The influence of the perceived requirements of the next match and motivation on the mental fatigue of soccer players

The high cognitive and/or emotional demands of competition can lead to a state of mental fatigue which has shown to be detrimental to soccer performance. However, there is a need to further understand the true mental demands of soccer players. The aim of the present study was to analyze the influence of motivation and the perceived requirements of the next match on mental fatigue perceived by soccer players over the passing of a season. The combined effect of both variables on the perception of mental fatigue, as well as the influence of the time of the season on perceived mental fatigue, were also analyzed. Twenty-six semi-professional Spanish male players (M = 26.31 ± 5.18 years) participated in the present study, conducted during the 2020-2021 season. Perceived mental fatigue and motivation were measured at each training session. The perceived requirements of the next match were also measured in each of the competitive weeks. Linear mixed models were run with R Studio to examine the influence of motivation and the perceived difficulty of the next match on perceived mental fatigue, the combined effect of both variables on perceived mental fatigue, and the influence of the passing of the season on perceived mental fatigue. The results showed a negative and significant influence of motivation on perceived mental fatigue (p < 0.001) and a positive and significant influence of the perceived requirements of the next match on perceived mental fatigue (p < 0.001). Regarding the combined effect, there was a positive and significant effect (p < 0.01) of the perceived difficulty of the next match on the relation between motivation and perceived mental fatigue. A negative influence of season passage on perceived mental fatigue levels was found (p < 0.001). We recommended coaches to consider using the most motivating training tasks when higher next-match requirements are perceived and to be careful with avoidance strategies for mental fatigue, especially at the beginning of the season

Aplicación de nuevas técnicas de investigación biomecánica en cirugía de los tendones flexores

Con el objeto de investigar la tensión intratendinosa, la distribución de la carga y la orientación de las líneas de fuerza, a nivel de las suturas tendinosas, se proponen 2 métodos: fotoelasticidad y elementos finitos, basados en técnicas utilizadas en ingeniería mecánica. Obtenida previamente una probeta de resina epoxi, de comportamiento similar al tendón y propiedades fotoelásticas adecuadas para el estudio, se ha mecanizado según el método de sutura y sometido a tracción continua en el banco de carga de un polariscopio, constituyendo 3 grupos con 72 estudios cada uno. Todos los datos obtenidos fueron procesados con un programa para estudios,fotoelásticos utilizado por el Departamento de Mecánica y valorados estadísticamente con el Sigma. Posteriormente se ha realizado el mismo estudio mediante el método de elementos finitos utilizando el módulo Geostar del Cosmos/M v 1.61. La carga intratendinosa más alta y su distribución central se obtiene en los métodos de lazo (BUNNELL y KLEINERT). Por el contrario, los métodos en cuadro son menos isquemiantes, con menor carga y distribución periférica de la tensión, siendo el método de Kessler el que mejor orientación axial presenta. Proponemos el método de Kesslev, como técnica de elección biomecánicamente, en cirugía de los tendones flexores.Peer Reviewe

Malnutrition as cause and consequence of sensory distorsiones

La malnutrición es una enfermedad provocada por un exceso o defecto en el consumo o aprovechamiento de los nutrientes. Habitualmente, se utiliza este término para referirse a la desnutrición, es decir, a un trastorno derivado del déficit de algún macro y o micronutrientes. Las alteraciones quimiosensoriales pueden reducir de forma importante la alimentación en el individuo, por lo que es importante verificar que el aporte de nutrientes y, de forma concreta, de algunos micronutrientes, sea suficiente, ya que alguno de ellos, como el zinc, desempeñan un papel primordial en las alteraciones del gusto y del olfato. Además, el paciente malnutrido o con una alimentación que excluya gran número de alimentos, tiene mayor riesgo de presentar déficits de dichos micronutrientes. Diversas enfermedades, tanto agudas como crónicas, se asocian a alteraciones de la percepción sensorial, y pueden llegar a afectar a más del 50% de las personas mayores de 65 años. Los efectos provocados por los fármacos y algunos tratamientos como la quimioterapia y la radioterapia, juegan también un papel muy importante en la distorsión sensorial y en la incidencia de malnutriciónMalnutrition is a pathological condition caused by an excess or deficiency in the consumption or the use of the nutrients. Usually this term refers to a lack of adequate nourishment, a disorder resulting from a deficiency of some macro and/or micronutrients. Chemo-sensory alterations can significantly reduce food choice and intake, so it is very important to verify that the supply of nutrients and specifically of some micronutrients are sufficient. Some of them, such as “zinc”, play a very important role in alterations in the sense of taste and smell. In addition malnutrition patients or a poorly-balanced diet or faulty utilization of foods have increased the risk of deficiencies in these micronutrients. Several types of diseases, both acute and chronic ones, are associated with sensory perception and can affect more than 50% of people over 65 years old. The effects caused by drugs and some treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy play an important role in sensory distortion and the incidence of malnutritio

Osteoartritis luética de rodilla

Se presenta el caso de un varón de 59 años, con antecedente de contacto sexual sospechoso entre 3 y 5 años antes, que desarrolló episodios de derrame articular indoloro en rodilla izquierda con una lesión osteítica destructiva en meseta tibial interna. Tras descartar otras patologías, el diagnóstico se efectuó por la intensa actividad treponéndca demostrada en la serología específica y la buena respuesta al tratamiento antibiótico. Los derrames desaparecieron, persistiendo únicamente la deformidad residual. No conseguimos identificar espiroquetas en el material obtenido por biopsia osteoarticular.We report a 59 years old man with a suspicious sexual contact between 3-5 years ago, who developed repeated painless swelling in his left knee, and a progressive destructive osteitis in his tibia. After rejecting other pathologies, the diagnosis arrived by the high treponemic activity proved by specific serology and the clinical recovery with antibiotic treatment. The swelling disappeared and only the residual deformity persisted. We didn't find any treponema in the biopsy

Seasonality of picophytoplankton chlorophyll a and biomass in the central Cantabrian Sea, southern Bay of Biscay

Seasonal changes in the abundance and biomass of cyanobacteria (Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus) and picoeukaryotes were studied by flow cytometry in the upper layers of the central Cantabrian Sea continental shelf, from April 2002 to April 2006. The study area displayed the typical hydrographic conditions of temperate coastal zones. A marked seasonality of the relative contribution of prokaryotes and eukaryotes was found. While cyanobacteria were generally more abundant for most of the year (up to 2.4 105 cells mL− 1), picoeukaryotes dominated the community (up to 104 cells mL− 1) from February to May. The disappearance of Prochlorococcus from spring through summer is likely related to shifts in the prevailing current regime. The maximum total abundance of picophytoplankton was consistently found in late summer–early autumn. Mean photic-layer picoplanktonic chlorophyll a ranged from 0.06 to 0.53 µg L− 1 with a relatively high mean contribution to total values (33 ± 2% SE), showing maxima around autumn and minima in spring. Biomass (range 0.58–40.16 mg C m− 3) was generally dominated by picoeukaryotes (mean ± SE, 4.28 ± 0.27 mg C m− 3) with an average contribution of cyanobacteria of 30 ± 2%. Different seasonality of pigment and biomass values resulted in a clear temporal pattern of picophytoplanktonic carbon to chlorophyll a ratio, which ranged from 10 (winter) to 140 (summer). This study highlights the important contribution of picoplanktonic chlorophyll a and carbon biomass in this coastal ecosystem.Versión del edito

The enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli insertion sequence-excision enhancer protein is a DNA polymerase with microhomology-mediated end-joining activity

Bacterial genomes contain an abundance of transposable insertion sequence (IS) elements that are essential for genome evolution and fitness. Among them, IS629 is present in most strains of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157 and accounts for many polymorphisms associated with gene inactivation and/or genomic deletions. The excision of IS629 from the genome is promoted by IS-excision enhancer (IEE) protein. Despite IEE has been identified in the most pathogenic serotypes of E. coli, its biochemical features that could explain its role in IS excision are not yet understood. We show that IEE is present in >30% of all available E. coli genome assemblies, and is highly conserved and very abundant within enterohemorrhagic, enteropathogenic and enterotoxigenic genomes. In vitro analysis of the recombinant protein from E. coli O157:H7 revealed the presence of a Mn2+-dependent error-prone DNA polymerase activity in its N-terminal archaeo-eukaryotic primase (AEP) domain able to promote dislocations of the primer and template strands. Importantly, IEE could efficiently perform in vitro an end-joining reaction of 3’-single-strand DNA overhangs with ≥4 bp of homology requiring both the N-terminal AEP and C-terminal helicase domains. The proposed role for IEE in the novel IS excision mechanism is discusse

A cancer-associated point mutation disables the steric gate of human PrimPol

PrimPol is a human primase/polymerase specialized in re-starting stalled forks by repriming beyond lesions such as pyrimidine dimers, and replication-perturbing structures including G-quadruplexes and R-loops. Unlike most conventional primases, PrimPol proficiently discriminates against ribonucleotides (NTPs), being able to start synthesis using deoxynucleotides (dNTPs), yet the structural basis and physiological implications for this discrimination are not understood. In silico analyses based on the three-dimensional structure of human PrimPol and related enzymes enabled us to predict a single residue, Tyr100, as the main effector of sugar discrimination in human PrimPol and a change of Tyr100 to histidine to boost the efficiency of NTP incorporation. We show here that the Y100H mutation profoundly stimulates NTP incorporation by human PrimPol, with an efficiency similar to that for dNTP incorporation during both primase and polymerase reactions in vitro. As expected from the higher cellular concentration of NTPs relative to dNTPs, Y100H expression in mouse embryonic fibroblasts and U2OS osteosarcoma cells caused enhanced resistance to hydroxyurea, which decreases the dNTP pool levels in S-phase. Remarkably, the Y100H PrimPol mutation has been identified in cancer, suggesting that this mutation could be selected to promote survival at early stages of tumorigenesis, which is characterized by depleted dNTP pools.We are thankful to Professor Ian J. Holt (BioDonostia, San Sebastian, Spain), for critical reading of the manuscript. We thank Sara Rodriguez-Acebes (CNIO) for advice regarding the assays with stretched DNA fibers. This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO; BFU2012–3769, BFU2014– 51672-REDC and BFU2015–65880-P (co-funded with European Union FEDER funds) to L.B.; BFU2013– 49153-P and BFU2016–80402-R (co-funded with European Union FEDER funds) to J.M.). A.D.T., P.A.C. and D.G.A. are recipients of MINECO FPI-predoctoral fellowships. M.D. was the recipient of a FPI-predoctoral fellowship from Programa de Excelencia “Severo Ochoa” (CNIO-MINECO). G.S.M was the recipient of a JAE Predoctoral Fellowship from the Spanish Research Council (CSIC). Funding for open access charge: Spanish MINECO [BFU2015–65880-P]S

PTHrP and SPARC expressions in human colorectal cancer: An in silico analysis

PTHrP is a paraneoplastic factor involved in the progression and theacquisition of the aggressive behavior of different types of tumors. Employing in vitroand in vivo models of colorectal cancer (CRC), our research group observed thatPTHrP promotes cell survival, proliferation, migration, angiogenesis, epithelial tomesenchymal transition (EMT) program, cancer stem cell (CSC) phenotype, andchemoresistance through different signaling pathways. Recently, in HCT116 cellsderived from CRC we found that PTHrP acts increasing SPARC protein expression, arelevant protein involved in CRC progression. Moreover, SPARC treatment on HCT116cells potentiated PTHrP effects. In vivo model, PTHrP also increased SPARC expression. Based on these findings, the aim of this work is explore the clinical relevance ofPTHrP and SPARC tumor expression in human CRC using in silico analysis.Methods: Cytoscape 3.8.2 stringApp was employed to visualize molecular networksfrom the STRING database related to CRC, and proteins associated with prognosticfactors were selected to analysis. Using STRING Enrichment App, the proteins networks (PN) merged were compared to establish enrichment. Finally, in silico tool andonline data sets (GEPIA2 and STRING 11.0) were used to explore the association ofPTHrP and SPARC and their prognostic value in 362 CRC human samples.Results: In GEPIA2 database, a significant correlation between the expressions ofPTHrP and SPARC in CRC was observed (p-value¼0.01). Also, SPARC expression washigher in CRC respect to colorectal normal samples (p-value¼0.01). In the same way,SPARC expression was significantly higher in CRC advanced than in early disease.Employing STRING 11.0 database, we observed a strong association between PTHrPand several oncogenic markers (CDH2, CD44, VIM, among others) that previouslywere evaluated in vitro by us linked through SPARC with a Protein-Protein interactionenrichment (p-value 0.95). This PN was merged with the PN obtained from the search?colorectal cancer? with a high disease score (SD> 3.2). From this analysis, VEGFA wasemerged as a central nexus between PTHrP and SPARC proteins. Finally, GEPIA2 wasused to evaluate the survival rate in CRC patients that express PTHrP and/or SPARC.No significant impact in overall survival was found taken account high or lowexpression of each protein.Conclusions: In CRC tumor samples, a strong relationship between PTHrP and SPARCexpression was found, suggesting that both proteins could be involved in the progression of the disease. Despite VEGFA was also associated with PTHrP/SPARC, morestudies are necessary to evaluate their clinical relevancy.Fil: Carriere, Pedro Matias. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Novoa Díaz, María Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur; ArgentinaFil: López Moncada, Fernanda. Universidad de Chile. Facultad de Medicina.; ChileFil: Zwenger, A.. Centro de Estudios Clinicos SAGA; ChileFil: Contreras, H.. Universidad de Chile. Facultad de Medicina.; ChileFil: Calvo, Natalia Graciela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Gentili, Claudia Rosana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur; ArgentinaESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2021Modalidad virtualEstados UnidosEuropean Society for Medical Oncolog

Fracturas peritrocantéricas tratadas con el clavo proximal de fémur: Técnica y resultados

El Clavo Proximal de Fémur (PFN: Proximal Femoral Nail) es un sistema de osteosíntesis desarrollado por la AO/ASIF para el tratamiento quirúrgico de las fracturas de la región trocantérea del fémur y que se basa en los principios del enclavado endomedular a cielo cerrado. Se presenta un estudio prospectivo sobre 175 fracturas de cadera tratadas con P.F.N. en nuestro servicio, con un seguimiento mínimo exigido de 1 año. El 74,3% de los casos correspondieron a mujeres y el resto a hombres. La edad media fue de 81,87 años. Las fracturas se han clasificado según la AO, siendo el subtipo más frecuentemente registrado el A2. Se realizaron controles clínicos y radiológicos a los 1, 3, 6 y 12 meses. El sistema ha permitido la movilización y la deambulación precoz en la mayoría de nuestros pacientes, al igual que la consolidación de las fracturas en un tiempo aceptable (12 semanas de media). Se analizan los resultados y las diversas complicaciones registradas, así como la capacidad de recuperación de la capacidad funcional previa. El PFN se revela como un buen sistema de osteosíntesis para las fracturas de la región trocantérea del fémur, permitiendo una carga precoz que favorece la consolidación ósea. La técnica quirúrgica no es compleja, la tasa de complicaciones técnicas registradas es aceptable y los resultados globales obtenidos son equiparables e incluso superiores, en determinados aspectos, a los obtenidos con otros sistemas de osteosíntesis disponibles en el mercado para el tratamiento de este tipo de fracturas.The PFN ("proximal femoral nail") is an osteosynthesis system developed by the AO/ASIF group for the surgical treatment of fractures of the trochanteric region of the femur, which is based on the principles of closed endomedullary nailing. A prospective study of 175 hip fractures treated with the PFN is presented, with a minimum follow-up of 1 year. 74,3% of the patients were female, the rest male. The average age was 81,87 years. Fractures were classified according to the AO system, the most common sub-type recorded being the A2. Clinical and radiographic evaluations were performed at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months. The system allowed early mobilisation and walking in the majority of our patients, along with fracture consolidation in an acceptable time period (12 weeks on average). The results and the various complications recorded are analysed. The ability to recover previous walking ability was also studied. The PFN emerges as a good system of osteosynthesis for fractures of the trochanteric region of the femur, allowing early weight-bearing which favours bone consolidation. The surgical technique is not complex, the number of complications recorded is acceptable and the overall results obtained are comparable and even superior to those obtained with other osteosynthesis systems available on the market for treatment of this type of fracture