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Rickets, resorption and revolution: An investigation into the relationship between vitamin D deficiency in childhood and osteoporosis in adulthood in an 18th-19th century population
Get PDFObjective
This study employs a Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) approach to assess the effect of vitamin D deficiency (VDD) in childhood on the risk of osteoporosis in adulthood in an archaeological sample of skeletons dating from the 18th to 19th centuries.
Materials
Femora and lumbar vertebrae of 65 adults aged 18+ years (26 diagnosed with residual rickets and 39 without) from an 18th-19th century Quaker burial ground at Coach Lane, North Shields, England.
Methods
Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured for the femoral neck and first four lumbar vertebrae of each individual using a dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scanner as a proxy for assessing osteoporotic fracture risk.
Results
3-way ANOVA revealed no statistically significant differences in BMD between individuals with and without residual rickets across age and sex.
Conclusions
A combination of lifestyle and environmental factors likely influenced the BMD of people buried at Coach Lane across the life course. The impact of childhood VDD on BMD later in life can be mitigated through other factors such as physical activity and diet.
Significance
This is one of the first bioarchaeological studies to take a DOHaD approach to understand osteoporosis risk in 18th-19th century England. It highlights the complexity of aetiological factors for osteoporosis and that VDD in early life does not necessarily predispose a person to osteoporosis in adulthood.
Limitations
BMD is not the only indicator of osteoporosis. Microscopic methods for the assessment of childhood vitamin D deficiency, such as inter-globular dentine analysis, were not applied
An insight for the interaction of Aceclofenac with hemoglobin using spectroscopic, electrochemical and in silico approaches
Get PDFThe interactions between protein and ligand are crucial to practically every biological function in the body, and investigations of these interactions are critical from the perspective of logical medication development. In this work, several biophysical methods like UV–Visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and in-silico studies have been explored to examine the interaction between aceclofenac and haemoglobin. Spectrofluorimetric data confirmed the static nature of the protein quenching mechanism caused by the medication. ΔG for the formation of the complex via the interaction was found to be − 12.65 kJ/mol. Molecular docking showed a strong interaction between aceclofenac and hemoglobin with a binding energy of − 31.79 kJ/mol. Further, molecular dynamics simulations using Gromacs were run to investigate the stability of the protein with and without aceclofenac, and the ΔG for the formation of the complex (hemoglobin-aceclofenac) is − 105.09 kJ/mol with an error of 13.51 kJ/mol. Spectroscopic and in-silico calculations indicate the feasible binding of the aceclofenac with hemoglobin. Further, the interaction of haemoglobin with aceclofenac was studied by cyclic voltammetry. Graphical Abstract
P17.02.B BMSCOPE: A SCOPING REVIEW TO CHART THE EVOLVING CLINICAL STUDY LANDSCAPE IN BRAIN AND LEPTOMENINGEAL METASTASIS
No full textBACKGROUND Recent studies have challenged the notion that patients with brain metastasis (BM) or leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) should be excluded from systemic therapy clinical trials. This scoping study summarises BM/LM clinical studies published globally between 2010 and 2023. MATERIAL AND METHODS Eleven electronic databases were searched on 21 June 2021, with an updated search on 21 February 2023. Clinical studies were included if they involved the investigation of a therapeutic intervention in patients with BM and/or LM, and a reported patient outcome. Study-level data was extracted by study authors, including study type, date of publication, country of data collection, number of BM/LM patients in study, primary tumour type and type of therapeutic intervention RESULTS 48222 studies were identified from the electronic search and 4921 unique studies were eligible for analysis, with increasing numbers of studies (and international collaborations) through the study period. 627 of these publications were clinical trials. Over the study period there was a shift towards later stage clinical trials, predominantly trials of systemic therapy that included BM/LM patients. Despite this, only 29.2% reported intracranial-specific outcomes. CONCLUSION In this comprehensive analysis of the BM/LM literature, we chart the evolving landscape of studies involving this previously clinically excluded population. Given the increasing clinical research activity, particularly late-stage systemic therapy trials, it is imperative that consideration is given to the intracranial activity of new investigational agents. Wider adoption of standardised reporting of intracranial-specific endpoints will facilitate evaluation of intracranial efficac
The DeStress-II Project: Enhancing Primary Care Responses to Poverty-Related Mental Distress
No full textThe Galaxy Zoo Catalogs for the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) Survey
Get PDFGalaxy Zoo is an online project to classify morphological features in extra-galactic imaging surveys with public voting. In this paper, we compare the classifications made for two different surveys, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) imaging survey and a part of the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS), in the equatorial fields of the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Our aim is to cross-validate and compare the classifications based on different imaging quality and depth.
We find that generally the voting agrees globally but with substantial scatter i.e. substantial differences for individual galaxies. There is a notable higher voting fraction in favor of ``smooth'' galaxies in the DESI+\rev{\sc zoobot} classifications, most likely due to the difference between imaging depth. DESI imaging is shallower and slightly lower resolution than KiDS and the Galaxy Zoo images do not reveal details such as disk features \rev{and thus are missed in the {\sc zoobot} training sample}. \rev{We check against expert visual classifications and find good agreement with KiDS-based Galaxy Zoo voting.}
We reproduce the results from Porter-Temple+ (2022), on the dependence of stellar mass, star-formation, and specific star-formation on the number of spiral arms. This shows that once corrected for redshift, the DESI Galaxy Zoo and KiDS Galaxy Zoo classifications agree well on population properties. The zoobot cross-validation increases confidence in its ability to compliment Galaxy Zoo classifications and its ability for transfer learning across surveys
Public perceptions of the Hippocratic Oath in the U.K. 2023
Get PDFThis paper explores public perceptions of the Hippocratic Oath (Physician’s Oath) in the U.K. Results of a questionnaire administered online to 106 adults indicated that the majority were of the opinion that their primary and secondary health care doctors had taken the Oath (88% and 86% respectively). A majority thought that nurses, paramedics, psychotherapists and graduate scientists and researchers should also take some form of professional oath. Elements of the Oath which were deemed most important included that it is a sworn oath, that doctors should not harm patients, act in the best interests of patients, abide by the principles of autonomy and informed consent and maintain patient confidentiality. A significant proportion - about 20% - of the UK public felt that doctors had forgotten their Hippocratic Oath during COVID-19 lockdowns and associated vaccination programme, suggesting that recent history may have damaged the public faith in the medical profession
Physical Demands During Contextualised Peak Intensity Periods: Analysis of Transitional Play, High-Pressure Activities and 30-second Worst-Case Scenarios in Elite Football
Get PDFTransitional activities (TA’s) and high-pressure actions are the key phases of play in modern football. They present a broad context within game play, as they depict actions in/out of possession as well as represent tactical offensive and defensive team collective movements and behaviours. A detailed definition of these tactical moments is presented in Table 2 and 3, which can be found in Chapter 3 (page 86-87). Previous studies have not explored the physical demands during transitions in football and most authors have reported whole and average match GPS-derived data neglecting fluctuations of intensity across 90-min. These shorts bouts of high-intensity periods could expose players to the highest physical outputs within a contemporary match play. The increased body of knowledge on TA’s might provide new multivariate insights about physical demands of
competition and offer more effective team/individual contextualised training design that integrates physical and technical-tactical aspects in practical settings. Therefore, the primary aim of this thesis was to analyse short and specific blocks of activities commonly observed in football matches and determine their impact on external load metrics to optimise physical preparation of players, enhance performance, and potentially reduce injury risk.
Chapter 3 analysed the mean and peak team physical demands during transitional activities and compared them to the 90-min averages. Chapter 4 explored physical demands across different playing positions during these phases. Players were categorised to the following positional groups: center backs (CB), full backs (FB), central defensive midfielders (CDM), central midfielders (CM), central attacking midfielders (CAM), wingers (W), and attackers (A). The aims of Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 were to analyse the effect of contextual variables (match half, match outcome, and 15min blocks) on locomotor and mechanical metrics and investigate repeated high-intensity specific efforts (clusters) during these key periods of play. Frequency, type, duration, and recovery periods between clusters of transitional activities (CTA) were also determined. Chapter 7 investigated 30-second peak intensity periods also referred to as the worst-case-scenarios (WCS) within training and game play. The aim was to compare commonly selected football specific drills to the competition WCS demands, establish the effect of position, playing status (starters vs. non-starters), and different recovery periods between games (long vs moderate vs congested) on match day physical performance during 30-second peak phases.
Findings demonstrated largely elevated physical metrics when contextualised into transitions, especially in relation to high-velocity activities, which were 7-9 times greater when compared to the whole match averages. It was revealed that during football matches players could be frequently exposed (n = 50 ± 11.1) to short maximum physical outputs (transitions) lasting around 10 seconds. Moreover, 66% of all transitions were identified as clusters (CTA), which means more than 2 TA’s occurred within 1 min. Additionally, all locomotor metrics (high velocity) were found to be insufficiently imposed in training across all playing positions. It was also shown that the congested fixtures could have a detrimental effect on mechanical metrics and the gap between training and competition for maximum intensity periods could even be greater in substitute players.
Such information could help practitioners prescribe position specific high-velocity and high-intensity exposures within a weekly microcycle to better prepare players for short and specific peak intensity periods experienced in official matches. Practitioners should move away from training design guided only by 90-minute averages and focus more on condensed match demands in practical settings to counteract the detrimental effects of fatigue on the second half physical performance. Isolated running based drills in conjunction with transitional games during team and/or top-up conditioning sessions would be highly recommended based on these findings.
This thesis provides novel data about short specific and contextualised maximum intensity periods. The chapters presented in this work contribute to the body of existing knowledge and provide further valuable insights into the physical demands of professional football. Collectively therefore, they should serve as high importance to practitioners. Coaches are encouraged to apply these findings and adopt practical recommendations presented in Chapter 8 in team and individual training prescription
Entrepreneurship as career choice of Russian students: the role of university education, cultural traditions, and gender stereotypes
Get PDFIn this paper, based on our own recent sociological survey of more than 800 students of 15 Russian universities, we explore the views of Russian students regarding entrepreneurship as their possible choice of a future career. We are interested above all in the role of university education in shaping these views. However, in order to scrutinize this role to full extent, we place our study in the broader framework of national cultural traditions which constitute an integral contributing factor and underlying influence not only in educational, but also in the general existential realm. In this context, we argue that a substantial impact on the students’ future career choice is made by existing gender differences based on the stereotypes of the ‘typically male’ and ‘female’ employment fields. Our study demonstrates, in particular, that Russian students display—notably, just as the older generation of educated Russians too—a noticeable conservatism in their career choices (including entrepreneurial aspirations), by adhering to the traditional cultural values and gender perceptions. We also provide a nuanced analysis of the motivations and expectations associated with choosing an entrepreneurial career by our respondents. Our method of collecting information is chosen to be questionnaire-based—as most effective for descriptive research—which is then complemented by further qualitative analytics intended to reveal hidden causal connections. Our approach is interdisciplinary, as it combines sociological research methods with socio-economic and culturological analysis