Evaluation of hand’s fingers flexor muscles endurance in climbers

Objetivo: evaluar la resistencia de los músculos flexores de los dedos de la mano en escaladores de elite y recreativos. Métodos: estudio descriptivo transversal. Veinte y un escaladores fueron asignados a dos grupos de rendimiento: recreativo y élite. Realizaron un ejercicio isométrico y otro de esfuerzo intermitente en una tabla de entrenamiento multiagarre. Se midieron el tiempo de trabajo total, número de ciclos completados y frecuencia cardíaca media en cada test. Resultados: los escaladores de élite mantuvieron el esfuerzo en suspensión 7.65 minutos más que los recreativos (p < .001) y realizaron 23,14 ensayos más (p < .001). La fiabilidad de las mediciones fue excelente. Conclusiones: la fuerza de agarre de los músculos flexores de los dedos en esfuerzo continuo e intermitente contribuye al rendimiento en escalada, con diferencias significativas entre los escaladores de élite y recreativos. El test específico creado para el estudio ha demostrado una adecuada validez discriminantePurpose: To evaluate hand’s fingers flexor muscles grip endurance during a specific climbing test, and to find out if there were differences between elite and recreational sport climbers. Methods: For this cross-sectional descriptive study, twenty-one male sport climbers were assigned to two different groups, recreational or elite. The participants performed two exercises on a multi-hold training board, one requiring sustained isometric exercise and the other requiring intermittent exertion. The variables studied were total work time, number of trials completed and mean heart rate per test. Results: Elite climbers endured suspension for an average of 7.64 minutes being this period longer than recreational climbers (p < .001); thus, elite group performed 23.14 more trials than recreational group (p < .001). Reliability in all evaluations was excellent. Conclusions: Hand’s fingers flexor muscles grip endurance in continuous and intermittent exercises are the muscles that have more influence in sport climbing performance. In this regard, we have found significant differences between elite and recreational climber

Cuban scientific production in Medicine and Public Health: Scopus 2003-2011

El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar la evolución del volumen y la visibilidad de la producción científica cubana en Salud Pública y en Medicina para determinar si siguen los mismos patrones de comunicación, y recomendar buenas prácticas de publicación. Se aplicaron indicadores bibliométricos de volumen, visibilidad y colaboración extraídos del portal SCImago Institutions Rankings a partir de datos de Scopus, para el área temática Medicine y la categoría Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, período 2003-2011. Cuba tiene una posición relativamente alta en los rankings de volumen de producción científica tanto en Medicina como en Salud Pública en los contextos internacionales y regionales, mientras que en impacto está entre los últimos países. La tendencia de la producción es al crecimiento, aunque en Salud Pública es más acelerado. El liderazgo es alto, pero la colaboración internacional está por debajo de lo esperado. La publicación en revistas de alto impacto (primer cuartil) y los artículos en el 10% más citado (excelencia) son escasos. Se concluye que el volumen y el impacto de la publicación no están acorde al potencial científico de salud cubana. Se recomienda incrementar la colaboración científica, la publicación de artículos en revistas de alto impacto, la preparación de los recursos humanos y seguir las recomendaciones internacionales sobre las buenas prácticas de edición y publicación científica.The aim of this study was to analyze the evolution of the quantity and visibility of Cuban scientific production in Public Health and Medicine to determine if they follow the same patterns of scientific communication and the recommended best practices for publication. Bibliometric indicators of quantity, visibility and cooperation were extracted from the SCImago Institutions Rankings website, which is based on Scopus data, in the field of Medicine and category of Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health from 2003 to 2011.Cubahas a relatively high position in the rankings of scientific production in both Medicine and Public Health within the international and regional contexts, but its impact is ranked among the last countries. The production trend of both fields has increased, but public health is increasing faster. Leadership is high, but international collaboration is below expectations. Publication in high impact journals (first quartile) and articles in the set 10% most cited documents (excellence) are scarce. Thus, it may be concluded that the volume and impact of publication are not in accordance with the scientific potential of Cuban health. We recommend increasing scientific cooperation, publishing articles in high impact journals, training human resources and following the international recommendations for good editorial and scientific publication practices

Relationship among research collaboration, number of documents and number of citations. A case study in Spanish computer science production in 2000-2009.

This paper analyzes the relationship among research collaboration, number of documents and number of citations of computer science research activity. It analyzes the number of documents and citations and how they vary by number of authors. They are also analyzed (according to author set cardinality) under different circumstances, that is, when documents are written in different types of collaboration, when documents are published in different document types, when documents are published in different computer science subdisciplines, and, finally, when documents are published by journals with different impact factor quartiles. To investigate the above relationships, this paper analyzes the publications listed in the Web of Science and produced by active Spanish university professors between 2000 and 2009, working in the computer science field. Analyzing all documents, we show that the highest percentage of documents are published by three authors, whereas single-authored documents account for the lowest percentage. By number of citations, there is no positive association between the author cardinality and citation impact. Statistical tests show that documents written by two authors receive more citations per document and year than documents published by more authors. In contrast, results do not show statistically significant differences between documents published by two authors and one author. The research findings suggest that international collaboration results on average in publications with higher citation rates than national and institutional collaborations. We also find differences regarding citation rates between journals and conferences, across different computer science subdisciplines and journal quartiles as expected. Finally, our impression is that the collaborative level (number of authors per document) will increase in the coming years, and documents published by three or four authors will be the trend in computer science literature

Are citations from clinical trials evidence of higher impact research? An analysis of ClinicalTrials.gov

An important way in which medical research can translate into improved health outcomes is by motivating or influencing clinical trials that eventually lead to changes in clinical practice. Citations from clinical trials records to academic research may therefore serve as an early warning of the likely future influence of the cited articles. This paper partially assesses this hypothesis by testing whether prior articles referenced in ClinicalTrials.gov records are more highly cited than average for the publishing journal. The results from four high profile general medical journals support the hypothesis, although there may not be a cause-and effect relationship. Nevertheless, it is reasonable for researchers to use citations to their work from clinical trials records as partial evidence of the possible long-term impact of their research

Long-term effects of Garcinia cambogia/Glucomannan on weight loss in people with obesity, PLIN4, FTO and Trp64Arg polymorphisms

Abstract Background Overweight and obesity are considered major health problems that contribute to increase mortality and quality of life. Both conditions have a high prevalence across the world reaching epidemic numbers. Our aim was to evaluate the effects of the administration of Garcinia cambogia (GC) and Glucomannan (GNN) on long-term weight loss in people with overweight or obesity. Methods Prospective, not-randomized controlled intervention trial was conducted. We treated 214 subjects with overweight or obesity with GC and GNN (500 mg twice a day, each) for 6 months evaluating weight, fat mass, visceral fat, basal metabolic rate, and lipid and glucose blood profiles comparing them with basal values. Some patients were carriers of polymorphisms PLIN4 -11482G > A-, fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) -rs9939609 A/T- and β-adrenergic receptor 3 (ADRB3) -Trp64Arg. Results Treatment produced weight loss, reducing fat mass, visceral fat, lipid and blood glucose profiles while increasing basal metabolic rate. Results were independent of sex, age or suffering from hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2 or dyslipidemia and were attenuated in carriers of PLIN4, FTO, Trp64Arg polymorphisms. Conclusions Administration of GC and GNN reduce weight and improve lipid and glucose blood profiles in people with overweight or obesity, although the presence of polymorphisms PLIN4, FTO and ADRB3 might hinder in some degree these effects. ISRCTN78807585, 19 September 2017, retrospective study

Cell-free Massive MIMO with Short Packets

In this paper, we adapt to cell-free Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) the finite-blocklength framework introduced by Östman et al. (2020) for the characterization of the packet error probability achievable with Massive MIMO, in the ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) regime. The framework considered in this paper encompasses a cell-free architecture with imperfect channel-state information, and arbitrary linear signal processing performed at a central-processing unit connected to the access points via fronthaul links. By means of numerical simulations, we show that, to achieve the high reliability requirements in URLLC, MMSE signal processing must be used. Comparisons are also made with both small-cell and Massive MIMO cellular networks. Both require a much larger number of antennas to achieve comparable performance to cell-free Massive MIMO