Influence of nutrient intake on antioxidant capacity, muscle damage and white blood cell count in female soccer players

11 p.

Running Pace Decrease during a Marathon Is Positively Related to Blood Markers of Muscle Damage

Background: Completing a marathon is one of the most challenging sports activities, yet the source of running fatigue during this event is not completely understood. The aim of this investigation was to determine the cause(s) of running fatigue during a marathon in warm weather. Methodology/Principal Findings: We recruited 40 amateur runners (34 men and 6 women) for the study. Before the race, body core temperature, body mass, leg muscle power output during a countermovement jump, and blood samples were obtained. During the marathon (27 uC; 27% relative humidity) running fatigue was measured as the pace reduction from the first 5-km to the end of the race. Within 3 min after the marathon, the same pre-exercise variables were obtained. Results: Marathoners reduced their running pace from 3.5 6 0.4 m/s after 5-km to 2.9 6 0.6 m/s at the end of the race (P,0.05), although the running fatigue experienced by the marathoners was uneven. Marathoners with greater running fatigue (. 15% pace reduction) had elevated post-race myoglobin (1318 6 1411 v 623 6 391 mg L21; P,0.05), lactate dehydrogenase (687 6 151 v 583 6 117 U L21; P,0.05), and creatine kinase (564 6 469 v 363 6 158 U L21; P = 0.07) in comparison with marathoners that preserved their running pace reasonably well throughout the race. However, they did not differ in their body mass change (23.1 6 1.0 v 23.0 6 1.0%; P = 0.60) or post-race body temperature (38.7 6 0.7 v 38.9 6 0.9 uC; P = 0.35). Conclusions/Significance: Running pace decline during a marathon was positively related with muscle breakdown blood markers. To elucidate if muscle damage during a marathon is related to mechanistic or metabolic factors requires further investigation.

DNA Damage and Transcriptional Changes in the Gills of Mytilus galloprovincialis Exposed to Nanomolar Doses of Combined Metal Salts (Cd, Cu, Hg)

[ENG]Aiming at an integrated and mechanistic view of the early biological effects of selected metals in the marine sentinel organism Mytilus galloprovincialis, we exposed mussels for 48 hours to 50, 100 and 200 nM solutions of equimolar Cd, Cu and Hg salts and measured cytological and molecular biomarkers in parallel. Focusing on the mussel gills, first target of toxic water contaminants and actively proliferating tissue, we detected significant dose-related increases of cells with micronuclei and other nuclear abnormalities in the treated mussels, with differences in the bioconcentration of the three metals determined in the mussel flesh by atomic absorption spectrometry. Gene expression profiles, determined in the same individual gills in parallel, revealed some transcriptional changes at the 50 nM dose, and substantial increases of differentially expressed genes at the 100 and 200 nM doses, with roughly similar amounts of up- and down-regulated genes. The functional annotation of gill transcripts with consistent expression trends and significantly altered at least in one dose point disclosed the complexity of the induced cell response. The most evident transcriptional changes concerned protein synthesis and turnover, ion homeostasis, cell cycle regulation and apoptosis, and intracellular trafficking (transcript sequences denoting heat shock proteins, metal binding thioneins, sequestosome 1 and proteasome subunits, and GADD45 exemplify up-regulated genes while transcript sequences denoting actin, tubulins and the apoptosis inhibitor 1 exemplify down-regulated genes). Overall, nanomolar doses of co-occurring free metal ions have induced significant structural and functional changes in the mussel gills: the intensity of response to the stimulus measured in laboratory supports the additional validation of molecular markers of metal exposure to be used in Mussel Watch programs

Evidence of dopant type-inversion and other radiation damage effects of the CDF silicon detectors

xix, 213 p.

Flood risk management: What are the main drivers of prevention?

4 p.

Literature Review of Integrated Impact Assessment Models of Climate Change with Emphasis on Damage Functions

35 p.

Gender equality in life insurance

[EN]This project is going to study the implications of the gender of an individual in the rate-setting process of life insurance. In order to do so there is a review of the continuous changes that have taken place in the national and European legislation following the enactment of the Directive 2004/113/EC, as well as its consequences from the prohibition to differentiate the premiums and benefits on the grounds of gender. In this area, the evolution of the Spanish insurance sector and the influence of the new legislation are examined. Furthermore, there is an analysis of the differences between men and women, which to some extent have a direct impact in the management and development of the life insurance companies. Finally, methods to calculate the premium and the benefits are proposed with the purpose of preventing the restrictions imposed by the Directive 2004/113/EC. In order to check the repercussions of the use of unisex tables a comparison is made between the premiums obtained for a whole life insurance by allocating the same weighing to the actuarial male and female mortality tables and those that would result if the distinction by gender were allowed.

Proceso de creación del “Competitor and Market Report” para cubrir las necesidades de información de la alta dirección de Zurich Insurance Ltd.

Proceso del Competitor and Market Report para cubrir las necesidades de información de la Alta Dirección de Zurich Insurance plc, para la unidad de negocio Global Corporate (GC) en la región de Europa Medio Oriente y África (EMEA) “ El Competitor and Market Report surge de la situación de desinformación en la que los altos directivos y los representantes de CD&M GCiEMEA de cada país se encuentran. Este trabajo consiste en estudiar todo el proceso de creación del Competitor and Market Report, empezando por la identificación del problema, búsqueda de soluciones e implementación y puesta en marcha de la solución. Este proceso nos obligara a inventariar y analizar los estudios que hasta el momento la empresa de seguros Zurich Insurance Ltd, recibía procedentes de fuentes externas o de distintos departamentos que rara vez estaban coordinados en la producción de estos informes. Analizaremos cuales son las áreas de información que estos informes no cubren. El proceso nos obligara a realizar un trabajo de campo. Haremos entrevistas que nos ayudaran a comprender mejor las necesidades de información de los altos directivos. A partir de los resultados anteriores se justificará la creación del Competitor and Market Report, y se estudiará todo el proceso de creación y puesta en marcha de un informe que cubra las necesidades anteriores.

Alcohol-Related Brain Damage in Humans

Chronic excessive alcohol intoxications evoke cumulative damage to tissues and organs. We examined prefrontal cortex (Brodmann's area (BA) 9) from 20 human alcoholics and 20 age, gender, and postmortem delay matched control subjects. H & E staining and light microscopy of prefrontal cortex tissue revealed a reduction in the levels of cytoskeleton surrounding the nuclei of cortical and subcortical neurons, and a disruption of subcortical neuron patterning in alcoholic subjects. BA 9 tissue homogenisation and one dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) proteomics of cytosolic proteins identified dramatic reductions in the protein levels of spectrin beta II, and alpha- and beta-tubulins in alcoholics, and these were validated and quantitated by Western blotting. We detected a significant increase in a-tubulin acetylation in alcoholics, a non-significant increase in isoaspartate protein damage, but a significant increase in protein isoaspartyl methyltransferase protein levels, the enzyme that triggers isoaspartate damage repair in vivo. There was also a significant reduction in proteasome activity in alcoholics. One dimensional PAGE of membrane-enriched fractions detected a reduction in beta-spectrin protein levels, and a significant increase in transmembranous alpha 3 (catalytic) subunit of the Na+, K+-ATPase in alcoholic subjects. However, control subjects retained stable oligomeric forms of a-subunit that were diminished in alcoholics. In alcoholics, significant loss of cytosolic alpha-and beta-tubulins were also seen in caudate nucleus, hippocampus and cerebellum, but to different levels, indicative of brain regional susceptibility to alcohol-related damage. Collectively, these protein changes provide a molecular basis for some of the neuronal and behavioural abnormalities attributed to alcoholics

Effect of Neonatal Asphyxia on the Impairment of the Auditory Pathway by Recording Auditory Brainstem Responses in Newborn Piglets: A New Experimentation Model to Study the Perinatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Damage on the Auditory Syste

Introduction Hypoxia-ischemia (HI) is a major perinatal problem that results in severe damage to the brain impairing the normal development of the auditory system. The purpose of the present study is to study the effect of perinatal asphyxia on the auditory pathway by recording auditory brain responses in a novel animal experimentation model in newborn piglets. Method Hypoxia-ischemia was induced to 1.3 day-old piglets by clamping 30 minutes both carotid arteries by vascular occluders and lowering the fraction of inspired oxygen. We compared the Auditory Brain Responses (ABRs) of newborn piglets exposed to acute hypoxia/ischemia (n = 6) and a control group with no such exposure (n = 10). ABRs were recorded for both ears before the start of the experiment (baseline), after 30 minutes of HI injury, and every 30 minutes during 6 h after the HI injury. Results Auditory brain responses were altered during the hypoxic-ischemic insult but recovered 30-60 minutes later. Hypoxia/ischemia seemed to induce auditory functional damage by increasing I-V latencies and decreasing wave I, III and V amplitudes, although differences were not significant. Conclusion The described experimental model of hypoxia-ischemia in newborn piglets may be useful for studying the effect of perinatal asphyxia on the impairment of the auditory pathway.