The Clinical Evaluation between Overtraining Syndrome and Exercise-related Immunity

The present study was performed to analyze and review the physical and immune responses to overtraining syndrome in humans. Overreaching refers to the initial phage of overtraining syndrome and has been known as a physical fatigue which is mainly from metabolic imbalance. It has been known that overtraining also results in a loss of adaptability which may lead to an attenuation of exercise performance, sleeping disorder, central fatigue, neurohormonal changes, difficulty recovery to physical stress, and immunological changes. Additionally, overtraining syndrome is characterized by persistent fatigue, poor performance in sport due to the prolonged and strenuous physical training. Also, previous studies reported that endurance athletes experienced a high incidence of URTI during intense training and the post training. And also, high-performance athletes reported that suppression of cell mediated and anti-body mediated immune function. NK cell numbers were also reduced in the period of overtraining syndrome. Major components of prevention and treatment for the overtraining syndrome are screening, education, and detraining. Furthermore, the combination of these prevention and treatment strategies will be much helpful. Therefore, the current review will be helpful for athletes and individuals who are at the risk of overtraining syndrome

THE HOT GAS DESULFURIZATION IN A COMPACT TWO BEDS SYSTEM INTEGRATED WITH COAL GASIFICATION AND FISHER-TROPSCH SYSTEM

The hot gas desulfurization (HGD) technique is one of the elemental technologies of syngas purification having both thermal efficiency and very low emissions. The HGD is a novel method to efficiently remove H2S and COS in the syngas with regenerable sorbents at high temperature and high pressure condition. We propose a compact hot gas desulfurization system by which its operability is improved in stabilizing pressure balances among units. The proposed compact two beds system has two bubbling beds, solid injection nozzle, solid conveying line, and riser. The compact desulfurization system was located between coal gasifier and Fisher-Tropsch (F-T) reactor to desulfurize syngas in order not to deactivate F-T catalyst. To check feasibility of the compact desulfurization system at high pressure condition, both cold mode and hot mode tests have been performed. In the integrated system, the compact desulfurization system has removed H2S and COS in the syngas and supplied the cleaned syngas to the F-T reactor during the continuous operation at high pressure condition

The Biological Safety of Stainless Steel Needles Used in Warm-needling

Warm-needling (also called thermo-acupuncture) is a combination of acupuncture and moxibustion. Due to the intense heat involved, there have been concerns over the biological safety of the acuneedles used in the treatment. This paper reports two phases of a safety test. For a preliminary test, we compared the temperature change patterns of stainless steel (SS304) needles and traditional gold alloy needles, which have been increasingly replaced by the former. To verify the effects of the presence of coating materials, the main test involved three different kinds of SS304: silicone-coated, salicylic acid-coated and non-coated needles. Each group of needles was tested for pH level, heavy metals and UV absorbance spectrum along with biological tests on the cytotoxicity and hemolysis of the needle. All the tests on the extractants from the needles were negative. In the biological tests, each test result showed a significant difference from the positive control samples, while no significant difference was observed compared with the negative control samples. In the hemolysis tests, all samples satisfied the Korean Government Standards. All the results suggest that SS304 needles are biologically safe to be used in warm-needling, though they can be improved to perform as well as the gold alloy needles in terms of temperature fluctuations

Diffusion on a heptagonal lattice

We study the diffusion phenomena on the negatively curved surface made up of congruent heptagons. Unlike the usual two-dimensional plane, this structure makes the boundary increase exponentially with the distance from the center, and hence the displacement of a classical random walker increases linearly in time. The diffusion of a quantum particle put on the heptagonal lattice is also studied in the framework of the tight-binding model Hamiltonian, and we again find the linear diffusion like the classical random walk. A comparison with diffusion on complex networks is also made.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

A STUDY ON THE GRIP FORCE DURING PUTTING STROKE

There are lots of variables to affect the control of ball movement during golf putting. Among several variables, it is believed that grip force during putting stroke is one of the important variables. However, there is not much quantitative evidence from published literature (Delay 1997, Gwyn 1993). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to quantify the grip force by comparing putts performed by elite and novice golfers and to identify the relationship between kinematic parameters and the grip force at 16 different parts of subjects’ right and left hand at each putting phase

Airborne Bacterial Communities in Three East Asian Cities of China, South Korea, and Japan

The global diversity of airborne bacteria has not yet been studied, despite its importance in human health and climate change. Here, we focused on the diversity of airborne bacteria and their correlations with meteorological/environmental conditions in China, South Korea, and Japan. Beijing (China) had more diverse airborne bacteria, followed by Seoul (South Korea) and Nagasaki (Japan), and seasonal variations were observed. Beijing and Seoul had more diverse airborne bacteria during the winter, whereas Nagasaki showed greater diversity during the summer. According to principal component analysis and Bray-Curtis similarity, higher similarity was observed between Beijing and Seoul than between Seoul and Nagasaki during all seasons except summer. Among meteorological/environmental variables, temperature and humidity were highly correlated with the diversity of airborne bacteria on the measurement day, whereas wind speeds and the frequency of northwest winds were highly correlated for 2–3-day moving averages. Thus, proximity and resuspension could enhance bacterial diversity in East Asian cities

Airborne Bacterial Communities in Three East Asian Cities of China, South Korea, and Japan

The global diversity of airborne bacteria has not yet been studied, despite its importance in human health and climate change. Here, we focused on the diversity of airborne bacteria and their correlations with meteorological/environmental conditions in China, South Korea, and Japan. Beijing (China) had more diverse airborne bacteria, followed by Seoul (South Korea) and Nagasaki (Japan), and seasonal variations were observed. Beijing and Seoul had more diverse airborne bacteria during the winter, whereas Nagasaki showed greater diversity during the summer. According to principal component analysis and Bray-Curtis similarity, higher similarity was observed between Beijing and Seoul than between Seoul and Nagasaki during all seasons except summer. Among meteorological/environmental variables, temperature and humidity were highly correlated with the diversity of airborne bacteria on the measurement day, whereas wind speeds and the frequency of northwest winds were highly correlated for 2–3-day moving averages. Thus, proximity and resuspension could enhance bacterial diversity in East Asian cities

Early Growth Response Factor-1 Is Associated With Intraluminal Thrombus Formation in Human Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

ObjectivesThe goal of this study was to investigate the expression of early growth response-1 (Egr-1), a vascular pathogenic transcription factor, and its potential relationship with tissue factor (TF), a key player during the thrombus formation in the abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) wall.BackgroundAlthough intraluminal thrombus is a common finding in human AAA, the molecular mechanism of the thrombus formation has not been studied.MethodsDuring the elective AAA repair, specimens were taken from the thrombus-covered and thrombus-free portions of the aneurysmal wall in each of 16 patients with AAA and analyzed to assess the differential expression of Egr-1 and TF. The proinflammatory and prothrombogenic activities of Egr-1 in vasculature were evaluated in vitro and in vivo by overexpressing it using adenovirus.ResultsThe expression of both Egr-1 and TF was significantly increased in the thrombus-covered wall compared with the thrombus-free wall, in which their up-regulation in the thrombus-covered wall was strongly correlated with each other (p < 0.005, r = 0.717). Adenoviral overexpression of Egr-1 in human vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells was found to up-regulate the expression of TF and inflammation-related genes. Moreover, Egr-1 overexpression in endothelial cells increased their adhesiveness to monocytes and also substantially promoted the intravascular thrombus formation in vivo, as shown in the inferior vena cava ligation experiment of the rat.ConclusionsThe present study demonstrates the differential up-regulation of Egr-1 in the thrombus-covered wall of human AAA and also suggests its possible contribution to the thrombogenic and inflammatory pathogenesis in human AAA

A Low-cost Through Via Interconnection for ISM WLP

WLP (Wafer level packaging) for image sensor devices has the advantage of small size, high performance and low cost, and becomes more and more important for ISM (image sensor module) products. In the WLP technology, in order to form electrical interconnection from image sensor contact pad to the backside of the wafer, several structures have been developed such as T-contact and TSV (Through Silicon Via). In this paper, a wafer level package of image sensor with new type TSV electrical interconnection for image sensor pad is presented. The target of this development is to reduce process cost and difficulty, and increase yield of image sensor packaging. Basic vertical via shape and low cost interconnection processes are adopted, compared to tapered via interconnection processes. Via etch problem caused by CIS wafer thickness non-uniformity was solved by remaining a fillet structure at the bottom of vias. This structure can prevent via notch and give better result of seed layer deposition and via filling

Impact of Parenchymal Tuberculosis Sequelae on Mediastinal Lymph Node Staging in Patients with Lung Cancer

Because tuberculous (TB) involvement of mediastinal lymph nodes (LN) could cause false positive results in nodal staging of lung cancer, we examined the accuracy of nodal staging in lung cancer patients with radiographic sequelae of healed TB. A total of 54 lung cancer patients with radiographic TB sequelae in the lung parenchyma ipsilateral to the resected lung, who had undergone at least ipsilateral 4- and 7-lymph node dissection after both chest computed tomography (CT) and fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET)/CT were included for the analysis. The median age of 54 subjects was 66 yr and 48 were males. Calcified nodules and fibrotic changes were the most common forms of healed parenchymal pulmonary TB. Enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes (short diameter > 1 cm) were identified in 21 patients and positive mediastinal lymph nodes were identified using FDG-PET/CT in 19 patients. The overall sensitivity and specificity for mediastinal node metastasis were 60.0% and 69.2% with CT and 46.7% and 69.2% with FDG-PET/CT, respectively. In conclusion, the accuracy of nodal staging using CT or FDG-PET/CT might be low in lung cancer patients with parenchymal TB sequelae, because of inactive TB lymph nodes without viable TB bacilli