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Blackcurrant Anthocyanin Supplementation alters Exercise-Induced Substrate Utilisation - A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Get PDFBackground: Blackcurrant anthocyanins have been investigated for their effects on exercise‑induced substrate utilisation. Previous research has examined the influence of supplementation dose, duration, and exercise modality, with mixed findings. Most studies report increased fat oxidation alongside reduced carbohydrate oxidation during exercise.
Objective: to undertake a systematic review of literature and a meta-analysis of results.
Data sources: Electronic searches were conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, and EBSCOhost between 1 May and 14 November 2025 using a predefined search strategy.
Study selection: Controlled trials investigating the effects of blackcurrant supplementation on fat and carbohydrate oxidation during exercise in physically active adults (18–65 years) were included. All forms, doses, and supplementation durations were eligible, provided outcomes were reported as absolute rates of substrate utilisation during exercise.
Data extraction and synthesis: two authors independently extracted data and assessed for risk of bias using the Cochrane RoB 2 tool, with a random-effects meta-analysis undertaken on the mean difference between control or placebo and consumption of blackcurrant extract on exercise substrate utilisation.
Results: Searches returned 263 articles, with 15 studies included with 226 participants after full-text screening. Meta-analysis demonstrated blackcurrant extract to increase fat oxidation (0.042 g·min-1, P<0.001) and decrease carbohydrate oxidation (-0.099 g·min-1, P=0.012).
Conclusions: Blackcurrant can increase fat oxidation and decrease carbohydrate oxidation during exercise. However, this finding is not consistent for individuals and factors such as training status, sex, dosage, duration of intake may determine responses.
Registry: The review was registered 28th April 2025 in PROSPERO (CRD420251030222)
Pyriproxyfen and diflubenzuron pesticides impair human adipose stem cell function: evidence of redox imbalance, KDM6B upregulation, and dysregulated adipogenesis
Get PDFIntroduction
Pyriproxyfen (PPF) and diflubenzuron (DFB) are widely used pesticides with metabolic toxicity in humans underexplored. White adipose tissue (WAT) is a potential target for endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
Aim
We investigated the effects of PPF and DFB on human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs) redox balance, epigenetic regulation, and adipogenic differentiation.
Method
Visceral WAT hASCs were exposed to PPF or DFB (0.01–2 mg/L). Cytotoxicity was observed at ≥1.5 mg/L, with 1 mg/L selected for further experiments.
Results
8-day exposure to PPF or DFB reduced catalase and superoxide dismutase activities while increasing glutathione peroxidase. This was accompanied by 74% increase in mRNA expression of H3K27 demethylase KDM6B and elevated secretion of CCL2 in PPF-exposed cells. During adipogenic differentiation, PPF and DFB upregulated early transcription factors and enhanced lipid accumulation. Differentiated adipocytes exhibited higher proportion of saturated fatty acids and increased leptin secretion, while adiponectin levels remained unchanged. In mature primary adipocytes, PPF suppressed the secretion of leptin and adiponectin, and significantly increased basal lipolysis.
Discussion
our results show endocrine and metabolic disruption induced by non-cytotoxic concentrations of PPF and DFB. PPF upregulated the epigenetic modulator KDM6B and promoted dysregulated adipogenic programming in hASCs, favouring lipid accumulation and a pro-inflammatory, metabolically compromised phenotype
Systematic Nutritional Clinical Assessment (SyNCA): Instrument Development, Delphi Protocol for Content, and Semantic Validation
Get PDFBackground
Malnutrition is a common complication in patients with chronic diseases, often exacerbated by clinical factors and increased metabolic demands. In individuals affected by Decompensated Chronic Liver Disease (DCLD), fluid retention, such as oedema and ascites, can hinder accurate nutritional assessment, leading to underdiagnosis or misdiagnosis of weight loss and malnutrition. The present study describes the development and validation of a novel tool for Systematic Nutritional Clinical Assessment (SyNCA), including its content, semantic, and construct validity.
Methods
In Phase 1, the Delphi protocol was employed to evaluate SyNCA content and semantic validity with input from clinical nutrition experts and resident nutritionists. Phase 2 involved a cross-sectional, multicentre study of DCLD hospitalised patients to assess construct validity. SyNCA outcomes were compared with established nutritional assessment methods including anthropometry, handgrip strength (HGS), and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Correlations were analysed using Pearson or Spearman coefficients.
Results
Following expert review in Phase 1, out of the 18 items initially proposed across five anatomical regions, 14 items were retained in the final SyNCA instrument. In Phase 2, data from 136 hospitalised DCLD patients revealed moderate correlations between SyNCA scores and arm muscle circumference (r = −0.567, p < 0.0001), HGS (r = −0.376, p < 0.0001), and Appendicular Muscle Mass Index (r = −0.502, p < 0.001), supporting construct validity.
Conclusion
SyNCA demonstrated strong content, semantic, and construct validity, demonstrating its potential as a reliable clinical tool for nutritional assessment in DCLD hospitalised patients, and particularly welcomed in clinical settings with limited resources or where traditional methods are impractical.
Summary
The presence of oedema and ascites impairs nutritional assessment due to fluid retention, leading to the underdiagnosis of malnutrition and weight loss in affected patients.
We developed and undertook content and semantic validation using the Delphi protocol (Phase 1), and construct validation (Phase 2), of a low-cost instrument for Systematic Nutritional Clinical Assessment (SyNCA).
Phase 2 was a multicentre study involving 136 patients with decompensated chronic liver disease, assessed using SyNCA, anthropometry, Handgrip Strength (HGS), and Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry.
SyNCA demonstrated strong content and semantic validity, alongside moderate correlations between its scores and mid-upper arm muscle circumference, HGS, and Appendicular Skeletal Muscle Mass Index.
SyNCA may serve as a reliable clinical tool for nutritional assessment of hospital inpatients, particularly in resource-limited settings or where traditional objective methods are unfeasible or prohibitively costly
Genome editing and regeneration pipeline for engineering disease resistance in tomato using CRISPR/Cas9
Get PDFCRISPR/Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/Cas9)-based genome editing has emerged as a powerful tool for developing disease-resistant crops. Here, we present a comprehensive and reproducible protocol for applying CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ), covering guide RNA (gRNA) design using CRISPOR, Golden Gate vector assembly, Agrobacterium -mediated transformation, plant regeneration, and molecular validation of edited plants. The workflow integrates standardized bioinformatics and sequencing-based validation tools, including DSDecodeM, TIDE, and protein-level impact analysis, to confirm targeted mutations and assess editing efficiency. Quantitative benchmarks for regeneration, transformation, and editing efficiencies were provided to support reproducibility. This protocol offers an integrated pipeline for generating and validating targeted gene knockouts in tomatoes and is intended to facilitate functional genomic studies and the development of disease-resistant cultivars. However, it is more widely applicable to gene editing in tomato plants
Hilary Mantel
No full textThis book is the first comprehensive critical introduction to the life and career of one of the most significant authors of the contemporary period. Moving beyond the straightforwardly biographical, the study provides an account of Hilary Mantel’s corpus which demonstrates the complex relationship that exists in the author’s writing between history and fiction, source and story, and memory and making. Responding to the elliptical and self-reflexive nature of Mantel’s body of work, the book rejects a chronological approach to the author’s writing career in favour of tracing a series of thematic concerns that can be seen to structure her literary output across a diverse array of genres and forms: alchemy, the body, haunting, history, and the figure of the reader. Drawing on unpublished materials held in the Hilary Mantel Literary Papers at the Huntington Library, and woven through with illustrations of the ways in which a range of theoretical concepts can be seen to resonate within the author’s work, Hilary Mantel offers a simultaneously accessible and rigorous account of a writer whose significance in, and influence upon, contemporary literary culture is yet to be fully acknowledged
Ontological, epistemological, axiological considerations when using qualitative methods for researching disability in physical education
No full textThe purpose of this chapter is to introduce the reader to key concepts from within the philosophy of science and to demonstrate the relevance of recognizing and questioning assumptions underlying research. Emphasis is placed on describing ontological, epistemological, and axiological beliefs and their association with different worldviews/paradigms, specifically the postpositivist, constructivist, critical, and participatory paradigms. Examples of each paradigm are provided in relation to qualitative research in physical education (PE) and disability
Physical Activity Experiences of People with Type 1 Diabetes across the Life Course
No full textThis study offers novel and significant insights to advance understanding, practise and policy regarding physical activity (PA) across the lifespan among individuals with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) in the United Kingdom (UK). Utilising both medicalised and socio-cultural lenses, we aimed to (1) examine the PA experiences of people with T1D; and (2) explore the meanings of PA across the life course. The qualitative testimonies of a 311 participants aged 3–75 were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis across age-based case studies. We identified why PA becomes meaningful at particular life stages, and how experiences are shaped by intersections of technology use, social attitudes, healthcare transitions, body image, and identity. Participants of all ages described navigating stigma, institutional misunderstanding, and internalised ableism, often heightened with age. We conclude that the T1D community remains underserved by current approaches, and call for targeted policy, practitioner training, and lifespan-oriented research that fosters inclusive and empowering PA opportunities
The Complexities of Staying Active Beyond the School Setting and Session - New Horizons
No full textChild obesity, acknowledged as a stigmatic term and complex construct, remains of public concern globally (Zhang et al., 2024). In New Mexico, health disparities in children are marked despite the early childhood programmes in place to redress wellbeing deficits. Its children have higher indices of obesity than across other states (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023). Obesity prevalence is higher in American Indian students than Hispanic, White, Asian, and African American peers (NMDOH, 2025). Just under a quarter of children have been reported to live in families below the federal poverty level in New Mexico (New Mexico Children’s Cabinet, 2022). A further national report saw improvements and declines across wellbeing indices in New Mexico's children (SNM, 2026-https://sourcenm.com/2025/06/09/national-report-again-ranks-new-mexico-last-in-child-well-being/) with child and teen deaths increasing beyond the national average.
Critical thinking, despite its being a concept without a firm consensus (Rivas, Saiz and Ossa, 2022; 2) has long since been acknowledged as an integral part of and requisite for physical education (Ennis, 1991; McBride, 1991). Critical thinking is one tacit means to build awareness and pragmatic competences through a justice orientation (Culver et al., 2022). One means to improve critical thinking is to facilitate and promote metacognition. The enquiry examines critical thinking, understanding, and physical skills and competencies needed to plan and participate in self-selected physical activities, where equitable provision, established in the school setting, would likely differ when beyond this. The participants (N=90; 4 classes) experienced their physical education lessons set through either direction instruction (Englemann et al., 1988) or metacognitive instruction (Brown, 1987) across one semester. These approaches were pedagogically contextualised through a models based practice approach using direct instruction (Rosenshine, 1983) and metacognitive instruction (Murray & Napper-Owen, 2021). Knowledge, and contextual transference of this from school to home settings, alongside metacognitive awareness, were significantly superior in the latter. Developmentally appropriate health and fitness indices improved significantly across both groups. Implications support the incorporation of critical thinking into pedagogical practice as part of a holistic approach to executive functioning across teacher education and also in support of families and their communities.
Whilst many welcome interventions are aimed at addressing discrepancies in the wellbeing picture, this intervention explored school influenced mediums of wellbeing and activity pathways to move beyond the school gate into home and community settings. Therein established pathways of knowing, doing and transferring (such as from class settings and physical activity sessions) were tapped into, acting as cognitive heuristics familiar to all involved to facilitate the transfer from school to beyond the school gate to encourage activities for wellbeing enhancement in the home context. Enabling processes such as :- 'executive function' to make best of children's brain management systems informing them of what to do, why and how to complement the physicality of activity participation, learn about self-regulation of thoughts, emotions and actions; and ‘agentic wellbeing’, pertaining to an individual’s sense of influence, self-control and engagement in their (own) management of their respective lives and health, were fundamental pillars of the work undertaken with the participants and through their active, explicit activity choices, reflections and follow-ups
The use of validated work stress and resilience assessment tools: A mixed method study of their applicability and understanding in the Occupation Therapy Workplace
No full textIntroduction
This study analyses the applicability of validated work stress and resilience assessment tools to the OT workplace, and OT’s understanding and experiences of the meaning of work stress and resilience, to inform current OT leadership and management approaches to work stress and resilience.
Method
The study utilises mixed quantitative and qualitative methods involving a self-completed online questionnaire (n=36), the completion of 3 standardised work stress assessment tools, and further qualitative semi structured interviews (n=15) with thematic analysis of the transcriptions.
Findings
Findings from the mixed methods data indicated divergence in between the results from the validated tools the OTS actual experiences of resilience. Quantitative data indicated participants’ as having a ‘normal’ level of self-efficacy and resilience in the workplace with many of the stressors being reflected as positive and motivational pressures rather than harmful stress. However, findings from the qualitative data related negative experiences that system constraints and demands are having on participants’ self-efficacy, professional identity, integrity and consequently resilience.
Conclusion
The findings highlight 3 key interrelated issues which inform currents OT leaders and managers’ use of validated work stress and resilience tools, towards the development of a service resilience framework to better meet the needs of the OT workforc