The Prevention of Blisters on the Hands of Horizontal Bar Gymnasts by the Use of Cryotherapy

A conditioned pair of hands, free of blisters or tears, is vital to a gymnast\u27s performance. If the hands should become blistered or torn, the gymnast will not be able to work to capacity. One of the six events in men\u27s gymnastics is performing on the horizontal bar. Work on the bar wears heavily on the gymnast\u27 s hands, considerably more so than any or all of the other apparatus combined. Many different preventive measures have been tried in an attempt to prevent blisters from forming. Such measures include the use of chalk, wicks, and tape. Their use has been reasonably successful for some gymnasts but, unfortunately, has proved inadequate for the majority. The idea behind using chalk, wicks, and tape is to eliminate as much friction as possible between the horizontal bar and the gymnast\u27 s hands. Admittedly, all of the friction cannot be eliminated, or the gymnast would not be able to maintain his grip on the horizontal bar. On the other hand, if the friction is not controlled, it will cause the gymnast\u27 s hands to heat up and may cause blisters to form. The old adage that practice makes perfect would seem to be very appropriate to this study. If a gymnast has any hope of becoming proficient on the horizonta1 bar, he must expect to engage in arduous hours of practice. For many aspiring gymnasts, however, extended practices become impossible due to the extreme pain caused by the blisters which inevitably seem to form. In the past many coaches, trainers, and gymnasts have advocated the use of cold water baths and cold sprays in an attempt to prevent blisters from forming. However, inadequate research has been completed on this subject to completely substantiate the use of cryotherapy as a blister preventive measure for the hands--thus the writer\u27s interest in this study

Landowner Liability in Montana

Landowner Liability in Montan

Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) Determination of Isoflavone Contents for Selected Soybean Accessions

Soybean isoflavones are of considerable interest in relation to their possible health effects in human diets. The rapid and economical determination of soybean isoflavone concentrations is essential for the investigation and development of soybean health foods as well as the selection of soybean seeds with optimal isoflavone levels for such foods. Fourier transforms near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (FT-NIRS) calibrations were developed for the rapid and cost-effective analysis of isoflavones in soybean seeds. FT-NIRS measurements were carried out in quadruplicate for 50 soybean lines selected from the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection. The selected soybean seeds provided a wide range of isoflavone concentrations (from 0.3 to 6.0 mg/g) that is necessary for development of high-quality calibrations. Laboratory reference values of isoflavone composition were obtained by HPLC analysis of extracted soybean powders. Single soybean seeds were selected for each standard sample and were cut in half in order to avoid screening of the isoflavones NIR absorption bands by the seed coat. For comparison purposes, measurements were also made on soybean powders of the same samples. FT -NIR spectra were collected with a spectral range from 4000 to 12000 cm-1 at a resolution of 8 cm-1 on a Perkin-Elmer Spectrum one NTS spectrometer model. This spectrometer is optimized for high sensitivity analysis of single seed composition, being equipped with an NIRA, integrating sphere accessory and an extended range InGaAs detector

Elasticity Theory of a Twisted Stack of Plates

We present an elastic model of B-form DNA as a stack of thin, rigid plates or base pairs that are not permitted to deform. The symmetry of DNA and the constraint of plate rigidity limit the number of bulk elastic constants contributing to a macroscopic elasticity theory of DNA to four. We derive an effective twist-stretch energy in terms of the macroscopic stretch epsilon along and relative excess twist sigma about the DNA molecular axis. In addition to the bulk stretch and twist moduli found previously, we obtain a twist-stretch modulus with the following remarkable properties: 1) it vanishes when the radius of the helical curve following the geometric center of each plate is zero, 2) it vanishes with the elastic constant K_{23} that couples compression normal to the plates to a shear strain, if the plates are perpendicular to the molecular axis, and 3) it is nonzero if the plates are tilted relative to the molecular axis. This implies that a laminated helical structure carved out of an isotropic elastic medium will not twist in response to a stretching force, but an isotropic material will twist if it is bent into the shape of a helix.Comment: 19 pages, plain LaTeX, 1 included eps figur

How trustworthy are vertical phoria findings in the phoropter?

Vertical phorias detected in the phoropter using the Von Graefe technique are often regarded as artifactual, while vertical duction (vergence) findings are usually considered valid and reliable indicators of true vertical deviations. Data from twenty-two patient case records showing vertical phorias were used to determine the correlation between the vertical phorias and the midpoints of the opposing duction values. In general, the calculated correlation coefficients were significant, thereby supporting the results of earlier studies. Hence, for these twenty-two patients, the Von Graefe vertical phoria proved to agree fairly well with the vertical imbalance shown by the vertical vergences

NIR Calibrations for Soybean Seeds and Soy Food Composition Analysis: Total Carbohydrates, Oil, Proteins and Water Contents [v.2]

Conventional chemical analysis techniques are expensive, time consuming, and often destructive. The non-invasive Near Infrared (NIR) technology was introduced over the last decades for wide-scale, inexpensive chemical analysis of food and crop seed composition (see Williams and Norris, 1987; Wilcox and Cavins, 1995; Buning and Diller, 2000 for reviews of the NIR technique development stage prior to 1998, when Diode Arrays were introduced to NIR). NIR spectroscopic measurements obey Lambert and Beer’s law, and quantitative measurements can be successfully made with high speed and ease of operation. NIR has been used in a great variety of food applications. General applications of products analyzed come from all sectors of the food industry including meats, grains, and dairy products (Shadow, 1998).
Novel NIR calibrations for rapid, reliable and accurate composition analysis of a variety of several soy based foods and bulk soybean seeds were developed and validated in a six-year collaborative project with a large number of different samples (N >~12, 000). The availability of such calibrations is important for establishing NIR as a secondary method for composition analysis of foods and soybeans both in applications and fundamental research

Direct Determination of DNA Twist-Stretch Coupling

The symmetries of the DNA double helix require a new term in its linear response to stress: the coupling between twist and stretch. Recent experiments with torsionally-constrained single molecules give the first direct measurement of this important material parameter. We extract its value from a recent experiment of Strick et al. [Science 271 (1996) 1835] and find rough agreement with an independent experimental estimate recently given by Marko. We also present a very simple microscopic theory predicting a value comparable to the one observed.Comment: Plain TeX file; uses harvmac and epsf; .ps also available at http://dept.physics.upenn.edu/~nelson/twiststretch.ps or http://dept.physics.upenn.edu/~nelson/twiststretch.ps.g