• Open Access close
• Publications close
• Research software close
• CZ close

This article aims to summarize the effects of home training performed during the COVID-19 lockdown on physical performance and perceptual responses among team-sport athletes. Studies with comparison of pre-post lockdown results of physical performance and perceptual responses were considered. A search was made in PubMed and SPORTDiscus databases. The PICO criteria were used for the keywords "athlete" AND "home-based training" AND "performance" OR "mental health", with their respective entry terms. The multistage process of selection followed the PRISMA 2020 recommendations. Of 586 records identified, 9 articles were available for the final process. Physical performance was evaluated for 8 studies with the VO2max change ranging from 5.7% to -9%; an increase in the duration of sprint test ranging from 0.4% to 36%; an increase of agility duration of 12.4%; a decrease in maximal repetition load of 2.9%; and changes in countermovement jump height ranging from -4.7% to +15.4% after home training. Regarding the perceptual responses, no significant changes in wellbeing and mental index and a significant decrease in motivation and perceived effort were reported during the home training in lockdown. Based on the articles selected, home training programmes performed by athletes from team sports during the COVID-19 lockdown presented inconsistent results in physical performance, decreasing by up to 36%, and maintaining the wellbeing and mental index, but with a significant drop in training motivation and perceived effort. Caution should be taken considering the small number of articles included in the study.

As the imaging technology and the understanding of neurological disease improve, a solid understanding of neu-roanatomy has become increasingly relevant. Neuroanatomy teaching includes the practice of cadaveric dissectionand neuroanatomy atlases consisting of images of a brain with its labeled structures. However, the natural inter-individual neuroanatomical variability cannot be taken into account. This work addresses the individual grossneuroanatomy atlas that could enrich medical students’ experiences with various individual variations in anatomi-cal landmarks and their spatial relationships. We propose to deform the CerebrA cortical atlas into the individualanatomical magnetic resonance imaging data to increase students’ opportunity to contact normal neuroanatomicalvariations in the early stages of studies. Besides, we include interactive queries on the labels/names of neu-roanatomical structures from an individual neuroanatomical atlas in a 3D space. An implementation on top ofSimpleITK library and VMTK-Neuro software is presented. We generated a series of surface and internal neu-roanatomy maps from 16 test volumes to attest to the potential of the proposed technique in brain labeling. Forthe age group between 10 to 75, there is evidence that the superficial cortical labeling is accurate with the visualassessment of the degree of concordance between the neuroanatomical and label boundaries.

Motivated by recent studies of holographic complexity, we examine the question of circuit complexity in quantum field theory. We provide a quantum circuit model for the preparation of Gaussian states, in particular the ground state, in a free scalar field theory for general dimensions. Applying the geometric approach of Nielsen to this quantum circuit model, the complexity of the state becomes the length of the shortest geodesic in the space of circuits. We compare the complexity of the ground state of the free scalar field to the analogous results from holographic complexity, and find some surprising similarities. Corrected typo in eqs. (1.1) and (3.35). Added footnote on pg. 33, and additional references. Author name change

The biological effects induced by complete engine emissions in a 3D model of the human airway (MucilAirTM) and in human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) grown at the air–liquid interface were compared. The cells were exposed for one or five days to emissions generated by a Euro 5 direct injection spark ignition engine. The general condition of the cells was assessed by the measurement of transepithelial electrical resistance and mucin production. The cytotoxic effects were evaluated by adenylate kinase (AK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity. Phosphorylation of histone H2AX was used to detect double-stranded DNA breaks. The expression of the selected 370 relevant genes was analyzed using next-generation sequencing. The exposure had minimal effects on integrity and AK leakage in both cell models. LDH activity and mucin production in BEAS-2B cells significantly increased after longer exposures; DNA breaks were also detected. The exposure affected CYP1A1 and HSPA5 expression in MucilAirTM. There were no effects of this kind observed in BEAS-2B cells; in this system gene expression was rather affected by the time of treatment. The type of cell model was the most important factor modulating gene expression. In summary, the biological effects of complete emissions exposure were weak. In the specific conditions used in this study, the effects observed in BEAS-2B cells were induced by the exposure protocol rather than by emissions and thus this cell line seems to be less suitable for analyses of longer treatment than the 3D model.

The suspicion that gravity is holographic has been supported mainly by a variety of specific examples from string theory. In this paper, we propose that such a holography can actually be observed in the context of Einstein's gravity and at least a class of generalized gravitational theories, based on a definite holographic principle where neither is the bulk space-time required to be asymptotically AdS nor the boundary to be located at conformal infinity, echoing Wilson's formulation of quantum field theory. After showing the general equilibrium thermodynamics from the corresponding holographic dictionary, in particular, we provide a rather general proof of the equality between the entropy production on the boundary and the increase of black hole entropy in the bulk, which can be regarded as strong support to this holographic principle. The entropy production in the familiar holographic superconductors/superfluids is investigated as an important example, where the role played by the holographic renormalization is explained. 45 pages, comments are welcome; v2: 46 pages, references added, minor improvements/modifications, matching the version to appear in JHEP

AbstractModels to predict the effects of different silvicultural treatments on future forest development are the best available tools to demonstrate and test possible climate-smart pathways of mountain forestry. This chapter reviews the state of the art in modelling approaches to predict the future growth of European mountain forests under changing environmental and management conditions. Growth models, both mechanistic and empirical, which are currently available to predict forest growth are reviewed. The chapter also discusses the potential of integrating the effects of genetic origin, species mixture and new silvicultural prescriptions on biomass production into the growth models. The potential of growth simulations to quantify indicators of climate-smart forestry (CSF) is evaluated as well. We conclude that available forest growth models largely differ from each other in many ways, and so they provide a large range of future growth estimates. However, the fast development of computing capacity allows and will allow a wide range of growth simulations and multi-model averaging to produce robust estimates. Still, great attention is required to evaluate the performance of the models. Remote sensing measurements will allow the use of growth models across ecological gradients.

Comparison of diagnostic methods for Plasmodium spp. in humans from Uganda and the Central African Republic showed that parasites can be efficiently detected by PCR in fecal samples. These results, which rely solely on PCR-based examination of feces, validate numerous estimates of the prevalence of malaria in great apes.