Withdrawal of systemic or topical corticosteroids can precipitate or worsen AGPP and these agents should not be used in these patients. Liver abnormalities can be considered an extra-cutaneous manifestation of AGPP. As in other series, no association between the use of drugs and changes in liver tests was found and therefore the deleterious withdrawal of efficient drugs, namely acitretin and methotrexate, should be avoided.

In this study, it was investigated the effects of ultrasound, namely power input, distance from ultrasound tip to base of reactor and treatment time, in the formation of liposomes. Results indicate a dependence on cavitation events that are a function of power input, and consequently dependent on the position of the probe within the reaction vessel and the wave behaviour. Short treatment times are required to achieve nanosized vesicles in anti-nodal (lambda/4; 19mm) reactor geometries. In this wave point the cavitation phenomenon is more pronounced when compared with the nodal point (lambda/2; 38mm). Therefore, the consideration of the above parameters is vital if dependable and repeatable results are to be achieved.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate dietary intake and body composition of elite rhythmic gymnastics (RG) athletes prior to a competition event. Sixty-seven rhythmic gymnasts (18.7 ± 2.9 years old) of high performance level, with 36.6 ± 7.6 h of training/week were evaluated in order to collect training and competition data, medical and gynaecological history, detailed dietary intake and body composition before an international competition. The majority of the participants (n = 40; 59.7%) had already menstruated, but age of menarche was delayed (15.3 ± 1.3 years) and all revealed menstrual irregularities. Gymnasts' body mass (48.4 ± 4.9 kg) and body mass index (BMI; 17.4 ± 1.1 kg/m(2)) were below the normal for age, and height (1.66 ± 0.05 m) was normal or even slightly above normal for age. Body fat was 9.0 ± 2.0% with no significant differences between age strata. Gymnasts exhibited low energy availability (EA; 31.5 ± 11.9 kcal/kg fat-free mass (FFM)/day). The average carbohydrate and protein intakes were 5.1 ± 2.3 g/kg/day and 1.6 ± 04 g/kg/day, which correspond to 51.4 ± 7.2% and 16.9 ± 3.4% of total energy intakes, respectively; average fat contribution was 33.0 ± 5.3%. Low intakes of pantothenic acid, folate and vitamins D, E and K and of minerals, including calcium, iron and magnesium were reported. Intakes of thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamins A, B-6, B-12, C and manganese and zinc were above-adequate (P < 0.05). Low EA, low body fat and micronutrient deficiencies are common among RG.

Abstract. Systemic ciliatosis caused by histophagous ciliates constitutes a serious disease of cultured turbot. Six ciliate isolates were obtained from parasitized turbot during six epizootics at four different farms located in Spain, France and Portugal. Axenic cultures of the six isolates were obtained by periodical subculturing in ATCC 1651MA or supplemented L-15 media. In basal media or seawater, the parasites could survive starving for long periods with no apparent proliferation. In adequate media, growth kinetics was found to be very similar for isolates A and B, with a clear influence of temperature. Morphological studies demonstrated that all isolates share common features that allows their assignment to either Philasterides Kahl, 1931 or Miamiensis Thompson et Moewus, 1964. However, statistically significant differences were evident in pairwise comparisons of the isolates from the four farm sites in 16 taxonomically relevant morphometric features. This could allow the discrimination of different species or strains. Virulence of isolates A and B for healthy turbot was tested in several experiments. Differences in the virulence were especially evident after long-term in vitro culturing, isolate A being clearly attenuated after 35-42 passages, whereas isolate B became more virulent after 20-42 passages. The need of further studies to confirm such virulence variability and its implications in pathogenesis and prevention of turbot scuticociliatoses is stressed.Scuticociliates are ciliate protozoans (Ciliophora) occurring abundantly in eutrophic coastal and saprobic maricultural waters. Some of them can behave as opportunistic histophagous parasites causing severe infections in crustaceans and fish. Small (1967) proposed the new order Scuticociliatida including the suborders Pleuronematina, Pseudocohnilembina and Philasterina. Further revisions of the Ciliophora (Lynn and Small 2000) granted scuticociliates the level of subclass (Scuticociliatia), and the suborder Philasterina was ranked as order (Philasterida). Since the criteria used hitherto to classify the families, genera and species of scuticociliates have been variable, the taxonomy of these organisms is currently rather confusing.Recently, different scuticociliates have become an important threat for cultured marine fish such as tuna and different flatfish. Fatal encephalitis of bluefin tuna, attributed to Uronema nigricans, was reported by Munday et al. (1997). Among flatfish, Jee et al. (2001) described scuticociliatosis of Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus. In turbot, different episodes of scuticociliatosis have been reported in Spain (Dyková and Figueras 1994, Iglesias et al. 2001, authors' unpublished data) and Norway (Sterud et al. 2000). Only in one of these turbot epizootics the causative organism was identified to specific level as Philasterides dicentrarchi Dragesco, Dragesco, Coste, Gasc, Romestand, Raymond et Bouix, 1995by Iglesias et al. (2001. This species was originally described from an episode of Mediterranean seabass (Dice...

Comparative codon context analysis

We have developed a system for comparative codon context analysis of open reading frames in whole genomes, providing insights into the rules that govern the evolution of codon-pair context.

This study aimed to evaluate body composition, sleep, precompetitive anxiety and dietary intake on the elite female gymnasts' performance prior to an international competition. Sixty-seven rhythmic gymnasts of high performance level were evaluated in relation to sport and training practice, body composition, sleep duration, daytime sleepiness by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), sleep quality by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), precompetitive anxiety by the Sport Competition Anxiety Test form A (SCAT-A) and detailed dietary intake just before an international competition. Most gymnasts (67.2%) suffered from mild daytime sleepiness, 77.6% presented poor sleep quality and 19.4% presented high levels of precompetitive anxiety. The majority of gymnasts reported low energy availability (EA) and low intakes of important vitamins including folate, vitamins D, E and K; and minerals, including calcium, iron, boron and magnesium (p < .05). Gymnasts' performance was positively correlated with age (p = .001), sport practice (p = .024), number of daily training hours (p = .000), number of hours of training/week (p = .000), waist circumference (WC) (p = .008) and sleep duration (p = .005). However, it was negatively correlated with WC/hip circumference (p = .000), ESS (p = .000), PSQI (p = .042), SCAT-A (p = .002), protein g/kg (p = .028), EA (p = .002) and exercise energy expenditure (p = .000). High performance gymnasts presented poor sleep habits with consequences upon daytime sleepiness, sleep quality and low energy availability.

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Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate sleep and awakening quality (SQ and AQ) during COVID-19 in a large and diversified population in order to identify significant associations and risks in terms of demography, health and health-related behaviors, sleep variables, mental health, and attitudes. Methods/Results:Online surveys were used for data collection, received from 5479 individuals from the general population, sleep disorder patients, and COVID-involved (medical doctors (MDs) and nurses) and COVID-affected professionals (teachers, psychologists, and dentists). SQ and AQ were worse in adults, females, and high-education subjects. Feeling worse, having economic problems, depression, anxiety, irritability, and a high Calamity Experience Check List (CECL) score during COVID were significantly associated with poor SQ and AQ. Shorter sleep duration, increased latency, poor nutrition, low physical activity, increased mobile and social network use, more negative and less positive attitudes and behaviors were associated with poor AQ. Conclusions: The SQ logistic regression showed gender, morbidities, CECL, and awakenings as relevant, whereas, for AQ, relevant variables further included age and physical activity. Aiming to have a high stress compliance, each individual should sleep well, have important control of their mood, practice positive behaviors while dismissing negative behaviors and attitudes, practice exercise, have adequate nutrition, and beware of technologies and dependences.