Comparasion between European elite senior and junior female table tennis players

The aim of the study was to compare elite junior and senior women table tennis players, using three parameters of the table tennis: rally length, serve and receive analysis. Twentyfive junior and twenty-five elite senior matches were analysed (total: 263 sets and 4958 points) between players ranked in Top 25 in ETTU rankings in the last two years. All the athletes used an offensive style of play. The results of non-parametric Mann-Whitney U Test, showed a significantly higher rally length in senior compared to junior category (4.46 vs. 3.93). Moreover, the results of Pearson’s Chi-square tests show an association between the age categories and selected parameters (laterality, technique and placement) for both serve and receive. Different behavior between the two categories was noted. The senior players used more the flip technique (22.2 % vs 14.7 %) and short push to return the services of the opponents (32.5 % vs 26.0 %). These results provide useful information to analyze junior players’ behavior compared to the senior players in order to plan specific training sessions. It can be also useful to identify some parameters as predictors of the future success for junior players

The Energy Value and Energy Yields of Alfalfa Forage Depending on the Cutting Time in Forage-Seed Production System

Economic importance of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is reflected in the production of high-quality forage, however, the seeds of alfalfa are valuable commodity in the domestic and international markets. In Serbia, the seed is produced in forage-seed mode of exploitation where the second or third growth is used for seed production, and the remaining growths are used for fodder. The aim of this work was to determine the influence of cuttings and time of cutting on total energy value of hay in a model of forage and seed production. The second and third cuts were used as seed cut. In the variant where the second cut was used as seed cut, the first cut was harvested at different times (A1-early, A2-medium early, A3-late and A4- very late). In the model where the third cut was used for seed, two pre-cuts were used for forage production (A5). In all the following variants, seed cut was followed by one more cutting (final cut), used for the production of fodder. The highest average total production (from pre-cut and final cut) of NEL (34606 MJha-1) and NEM (33811 MJha-1) was realized in the system of cutting with two pre-cuts. In the variant with single pre-cut, the highest yield was formed in the early system. Later cutting of the first cut causes decline of NEL production and it was the lowest in the system of very late cutting or 15.1 % less than in the early system and 38% lower than in the system of cutting with two pre-cuts. Delaying of utilization of alfalfa to the later stages of exploitation has contributed to the lower yield of NEM and in the medium early system and late system and especially in the very late cutting system, where by 22.2 % less was realized than in the early production system. Studies have shown that late cutting of first cut resulted in the reduction of nutritional value expressed in the amount of net energy per unit area

Anodic dissolution of metals in oxide-free cryolite melts

The anodic behavior of metals in molten cryolite-alumina melts has been investigated mostly for use as inert anodes for the Hall-Héroult process. In the present work, gold, platinum, palladium, copper, tungsten, nickel, cobalt and iron metal electrodes were anodically polarized in an oxide-free cryolite melt (11%wt. excess AlF3 ; 5%wt. CaF2) at 1273 K. The aim of the experiments was to characterize the oxidation reactions of the metals occurring without the effect of oxygen-containing dissolved species. The anodic dissolution of each metal was demonstrated, and electrochemical reactions were assigned using reversible potential calculation. The relative stability of metals as well as the possibility of generating pure fluorine is discussed

Modeling affirmative and negated action processing in the brain with lexical and compositional semantic models

Recent work shows that distributional semantic models can be used to decode patterns of brain activity associated with individual words and sentence meanings. However, it is yet unclear to what extent such models can be used to study and ecode fMRI patterns associated with specific aspects of semantic composition such as the negation function. In this paper, we apply lexical and compositional semantic models to decode fMRI patterns associated with negated and affirmative sentences containing hand-action verbs. Our results show reduced decoding (correlation) of sentences where the verb is in the negated context, as compared to the affirmative one, within brain regions implicated in action-semantic processing. This supports behavioral and brain imaging studies, suggesting that negation involves reduced access to aspects of the affirmative mental representation. The results pave the way for testing alternate semantic models of negation against human semantic processing in the brain

Detection and Preservation of Biosignatures in Mars Analogs Hot Spring Deposits from the Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand

Characterizing the preservation potential of biosignatures in martian analogs is essential in the quest for biosignatures with martian rovers. Hot spring silica deposits are part of the minerals with a high preservation potential. As part of an ongoing study, we are characterizing the nature and distribution of organic molecules including lipid biomarkers in a range of analog hot spring deposits, evaluating their preservation potential, and determining the potential signals from flight-like experiments. We are focusing on various geothermal fields in the New Zealand Taupo Volcanic Zone with physical and chemical variabilities. Samples are being extracted for lipid biomarker characterization as well as analysis using flight-like experiments from the current and future pyrolyzer-gas chromatographmass spectrometer instruments SAM and MOMA on the Curiosity and Exomars2020 rovers. The aim of work is to improve our knowledge of the detection and preservation of biosignatures in different hot spring lithologies while simultaneously evaluating the potential limits and biases of flight experiments.Fil: Millan, Maëva. University Of Georgetown; Estados Unidos. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados UnidosFil: Campbell, Kathleen A.. Universidad Nacional y Kapodistriaca de Atenas; GreciaFil: Van Kranendonk, Martin J.. University of New South Wales; AustraliaFil: Sriaporn, Chanenath. Universidad Nacional y Kapodistriaca de Atenas; GreciaFil: Handley, Kim M.. Universidad Nacional y Kapodistriaca de Atenas; GreciaFil: Dobson, Michaela. Universidad Nacional y Kapodistriaca de Atenas; GreciaFil: Camp, Sîan. Universidad Nacional y Kapodistriaca de Atenas; GreciaFil: Teece, Bonnie. University of New South Wales; AustraliaFil: Guido, Diego Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Recursos Minerales. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto de Recursos Minerales; ArgentinaFil: Djokic, Tara. University of New South Wales; AustraliaFil: Farmer, Jack D.. Arizona State University; Estados UnidosFil: Stewart Johnson, Sarah. University Of Georgetown; Estados UnidosEPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019GenevaSuizaEuropean Process Safety Centr

Voltage-dip immunity: statistics and need for further work

Abstract. This paper presents the main results from CIGRE/CIRED/UIE working group JWG C4.110 and an overview of the need for further work identified by this working group. The paper goes into more details of the voltage-dip statistics collected by the working group and on methods to present the results from voltage-dip surveys

A Probiotic Adjuvant Lactobacillus rhamnosus Enhances Specific Immune Responses after Ocular Mucosal Immunization with Chlamydial Polymorphic Membrane Protein C

Recent advances in the development of chlamydia vaccines, using live-attenuated or ultraviolet light-inactivated chlamydia, are paving the way for new possibilities to oppose the societal challenges posed by chlamydia-related diseases, such as blinding trachoma. An effective subunit vaccine would mitigate the risks associated with the use of a whole-cell vaccine. Our rationale for the design of an efficient subunit vaccine against Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) is based on the membrane proteins involved in the initial Ct-host cell contact and on the route of immunization that mimics the natural infection process (i.e., via the ocular mucosa). The first aim of our study was to characterize the specific conjunctival and vaginal immune responses following eye drop immunization in BALB/c mice, using the N-terminal portion of the Ct serovar E polymorphic membrane protein C (N-PmpC) as the subunit vaccine antigen. Second, we aimed to examine the adjuvant properties of the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus (LB) when formulated with N-PmpC. N-PmpC applied alone stimulated the production of N-PmpC-and Ct serovar B-specific antibodies in serum, tears and vaginal washes, whereas the combination with LB significantly enhanced these responses. The N-PmpC/LB combination initiated a T cell response characterized by an elevated percentage of CD25+ T cells and CD8+ effector T cells, enhanced CD4+ T-helper 1 skewing, and increased regulatory T cell responses. Together, these results show that eye drop vaccination with combined use of N-PmpC and a live probiotic LB stimulates specific cellular and humoral immune responses, not only locally in the conjunctiva but also in the vaginal mucosa, which could be a promising approach in Ct vaccine development