Ramifications of COVID-19 on Childhood Obesity: A Global Perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching ramifications that extend far beyond the Clinical Diseases. Children around the world have been impacted by the socioeconomic, psychological, and physiologic effects brought about by the emergence and response to this virus. This is especially true for children already suffering from obesity. They have been placed in an almost impossible situation due to the negative effects of living in relative isolation. Using logistic regression, the hazard factors for loss of life in young overweight COVID-19 patients were investigated. According to our data, obesity is linked to many health risks for teenage COVID-19 patients. They have a significant death rate, with worsening irritant responses, greater vascular damage, and elevated rates of lung consolidation. Younger children infected with COVID-19 who were hospitalized had a high proportion of comorbidities. Infants had less severe illness. Obese child were more likely to necessitate mechanical ventilation, as well as higher indicators of Inflammation at the time of admission. While in the hospital childhood obesity was linked to serious COVID-19 disease. Europe is no exception, three weeks have passed since Italy's mandatory countrywide lock-down began; lifestyle, diet, exercise, and sleep were collected and compared to data on children gathered in 2019. The additional weight accumulated during the lock-down may not be readily reversed, and if better practices are not re-established, it may contribute to obesity in adulthood. The United States similarly has reported increasing weight gain in youth aged 2-19 during the pandemic.

Liraglutide for Weight Management in the Real World: Significant Weight Loss Even if the Maximal Daily Dose Is Not Achieved

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Obesity is a global health challenge, and pharmacologic options are emerging. Once daily subcutaneous administration of 3 mg liraglutide, a glucagon like peptide-1 analogue, has been shown to induce weight loss in clinical trials, but real-world effectiveness data are scarce. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> It is a single-centre retrospective cohort study of patients who were prescribed liraglutide on top of lifestyle adaptations after multidisciplinary evaluation. In Belgium, liraglutide is only indicated for weight management if the BMI is &#x3e;30 kg/m² or ≥27 kg/m² with comorbidities such as dysglycaemia, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, or obstructive sleep apnoea. No indication is covered by the compulsory health care insurance. Liraglutide was started at 0.6 mg/day and uptitrated weekly until 3 mg/day or the maximum tolerated dose. Treatment status and body weight were evaluated at the 4-month routine visit. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Between June 2016 and January 2020, liraglutide was prescribed to 115 patients (77% female), with a median age of 47 (IQR 37.7–54.0) years, a median body weight of 98.4 (IQR 90.0–112.2) kg, a BMI of 34.8 (IQR 32.2–37.4) kg/m², and an HbA1c level of 5.6%. Five (4%) patients did not actually initiate treatment, 9 (8%) stopped treatment, and 8 (7%) were lost to follow-up. At the 4-month visit, the median body weight had decreased significantly by 9.2% to 90.8 (IQR 82.0–103.5) kg (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001). Patients using 3.0 mg/day (<i>n</i> = 60) had lost 8.0 (IQR 5.8–10.4) kg. The weight loss was similar (<i>p</i> = 0.9622) in patients that used a lower daily dose because of intolerance: 7.4 (IQR 6.2–9.6) kg for 1.2 mg (<i>n</i> = 3), 7.8 (IQR 4.1–7.8) kg for 1.8 mg (<i>n</i> = 16), and 9.0 (IQR 4.8–10.7) kg for 2.4 mg/day (<i>n</i> = 14). Weight loss was minimal if liraglutide treatment was not started or stopped prematurely (median 3.0 [IQR 0.3–4.8] kg, <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001, vs. on treatment). Further analysis showed an additional weight reduction of 1.8 kg in the patients that had started metformin &#x3c;3 months before the start of liraglutide (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001). The main reasons for liraglutide discontinuation were gastrointestinal complaints (<i>n</i> = 5/9) and drug cost (<i>n</i> = 2/9). <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> In this selected group of patients, the majority complied with liraglutide treatment over the initial 4-month period and achieved a significant weight loss, irrespective of the maximally tolerated maintenance dose. Addition of metformin induced a small but significant additional weight loss.

The effect of fatty diacid acylation of human PYY3-36 on Y2 receptor potency and half-life in minipigs

Peptides are notoriously known to display very short in vivo half-lives often measured in minutes which in many cases greatly reduces or eliminates sufficient in vivo efficacy. To obtain long half-lives allowing for up to once-weekly dosing regimen, fatty acid acylation (lipidation) have been used to non-covalently associate the peptide to serum albumin thus serving as a circulating depot. This approach is generally considered in the scientific and patent community as a standard approach to protract almost any given peptide. However, it is not trivial to prolong the half-life of peptides by lipidation and still maintain high potency and good formulation properties. Here we show that attaching a fatty acid to the obesity-drug relevant peptide PYY3-36 is not sufficient for long pharmacokinetics (PK), since the position in the backbone, but also type of fatty acid and linker strongly influences PK and potency. Furthermore, understanding the proteolytic stability of the backbone is key to obtain long half-lives by lipidation, since backbone cleavage still occurs while associated to albumin. Having identified a PYY analogue with a sufficient half-life, we show that in combination with a GLP-1 analogue, liraglutide, additional weight loss can be achieved in the obese minipig model.

The effects of plyometric training with additional weight applied to football athletes-students on some physical and physiological features and chronic muscle damage

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of plyometric training with additional weight on physical performance and muscle damage findings in faculty of sports sciences athlete-students. Physical performance tests and blood samples of the athlete-students (male 23.41 ± 3.2 years old) were collected both from sample and the control groups at the first week of the study and at the last training of the twelfth week. During the study, plyometric training programs were applied to the additional weight group (AWG) and no additional weight group (AG). By the end of first and twelfth week, players’ BMI and body fat percentage tests were applied together with the physical tests of shuttle, yoyo, vertical jump, horizontal jump, agility and sprint performance tests. Blood samples were also taken to check muscle damage control markers (CK and LDH). Results: According to the results of tests performed at the end of first and twelfth weeks’ plyometric trainings on group with additional weight group (AWG), shuttle, yoyo and horizontal jumping were found to be significantly increased, while sprint performance, BMI and body fat performance tests were significantly decreased. The test results of the group without additional weight (AG) was; significant increase in shuttle, yoyo and vertical jump while significant decrease in sprint performance and fat %. By the end of twelve week plyometric trainings, no muscle damage has been observed in (AWG), CK pre-training (229,00 ± 155,25) and post training values (242,33 ± 193,67) and LDH pre-training (169,75 ± 40,85) and post-training (174,33 ± 39,12) values. As a result of the study, 12-week plyometric training with additional weight applied to football athletes-students not only increased their physical performance, but also muscle damage (CK and LDH) was not observed.

Maximum Strength Benchmarks for Difficult Static Elements on Rings in Male Elite Gymnastics

On rings, in men’s artistic gymnastics, the general strength requirements for important static elements remain elusive. Therefore, the aim was to describe the relationship between a new conditioning strength test and a maximum strength test of static elements on rings in order to determine the minimal strength level (benchmarks) required to maintain these elements with one’s own body weight. Nineteen elite gymnasts performed a concentric (1RM isoinertial) and eccentric (isokinetic: 0.1 m/s) conditioning strength test for swallow/support scale (supine position) and inverted cross (seated position) on a computer-controlled device and a maximum strength test maintaining these elements for 5 s on rings with counterweight or additional weight. High correlation coefficients were found between the conditioning maximum strength for swallow/support scale (r: 0.65 to 0.92; p < 0.05) and inverted cross (r: 0.62 to 0.69; p > 0.05) and the maximum strength of the elements on rings. Strength benchmarks varied between 56.66% (inverted cross concentric) and 94.10% (swallow eccentric) of body weight. Differences in biomechanical characteristics and technical requirements of strength elements on rings may (inter alia) explain the differences between correlations. Benchmarks of conditioning strength may help coaches and athletes systematize the training of strength elements on rings.

Enhancement of anisotropy energy of SmCo5 by ceasing the coupling at 2c sites in the crystal lattice with Cu substitution

SmCo5 and SmCo5−xCux magnetic particles were produced by co-precipitation followed by reduction diffusion. HRTEM confirmed the Cu substitution in the SmCo5 lattice. Non-magnetic Cu was substituted at “2c” site in the SmCo5 crystal lattice and effectively stopped the coupling in its surroundings. This decoupling effect decreased magnetic moment from SmCo5 (12.86 μB) to SmCo4Cu (10.58 μB) and SmCo3Cu2 (7.79 μB) and enhanced anisotropy energy from SmCo5 (10.87 Mega erg/cm3) to SmCo4Cu (14.05 Mega erg/cm3) and SmCo3Cu2 (14.78 Mega erg/cm3). Enhancement of the anisotropy energy increased the coercivity as its values for SmCo5, SmCo4Cu and SmCo3Cu2 were recorded as 4.5, 5.97 and 6.99 kOe respectively. Being six times cheaper as compared to Co, substituted Cu reduced the price of SmCo3Cu2 up to 2%. Extra 15% Co was added which not only enhanced the Mr value but also reduced the 5% of the total cost because of additional weight added to the SmCo3Cu2. Method reported in this work is most energy efficient method on the synthesis of Sm–Co–Cu ternary alloys until now.

The Tannei Rav X Baraitot in the Babylonian Talmud: From Recitation to Ascription

This article examines the meaning and the development of the terms used to introduce baraitot transmitted by amoraim in the Bavli: “Tannei Rav X.” Why are these baraitot not introduced with the more usual terms used for citing a baraita, “tanya” and “tannu rabbanan?” I will argue that the term “tannei Rav X” was created in the generations that followed the named amora, as an alternative to the usual citation formula employed by the sage himself when he first quoted the baraita. A sage later to Rav X (or the “stam”) who wished to refer to a baraita quoted earlier by Rav X, used the term “tannei Rav X” to do so. These baraitot (around 80%) have parallels in tannaitic compositions or in the Yerushalmi. This finding bears additional weight on the question of the origins of the terminology used to quote baraitot in the Bavli.

Fatigue Test of 6082 Aluminum Alloy under Random Load with Controlled Kurtosis

This paper presents the results of experimental tests carried out on an electromagnetic shaker where the excited element was a specimen with additional weight attached to the slip table. The load was random with a different kurtosis parameter value, i.e., it was performed for non-Gaussian loads. The experiment was accompanied by basic fatigue calculations in the frequency domain and their verification with experimental results. A significant decrease in fatigue life was found to take place with an increase in kurtosis and the maintenance of the same standard deviation of the specimen load. The fatigue effect, caused by the deviation from the normal distribution that was described by the kurtosis parameter, on the fatigue life of aluminum alloy 6082 was presented. An analysis revealed the different amplitude probability distributions for the loading signal and the recorded deformation signal. It was concluded that there was a lack of sensitivity of the numerical model to the change in the kurtosis parameter of the distribution of random loads.