Neutrophil dysfunction is a common feature of aging, and is associated with the pathogenesis of many age-related diseases, including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Although exercise training improves metabolic health, decreases risk of T2DM, and is associated with improving neutrophil functions, involvement in regular physical activity declines with age. The aim of this study was to determine if neutrophil functions could be improved in association with changes in fitness and metabolic parameters in older adults at risk for T2DM using 10-weeks of low volume high-intensity interval exercise training (HIIT). Ten older (71 ± 5 years) sedentary adults with prediabetes (HbA1c: 6.1 ± 0.3%) completed 10 weeks of a supervised HIIT program. Three 30 min sessions/week consisted of ten 60 s intervals of low intensity [50-60% heart rate reserve (HRR)] separated with similar durations of high intensity intervals (80-90% HRR). Before and after training, glucose and insulin sensitivity, neutrophil chemotaxis, bacterial phagocytosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and mitochondrial functions were assessed. Exercise-mediated changes in cardiorespiratory fitness (VO 2peak) and neutrophil functions were compared to six young (23 ± 1 years) healthy adults. Following training, significant reductions in fasting glucose and insulin were accompanied by improved glucose control and insulin sensitivity (all p < 0.05). Before exercise training, VO 2peak in the old participants was significantly less than that of the young controls (p < 0.001), but increased by 16 ± 11% following training (p = 0.002) resulting in a 6% improvement of the deficit. Neutrophil chemotaxis, phagocytosis and stimulated ROS production were significantly less than that of the young controls, while basal ROS were higher before training (all p < 0.05). Following training, chemotaxis,
The concluding chapter interrogates the troubling notion of hybridity, which was believed to be the core constituency of Hong Kong culture and identity in the pre-1997 era, but its actual practice and application has been subjected to questions in the postmillennial time. In view of the diversified and sometimes contradicting experiences and emotions that have been accumulated since the colonial era and have been continuously produced in post-handover Hong Kong, the chapter brings forth the potentialities of local relations by further problematizing the triangular articulation of the global, the local and the national in the context of Hong Kong and beyond. After all, how local relations are constellated embodies the continuous acts of deterritorialization and reterritorialization, not necessarily in terms of political control but through the cultural and social relations formed between things, places and bodies within the city.
Through the lens of sport, this article explores the trajectories of local and national belonging in various forms and degrees, which, in turn, bespeak the evolving Hong Kong–China relationship in the larger socio-political context of post-handover Hong Kong. With an eye to cross-border sports competitions (e.g., the Hong Kong-China football rivalry), sport-related events (e.g. gala performance and sports demonstrations by Chinese Olympic gold medalists in Hong Kong) as well as their media representation and repercussion, this article examines the multifarious articulations of local and national identifications registered in the athletes’ and the spectators’ performing bodies, their mediated images and embodiments. The ultimate goal of this article is to tease out the body and identity politics embedded in the production, mediatization and narrativization of local-national relations in an array of official and non-official discourses disclosed through sports practice and viewership partaken in different scenarios.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.