A THREE-DIMENSIONAL MOTION ANALYSIS OF TWO-HANDED AND WAIST BELT PULLING BACKWARD EXERCISES IN ELITE TUG OF WAR ATHLETES

In order to find the benefits of the waist belt (WB) in Tug of War (TOW) sport, the purpose of this study was to compare kinematic differences between two-handed (TH) and WB pulling backward exercises. The team that holds the gold medal record for the World Indoor TOW Championships 2004 participated in this study (N=20). According to threedimensional video analysis procedures using the direct linear transformation analysis method, the mean body center of mass (CaM) displacement during TH and WB trials were 0.7m and 1.45m, respectively. Moreover, the mean CaM speed of WB was approximately 1.6 times faster than that of TH. These results suggest that the WB had the efficacy to accomplish a given task in the pulling backward exercise. Therefore it is concluded that WB might be one of useful equipmenls in the TOW sport

Cricotracheostomy for patients with severe COVID-19: A case control study

BackgroundTracheostomy is an important procedure for the treatment of severe coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Older age and obesity have been reported to be associated with the risk of severe COVID-19 and prolonged intubation, and anticoagulants are often administered in patients with severe COVID-19; these factors are also related to a higher risk of tracheostomy. Cricotracheostomy, a modified procedure for opening the airway through intentional partial cricoid cartilage resection, was recently reported to be useful in cases with low-lying larynx, obesity, stiff neck, and bleeding tendency. Here, we investigated the usefulness and safety of cricotracheostomy for severe COVID-19 patients.Materials and methodsFifteen patients with severe COVID-19 who underwent cricotracheostomy between January 2021 and April 2022 with a follow-up period of ≥ 14 days were included in this study. Forty patients with respiratory failure not related to COVID-19 who underwent traditional tracheostomy between January 2015 and April 2022 comprised the control group. Data were collected from medical records and comprised age, sex, body mass index, interval from intubation to tracheostomy, use of anticoagulants, complications of tracheostomy, and decannulation.ResultsAge, sex, and days from intubation to tracheostomy were not significantly different between the COVID-19/cricotracheostomy and control/traditional tracheostomy groups. Body mass index was significantly higher in the COVID-19 group than that in the control group (P = 0.02). The rate of use of anticoagulants was significantly higher in the COVID-19 group compared with the control group (P < 0.01). Peri-operative bleeding, subcutaneous emphysema, and stomal infection rates were not different between the groups, while stomal granulation was significantly less in the COVID-19 group (P = 0.04).ConclusionsThese results suggest that cricotracheostomy is a safe procedure in patients with severe COVID-19

Variations in prebiotic oligosaccharide fermentation by intestinal lactic acid bacteria

<p>Prebiotic oligosaccharides confer health benefits on the host by modulating the gut microbiota. Intestinal lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are potential targets of prebiotics; however, the metabolism of oligosaccharides by LAB has not been fully characterized. Here, we studied the metabolism of eight oligosaccharides by 19 strains of intestinal LAB. Among the eight oligosaccharides used, 1-kestose, lactosucrose and galactooligosaccharides (GOSs) led to the greatest increases in the numbers of the strains tested. However, mono- and disaccharides accounted for more than half of the GOSs used, and several strains only metabolized the mono- and di-saccharides in GOSs. End product profiles indicated that the amounts of lactate produced were generally consistent with the bacterial growth recorded. Oligosaccharide profiling revealed the interesting metabolic manner in <i>Lactobacillus paracasei</i> strains, which metabolized all oligosaccharides, but left sucrose when cultured with fructooligosaccharides. The present study clearly indicated that the prebiotic potential of each oligosaccharide differs.</p

Reduced gray matter volume in the default-mode network associated with insulin resistance

&lt;p&gt;Insulin resistance may lead to structural and functional abnormalities of the human brain. However, the mechanism by which insulin resistance impairs the brain remains elusive. In this study, we used two large neuroimaging databases to investigate the brain regions where insulin resistance was associated with the gray matter volume and to examine the resting-state functional connectivity between these brain regions and each hypothalamic nucleus. Insulin resistance was associated with reduced gray matter volume in the regions of the default-mode and limbic networks in the cerebral cortex in older adults. Resting-state functional connectivity was prominent between these networks and the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, a hypothalamic interface connecting functionally with the cerebral cortex. Furthermore, we found a significant correlation in these networks between insulin resistance-related gray matter volume reduction and network paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus resting-state functional connectivity. These results suggest that insulin resistance-related gray matter volume reduction in the default-mode and limbic networks emerged through metabolic homeostasis mechanisms in the hypothalamus.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Funding provided by: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science&lt;br&gt;Crossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/00hhkn466&lt;br&gt;Award Number: JP22K07334&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Funding provided by: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science&lt;br&gt;Crossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/00hhkn466&lt;br&gt;Award Number: JP21K07255&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Funding provided by: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science&lt;br&gt;Crossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/00hhkn466&lt;br&gt;Award Number: JP23H02783&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Data from the Bunkyo Health Study, which aimed to prevent diseases requiring long-term care in older people, was used in the present study. Of 1629 participants in the database, insulin-dependent T2DM patients were excluded, and then the data of 1609 without any missing data were analyzed. We analyzed the gray matter volumes using a VBM software implemented in SPM12 and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was calculated using fasting blood sampling data.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;We also analyzed the functional connectivity between the HOMA-IR-related cerebral region and the hypothalamic nuclei. For this analysis, we used the data of resting-state functional images of HCP (N = 418).&lt;/p&gt

Measurement of the maximum knee extension velocity.

(A, B) Experimental setup for measurement. The patient was seated on an elevated bed with a wireless gyro-sensor, where they extended their knee joint five times as quickly as possible from 90°(A) to 160°(B) to hit the soft cushion. (C) The gyro-sensor. (D) Representative data of knee extension velocity. The red arrow indicates the maximum knee extension velocity of five times.</p

Multiple linear regression analysis for maximum gait speed and TUG.

Multiple linear regression analysis for maximum gait speed and TUG.</p

S1 Dataset -

(XLSX)</p