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Background. The real burden of injuries among student athletes during the Cameroon University Games (CUG) is not yet known. The purpose of this study was to determine and analyze the incidence of musculoskeletal injuries among university athletes during the XXII CUG, hosted by Dschang University in May 2019. Methods. In this prospective cohort study, we recorded the daily number of injury occurrence among Olympic, Paralympic and fan's club university athletes from the reports of all the CUG 2019 medical teams. Injuries were analysed overall and according to age, gender, sports type, location, body region and mechanism. Associations were investigated by Chi Square or Fisher's exact test as appropriate, with P < 0.05 considered as statistically significant. Results. Out of the 2583 university athletes (1976 in Olympic, 97 in Paralympic and 510 in Fan's club) of the 2019 CUG, a total of 235 musculoskeletal injuries (without any double starter), representing an overall incidence rate of 9.1 injury per 100 athletes was found. No injury was reported among the Paralympic athletes. The incidence among Olympic sports and Fan's club athletes were 10.4% and 5.9%, respectively. The sports with the top three highest injury incidence during the 7-day competition was wrestling (33.3%), judo (18.4%) and football (16.9%); while sprain (42.1%), contusion (18.7%) and skin injury (18.3%) were the injury type with the highest proportion. Even though no significant difference was observed between females and males' Olympic athletes in the overall injury incidence, a significantly higher difference was observed among males (13.7%) when compared to females (4.8%) handball players, P = 0.01. Lower limb was the most injured body region; while knee, ankle, leg and thigh the commonest location observed. Of note, there was up to 5.9% overall injury incidence among the fan's club, which are also considered as athletes in this competition, a peculiarity of the CUG. Lastly, a total number of 4 concussions was found. Conclusions. Overall, injury incidence in athletes was 9.1% during the 2019 CUG. However, there is a need to monitor the occurrence of injury rates over time in various disciplines and sports in order to best design effective prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the early effects of whole body vibration (WBV) added to hypocaloric diet on insulin-resistance and other parameters associated with glucose regulation in sedentary obese individuals. We randomly assigned 34 patients to WBV plus hypocaloric diet (WBV group) or diet alone (CON group) for 8 weeks. Fasting and post-load glucose, insulin, lipids, C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor-α, leptin, adiponectin were assessed. Insulin sensitivity index (ISI) was derived from oral-glucose-tolerance test. Body composition was evaluated with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Both groups lost approximately 5 % of weight, with greater reduction of body fat in WBV than in CON (−7.1 ± 1.2 Kg vs. −5.3 ± 1.0 Kg, p = 0.003). Percent variation of ISI was more pronounced in WBV than in CON group (+ 35 ± 4 % vs. + 22 ± 5 %, p = 0.002), accompanied by slight improvement in post-load glucose (−1.07 ± 0.02 vs. −0.12 ± 0.01 mmol/l, p = 0.031) but without changes in fasting levels. Adiponectin significantly increased in WBV group compared with CON (p = 0.021 for comparison) whereas no differences in leptin and inflammatory markers were observed. In middle-aged sedentary obese subjects, WBV added to hypocaloric diet for 8 weeks improved body composition, insulin-resistance, glucose regulation and adiponectin levels to a greater extent compared with diet alone. Efficacy and feasibility of this approach in the long term need to be ascertained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The determination of the Avogadro constant plays a key role in the redefinition of the kilogram in terms of a fundamental constant. The present experiment makes use of a silicon single-crystal highly enriched in Si that must have a total impurity mass fraction smaller than a few parts in 10. To verify this requirement, we previously developed a relative analytical method based on neutron activation for the elemental characterization of a sample of the precursor natural silicon crystal WASO 04. The method is now extended to fifty-nine elements and applied to a monoisotopic Si single-crystal that was grown to test the achievable enrichment. Since this crystal was likely contaminated, this measurement tested also the detection capabilities of the analysis. The results quantified contaminations by Ge, Ga, As, Tm, Lu, Ta, W and Ir and, for a number of the detectable elements, demonstrated that we can already reach the targeted 1 ng/g detection limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to assess the opportunities for motor development in the family home of children that are between 18 and 42 months old, comparing the age groups (18 - 30 months and 31 - 42 months), gender, living with children and other conditions socioeconomic Characterized as an observational, descriptive and transversal study. The study included 88 children from the city of Sapucaia do Sul/ RS. Was used a structured and validated previously questionnaire called Affordances in the Home Environment Motor Development of children that are between 18 - 42 months, during home visits. There was no difference between gender and age groups. It was found that the number of adults are associated with better scores of interior space. The parents' education is associated with greater supply of toys and materials of skills fine motor (p < .005). The number of children at home is associated with a better variety of stimulation (p < .001). Family income has a significant relationship with the interior space (p < .005), exterior space (p < .001), materials of skills fine motor (p < .005) and gross motor (p < .001). The child who had more daily social interaction has more variety of stimulation (p < .001). However, it is important to increase attention to children and advising their parents about the development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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BACKGROUND: The gradual aging of population has increased the number of elderly patients receiving kidney transplants. In elderly transplant recipients, careful immunosuppression has to be maintained to avoid both rejection and adverse effects. Clinical protocols after kidney transplantation include use of the calcium channel antagonist diltiazem to ameliorate the hypertensive effect and nephrotoxicity of the immunosuppressant agent ciclosporin (cyclosporine). OBJECTIVE: Since immune response can be impaired by senescence, we evaluated the influence of diltiazem on lymphocyte proliferation both alone and in the presence of ciclosporin in younger versus older subjects. METHODS: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from younger healthy donors (aged 19-24 years) and older subjects (aged 59-65 years) were isolated and stimulated with mitogens, recombinant human interleukin-2 (IL-2), purified protein derivative (PPD) antigen from Mycobacteriumtuberculosis, and anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody (alphaCD3 moAb) in the presence or absence of 10(-4), 10(-5), 10(-6), 10(-7) mol/L concentrations of diltiazem. In some experiments, lymphocytes from younger and older subjects were used as responder cells in an allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) in the presence of different concentrations of diltiazem and 10 ng/mL of ciclosporin. RESULTS: We found that PBMC from older subjects were more susceptible to immunosuppression induced by low concentrations of diltiazem when mitogens were used to stimulate cells. In particular, when pokeweed mitogen was used, diltiazem 10(-7) mol/L was associated with statistically significant immunosuppression in older subjects compared with younger subjects. This effect was not observed when IL-2, PPD antigen and alphaCD3 moAb were used as stimulators. Moreover, in the allogeneic MLR, we found no differences between younger and older subjects when the 10(-)(5), 10(-)(6) and 10(-7) mol/L concentrations of diltiazem were used alone or in the presence of ciclosporin. Only addition of the supratherapeutic 10(-4) mol/L concentration of diltiazem to ciclosporin was associated with statistically significant immunosuppression in older versus younger subjects. DISCUSSION: Our results show that PBMC from older subjects are no more susceptible than PBMC from younger subjects to therapeutic doses of diltiazem when T-cell receptors are directly or indirectly involved. On the contrary, when PBMC activation was not mediated by T-cell receptor involvement, as in the case of pokeweed mitogen, susceptibility to a therapeutic concentration of diltiazem in older subjects was enhanced. Moreover, co-administration of therapeutic doses of diltiazem and ciclosporin in an MLR showed no significant differences between younger and older subjects in an in vitro model of lymphocyte response to allogeneic transplantation. CONCLUSION: Since we found no variations in immunosuppression between older and younger subjects when therapeutic doses of diltiazem were added to ciclosporin, our data do not discourage the use of diltiazem in older kidney transplant recipients receiving ciclosporin therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) is a powerful inhibitor of cell proliferation and a potent inducer of differentiation. Resistance to TGF-β action is a characteristic of many malignancies and has been attributed to alterations of TGF-β receptors as well as disturbance of downstream transduction pathways. To analyse the TGF-β response in neuroblastoma, the expression of TGF-β1 and TGF-β type I, II and III receptor genes was investigated in 61 cancer samples by means of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The specimens analysed belong to different stages, namely nine samples of stage 1, ten of stage 2, nine of stage 3 and 28 of stage 4. Moreover, five samples were of stage 4S, which represents a tumour form undergoing spontaneous regression. The results obtained show that TGF-β1 and TGF-β type I and II receptor genes appear to be almost equally expressed in neuroblastomas of all stages. Conversely, TGF-β type III receptor gene expression, which is required for an efficacious TGF-β binding and function, is strongly reduced exclusively in neuroblastomas of stages 3 and 4. These findings were directly confirmed by immunohistochemical analyses of ten neuroblastoma specimens. Our results suggest the occurrence of an altered TGF-β response in advanced neuroblastomas which might be an important mechanism for escaping growth control and for developing invasiveness. Moreover, our findings allow the proposal of a novel mechanism, namely down-regulation of TGF-β type III receptor gene expression, to avoid TGF-β inhibitory activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shows that the synthetic heptapeptide (Ch7)-dependent in vitro immunosuppression was accompanied by a significant up-regulation of prostaglandin E [sub 2] (PGE [sub 2]) production and induction of interleukin-10-secreting cells. Effect of Ch7 on PGE [sub 2] level in antigen-stimulated adherent cell cultures; Role of Ch7 immunosuppressive epitope in cytokine dysregulation.

Previous work from our laboratory demonstrated that a synthetic heptapeptide (Ch 7), corresponding to a conserved sequence of HIV core protein p24 (aa 232-238), was able to specifically abrogate antigen-induced responses in cultures of normal human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL). In the present study we show that Ch7 did not inhibit the induction of IFN-γ secreting cells nor the accumulation of IFN-γ mRNA in antigen-stimulated cultures. However, delayed addition of recombinant human IFN-γ to Ch7-suppressed cultures was able to restore fully the capacity to mount an antigen-specific antibody response. Thus, although the Ch7 immunosuppressive effect may not be directly related to a decreased production of IFN-γ, an increased level of this cytokine is certainly able to counteract the negative effect of the peptide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]