The haptic pleasures of ground-feel: The role of textured terrain in motivating regular exercise.

This paper explores the role that somatic or bodily touch-based experience of ground surface textures plays in securing a commitment to health-giving exercise practices, and argues that ground-feel is a neglected and underrated dimension of how environments co-constitute health. Past work has largely either overlooked ground-feel or positioned rough ground solely as a barrier to bodily movement. This research, however, informed by mobile and video ethnographies of walking and mountain biking in Scotland, elaborates a number of ways in which the experience of textured terrain can produce sensory and emotional experiences that motivate regular exercise. The possibility of positive tactile as well as visual experiences of landscapes, including uneven as well as smooth surfaces, ought then to be taken more seriously in designing everyday outdoor environments that encourage the energetic movement of bodies. A key challenge is to identify the optimal mix of textured and smooth ground surfaces to encourage increased energetic engagement for the widest range of users.

A novel single nucleotide polymorphism in the 3' untranslated region of human glutathione peroxidase 4 influences lipoxygenase metabolism.

Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for human health. The biological roles of the essential micronutrient Se are attributed to its presence in a range of 20-30 selenoproteins including the cytosolic and phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidases (GPX1 and GPX4). It has been suggested that GPX4 may play a role in regulation of leukotriene biosynthesis and thus inflammation. In eukaryotes Se is incorporated into selenoproteins as the amino acid selenocysteine in a process requiring a stem-loop within the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of the mRNA. In this study the region of the GPX4 gene corresponding to the 3'UTR was scanned for mutations in a group of 66 volunteers. The data show a T/C variant at position 718. The distribution of this SNP in our population was 34% CC, 25% TT and 41% TC; i.e., it is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Individuals of different genotypes exhibited significant differences in the levels of lymphocyte 5-lipoxygenase total products, with C718 showing increased levels of those products compared to T718 and T/C718 (36% and 44% increases, respectively). The data suggest that the SNP718 that we have identified has functional effects and support the hypothesis that GPX4 plays a regulatory role in leukotriene biosynthesis.