Unraveling functional decline: the relationship between muscle strength and ultrasound evaluation of biceps brachii thickness.

Skeletal muscle characteristics play a crucial role in understanding physical capacity, overall health, and outcomes. Muscle strength and muscle mass are key indicators of muscular function and sarcopenia. While previous research has explored biceps brachii muscle characteristics in isolation, there is a notable gap in comprehensive studies examining the direct correlation between biceps brachii muscle thickness (BMT), as measured by ultrasound, and muscle strength.

Academic Self-Pressure and Physiological Responses in Adolescents: A Pilot Experimental Study on the Moderating Role of an Escape Room-Based Physical Activity Intervention on Cognitive and Academic Outcomes.

Academic self-pressure is a significant source of stress for students, with physiological and cognitive implications that can influence academic performance. This study investigated the impact of academic self-pressure on heart rate variability (HRV) and cognitive performance, exploring the moderating role of physical activity through an experimental intervention. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted on a sample of 50 secondary school students, divided into an experimental group and a control group.

The role of physical activity in the physiological activation of the scholastic pre-requirements.

Physical activity during the developmental age is an indispensable tool for the physical and mental growth of children. Thanks to physical activity, individuals have the opportunity to improve their physical efficiency and promote better health, establish relationships with the environment and with others, and develop cognitive processes. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between physical activity and the development of scholastic prerequisites among kindergarten children.

Wearable Sensors and the Evaluation of Physiological Performance in Elite Field Hockey Players.

Sports performance tracking has gained a lot of interest and widespread use in recent years, especially in elite and sub-elite sports. This makes it possible to improve the effectiveness of training, to calibrate and balance workloads according to real energy expenditure, and to reduce the likelihood of injuries due to excessive physical stress. In this context, the aim of this review was to map the scientific literature on wearable devices used in field hockey, evaluating their characteristics and the available evidence on their validity in measuring physiological and movement parameters.

School Medical Service: Strategies to Promote Psycho-Physiological Well-Being.

Schools represent the ideal setting for educating children about the acquisition of active lifestyles seen not only from a health point of view but also from psycho-pedagogical and social perspectives. Based on evidence from scientific literature, there is a need to include physical activity in school routines, especially in primary schools, where the habits learned by children stay with them in their later years and adulthood. With the support of the school medicine service, schools become a favorable context for planning health education sessions aimed at students, with particular reference to prevention.

Physical Activity and Cognitive Functioning.

Neuroscience applied to motor activity is a growing area that aims to understand the effects of motor activity on the structures and functions of the Central Nervous System. Attention has been paid to this multidisciplinary field of investigation by the scientific community both because it is of great importance in the treatment of many chronic diseases and because of its potential applications in the Movement Sciences. Motor activity during a developmental age is, in fact, an indispensable tool for the physical and mental growth of children, both able-bodied and disabled.

The Potential Role of Nutrition in Overtraining Syndrome: A Narrative Review.

Competition between athletes and an increase in sporting knowledge have greatly influenced training methods while increasing the number of them more and more. As a result, the number of athletes who have increased the number and intensity of their workouts while decreasing recovery times is rising. Positive overtraining could be considered a natural and fundamental process when the result is adaptation and improved performance; however, in the absence of adequate recovery, negative overtraining could occur, causing fatigue, maladaptation, and inertia.

Classroom-Based Physical Activity as a Means to Improve Self-Efficacy and Academic Achievement among Normal-Weight and Overweight Youth.

Although physical activity has positive physical and mental health outcomes, particularly among adolescents, a significant percentage of young people maintain a largely sedentary lifestyle. Considering that the youths spend the greater part of the day at school, this is considered an ideal setting to foster active and healthy living. Consequently, this study is intended to investigate the connection between physical activity, self-efficacy and academic achievement in normal-weight and overweight adolescents.

Anemia management and transfusion strategy in internal medicine units: Less is more.

Blood transfusion is one of the most overused procedures, especially in elderly patients. Despite the current transfusion guidelines recommending a restrictive transfusion strategy in stable patients, the clinical practice varies according to physicians' experience and implementation of patient blood management. This study aimed to evaluate the anemia management and transfusion strategy in anemic elderly hospitalized and the impact of an educational program.

High-Quality Ferromagnetic Josephson Junctions Based on Aluminum Electrodes.

Aluminum Josephson junctions are the building blocks for the realization of superconducting quantum bits. Attention has been also paid to hybrid ferromagnetic Josephson junctions, which allow switching between different magnetic states, making them interesting for applications such as cryogenic memories, single-photon detectors, and spintronics. In this paper, we report on the fabrication and characterization of high-quality ferromagnetic Josephson junctions based on aluminum technology.

Plasma Exchange in a Patient with Immune Thrombocytopenia Associated with Antiphospholipid Syndrome Hospitalized for COVID-19.

Thrombocytopenia is a common feature of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and rarely requires treatment. Here we present the case of a 71-year-old man hospitalized for severe immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) secondary to APS and concomitant SARS-CoV-2 infection. The patient was successfully treated with systemic corticosteroids, intravenous immunoglobulins, and plasma exchange (PEX).

Charge Configuration Memory Devices: Energy Efficiency and Switching Speed.

Current trends in data processing have given impetus for an intense search of new concepts of memory devices with emphasis on efficiency, speed, and scalability. A promising new approach to memory storage is based on resistance switching between charge-ordered domain states in the layered dichalcogenide 1T-TaS. Here we investigate the energy efficiency scaling of such charge configuration memory (CCM) devices as a function of device size and data write time τ as well as other parameters that have bearing on efficient device operation.

Current and Emerging Approaches for Pain Management in Hemophilic Arthropathy.

Introduction: Hemophilia is an inherited bleeding hematological disorder characterized by the partial or complete deficiency of clotting factor VIII or IX. Hemophilic arthropathy is the consequence of repeated joint bleeding (hemarthrosis) and its management is based on the prevention of acute bleeding through the administration of the deficient clotting factor concentrate or non-factor therapies. In addition, the management of acute and chronic pain is pivotal in hemophilic arthropathy in order to restore function and allow rehabilitation of the joint.

Increased Risk of Urticaria/Angioedema after BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Health Care Workers Taking ACE Inhibitors.

Urticarial eruptions and angioedema are the most common cutaneous reactions in patients undergoing mRNA COVID-19 vaccinations. The vasoactive peptide bradykinin has long been known to be involved in angioedema and recently also in urticaria. Bradykinin is mainly catabolized by angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), which is inhibited by ACE inhibitors, a commonly employed class of antihypertensive drugs.

Mortality in Patients with COVID-19 on Renin Angiotensin System Inhibitor Long-Term Treatment: An Observational Study Showing that Things Are Not Always as They Seem.

Introduction: At the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, controversial data were reported concerning angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) that induced a number of physicians to stop using them in patients with COVID-19. Although large-scale studies have ruled out this concern, it is common experience that patients with COVID-19 taking ACE inhibitors or ARBs are at increased risk of death. The aim of this study was to investigate the reasons for this apparently high mortality rate.

Depairing Current at High Magnetic Fields in Vortex-Free High-Temperature Superconducting Nanowires.

Superconductors are essential in many present and future technologies, from large-scale devices for medical imaging, accelerators, or fusion experiments to ultra-low-power superconducting electronics. However, their potential applicability, and particularly that of high-temperature superconductors (HTS), is severely affected by limited performances at large magnetic fields and high temperatures, where their use is most needed. One of the main reasons for these limitations is the presence of quantized vortices, whose movements result in losses, internal noise, and reduced performances.

Vortex Lattice Instabilities in YBa₂Cu₃O Nanowires.

High-resolution focused ion beam lithography has been used to fabricate YBa₂Cu₃O (YBCO) wires with nanometric lateral dimensions. In the present work, we investigate Flux-flow instabilities in nanowires of different widths, showing sudden voltage switching jumps from the superconducting to the normal state. We present an extensive study on the temperature and field dependence of the switching characteristics which reveal that voltage jumps become less abrupt as the temperature increases, and disappear at the vortex-liquid state.

Author Correction: Induced unconventional superconductivity on the surface states of BiTe topological insulator.

The original version of this Article contained an error in Fig. 6b. In the top scattering process, while the positioning of both arrows was correct, the colours were switched: the first arrow was red and the second arrow was blue, rather than the correct order of blue then red.

Author Correction: Induced unconventional superconductivity on the surface states of BiTe topological insulator.

The original version of this Article omitted the following from the Acknowledgements:"This work was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 262633, QuSpin."This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the article.

Induced unconventional superconductivity on the surface states of BiTe topological insulator.

Topological superconductivity is central to a variety of novel phenomena involving the interplay between topologically ordered phases and broken-symmetry states. The key ingredient is an unconventional order parameter, with an orbital component containing a chiral p  + ip wave term. Here we present phase-sensitive measurements, based on the quantum interference in nanoscale Josephson junctions, realized by using BiTe topological insulator.

Statistics of localized phase slips in tunable width planar point contacts.

The main dissipation mechanism in superconducting nanowires arises from phase slips. Thus far, most of the studies focus on long nanowires where coexisting events appear randomly along the nanowire. In the present work we investigate highly confined phase slips at the contact point of two superconducting leads.

Development of Therapeutics for C9ORF72 ALS/FTD-Related Disorders.

The identification of the hexanucleotide repeat expansion (HRE) GGGGCC (G4C2) in the non-coding region of the C9ORF72 gene as the most frequent genetic cause of both amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) has opened the path for advances in the knowledge and treatment of these disorders, which remain incurable. Recent evidence suggests that HRE RNA can cause gain-of-function neurotoxicity, but haploinsufficiency has also been hypothesized. In this review, we describe the recent developments in therapeutic targeting of the pathological expansion of C9ORF72 for ALS, FTD, and other neurodegenerative disorders.

SOD1 misplacing and mitochondrial dysfunction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis pathogenesis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal motor neuron disease presenting as sporadic (sALS) or familial (fALS) forms. Even if the list of the genes underlining ALS greatly expanded, defects in superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), encoding the copper/zinc SOD1, still remain a major cause of fALS and are likely involved also in apparently sporadic presentations. The pathogenesis of ALS is still unknown, but several lines of evidence indicate that the mitochondrial accumulation of mutant SOD1 is an important mechanism of mitochondrial dysfunction, leading to motor neuron pathology and death.