The epidemiology of injuries across the weight-training sports

Background: Weight-training sports, including weightlifting, powerlifting, bodybuilding, strongman, Highland Games, and CrossFit, are weight-training sports that have separate divisions for males and females of a variety of ages, competitive standards, and bodyweight classes. These sports may be considered dangerous because of the heavy loads commonly used in training and competition. Objectives: Our objective was to systematically review the injury epidemiology of these weight-training sports, and, where possible, gain some insight into whether this may be affected by age, sex, competitive standard, and bodyweight class. Methods: We performed an electronic search using PubMed, SPORTDiscus, CINAHL, and Embase for injury epidemiology studies involving competitive athletes in these weight-training sports. Eligible studies included peer-reviewed journal articles only, with no limit placed on date or language of publication. We assessed the risk of bias in all studies using an adaption of the musculoskeletal injury review method. Results: Only five of the 20 eligible studies had a risk of bias score ≥75 %, meaning the risk of bias in these five studies was considered low. While 14 of the studies had sample sizes >100 participants, only four studies utilized a prospective design. Bodybuilding had the lowest injury rates (0.12–0.7 injuries per lifter per year; 0.24–1 injury per 1000 h), with strongman (4.5–6.1 injuries per 1000 h) and Highland Games (7.5 injuries per 1000 h) reporting the highest rates. The shoulder, lower back, knee, elbow, and wrist/hand were generally the most commonly injured anatomical locations; strains, tendinitis, and sprains were the most common injury type. Very few significant differences in any of the injury outcomes were observed as a function of age, sex, competitive standard, or bodyweight class. Conclusion: While the majority of the research we reviewed utilized retrospective designs, the weight-training sports appear to have relatively low rates of injury compared with common team sports. Future weight-training sport injury epidemiology research needs to be improved, particularly in terms of the use of prospective designs, diagnosis of injury, and changes in risk exposure

Measurement of Efficiency in Cocoyam Production: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Approach

Aims: The objective of this study were to estimate economic efficiency and its determinant on cocoyam farmers in Kaduna state. Study Design: Primary data were used for this study and this was collected through the use of structured questionnaires. Place and Duration of Study: This study was conduct in Giwa, Kudan and Ikara local government areas in Kaduna state, Nigeria during 2014 cropping season. Methodology: A Multistage sampling techniques were employed for this study. Results: It was observed from the study that the majority of cocoyam farmers (36.29%) had technical efficiency of 0.81 and less than 1.00, the respondents (27.42%) operated within an allocative efficiency range of 0.2 and less than 0.2. The study also suggests that economic efficiency among cocoyam farmers were between 0.029 and 1.00, with a mean economic efficiency of 0.335. This result implies that the farmers in the study area are economically inefficient. Conclusion: Data envelopment analysis was employed on measurement of efficiency in cocoyam production, Kaduna State, Nigeria. Based on the findings of this study, it could be concluded that cocoyam farmers are economically inefficient having economic efficiency of 34%. Also, age, education, extension and amount of credit received were the factors influencing economic efficiency of the cocoyam producers in the study area

SIGMOISIDE E: A NEW ANTIBACTERIAL TRITERPENOID SAPONIN FROM ERYTHRINA SIGMOIDEA (HUA)

Chemical analysis of the stem bark of Erythrina sigmoidea (Leguminoseae) yielded two known isoflavones, 6,8-diprenylgenisteine (3) and warangalone (4) as well as a new triterpenoid saponin designated sigmoiside E (1). Its structure was established by chemical and spectroscopic means as 16-O-β-D-galactopyranosyl maniladiol (1). Sigmoiside E exhibited antibacterial activity against gram-negative bacteria. KEY WORDS: Erythrina sigmoidea, Stem bark, Triterpenoid, Saponin, Isoflavone, Leguminoseae Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2007, 21(3), 373-378

Gut dendritic cell activation links an altered colonic microbiome to mucosal and systemic T-cell activation in untreated HIV-1 infection

HIV-1-associated disruption of intestinal homeostasis is a major factor contributing to chronic immune activation and inflammation. Dendritic cells (DCs) are crucial in maintaining intestinal homeostasis, but the impact of HIV-1 infection on intestinal DC number and function has not been extensively studied. We compared the frequency and activation/maturation status of colonic myeloid DC (mDC) subsets (CD1c(+) and CD1c(neg)) and plasmacytoid DCs in untreated HIV-1-infected subjects with uninfected controls. Colonic mDCs in HIV-1-infected subjects had increased CD40 but decreased CD83 expression, and CD40 expression on CD1c(+) mDCs positively correlated with mucosal HIV-1 viral load, with mucosal and systemic cytokine production, and with frequencies of activated colon and blood T cells. Percentage of CD83(+)CD1c(+) mDCs negatively correlated with frequencies of interferon-γ-producing colon CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. CD40 expression on CD1c(+) mDCs positively associated with abundance of high prevalence mucosal Prevotella copri and Prevotella stercorea but negatively associated with a number of low prevalence mucosal species, including Rumminococcus bromii. CD1c(+) mDC cytokine production was greater in response to in vitro stimulation with Prevotella species relative to R. bromii. These findings suggest that, during HIV infection, colonic mDCs become activated upon exposure to mucosal pathobiont bacteria leading to mucosal and systemic immune activation

Correction: Effects of Combined CCR5/Integrase Inhibitors-Based Regimen on Mucosal Immunity in HIV-Infected Patients Naïve to Antiretroviral Therapy: A Pilot Randomized Trial

The fifth author's name is incorrect. The correct name is Tae-Wook Chun. The correct citation is: Serrano-Villar S, Sainz T, Ma Z-M, Utay NS, Chun T-W, Mann S, et al. (2016) Effects of Combined CCR5/Integrase Inhibitors-Based Regimen on Mucosal Immunity in HIV-Infected Patients Naïve to Antiretroviral Therapy: A Pilot Randomized Trial. PLoS Pathog 12(1): e1005381. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1005381

Analysis of humanized antibody diversification in rabbits and mice using transgenic Immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) mini-loci.

Somatic mutation of rearranged immunoglobulin genes (IgH and IgL) is a key process because it leads to the diversification of the antibody chains, a vital progression in the affinity maturation process whereby antibody-antigen binding is enhanced. Two different mechanisms of somatic mutation have been described and attributed to different species: somatic hypermutaion (in man and mouse) occurs by fixation of individual non-templated nucleotide substitutions, whereas gene conversion (in rabbits, sheep, birds and cattle) occurs by templated substitutions with sequences donated by upstream pseudogenes to the rearranged IgV gene segment. These two processes have been described to be alternative methods employed in revamping a lesion caused by the protein Activation Induced Deanimase (AID) in the rearranged IgV gene segment. The decision which method is thereby used depends on interplay of cis (Ig promoter and enhancer) and trans (genes involved in homologous recombination) elements. In this work a transgenic vector is created using a novel approach, whereby the coding sequences of a rabbit IgH locus are substituted with their human counterparts. In the first part of the study, this transgenic vector is used to generated transgenic mice, and somatic diversification of the humanized antibodies investigated; the question posed being what would be the result of the interaction between rabbit ( a gene converting animal) cis regulatory elements (on the transgenic vector) and the trans elements of the mouse host ( a hypermutating animal)? The results advocate a species specific activity of the Ig cis and trans elements as no somatic hypermutation was observed, albeit successful rearrangement and employment of the translocus. In the second part of the work, a second humanized rabbit transgenic vector was used to generate transgenic rabbits and mice and the somatic diversification of the humanized antibodies investigated. Mice and rabbits transgenic for the same locus proffer a much comprehensible comparison of somatic hypermutation in these animals. The question to be answered in this second part was would the humanized antibodies undergo somatic hypermutation in the transgenic mice and gene conversion in the transgenic rabbits? The results give credit to the hypothesis from the first part: the humanized antibodies from the transgenic mice showed no somatic hypermutation, while those from the transgenic rabbits did undergo effective gene conversion. In total these results argue for a species specific interaction of Ig cis and trans regulatory elements in determining the method of somatic mutation employed