Effect of a Prophylactic Knee Brace on Leg Muscle Performance of Athletes

This study investigated the effect of prophylactic knee brace wearing on physical performance as measured by selected parameters. The 10 subjects were members of the 1985 Ithaca College women\u27s lacrosse team. The Cybex II isokinetic dynamometer was used to assess the performance of the quadriceps at two angular velocities (60 and 120 deg/s), and the Wingate cycling test was administered to determine anaerobic capacity. Additionally, blood samples were taken to determine circulating lactate levels before and after exercise. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed physical performance was significantly better (E \u3c .05) under the no brace condition compared to the brace wearing condition. It was concluded that performance, as described by blood lactate production, peak anaerobic power, peak torque output at 60 deg/s, rise time at 60 deg/s, and time to fatigue, was decreased significantly by prophylactic knee brace wearing. Rise time had the greatest influence upon the multivariate difference, but there was no statistical evidence to support a significant effect of this or any other single individual variable. However, there was a tendency for all variables to show slightly better performance under the no brace condition. Given the lack of evidence from previous research to support a protective effect of prophylactic knee brace wearing and the current findings of impeded performance with brace wearing, there is little reason to support their use by athletes with stable knees

Descriptions of two new species of Tarachoptera from Burmese amber (Insecta, Amphiesmenoptera: Tarachoptera)

Bei der Untersuchung von Inklusen des Burma Bernsteins wurden drei Exemplare aus der Ordnung Tarachoptera gefunden. Die Tiere sind hinreichend gut erhalten und erlauben die Bestimmung und Beschreibung dieser fossilen Insekten. Sie gehören zur Familie Tarachocelidae und werden hier beschrieben als Kinitocelis macroptera spec. nov. (†) und Retortocelis spicipalpia spec. nov. (†). Die bisher aufgestellten Taxa der Tarachoptera werden in einer checklist zusammengefasst.   Nomenklatorische Handlungen Kinitocelis macroptera Mey & Wichard, spec. nov. – urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:E0B1624A-C69E-4B53-851F-4368AC21C614Retortocelis spicipalpia Mey & Wichard, spec. nov. – urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:9778E7E2-EEFE-4DC5-B891-54DF114D525CDuring examination of new material of Burmese amber three individuals of Tarachoptera were discovered. The inclusions are sufficiently well preserved and allow identification and description of these rare, fossil insects. The species belong to the family Tarachocelidae and are described as Kinitocelis macroptera spec. nov. (†) and Retortocelis spicipalpia spec. nov. (†). The species and their preservations are described in detail, and photos and line drawings are provided for wing venation, head, mouthparts, and abdomen. The hitherto described species of Tarachoptera are summarized in a checklist.   Taxonomic acts Kinitocelis macroptera Mey & Wichard, spec. nov. – urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:E0B1624A-C69E-4B53-851F-4368AC21C614Retortocelis spicipalpia Mey & Wichard, spec. nov. – urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:9778E7E2-EEFE-4DC5-B891-54DF114D525

Tectonic control of Yarlung Tsangpo Gorge revealed by a buried canyon in Southern Tibet

The Himalayan mountains are dissected by some of the deepest and most impressive gorges on Earth. Constraining the interplay between river incision and rock uplift is important for understanding tectonic deformation in this region. We report here the discovery of a deeply incised canyon of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, at the eastern end of the Himalaya, which is now buried under more than 500 meters of sediments. By reconstructing the former valley bottom and dating sediments at the base of the valley fill, we show that steepening of the Tsangpo Gorge started at about 2 million to 2.5 million years ago as a consequence of an increase in rock uplift rates. The high erosion rates within the gorge are therefore a direct consequence of rapid rock uplift

Decentralized Base-Graph Routing for the Quantum Internet

Quantum repeater networks are a fundamental of any future quantum Internet and long-distance quantum communications. The entangled quantum nodes can communicate through several different levels of entanglement, leading to a heterogeneous, multi-level network structure. The level of entanglement between the quantum nodes determines the hop distance and the probability of the existence of an entangled link in the network. Here, we define a decentralized routing for entangled quantum networks. The proposed method allows an efficient routing to find the shortest paths in entangled quantum networks by using only local knowledge of the quantum nodes. We give bounds on the maximum value of the total number of entangled links of a path. The proposed scheme can be directly applied in practical quantum communications and quantum networking scenarios.Comment: 13 pages, Journal-ref: Phys. Rev.

Adipokine Imbalance in the Pericardial Cavity of Cardiac and Vascular Disease Patients

Aim Obesity and especially hypertrophy of epicardial adipose tissue accelerate coronary atherogenesis. We aimed at comparing levels of inflammatory and atherogenic hormones from adipose tissue in the pericardial fluid and circulation of cardiovascular disease patients. Methods and Results Venous plasma (P) and pericardial fluid (PF) were obtained from elective cardiothoracic surgery patients (n = 37). Concentrations of leptin, adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein (AFABP) and adiponectin (APN) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). The median concentration of leptin in PF (4.3 (interquartile range: 2.8-9.1) mu g/L) was comparable to that in P (5.9 (2.2-11) mu g/L) and these were significantly correlated to most of the same patient characteristics. The concentration of A-FABP was markedly higher (73 (28-124) versus 8.4 (5.2-14) mu g/L) and that of APN was markedly lower (2.8 (1.7-4.2) versus 13 (7.2-19) mg/L) in PF compared to P. APN in PF was unlike in P not significantly related to age, body mass index, plasma triglycerides or coronary artery disease. PF levels of APN, but not A-FABP, were related to the size of paracardial adipocytes. PF levels of APN and A-FABP were not related to the immunoreactivity of paracardial adipocytes for these proteins. Conclusion In cardiac and vascular disease patients, PF is enriched in A-FABP and poor in APN. This adipokine microenvironment is more likely determined by the heart than by the circulation or paracardial adipose tissue.published_or_final_versio

Measuring non-polyaminated lipocalin-2 for cardiometabolic risk assessment

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COMT Val(158)Met genotypes differentially influence subgenual cingulate functional connectivity in healthy females

Brain imaging studies have cons stently shown subgenual Anterior Cingulate Cortical (sgACC) involvement in emotion processing. catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val(158) and Met(158) polymorphisms may influence such emotional brain processes in specific ways. Given that resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI) may increase our understanding on brain functioning, we integrated genetic and rsfMRI data and focused on sgACC functional connections. No studies have yet investigated the influence of the COMT Val(158)Met polymorphism (rs4680) on sgACC resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in healthy individuals. A homogeneous group of 61 Caucasian right-handed healthy female university students, all within the same age range, underwent isfMRI. Compared to Met158 homozygotes, Val(158) allele carriers displayed significantly stronger rsFC between the sgACC and the left parahippocampal gyrus, ventromedial parts of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and the nucleus accumbens (NAc). On the other hand, compared to Val(158) homozygotes, we found in Met(158) allele carriers stronger sgACC rsFC with the medial frontal gyrus (MEG), more in particular the anterior parts of the medial orbitofrontal cortex. Although we did not use emotional or cognitive tasks, our sgACC rsFC results point to possible distinct differences in emotional and cognitive processes between Val(158) and Met(158) allele carriers. Hovvever, the exact nature of these directions remains to be determined

Seroepidemiology of Human Enterovirus 71 Infection among Children, Cambodia.

Enterovirus 71 is reported to have emerged in Cambodia in 2012; at least 54 children with severe encephalitis died during that outbreak. We used serum samples collected during 2000-2011 to show that the virus had been widespread in the country for at least a decade before the 2012 outbreak

Good practices for a literature survey are not followed by authors while preparing scientific manuscripts

The number of citations received by authors in scientific journals has become a major parameter to assess individual researchers and the journals themselves through the impact factor. A fair assessment therefore requires that the criteria for selecting references in a given manuscript should be unbiased with respect to the authors or the journals cited. In this paper, we advocate that authors should follow two mandatory principles to select papers (later reflected in the list of references) while studying the literature for a given research: i) consider similarity of content with the topics investigated, lest very related work should be reproduced or ignored; ii) perform a systematic search over the network of citations including seminal or very related papers. We use formalisms of complex networks for two datasets of papers from the arXiv repository to show that neither of these two criteria is fulfilled in practice

Evaluating financial performance of insurance companies using rating transition matrices

YesFinancial performance of insurance companies is captured by changes in rating grades. An insurer is susceptible to a rating transition which is a signal depicting current financial conditions. We employ Rating Transition Matrices (RTM) to analyse these transitions. Within this context, credit quality can either improve, remain stable or deteriorate as reflected by a rating upgrade or downgrade. We investigate rating trends and forecast rating transitions for UK insurers. We also provide insights into the effects of the global financial crisis on financial performance of UK insurance companies, as reflected by rating changes. Our analysis shows a significant degree of rating changes, as reflected by rating fluctuations in rating matrices. We conclude that insurers with higher (better) rating grades depict rating stability over the long-run. An unexpected but interested finding shows that insurers with good rating grades are nevertheless susceptible to rating fluctuations. General insurers are more likely to be rated and they demonstrate higher levels of rating grade variations over the period studied. Using comparative rating transition matrices, we find more variations in rating movements in the post-financial crisis period. We also conclude that general insurers reflect less stable rating outlooks compared to life and general insurers