IMPACT OF WII-FIT TRAINING ON NEURO-MUSCULAR CONTROL

INTRODUCTION: In the past year, the interactive exercise video game Wii Fit (Nintendo, Tokyo, Japan) has achieved worldwide popularity. This system could be a potential asset for both training and physical therapy purposes; however, there is a lack of scientific validation to justify such applications. As a first step in ascertaining the advantages of the Wii Fit system, the present study is focused on the neuromuscular control changes that occur after 8 weeks of daily training. METHOD: Two healthy subjects (25.5±2.1 years, 177.8±14.37 cm, 71.5±16.26 kg) trained for 30 minutes a day for 8 consecutive weeks using standard Wii Fit strength training, aerobic, and yoga exercises. Before and after the training period, a series of tests were performed (gait, hop, isometric, and one leg stability) while collecting EMG data from the quadriceps (rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis), the hamstrings (biceps femoris and semitendinosus), and the grastrocnemii (lateralis and medialis). The EMG data was linear-enveloped and normalized by a maximum isometric voluntary contraction (MVIC). Similarly to Lloyd et al. (2005), the electromyographic activations were then summed by muscle group to calculate the co-contraction ratio (CCR), which is a value between 0 and 1 that indicates equalizing activation as it increases. RESULTS: Only the right leg data is being reported in this paper. Table 1 displays the CCR for the antagonist coactivations of the hamstrings and quadriceps and also the synergistic activations of the knee flexor muscle groups. It is worth noting that during gait and hopping motions, the ratios are decreased after training, while during the stability tests they increased. Finally, no trend emerged for the isometric data. Table 1 Co-contraction Ratio Maximums (Ext 60 and Flex 60 refer to isometric extesion and flexion at 60°)– values in italics are reciprocals Ext 60 Flex 60 Gait Hop Stability Ham/Quad Coactivation Pre 0.21 0.41 0.17 0.20 0.06 Post 0.46 0.47 0.02 0.06 0.88 Ham/Gast Synergy Pre 0.34 0.47 0.02 0.08 0.04 Post 0.47 0.28 0.01 0.08 0.35 DISCUSSION: After training, the CCR data for dynamic activity indicated more focused muscle control. During the stability tests, much higher CCR values were reported, indicating the muscles were doing a better job achieving a intra-articular equilibrium. CONCLUSION: These preliminary results indicate a promising use of the Wii Fit system for training and physical therapy as on a small population they demonstrated neuromuscular control improvement during dynamic and static trials. REFERENCES: Lloyd, D. G., Buchanan, T. S., and Besier, T. F. (2005). Neuromuscular Biomechanical Modeling to Understand Knee Ligament Loading. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 37, 1939-1947

Integration of 3G connectivity in planetlab Europe :A step of an evolutionary path towards heterogeneous large scale network testbeds

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Endothelial cells, endoplasmic reticulum stress and oxysterols

Oxysterols are bioactive lipids that act as regulators of lipid metabolism, inflammation, cell viability and are involved in several diseases, including atherosclerosis. Mounting evidence linked the atherosclerosis to endothelium dysfunction; in fact, the endothelium regulates the vascular system with roles in processes such as hemostasis, cell cholesterol, hormone trafficking, signal transduction and inflammation. Several papers shed light the ability of oxysterols to induce apoptosis in different cell lines including endothelial cells. Apoptotic endothelial cell and endothelial denudation may constitute a critical step in the transition to plaque erosion and vessel thrombosis, so preventing the endothelial damaged has garnered considerable attention as a novel means of treating atherosclerosis. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the site where the proteins are synthetized and folded and is necessary for most cellular activity; perturbations of ER homeostasis leads to a condition known as endoplasmic reticulum stress. This condition evokes the unfolded protein response (UPR) an adaptive pathway that aims to restore ER homeostasis. Mounting evidence suggests that chronic activation of UPR leads to cell dysfunction and death and recently has been implicated in pathogenesis of endothelial dysfunction. Autophagy is an essential catabolic mechanism that delivers misfolded proteins and damaged organelles to the lysosome for degradation, maintaining basal levels of autophagic activity it is critical for cell survival. Several evidence suggests that persistent ER stress often results in stimulation of autophagic activities, likely as a compensatory mechanism to relieve ER stress and consequently cell death. In this review, we summarize evidence for the effect of oxysterols on endothelial cells, especially focusing on oxysterols-mediated induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress

Fingerprinting the hydration products of hydraulic binders using snapshots from time-resolved in situ multinuclear mas nmr spectroscopy

The very early hydration behavior of a hydraulic binder phase, ye'elimite, Ca4Al6O12SO4, in the absence and in the presence of calcium sulfate, has been investigated. A time-resolved in situ multinuclear magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic suite involving 1H and 27Al MAS as well as two-dimensional 27Al multiple quantum MAS (MQMAS) experiments has been employed to detect the transient species and to govern the sequence of hydration reactions and the subsequent formation of the hydration products. The results of the study show that the rates of formation of ye'elimite hydration products vary substantially according to the absence or the presence of calcium sulfate. Hydrated calcium sulfoaluminate phases such as ettringite and monosulfate as well as aluminum hydroxide gel have been detected during the various stages of hydration. The direct observation of various transient species during the hydration stages of calcium aluminates and calcium sulfoaluminates illustrates the potential of a newly designed time-resolved in situ 1H MAS NMR experimental approach for fingerprinting phases and offers significant advantages over other established techniques in detecting transient species