KINETIC ANALYSIS OF LOWER EXTREMITY DURING SIDESTEP CUITING UNDER DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ground reaction forces, joint reaction forces, net muscle joint moments of the ankle, knee and hip during elite lhandball athletes executed typical cutting maneuver under four different directions. Four male elite handball players were tested during fast running (4.5-5.5 m/s) and then performed cutting to the right off (30°, 400 50°, 600 A JVC camera (60 Hz) and synchronized with force plate (1200 Hz) were used to collect the relative parameters of braking leg during cutting maneuver. Each participant's braking leg (right leg) was modeled as a system of rigid bodies. The inverse dynamics approach was used to integrate the body segment parameter, kinetic and force plate data, and to solve the resultant joint moments. The results showed that sidestep cutting maneuver would produce a load and according to the increase of cutting angles, the lower extremity could receive a strike force and moment during the braking phase. Besides, while the knee angle of f1exion was small and repeated loading of this magnitude were enough to produce the fatigue of lower extremity joints that would eventually resu'lt in complete disruption and clinical lower extremity joints injury

KINEMATIC ANALYSIS OF LOWER EXTREMITY ON DIFFERENT RUNNING SPEED

A kinematic analysis of selected variables of human lower extremity was completed during different running speed (3.5±O.3 and 4.9±O.2 m/s)on treadmill.Ten male elite running players served as subjects.It got two dimensions photograph analysis along sagittal plane with video data collected at 60Hz.The purpose of the study was to analyze the kinematic parameters including the range of motion,the joint angle,angular velocity and angular acceleration of lower extremity joint related to the cycle time during horizontal running. According to the experimental result of a research ,we could get the below conclusion:angle of lower-extremityed joints in different running speed reaches significant difference. Angle of lower-extremityed joints is getting more with the increasing of velocity.Then maximum angle, angular velocity and angular acceleration of knee joints stretched are getting more with the increasing of velocity. Maximum stretched angle in joint extension phase of take-off significnce

THE STUDY OF TEAM RESULTANT FORCE VANISHING PERCENTAGE IN ELITE TUG OF WAR PLAYERS

This study was to analyze the factor of team pulling force vanishing percentage between groups with different numbers players and the largest pUlling force with unsteady motion in tug of war after sitting posture between players. The motion of nine female senior high school players(age =16.9 ± 0.6 years, height =163.8 ± 2.7 cm, mass =58.7 ± 4.3 kg) in tug of war was synchronized with a high-speed camera(JVC9800, 60 Hz)and a tensile (TEDEA, 900 Hz). The pulling force was gained by DASYlab6.0. The variance of the angle between the rope and ground was analyzed by Silicon Coach from the film, consisted by two to eight players. Results: The team pUlling resultant was smaller than the sum of individual players. The vanishing percentage of pulling force was increase with the number of players. The factor of force vanishing was the coordination between players. The larger numbers players are, the 'lower coordination was. This is so called Ringlemann effect; the factor was timing of the maximal pulling force with each player, therefore coordination was decreasing with the numbers of players, so was force

Dialogic literary argumentation and close reading: effects on high school students’ literature-related argumentative writing and motivational beliefs

Given evidence that adolescent students’ motivation to read and write about literature declines with age, we proffer an approach called dialogic literary argumentation (DLA) that asks students to explore literature through argumentation in pursuit of understanding the meanings and possibilities of being human. This quasi-experimental study compared the effectiveness of DLA with close reading (CR), a common approach to teaching literature in high school English language arts classrooms, in improving students’ motivational beliefs about writing and literature-related argumentative writing. The study also examined how the links between motivational beliefs and argumentative writing performance varied by instructional contexts. Participants were 278 high school students in 14 classrooms across 8 public high schools. Classrooms of students received either DLA or CR throughout the academic year. While both the DLA and CR groups improved in literature-related argumentative writing, the DLA group demonstrated more growth than the CR group. Neither group exhibited changes in motivational beliefs. However, at the end of the year, both DLA and CR students’ transactional writer beliefs were predictive of writing self-efficacy. Transmissional writer beliefs negatively correlated with argumentative writing in the CR group and had a null relationship in the DLA group. Overall, motivational beliefs and argumentative writing were more positively correlated in the DLA group than the CR group after the intervention. We posit that the argumentative elements unique to DLA may act to protect students from the negative impacts of transmissional beliefs. Our findings provide theoretical explanations and pedagogical recommendations on how DLA and CR can be jointly employed to heighten students’ motivation and strengthen their argumentative writing competence

Less Invasive Mitral Valve Surgery via Right Minithoracotomy

Background/PurposeCurrent trends in cardiac surgical intervention are moving toward less invasiveness, with smaller wound or sternum-sparing, less pump time or off-pump, and beating rather than arrested heart. Data on the efficacy and safety of these newer less invasive techniques, as well as their cosmetic results, are limited. This study analyzed the results of a sternum-sparing mitral valve operation.MethodsThirty patients with mitral valve diseases, including 20 who underwent mitral valve repair and 10 mitral valve replacement, were enrolled. Cardiopulmonary bypass was established via femoral cannu-lation, and blood cardioplegic arrest was induced by using a percutaneous, transthoracic cross-clamp. The main surgical wound was made over the lateral border of the right breast. Two additional small wounds were required for the transthoracic aortic clamp and the mitral retractor.ResultsThere was no operative mortality, and all patients had an uneventful recovery. Two patients underwent redo mitral surgery. Nine associated procedures were performed including tricuspid valve annulo-plasty in six patients, tricuspid valve replacement in two patients and atrial septal defect repair in one patient. The length of the main wound was between 5.8 and 7.8 cm (mean, 7.1 cm). The mean cardiopul-monary bypass time and cross-clamp time were 91.1 and 43.7 minutes, respectively. Although the length of stay was not significantly reduced compared with traditional median sternotomy, all patients had satisfactory results with good cosmesis.ConclusionSternum-sparing mitral valve surgery appears to be a safe and effective alternative to conventional mitral valve surgery; it is less invasive and provides superior cosmetic results for patients

A junctionless SONOS nonvolatile memory device constructed with in situ-doped polycrystalline silicon nanowires

In this paper, a silicon-oxide-nitride-silicon nonvolatile memory constructed on an n+-poly-Si nanowire [NW] structure featuring a junctionless [JL] configuration is presented. The JL structure is fulfilled by employing only one in situ heavily phosphorous-doped poly-Si layer to simultaneously serve as source/drain regions and NW channels, thus greatly simplifying the manufacturing process and alleviating the requirement of precise control of the doping profile. Owing to the higher carrier concentration in the channel, the developed JL NW device exhibits significantly enhanced programming speed and larger memory window than its counterpart with conventional undoped-NW-channel. Moreover, it also displays acceptable erase and data retention properties. Hence, the desirable memory characteristics along with the much simplified fabrication process make the JL NW memory structure a promising candidate for future system-on-panel and three-dimensional ultrahigh density memory applications

S-Petasin, the Main Sesquiterpene of Petasites formosanus, Inhibits Phosphodiesterase Activity and Suppresses Ovalbumin-Induced Airway Hyperresponsiveness

S-Petasin is the main sesquiterpene of Petasites formosanus, a traditional folk medicine used to treat hypertension, tumors and asthma in Taiwan. The aim of the present study was to investigate its inhibitory effects on phosphodiesterase (PDE) 1–5, and on ovalbumin (OVA)-induced airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) in a murine model of allergic asthma. S-Petasin concentration-dependently inhibited PDE3 and PDE4 activities with 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of 25.5, and 17.5 μM, respectively. According to the Lineweaver-Burk analysis, S-petasin competitively inhibited PDE3 and PDE4 activities with respective dissociation constants for inhibitor binding (Ki) of 25.3 and 18.1 μM, respectively. Both IC50 and Ki values for PDE3 were significantly greater than those for PDE4. S-Petasin (10–30 μmol/kg, administered subcutaneously (s.c.)) dose-dependently and significantly attenuated the enhanced pause (Penh) value induced by methacholine (MCh) in sensitized and challenged mice. It also significantly suppressed the increases in total inflammatory cells, lymphocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils and levels of cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4 and IL-5, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interferon (IFN)-γ in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of these mice. In addition, S-petasin (10–30 μmol/kg, s.c.) dose-dependently and significantly attenuated total and OVA-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels in the serum and BALF, and enhanced the IgG2a level in serum of these mice. The PDE4H value of S-petasin was >300 μM; therefore, its PDE4H/PDE4L value was calculated to be >17. In conclusion, the present results for S-petasin at least partially explain why Petasites formosanus is used as a folk medicine to treat asthma in Taiwan

Massive Ca-induced Membrane Fusion and Phospholipid Changes Triggered by Reverse Na/Ca Exchange in BHK Fibroblasts

Baby hamster kidney (BHK) fibroblasts increase their cell capacitance by 25–100% within 5 s upon activating maximal Ca influx via constitutively expressed cardiac Na/Ca exchangers (NCX1). Free Ca, measured with fluo-5N, transiently exceeds 0.2 mM with total Ca influx amounting to ∼5 mmol/liter cell volume. Capacitance responses are half-maximal when NCX1 promotes a free cytoplasmic Ca of 0.12 mM (Hill coefficient ≈ 2). Capacitance can return to baseline in 1–3 min, and responses can be repeated several times. The membrane tracer, FM 4-64, is taken up during recovery and can be released at a subsequent Ca influx episode. Given recent interest in signaling lipids in membrane fusion, we used green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusions with phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2) and diacylglycerol (DAG) binding domains to analyze phospholipid changes in relation to these responses. PI(4,5)P2 is rapidly cleaved upon activating Ca influx and recovers within 2 min. However, PI(4,5)P2 depletion by activation of overexpressed hM1 muscarinic receptors causes only little membrane fusion, and subsequent fusion in response to Ca influx remains massive. Two results suggest that DAG may be generated from sources other than PI(4,5)P in these protocols. First, acylglycerols are generated in response to elevated Ca, even when PI(4,5)P2 is metabolically depleted. Second, DAG-binding C1A-GFP domains, which are brought to the cell surface by exogenous ligands, translocate rapidly back to the cytoplasm in response to Ca influx. Nevertheless, inhibitors of PLCs and cPLA2, PI(4,5)P2-binding peptides, and PLD modification by butanol do not block membrane fusion. The cationic agents, FM 4-64 and heptalysine, bind profusely to the extracellular cell surface during membrane fusion. While this binding might reflect phosphatidylserine (PS) “scrambling” between monolayers, it is unaffected by a PS-binding protein, lactadherin, and by polylysine from the cytoplasmic side. Furthermore, the PS indicator, annexin-V, binds only slowly after fusion. Therefore, we suggest that the luminal surfaces of membrane vesicles that fuse to the plasmalemma may be rather anionic. In summary, our results provide no support for any regulatory or modulatory role of phospholipids in Ca-induced membrane fusion in fibroblasts

Probing the DNA kink structure induced by the hyperthermophilic chromosomal protein Sac7d

Sac7d, a small, abundant, sequence-general DNA-binding protein from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, causes a single-step sharp kink in DNA (∼60°) via the intercalation of both Val26 and Met29. These two amino acids were systematically changed in size to probe their effects on DNA kinking. Eight crystal structures of five Sac7d mutant–DNA complexes have been analyzed. The DNA-binding pattern of the V26A and M29A single mutants is similar to that of the wild-type, whereas the V26A/M29A protein binds DNA without side chain intercalation, resulting in a smaller overall bending (∼50°). The M29F mutant inserts the Phe29 side chain orthogonally to the C2pG3 step without stacking with base pairs, inducing a sharp kink (∼80°). In the V26F/M29F-GCGATCGC complex, Phe26 intercalates deeply into DNA bases by stacking with the G3 base, whereas Phe29 is stacked on the G15 deoxyribose, in a way similar to those used by the TATA box-binding proteins. All mutants have reduced DNA-stabilizing ability, as indicated by their lower T(m) values. The DNA kink patterns caused by different combinations of hydrophobic side chains may be relevant in understanding the manner by which other minor groove-binding proteins interact with DNA