NERVE CONDUCTION VELOCITY INVESTIGATION IN ATHLETES WITH TRAINED LOWER EXTRAMITY FOR WELL·CONTROLLlNG MOVEMENT

Reaction, coordination and speed ability are essential for success in a variety of sports. Nerve conduction velocity (NCV) is related to all of these abilities. Previous studies had investigated power and endurance type athletes, but there is less research in athletes who are skilled in coordinated lower extremity movements requiring more neural adaptation for nerve conduction velocity after specific exercise training. The purpose of this study is to investigate nerve conduction velocity of soccer, sanshou players and untrained subjects. Results show that NCV was significantly different among the 3 groups (p < .05) for the femoral and tibal nerves. For both femoral and tibial nerve.§, results showed that the soccer players had significantly faster NCV than the other groups (p < .05). According to the results, faster NCV adaptation from long term training in soccer players may be relate to their movement requirement of changing their movement direction quickly and skillfully

Effects of natto extract on endothelial injury in a rat model

Vascular endothelial damage has been found to be associated with thrombus formation, which is considered to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. A diet of natto leads to a low prevalence of cardiovascular disease. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of natto extract on vascular endothelia damage with exposure to laser irradiation. Endothelial damage both in vitro and in vivo was induced by irradiation of rose bengal using a DPSS green laser. Cell viability was determined by MTS assay, and the intimal thickening was verified by a histological approach. The antioxidant content of natto extract was determined for the free radical scavenging activity. Endothelial cells were injured in the presence of rose bengal irradiated in a dose-dependent manner. Natto extract exhibits high levels of antioxidant activity compared with purified natto kinase. Apoptosis of laser-injured endothelial cells was significantly reduced in the presence of natto extract. Both the natto extract and natto kinase suppressed intimal thickening in rats with endothelial injury. The present findings suggest that natto extract suppresses vessel thickening as a synergic effect attributed to its antioxidant and anti-apoptosis properties

Alcohol Use, Abuse, and Dependency in Shanghai

The use of alcohol for social and ceremonial occasions was recorded in Chinese history as early as 1760 B.C. during the Yin Dynasty (Ci-Hai Encyclopedia, 1979:936). The cultural tradition of ancient China placed alcoholic beverages at the center of social occasions, which presumably was the origin of the adage: Without wine, there is no li (or etiquette). Thus, the use of alcoholic beverages has always been accompanied by the concept of propriety and the discharging of one\u27s role obligations m social functions, rather than that of personal indulgence

POOR FORCE CONTROL PERFORMANCE AND UNVARIED EMG PATTERN AFTER AGONIST MUSCLE FATIGUE IN HUMANS

Ballistic and accurately control of a targeted fast contraction relies on phasic activations of the agonist and antagonist muscles. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of tibialis anterior (TA) fatigue on the systematic bias and the consistence of the net dorsiflexion torque generation and the controlling pattern of the agonist-antagonist muscles. Ten subjects were tested twice with a week apart. Fast and slow dorsiflexion at 40%-MVG were measured before and after fatigue of the TA by voluntary isometric dorsiflexions. The EMG of the TA and soleus (Sol) were recorded. The results revealed that more post-fatigue increment of the systematic error was in the fast dorsiflexions, random error increment were similar in both speeds of isometric dorsiflexions, the cocontraction ratio increased after fatigue only in the slow dorsiflexions. Our results suggested that precision of the fast targeted isometric contractions was reduced after fatigue because of unvaried agonist-antagonist control strategy

Fetal Rhabdomyoma of the Right Tonsil with Polyp-Like Appearance

Skeletal muscle neoplasms, in contrast to other groups of tumors, are almost malignant. The benign variant, rhabdomyoma, is distinctly rare. Rhabdomyomas can be classified generally into two types: cardiac and extracardiac. Extracardiac rhabdomyoma can be further divided into three subtypes: adult, fetal, and genital type. Adult rhabdomyoma is the most common subtype of rhabdomyoma even though it remains relatively rare. Fetal rhabdomyomas are less common than the adult type. In this paper we report a rare case of a fetal rhabdomyoma with polyp-like appearance originating from right tonsil. Punch biopsy and then right tonsillectomy were performed for complete excision. There was no obvious recurrence

Topological Magnetoelectric Effect as Probed by Nanoshell Plasmonic Modes

Axion electrodynamics is applied to study the response of a plasmonic nanoshell with a core made of topological insulator (TI) materials. The electric polarizability of such a system is calculated in the long wavelength limit via the introduction of two scalar potentials satisfying the various appropriate boundary conditions. Our focus is on the topological magneto-electric effect (TME) as manifested in the coupled plasmonic resonances of the nanoshell. It is found that for a TI with broken time-reversal symmetry, such TME will lead to observable red-shifts in the coupled plasmonic modes, with more significant manifestation of such shifts for the bonding modes of a metallic nanoshell. It is speculated that such universal red-shift could be a manifestation of the fundamental dual symmetry as generalized for axion electrodynamics

GPER-induced signaling is essential for the survival of breast cancer stem cells.

G protein-coupled estrogen receptor-1 (GPER), a member of the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily, mediates estrogen-induced proliferation of normal and malignant breast epithelial cells. However, its role in breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) remains unclear. Here we showed greater expression of GPER in BCSCs than non-BCSCs of three patient-derived xenografts of ER- /PR+ breast cancers. GPER silencing reduced stemness features of BCSCs as reflected by reduced mammosphere forming capacity in vitro, and tumor growth in vivo with decreased BCSC populations. Comparative phosphoproteomics revealed greater GPER-mediated PKA/BAD signaling in BCSCs. Activation of GPER by its ligands, including tamoxifen (TMX), induced phosphorylation of PKA and BAD-Ser118 to sustain BCSC characteristics. Transfection with a dominant-negative mutant BAD (Ser118Ala) led to reduced cell survival. Taken together, GPER and its downstream signaling play a key role in maintaining the stemness of BCSCs, suggesting that GPER is a potential therapeutic target for eradicating BCSCs