The use of deep friction massage with olive oil as a means of prevention and treatment of sports injuries in ancient times

The aim of this research was to analyse the use of olive oil as a means of prevention and treatment of sports injuries in the ancient world. The method adopted was based on a thorough study of Greek and world literature. Writings of major ancient philosophers and physicians such as Hippocrates, Aristotle, Philostratus, and Lucian have been analysed in depth. According to the results, the use of massage, together with olive oil rub, helped to reduce muscle fatigue, to remove lactic acid, and to prevent the occurrence of sports injuries through flexibility provided to the skin of athletes. The therapeutic use of oil in the ancient world was fully recognized; and as a result Athenian athlothetes (sponsors of sporting events) provided free oil to all sport facilities where athletes could make free use of it [1]

Business concerns regarding environmental responsibility

The United Nations introduced the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, aiming to tackle economic, social and environmental problems that exist in the world and to promote the concept of sustainability and sustainable development. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review regarding the background of sustainable development and each one of the 17 SDGs; an in-depth analysis of the problems addressed in each goal is provided and these problems’ impacts in the world are identified. The importance of achieving each goal is highlighted, while recent data regarding the targets included in each goal are provided, as well as the mean changes of these data for the past few years, based on a trend analysis that we performed. An evaluation of the achievement of various targets is discussed; we highlight the need of improvement of various SDGs’ progress, including the 4th, 11th and 13th SDG

Business concerns regarding environmental responsibility

The United Nations introduced the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, aiming to tackle economic, social and environmental problems that exist in the world and to promote the concept of sustainability and sustainable development. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review regarding the background of sustainable development and each one of the 17 SDGs; an in-depth analysis of the problems addressed in each goal is provided and these problems’ impacts in the world are identified. The importance of achieving each goal is highlighted, while recent data regarding the targets included in each goal are provided, as well as the mean changes of these data for the past few years, based on a trend analysis that we performed. An evaluation of the achievement of various targets is discussed; we highlight the need of improvement of various SDGs’ progress, including the 4th, 11th and 13th SDG

Uplink NOMA for UAV-Aided Maritime Internet-of-Things

Maritime activities are vital for economic growth, being further accelerated by various emerging maritime Internet of Things (IoT) use cases, including smart ports, autonomous navigation, and ocean monitoring systems. However, broadband, low-delay, and reliable wireless connectivity to the ever-increasing number of vessels, buoys, platforms and sensors in maritime communication networks (MCNs) has not yet been achieved. Towards this end, the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in MCNs provides an aerial dimension to current deployments, relying on shore-based base stations (BSs) with limited coverage and satellite links with high latency. In this work, a maritime IoT topology is examined where direct uplink communication with a shore BS cannot be established due to excessive pathloss. In this context, we employ multiple UAVs for end-to-end connectivity, simultaneously receiving data from the maritime IoT nodes, following the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) paradigm. In contrast to other UAV-aided NOMA schemes in maritime settings, dynamic decoding ordering at the UAVs is used to improve the performance of successive interference cancellation (SIC), considering the rate requirements and the channel state information (CSI) of each maritime node towards the UAVs. Moreover, the UAVs are equipped with buffers to store data and provide increased degrees of freedom in opportunistic UAV selection. Simulations reveal that the proposed opportunistic UAV-aided NOMA improves the average sum-rate of NOMA-based maritime IoT communication, leveraging the dynamic decoding ordering and caching capabilities of the UAVs

Novel regulation of PLCζ activity via its XY-linker

The XY-linker region of somatic cell PLC (phospholipase)-β, -γ, -δ and -ϵ isoforms confers potent catalytic inhibition, suggesting a common auto-regulatory role. Surprisingly, the sperm PLCζ XY-linker does not mediate auto-inhibition. Unlike for somatic PLCs, the absence of the PLCζ XY-linker significantly diminishes both in vitro PIP2 (phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate) hydrolysis and in vivo Ca2+-oscillation-inducing activity, revealing evidence for a novel PLCζ enzymatic mechanism

A meta-analysis of the efficacy of vortioxetine in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and high levels of anxiety symptoms

Background: Comorbid anxiety is common in major depressive disorder (MDD) and more difficult to treat than depression without anxiety. This analysis assessed the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of vortioxetine in MDD patients with high levels of anxiety (baseline Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale [HAM-A] total score ?20).Methods: Efficacy was assessed using an aggregated, study-level meta-analysis of 10 randomized, placebo-controlled, 6/8-week trials of vortioxetine 5-20 mg/day in adults (18-75 years), with a study in elderly patients (?65 years) analyzed separately. Outcome measures included mean differences from placebo in change from baseline to endpoint (?) in the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), HAM-A total, and HAM-A subscales. Safety and tolerability were assessed by treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs).Results: A total of 1497 (48.6%) vortioxetine-treated and 860 (49.1%) placebo-treated patients had baseline HAM-A?20. There were significant differences from placebo in MADRS (vortioxetine 5 mg/day, n=415, ??2.68, P=0.005; 10 mg/day, n=373, ??3.59, P<0.001; 20 mg/day, n=207, ??4.30, P=0.005) and HAM-A total (5 mg/day, n=419, ??1.64, P=0.022; 10 mg/day, n=373, ??2.04, P=0.003; 20 mg/day, n=207, ??2.19, P=0.027). There were significantly greater improvements versus placebo on the HAM-A psychic subscale for all doses. The most common TEAEs (?5.0%) were nausea, headache, dizziness, dry mouth, diarrhea, nasopharyngitis, constipation, and vomiting. Incidence of serious TEAEs was 1.3% (placebo) and ?1.3% (vortioxetine, across doses).Limitations: Study heterogeneity limits this analysis. Patients with baseline HAM-A?20 were not directly compared to baseline HAM-A<20 or total MDD population.Conclusions: Vortioxetine was efficacious in reducing depressive and anxiety symptoms in patients with MDD and high levels of anxiety

Wear debris pseudotumor following total knee arthroplasty: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>In patients who have undergone a total joint replacement, any mass occurring in or adjacent to the joint needs thorough investigation and a wear debris-induced cyst should be suspected.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>An 81-year-old man presented with a painful and enlarging mass at the popliteal fossa and calf of his right knee. He had had a total right knee replacement seven years previously. Plain radiographs showed narrowing of the medial compartment. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a cystic lesion at the postero-medial aspect of the knee joint mimicking popliteal cyst or soft tissue sarcoma. Fine needle aspiration was non-diagnostic. A core-needle biopsy showed metallosis. Intraoperative findings revealed massive metallosis related to extensive polyethylene wear, delamination and deformation. Revision knee and patella arthroplasty was carried out after a thorough debridement of the knee joint.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Long-term follow-up is critical for patients with total joint replacement for early detection of occult polyethylene wear and prosthesis loosening. In these cases, revision arthroplasty may provide a satisfactory knee function.</p

Divergent effect of mammalian PLCζ in generating Ca2+ oscillations in somatic cells compared with eggs

Sperm PLCζ (phospholipase Cζ) is a distinct phosphoinositide-specific PLC isoform that is proposed to be the physiological trigger of egg activation and embryo development at mammalian fertilization. Recombinant PLCζ has the ability to trigger Ca2+ oscillations when expressed in eggs, but it is not known how PLCζ activity is regulated in sperm or eggs. In the present study, we have transfected CHO (Chinese-hamster ovary) cells with PLCζ fused with either YFP (yellow fluorescent protein) or luciferase and found that PLCζ-transfected cells did not display cytoplasmic Ca2+ oscillations any differently from control cells. PLCζ expression was not associated with changes in CHO cell resting Ca2+ levels, nor with a significantly changed Ca2+ response to extracellular ATP compared with control cells transfected with either YFP alone, a catalytically inactive PLCζ or luciferase alone. Sperm extracts containing PLCζ also failed to cause Ca2+ oscillations in CHO cells. Despite these findings, PLCζ-transfected CHO cell extracts exhibited high recombinant protein expression and PLC activity. Furthermore, either PLCζ-transfected CHO cells or derived cell extracts could specifically cause cytoplasmic Ca2+ oscillations when microinjected into mouse eggs. These data suggest that PLCζ-mediated Ca2+ oscillations may require specific factors that are only present within the egg cytoplasm or be inhibited by factors present only in somatic cell lines

PLCζ causes Ca2+ oscillations in mouse eggs by targeting intracellular and not plasma membrane PI(4,5)P2

Sperm-specific phospholipase C ζ (PLCζ) activates embryo development by triggering intracellular Ca2+ oscillations in mammalian eggs indistinguishable from those at fertilization. Somatic PLC isozymes generate inositol 1,4,5-trisphophate–mediated Ca2+ release by hydrolyzing phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2) in the plasma membrane. Here we examine the subcellular source of PI(4,5)P2 targeted by sperm PLCζ in mouse eggs. By monitoring egg plasma membrane PI(4,5)P2 with a green fluorescent protein–tagged PH domain, we show that PLCζ effects minimal loss of PI(4,5)P2 from the oolemma in contrast to control PLCδ1, despite the much higher potency of PLCζ in eliciting Ca2+ oscillations. Specific depletion of this PI(4,5)P2 pool by plasma membrane targeting of an inositol polyphosphate-5-phosphatase (Inp54p) blocked PLCδ1-mediated Ca2+ oscillations but not those stimulated by PLCζ or sperm. Immunolocalization of PI(4,5)P2, PLCζ, and catalytically inactive PLCζ (ciPLCζ) revealed their colocalization to distinct vesicular structures inside the egg cortex. These vesicles displayed decreased PI(4,5)P2 after PLCζ injection. Targeted depletion of vesicular PI(4,5)P2 by expression of ciPLCζ-fused Inp54p inhibited the Ca2+ oscillations triggered by PLCζ or sperm but failed to affect those mediated by PLCδ1. In contrast to somatic PLCs, our data indicate that sperm PLCζ induces Ca2+ mobilization by hydrolyzing internal PI(4,5)P2 stores, suggesting that the mechanism of mammalian fertilization comprises a novel phosphoinositide signaling pathway