THE NOVEL BIOMECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS SYSTEM FOR TUG-OF-WAR

Tug of war (TOW) is a kind of sport that has been accepted as one of the formal items in the Olympic game. Because of having well defined rule, the TOW has high potential to be extended to all over the world in the near future. To increase the possibility of success in the competition, athletes of the TOW should be subjected to a series of training courses. After experiencing certain training course, an athlete of TOW required to carry out pulling force test to evaluate his performance and consequently verify the effectiveness of the training course. In this study, a multi-purposes biomechanical measurement and analysis system is proposed in which various evaluations of the athlete performance. The idea of the proposed system is discussed and the associated theoretical methods are derived

THE ACUTE EFFECT OF UPPER EXTREMITY PLYOMETRIC TRAINING

The purpose of this study was to probe the acute effect of the performance of upper extremity muscle groups after the plyometric training intervention. The participants were 13 healthy male college students. The force transducers (300kg, 200 Hz) and EMG sensor (1000 Hz) were taken to diagnose the acute effects of strength and muscle activation done by upper extremity pre and post plyometric training (load :24kg, 12 repetiiion times Iset, 3 set), and pair t-test was taken to test the significance(a=.05). The result showed that the strength after the upper extremity plyometric training intervention obviously had decreased 8% (

Social Capital and Technological Literacy in Taiwan

The burgeoning interest in social capital within the technology community represents a welcome move towards a concern for the social elements of technological adaptation and capacity. Since technology plays an ever larger role in our daily life, it is necessary to articulate social capital and its relationship to technological literacy. A nationwide data was collected by area sampling, and position generator was used to measure social capital. Regression model was constructed for technological literacy. Age, gender, education, income, web access, and social capital were included as independent variables. The results show that age, gender, education, web access, and social capital were good predictors of technological literacy. It is concluded that social capital is helpful in coping with rapid technological change. Theoretical and empirical implications and future research are discussed

A lack of association between genetic polymorphisms in beta-defensins and susceptibility of psoriasis in Taiwanese: A case–control study

AbstractBackgroundGenetic predisposition of the inflammatory-host response may affect the development of psoriasis. Previous studies have shown that copy number variations (CNVs) of β-defensin genes (DEFB) are associated with the susceptibility of psoriasis in Caucasian populations.ObjectivesThis study aimed to assess the role of the CNVs of the DEFB4 gene and functional variants in the DEFB1 gene in Taiwanese patients with psoriasis.MethodsIn total, 196 patients with psoriasis and 196 control individuals were analyzed for the presence of the DEFB4 CNVs using the paralogue ratio test, and also for the DEFB1 polymorphisms rs11362, rs1800972, and rs1799946, using a polymerase chain reaction.ResultsNone of the polymorphisms were found to be associated with psoriasis. The distribution of DEFB4 genomic CNVs did not significantly differ between the control group and psoriasis group. The frequencies of patients who carried a greater than the median (≥ 5) number of copies did not significantly differ in patients with psoriasis and controls. The multivariate analysis similarly revealed that the DEFB4 CNVs were not associated with psoriasis (odds ratio = 1.03, 95% confidence interval = 0.89–1.19, p = 0.720). No significant difference was detected in the genotype and allele distribution for any of the individual DEFB1 polymorphisms between the cases and the controls. Finally, the overall haplotype frequency profiles derived from the three polymorphisms did not significantly differ between the cases and the controls.ConclusionOur results do not suggest that these genetic variants of the β-defensin genes contribute to the genetic background of psoriasis in Taiwanese patients

An in situ study on the coalescence of monolayer-protected Au-Ag nanoparticle deposits upon heating

The structural evolution of thiolate-protected nanoparticles of gold, silver, and their alloys with various Au/Ag ratios (3:1, 1:1, and 1:3) upon heating was investigated by means of in situ synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction. The relationships between the coalescence and composition of nanoparticles, as well as the surfactant reactions, were clarified. Experimental results show that there existed a critical temperature ranging from 120°C to 164°C, above which the tiny broad X-ray diffraction peaks became sharp and strong due to particle coalescence. The coalescence temperatures for alloy nanoparticle deposits were clearly lower than those for pure metals, which can be ascribed to the rivalry between the thermodynamic effect due to alloying and the interactions between surface-assembled layers and the surface atoms of the nanoparticles. The strong affinity of thiolates to Ag and thus complex interactions give rise to a greater energy barrier for the coalescence of nanoparticles into the bulk and subsequent high coalescence temperature. The influences of particle coalescence on the optical and electrical properties of the nanoparticle deposits were also explored

Enhancing the Anticancer Activity of Antrodia cinnamomea in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells via Cocultivation With Ginger: The Impact on Cancer Cell Survival Pathways

Antrodia cinnamomea (AC) is a medicinal fungal species that has been widely used traditionally in Taiwan for the treatment of diverse health-related conditions including cancer. It possesses potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in addition to its ability to promote cancer cell death in several human tumors. Our aim was to improve the anticancer activity of AC in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) through its cocultivation with ginger aiming at tuning the active ingredients. HCC cell lines, Huh-7 and HepG2 were used to study the in vitro anticancer activity of the ethanolic extracts of AC (EAC) alone or after the cocultivation in presence of ginger (EACG). The results indicated that the cocultivation of AC with ginger significantly induced the production of important triterpenoids and EACG was significantly more potent than EAC in targeting HCC cell lines. EACG effectively inhibited cancer cells growth via the induction of cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase and induction of apoptosis in Huh-7 and HepG2 cells as indicated by MTT assay, cell cycle analysis, Annexin V assay, and the activation of caspase-3. In addition, EACG modulated cyclin proteins expression and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways in favor of the inhibition of cancer cell survival. Taken together, the current study highlights an evidence that EACG is superior to EAC in targeting cancer cell survival and inducing apoptotic cell death in HCC. These findings support that EACG formula can serve as a potential candidate for HCC adjuvant therapy

Utilization of IκB–EGFP Chimeric Gene as an Indicator to Identify Microbial Metabolites with NF-κB Inhibitor Activity

NF-κB regulates several important expressions, such as cytokine release, anti-apoptosis, adhesion molecule expression, and cell cycle processing. Several NF-κB inhibitors have been discovered as an anti-tumor or anti-inflammatory drug. The activity of NF-κB transcription factor is negatively regulated by IκB binding. In this study, IκB assay system was established and IκB–EGFP fusion protein was used as an indicator to monitor the effects of substances on the IκB degradation. The results indicated that the chosen hydroquinone could inhibit the IκB degradation and cause the cell de-attachment from the bottom of culture plate. In addition, this system could also monitor the IκB degradation of microbial metabolite of natural mixtures of propolis. Thus, the IκB assay system may be a good system for drug discovery related to microbial metabolite