INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT HEIGHTS ON MECHANICS OF CHILDREN'S LANDING

biomechanical implications of the impact and the resulting loads placed on lower extremity tissues of adults. This fact has caused a lack of research papers devoted to children. The purpose of this study was to analyze the kinematic and kinetic differences of children barefoot drop landing from three different heights (20, 40, 60 cm). Kinematic and kinetic data were acquired simultaneously, and then data were processed by inverse dynamics in order to acquire mechanical load data acting on the ankle, knee, and hip Joints. The quantitative results of the present study might generate more knowledge about the motor performance and the importance of landing. This knowledge should be considered while teaching, coaching and training children

Electronic and Magnetization Dynamics of Cobalt Substituted Iron Oxide Nanocrystals

Knowledge of energy dissipation and relaxation in electron, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom is of fundamental importance from both a technological and scientific point of view. In this dissertation, the electronic and magnetization dynamics of photoexcited colloidal cobalt substituted iron oxide nanocrystals, CoxFe3-xO4, were investigated through transient absorption and pump-probe Faraday rotation measurements. In this dissertation, linearly polarized femtosecond optical pulses at 780 nm were used to excite the weak absorption originating from the intervalence charge transfer transition (IVCT) between Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions of Fe3O4 nanocrystals. The timescale and corresponding relaxation processes of electronic relaxation dynamics of the excited IVCT state were first discussed. Size effect on electronic relaxation dynamics in Fe3O4 nanocrystals is not distinct on the basis of result from this study. One interesting feature of electronic dynamics data of photoexcited Fe3O4 nanocrystals is the creation of coherent acoustic phonons. Information on lattice temperature was obtained by measuring the period of coherent acoustic phonon as a function of excitation fluence and fit into a simple model based on Lamb’s theory. Since optical control of the magnetization can be either through optical or heating mechanisms, quantitative estimation of degree of demagnetization caused by lattice temperature is made by using Langevin function. The result from such estimation indicates the effect of lattice temperature rise on magnetization is too small to significantly affect the magnetization of Fe3O4 nanocrystals. Magnetization dynamics were studied via pump-probe Faraday rotation measurements. Optical excitation with near-infrared pulse resulted in an ultrafast demagnetization in 100fs. The energy of the excited state then relaxed through spin-lattice relaxation (SLR). Effects of surface spin and chemical tuning on the SLR were investigated by comparing the magnetization recovery timescales of nanocrystal with different particle sizes and cobalt concentration respectively. The experimental result is explained by a simple model where interior and surface spins contributed to the spin-lattice relaxation process differently. The observations suggest that spin-orbit coupling of the surface is stronger and less sensitive to stoichiometric variation than the interior spins of the nanocrystals

Polysaccharides obtained from mycelia of Cordyceps militaris attenuated doxorubicin-induced cytotoxic effects in chemotherapy

Objectives: Fungus Cordyceps militaris has been used as a herbal tonic in traditional Chinese medicine, which could be surface liquid-cultured for mycelia production. To evaluate the potential of polysaccharides obtained from mycelia of Cordyceps militaris (PS-MCM) for attenuation of side-effects of chemotherapy.Methods: Doxorubicin was used to induce cytotoxicity in THP-1 monocytes and EL-4 T cells, and the effects of PS-MCM on cell viability and cytokine production were detected on doxorubicin-treated THP-1 and EL-4 cells.Results: PS-MCM reduced doxorubicin-induced cell death and promoted cell proliferation in THP-1 and EL-4 cells. Moreover, PS-MCM elevated the level of cytokines associated with immune-modulation of THP-1 and EL-4 cells.Conclusion: These findings indicate that PS-MCM has potential for development as a functional food to counteract side effects of chemotherapy.Keywords: Cordyceps militaris, traditional Chinese medicine, doxorubicin, chemotherapy, immunotherapy

A THREE-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE VOLLEYBALL ONE-FOOT JUMP SPIKE

INTRODUCTION: Since the Chinese National female volleyball team developed the one-foot jump spike technique during the 1980s, the high percentage of successful spiking has made the skill a powerful offensive weapon on volleyball courts all over the world. But no research has been done on the biomechanical analysis of the female one-foot jump spike. The purpose of this study was to describe the biomechanical characteristics of the techniques of the one-foot jump spike demonstrated by elite Taiwanese female players. METHODS: Four elite female players from the Taiwanese National Volleyball Team served as subjects. Their mean height, weight, and age (and variance) were 1.78 (0.03) m, 63.53 (.11) kg, and 21.50 (.58) years, respectively. Two Peak Performance high speed video cameras operating at 120Hz were synchronized to record the actions employed by the subjects in performing the one-foot jump spike. Three-dimensional object space co-ordinates of digitized image co-ordinates were obtained using a DLT algorithm and 19 calibration points in the video volume. RESULTS: [Table 1] The values of selected variables for the one-foot jump spike by the four female players were calculated (Table 1). The elite female one-foot jump spikers had a shorter takeoff time(0.198s) than the elite male two-foot spikers(0.308s).The female one-foot jump spikers also had a sharper approach angle(27 deg)then the elite male and female two-foot spikers(45- 60 deg) which made it harder for the opponent to block the ball. The results of this study provide valuable information for teachers and coaches teaching players to perform the one-foot jump spike. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that elite female one-foot jump spikers have a shorter takeoff time and a sharper approach angle then the elite male and female two-foot spikers, which contribute to the success of spiking

THE EFFECT OF COUNTER MOVEMENT JUMP PERFORMANCE IN MIDDLEAGED ELDERLY PRACTICING TAI-CHI EXERCISE

The purpose of this study was to investigate biomechanical effects of Tal-Chi exercise on the lower-extremity in middle-aged elders during counter-movement jump. Twelve middle-aged elders with regular Tai Chi exercise experience and twelve healthy middle-aged elders participated in this study. Ten Vicon Motion System cameras, two Kistler force plates were used simultaneously to capture the kinematic and dynamlc parameters of standing vertical jumps. Independent samples &test was performed for statistical analysis ( u = .05 ). Since the jump height of Tai Chi group was significantly higher ( p c .05 ). It showed that practicing Tai Chi exercise could effectively slow down the degeneration of the moment and power at the hip Joint. Therefore, middle-aged elders were recommended to engage in long-term Tai Chi exercise

Generation of a Homozygous Knock-in Human Embryonic Stem Cell Line Expressing Meos4b-tagged Ctr1

Copper transporter 1 (CTR1) is the major membrane protein responsible for cellular copper (Cu) uptake and mediates cellular copper homeostasis. To elucidate CTR1\u27s behavior using imaging approaches, we generated a homozygous knock-in human embryonic stem cell (hESC) clone expressing photoconvertible fluorescence protein mEos4b-tagged endogenous CTR1 using CRISPR-Cas9 mediated homologous recombination. The engineered cells express functional CTR1-mEos4b fusion and have normal stem cell morphology. They remain pluripotent and can be differentiated into all three germ layers in vitro. This resource allows the study of CTR1 at an endogenous level in different cellular contexts using microscopy

Polysaccharides obtained from mycelia of Cordyceps militaris attenuated doxorubicin-induced cytotoxic effects in chemotherapy

Objectives: Fungus Cordyceps militaris has been used as a herbal tonic in traditional Chinese medicine, which could be surface liquid-cultured for mycelia production. To evaluate the potential of polysaccharides obtained from mycelia of Cordyceps militaris (PS-MCM) for attenuation of side-effects of chemotherapy. Methods: Doxorubicin was used to induce cytotoxicity in THP-1 monocytes and EL-4 T cells, and the effects of PS-MCM on cell viability and cytokine production were detected on doxorubicin-treated THP-1 and EL-4 cells. Results: PS-MCM reduced doxorubicin-induced cell death and promoted cell proliferation in THP-1 and EL-4 cells. Moreover, PS-MCM elevated the level of cytokines associated with immune-modulation of THP-1 and EL-4 cells. Conclusion: These findings indicate that PS-MCM has potential for development as a functional food to counteract side effects of chemotherapy. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v19i2.40 Cite as: Lin R-K, Choong C-Y, Hsu W-H, Tai C-J, Tai C-J. Polysaccharides obtained from mycelia of Cordyceps militaris attenuated doxorubicin-induced cytotoxic effects in chemotherapy. Afri Health Sci.2019;19(2): 2156-2163. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v19i2.4

High ERCC1 expression predicts cisplatin-based chemotherapy resistance and poor outcome in unresectable squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck in a betel-chewing area

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study was to evaluate the effect of excision repair cross-complementation group 1(ERCC1) expression on response to cisplatin-based induction chemotherapy (IC) followed by concurrent chemoradiation (CCRT) in locally advanced unresectable head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fifty-seven patients with locally advanced unresectable HNSCC who received cisplatin-based IC followed by CCRT from January 1, 2006 through January 1, 2008. Eligibility criteria included presence of biopsy-proven HNSCC without a prior history of chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Immunohistochemistry was used to assess ERCC1 expression in pretreatment biopsy specimens from paraffin blocks. Clinical parameters, including smoking, alcohol consumption and betel nuts chewing, were obtained from the medical records.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The 12-month progression-free survival (PFS) and 2-year overall survival (OS) rates of fifty-seven patients were 61.1% and 61.0%, respectively. Among these patients, thirty-one patients had low ERCC1 expression and forty-one patients responded to IC followed by CCRT. Univariate analyses showed that patients with low expression of ERCC1 had a significantly higher 12-month PFS rates (73.3% vs. 42.3%, p < 0.001) and 2-year OS (74.2 vs. 44.4%, p = 0.023) rates. Multivariate analysis showed that for patients who did not chew betel nuts and had low expression of ERCC1 were independent predictors for prolonged survival.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study suggest that a high expression of ERCC1 predict a poor response and survival to cisplatin-based IC followed by CCRT in patients with locally advanced unresectable HNSCC in betel nut chewing area.</p

Diffusion-SS3D: Diffusion Model for Semi-supervised 3D Object Detection

Semi-supervised object detection is crucial for 3D scene understanding, efficiently addressing the limitation of acquiring large-scale 3D bounding box annotations. Existing methods typically employ a teacher-student framework with pseudo-labeling to leverage unlabeled point clouds. However, producing reliable pseudo-labels in a diverse 3D space still remains challenging. In this work, we propose Diffusion-SS3D, a new perspective of enhancing the quality of pseudo-labels via the diffusion model for semi-supervised 3D object detection. Specifically, we include noises to produce corrupted 3D object size and class label distributions, and then utilize the diffusion model as a denoising process to obtain bounding box outputs. Moreover, we integrate the diffusion model into the teacher-student framework, so that the denoised bounding boxes can be used to improve pseudo-label generation, as well as the entire semi-supervised learning process. We conduct experiments on the ScanNet and SUN RGB-D benchmark datasets to demonstrate that our approach achieves state-of-the-art performance against existing methods. We also present extensive analysis to understand how our diffusion model design affects performance in semi-supervised learning.Comment: Accepted in NeurIPS 2023. Code is available at https://github.com/luluho1208/Diffusion-SS3