High-intensity strength training in an older population: a preliminary study

BACKGROUND: Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease worldwide, and it occurs mainly later in life. Many factors are associated with osteoarthritis development, including decline in muscle strength. Muscle strengthening exercises have been recognized as important approaches to osteoarthritis conservative management of the knee; however, issues related to its applicability in terms of intensity are still elusive. OBJECTIVE: Studies using high-intensity exercises have shown inconsistent results, thus the purpose of this study was to analyze the response to high-intensity strength training for muscle strength and physical function in an older healthy population, as well as their attitudes towards the strength training. METHODS: This study employed a within-subject, repeated measure, in an experimental design to assess the response to strength training for physical mobility and strength in a cohort of 10 healthy older subjects at baseline and after six weeks of intervention. RESULTS: The statistical analysis demonstrated that knee extensor isokinetic peak torque significantly improved (p < 0.05) after intervention, whereas knee flexors only showed a trend for improvement (p = 0.066). Repetition maximum tests had significant improvements for all exercises performed. There was no change in physical mobility after intervention (p = 0.163). CONCLUSION: The results of this study demonstrate that high-intensity strength training was safe and has potential value in healthy older people

The association between firm-level corporate governance and corporate cash holdings: evidence from some emerging markets

A wealth of studies indicates that good corporate governance has a positive impact on company performance. However, it is not always understood how this positive relationship is achieved. In firms where shareholders and management are misaligned and agency costs are high, cash and cash equivalents can be used in ways that lead to poor company performance and to the destruction of shareholder value. In addition to this problem, very few studies on corporate governance focus on emerging markets: “most studies of corporate governance focus on one or a few wealthy economies” (La Porta, Lopez-De-Silanes, Shleifer & Vishny, 1998, p.1117). Therefore, the focus of this study was to address these two main issues. The author of this report set out to understand the impact of corporate governance on corporate cash holdings by focusing on emerging markets. This was first done by reviewing the extensive literature on agency theory, firm-level corporate governance, cash holdings and the three hypotheses for reasons why firms hold cash. Firm-level corporate governance, corporate cash holdings and total assets data was collected for 620 firms in 17 emerging market economies using Thomson Reuters DataStream for the period 2009 to 2012. The data was then used to determine whether firm-level corporate governance, board characteristics, shareholder rights and vision and strategy are associated with corporate cash holdings. The study found that for the selected sample, firm-level corporate governance is negatively correlated to corporate cash holdings in emerging markets. This implies that the flexibility hypothesis is the dominant reason why firms hold cash in emerging markets. Emerging market firms tend to hoard cash because it provides the flexibility for these firms to take advantage of profitable opportunities as they present themselves. This outcome is contrary to the results obtained in prior studies done on firms in developed economies: these firms tend to spend cash quickly on acquisitions and capital projects (spending hypothesis) or they keep cash to avoid under-investing in case they cannot access external credit lines.(shareholder power hypothesis).Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014.pagibs2015Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)Unrestricte

Performance of zeolite powder and tubular membrane having different Si/Al ratio for removing As(III) in aqueous phase

Three different types of zeolite having pore sizes in the range 0.26-0.74 nm, (NaP, NaA, and NaY) powders and membranes are synthesized with different Si: Al ratio on low cost clay alumina tubular support. The results of the permeation and separation studies showed that the NaP zeolite powder and membrane removes maximum As(III) from the water solution (more than 80%) compared to other zeolites. The removal of As(III) to achieve drinking water standard, by zeolite membrane, in a single step process does not seem to have been reported before the present investigation. These are the novelty achieved