Functional tests associated with sarcopenia in moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Objectives: To evaluate the association of physical and functional measures with sarcopenia in moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to establish cutoff points for sarcopenia screening.Methods: The study included COPD with and without sarcopenia, of both sexes who were over 50 years old. Participants were assessed for lung function, body composition, grip strength, Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), 5-repetition, 10-repetition and 30-s sit-to-stand tests (5STS, 10STS, and 30STS, respectively). In addition, 6-min walking test, respiratory muscular strength, and physical activity level were tested.Results: The study had 35 participants, 24 men (68.6%) and moderate COPD (51.4%). COPD-sarcopenia showed lower values in lean mass, body fat and body mass alongside lower performance in 10 and 30 STS tests, SPPB and gait speed compared to non-sarcopenic group. The cutoff points with better sensitivity and specificity to identify sarcopenia were 10.88 and 34.14 s, 15 repetitions, and 10 points in the 5STS, 10STS, 30STS, and SPPB, respectively. The comparison of the receiver operating curves evidenced no differences between the functional tests. Only 30STS and SPPB showed acceptable discriminatory power.Conclusion: Functional tests, especially 30STS and SPPB, are simple and affordable tools for screening sarcopenia in COPD with moderate obstruction.

Does whole body vibration exercise improve oxidative stress markers in women with fibromyalgia?

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of whole body vibration (WBV) exercise on oxidative stress markers in a group of women with fibromyalgia (FM) compared to a group of healthy women (CT). Twenty-one women diagnosed with FM and 21 age- and weight-matched healthy women were enrolled the study. Plasma oxidative stress markers (primary outcomes) were evaluated at rest and after WBV, and included thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), iron reduction capacity (FRAP), superoxide dismutase antioxidant enzymes activity (SOD), and catalase (CAT). At rest, the FM group had higher TBARS (P<0.001) and FRAP (P<0.001), and lower CAT (P=0.005) compared to the CT. In the CT group, the WBV had no effect on TBARS (P=0.559) and FRAP (P=0.926), whereas it increased both SOD (P<0.001) and CAT (P<0.001). In the FM group, the WBV reduced TBARS (p <0.001), FRAP (P<0.001), and CAT (P=0.005), while it increased SOD (P=0.019). There was an interaction effect (moments vs groups) in the TBARS (effect size=1.34), FRAP (effect size=0.93), CAT (effect size=1.45), and SOD (effect size=1.44) (P<0.001). A single trial of WBV exercise improved all oxidant and antioxidant parameters towards a greater adaptation to the stress response in FM women.

Does whole body vibration exercise improve oxidative stress markers in women with fibromyalgia?

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of whole body vibration (WBV) exercise on oxidative stress markers in a group of women with fibromyalgia (FM) compared to a group of healthy women (CT). Twenty-one women diagnosed with FM and 21 age- and weight-matched healthy women were enrolled the study. Plasma oxidative stress markers (primary outcomes) were evaluated at rest and after WBV, and included thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), iron reduction capacity (FRAP), superoxide dismutase antioxidant enzymes activity (SOD), and catalase (CAT). At rest, the FM group had higher TBARS (P<0.001) and FRAP (P<0.001), and lower CAT (P=0.005) compared to the CT. In the CT group, the WBV had no effect on TBARS (P=0.559) and FRAP (P=0.926), whereas it increased both SOD (P<0.001) and CAT (P<0.001). In the FM group, the WBV reduced TBARS (p <0.001), FRAP (P<0.001), and CAT (P=0.005), while it increased SOD (P=0.019). There was an interaction effect (moments vs groups) in the TBARS (effect size=1.34), FRAP (effect size=0.93), CAT (effect size=1.45), and SOD (effect size=1.44) (P<0.001). A single trial of WBV exercise improved all oxidant and antioxidant parameters towards a greater adaptation to the stress response in FM women.

Analyzing similarities in genome sequences.

This article investigates aspects of similarity between complete sequences of mitochondrial DNA by determining the distribution of the relative frequencies of words with different lengths and the characteristics of their relevance throughout the sequences. The degree of similarity is obtained by comparing the distances between words contained within these sequences. Our results indicate that the best groupings among different species depend on the lengths of words and their respective relative frequencies. We also observed that the longer the word the more consistent the grouping between the sequences becomes. The application of our results, together with the perspective of analyzing DNA sequences belonging to a single biological species, may be important for the construction of phylogenetic trees, which are appropriate structures for understanding the evolutionary history of the species.

The role of stochasticity on compactness of the native state of protein peptide backbone.

A restricted angular random-walk model to build up polypeptide structures, which encompasses properties of the dihedral-angle Ramachandran map of folded proteins, is proposed to study the role of stochasticity on the compactness of the native state of proteins. Sample structures will be built with lengths ranging from 125 up to 400 amino acids for the different fractions of secondary structure motifs, from which dihedral angles were randomly chosen according to narrow Gaussian probability distributions. Physical properties of these polypeptide protein backbones such as the radius of gyration, the compactness parameter, the number of contacts, and the associated energy were computed and analyzed from an ensemble of thousands of realizations of protein peptide chains built with different rates of alpha-helix or beta-strand motifs. Such geometric and physical parameters are compared to data from several globular proteins extracted from the Protein Data Bank indicating that a certain (small fraction) randomness is an essential ingredient for achieving the folded state of proteins, suggesting that they are neither driven by deterministic nor random-walk processes.