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Background:To systematically review the effects of interventions to improve exercise behaviour in sedentary people living with and beyond cancer.Methods:Only randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared an exercise intervention to a usual care comparison in sedentary people with a homogeneous primary cancer diagnosis, over the age of 18 years were eligible. The following electronic databases were searched: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials MEDLINE; EMBASE; AMED; CINAHL; PsycINFO; SportDiscus; PEDro from inception to August 2012.Results:Fourteen trials were included in this review, involving a total of 648 participants. Just six trials incorporated prescriptions that would meet current recommendations for aerobic exercise. However, none of the trials included in this review reported intervention adherence of 75% or more for a set prescription that would meet current aerobic exercise guidelines. Despite uncertainty around adherence in many of the included trials, the interventions caused improvements in aerobic exercise tolerance at 8-12 weeks (SMD=0.73, 95% CI=0.51-0.95) in intervention participants compared with controls. At 6 months, aerobic exercise tolerance is also improved (SMD=0.70, 95% CI=0.45-0.94), although four of the five trials had a high risk of bias; hence, caution is warranted in its interpretation.Conclusion:Expecting the majority of sedentary survivors to achieve the current exercise guidelines is likely to be unrealistic. As with all well-designed exercise programmes, prescriptions should be designed around individual capabilities and frequency, duration and intensity or sets, repetitions, intensity of resistance training should be generated on this basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To develop a digital densitometric tool for jaw bone to analyse intraoral radiographs. To assess precision and accuracy for this tool and determine the minimal detection threshold for density changes. Methods: Bone samples deriving from the premolar region of 47 human mandibles were selected for analysis. The samples were obtained from adult cadavers in the department of anatomy (Faculty of Medicine, KULeuven) with ethical approval. Digital radiography was performed on all bone samples. Direct volumetric measurements served as gold standard density values and allowed determination of accuracy. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans were performed on all specimens. For all radiographs, density in mm Al eq was calculated using custom-made software, Osteop. Precision and intraobserver and interobserver reliability of this method were assessed. The bone specimens were progressively decalcified. At standard time intervals the percentage of decalcification was calculated. At each decalcification step, radiographs were taken and analysed. Results: CV was always lower than 3%, which points to a good precision of the method. Correlation between the density measurements in mm Al eq and the DXA results was 0.9, for the density measurements in mm Al eq and the direct density measurements r was 0.5. The custom-made software was able to detect a change in bone mineralization of 6.6%. Conclusions: The present method for bone densitometric analysis offers potentials for clinical evaluation of bone density and minute bone density changes in the jaw bone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viridans streptococci have emerged as major opportunistic pathogens. We suggest that for these bacteria to proliferate in vivo and cause disease, they must utilize host tissue components. We have therefore examined the ability of all recognized species of viridans streptococci to liberate and utilize the constituent sugars of the glycans of the extensively sialylated human serum α 1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) as the sole source of carbohydrate to support in vitro growth. Analysis of residual glycans following bacterial growth was performed by high-pH anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Only those species which produced sialidase--namely, Streptococcus oralis, S. intermedius, and S. defectivus-grew on AGP. The extent of degradation of glycans was dependent on the particular glycosidases produced by the bacteria. S. defectivus produced only a sialidase which released the terminal N-acetylneuraminic acid residues of the glycans, and the liberated sugar was utilized. S. intermedius also produced β-galactosidase and β-N-acetyl-glucosaminidase, which removed galactose and N-acetyl-glucosamine from desialylated glycans, all of which again were utilized by the organism. S. oralis produced β-galactosidase, β-N-acetylglucosaminidase, and α-fucosidase and novel α- and β-mannosidases which were apparent only from the analysis of the residual sugars of AGP. S. oralis cleaved all the sugars from AGP except for 22% of the N-acetylglucosamine. The residual N-acetylglucosamine residues remaining were those linked to the asparagine of the peptide backbone. All the monosaccharides released by S. oralis from AGP, with the exception of fucose, were utilized. Sialidase production may be a key factor for growth of these species of viridans streptococci on glycoproteins in vivo, since they are commonly associated with extra-oral diseases, with S. oralis emerging as an important pathogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]