Variation in adiposity indices, fitness index and Q-angle with types of contact sports

Common to every sport is the quest for high performance and desire to avoid injury. Low body adiposity has been connected to performance in sports, while increasing Q-angle is associated with increased lateral patella-femoral contact pressure and risk of knee injury. This non-experimental comparative study compared adiposity indices and Q-angle among football, volleyball and basketball players. A total of 68 male students comprising of 30 amateur footballers players, 19 amateur basketball players and 19 amateur volleyball players participated in the study. Selected and measured adiposity indices were body mass index, waist-hip ratio, percentage body fat, lean body mass and conicity index were measured among the participants. Results showed significant differences in body mass index (P=0.001), body fat (P<0.001), fat mass (P=0.002), fat free mass (P=0.04) and body adiposity index (P=0.001) among the participants groups, with volleyball players possessing significantly higher mean values for all adiposity indices. There was no significant difference in Q-angle among the three groups of players. It appears high body adiposity is common with volleyball players compared to basketball players. Volleyball players possess higher risk of obesity and poor physical fitness while risk of knee injury is not associated with any of sports at amateur level.Keywords: Adiposity, Fitness, Q-angle, Football, Volleyball, Basketbal

Bimetallic metal-organic frameworks for efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic CO2 reduction and H2 generation

A series of robust octahedral bimetallic metal-organic frameworks, NH2-UiO-66(Zr/M), denoted as Zr/M-ATA, (where M is Fe, Co, or Cu) were prepared by solvothermal de novo reaction of 2-aminoterephthalic acid (denoted as H2ATA) and mixed metal salts using benzoic acid as a modulator. Photocatalytic studies revealed that Zr/Fe-ATA, Zr/Cu-ATA and Zr/Co-ATA containing double metals outperformed that of the monometallic Zr-ATA. Zr/Cu-ATA displayed excellent performance for visible-light-driven CO2 reduction with a formate formation rate of 122 μmol h−1 mmolMOF-1, which is among the highest performance of NH2-UiO-66 based MOFs. Furthermore, Zr/Cu-ATA is an efficient catalyst that can generate 12.8 mmol of H2 in 2 h under visible light irradiation. The light absorption band of Zr/Cu-ATA shifted to the near-IR region and the presence of Cu-oxo clusters significantly narrowed the bandgap from 2.95 eV (Zr-ATA) to 1.93 eV (Zr/Cu-ATA). Other photoelectrochemical studies further confirmed that the high catalytic performance of Zr/Cu-ATA can be ascribed to optimized bandgap, facile charge transfer and availability of large number of active sites. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.C.I.E. acknowledge the financial support of the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 754382.Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2022.122868.Peer reviewe

Effects of Short Inter‑Pregnancy Interval on Maternal and Perinatal Outcomes: A Cohort Study of Pregnant Women in a Low‑Income Country

Background: Short inter‑pregnancy interval (IPI) is a potential risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Previous reports from sub‑Sahara Africa documented increasing incidence of short IPI but evidence is lacking in its effect on pregnancy outcome. Aim: The study aimed to determine the effect of short IPI on pregnancy outcome in Nigeria. Subjects and Methods: It was a prospective cohort study of 271 pregnant women receiving antenatal care in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. For every eligible woman with short IPI (<18 months) recruited; a suitable control with IPI ≥18 months was selected. Statistical analysis was both inferential and descriptive using the statistical package for social sciences version 24 (SPSS Inc. Chicago, Illinois, USA) for windows. A P value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Incidence of maternal anemia was higher in women with short IPI than control (RR: 2.091; 95% CI: 1.4433.031; P < 0.001). Other maternal and perinatal outcome measures including premature rupture of membranes, preterm labor/delivery, pregnancy induced hypertension, third  trimester bleeding, postpartum hemorrhage, and inadequate gestational weight gain did not show any significant association with short IPI (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Short IPI is associated with anemia in pregnancy in Nigeria. Public health campaigns for improvement in uptake of family planning  services and breastfeeding may help reduce the incidence of short IPI and anemia in low income countries. Keywords: Nigeria, pregnancy outcome, short inter‑pregnancy interva