Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) application in sport medicine: A brief review

Since 1985, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been used for non-invasive exploration of motor control in humans and for a wide range of applications in all ages of life. This brief review examined briefly the potential interest in sport medicine

Genetic association studies and the effect of misclassification and selection bias in putative confounders

Genetic epidemiology studies often adjust for numerous potential confounders, yet the influences of confounder misclassification and selection bias are rarely considered. We used simulated data to evaluate the effect of confounder misclassification and selection bias in a case-control study of incident myocardial infarction. We show that putative confounders traditionally included in genetic association studies do not alter effect estimates, even when excessive levels of misclassification are incorporated. Conversely, selection bias resulting from covariates affected by the single-nucleotide polymorphism of interest can bias effect estimates upward or downward. These results support careful consideration of how well a study population represents the target population because selection bias may result even when associations are modest

L’ambiente marino costiero: aspetti e tutela. Progetto formativo di Alternanza Scuola Lavoro 2016‐2019 Liceo Scienze Applicate

Il percorso formativo consente di acquisire nozioni teoriche e pratiche sulle moderne tecniche (strumentali e metodologiche) di investigazione del “datum” geologico finalizzate allo studio multidisciplinare dell’ambiente marino‐costiero, con particolare riguardo alle ricerche sperimentali che l’Istituto IAMC ha condotto e conduce nel Golfo di Napoli. Vengono trattate anche tematiche di gestione del sistema sicurezza e qualità con particolare riguardo alle attività lavorative di ricerca (acquisizione, elaborazione e restituzione del dato),nonché indicazioni di procedure gestionali di progetto finalizzate al corretto utilizzo della risorsa umana e strumentale

Pre-service Special and General Educators’ Perceptions of Bullying

Successful approaches for decreasing bullying among youth hinge on the competence of teachers, yet teachers’ perceptions of bullying often differ from those of students. This study used the Bullying Perceptions Scale—Revised to investigate perceptions of 221 pre-service teachers at a large university in the midwestern United States. Results suggested that pre-service teachers believe all topographies of bullying warrant intervention. Additionally, when asked to recall an episode of bullying, pre-service teachers typically recalled a scenario that involved verbal bullying (84.0%), occurred in the classroom (43.6%), in elementary (44.0%) or middle school (39.6%), when teachers were present (50.2%). The findings imply a need for increased focus on bully identification and prevention in the teacher preparation curriculum

Myocardial tissue tagging with cardiovascular magnetic resonance

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is currently the gold standard for assessing both global and regional myocardial function. New tools for quantifying regional function have been recently developed to characterize early myocardial dysfunction in order to improve the identification and management of individuals at risk for heart failure. Of particular interest is CMR myocardial tagging, a non-invasive technique for assessing regional function that provides a detailed and comprehensive examination of intra-myocardial motion and deformation. Given the current advances in gradient technology, image reconstruction techniques, and data analysis algorithms, CMR myocardial tagging has become the reference modality for evaluating multidimensional strain evolution in the human heart. This review presents an in depth discussion on the current clinical applications of CMR myocardial tagging and the increasingly important role of this technique for assessing subclinical myocardial dysfunction in the setting of a wide variety of myocardial disease processes

Genetic association studies and the effect of misclassification and selection bias in putative confounders

Abstract Genetic epidemiology studies often adjust for numerous potential confounders, yet the influences of confounder misclassification and selection bias are rarely considered. We used simulated data to evaluate the effect of confounder misclassification and selection bias in a case-control study of incident myocardial infarction. We show that putative confounders traditionally included in genetic association studies do not alter effect estimates, even when excessive levels of misclassification are incorporated. Conversely, selection bias resulting from covariates affected by the single-nucleotide polymorphism of interest can bias effect estimates upward or downward. These results support careful consideration of how well a study population represents the target population because selection bias may result even when associations are modest

METABOLIC SYNDROME IN HEALTHY OBESE, OVERWEIGHT AND NORMAL WEIGHT INDIVIDUALS: THE ATHEROSCLEROSIS RISK IN COMMUNITIES STUDY

There is recent interest in characterizing the subset of obese individuals who have healthy metabolic profiles yet only two studies have examined this group prospectively but not in racially diverse populations. We analyzed factors associated with the prevalence and incidence of metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) among individuals grouped by body mass index (BMI) categories in a multi-center, community-based cohort of 14,663 African-American and white men and women aged 45-64 years at recruitment in 1987-1989, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. Logistic and proportional hazards regression were utilized to estimate odds ratios (OR) for the prevalence and hazard ratios (HR) for incidence of MetSyn with 95% confidence intervals (CI). At visit 1, MetSyn was positively associated with age, female gender, African-American race, and inversely related to education, associations being more pronounced among normal weight (NW) subjects. Among those without MetSyn at visit 1, obese (OB) subjects were more likely to develop MetSyn compared with NW [HR (95% CI): 4.53 (4.09-5.01)]. Several factors were associated with incident MetSyn among NW, including older age [per year: 1.05 (1.03-1.06)], female gender [vs. male: 1.29 (1.10-1.52)], heavy alcohol intake [vs. never: 0.75 (0.59-0.94)] and physical activity [tertile 3 vs. tertile 1: 0.71 (0.58-0.86)] but not OB. Weight gain (>5%) was also more highly associated with MetSyn in NW [1.61 (1.28-2.02)] compared with OB [1.01 (0.85-1.20)]. We conclude that lifestyle factors may play a stronger role in development of MetSyn in NW individuals compared with OB and that metabolically healthy obesity may not be a stable condition

Shannon entropy approach reveals relevant genes in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia and affects millions of people worldwide. Since complex diseases are often the result of combinations of gene interactions, microarray data and gene co-expression analysis can provide tools for addressing complexity. Our study aimed to find groups of interacting genes that are relevant in the development of AD. In this perspective, we implemented a method proposed in a previous work to detect gene communities linked to AD. Our strategy combined co-expression network analysis with the study of Shannon entropy of the betweenness. We analyzed the publicly available GSE1297 dataset, achieved from the GEO database in NCBI, containing hippocampal gene expression of 9 control and 22 AD human subjects. Co-expressed genes were clustered into different communities. Two communities of interest (composed by 72 and 39 genes) were found by calculating the correlation coefficient between communities and clinical features. The detected communities resulted stable, replicated on two independent datasets and mostly enriched in pathways closely associated with neuro-degenative diseases. A comparison between our findings and other module detection techniques showed that the detected communities were more related to AD phenotype. Lastly, the hub genes within the two communities of interest were identified by means of a centrality analysis and a bootstrap procedure. The communities of the hub genes presented even stronger correlation with clinical features. These findings and further explorations on the detected genes could shed light on the genetic aspects related with physiological aspects of Alzheimer's disease

Primary motor cortex excitability in karate athletes: A transcranial magnetic stimulation study

Purpose: The mechanisms involved in the coordination of muscle activity are not completely known: to investigate adaptive changes in human motor cortex Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was often used. The sport models are frequently used to study how the training may affect the corticospinal system excitability: Karate represents a valuable sport model for this kind of investigations for its high levels of coordination required to athletes. This study was aimed at examining possible changes in the resting motor threshold (rMT) and in the corticospinal response in karate athletes, and at determining whether athletes are characterized by a specific value of rMT. Methods: We recruited 25 right-handed young karate athletes and 25 matched non-athletes. TMS was applied to primary motor cortex (M1). Motor evoked potential (MEP) were recorded by two electrodes placed above the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle. We considered MEP latencies and amplitudes at rMT, 110% of rMT, and 120% of rMT. Results: The two groups were similar for age (p > 0.05), height (p > 0.05) and body mass (p > 0.05). The TMS had a 70-mm figure-of-eight coil and a maximum output of 2.2 T, placed over the left motor cortex. During the stimulation, a mechanical arm kept the coil tangential to the scalp, with the handle at 45° respect to the midline. The SofTaxic navigator system (E.M.S. Italy, www.emsmedical.net) was used in order to correctly identifying and repeating the stimulation for every subject. Compared to non-athletes, athletes showed a lower resting motor threshold (p < 0.001). Furthermore, athletes had a lower MEP latency (p < 0.001) and a higher MEP amplitude (p < 0.001) compared to non-athletes. Moreover, a ROC curve for rMT was found significant (area: 0.907; sensitivity 84%, specificity 76%). Conclusions: As the main finding, the present study showed significant differences in cortical excitability between athletes and non-athletes. The training can improve cortical excitability inducing athletes' modifications, as demonstrated in rMT and MEP values. These finding support the hypothesis that the sport practice determines specific brain organizations in relationship with the sport challenges

Milk from cows fed a diet with a high forage:concentrate ratio improves inflammatory state, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial function in rats.

Excessive energy intake may evoke complex biochemical processes characterized by inflammation, oxidative stress, and impairment of mitochondrial function that represent the main factors underlying noncommunicable diseases. Because cow milk is widely used for human nutrition and in food industry processing, the nutritional quality of milk is of special interest with respect to human health. In our study, we analyzed milk produced by dairy cows fed a diet characterized by a high forage:concentrate ratio (high forage milk, HFM). In view of the low n-6:n-3 ratio and high content of conjugated linoleic acid of HFM, we studied the effects of this milk on lipid metabolism, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and oxidative stress in a rat model. To this end, we supplemented for 4 wk the diet of male Wistar rats with HFM and with an isocaloric amount (82 kJ, 22 mL/d) of milk obtained from cows fed a diet with low forage:concentrate ratio, and analyzed the metabolic parameters of the animals. Our results indicate that HFM may positively affect lipid metabolism, leptin:adiponectin ratio, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and oxidative stress, providing the first evidence of the beneficial effects of HFM on rat metabolism