Construct Validity and Responsiveness of the COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale (C19-YRS) in a Cohort of Italian Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients

Post-COVID Syndrome (PCS) is characterized by physical, psychological and cognitive symptoms with a negative impact on daily activities. This study tested the responsiveness and construct validity of the original version of the COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale (C19-YRS) in a cohort of Italian hospitalized COVID-19 patients. This longitudinal study involved 79 hospitalized COVID-19 patients with rehabilitation needs, assessed after 12 and 26 weeks post-infection. Functional and patient-reported outcome measures were correlated with 10 items of the C19-YRS to test the construct validity, whereas distribution-based methods were used for the responsiveness over time. After 12 weeks since infection, 88.5% of patients reported fatigue, 83.3% breathlessness, 69.4% anxiety, 55.6% depression, and 44.9% pain. Moreover, 84.6% experienced reduced mobility, 75.7% had difficulties with usual activities, and 47.4% with personal care. Single items for each symptom had significant correlation (rho 0.25–0.60) with well-established scales for these symptoms. At 26 weeks, except for anxiety, all the PCS symptoms were still present but significantly reduced. The C19-YRS had moderate responsiveness for the most represented deficit reported. The C19-YRS was a valuable patient-reported outcome for screening, assessing severity, and monitoring the persistence of symptoms after 12 and 26 weeks from SARS-CoV2 infection in a cohort of Italian hospitalized patients

Technical-tactical performance and success in the 2010-2011 Italian Serie A League: a latent variable approach

In soccer, few authors have assessed the technical and tactical performance throughout an entire season (Lago, 2007; Davies et al., 2008; Merni et al., 2008). This study aimed to individuate a set of latent variables allowing to describe the technical-tactical performance of the teams in the whole 2010-2011 season (n=760 matches) of the Italian Serie A league. A factor analysis was performed using 15 indicators of technical and tactical performance of the teams, after downloading the data from a specialized website (www.sportmediaset.it). To determine which indicators were more related to the success, an additional variable constituted by the points of each team in the final ranking was included in the analysis. The total variance explained was 74%. Six main factors were obtained as reported below (definitions, explained variance and the most representative variables are indicated) 1. \u201cPlaying in the wings\u201d (15.8 %; crosses, corner kicks, territorial advantage) 2. \u201cControl of the play\u201d (15.7%; passess, ball possession, long passess) 3. \u201cSuccess\u201d (12.5%, goals scored, shots on goal, points in the final ranking) 4. \u201cAggressive play\u201d (11.3%, won tackles, fouls suffered, dribblings) 5. \u201cFailure\u201d (9.7%, goals conceded, points in the final ranking \u2013 negatively correlated) 6. \u201cPenalties\u201d (9.2%, fouls committed, yellow cards received) It is possibile to create a model of the game by projecting the results of all the matches on 3D plots representing the factorial axes, thus individuating the variables more related to the success or failure. By comparing one\u2019s team data to those of the opponents, the coaches are allowed to determine specific strengths and weakness and develop the appropriate strategies for technical and tactical training. Davies C et al. (2008), World Congress of Performance Analysis of Sport VIII, 53-57 Lago C (2007), International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 7:36,47 Merni F et al. (2008), World Congress of Performance Analysis of Sport VIII, 138-14

Human estrogen receptor alpha gene is a target of Runx2 transcription factor in osteoblasts.

Several studies into the mechanisms involved in control of osteoblast-specific gene expression have identified Runx2 and ERα (estrogen receptor alpha) as essential regulators of osteoblast differentiation. Recently, interactions between Runx2 and ERα have been described. Here, we investigate the role of Runx2 on the regulation of ERα expression by determining its interaction with the F promoter, one of the multiple promoters of the human ERα gene and the only one active in bone. We found that, in this promoter, three Runx2-like sites are present. By electrophoretic mobility shift assay in combination with supershift and ChIP experiments, we demonstrated that Runx2 preferentially binds one of the Runx2 motifs of the F promoter. To understand whether or not they are involved in influencing F promoter activity, different promoter–reporter deletion and mutation constructs were transiently transfected into human osteoblastic cells. Comparison of luciferase activities allowed the identification of a prevalent negative role of a sequence context, within the −117,877/−117,426 region, which may be under the control of Runx2 (a) site. Finally, silencing and overexpression of endogenous Runx2 provided evidence that Runx2 has a more complex role than initially expected. In fact, Runx2 (a) and Runx2 (b) sites carried out opposite roles which are conditioned by Runx2 levels in bone cells. Therefore, the resulting F promoter activity may be tightly regulated by a dynamic interplay between these two Runx2 sites, with a predominance of negative effect of the Runx2 (a) site