ELECTRICAL STIMULATION OF THE TRICEPS SURAE FOR MUSCULAR STRENGTH IMPROVEMENT IN VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS.

INTRODUCTION Beside the studies carried out at "CentrO Scoliosi" of Istituto Ortopedico "Gaetano Pini" about idiopathic scoliosis pathogenesis (Dacquino et al., 1970) and its treatment using the electrical stimulation (Crivellini and Divieti, 1972, 1975; Crivellini et al., 1976, 1979; Divieti, 1979), an experiment was carried out to analyze the muscular strength increase, obtained by means of the same stimulation procedure for the scoliotic patients. The triceps surae muscle was chosen because of its size and accessibility. The electrical stimulation was performed on a group of subjects not involved in any sporting activity by Caiulo et al., 1980b. This study has shown that electrical stimulation increased the maximum spontaneous force (J 1.9%), the jumping index (23.7%) measured with the Abalakov method (Kots and Xvilon, 1971; Kots et al., 1971), and the maximum limb circumference (6%) measured near the belly of the stimulated muscle. Moreover this experience has shown that the stimulation of the whole gastrocnemius muscle, with well tolerable current values, causes not only the contraction of the triceps surae muscle but also the contraction of the posterior tibialis muscle, normally quite difficult to stimulate because it is deeply positioned under the soleus muscle. In this work the force of the triceps surae was transduced by means of a particular experimental device. The force of this muscle is measurable considering the action of the foot during the flexion movement. The same experiment was repeated on a group of athletes of a volleyball team in order to compare the results. It is important to note that the electrical stimulation first recruits the big superficial motor units that are the last activated in maximal voluntary contractions

LONG TERM IMPROVEMENT OF PERFORMANCE INDEXES IN BASKETBALL PLAYERS

In the present paper measurements and tests were carried out on 12 basketball players of a D-series team, undergoing muscular strengthen, for a period of more than 2 years. The team was divided into 2 groups : the control group, composed of 5 players undergoing only team-training, and the experimental group, composed of 7 players undergoing team-training and sinusoidal electrical stimulation to increase the power in quadriceps femoris and triceps surae . In this study a sinusoidal current at the frequency of 2500 Hz has been used. A stimulation time of 10 seconds was chosen, followed by a rest period of 50 seconds to avoid a reduction of the subsequent contraction force. This stimulation procedure was applied to the subjects of the experimental group for 20 minutes per day for 15days. Four stimulation cycles of 15 days were globally performed using the 4channel electrical stimulator mod. ST-E4C.Similar anthropometric data characterised the two groups : for the experimental group the mean age was 20.1 f 1.9 years, the mean height was 187.7 f 5.0 an and the mean weight 83.8 f 6.4 Kg for the control group these values were respectively 20.8 f 2.5 years, 189.0 f 2.8 cm, 80.6 f 3.7 Kg .Before and after each stimulation cycle, at the beginning and at the end of the agonistic season several tests were performed to evaluate performance indexes :1. Abalakov test (taking the best result of three tests);2. Standing long jump (taking the best result of three tests);3.30 meters dash (taking the average time of three tests).This study has shown that a h26 months the experimental group reached increments of performance indexes twice greater than the control group. After summer, before the beginning of the agonistic season, the absolute increments for the experimental group remained higher than the control group, suggesting that the improvement of the muscular performance by means of sinusoidal electrical stimulation is maintained by a normal training and constitutes a basic resource for the following improvements

The Impact of Service Quality on Consumer Perceived Value in Medical Clinics

Service quality has been viewed as a determinant of consumer perceived value. Different dimensions of service quality have been considered by various researchers. This study identifies components of service quality of medical clinics in Jaffna.  From the coeficients table it can be seen that significance P value is less than .05 therefore all hypotheses are accepted according to the highest beta value tangibility contributes more towards customer perceived value of medical clinic services in Jaffna district. Keywords: service quality, consumer perceived value, Medical clinics, Jaffn

A priori and a posteriori analysis of the flow around a rectangular cylinder

The definition of a correct mesh resolution and modelling approach for the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of the flow around a rectangular cylinder is recognized to be a rather elusive problem as shown by the large scatter of LES results present in the literature. In the present work, we aim at assessing this issue by performing an a priori analysis of Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) data of the flow. This approach allows us to measure the ability of the LES field on reproducing the main flow features as a function of the resolution employed. Based on these results, we define a mesh resolution which maximize the opposite needs of reducing the computational costs and of adequately resolving the flow dynamics. The effectiveness of the resolution method proposed is then verified by means of an a posteriori analysis of actual LES data obtained by means of the implicit LES approach given by the numerical properties of the Discontinuous Galerkin spatial discretization technique. The present work represents a first step towards a best practice for LES of separating and reattaching flows

Clinical implications of gait analysis in the rehabilitation of adult patients with "Prader-Willi" Syndrome: a cross-sectional comparative study ("Prader-Willi" Syndrome vs matched obese patients and healthy subjects)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Being severely overweight is a distinctive clinical feature of Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS). PWS is a complex multisystem disorder, representing the most common form of genetic obesity. The aim of this study was the analysis of the gait pattern of adult subjects with PWS by using three-Dimensional Gait Analysis. The results were compared with those obtained in a group of obese patients and in a group of healthy subjects.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cross-sectional, comparative study: 19 patients with PWS (11 males and 8 females, age: 18–40 years, BMI: 29.3–50.3 kg/m²); 14 obese matched patients (5 males and 9 females, age: 18–40 years, BMI: 34.3–45.2 kg/m²); 20 healthy subjects (10 males and 10 females, age: 21–41 years, BMI: 19.3–25.4 kg/m²). Kinematic and kinetic parameters during walking were assessed by an optoelectronic system and two force platforms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>PWS adult patients walked slower, had a shorter stride length, a lower cadence and a longer stance phase compared with both matched obese, and healthy subjects. Obese matched patients showed spatio-temporal parameters significantly different from healthy subjects.</p> <p>Furthermore, Range Of Motion (ROM) at knee and ankle, and plantaflexor activity of PWS patients were significantly different between obese and healthy subjects. Obese subjects revealed kinematic and kinetic data similar to healthy subjects.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>PWS subjects had a gait pattern significantly different from obese patients. Despite that, both groups had a similar BMI. We suggest that PWS gait abnormalities may be related to abnormalities in the development of motor skills in childhood, due to precocious obesity. A tailored rehabilitation program in early childhood of PWS patients could prevent gait pattern changes.</p

A New Approach to Analyzing Convergence and Synchronicity in Growth and Business Cycles: Cross Recurrence Plots and Quantification Analysis

Convergence and synchronisation of business and growth cycles are important issues in the efficient formulation of euro area economic policies, and in particular European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy. Although several studies in the economics literature address the issue of synchronicity of growth within the euro area, this is the first to address the issue using cross recurrence analysis. The main findings are that member state growth rates had largely converged before the introduction of the euro, but there is a wide degree of different synchronisation behaviours which appear to be non-linear in nature. Many of the euro area member states display what is termed here intermittency in synchronization, although this is not consistent across countries or members of the euro area. These differences in synchronization behaviors could introduce further challenges in managing the country-specific effects of the common monetary policy in the euro area