In-season weightlifting training exercise in healthy male handball players: Effects on body composition, muscle volume, maximal strength, and ball-throwing velocity

This study assessed the impact of 8 weeks biweekly in-season weightlifting training on the strength, throwing ability, and body composition of healthy male handball players. Twenty players (age: 21.2 ± 0.7 years, height: 1.83 ± 0.08 m, body mass: 83.3 ± 7.5 kg, body fat: 13.2 ± 1.4%, upper limb muscle volume: 3.16 ± 0.16 L) were randomly allocated between experimental (EG) and control (CG) groups. Measures of one-repetition maximal strength included bench press, pull-over, snatch, and clean and jerk. Throwing velocity was investigated by standing, running, and jump throws, and the power of the upper limbs was estimated from the total distance of a 3-kg medicine ball overhead throw. Muscle volumes were estimated anthropometrically. Training sessions comprised 3–4 sets of explosive weightlifting exercise at 75%–90% of 1RM (repetition maximum). Significant interaction effects (time x group) were found for all strength and throwing variables, ranging from ηp2 = 0.595 (pull-over) to ηp2 = 0.887 (medicine ball throw), with the largest between-group difference (more than 40%, Δd = 6.65) and effect size (d = 6.44) for the medicine ball throw, and the smallest (about 23%, Δd = 1.61) for the standing shot performance. Significant interaction effects were also detected for all anthropometric parameters (body mass: ηp2 = 0.433; body fat: ηp2 = 0.391; upper limb muscle volume: ηp2 = 0.920, with an almost 20% gain of muscle volume). It can be concluded that 8 weeks of biweekly in-season weightlifting training yielded substantial increases of muscle volume, maximal strength of the upper limbs, and ball throwing velocity in healthy handball players relative to their standard training program. View Full-TextAcknowledgments: This work was supported by the Sport Science Program, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.Scopu

When IL-17 inhibitors fail : real-life evidence to switch from secukinumab to adalimumab or ustekinumab

Psoriasis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disease that in the moderate to severe forms may benefit of biologics, namely TNF and IL-12/23 and IL-17 inhibitors. Loss of response, lack of response or discontinuation due to adverse events represent a concrete therapeutic challenge for dermatologists that have to switch patients to other treatments. Although some evidences already exist toward the switch from IL-12/23 and TNF inhibitors to IL-17 inhibitors, conversely nothing is present toward the switch from IL-17 inhibitors to IL-12/23 and TNF inhibitors. We performed a real-life study enrolling 50 patients randomly switched to adalimuamb, a TNF inhibitor, or ustekinumab, an IL-12/23 inhibitor. Our observational study suggests that switching from IL-17i to TNFi and IL-12/23i is a safe and effective therapeutic strategy

Effects of high-intensity interval training and plyometric exercise on the physical fitness of junior male handball players

OBJECTIVE This study analyzed the effects of high intensity interval training (HIIT) combined with plyometric exercise on the physical fitness of junior male handball players. PATIENTS AND METHODS Subjects (age ~17 years) were randomly divided between experimental (n=17) and control (n=15) groups. During the 8-week intervention, the experimental group replaced a part of their regular regimen by HIIT, combined with plyometric exercise. Assessments in both groups before and after the intervention included: squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), sprint performance (5 m, 10 m, 20 m and 30 m), change of direction tests (Illinois modified test [Illinois-MT] and T-half test), 20-m shuttle run, and repeated sprint T-test. RESULTS The two-way analyses of variance revealed significant group-time interactions (all p<0.05), favoring the intervention group in 5 m, 10 m, 20 m and 30 m sprint (d=0.33, 8.3%; d=0.52, 7.6%; d=0.57, 6.8%; and d=0.58, 8.8%, respectively), T-half (d=0.25, 5.1%), Illinois-MT (d=0.47, 4.2%), SJ and CMJ (d=0.34-0.39, 34-4-34.9%), repeated sprint T-test best time, mean time and total time (d=0.83, 6.9%; d=0.62, 7.4%; and d=0.61, 7.2%, respectively), 20 meter shuttle run test aerobic maximum speed and predicted maximal oxygen intake (d=0.36, 7.5%; d=0.19, 9.4%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS HIIT combined with plyometrics can aid in the development of physical fitness abilities, which are extremely important to junior male handball players

Development and preliminary data on the use of a mobile app specifically designed to increase community awareness of invasive pneumococcal disease and its prevention

PublishedGiven the growing use and great potential of mobile apps, this project aimed to develop and implement a user-friendly app to increase laypeople's knowledge and awareness of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). Despite the heavy burden of IPD, the documented low awareness of IPD among both laypeople and healthcare professionals and far from optimal pneumococcal vaccination coverage, no app specifically targeting IPD has been developed so far. The app was designed to be maximally functional and conceived in accordance with user-centered design. Its content, layout and usability were discussed and formally tested during several workshops that involved the principal stakeholders, including experts in IPD and information technology and potential end-users. Following several workshops, it was decided that, in order to make the app more interactive, its core should be a personal “checker” of the risk of contracting IPD and a user-friendly risk-communication strategy. The checker was populated with risk factors identified through both Italian and international official guidelines. Formal evaluation of the app revealed its good readability and usability properties. A sister web site with the same content was created to achieve higher population exposure. Seven months after being launched in a price- and registration-free modality, the app, named “Pneumo Rischio,” averaged 20.9 new users/day and 1.3 sessions/user. The first in-field results suggest that “Pneumo Rischio” is a promising tool for increasing the population's awareness of IPD and its prevention through a user-friendly risk checker.The development of the app is a part of the project on increasing the population's awareness of invasive pneumococcal disease and has been supported by sponsorship from Pfizer S.r.l. The sponsor had no role in the app design and development. The authors thank Progetti di Impresa Srl for creating the app and website

Human papillomavirus detection in paraffin-embedded colorectal cancer tissues

Human papillomavirus (HPV) has a well-recognized aetiological role in the development of cervical cancer and other anogenital tumours. Recently, an association between colorectal cancer and HPV infection has been suggested, although this is still controversial. This study aimed at detecting and characterizing HPV infection in 57 paired biopsies from colorectal cancers and adjacent intact tissues using a degenerate PCR approach. All amplified fragments were genotyped by means of sequencing. Overall, HPV prevalence was 12.3 %. In particular, 15.8% of tumour tissues and 8.8% of non-cancerous tissue samples were HPV DNA-positive. Of these samples, 85.7% were genotyped successfully, with 41.7% of sequences identifying four genotypes of the HR (high oncogenic risk) clade Group 1; the remaining 58.3% of HPVgenotyped specimens had an unclassified \u3b2-HPV. Examining additional cases and analysing whole genomes will help to outline the significance of these findings

R&D project for neutrinoless double beta decay in Borexino

Since the proposal of the Borexino project in the early nineties, the idea to perform a neutrinoless double beta decay experiment with 136Xe dissolved in the scintillator was considered. The beautiful results obtained by the Borexino experiment, which achieved a purity far exceeding design goals, and a new concept for dissolving large quantities of xenon in the scintillator by increasing its pressure make this possibility even more interesting for a new-generation experiment in the next decade. We present the ongoing R&D studies to look for neutrinoless double beta decay using liquid scintillators, discussing the optical properties of the Borexino scintillator when xenon is dissolved in large quantity and with high pressure

Protocol of a scoping review assessing injury rates and their determinants among healthcare workers in western countries

Introduction Healthcare workers (HCWs) are exposed to various risk factors and risky behaviours that may seriously affect their health and ability to work. The aim of this protocol is to detail the steps to follow in order to carry out a scoping review to assess the prevalence/incidence of injuries among HCWs. Methods and analysis The study will be carried out in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-Protocols guidelines. Studies will be selected according to the following criteria: P (HCWs), E (exposure to injuries), C (different types of exposure and different categories of HCWs) and O (prevalence/incidence and determinants of injuries). A time filter has been set (literature between 2000 and 2018) to enable updated, direct comparison between the findings and the epidemiological data available at national and local \u20acIstituto Nazionale per l'Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro' (National Institute for Insurance Against Accidents at Work) centres in Italy. No language restriction will be applied. Ethics and dissemination Formal ethical approval is not required; primary data will not be collected, as they have already been published. The results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication(s), conference presentation(s) and the press

A scoping review of public hospitals autonomy in Iran: from budgetary hospitals to corporate hospitals

Background: Organizational reforms of hospitals in Iran are mainly aimed at improving efficiency, reducing government spending on health care, and improving the quality of services. These reforms began with hospital autonomization and have continued with other initiatives such as formation of board of trustees, independent and corporatized hospitals. Objective: The purpose of this scoping review was to summarize and compare the results of studies conducted on organizational reform of hospitals in Iran to paint a more clear picture of the status quo by identifying knowledge gaps, inform policymakers, and guide future studies and policies. Method: This review�s methodology was inspired by Arksey and O�Malley�s methodological framework to examine the extent, range, and nature of research activity about organizational hospital reforms in Iran. A literature search was performed using PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for English papers as well as SID, IranDoc, Magiran, and the Social Security Research Institute Database for Persian papers from 1991 to April 2020. Results: Twenty studies were included in the review. Studies were grouped by the types of organizational reform, study�s objective, setting, methodology, data collection and analysis techniques, and key findings. Thematic construction was used based on the types of organizational reform to present a narrative account of existing literature. Conclusions: The autonomy granted to the hospitals was unbalanced and paradoxical in terms of key effective dimensions. Poor governance and regulatory arrangements, low commitment to corporate governance, Inappropriate board composition, weak internal controls, unsustainable financing and inefficient payment mechanisms, poor interaction with stakeholders and ignoring contextual factors have been cited as the main reasons for the failure of organizational reforms in Iran. The limited use of evidence and research was obvious at different stages of policymaking, especially in the policy formulation phase and evaluation of its results. © 2021, The Author(s)

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease prevalence in an Italian cohort of patients with hidradenitis suppurativa: A multi-center retrospective analysis

BACKGROUND Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) includes two distinct conditions, with different histologic features and prognosis: non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Furthermore, NASH is the more aggressive necro-inflammatory form, which may accumulate fibrosis and result in End stage liver disease (ESLD). NAFLD is also linked to systemic inflammatory conditions such as psoriasis. NAFLD is currently the most common cause of ESLD in Western countries, becoming a serious public health concern. Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a systemic inflammatory/autoinflammatory disease of the terminal follicular epithelium of the apocrine gland with a prevalence of 0.05% to 4.10%. Due to its systemic inflammatory behavior several comorbidities were recently associated, however liver ones were scarcely assessed. AIM To evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of NASH/NAFL in HS patients. METHODS This retrospective study is a sub-analysis of a larger study carried out in 4 Italian dermatological centers. In this cohort, there were 83 patients: 51 patients with HS only, 20 patients with HS/NAFL and 12 with HS/NASH. RESULTS Inflammatory comorbidities were present in 3.9% of HS only patients, 25% of HS/NAFL patients and 58.3% of HS/NASH patients (P &lt; 0.001). Similarly, mean Autoinflammatory Disease Damage Index (ADDI) was significantly higher among patients with HS/NASH (5.3 ± 2.2, P &lt; 0.001) compared to patients with HS/NAFL or HS only (2.8 ± 1.6 and 2.6 ± 1.4 respectively). Furthermore, ADDI correlates with IHS4 in HS, HS/NAFL and HS/NASH. Diabetic patients have higher Hurley score than not diabetic ones. Ultrasound examination was significantly different in the three groups. CONCLUSION HS patients displayed a high prevalence of NASH/NAFLD and ultrasound examination should be particularly addressed to patients that display high ADDI scores