A triathlon, which consists of swimming, bicycling, and running, is a high-intensity and long-term form of exercise that can cause injuries such as muscular damage, inflammation, oxidative stress, ...and energy imbalance. Probiotics are thought to play an important role in disease incidence, health promotion, and nutrient metabolism, but only a few studies have focused on physiological adaptations to exercise in sports science. Previous studies indicated that Lactobacillus supplementation could improve oxidative stress and inflammatory responses. We investigate the effects of Lactobacillus plantarum PS128 supplementation on triathletes for possible physiological adaptation. The triathletes were assigned to one of two groups with different exercise intensity stimulations with different time-points to investigate the effects of body compositions, inflammation, oxidative stress, performance, fatigue, and injury-related biochemical indices. L. plantarum PS128 supplementation, combined with training, can significantly alleviate oxidative stress (such as creatine kinase, Thioredoxin, and Myeloperoxidase indices) after a triathlon (p < 0.05). This effect is possibly regulated by a 6⁻13% decrease of indicated pro-inflammation (TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8) cytokines (p < 0.05) and 55% increase of anti-inflammation (IL-10) cytokines (p < 0.05) after intensive exercise stimulation. In addition, L. plantarum PS128 can also substantially increase 24⁻69% of plasma-branched amino acids (p < 0.05) and elevate exercise performance, as compared to the placebo group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, L. plantarum PS128 may be a potential ergogenic aid for better training management, physiological adaptations to exercise, and health promotion.
Medical Education 2011: 45: 835–842
CONTEXT The occupational health literature has long been dominated by stress‐related topics. A more contemporary perspective suggests using a positive approach in ...the form of a health model focused on what is right with people, such as feelings of well‐being and satisfaction.
OBJECTIVES Using a positive perspective and multi‐source data collection, this study investigated the inter‐relationships among emotional intelligence (EI), patient satisfaction, doctor burnout and job satisfaction.
METHODS In this observational study, 110 internists and 2872 out‐patients were surveyed in face‐to‐face interviews.
RESULTS Higher self‐rated EI was significantly associated with less burnout (p < 0.001) and higher job satisfaction (p < 0.001). Higher patient satisfaction was correlated with less burnout (p < 0.01). Less burnout was found to be associated with higher job satisfaction (p < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS This study identified EI as a factor in understanding doctors’ work‐related issues. Given the multi‐dimensional nature of EI, refinement of the definition of EI and the construct validity of EI as rated by others require further examination.
Data regarding the real-world effectiveness and safety of sofosbuvir/velpatasvir (SOF/VEL) with or without low-dose ribavirin (RBV) in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and ...severe renal impairment (RI) are limited. We evaluated the performance of SOF/VEL with or without low-dose RBV in HCV-infected patients with chronic kidney disease stage 4 or 5.
191 patients with compensated (n=181) and decompensated (n=10) liver diseases receiving SOF/VEL (400/100 mg/day) alone and SOF/VEL with low-dose RBV (200 mg/day) for 12 weeks were retrospectively recruited at 15 academic centres in Taiwan. The effectiveness was determined by sustained virological response at off-treatment week 12 (SVR
) in evaluable (EP) and per-protocol populations (PP). The safety profiles were assessed.
The SVR
rates by EP and PP analyses were 94.8% (95% CI 90.6% to 97.1%) and 100% (95% CI 97.9% to 100%). In patients with compensated liver disease, the SVR
rates were 95.0% and 100% by EP and PP analyses. In patients with decompensated liver disease, the SVR
rates were 90.0% and 100% by EP and PP analyses. Ten patients who failed to achieve SVR
were attributed to non-virological failures. Among the 20 serious adverse events (AEs), none were judged related to SOF/VEL or RBV. The AEs occurring in ≥10% included fatigue (14.7%), headache (14.1%), nausea (12.6%), insomnia (12.0%) and pruritus (10.5%). None had ≥grade 3 total bilirubin or alanine aminotransferase elevations.
SOF/VEL with or without low-dose RBV is effective and well-tolerated in HCV-infected patients with severe RI.
Health literacy has been concerned a key factor for determining the use of health information and promoting health. The study aimed to explore adolescent health literacy, health-promoting lifestyle ...profile, and health status and related factors.
A cross-sectional study design was used; 918 first year junior college students were recruited in Taiwan. The measurements were the Chinese Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-C-Q), the Chinese Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP-S), and the Health Status Questionnaire.
The mean score for health literacy was 36.15 (±6.21), with 30.17% of the participants having insufficient or problematic health literacy. Further, 19.9% of participants were obese and 11.2% experienced emotional instability. Health literacy and health-promoting lifestyle profile showed significant positive and negative correlations with perceived health status and depression, respectively (p < 0.05). An exercise frequency of ≥3 times/week was a predictor of health literacy, health-promoting lifestyle profile, and emotional stability.
Adolescent health literacy, health-promoting lifestyle profile, and health status require careful consideration. In adolescents, developing regular exercise may increase health literacy, thereby developing healthy lifestyle profiles and ameliorating obesity and depression-related issues.
The western North Pacific subtropical high (WNPSH) in boreal summer shows a remarkable enhancement after the early 1980s. Whereas the sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Indian Ocean (NIO) and ...the equatorial eastern Pacific had been noted to have remarkable local or remote effects on enhancing the WNPSH, the influence of the Atlantic SST, so far, is hardly explored. This article reports a new finding: enhanced relationship between the tropical Atlantic (TA)‐SST and the WNPSH after the early 1980s. Regression study suggests that the warm TA‐SST produced a zonally overturning circulation anomaly, with descending over the equatorial central Pacific and ascending over the tropical Atlantic/eastern Pacific. The anomalous descending over the equatorial central Pacific likely induced low‐level anticyclonic anomaly to the west and therefore enhanced the WNPSH. One implication of this new finding is for predictability. The well‐known “spring predictability barrier” (i.e., the influence of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) falls dramatically during boreal spring) does not apply to the TA‐SST/WNPSH relationship. The TA‐SST shows consistently high correlation starting from boreal spring when the ENSO influence continues declining. The TA‐SST extends the predictability of the WNPSH in boreal summer approximately one season earlier to boreal spring.
Key Points
The relationship between the TA‐SST and the WNPSH was enhanced after the early 1980sThe ENSO's impact on the TA‐SST has been weakening since the early 1980sThe warm TA‐SST may improve the predictability of the boreal summertime WNPSH
An efficient evaporation‐induced coating method combining microwave‐assisted hydrothermal transformation and annealing is developed to fabricate an ideal electrode material from composites with a ...layer of hydrous RuO2 on mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), for a high‐performance supercapacitor. Total and RuO2‐based specific capacitances are as high as 1125 and 2000 F g−1, respectively.
Abstract
The dbPTM (http://dbPTM.mbc.nctu.edu.tw/) has been maintained for over 10 years with the aim to provide functional and structural analyses for post-translational modifications (PTMs). In ...this update, dbPTM not only integrates more experimentally validated PTMs from available databases and through manual curation of literature but also provides PTM-disease associations based on non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs). The high-throughput deep sequencing technology has led to a surge in the data generated through analysis of association between SNPs and diseases, both in terms of growth amount and scope. This update thus integrated disease-associated nsSNPs from dbSNP based on genome-wide association studies. The PTM substrate sites located at a specified distance in terms of the amino acids encoded from nsSNPs were deemed to have an association with the involved diseases. In recent years, increasing evidence for crosstalk between PTMs has been reported. Although mass spectrometry-based proteomics has substantially improved our knowledge about substrate site specificity of single PTMs, the fact that the crosstalk of combinatorial PTMs may act in concert with the regulation of protein function and activity is neglected. Because of the relatively limited information about concurrent frequency and functional relevance of PTM crosstalk, in this update, the PTM sites neighboring other PTM sites in a specified window length were subjected to motif discovery and functional enrichment analysis. This update highlights the current challenges in PTM crosstalk investigation and breaks the bottleneck of how proteomics may contribute to understanding PTM codes, revealing the next level of data complexity and proteomic limitation in prospective PTM research.
We report on the exceptional application of polyaniline/graphene composites (PAGCs) for corrosion protection of steel. The composites display outstanding barrier properties against O2 and H2O ...compared with neat polyaniline and polyaniline/clay composites (PACCs). The conductive filler, 4-aminobenzoyl group-functionalized graphene-like sheets (ABF-G) with a relatively higher aspect ratio than organophilic clay nonconductive fillers, is a versatile platform for polymer grafting that promotes better dispersion of the graphite within the polymer matrix and lengthens the diffusion pathway that gases should effectively encounter. This concept can be used for other polymer/graphene composites.
The present study evaluated the potential beneficial effect of kefir (KF) against fatigue. Furthermore, the composition of the gut microbiota is related to health benefits in the host; therefore, the ...study also investigated the effect of KF on the gut microbiota composition. Male ICR mice from four groups (
= 8 per group) were orally administered KF once daily for four weeks at 0, 2.15, 4.31, and 10.76 g/kg/day and were designated as the vehicle, KF-1X, KF-2X, and KF-5X groups, respectively. The gut microbiota was analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed a significant clustering of cecum after treatment in the vehicle, KF-1X, KF-2X, and KF-5X groups. The KF-2X and KF-5X groups showed a decreased
/
ratio compared with the vehicle group. In addition, anti-fatigue activity and exercise performance were evaluated on the basis of exhaustive swimming time, forelimb grip strength, and levels of serum lactate, ammonia, glucose, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and creatine kinase (CK) after a swimming exercise. The exhaustive swimming time for the KF-1X, KF-2X, and KF-5X groups was significantly longer than that for the vehicle group, and the forelimb grip strength of the KF-1X, KF-2X, and KF-5X groups was also significantly higher than that of the vehicle group. KF supplementation also decreased serum lactate, ammonia, BUN, and CK levels after the swimming test. However, tissue glycogen content, an important energy source for exercise, increased significantly with KF supplementation. Thus, KF supplementation can alter the gut microbiota composition, improve performance, and combat physical fatigue.
Ovatodiolide (Ova), found in the plant
(AI), has been reported to have an anti-proliferation effect in various cancer cells. However, little information is available regarding the anti-cancer effect ...of Ova in human gastric cancer cells. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effects and the mechanisms of action responsible for these effects on human AGS cell lines from a newly developed purification technique for Ova from AI extract. Extract obtained at the optimum condition of 95% ethanol extraction of AI was sequentially partitioned by using different polarity solvents. Enriched content of Ova (35.9% purity) from the
-hexane fraction was then applied to the purification by using centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) in a two-phase solvent system consisting of
-hexane:ethyl acetate:methanol:water (1.0:1.0:1.0:1.0,
/
/
/
) to reach purity over >95.0%. In evaluation of the anti-proliferation effect on AGS cells, Ova induced cell apoptosis with IC
values of 13.02 and 6.18 μM at 24 and 48 h, respectively, and arrested the cells at the G2/M phase. Quantification of Bax/Bcl2 mRNA expressions using qPCR showed a 2.5-fold increase in the Ova (5 μM)-treated cells at 48 h than in the control group. Specific protein expression data warrant further research to further confirm the proposed Ova-induced apoptotic pathway in AGS cells.
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