The dual career allows elite athletes to attain their maximum competitive and academic performance, but the COVID-19 pandemic hindered their development and changed their perception of the importance ...given to the sporting and educational environment. For this reason, the aim of the present study was to determine the differences in the motivations and perceived barriers, the importance given to academic qualifications, and the perception of the dual career from a multifactorial perspective, of elite athletes according to sex, type of sport practiced, job performance, time of sports career, type of athlete, and type of scholarship received. A total of 100 student-athletes participated in the research study by completing the "Perceptions of dual career student-athletes" questionnaire. The results showed that athletes from individual modalities (
= 0.012) and those who did not receive any scholarships described more barriers (
< 0.001). In addition, women studied more because they enjoyed it (
= 0.007); athletes from individual modalities studied to work later (
= 0.008); athletes who do not work perceived a greater influence between study and sports performance (
= 0.029); at the beginning and at the best stage of their sports career, a greater influence of academics on performance was perceived (
= 0.016); and athletes who considered themselves professionals, and athletes who did not receive any scholarships (
= 0.025), reported that the conciliation between sports and academic life was difficult (
= 0.034). The results obtained point to the importance of dual career scholarships for student-athletes, as well as the need for the programs implemented for these athletes to consider sex, sport modality or type of scholarship granted.
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During the last 15 years, a real “paradigm-shift” occurred, due to the development of PAH-targeted drugs, leading to crucial improvements in symptoms, exercise capacity, hemodynamics ...and outcome of PAH patients. In order to describe differences regarding epidemiology and therapy in PAH according to gender, we performed a review of the available literature in “PubMed” and “Web of Science” databases. In order to find relevant articles, we combined each of the following the keywords “pulmonary arterial hypertension”, “gender”, “sex”, “men”, “woman”, “male”, “female”, “phosphodiesterase inhibitors”, “endothelin receptor antagonists”, “prostanoids”. While there is a substantial agreement among epidemiological studies in reporting an increased prevalence of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) among women, male PAH patients are affected by a higher impairment of the right ventricular function and consequently experience poorer outcomes. With regards to PAH-targeted drug administration, endothelin receptor antagonists (ERAs) and prostacyclin analogues (PC) show better treatment results in female PAH patients, while phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors (PD5-I) seem to exert a more beneficial effect on male patients. However, to date no clear consensus could be formed by the available literature, which is constituted mainly by retrospective studies. Females with PAH are more prone to develop PAH, while males experience poorer outcomes. Females PAH might benefit more from ERAs and PC, while males seem to have more beneficial effects from PD5-I administration. However, more research is warranted in order to assess the most effective treatment for PAH patients according to gender.
Selenium (Se) is an essential element involved in normal gonadal development, gametogenesis, and fertilization. Molecular studies show that the gonads actively take up and store Se, most of which is ...incorporated in the glutathione peroxidase enzymes. We provide a systematic review of the original molecular studies, prospective observational data and randomized controlled trials on the role of Se in reproductive function conducted in the past 30 years. A critical appraisal of these findings suggests that Se supplementation produces a bell-shaped response curve, with negative effects observed for both low and high concentrations. The few available clinical trials support the use of Se supplementation (<200 μg/d) to improve male infertility, although their pre-treatment assessment of Se levels in enrolled subjects is inconsistent and their quality and size are insufficient to enable general recommendations. In females, a putative role in oocyte maturation and fertilization is suggested, but no large controlled trials have yet been performed. The role of Se supplementation on pregnancy outcomes is promising, and ongoing studies and meta-analysis should soon enable proper recommendations to be suggested. How best to assess Se in terms of cut-off value, sample type (serum, semen, other fluids) and the specific outcome of interest remains to be clarified. In the meantime, assessment of serum Se levels followed by low-dose replacement therapy when necessary is a reasonable approach to improve male idiopathic infertility and gestational outcome.
Abstract Nowadays ultrasound elastosonography is an established technique, although with limited clinical application, used to assess tissue stiffness, which is a parameter that in most cases is ...associated with malignancy. However, although a consistent number of articles have been published about several applications of elastosonography, its use in certain human body districts is still not well defined. In this paper we write on the use of elastosonography in prostate, testicle and musculo-skeletal apparatus. We report and compare the work of several authors, different type of elastosonography (shear wave, strain elastography, etc.) and instrumental data obtained in the study of both benign and malignant lesions.
We present analytic expressions to evaluate at O(α) the effects of soft-photon emission, and the related virtual corrections, in non-leptonic decays of the type B,D→P1P2, where P1,2 are scalar or ...pseudoscalar particles. The phenomenological implications of these results are briefly discussed. For B decays into charged pions the effects of soft-photon emission are quite large: the corrections to the rates can easily exceed the 5% level if tight cuts on the photon energy are applied.
Likelihood analysis of supersymmetric SU(5) GUTs Bagnaschi, E.; Costa, J. C.; Sakurai, K. ...
The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields,
2017/2, Volume:
77, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We perform a likelihood analysis of the constraints from accelerator experiments and astrophysical observations on supersymmetric (SUSY) models with SU(5) boundary conditions on soft SUSY-breaking ...parameters at the GUT scale. The parameter space of the models studied has seven parameters: a universal gaugino mass
m
1
/
2
, distinct masses for the scalar partners of matter fermions in five- and ten-dimensional representations of SU(5),
m
5
and
m
10
, and for the
5
and
5
¯
Higgs representations
m
H
u
and
m
H
d
, a universal trilinear soft SUSY-breaking parameter
A
0
, and the ratio of Higgs vevs
tan
β
. In addition to previous constraints from direct sparticle searches, low-energy and flavour observables, we incorporate constraints based on preliminary results from 13 TeV LHC searches for jets +
events and long-lived particles, as well as the latest PandaX-II and LUX searches for direct Dark Matter detection. In addition to previously identified mechanisms for bringing the supersymmetric relic density into the range allowed by cosmology, we identify a novel
u
~
R
/
c
~
R
-
χ
~
1
0
coannihilation mechanism that appears in the supersymmetric SU(5) GUT model and discuss the role of
ν
~
τ
coannihilation. We find complementarity between the prospects for direct Dark Matter detection and SUSY searches at the LHC.
High-pT signatures in vector–leptoquark models Baker, Michael J.; Fuentes-Martín, Javier; Isidori, Gino ...
The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields,
2019/4, Volume:
79, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We present a detailed analysis of the collider signatures of TeV-scale massive vector bosons motivated by the hints of lepton flavour non-universality observed in
B
-meson decays. We analyse three ...representations that necessarily appear together in a large class of ultraviolet-complete models: a colour-singlet (
Z
′
), a colour-triplet (the
U
1
leptoquark), and a colour octet (
G
′
). Under general assumptions for the interactions of these exotic states with Standard Model fields, including in particular possible right-handed and flavour off-diagonal couplings for the
U
1
, we derive a series of stringent bounds on masses and couplings that constrain a wide range of explicit new-physics models.
Abstract We analyze data on $$B\rightarrow K\mu ^+\mu ^-$$ B → K μ + μ - and $$B\rightarrow K^*\mu ^+\mu ^-$$ B → K ∗ μ + μ - decays in the whole dilepton invariant mass spectrum with the aim of ...disentangling short- vs. long-distance contributions. The sizable long-distance amplitudes from $$c \overline{c}$$ c c ¯ narrow resonances are taken into account by employing a dispersive approach. For each available $$q^2=m^2_{\mu \mu }$$ q 2 = m μ μ 2 bin and each helicity amplitude an independent determination of the Wilson coefficient $$C_9$$ C 9 , describing $$b\rightarrow s\ell ^+\ell ^-$$ b → s ℓ + ℓ - transitions at short distances, is obtained. The consistency of the $$C_9$$ C 9 values thus obtained provides an a posteriori check of the absence of additional, sizable, long-distance contributions. The systematic difference of these values from the Standard Model expectation supports the hypothesis of a non-standard $$b\rightarrow s \mu ^+\mu ^-$$ b → s μ + μ - amplitude of short-distance origin.
Overactivation of the c-MET/HGF system is a feature of many cancers. We previously reported that type II testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) cells express the c-MET receptor, forming non-seminomatous ...lesions that are more positive compared with seminomatous ones. Notably, we also demonstrated that NT2D1 non-seminomatous cells (derived from an embryonal carcinoma lesion) increase their proliferation, migration, and invasion in response to HGF. Herein, we report that HGF immunoreactivity is more evident in the microenvironment of embryonal carcinoma biopsies with respect to seminomatous ones, indicating a tumor-dependent modulation of the testicular niche. PI3K/AKT is one of the signaling pathways triggered by HGF through the c-MET activation cascade. Herein, we demonstrated that phospho-AKT increases in NT2D1 cells after HGF stimulation. Moreover, we found that this pathway is involved in HGF-dependent NT2D1 cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, since the co-administration of the PI3K inhibitor LY294002 together with HGF abrogates these responses. Notably, the inhibition of endogenous PI3K affects collective cell migration but does not influence proliferation or chemotactic activity. Surprisingly, LY294002 administered without the co-administration of HGF increases cell invasion at levels comparable to the HGF-administered samples. This paradoxical result highlights the role of the testicular microenvironment in the modulation of cellular responses and stimulates the study of the testicular secretome in cancer lesions.
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