The effects of eccentric training on hamstring muscle architecture: a systematic review

The architectural features of the hamstring muscle group are important to prevent injury or to reduce the risk of re-injury. Besides, eccentric training is often used in the rehabilitation of hamstring injuries. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the changes created by eccentric training on hamstring muscle architecture and to determine the minimal values of training duration and intensity for requiring functional changes. The research was conducted on the PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, COCHRANE, CINAHL, and Pedro databases. Full-text studies examining the effect of eccentric training on at least one parameter of the hamstring muscle architecture were included in the review. Studies on cadavers and animals and studies involving different types of training combined with eccentric training were excluded. Twelve of the 7954 studies met the set criteria. According to the results, eccentric training undoubtedly increases fiber length. However, the pennation angle tends to decrease. On the other hand, muscle thickness and cross-sectional area tends to increase depending on the eccentric training. Although the frequency, number of sets and number of repetitions in sets were similar in the examined some studies, muscle architecture changes were different. We think that eccentric training duration and the number of repetitions in total or per training session seem to have an impact on muscle architecture. In order to determine the minimal eccentric training program that can create these changes, quality research is needed to examine the duration, intensity and methods of eccentric training

CdSe/CdSe1-xTex Core/Crown Heteronanoplatelets: Tuning the Excitonic Properties without Changing the Thickness

Here we designed and synthesized CdSe/CdSe1-xTex core/crown nanoplatelets (NPLs) with controlled crown compositions by using the core-seeded-growth approach. We confirmed the uniform growth of the crown regions with well-defined shape and compositions by employing transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. By precisely tuning the composition of the CdSe1-xTex crown region from pure CdTe (x = 1.00) to almost pure CdSe doped with several Te atoms (x = 0.02), we achieved tunable excitonic properties without changing the thickness of the NPLs and demonstrated the evolution of type-II electronic structure. Upon increasing the Te concentration in the crown region, we obtained continuously tunable photoluminescence peaks within the range of similar to 570 nm (for CdSe1-xTex crown with x = 0.02) and similar to 660 nm (for CdSe1-xTex crown with x = 1.00). Furthermore, with the formation of the CdSe1-xTex crown region, we observed substantially improved photoluminescence quantum yields (up to similar to 95%) owing to the suppression of nonradiative hole trap sites. Also, we found significantly increased fluorescence lifetimes from similar to 49 up to similar to 326 ns with increasing Te content in the crown, suggesting the transition from quasi-type-II to type-II electronic structure. With their tunable excitonic properties, this novel material presented here will find ubiquitous use in various efficient light-emitting and-harvesting applications

Prevalence of sleep disorders in the Turkish adult population epidemiology of sleep study

Sleep disorders constitute an important public health problem. Prevalence of sleep disorders in Turkish adult population was investigated in a nationwide representative sample of 5021 Turkish adults (2598 women and 2423 men, response rate: 91%) by an interviewer‐administered questionnaire. Insomnia was defined by the DSM‐IV criteria, habitual snoring and risk for sleep‐related breathing disorders (SDB) by the Berlin questionnaire, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) by the Epworth sleepiness scale score, and restless legs syndrome (RLS) by the complaints according to the International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group criteria. Mean age of the participants was 40.7 ± 15.1 (range 18 to 90) years. Prevalence rates (men/women) were insomnia 15.3% (10.5%/20.2%; P < 0.001), high probability of SDB 13.7% (11.1%/20.2%; P < 0.001), EDS 5.4% (5.0%/5.7%; P: 0.09), RLS 5.2% (3.0%/7.3%; P < 0.001). Aging and female gender were associated with higher prevalence of sleep disorders except for habitual snoring. Prevalence rates of the sleep disorders among Turkish adults based on the widely used questionnaires were close to the lower end of the previous estimates reported from different parts of the world. These findings would help for the assessment of the health burden of sleep disorders and addressing the risk groups for planning and implementation of health care

Bearing and Swelling Properties of Randomly Distributed Waste Jute Reinforced Soil

In this study, waste jute, which was provided from textile companies, was investigated to define effect of waste jute on swelling and bearing behavior of the sand used. Three different water content (17, 19 and 21%) and four different waste jute addition amount at different percentages (0, 1, 2, and 3) by mass of dry soil were selected as design variables. With defined variables Swelling Ratio and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) tests were conducted. According to test results it is concluded that minimum swelling ratio was observed in the test containing 3% jute with 19% water content and the highest value of CBR was observed in the sample containing 2% jute with 16% water content. In addition to that, CBR values of unreinforced samples were decreased when water content increased from 16% to 21%. However, CBR values of reinforced samples increased with increasing water content from 19% to 21%

Patents and knowledge diffusion: The impact of machine translation

One of the main rationales for the existence of the patent system is to encourage knowledge diffusion through the full disclosure of the technical knowledge embodied in a patented invention. Yet, economists and legal scholars cast doubts on the validity of the disclosure theory. The empirical evidence on the actual benefits of the disclosure function remains limited. The present paper aims to expand our understanding of how information spreads via patent disclosure and exploits recent improvements in machine translation (MT) to identify the effect of broader access to patented knowledge. More specifically, the paper uses a unique natural experiment. In September 2013, Google launched a major upgrade to its Google Patents service and added patent applications from the China National Intellectual Property Agency (CNIPA) to its searchable patent database. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we show that the translation of the Chinese patents into English resulted in an increase in citations received from patents filed by US inventors compared to a suitable control group comprising patents that Google translated only in 2016. Our results suggest that improved access to patented knowledge fosters knowledge diffusion

Analysis of the dial-a-ride problem of Hunsaker and Savelsbergh

Hunsaker and Savelsbergh [Operations Research Letters 30, 2002] discussed feasibility testing for a dial-a-ride problem under maximum wait time and maximum ride time constraints. We show that this feasibility test can be expressed as a shortest path problem in vertex-weighted interval graphs, which leads to a simple linear time algorithm