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This study investigated age-related differences in trunk kinematics during walking in healthy men. Secondary aims were to investigate the covarying effects of physical activity (PA) and lumbar paravertebral muscle (LPM) morphology on trunk kinematics, and the effect of age on interplanar coupling between the trunk and pelvis. Three-dimensional (3D) trunk and pelvis motion data were obtained for 12 older (67.3 ± 6.0 years) and 12 younger (24.7 ± 3.1 years) healthy men during walking at a self-selected speed along a 10 m walkway. Phase-specific differences were observed in the coronal and transverse planes, with midstance and swing phases highlighted as instances when trunk and pelvic kinematics differed significantly (p < 0.05) between the younger group and older group. Controlling for age, fewer significant positive correlations were revealed between trunk and pelvic ranges and planes of motion. LPM morphology and PA were not significant covariates of age-related differences in trunk kinematics. Age-related differences in trunk kinematics were most apparent in the coronal and transverse planes. The results further indicate ageing causes an uncoupling of interplanar upper body movements during gait. These findings provide important information for rehabilitation programmes in older adults designed to improve trunk motion, as well as enable identification of higher-risk movement patterns related to falling.

PCBs, as one of the most valuable streams of e-waste, are a considerable source of precious metals, but also contain considerable amounts of plastic and ceramic. These non-metallic fractions interfere with and can inhibit the efficiency of metal recovery, particularly for precious and rare earth metals, which are present in e-waste in very low concentrations. In this work, electro-mechanical pre-treatment was applied in order to remove ceramic and plastic fractions from e-waste prior to the application of the bioleaching process. Metal content with and without mechanical separation, as well as metal dissolution and behaviour in the bioleaching process were compared. The results obtained illustrate the beneficial effects of separating the metallic from the non-metallic fraction prior the bioleaching process for the recovery of precious, rare earth and base metals from e-waste.

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are a necessity for electronic equipment to function especially in the telecommunications industry. From a PCB for broadcasting networks to PCBs for office communications they are what makes electronic communications equipment operate. The sophistication possible with modern electronic and microelectronic devices depends ultimately on the materials they are made from. Metals have assumed a vital role in electronics at every stage in their evolution. PCBs are rich in base and precious metals, and should be considered as a secondary resource. Bioleaching is a proven green and sustainable method for metal recovery as demonstrated in the mining industry, but applications to metal recovery from electronic equipment are still limited. In this study, bioleaching is applied for the first time to telecommunications products that have reached the end of their useful life. Because several biological and physicochemical parameters can influence bioleaching, the first step in this study has been to analyse the metal content of populated PCBs. In the second part, the effect of different parameters on bioleaching is investigated, with the aim of improving metal recovery. Altogether, the study aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of bioleaching for metal recovery from WEEE.

Objectives\ud The study aims to investigate the influence of vitamin D (VD) supplement on immune function of the healthy older people.\ud \ud Methods\ud Designed as a randomized control trial, 21 participants (55–85) years old took part and completed the study (20 White, 1 Indian) during May-November 2018 in Coventry, England. The participants were randomized into two groups, VD and control, stratified by age, gender and body mass index (BMI). The VD group (n = 11) took VD3 of 25 μg/day for 12 weeks, while the control group (n = 9) were only provided with educational information of VD. At baseline, 6 weeks and 12 weeks, plasma 25(OH)D levels and immune parameters including phagocytic activity of granulocytes and monocytes, tumour necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin 6 (IL-6), lymphocyte subsets (Th, Tc and natural killer cells), and fast blood glucose and lipid were measured. Dietary VD intake was analysed at baseline and week 12. The data were presented as mean ± standard error (SE) and analysed by two-way repeated measures ANOVA.\ud \ud Results\ud The average age of the participants was (65.8 ± 1.7) years old (67.4 ± 2.7 in VD group and 64.5 ± 2.2 in control group). At baseline, 42.9% of the participants were VD deficiency (25(OH)D < 30 nmol/L), only 10% achieved a level of 25(OH)D > 50 nmol/L. There was a significant increase in plasma 25(OH)D concentration in VD group compared with that in the control group (visit*treatment effect p = 0.002). The level of 25(OH)D in the VD group was increased rapidly at 6 weeks (from 38.4 ± 8.7 nmol/L at baseline to 51.0 ± 9.3 nmol/L) and little change has been observed at 12 weeks (51.8 ± 8.6 nmol/L). There was a significant visit*treatment effect (p = 0.036) on the plasma creatinine concentration between two groups, indicating a decrease of plasma creatinine concentration in VD group (from 79.8 ± 7.0 μmol/L at baseline to 75.1 ± 5.4 μmol/L at week 12). There was a significant correlation between body mass index (BMI) and 25(OH)D concentration (P < 0.001). There was no significant effect of VD supplementation on parameters of immune function.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud VD deficiency is common among this older population even during the summertime. VD supplementation at 25 μg/day for 12 weeks showed an anti-inflammatory effect.\ud \ud Funding Sources\ud Coventry University.

What is the central question of this study? Does the concentration of human serum affect skeletal muscle differentiation and cellular respiration of LHCN-M2 myoblasts? What is the main finding and its importance? The concentration of serum used to differentiate LHCN-M2 skeletal muscle cells impacts the coverage of myosin heavy chain, a marker of terminally differentiated myotubes. Normalisation of mitochondrial function data to total protein negates the differences observed in absolute values, which differ as a result of increased protein content when differentiation occurs with increasing concentration of serum.The human LHCN-M2 myoblast cell line has the potential to be used to investigate skeletal muscle development and metabolism. Experiments were performed to determine how different concentrations of human serum affect myogenic differentiation and mitochondrial function of LHCN-M2 cells. LHCN-M2 myoblasts were differentiated in serum-free medium, 0.5% or 2% human serum for 5 and 10 days. Myotube formation was assessed by immunofluorescence staining of myosin heavy chain (MHC) and molecularly by mRNA expression of Myogenic differentiation 1 (MYOD1) and Myoregulatory factor 5 (MYF5). Following differentiation, mitochondrial function was assessed to establish the impact of serum concentration on mitochondrial function. Time in differentiation increased mRNA expression of MYOD1 (day 5, 6.58 ± 1.33-fold; and day 10, 4.28 ± 1.71-fold) (P = 0.012), while suppressing the expression of MYF5 (day 5, 0.21 ± 0.11-fold; and day 10, 0.06 ± 0.03-fold) (P = 0.001), regardless of the serum concentration. Higher serum concentrations increased MHC area (serum free, 11.92 ± 0.85%; 0.5%, 23.10 ± 5.82%; 2%, 43.94 ± 8.92%) (P = 0.001). Absolute basal respiration approached significance (P = 0.06) with significant differences in baseline oxygen consumption rate (P = 0.025) and proton leak (P = 0.006) when differentiated in 2% human serum, but these were not different between conditions when normalised to total protein. Our findings show that increasing concentrations of serum of LHCN-M2 skeletal muscle cells into multinucleated myotubes, but this does not affect relative mitochondrial function.

Ferrous sulphate (FS) is widely used as an iron supplement to treat iron deficiency (ID), but is known to induce inflammation causing gastric side-effects resulting in poor adherence to supplement regimens. Curcumin, a potent antioxidant, has been reported to suppress inflammation via down regulation of NF-κB. The aim of the present double blind, placebo-controlled randomised trial was to assess whether co-administration of FS with a formulated, bioavailable form of curcumin (HydroCurc™) could reduce systemic inflammation and/or gastrointestinal side-effects. This study recruited 155 healthy participants (79 males; 26.42 years ± 0.55 and 76 females; 25.82 years ± 0.54), randomly allocated to one of five different treatment groups: iron and curcumin placebo (FS0_Plac), low dose (18 mg) iron and curcumin placebo (FS18_Plac), low dose iron and curcumin (FS18_Curc), high dose (65 mg) iron and curcumin placebo (FS65_Plac), and high dose iron and curcumin (FS65_Curc). Completed questionnaires and blood samples were collected from all participants at baseline (day 1), mid-point (day 21), and at end-point (day 42). Results showed a significant reduction in IL-6 in the FS65_Curc group (0.06 pg/mL ± 0.02, p = 0.0073) between the mid-point and end-point. There was also a significant reduction in mean plasma TNF levels in the FS65_Curc (0.65 pg/mL ± 0.17, p = 0.0018), FS65_Plac (0.39 pg/mL ± 0.15, p = 0.0363), and FS18_Curc (0.35 pg/mL ± 0.13, p = 0.0288) groups from mid-point to end-point. A significant increase was observed in mean plasma TBARS levels (0.10 µM ± 0.04, p = 0.0283) in the F18_Plac group from baseline to end-point. There was a significant association with darker stools between FS0_Plac vs. FS65_Plac (p = 0.002, Fisher’s exact test) suggesting that high iron dose in the absence of curcumin leads to darker stools. A reduction in inflammation-related markers in response to co-administering supplemental iron alongside formulated curcumin suggests a reduction in systemic inflammation. This supplementation approach may therefore be a more cost effective and convenient alternative to current oral iron-related treatments, with further research to be conducted.