Effects of Limiting the Number of Ball Touches on Physical and Technical Performance of the Junior Football Players during Small-sided Game

PURPOSE We aimed to examine the effects of limiting the number of ball touches on the physical and technical performances of junior football players during small-sided games (SSGs), which are widely used to improve football-specific physical and technical performances. METHODS Nineteen middle-school football players participated in the study and took a pretest for their physical and technical skills to be evaluated before the main experiment. During the SSG, to balance teams according to the players’ levels of physical fitness and skill, we selected players with the highest to lowest total scores and organized them in an ABBA order. Ten players who obtained the highest scores participated in the SSG once a week for 5 weeks under the limitation of a certain number of ball touches (one, two, three, four, or free touches). Players could only play with a set number of touches. Each SSG consisted of 4-min sets with 4-min breaks after each set on a pitch with a goal. RESULTS As the number of possible touches increased, the total distance and average speed of the players increased, and the distance ratio covered by running (over 13 km/h), but not walking or jogging, also increased. Regarding technical factors, as the number of touches a player could make increased, the number of passes decreased, whereas the rates of dribbles and defensive tackles increased. CONCLUSIONS As the number of ball touches increased during the SSG, the young players covered a greater distance with a higher speed, unlike professional players, and the frequency of skills mostly used, such as passing and dribbling during the SSG, showed different results

Effects of driving style and bedding in pigs transported to slaughterhouse in different temperatures

Animal welfare during transport became an largely issue because of increasing demand for improved animal welfare standards. Most studies on the animal welfare during transportation have concentrated on the atmosphere and the temperature of the truck compartments. Thus, the objective of study was to collect and quantify three axis acceleration and determine the effect of bedding for transporting pigs from farm to slaughterhouse. A total of 2,840 crossbred fattening pigs with a live weight of approximately 115 kg were used. They were raised in the same commercial farms and transported to the same commercial slaughterhouse. A 3×2×2 completely randomized factorial design was used to investigate effects of rubber type bedding (bedding or non-bedding) and two levels of driving style (aggressive or normal) in three different time periods with different outside temperatures. Air temperature treatments were as follow: high temperature ([HT] higher than 24°C); low temperature ([LT] lower than 10°C); normal temperature ([NT] 10°C to 24°C). In our experiment, pigs transported under aggressive driving style showed lower (p < 0.05) pH and water holding capacity (WHC) than those transported under normal driving style. Pigs transported under normal driving style showed a lower percentage of drip loss (DL) (p < 0.05) than those transported with an aggressive driving style. Also, transported with bedding showed higher (p < 0.05) lying behavior but lower (p < 0.05) sitting behavior than those transported without bedding. Pigs transported under normal driving style showed lower (p < 0.05) cortisol level than those transported under aggressive driving style. In conclusion, aggressive driving style cause acute stress in pigs, while bedding helps alleviate acute stress in pigs during transportation in LT

가려움을 조절하는 새로운 신경세포의 조사 연구

가려움, itch, 가려움증, pruritus, 긁음, scratching, 글라이신수용체, GlyCl, 화학유전학, chemogenetics, 행동실험, behaviorNMasterdCollectio

A 0.78–0.91–THz Wideband Frequency Tripler With Harmonic-Matched Bias Network

A 0.78–0.91-THz wideband frequency tripler is demonstrated using a 250-nm InP DHBT technology. Considering potential inaccuracy of the transistor model at the submillimeter-wave frequencies, a simple one-stage common-emitter topology is adopted for the wideband and stable operation. To enhance the output power and suppress the unwanted harmonics, a harmonic-matched bias network is used for dc feed at the output. The frequency tripler was measured with an on-chip probing method. Although an overmode waveguide probe was used, which imposes an additional measurement loss, a peak output power was measured as −28 dBm at 0.813 THz. The bandwidth for a −35-dBm output power ranges from 0.78 to 0.91 THz. The conversion loss is from 35.9 to 45 dB over the bandwidth. The chip area is $273\times 460\,\,\mu \text{m}^{2}$ and the dc power consumption is 22 mW

Machine-Learning Based Automatic and Real-time Detection of Mouse Scratching Behaviors

Scratching is a main behavioral response accompanied by acute and chronic itch conditions, and has been quantified as an objective correlate to assess itch in studies using laboratory animals. Scratching has been counted mostly by human annotators, which is a time-consuming and laborious process. It has been attempted to develop automated scoring methods using various strategies, but they often require specialized equipment, costly software, or implantation of device which may disturb animal behaviors. To complement limitations of those methods, we have adapted machine learning-based strategy to develop a novel automated and real-time method detecting mouse scratching from experimental movies captured using monochrome cameras such as a webcam. Scratching is identified by characteristic changes in pixels, body position, and body size by frame as well as the size of body. To build a training model, a novel two-step J48 decision tree-inducing algorithm along with a C4.5 post-pruning algorithm was applied to three 30-min video recordings in which a mouse exhibits scratching following an intradermal injection of a pruritogen, and the resultant frames were then used for the next round of training. The trained method exhibited, on average, a sensitivity and specificity of 95.19% and 92.96%, respectively, in a performance test with five new recordings. This result suggests that it can be used as a non-invasive, automated and objective tool to measure mouse scratching from video recordings captured in general experimental settings, permitting rapid and accurate analysis of scratching for preclinical studies and high throughput drug screening. © 2019 Experimental Neurobiology.1

The peripheral and central mechanisms underlying itch

Itch is one of the most distressing sensations that substantially impair quality of life. It is a cardinal symptom of many skin diseases and is also caused by a variety of systemic disorders. Unfortunately, currently available itch medications are ineffective in many chronic itch conditions, and they often cause undesirable side effects. To develop novel therapeutic strategies, it is essential to identify primary afferent neurons that selectively respond to itch mediators as well as the central nervous system components that process the sensation of itch and initiate behavioral responses. This review summarizes recent progress in the study of itch, focusing on itch-selective receptors, signaling molecules, neuronal pathways from the primary sensory neurons to the brain, and potential decoding mechanisms based on which itch is distinguished from pain. © 2016 by the The Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.1

Novel Traffic Measurement Methodology for High Precision Applications Awareness in Multi-gigabit Networks

Abstract. Traffic measurement research has focused on various aspects ranging from simple packet-based monitoring to sophisticated flow-based measurement and analysis. Especially, most recent research has tried to address limitations of simple flow-based monitoring by utilizing payload inspection for applications signatures or by identifying target application group based on common traffic characteristics. However, due to highly dynamic nature of the development and the use of the Internet applications, individual simple remedy such as application signature inspection, dynamic port identification, or traffic characterization can't be sufficient to achieve high precision application-aware monitoring. This is true especially in multi-gigabit high-speed network environment. As the Internet has been evolving from free networks to highquality business oriented ones, more sophisticated high precision applicationaware traffic measurement is required which takes all the factors mentioned above into account. In this paper, we propose our novel traffic measurement methodology to meet such requirements. We considered scalability, costefficiency, and performance