9,10,11, electrochemical systems are mainly being developed to help integrate renewable energy into electricity systems, through developing electrochemical energy storage systems such as batteries. Since the field of LIBs is advancing rapidly and attracting an increasing number of researchers, it is necessary to often provide the community with the latest updates. ...this Special Issue was designed to focus on updating the electrochemical community with the latest advances and prospects on various aspects of LIBs. The determination of coulombic efficiency of LIBs can contribute to comprehend better their degradation behavior. ...a detailed understanding of the effect of these parameters would be beneficial to further optimize the cell charge/discharge procedures. The developed equivalent circuit models were found to be very accurate and computationally cost-effective 30. Besides the detailed research papers,
The impetus for the present study came from Ferris’ (2010) article discussing the gap between theory, research, and practice in written corrective feedback (WCF). To address this gap, the present ...study aimed at comparing the impact of focused vs. comprehensive WCF and revision on the improvement of written accuracy of learners of English as a second language (ESL), with a focus on their global linguistic errors (sentence and word); the study also examined how this improvement contributed to the students’ writing quality, defined in terms of clarity of expression and text comprehensibility. Data was collected from 78 intermediate French ESL learners randomly assigned to four different treatment groups: two groups received focused WCF and two groups comprehensive WCF; one of the focused and one of the comprehensive groups were required to revise their writing and the other two groups did no revision after WCF. A comparison was made between the error means of the four groups on three out of seven essays they wrote during a 15-week writing course: week one (T1), week eight (T2) and week 14 (T3). The results revealed that the focused groups were more successful than the comprehensive ones in reducing their words errors at T2; no significant effect was observed for revision. Also, the focused-revision group outperformed the other groups at both T2 and T3 in reducing their sentence errors. The comprehensive-revision, however, group was more successful than the other groups in improving their overall written accuracy. The results also showed that the focused-revision group made more improvement than the other three groups in their writing quality at T3.
Abstract
Intestinal parasitic infections have high prevalence rate in many regions especially in developing countries. The aim of this study was to determine the presence and genotype/subtype of some ...intestinal protozoa in livestock in Iran. Stool samples were collected from cattle, sheep, chickens, and horses. The presence of targeted parasites was evaluated using real-time PCR. Genotyping/subtyping of positive samples was characterized using sequencing of the ITS and barcoding region, respectively.
Blastocystis
sp., 27.7% (48/173) and
Enterocytozoon bieneusi
26.0% (45/173) were the most frequent protozoa followed by
Encephalitozoon
spp., 0.57% (1/173).
Cryptosporidium
spp. were not detected among samples.
Encephalitozoon
spp., was detected only in chickens 2.2% (1/45). A statistically correlation was seen between animals and the prevalence of targeted protozoa.
E. bieneusi
genotypes I (9/38; 23.68%), BEB6 (22/38; 57.89%), D (6/38; 15.79%), and horse1 (1/38; 2.63%) were detected among samples. A statistically significant correlation was seen between the genotypes and animals (
P
≤ 0.05).
Blastocystis
sp., ST1 (1/45; 2.22%), ST5 3/45; 6.66%), ST7 (1/45; 2.22%), ST10 (24/45; 53.33%), and ST14 (16/45; 35.55%) were characterized among samples. There was no significant correlation between certain subtypes and animals (
P
= 0.173). The presence of zoonotic potential genotypes of
E. bieneusi
in animals and zoonotic potential subtypes ST1 and ST7 among our samples provide a clue about the transmission dynamic of
E. bieneusi
and
Blastocystis
sp. between animals–animals and humans–animals.
New Findings
What is the central question of this study?
Are the advantages of aerobic interval exercise, resistance exercise and concurrent exercise on the metabolic profile mediated in part through ...preptin and undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOCN)?
What is the main finding and its importance?
Glucose was significantly lowered after concurrent exercise and aerobic interval exercise, but serum preptin and insulin were significantly lowered in all three training groups. By contrast, ucOCN and high molecular weight adiponectin increased significantly in all three training groups. These findings support the possible cross‐talk between bone, pancreatic β‐cells and energy metabolism in humans and suggest that preptin and ucOCN may potentially serve as markers of exercise‐induced improvement of metabolism.
Preptin is a peptide hormone that plays an important role in the development of obesity by regulation of carbohydrate metabolism. Undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOCN) is also linked to the regulation of body energy in that it modulates fat and glucose metabolism. This research aimed to examine the impact of aerobic interval, resistance and concurrent exercise on serum preptin, ucOCN and high molecular weight adiponectin (HMW‐APN) in obese adults with metabolic syndrome (MetS). Forty‐four obese men with MetS were randomized to receive aerobic interval exercise (AIEX, n = 10), resistance exercise (REX, n = 10), or concurrent aerobic interval and resistance exercise (CEX, n = 10), or to act as a non‐exercise control (CON, n = 10) three times a week for 12 weeks. Preptin was reduced more after AIEX and CEX than after REX (89.1% and 87.1% versus 9.6%; P = 0.028 and 0.030, respectively). ucOCN increased significantly only in the CEX (27.5%, P = 0.009) and AIEX (25%, P = 0.025) groups, but HMW‐APN increased significantly in all three training groups (AIEX 145.1%, P < 0.001; CEX 137%, P < 0.001; and REX 59.8%, P = 0.041). After the intervention, the improvement of peak oxygen uptake (V̇O2peak) in the AIEX group (73%) was greater than in the CEX (29.3%) and REX (3.8%) groups. On the other hand, CEX exhibited a greater reduction in glucose, insulin, insulin resistance index and HbA1c than did AIEX and REX. Our study indicates that the reduction in glucose after exercise training (especially AIEX and CEX) may be, somewhat, linked to decreased preptin and raised ucOCN and HMW‐APN.
Unlike most other fungi, molds of the genus Trichoderma (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) are aggressive parasites of other fungi and efficient decomposers of plant biomass. Although nutritional shifts are ...common among hypocrealean fungi, there are no examples of such broad substrate versatility as that observed in Trichoderma. A phylogenomic analysis of 23 hypocrealean fungi (including nine Trichoderma spp. and the related Escovopsis weberi) revealed that the genus Trichoderma has evolved from an ancestor with limited cellulolytic capability that fed on either fungi or arthropods. The evolutionary analysis of Trichoderma genes encoding plant cell wall-degrading carbohydrate-active enzymes and auxiliary proteins (pcwdCAZome, 122 gene families) based on a gene tree / species tree reconciliation demonstrated that the formation of the genus was accompanied by an unprecedented extent of lateral gene transfer (LGT). Nearly one-half of the genes in Trichoderma pcwdCAZome (41%) were obtained via LGT from plant-associated filamentous fungi belonging to different classes of Ascomycota, while no LGT was observed from other potential donors. In addition to the ability to feed on unrelated fungi (such as Basidiomycota), we also showed that Trichoderma is capable of endoparasitism on a broad range of Ascomycota, including extant LGT donors. This phenomenon was not observed in E. weberi and rarely in other mycoparasitic hypocrealean fungi. Thus, our study suggests that LGT is linked to the ability of Trichoderma to parasitize taxonomically related fungi (up to adelphoparasitism in strict sense). This may have allowed primarily mycotrophic Trichoderma fungi to evolve into decomposers of plant biomass.
The last 4 decades of conflict in Afghanistan resulted in incalculable deaths, injuries, and millions of displacements. Although there are routine reports on casualties of the warfare, the ...information on its long-term psycho-social sequelae is somehow discounted. This study aimed to assess post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) probability and its associated factors among parents who live in Kandahar, the southern province of Afghanistan, and lost at least one child to armed conflict. We conducted a health-facility-based cross-sectional study involving 474 bereaved parents in Kandahar province from November/2020 to January/2021. The questionnaire was composed of sections on socio-demographic characteristics and mental and medical histories of the parent, features of the traumatic event and the time elapsed since then, age and gender of the lost child, and PCL-5. We performed multivariable logistic analysis to determine factors associated with PTSD probability in such parents. A staggering number of the parents (430; 90.72%) scored > 33 on PCL-5 denoting presence of probable PTSD. We noticed that several attributes of the bereaved parents (rural residence AOR = 3.71 (95% CI 1.37-9.97), older age AOR = 2.41 (95% CI 1.03-5.57), experiencing more than one traumatic event AOR = 2.91 (95% CI 1.05-7.94), pre-existing medical condition AOR = 3.5 (95% CI 1.55-8.05), and losing a < 5-years-old child AOR = 2.38 (95% CI 1.16-4.70) were significantly associated with PTSD probability. We assert that a very high number of bereaved parents are susceptible to probable PTSD. This finding signifies the eminent necessity of mental health services in such settings and provides implicit insights to relevant humanitarian assistance providers.
•Constant volume combustion chamber performs fuel ignition delay measurements.•Developed CFD model accounts for physical mixing and chemical kinetic process effects.•Conditions identified where ...sufficient mixing supports homogeneous reactor model.•AFIDA ignition delay data successfully supports chemical kinetic model validation.
Advanced combustion engine strategies that can offer increased efficiency and reduced emissions are enabled by numerical engine combustion simulations, requiring accurate chemical kinetic mechanism input. The Advanced Fuel Ignition Delay Analyzer (AFIDA) device can perform high quality, repeatable measurements of ignition delay (ID) times using small fuel quantities with high throughput. The AFIDA experiments involve liquid fuel injection into the heated and pressurized constant-volume chamber, producing an autoignition delay resulting from a combination of physical mixing and chemical kinetic processes, a complexity which makes the development of complementary numerical models necessary for the development and validation of chemical kinetic mechanisms. Modeling the device based on a homogenous approximation with reduced primary reference fuel (PRF) mechanism shows up to 75% error in the modeled vs. observed autoignition delay data for n-heptane and iso-octane at 10 bar (ɸ = 1.2–0.8) and 20 bar (ɸ = 0.6–0.4) over 973–648 K, whereas the use of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model reduces the discrepancy to within 25%. The homogenous approximation error is greatest for conditions where the observed ignition delay is short and the system is not sufficiently mixed (<30 ms), providing guidance to select a homogenous reactor vs. CFD modeling approach based upon desired accuracy. Experimental 20 bar iso-octane ID results show a larger magnitude of negative temperature coefficient chemistry compared to numerical results, indicating possible deficiencies in the PRF chemical kinetic mechanism. This characterization demonstrates the AFIDA as a capable research platform for chemical kinetic model development and validation.
Effectiveness of exercise on bone mass is closely related to the mode of exercise training regimen, as well as the study design. This study aimed to determine the effect of different modes of ...exercise training on lumbar spine and femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD) in older postmenopausal women (PMW). PubMed, CINAHL, Medline, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases and reference lists of included studies were searched up until March 25, 2019 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the effectiveness of various modes of exercise training in PMW. Sixteen RCTs with 1624 subjects were included. Our study found no significant change in both lumbar spine and femoral neck BMD following exercise training (MD: 0.01 g/cm
2
; 95% confidence interval (CI) − 0.01, 0.02 and MD: 0.00 g/cm
2
; 95% CI − 0.01, 0.01, respectively). However, subgroup analysis by type of exercise training revealed that lumbar spine BMD (MD: 0.01; 95% CI 0.00, 0.02) raised significantly when whole-body vibration (WBV) was employed as intervention compared with RCTs that utilized aerobic (MD: − 0.01; 95% CI − 0.02, − 0.01), resistance (MD: 0.01; 95% CI − 0.04, 0.06), and combined training (MD: 0.03; 95% CI − 0.01, 0.08). On the other hand, lumbar spine BMD (MD: − 0.01; 95% CI − 0.02, − 0.01) reduced significantly when aerobic exercise training was used as intervention compared with RCTs that utilized resistance training, combined training, and WBV. By contrast, these analyses did not have significant effect on change in femoral neck BMD. WBV is an effective method to improve lumbar spine BMD in older PMW.
Abstract
In this work, we search for signatures of gravitational millilensing in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in which the source−lens−observer geometry produces two images that manifest in the GRB light ...curve as superimposed peaks with identical temporal variability (or echoes), separated by the time delay between the two images. According to the sensitivity of our detection method, we consider millilensing events due to point-mass lenses in the range of 10
5
− 10
7
M
⊙
at lens redshift about half that of the GRB, with a time delay on the order of 10 s. Current GRB observatories are capable of resolving and constraining this lensing scenario if the above conditions are met. We investigated the Fermi/GBM GRB archive from the year 2008 to 2020 using the autocorrelation technique and found one millilensed GRB candidate out of 2137 GRBs searched, which we use to estimate the optical depth of millilensed GRBs by performing a Monte Carlo simulation to find the efficiency of our detection method. Considering a point-mass model for the gravitational lens, where the lens is a supermassive black hole, we show that the density parameter of black holes (Ω
BH
) with mass ≈ 10
6
M
⊙
is about 0.007 ± 0.004. Our result is one order of magnitude larger compared to previous work in the lower mass range of 10
2
− 10
3
M
⊙
, which gave a density parameter Ω
BH
≈ 5 × 10
−4
, and recent work in the mass range of 10
2
− 10
7
M
⊙
, which reported Ω
BH
≈ 4.6 × 10
−4
. The mass fraction of black holes in this mass range to the total mass of the universe would be
f
= Ω
BH
/Ω
M
≈ 0.027 ± 0.016.
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