Gender Differences in Sitting Positions of College Students and an Explanation of These Differences

This article explores the differences in the sitting positions of college men and women. After conducting unobtrusive observations of 83 students at the University of New Hampshire, we analyzed our data and found that there are differences in the way men and women sit. Men tend to sit in open positions while women tend to sit in closed positions. Differences in leg positions were more notable than differences in arm positions. In regard to arm and leg combinations, the most common combination for men was open arm/open leg. There were no significant differences between arm and leg combinations of women. We explain these differences using the theory of social construction and by pulling from various articles ideas of gender socialization. It is important to understand that gender differences in body movement and behavior are not natural. If we can recognize that these differences are learned, we can begin to eliminate gender inequality and stereotypes

Impact of exercise-nutritional state interactions in patients with type 2 diabetes

Introduction This study examines the role of nutritional status during exercise training in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus by investigating the effect of endurance-type exercise training in the fasted versus the fed state on clinical outcome measures, glycemic control, and skeletal muscle characteristics in male type 2 diabetes patients. Methods Twenty-five male patients (glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), 57 ± 3 mmol·mol−1 (7.4% ± 0.3%)) participated in a randomized 12-wk supervised endurance-type exercise intervention, with exercise being performed in an overnight-fasted state (n = 13) or after consuming breakfast (n = 12). Patients were evaluated for glycemic control, blood lipid profiles, body composition and physical fitness, and skeletal muscle gene expression. Results Exercise training was well tolerated without any incident of hypoglycemia. Exercise training significantly decreased whole-body fat mass (−1.6 kg) and increased high-density lipoprotein concentrations (+2 mg·dL−1), physical fitness (+1.7 mL·min−1·kg−1), and fat oxidation during exercise in both groups (PTIME 0.05). HbA1c concentrations significantly decreased after exercise training (PTIME < 0.001), with a significant greater reduction after consuming breakfast (−0.30% ± 0.06%) compared with fasted state (−0.08% ± 0.06%; mean difference, 0.21%; PTIME × GROUP = 0.016). No interaction effects were observed for skeletal muscle genes related to lipid metabolism or oxidative capacity. Conclusions Endurance-type exercise training in the fasted or fed state do not differ in their efficacy to reduce fat mass, increase fat oxidation capacity, and increase cardiorespiratory fitness and high-density lipoprotein concentrations or their risk of hypoglycemia in male patients with type 2 diabetes. HbA1c seems to be improved more with exercise performed in the postprandial compared with the postabsorptive state

Associations between the measures of physical function, risk of falls and the quality of life in haemodialysis patients : a cross-sectional study

Background Impaired physical function due to muscle weakness and exercise intolerance reduces the ability to perform activities of daily living in patients with end-stage kidney disease, and by consequence, Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). Furthermore, the risk of falls is an aggregate of physical function and, therefore, could be associated with HRQoL as well. The present study examined the associations between objective and subjective measures of physical function, risk of falls and HRQoL in haemodialysis patients. Methods This cross-sectional multicentre study included patients on maintenance haemodialysis. Physical function (quadriceps force, handgrip force, Sit-to-Stand, and six-minute walking test), the risk of falls (Tinetti, FICSIT-4, and dialysis fall index) and HRQoL (PROMIS-29 and EQ-5D-3 L) were measured and analysed descriptively, by general linear models and logistic regression. Results Of the 113 haemodialysis patients (mean age 67.5 +/- 16.1, 57.5% male) enrolled, a majority had impaired quadriceps force (86.7%) and six-minute walking test (92%), and an increased risk of falls (73.5%). Whereas muscle strength and exercise capacity were associated with global HRQoL (R-2 = 0.32) and the risk of falls, the risk of falls itself was related to psycho-social domains (R-2 = 0.11) such as depression and social participation, rather than to the physical domains of HRQoL. Objective measures of physical function were not associated with subjective fatigue, nor with subjective appreciation of health status. Conclusions More than muscle strength, lack of coordination and balance as witnessed by the risk of falls contribute to social isolation and HRQoL of haemodialysis patients. Mental fatigue was less common than expected, whereas, subjective and objective physical function were decreased

The relationship between glycaemic variability and cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in patients with type 1 diabetes : a systematic review

Rigorous glycaemic control-reflected by low HbA1c goals-is of the utmost importance in the prevention and management of complications in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). However, previous studies suggested that short-term glycaemic variability (GV) is also important to consider as excessive glucose fluctuations may have an additional impact on the development of diabetic complications. The potential relationship between GV and the risk of cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN), a clinical expression of cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction, is of increasing interest. This systematic review aimed to summarize existing evidence concerning the relationship between GV and cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in T1DM. An electronic database search of Medline (PubMed), Web of Science and Embase was performed up to October 2019. There were no limits concerning year of publication. Methodological quality was evaluated using the Newcastle Ottawa Scale for observational studies. Six studies (four cross-sectional and two prospective cohorts) were included. Methodological quality of the studies varied from level C to A2. Two studies examined the association between GV and heart rate variability (HRV), and both found significant negative correlations. Regarding cardiovascular autonomic reflex tests (CARTs), two studies did not, while two other studies did find significant associations between GV parameters and CART scores. However, associations were attenuated after adjusting for covariates such as HbA1c, age and disease duration. In conclusion, this systematic review found some preliminary evidence supporting an association between GV and cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in T1DM. Hence, uncertainty remains whether high GV can independently contribute to the onset or progression of CAN. The heterogeneity in the methodological approach made it difficult to compare different studies. Future studies should therefore use uniformly evaluated continuous glucose monitoring-derived parameters of GV, while standardized assessment of HRV, CARTs and other potential cardiac autonomic function parameters is needed for an unambiguous definition of CAN

Development of a hypersensitive periodate-cleavable amino acid that is methionine- and disulfide-compatible and its application in MHC exchange reagents for T cell Characterisation

Incorporation of cleavable linkers into peptides and proteins is of particular value in the study of biological processes. Here we describe the synthesis of a cleavable linker that is hypersensitive to oxidative cleavage as the result of the periodate reactivity of a vicinal amino alcohol moiety. Two strategies directed towards the synthesis of a building block suitable for solid-phase peptide synthesis were developed: a chemoenzymatic route, involving l-threonine aldolase, and an enantioselective chemical route; these led to α,γ-diamino-β-hydroxybutanoic acids in diastereoisomerically mixed and enantiopure forms, respectively. Incorporation of the 1,2-amino alcohol linker into the backbone of a peptide generated a conditional peptide that was rapidly cleaved at very low concentrations of sodium periodate. This cleavable peptide ligand was applied in the generation of MHC exchange reagents for the detection of antigen-specific T cells in peripheral blood cells. The extremely low concentration of periodate required to trigger MHC peptide exchange allowed the co-oxidation of methionine and disulfide residues to be avoided. Conditional MHC reagents hypersensitive to periodate can now be applied without limitations when UV irradiation is undesired or less practical

Non-invasive screening for peripheral oxygenation dysfunction in healthy and pathological populations

Metabolic myopathies are diseases where muscle dysfunction acts as one of the major symptoms, usually caused by genetic defects or hormonal dysfunction. These myopathies comprise several subgroup diseases resulting from defects in biochemical energy metabolism. Mitochondrial Myopathy (MM) is one of these subgroups. Initial research to unravel underlying mechanisms started in the late 1980’s with the discovery of large scale mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations. During the past decades, the primordial focus was of course the severe phenotype of this disease, whereby less attention was given to mild types of this myopathy. An important symptom in this MM population is a disturbed peripheral oxygenation pattern at muscle level, resulting from mitochondrial malfunctioning. Interestingly, the last two decades, several studies have investigated muscle abnormalities in another patient population as well, i.e. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). This latter disease is based on exclusion criteria and requires four out of eight minor criteria for diagnosis. It is remarkable however, that muscle pain, post-exertional malaise, and muscle fatigue are included in these criteria. A number of papers have already focused on a putative disturbed peripheral oxygenation pattern in these CFS patients, however, with contrasting results. In this dissertation we aimed to focus on peripheral oxygenation in both patient and healthy populations. To investigate in particular how patients with a disturbed oxygenation pattern, probably due to mitochondrial malfunctioning, could be identified in a non-exhaustive and non-invasive way. Because both diseases are quite “young” and little is known about eventual mild phenotypes of mitochondrial myopathy, we wanted to make a contribution in this scientific area by developing a screening tool to identify such patients. In the first part of this dissertation, we aimed to present a short introduction about peripheral oxygenation in healthy subjects from a historical perspective. Consequently, in the second part of the introduction, a description of both MM and CFS diseases and their exercise tolerance spectrum is presented as well as peripheral oxygenation patterns in these patient populations

Convey Data in Qlik® Sense from a Universal Design Perspective

“The important criterion for a graph is not simply how fast we can see a result; rather it is whether through the use of the graph we can see something that would have been harder to see otherwise or that could not have been seen at all.” William S. Cleveland When presenting graphs for people with visual impairments the solutions found on the market today often present pure data values only. Overview is missing and there is no possibility to get any additional information about the visual content of the graph. Should we accept the fact that visually impaired persons are only presented with the data or could they actually benefit from data represented in graphical form? The aim of this project was to investigate how to provide people with visual impairments the best possible user experience when analyzing data in the business intelligence program Qlik Sense. The research showed that it is possible to convey an overview of the content in graphs with a synthetic speech solution. The synthetic speech presents the purpose of the graph and key values as well as the overall shape of the curve. In a future development it is possible to extend the product to include voice recognition to allow the user to explore the data and make own discoveries. The project begun with a literature study to find previously conducted work in the same field. To gather proper knowledge about what information users find interesting, what they are looking for and how they can benefit from using charts, a pilot study was initiated. The pilot study was performed by people who have vision classified as normal. Further, persons from the target group, i.e. people with visual impairments, were interviewed to receive an understanding of what is missing from today’s low vision aids and solutions. These results were used when creating a Low Fidelity prototype in an attempt to show how to present visual data to a visually impaired user. The prototype was tested on both sighted persons and persons from the target group. Results were then collected and analyzed to create a foundation for the High Fidelity (Hi-Fi) prototype that was developed to realize the design ideas. Finally, the Hi-Fi prototype was evaluated through usability tests that resulted in the above-mentioned conclusion.“Det viktigaste kriteriet för en graf är egentligen inte hur fort vi kan se ett resultat; det är snarare om vi genom användandet av en graf kan se något som hade varit svårare att se annars eller som inte hade alls kunnat ses." William S. Cleveland Översättning: Celie Gunnarsson De lösningar som finns på dagens marknad gällande presentation av grafer för synskadade bygger ofta på ren presentation av enskilda värden. Översikt saknas och det finns ingen möjlighet att få övrig information om det visuella innehållet i grafen. Ska man som synskadad nöja sig med att endast få ta del av datan eller ska man faktiskt kunna ha samma nytta av ett diagram som en seende person? Syftet med detta projekt var att undersöka hur man kan erbjuda personer med synnedsättning den bästa möjliga användarupplevelsen då de analyserar data i Business Intelligence-programmet Qlik Sense. Arbetet visade att det är möjligt att förmedla en överblick av en grafs innehåll med hjälp av syntetiskt tal. Det syntetiska talet kan då presentera grafens syfte, nyckeltal tillika formen på kurvan som bildas. Vid framtida utveckling är det möjligt att utöka produkten så att även röstigenkänning kan inkluderas. Detta skulle ge användaren en möjlighet att på egen hand utforska datan och göra egna upptäckter. Projektet inleddes med en litteraturstudie för att finna tidigare utfört arbete inom samma område. För att insamla kunskap om vilken information som upplevs som intressant, vad användare tittar efter och hur de kan ha nytta av grafer utfördes även en pilotstudie. Försökspersonerna i denna studie utgjordes av personer med syn klassificerad som normal. Vidare intervjuades personer ur målgruppen, det vill säga personer med olika typer av synnedsättning, för att skapa förståelse för vad som saknas i dagens hjälpmedel och lösningar. Dessa resultat användes för att skapa en Low Fidelityprototyp i ett försök att visa hur man skulle kunna presentera visuell data för en synskadad person. Prototypen testades sedan, både utav seende personer och personer från målgruppen, varefter resultatet sammanställdes och analyserades. Analysen användes för att skapa en grund till den High Fidelityprototyp (Hi Fi-prototyp) som kom att utvecklas ur designidéerna. Slutligen utvärderades Hi Fi-prototypen genom användbarhetstester, vilka resulterade i ovan nämnda slutsats