Inspiratory muscle training and its effect on indices of physiological and perceived stress during incremental walking exercise in normobaric hypoxia

This study evaluated the effects of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) on inspiratory muscle fatigue (IMF) and physiological and perceptual responses during trekking-specific exercise. An 8-week IMT program was completed by 21 males (age 32.4 ± 9.61 years, VO2peak 58.8 ± 6.75 mL/kg/min) randomised within matched pairs to either the IMT group (n = 11) or the placebo group [(P), n = 9]. Twice daily, participants completed 30 (IMT) or 60 (P) inspiratory efforts using a Powerbreathe initially set at a resistance of 50% (IMT) or used at 15% (P) of maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) throughout. A loaded (12.5 kg) 39-minute incremental walking protocol (3–5 km/hour and 1–15% gradient) was completed in normobaric hypoxia (PIO2 = 110 mmHg, 3000 m) before and after training. MIP increased from 164 to 188 cmH2O (18%) and from 161 to 171 cmH2O (6%) in the IMT and P groups (P = 0.02). The 95% CI for IMT showed a significant improvement in MIP (5.21±43.33 cmH2O), but not for P. IMF during exercise (MIP) was*5%, showing no training effect for either IMT or P (P = 0.23). Rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was consistently reduced (*1) throughout exercise following training for IMT, but not for P (P = 0.03). The mean blood lactate concentration during exercise was significantly reduced by 0.26 and 0.15 mmol/L in IMT and P (P = 0.00), with no differences between groups (P = 0.34). Rating of dyspnoea during exercise decreased (*0.4) following IMT but increased (*0.3) following P (P = 0.01). IMT may attenuate the increased physiological and perceived exercise stress experienced during normobaric hypoxia, which may benefit moderate altitude expedition

Driver roll speed influence in Ring Rolling process

Ring Rolling is an advanced local incremental forming technology to fabricate directly precise seamless ring-shape parts with various dimensions and materials. To produce a high-quality ring different speed laws should be defined: the speed laws of the Idle and Axial rolls must be set to control the ring cross section and the Driver roll angular velocity must be chosen to avoid too high localized deformation on the ring cross section. Usually, in industrial environment, a constant rotation is set for the Driver roll, but this approach does not guarantee a constant ring angular velocity because of its diameter expansion. In particular, the higher is the ring diameter the lower is its angular velocity. The main risk due to this constrain is the generation of a non-uniform ring geometry. An innovative approach is to design a Driver Roll speed law to obtain a constant ring angular velocity. In this paper a FEM approach was followed to investigate the Driver roll speed influence on the Ring Rolling process. Different Driver roll speed laws were tested starting from a model defined in an industrial plant. Results will be analyzed by a geometrical and physical point of view

A smoothed stochastic earthquake rate model considering seismicity and fault moment release for Europe

We present a time-independent gridded earthquake rate forecast for the European region including Turkey. The spatial component of our model is based on kernel density estimation techniques, which we applied to both past earthquake locations and fault moment release on mapped crustal faults and subduction zone interfaces with assigned slip rates. Our forecast relies on the assumption that the locations of past seismicity is a good guide to future seismicity, and that future large-magnitude events occur more likely in the vicinity of known faults. We show that the optimal weighted sum of the corresponding two spatial densities depends on the magnitude range considered. The kernel bandwidths and density weighting function are optimized using retrospective likelihood-based forecast experiments. We computed earthquake activity rates (a- and b-value) of the truncated Gutenberg-Richter distribution separately for crustal and subduction seismicity based on a maximum likelihood approach that considers the spatial and temporal completeness history of the catalogue. The final annual rate of our forecast is purely driven by the maximum likelihood fit of activity rates to the catalogue data, whereas its spatial component incorporates contributions from both earthquake and fault moment-rate densities. Our model constitutes one branch of the earthquake source model logic tree of the 2013 European seismic hazard model released by the EU-FP7 project ‘Seismic HAzard haRmonization in Europe' (SHARE) and contributes to the assessment of epistemic uncertainties in earthquake activity rates. We performed retrospective and pseudo-prospective likelihood consistency tests to underline the reliability of our model and SHARE's area source model (ASM) using the testing algorithms applied in the collaboratory for the study of earthquake predictability (CSEP). We comparatively tested our model's forecasting skill against the ASM and find a statistically significant better performance for testing periods of 10-20yr. The testing results suggest that our model is a viable candidate model to serve for long-term forecasting on timescales of years to decades for the European regio

Tomography of the Alpine region from observations of seismic ambient noise

We use correlations of the ambient seismic noise to study the crust in western Europe. Cross correlation of 1 year of noise recorded at 150 three components broadband stations yields more than 3 000 Rayleigh wave group velocity measurements. These measurements are used to construct Rayleigh group velocity maps of the Alpine region and surrounding area in the 5-80 s period band. In the 5-10 s period band, the seismic noise recorded in Europe is dominated by surface waves originating from the Northern Atlantic ocean. This anisotropy of the noise and the uneven station distribution affect the azimuthal distribution of the paths where we obtain reliable group velocity measurements. As a consequence our group velocity models have better resolution in the northeast direction than in the southwest direction. Finally we invert the resulting Rayleigh wave group velocity maps to determine the Moho depth. Our results are in good agreement with the result of the numerous active experiments in the Alps and provide a continuous image of the Alpine structur

Tools for in vitro propagation/synchronization of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha and application of a validated HPLC-ESI-MS-MS method for glutathione and phytochelatin analysis

Bryophytes, due to their poikilohydric nature and peculiar traits, are useful and versatile organisms for studies on metal accumulation and detoxification in plants. Among bryophytes, the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha is an excellent candidate as a model organism, having a key role in plant evolutionary history. In particular, M. polymorpha axenic cultivation of gametophytes offers several advantages, such as fast growth, easy propagation and high efficiency of crossing. Thus, the main purpose of this work was to promote and validate experimental procedures useful in the establishment of a standardized set-up of M. polymorpha gametophytes, as well as to study cadmium detoxification processes in terms of thiol-peptide production, detection and characterisation by HPLC-mass spectrometry. The results show how variations in the composition of the Murashige and Skoog medium impact the growth rate or development of this liverwort, and what levels of glutathione and phytochelatins are produced by gametophytes to counteract cadmium stress

Capsular closure after hip arthroscopy: our experience

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE WORK: In the last decade, arthroscopic treatment of hip diseases has significantly spread and evolved and currently it represents the gold standard for the treatment of femoral- acetabular impingement. In the recent years, the function of the joint capsule (and therefore the results of an arthroscopic capsulotomy) has been hugely developed, opening a heated debate. The Literature is still torn about the need for a capsular suture, but more recent studies are more oriented in its execution at the end of the surgical procedure. According to these recent studies, the joint capsule performs an essential function of primary stability, and its closure is therefore necessary to restore the native anatomy and physiology. Nevertheless, capsular management remains a controversial topic. This is a retrospective study with the aim of assessing the influence of capsular suture on the patient's functional outcome in a cohort of patients with femoral-acetabular impingement arthroscopically treated. HYPOTHESIS: Our hypothesis is that an adequate capsular suture positively influences the patient's functional outcome. METHODS AND RESULTS: 50 patients treated with hip arthroscopy for femoral-acetabular impingement have been retrospectively enrolled at the Orthopaedic Clinic of Academic Hospital of Udine during a period of two-years (2017-2018); collected data have been analysed and compared with a retrospective model. Patients have been divided into two equivalent groups, 25 treated with capsular suture, 25 without performing the suture. Patient's post-operative functional outcome has been analysed using the modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS), the Non-Arthritic Hip Score (NAHS) and the Hip Outcome Score-Sport Scale (HOS-SS). The functional outcome in patients where capsular sutures were performed was better than in non-sutured patients, in all three analysed scales. CONCLUSIONS: Capsular suture with a single side-to-side stitch at the end of the procedure can positively influence the patient's functional outcome

Secondary metabolites from Penicillium roqueforti, a starter for the production of Gorgonzola cheese

The presence of mold in food, although necessary for production, can involve the presence of secondary metabolites, which are sometimes toxic. Penicillium roqueforti is a common saprophytic fungus but it is also the essential fungus used in the production of Roquefort cheese and other varieties of blue cheese containing internal mold. The study was conducted on industrial batches of Penicillium roqueforti starters used in the production of the Gorgonzola cheese, with the aim to verify the production of secondary metabolites. Nine Penicillium roqueforti strains were tested. The presence of roquefortine C, PR toxin and mycophenolic acid was tested first in vitro, then on bread-like substrate and lastly in vivo in nine cheese samples produced with the same starters and ready to market. In vitro, only Penicillium out of nine produced roquefortine C, four starters showed mycophenolic acid production, while no significant amounts of PR toxin were detected. In the samples grown on bread-like substrate, Penicillium did not produce secondary metabolites, likewise with each cheese samples tested. To protect consumers\u2019 health and safety, the presence of mycotoxins needs to be verified in food which is widely consumed, above all for products protected by the protected denomination of origin (DOP) label (i.e. a certificate guaranteeing the geographic origin of the product), such as Gorgonzola cheese

Vegetation, climate and environmental history of the last 4500 years at lake Shkodra (Albania/Montenegro)

Three parallel overlapping cores have been taken in the Albanian side of Lake Shkodra (Albania/Montenegro). The chronological frame of the record, spanning approximately the last 4500 years, has been assessed using four radiocarbon dates and four well-known tephra layers of Italian volcanoes. Multidisciplinary analyses turned out to be decisive to understand environmental, climatic changes and human impact. Here, we focus on palynology. The humidity at Shkodra was always enough to allow the developing of a luxuriant arboreal vegetation. The pollen percentage diagram does not record important changes in terrestrial plants percentages. Arboreal pollen (AP) shows only a rather slight decrease, with ‘natural forests’ replaced by intensive cultivation of chestnut and walnut in the last seven/eight centuries. The rather minimal changes in composition and dominance are because of the fact that the pollen rain comes from different vegetation belts, from the Mediterranean to the alpine one. Two major periods of humidity are found, one at the base of the pollen concentration and influx diagram, before 4100 yr BP, the other at 1300 yr BP. Minima in pollen influx and concentration occurred soon before 4000, at ca. 2900 and at ca. 1450 yr BP These minima, interpreted as aridity crises, show a temporal coincidence with the so-called Bond events 1-3 already found in other central and eastern Mediterranean records. The minimum in AP occurring after 500 yr BP could represent the record of the ‘Little Ice Age’, even if it could be the effect of a strong land use

Velocities of Mesenchymal Cells May be Ill-Defined

The dynamics of single cell migration on flat surfaces is usually modeled by a Langevin-like problem consisting of ballistic motion for short periods and random walk. for long periods. Conversely, recent studies have revealed a previously neglected random motion at very short intervals, what would rule out the possibility of defining the cell instantaneous velocity and a robust measurement procedure. A previous attempt to address this issue considered an anisotropic migration model, which takes into account a polarization orientation along which the velocity is well-defined, and a direction orthogonal to the polarization vector that describes the random walk. Although the numerically and analytically calculated mean square displacement and auto-correlation agree with experimental data for that model, the velocity distribution peaks at zero, which contradicts experimental observations of a constant drift in the polarization direction. Moreover, Potts model simulations indicate that instantaneous velocity cannot be measured for any direction. Here, we consider dynamical equations for cell polarization, which is measurable and introduce a polarization-dependent displacement, circumventing the problem of ill defined instantaneous velocity. Polarization is a well-defined quantity, preserves memory for short intervals, and provides a robust measurement procedure for characterizing cell migration. We consider cell polarization dynamics to follow a modified Langevin equation that yields cell displacement distribution that peaks at positive values, in agreement with experiments and Potts model simulations. Furthermore, displacement autocorrelation functions present two different time scales, improving the agreement between theoretical fits and experiments or simulations

Enantioselective inhibition of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease with rhenium(i) picolinic acid complexes

Infections of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have triggered a global pandemic with millions of deaths worldwide. Herein, the synthesis of functionalized Re(i) tricarbonyl complexes as inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, also referred to as the 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CL(pro)), is presented. The metal complexes were found to inhibit the activity of the enzyme with IC50 values in the low micromolar range. Mass spectrometry revealed that the metal complexes formed a coordinate covalent bond with the enzyme. Chiral separation of the enantiomers of the lead compound showed that one enantiomer was significantly more active than the other, consistent with specific binding and much like that observed for conventional organic small molecule inhibitors and druglike compounds. Evaluation of the lead compound against SARS-CoV-2 in a cell-based infection assay confirmed enantiospecific inhibition against the virus. This study represents a significant advancement in the use of metal complexes as coordinate covalent inhibitors of enzymes, as well as a novel starting point for the development of novel SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors