Nutrition knowledge of elite and non-elite Gaelic footballers.

Dietary intake plays a significant role in athletic performance and is influenced by several factors, including nutrition knowledge. Gaelic footballers are amateur athletes who conduct high-intensity, intermittent activity during training and competition, and have previously demonstrated insufficient dietary intake. This study aimed to examine nutrition knowledge in elite and non-elite Gaelic footballers. An online survey was distributed to competitive Gaelic footballers, examining nutrition knowledge using the Abridged Nutrition for Sport Knowledge Questionnaire. Total, general, and sport nutrition knowledge were compared between elite and non-elite athletes, and those who had and had not previously received nutrition education, using Mann-Whitney U-tests. A total of 190 participants (15.3% women) completed the survey. No differences between elite and non-elite athletes in nutrition knowledge were identified (p > 0.05). Athletes with previous nutrition education scored higher than those without previous nutrition education in total (54.0 ± 4.9% vs 46.8 ± 9.6%; p = 0.002) and sport (51.9 ± 12.5% vs 43.4 ± 11.8%; p = 0.005) nutrition knowledge. Findings suggest an importance of nutrition education at all levels of athletic competition to improve nutrition knowledge, which may empower athletes to make appropriate dietary decisions to support training and competition demands.

Fully integrated digital microfluidics platform for automated immunoassay; A versatile tool for rapid, specific detection of a wide range of pathogens.

With the tangible threat posed by the release of chemical and biological warfare (CBW) agents, detection of airborne pathogens is a critical military and security concern. Recent air sampling techniques developed for biocollection take advantage of Electrowetting on Dielectric (EWOD) to recover material, producing highly concentrated droplet samples. Bespoke EWOD-based digital microfluidics platforms are very well suited to take full advantage of the microlitre concentrated droplet resulting from this recovery process. In this paper we present a free-standing, fully automated DMF platform for immunoassay. Using this system, we demonstrate the automated detection of four classes of CBW agent simulant biomolecules and organisms each representing credible threat agents. Taking advantage of the full magnetic separation process with antibody-bound microbeads, rapid and complete separation of specific target antigen can be achieved with minimal washing steps allowing for very rapid detection. Here, we report clear detection of four categories of antigens achieved with assay completion times of between six and ten minutes. Detection of HSA, Bacillus atrophaeus (BG spores), MS2 bacteriophage and Escherichia coli are demonstrated with estimated limit of detection of respectively 30 ng ml-1, 4 × 104 cfu ml-1, 106 pfu ml-1 and 2 × 107 cfu ml-1. The fully-integrated portable platform described in this paper is highly compatible with the next generation of electrowetting-coupled air samplers and thus shows strong potential toward future in-field deployable biodetection systems and could have key implication in life-changing sectors such as healthcare, environment or food security.

Electromagnetic stirring in a microbioreactor with non-conventional chamber morphology and implementation of multiplexed mixing.

BACKGROUND: Microbioreactors have emerged as novel tools for early bioprocess development. Mixing lies at the heart of bioreactor operation (at all scales). The successful implementation of micro-stirring methods is thus central to the further advancement of microbioreactor technology. The aim of this study was to develop a micro-stirring method that aids robust microbioreactor operation and facilitates cost-effective parallelization. RESULTS: A microbioreactor was developed with a novel micro-stirring method involving the movement of a magnetic bead by sequenced activation of a ring of electromagnets. The micro-stirring method offers flexibility in chamber designs, and mixing is demonstrated in cylindrical, diamond and triangular shaped reactor chambers. Mixing was analyzed for different electromagnet on/off sequences; mixing times of 4.5 s, 2.9 s, and 2.5 s were achieved for cylindrical, diamond and triangular shaped chambers, respectively. Ease of micro-bubble free priming, a typical challenge of cylindrical shaped microbioreactor chambers, was obtained with a diamond-shaped chamber. Consistent mixing behavior was observed between the constituent reactors in a duplex system. CONCLUSION: A novel stirring method using electromagnetic actuation offering rapid mixing and easy integration with microbioreactors was characterized. The design flexibility gained enables fabrication of chambers suitable for microfluidic operation, and a duplex demonstrator highlights potential for cost-effective parallelization. Combined with a previously published cassette-like fabrication of microbioreactors, these advances will facilitate the development of robust and parallelized microbioreactors. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.