THE EFFECTS OF COMPRESSION GARMENTS ON RECOVERY PROCESS AFTER A MODERATE-INTENSITY RESISTANCE EXERCISE

The purpose of this study was to determine whether compression garments (CG) are effective in facilitating recovery after moderate-intensity resistance exercise. Fifteen male subjects performed experimental trials in CG and control conditions during recovery after a deep squat exercise. Jump height, muscle soreness, and creatine kinase (CK) were measured before, immediately after, 24, 48 and 72 h after exercise. The CK was higher at 24h after exercise than before exercise in both conditions (p = .009, ES = 1.58). The jump height decreased immediately (p = .003, ES = -1.22) and 24H (p = .012, ES = -.98) after exercise in both conditions. However, there were no significant differences in CK, jump height and muscle soreness between the two conditions at any time. The application of CG cannot aid in the recovery after a moderate-intensity resistance training

Physicochemical Characterization of Inclusion Complex of Catechin and Glucosyl-β-Cyclodextrin

Purpose: To investigate the suitability of glucosyl-β-cyclodextrin (G-β-CD) to form inclusion complex with catechin, and characterize the physicochemical properties of the inclusion complex of catechin and G-β-CD.Methods: Catechin and G-β-CD was mixed in water at the same molar ratio, stirred at 20 °C for 48 h and lyophilized to obtain the complex. Its physicochemical properties were investigated by ultravioletvisible spectrometry (UV), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).Results: The characteristic UV absorption peaks for catechin, the physical mixture and the complex occurred at 279 nm. There was no significant difference between the IR spectra of the physical mixture and the complex. SEM and XRD data indicate that catechin was molecularly distributed in G-β-CD matrix and lost its crystallinity in the process. DSC indicate that the heat stability of catechin was significantly improved by complexing with G-β-CD.Conclusion: Catechin can efficiently interact with G-β-CD to form a complex by freeze-drying method. The complex of catechin and G-β-CD resulted in the changes in some of the characteristic spectral and thermal properties of the former. Furthermore, the heat stability of catechin is significantly improved.Keywords: Catechin, Glucosyl-β-cyclodextrin, Complex, Physicochemical propert

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NEUROMUSCULAR TRAINING WITH AUGMENTED FEEDBACK ON ACL INJURY PREVENTION

This study determined whether the neuromuscular training program with augmented feedback was effective in decreasing the injury rate of ACL during landing. Seventeen male and 16 female college basketball or velleyball players were randomly divided into training (4-weeks duration), or control group (no training). Kinematic data collected by 8 infrared cameras of Motion Analysis System (200 Hz) were synchronized with kinetic data from 4 Kistler force plates (9281CA) (1000 Hz). The injury prevention training only signifcantly reduced ground reaction forces in the training group (p \u3c0.05) with no statistical difference in knee flexion angle, varus–valgus moment and internal–external rotation moment. There was a likely beneficial decrease in valgus moment and internal rotation moment in the male training group and possibly harmful increase internal rotation moment in female training group. There was possibly-to-likely harm in GRF, knee flexion angle and valgus moment in the control group. The neuromuscular training with augmented feedback reduced ground reaction forces in college basketball and volleyball players, and thus may reduce the risk of ACL injury in landing

Shear thickening in densely packed suspensions of spheres and rods confined to few layers

We investigate confined shear thickening suspensions for which the sample thickness is comparable to the particle dimensions. Rheometry measurements are presented for densely packed suspensions of spheres and rods with aspect ratios 6 and 9. By varying the suspension thickness in the direction of the shear gradient at constant shear rate, we find pronounced oscillations in the stress. These oscillations become stronger as the gap size is decreased, and the stress is minimized when the sample thickness becomes commensurate with an integer number of particle layers. Despite this confinement-induced effect, viscosity curves show shear thickening that retains bulk behavior down to samples as thin as two particle diameters for spheres, below which the suspension is jammed. Rods exhibit similar behavior commensurate with the particle width, but they show additional effects when the thickness is reduced below about a particle length as they are forced to align; the stress increases for decreasing gap size at fixed shear rate while the shear thickening regime gradually transitions to a Newtonian scaling regime. This weakening of shear thickening as an ordered configuration is approached contrasts with the strengthening of shear thickening when the packing fraction is increased in the disordered bulk limit, despite the fact that both types of confinement eventually lead to jamming.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures. submitted to the Journal of Rheolog

A note on extinction times for the general birth, death and catastrophe process

Abstract We consider a birth, death and catastrophe process where the transition rates are allowed to depend on the population size. We obtain an explicit expression for the expected time to extinction, which is valid in all cases where extinction occurs with probability 1. Keywords: Population processes; Hitting times; Catastrophes; Zeta distribution. AMS 2000 Subject Classification: Primary 60J27 Secondary 60J35 The model under consideration is a continuous-time Markov chain (X(t), t ≥ 0) taking values in S = {0, 1, . . . }, where X(t) represents the number in a population at time t. When there are i individuals present the population size changes at rate f i (> 0), and when a change occurs it is a birth with probability a (> 0) or catastrophe of size k (the removal of k individuals) with probability d k (k ≥ 1). (Simple death events are catastrophes of size 1.) We assume that d k > 0 for at least one k ≥ 1 and a + k≥1 d k = 1. Thus, the process has transition rates Q given by q ij