Effect of Indian clubbell exercises on cricket fast bowlers’ shoulder kinematics

Background: The glenohumeral joint’s rotational range of motion (ROM) and muscle strength are essential to execute the cricket bowling action. Performing shoulder rotation exercises may increase the rotator cuff muscle strength and rotational ROM.  Objectives: The aim of this study was to test the effect of a six-week exercise programme on shoulder rotational ROM and muscle strength. Methods: Twenty-one healthy male cricket fast bowlers were recruited, ranked and pair-matched on initial shoulder rotator muscle strength and assigned to either a shoulder exercise (SE) group or cricket training (CT) only group. The SE group incorporated Indian clubbell exercises in addition to their cricket training. Results: Bowlers in both groups displayed a large increase on the dominant shoulder’s internal rotation (IR) ROM, but only the SE group’s bowlers displayed ROM improvements (p<0.001) bilaterally for both internal and external rotation. The CT group’s fast bowler’s non-dominant shoulder IR ROM significantly decreased (p=0.02) during the six weeks. Between groups, only the SE group’s bowler’s internal rotator muscle strength improved (p<0.001) bilaterally. The observed kinematic changes were statistically significantly greater at a 5% level for the SE group’s bowlers (bilateral internal rotators muscle strength, non-dominant shoulder IR ROM and horizontal adduction ROM). Conclusion: Maintenance of the shoulder’s rotational ROM and muscle strength is vital for a fast bowler. Cricket bowlers who perform regular clubbell exercises might increase their shoulder’s ROM and internal rotator cuffs’ muscle strength, which may aid in stabilising their glenohumeral joint while bowling.

Chinese students in Russia: causes of migration and basic educational behavioral tenets

The article examines the key behavioral tenets of Chinese students in the process of educational migration in Russia, based on several sociological studies. Some basic problems associated with the learning process of the educational migrants are also presented, as well as the attitudes of the Chinese students about the geographical and household living conditions in Russia. The possibility of continuing to reside in Russia after graduation is also mentioned. The conclusion is that at this moment the majority of Chinese students do not feel comfortable staying in Russia and planning whether to stay/return to China or migrate to other countries

Impact of Bioenergy Industry on Soil and Water Resources

Recent reports and publications such as that of Perlack et al, 2005 and Burton et al, 2006 indicating a high capacity of this nation\u27s lands to produce feedstocks for renewable fuels have created large expectations in rural America, in Congress, and on Wall Street. Meeting these expectations while preserving our soil and water resources may be a challenge or an opportunity, depending upon how the bioenergy industry develops. It presents a challenge because the plant residues serving as our most important soil and water conservation tool are also required for fuel production in the cellulosic liquid fuel industry. It may be an opportunity because a more diverse variety of plant species may eventually be produced on the landscape and these plants, or crops, which help conserve the soil and water resource, may have a market. As the biofuel industry develops, producers may be able to plant perennial grasses or woody species that both have a favorable impact on natural resources and provide income as liquid fuel feedstocks

Evaluating Services for Bhutanese Elders at the Champlain Senior Center

Introduction: •Bhutanese refugees have been living in Vermont since 2008. They constitute a vulnerable population due to lack of language skills, increased health care requirements and lack of access to transportation. The Champlain Senior Center (CSC) provides services and a community space for Bhutanese refugee elders (older than 55 years). We aimed to determine the necessity for the CSC in the elders’ wellbeing and to demonstrate that services are crucial to ensure this New American elderly population’s needs are being met.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1209/thumbnail.jp

Photosynthesis, yield, energy balance, and water-use of intercropped maize and soybean

By 2050, the U.S. Corn Belt will likely face a 23% increase in leaf-to-air vapor pressure deficit (VPDL), the driving force of evapotranspiration (ET), which may restrict maize yield improvements for rainfed agroecosystems. Alternative cropping systems, such as maize and legume intercrops, have previously demonstrated yield and resource-use advantages over monocultures. In this study, the residual energy balance approach was used to gain insights into how an additive simultaneous maize and soybean intercrop system regulates ET and water-use efficiency (WUE) compared to standard maize and soybean monoculture systems of the U.S. Corn Belt. Experimental field plots were rain-fed and arranged in a randomized complete block design in three blocks. Photosynthetic capacity and grain yield of maize were conserved in the intercrop. However, its competitive dominance shaded 80%–90% of incident light for intercropped soybean at canopy closure, leading to a 94% decrease in grain yield compared to soybean monoculture. The total grain yield per unit area of the additive intercrop (land-use efficiency) increased by 11% ± 6% (1 SE). Compared to maize monoculture, the intercrop had higher latent heat fluxes (λET) at night but lower daytime λET as the intercrop canopy surface temperature was approximately.25°C warmer, partitioning more energy to sensible heat flux. However, the diel differences in λET fluxes were not sufficient to establish a statistically significant or biologically relevant decrease in seasonal water-use (ΣET). Likewise, the increase in land-use efficiency by the intercrop was not sufficient to establish an increase in seasonal water-use efficiency. Intercropping high-performing maize and soybean cultivars in a dense configuration without negative impact suggests that efforts to increase yield and WUE may lead to improved benefits

Shaping a functional and sustainable biofuels industry through bridging industrial needs with farmer production capabilities

In order for the biofuels industry to survive and succeed, it will need the cooperation of Iowa farmers to supply biomass. Farmers have concerns about production that need to be addressed in order to create a sustainable industry

The challenge of being a mathematics teacher

One of the things that teachers at the university level have to learn by experience is how to adapt their lectures and classroom activities depending on their intended audience. For instance, it is understood that teaching mathematics to mathematicians is different than teaching them to pre-service elementary school teachers. However, how to carry out this adaptation or what exactly should be changed is not often discussed. On the basis of my personal experience in the matter, here we use the Atherton model to reflect about my own practice and try to extract some conclusions about the difficulties of the above-mentioned adaptation

How many people need to classify the same image? A method for optimizing volunteer contributions in binary geographical classifications

Involving members of the public in image classification tasks that can be tricky to automate is increasingly recognized as a way to complete large amounts of these tasks and promote citizen involvement in science. While this labor is usually provided for free, it is still limited, making it important for researchers to use volunteer contributions as efficiently as possible. Using volunteer labor efficiently becomes complicated when individual tasks are assigned to multiple volunteers to increase confidence that the correct classification has been reached. In this paper, we develop a system to decide when enough information has been accumulated to confidently declare an image to be classified and remove it from circulation. We use a Bayesian approach to estimate the posterior distribution of the mean rating in a binary image classification task. Tasks are removed from circulation when user-defined certainty thresholds are reached. We demonstrate this process using a set of over 4.5 million unique classifications by 2783 volunteers of over 190,000 images assessed for the presence/absence of cropland. If the system outlined here had been implemented in the original data collection campaign, it would have eliminated the need for 59.4% of volunteer ratings. Had this effort been applied to new tasks, it would have allowed an estimated 2.46 times as many images to have been classified with the same amount of labor, demonstrating the power of this method to make more efficient use of limited volunteer contributions. To simplify implementation of this method by other investigators, we provide cutoff value combinations for one set of confidence levels