A PRELIMINARY STUDY TO MODEL CARRYING ANGLE VARIATIONS DURING FLEXION-EXTENSION OF THE ELBOW

The aim of this work was to identify an accurate method to evaluate the variability of the carrying angle during the flexion extension of the elbow and to define a mathematical description of this movement applicable in sport and rehabilitation field. In order to develop this objective, we marked the arm and the forearm by six reflective markers of six healthy subjects performing the flexion extension movement and acquired the coordinates using six infrared cameras (VICON Motion System). Five repeated measures were performed for each subject in order to verify the reliability of the measures. Our results demonstrated that this movement can be easily modelled as a linear variation of the carrying angle in function of the flexion angle. The reliability between repeated measures was high and adopting a linear fit the accuracy was more than 94% in all cases. This is the first study to compute the flexion-extension movement by a carrying angle evaluation

INFLUENCE OF AGE AND HAND GRIP STRENGTH ON FREESTYLE PERFORMANCES IN MASTER SWIMMERS

The aim of our work was to examine whether age and hand grip strength are correlated with 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m swimming performance times in Master swimmers and how correlation varies considering short, middle or long distances. The main finding of this work was that hand grip strength and age correlated significantly at each distance. Hand grip strength showed a relevant influence on performance time and explained 52% of variance of performance time in 50m race freestyle and only 15% in 800m race. Increasing age was a disadvantageous factor for performance time, and explained 45% of variance of performance time in 800m race freestyle and only 20% in 50 m race

Biochemical and cytological interactions between callose synthase and microtubules in the tobacco pollen tube

Key message: The article concerns the association between callose synthase and cytoskeleton by biochemical and ultrastructural analyses in the pollen tube. Results confirmed this association and immunogold labeling showed a colocalization. Abstract: Callose is a cell wall polysaccharide involved in fundamental biological processes, from plant development to the response to abiotic and biotic stress. To gain insight into the deposition pattern of callose, it is important to know how the enzyme callose synthase is regulated through the interaction with the vesicle-cytoskeletal system. Actin filaments likely determine the long-range distribution of callose synthase through transport vesicles but the spatial/biochemical relationships between callose synthase and microtubules are poorly understood, although experimental evidence supports the association between callose synthase and tubulin. In this manuscript, we further investigated the association between callose synthase and microtubules through biochemical and ultrastructural analyses in the pollen tube model system, where callose is an essential component of the cell wall. Results by native 2-D electrophoresis, isolation of callose synthase complex and far-western blot confirmed that callose synthase is associated with tubulin and can therefore interface with cortical microtubules. In contrast, actin and sucrose synthase were not permanently associated with callose synthase. Immunogold labeling showed colocalization between the enzyme and microtubules, occasionally mediated by vesicles. Overall, the data indicate that pollen tube callose synthase exerts its activity in cooperation with the microtubular cytoskeleton

Revisiting the pH-gated conformational switch on the activities of HisKA-family histidine kinases

Histidine is a versatile residue playing key roles in enzyme catalysis thanks to the chemistry of its imidazole group that can serve as nucleophile, general acid or base depending on its protonation state. In bacteria, signal transduction relies on two-component systems (TCS) which comprise a sensor histidine kinase (HK) containing a phosphorylatable catalytic His with phosphotransfer and phosphatase activities over an effector response regulator. Recently, a pH-gated model has been postulated to regulate the phosphatase activity of HisKA HKs based on the pH-dependent rotamer switch of the phosphorylatable His. Here, we have revisited this model from a structural and functional perspective on HK853-RR468 and EnvZ-OmpR TCS, the prototypical HisKA HKs. We have found that the rotamer of His is not influenced by the environmental pH, ruling out a pH-gated model and confirming that the chemistry of the His is responsible for the decrease in the phosphatase activity at acidic pH

Problem gambling: a suitable case for social work?

Problem gambling attracts little attention from health and social care agencies in the UK. Prevalence surveys suggest that 0.6% of the population are problem gamblers and it is suggested that for each of these individuals, 10–17 other people, including children and other family members, are affected. Problem gambling is linked to many individual and social problems including: depression, suicide, significant debt, bankruptcy, family conflict, domestic violence, neglect and maltreatment of children and offending. This makes the issue central to social work territory. Yet, the training of social workers in the UK has consistently neglected issues of addictive behaviour. Whilst some attention has been paid in recent years to substance abuse issues, there has remained a silence in relation to gambling problems. Social workers provide more help for problems relating to addictions than other helping professions. There is good evidence that treatment, and early intervention for gambling problems, including psycho-social and public health approaches, can be very effective. This paper argues that problem gambling should be moved onto the radar of the social work profession, via inclusion on qualifying and post-qualifying training programmes and via research and dissemination of good practice via institutions such as the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). Keywords: problem gambling; addictive behaviour; socia

Modulation of Antimalarial Activity at a Putative Bisquinoline Receptor in vivo Using Fluorinated Bisquinolines

Antimalarials can interact with heme covalently, by - interactions or hydrogen bonding. Consequently, the prototropy of 4-aminoquinolines and quinoline methanols was investigated using quantum mechanics. Calculations showed mefloquine protonated preferentially at the piperidine and was impeded at the endocyclic nitrogen due to electronic rather than steric factors. In gas phase calculations, 7-substituted mono- and bis-4-aminoquinolines were preferentially protonated at the endocyclic quinoline nitrogen. By contrast, compounds with a trifluoromethyl substituent on both the 2- and 8-positions, reversed the order of protonation which now favored the exocyclic secondary amine nitrogen at the 4-position. Loss of antimalarial efficacy by CF3 groups simultaneously occupying the 2- and 8-positions was recovered if the CF3 group occupied the 7-position. Hence, trifluromethyl groups buttressing quinolinyl nitrogen shifted binding of antimalarials to hematin, enabling switching from endocyclic to the exocyclic N. Both theoretical calculations (DFT calculations: B3LYP/6- 31+G*) and crystal structure of (±)-trans-N1,N2-bis-(2,8-ditrifluoromethylquinolin-4- yl)cyclohexane-1,2-diamine were used to reveal preferred mode(s) of interaction with hematin. The order of antimalarial activity in vivo followed the capacity for a redox change of the iron(III)state which has important implications for the future rational design of 4- aminoquinoline antimalarials

Maps, Memories and Manchester: The Cartographic Imagination of the Hidden Networks of the Hydraulic City

The largely unseen channelling, culverting and controlling of water into, through and out of cities is the focus of our cartographic interpretation. This paper draws on empirical material depicting hydraulic infrastructure underlying the growth of Manchester in mapped form. Focusing, in particular, on the 19th century burst of large-scale hydraulic engineering, which supplied vastly increased amounts of clean drinking water, controlled unruly rivers to eliminate flooding, and safely removed sewage, this paper explores the contribution of mapping to the making of a more sanitary city, and towards bold civic minded urban intervention. These extensive infrastructures planned and engineered during Victorian and Edwardian Manchester are now taken-for-granted but remain essential for urban life. The maps, plans and diagrams of hydraulic Manchester fixed particular forms of elite knowledge (around planning foresight, topographical precision, civil engineering and sanitary science) but also facilitated and freed flows of water throughout the city. The survival of these maps and plans in libraries, technical books and obscure reports allows the changing cultural work of water to be explored and evokes a range of socially specific memories of a hidden city. Our aetiology of hydraulic cartographics is conducted using ideas from science and technology studies, semiology, and critical cartography with the goal of revealing how they work as virtual witnesses to an 1 unseen city, dramatizing engineering prowess and envisioning complex and messy materiality into a logical, holistic and fluid network underpinning the urban machine. 1