Editorial: COVID-19 pandemic:A curve ball for athletes

More than 30 months since the discovery of the novel respiratory coronavirus in 2019, COVID-19 related public health orders and restrictions remain active in many countries on the globe in late 2022. These measures, such as city lockdown, border closure, travel restrictions, social distancing practice, and mandatory use of facemasks, affect all segments of the population. During the pandemic, we have witnessed the most significant disruption to the worldwide sports calendar since the World War II. From a global perspective, many international sports events, such as The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, SummerWorld University Games, and theWorld Games have been postponed; and more than 150 international sports events involving both professional and recreational sportsmen have been canceled. In this series, we cover original articles examining the effect of COVID-19 on the training routine and performance in five types of athletes, including distance runners (Chan et al.), soccer/football players (Wagemans et al.; Keemss et al.), bodybuilders (Imboden et al.; Iff et al.), volleyball players (Morath et al.), and paralympic athletes (Busch et al.). We are aware that this field of research is highly dynamic with new data available almost on a daily base. Hence, we aim to bemore inclusive in this Research Topic and involve a wider scope of research questions and different methodological approaches, which allow us a better coverage of this emerging and evolving Research Topic. These findings provide important information for athletes, coaches, physical trainers, and healthcare team members to identify potential health issues that may be related to the pandemic, plan specifically how we can minimize the negative influence, as well as design contingency training plan for postponed tournaments. Although COVID-19 attacks our respiratory system and potentially causes a decline in physical condition, we observed adverse findings from the studies in this Research Topic in terms of physical training. Iff et al. and Keemss et al. reported a pandemic related negative impact on the physical performance in body builders and youth soccer players, respectively. In contrast, Chan et al. and Wagemans et al. did not find any substantial differences in terms of physical function or training intensity in professional soccer players and recreational distance runners. Interestingly, it seems that COVID-19 and its related public health restrictions result in a greater influence on people’s mental than physical health. For example, Imboden et al., Busch et al., and Iff et al. reported that athletes exhibited poorer mood during the pandemic and this psychological impact may indeed lead to a change in living habits, such as increase alcoholic and cannabis intake. From a global perspective, this Research Topic also includes an investigation of COVID transmission within volleyball games. Morath et al. conducted contact tracing in a professional volleyball teamin Germany. They found that players who strictly adhere to the recommended hygiene guidelines and regulations during both training and matches are of lower risk contracting the virus, but coaches and players are advised to avoid nonessential interpersonal contacts outside the training hours to prevent the spread of infection. Although the guest editors would love to see more views, downloads, and citations of papers included in this series, we sincerely hope that athletes, coaches, and concerning healthcare professionals do not require the information presented in this Research Topic due to another wave of pandemic and disruption. May COVID-19 will be soon behind us and becomes a historical terminology in near future

Signals of Bose Einstein condensation and Fermi quenching in the decay of hot nuclear systems

We report experimental signals of Bose-Einstein condensation in the decay of hot Ca projectile-like sources produced in mid-peripheral collisions at sub-Fermi energies. The experimental setup, constituted by the coupling of the INDRA 4$\pi$ detector array to the forward angle VAMOS magnetic spectrometer, allowed us to reconstruct the mass, charge and excitation energy of the decaying hot projectile-like sources. Furthermore, by means of quantum fluctuation analysis techniques, temperatures and mean volumes per particle "as seen by" bosons and fermions separately are correlated to the excitation energy of the reconstructed system. The obtained results are consistent with the production of dilute mixed (bosons/fermions) systems, where bosons experience a smaller volume as compared to the surrounding fermionic gas. Our findings recall similar phenomena observed in the study of boson condensates in atomic traps.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (december 2014

Supersymmetry and the LHC Inverse Problem

Given experimental evidence at the LHC for physics beyond the standard model, how can we determine the nature of the underlying theory? We initiate an approach to studying the "inverse map" from the space of LHC signatures to the parameter space of theoretical models within the context of low-energy supersymmetry, using 1808 LHC observables including essentially all those suggested in the literature and a 15 dimensional parametrization of the supersymmetric standard model. We show that the inverse map of a point in signature space consists of a number of isolated islands in parameter space, indicating the existence of "degeneracies"--qualitatively different models with the same LHC signatures. The degeneracies have simple physical characterizations, largely reflecting discrete ambiguities in electroweak-ino spectrum, accompanied by small adjustments for the remaining soft parameters. The number of degeneracies falls in the range 1<d<100, depending on whether or not sleptons are copiously produced in cascade decays. This number is large enough to represent a clear challenge but small enough to encourage looking for new observables that can further break the degeneracies and determine at the LHC most of the SUSY physics we care about. Degeneracies occur because signatures are not independent, and our approach allows testing of any new signature for its independence. Our methods can also be applied to any other theory of physics beyond the standard model, allowing one to study how model footprints differ in signature space and to test ways of distinguishing qualitatively different possibilities for new physics at the LHC.Comment: 55 pages, 30 figure

Outcrop Groundwater Prospecting, Drilling, and Well Construction in Hard Rocks in Semi-arid Regions

This chapter presents some recommendations for prospecting, drilling and well construction in hard rocks in semi-arid regions. Considering that these conditions are present in many countries where technology is not always available, the chapter concentrates on the most basic and simple methods to plan where best to drill and maximize success through the direct observation of rock types, weathering and fracturing. The advantage for the geologist and hydrogeologist in an arid or semi-arid environment is that vegetation is normally scarce and the weathering layer thin, allowing a direct view of the rock in circumstances impossible in other climate regions of the world. The close observation of the weathering material, and especially of the fracture network, mainly the fracture density, dip, extension and interconnection, can provide important information for a field hydrogeologist who can then plan the best place for drilling. The most appropriate drilling technique, if available in the area, is rotary percussion, also designated as down-the-hole drilling, with drilling rates that can achieve 100 m per day in normal circumstances. This allows a well to be constructed in about two days, essential in the case of disaster relief. Finally, some information is given about well construction, careful planning of the work, protection to preserve the water quality, avoiding problems of partial or total collapse of the hole during construction or of the well and after completion, and how to avoid direct contact between the surface or sub-surface waters with the aquifer along the walls of the well to protect the well and the aquifer against contamination

The Casimir Problem of Spherical Dielectrics: Quantum Statistical and Field Theoretical Approaches

The Casimir free energy for a system of two dielectric concentric nonmagnetic spherical bodies is calculated with use of a quantum statistical mechanical method, at arbitrary temperature. By means of this rather novel method, which turns out to be quite powerful (we have shown this to be true in other situations also), we consider first an explicit evaluation of the free energy for the static case, corresponding to zero Matsubara frequency ($n=0$). Thereafter, the time-dependent case is examined. For comparison we consider the calculation of the free energy with use of the more commonly known field theoretical method, assuming for simplicity metallic boundary surfaces.Comment: 31 pages, LaTeX, one new reference; version to appear in Phys. Rev.

‘It Takes Two Hands to Clap’: How Gaddi Shepherds in the Indian Himalayas Negotiate Access to Grazing

This article examines the effects of state intervention on the workings of informal institutions that coordinate the communal use and management of natural resources. Specifically it focuses on the case of the nomadic Gaddi shepherds and official attempts to regulate their access to grazing pastures in the Indian Himalayas. It is often predicted that the increased presence of the modern state critically undermines locally appropriate and community-based resource management arrangements. Drawing on the work of Pauline Peters and Francis Cleaver, I identify key instances of socially embedded ‘common’ management institutions and explain the evolution of these arrangements through dynamic interactions between individuals, communities and the agents of the state. Through describing the ‘living space’ of Gaddi shepherds across the annual cycle of nomadic migration with their flocks I explore the ways in which they have been able to creatively reinterpret external interventions, and suggest how contemporary arrangements for accessing pasture at different moments of the annual cycle involve complex combinations of the formal and the informal, the ‘traditional’ and the ‘modern’

General Stability Analysis of Synchronized Dynamics in Coupled Systems

We consider the stability of synchronized states (including equilibrium point, periodic orbit or chaotic attractor) in arbitrarily coupled dynamical systems (maps or ordinary differential equations). We develop a general approach, based on the master stability function and Gershgorin disc theory, to yield constraints on the coupling strengths to ensure the stability of synchronized dynamics. Systems with specific coupling schemes are used as examples to illustrate our general method.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

ICTV virus taxonomy profile : Sedoreoviridae 2022

Sedoreoviridae is a large family of icosahedral viruses that are usually regarded as non- enveloped with segmented (10–12 linear segments) dsRNA genomes of 18–26 kbp. Sedoreovirids have a broad host range, infecting mammals, birds, crustaceans, arthropods, algae and plants. Some of them have important pathogenic potential for humans (e.g. rotavirus A), livestock (e.g. bluetongue virus) and plants (e.g. rice dwarf virus).Instituto de BiotecnologíaFil: Matthijnssens, Jelle. University of Leuven; BélgicaFil: Attoui, Houssam. National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA); FranciaFil: Bányai, Krisztián. Veterinary Medical Research Institute; HungríaFil: Brussaard, Corina P. D. NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research; Países BajosFil: Brussaard, Corina P. D. University of Utrecht; Países BajosFil: Danthi, Pranav. Indiana University; Estados UnidosFil: Del Vas, Mariana. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Agrobiotecnología y Biología Molecular (IABIMO); ArgentinaFil: Dermody, Terence S. University of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine; Estados UnidosFil: Duncan, Roy. Dalhousie University; CanadáFil: Fāng, Qín. Wuhan Institute of Virology; ChinaFil: Johne, Reimar. German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment; AlemaniaFil: Mertens, Peter P. C. University of Nottingham; Reino UnidoFil: Jaafar, Fauziah Mohd. Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d’Alfort; FranciaFil: Patton, John T. Indiana University; Estados UnidosFil: Sasaya, Takahide. National Agriculture and Food Research Organization; JapónFil: Suzuki, Nobuhiro. Okayama University. JapónFil: Wei, Taiyun. Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University; Chin

NF-κB and IκBα are found in the mitochondria. Evidence for regulation of mitochondrial gene expression by NF-κB

The transcription factor NF-κB has been shown to be predominantly cytoplasmically localized in the absence of an inductive signal. Stimulation of cells with inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor α or interleukin-1 induces the degradation of IκB, the inhibitor of NF-κB, allowing nuclear accumulation of NF-κB and regulation of specific gene expression. The degradation of IκB is controlled initially by phosphorylation induced by the IκB kinase, which leads to ubiquitination and subsequent proteolysis of the inhibitor by the proteasome. We report here that NF-κB and IκBα (but not IκBβ) are also localized in the mitochondria. Stimulation of cells with tumor necrosis factor α leads to the phosphorylation of mitochondrial IκBα and its subsequent degradation by a nonproteasome-dependent pathway. Interestingly, expression of the mitochondrially encoded cytochrome c oxidase III and cytochrome b mRNAs were reduced by cytokine treatment of cells. Inhibition of activation of mitochondrial NF-κB by expression of the superrepressor form of IκBα inhibited the loss of expression of both cytochrome c oxidase III and cytochrome b mRNA. These data indicate that the NF-κB regulatory pathway exists in mitochondria and that NF-κB can negatively regulate mitochondrial mRNA expression

A Single Bout of High-Intensity Interval Training Reduces Awareness of Subsequent Hypoglycemia in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) gains increasing popularity in patients with diabetes. HIIT acutely increases plasma lactate levels. This may be important, since administration of lactate during hypoglycemia suppresses symptoms and counterregulation, whilst preserving cognitive function. We tested the hypothesis that HIIT acutely reduces awareness of hypoglycemia and attenuates hypoglycemia-induced cognitive dysfunction. In a randomized crossover trial, patients with type 1 diabetes and normal awareness of hypoglycemia (NAH), patients with impaired awareness of hypoglycemia (IAH), and healthy participants (n=10 per group) underwent a hyperinsulinemic-hypoglycemic (2.6 mmol/L) clamp, either after a HIIT session or after seated rest. Compared to rest, HIIT reduced symptoms of hypoglycemia in patients with NAH, but not in healthy participants or patients with IAH. HIIT attenuated hypoglycemia-induced cognitive dysfunction, which was mainly driven by changes in the NAH subgroup. HIIT suppressed cortisol and growth hormone responses, but not catecholamine responses to hypoglycemia. The present findings demonstrate that a single HIIT session rapidly reduces awareness of subsequent hypoglycemia in patients with type 1 diabetes and NAH, but not in patients with IAH, and attenuates hypoglycemia-induced cognitive dysfunction. The role of exercise-induced lactate in mediating these effects, potentially serving as an alternative fuel for the brain, should be further explored