College Athletes\u27 Experiences with a Lower Body Re-Injury: A Phenomenological Investigation

Lower extremity injuries are the most common musculoskeletal sport injuries and are an inevitable risk to sport participation (Chalmers, 2002; Dane et al., 2004; Kay et al., 2017). When an athlete sustains an injury, fear of re-injury is a salient emotion many athletes experience (e.g., Disanti et al., 2018; Kvist et al., 2005; Lentz et al., 2015). Previous research has identified fear of re-injury as a risk factor to suffering a subsequent injury (e.g., An et al., 2019; Andersen & Williams, 1988; Paterno et al., 2018; Podlog et al., 2011; Tagesson & Kvist, 2016). Epidemiology studies have highlighted that re-injuries are of high prevalence (e.g., Gans et al., 2018; Paterno et al., 2012), and are associated with lower return-to-play rates compared to the first injury occurrence (e.g., Gans et al., 2018; Webster et al., 2019). However, there is a lack of research that has explored the psychological and emotional response to a re-injury. Therefore, this study used a phenomenological qualitative approach to understand eight college athletes’ perceptions and lived experiences in regard to the psychological response to a lower-body re-injury. Five major themes were identified: (a) prior experience and knowledge, (b) concerns, (c) motivation, (d) social support, and (e) coping strategies. It appears that the re-injury experience, while a difficult experience, has some advantages. The athlete is already familiar with the physical and mental hardships of the injury, allowing them to better cope and progress through the rehabilitation. However, the repetitiveness of repeating the same injury process and not being able to participate in their sport for an even longer time was difficult and frustrating. Despite these hardships, the athletes’ appeared to have a renewed motivation as they gained a new perspective of cherishing their sport more and were proud of themselves of overcoming the adversity of re-injury. The findings from this study can be applied by sport personnel (e.g., coaches, athletic trainers, sport psychology professionals) to improve the re-injury experience by providing quality social support. Practical implications and future research direction will also be discussed

A Catalytic, Enantioselective Formal Synthesis of (+)-Dichroanone and (+)-Taiwaniaquinone H

A catalytic, enantioselective formal synthesis of (+)-dichroanone and (+)-taiwaniaquinone H is reported. The all-carbon quaternary stereocenter was constructed by asymmetric conjugate addition catalyzed by a palladium(II) (S)-tert-butylpyridinooxazoline complex. The unexpected formation of a [3.2.1] bicyclic intermediate required the identification of a new route. Analysis of the Hammett constants for para-substituted arenes enabled the rational design of a highly enantioselective conjugate addition substrate that led to the completion of the formal synthesis

Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Conjugate Addition of Arylboronic Acids to α,β-Unsaturated Cyclic Electrophiles

This account describes our laboratory’s efforts in the development of a palladium-catalyzed asymmetric conjugate addition of arylboronic acids to cyclic conjugate acceptors. Specifically, we highlight the study of this transformation in the following areas: (a) construction of all-carbon quaternary stereocenters, (b) elucidation of the reaction mechanism, (c) addition to heterocyclic acceptors to generate tertiary stereocenters, and (d) application in the synthesis of natural products

Preparation of (S)-tert-ButylPyOx and Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Conjugate Addition of Arylboronic Acids

A. (S)-N-(1-Hydroxy-3,3-dimethylbutan-2-yl)picolinamide (2). A 1 L one-necked round-bottomed flask equipped with a 3.0 cm x 1.4 cm, egg-shaped, Teflon-coated magnetic stirring bar is sealed with a septum and connected via needle adapter to a two-tap Schlenk adapter attached to an oil bubbler and a nitrogen/vacuum manifold (Note 1). The flask is dried with a heat gun under vacuum and cooled under a stream of nitrogen. The flask is charged with 2-picolinic acid (1) (6.15 g, 50.0 mmol, 1.00 equiv) (Note 2), evacuated and back-filled with nitrogen three times, then charged with dichloromethane (300 mL, 0.17 M) (Note 3) and N-methylmorpholine (7.59 g, 8.25 mL, 75.0 mmol, 1.50 equiv). The flask is cooled in an ice/water bath and iso-butylchloroformate (6.86 mL, 7.17 g, 52.5 mmol, 1.05 equiv) is added dropwise over 30 min by syringe pump. The reaction mixture is stirred for an additional 30 min while remaining submerged in the ice/water bath. A separate 100 mL one-necked round-bottomed flask is sealed with a septum and connected via needle adapter to the two-tap Schlenk adapter and manifold, dried with a heat gun under vacuum, and allowed to cool under a stream of nitrogen. This flask is charged with (S)-tert-leucinol (6.45 g, 55.0 mmol, 1.10 equiv), dichloromethane (40 mL), and N-methylmorpholine (6.07 mL, 5.56 g, 55.0 mmol, 1.10 equiv). The resulting clear solution is taken up in a syringe and transferred dropwise using a syringe pump over the course of 1 h to the stirring reaction mixture in the ice/water bath. The cooling bath is removed, and the pale gold colored reaction mixture is stirred for an additional 6 h at 23 °C. Upon consumption of starting material (Note 4), the mixture is quenched at ambient temperature with a single addition of an aqueous solution of saturated NH_4Cl (50 mL), diluted with additional H_2O (25 mL), and transferred into a 1 L separatory funnel. The phases are separated, and the aqueous phase is extracted with CH_2Cl_2 (3 x 100 mL). The combined organic phases are washed with an aqueous solution of saturated NaHCO_3 (1 x 50 mL) and brine (1 x 50 mL). The combined organic phases are dried over Na_2SO_4 (10 g, 15 min while agitating), filtered through a M pore glass frit, and concentrated by rotary evaporation (28 °C, 15 mmHg). Excess N-methylmorpholine is further removed by placing the crude residue under high vacuum (< 12 mmHg, 12 h) to provide a pale red solid (Note 5). The crude residue is dissolved in 10 mL of acetone and purified via silica gel flash chromatography (Note 6). The combined product-containing fractions are concentrated by rotary evaporation (40 °C, 15 mmHg) to yield a solid, which is dried under high vacuum (< 12 mmHg, 12 h) to afford (S)-N-(1-hydroxy-3,3-dimethylbutan-2-yl)picolinamide (2) as a white amorphous solid (9.88-9.95 g, 44.4-44.8 mmol, 89-90% yield) (Note 7)

SMRT Sequencing of Paramecium Bursaria Chlorella Virus-1 Reveals Diverse Methylation Stability in Adenines Targeted by Restriction Modification Systems

Chloroviruses (family Phycodnaviridae) infect eukaryotic, freshwater, unicellular green algae. A unique feature of these viruses is an abundance of DNA methyltransferases, with isolates dedicating up to 4.5% of their protein coding potential to these genes. This diversity highlights just one of the long-standing values of the chlorovirus model system; where group-wide epigenomic characterization might begin to elucidate the function(s) of DNA methylation in large dsDNA viruses. We characterized DNA modifications in the prototype chlorovirus, PBCV-1, using single-molecule real time (SMRT) sequencing (aka PacBio). Results were compared to total available sites predicted in silico based on DNA sequence alone. SMRT-software detected N6-methyl-adenine (m6A) at GATC and CATG recognition sites, motifs previously shown to be targeted by PBCV-1 DNA methyltransferases M.CviAI and M. CviAII, respectively. At the same time, PacBio analyses indicated that 10.9% of the PBCV-1 genome had large interpulse duration ratio (ipdRatio) values, the primary metric for DNA modification identification. These events represent 20.6x more sites than can be accounted for by all available adenines in GATC and CATG motifs, suggesting base or backbone modifications other than methylation might be present. To define methylation stability, we cross-compared methylation status of each GATC and CATG sequence in three biological replicates and found ∼81% of sites were stably methylated, while ∼2% consistently lack methylation. The remaining 17% of sites were stochastically methylated. When methylation status was analyzed for both strands of each target, we show that palindromes existed in completely non-methylated states, fully-methylated states, or hemi-methylated states, though GATC sites more often lack methylation than CATG sequences. Given that both sequences are targeted by not just methyltransferases, but by restriction endonucleases that are together encoded by PBCV-1 as virus-originating restriction modification (RM) systems, there is strong selective pressure to modify all target sites. The finding that most instances of non-methylation are associated with hemi-methylation is congruent with observations that hemi-methylated palindromes are resistant to cleavage by restriction endonucleases. However, sites where hemi-methylation is conserved might represent a unique regulatory function for PBCV-1. This study serves as a baseline for future investigation into the epigenomics of chloroviruses and their giant virus relatives

Anticancer, Biophysical and Computational Investigations of Half-Sandwich Ruthenium(II) Thiosemicarbazone Complexes: The Effect of Arene \u3ci\u3eVersus\u3c/i\u3e Thiacrown Face-Cap

A series of half-sandwich ruthenium complexes, two containing an arene face-cap and the other a thiacrown ether face-cap were synthesized to investigate the necessity of the arene for anticancer activity in this class of compounds. The complexes are formulated as [(h6-p-cymene)Ru(dmabTSC)Cl]PF6, [(h6-benzene)Ru(dmabTSC)Cl]PF6 (arene complexes), and [([9]aneS3(dmabTSC)Cl]PF6 (dmabTSC = dimethylaminobenzaldehye thiosemicarbazone). It was observed that none of the complexes showed good anticancer activity in vitro against HCT-116 and Caco-2 (colon adenocarcinoma) cells. All three complexes can bind strongly to calf-thymus DNA with binding constants on the order of 105 M-1. In addition they all bind strongly to human serum albumin with binding constants between 105 and 106 M-1. There appears to be a single binding site on the protein for these complexes. A computational investigation of these complexes and their hydrolysis products was carried out by molecular docking with DNA and topoisomerase II. From this analysis it is noted that the type of face-capping ligand had different effects on the two macromolecules. It is therefore noted that the knowledge gained from this study will be useful in identifying the type of complexes in this class that show useful metallodrug potential

The Equinox2020 Seshat data release

This report describes the current canonical time-series dataset named “Equinox2020,” a subset of Seshat: Global History Databank data for a well-curated list of polities and variables available on the Seshat Data Browser. The report provides an introduction to the methods and procedures of the Seshat project relating to the curation and release of the Equinox2020 dataset

Perturbation of the T cell receptor repertoire occurs with increasing age in dogs

PURPOSE: The use of the Schirmer strips (SS) as a tool in the characterisation of dry eye disease, depends upon the quantitative assessment of tear production and constituents. The aim of this study was to ascertain the extent to which the properties of commercially available SS can vary and the way in which this baseline information may relate to their comparability in clinical use. METHODS: Five SS were analysed: Clement Clarke®, TearFlo®, Bio Schirmer®, Omni Schirmer® and JingMing®. Various aspects of their physical appearance and physicochemical behaviour were measured, including size, weight, and thickness together with surface morphology (assessed by SEM) and aqueous uptake and release behaviour (including the influence of each strip on protein retention and eluent osmolarity). RESULTS: All physical parameters varied between the strips studied for example the Clement Clark was the largest, thickest, and heaviest strip assessed in this study. SEM images showed that each of the SS had unique surface morphologies. Statistically significant differences among the strips were found for uptake (p=0.001) and release volume (p=0.014). Clement Clarke absorbed the highest volume over a fixed time period (23.8±1.6μl) and Omni the lowest (19.3±0.5μl). Clement Clarke showing the highest eluent osmolarity value (5.0±0.0mOsm/L) and TearFlo the lowest (2.8±0.4mOsm/L). CONCLUSION: The five strips investigated in this study indicate that there is no standardisation of commercial strips, despite the fact that the need for standardisation was recognised over fifty years ago. This study provides useful baseline information relating to SS comparability in clinical use

Börjeson–Forssman–Lehmann syndrome: Delineating the clinical and allelic spectrum in 14 new families

Börjeson-Forssman-Lehmann syndrome (BFLS) is an X-linked intellectual disability syndrome caused by variants in the PHF6 gene. We ascertained 19 individuals from 15 families with likely pathogenic or pathogenic PHF6 variants (11 males and 8 females). One family had previously been reported. Six variants were novel. We analysed the clinical and genetic findings in our series and compared them with reported BFLS patients. Affected males had classic features of BFLS including intellectual disability, distinctive facies, large ears, gynaecomastia, hypogonadism and truncal obesity. Carrier female relatives of affected males were unaffected or had only mild symptoms. The phenotype of affected females with de novo variants overlapped with the males but included linear skin hyperpigmentation and a higher frequency of dental, retinal and cortical brain anomalies. Complications observed in our series included keloid scarring, digital fibromas, absent vaginal orifice, neuropathy, umbilical hernias, and talipes. Our analysis highlighted sex-specific differences in PHF6 variant types and locations. Affected males often have missense variants or small in-frame deletions while affected females tend to have truncating variants or large deletions/duplications. Missense variants were found in a minority of affected females and clustered in the highly constrained PHD2 domain of PHF6. We propose recommendations for the evaluation and management of BFLS patients. These results further delineate and extend the genetic and phenotypic spectrum of BFLS