Applied Physical Activity Epidemiology: Relationship of Physical Activity and Exercise Exposures with Health Outcomes.

There is consistent, strong evidence that both physical activity and exercise lowers risk of many diseases, yet the way physical activity and exercise are measured varies substantially. Physical activity epidemiologists use observational designs (such as cohort or case-control studies) to examine the relationship of physical activity exposures and outcomes including mortality, or disease-specific such as incident type 2 diabetes mellitus, cancer, cardiovascular disease, anxiety, or depression. These same observational designs can be used to examine the associations of prevalent disease in reducing symptom burden in those who are physically active compared to those who are not, specifically examining anxiety and depression. There is great statistical power and often large sample sizes in physical activity epidemiologic studies with valid and reliable assessment tools but known limitations such as measurement error or social desirability bias. Overall, physical activity epidemiology can be a useful tool to understand the influence of exercise and physical activity on risk of disease. In this chapter, we will explore the strength, consistency, and sources of evidence primarily using a physical activity epidemiology lens.

Prevalence of Fabry disease-causing variants in the UK Biobank.

BACKGROUND: Fabry disease is an X-linked lysosomal storage disorder resulting from deficiency of the alpha-galactosidase A enzyme leading to accumulation of globotriaosylceramide in multiple organ sites with prominent cardiovascular and renal involvement. Global prevalence estimates of Fabry disease based on clinical ascertainment range from 1 in 40 000 to 1 in 170 000. We aimed to determine the prevalence of Fabry disease-causing variants in UK Biobank. METHODS: We sought GLA gene variants in exome sequencing data from 200 643 individuals from UK Biobank. We used ACMG/AMP guidelines (American College of Medical Genetics/Association for Molecular Pathology) to classify pathogenicity and compared baseline biomarker data, hospital ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases version-10) codes, general practitioner records and self-reported health data with those without pathogenic variants. RESULTS: We identified 81 GLA coding variants. We identified eight likely pathogenic variants on the basis of being rare (<1/10 000 individuals) and either previously reported to cause Fabry disease, or being protein-truncating variants. Thirty-six individuals carried one of these variants. In the UK Biobank, the prevalence of likely pathogenic Fabry disease-causing variants is 1/5732 for late-onset disease-causing variants and 1/200 643 for variants causing classic Fabry disease. CONCLUSION: Fabry disease-causing GLA variants are more prevalent in an unselected population sample than the reported prevalence of Fabry disease. These are overwhelmingly variants associated with later onset. It is possible the prevalence of later-onset Fabry disease exceeds current estimates.

Surveillance of biting midges (Culicoides spp.) in Northern Ireland: influence of seasonality, surrounding habitat and livestock housing.

Biting midges, Culicoides spp. (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), are important vectors of viral pathogens. Following the outbreak of bluetongue serotype 8 in Europe between 2006 and 2009, many Culicoides surveillance programmes were initiated to identify vector-active periods, in accordance with European Commission regulation 2007/1266/EC. This study utilized surveillance data from 4 years of continuous light-trapping at 14 sites in Northern Ireland. The number of captured Culicoides varied from none during the vector-free period (December-April) to more than 36 000 per night during peak activity in the summer. The Obsoletus group represented 75% of Culicoides collected and the Pulicaris group represented 21%. A total of 91% of Culicoides were female, of which 42% were parous. Abundance data, sex ratios and parous rates suggested that both the Obsoletus and Pulicaris groups underwent three generations/year. The Obsoletus group was associated with cattle-rearing habitats and woodland, the Impunctatus group was found in habitats related to sheep rearing and the Pulicaris group were associated with both cattle and sheep. Housing did not reduce incursion of female Obsoletus group Culicoides but it did for males and for the Pulicaris group Culicoides. The influence of housing was strongly affected by time of year, probably reflecting the presence of livestock indoors/outdoors.

Are seagrass beds indicators of anthropogenic nutrient stress in the rocky intertidal?

It is well established that anthropogenic nutrient inputs harm estuarine seagrasses, but the influence of nutrients in rocky intertidal ecosystems is less clear. In this study, we investigated the effect of anthropogenic nutrient loading on Phyllospadix spp., a rocky intertidal seagrass, at local and regional scales. At sites along California, Washington, and Oregon, we demonstrated a significant, negative correlation of urban development and Phyllospadix bed thickness. These results were echoed locally along an urban gradient on the central California coast, where Phyllospadix shoot δ15N was negatively associated with Phyllospadix bed thickness, and experimentally, where nutrient additions in mesocosms reduced Phyllospadix shoot formation and increased epiphytic cover on Phyllospadix shoots. These findings provide evidence that coastal development can threaten rocky intertidal seagrasses through increased epiphytism. Considering that seagrasses provide vital ecosystem services, mitigating eutrophication and other factors associated with development in the rocky intertidal coastal zone should be a management priority.

DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide)/PMD (para-menthane-3,8-diol) repellent-treated mesh increases Culicoides catches in light traps.

Biting midges (Culicoides spp.) are vectors of bluetongue and Schmallenberg viruses. Treatment of mesh barriers is a common method for preventing insect-vectored diseases and has been proposed as a means of limiting Culicoides ingression into buildings or livestock transporters. Assessments using animals are costly, logistically difficult and subject to ethical approval. Therefore, initial screening of test repellents/insecticides was made by applying treatments to mesh (2 mm) cages surrounding Onderstepoort light traps. Five commercial treatments were applied to cages as per manufacturers' application rates: control (water), bendiocarb, DEET/p-menthane-3,8-diol (PMD) repellent, Flygo (a terpenoid based repellent) and lambda-cyhalothrin. The experimental design was a 5 × 5 Latin square, replicated in time and repeated twice. Incongruously, the traps surrounded by DEET/PMD repellent-treated mesh caught three to four times more Obsoletus group Culicoides (the commonest midge group) than the other treatments. A proposed hypothesis is that Obsoletus group Culicoides are showing a dose response to DEET/PMD, being attracted at low concentrations and repelled at higher concentrations but that the strong light attraction from the Onderstepoort trap was sufficient to overcome close-range repellence. This study does not imply that DEET/PMD is an ineffective repellent for Culicoides midges in the presence of an animal but rather that caution should be applied to the interpretation of light trap bioassays.

Quality measures for gene expression biclusters.

An noticeable number of biclustering approaches have been proposed proposed for the study of gene expression data, especially for discovering functionally related gene sets under different subsets of experimental conditions. In this context, recognizing groups of co-expressed or co-regulated genes, that is, genes which follow a similar expression pattern, is one of the main objectives. Due to the problem complexity, heuristic searches are usually used instead of exhaustive algorithms. Furthermore, most of biclustering approaches use a measure or cost function that determines the quality of biclusters. Having a suitable quality metric for bicluster is a critical aspect, not only for guiding the search, but also for establishing a comparison criteria among the results obtained by different biclustering techniques. In this paper, we analyse a large number of existing approaches to quality measures for gene expression biclusters, as well as we present a comparative study of them based on their capability to recognize different expression patterns in biclusters.

Sticky-trapping biting midges (Culicoides spp.) alighting on cattle and sheep: effects of trap colour and evidence for host preference.

Sticky traps were mounted on heifers and sheep to assess Culicoides spp. (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) host preference. Initially, four coloured 200-cm(2) sticky traps (white, clear, yellow and blue) were attached to the backs of each of ten Friesian heifers that were released into open pasture for 24 h, repeated on six occasions. More Obsoletus group Culicoides were caught on the white and clear traps than on the yellow and blue. Trap position on the right or left flank also affected midge catch, probably due to heifer orientation in the field. Next, six Friesian heifers and six Charollais hoggets each had one clear and one white sticky strap attached to their backs for one 24-h period per week, repeated for 24 weeks. Overall, Obsoletus group Culicoides comprised 91.8% (n = 5, 955) of the midge catch but there was no evidence of host preference, either discounting or including host live weight in the analyses. However, Pulicaris group Culicoides did demonstrate a significant host preference for sheep, providing that the analysis was adjusted for live weight. On heifers, the Pulicaris group comprised 7.5% of biting midges caught, whereas on hoggets, it comprised 12.7%.

Evidence for transplacental and contact transmission of bluetongue virus in cattle.

This paper presents evidence that a field strain of bluetongue virus serotype 8 (BTV-8) was transmitted transplacentally and that it was also spread by a direct contact route. Twenty pregnant heifers were imported from the Netherlands into Northern Ireland during the midge-free season. Tests before and after the animals were imported showed that eight of them had antibodies to bluetongue virus, but no viral RNA was detected in any of them by reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR). Two of the seropositive heifers gave birth to three calves that showed evidence of bluetongue virus infection (RT-PCR-positive), and one of the calves was viraemic. Two further viraemic animals (one newly calved Dutch heifer, and one milking cow originally from Scotland) were also found to have been infected with BTV-8 and evidence is presented that these two animals may have been infected by direct contact, possibly through the ingestion of placentas infected with BTV-8.

Ancient associations of aquatic beetles and tank bromeliads in the Neotropical forest canopy

Water reservoirs formed by the leaf axils of bromeliads are a highly derived system for nutrient and water capture that also house a diverse fauna of invertebrate specialists. Here we investigate the origin and specificity of bromeliad-associated insects using Copelatinae diving beetles (Dytiscidae). This group is widely distributed in small water bodies throughout tropical forests, but a subset of species encountered in bromeliad tanks is strictly specialized to this habitat. An extensive molecular phylogenetic analysis of Neotropical Copelatinae places these bromeliadicolous species in at least three clades nested within other Copelatus. One lineage is morphologically distinct, and its origin was estimated to reach back to 12-23 million years ago, comparable to the age of the tank habitat itself. Species of this clade in the Atlantic rainforest of southern Brazil and mountain ranges of northern Venezuela and Trinidad show marked phylogeographical structure with up to 8% mtDNA divergence, possibly indicating allopatric speciation. The other two invasions of bromeliad water tanks are more recent, and haplotype distributions within species are best explained by recent expansion into newly formed habitat. Hence, bromeliad tanks create a second stratum of aquatic freshwater habitat independent of that on the ground but affected by parallel processes of species and population diversification at various temporal scales, possibly reflecting the paleoclimatic history of neotropical forests.

Morphology, architecture, and biomechanics of human cervical multifidus.

STUDY DESIGN: Cadaveric dissections and biomechanical modeling were used to study the human cervical multifidus muscle. OBJECTIVES: To describe attachment patterns of the multifidus in the cervical region, to quantify the muscle's architecture, and to use a biomechanical model to calculate the moment-generating capacity of the cervical multifidus. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Deep neck muscles such as the multifidus may play an important role in cervical spine stability and neck pain. However, there are limited data regarding the fascicular attachments or architecture parameters necessary to calculate force and moment. METHODS: The multifidus spinae was studied by dissection of nine cadaveric specimens. Fascicles were grouped according to attachment, and architecture parameters (musculotendon length, fascicle length, and physiologic cross-sectional area) were quantified. The data were used in a biomechanical model to calculate moment arm, force-, and moment-generating capacity of the multifidus. RESULTS: The multifidus originates from the facet capsules of lower cervical vertebrae and the transverse processes of upper thoracic vertebrae. The fascicles span 2 to 5 vertebral segments from origin to insertion, and they insert on the spinous processes and laminae of superior cervical vertebrae. For each fascicular subgroup, musculotendon lengths ranged from 2.0 to 6.9 cm, fascicle lengths ranged from 1.2 to 3.7 cm, and physiologic cross-sectional area ranged from 0.1 to 1.0 cm2. The total moment-generating capacity of the cervical multifidus in the neutral posture was predicted to be approximately 0.7 Nm for extension and lateral bending and 0.3 Nm for axial rotation. CONCLUSIONS: The fascicular attachment pattern of the multifidus spinae in the cervical region appears to be unique to that region. The direct attachment to cervical facet capsules supports a possible role in neck pain and injury. Characterizing the biomechanical function of the multifidus is important for the analysis of normal and pathologic conditions.

Biological control of sciarid and phorid pests of mushroom with predatory mites from the genus Hypoaspis(Acari: Hypoaspidae) and the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema feltiae.

In small-scale experiments, the predatory mites, Hypoaspis aculeifer (Canestrini) and H. miles Berlese, applied at 700 mites m(-2), and the entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema feltiae (Filipjev) applied at 3 x 10(-6) nematodes m(-2) controlled sciarids and phorids in mushroom compost and casing substrates. For both mite species, earliest application to the growing substrate following sciarid infestation reduced sciarid emergence. In contrast, later application of each biological control agent provided more effective control of phorid emergence. The behaviour of adult mites suggested that H. aculeifer were more positively geotactic than H. miles although both species could penetrate compost and casing substrates to a depth of 2-12 cm. A majority of S. feltiae nematodes resided at a depth of 2-4 cm in both substrate types. Independent application of H. aculeifer provided more comprehensive control of sciarids and phorids than the other biological agents studied, owing to its better dispersal within compost and casing, and ability to attack larvae of differing ages.

[Ultrasound morphologic changes in periventricular leukomalacia]. / Sonomorphologische Veränderungen bei periventrikulärer Leukomalazie.

Therapeutic advances in neonatology cause fewer hypoxic conditions. In relation with this we observe fewer high grade brain haemorrhages. Therefore, ischemical brain changes through brain oedema (12%) and resulting colliquation necroses become the focal point of diagnostic and therapeutic work. 7.3% of intensively treated neonates showed the sonographic picture of a periventricular leucomalacy (PVL). The polycystic areas can be seen on the eight day after birth at the earliest and at six months they turn into a glia scar which is not very obvious on the sonograph. We found a relation between beta-mimetic tocolysis, hypocapnia and the development of a PVL. We were not able to prove statistically a connection with premature birth.