Effect of recovery on the treatment of delayed onset muscle soreness and muscle performance

La práctica de ejercicio físico intenso requiere de una adecuada recuperación para evitar el síndrome de sobre entrenamiento y la aparición de lesiones deportivas. La recuperación es esencial para ayudar a los atletas a manejar la fatiga mental y física sin comprometer el nivel de rendimiento cuando se reanuda la práctica y el entrenamiento. Se ha demostrado que la elección de una correcta recuperación posterior a un ejercicio intenso no habitual, juega un papel importante en el rendimiento de los deportistas y en la forma en que son capaces de manejar el dolor y otros síntomas relacionados como la inflamación, la disminución del rango de movimiento, de la fuerza, de la velocidad, y de la flexibilidad. La selección de un protocolo de recuperación específico y los correspondientes parámetros (intensidad, duración, frecuencia…) aún no está clara, y su impacto y eficacia en el trastorno muscular, la debilidad, el dolor y el rendimiento siguen siendo controvertidos y no concluyentes. En consecuencia, esta tesis doctoral tiene como objetivo identificar y desarrollar una visión profunda sobre los antecedentes científicos y la validez de los protocolos de recuperación reportados en la literatura y mostrar el efecto de protocolos de recuperación activos y pasivos sobre el dolor y el rendimiento muscular entre individuos jóvenes activos. Para dar respuesta a estos objetivos, se realizó una revisión sistemática, un ensayo de control aleatorizado y un estudio cuasi experimental. En el primer estudio se realizó una revisión sistemática de la literatura en cinco bases de datos, de acuerdo con las pautas descritas en la declaración de elementos de informes preferidos para revisiones sistemáticas y meta-análisis (PRISMA). En este trabajo se identifican los beneficios, y limitaciones, proporcionando un enfoque práctico para individuos activos, entrenadores y terapeutas acerca de qué tipo de recuperación activa podría mejorar el nivel de rendimiento después de actividades extenuantes. Adicionalmente, un estudio cuasi-experimental, en el que se examinó una muestra de 35 participantes durante tres días. La metodología del estudio se basó en la comparación intra-sujeto de ambas piernas, que permitiera demostrar la eficacia de una combinación de masaje e inmersión en agua fría sobre la percepción del dolor, la altura del salto, la fuerza isométrica máxima y variables cinemáticas de la marcha. Finalmente se diseñó un ensayo controlado aleatorio con un diseño cruzado incluyó a 31 jóvenes participantes activos. Se llevó a cabo un experimento de cuatro días, en dos sesiones idénticas separadas por un período de tres semanas, para probar un protocolo de recuperación activa que consistía en un ejercicio de intervalos de alta intensidad en pendiente positiva. En este estudio, se evaluaron y analizaron el dolor, la creatina-quinasa, la inflamación muscular, la altura del salto, la velocidad del sprint y la repetición máxima (1RM). Los resultados de esta tesis doctoral mostraron que la recuperación activa en general, incluyendo correr y trotar, ejercicio en el agua, yoga y contracciones musculares aisladas ofrece un manejo limitado del dolor. Además, la inflamación y la rigidez muscular después del ejercicio intensivo se redujeron con la actividad física general y el yoga, respectivamente, y la disminución de la fuerza muscular es menor después del ejercicio en el agua. Además, una combinación de masaje e inmersión en agua fría no parece disminuir significativamente el dolor, aumentar el rendimiento muscular o mejorar los parámetros de la marcha en comparación con ningún tratamiento. Y finalmente, un protocolo de recuperación activa que consiste en ejercicio en intervalos de alta intensidad cuesta arriba no ofrece un beneficio destacable en comparación con el descanso pasivo, sin embargo su implementación no aumenta el dolor ni agrava el rendimiento muscular, por lo que se puede realizar sin ningún daño. The practice of intensive physical exercise requires an appropriate recovery in order to avoid overtraining syndrome and the emergence of sports injuries. Recovery is highly essential in helping athletes to deal with mental and physical fatigue without compromising their performance level when practice and training are resumed. Following any unaccustomed activity, it has been demonstrated that the choice of the proper recovery plays an important role in athletes’ performance, and the management of soreness and other related symptoms such as inflammation, swelling and decrease in range of motion, strength, speed, and flexibility. The selection of a specific recovery protocol and the corresponding subsequent parameters, such as intensity, duration, and frequency, is still unclear, and its impact and efficiency on muscle disorder, weakness, pain, and performance remains controversial and inconclusive. Consequently, this doctoral thesis aims to highlight and to develop a deep insight into the scientific background and validity of recovery protocols reported in the literature. Moreover, the main objective is to demonstrate the effect of active and passive recovery protocols on pain and muscle performance among young active individuals. To respond to these objectives, a systematic review, a randomized controlled trial, and a quasi-experimental study were performed. The first study systematically reviewed the literature from five databases according to the guidelines outlined in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. The benefits and limitations are identified in this paper, providing a practical approach for active individuals, coaches, and therapists regarding what type of active recovery could enhance performance level following strenuous activities. Moreover, a quasi-experimental study in which a sample of 35 participants was examined for three days. The methodology in this study was based on an intra-subject comparison of both legs, to investigate the effectiveness of a combination of massage and cold water immersion (CWI) on pain, jump height, maximum isometric force, and gait kinematic variables. Finally, a randomized controlled trial with a crossover design included 31 young active participants. A four-day experiment was conducted in two identical sessions separated by a three-week period, to test an active recovery protocol consisting of an uphill high-intensity interval exercise. In this study, pain, creatine kinase (CK), muscle inflammation, jump height, sprint speed, and one repetition maximum (1RM) were assessed and analyzed. The results of this doctoral thesis show that active recovery in general, including running and jogging, exercise in water, yoga, and isolated muscle contractions offers limited management on soreness. Furthermore, inflammation and muscle stiffness following intensive exercise were reduced by general physical activity and yoga, respectively, and the decrease in muscular strength is less following exercise in water. Additionally, a combination of massage and CWI does not seem to significantly decrease soreness, increase muscle performance, or improve gait parameters compared to no treatment. Finally, an active recovery protocol consisting of uphill high-intensity interval exercise does not offer a remarkable benefit in comparison with passive rest, however its implementation does not increase soreness nor aggravate muscle performance, thus it can be performed without any harm.<br /

Application of miRNA-seq in neuropsychiatry: A methodological perspective

MiRNAs are emerging as key molecules to study neuropsychiatric diseases. However, despite the large number of methodologies and software for miRNA-seq analyses, there is little supporting literature for researchers in this area. This review focuses on evaluating how miRNA-seq has been used to study neuropsychiatric diseases to date, analyzing both the main findings discovered and the bioinformatics workflows and tools used from a methodological perspective. The objective of this review is two-fold: first, to evaluate current miRNA-seq procedures used in neuropsychiatry; and second, to offer comprehensive information that can serve as a guide to new researchers in bioinformatics. After conducting a systematic search (from 2016 to June 30, 2020) of articles using miRNA-seq in neuropsychiatry, we have seen that it has already been used for different types of studies in three main categories: diagnosis, prognosis, and mechanism. We carefully analyzed the bioinformatics workflows of each study, observing a high degree of variability with respect to the tools and methods used and several methodological complexities that are identified and discussed in this reviewInstituto de Salud Carlos III | Ref. PI18/01311Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. RYC2014-15246Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431C2018/55-GR

Acculturation and Disparities in Telemedicine Readiness: A National Study.

Telemedicine provided older adults the ability to safely seek care during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate the potential impact of acculturation factors in telemedicine uptake between ethnic groups. As part of the National Health and Aging Trends Study 2018 survey, 303 participants (≥65 years) were interviewed. We assessed the impact of acculturation on telemedicine readiness by race and ethnicity. Compared to the white non-Hispanic immigrant population, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander (API) populations had significantly lower telemedicine readiness and uptake. Limited English proficiency or older age at the time of migration was associated with telemedicine unreadiness and uptake in the Hispanic and API populations. Our findings suggested that acculturation factors play a substantial role in telemedicine uptake among older adult immigrants in the United States. Therefore, acculturation factors should be considered when promoting and adopting telemedicine technologies in older adults

The state of the art in cost-benefit of HTS methods for stock assessment: an overview

Over the past two decades, enormous progresses have been made in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) method development. This fact unveiled the potential usefulness of HTS methods in a wide range of fields such as fishery assessment and management, for which their application has been extensively discussed. As a consequence of the rapid development, sequencing costs have continuously declined, leading to a general claim that HTS methods are cost-efficient compared with traditional ones. Within this context, the underlying research objective is to assess the cost-effectiveness of genomic techniques through a review of the state of the art (SoA) on three HTS methods: i) environmental DNA (eDNA); ii) epigenetics method for age determination through DNA methylation (DNAm), and; iii) close-kin mark-recapture (CKMR) applied on marine ecosystems and fisheries and for stock assessment purposes. The SoA review of the literature on HTS methods was performed through the snow-balling systematic reviewing approach. The analysis has considered the set of processes and variables necessary to perform the stock assessment and compared the capacity of current and HTS methods for providing the required data. Research reveals that HTS methods constitute a promising tool for fishery research and, particularly, for improving scientific advice. Nevertheless, up to now, only one research, on a non-commercial species, has been conducted on the application of HTS methods for stock assessment purposes. Although some partial data are present in the literature, no systematic analysis on costs has been found. This paper suggests that the future research agenda should attempt to straddle both the scenarios for the transition process, considering complementary implementation and substitution possibilities and their cost-efficiency. Clarifying these questions is likely to pave the way for the effective and step-wise implementation of these methods in fishery management; thus, further research is recommended to encompass the transition processHB’s work has been funded by a Postdoctoral Research Contract by the Xunta de Galicia, Project ED481D 2022/009. The information and views set out in this paper are based on scientific data and information collected under Service Contract “Improving cost-efficiency of fisheries research surveys and fish stocks assessments using next-generation genetic sequencing methods [EMFF/2018/015]” signed with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) and funded by the European Union. The information and views set out in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of CINEA or of the European Commission. Neither CINEA nor the European Commission can guarantee the accuracy of the scientific data/information collected under the above Specific Contract or the data/information included in this publication. Neither CINEA nor the European Commission or any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained thereinS

The Artificial Intelligence Workbench: a retrospective review

Last decade, biomedical and bioinformatics researchers have been demanding advanced and user-friendly applications for real use in practice. In this context, the Artificial Intelligence Workbench, an open-source Java desktop application framework for scientific software development, emerged with the goal of provid-ing support to both fundamental and applied research in the domain of transla-tional biomedicine and bioinformatics. AIBench automatically provides function-alities that are common to scientific applications, such as user parameter defini-tion, logging facilities, multi-threading execution, experiment repeatability, work-flow management, and fast user interface development, among others. Moreover, AIBench promotes a reusable component based architecture, which also allows assembling new applications by the reuse of libraries from existing projects or third-party software. Ten years have passed since the first release of AIBench, so it is time to look back and check if it has fulfilled the purposes for which it was conceived to and how it evolved over time

Negative samples for improving object detection—A case study in aI-assisted colonoscopy for polyp detection

Deep learning object-detection models are being successfully applied to develop computer-aided diagnosis systems for aiding polyp detection during colonoscopies. Here, we evidence the need to include negative samples for both (i) reducing false positives during the polyp-finding phase, by including images with artifacts that may confuse the detection models (e.g., medical instruments, water jets, feces, blood, excessive proximity of the camera to the colon wall, blurred images, etc.) that are usually not included in model development datasets, and (ii) correctly estimating a more realistic performance of the models. By retraining our previously developed YOLOv3-based detection model with a dataset that includes 15% of additional not-polyp images with a variety of artifacts, we were able to generally improve its F1 performance in our internal test datasets (from an average F1 of 0.869 to 0.893), which now include such type of images, as well as in four public datasets that include not-polyp images (from an average F1 of 0.695 to 0.722).Ministerio de Ciencia y Competitividad y Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación | Ref. DPI2017-87494-RMinisterio de Ciencia y Competitividad y Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación | Ref. PDC2021-121644-I00Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431C2018/55-GRCXunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431C 2022/03-GR

Correlation between Ct-values and symptoms of COVID-19 patients

Background: Currently available RT-PCR methods for the diagnosis of COVID-19 can give an estimate of the viral load. The cycle threshold value (Ct-value) of the PCR correlates inversely with the viral load; low Ct-values indicate high viral loads and vice versa. Higher viral loads have been seen to correlate with disease severity and infectivity. Therefore, we studied the correlation of the Ct-value of RT-PCR and the most common symptoms of COVID-19 individually. Methods: A prospective and descriptive study was carried out with the subjects that attended our laboratory for a COVID-19 test from September 14, 2020, to January 30, 2021. Subjects filled out a questionnaire with demographic and clinical information prior to taking the naso and oropharyngeal samples. The samples were processed by Vircell SARS-CoV-2 Real-time PCR Kit (Granada, Spain). Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS software. Results: We included 657 positive subjects with complete information, with a median age of 36 (27-47) and a male predominance of 477 (72.6%). Of these, 395 (60.1%) were symptomatic and the median number of symptoms was 2 (0-5). The most predominant symptoms were headache 271 (68.6%), cough 229 (58%), and myalgias 180 (45.6%). The median Ct-value for gene N was 30 (23-36) and for gene E was 31 (23-35). In comparison between symptomatic and asymptomatic subjects, asymptomatic patients had a higher Ct-value (lower viral load) in both genes and a lower age (p Conclusions: The viral load correlates with symptoms within COVID-19, having found that higher viral loads were correlated with symptoms such as headache, cough, and fever, while lower viral loads were correlated with dyspnea, diarrhea, and alterations of smell or taste senses