Molecular Big Data in Sports Sciences: State-of-Art and Future Prospects of OMICS-Based Sports Sciences

Together with environment and experience (that is to say, diet and training), the biological and genetic make-up of an athlete plays a major role in exercise physiology. Sports genomics has shown, indeed, that some DNA single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can be associated with athlete performance and level (such as elite/world-class athletic status), having an impact on physical activity behavior, endurance, strength, power, speed, flexibility, energetic expenditure, neuromuscular coordination, metabolic and cardio-respiratory fitness, among others, as well as with psychological traits. Athletic phenotype is complex and depends on the combination of different traits and characteristics: as such, it requires a \u201ccomplex science,\u201d like that of metadata and multi-OMICS profiles. Several projects and trials (like ELITE, GAMES, Gene SMART, GENESIS, and POWERGENE) are aimed at discovering genomics-based biomarkers with an adequate predictive power. Sports genomics could enable to optimize and maximize physical performance, as well as it could predict the risk of sports-related injuries. Exercise has a profound impact on proteome too. Proteomics can assess both from a qualitative and quantitative point of view the modifications induced by training. Recently, scholars have assessed the epigenetics changes in athletes. Summarizing, the different omics specialties seem to converge in a unique approach, termed sportomics or athlomics and defined as a \u201cholistic and top-down,\u201d \u201cnon-hypothesis-driven research on an individual\u2019s metabolite changes during sports and exercise\u201d (the Athlome Project Consortium and the Santorini Declaration) Not only sportomics includes metabonomics/metabolomics, but relying on the athlete\u2019s biological passport or profile, it would enable the systematic study of sports-induced changes and effects at any level (genome, transcriptome, proteome, etc.). However, the wealth of data is so huge and massive and heterogenous that new computational algorithms and protocols are needed, more computational power is required as well as new strategies for properly and effectively combining and integrating data

The effect of exercise on glucoregulatory hormones: A countermeasure to human aging: Insights from a comprehensive review of the literature

Hormones are secreted in a circadian rhythm, but also follow larger-scale timetables, such as monthly (hormones of the menstrual cycle), seasonal (i.e., winter, summer), and, ultimately, lifespan-related patterns. Several contexts modulate their secretion, such as genetics, lifestyle, environment, diet, and exercise. They play significant roles in human physiology, influencing growth of muscle, bone, and regulating metabolism. Exercise training alters hormone secretion, depending on the frequency, duration, intensity, and mode of training which has an impact on the magnitude of the secretion. However, there remains ambiguity over the effects of exercise training on certain hormones such as glucoregulatory hormones in aging adults. With advancing age, there are many alterations with the endocrine system, which may ultimately alter human physiology. Some recent studies have reported an anti-aging effect of exercise training on the endocrine system and especially cortisol, growth hormone and insulin. As such, this review examines the effects of endurance, interval, resistance and combined training on hormones (i.e., at rest and after) exercise in older individuals. We summarize the influence of age on glucoregulatory hormones, the influence of exercise training, and where possible, examine masters " athletes " endocrinological profile.Scopu

Pragmatic Ontology Evolution: Reconciling User Requirements and Application Performance

Increasingly, organizations are adopting ontologies to describe their large catalogues of items. These ontologies need to evolve regularly in response to changes in the domain and the emergence of new requirements. An important step of this process is the selection of candidate concepts to include in the new version of the ontology. This operation needs to take into account a variety of factors and in particular reconcile user requirements and application performance. Current ontology evolution methods focus either on ranking concepts according to their relevance or on preserving compatibility with existing applications. However, they do not take in consideration the impact of the ontology evolution process on the performance of computational tasks – e.g., in this work we focus on instance tagging, similarity computation, generation of recommendations, and data clustering. In this paper, we propose the Pragmatic Ontology Evolution (POE) framework, a novel approach for selecting from a group of candidates a set of concepts able to produce a new version of a given ontology that i) is consistent with the a set of user requirements (e.g., max number of concepts in the ontology), ii) is parametrised with respect to a number of dimensions (e.g., topological considerations), and iii) effectively supports relevant computational tasks. Our approach also supports users in navigating the space of possible solutions by showing how certain choices, such as limiting the number of concepts or privileging trendy concepts rather than historical ones, would reflect on the application performance. An evaluation of POE on the real-world scenario of the evolving Springer Nature taxonomy for editorial classification yielded excellent results, demonstrating a significant improvement over alternative approaches

L’habitat moustérien de « La Folie » (Poitiers, Vienne) : synthèse des premiers résultats

Le gisement moustérien de La Folie illustre un campement de plein air en bordure du Clain d’une rare qualité de préservation. Plusieurs structures ont été mises au jour (structures empierrées, zone de combustion, trou de poteau avec calage…) révélant une organisation de l’espace claire, avec des zones d’activités bien délimitées. Ce gisement constitue un exemple exceptionnel pour cette période en Europe occidentale.The Mousterian open-air site of La Folie in the Clain valley is a rare exemple of high quality of preservation. Several features and finded (stones structure, hearth,...) which caracterize a clear spatial organization with well delimited activities areas. This site is an exceptional model for these period in occidental europe

A unified global investigation on the spectral effects of soiling losses of PV glass substrates: preliminary results

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via the DOI in this recordThe present work reports on the initial results of an international collaboration aiming to investigate the spectral effects of soiling losses. Identical glass coupons have been exposed outdoors for eight weeks in different locations worldwide, and weekly direct and hemispherical transmittance (T%) measurements are compared. Maximum losses as high as 7% and 50% in hemispherical and direct transmittance, respectively, have been found during the 8-week outdoor exposure. At the end of the data collection, a preliminary analysis of the spectral impact of soiling has been performed. The results show that the blue end of the spectrum is more affected and that lower hemispherical T% correlate to larger area covered by particles.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)US Department of Energ

Compléments d’informations chronologiques sur le campement moustérien de tradition acheuléenne du gisement de La Folie (Poitiers, Vienne)

Cet article constitue un complément d’informations, d’ordre chronologique, aux analyses et résultats obtenus sur le site de La Folie à Poitiers découvert et fouillé en contexte d’archéologie préventive lors de la construction de la station d’épuration de la communauté d’agglomération. Ces résultats avaient fait l’objet d’une première publication dans la même revue en 2002, ils seront ici résumés. Pour plus de renseignements nous renvoyons le lecteur à cette contribution plus étoffée. La datation par thermoluminescence sur silex chauffé de l’habitat de plein air moustérien de La Folie, obtenue dans le cadre de l’ACR «Le Paléolithique Moyen en Aquitaine septentrionale», positionne l’occupation néandertalienne au début de l’interpléniglaciaire (vers 58 000 ans) et réaffirme son attribution culturelle au faciès Moustérien de Tradition Acheuléenne de F. Bordes. Cette datation permet surtout d’attester l’existence d’une structuration de l’habitat moustérien en plein air proche de celles connues pour le Paléolithique supérieur. Cette occupation, avait en effet livré de nombreux vestiges anthropiques enfouis à plus de deux mètres de profondeur dans des limons de débordement du Clain. Ce recouvrement rapide a permis une préservation exceptionnelle de certains vestiges, telles des litières végétales, des organisations de cellules végétales, un foyer, deux agencements de blocs calcaires et des concentrations de silex bien circonscrites. L’organisation dans l’espace de ces différents types de vestiges et leur relation, (structuration interne et externe au cercle matérialisé par des gros blocs et un trou de poteau) nous avaient permis d’étayer l’hypothèse d’une habitation de plein air moustérienne (Bourguignon et al. 2001 et 2002).This paper is a chronological data complement of the results obtained in the site of La Folie at Poitiers. This Mousterian occupation was discovered and revealed during a preventive archaeological excavation. The primary results were a purpose of a first publication in the same review in 2002, which are resumed at this time. For more information we send back the reader at this contribution more substantial.The thermoluminescence dating on a heated flint from the Mousterian site of La Folie enables to situate in time its Neandertalian occupation in early interpleniglacial (about 58000 years). Moreover its cultural attribution to the Moustérien de Tradition Acheuléenne features by F. Bordes is confirmed. The existence of a structured open-air Mousterian settlement close to those known for the superior Palaeolithic is attested by this study. In effect, this occupation delivered many entropic remains bury at more than 2m depth in overflowing mud of the Clain river. This fast covering make possible a exceptional preservation of some remains, like vegetal litter, vegetal cellule organisation, one hearth, two arrangement of limestone block and flint concentration very clearly limited. This spatial organisation of this different remains and our relation, (intern and extern organisation of the circle materialized by big limestone block and a post hole) we permitted purpose a Mousterian open air habitation hypothesis (Bourguignon et al. 2001 et 2002

Compléments d’informations chronologiques sur le campement moustérien de tradition acheuléenne du gisement de La Folie (Poitiers, Vienne)

Cet article constitue un complément d’informations, d’ordre chronologique, aux analyses et résultats obtenus sur le site de La Folie à Poitiers découvert et fouillé en contexte d’archéologie préventive lors de la construction de la station d’épuration de la communauté d’agglomération. Ces résultats avaient fait l’objet d’une première publication dans la même revue en 2002, ils seront ici résumés. Pour plus de renseignements nous renvoyons le lecteur à cette contribution plus étoffée. La datation par thermoluminescence sur silex chauffé de l’habitat de plein air moustérien de La Folie, obtenue dans le cadre de l’ACR «Le Paléolithique Moyen en Aquitaine septentrionale», positionne l’occupation néandertalienne au début de l’interpléniglaciaire (vers 58 000 ans) et réaffirme son attribution culturelle au faciès Moustérien de Tradition Acheuléenne de F. Bordes. Cette datation permet surtout d’attester l’existence d’une structuration de l’habitat moustérien en plein air proche de celles connues pour le Paléolithique supérieur. Cette occupation, avait en effet livré de nombreux vestiges anthropiques enfouis à plus de deux mètres de profondeur dans des limons de débordement du Clain. Ce recouvrement rapide a permis une préservation exceptionnelle de certains vestiges, telles des litières végétales, des organisations de cellules végétales, un foyer, deux agencements de blocs calcaires et des concentrations de silex bien circonscrites. L’organisation dans l’espace de ces différents types de vestiges et leur relation, (structuration interne et externe au cercle matérialisé par des gros blocs et un trou de poteau) nous avaient permis d’étayer l’hypothèse d’une habitation de plein air moustérienne (Bourguignon et al. 2001 et 2002).This paper is a chronological data complement of the results obtained in the site of La Folie at Poitiers. This Mousterian occupation was discovered and revealed during a preventive archaeological excavation. The primary results were a purpose of a first publication in the same review in 2002, which are resumed at this time. For more information we send back the reader at this contribution more substantial.The thermoluminescence dating on a heated flint from the Mousterian site of La Folie enables to situate in time its Neandertalian occupation in early interpleniglacial (about 58000 years). Moreover its cultural attribution to the Moustérien de Tradition Acheuléenne features by F. Bordes is confirmed. The existence of a structured open-air Mousterian settlement close to those known for the superior Palaeolithic is attested by this study. In effect, this occupation delivered many entropic remains bury at more than 2m depth in overflowing mud of the Clain river. This fast covering make possible a exceptional preservation of some remains, like vegetal litter, vegetal cellule organisation, one hearth, two arrangement of limestone block and flint concentration very clearly limited. This spatial organisation of this different remains and our relation, (intern and extern organisation of the circle materialized by big limestone block and a post hole) we permitted purpose a Mousterian open air habitation hypothesis (Bourguignon et al. 2001 et 2002

Visceral leishmaniasis in 26 HIV-negative adults

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Visceral leishmaniasis is a notifiable parasitic disease that had increased in incidence in our region on the past few years. It is common in children. In adults, it occurs more on a background of immunodeficiency, and frequently with incomplete clinical manifestations, making the diagnosis complicated.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The aim of our study is to reveal different features of visceral leishmaniasis in adults, through the analysis of its epidemiological, clinical and biological parameters, in a group of 26 patients. No one was infected with HIV or under immunosuppressive therapy Clinical presentation was generally conservative, but there was few differences in adults compared to children, concerning both the clinical symptoms and the laboratory parameters. Diagnosis was provided by direct examination of bone marrow smears in 24 cases (sensitivity 92%), and anti-leishmanial serology in the others.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We should think to the diagnosis of VL even if the patient is not known immunocompromised, and even if the clinical is incomplete, to avoid a delay of care which can lead to serious complications.</p

Ethological principles predict the neuropeptides co-opted to influence parenting

Ethologists predicted that parental care evolves by modifying behavioural precursors in the asocial ancestor. As a corollary, we predict that the evolved mechanistic changes reside in genetic pathways underlying these traits. Here we test our hypothesis in female burying beetles, Nicrophorus vespilloides, an insect where caring adults regurgitate food to begging, dependent offspring. We quantify neuropeptide abundance in brains collected from three behavioural states: solitary virgins, individuals actively parenting or post-parenting solitary adults and quantify 133 peptides belonging to 18 neuropeptides. Eight neuropeptides differ in abundance in one or more states, with increased abundance during parenting in seven. None of these eight neuropeptides have been associated with parental care previously, but all have roles in predicted behavioural precursors for parenting. Our study supports the hypothesis that predictable traits and pathways are targets of selection during the evolution of parenting and suggests additional candidate neuropeptides to study in the context of parenting