RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ANTHROPOMETRIC VARIABLES AND THROWING SKILL IN MALE SOFTBALL PLAYERS

The aim of the present study was to assess the relationship between the anthropometric variables and throwing skill in among male softball players. Total 150 male university and national level softball players of different universities and states of India were selected thorough purposive sampling technique. The age of subjects ranged between 18 to 30 years. Body weight of the subjects was measured with a portable weighing machine. Height measurements were taken using the standard anthropometric rod. Body mass index was then calculated using the formula weight (kg)/height2 (m). The circumferences of body parts were measured with the help of flexible steel tape. The diameters of the body parts were assessed with sliding caliper. The skinfolds thicknesses of body parts of the subjects were taken with Harpenden skinfold caliper. Percentage body fat as estimated from the sum of skinfolds was calculated using standardized equations. Throwing skill of the players was assessed as given in the AAHPERD softball skill test battery. Karl Pearson’s product moment co-efficient of correlation was computed to assess the relationship between anthropometric characteristics and throwing skill test of softball among the softball players. The result of the study shows that height (p=0.026), weight (p=0.008), total arm length (p=0.001), the upper arm length (p=0.018) and lower arm length (p=0.007) had significant relationship with the throwing skill in softball. The throwing skill was significantly associated with the upper arm circumference (r=0.265, p=0.001), biacromial (p=0.007) and bicondylar humerus (p=0.009) diameters. Lean body mass (p=0.000) was also found to be significantly associated with the throwing skill test in the male softball players.  Article visualizations

Remote control of diffusion from magnetic hollow silica microspheres

Composite hollow core silica/iron oxide microparticles with the ability to store an encapsulated payload and release a defined quantity “on demand” by the application of a radiofrequency magnetic field were prepared. The microparticles possessed a mesoporous silica shell with iron oxide nanoparticles bound to the external silica surface by electrostatic interaction. The size, morphology and stability of the composite particles were systematically investigated and the effect of iron oxide:silica ratio on their heating rate and the release kinetics of a model compound (vitamin B12) was determined. The composite particles were stable in time and had a high heating ability in the radiofrequency magnetic field, achieving a temperature rise of several 10’s °C per minute. Thanks to the high heating rate, external radiofrequency field was shown to be an effective trigger mechanism for externally controlled diffusion of encapsulated material from within the hollow core at an arbitrary on-off sequence

Adoption of technology in teaching of language: A critical assessment of Punjabi(mother tongue)

Mother-tongue plays a paramount role in child’s development. It is the heart and soul of child's education. It is the foundation on which the personality of the child is built. The study of mother- tongue is of dire necessity on psychological, intellectual, emotional and cultural grounds. It is our duty to adopt and adapt mother-tongue as medium of all non-linguistic subjects, thereby making it easy and interesting for the child to learn these subjects. Teachers rarely use teaching technology like multimedia, instructional technology etc. They adopt lecture cum text book method-a boring procedure. Students are made to mug up even stories and poems. Students are passive partners in the learning process. No attempt is made to arouse their creativeness or encourage their self-expression so what they learn is poor learning. This calls for drastic changes. Language learning is a part of education in the wider sense. One of the important causes for the deterioration of the standard of mother-tongue (Punjabi) in Punjab is inadequate provision of teaching aids. In the present study, an attempt has been made to arrive at some precise conclusions.Punjabi,mother tongue, technology

THE AWARENESS OF MOVEMENT AND FITNESS SCIENCES AMONG SCHOOL, UNDER GRADUATE AND POST GRADUATE LEVEL STUDENTS: EMPOWERING EDUCATION THROUGH PHYSICAL EDUCATION

The study focused on the awareness of Movement and Fitness Sciences among secondary school students in Jammu District of J&K, India. The industries lifestyle, busy Schedule, Fast food habits, non-movement job profiles or sitting jobs, various modes of pollution, drug addictions and non-sport/recreational approaches have disturbed the human health. Therefore a special interest to create awareness about the movement and sport sciences with the purpose of uplifting the value of Health and physical education in the educational institutions as a subject and as a part of regular curriculum. The data were collected from 100 secondary students by a rating scale of self-constructed “Movement and Fitness Sciences awareness scale”. The data were analyzed with the help of means, standard deviations, critical ratios and analysis of variance for testing various hypotheses framed for the study. The results were discussed and it was concluded that rural students have acquired better knowledge than urban area students towards Movement and Fitness Sciences awareness. It was also found that private school/university students have better Movement and Fitness Sciences awareness than aided and government school/universities students

STUDIES ON THE SIZE AND NON-PLANARITY OF AROMATIC STACKING MOIETY ON CONFORMATION SELECTIVITY AND THERMAL STABILIZATION OF G-QUADRUPLEXES

Targeting DNA has the advantage over proteins for cancer remediation because of the fewer copies of the ligands required for the desired therapeutic effect. Traditionally, covalent DNA binders like alkylating agents have been used to induce genetic instability through the formation of DNA lesions and strand breaks, leading to cellular apoptosis. The primary drawback of this treatment is the non-specific binding that affects both cancerous and non-cancerous cells. G-quadruplexes are the DNA secondary structures that are present in abundance near the promoter regions of the oncogenes and are involved in the regulation of their activities. A ligand-mediated stabilization of G-quadruplexes in the promoter regions and down-regulation of the associated oncogenes have been validated. In contrast to alkylating agents, G-quadruplex ligands induce genetic stabilization through non-covalent interactions. They can be designed to interact specifically with G-quadruplex DNA over duplex DNA, which reduce side effects arising from the off-targeting. G-quadruplex ligands invariably have the large planar aromatic moiety to interact with G-quadruplexes through π- π stacking interactions. For determining the size effect of the aromatic moiety on stabilization of G-quadruplexes, a series of ligands were synthesized by conjugating nucleobases or 1,10-phenanthroline with an aminoglycoside, neomycin. The resulting conjugates increased the binding affinity synergistically and enabled us to study the effect of the stacking moiety required for G-quadruplex stabilization. Nucleobase-neomycin conjugates did not show stabilization stabilize of human telomeric G-quadruplex. 1,10-Phenanthroline-neomycin conjugate (7b) on the other hand binds to human telomeric G-quadruplex with a Ka of (8.92.4)×108 M-1 and inhibits telomerase activity at 1.56 µM probably through G-quadruplex stabilization. Moving forward, we further enlarged the aromatic moiety by tethering two 1,10-phenantholine molecules together through a five-atom linker. The resulting molecule (2-Clip-phen) was conjugated with various amino-containing side chains. 2-Clip-phen derivatives showed at least 30 times weaker binding to duplex DNA over G-quadruplex DNA. In addition, compounds showed a preference for the antiparallel G-quadruplex conformation over parallel and hybrid G-quadruplex conformations, as shown in the CD spectroscopy studies. Ligands 11 and 13 induced the formation of an antiparallel G-quadruplex from random coils and stabilize it to 60 oC (Tm) in a salt-free condition. Mass spectrometry study showed the formation of a two-tetrad G-quadruplex with the 2-Clip-phen ligand. Docking study showed that the ligand interacts most favorably with antiparallel G-quadruplex conformation, which is supported further by the larger thermal stabilization effect on antiparallel G-quadruplex compared with other G-quadruplex conformations. Our study suggests that 2-Clip-phen can be used as a scaffold for designing G-quadruplex binding ligands that preferentially bind to antiparallel G-quadruplexes, which has never been reported before

Performance Enhancement of Triangular Patch Antenna by Optimizing the Feed Point Location

In this paper, a design and analysis of microstrip fed triangular patch antenna is presented for microwave applications. The performanceof an edge fed antenna design is enhanced by selecting proper dimension and feed point location of matching quarter wave transformer. The designed antenna resonates at 10 GHz with S_11 = -18.28 dB and with maximum gain of 8.73dB and radiation efficiency is 99.24% for the centre location of the feed. The gain, directivity and other parameters of the triangular patch antenna are affected by localizing the feed point with the constant thickness of substrate. The design has been simulatedby the application of HFSS software based on finite elemental method

ASSOCIATION OF ANTHROPOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS AND BODY COMPOSITION WITH THE PERFORMANCE AMONG MALE SOFTBALL PLAYERS

The purpose of this study was to determine relationship of anthropometric parameters with performance among softball players and to find the anthropometric predictors of performance in softball. Total 150 male softball players from the various states and universities of India were selected to participate in the study. Height and length measurements of the players were measured with the anthropometric rod. Portable weighing machine was used to measure the weight of the players. Circumferences and diameters of the body parts of the players were measured with steel tape and sliding caliper respectively. Harpenden skinfold caliper was used to assess the skinfold thicknesses. The results revealed that the height (p=0.010), weight (p=0.001), total arm, upper arm and lower arm lengths (p<0.05); Upper arm, forearm, chest and calf circumferences (p<0.05); biacromial, bicondylar humerus and bicondylar femur diameters (p<0.05) and lean body mass (p=0.000) were significantly associated with performance among softball players. Regression analyses showed that for softball performance, 13% variance was accounted for by lean body mass, 3% was explained by upper arm circumference, and an additional 3% of the variance was explained by upper arm length. It is concluded that lean body mass was the prime predictor of the softball performance.  Article visualizations