Coffee consumption and death from coronary heart disease in middle aged Norwegian men and women.

OBJECTIVE--To study the association between number of cups of coffee consumed per day and coronary death when taking other major coronary risk factors into account. DESIGN--Men and women attending screening and followed up for a mean of 6.4 years. SETTING--Cardiovascular survey performed by ambulatory teams from the National Health Screening Service in Norway. PARTICIPANTS--All middle aged people in three counties: 19,398 men and 19,166 women aged 35-54 years who reported neither cardiovascular disease or diabetes nor symptoms of angina pectoris or intermittent claudication. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE--Predictive value of number of cups of coffee consumed per day. RESULTS--At initial screening total serum cholesterol concentration, high density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration, blood pressure, height, and weight were measured and self reported information about smoking history, physical activity, and coffee drinking habits was recorded. Altogether 168 men and 16 women died of coronary heart disease during follow up. Mean cholesterol concentrations for men and women were almost identical and increased from the lowest to highest coffee consumption group (13.1% and 10.9% respectively). With the proportional hazards model and adjustment for age, total serum and high density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations, systolic blood pressure, and number of cigarettes per day the coefficient for coffee corresponded to a relative risk between nine or more cups of coffee and less than one cup of 2.2 (95% confidence interval 1.1 to 4.5) for men and 5.1 (0.4 to 60.3) for women. For men the relative risk varied among the three counties. CONCLUSIONS--Coffee may affect mortality from coronary heart disease over and above its effect in raising cholesterol concentrations.     

Non-fasting serum triglyceride concentration and mortality from coronary heart disease and any cause in middle aged Norwegian women.

OBJECTIVE--To study the association between non-fasting serum triglyceride concentrations and mortality in women from coronary and cardiovascular disease and all causes. DESIGN--Follow up by ambulatory teams of men and women who underwent cardiovascular screening for a mean of 14.6 years. SETTING--National health screening service in Norway. SUBJECTS--25,058 men and 24,535 women aged 35-49 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE--Predictive value of non-fasting serum triglyceride concentrations. RESULTS--At initial screening total serum cholesterol concentration, serum triglyceride concentration, blood pressure, height, and weight were measured, and self reported information about smoking habits, physical activity, and time since last meal were recorded. During subsequent follow up 108 women died from coronary heart disease, 238 from cardiovascular diseases, and 931 from all causes. In women mortality increased steadily with increasing triglyceride concentration for all three causes of death. With the proportional hazards model and adjustment for age, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol concentration, time since last meal, and number of cigarettes a day the relative risk between triglyceride concentration > or = 3.5 mmol/l and < 1.5 mmol/l was 4.7 (95% confidence interval 2.5 to 8.9) for deaths from coronary heart disease, 3.0 (1.9 to 4.8) for deaths from cardiovascular disease, 2.3 (1.8 to 2.9) for total deaths in all women. CONCLUSIONS--A raised non-fasting concentration of triglycerides is an independent risk factor for mortality from coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and any cause mortality among middle aged Norwegian women in contrast to what is seen in men.     

Recent evolutionary history of American Onchocerca volvulus, based on analysis of a tandemly repeated DNA sequence family

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products were characterized for a repeated sequence family (designated "O-150") of the human filarial parasite Onchocerca volvulus. In phylogenetic inferences, the O-150 sequences clustered into closely related groups, suggesting that concerted evolution maintains sequence homology in this family. Using a novel mathematical model based on a nested application of an analysis of variance, we demonstrated that African rainforest and savannah strain parasite populations are significantly different. In contrast, parasites collected in the New World are indistinguishable from African savannah strains of O. volvulus. This finding supports the hypothesis that onchocerciasis was recently introduced into the New World, possibly as a result of the slave trade.      

Assessing horizontal transfer of nifHDK genes in eubacteria: nucleotide sequence of nifK from Frankia strain HFPCcI3

The structural genes for nitrogenase, nifK, nifD, and nifH, are crucial for nitrogen fixation. Previous phylogenetic analysis of the amino acid sequence of nifH suggested that this gene had been horizontally transferred from a proteobacterium to the gram-positive/cyanobacterial clade, although the confounding effects of paralogous comparisons made interpretation of the data difficult. An additional test of nif gene horizontal transfer using nifD was made, but the NifD phylogeny lacked resolution. Here nif gene phylogeny is addressed with a phylogenetic analysis of a third and longer nif gene, nifK. As part of the study, the nifK gene of the key taxon Frankia was sequenced. Parsimony and some distance analyses of the nifK amino acid sequences provide support for vertical descent of nifK, but other distance trees provide support for the lateral transfer of the gene. Bootstrap support was found for both hypotheses in all trees; the nifK data do not definitively favor one or the other hypothesis. A parsimony analysis of NifH provides support for horizontal transfer in accord with previous reports, although bootstrap analysis also shows some support for vertical descent of the orthologous nifH genes. A wider sampling of taxa and more sophisticated methods of phylogenetic inference are needed to understand the evolution of nif genes. The nif genes may also be powerful phylogenetic tools. If nifK evolved by vertical descent, it provides strong evidence that the cyanobacteria and proteobacteria are sister groups to the exclusion of the firmicutes, whereas 16S rRNA sequences are unable to resolve the relationships of these three major eubacterial lineages.      

Molecular epidemiology of Blastocystis infections in Turkey

Blastocystis is a very common unicellular intestinal parasite of ubiquitous occurrence. In order to describe the molecular epidemiology of Blastocystis infections in Turkey, 87 isolates from 69 symptomatic and 18 asymptomatic individuals were sequenced. Sequence data were phylogenetically analyzed and statistically tested against unmodifiable risk factors such as gender and age. Blastocystis-positive males were complaining mainly of gastroenteritis, whereas dyspepsia was the chief complaint among Blastocystis-positive females. Blastocystis sp. subtypes detected in the study included subtypes 1, 2, 3 and 4, subtype 3 being the most predominant (75.9%). No association was detected between Blastocystis sp. subtype and symptoms (p>0.365), or between infection intensity and symptoms (p>0.441). There was a tendency of subtype 2 isolates being more common among older study individuals, and subtype 2 isolates were significantly associated with higher parasite abundance (p=0.017). Compared to data from similar studies, the distribution of Blastocystis sp. isolates in Turkey was found to more or less reflect the one seen in other countries, and it was deduced that subtype 3 is generally by far the most common subtype infecting humans, followed by subtypes 1, 2 and 4.     

Experience in the application of Java Technologies in telemedicine

Java language has been demonstrated to be an effective tool in supporting medical image viewing in Russia. This evaluation was completed by obtaining a maximum of 20 images, depending on the client's computer workstation from one patient using a commercially available computer tomography (CT) scanner. The images were compared against standard CT images that were viewed at the site of capture. There was no appreciable difference. The client side is a lightweight component that provides an intuitive interface for end users. Each image is loaded in its own thread and the user can begin work after the first image has been loaded. This feature is especially useful on slow connection speed, 9.6 Kbps for example. The server side, which is implemented by the Java Servlet Engine works more effective than common gateway interface (CGI) programs do. Advantages of the Java Technology place this program on the next level of application development. This paper presents a unique application of Java in telemedicine.     

Stability and resilience of the intestinal microbiota in children in daycare – a 12 month cohort study

Background

We performed a 12-month cohort study of the stability and resilience of the intestinal microbiota of healthy children in daycare in Denmark in relation to diarrheal events and exposure to known risk factors for gastrointestinal health such as travelling and antibiotic use. In addition, we analyzed how gut microbiota recover from such exposures.

Results

We monitored 32 children in daycare aged 1–6?years. Fecal samples were submitted every second month during a one-year observational period. Information regarding exposures and diarrheal episodes was obtained through questionnaires. Bacterial communities were identified using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The core microbiota (mean abundance >?95%) dominated the intestinal microbiota, and none of the tested exposures (diarrheal events, travel, antibiotic use) were associated with decreases in the relative abundance of the core microbiota. Samples exhibited lower intra-individual variation than inter-individual variation. Half of all the variation between samples was explained by which child a sample originated from. Age explained 7.6–9.6% of the variation, while traveling, diarrheal events, and antibiotic use explained minor parts of the beta diversity. We found an age-dependent increase of alpha diversity in children aged 1–3?years, and while diarrheal events caused a decrease in alpha diversity, a recovery time of 40–45?days was observed.Among children having had a diarrheal event, we observed a 10x higher relative abundance of Prevotella. After travelling, a higher abundance of two Bacteroides species and 40% less Lachnospiraceae were seen. Antibiotic use did not correlate with changes in the abundance of any bacteria.

Conclusion

We present data showing that Danish children in daycare have stable intestinal microbiota, resilient to the exposures investigated. An early age-dependent increase in the diversity was demonstrated. Diarrheal episodes decreased alpha diversity with an estimated recovery time of 40–45?days.

     

ACUTE EFFECTS OF MOVEMENT VELOCITY ON BLOOD LACTATE AND GROWTH HORMONE RESPONSES AFTER ECCENTRIC BENCH PRESS EXERCISE IN RESISTANCE-TRAINED MEN

This study aimed to compare the effects of different velocities of eccentric muscle actions on acute blood lactate and serum growth hormone (GH) concentrations following free weight bench press exercises performed by resistance-trained men. Sixteen healthy men were divided into two groups: slow eccentric velocity (SEV; n = 8) and fast eccentric velocity (FEV; n = 8). Both groups performed four sets of eight eccentric repetitions at an intensity of 70% of their one repetition maximum eccentric (1RMecc) test, with 2-minute rest intervals between sets. The eccentric velocity was controlled to 3 seconds per range of motion for SEV and 0.5 seconds for the FEV group. There was a significant difference (P < 0.001) in the kinetics of blood lactate removal (at 3, 6, 9, 15, and 20 min) and higher mean values for peak blood lactate (P = 0.001) for the SEV group (9.1 ± 0.5 mM) compared to the FEV group (6.1 ± 0.4 mM). Additionally, serum GH concentrations were significantly higher (P < 0.001) at 15 minutes after bench press exercise in the SEV group (1.7 ± 0.6 ng · mL⁻¹) relative to the FEV group (0.1 ± 0.0 ng · mL⁻¹). In conclusion, the velocity of eccentric muscle action influences acute responses following bench press exercises performed by resistance-trained men using a slow velocity resulting in a greater metabolic stress and hormone response.     

Comparison of dot chromosome sequences from D. melanogaster and D. virilis reveals an enrichment of DNA transposon sequences in heterochromatic domains

Background

Chromosome four of Drosophila melanogaster, known as the dot chromosome, is largely heterochromatic, as shown by immunofluorescent staining with antibodies to heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) and histone H3K9me. In contrast, the absence of HP1 and H3K9me from the dot chromosome in D. virilis suggests that this region is euchromatic. D. virilis diverged from D. melanogaster 40 to 60 million years ago.

Results

Here we describe finished sequencing and analysis of 11 fosmids hybridizing to the dot chromosome of D. virilis (372,650 base-pairs) and seven fosmids from major euchromatic chromosome arms (273,110 base-pairs). Most genes from the dot chromosome of D. melanogaster remain on the dot chromosome in D. virilis, but many inversions have occurred. The dot chromosomes of both species are similar to the major chromosome arms in gene density and coding density, but the dot chromosome genes of both species have larger introns. The D. virilis dot chromosome fosmids have a high repeat density (22.8%), similar to homologous regions of D. melanogaster (26.5%). There are, however, major differences in the representation of repetitive elements. Remnants of DNA transposons make up only 6.3% of the D. virilis dot chromosome fosmids, but 18.4% of the homologous regions from D. melanogaster; DINE-1 and 1360 elements are particularly enriched in D. melanogaster. Euchromatic domains on the major chromosomes in both species have very few DNA transposons (less than 0.4 %).

Conclusion

Combining these results with recent findings about RNAi, we suggest that specific repetitive elements, as well as density, play a role in determining higher-order chromatin packaging.