Somato-Functional Profile of Children at Risk of Educational and Social Exclusion in Western Romania

This paper aims to identify the somatic and functional profile of middle-school students from three areas of Romania (South-West, West and North-West). A group of 364 students (173 girls and 191 boys) aged between 10 and 16 years (12.75 ± 1.2) from 6 different schools in Mehedinti, Caras-Severin and Bistrita-Nasaud counties took part in this study. The target group category includes Roma ethnic students, students from disorganised families and students at high risk of early school dropout, from both urban and rural areas. The calculated statistical indicators were: arithmetic mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation and Pearson coefficient. The anthropometric measurements made to identify the somatic and functional profile of students were height, weight, BMI, arm span and Ruffier test. The results show an upward trend in the height of boys aged between 10 (1.44 m) and 16 years (1.67 m), the maximum value recorded for girls aged 14 years being 1.59 m. The highest value of body weight was identified in boys aged 15 years (58.91 kg) and girls aged 14 years (52.63 kg). The highest value for arm span was found for 15-years-old boys (167 cm) and 14-years-old girls (158.83 cm). BMI values for both boys and girls were between 17.22 and  21.52 points. In Ruffier test, the scores obtained by students ranged between 9.95 and 13.4. This research is part of the “Sustainable social and education integration through sport activities” project (PNP001). </p

Optimization of Ball Rebound Technique in Rhythmic Gymnastics by Means of Bi-dimensional Analysis

AbstractSince biomechanics in Rhythmic Gymnastics has been neglected, this paper's main purpose is the optimization of object technique by biomechanical analysis. Thus, the aim of this research is to optimize the execution technique, by calculating some parameters of rebounds at ball, in order to increase performance and their use in competitions. The biomechanical 2D analysis that we did, offers enough data, strong feedback of the technical performances’ correctness and a way of obtaining remarkable results in competitions

STUDY REGARDING THE DYNAMICS OF DEVELOPING SOMATIC AND FUNCTIONAL INDICES IN JUNIOR GYMNASTS AGED 12 TO 15

In this paper we have introduced the morpho-functional peculiarities of junior gymnasts aged 12-15. The hypothesis of the study started by assuming the performance of the medical and sportive check-up, we will be able to make up the athletes’ physiometric check-up and emphasize the junior gymnasts’ main components of physical development and enhancement. We also suppose the analysis of the results will determine the health state dynamics of the gymnasts to be trained during the respective training period. In order to underline the performance gymnasts’ functional aspects, we performed a study at the Olympic Junior Lot of Artistic Gymnastics that took place during 2012 and 2013 on a group of 14 junior I and junior II athletes. Within our research, performed during three stages, we used the data of the medical check-up files at the National Institute of Sportive Medicine of Bucharest. Statistic processing has been performed in Word and KyPlot. The results of the study show the junior gymnasts’ morho-functional peculiarities, aged 12 to 15, regarding the increase of somatic indices, the increase of proportional anthropometric indices and the improvement of functional capacity. We also noted the medical and sportive check-up performed underlined the main components of junior gymnasts’ development and enhancement check-up and their fitness level

Bioactive Potential of Carrot-Based Products Enriched with <i>Lactobacillus plantarum</i>

The primary goal of this study was to generate different kinds of functional products based on carrots that were supplemented with lactic acid bacteria. The fact that carrots (Daucus carota sp.) rank among the most popular vegetables in our country led to the convergence of the research aim. Their abundance of bioactive compounds, primarily polyphenols, flavonoids, and carotenoids, offers numerous health benefits. Among the obtained products, the freeze-dried carrot powder (FDCP) variation presented the highest concentrations of total carotenoids (TCs) and β-carotene (BC) of 26.977 ± 0.13 mg/g DW and 22.075 ± 0.14 mg/g DW, respectively. The amount of total carotenoids and β-carotene significantly increased with the addition of the selected lactic acid bacteria (LAB) for most of the samples. In addition, a slight increase in the antioxidant activity compared with the control sample for the FDCP variant, with the highest value of 91.74%, was observed in these functional food products. The content of polyphenolic compounds varied from 0.044 to 0.091 mg/g DW, while the content of total flavonoids varied from 0.03 to 0.66 mg/g DW. The processing method had an impact on the population of L. plantarum that survived, as indicated by the viability of bacterial cells in all the analyzed products. The chromatographic analysis through UHPLC-MS/MS further confirmed the abundance of the bioactive compounds and their corresponding derivatives by revealing 19 different compounds. The digestibility study indicated that carotenoid compounds from carrots followed a rather controlled release. The carrot-based products enriched with Lactobacillus plantarum can be considered newly functional developed products based on their high content of biologically active compounds with beneficial effects upon the human body. Furthermore, these types of products could represent innovative products for every related industry such as the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmeceutical industries, thus converging a new strategy to improve the health of consumers or patients