Publications by authors named "Francesca Liu"

Objectives: The objective was to determine recent cross-sectional trends in health-related fitness (HRF) in secondary school students by studying the 13-14 years old age group repeatedly over 6 years, considering parallel national trends in physical education (PE).

Methods: Height, weight, broad jump, grip strength, 20 m shuttle run and throwing and catching skills were measured by the same research team using standardised techniques from 2014 to 2019. Trends in these HRF measures were assessed by linear regression, adjusting for school, sex and height.

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Five to six percent of young people have movement impairment (MI) associated with reduced exercise tolerance and physical activity levels which persist into adulthood. To better understand the exercise experience in MI, we determined the physiological and perceptual responses during and following a bout of exercise performed at different intensities typically experienced during sport in youth with MI. Thirty-eight adolescents (11-18 years) categorised on the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-2 Short-Form performed a peak oxygen uptake bike test ([Formula: see text]) test at visit 1 (V1).

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Introduction: Motor competence (MC) is an important factor in the development of health and fitness in adolescence.

Aims: This cross-sectional study aims to explore the distribution of MC across school students aged 13-14 years old and the extent of the relationship of MC to measures of health and fitness across genders.

Methods: A total of 718 participants were tested from three different schools in the UK, 311 girls and 407 boys (aged 13-14 years), pairwise deletion for correlation variables reduced this to 555 (245 girls, 310 boys).

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Rapid activation of the innate immune system is critical for an efficient host response to invading pathogens. However, the inflammatory reaction has to be strictly controlled to minimize harmful immunopathology. A number of mediators including the cytokine interleukin-27 (IL-27) appear to be responsible for limitation and resolution of inflammation.

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Infection with influenza virus can result in massive pulmonary infiltration and potentially fatal immunopathology. Understanding the endogenous mechanisms that control immunopathology could provide a key to novel adjunct therapies for this disease. Here we show that the cytokine IL-27 plays a crucial role in protection from exaggerated inflammation during influenza virus infection.

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