Revisiting the need for optimization of psychological interventions in the medical service system for elite athletes

Objective: revelation of disadaptation among Russian elite athletesof necessity to optimize psychological interventions among biomedical support system for elite athletes. All participants were athletes of several Russian national teams, among them cyclic sports, game sports, complex coordination sports, and combat sports. Materials and methods: data obtained from 1176 elite athletes during extended medical examinations (EME) within the period from 2015 to 2018 were studied. Results: research reveals the relationship between psychical adaptation and athletes’ gender, age, level of experience, and sport-related specifics. Conclusions: athletes of various Russian national teams (from juniors to elite) suffer from notable disadaptation. Thereupon the necessity of changes to the existing system of psychophysiological interventions within national teams (namely: development of preventive treatment programs and correction of disadaptation programs) verify its importance

Possibilities of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) use in elite sport

Transcranial direct current stimulation has proven to be the method that can modulate neural activity in various cases. As this method has been shown to be effective in improving muscular strength, reaction time and accuracy, motor learning, it seems to be promising in elite sports.This paper provides an overview of studies on tDCS and its impact on central nervous system functioning, with an emphasis on potential sports utility. This review demonstrates that the basic mechanism of the effect of tDCS on nervous system functioning is its ability to modulate the excitability of neurons.tDCS is able to influence various components of electrocortical potentials, the amplitude of the motor evoked potential, as well as the mechanisms of long-term potentiation and, as a consequence, the cellular mechanisms of motor learning and neuroplasticity in general. The beneficial effect of tDCS on attention selectivity and signal detection has been noted. It is also shown that tDCS can accelerate learning and enhance performance in a range of complex cognitive tasks.In addition, a number of studies showing that tDCS can increase the efficiency of performing arithmetic and problem solving tasks are considered.In the context of sports, the influence of tDCS over motor areas on motor learning and on the accuracy of voluntary movements seems to be important. Its ability to influence speed and strength indicators, namely, the maximum isometric force of various muscle groups and explosive strength, as well as endurance indicators seems promising, too. The review also shows that tDCS is reasonably safe and that serious adverse effects are extremely rare; the most common adverse effect is local skin irritation due to poor electrode placement

Attitudes towards vaccination against COVID-19 among athletes of Russian national teams in comparison with non-athletes aged 18 to 40

The purpose of this work was to study the attitude of the Russian population to vaccination against COVID-19. Vaccination attitudes in young adults were studied both in the general population and among those who are professionally involved in sports, since attitudes towards health and the initial level of physical resources are important for forming attitudes towards vaccination. A total of 2579 people aged 18 to 40 were examined. Of these, 2233 are from the general population, 346 are high performance athletes.Methods. This was a cohort cross-sectional study. A specially designed questionnaire was used, located on Internet resources 2 months after the start of mass vaccination in Russia.Results. In the group of elite athletes, there are significantly more people who consider vaccination unnecessary or treat it indifferently, and a smaller proportion of those who consider it useful or doubt its effectiveness as compared to the general population of the same age. Low adherence to vaccination may be associated with fear of potential complications. Among elite athletes, there are significantly more people who are seriously afraid of complications from vaccination — 143 (41.3 %), compared to the first group of respondents — 745 (33.4 %) (p < 0.01, φ = 2.839). Probably, these concerns are related to the crucial importance of health and physical condition for professional athletes.Conclusions. It is advisable to develop recommendations for vaccination against COVID-19 for elite athletes, which will describe in detail the benefits of vaccination for athletes, possible side effects, their frequency and impact on the training process

Host Responses to Intestinal Microbial Antigens in Gluten-Sensitive Mice

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Excessive uptake of commensal bacterial antigens through a permeable intestinal barrier may influence host responses to specific antigen in a genetically predisposed host. The aim of this study was to investigate whether intestinal barrier dysfunction induced by indomethacin treatment affects the host response to intestinal microbiota in gluten-sensitized HLA-DQ8/HCD4 mice. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: HLA-DQ8/HCD4 mice were sensitized with gluten, and gavaged with indomethacin plus gluten. Intestinal permeability was assessed by Ussing chamber; epithelial cell (EC) ultra-structure by electron microscopy; RNA expression of genes coding for junctional proteins by Q-real-time PCR; immune response by in-vitro antigen-specific T-cell proliferation and cytokine analysis by cytometric bead array; intestinal microbiota by fluorescence in situ hybridization and analysis of systemic antibodies against intestinal microbiota by surface staining of live bacteria with serum followed by FACS analysis. Indomethacin led to a more pronounced increase in intestinal permeability in gluten-sensitized mice. These changes were accompanied by severe EC damage, decreased E-cadherin RNA level, elevated IFN-gamma in splenocyte culture supernatant, and production of significant IgM antibody against intestinal microbiota. CONCLUSION: Indomethacin potentiates barrier dysfunction and EC injury induced by gluten, affects systemic IFN-gamma production and the host response to intestinal microbiota antigens in HLA-DQ8/HCD4 mice. The results suggest that environmental factors that alter the intestinal barrier may predispose individuals to an increased susceptibility to gluten through a bystander immune activation to intestinal microbiota

Supplementary document for Optical vortices in multihelicoidal fibers with torsional mechanic stress - 6834449.pdf

additional formula

Optical vortices in twisted elliptical optical fibers with torsional stress

In the present paper we have derived the analytical expressions for the modes of twisted elliptical fibers with torsional mechanical stress at various relationships of the fiber parameters. It was shown that circularly polarized optical vortices with the topological charges ±1 can propagate in elliptical fibers as generic modes if ellipticity and the twist-induced circular birefringence suppress the spin-orbit interaction. A comparison of the obtained results with the corresponding results for spun elliptical fibers is made