Linguistic laws in biology.

Linguistic laws, the common statistical patterns of human language, have been investigated by quantitative linguists for nearly a century. Recently, biologists from a range of disciplines have started to explore the prevalence of these laws beyond language, finding patterns consistent with linguistic laws across multiple levels of biological organisation, from molecular (genomes, genes, and proteins) to organismal (animal behaviour) to ecological (populations and ecosystems). We propose a new conceptual framework for the study of linguistic laws in biology, comprising and integrating distinct levels of analysis, from description to prediction to theory building.

Effects of Exercise Rehabilitation on Physical Function in Adults With Hematological Cancer Receiving Active Treatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective: Evaluate the efficacy of exercise rehabilitation at improving physical function during active treatment for adults diagnosed with a hematological malignancy.

Data Source: Systematic review with a multilevel meta-analysis of randomized trails was conducted. Four electronic databases, MEDLINE (EBSCOhost), CINAHL, Scopus, and CENTRAL, were searched using key words and medical subject headings.

Training and Competition Loads in Women's Rugby Sevens Athletes: Are There Implications for Cardiovascular Health?

National- and international-level rugby sevens athletes are exposed to high training and competition loads over the course of a competitive season. Research on load monitoring and body-system responses is widespread; however, the primary focus has been on optimizing performance rather than investigating or improving cardiovascular health. There is a degree of cardiovascular remodeling, as well as local and systemic inflammation, in response to excessive exercise.

Testing the validation and reliability of the Caregiver-Patient Activation Measure (CG-PAM).

Objective: The objective of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the Caregiver-Patient Activation Measure (CG-PAM).

Methods: Based on the psychometric testing of the original Patient Activation Measure (PAM), three assessments of reliability and validity were completed on the CG-PAM. Test-retest reliability was assessed across two weeks ( = 23).

Physical Activity Levels in People with Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy: A Systematic Review.

Objectives: Physical activity (PA) has been shown to improve chemotherapy side effects, survival rates and treatment adherence in people with cancer. This review aimed to identify whether people undergoing chemotherapy in different exercise interventions meet PA guidelines during chemotherapy.

Data Sources: Databases searched were CINAHL complete, PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, AMED, Joanna Briggs Institute, OVID MEDLINE, and Google Scholar.

Relationship between heart rate variability and body mass index: A cross-sectional study of preschool children.

Reduced heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with overweight and obesity in adults. However, little is known about this relationship in early childhood. We investigated the relationship between resting vagally-mediated HRV and body mass index (BMI) in Australian preschool children.

Linguistic laws in biology.

Linguistic laws, the common statistical patterns of human language, have been investigated by quantitative linguists for nearly a century. Recently, biologists from a range of disciplines have started to explore the prevalence of these laws beyond language, finding patterns consistent with linguistic laws across multiple levels of biological organisation, from molecular (genomes, genes, and proteins) to organismal (animal behaviour) to ecological (populations and ecosystems). We propose a new conceptual framework for the study of linguistic laws in biology, comprising and integrating distinct levels of analysis, from description to prediction to theory building.

Heart rate variability improves in 3-5-year-old children following a 6-month physical activity-based intervention: the Active Early Learning (AEL) cluster randomised controlled trial.

Heart rate variability (HRV) measurement provides non-invasive assessment of autonomic stability and cardiometabolic disease risk. Insufficient physical activity in early childhood may contribute to negative cardiometabolic health. The Active Early Learning (AEL) study was a 6-month randomised controlled trial investigating the effects of a physical activity-based program incorporating movement within the daily curriculum of preschool children.

Dominance style is a key predictor of vocal use and evolution across nonhuman primates.

Animal communication has long been thought to be subject to pressures and constraints associated with social relationships. However, our understanding of how the nature and quality of social relationships relates to the use and evolution of communication is limited by a lack of directly comparable methods across multiple levels of analysis. Here, we analysed observational data from 111 wild groups belonging to 26 non-human primate species, to test how vocal communication relates to dominance style (the strictness with which a dominance hierarchy is enforced, ranging from 'despotic' to 'tolerant').

Physical activity for people living with cancer: Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of general practitioners in Australia.

Background: Healthcare professionals' (Oncologists, doctors, and nurses) physical activity (PA) recommendations impact patients living with cancer PA levels. General practitioners (GPs) monitor the overall health of patients living with cancer throughout their treatment journey. This is the first study to explore GP's knowledge, attitudes and practices of PA for patients living with cancer.

Health Care Professionals' Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Physical Activity in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to, combine current available literature across health professionals to determine commonalities and differences between knowledge and attitudes of physical activity (PA) and its importance within the cancer population. It aimed to identify any gaps in the literature to inform future study directions to enhance PA participation and improve health outcomes and quality of life.

Data Sources: Design: systematic review.

Improved behavioral indices of welfare in continuous compared to intermittent pair-housing in adult female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).

Limiting opportunities for captive nonhuman primates (NHPs) to express species-specific social behaviors may disrupt the adaptive drive for social companionship and may lead to increases in coping behaviors and inactivity. While captive NHPs show improved welfare when moving to pair-housing from single-housing, the impact of daily separation of pair-mates, as is implemented in intermittent pair-housing, is not fully understood. We compared behavioral indices of welfare exhibited by adult female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in two conditions: (1) intermittent pair-housing, involving daily overnight separation of pair-mates, and (2) continuous pair-housing, involving little separation of pair-mates.

The impact of high-intensity interval training exercise on breast cancer survivors: a pilot study to explore fitness, cardiac regulation and biomarkers of the stress systems.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the largest cause of death in breast cancer survivors. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of exercise intensity on aerobic fitness and autonomic cardiac regulation (heart rate variability (HRV)) and salivary biomarkers of the stress systems (HPA-axis, cortisol; sympathetic nervous system, α-amylase) and mucosal immunity (secretory(s)-IgA), markers of increased risk of CVD in breast cancer survivors.

Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to; 1) high intensity interval training (HIIT); 2) moderate-intensity, continuous aerobic training (CMIT); or 3) a wait-list control (CON) for a 12-week (36 session) stationary cycling intervention.

Acute Physiological Responses Following a Bout of Vigorous Exercise in Military Soldiers and First Responders with PTSD: An Exploratory Pilot Study.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent and debilitating condition associated with psychological conditions and chronic diseases that may be underpinned by dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system (ANS), the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and chronic systemic low-grade inflammation. The objective of this pilot study was to determine psychological, ANS [heart rate variability (HRV)], HPA (salivary cortisol) and inflammatory (salivary C-Reactive Protein) responses to a bout of vigorous exercise in male first responders, military veterans and active duty personnel with ( = 4) and without ( = 4) PTSD. Participants (50.

Heart rate variability for determining autonomic nervous system effects of lifestyle behaviors in early life: A systematic review.

Background: An unhealthy lifestyle negatively alters autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity as reflected by decreased heart rate variability (HRV), increasing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Research investigating the effect of modifiable lifestyle factors on ANS activity in young children is limited. Early identification of these risk factors is vital to improving long-term individual and public health outcomes.

Measuring Heart Rate Variability Using Commercially Available Devices in Healthy Children: A Validity and Reliability Study.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is an accepted method for determining autonomic nervous system activity and cardiovascular risk in various populations. This study assessed the validity and reliability of a commercially available finger photoplethysmography (PPG) system for measuring pediatric HRV in a real-world setting. Sixteen healthy children (4.

Lifestyle Modification for Enhancing Autonomic Cardiac Regulation in Children: The Role of Exercise.

Decreased physical activity (PA) is a global concern contributing to the rise in cardiometabolic diseases. One potential mechanism linking insufficient PA and poor health is dysregulated autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. This relationship is established in adults and PA recommendations, with specific exercise prescription guidelines, have been proposed to overcome this societal health burden.

HPA axis function and diurnal cortisol in post-traumatic stress disorder: A systematic review.

Background: There is inconsistency in the literature regarding the nature of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functionality in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Purpose: The review aimed to investigate HPA axis functionality via the diurnal profile of cortisol as it relates to PTSD.

Methods: The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature from June 2017 - March 2019 in accordance with The PRISMA Statement in the following four databases: PubMed, MEDLINE, ScienceDirect and PsycINFO with Full Text.

Cardiac autonomic function and its association with cardiometabolic disease risk factors in Black South African children.

Objective: This study evaluated the associations between cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and cardiometabolic disease (CMD) risk factors among black South African children.

Design: The participants included 34 black South African children (11.85 ± 0.

Linguistic laws in chimpanzee gestural communication.

Studies testing linguistic laws outside language have provided important insights into the organization of biological systems. For example, patterns consistent with Zipf's law of abbreviation (which predicts a negative relationship between word length and frequency of use) have been found in the vocal and non-vocal behaviour of a range of animals, and patterns consistent with Menzerath's law (according to which longer sequences are made up of shorter constituents) have been found in primate vocal sequences, and in genes, proteins and genomes. Both laws have been linked to compression-the information theoretic principle of minimizing code length.

Observing grooming promotes affiliation in Barbary macaques.

Observing friendly social interactions makes people feel good and, as a result, then act in an affiliative way towards others. Positive visual contagion of this kind is common in humans, but whether it occurs in non-human animals is unknown. We explored the impact on female Barbary macaques of observing grooming, a behaviour that physiological and behavioural studies indicate has a relaxing effect on the animals involved.

Experimental evidence that female rhesus macaques () perceive variation in male facial masculinity.

Among many primate species, face shape is sexually dimorphic, and male facial masculinity has been proposed to influence female mate choice and male-male competition by signalling competitive ability. However, whether conspecifics pay attention to facial masculinity has only been assessed in humans. In a study of free-ranging rhesus macaques, , we used a two-alternative look-time experiment to test whether females perceive male facial masculinity.

Short-Term High-Intensity Interval Training Is Superior to Moderate-Intensity Continuous Training in Improving Cardiac Autonomic Function in Children.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the impact of 3 isocaloric exercise programs on cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning in children.

Methods: One hundred nine children (39% boys and 61% girls) aged 10-13 years (mean 11.07 ± 0.

Do Short-Term Exercise Interventions Improve Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Children?

Objectives: To explore the impact of short-term exercise of varying intensity on traditional risk factors for cardiometabolic disease.

Study Design: A total of 109 children (mean age, 11.1 ± 0.