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The purpose of this research work is to highlight the contribution that a motor and sports practice such as Paddle can provide during a particular period like the current one, marked by the presence of the COVID-19 virus which negatively affects the development of social, relational, and educational aspects of any person practicing this sport. This paper aims to highlight the educational importance of the movement through the sports discipline of Paddle, especially in a negative period like the one we are going through, due to the health and social pandemic of "Corona Virus".

Guarana (Paullinia cupana) is a rainforest vine that was domesticated in the Amazon for its caffeine-rich fruits. Each fruit contains from one to three seeds which, properly dried, give rise to a brown paste with a bitter taste. The Food and Drug Administration generally recognizes guarana as safe, although there are no established dosages and it is unclear how much guarana is in each drink, because many companies do not list a milligram amount. The increasing number of energy drink with caffeine-related clearly shows that there seems to be a real risk for adverse health effects such as arrhythmias. However, under moderate use and without combining other stimulants or alcohol, the risk for such side effects seem negligible. Anyway, there is an overwhelming lack of evidence to substantiate claims that guarana contribute to the enhancement of physical or cognitive performance. Additional well-designed, randomized, placebo-controlled studies are needed in order to assess claims made for this product and further elucidate potential adverse effects.

The Italian primary school, among its institutional teachings, requires the presence of motor and sports education, and a teacher that is specialized and competent in this discipline. Starting from this hypothesis, this research work sets itself the objective of identifying both an innovative and effective didactic-pedagogical program for the school context, and an appropriate evaluation approach consistent with the motor, socio-relational and educational objectives pursued through motor and sports sciences. Through the experimental program "Sport in Classe", the research was carried out directly in the primary school context and allowed to meet the set objectives and highlight the importance that the graduate in motor sciences could assume in the Italian primary school.

The world of sport is continually changing and the use of technology is one of those areas that has made an impact on many sports and on health promotion. The aim of this work is to establish, through a bibliometric analysis, whether and how technology can change the way of doing sport, favouring health promotion. The study develops a bibliometric overview of all the journals that are currently indexed in Web of Science (WoS) database in any of the categories connected health-technology-sport research. The research has studied the influential concepts and themes in the field of health promotion through technological innovations in sport. The analysis was conducted using the frequency of keywords and citations from the articles published between 2000 and 2018. The work identifies the leading journals in health research through a bibliometric approach. The analysis shows a deep overview of the results of health journals. It is worth noting that many journals have entered the WoS database during the last years, in many cases to fill some specific niche that has emerged in the literature, although the most popular ones have been in the database for a long time.

The educational role of sport in the various socio-relational contexts is now an internationally consolidated reality; however, in the Italian school context, especially at primary level, sports activity still does not have the possibility to express all its pedagogical potential. In this regard, this research work aims at proving the ability to develop indispensable skills for a complete growth of children, through a pedagogical experimental project in the field of motor-sports education at school level. This research work involves a heterogeneous class of a primary school, and was carried out within a limited period of time during school hours. Its outcomes confirm the basic hypothesis, and are proposed as a solid basis for future studies in experimental pedagogy applied to the field of motor and sports sciences.

Skeletal muscle is an extremely plastic tissue for its ability to respond to different stimuli such as physiological variation and external stress. Muscle hypertrophy involves an increase in muscle mass, changes in myofibril composition and adaptation of metabolic pathways. Plasticity of skeletal muscle in response to exercise training is also caused by proliferation and differentiation of the satellite muscle stem cells in response to various growth and differentiation factors. This process is mainly mediated by myokines secreted during skeletal muscle contraction. Myokines are proteins that act as hormones both locally in the muscle and/or in an endocrine manner in other organs, mainly liver, brain and adipose tissue. Myostatin, known as growth differentiation factor-8, a myokine member of transforming growth factor-b (TGF-b) superfamily, can act on muscle cells in an autocrine manner leading to inhibition of muscle myogenesis. Muscle myostatin expression and its plasma concentration are downregulated after acute and long-term physical exercise thus allowing muscle hypertrophy. In addition, myostatin is correlated to obesity and insulin resistance for its ability to affect energy metabolism and insulin-sensitivity in muscle cells, respectively. These findings reveal that myostatin may have potential therapeutic applications to treat muscle atrophy diseases in humans. Even in sports, drugs able to inhibit myostatin expression can lead athletes to increase their sport performance. Here, we present a brief overview of myostatin and its role in biological mechanisms involved in exercise-induced plasticity of skeletal muscle.

Human health implies complex mechanisms and involves diseases prevention aimed at ensuring a psycho-physical wellbeing homoeostasis. The search for longevity can be related to the slowdown in aging, and psycho-physical wellbeing is often related to the lifestyle, mainly to the human physical activity and nutrition. Circadian rhythms are processes that affect the behaviour, physiology and metabolism of mammals across cyclic periods of 24 hours. These rhythms are regulated by multiple physiological systems, whose key elements are the alternation between light and dark and between food consumption and periods of fasting. Therefore, during evolution, a constant adaptation to natural rhythms by humans has been established towards the surrounding environment determining periods of food consumption and periods of fasting coinciding with rest. Recent sociological surveys have shown that there is a slight increase in the number of people who devote themselves to a constant physical/sport activity, but this is an ephemeral percentage compared to the dramatic increase in the incidence of diseases related to aging such as obesity and diabetes, easily preventable with healthy lifestyles. Therefore, the connection between circadian rhythms, physical activity and lifestyles represents an important feature involved in human longevity. Here, a survive of the biological mechanisms, implied in this behaviour, is presented.

Motor and sports education supports a fundamental element in the educational growth of each child, and guarantees the acquisition of motor and pedagogical-relational skills, essential for an effective social integration of children in the surrounding environment. Therefore, school should be the main place where these skills are learned, especially at primary level; in this regard, this research contribution aims at evaluating the progresses of a sample class, which is given an experimental motor and sports design in order to obtain a pedagogical progress. The pursued outcomes are proposed both as a starting point for future scientific research in the educational field, and as a valid support for requesting pedagogical proposals from the decision makers of the education and training system.

The concept of well-being can be now extended to all social environments that provide a relational system between the various individuals, and among these environments, one of the most important is certainly school. The purpose of this contribution is to show the concept of school well-being and then analyze if an experimental proposal of a sports laboratory could be an effective pedagogical strategy, capable of improving the level of well-being for students. In this regard, at primary school level, a laboratory activity on water polo was provided, and through the QBS-B questionnaire, the change in the level of school well-being perceived by the students, from the "pre" Laboratory period to the "post" one, was assessed.