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In 2022, the FIFA World Cup has been scheduled to take place in Qatar in November and December, months which coincide with the in-season period of the European soccer season. This will be challenging for the staff of the participating national teams and the domestic clubs to which participating players are attached. The aim of this letter to the editor is to propose solutions on how to manage the associated challenges. Regular training and competition over the course of a season in European professional soccer is generally characterized by a pre-competition preparation period of five to six weeks, followed by two competition phases, interspersed with a winter break (Eliakim et al., 2018). Certain leagues such as the English Premier League do not typically have a winter break meaning that games are played almost continuously across the season. During World Cup years, there is usually an average of four to five weeks between the end of national domestic championships and the start of the World Cup tournament (Table 1, Figure 1) which traditionally takes place during the off-season period. However, in 2022, the FIFA World Cup has been scheduled to take place in November and December, months which coincide with the in-season period of the European soccer season (Figure 1). With the World Cup being staged during this part of the season, many national team players (notably those in the major European Leagues) will have just one week of preparation between the last match of their domestic leagues and the start of the World Cup tournament (November 20th, 2022). More precisely, the major European soccer leagues will interrupt match schedules between November 9th and 13th with differences in the number of games completed at this time of the season ranging from 14 to 17 across the various leagues (Table 2). The physical and mental demands placed on modern professional players have steadily risen over recent years due to an increase in the number of matches played during congested periods across the season (Anderson et al., 2016). Since the number of matches is not evenly distributed across the typical 40-week season, players can often compete in as many as three matches in a seven-day period. Aside from the physical and mental demands that are imposed during a match, players might experience insufficient recovery between these games; in part due to extensive travelling which can disrupt the sleep/wake cycle (Lastella et al., 2019). Indeed, poor quality of sleep and the stress induced by a match can negatively affect physical fitness and may even increase the risk of sustaining injuries and/or infections (Clemente et al., 2021) in the period leading up to the World Cup. National teams are composed of players from different leagues who have varying levels of exposure to match-play (e.g., starters, non-starters) in terms of the average weekly volume of soccer matches at their clubs (“Rapports - Observatoire du football CIES”). Moreover, both starters and non-starters are exposed to different external match and training loads (Anderson et al., 2016). External loads have previously been defined as the overall volume of activity that a player performs during both training sessions and matches (Ravé et al., 2020). There is evidence that this metric correlates with a player’s physical fitness status (Clemente et al., 2019) and their injury risk (Malone et al., 2017). Accordingly, it will be challenging for national teams to manage the fitness of players such that they are physically ready to play at the World Cup tournament. This is especially applicable to individuals who play in the major European leagues and we note a significant contrast between European match schedules and those on other continents. For example, in Major League Soccer (MLS) in North America, match schedules will be interrupted from November 5th, 15 days before the World Cup tournament begins. Similarly, in the Japanese J-League in Asia, Saudi Pro League and Qatar Star League, matches will be interrupted one month before the World Cup tournament begins, leaving more time for players on these continents to prepare. It is also important to note that the French, Spanish and English domestic championships will resume their match schedules on December 27th which is just ten days after the end of the World Cup (Figure 1). Clubs will clearly want their players to return uninjured and with sufficient fitness levels to resume domestic competition but these goals could be compromised by the aforementioned scheduling of the World Cup tournament.

Purpose: To investigate differences in athletes’ knowledge, beliefs, and training practices during COVID-19 lockdowns with reference to sport classification and sex. This work extends an initial descriptive evaluation focusing on athlete classification. Methods: Athletes (12,526; 66% male; 142 countries) completed an online survey (May–July 2020) assessing knowledge, beliefs, and practices toward training. Sports were classified as team sports (45%), endurance (20%), power/technical (10%), combat (9%), aquatic (6%), recreational (4%), racquet (3%), precision (2%), parasports (1%), and others (1%). Further analysis by sex was performed. Results: During lockdown, athletes practiced body-weight-based exercises routinely (67% females and 64% males), ranging from 50% (precision) to 78% (parasports). More sport-specific technical skills were performed in combat, parasports, and precision (∼50%) than other sports (∼35%). Most athletes (range: 50% [parasports] to 75% [endurance]) performed cardiorespiratory training (trivial sex differences). Compared to prelockdown, perceived training intensity was reduced by 29% to 41%, depending on sport (largest decline: ∼38% in team sports, unaffected by sex). Some athletes (range: 7%–49%) maintained their training intensity for strength, endurance, speed, plyometric, change-of-direction, and technical training. Athletes who previously trained ≥5 sessions per week reduced their volume (range: 18%–28%) during lockdown. The proportion of athletes (81%) training ≥60 min/session reduced by 31% to 43% during lockdown. Males and females had comparable moderate levels of training knowledge (56% vs 58%) and beliefs/attitudes (54% vs 56%). Conclusions: Changes in athletes’ training practices were sport-specific, with few or no sex differences. Team-based sports were generally more susceptible to changes than individual sports. Policy makers should provide athletes with specific training arrangements and educational resources to facilitate remote and/or home-based training during lockdown-type events.

The aim of this study is to determine the consumption of goat milk and dairy products according to the demographic characteristics of consumers residing in the urban areas of Ankara and to determine the factors affecting the buying and consuming behaviors of these products. Within the scope of the study, face-to-face questionnaires were conducted in supermarket chains with 269 consumers. The surveys were conducted in 9 districts of Ankara including Altındağ, Çankaya, Etimesgut, Gölbaşı, Keçiören, Mamak, Pursaklar, Sincan and Yenimahalle. The results of the research were analyzed with chi-square statistical method and cross table. Average monthly consumption of consumers was found to be 0.25 L for goat milk, 0.62 kg for goat cheese and 0.40 kg for goat ice cream. As a result of the chi-square analysis, the differences between consumption of goat cheese and ice cream with age distribution, consumption of goat milk and cheese with number of years in Ankara were found to be statistically significant. (P < 0.05). It is thought that the results will contribute to the studies aimed at increasing the consumption of goat milk and dairy products in Türkiye.

Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, where more than 80% of the population live in rural areas and depend on agriculture. Agricultural production in Niger depends on rainfall which is irregularly distributed in place and time; thus, causing food deficit or food insecurity. To deal with these constraints and find a remedy to the precariousness of food insecurity, the focus is on irrigated agriculture where the purpose of the study is entitled "contribution of small-scale irrigation to reduce poverty". The main objective of this study was to analyse the economic and social impact of small-scale irrigation investment in the reduction of poverty. The municipality of Dabaga in Niger was selected as a case study. The specific objectives were to characterize the cropping systems practised by the farmers; calculate the gross margin of agricultural production (for the main crops grown); draw up the cereal balance sheet and the farm producers' operating account. Thus, surveys were conducted in the study area where 174 farmers were randomly selected. After that, the farmers were classified into two categories according to the main cultivated culture. Descriptive statistics and econometric correlation tests (Pearson method) were used for data analysis. It emerges from this study that this irrigated agriculture, which is of semi-intensive type, is dominated by the practice of polyculture. It involves the entire surveyed population, which had a negative cereal balance sheet but provides, for 82.18% of the farmers, a satisfactory net monetary income, above the country's monetary poverty line.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the selected performance adaptations of amateur soccer players to 2 different running-based sprint interval training (SIT) protocols with different recovery intervals and work-rest ratios (1:5 & 1:1). Twenty-three subjects (age 21.4±1.1 years; height 175.4±4.7 cm; body mass 69±6.4 kg) participated in the study. Before the 6-weeks training period, participants completed 3-weeks of low-intensity training preparation. Subsequently, the pre-tests (anthropometric measurements, repeated sprint test [12×20-m with 30-s recovery intervals], Yo-YoIRT1 & Yo-YoIRT2 and treadmill VO2max test) were conducted. Thereafter, participants were randomly divided into 3 sub-groups (1 - SIT with 150 s recovery intervals [SIT150, n = 8]; 2 - SIT with 30 s recovery intervals [SIT30, n = 7]; and 3 - control group [CG, n = 8]). SIT150 and SIT30 training groups completed sprint interval training (2-days/week; 30-s all-out running, 6-10 repetition with 150 s recovery intervals for SIT150 and 30 s for SIT30 groups, respectively), a soccer match (1-day) and routine soccer training (3-days) per week. The CG attended only routine training sessions and the soccer-match (4-days). The study experiments and the trainings were conducted during off-season. Yo-YoIRT1, Yo-YoIRT2, and VO2max were significantly improved both in SIT30 and SIT150 (p < 0.05) groups. Yo-YoIRT1 and VO2max were also significantly improved in CG (p < 0.05). Both the SIT150 and SIT30 training were shown to improve Yo-YoIRT1, Yo-YoIRT2 and VO2max performance compared to the control group, nevertheless, SIT150 was more efficient in improving the Yo-YoIRT1, Yo-YoIRT2 than SIT30. The authors of this study suggest using SIT150 to induce more effective performance outputs in amateur soccer players. © 2023 Institute of Sport. All rights reserved.

The friction stir welding (FSW) process has been developed to obtain good joint mechanical and process properties. The development of FSW for lap joint manufacturing will expand the number of applications that can benefit from this technology. In this paper, experimental methods were performed on FSW lap joints, including interface morphology and mechanical properties. Microhardness measurements, lap shear testing, resulting material flow, and the effect of flow variation on the next mechanical properties of FSW butt lap joints in aluminum alloy 3003. The study also presents the effect of different parameters welding on the quality of lap joints. The hardness in the welded region gives importance to the influence of the studied parameters on the different zones of the weld. The fracture shows the characteristics of ductile-brittle mixed fracture.

SummaryCortical GABAergic interneurons (INs) represent a diverse population of mainly locally projecting cells that provide specialized forms of inhibition to pyramidal neurons and other INs. Most recent work on INs has focused on subtypes distinguished by expression of Parvalbumin (PV), Somatostatin (SST), or Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide (VIP). However, a fourth group that includes neurogliaform cells (NGFCs) has remained enigmatic due to a lack of genetic tools. Here, we show that these INs can be accessed experimentally using intersectional genetics with the geneId2. We find that outside of layer 1 (L1), the majority of Id2 INs are NGFCs that express high levels of neuropeptide Y (NPY) and exhibit a late-spiking firing pattern, with extensive local connectivity. While much sparser, non-NGFC Id2 INs had more variable properties, with most cells corresponding to a diverse group of INs that strongly expresses the neuropeptide CCK.In vivo, using silicon probe recordings, we observed several distinguishing aspects of NGFC activity, including a strong rebound in activity immediately following the cortical down state during NREM sleep. Our study provides insights into IN diversity and NGFC distribution and properties, and outlines an intersectional genetics approach for further study of this neglected group of INs.

Faced with the ever-increasing complexity, volume and dynamism of online information, recommendation systems are among the solutions that anticipate the needs of users and offer them items (articles, products, web pages, etc.) that they are likely to appreciate. Unlike traditional recommendation models, deep learning offers a better understanding of user requests, characteristics of objects, historical interactions between them and it can process massive amounts of data. In this work we realize a recommendation system based on MLP deep learning adapted to data already defined by their characteristics. In addition to the use of deep learning, we offer a new hybrid recommendation system solution between the demographic approach and the content-based approach in order to eliminate the limits of each and to combine their strengths, through a deep neural network that harnesses the mass of data. "Experimentation with our approach has produced good results in terms of accuracy and speed, whether through the use of deep learning or the hybridization of content-based and demographic filtering, which is a particular case of collaborative filtering., International Journal of Information Science and Technology, Vol 6 No 3 (2022)