How does sleep help recovery from exercise-induced muscle injuries?

Objectives: Athletes and military personnel may experience sleep disturbances due to conditions of training and competitions or military missions/field operations. The risk of muscle injuries is greater for them when sleep duration decreases, and training load increases simultaneously, which can be exacerbated by fatigue. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that sleep extension improved performance, pain sensitivity and GH/IGF-I anabolic responses, which may be beneficial in accelerating recovery from muscle injuries.

Return to football training and competition after lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic: medical recommendations.

The lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic represents a great unknown regarding the physiological changes induced in elite football players. Although it will differ from country to country, the return to sport for professional football players will follow a forced lockdown never experienced and longer than the normal annual season break. Moreover, in addition to an obvious decrease in performance, the lockdown will possibly lead to an increase of the injury risk.

Medical recommendations for home-confined footballers' training during the COVID-19 pandemic: from evidence to practical application.

In early 2020, the world is facing a global emergency called COVID-19. Many professional footballers around the world are home confined. The maintenance of physical capacity is a fundamental requirement for the athlete, so the training sessions must be adapted to this unique situation.

Dual-polarization silicon nitride Bragg filters with low thermal sensitivity.

Wideband and polarization-independent wavelength filters with low sensitivity to temperature variations have great potential for wavelength division multiplexing applications. However, simultaneously achieving these metrics is challenging for silicon-on-insulator photonics technology. Here, we harness the reduced index contrast and the low thermo-optic coefficient of silicon nitride to demonstrate waveguide Bragg grating filters with wideband apolar rejection and low thermal sensitivity.

Sub-decibel silicon grating couplers based on L-shaped waveguides and engineered subwavelength metamaterials.

The availability of low-loss optical interfaces to couple light between standard optical fibers and high-index-contrast silicon waveguides is essential for the development of chip-integrated nanophotonics. Input and output couplers based on diffraction gratings are attractive coupling solutions. Advanced grating coupler designs, with Bragg or metal mirror underneath, low- and high-index overlays, and multi-level or multi-layer layouts, have proven less useful due to customized or complex fabrication, however.

SiGe-enhanced Si capacitive modulator integration in a 300 mm silicon photonics platform for low power consumption.

The successful integration of capacitive phase shifters featuring a p-type strained SiGe layer in a 300 mm silicon photonics platform is presented. The phase shift is evaluated with a voltage swing of only 0.9 V, compatible with CMOS technology.

DAC-less PAM-4 generation in the O-band using a silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator.

We demonstrate 20-Gb/s 4-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) signal generation using a silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) in the O-band. The modulator is driven by two independent binary streams, and the PAM-4 signal is thus generated directly on the chip, avoiding the use of power-hungry digital-to-analog converters (DACs). With optimized amplitude levels of the binary signals applied to the two arms of the MZM, a pre-forward error correction (FEC) bit-error rate (BER) as low as 7.

Thermally stable hybrid cavity laser based on silicon nitride gratings.

In this paper, we show the experimental results of a thermally stable SiN external cavity (SiN EC) laser with high power output and the lowest SiN EC laser threshold to our knowledge. The device consists of a 250 μm sized reflective semiconductor optical amplifier butt-coupled to a passive chip based on a series of SiN Bragg gratings acting as narrow reflectors. A threshold of 12 mA has been achieved, with a typical side-mode suppression ratio of 45 dB and measured power output higher than 3 mW.

Low loss poly-silicon for high performance capacitive silicon modulators.

Optical properties of poly-silicon material are investigated to be integrated in new silicon photonics devices, such as capacitive modulators. Test structure fabrication is done on 300 mm wafer using LPCVD deposition: 300 nm thick amorphous silicon layers are deposited on thermal oxide, followed by solid phase crystallization anneal. Rib waveguides are fabricated and optical propagation losses measured at 1.

Integrated waveguide PIN photodiodes exploiting lateral Si/Ge/Si heterojunction.

Germanium photodetectors are considered to be mature components in the silicon photonics device library. They are critical for applications in sensing, communications, or optical interconnects. In this work, we report on design, fabrication, and experimental demonstration of an integrated waveguide PIN photodiode architecture that calls upon lateral double Silicon/Germanium/Silicon (Si/Ge/Si) heterojunctions.

L-shaped fiber-chip grating couplers with high directionality and low reflectivity fabricated with deep-UV lithography.

Grating couplers enable position-friendly interfacing of silicon chips by optical fibers. The conventional coupler designs call upon comparatively complex architectures to afford efficient light coupling to sub-micron silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides. Conversely, the blazing effect in double-etched gratings provides high coupling efficiency with reduced fabrication intricacy.

Low voltage 25Gbps silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator in the O-band.

In this work, a 25 Gb ps silicon push-pull Mach-Zehnder modulator operating in the O-Band (1260 nm - 1360 nm) of optical communications and fabricated on a 300 mm platform is presented. The measured modulation efficiency (VπLπ) was comprised between 0.95 V cm and 1.

Simplified modeling and optimization of silicon modulators based on free-carrier plasma dispersion effect.

In this paper, a simplified model of silicon phase modulators is presented that enables favorable accuracy together with a substantial reduction in computational effort and without the requirement of semiconductor TCAD device simulation software. This permits fast optimization of the different parameters of a modulator. The model was successfully implemented in Phoenix Optodesigner optical software allowing the optimization of silicon phase shifters for different applications.

A 40 Gbit/s optical link on a 300-mm silicon platform.

We demonstrated 40 Gbit/s optical link by coupling a silicon (Si) optical modulator to a germanium (Ge) photo-detector from two separate photonic chips. The optical modulator was based on carrier depletion in a pn diode integrated in a 950-µm long Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The Ge photo-detector was a lateral pin diode butt coupled to a silicon waveguide.

Low loss 40 Gbit/s silicon modulator based on interleaved junctions and fabricated on 300 mm SOI wafers.

We demonstrate high-speed silicon modulators based on carrier depletion in interleaved pn junctions fabricated on 300 mm-SOI wafers using CMOS foundry facilities. 950 µm-long Mach Zehnder (MZ) and ring resonator (RR) modulator with a 100 µm radius, were designed, fabricated and characterized. 40 Gbit/s data transmission has been demonstrated for both devices.

Athlete's heart patterns in elite rugby players: effects of training specificities.

Background: Athlete's heart patterns have been widely described. However, to our knowledge, few studies have focused on professional rugby players, who train differently according to their field position.

Aim: To describe electrocardiographic and echocardiographic patterns observed in elite rugby players according to their field position.

Two novel missense mutations in FGD4/FRABIN cause Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 4H (CMT4H).

By sequencing of the FGD4 coding sequence in a cohort of 101 patients affected by autosomal recessive demyelinating Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), we have identified two novel missense mutations in FGD4 in two patients from consanguineous descent: p.Arg442His in an Algerian patient and p.Met566Ile in a Lebanese girl.

Applications of multi-walled carbon nanotube in electronic packaging.

Thermal management of integrated circuit chip is an increasing important challenge faced today. Heat dissipation of the chip is generally achieved through the die attach material and solders. With the temperature gradients in these materials, high thermo-mechanical stress will be developed in them, and thus they must also be mechanically strong so as to provide a good mechanical support to the chip.

Behavioral and molecular exploration of the AR-CMT2A mouse model Lmna (R298C/R298C).

In 2002, we identified LMNA as the first gene responsible for an autosomal recessive axonal form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, AR-CMT2A. All patients were found to be homozygous for the same mutation in the LMNA gene, p.Arg298Cys.

Efficacy and safety of Hylan G-F 20 in shoulder osteoarthritis with an intact rotator cuff. Open-label prospective multicenter study.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility, safety, and symptomatic efficacy of intra-articular Hylan G-F 20 in patients with shoulder osteoarthritis and an intact rotator cuff.

Methods: Open-label, prospective, multicenter study in patients with pain scores on a visual analog scale (VAS) between 40/100 and 90/100. An intra-articular injection of 2 ml of Hylan G-F 20 was given under fluoroscopic guidance.

High risk of adrenal insufficiency after a single articular steroid injection in athletes.

Purpose: To determine whether a single intra- or periarticular injection of corticosteroid for posttraumatic or microtraumatic articular injuries in young healthy subjects can induce a biological suppression of hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and reactivity.

Methods: Ten healthy young male athletes (aged 28.8 +/- 2.

Mutations in FGD4 encoding the Rho GDP/GTP exchange factor FRABIN cause autosomal recessive Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 4H.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disorders are a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of hereditary motor and sensory neuropathies characterized by muscle weakness and wasting, foot and hand deformities, and electrophysiological changes. The CMT4H subtype is an autosomal recessive demyelinating form of CMT that was recently mapped to a 15.8-Mb region at chromosome 12p11.

[Survey of cardiovascular risk assessment and the behaviour of a sporting population].

In order to better understand the risk factors and behaviour of a general sports population, a questionnaire was handed to 603 consecutive sportsmen of various disciplines during a specific sports medicine consultation and a half-marathon. Among the discovered risk factors, smoking was the most common (19.3% for the entire study population), predominantly in the youngest group (26%).