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Physical activity (PA) is an important predictor of physical and mental health preventing chronic degenerative diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate in a group of Italian high school students whether health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and lifestyle habits (diet) are associated with the level of physical activity performed (low, moderate, high). Data were collected from 2819 adolescents ( n  = 951 males). HRQoL was analyzed using the Italian version of the KIDSCREEN-52. Physical activity level was analyzed using the PAQ-A, while eating habits with KIDMED. Practicing physical activity in general improves HRQoL. Specifically, adolescents practicing moderate or high PA, in single dimensions of HRQoL, showed better mood ( p  < 0.001), self-perception ( p  < 0.001), family relationships ( p  < 0.001), reported a higher perception of socioeconomic status ( p  < 0.05), relationship with peers ( p  < 0.001), and social acceptance ( p  < 0.001). High PA subjects reported increased physical ( p  < 0.001) and mental health ( p  < 0.001), increased autonomy ( p  < 0.001), and school learning ( p  < 0.001). For lifestyle habits, practicing moderate PA showed higher adherence tox the Mediterranean diet ( p  < 0.001). Conclusion : Our results highlighted a positive association between the frequency of PA levels, some dimensions of HRQoL, and risk behaviors. These findings demonstrated the protective role of sports not only as a preventive strategy for the onset of chronic degenerative diseases, but also as an educator of healthy lifestyle habits, thus suggesting the importance and need to implement strategies to promote sports practice.

Background: Bullying is a hostile behavior repeated over a time period, affecting children and adolescents in different social settings, mainly small and stable ones like school, with negative effects on mental and physical health. In this study, we aimed to provide the degree of impairment of different variables related to health and well-being in bullying conditions, with attention to sex differences. Methods: Data were obtained from 5390 adolescents (mean age 13.08 ± 1.89; male 2729), and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was assessed using the KIDSCREEN-52 questionnaire. Results: In all students, mood and emotion, self-perception, and parental relationships are the dimensions more compromised in bullying conditions, while lifestyle habit is the variable less involved. Bullied girls show a significant impairment of all HRQoL variables both with respect to the socially accepted counterpart and to the male population. Conclusions: Our study highlights the strict association between bullying and emotional and social dimensions, suggesting that enhancing them preventively could facilitate earlier detection of problems, thereby reducing health risks.

Introduction: Adolescents experience rapid physical, cognitive, and psychosocial growth with different factors contributing to health and well-being. In this view, an important role is played by body weight and related perceptions. The purpose was to determine, in a sample of Italian high school students, whether health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is associated with the different weight status categories (underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese), even considering sex differences. Material and methods: Data were collected from 1826 adolescents (n = 735 males). HRQOL was analyzed using the Italian version of KIDSCREEN-52. Results: Overweight adolescents showed reductions in psychological well-being (p < 0.05) and self-perception (p < 0.05) compared with individuals in other BMI categories. Subjects with obesity reported increased bullying victimization (p < 0.05) and reductions in self-perception and eating disorders (p < 0.001), while underweight individuals were characterized by altered adherence to the Mediterranean diet (p < 0.001), eating disorders (p < 0.001), and problematic use of social media (p < 0.05). No sex differences were found, except for socio-economic status perceptions, where underweight girls reported higher economic well-being than boys (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings may suggest that there is an association between weight status categories and HRQoL that is more pronounced in underweight and overweight adolescents. The association between BMI categories and psychosocial dimensions opens the need to define specific domains on which such preventive interventions should focus, always through a personalized perspective.

The Spinning Effective One Body-Numerical Relativity (SEOBNR) series of gravitational wave approximants are among the best available for Advanced LIGO data analysis. Unfortunately, SEOBNR codes as they currently exist within LALSuite are generally too slow to be directly useful for standard Markov-Chain Monte Carlo-based parameter estimation (PE). Reduced-Order Models (ROMs) of SEOBNR have been developed for this purpose, but there is no known way to make ROMs of the full eight-dimensional intrinsic parameter space more efficient for PE than the SEOBNR codes directly. So as a proof of principle, we have sped up the original LALSuite SEOBNRv2 approximant code, which models waveforms from aligned-spin systems, by nearly 300x. Our optimized code shortens the timescale for conducting PE with this approximant to months, assuming a purely serial analysis, so that even modest parallelization combined with our optimized code will make running the full PE pipeline with SEOBNR codes directly a realistic possibility. A number of our SEOBNRv2 optimizations have already been applied to SEOBNRv3, a new approximant capable of modeling sources with all eight (precessing) intrinsic degrees of freedom. We anticipate that once all of our optimizations have been applied to SEOBNRv3, a similar speed-up may be achieved.

When a gravitational wave is detected by Advanced LIGO/Virgo, sophisticated parameter estimation (PE) pipelines spring into action. These pipelines leverage approximants to generate large numbers of theoretical gravitational waveform predictions to characterize the detected signal. One of the most accurate and physically comprehensive classes of approximants in wide use is the \"Spinning Effective One Body--Numerical Relativity\" (SEOBNR) family. Waveform generation with these approximants can be computationally expensive, which has limited their usefulness in multiple data analysis contexts. In prior work we improved the performance of the aligned-spin approximant SEOBNR version 2 (v2) by nearly 300x. In this work we focus on optimizing the full eight-dimensional, precessing approximant SEOBNR version 3 (v3). While several v2 optimizations were implemented during its development, v3 is far too slow for use in state-of-the-art source characterization efforts for long-inspiral detections. Completion of a PE run after such a detection could take centuries to complete using v3. Here we develop and implement a host of optimizations for v3, calling the optimized approximant v3_Opt. Our optimized approximant is about 340x faster than v3, and generates waveforms that are numerically indistinguishable.

The notion that shifts to new hosts can initiate insect speciation is more than 150 years old, yet widespread conflation with paradigms of sympatric speciation has led to confusion about how much support exists for this hypothesis. Here, we review 85 insect systems and evaluate the relationship between host shifting, reproductive isolation, and speciation. We sort insects into five categories: (1) systems in which a host shift has initiated speciation; (2) systems in which a host shift has made a contribution to speciation; (3) systems in which a host shift has caused the evolution of new reproductive isolating barriers; (4) systems with hostassociated genetic differences; and (5) systems with no evidence of host-associated genetic differences. We find host-associated genetic structure in 65 systems, 43 of which show that host shifts have resulted in the evolution of new reproductive barriers. Twenty-six of the latter also support a role for host shifts in speciation, including eight studies that definitively support the hypothesis that a host shift has initiated speciation. While this review is agnostic as to the fraction of all insect speciation events to which host shifts have contributed, it clarifies that host shifts absolutely can and do initiate speciation.

Dengue is an arboviral disease caused by dengue virus (DENV), leading to approximately 25,000 deaths/year and with over 40% of the world’s population at risk. Increased international travel and trade, poorly regulated urban expansion, and warming global temperatures have expanded the geographic range and incidence of the virus in recent decades. This study used phylogenetic and selection pressure analyses to investigate trends in DENV evolution, using whole genome coding sequences from publicly available databases alongside newly sequenced isolates collected between 1963–1997 from Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Results revealed very similar phylogenetic relationships when using the envelope gene and the whole genome coding sequences. Although DENV evolution is predominantly driven by negative selection, a number of amino acid sites undergoing positive selection were found across the genome, with the majority located in the envelope and NS5 genes. Some genotypes appear to be diversifying faster than others within each serotype. The results from this research improve our understanding of DENV evolution, with implications for disease control efforts such as Wolbachia-based biocontrol and vaccine design.

Background Hundreds of millions of people get a mosquito-borne disease every year and nearly one million die. Transmission of these infections is primarily tackled through the control of mosquito vectors. The accurate quantification of mosquito dispersal is critical for the design and optimization of vector control programs, yet the measurement of dispersal using traditional mark-release-recapture (MRR) methods is logistically challenging and often unrepresentative of an insect’s true behavior. Using Aedes aegypti (a major arboviral vector) as a model and two study sites in Singapore, we show how mosquito dispersal can be characterized by the spatial analyses of genetic relatedness among individuals sampled over a short time span without interruption of their natural behaviors. Results Using simple oviposition traps, we captured adult female Ae. aegypti across high-rise apartment blocks and genotyped them using genome-wide SNP markers. We developed a methodology that produces a dispersal kernel for distance which results from one generation of successful breeding (effective dispersal), using the distance separating full siblings and 2nd- and 3rd-degree relatives (close kin). The estimated dispersal distance kernel was exponential (Laplacian), with a mean dispersal distance (and dispersal kernel spread σ) of 45.2 m (95% CI 39.7–51.3 m), and 10% probability of a dispersal > 100 m (95% CI 92–117 m). Our genetically derived estimates matched the parametrized dispersal kernels from previous MRR experiments. If few close kin are captured, a conventional genetic isolation-by-distance analysis can be used, as it can produce σ estimates congruent with the close-kin method if effective population density is accurately estimated. Genetic patch size, estimated by spatial autocorrelation analysis, reflects the spatial extent of the dispersal kernel “tail” that influences, for example, the critical radii of release zones and the speed of Wolbachia spread in mosquito replacement programs. Conclusions We demonstrate that spatial genetics can provide a robust characterization of mosquito dispersal. With the decreasing cost of next-generation sequencing, the production of spatial genetic data is increasingly accessible. Given the challenges of conventional MRR methods, and the importance of quantified dispersal in operational vector control decisions, we recommend genetic-based dispersal characterization as the more desirable means of parameterization.

As technology continues to evolve, the possibility for a wide range of dangers to people, organizations, and countries escalate globally. The United States federal government classifies types of threats with the capability of inflicting mass casualties and societal disruption as Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Energetics/Explosives (CBRNE). Such incidents encompass accidental and intentional events ranging from weapons of mass destruction and bioterrorism to fires or spills involving hazardous or radiologic material. All of these have the capacity to inflict death or severe physical, neurological, and/or sensorial disabilities if injuries are not diagnosed and treated in a timely manner. Ophthalmic injury can provide important insight into understanding and treating patients impacted by CBRNE agents; however, improper ophthalmic management can result in suboptimal patient outcomes. This review specifically addresses the biological agents the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deems to have the greatest capacity for bioterrorism. CBRNE biological agents, encompassing pathogens and organic toxins, are further subdivided into categories A, B, and C according to their national security threat level. In our compendium of these biological agents, we address their respective CDC category, systemic and ophthalmic manifestations, route of transmission and personal protective equipment considerations as well as pertinent vaccination and treatment guidelines.

PurposeAssess the rate, rationale, and characteristics of patients who cryopreserved and subsequently discarded their oocytes, and compare their characteristics to patients with continued cryopreservation of oocytes.MethodsAll patients who disposed of cryopreserved oocytes between 2009 and 2022 reported their reason for discarding their oocytes. This was a retrospective cohort study.ResultsOf 5,010 patients who underwent oocyte cryopreservation (OC) cycles, 201 (4%) patients elected to discard their oocytes and 751 (15%) thawed oocytes for clinical use. The average ages of OC and disposal were 35 and 39 years old, respectively. Of the 201 patients who discarded their oocytes, 71 patients (35%) requested disposal after having a child. Twenty-six (13%) discarded oocytes because of worsening cancer and three (1.4%) discarded because of death. 16 (8%) discarded oocytes due to cost of cryopreservation and eight (4%) due to low oocyte yield. Ten (5%) patients underwent new IVF cycles and discarded previously stored oocytes. Sixty-seven patients (33%) discarded oocytes for unspecified reasons. When comparing patients who discarded oocytes with those who did not, the former had lower AMH (2.7 vs 3.5 ng/ml, p < 0.001) but otherwise comparable age and number of cryopreserved oocytes. The mean age for those with continued cryopreservation was 35.4 years at time of OC and 40 years at time of data collection in June 2023.ConclusionChildbirth was the most common reason to dispose of oocytes followed by unspecified reasons. Larger studies of oocyte disposal may better define clinical characteristics of patients most likely to use, maintain or discard their oocytes.