1,464 research outputs found

    Sport for All? Insight into stratification and compensation mechanisms of sporting activity in the 27 European Union member states

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    Physical activity is an important public health issue and the benefits of an active lifestyle in relation to well-being and health have been strongly emphasised in recent years in Europe, as well as in most parts of the world. However, previous research has shown that physical activity within Europe and its member states is stratified. The present article gains insight into: (1) the geographical stratification; and (2) the social stratification of physical activity in the 27 European Union member states in 2005. Special attention is given to sporting activity in comparison to other forms of physical activity (transport, occupation and household). By doing this we intend to develop a picture of physical activity, in particular sporting activity, within the European Union. In addition, we want to verify whether low sporting activity levels are counterbalanced by other pieces of the total 'menu of physical activities'. Based on Eurobarometer data from 2005 (N=26,688), bivariate analyses show that 4 out of 10 Europeans are not exposed to sporting activity. Moreover, particular subgroups of non-sportive citizens could be distinguished: South and East Europeans, and women, the elderly, individuals with a lower educational level and rural citizens. Our hypothesis that these groups would compensate for their non-sporting activity by being physically active in other domains could only be confirmed for women and rural citizens, in particular with regard to household physical activity. To understand the underlying structure of these possible compensation mechanisms, additional quantitative and qualitative research is needed. Nevertheless, because of societal trends towards an inactive society, the role of sporting activity will be increasingly important in the future for all inactive subgroups. For this purpose, not only should necessary resources and key stakeholders be identified, but also more importantly the social and environmental barriers for sporting activity need to be addressed

    Evolution of experimental design and research techniques in HIV-1 reservoir studies : a systematic review

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    Although HIV-1 has evolved from a deadly to a chronic disease over the past 20 years, an HIV-1 cure is still lacking due to the presence of persisting cellular viral reservoirs which are spread throughout the body in different anatomical compartments. Hence, the identification and characterization of these HIV-1 reservoirs were the focus of many studies during the past decades. In this review, a systematic literature screening and text mining approach were implemented to assess the evolution in experimental design of these HIV-1 reservoir studies. For this purpose. the online databases PubMed, Web of Science. and ClinicalTrials.gov were consulted and 1768 articles were identified, of which 106 are included in this review. We observed several evolutions that indicate a more structured approach of recent HIV-1 reservoir studies. This includes the use of well-characterized patient cohorts, tissue sampling at several time points and anatomical compartments, the inclusion of patients with different treatment status (on and off antiretroviral therapy), and the implementation of state-of-the-art research techniques such as single genome sequencing. In addition, there is an increased interest and sampling of lymphoid tissues and cerebrospinal fluid together with methods to investigate cellular subsets and HIV-1 sequences. Overall, this review describes an observed shift from detecting and quantifying HIV-1 toward a qualitative in-depth assessment of anatomical reservoirs and cellular subsets playing a role in H1V-1 persistence/latency. These trends coincide with the evolution in focus from controlling HIV-1 replication by currently available antiretroviral therapy toward HIV-1 curative strategies

    Protein expression from unintegrated HIV-1 DNA introduces bias in primary in vitro post-integration latency models

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    To understand the persistence of latently HIV-1 infected cells in virally suppressed infected patients, a number of in vitro models of HIV latency have been developed. In an attempt to mimic the in vivo situation as closely as possible, several models use primary cells and replication-competent viruses in combination with antiretroviral compounds to prevent ongoing replication. Latency is subsequently measured by HIV RNA and/or protein production after cellular activation. To discriminate between pre- and post-integration latency, integrase inhibitors are routinely used, preventing novel integrations upon cellular activation. Here, we show that this choice of antiretrovirals may still cause a bias of pre-integration latency in these models, as unintegrated HIV DNA can form and directly contribute to the levels of HIV RNA and protein production. We further show that the addition of reverse transcriptase inhibitors effectively suppresses the levels of episomal HIV DNA (as measured by 2-LTR circles) and decreases the levels of HIV transcription. Consequently, we show that latency levels described in models that only use integrase inhibitors may be overestimated. The inclusion of additional control conditions, such as 2-LTR quantification and the addition of reverse transcriptase inhibitors, is crucial to fully elucidate the actual levels of post-integration latency

    Expenditures on Sport Apparel: Creating Consumer Profiles through Interval Regression Modelling

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    Using a heterodox theoretical approach, this article presents sport consumer profiles based on socio-demographic and sport-related lifestyle characteristics. Sport apparel is operationalized as a categorical, hierarchical variable. Given the censored nature of the dependent variable, a two step Heckman-type approach with an interval regression model was used. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional sample of adults in Flanders, Belgium (N=1355). The results indicate that the decision to spend money on sport clothing and shoes is mainly determined by sport-related lifestyle characteristics, confirming the emerging importance of lifestyle in understanding the decision to consume material goods. However, the variability in the amount of money spent on sport apparel is explained by both socio-demographic variables and sport-related lifestyle characteristics. Consequently, both socio-demographic and lifestyle variables are used in the interval regression models, which is introduced as a novel technique to create consumer profiles. These profiles assist sporting goods marketers in refining their strategies to reach specific target markets

    Implantation of an endoluminal prosthesis at the distal anastomosis of a bypass graft for abrupt closure following balloon angioplasty

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    Abstract A coronary Wallstent® was implanted in a 10-year-old saphenous vein bypass graft following a PTCA that was complicated by abrupt closure. Anterograde flow was restored and no myocardial necrosis resulted. One week later, bypass surgery was performed due to a bleeding complication associated with the anticoagulation regimen
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