Retrospective analysis of whole-body cryotherapy adverse effects in Division I collegiate athletes.

CONTEXT: Although the physiological effects and the performance of athletes after utilizing whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) have been widely studied, there is a lack of data on its adverse effects. It is important to be aware of the adverse effects of any treatment for its use to be properly recommended. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to provide insight to any adverse effects that collegiate athletes experienced after utilizing WBC to better utilize this therapeutic modality. METHODS: After the Institutional Review Board (IRB) deemed exemption, all 457 Division 1-A varsity athletes were recruited via email to participate in a retrospective survey. Participants consented to the study by continuing to the questions. The inclusion criteria were that they must be 18 years of age or older, had completed WBC at that university, and were a student-athlete. The survey was six questions long, and if any of the inclusion criteria was not met, they were redirected to end the survey. The data were analyzed utilizing odds ratios. RESULTS: Of the 457 student-athletes, 11.2% (n=51) responded and 6.3% (n=29) met the inclusion criteria. Responses were obtained from women's lacrosse (27.6%; n=8), women's gymnastics (24.1%, n=7), field hockey (17.2%, n=5), wrestling (6.9%, n=2), football (6.9%, n=2), women's cross country (3.5%, n=1), men's basketball (3.5%, n=1), women's volleyball (3.5%, n=1), softball (3.5%, n=1), and baseball (3.5%, n=1). Among the responses, 79.3% (n=23) were females and 29.7% (n=6) were males. Within 1 h of WBC, the most frequently reported adverse effects were skin rash (27.6%, n=8), itching (13.8%, n=4), and fatigue (6.9%, n=2). More than 1 h after WBC, the most frequently reported adverse effects were skin rash (20.7%, n=6), itching (10.3%, n=3), and increased energy (6.9%, n=2). When stratified by female and male athletes, for both within 1 h and more than 1 h after WBC, there were increased odds for females reporting adverse effects; however, neither were statistically significant (OR 4.58, p=0.19, 95% CI 0.46 to 45.61) (OR 3.84, p=0.25, 95% CI 0.39 to 38.36). Within 1 h of WBC, 58.6% (n=17) of subjects reported no adverse effects, and more than 1 h after WBC, 65.5% (n=19) subjects reported no adverse effects. The mean satisfaction level rating was 6.34 (range 0-10, n=29). When asked if they would do WBC again, 65.5% (n=19) responded "yes" and 34.5% (n=10) responded "no." CONCLUSIONS: In this collegiate athlete population, negative adverse effects of WBC commonly included skin burns and itching while potentially proving a beneficial adverse effect of increased energy. Subjects commonly reported no adverse effects after WBC treatment as well.

Mango: Exploratory Data Analysis for Large-Scale Sequencing Datasets.

The decreasing cost of DNA sequencing over the past decade has led to an explosion of sequencing datasets, leaving us with petabytes of data to analyze. However, current sequencing visualization tools are designed to run on single machines, which limits their scalability and interactivity on modern genomic datasets. Here, we leverage the scalability of Apache Spark to provide Mango, consisting of a Jupyter notebook and genome browser, which removes scalability and interactivity constraints by leveraging multi-node compute clusters to allow interactive analysis over terabytes of sequencing data. We demonstrate scalability of the Mango tools by performing quality control analyses on 10 terabytes of 100 high-coverage sequencing samples from the Simons Genome Diversity Project, enabling capability for interactive genomic exploration of multi-sample datasets that surpass the computational limitations of single-node visualization tools. Mango is freely available for download with full documentation at https://bdg-mango.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.

Effects of climate on dental mesowear of extant koalas and two broadly distributed kangaroos throughout their geographic range.

Dental mesowear analysis can classify the diets of extant herbivores into general categories such as grazers, mixed-feeders, and browsers by using the gross wear patterns found on individual teeth. This wear presumably results from both abrasion (food-on-tooth wear) and attrition (tooth-on-tooth wear) of individual teeth. Mesowear analyses on extinct ungulates have helped generate hypotheses regarding the dietary ecology of mammals across space and time, and recent developments have expanded the use of dental mesowear analysis to herbivorous marsupial taxa including kangaroos, wombats, possums, koalas, and relatives. However, the diet of some of the most ubiquitous kangaroos (e.g., Macropus giganteus) along with numerous other species cannot be successfully classified by dental mesowear analysis. Further, it is not well understood whether climate variables (including precipitation, relative humidity, and temperature) are correlated with dental mesowear variables including various measures of shape and relief. Here, we examine the relationship between dental mesowear variables (including traditional methods scoring the sharpest cusp and a new potential assessment of multiple cusps) and climate variables in the grazers/mixed feeders Macropus giganteus and Macropus fuliginosus, and the obligate browser Phascolarctos cinereus. We find that dental mesowear of mandibular teeth is capable of differentiating the dietary habits of koalas and the kangaroo species. Furthermore, both Macropus giganteus and Phascolarctos cinereus exhibit mesowear correlated with mean minimum temperature, while Macropus fuliginosus dental mesowear is unaffected by temperature, despite significant differences in mean minimum and mean maximum temperature across their distribution (and in the specimens examined here). Contrary to expectations that individuals from drier regions would have blunter and lower relief teeth, dental mesowear is unrelated to proxies of relative aridity-including mean annual precipitation and relative humidity. Collectively, dental mesowear in these marsupials is related to feeding behavior with increased wear in cooler regions (in Macropus giganteus and Phascolarctos cinereus) potentially related to more or different food resources consumed.

Seed Germination and Seedling Characteristic of ipomoea and Merremia (Convolvulaceae) in Lambayeque (Peru).

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Studies were undertaken to determine the effects of in vivo germination of mechanically scarified with and without sandpaper, chemically scarified with H2SO4 for 40 min and without H2SO4 and in vitro germinated with sandpaper and with sandpaper and GA3 seeds of ipomoea and Merremia in the Lambayeque region and surrounding areas (Peru). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seeds of 16 species of ipomoea and 3 species of Merremia collected from Lambayeque (Peru) were germinated under in vivo and in vitro conditions and measured the angle of divergence of seedlings and the data were analysed by ANOVA. RESULTS: in the in vivo germination process, mechanical and chemical scarification caused an increase in germination and in the in vitro germination process mechanical scarification with sandpaper and GA3 also caused an increase in germination. Seedling emergence was observed and recorded and found not to fit the classical models of hypogeal and epigeal emergence and in the seedling morphology the degree of apical cleft of paracotyledonary leaves and the angle of divergence between the two lobes of a paracotyledon were determined. The length of the apical cleft was highly correlated (r = 0.81) with the angle of divergence. CONCLUSION: Convolvulaceae is the most advanced family that produces seeds with physical dormancy (water-impermeable seed coat).