Background: Heart rate variability (HRV), respiratory rate (RR), and resting heart rate (RHR) are common variables measured by wrist-worn activity trackers to monitor health, fitness, and recovery in athletes. Variations in RR are observed in lower-respiratory infections, and preliminary data suggest changes in HRV and RR are linked to early detection of COVID-19 infection in nonathletes. Hypothesis: Wearable technology measuring HRV, RR, RHR, and recovery will be successful for early detection of COVID-19 in NCAA Division I female athletes. Study Design: Cohort study. Level of Evidence: Level 2. Methods: Female athletes wore WHOOP, Inc. bands through the 2020 to 2021 competitive season. Of the athletes who tested positive for COVID (n = 33), 14 had enough data to be assessed (N = 14; 20.0 ± 1.3 years; 69.8 ± 7.2 kg; 172.0 ± 8.3 cm). Roughly 2 weeks of noninfected days were used to set baseline levels of HRV, RR, recovery, and RHR to compare with -3, -2, and -1 days before a positive COVID-19 result. Results: Increases in RR ( P = 0.02) were detected on day -3. RHR ( P < 0.01) and RR increased ( P < 0.01), while HRV decreased ( P < 0.05) on day -1, compared with baseline. Differences were noted in all variables on the day of the positive COVID-19 result: decreased HRV ( P < 0.05) and recovery scores ( P < 0.01), and increased RHR ( P < 0.01) and RR ( P < 0.01). Conclusion: In female athletes, wearable technology was successful in predicting COVID-19 infection through changes in RR 3 days before a positive test, and also HRV and RHR the day before a positive test. Clinical Relevance: Wearable technology may be used, as part of a multifaceted approach, for the early detection of COVID-19 in elite athletes through monitoring of HRV, RR, and RHR for overall team health.

IntroductionIn establishing historical benchmarks for success on the pitch and striving to achieve parity off it, the United States Women's National Team (USWNT) and the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) have long served as standard bearers for professional women's soccer around the globe. However, off-field dilemmas and incessant juxtapositions to men's soccer frequently overshadow the elements that make U.S. women's soccer unique; that is, in the quest to expose and rid the women's game of blatant misconduct, discriminatory practices, and negative stereotypes, relatively little attention has been devoted to performance features that separate the U.S. women's soccer product from its competition. Because many of the issues hindering the progress of women's soccer are rooted in media and managerial practices that marginalize or ignore its positive traits, a need exists for analyses that will properly identify its innate characteristics and competitive advantages so that media members, managers, and fans can accurately frame their perceptions of women competing in the sport.MethodsTo this end, we collected reliable samples of public event data from 560 professional soccer matches and used ANOVAs and t-tests to identify the characteristics that distinguish U.S. women's soccer from other professional leagues and teams.Results and DiscussionIn doing so, we showed that the USWNT tends to shoot from more opportune areas and press opponents at a higher rate, and that the NWSL has recently been matched in quality across certain performance metrics by England's FA Women's Super League.

The goal of NASA along with other space agencies in the world is to send manned missions to the moon in the coming years, and eventually to Mars. The long‐term health risks of spaceflight have been attributed primarily to cosmic radiation and microgravity and the adverse effects as seen in the astronauts and model animals include DNA damage, mitochondrial dysregulation, oxidative damage, epigenetic changes, telomere length changes and microbiome shifts all of which affect the cardiovascular system. However, little is known about the effect of spaceflight on erectile function which is an important quality of life aspect for men. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of simulated long duration space flight on erectile function. We hypothesized that both hindlimb unloading (HLU) and radiation will adversely affect erectile function. 86 adult male Sprague‐Dawley rats were used for these studies. Half the animals underwent 4 weeks of HLU, and all animals were divided into 3 groups: those that received sham radiation, 0.75 Gy, and 1.5 Gy galactic cosmic radiation, respectively at the Ground‐based GCR simulator at the NASA Space Radiation laboratory. The animals were then monitored for 6‐9 months before they were sacrificed, following which Corpus cavernosum (CC) and the distal internal pudendal arteries (dIPA) were harvested and used for ex vivo functional assessment. Tissue and wire myography studies were performed to assess adrenergic and endothelium‐dependent vasoconstrictions using phenylephrine (PE), norepinephrine, and endothelin. This was done by measuring the cumulative dose‐responses to the agonists in both the CC and dIPA. Endothelium‐dependent and ‐independent relaxations were also assessed using acetylcholine and diethylamine nononate. Non‐adrenergic non‐cholinergic (NANC) transmission was assessed using electrical stimulation (Estim); 30V electric pulses were delivered to the tissues with frequency ranging from 1‐32Hz following the administration of atropine and guanethidine and pre‐constriction with PE. Finally, Estim was done without atropine and guanethidine to assess the parasympathetic mediated relaxation in the tissues. The effects of HLU and radiation on the contractile and relaxation responses were assessed by two‐way repeated measures ANOVA. HLU and radiation significantly reduced both endothelium‐dependent and ‐independent vasodilatation in the dIPA and CC. Also, HLU and radiation significantly reduced the adrenergic constriction of CC in response to PE and norepinephrine. However, neither HLU nor radiation influenced the endothelium‐dependent vasoconstriction in the dIPA. Finally, radiation reduced the relaxation in both CC and dIPA while HLU increased the dIPA relaxation following Estim for both the parasympathetic mediated and NANC mediated responses. These results therefore showed the effects of HLU and radiation on erectile function, with exposure to cosmic radiation being primarily responsible for the detrimental effects. Further research needs to be done on this subject to sho...