KINETIC ANALYSIS OF THE UPPER EXTREMITY BETWEEN DIFFERENT STANCES IN TENNIS TWO-HANDED BACKHAND

INTRODUCTION: Now the tennis players could explore more racket capabilities through the change of racket materials and design. The open stance comes out in modern tennis relative to the traditional square stance. This study was conducted to analyze the upper extremity joint forces and moments between the different stances in advanced and intermediate athletes, who separated from ITN rating system, during two-handed stroke

Antioxidant activity and growth inhibition of human colon cancer cells by crude and purified fucoidan preparations extracted from Sargassum cristaefolium

AbstractFucose-containing sulfated polysaccharides, also termed “fucoidans”, which are known to possess antioxidant, anticoagulant, anticancer, antiviral, and immunomodulating properties, are normally isolated from brown algae via various extraction techniques. In the present study, two methods (SC1 and SC2) for isolation of fucoidan from Sargassum cristaefolium were compared, with regard to the extraction yields, antioxidant activity, and inhibition of growth of human colon cancer cells exhibited by the respective extracts. SC1 and SC2 differ in the number of extraction steps and concentration of ethanol used, as well as the obtained sulfated polysaccharide extracts, namely, crude fucoidan preparation (CFP) and purified fucoidan preparation (PFP), respectively. Thin layer chromatography, Fourier transform infrared analysis, and measurements of fucose and sulfate contents revealed that the extracts were fucoidan. There was a higher extraction yield for CFP, which contained less fucose and sulfate but more uronic acid, and had weaker antioxidant activity and inhibition of growth in human colon cancer cells. In contrast, there was a lower extraction yield for PFP, which contained more fucose and sulfate but less uronic acid, and had stronger antioxidant activity and inhibition of growth in human colon cancer cells. Thus, since the difference in bioactive activities between CFP and PFP was not remarkable, the high extraction yield of SC1 might be favored as a method in industrial usage for extracting fucoidan

Significance of Coronary Calcification for Prediction of Coronary Artery Disease and Cardiac Events Based on 64-Slice Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography

This work aims to validate the clinical significance of coronary artery calcium score (CACS) in predicting coronary artery disease(CAD) and cardiac events in 100 symptomatic patients (aged 37–87 years, mean 62.5, 81 males) that were followed up for a mean of 5 years. Our results showed that patients with CAD and cardiac events had significantly higher CACS than those without CAD and cardiac events, respectively. The corresponding data were 1450.42 ± 3471.24 versus 130 ± 188.29 (P 1000. Increased CACS (>100)was also associated with an increased frequency of multi-vessel disease. Nonetheless, 3 (20%) out of 15 patients with zero CACS had single-vessel disease. Significant correlation (P < 0.001) was observed between CACS and CAD on a vessel-based analysis for coronary arteries. It is concluded that CACS is significantly correlated with CAD and cardiac events

Embryo Development and Behavior in Sea Urchin (Tripneustes gratilla) Under Different Light Emitting Diodes Condition

This study aims to evaluate the effect of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) of different wavelengths on the embryonic development, covering behavior, righting behavior, and phototaxis of collector urchins (Tripneustes gratilla). The collector urchins were divided into three groups according to the type of LED illumination they received: full-spectrum (400–750 nm wavelength), red light (630 nm), or blue light (450 nm). The results of the embryonic development experiment indicated that the blue LED group had the highest proportion of embryos reaching the prism stage at the 24th hour and the highest proportion of embryos entering the 4-arm pluteus stage, but it also had the highest death rate at the 48th hour. The full-spectrum and red LED groups exhibited similar speeds of embryonic development. In the experiment on covering behavior performed on adult urchins, our findings indicated that the blue LED group gripped the most acrylic sheets for cover, exhibiting the most covering behavior, followed by the full-spectrum group and then the red LED group. Moreover, behavior varied with coloration, as collector urchins with a lower level of melanin exhibited more covering behavior than those with a higher melanin level. In addition, the righting behavior experiments demonstrated that the blue LED group spent the longest time righting themselves. It is possible that the relatively strong stimulation from the blue LED illumination led to a higher level of stress in the collector urchins and hence slowed their righting. The phototaxis experiment revealed the most significant negative phototactic response in collector urchins when they were under the blue LED light, followed by the full-spectrum light; the red LED light did not induce any positive or negative phototactic response in the collector urchins. This experimental result verified collector urchins’ high sensitivity to and dislike of the blue LED light. The study results confirmed that the blue LED light environment accelerated the embryonic development of collector urchins; however, the relatively strong stimulation from that light also caused them to engage in covering behavior or move away from the light. These results indicate that short-wavelength irradiation significantly affects the embryonic development and behavior pattern of this species

Managing cardiac arrest with refractory ventricular fibrillation in the emergency department: Conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation versus extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation

AbstractAimRefractory ventricular fibrillation, resistant to conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), is a life threatening rhythm encountered in the emergency department. Although previous reports suggest the use of extracorporeal CPR can improve the clinical outcomes in patients with prolonged cardiac arrest, the effectiveness of this novel strategy for refractory ventricular fibrillation is not known. We aimed to compare the clinical outcomes of patients with refractory ventricular fibrillation managed with conventional CPR or extracorporeal CPR in our institution.MethodThis is a retrospective chart review study from an emergency department in a tertiary referral medical center. We identified 209 patients presenting with cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation between September 2011 and September 2013. Of these, 60 patients were enrolled with ventricular fibrillation refractory to resuscitation for more than 10min. The clinical outcome of patients with ventricular fibrillation received either conventional CPR, including defibrillation, chest compression, and resuscitative medication (C-CPR, n=40) or CPR plus extracorporeal CPR (E-CPR, n=20) were compared.ResultsThe overall survival rate was 35%, and 18.3% of patients were discharged with good neurological function. The mean duration of CPR was longer in the E-CPR group than in the C-CPR group (69.90±49.6min vs 34.3±17.7min, p=0.0001). Patients receiving E-CPR had significantly higher rates of sustained return of spontaneous circulation (95.0% vs 47.5%, p=0.0009), and good neurological function at discharge (40.0% vs 7.5%, p=0.0067). The survival rate in the E-CPR group was higher (50% vs 27.5%, p=0.1512) at discharge and (50% vs 20%, p=0. 0998) at 1 year after discharge.ConclusionsThe management of refractory ventricular fibrillation in the emergency department remains challenging, as evidenced by an overall survival rate of 35% in this study. Patients with refractory ventricular fibrillation receiving E-CPR had a trend toward higher survival rates and significantly improved neurological outcomes than those receiving C-CPR

Dynamic Transcript Profiling of Candida Albicans Infection in Zebrafish: a Pathogen-Host Interaction Study

Candida albicans is responsible for a number of life-threatening infections and causes considerable morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. Previous studies of C. albicans pathogenesis have suggested several steps must occur before virulent infection, including early adhesion, invasion, and late tissue damage. However, the mechanism that triggers C. albicans transformation from yeast to hyphae form during infection has yet to be fully elucidated. This study used a systems biology approach to investigate C. albicans infection in zebrafish. The surviving fish were sampled at different post-infection time points to obtain time-lapsed, genome-wide transcriptomic data from both organisms, which were accompanied with in sync histological analyses. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to analyze the dynamic gene expression profiles of significant variations in both C. albicans and zebrafish. The results categorized C. albicans infection into three progressing phases: adhesion, invasion, and damage. Such findings were highly supported by the corresponding histological analysis. Furthermore, the dynamic interspecies transcript profiling revealed that C. albicans activated its filamentous formation during invasion and the iron scavenging functions during the damage phases, whereas zebrafish ceased its iron homeostasis function following massive hemorrhage during the later stages of infection. This was followed by massive hemorrhaging toward the end stage of infection. Most of the immune related genes were expressed as the infection progressed from invasion to the damage phase. Such global, inter-species evidence of virulence-immune and iron competition dynamics during C. albicans infection could be crucial in understanding control fungal pathogenesis

Analgesic and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Methanol Extract of Cissus repens

The aim of this study was to investigate possible analgesic and anti-inflammatory mechanisms of the CRMeOH. Analgesic effect was evaluated in two models including acetic acid-induced writhing response and formalin-induced paw licking. The anti-inflammatory effect was evaluated by λ-carrageenan-induced mouse paw edema and histopathologic analyses. The results showed that CRMeOH (500 mg/kg) decreased writhing response in the acetic acid assay and licking time in the formalin test. CRMeOH (100 and 500 mg/kg) significantly decreased edema paw volume at 4th to 5th hours after λ-carrageenan had been injected. Histopathologically, CRMeOH abated the level of tissue destruction and swelling of the edema paws. These results were indicated that anti-inflammatory mechanism of CRMeOH may be due to declined levels of NO and MDA in the edema paw through increasing the activities of SOD, GPx, and GRd in the liver. Additionally, CRMeOH also decreased IL-1β, IL-6, NFκB, TNF-α, COX-2, and iNOS levels. The contents of two active ingredients, ursolic acid and lupeol, were quantitatively determined. This paper demonstrated possible mechanisms for the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of CRMeOH and provided evidence for the classical treatment of Cissus repens in inflammatory diseases