Fitness Variables Research Articles

Variation and plasticity in life-history traits and fitness of wild Arabidopsis thaliana populations are not related to their genotypic and ecological diversity

BackgroundDespite its implications for population dynamics and evolution, the relationship between genetic and phenotypic variation in wild populations remains unclear. Here, we estimated variation and plasticity in life-history traits and fitness of the annual plant Arabidopsis thaliana in two common garden experiments that differed in environmental conditions. We used up to 306 maternal inbred lines from six Iberian populations characterized by low and high genotypic (based on whole-genome sequences) and ecological (vegetation type) diversity.ResultsLow and high genotypic and ecological diversity was found in edge and core Iberian environments, respectively. Given that selection is expected to be stronger in edge environments and that ecological diversity may enhance both phenotypic variation and plasticity, we expected genotypic diversity to be positively associated with phenotypic variation and plasticity. However, maternal lines, irrespective of the genotypic and ecological diversity of their population of origin, exhibited a substantial amount of phenotypic variation and plasticity for all traits. Furthermore, all populations harbored maternal lines with canalization (robustness) or sensitivity in response to harsher environmental conditions in one of the two experiments.ConclusionsOverall, we conclude that the environmental attributes of each population probably determine their genotypic diversity, but all populations maintain substantial phenotypic variation and plasticity for all traits, which represents an asset to endure in changing environments.

Effects of Some Physical Exercises with a Diet using artificial intelligence on Some Morphological Variables Related to Health in Obese Persons

The current research aims to identify the effects of physical exercises accompanied by a diet on some health-related body morphology variables and weight loss among obese persons. The researcher used the experimental approach (one-group design) with pre- and post-measurements. The researcher purposefully chose (16) obese persons, (12) of them were recruited as a main sample while (4) were recruited as a pilot sample. Results indicated that: The recommended exercise program with diet had positive effects on health-related physical fitness variables (speed – endurance – agility – power – strength – cardiorespiratory strength) among obese persons. The recommended exercise program with diet had positive effects on weight reduction variables (body weight – BMI – Fat percentage) among obese persons. Exercise with diet helped decrease weight among obese persons. There are statistically significant differences between the pre-and post-measurements of health-related physical fitness variables (among obese persons in favor of post-measurements. There are statistically significant differences between the pre-and post-measurements of weight decrease among obese persons in favor of post-measurements.

Genotype sampling for deep-learning assisted experimental mapping of a combinatorially complete fitness landscape.

Experimental characterization of fitness landscapes, which map genotypes onto fitness, is important for both evolutionary biology and protein engineering. It faces a fundamental obstacle in the astronomical number of genotypes whose fitness needs to be measured for any one protein. Deep learning may help to predict the fitness of many genotypes from a smaller neural network training sample of genotypes with experimentally measured fitness. Here I use a recently published experimentally mapped fitness landscape of more than 260 000 protein genotypes to ask how such sampling is best performed. I show that multilayer perceptrons, recurrent neural networks, convolutional networks, and transformers, can explain more than 90% of fitness variance in the data. In addition, 90% of this performance is reached with a training sample comprising merely ≈103 sequences. Generalization to unseen test data is best when training data is sampled randomly and uniformly, or sampled to minimize the number of synonymous sequences. In contrast, sampling to maximize sequence diversity or codon usage bias reduces performance substantially. These observations hold for more than one network architecture. Simple sampling strategies may perform best when training deep learning neural networks to map fitness landscapes from experimental data. The fitness landscape data analyzed here is publicly available as described previously (Papkou et al. 2023). All code used to analyze this landscape is publicly available at https://github.com/andreas-wagner-uzh/fitness_landscape_sampling.

Boldness predicts foraging behaviour, habitat use and chick growth in a central place marine predator

Animal personality can shape individual’s fitness. Yet, the mechanistic relationship by which individual’s personality traits lead to variations in fitness remains largely underexplored. Here, we used novel object tests to measure boldness of chick-provisioning Cory’s shearwaters (Calonectris borealis) from a coastal colony off west Portugal, and deployed GPS loggers to study their at-sea behaviour and distribution. We then tested whether boldness predicts individual differences in adult’s trophic ecology and variations in chick growth, to assess potential implications of personality-specific foraging behaviours. Foraging effort was higher for shyer than for bolder individuals, which, during short forays, exhibited larger foraging ranges, and foraged in regions of higher and more variable bathymetry. This suggests that nearby the colony bolder individuals expanded their foraging area to maximize resource acquisition and increase the probability of foraging success. When endeavouring to longer distances, bolder individuals exhibited comparably shorter foraging ranges and targeted low bathymetry regions, likely with enhanced prey availability, while shyer individuals exhibited much larger foraging ranges indicating greater flexibility when foraging in oceanic realms. Despite such differences between bolder and shyer individuals their isotopic niches were similar. Yet, chicks raised by bolder parents grew at a faster rate than those raised by shyer parents. Together, our results suggest that differences in resource acquisition strategies could play a key role through which individual’s boldness may influence breeding performance, even when individuals have similar isotopic preferences.

Long-Term Improvement in Cardiorespiratory Fitness Ameliorates Insulin Sensitivity beyond Changes in Visceral/Ectopic Fat among Men with Visceral Obesity.

The SYNERGIE study documented the effects on cardiometabolic risk (CMR) indices of a 1-year lifestyle intervention targeting physical activity (PA) and diet followed by a 2-year maintenance period in men with visceral obesity. Improvements in CMR markers and a decrease in low-attenuation muscle (LAM) area were observed after 1 year. Despite a rebound in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) during the maintenance period, insulin resistance (IR) improved. We tested the hypothesis that variations in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and LAM could explain the long-term improvement in IR. A health (n = 88; mean age 49.0 ± 8.2 years) and fitness (n = 72) evaluation was performed at 0, 1, and 3 years. Participants were classified into two groups based on their CRF response over the maintenance period (worsening: CRF- vs. maintenance/improvement: CRF+). During the maintenance period, changes in the psoas and core LAM areas correlated with changes in IR (r = 0.27; p < 0.05 and r = 0.34; p < 0.005) and changes in CRF (r = -0.31; p < 0.01 and r = -0.30; p < 0.05). IR improved in the CRF+ group (p < 0.05) but remained stable in the CRF- group. Men in the CRF+ group regained half of the changes in VAT volume and LAM at the psoas and mid-thigh compared to the CRF- group (p < 0.05). These results support the importance of targeting VAT and CRF/PA for the long-term management of CMR in men with visceral obesity.

A study on selected anthropometric and physical fitness variables between Hooghly and Birbhum district volleyball players

A study on selected anthropometric and physical fitness variables between Hooghly and Birbhum district volleyball players

Effects of 12 Weeks of Moderate-intensity Continuous Exercise and High-intensity Interval Exercise on Cognitive Function in Elderly Subjects

OBJECTIVES This study analyzed the possibility of brain function activation after exercise training of high-intensity interval exercise and moderate-intensity continuous exercise in elderly people.METHODS The subjects of the study were elderly female people aged 65 years or older and were divided into three groups : control group, moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT), and high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Changes of body composition, physical fitness, cognitive function, and cognitive function-related blood variables were compared between before and after 12 weeks of exercise training.RESULTS Body weight, BMI (body mass index), and WHR (waist hip ratio) of body composition in HIIT group decreased significantly (p&lt;0.05) after exercise training, and there was no significant difference in MICT group and the control group. HIIT group significantly (p&lt;0.05) improved in grip strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, balance, cardiorespiratory endurance, and walking ability after exercise training, while MICT group showed significant (p&lt;0.05) improvements only in flexibility, balance, and cardiorespiratory endurance. Regarding blood variables, HIIT group showed significant (p&lt;0.05) differences in BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), irisin, and β-amyloid after exercise training, MICT group showed significant (p&lt;0.05) differences only in β-amyloid. Cognitive function in HIIT group and MICT group significantly (p&lt;0.05) improved in terms of temporal and spatial orientation, memory, and total scores after exercise training. During the recovery phase after one session of high-intensity interval exercise, blood lactic acid concentration increased significantly.CONCLUSIONS This study was confirmed the possibility of giving that high-intensity interval exercise for the elderly not only produces positive changes in body composition and improves physical fitness and cognitive function, but also frequently stimulates lactate production, helping to activate brain function through changes in BDNF and irisin in the blood.

The effect of Strong's training on some health fitness variables among participants aged (25-30 years) at Zara Fitness Center

يمكن القول بأن نسبة انخفاض اللياقة الصحية مع زيادة الاعتماد على وسائل الراحة والرفاهية وقلة الحركة المتزايدة مع نمط غذائي تتوفر فيه كميات زائدة عن الحاجة من الطاقة التي يحتاجها الجسم فيزداد مع الوزن وبعض الامراض التي تؤثر على اللياقة الصحية من حيث الجانب الفسيولوجي والبدني ، وفي الاتجاه الآخر اصبحت ممارسة الأنشطة الرياضية أحد متطلبات الحياة الاساسية عند العديد من سيدات المجتمع ، وان الهدف البحث التعرف على تاثير تدريبات سترونغ على بعض متغيرات اللياقة الصحية لدى المشاركات بعمر (25-30سنة) في مركز زارا للرشاقة استخدمت الباحثة المنهج التجريبي ذو تصميم المجموعة التجريبية الواحدة ذات الأختبار القبلي والبعدي لملائمته طبيعة المشكلة وقامت الباحثة بأختبار العينة من المشاركات بالطريقة العمدية وتمثلت بمن تتراوح اعمارهم في (25-30 سنة) وطبقت الباحثة المنهج التدريبي على عينة عددها (7 مشاركات ) واشتملت على (24) وحدة تدريبية بواقع ثلاث وحدات اسبوعياً والشدة التدريبية تتراوح بين (70%- 95%) وتم تطبيق التدريبات بأسلوبي التدريب الفتري المرتفع والمنخفض الشدة ، وفي ضوء نتائج البحث استنتجت الباحثة أن تدريبات السترونغ كان لها الاثر الكبير في احداث تحسناً على متغيرات الدراسة الفسيولوجية (مؤثر كتلة الجسم ، مؤشر الكتلة الدهنية Vo2max ، السرعة القصوى الهوائية في ضوء هذه الاستنتاجات توصي الباحثة ضرورة استخدام تدريبات السترونغ في مراكز الرشاقة واللياقة الصحية الرياضية والعمل على زيادة وعي القائمين على العملية التدريبية والمشتركات بأهمية تدريبات السترونغ ، لما لها من فوائد فسيولوجية

Analysis of Body Composition and Physical Fitness Variables of Korean Middle School Students: National Fitness Award (2018-2022)

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study is to analyze the trend of yearly changes in adolescent body composition and health-related physical fitness variables using National Fitness Award.METHODS We sampled 209.924 adolescents (age: 13.99 ± 0.85) and investigated their body composition, muscle strength, and cardiopulmonary function. Subgroups by year (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022) were compared using one-way analysis of variance and frequency analysis tests.RESULTS In the subgroup classified by year, there were significant differences between groups in height, BMI, and gender, and there were significant differences between groups in relative grip strength, 20m PACER, and maximal oxygen consumption.CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, this study presents changes in body composition, muscle strength, and cardiopulmonary function by year as basic data to help understand adolescents' health conditions, and it is expected to provide data that can have a positive impact for future use as clinical and public health information.

Person Job Fit, Job Crafting, Dan Work Engagement Dan Pengaruhnya Terhadap Organizational Citizenship Behavior Pada Perusahaan Daerah Air Minum Surya Sembada Kota Surabaya

This research is intended to determine the influence of Person Job Fit, Job Crafting and Work Engagement on Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Employees of Regional Drinking Water Company (PDAM) Surya Sembada Surabaya City by involving 65 employees of PDAM Surya Sembada Surabaya City as respondents in this research. The research results prove that Person Job Fit has a positive and significant effect on Organizational Citizenship Behavior. This means that if the employees have the appropriate Person Job Fit, a sense of mutual help behavior will be created between employees. Job Crafting has a positive and significant effect on Organizational Citizenship Behavior. This means that if employees apply Job Crafting, it will increase Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Work Engagement has a positive and significant effect on Organizational Citizenship Behavior. This means that if employees feel work engagement, it will also increase Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Simultaneously Person Job Fit, Job Crafting and Work Engagement have a positive and significant effect on Organizational Citizenship Behavior with coefficient of determination of 0,96 or 96%, this indicates that the Organizational Citizenship Behavior variable can be explained by the Person Job Fit, Job Crafting and Work Engagement variables by 96%.

Genotype × Environment interaction and the evolution of sexual dimorphism: adult nutritional environment mediates selection and expression of sex-specific genetic variance in Drosophila melanogaster.

Sexual conflict plays a key role in the dynamics of adaptive evolution in sexually reproducing populations, and theory suggests an important role for variance in resource acquisition in generating or masking sexual conflict over fitness and life history traits. Here, I used a quantitative genetic genotype × environment experiment in Drosophila melanogaster to test the theoretical prediction that variance in resource acquisition mediates variation in sex-specific component fitness. Holding larval conditions constant, I found that adult nutritional environments characterized by high protein content resulted in reduced survival of both sexes and lower male reproductive success compared to an environment of lower protein content. Despite reduced mean fitness of both sexes in high protein environments, I found a sex*treatment interaction for the relationship between resource acquisition and fitness; estimates of the adaptive landscape indicate males were furthest from their optimum resource acquisition level in high protein environments, and females were furthest in low protein environments. Expression of genetic variance in resource acquisition and survival was highest for each sex in the environment it was best adapted to, although the treatment effects on expression of genetic variance eroded in the path from resource acquisition to total fitness. Cross-sex genetic correlations were strongly positive for resource acquisition, survival, and total fitness and negative for mating success, although estimation error was high for all. These results demonstrate that environmental effects on resource acquisition can have predictable consequences for the expression of sex-specific genetic variance but also that these effects of resource acquisition can erode through life history.

A secondary model for the effect of pH on the variability in growth fitness of Listeria innocua strains

Variability in microbial growth is a keystone of modern Quantitative Microbiological Risk Assessment (QMRA). However, there are still significant knowledge gaps on how to model variability, with the most common assumption being that variability is constant. This is implemented by an error term (with constant variance) added on top of the secondary growth model (for the square root of the growth rate). However, this may go against microbial ecology principles, where differences in growth fitness among bacterial strains would be more prominent in the vicinity of the growth limits than at optimal growth conditions.This study coins the term “secondary models for variability”, evaluating whether they should be considered in QMRA instead of the constant strain variability hypothesis. For this, 21 strains of Listeria innocua were used as case study, estimating their growth rate by the two-fold dilution method at pH between 5 and 10. Estimates of between-strain variability and experimental uncertainty were obtained for each pH using mixed-effects models, showing the lowest variability at optimal growth conditions, increasing towards the growth limits. Nonetheless, the experimental uncertainty also increased towards the extremes, evidencing the need to analyze both sources of variance independently. A secondary model was thus proposed, relating strain variability and pH conditions. Although the modelling approach certainly has some limitations that would need further experimental validation, it is an important step towards improving the description of variability in QMRA, being the first model of this type in the field.

Effects of interference fit variation on dynamic characteristics of full ceramic ball bearing rotor system

Bearing fit is one of the key aspects in determining the performance of FCBB (full ceramic ball bearing), which affects FCBB internal contact condition and support stiffness. In this paper, the interference fit value variations of FCBB induced by the centrifugal displacement and thermal deformation is calculated, the mapping relationship between interference fit and internal clearance is established, and the influence of preload and interference fit value on the dynamic characteristics of FCBB is discussed in detail. Finally, the vibration experiment of FCBB is verified by ABLT-9 bearing life testing machine. The research shows that interference fit value is the main factor affecting internal clearance. The increase of internal clearance will reduce the bearing radial stiffness and increase the non-uniformity of load distribution, while the preload will weaken the influence of internal clearance on radial stiffness and load distribution. The results provide a theoretical basis for improving the FCBB’s service performance and optimizing their assembly parameters.

Chromosomal integration and plasmid fusion occurring in ST20 carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates coharboring bla NDM-1 and bla IMP-4 induce resistance transmission and fitness variation

ABSTRACT To investigate the epidemiology of ST20 carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) in China, and further explore the genomic characteristics of bla IMP-4 and bla NDM-1 coharboring isolates and plasmid contributions to resistance and fitness. Seven ST20 CRKP isolates were collected nationwide, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed. Antimicrobial resistance genes, virulence genes, and plasmid replicons were identified via whole-genome sequencing, and clonality assessed via core-genome multilocus sequence typing. Furthermore, we found four dual-metallo-β-lactamases (MBL)-harbouring isolates, the gene location was detected by Southern blotting, and plasmid location analysis showed that bla IMP-4 was located on a separate plasmid, a self-conjugative fusion plasmid, or the bacterial chromosome. These isolates were subjected to long-read sequencing, the presence of bla IMP-4 in different locations was identified by genomic comparison, and transposon units were detected via inverse PCR. We subsequently found that bla IMP-4 on the fusion plasmid and bacterial chromosome was formed via intact plasmid recombination by the IS26 and ltrA, respectively, and the circular transposon unit was related to cointegration, however, bla IMP-4 in different locations did not affect the gene stability. The bla NDM-1-harbouring plasmid contributed to the increased resistance to β-lactams and shortened survival lag time which was revealed in plasmid cured isolates. In summary, the K. pneumoniae ST20 clone is a high-risk resistant clone. With the use of ceftazidime/avibactam, MBL-positive isolates, especially dual-MBL-harbouring isolates, should be given additional attention.

The relation between physical fitness components and inhibition in preadolescents: The role of shared and unique fitness variance.

The relation between physical fitness components and inhibition in preadolescents: The role of shared and unique fitness variance.

Research on Genetic Algorithm Optimization with Fusion Tabu Search Strategy and Its Application in Solving Three-Dimensional Packing Problems

Symmetry is an important principle and characteristic that is prevalent in nature and artificial environments. In the three-dimensional packing problem, leveraging the inherent symmetry of goods and the symmetry of the packing space can enhance packing efficiency and utilization.The three-dimensional packing problem is an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem in the field of modern logistics, with high computational complexity. This paper proposes an improved genetic algorithm by incorporating a fusion tabu search strategy to address this problem. The algorithm employs a three-dimensional loading mathematical model and utilizes a wall-building method under residual space constraints for stacking goods. Furthermore, adaptation of fitness variation strategy, chromosome adjustment, and tabu search algorithm are introduced to balance the algorithm’s global and local search capabilities, as well as to enhance population diversity and convergence speed. Through testing on benchmark cases such as Bischoff and Ratcliff, the improved algorithm demonstrates an average increase of over 3% in packing space utilization compared to traditional genetic algorithms and other heuristic algorithms, validating its feasibility and effectiveness. The proposed improved genetic algorithm provides new insights for solving three-dimensional packing problems and optimizing logistics loading schedules, offering promising prospects for various applications.

Supplemental Material for The Relation Between Physical Fitness Components and Inhibition in Preadolescents: The Role of Shared and Unique Fitness Variance

Supplemental Material for The Relation Between Physical Fitness Components and Inhibition in Preadolescents: The Role of Shared and Unique Fitness Variance

Motivational variations in fitness: a population study of exercise modalities, gender and relationship status.

Motivation plays a crucial role in determining whether or not a person adheres to an exercise program. The present study aimed to determine the motivational differences between people exercising in fitness alone, in groups/aerobics and with a personal trainer by gender and relationship status. The Exercise Motivations Inventory-2 (EMI-2) questionnaire was completed by 830 users of 20 largest fitness centers in Slovenia. The Kruskal-Wallis test followed by a Dunn post-hoc test revealed that health-related motives such as ill-health avoidance were most frequently associated with exercising with a personal trainer compared to other exercise modalities, especially among females (p = 0.032, M = 4.88) and people in a relationship (p = 0.020, M = 5.18). On the other hand, intrinsic motivations such as enjoyment and stress management were mostly associated with exercising alone (p = 0.002, M = 4.98 and p = 0.021, M = 4.68, respectively). These results were also transferred to females and to some extent to people in a relationship (for enjoyment only). It is expected that intrinsic motivation is related to sustained exercise behavior. Future studies could implement a longitudinal design to test this statement and examine the proposed relationships over a longer period to better understand whether there may be causal relationships between motivation and different exercise modalities depending on different characteristics of participants.

A quantitative genetic model of background selection in humans.

Across the human genome, there are large-scale fluctuations in genetic diversity caused by the indirect effects of selection. This "linked selection signal" reflects the impact of selection according to the physical placement of functional regions and recombination rates along chromosomes. Previous work has shown that purifying selection acting against the steady influx of new deleterious mutations at functional portions of the genome shapes patterns of genomic variation. To date, statistical efforts to estimate purifying selection parameters from linked selection models have relied on classic Background Selection theory, which is only applicable when new mutations are so deleterious that they cannot fix in the population. Here, we develop a statistical method based on a quantitative genetics view of linked selection, that models how polygenic additive fitness variance distributed along the genome increases the rate of stochastic allele frequency change. By jointly predicting the equilibrium fitness variance and substitution rate due to both strong and weakly deleterious mutations, we estimate the distribution of fitness effects (DFE) and mutation rate across three geographically distinct human samples. While our model can accommodate weaker selection, we find evidence of strong selection operating similarly across all human samples. Although our quantitative genetic model of linked selection fits better than previous models, substitution rates of the most constrained sites disagree with observed divergence levels. We find that a model incorporating selective interference better predicts observed divergence in conserved regions, but overall our results suggest uncertainty remains about the processes generating fitness variation in humans.

Effects of Circuit Training on Sports Performance of Semi-professional Roll Ball Players

This study aimed to determine the six-week circuit training's effect on the components of fitness of semi-professional roll ball players. To accomplish the goal of this study, sixty (60) roll ball players between the ages of fourteen and eighteen were chosen, and they were split into two equal groups: An experimental group (n = 30), and a control group (n = 30). The full duration of the circuit training program was six weeks with three sessions per week. In addition, the experimental group had a circuit training regimen which was added to their regular traditional regimen. The control group did not have a specified training program instead they had their routine regular regimen. The physical fitness variables selected as dependent variables were speed, agility, explosive power, upper body and shoulder girdle strength endurance, abdominal strength, and endurance. The speed was determined through the 50m dash run, Agility was measured with the 4 x 10m shuttle run performance, the explosive power was determined by Standing broad jump, and the abdominal strength was measured through bent knee sit-ups and the upper body and shoulder girdle strength were determined from pull-ups. The tests were conducted before and after the six weeks of circuit training. An eight-station circuit was formulated, and an adaptation period of two weeks was provided. Every two weeks, we added at least ten seconds to each station’s exercise. The data collected was analyzed by paired t-test to examine if any significant difference exists or not between pre–test and post-test scores of the experimental group as well as between the pre and post–test scores of the control group. An unpaired t-test has been used for determining if the difference between scores in the pretest of experimental and control groups is significant and for post-test equality of experimental and control groups as well. Mean, SD, and t-ratio were tested. Accordingly, it was determined that a six-week circuit training workout was highly effective as it had visible effects on all the selected parameters of physical fitness.