Feasibility of a laboratory-based protocol for measuring energy expenditure and accelerometer calibration in adults with intellectual disabilities.

Adults with intellectual disabilities experience numerous health inequalities. Targeting unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, such as high levels of sedentary behaviour and overweight/obesity, is a priority area for improving the health and adults with intellectual disabilities and reducing inequalities. Energy expenditure is a fundamental component of numerous health behaviours and an essential component of various free-living behaviour measurements, e.g. accelerometry. However, little is known about energy expenditure in adults with intellectual disabilities and no population-specific accelerometer data interpretation methods have been calibrated. The limited research in this area suggests that adults with intellectual disabilities have a higher energy expenditure, which requires further exploration, and could have significant impacts of device calibration. However, due to the complex methods required for measuring energy expenditure, it is essential to first evaluate feasibility and develop an effective protocol. This study aims to test the feasibility of a laboratory-based protocol to enable the measurement of energy expenditure and accelerometer calibration in adults with intellectual disabilities.We aimed to recruit ten adults (≥ 18 years) with intellectual disabilities. The protocol involved a total of nine sedentary, stationary, and physical activities, e.g. sitting, lying down, standing, and treadmill walking. Each activity was for 5 min, with one 10 min lying down activity to measure resting energy expenditure. Breath by breath respiratory gas exchange and accelerometry (ActiGraph and ActivPAL) were measured during each activity. Feasibility was assessed descriptively using recruitment and outcome measurement completion rates, and participant/stakeholder feedback.Ten adults (N = 7 female) with intellectual disabilities participated in this study. The recruitment rate was 50% and 90% completed the protocol and all outcome measures. Therefore, the recruitment strategy and protocol are feasible.This study addresses a significant gap in our knowledge relating to exercise laboratory-based research for adults with intellectual disabilities The findings from this study provide essential data that can be used to inform the development of future protocols to measure energy expenditure and for accelerometer calibration in adults with intellectual disabilities.

Bioaerosol sampling: sampling mechanisms, bioefficiency and field studies.

Investigations into the suspected airborne transmission of pathogens in healthcare environments have posed a challenge to researchers for more than a century. With each pathogen demonstrating a unique response to environmental conditions and the mechanical stresses it experiences, the choice of sampling device is not obvious. Our aim was to review bioaerosol sampling, sampling equipment, and methodology. A comprehensive literature search was performed, using electronic databases to retrieve English language papers on bioaerosol sampling. The review describes the mechanisms of popular bioaerosol sampling devices such as impingers, cyclones, impactors, and filters, explaining both their strengths and weaknesses, and the consequences for microbial bioefficiency. Numerous successful studies are described that point to best practice in bioaerosol sampling, from the use of small personal samplers to monitor workers' pathogen exposure through to large static samplers collecting airborne microbes in various healthcare settings. Of primary importance is the requirement that studies should commence by determining the bioefficiency of the chosen sampler and the pathogen under investigation within laboratory conditions. From such foundations, sampling for bioaerosol material in the complexity of the field holds greater certainty of successful capture of low-concentration airborne pathogens. From the laboratory to use in the field, this review enables the investigator to make informed decisions about the choice of bioaerosol sampler and its application.

Contributions of maternal and paternal adiposity and smoking to adult offspring adiposity and cardiovascular risk: the Midspan Family Study.

OBJECTIVE: Obesity has some genetic basis but requires interaction with environmental factors for phenotypic expression. We examined contributions of gender-specific parental adiposity and smoking to adiposity and related cardiovascular risk in adult offspring. DESIGN: Cross-sectional general population survey. SETTING: Scotland. PARTICIPANTS: 1456 of the 1477 first generation families in the Midspan Family Study: 2912 parents (aged 45-64 years surveyed between 1972 and 1976) who had 1025 sons and 1283 daughters, aged 30-59 years surveyed in 1996. MAIN MEASURES: Offspring body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), cardiometabolic risk (lipids, blood pressure and glucose) and cardiovascular disease as outcome measures, and parental BMI and smoking as determinants. All analyses adjusted for age, socioeconomic status and family clustering and offspring birth weight. RESULTS: Regression coefficients for BMI associations between father-son (0.30) and mother-daughter (0.33) were greater than father-daughter (0.23) or mother-son (0.22). Regression coefficient for the non-genetic, shared-environment or assortative-mating relationship between BMIs of fathers and mothers was 0.19. Heritability estimates for BMI were greatest among women with mothers who had BMI either <25 or ≥30 kg/m(2). Compared with offspring without obese parents, offspring with two obese parents had adjusted OR of 10.25 (95% CI 6.56 to 13.93) for having WC ≥102 cm for men, ≥88 cm women, 2.46 (95% CI 1.33 to 4.57) for metabolic syndrome and 3.03 (95% CI 1.55 to 5.91) for angina and/or myocardial infarct (p<0.001). Neither parental adiposity nor smoking history determined adjusted offspring individual cardiometabolic risk factors, diabetes or stroke. Maternal, but not paternal, smoking had significant effects on WC in sons (OR=1.50; 95% CI 1.13 to 2.01) and daughters (OR=1.42; 95% CI 1.10 to 1.84) and metabolic syndrome OR=1.68; 95% CI 1.17 to 2.40) in sons. CONCLUSIONS: There are modest genetic/epigenetic influences on the environmental factors behind adverse adiposity. Maternal smoking appears a specific hazard on obesity and metabolic syndrome. A possible epigenetic mechanism linking maternal smoking to obesity and metabolic syndrome in offspring is proposed. Individuals with family histories of obesity should be targeted from an early age to prevent obesity and complications.

Loss of heterozygosity of tumour suppressor gene loci in human colorectal carcinoma.

We used Southern blot analysis and polymerase chain reaction-based techniques to examine deletions of tumour suppressor gene loci in 91 primary colorectal tumours. The tumour suppressor genes studied were MCC and APC on chromosome 5q, p53 on chromosome 17p, DCC on chromosome 18q, and the putative suppressor gene nm23-H1 on chromosome 17q. The most frequent allelic loss observed was in chromosome 17p with 76% (68/89) of informative tumours showing loss of heterozygosity at this locus, followed by 34% (19/55) for DCC, 31% (12/39) for MCC, 17% (9/53) for APC and 16% (3/19) for nm23. No significant differences in the frequency of these suppressor gene allelic losses were observed between Dukes B and C stage adenocarcinomas.