Body size,maturation and motor performance in young soccer players: relationship of technical actions in small-sided games

The objective of this study was to investigate the relative contributions of body size, skeletal age, and motor performance variables with technical actions through an ecological model during small-sided soccer games, and the interaction of biological maturation with technical and motor performance in young players. In this cross-sectional study, eighty-two young players (14.4 ± 1.1 years), belonging to state-level soccer teams and divided by category (U-13 and U-15), were included. Players having an injury in the evaluation period were not included in the study. Measurements of body size, skeletal age (SA), motor tests, and technical actions in small-sided games (SSG) were performed (3 × 3 plus goalkeeper) in two periods (halves) of four minutes. Differences between age groups were found for SA (ES = -2.36), chronological age (ES = -3.89), body mass (ES = -2.09), height (ES = -1.90), and fat-free mass (ES = -2.09). Positive associations were found between body size (R = 0.43 to R = 0.48) and manipulation (R = 0.50 to R = 0.52) indicators and numbers of technical actions (CB and SS), except for stature with LB (R = -0.42) in the U-13 age group. In the U-15 category, skeletal age (R = -0.29 to R = -0.30) and body mass (R = -0.28 to R = -0.29) were negatively associated with the number of technical actions (RB, NB, LB, and OB) (P > 0.05) and positively with the balance with LB (R = 0.26). In conclusion, body size, SA, and motor performance influenced technical actions in SSG differentially in each category. U-13 heavier players and those with a better motor performance presented higher involvement due to the higher     

Socioeconomic disparities associated with symptomatic Zika virus infections in pregnancy and congenital microcephaly: A spatiotemporal analysis from Goiânia,Brazil (2016 to 2020)

The Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic, which was followed by an unprecedented outbreak of congenital microcephaly, emerged in Brazil unevenly, with apparent pockets of susceptibility. The present study aimed to detect high-risk areas for ZIKV infection and microcephaly in Goiania, a large city of 1.5 million inhabitants in Central-West Brazil. Using geocoded surveillance data from the Brazilian Information System for Notifiable Diseases (SINAN) and from the Public Health Event Registry (RESP-microcefalia), we analyzed the spatiotemporal distribution and socioeconomic indicators of laboratory confirmed (RT-PCR and/or anti-ZIKV IgM ELISA) symptomatic ZIKV infections among pregnant women and clinically confirmed microcephaly in neonates, from 2016 to 2020. We investigated temporal patterns by estimating the risk of symptomatic maternal ZIKV infections and microcephaly per 1000 live births per month. We examined the spatial distribution of maternal ZIKV infections and microcephaly cases across the 63 subdistricts of Goiania by manually plotting the geographical coordinates. We used spatial scan statistics estimated by discrete Poisson models to detect high clusters of maternal ZIKV infection and microcephaly and compared the distributions by socioeconomic indicators measured at the subdistrict level. In total, 382 lab-confirmed cases of maternal ZIKV infections, and 31 cases of microcephaly were registered in the city of Goiania. More than 90% of maternal cases were reported between 2016 and 2017. The highest incidence of ZIKV cases among pregnant women occurred between February and April 2016. A similar pattern was observed in the following year, although with a lower number of cases, indicating seasonality for ZIKV infection, during the local rainy season. Most congenital microcephaly cases occurred with a time-lag of 6 to 7 months after the peak of maternal ZIKV infection. The highest estimated incidence of maternal ZIKV infections and microcephaly were 39.3 and 2.5 cases per 1000 livebirths, respectively. Districts with better socioeconomic indicators and with higher proportions of self-identified white inhabitants were associated with lower risks of maternal ZIKV infection. Overall, the findings indicate heterogeneity in the spatiotemporal patterns of maternal ZIKV infections and microcephaly, which were correlated with seasonality and included a high-risk geographic cluster. Our findings identified geographically and socio-economically underprivileged groups that would benefit from targeted interventions to reduce exposure to vector-borne infections.     

Functional diversity of herbaceous species under different fire frequencies in Brazilian savannas

Fire plays an important role in determining the structure of savannas, so that frequent fires tend to favor the herbaceous species in savannas. Functional diversity is a measure of the range of the species functional traits and is thought to be related to many functions and properties like community stability, nutrient cycling, and productivity, for example. We examined if functional diversity of herbaceous species was different along a fire gradient, and if observed functional diversity differed from a random assembly of species traits. We sampled three sites with different fire frequencies. According to the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, we expected the functional diversity to be higher in the intermediate fire frequency site. Subsequently, we excluded rare species from the analyses – species with less than ten individuals in each site – to verify their contribution to the observed patterns of functional diversity. We expected to find no difference with the exclusion of rare species. Functional diversity values, either considering all species or excluding the rare ones, were not different among sites, suggesting that (1) frequent fires may not affect overall functioning of the herbaceous community in savannas and (2) rare herbaceous species seem to present lower functional complementarity. According to the neutral theory, most of the herbaceous species may have evolved stochastically in niches more similar than competitive exclusion could allow. Also, functional diversity was not different from what one may expect by chance in any of the three sites. We also calculated the floristic similarity among sites. When we considered qualitative data, we found floristic differences between the sites of high and intermediate as well as between high and low fire frequency sites, but there was no difference between the intermediate and low fire frequency situation. Floristic similarities were different among all the three sites when the abundances of species were considered. Consequently, different fire conditions may change species composition without affecting the functional diversity of the herbaceous layer of savannas, corroborating the idea that savannas are more stable in functional than in floristic terms.     

In situ or ex situ seed conservation: which is the more effective way to maintain seed longevity of an endangered cactus?

With restricted populations and a small number of individuals, Discocactus bahiensis Britton & Rose (Cactaceae) is an endangered species in Brazil and its capacity for the formation of seed banks in the soil and the maintenance of seed viability remains unknown. Thus, the aim of the present study was to determine the most efficient way to maintain viability during storage of seeds of D. bahiensis . Seeds were stored in paper bags and either kept in a cold chamber (7 ± 2°C) in the dark (ex situ conservation) or buried in the soil to a depth of 5 cm in an area of natural occurrence of the species (in situ conservation). Germinability of the seed banks was evaluated monthly for 20 months. During the first 10 months of storage, germinability of the seeds conserved in situ and ex situ was similar to that of recently collected seeds. After this period, a 70% reduction in germinability was found for the seeds maintained in situ and there was nearly complete loss of viability after 12 months of storage in the field (germinability < 10% in the last 8 months of the experiment), indicating the ability to form persistent soil seed banks. In contrast, the seeds stored in the cold chamber maintained greater than 70% germinability throughout the entire analysis period, demonstrating that ex situ conservation is the most efficient way to maintain the viability of the seeds of this endangered species.     

The antioxidant effect of the mesoionic compound SYD-1 in mitochondria

The sydnone SYD-1 (3-[4-chloro-3-nitrophenyl]-1,2,3-oxadiazolium-5-olate] possesses important antitumor activity against Sarcoma 180 and Ehrlich tumors. We previously showed that SYD-1 depresses mitochondrial phosphorylation efficiency, which could be involved in its antitumoral activity. Considering the important role of mitochondria in the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the involvement of ROS in cell death mechanisms, we evaluated the effects of SYD-1 on oxidative stress parameters in rat liver mitochondria. SYD-1 (0.5 and 0.75 μmol mg⁻¹ protein) inhibited the lipoperoxidation induced by Fe³⁺/ADP-oxoglutarate by approximately 75% and promoted total inhibition at the highest concentration tested (1.0 μmol mg⁻¹ protein). However, SYD-1 did not affect lipoperoxidation started by peroxyl radicals generated by α-α′-azodiisobutyramidine dihydrochloride. The mesoionic compound (0.25–1.0 μmol mg⁻¹ protein) demonstrated an ability to scavenge superoxide radicals, decreasing their levels by 9–19%. The activities of catalase and superoxide dismutase did not change in the presence of SYD-1 (0.25–1.0 μmol mg⁻¹ protein). SYD-1 inhibited mitochondrial swelling dependent on the formation/opening of the permeability transition pore induced by Ca²⁺/phosphate by approximately 30% (1.0 μmol mg⁻¹ protein). When Ca²⁺/H₂O₂ were used as inducers, SYD-1 inhibited swelling only by approximately 12% at the same concentration. NADPH oxidation was also inhibited by SYD-1 (1.0 μmol mg⁻¹ of protein) by approximately 48%. These results show that SYD-1 is able to prevent oxidative stress in isolated mitochondria and suggest that the antitumoral activity of SYD-1 is not mediated by the increasing generation of ROS.     

Deep resequencing identifies candidate functional genes in leprosy GWAS loci

Leprosy is the second most prevalent mycobacterial disease globally. Despite the existence of an effective therapy, leprosy incidence has consistently remained above 200,000 cases per year since 2010. Numerous host genetic factors have been identified for leprosy that contribute to the persistently high case numbers. In the past decade, genetic epidemiology approaches, including genome-wide association studies (GWAS), identified more than 30 loci contributing to leprosy susceptibility. However, GWAS loci commonly encompass multiple genes, which poses a challenge to define causal candidates for each locus. To address this problem, we hypothesized that genes contributing to leprosy susceptibility differ in their frequencies of rare protein-altering variants between cases and controls. Using deep resequencing we assessed protein-coding variants for 34 genes located in GWAS or linkage loci in 555 Vietnamese leprosy cases and 500 healthy controls. We observed 234 nonsynonymous mutations in the targeted genes. A significant depletion of protein-altering variants was detected for the IL18R1 and BCL10 genes in leprosy cases. The IL18R1 gene is clustered with IL18RAP and IL1RL1 in the leprosy GWAS locus on chromosome 2q12.1. Moreover, in a recent GWAS we identified an HLA-independent signal of association with leprosy on chromosome 6p21. Here, we report amino acid changes in the CDSN and PSORS1C2 genes depleted in leprosy cases, indicating them as candidate genes in the chromosome 6p21 locus. Our results show that deep resequencing can identify leprosy candidate susceptibility genes that had been missed by classic linkage and association approaches.     

Helmet‐shaped Body of Entodiniomorphid Ciliates (Ciliophora,Entodiniomorphida), a Synapomorphy or a Homoplasy?

Triadinium was created to include Triadinium caudatum. Further, four other species were included, T. minimum, T. galea, T. elongatum, and T. magnum, all sharing a characteristic helmet‐shaped body. Wolska and Grain argued that the inclusion of T. minimum and T. galea into Triadinium was done based on superficial morphological aspects, and established two new genera to accommodate these species: Circodinium and Gassovskiella. Although the phylogenetic relationships within Entodiniomorphida have been investigated by multiple authors, none of them discussed the evolutionary relationship of helmet‐shaped entodiniomorphids. We performed molecular phylogenetics and revisited old literature digging for morphological data to explain our results. According to our analyses, the helmet‐shaped body is homoplastic and may have evolved from at least three different entodiniomorphid ancestors. Circodinium minimum is phylogenetically related to members of Blepharocorythidae, T. caudatum emerged within Spirodiniidae and G. galea within Polydiniellidae. This phylogenetic hypothesis is partially supported by information on infraciliature and ultrastructure of C. minimum and T. caudatum. However, such morphological information is not available for polydiniellids. In order to shed some light into the evolution of the helmet‐shaped ciliates, future works should focus to collect information on the infraciliature and the ultrastructure of Polydiniella mysorea and of other Triadinium species.     

Livestock disturbance in Brazilian grasslands influences avian species diversity via turnover

Managing ecological disturbances at different spatial scales is paramount for maintaining or restoring faunal diversity in grasslands. Whereas some studies have reported varying net effects of livestock disturbance intensity upon species richness in grasslands, most analysis reveal strong effects on beta-diversity. However, beta-diversity can be further partitioned into a nestedness and turnover components, which allows complementary insights on the effects of disturbance on biodiversity across spatial scales. Here we tested for differences in avian species richness and beta-diversity across three intensity levels of livestock disturbance in southern Brazilian grasslands under commercial livestock production. We also tested how disturbance influences the nestedness and turnover components of beta-diversity separately. We found no difference in rarified-extrapolated species richness between disturbance levels. In contrast, we found a significant difference in species composition between disturbance levels, which was attributable to the turnover, but not to the nestedness component. Specifically, livestock disturbance had a predictable effect upon beta-diversity, with turnover of species composition occurring along the gradient of vegetation height in pastures. Our study illustrates the importance of differentiating the turnover and nestedness components of beta-diversity to detect effects of disturbance gradients on biodiversity patterns. We argue that conservation strategies should focus on preserving the mosaic of short- and tall-grass physiognomies associated with the disturbance gradient imposed by livestock production.     

Chlorpromazine quantification in human plasma by UPLC-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Application to a comparative pharmacokinetic study

In the present study a method to quantify chlorpromazine in human plasma using cyclobenzaprine as the internal standard (IS) is described. The analyte and the IS were extracted from human plasma by a liquid-liquid extraction with diethyl ether/dichloromethane (70/30, v/v) and analyzed by an ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled to an electrospray tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometer in positive mode (UPLC-ES(+)-MS/MS). Chromatography was performed isocratically on an Aquity UPLC BEH C18 1.7 μm (50 mm × 2.1 mm i.d.) operating at 40°C. The mobile phase was a mixture of 65% water+1% formic acid and 35% of acetonitrile at a flow-rate of 0.5 mL/min. The lowest concentration quantified was 0.5 ng/mL and a linear calibration curve over the range 0.5-200 ng/mL was obtained, showing intra-assay precisions from 2.4 to 5.8%, and inter-assay precisions from 3.6 to 9.9%. The intra-assay accuracies ranged from 96.9 to 102.5%, while the inter-assay accuracies ranged from 94.1 to 100.3%. This analytical method was applied in a relative bioavailability study in order to compare a test chlorpromazine 100 mg simple dose formulation versus a reference in 57 volunteers of both sexes. The study was conducted in an open randomized two-period crossover design and with a fourteen days washout period. Plasma samples were obtained over a 144-h interval. Since the 90% CI for both C(max), AUC(last) and AUC(0-inf) were within the 80-125% interval proposed by the Food and Drug Administration and ANVISA, it was concluded that chlorpromazine 100 mg/dose was bioequivalent to the reference formulation, according to both the rate and extent of absorption.