Whey protein and vitamin D supplementation in institutionalized older adults: A randomized trial

Background: The increase in life expectancy and in the number of individuals over 60 years old brings new demands to health professionals and services based on the physiological changes that occur in this population. The aging process results in changes in body composition, increasing body fat and reducing muscle mass, in addition to a reduction in bone mass. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of whey protein and vitamin D supplementation on body composition and skeletal muscle in older adults living in long-term care facilities. Methods: This study is a double-blind randomized controlled trial. Thirty older adults (>60 years old) were randomized and allocated in three groups: group receiving resistance training and supplementation receiving resistance training, whey protein and vitamin D; group received resistance and placebo training receiving resistance training and placebo, and control group without any intervention. Body composition was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at baseline, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks. Results: The mean age was 74.87 (± 8.14) years. A significant difference ( p = 0.042) was observed between the group receiving resistance training and supplementation and control groups in relation to lean mass increase (kg) at 24 weeks. After 24 weeks of intervention, there was a significant increase in Relative index of muscle mass for the two groups that underwent resistance training, group received resistance and placebo training ( p = 0.042) and group receiving resistance training and supplementation ( p = 0.045), in relation to the control. Conclusion: Combined supplementation of whey protein and vitamin D with resistance training can significantly improve lean mass, total mass, and relative index of muscle mass in institutionalized older adults.

Impact of Right Share Issue on Share Price of Commercial Banks in Nepal

This study has examined the effect of issue of right share on share price movement in the banking sector using share price and price relative as the predictors of share price movement. Banking sub-index and index relative of different periods were used for analysis. Five different periods of time were selected to observe the share price movement considering the announcement date as the reference point of time. Based on the secondary sources of data, a correctional analysis was administered to examine whether the share price and price relative (banking index) has any relationship with the share price change in case of Nepalese commercial banks. Coefficient of determination and probable error were used to find how much percentage of the variation in the share price could be explained by the occurrence of right share issue and likewise, whether or not the relationship was significant. The results reveal that right share announcements have the signaling effect on share price movement. The share prices and banking indices of selected banks have decreased after the announcement of right share. The results suggest that the information irregularity behavior tempts a negative change in share price after the announcement of rights share. The implication of the results is that investors can forestall the nature of change in share price after rights issue announcement and develop strategic plans to expand the trading activity. Keywords: NCC Bank., Right announcement, Right share issue, Price relative, Index relative.

Trend of asthma prevalence among children based on regional urbanization level in Japan; 2006–2019

Although it has been known that the prevalence of asthma tends to be higher among children in the metropolitan areas of Japan, trends of the prevalence with respect to the regional urbanization level has not been investigated in recent years. We investigated trends in the prevalence of asthma among children and air pollutant concentrations by regional urbanization levels using data from the School Health Statistics Survey in Japan from 2006 to 2019. We calculated the age-standardized prevalence of asthma for each year, gender, regional urbanization level, and annual percent change (APC). In addition, the slope index of inequality (SII) and relative index of inequality (RII) were calculated for evaluating disparity in age-standardized asthma prevalence depending on regional urbanization levels. Moreover, we calculated the mean of the annual average values by regional urbanization levels for sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), suspended particulate matter (SPM), carbon monoxide (CO), and photochemical oxidant (Ox) from 2006 to 2018. We found that the age-standardized prevalence significantly decreased in the periods in the metropolis for males and females, and the degree of the decrease was largest in the metropolis. Conversely, the age-standardized prevalence increased in towns and villages, and the APC was greater than zero. In addition, both the SII and RII showed significant decreasing trends in the study period, and the regional disparity shrank over the years. Moreover, concentrations of the air pollutants were highest in the metropolis throughout the years except for Ox, whereas the difference in the concentrations of NO2, SPM, and CO decreased between the metropolis and the other areas over the years. In conclusion, disparity in asthma prevalence depending on regional urbanization level decreased from 2006 to 2019, and there is a possibility that regional difference in trend of the air pollutants is related to the result.

Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in smoking in Turkey from 2008 to 2016

Background Smoking inequalities in Turkey were previously demonstrated in an early stage of the smoking epidemic model. This paper aimed to assess the trends for socioeconomic inequalities in smoking in Turkey over the years in the context of the smoking epidemic model using data from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) Turkey 2008–2012-2016. Methods Cross-sectional data were analyzed to calculate the association of smoking with, wealth, education, occupation and place of residence using age-standardized prevalence rates, odds ratios, relative index of inequality (RII) and slope index of inequality (SII). The analysis was performed separately for age groups (younger: 20–39 years/older: 40 and above years) and sex. Results Younger women with higher wealth and older women with higher wealth and education smoked more. For both age groups, smoking was increased for working class and urban women. Relative wealth inequalities in smoking narrowed and then showed a reversal for younger women (RII2008 = 3.37; 95% CI:1.64–3.40; RII2012 = 2.19; 95% CI:1.48–3.24; RII2016 = 0.80; 95% CI:0.58–1.10, p-for trend < 0.0001). Relative educational inequalities in smoking for older women also showed a narrowing (RII2008 = 21.45; 95% CI:11.74–39.19; RII2012 = 15.25; 95% CI:9.10–25.55; and RII2016 = 5.48; 95% CI:3.86–7.78, p-for trend < 0.0001). For older women, a similar narrowing was observed for wealth (RII2008 = 3.94; 95% CI:2.38–6.53; RII2012 = 2.79; 95% CI:1.80–4.32; and RII2016 = 1.34; 95% CI:0.94–1.91, p-for trend = 0.0001). The only significant trend for absolute inequalities was for younger women by wealth. This trend showed a narrowing and then a reversal (SII2008 = 0.14; 95% CI:0.09–1.20; SII2012 = 0.12; 95% CI:0.06–0.18; and SII2016 = -0.05; 95% CI:-0.12–0.02, p-for trend = 0.0001). Unlike women, smoking in men showed inverse associations for wealth and education, although not statistically confirmed for all years. Smoking was increased in working classes and unemployed men in 2012 and 2016. Inequalities did not show a trend in relative and absolute terms for men. Conclusions For smoking inequalities in Turkey, a transition to the next stage was observed, although the previously defined Southern European pattern also existed. Low socioeconomic women deserve special attention as well as stressors at work and drivers of smoking at urban settings.

Relative Importance Index (RII) In Ranking the Factors of Employer Satisfaction Towards Industrial Training Students

This study aims to examine the level of employer satisfaction towards industrial training students of the UiTM Pahang Civil Engineering Diploma Program and identify employer satisfaction factors for industrial training students from aspects of knowledge, personality, generic skills, and soft skills. This study is focused on semester four students undergoing industrial training. This study was conducted on 158 respondents from various organizations. Using the important relative index (RII), the level of important factors was ranked through the value of the index. Findings show the highest employer satisfaction is towards the student mastering their knowledge, adhering to the working hours, improving their skills and knowledge, and communicating well with co-workers. Besides, it also shows a good correlation between knowledge and personality among industrial training students. This study found that industrial training students of the Civil Engineering Diploma Program had a good level of control over all four domains. Overall findings showed that employers are satisfied with the industrial training students of the UiTM Pahang Civil Engineering Diploma Program. This study is important to measure the effectiveness of the industrial training syllabus in terms of achieving the program outcomes addressed in the syllabus

Environmental Efficiency Evaluation Method Based on Data Envelopment Analysis and Improved Neural Network

Economic development in China requires lots of energy to support it, but how to acquire an adequate energy supply is a difficult problem. Meantime, environmental pollution caused by energy consumption is a problem that immediately needs to be solved. To adapt to China’s rapidly emerging economy, and based on existing policies, giving more consideration to energy saving and environmental safety is more important. Therefore, to investigate China’s regional environmental efficiency and its factors has key importance. In order to evaluate the environmental efficiency input in China, this study first selects some indexes of environmental efficiency and applies the Data Envelopment Analysis (DAE) method to measure the efficiency of input and output. Then, the relative index of environmental efficiency input is selected as the input variable and the efficiency value as the output variable. The Backpropagation neural network is employed to learn and establish the prediction model and achieve high prediction accuracy. The performance of the model is improved by optimizing the index of environmental efficiency investment, adopting the latest data, and increasing the learning samples. This method is not only suitable for the evaluation of macro-environmental efficiency investment, but also suitable for enterprises in specific industries.

Level of inequality and the role of governance indicators in the coverage of reproductive maternal and child healthcare services: Findings from India

Background Diligent monitoring of inequalities in the coverage of essential reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health related (RMNCH) services becomes imperative to smoothen the journey towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this study, we aim to measure the magnitude of inequalities in the coverage of RMNCH services. We also made an attempt to divulge the relationship between the various themes of governance and RMNCH indices. Methods We used National Family Health Survey dataset (2015–16) and Public Affairs Index (PAI), 2016 for the analysis. Two summative indices, namely Composite Coverage Index (CCI) and Co-Coverage (Co-Cov) indicator were constructed to measure the RMNCH coverage. Slope Index of Inequality (SII) and Relative Index of Inequality (RII) were employed to measure inequality in the distribution of coverage of RMNCH. In addition, we have used Spearman’s rank correlation matrix to glean the association between governance indicator and coverage indices. Results & conclusions Our study indicates an erratic distribution in the coverage of CCI and Co-Cov across wealth quintiles and state groups. We found that the distribution of RII values for Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal hovered around 1. Whereas, RII values for Haryana was 2.01 indicating maximum inequality across wealth quintiles. Furthermore, the essential interventions like adequate antenatal care services (ANC4) and skilled birth attendants (SBA) were the most inequitable interventions, while tetanus toxoid and Bacilli Calmette- Guerin (BCG) were least inequitable. The Spearman’s rank correlation matrix demonstrated a strong and positive correlation between governance indicators and coverage indices.

Genetic factors influence the survival rate of parotid salivary gland cancer patients

Introduction. The complex of transcriptional proteins of NF-kB (Nuclear Factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells) family deservedly attracts attention as a factor capable of determining the course of malignant disease. Its promising study in combination with the expression of proinflammatory gene IL6 in patients with parotid cancer (PSG) is associated with the development of modulation of malignant disease treatment and risk assessment of the disease course. Aims — to determine the effect of the expression activity of the proinflammatory interleukin-6 gene and the NFKB1 transcriptional gene on the survival rate of patients with parotid cancer. Materials and methods. A cohort retrospective study was conducted in two groups. The epidemiological group of patients included 140 people from the cancer registry of Rostov region. The clinical part of the work was carried out on 25 patients with PSG cancer of both sexes aged 50 to 80 years. Followup period of the patients after radical surgery was 18 years. Expression activity of NFKB1 and IL6 genes was estimated by real-time PCR in tumor and conditionally healthy tissue. Patient survival rate was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier method. Results. According to the results of the survival analysis in the epidemiological group, the probability that an PSG cancer patient would survive the first year after diagnosis was 95.7%, three years — 82.4%, five years — 70.9% and 10 years — 31.2%. A comparative study of gene expression levels in tumor tissue samples compared to conditionally healthy tissue revealed an increase (p<0.001) in the relative index for both the IL6 gene (5.7 times) and the NFKB1 gene (7.9 times).><0.001) in the relative index for both the IL6 gene (5.7 times) and the NFKB1 gene (7.9 times). Discussion. Analysis of our data showed the possibility of using the complex evaluation of NFKB1 and IL6 gene expression in the cells of tumor samples of PSG cancer tissue obtained during surgery to predict the long-term survival of patients after surgical treatment. Conclusions. The expression profile of NFKB1 gene in tumor tissue was a proven prognostic factor determining the course of the disease in patients with PSG cancer, which should be taken into account when forming the prognosis of the disease. The expression of IL6 gene expression in tumor cells had no independent effect on the survival rate of PSG cancer patients, but contributed to the functional activation of NFKB1 transcription gene.

Modeling Eastern Russian High Arctic Geese (Anser fabalis, A. albifrons) during moult and brood rearing in the ‘New Digital Arctic’

Many polar species and habitats are now affected by man-made global climate change and underlying infrastructure. These anthropogenic forces have resulted in clear implications and many significant changes in the arctic, leading to the emergence of new climate, habitats and other issues including digital online infrastructure representing a ‘New Artic’. Arctic grazers, like Eastern Russian migratory populations of Tundra Bean Goose Anser fabalis and Greater White-fronted Goose A. albifrons, are representative examples and they are affected along the entire flyway in East Asia, namely China, Japan and Korea. Here we present the best publicly-available long-term (24 years) digitized geographic information system (GIS) data for the breeding study area (East Yakutia and Chukotka) and its habitats with ISO-compliant metadata. Further, we used seven publicly available compiled Open Access GIS predictor layers to predict the distribution for these two species within the tundra habitats. Using BIG DATA we are able to improve on the ecological niche prediction inference for both species by focusing for the first time specifically on biological relevant population cohorts: post-breeding moulting non-breeders, as well as post-breeding parent birds with broods. To assure inference with certainty, we assessed it with 4 lines of evidence including alternative best-available open access field data from GBIF.org as well as occurrence data compiled from the literature. Despite incomplete data, we found a good model accuracy in support of our evidence for a robust inference of the species distributions. Our predictions indicate a strong publicly best-available relative index of occurrence (RIO). These results are based on the quantified ecological niche showing more realistic gradual occurrence patterns but which are not fully in agreement with the current strictly applied parsimonious flyway and species delineations. While our predictions are to be improved further, e.g. when synergetic data are made freely available, here we offer within data caveats the first open access model platform for fine-tuning and future predictions for this otherwise poorly represented region in times of a rapid changing industrialized ‘New Arctic’ with global repercussions.