BACKGROUND Subjects that spend more time working on computers or watching television could have a higher body mass index. AIM To assess the relationship between time spent in front of a screen and studying, body mass index (BMI), smoking, and sleep duration among university students. MATERIAL AND METHODS A cross-sectional study of 734 randomly selected students aged 21 ± 2 years (450 females) that responded an anonymous, structured questionnaire about time spent watching television or in front of a computer, time spent studying, number of daily hours of sleep, smoking habits and number of daily meals. Body mass index was also calculated for all subjects RESULTS Among males, the number of daily sleep hours, time spent working with computers and number of daily meals were significantly higher and time spent studying was significantly lower than females. Nonsmokers ate a significantly higher number of meals and spent less time watching television. No association was observed between time spent in front of a screen and number of sleep hours of body mass index. CONCLUSIONS Men and smokers spend more time working in computers. There is no association between body mass index and time spent in front of screens.

Over the last decade remarkable advances in genotyping and sequencing technology have resulted in hundreds of novel gene associations with disease. These have typically involved high frequency alleles in common diseases and with the advent of next generation sequencing, disease causing recessive mutations in rare inherited syndromes. Here we discuss the impact of these advances and other gene discovery methods in the prion diseases. Several quantitative trait loci in mouse have been mapped and their human counterparts analysed (HECTD2, CPNE8); other candidate genes regions have been chosen for functional reasons (SPRN, CTSD). Human genome wide association has been done in variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and are ongoing in larger collections of sporadic CJD with findings around, but not clearly beyond, the levels of statistical significance required in these studies (THRB-RARB, STMN2). Future work will include closer integration of animal and human genetic studies, larger and combined genome wide association, analysis of structural genetic variantion and next generation sequencing studies involving the entire coding exome or genome.

We report on the synthesis of 4-hydroxycoumarin dimers 1–15 bearing an aryl substituent on the central linker and fused benzopyranocoumarin derivatives 16–20 and on their in vitro broad anti-DNA and RNA virus activity evaluations. The chemical identities and structure of compounds 1–20 were deduced from their homo- and heteronuclear NMR measurements whereas the conformational properties of 5, 14 and 20 were assessed by the use of 1D difference NOE enhancements. Unequivocal proof of the stereostructure of compounds 7, 9, 16 and 18 was obtained by single crystal X-ray diffraction method. The X-ray crystal structure analysis revealed that two 4-hydroxycoumarin moieties in the 4-trifluoromethylphenyl- and 2-nitrophenyl derivatives (compounds 7 and 9, respectively) are intramolecularly hydrogen-bonded between hydroxyl and carbonyl oxygen atoms. Consequently, the compounds 7 and 9 adopt conformations in which two 4-hydroxy-coumarin moieties are anti-disposed. Antiviral activity evaluation results indicated that the 4-bromobenzylidene derivative of bis-(4-hydroxycoumarin) (compound 3) possesses inhibitory activity against HSV-1 (KOS), HSV-2 (G), vaccinia virus and HSV-1 TK- KOS (ACVr) at a concentration of 9–12 μM and at a minimum cytotoxic concentration (MCC) greater than 20 μM. Compounds 4–6, 8, and 20 were active against feline herpes virus (50% effective concentration, EC50 = 5–8.1 μM), that is at a 4-7-fold lower concentration than the MCC.

Aims. We investigate the predictions of Newtonian dynamics and the MOND theory related to the Milky Way galaxy using the Jeans equation. Methods. We used the measurements of the radial velocities of the blue horizontal branch (BHB) halo stars to test the predictions of Newtonian gravity and to also extend our study to different MOND models, taking orbital anisotropies that we calculate into account. Results. The halo stars of the Galaxy were used as a tracer of the Galaxy’s gravitational potential. The Jeans equation was calculated for both the Newtonian and the MOND approaches. We assumed spherical symmetry and calculated the Jeans equation by taking orbital anisotropies into account. Circular velocities for both approaches were also analyzed. Conclusions. We solved the Jeans equation in spherical approximation and confirm that the Newtonian model without dark matter cannot fit the observed velocity dispersion profile and that the truncated flat model with dark matter can provide a good fit to the observed velocity dispersion. For the MOND models, from the Jeans modeling and the models of the circular velocity curves, we found that two models can provide a fit to the data without significant anisotropies whereas two other tested models need various anisotropies to obtain the same result.

Headaches are on common phenomenon and the most frequently reported pain among children and adolescents. We tried to reveal more information on migraine headaches among schoolchildren. Sixty-two schoolchildren with migraine headaches were included in the study during the 2008-2010 period. These data are part of a wider study of headaches in children. There were 56.45% of female and 43.55% of male children with no statistically significant difference in sex representation. At the time of study completion, migraine headaches were most common in the hospital registry, accounting for 49.2% of cases, followed by 23.8% of tension headaches, 21.4% of secondary headaches, 1.6% of cluster headaches and 4% of unclassified headaches. The frequency of migraine headaches was mostly monthly (35.4%). Pain intensity on a 1-10 scale was most often 8 (27.4%); 54.9% of children rated their pain with 8, 9 and 10, but the question whether pain was debilitating was answered affirmatively by only 19.3% of study children. The leading predisposing factors were stress (40.3%) and exercise (17.7%), while 25.8% of children described a relationship between changing weather conditions and headaches. EEG findings were normal in 74.2%, nonspecific in 12.9% and borderline in 6.4% of study children. Specific epileptic discharges were found in 6.4%. MRI showed changes in 8.1% of cases. Our data suggest that migraine headaches in children are a significant problem and have important part in everyday practice of pediatric neurologist.