INFLUENCE OF SQUAT TRAINING ON LOWER LIMB MUSCULAR STRENGTH IN KUNG FU ATHLETES

ABSTRACT Introduction Aerobic and anaerobic skills are essential characteristics in Kung Fu competitions. Research concerning their repercussions on athletes’ body composition has gained emphasis due to increased sports competitiveness. Squat training is used in martial arts, but there are no reports about the results in kung fu practitioners. Objective Investigate the effects of squat training on lower limb strength in Kung Fu athletes. Methods 18 martial arts athletes were randomly divided into dynamic preparation activities with stretching (control), squat and half-squat exercises. Results The paired T-test result of the control subjects was P=0.578, and the paired squat test result, relative to the control group, before and after the experiment was P=0.164. The power gain in the body posture trained with squat was 24.14 z 9.81KG, and in the half squat was 23.10±11.75KG. The strength gain in the body posture with half squat is 29.75±10.79KG versus 20.59±12.59KG in the squat test. Conclusion After six weeks of training, both the squat and half squat groups significantly improved the maximum results of the lower limb strength tests. The muscular strength of athletes is improved throughout the range of motion, reducing the injury risk on the athletes. Evidence Level II; Therapeutic Studies - Investigating the result.</div

Computational Investigation of Structural and Thermodynamic Properties of Beta-Barrel Membrane Proteins

Transmembrane (TM) proteins are important as they serve as gateways to permit substance transport or signaling transduction between interior and exterior of cells. Beta barrel membrane proteins (beta MPs) are one major type of TM proteins. They are solely found in the outer membranes of Gram-negative bacteria, mitochondria, and chloroplast. Beta MPs serve a multitude of essential cellular functions, including reaction catalysis, protein anchoring, metabolite transportation, and outer-membrane biogenesis. In bacteria, beta MPs are also found to be responsible for the release of virulence factors and are implicated in multidrug resistance. Dysfunctional beta MPs in mitochondria are also related to neurodegenerative diseases. The effective pore formation ability and the high stability in the membrane of beta MPs grant them huge potential in bionanotechnology. Beta MPs have drawn increasing attention in their promising application, including protein profiling, DNA sequencing, and small molecule detection. In order to investigate the roles of beta MPs in biological and pathological processes and to engineer or to design novel beta MPs for biotechnical applications, it is critical for us to understand structural and thermodynamical properties of beta MPs. Despite importance of beta MPs in biology and nanotechnology, limited availability of beta MP structures hinders understanding of their structural properties and structure-function relationship. It was estimated that there exist hundreds of beta MPs in each Gram-negative bacterium genome, while there are only around 60 non-homologous structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank when this study was conducted. This lack is due to the great difficulty of experimental determination of TM protein structures because of their amphipathic nature. It is therefore important to develop accurate and efficient computational structure prediction methods for these proteins. We have developed a method to predict the 3D structures of beta MPs. We predict strand registers and construct 3D structures of TM domains of beta MPs accurately, including proteins for which no prediction has been attempted before. Our method also accurately predicts structures from protein families with a limited number of sequences and proteins with novel folds. An average mainchain RMSD of 3.48A is achieved between predicted and experimentally resolved structures of TM domains, which is a significant improvement over a recent study. For beta MPs with NMR structures, the deviation between predictions and experimentally solved structures is similar to the difference among the NMR structures, indicating excellent prediction accuracy. Moreover, we can now accurately model the extended beta-barrels and loops in non-TM domains, increasing the overall coverage of structure prediction by 30%. In additional to structural properties, it is also important to characterize thermodynamical properties of beta MPs, which is important to understand their folding and stability, and may help in understanding the structure-function relationship. Free energy of transferring amino acid sidechains from aqueous environment into lipid bilayers, known as transfer free energy (TFE), provides important information on the thermodynamic stability of membrane proteins. However, experimental measurement of TFEs of beta MPs is challenging. A recent computational method has been developed to calculate TFEs, the results of which are in excellent agreement with experimentally measured values. However, the method does not scale up, and is limited to small beta MPs. We have improved this method and developed an approximation method, which is comparably accurate but much faster than the original method. The new method enables the calculation of TFEs of all beta MP regardless of the size of the proteins. With this method, we derived a TFE profile named General Transfer Free Energy Profile (GeTFEP) based on computation of the TFEs of 58 beta MPs. The GeTFEP agrees well with experimentally measured and computationally derived TFEs. Analysis based on the GeTFEP shows that residues in different regions of the TM segments of beta MPs have different roles during the membrane insertion process. Results further reveal the importance of the sequence pattern of TM strands in stabilizing beta MPs in the membrane environment. In addition, we show that GeTFEP can be used to predict the positioning and the orientation of beta MPs in the membrane. We also show that GeTFEP can be used to identify structurally or functionally important amino acid residue sites of beta MPs. Furthermore, the TM segments of helical membrane proteins can be accurately predicted with GeTFEP, suggesting that the GeTFEP captures fundamental thermodynamic properties of amino acid residues inside membrane, and is of general applicability in studying membrane protein. The methods reported in this thesis require only sequence information, implying their general applications to genome-wide studies. The structure prediction and the TFE characterization methods provide ways to investigate properties of novel beta MPs without conducting expensive wet lab experiments. They will also be useful in bionanotechnologies such as engineering existing beta MPs and in design novel ones

The complete mitochondrial genome of <i>Mesogobio lachneri</i> (Cypriniformes: Gobionidae) from Northeast Asia

Although Mesogobio lachneri is the type species of the genus Mesogobio, its systematic position and status have remained unresolved to date. In this study, for the first time, we report the complete mitochondrial genome of M. lachneri using Sanger sequencing. It is a circular genome with a length of 16,602 bp, comprising 22 tRNAs, 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two rRNAs, and one non-coding control region. Our phylogenetic analysis reveals that M. lachneri is the close relative of the genus Gobio, indicating that Mesogobio may be a valid genus.</p

Regioisomerism in the Synthesis of a Chiral Aminotetralin Drug Compound: Unraveling Mechanistic Details and Diastereomer-Specific In-Depth NMR Investigations

During chemical process development of a novel 2-aminotetralin derivative intended for use as an antidepressant, scrutiny of the byproduct present in the drug molecule revealed a set of regioisomers. Detailed studies showed that this impurity issue originated from an early synthetic step in which a brominated tetralone motif was generated in a ring-closing protocol. It was found that this reaction was accompanied by a migration of the aromatic bromo substituent via different bromonium species along two discrete pathways. This example of the halogen dance reaction resulted in the formation of a series of tetralone impurities with a bromine distributed across all available aromatic positions of the tetralin nucleus. Subsequently, when subjected to reductive amination conditions, each of these tetralones gave rise to pairs of aminotetralins in a diastereomeric relationship. NMR investigations revealed that the alicyclic portion of the compounds thus formed displayed very complex signal patterns, which required further in-depth studies using a variety of sophisticated techniques. As a result, a deep insight into the structural features of the current 2-aminotetralin family was obtained, which is emphasized by the definition of a novel “0.2 ppm rule” allowing the absolute configuration at tetralin C-2 to be determined

Supplemental Material - Robot-assisted retractor in spine surgery: Preliminary evaluation of its feasibility and two operation mode in beagles

Supplemental Material for Robot-assisted retractor in spine surgery: Preliminary evaluation of its feasibility and two operation mode in beagles by Yuzhen Jiang, Lei Xiang, Da He and Wei Tian in Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery</p

Comparison of the outpatient and inpatient service changes associated of the zero-markup policy implemented in Dec 2012 at the Jishuitan Hospital at Xinjiekou campus, Beijing, China.

Comparison of the outpatient and inpatient service changes associated of the zero-markup policy implemented in Dec 2012 at the Jishuitan Hospital at Xinjiekou campus, Beijing, China.</p

CASTp 3.0: Computed Atlas of Surface Topography of proteins

Geometric and topological properties of protein structures, including surface pockets, interior cavities and cross channels, are of fundamental importance for proteins to carry out their functions. Computed Atlas of Surface Topography of proteins (CASTp) is a web server that provides online services for locating, delineating and measuring these geometric and topological properties of protein structures. It has been widely used since its inception in 2003. In this article, we present the latest version of the web server, CASTp 3.0. CASTp 3.0 continues to provide reliable and comprehensive identifications and quantifications of protein topography. In addition, it now provides: (i) imprints of the negative volumes of pockets, cavities and channels, (ii) topographic features of biological assemblies in the Protein Data Bank, (iii) improved visualization of protein structures and pockets, and (iv) more intuitive structural and annotated information, including information of secondary structure, functional sites, variant sites and other annotations of protein residu

Trends in the outpatient and inpatient services of Jishuitan Hospital at Xinjiekou campus, Beijing, China (JST) and tertiary hospitals of Beijing, China (BJT).

^: a significant trend identified (P<0.05); APC: Annual percentage change; RMOH: Ratio medicine over health charges. Physician workloads: average annual patient-visit number per day for outpatient service and average patient-bed number per day for inpatient service, respectively.</p

Descriptive Analysis on the Impacts of Universal Zero-Markup Drug Policy on a Chinese Urban Tertiary Hospital

<div><p>Background</p><p>Universal Zero-Markup Drug Policy (UZMDP) mandates no price mark-ups on any drug dispensed by a healthcare institution, and covers the medicines not included in the China’s National Essential Medicine System. Five tertiary hospitals in Beijing, China implemented UZMDP in 2012. Its impacts on these hospitals are unknown. We described the effects of UZMDP on a participating hospital, Jishuitan Hospital, Beijing, China (JST).</p><p>Methods</p><p>This retrospective longitudinal study examined the hospital-level data of JST and city-level data of tertiary hospitals of Beijing, China (BJT) 2009–2015. Rank-sum tests and join-point regression analyses were used to assess absolute changes and differences in trends, respectively.</p><p>Results</p><p>In absolute terms, after the UZDMP implementation, there were increased annual patient-visits and decreased ratios of medicine-to-healthcare-charges (RMOH) in JST outpatient and inpatient services; however, in outpatient service, physician work-days decreased and physician-workload and inflation-adjusted per-visit healthcare charges increased, while the inpatient physician work-days increased and inpatient mortality-rate reduced. Interestingly, the decreasing trend in inpatient mortality-rate was neutralized after UZDMP implementation. Compared with BJT and under influence of UZDMP, JST outpatient and inpatient services both had increasing trends in annual patient-visits (annual percentage changes[APC] = 8.1% and 6.5%, respectively) and decreasing trends in RMOH (APC = -4.3% and -5.4%, respectively), while JST outpatient services had increasing trend in inflation-adjusted per-visit healthcare charges (APC = 3.4%) and JST inpatient service had decreasing trend in inflation-adjusted per-visit medicine-charges (APC = -5.2%).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Implementation of UZMDP seems to increase annual patient-visits, reduce RMOH and have different impacts on outpatient and inpatient services in a Chinese urban tertiary hospital.</p></div

Re-evaluating the geochronology of the Permian Tarim magmatic province: implications for temporal evolution of magmatism

<p>The Permian Tarim magmatic province has 118 published ages, ranging from 358 to 205 Ma, but the timing of mafic magmatism is not well constrained. We report two new secondary ion mass spectrometry U–Pb zircon dates on the Halahatang trachydacite and Wajilitag olivine clinopyroxenite, which are 287.2 ± 2.0 Ma and 283.2 ± 2.0 Ma, respectively. The trachydacite overlies the uppermost basalt and constrains the latest eruption age of basalt in northern Tarim. The latter is the first high-resolution date for the Wajilitag mafic layered intrusion. By screening all published ages, we identified 22 robust ages, ranging from 290.9 ± 4.1 to 261.7 ± 1.8 Ma. The robust ages together with our new data reveal a protracted period of mafic magmatism at <em>c</em>. 283 and <em>c</em>. 267 Ma. Silicic magmatism occurred from 291 to 272 Ma. Although the current known volume of Tarim basalt is too small to qualify as a large igneous province, the eroded and intrusive components, as well as pyroclastic deposits and silicic lavas, may increase the estimated volume. Further work is required to refine the duration of magmatism and the volume estimate of the province. </p