Bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA) in sport and exercise: Systematic review and future perspectives

Background Bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA) is a general concept that includes all methodologies used in the analysis of the bioelectrical vector, whereas the "classic" BIVA is a patented methodology included among these methods of analysis. Once this was clarified, the systematic review of the literature provides a deeper insight into the scope and range of application of BIVA in sport and exercise. Objective The main goal of this work was to systematically review the sources on the applications of BIVA in sport and exercise and to examine its usefulness and suitability as a technique for the evaluation of body composition, hydration status, and other physiological and clinical relevant characteristics, ultimately to trace future perspectives in this growing area, including a proposal for a research agenda. Methods Systematic literature searches in PubMed, SPORTDiscus and Scopus databases up to July, 2017 were conducted on any empirical investigations using phase-sensitive bioimpedance instruments to perform BIVA within exercise and sport contexts. The search included healthy sedentary individuals, physically active subjects and athletes. Result Nineteen eligible papers were included and classified as sixteen original articles and three scientific conference communications. Three studies analysed short-term variations in the hydration status evoked by exercise/training through whole-body measurements, eleven assessed whole-body body composition changes induced by long-term exercise, four compared athletic groups or populations using the whole-body assessment, and two analysed bioelectrical patterns of athletic injuries or muscle damage through localised bioimpedance measurements. Conclusions BIVA is a relatively new technique that has potential in sport and exercise, especially for the assessment of soft-tissue injury. On the other hand, the current tolerance ellipses of “classic” BIVA are not a valid method to identify dehydration in individual athletes and a new approach is needed. “Specific” BIVA, a method which proposes a correction of bioelectrical values for body geometry, emerges as the key to overcome “classic” BIVA limitations regarding the body composition assessment. Further research establishing standardised testing procedures and investigating the relationship between physiology and the bioelectrical signal in sport and exercise is needed. © 2018 Castizo-Olier et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Scopu

On unbounded p-summable Fredholm modules

We prove that odd unbounded p-summable Fredholm modules are also bounded p-summable Fredholm modules (this is the odd counterpart of a result of A. Connes for the case of even Fredholm modules)

Cybersecurity capabilities and cyber-attacks as drivers of investment in cybersecurity systems: A UK survey for 2018 and 2019

Our study explores how cyber-capabilities and cyber-attacks drive investment in cybersecurity systems. We assume that cybersecurity investment is a strategic decision in the organizations. To analyze this research question, we make use of the Cyber Security Breaches Survey data, with a sample consisting of 4,163 UK organizations in the periods 2018 to 2019, and employ machine learning techniques (ANN and K-mean cluster). The study extends the current literature on cybersecurity systems and improves our understanding of it in several ways. First, it provides evidence for how the cybersecurity systems are developed in organizations. Second, regarding what factors affect investment in cybersecurity systems, it shows that organizations invest in cybersecurity based on their cybersecurity capabilities and the experienced cyber-attacks. Third, from a managerial point of view, the paper contributes to understanding cybersecurity within the management of the organization

Preparation and antimicrobial evaluation of polyion complex (PIC) nanoparticles loaded with polymyxin B

AbstractHere, we describe novel polyion complex (PIC) particles for the delivery of Polymyxin B (Pol-B), an antimicrobial peptide currently used in the clinic as a last resort antibiotic against multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria. A range of conditions for the controlled assembly of Pol-B with poly(styrene sulphonate) (PSS) has been identified which let us prepare stable colloidal PIC particles. This way, PIC particles containing different Pol-B:PSS ratios have been prepared and their stability under simulated physiological conditions (i.e. pH, osmotic pressure and temperature) characterised. Furthermore, preliminary evaluation of the antimicrobial activity of these Pol-B containing PIC particles has been performed, by monitoring their effect on the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic gram-negative bacterium

The formation of self-management teams in Higher Education institutions. Satisfaction and effectiveness

This paper explores how self-management work groups are formed in higher education institutions and how this affects the effectiveness of the teams. For this, we investigated the experiences of 560 students who were members of self-management learning teams, using factorial analysis, cluster analysis and ordinal logit regression. We focus on self-management teams, where students form work groups autonomously, and making decisions with whom to collaborate. Thus, students influence the composition of their groups, which will condition the internal dynamic of teams, and its subsequent effect on the effectiveness of the groups. Our paper contributes to the literature on student-centred perspectives highlighting how the formation of self-management teams has an impact on their satisfaction and effectiveness. Moreover, we identify four criteria (competencies, academic level, social relationships, and ad hoc) during the formation of self-management teams that have a differential impact on the effectiveness and potential conflict in the team. Additionally, our results reveal three groups of students, regarding the formation criteria of self-management teams: a first group where the academic level criteria prevails, a second group based on competencies, and finally, a group that combines social relationships and ad hoc criteria. Moreover, we find that self-management teams based on the competencies and academic level criteria have a higher level of effectiveness and satisfaction than the formation of self-management teams based on social relations and ad hoc decisions. Moreover, the results show that the exclusive use of academic level as a formation criteria is potentially a source of conflict in the self-management team

Intraoperative radiotherapy electron boost followed by moderate doses of external beam radiotherapy in resected soft-tissue sarcoma of the extremities

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