Development of a soccer specific functional rehabilitation program using the Modified Delphi Technique

Context. There are no concise and thorough core and lower quarter exercises for functional rehabilitation found in the literature or the clinical setting for soccer. An exercise program is needed to assist clinicians in developing sport specific functional rehabilitation programs. Objective. The purpose of this study was to develop a concise soccer specific functional rehabilitation program. Design. This was a prospective descriptive study following the Modified Delphi Technique to develop exercise components to include in a functional rehabilitation program based on opinion from a panel of experts. The dependent variable was the responses ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Setting. This study took place at West Virginia University. Patients or other participants. Participants consisted of Certified Athletic Trainers (n=9 round one, n=6 round two) and Physical Therapists (n= 7 round one, n= 5 round two) with a minimum of five years clinical experience and criteria for selection of the researchers were based on publications and presentations on soccer. Eighteen clinical Certified Athletic Trainers, Physical Therapists and researchers participated in the first round. Eleven participants completed the second round. Interventions. Exercises to be included in a functional rehabilitation program was through a series of successive revisions with input being offered from colleagues. Three questionnaires were utilized in this study. The demographic questionnaire was e-mailed to the participants with the first round questionnaire. The panel was asked to fill out questions about credentials and experience and asked to respond to the exercise components on the Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The participants submitted the questionnaire online. A link to the second questionnaire with means score, percentages and additional write in comments from round one was sent to the participants. Follow-up letters for the first and second rounds were e-mailed to the participants one week before the due dates as reminders to complete the questionnaire. The responses from the second questionnaire contributed to the development of the functional rehabilitation program. Main outcomes measures. With a consensus of the participants (75% strongly agree and agree and a mean score of 4) the responses for each exercise section would be similar. The hypotheses included: dynamic flexibility, single leg balance, lunge sequencing, heel raise sequencing, squat sequencing, plyometrics, core stabilization and functional activity progression. Results. The initial questionnaire consisted of 168 exercise components. After the second round, 81 of the proposed exercise components reached consensus and therefore were used to develop the final program. The final program consisted of what should be included in a soccer specific functional rehabilitation program based on best clinical practice and evidence based guidelines. Conclusion. The responses from both rounds by the panel of experts led to the development of the soccer specific functional rehabilitation program. Although there was a dropout of seven participants, this program is still representative of Major League Soccer ATCs, PTs, and soccer researchers. Since the remaining exercise components are supported by evidence based research and best clinical practice, this program can serve as a guideline for a soccer specific functional rehabilitation program. Additional studies should be conducted for the development of a functional rehabilitation program

Characterization of Srikurmum and Navaladi Beach Placer Minerals

Two different beach placer samples from Srikurmum of Andhra Pradesh and Navaladi of Tamilnadu were collected and characterized in terms of their total heavy mineral content by heavy media as well as magnetic separation studies. Navaladi beach placer sample contains higher amounts of total heavy minerals than that of the Srikur-mum beadh. Mineralogical analysis on both the samples revealed high amounts of garnet and minor quantities of ilmenite. The particle size of garnet is coarser than that of ilmenite. EPMA results indicated that garnet is of almandine variety. The Eastern Ghats metarnotphic belt, covering both the areas, is considered to be the source of these beach placer minerals

Value Addition of Indian Iron Ore Fines by Column Flotation - Few Case Studies

The Government of India highlighted Processing and utili-zation of iron ore fines as a prerequisite to meet the domestic raw material requirements for the projected 110 million tonnes of domestic steel production by the year 2019-20 in the National Steel Policy announced in Nov-ember 2005. This would require 190 million tonnes of iron ore. The depletion of high grade iron ore and increased generation of fines during mining and handling and demand for high grade iron ore fines for export has necessitated the processing of low to medium grade fines. The R&D efforts undertaken at NML-Madras Centre, India in this direction have been highlighted. Flotation in general and Column Flotation in particular appear to be promising in addressing this problem. This would also mitigate the environmental problem created by the dumping of huge quan-tities of low and medium grade iron ore fines. Three case studies involving iron ore fines of varying silica and alumina content from Goa and Bellary-Hospet regions of India were discussed. The results clearly indicate the feasibility and significance of flotation process in treat-ing the fines to obtain marketable concentrates

Use of mercuric acetate in organic preparations. Part II. Some experiments on its use as an oxidising agent

Experiments have been conducted with a view to test if the progress of oxidation by mercuric acetate could be followed by weighing the amount of mercurous acetate precipitated from time to time. This procedure has been found to be not feasible since complications set in owing to the solvent also undergoing oxidation induced by the presence of other substances. It has been found that most compounds containing -CHOH group produce mercurous acetate in methyl alcoholic solution and the oxidation products could be identified. Convenient methods for the preparation of benzil, quinhydrone, quinone and mercurous acetate in a pure condition in the laboratory are described

Processing of iron ore fines by column flotation – Part I & part II

The Government of India highlighted Processing and utilization of iron ore fines as a pre-requisite to meet the domestic raw material requirements for the projected 110 million tonnes of domestic steel production by the year 2019-20 in the National Steel Policy announced in November 2005. This would require 190 million tonnes of iron are. The depletion of high grade iron are and increased generation of fines during mining and handling and demand for high grade iron are fines for export has necessitated the processing of low to medium grade fines. The R&D efforts undertaken at NML-Madras Centre, India in this direction have been highlighted. Flotation in general and Column Flotation in particular appear to be promising in addressing this problem. This would also mitigate the environmental problem created by the dumping of huge quantities of low and medium grade iron are fines. Three case studies involving iron ore fines of varying silica and alumina content from Goa and Bellary-Hospet regions of India were discussed. The results clearly indicate the feasibility and significance of flotation process in treating the fines to obtain marketable concentrates

Alteration characteristics of manavalakurichi beach placer illmenite, Tamilnadu.

The mineralogy and alteration characteristics of beach placer ilmenite from the Manavalakurichi coast were investigated by optical microscopy and electron probe microanalysis. Mineral chemistry by electron probe micro-analysis indicated ;enrichment of TI02, MgO, AI203, Cr203, Si02. K20, V205,. CaO and Na20 in the altered products ofilmenitc:. while there was a loss of iron oxide, maganesc oxide and zinc oxide from the ilmenite grains during weathering leading to leucoxen

Beneficiation of a Low Grade Limestone by Flotation Column

Beneficiation of a Low-grade limestone sample from Salem, Tamilnadu was carried out by pilot scale flotation column. Mineralogical studies have revealled that quartz, freldspar, pyroxene and biotitic as gangue minerals while pyrite, in trace quantitiew, appear as opaque along with dominating calcite. Reverse flotation was tried using two different commercial amines viz. Chem750F and Flotamine-D. The studies clearly suggest that it is possible to produce a limestone concentrat assying around 96-97% of CaCO3 with less than 1% SiO2

Mineralogy and Geochemistry of a low grade iron ore sample from Bellary-Hospet sector, India and their implications on beneficiation.

Detailed studies were conducted on iron ores of Bellary-Hospet sector using microscope, XRD, TG, and EPMA techniques. The results indicate that hematite is the major iron oxide mineral with minor amounts of goethite, magnetite, martite and limonite with quartz and clay as major gangue. There is no evidence of the presence of any iron silicate and iron carbonate minerals. Trace amounts of pyrite were observed under the microscope and is the only iron sulphide phase. Microscopic studies also indicated that most of the quartz grains are present as inclusions within the hematite and magnetite grains. XRD studies revealed hematite as the major mineral with subordinate amounts of goethite, quartz and kaolinite confirming to the microscopic findings. Qualitative mapping and quantitative EPMA studies on these ores indicated the presence of gibbsite as the only alumina bearing phase and apatite as phosphorous bearing mineral. Traces of alumina, present as solid solution in the iron oxide minerals, has also contributed Al2O3 to the ores. Electron microscopic studies revealed that gibbsite grains are in the size range of 10 to 50 microns and are intimately and intricately associated with the iron oxide phases. Major elemental analyses of 47 representative iron ore samples of various types were analyzed to deduce the source of silica and alumina’s contributing phases in the ore and their interrelationships. The geochemistry data revealed negative correlation of Fe2O3 with silica and alumina thus indicating there is no iron silicatephase as well as alumina contribution from iron oxide minerals in the form of solid solution is insignificant. Positive correlation of silica with alumina indicates that the clay is the major contributing mineral for both the silica and alumina phase and presence of gibbsite. The role of gangue minerals and the interrelationship of silica, alumina and iron oxide, with reference to beneficiation are discussed. Jigs and heavy media cyclones for this type of ores can be used but at the cost of poor yield because of complex nature of alumina distribution. As long as alumina and silica mineralization is not too fine and the ore composed of magnetite/hematite with coarse grained quartz, magnetic route is the most effective. Since the quartz grains are too fine and their distribution is very complex for the Bellary-Hospet sector ores, flotation in general and column flotation in particular seems to be more effective

Reverse flotation studies on an Indian low-grade iron ore slimes

The present investigation deals with the recovery of iron values from the screw classifier overflow slimes from an iron ore washing plant by means of reverse cationic flotation as an alternate to direct anionic flotation. Selectivity index, an indicator of separation efficiency, was chosen as the response parameter for optimizing the quantity and evaluating a series of generically same but chemically different cationic collectors used in reverse flotation and for further optimization of other flotation process parameters. In the optimization, the main variables investigated were percent solids, collector and depressant dosage. An increase in the iron content of the concentrates is obtained with concomitant reduction in Si02 and Al203levels

Genetic architecture of purple pigmentation and tagging of some loci to SSR markers in pearl millet, Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.

This report describes the construction of integrated genetic maps in pearl millet involving certain purple phenotype and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. These maps provide a direct means of implementing DNA marker-assisted selection and of facilitating “map-based cloning” for engineering novel traits. The purple pigmentation of leaf sheath, midrib and leaf margin was inherited together ‘en bloc’ under the control of a single dominant locus (the ‘midrib complex’) and was inseparably associated with the locus governing the purple coloration of the internode. The purple panicle was caused by a single dominant locus. Each of the three characters (purple lamina, purple stigma and purple seed) was governed by two complementary loci. One of the two loci governing purple seed was associated with the SSR locus Xpsmp2090 in linkage group 1, with a linkage value of 22 cM, while the other locus was associated with the SSR locus Xpsmp2270 in linkage group 6, with a linkage value of 23 cM. The locus for purple pigmentation of the midrib complex was either responsible for pigmentation of the panicle in a pleiotropic manner or was linked to it very closely and associated with the SSR locus Xpsmp2086 in linkage group 4, with a suggestive linkage value of 21 cM. A dominant allele at this locus seems to be a prerequisite for the development of purple pigmentation in the lamina, stigma and seed. These findings suggest that the locus for pigmentation of the midrib complex might regulate the basic steps in anthocyanin pigment development by acting as a structural gene while other loci regulate the formation of color in specific plant parts