Analysis of the adaptive effect in female athletes at the pre-competition stage of the annual educational and training macrocycle

Aim: assessment of the functional state of female students of the sports department of the university involved in track and field athletics at the pre-competition stage of the annual training cycle. Materials and methods. The research was carried out at the Department of Physical Culture and Sports of the Yaroslavl State Medical University. It was attended by 14 students from the athletics section (experimental group) and 20 students not involved in sports sections (control group). Conclusions. The analysis of the obtained data revealed practically equal anthropometric indicators in the experimental and control groups of the examined female students. During the mathematical processing of the results of functional tests, statistically significant differences were established between the indicators of the experimental and control groups of girl students. The Harvard Step test in the athletics group exceeded this indicator in the control group by 21 %. Also, in athletes, a significantly longer (by 23 %) breath holding time was found. A significantly shorter recovery time of the heart rate of female athletes after 20 squats was established, in comparison with untrained ones. The reaction to orthostasis among the athletes was satisfactory, and among the students from the control group it approached unsatisfactory. Results. The results obtained indicate a high level of physical performance and recovery processes of female athletes at the pre-competition stage of the annual training cycle. The best functional state of the cardiovascular, respiratory and vegetative-vascular nervous systems of female athletes was established in comparison with the indicators of female students who do not go in for sports

The characteristic of the component body composition of athletes involved in game-based and cyclic kinds of sports

Objective: to determine a component body composition of students specializing in volleyball and athletics and to conduct a comparative analysis of the results.Materials and methods: the study was conducted at the Department of physical training and sports at the Yaroslavl State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The study included students from different groups of physical training: volleyball (10 men and 10 women), athletics (10 women) (experimental groups), and first­year students that attended physical training classes (14 men and 16 women) (control group).Results: significant differences were revealed between the anthropometric measurements in the experimental groups of the studied women and between the results of anthropometric measurements in the female volleyball players, female athletes, and students from the control group. Significant differences were revealed in the component body composition of the studied women from the experimental and control groups. The analysis of the results of anthropometric measurements in the experimental and control groups of men did not reveal any significant differences between the parameters. Bioimpedancemetry revealed significant differences in the composition of the internal milieu of volleyball players in comparison with the control group.Conclusions: 1. differences were revealed in the component composition of the body of female athletes involved in game­based and cyclic kinds of sport as well as in the parameters of bio­impedance of female volleyball players and the control group. Female volleyball players had higher parameters of total body fluids, intracellular and extracellular fluids, fat­free, fat, and active cell mass in comparison with female light athletes and the control group. The differences in the obtained results were more significant in the experimental groups. 2. Bio­impendance analysis of men showed significant differences in the component body composition of volleyball players in comparison with untrained students. The parameters of total body fluids, fat­free, fat, and active cell mass in sportsmen exceeded the same parameters in the control group. 3. Differences were established in the anthropometric parameters depending on the sport­oriented specialization of female students. Female volleyball players had higher values of mass, length, body weight index, and body surface area, the circumferences of the pelvis, thighs, and wrists in comparison with the results obtained in female light athletes. Similar differences were revealed in the anthropometric parameters of female volleyball players and students from the control group. Significantly lower values of the body weight index, circumference of the chest and pelvis of female athletes were registered in comparison with students from the control group. Male volleyball players did not have significant differences in the anthropometric parameters. They tended to have an increase in the body mass, length and surface area of the body, circumference of the chest, thighs, and wrists

Responses of bottom invertebrates to pollution in the Arctic: bioassays with blue mussel

Environmental control in the Arctic ecosystems needs to be changed to hi-tech monitoring technologies with IT systems for actual and ecologically effective 'arctic safeguard'. In circumstances of the fragile arctic ecosystems, priority bioassay of possible toxic hazards in natural seawater must be undertaken. It was considered useful to examine toxic responses of some indicator species. Bivalves are well-known indicators of pollution stress arising from the activities of man, such as off-shore drilling and oil transportation, dredging or the release of pollutants. Toxic effects of some drilling fluids on energy balance, behavior and survival of the common mussel Mytilus edulis L, were estimated in long-duration bioassays of about 30 days each. The highest sensitivity of behavioral responses to any changes in chemical water composition was found. Mussels of the Barents Sea had significant differences from the control by four behavioral parameters even at 0.01 g/l of the ferrochrome-lignosulfonate drilling fluid, while the significant differences from the control in oxygen consumption and filtration rates were observed only at the 10 g/l. Even small concentration of another standard water-based drilling fluid with barite (of about 0.05 g/l) had a lethal effect on M. edulis

Long-term fluctuations in population of Semibalanus balanoides (L.) (Crustacea) in the estuarine zone of the Kola Bay

The intertidal population of the barnacles Semibalanus balanoides has been explored in the estuarine zone of the Tuloma River at the end of the Kola Bay for the first time. Barnacles S. balanoides are typical species for the littoral zone of the northern seas, they populate both the high and low salinity areas along the coast of the Barents Sea. The ecology and distribution of barnacle population in estuarine intertidal zones of the Barents Sea are not studied previously, and under the critical salinity conditions of any estuary, in particular. The investigation have been carried out on the littoral of the western (left) shore of the southern tribe of the Kola Bay – the estuary section from the Tuloma bridge to the Cape Elovy. The studied site is a sandy-boulder beach with stony bars, its length is about 1 150 m, the area is about 126 500 m2. Counting the number of S. balanoides in clusters has been performed on site (without removal of the copepods from the population) by the standard method for intertidal sampling. Simultaneously with the defining the number of barnacles for the period 2003–2014, the measurements of salinity and temperature of water and air have been made. The peculiarity of the estuarine barnacle population is their complete absence in the upper horizon of the littoral, and in the middle and the lower horizons they are found only within the channels of the littoral streams (3–20 specimens in the sample). For the first time the abundance and biomass of barnacles S. balanoides in this estuarine population has been determined, and the causes of their narrow-local distribution on the estuary littoral of the Tuloma River have been revealed. The main ecological factors determining the abundance and specific distribution of barnacles under the conditions of estuarine littoral have been established. The regular increase in the density of adult S. balanoides settlements along the gradient of water salinity from the Tuloma River to the sea has been shown. The long-term fluctuations in the abundance of barnacle S. balanoides have been found, associated, obviously, with climate changes