CMJ 2.1: TEST DI VALUTAZIONE FUNZIONALE DELL¿ARTO INFERIORE

Introduction: Although several methods have been proposed to assess bilateral asymmetry of the lower limbs (most of the tests require very expensive equipment), they do not reproduce the functionality of movements and are difficult to perform. Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine if the new functional test Countermovement Jump 2.1 (CMJ 2.1) was able to characterize the level of athletes and if it was able to determine functional deficits in injured athletes. Moreover, the purpose of this study was to analyze the reliability of CMJ 2.1 test and to compare it with other tests. Forty-nine subjects took part of this study (N=39 basketball players; N=10 soccer players). Methods: 3 different tests were used for this research: Hop & Stop Test, CMJ Test (both bipodalic and mopododalic jumps) and the proposed CMJ 2.1 Test consisting of countermovement jump with both legs and landing on one leg. Intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.92 (0.86\u20130.95) for CMJ 2.1 landing on right leg, and 0.94 (0.91\u20130.97) for CMJ 2.1 landing on left leg. The first three studies examined the difference between CMJ 2.1 Test and CMJ Test taking in consideration: (i) all subjects (N=49; age: 21.0\ub17.0 yr; height: 187.1\ub18.0 cm; weight: 80.3\ub19.9 kg), (ii) the difference between High Level group (N=26; age: 16.3\ub11.3 yr; height: 189.9\ub17.0 cm; weight: 81.0\ub19.8 kg) and Low Level group (N=23; age: 26.6\ub16.9 yr; height: 184.3\ub18.0 cm; weight: 79.5\ub110.2 kg); (iii) the difference between No Injured group (N=38; age: 20.2\ub17.3 yr; height: 187.3\ub17.8 cm; weight: 79.6\ub18.5 kg) and Injured group (N=11; age: 23.7\ub14.9 yr; height: 186.7\ub19.0 cm; weight: 82.4\ub113.9 kg) (major injuries happened at least 12 months before the study). Moreover, in according with other studies, bilateral asymmetry was calculated as [(stronger leg - weaker leg)/stronger leg] x 100. A positive sign indicates a stronger right leg; a negative sign indicates a stronger left leg. A (iv) fourth study examined the correlation between CMJ 2.1 and Hop & Stop Test, first considering all subjects then taking in consideration only Injured group. For this research, each subject did three trials of CMJ Test with both legs and six trials with one leg (three with right leg and three with left one), six trials of CMJ 2.1 Test (three times landing on right leg and three times landing on left leg) and one trial of Hop & Stop Test protocol. Results: First Study: During CMJ 2.1 subjects reached lower height than CMJ with both legs (p < 0.001). However, no significant differences were found between CMJ 2.1 landing on right leg and CMJ 2.1 landing on left leg. Second Study: Significant difference were found between High Level and Low Level group in CMJ with right leg (p < 0.001) and CMJ with left leg (p < 0.001), where High Level reached higher height than Low Level. No difference was found in CMJ with both legs. Moreover, the results obtained in the first study between CMJ 2.1 and CMJ with both legs were found in the second one. Third Study: Regarding the No Injured group, in CMJ 2.1 Test subjects reached lower height than CMJ with both legs (p < 0.001). However, no significant differences were found within CMJ 2.1 Test (landing on right and on left leg). The main results were found in Injured group: during CMJ 2.1 Test subjects reached lower height than CMJ with both legs (p < 0.001). Furthermore, significant differences were found between CMJ 2.1 with no injured leg and CMJ 2.1 with injured leg (p < 0.001), where injured leg reached lower height than no injured. The range of normal bilateral asymmetry (2.5th to 97.5th percentiles) was -6.6% to 6.2%. Fourth Study: Interesting correlations were found between CMJ 2.1 and Hop & Stop Test, however, the very large confidence limits make the correlation not acceptable. Probably, it would be useful to repeat this analysis by expanding the study sample. Conclusions: The functional test CMJ 2.1 is reliable and efficient to discriminate the injured leg from no injured. CMJ 2.1 is easy to execute, it does not need expensive equipment and respect the functionality of movement. For these reasons, it may be useful for coach, strength and conditioning coach and sports scientist to evaluate an injured athlete or athlete who is making a post-injury rehabilitation

TV-Centric technologies to provide remote areas with two-way satellite broadband access

October 1-2, 2007, Rome, Italy TV-Centric Technologies To Provide Remote Areas With Two-Way Satellite Broadband Acces

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September 24-26, 2007, Turin, Ital

Reply: Probable imported rather than autochthonous Plasmodium vivax cases in Italy

To the editor: Dr Nicastri argues that cryptic sporadic cases may not be considered as autochthonous unless other cases have been identified in a specific geographical area. This is a rigid and not scientifically corroborated assumption that, in our opinion, cannot be generalised. In fact, there is no reason to assume that secondary cases should necessarily occur [1,2], since the generation of a chain of transmission depends strictly on the basic reproductive number R0, which is influenced by a series of factors [3] ranging from prevalence of infection among mosquitoes (likely to be very low when autochthonous introduced cases occur, as demonstrated by the lack of detection of plasmodia among mosquitoes in recent outbreaks in Greece) and probability of exposure of humans to mosquito bites. Dr Nicastri's latter two points pertain to only one of the two cases and have been critically discussed in our article. However, it should be mentioned that the patient who visited Santo Domingo did not report febrile episodes after their return and that the likelihood of very late relapse is very low; thus, we think this patient should be considered as a cryptic case. In conclusion, we do not feel Dr Nicastri's criticism is sufficiently supported by the arguments raised. Reference

Probable autochthonous introduced malaria cases in Italy in 2009-2011 and the risk of local vector-borne transmission.

We describe two cases of probable autochthonous introduced Plasmodium vivax malaria that occurred in 2009 and 2011 in two sites of South-Central Italy. Although the sources of the infections were not detected, local transmission could not be disproved and therefore the cases were classified as autochthonous. Sporadic P. vivax cases transmitted by indigenous vectors may be considered possible in some areas of the country where vector abundance and environmental conditions are favourable to malaria transmission

Health Anxiety and Mental Health Outcome During COVID-19 Lockdown in Italy: The Mediating and Moderating Roles of Psychological Flexibility

The COVID-19 emergency has severely affected the Italian population. During a pandemic, those with high health anxiety are at risk of adverse mental health outcomes, including peritraumatic distress and mood disturbance. No prior research has explored the role of psychological flexibility in protecting people at high risk of poorer mental health impacts due to health anxiety during a pandemic. Psychological flexibility is the cornerstone of psychological health and resiliency. According to acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), it involves behaving consistently with one\u2019s chosen values even in the presence of emotional and mental discomfort. This study examined the mediating and moderating roles of psychological flexibility in the link between trait health anxiety and three mental health outcomes: COVID-19 peritraumatic distress, anxiety, and depression. We hypothesized that higher psychological flexibility would decrease the negative impacts of trait health anxiety on mental health outcomes. During the mandatory national lockdown (M = 35.70 days, SD = 8.41), 944 Italian adults (75.5% female, M = 38.86 years, SD = 13.20) completed an online survey consisting of standardized measures of psychological flexibility, trait health anxiety, COVID-19 distress, anxiety, and depression. Results indicated that psychological flexibility did not moderate the link between trait health anxiety and mental health outcomes. Rather, greater psychological flexibility mediated decreases in the adverse effects of trait health anxiety on COVID-19 distress, anxiety, and depression. In particular, two psychological flexibility processes, observing unhelpful thoughts rather than taking them literally (defusion) and values-based action (committed action), mediated decreases in the negative effects of trait health anxiety on all mental health outcomes. In contrast, the psychological flexibility process acceptance, which involves openness to inner discomfort, mediated increases in negative mental health outcomes. Overall, the combination of these processes mitigated the detrimental impacts of trait health anxiety on mental health during the emergency mandatory COVID-19 nationwide lockdown. Consistent with the ACT conceptualization of psychological flexibility, findings suggest embracing (rather than avoiding) inner discomfort and observing associated unhelpful thoughts, while also engaging in values-based action, increases resilience during adversity. Evidenced-based large-scale online public health interventions that target psychological flexibility in those experiencing health anxiety in the context of a pandemic are urgently needed. Many empirically-based ACT interventions are suited for this purpose

Using balance training to improve the performance of youth basketball players

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of 12 weeks of balance training to improve the balance and vertical jump abilities of young basketball players. Twenty-three players from two teams in the Under Fifteen Basketball Excellence category participated in the study. Participants were divided into two training groups: balance training (BAL, n = 11) and isotonic training (ISO, n = 12). Both groups were tested for balance and vertical jumps at the beginning of the competitive season and at the end of 12 weeks of specific training programme. All of the tests were performed in sustained bipodalic and mono- podalic (both right and left) positions. The results showed that players who participated in balance training for 12 weeks, compared to players who trained with isotonic machines, exhibited a significantly increase in balance (bipodalic 28.3 %; right 41.4 %; left 45.8 %; p \ 0.01) and muscular power (bipodalic 8.1 %; right 13.5 %; left 12.5 %; p \ 0.01) as measured through a vertical jump. In conclusion, balance training using unstable boards was an effective training method for improving balance and the vertical jump, which is a basketball-specific action that frequently occurs in this sport

Spectrally Efficient Waveforms for the Return Link in Satellite Communication Systems

In this paper, we study the applicability of terrestrial mobile waveforms in the return link of a high throughput satellite (HTS) communication system. These include orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) and filter bank multi-carrier (FBMC). Key solutions to the challenges in a geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite channel, such as synchronization and non-linear distortion, are presented. A global-positioning-system-(GPS)-based approach for synchronization acquisition is proposed, while suitable algorithms are studied for timing/frequency offset estimation and synchronization tracking. The spectral and power efficiencies of the schemes are optimized by means of an intermodulation interference (IMI) cancelling receiver, and these are compared to state-of-the-art time division multiple access (TDMA). Finally, end-to-end simulations validate the system performance

Machine Learning Approach for Care Improvement of Children and Youth with Type 1 Diabetes Treated with Hybrid Closed-Loop System

Type 1 diabetes is a disease affecting beta cells of the pancreas and it’s responsible for a decreased insulin secretion, leading to an increased blood glucose level. The traditional method for glucose treatment is based on finger-stick measurement of the blood glucose concentration and consequent manual insulin injection. Nowadays insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring systems are replacing them, being simpler and automatized. This paper focuses on analyzing and improving the knowledge about which Machine Learning algorithms can work best with glycaemic data and tries to find out the relation between insulin pump settings and glycaemic control. The dataset is composed of 90 days of recordings taken from 16 children and adolescents. Three Machine Learning approaches, two for classification, Logistic Regression (LR) and Random Forest (RL), and one for regression, Multivariate Linear Regression (MLR), have been used for the purpose. Specifically, the pump settings analysis was performed based on the Time In Range (TIR) computation and comparison consequent to pump setting changes. RF and MLR have shown the best results, while, for the settings’ analysis, the data show a discrete correlation between changes and TIRs. This study provides an interesting closer look at the data recorded by the insulin pump and a suitable starting point for a thorough and complete analysis of them