THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT PLYOMETRIC-SQUAT TRAINING ON TAEKWONDO POWER DEVELOPMENT IN THE LOWER EXTREMITY

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect on three different training methods by combining the typical plyometric training method (drop jump) and traditional weight training (112squat). The subjects were fifteen male high school athletes. The training duration for all subjects was eight weeks, and the frequency was twice a week. One Kistler force plate was used to record the power abilities of the subjects performing counter-movement jump (CMJ) and one PEAK camera (120 Hz) was also used to record the Axe-kicking movement time. Based on the results of this study, combining the vertical drop jump and horizontal drop jump with weight training could improve the maximum power and Axe-kick movement time. Therefore, it is important to consider the movement specific character when the muscular strength training of Taekwondo athletes

Analysis and Development of Emergency Management Information System for Railway Systems in Taiwan

Railway is one of the most efficient, convenient, and comfortable ways with maximum mobility to meet people. Railway accidents or disasters often cause delays and service interruptions, resulting in operational and other loss. Despite many railway systems in Taiwan having a variety of monitoring systems for natural disasters, they still need an efficient platform for the emergency management of disasters and accidents since time and efficiency are the keys to emergency management. This study aims to fill in this gap by developing an emergency management information system for Railway Systems in Taiwan, i.e. “Railway Emergency Management Information System”, to support railway emergency management center and its sub-divisions in resource management, communication, messaging, and information sharing among different groups. The system includes many features that will improve communications between emergency management center and the mobile emergency management center to facilitate the progress of the disaster control units and dispatching at the disaster site. The study’s information system has been designated by local railway administration as the core system and starts trial since February 2012. Information requirement analysis, framework and design of the aforementioned information system will be discussed in this paper. It is hoped that the present study's information system research will help improve the emergency response of railway administration and provide safer rail transport service for the passengers

Analytical Simulations for Shaking Table Tests of a Full Scale Buckling Restrained Braced Frame

AbstractThe seismic response tests of a full-scale five-story passively-controlled steel building have been conducted on the EDefense shaking table in Japan in March 2009. Before the tests, a blind prediction contest was held to allow researchers and practitioners from all over the world to construct numerical model and predict the dynamic responses of the building frame equipped with buckling restrained braces or viscous dampers. This paper presents the response predictions made before the tests of the buckling restrained braced frame (BRBF). A three-dimensional shell finite element subassembly model was constructed to investigate the stiffness of the buckling-restrained brace end joint. The dynamic test results of the sample steel dampers provided by the organizer were used to calibrate the BRB strength in the numerical model. The details of the numerical model for the composite beam, hollow structural section column, and the beam-to-column panel zone are described. Base on the numerical and test analyses, effective numerical models are presented and the recommended nonlinear modeling techniques for BRBF are provided

In vitro shoot induction and plant regeneration from flower buds in Paphiopedilum orchids

Paphiopedilum species are recalcitrant in tissue culture, and no explant from mature plants has been successfully mass propagated in vitro. This study was aimed at inducing shoots and regenerating plants from the flowering plants of a sequentially flowering Paphiopedilum Deperle and a single floral Paphiopedilum Armeni White. By using cross-sectioned flower buds (FBs), we found that in both species, only sections that contained the base tissue of FBs were able to produce shoots and plants. We have also found that sections of FBs between 1.5 and 3.0 cm from Paphiopedilum Deperle were able to produce shoots, but only sections of FBs > 2.5 cm from Paphiopedilum Armeni White were regenerable. Our microscopic observations revealed that the small bract at the FB base harbored a new miniature FB, which further harbored a primitive FB with dome-shaped meristem-like tissues that presumably led to the plant induction. The reiteration of this pattern resulted in a scorpioid cyme inflorescence architecture in the multifloral Paphiopedilum species, and its failure to reiterate resulted in a single flower. The induction rates were 57-75%, and all plants survived in a greenhouse. This method is potentially applicable for the micropropagation and conservation of slipper orchids

C-reactive protein, sodium azide, and endothelial connexin43 gap junctions

We investigated the effect of C-reactive protein (CRP) and sodium azide (NaN(3)) on endothelial Cx43 gap junctions. Human aortic endothelial cells (HAEC) were treated with (a) detoxified CRP, (b) detoxified dialyzed CRP, (c) detoxified dialyzed CRP plus NaN(3), (d) NaN(3), or (e) dialyzed NaN(3). The concentration of CRP in all preparations was fixed to 25 mu g/ml and that of NaN(3) in the preparations of (c) to (e) was equivalent to that contained in the 25 mu g/ml CRP purchased commercially. The results showed that both the expression of Cx43 protein and gap junctional communication function post-48-h incubation were reduced and inhibited by the detoxified CRP, NaN(3), or detoxified dialyzed CRP plus NaN(3), but not by the detoxified dialyzed CRP or dialyzed NaN(3). Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis of cells treated for 72 h also showed a pattern of transcriptional regulation essentially the same as that for the proteins. We concluded that CRP does not have a significant effect on Cx43 gap junctions of HAEC, but NaN(3) inhibited the viability of cells and downregulate their junctions

Urban-rural disparity of preventive healthcare utilisation among children under the universal health insurance coverage in Taiwan: a national birth cohort analysis

Objective: In the context of universal health insurance coverage, this study aimed to determine whether urbanerural inequality still exists in preventive health care (PHC) amongst children in Taiwan. Study design: Prospective cohort study. Methods: A total of 184,117 mothers and their children born in 2009 were identified as the study cohort. The number of children born in urban, satellite and rural areas was 40,176, 57,565 and 86,805, respec-tively. All children were followed for 7 years, before which a total of seven times PHC were provided by Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) programme. Ordinal logistic regression models were used to associate urbanisation level with the frequency of PHC utilisation. Stratified analyses were further per-formed in accordance with the children's birth weight and the mothers' birthplace. Results: Children from satellite areas had higher utilisation for the first four scheduled PHC visits. Children living in urban areas received more PHC for the fifth and sixth scheduled visits. Compared with those from rural areas, children in satellite areas exhibited a small but significant increase in odds in PHC utilisation, with a covariate-adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 1.04 and 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.02 e1.06. By contrast, no significant difference was observed between rural and urban areas (aOR ¼ 1.01). Further stratified analyses suggest more evident urbanerural difference in PHC utilisation amongst children with low birth weight and foreign-born mothers. Conclusions: Given a universal health insurance coverage and embedded mechanisms in increasing the availability of healthcare resources in Taiwan, a slight urbanerural difference is observed in PHC uti-lisation amongst children. Hence, sociodemographic inequality in utilisation of PHC still exists. This issue should be addressed through policy intervention

QED in a Strong External Magnetic Field: Beyond the Constant Mass Approximation

We solve the Schwinger-Dyson equations for QED in 2+1 or 3+1 dimensions in the presence of a strong homogeneous external magnetic field. The magnetic field is assumed strong enough, so that the lowest Landau level approximation holds, but the usual assumption of a momentum-independent self-energy is not made. In 2+1 dimensions, the scaling with logarithm changes to a square root dependence on the magnetic field, but the most spectacular result takes place in 3+1 dimensions, where the constant mass approximation turns out to be unreliable and the (momentum-dependent) dynamical mass is larger by several orders of magnitude compared to what has been found till now using the constant mass approximation.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, plain latex, references adde

EGFR L858R Mutation and Polymorphisms of Genes Related to Estrogen Biosynthesis and Metabolism in Never-Smoking Female Lung Adenocarcinoma Patients

Purpose: To assess whether polymorphisms of genes related to estrogen biosynthesis and metabolism are associated with EGFR mutations. Experimental Design: We studied 617 patients with lung adenocarcinoma, including 302 never-smoking women. On the basis of multiple candidate genes approach, the effects of polymorphisms of CYP17, CYP19A1, ER alpha, and COMT in association with the occurrence of EGFR mutations were evaluated using logistic regression analysis. Results: In female never-smokers, significant associations with EGFR L858R mutation were found for the tetranucleotide (TTTA)(n) repeats in CYP19A1 (odds ratio, 2.6; 95%CI, 1.2-5.7 for 1 or 2 alleles with (TTTA)(n) repeats > 7 compared with both alleles with (TTTA) n repeats <= 7), and the rs2234693 in ERa (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.1-4.0 for C/T and C/C genotypes compared with T/T genotype). The C/C genotype (vs. T/T genotype) of ERa was significantly associated with EGFR L858R mutation (OR, 3.0; 95% CI, 1.1-8.1), in-frame deletion (OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.1-7.6) and other mutations (OR, 4.3; 95% CI, 1.3-14.0). The genotype of COMT rs4680 was significantly associated with EGFR L858R mutation in female and male never-smokers showing OR's (95% CI) of 1.8 (1.0-3.2) and 3.6 (1.1-11.3), respectively, for genotypes G/A and G/G compared with genotype A/A. The number of risk alleles of CYP17, CYP19A1, ERa, and COMT was associated with an increasing OR of EGFR L858R mutation in female never-smokers (P = 0.0002 for trend). Conclusions: The L858R mutation of EGFR is associated with polymorphisms of genes related to estrogen biosynthesis and metabolism in never-smoking female lung adenocarcinoma patients. Clin Cancer Res; 17(8); 2149-58. (C) 2011 AACR

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012