Heart rate and lactate responses to taekwondo fight in elite women performers

The purpose of this study was to examine heart rate (HR) and blood lactate (LA) concentration before, during and after a competitive Tae kwon do (TKD) fight performed by elite women performers. Specifically, we were interested to see weather HR and LA responses to competitive fight were greater than to TKD or karate exercises published in scientific literature. Seven international-standard women TKD fighters participated in the study. HR was recorded continuously throughout the fight using Polar Vantage telemetric HR monitors. LA samples were taken before and 3 min after the fight and analysed using an Accusport portable lactate analyzer. At the beginning of the fight, HR significantly increased (p<0.01) from pre-fight values of 91.6±9.9 beats min-1 to 144.1±13.6 beats min-1. During the whole fight the HRmean was 186.6±2.5 beats min-1 and remained significantly elevated (p<0.01) at 3 min into recovery. HR values expressed as a percentage of HRmax averaged during the whole fight at 91.7±2.6% respectively. LA concentration significantly increased (p<0.01) 3 min after the fight and averaged 82% of LApeak values measured after the VO2max test. Results of the present study indicate that physiological demands of competitive TKD fight in women, measured by HR and LA responses, are considerably higher than the physiological demands of TKD or karate training exercises. The observed HR and LA responses suggest to us that conditioning for TKD should generally emphasise high-intensity anaerobic exercise

Evaluation of common tests for fracture characterisation of advanced high-strength sheet steels with the help of the FEA

The paper presents results of evaluation of common tests for fracture characterization of advanced high-strength sheet steels with the help of the FEA. The tests include three in-plane shear tests, two uniaxial tension tests, two plane strain tension tests and two equibiaxial tension tests. Three high-strength steels with different yield loci, strain hardening rates and strengths in three different thicknesses each were used. The evaluation was performed based on the spatial distribution of the equivalent plastic strain and damage variable in the specimen at the moment of crack initiation as well as on the time variation of the stress state at the crack initiation location. For in-plane shear, uniaxial tension and plane strain tension, no test can be unconditionally recommended as disadvantages of all studied tests in these groups cannot be neglected. However, in each of these groups, a test can be chosen, which represents an acceptable compromise between its advantages and disadvantages: the shear test on an IFUM butterfly specimen for in-plane shear, the tensile test on a holed specimen for uniaxial tension and the tensile test on a waisted specimen for plane strain tension. On the contrary, the bulge test on a circular specimen with a punch of Ø 100 mm can be unconditionally recommended for equibiaxial tension. In the future, optimisation of the studied tests for in-plane shear, uniaxial tension and plane strain tension appears to be necessary.FOST

Material Modelling of Short Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic for the FEA of a Clinching Test

In modern car body construction, multi-material and hybrid design is used, whereby short fibre reinforced plastics combined with light metals represent an interesting class of work-piece materials. In order to realize modern hybrid construction, suitable joining techniques are therefore required. Clinching represents a cost-effective and easy to implement joining method. In this paper the material modelling of the short fibre reinforced thermoplastic sheets considering the fibre orientation tensor for the FEA of the clinching process is presented

Optical observations of the nearby galaxy IC342 with narrow band [SII] and Hα\alpha filters. I

We present observations of the portion of the nearby spiral galaxy IC342 using narrow band [SII] and H$\alpha$ filters. These observations were carried out in November 2011 with the 2m RCC telescope at Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory in Bulgaria. In this paper we report coordinates, diameters, H$\alpha$ and [SII] fluxes for 203 HII regions detected in two fields of view in IC342 galaxy. The number of detected HII regions is 5 times higher than previously known in these two parts of the galaxy.Comment: 9 pages, 3 tables, 4 figures. Table 3 corrected + small corrections in the tex

Can greater muscularity in larger individuals resolve the 3/4 power-law controversy when modelling maximum oxygen uptake?

BACKGROUND: The power function relationship, MR = a.m(b), between metabolic rate (MR) and body mass m has been the source of much controversy amongst biologists for many years. Various studies have reported mass exponents (b) greater than the anticipated 'surface-area' exponent 0.67, often closer to 0.75 originally identified by Kleiber. AIM: The study aimed to provide a biological explanation for these 'inflated' exponents when modelling maximum oxygen uptake (max), based on the observations from this and previous studies that larger individuals develop disproportionately more muscle mass in the arms and legs. RESEARCH DESIGN AND SUBJECTS: A cross-sectional study of 119 professional soccer players from Croatia aged 18-34 was carried out. RESULTS: Here we confirm that the power function relationship between max and body mass of the professional soccer players results in an 'inflated' mass exponent of 0.75 (95% confidence interval from 0.56 to 0.93), but also the larger soccer players have disproportionately greater leg muscle girths. When the analysis was repeated incorporating the calf and thigh muscle girths rather than body mass as predictor variables, the analysis not only explained significantly more of the variance in max, but the sum of the exponents confirmed a surface-area law. CONCLUSIONS: These findings confirm the pitfalls of fitting body-mass power laws and suggest using muscle-girth methodology as a more appropriate way to scale or normalize metabolic variables such as max for individuals of different body sizes

Ispitivanje neurotoksičnosti analoga fentanila kod pacova

This study aimed at evaluating the neurotoxicity of fentanyl analogs: (+/-)-cis-3-carbomethoxy fentanyl (C) and (+/-)-trans-3-carbomethoxy fentanyl (T) in rats. C and Tare less potent (2.4-3.1 and 8.4-12.3 times, respectively) than fentanyl (F) in producing both antinociception and morphine-like neurotoxic effects: loss of pinna reflex, Straub tail, impairment of motor coordination, catalepsy, loss of corneal reflex and loss of righting reflex. All of the effects tested were dose-dependent and they were abolished by pretreatment with naloxone, nonselective antagonist of opioid receptors, indicating that they are mediated via opioid receptors. Further, F, C and T exhibited similar relative potencies in producing all tested effects, indicating that similar receptors are involved in producing antinociceptive and neurotoxic effects, most probably of mu type. By using equiantinociceptive doses, C and T produced significantly shorter duration of both antinociception and neurotoxicity than F No significant differences between therapeutic indices for F, C and T were found, indicating that these compounds are equally safe and tolerable in respect to the neurotoxic effects tested. Neurotoxicity testing presented in this paper may be useful in studying the structure-activity relationship of opioid congeners.Cilj studije bio je da se ispita neurotoksičnost analoga fentanila: (±)-cis-3-karbometoksi fentanila (C) i (±)-trans-3-karbometoksi fentanil (T) kod pacova. C je oko 2,4-3,1, a T oko 8,4-12,3 puta manje potentan od fentanila u izazivanju antinocicepcije i morfinu-sličnih neurotoksičnih efekata u koje spadaju: refleks ušne školjke, Straub-ov rep, poremećaj motorne koordinacije, katalepsija, gubitak kornealnog refleksa i gubitak refleksa uspravljanja. Svi ispitivani efekti su dozno-zavisni i bivaju poništeni ako se u pretretmanu primeni nalokson, neselektivni antagonist opioidnih receptora, što ukazuje da se efekti odigravaju posredstvom opioidnih receptora. Dalje, F, C i T ispoljavaju sličnu relativnu jačinu u izazivanju ispitivanih efekata, što ukazuje da su slični receptori uključeni u mehanizam antinocicepcije i neurotoksičnih efekata, i to su najverovatnije μ receptori. Kad se primenjuju ekviantinociceptivne doze, C i T izazivaju značajno kraće i antinociceptivno i neurotoksično dejstvo od F. Nisu dokazane značajne razlike u terapijskim indeksima između F, C i T, što ukazuje da su ovi lekovi jednako bezbedni i podnošljivi kad su u pitanju ispitivani neurotoksični efekti. Ispitivanje neurotoksičnosti prikazano u ovom radu može biti korisno u proučavanju odnosa između strukture i aktivnosti hemijski srodnih opioida

Endothelial cell apoptosis in brown adipose tissue of rats induced by hyperinsulinaemia: the possible role of TNF-α

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether hyperinsulinaemia, which frequently precedes insulin resistance syndrome (obesity, diabetes), induces apoptosis of endothelial cells (ECs) in brown adipose tissue (BAT) and causes BAT atrophy and also, to investigate the possible mechanisms underlying ECs death. In order to induce hyperinsuli-naemia, adult male rats of Wistar strain were treated with high dose of insulin (4 U/kg, intraperitonely) for one or three days. Examinations at ultrastructural level showed apoptotic changes of ECs, allowing us to point out that changes mainly but not exclusively, occur in nuclei. Besides different stages of condensation and alterations of the chromatin, nuclear fragmentation was also observed. Higher number of ECs apoptotic nuclei in the BAT of hyperinsulinaemic rats was also confirmed by propidium iodide staining. Immunohistochemical localization of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) revealed increased expression in ECs of BAT of hyperinsulinaemic animals, indicating its possible role in insulin-induced apoptotic changes. These results suggest that BAT atrophy in hyperinsulinaemia is a result of endothelial and adipocyte apoptosis combined, rather than any of functional components alone

Unfoldomics of human diseases: linking protein intrinsic disorder with diseases

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) lack stable tertiary and/or secondary structure yet fulfills key biological functions. The recent recognition of IDPs and IDRs is leading to an entire field aimed at their systematic structural characterization and at determination of their mechanisms of action. Bioinformatics studies showed that IDPs and IDRs are highly abundant in different proteomes and carry out mostly regulatory functions related to molecular recognition and signal transduction. These activities complement the functions of structured proteins. IDPs and IDRs were shown to participate in both one-to-many and many-to-one signaling. Alternative splicing and posttranslational modifications are frequently used to tune the IDP functionality. Several individual IDPs were shown to be associated with human diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, amyloidoses, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and others. This raises questions regarding the involvement of IDPs and IDRs in various diseases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>IDPs and IDRs were shown to be highly abundant in proteins associated with various human maladies. As the number of IDPs related to various diseases was found to be very large, the concepts of the disease-related unfoldome and unfoldomics were introduced. Novel bioinformatics tools were proposed to populate and characterize the disease-associated unfoldome. Structural characterization of the members of the disease-related unfoldome requires specialized experimental approaches. IDPs possess a number of unique structural and functional features that determine their broad involvement into the pathogenesis of various diseases.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Proteins associated with various human diseases are enriched in intrinsic disorder. These disease-associated IDPs and IDRs are real, abundant, diversified, vital, and dynamic. These proteins and regions comprise the disease-related unfoldome, which covers a significant part of the human proteome. Profound association between intrinsic disorder and various human diseases is determined by a set of unique structural and functional characteristics of IDPs and IDRs. Unfoldomics of human diseases utilizes unrivaled bioinformatics and experimental techniques, paves the road for better understanding of human diseases, their pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms, and helps develop new strategies for the analysis of disease-related proteins.</p