The preparation period in basketball: Training load and neuromuscular adaptations

© 2018 Human Kinetics, Inc. Purpose: To investigate the effect of the preparation period on neuromuscular characteristics of 12 professional (PRO) and 16 semiprofessional (SEMIPRO) basketball players and relationships between training-load indices and changes in neuromuscular physical performance. Methods: Before and after the preparation period, players underwent a countermovement jump (CMJ) test followed by a repeated change-of-direction (COD) test consisting of 4 levels with increasing intensities. The peripheral neuromuscular functions of the knee extensors (peak torque [PT]) were measured using electrical stimulations after each level (PT1, PT2, PT3, and PT4). Furthermore, PT Max (the highest value of PT) and PT Dec (PT decrement from PT Max to PT4) were calculated. Results: Trivial to small (effect size [ES] = -0.17 to 0.46) improvements were found in CMJ variables, regardless of competitive level. After the preparation period, peripheral fatigue induced by a COD test was similarly reduced in both PRO (PT Dec: from 27.8% [21.3%] to 11.4% [13.7%]; ES = -0.71; 90% confidence interval [CI], ±0.30) and SEMIPRO (PT Dec: from 26.1% [21.9%] to 10.2% [8.2%]; ES = -0.69; 90% CI, ±0.32). Moderate to large relationships were found between session rating of perceived exertion training load and changes in peak power output (PPO) measured during the CMJs (rs [90% confidence interval]: PPOabs, -.46 [±.26]; PPOrel, -.53 [±.23]) and in some PTs measured during the COD test (PT1, -.45 [±.26]; PT2, -.44 [±.26]; PT3, -.40 [±.27]; and PT Max, -.38 [±.28]). Conclusions: The preparation period induced minimal changes in the CMJ, while the ability to sustain repeated COD efforts was improved. Reaching high session rating of perceived exertion training loads might partially and negatively affect the ability to produce strength and power

LHC Beam Loss Detector Design: Simulations and Measurements

The Beam Loss Monitoring (BLM) system is integrated in the active equipment protection system of the LHC. It determines the number of particles lost from the primary hadron beam by measuring the radiation field of the shower particles outside of the vacuum chamber. The LHC BLM system will use ionization chambers as its standard detectors but in the areas where very high dose rates are expected, the Secondary Emission Monitor (SEM) chambers will be additionally employed because of their high linearity, low sensitivity and fast response.The sensitivity of the SEM was modeled in Geant4 via the Photo-Absorption Ionization module together with custom parameterization of the very low energy secondary electron production. The prototypes were calibrated by proton beams. For the calibration of the BLM system the signal response of the ionization chamber is simulated in Geant4 for all relevant particle types and energies (keV to TeV range). The results are validated by comparing the simulations to measurements using protons, neutrons, photons and mixed radiation fields at various energies and intensities

The LHC Beam Loss Measurement System

An unprecedented amount of energy will be stored in the circulating beams of LHC. The loss of even a very small fraction of a beam may induce a quench in the superconducting magnets or cause physical damage to machine components. A fast (one turn) loss of 3 . 10-9 and a constant loss of 3 . 10-12 times the nominal beam intensity can quench a dipole magnet. A fast loss of 3 . 10-6 times nominal beam intensity can damage a magnet. The stored energy in the LHC beam is a factor of 200 (or more) higher than in existing hadron machines with superconducting magnets (HERA, TEVATRON, RHIC), while the quench levels of the LHC magnets are a factor of about 5 to 20 lower than the quench levels of these machines. To comply with these requirements the detectors, ionisation chambers and secondary emission monitors are designed very reliable with a large operational range. Several stages of the acquisition chain are doubled and frequent functionality tests are automatically executed. The failure probabilities of single components were identified and optimised. First measurements show the large dynamic range of the system

Predictive role of MRI and18F FDG PET response to concurrent chemoradiation in T2B cervical cancer on clinical outcome: A retrospective single center study

Tumor response in locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) is generally evaluated with MRI and PET, but this strategy is not supported by the literature. Therefore, we compared the diagnostic performance of these two techniques in the response evaluation to concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in LACC. Patients with cervical cancer (CC) stage T2b treated with CCRT and submitted to MRI and PET/CT before and after treatment were enrolled in the study. All clinical, pathological, therapeutic, radiologic and follow-up data were collected and examined. The radiological response was analyzed and compared to the follow-up data. Data of 40 patients with LACC were analyzed. Agreement between MRI and PET/CT in the evaluation response to therapy was observed in 31/40 (77.5%) of cases. The agreement between MRI, PET/CT and follow-up data showed a Cohen kappa coefficient of 0.59 (95% CI = 0.267\u20130.913) and of 0.84 (95% CI = 0.636\u20131.00), respectively. Considering the evaluation of primary tumor response, PET/CT was correct in 97.5% of cases, and MRI in 92.5% of cases; no false negative cases were observed. These results suggest the use of PET/CT as a unique diagnostic imaging tool after CCRT, to correctly assess residual and progression disease

Development, Production and Testing of 4500 Beam Loss Monitors

Beam-loss monitoring (BLM) [1] is a key element in the LHC machine protection. 4250 nitrogen filled ionization chambers (IC) and 350 secondary emission monitors (SEM) have been manufactured and tested at the Institute for High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Protvino, Russia, following their development at CERN. Signal speed and robustness against aging were the main design criteria. Each monitor is permanently sealed inside a stainless-steel cylinder. The quality of the welding was a critical aspect during production. The SEMs are requested to hold a vacuum of $10^{-7}$ bar. Impurity levels from thermal and radiationinduced desorption should remain in the range of parts per million in the ICs. To avoid radiation aging (up to $2·10^{8}$ Gy in 20 years) production of the chambers followed strict UHV requirements. IHEP designed and built the UHV production stand. Due to the required dynamic range of $10^{8}$, the leakage current of the monitors has to stay below 2 pA. Several tests during and after production were performed at IHEP and CERN. A consistently high quality during the whole production period was achieved and the tight production schedule kept at the same time

Glutathione transferase-A2 S112T polymorphism predicts survival, transplant-related mortality, busulfan and bilirubin blood levels after allogeneic stem cell transplantation

Busulfan liver metabolism depends on glutathione, a crucial mediator of cellular and systemic stress. Here we investigated 40 polymorphisms at 27 loci involved in hepatic glutathione homeostasis, with the aim of testing their impact on the clinical outcome of 185 busulfan-conditioned allogeneic transplants. GSTA2 S112T serine allele homozygosity is an independent prognostic factor for poorer survival (RR=2.388), for increased any time- and 100-day transplant-related mortality (RR=4.912 and RR=5.185, respectively). The genotype also predicts a wider busulfan area under the concentration-time curve (1214.36 \ub1 570.06 vs. 838.10 \ub1 282.40 mMol*min) and higher post-transplant bilirubin serum levels (3.280 \ub1 0.422 vs. 1.874+0.197 mg/dL). In vitro, busulfan elicits pro-inflammatory activation (increased NF-KappaB activity and interleukin-8 expression) in human hepatoma cells. At the same time, the drug down-regulates a variety of genes involved in bilirubin liver clearance: constitutive androstane receptor, multidrug resistance-associated protein, solute carrier organic anion transporters, and even GSTA2. It is worthy of note that GSTA2 also acts as an intra-hepatic bilirubin binding protein. These data underline the prognostic value of GSTA2 genetic variability in busulfan-conditioned allotransplants and suggest a patho-physiological model in which busulfan-induced inflammation leads to the impairment of post-transplant bilirubin metabolis

Adropin and apelin fluctuations throughout a season in professional soccer players : are they related with performance?

Myokines are likely to be involved in the whole-body metabolic adaptive changes that occur in response to regular exercise. We aimed to investigate the association of the two myokines (adropin and apelin) with physical performance in professional soccer players. To this purpose, we analyzed the fluctuations of circulating levels of both adropin and apelin in professional soccer players during a season and evaluated the possible association of these myokines with the performance level. Creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity as well as iron, transferrin and high-sensitivity C-Reactive protein (hsCRP), ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), free testosterone/cortisol ratio (FTCR), total iron binding capacity (TIBC) were also determined. Fifteen male professional soccer players from an Italian Serie A team were included in this study. Regarding the results of the biochemical analyses, the patterns of changes in the biomarkers of fatigue and inflammation, i.e., HsCRP, CK and LDH reflected the effects of the training throughout the season. No significant changes were observed in adropin, while apelin exhibited variations that seem not to be related with performance. In addition, both adropin and apelin did not represent valuable strategy to assist in the performance assessment of professional soccer players

A microcosm treatability study for evaluating wood mulch-based amendments as electron donors for trichloroethene (Tce) reductive dechlorination

In this study, wood mulch-based amendments were tested in a bench-scale microcosm experiment in order to assess the treatability of saturated soils and groundwater from an industrial site contaminated by chlorinated ethenes. Wood mulch was tested alone as the only electron donor in order to assess its potential for stimulating the biological reductive dechlorination. It was also tested in combination with millimetric iron filings in order to assess the ability of the additive to accelerate/improve the bioremediation process. The efficacy of the selected amendments was compared with that of unamended control microcosms. The results demonstrated that wood mulch is an effective natural and low-cost electron donor to stimulate the complete reductive dechlorination of chlorinated solvents to ethene. Being a side-product of the wood industry, mulch can be used in environmental remediation, an approach which perfectly fits the principles of circular economy and addresses the compelling needs of a sustainable and low environmental impact remediation. The efficacy of mulch was further improved by the co-presence of iron filings, which accelerated the conversion of vinyl chloride into the ethene by increasing the H2 availability rather than by catalyzing the direct abiotic dechlorination of contaminants. Chemical analyses were corroborated by biomolecular assays, which confirmed the stimulatory effect of the selected amendments on the abundance of Dehalococcoides mccartyi and related reductive dehalogenase genes. Overall, this paper further highlights the application potential and environmental sustainability of wood mulch-based amendments as low-cost electron donors for the biological treatment of chlorinated ethenes

Quality of life with vulvar carcinoma treated with palliative electrochemotherapy: The elechtra (electrochemotherapy vulvar cancer) study

The ELECHTRA (ELEctroChemoTherapy vulvaR cAncer) project was conceived to collect data on palliative electrochemotherapy (ECT) in vulvar cancer (VC) assessing patients’ outcomes (response and survival) and impact on quality of life (QoL). After reporting outcome data in 2019, here, we present the results on QoL. A multicenter prospective observational study was conducted on patients with VC refractory or not amenable to standard therapies undergoing palliative ECT as per clinical practice. The following questionnaires were administered before and after ECT (two and four months later, early and late follow-up): visual analog pain scale (VAS), EuroQol 5-Dimension 5-Level (EQ-5D-L5) and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy—Vulva cancer (FACT—V). Analyses were conducted on both the whole study population and by subgroups (clinical response after ECT and site, number and size of lesions). Questionnaires from 55 patients were evaluated. Compared to the baseline (6.1 ± 2.1), the VAS was significantly reduced at early (4.3 ± 2.5) and late follow-up (4.6 ± 2.8) (p < 0.0001). The FACT—V score improved significantly at early (9.6 ± 4.0) (p < 0.0001) and late follow-up (8.9 ± 4.1) (p < 0.0054) as compared to the baseline (7.1 ± 3.6). No EQ-5D-5L statistically significant changes were observed. Subgroup analyses showed worse QoL in patients with stable or progressive disease, posterior site and multiple or larger than 3 cm nodules. This is the first study reporting improved QoL in VC patients after palliative ECT. Based on these results, ECT in VC should be considered an effective option based on the favorable outcomes both in terms of response and QoL

The SPS as accelerator of Pb82+^{82+} ions

In 1994 the CERN SPS was used for the first time to accelerate fully stripped ions of the Pb208 isotope from the equivalent proton momentum of 13 GeV/c to 400 GeV/c. In the CERN PS, which was used as injector, the lead was accelerated as Pb53+ ions and then fully stripped in the transfer line from PS to SPS. The radio frequency swing which is needed in order to keep the synchronism during acceleration is too big to have the SPS cavities deliver enough voltage for all frequencies. For that reason a new technique of fixed frequency acceleration was used. With this technique up to 70% of the injected beam could be captured and accelerated up to the extraction energy, the equivalent of 2.2 1010 charges. The beam was extracted over a 5 sec. long spill and was then delivered to different experiments at the same time