Cardiorespiratory fitness and telomere length: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to systematically review the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and telomere length (TL). Studies were identified from searches in Cochrane Central, PubMed, Scopus, Sportdiscus, and Web of Science databases through July 2019. Eligibility criteria included: cross-sectional, prospective, and experimental study design; outcomes included TL; results expressed the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and TL; studies published in English, Portuguese, or Spanish. A total of 20 articles met the inclusion criteria. Sixteen studies (80%) reported a significant relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness, or training load, and TL. Better cardiorespiratory fitness or a large cardiorespiratory training load are associated with an increase in TL. Although, TL was related to regular moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise and cardiorespiratory fitness in older healthy humans, it was not related to cardiorespiratory fitness among young subjects. There seems to be a positive and significant relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and TL, mainly among middle age and older people, which emphasizes the importance of cardiorespiratory fitness for healthy ageing. Therefore, endurance exercise and better cardiorespiratory fitness may regulate the TL in middle age and older adults, slowing the cellular ageing process.     

Effects and prevalence of responders after a multicomponent intervention on cardiometabolic risk factors in children and adolescents with overweight/obesity: Action for health study

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to verify the effect of a multicomponent intervention on cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRF), and to determine the prevalence of responders on CMRF among children and adolescents with overweight/obesity. This is a quasi-experimental study, developed with 35 children and adolescents with overweight/obesity (control group (CG) = 18; intervention group (IG) = 17), aged between 7 and 13 years. Participants in IG underwent a multicomponent intervention for 12 weeks. The following variables were evaluated: anthropometric measures, maturational stages and CMRF (body fatness, HOMA-IR, triglycerides, high-density and low-density lipoprotein) (HDL-C, LDL-C), total cholesterol (TC), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and AST/ALT ratio. Mixed analysis of variance and the prevalence of responders were used for statistical analysis. There was a significant time x group interaction on body fatness (p < 0.001), HOMA-IR (p = 0.01), HDL-C (p < 0.001), LDL-C (p = 0.009) and TC (p < 0.001). The prevalence of responders for CMRF in IG and CG was respectively: body fatness (47%; 0%; p = 0.04), HOMA-IR (58.8%; 16.6%; p = 0.04); triglycerides (17.6%; 5.5%; p = 0.31); HDL-C (76.4%; 5.5%; p = 0.01), LDL-C (35.3%; 5%; p = 0.08), TC (64.7%; 5%; p = 0.01), AST (5.8%; 0%; p = 0.87), ALT (29.4%; 11.1%; p = 0.24) and AST/ALT ratio (24.4%; 22.2%; p = 0.67). Multicomponent intervention induced positive changes on CMRF along with a higher prevalence of positive adaptations in IG than the CG in some of the cardiometabolic outcomes assessed.     

Sexual Socialization Messages in Television Programming Produced for Adolescents

This study examined sexual content in American prime-time programs popular among the tween (9–14 years of age) audience on broadcast networks and programs aired on the most popular adolescent TV networks—an understudied area of media research. Consistent with past research, the majority of broadcast shows contained sexual talk and behaviors, as did adolescent shows. No significant difference was observed between the two types of shows regarding the frequency with which sexual behaviors were presented in a given hour of TV programming. The amount of scene focus paid to sexual themes varied, but studio audiences were almost always heard positively reinforcing these messages. The findings are discussed with respect to social cognitive and cultivation theories.     

Specific Learning Disabilities and the Portuguese Educational System

Although the Portuguese educational system advocates the accommodation of all students in regular schools, it has not adopted a coherent discourse that would contribute to meeting effectively the needs of students with specific learning disabilities (SLD). As such, the successive reorganizations of special education have resulted in uninformed decisions that have caused the education of students with SLD in Portugal to be, in many instances, detrimental to their academic and social growth. We describe the reality of SLD in Portugal, considering four main topics: (1) the establishment of the SLD concept, (2) the birth of a Portuguese definition of SLD, (3) the context of educational policy, and (4) the provision for students with SLD.     

Some practical approaches to a course on paraconsistent logic for engineers

This paper describes a non-classical logic course primarily indicated for graduate students in electrical engineering and energy engineering. The content of this course is based on the vision that it is not enough for a student to indefinitely accumulate knowledge; it is necessary to explore all the occasions to update, deepen, and enrich that knowledge, adapting it to a complex world. Therefore, this course is not tied to theoretical formalities and tries at each moment to provide a practical view of the non-classical logic. In the real world, the inconsistencies are important and cannot be ignored because contradictory information brings relevant facts, sometimes modifying the entire result of the analysis. As consequence, the non-classical logics, such as annotated paraconsistent logic – APL, are efficiently framed in the approach of complex situations of the real world. In APL, the concepts of unknown, partial, ambiguous, and inconsistent knowledge are referred not to trivialise any system in analysis. This course presents theoretical and applicable aspects of APL, which are successfully used in decision-making structures. The course is divided into modules: Basic, 2vAPL, 3vAPL, 4vAPL, and Final Project.     

Improving teaching and learning of computer programming through the use of the Second Life virtual world

The emergence of new technologies such as three‐dimensional virtual worlds brings new opportunities for teaching and learning. We conducted an action research approach to the analysis of how teaching and learning of computer programming at the university level could be developed within the Second Life virtual world. Results support the notion that it is possible to use this environment for better effectiveness in the learning of programming. The main results are the identification of problems hampering the teacher's intervention in this virtual world and the detection of solutions for those problems that were found effective to the success in using this environment for teaching/learning computer programming.     

Do inequalities in parents’ education play an important role in PISA students’ mathematics achievement test score disparities?

This paper measures and decomposes socioeconomic-related inequality in mathematics achievement in 15 European Union member states. Data is taken from the 2003 wave of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). There is socioeconomic-related inequality in mathematics achievement, favoring the higher socioeconomic groups in each country. There are important differences among countries. The inequality is higher in Germany, Greece, Great Britain, Belgium, and Portugal and is lower in Sweden and Finland. Socioeconomic factors represent between 14.9% and 34.6% of the overall inequality in education.     

The start-up,evolution and impact of a research group in a university developing its knowledge base

This article focuses on the understudied role of research groups contributing to develop the knowledge base of developing universities in regions lagging behind in human, financial and scientific resources. We analyse the evolution of a research group that, in less than 10 years, achieved worldwide recognition in the field of microelectronics, with an impact on both engineering research and teaching activities at the University of Macau. Our analysis concludes that voluntarism and loose organizational structures from the start stimulate the development of solid scientific agendas and institutional identity, and that counter-intuitive policies, including academic inbreeding, may also be needed and unavoidable in this effort. The use of these counter-intuitive policies and their effects, however, can be mitigated by transforming education to highlight high levels of internationalization and quality standards with measurable outcomes. This requires the committed involvement of research group leaders in both research and education. Lastly, another key component of university development may lie in hiring and giving freedom to young promising scholars with the will and drive to lead and act.     

Self-training through the Internet

The development of five courses, aimed at advanced engineering training, using the Internet, is described in this paper. A European consortium was responsible for the development, implementation and testing of the courses through the organization of virtual classes on the Internet. An important outcome was the definition of the training service characteristics, which led to the development of a quality system based on four fundamental concepts: credit, accreditation, certification and qualification. Professionals of several age groups and industrial sectors with different expectations as well as engineering students attended pilot virtual classes. From the trainee's side, we report on how the training opportunity was received and how the training service provided was felt. The main project successes and a few weak points and a number of important recommendations are listed for future reference.     

Career adaptability and associations with personality traits and pathological traits utilizing network analysis

This study investigated relationships between career adaptability and personality and pathological traits using the network analysis approach. We administered CAAS, BFI-2-S, and IDCP-2 to 630 working adults. We observed positive associations between personality and career adaptability and negative associations between pathological traits and career adaptability. This paper contributes to the understanding of the associations between career adaptability and Big Five personality traits and pathological traits. We found stronger associations between career adaptability and personality traits as compared to pathological traits. Our findings suggest that Neuroticism and Conscientiousness contribute more to adaptation to professional development tasks than do pathological traits.