The relationship between sport orientation and competitive anxiety in elite athletes

AbstractThe aim of this study was to examine the relationship between sport orientation and competitive anxiety in elite athletes in Fars province. In order to do this study, 688 subjects were selected by using systematic sampling and they filled Gill's Sport Orientation and Martin's Competitive Anxiety Questionnaires. The results of enter multiple regression analysis and MANOVA indicated that sport orientation could predict competitive anxiety. It was showed that when competitiveness and goal-oriented increase, competitive anxiety reduces, but increasing desire to win causes increasing competitive anxiety. Finally, the results showed that male athletes were more competitive and wining than female athletes, while female athletes were more goal-oriented than male athletes (P≤0/05). However, there is no significant difference between sport orientation team and individual sports (P>0/05

Investigating the Concentration of Heavy Metals in Bottled Water and Comparing with its Standard: Case Study

Introduction: Today, bottled waters have attracted the assurance of consumers as one of the important drinking water supply resources, such that in some regions, the use of bottled waters has replaced the drinking water distribution system. The present study was carried out with the aim of measuring and determining the heavy metals in bottled water across a number of brands produced in Iran and comparing it with the drinking water standard. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-cross-sectional study, two different brands of bottled water were randomly sampled from the supermarket. To measure the heavy metals of interest, the samples were concentrated and then the concentration of some heavy metals such as copper, zinc, nickel, iron, aluminum, lead, and cadmium ions were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The mean concentration of ions was calculated in each brand and then compared with amount of standards. Results: Brand No. 1, the concentration of zinc ion was larger in Brand 2 while in Brand No. 2 had larger copper, nickel, and aluminum ions. The results indicated that the concentration of the measured metal ions were below the allowable limit of drinking water standard across all of the studied samples. Conclusion: Based on the obtained results from the investigated parameters, it can be concluded that the bottled water of both brands poses no health issue and is drinkable. Considering the changes in the concentration of ions and the increasing trend of consumption of bottled waters, their monitoring and qualitative control of pollutants are very crucial in terms of public health

Removal of phosphate from aqueous solutions using modified activated carbon prepared from agricultural waste (Populous caspica): Optimization, kinetic, isotherm, and thermodynamic studies

Activated carbon was successfully prepared from Populous caspica wood by a thermochemical reduction method and modified by grafting amine groups. In the batch tests, pH, initial phosphate concentration, reaction time, and adsorbent dose were evaluated to remove phosphate (PO43–) from the aqueous phase. The response surface method was chosen to study the composition effect of independent input factors and one dependent output response (removal efficiency). The p-value (2.2 × 10−16), F-value (116.6), R2 (multiple: 0.9774, adjusted: 0.97), and lack of fit (0.167) indicated that the reduced quadratic model is highly significant for the phosphate removal using aminated activated carbon. The maximum efficiency removal of phosphate (92.76%) was obtained at pH, initial phosphate concentrations, contact time, and adsorbent dose of 3, 10 mg L–1, 60 min, and 90 mg L–1, respectively. The adsorption data fitted well with the Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Therefore, the intraparticle diffusion was the dominant adsorption mechanism but it was not the sole rate controlling step. In addition, regeneration process with five repetitions of regeneration cycles showed high desorption efficiencies and slight loss of spent adsorbent initial adsorption capacity. Thus, the results recommended that modified activated carbon prepared from agricultural waste (P. caspica) could properly remove phosphate from aqueous solution