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Global scenarios of organizations show investments wasted in projects with poor performances in more than 11 percent of cases, according to the Project Management Institute. This research aims to guide organizations in assertively investing in the right pertinent factors to improve project success rates and speed up project management maturity at a higher accuracy level using statistical predictions. Challenging existing drivers for project management maturity models and expanding their current practical view will be the result of a quantitative methodology based on a survey supported by data collection targeting the project management community in Brazil. The originality and value of this research are in contributing to the development of new project maturity models statistically supported by the increasing rate of maturity accuracy, which can be continually improved by confident data input into the model. The results show a high correlation between the performance measurement system and the project success rate associated with project management maturity. In addition, this research contemplates the relationship between organizational culture, business type, and project management office and project management maturity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guerra, MA Jr, Caldas, LA, Souza, HL, Tallis, J, Duncan, MJ, and Guimarães-Ferreira, L. The effects of physical fitness on postactivation potentiation in professional soccer athletes. J Strength Cond Res 36(6): 1643–1647, 2022—To investigate the relationship of the response to postactivation potentiation (PAP) with scores of physical fitness. Twenty-four professional male soccer players undertook tests of agility, muscular power, aerobic capacity, and body composition. Conditioning activities (CAs) were performed consisting of plyometrics exercises and sprints with sled towing. In the first and second sessions, body composition, agility, power, and aerobic capacity were assessed. At the third session, countermovement jumps (CMJ) were performed with 1, 3, and 5 minutes after the execution of the CA. Significant differences were found for CMJ height 1, 3, and 5 minutes after the CA compared with baseline values (3.58, 5.10, 5.48%, respectively). There was a significant positive correlation between the level of general physical fitness and PAP (CMJ height increase) 5 minutes after (r = 0.73). When the athletes were divided into groups with higher and lower physical fitness, the CA caused a significant increase in CMJ height in both groups, but a significant difference (p < 0.05) was observed at all times after PAP induction, with better performance in higher versus lower fitness level. The results suggest that plyometrics exercises associated with sled towing sprints as a CA result in an increase in CMJ performance in athletes and that physical fitness directly influences the PAP occurrence, with higher fit players demonstrating an enhanced PAP response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim was to verify the efficiency of different glycerol concentrations (1%, 3%, and 5%) for cryopreservation of stallion semen. After semen collection, sperm cells were evaluated for motility and acrosin activity. The semen was divided into three equal parts and resuspended in freezing diluent without glycerol in a 1:1 proportion and were incubated for 20 minutes at room temperature. Immediately after centrifugation for 10 minutes at 600g and discarding the supernatant, each pellet was diluted with the same diluent and further centrifuged for 10 minutes. After the second centrifugation, each pellet received freezing glycerol-containing diluent under concentrations of 1%, 3%, and 5% and was loaded in 4mL macro-tubes. These macro-tubes were placed in liquid nitrogen vapor for 15 minutes for immediate immersion in liquid nitrogen and storage at -196°C. After thawing at 50°C for 40 seconds, semen samples were initially evaluated for sperm motility and acrosin activity. Moreover, semen was also incubated at 37ºC and evaluated for sperm motility after 60 and 120 minutes in a thermoresistance test (TRT). Immediately after thawing and during the TRT, both progressive and total sperm motility was lower in 1% glycerol (P0.05) between these two later concentrations. The acrosin activity in fresh semen was only greater (P0.05) between these later glycerol concentrations. In conclusion, based on sperm motility and acrosin activity, that 3% and 5% glycerol concentrations are suitable for stallion semen cryopreservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The addition of antioxidants to semen cryopreservation extenders has been employed for combating oxidative damage. This work aimed to evaluate the addition of carotenoid canthaxanthin to a cryopreservation extender of ram semen. Three breeder rams were used and, after semen collection, with 48-hour intervals between collection, the samples were included in the pool formation ( n = 6). The experimental groups comprised 0 (control), 0.1, 1, 10, and 25 μM of canthaxanthin. After thawing (37°C/30 s) and incubation at 37°C for 2 hours, semen aliquots from each group were evaluated for sperm kinetics (CASA), the integrity of the plasma and acrosomal membranes (iPAM), intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and lipid peroxidation (LPO) by flow cytometry associated with the image. The control group and canthaxanthin 1 μM after incubation at 37°C for 2 hours showed increases of curvilinear velocity and amplitude of lateral head displacement with decreases of linearity, straightness, and wobble ( p < 0.05), which were not observed for the canthaxanthin 10 and 25 μM. The supplementation of a Tris-egg yolk extender with canthaxanthin had no effect on the iPAM, intracellular ROS production in viable spermatozoa, or LPO. In conclusion, supplementation with 10 and 25 μM of canthaxanthin in a Tris-egg yolk extender used for ram semen cryopreservation is able to protect ovine sperm from kinetic changes after incubation at 37°C for 2 hours post-thawing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beneficiation of manganese ores has been conducted around the world by circuits composed basically of crushing, screening and spiral classifier. Therefore, solely the coarse size fractions (and commonly the richest) are actually recovered: "lump" (-75+9mm) and "sinter feed" (-9+0.15mm). In the industrial plant which processes the ore from the Azul Mine-PA, the overflow of the spiral classifier (- 0.15mm) is disposed of in a tailings dam because it bears a low Mn content (<10%) and high kaolinite content (70%). This paper reports the findings of a process development conducted on laboratory scale with the aim of concentrating Mn-bearing minerals from the tailings of the Azul Mine-PA (7% of Mn and 70% of kaolinite). The process is composed of desliming (-10µm), followed by reverse cationic flotation of kaolinite (rougher, scavenger) at pH~5. Results indicate that the reverse cationic flotation in the acid medium, when utilizing amide amine as collector and in the presence of a silicate activator and a dispersing agent could be a possible route for the concentration of tailings that had previously been deslimed at 10µm. The results yielded a mass recovery of 18%, a metallurgical recovery of 50% and a 32% Mn concentrate which may be mixed with current high grade products, increasing the overall recovery of the plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Resveratrol as a protective agent of goat sperm submitted to sex sorting in discontinuous Percoll gradient - preliminary results" by Ellen C. B. Silva and colleagues is presented.

An abstract of the article "Cryopreservation of ram epididymis spermatozoa post-slaughter - A feasible biotechnique?" by Sildivane Silva, Felipe Almeida and colleagues is presented.

Objective: To outline the epidemiological profile of tibial fractures treated in a tertiary hospital and explore associations between the characteristics of the fractures and the clinical outcome of postoperative complications., Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional study involving adult patients diagnosed with tibial fractures who underwent surgical and/or conservative treatment in a tertiary hospital between January 2019 and December 2021. The variables sex, age, mechanism of injury, type and classification of fracture, associated injuries, personal history, length of hospital stay, surgical treatment, post-surgical complications (infections, loss of synthesis material, surgical wound dehiscence) and death., Results: The sample consisted of 100 individuals, with an average age of 35.8 years, 86% of whom were male, with a higher prevalence of motorcycle accidents. The most common treatment was intramedullary stem, and type C fractures, which are more complex, were more associated with complications., Conclusion: Given the predominance of motorcycle accidents involving young people, there is a need for intervention in accident prevention policies, aiming to reduce the incidence, as well as the morbidity and mortality, of these individuals and, consequently, to reduce costs to the health system. Level of evidence III, Retrospective Study. , Competing Interests: All authors declare no potential conflict of interest related to this article.

The objective of this study was to investigate the need of seminal plasma removal for short-term cooling of buck semen in soybean lecithin (SL) based extender. Each pool was divided equally, and one half was subjected to centrifugation to remove seminal plasma (SP-), while the other half remained with seminal plasma (SP+). Then, both SP+ and SP- samples were diluted in two SL extenders (extender A = 1% SL; extender B = 2% SL), cooled to 5ºC and stored for 48 hours. The sperm kinetics, evaluated by CASA, and plasma membrane integrity (PMI), acrosomal integrity (ACI) and high mitochondrial membrane potential (HMMP), evaluated by epifluorescence microscopy, were determined within five minutes after reaching 5°C (T0), as well as after 24 (T24) and 48 (T48) hours of storage. Interactions (seminal plasma vs. extender vs. time;) were observed for all variables assessed. Total and progressive motility and other variables of sperm kinetics decreased after 24 hours of cooling in the SP+ group, and after 48 hours of storage, these same variables were lower in SP+/B compared to SP-/B groups. Furthermore, SP+ reduced PMI (extender B, T48), HMMP (A and B extenders, T48) and ACI (extender A, T0) compared to SP- samples. The interactions between seminal plasma and soybean lecithin phospholipids seemed to occur in a time-dependent manner. It was concluded that the removal of seminal plasma improves the quality of goat semen that was cooled in a soybean lecithin-based extender, especially when using 2% soybean lecithin., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: nothing to declare., (Copyright © The Author(s).)

Background: Aerobic exercise is an important ally in the fight against cardiovascular risk factors. However, the effects of high-intensity exercise on these factors are still poorly known., Objective: To compare the effects of aerobic and anaerobic exercise protocols on cardiac risk factors., Methods: 22 individuals with mean age of 40+/-8 years were distributed into the following groups: control (CO), endurance training (ET) and interval training (IT). The protocols lasted 12 weeks, three times a week, with intensities of 10% below and 20% above the anaerobic threshold (AnT). The following measurements were taken: total body mass (TBM), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), and body composition, in addition to plasma concentrations of glucose (GLU), total cholesterol (CHO), and triglycerides (TG). Waist-hip ratio (WHR) and conicity index (C index) were also calculated., Results: The TBM, BMI, WC, GLU, and body composition variables showed significant changes in the ET and IT groups. CHO and HC values were significantly reduced in the ET group, whereas WHR showed a significant reduction in the IT group. AnT and C index in the IT group were significantly different in relation to ET., Conclusion: In view of the differences found in the results of the variables studied in relation to the training performed, we conclude that an exercise program that includes both high and low-intensity activities is more efficient to ensure the reduction of a greater number of cardiac risk variables.