Effects of Caffeine Supplementation on Power Performance in a Flywheel Device: A Randomised, Double-Blind Cross-Over Study

[EN] Despite the demonstrated evidence of the importance of eccentric contractions in sports performance, no research has evaluated the ergogenic effects of caffeine on this type of contraction means during flywheel exercises. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to compare the power outcomes, using different inertial loads, between caffeine and placebo conditions. Twenty-four young, healthy, and active men (age: 22.5 4.8 years) took part in the study. A crossed, randomised double-blind design was used to analyse the effects of caffeine on lower limb power outcomes during a flywheel half-squat exercise. Participants completed four sets of eight all-out repetitions with a fixed three-minutes rest interval, and each set was performed using different inertial loads (i.e., 0.025, 0.050, 0.075 and 0.100 kg m2). Both the mean power (MP) and peak power (PP) in concentric (CON) and eccentric (ECC) movement phases at each inertial load were recorded after participants were administered either a caffeine supplement (6 mg kg1) or placebo (sucrose). Participants receiving a caffeine supplementation demonstrated improvements versus the placebo in total MP (MPtotal), as well as MP in CON phase (MPcon) and in ECC phase (MPecc) at each inertial load (22.68 to 26.53%; p < 0.01, effect size (ES) = 0.89–1.40). In addition, greater improvements with caffeine ingestion were obtained with respect to the placebo condition (18.79 to 24.98%; p < 0.01, ES = 1.03–1.40) in total PP (PPtotal), as well as PP in CON phase (PPcon) and in ECC phase (PPecc) at each inertial load. Thus, the supplementation of 6 mg kg1 caffeine may be considered to maximise on-field physical performance in those sports characterised by high demands of resistance.SIThe costs of caffeine supplement, English translation, and publication costs will be paid by the University Isabel I, Burgos, Spain

Geotourism and local development based on geological and mining sites utilization, zaruma-portovelo, Ecuador

This study offers a detailed assessment of the geosites and mining sites present in the Zaruma-Portovelo mining district (Ecuador) through their qualitative and quantitative assessment. It shows up the potentiality of this area taking advantage of its geological-mining heritage. The methodological process includes: (i) compilation and inventory of all the sites within the study area with particular geological or mining interest; (ii) preparation of reports and thematic cartography, (iii) assessment and classification of the elements of geological-mining interest; (iv) SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis and TOWS (Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses, Strengths) matrix preparation seeking strategies to guarantee the viability of geotourism. A total of 16 sites of geological interest and 11 of mining interest were identified. The 77% of these sites was proved to be of high and very high interest in scientific terms. Likewise, their susceptibility to degradation assessed from their vulnerability and fragility was found to be high or very high in the 30% of the cases. As for the protection priority, all the studied sites obtained a medium-high result. Finally, the study based on the SWOT-TOWS revealed the possibility of applying action strategies in order to facilitate the compatibility of geotourism with the current productive activities, despite the difficult situation in the study area created by mining activities

Digital tools for floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT): A state of the art

ABSTRACT: Operations and installation on offshore wind and especially floating are complex and difficult actions due to site accessibility and equipment availability. In this regard, digitalization is disrupting the wind section thanks to the development of advanced sensors, automated equipment, computational power, among other. All these allow to optimize and simplify different parts of the offshore wind power plant development (i.e. design, planning, installation, O&M, etc.). This fact is of special interest on maintenance, since the early detection of failures or malfunctions lead to reduced costly corrective maintenance. This paper presents a literature review of current state-of-the-art on the application of digitalization activities which can be applied for floating wind, including typical component failures, monitoring techniques and advanced digital tools as Digital Twin concept and Building Information Models (BIM). Finally, the review paper provides an analysis of existing gaps, needs and challenges of the sector to provide guides on research and innovation to foster offshore wind sector.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s H2020 Programme under Grant Agreement n◦ 815083 – Corewin

POMAShiny: A user-friendly web-based workflow for metabolomics and proteomics data analysis

Metabolomics and proteomics, like other omics domains, usually face a data mining challenge in providing an understandable output to advance in biomarker discovery and precision medicine. Often, statistical analysis is one of the most difficult challenges and it is critical in the subsequent biological interpretation of the results. Because of this, combined with the computational programming skills needed for this type of analysis, several bioinformatic tools aimed at simplifying metabolomics and proteomics data analysis have emerged. However, sometimes the analysis is still limited to a few hidebound statistical methods and to data sets with limited flexibility. POMAShiny is a web-based tool that provides a structured, flexible and user-friendly workflow for the visualization, exploration and statistical analysis of metabolomics and proteomics data. This tool integrates several statistical methods, some of them widely used in other types of omics, and it is based on the POMA R/Bioconductor package, which increases the reproducibility and flexibility of analyses outside the web environment. POMAShiny and POMA are both freely available at https://github.com/nutrimetabolomics/POMAShiny and https://github.com/nutrimetabolomics/POMA, respectively

Survey on the management of Pompe disease in routine clinical practice in Spain

Antibodies; Diagnosis; Pompe diseaseAnticuerpos; Diagnóstico; Enfermedad de pompeAnticossos; Diagnòstic; Malaltia de pompeBackground Despite the availability of several clinical guidelines, not all health professionals use their recommendations to manage patients with Pompe disease, a rare genetic disorder involving high-impact therapy. Through several discussion meetings and a survey, the present study aimed to learn about the management of Pompe disease in routine clinical practice in Spain, to improve clinical care in a real-life situation. Results The survey was sent to 42 healthcare professionals who manage patients with Pompe disease in their clinical practice. Although most respondents followed the clinical guidelines, clinical practice differed from the expert recommendations in many cases. Approximately 7% did not request a genetic study to confirm the diagnosis before starting treatment, and 21% considered that only two dried blood spot determinations suffice to establish the diagnosis. About 76% requested anti-GAA antibodies when there is a suspicion of lack of treatment efficacy, though a significant percentage of respondents have never requested such antibodies. According to 31% of the respondents, significant impairment of motor function and/or respiratory insufficiency is a requirement for authorizing medication at their hospital. Up to 26% waited for improvements over the clinical follow-up to maintain treatment and withdrew it in the absence of improvement since they did not consider disease stabilization to be a satisfactory outcome. Conclusions The results highlight the lack of experience and/or knowledge of some professionals caring for patients with Pompe disease. It is necessary to develop and disseminate simple guidelines that help to apply the expert recommendations better or centralize patient follow-up in highly specialized centers.Sanofi has sponsored this project without participating in the article’s design, data analysis, or writing

Correlation Between Ischemic Retinal Accidents and Radial Peripapillary Capillaries in the Optic Nerve Using Optical Coherence Tomographic Angiography: Observations in 6 Patients

Background: Perfusion of the optic nerve has been widely studied using fluorescein angiography (FAG), which is currently regarded as the criterion standard. However, FAG has adverse effects associated with intravenous contrast administration and is limited in its capacity to characterize and stratify the different vascular layers of the optic nerve and retina. The use of new imaging techniques, such as optical coherence tomographic angiography (Angio-OCT), is therefore important. Aim: A qualitative description is made of the vascular layers of the optic nerve and of how vascular events affect radial peripapillary capillaries (RPC). Two patients with central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO), 1 with arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AAION), and 3 healthy subjects were studied. Results : The Angio-OCT imaging afforded better visualization of the depth of the RPC and rest of the vascular layers of the retina compared with FAG. Optic nerve surface perfusion was affected in AAION and proved normal in CRAO. Conclusions : Our results indicate that perfusion of the papilla and RPC mainly arises from the papillary plexus that depends on the posterior ciliary artery

Enhancing Biochemical Methane Potential and Enrichment of Specific Electroactive Communities from Nixtamalization Wastewater using Granular Activated Carbon as a Conductive Material

Nejayote (corn step liquor) production in Mexico is approximately 1.4 x 1010 m3 per year and anaerobic digestion is an effective process to transform this waste into green energy. The biochemical methane potential (BMP) test is one of the most important tests for evaluating the biodegradability and methane production capacity of any organic waste. Previous research confirms that the addition of conductive materials significantly enhances the methane production yield. This study concludes that the addition of granular activated carbon (GAC) increases methane yield by 34% in the first instance. Furthermore, results show that methane production is increased by 54% when a GAC biofilm is developed 10 days before undertaking the BMP test. In addition, the electroactive population was 30% higher when attached to the GAC than in control reactors. Moreover, results show that electroactive communities attached to the GAC increased by 38% when a GAC biofilm is developed 10 days before undertaking the BMP test, additionally only in these reactors Geobacter was identified. GAC has two main effects in anaerobic digestion; it promotes direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) by developing an electro-active biofilm and simultaneously it reduces redox potential from -223 mV to -470 mV. These results suggest that the addition of GAC to biodigesters, improves the anaerobic digestion performance in industrial processed food waste

Functional Enrichment Analysis of Regulatory Elements

This work has been partially supported by FEDER/Junta de Andalucia-Consejeria de Economia y Conocimiento/(grant CV20-36723), grant PID2020-119032RB-I00, MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FEDER/Junta de Andalucia-Consejeria de Transformacion Economica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades (Grant P20_00335).Statistical methods for enrichment analysis are important tools to extract biological information from omics experiments. Although these methods have been widely used for the analysis of gene and protein lists, the development of high-throughput technologies for regulatory elements demands dedicated statistical and bioinformatics tools. Here, we present a set of enrichment analysis methods for regulatory elements, including CpG sites, miRNAs, and transcription factors. Statistical significance is determined via a power weighting function for target genes and tested by theWallenius noncentral hypergeometric distribution model to avoid selection bias. These new methodologies have been applied to the analysis of a set of miRNAs associated with arrhythmia, showing the potential of this tool to extract biological information from a list of regulatory elements. These new methods are available in GeneCodis 4, a web tool able to perform singular and modular enrichment analysis that allows the integration of heterogeneous information.FEDER/Junta de Andalucia-Consejeria de Economia y Conocimiento CV20-36723MCIN/AEI PID2020-119032RB-I00FEDER/Junta de Andalucia-Consejeria de Transformacion Economica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades P20_0033

Survival benefit of multidisciplinary care in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in Spain: association with noninvasive mechanical ventilation

Purpose: Multidisciplinary care has become the preferred model of care for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). It is assumed that the sum of interventions associated with this approach has a positive effect on survival. The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of a multidisciplinary care approach on the survival of patients with ALS. Patients and methods: We performed a retrospective review of prospectively collected data in a tertiary referral center in Spain. Participants were patients with definite or probable ALS managed in a multidisciplinary care program. We compared demographic and survival data of patients with definite or probable ALS treated in a referral center without and with implementation of a multidisciplinary care program. We performed time-dependent multivariate survival analysis of the use of noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV) and gastrostomy. Results: We evaluated 398 consecutive patients, of whom 54 were treated by a general neurologist and 344 were treated in the multidisciplinary care clinic. Patients receiving multidisciplinary care were older (62 vs 58 years), tended to have bulbar onset disease (30% vs 17.7%), and were more likely to receive riluzole (88.7% vs 29.6%, p0.001), and nutrition via gastrostomy (32.3% vs 3.7%, p<0.01). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a 6-month increase in survival (log-rank, 16.03, p<0.001). Application of the Andersen-Gill model showed that the variables associated with reduced mortality were reduced time to NIMV and gastrostomy and the duration of both, thus reflecting compliance. Conclusions: Multidisciplinary care increased the survival of ALS patients in our study population. Timely use of respiratory support and gastrostomy are fundamental aspects of this benefit

The acute effect of match-play on hip range of motion and isometric strength in elite tennis players

Background: Groin injuries are some of the most common injuries tennis players suffer. Several factors (e.g., post-match decrease in hip adductor (ADD) strength) have been proposed as possible mechanisms for increasing the incidence of this type of injury. However, the risk factors of developing groin injuries after a tennis match have not yet been delineated. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of tennis match-play on isometric ADD and abductor (ABD) strength and passive hip range of motion (ROM). Methods: Twenty-six male tennis players (20.30 ± 4.98 years) took part in this study. Participants completed an evaluation of strength and flexibility hip measurements before and after a simulated tennis match. Dominant and non-dominant passive hip ROM, ADD and ABD isometric strength, and the ADD/ABD strength ratio were measured before and immediately post-match. A global positioning system (GPS) and a session rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were used to assess the locomotive demands and internal match load. Results: Isometric dominant ADD strength (17.8%, p ≤ 0.01) and ADD/ABD strength ratio (11.6%, p = 0.04) were lower post-match compared to the pre-match values. No between-limbs differences were observed for isometric ADD strength, ABD strength, and passive hip ROM tests. RPE showed an expected increase between pre- vs. post-match (pre- vs. post-warming-up, 3.42 ± 2.08 vs. 5.62 ± 2.29, p < 0.01). In addition, a significant relationship between ADD strength and the volume of tennis practice per week was found, stablishing that tennis players with lower volume of training per week suffered a reduction in ADD strength in their dominant limb after match-play (r = 0.420, p = 0.04). Conclusion: The assessment of ADD strength and the ADD/ABD strength ratio in the dominant limb may be considered a post-match tool that can be used to identify players who require rest and additional recovery strategies before competing again.SIThe authors received no funding for this work