Biomechanics of human locomotion in the wind.

In laboratory settings, human locomotion encounters minimal opposition from air resistance. However, moving in nature often requires overcoming airflow. Here, the drag force exerted on the body by different headwind or tailwind speeds (between 0 and 15 m·s) was measured during walking at 1.

Still air resistance during walking and running.

In everyday life during terrestrial locomotion our body interacts with two media opposing the forward movement of the body: the ground and the air. Whereas the work done to overcome the ground reaction force has been extensively studied, the work done to overcome still air resistance has been only indirectly estimated by means of theoretical studies and by measurements of the force exerted on puppets simulating the geometry of the human body. In this study, we directly measured the force exerted by still air resistance on eight male subjects during walking and running on an instrumented treadmill with a belt moving at the same speed of a flow of laminar air facing the subject.

Phytochemical and functional characterization of cultivated varieties of Morus alba L. fruits grown in Italy.

Morus alba L. fruits are considered functional foods with an important nutritional value for their high content of polyphenols. Therefore, the type and level of phytochemicals of the soroses from 13 M.

Fine-scale genetic structure, phylogeny and systematics of threatened crayfish species complex.

Systematic uncertainties in the crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes are well grounded by the number of species and subspecies described using different approaches, causing scientists to define this taxon as "complex". However, a key task that conservation programmes are facing regarding the recent and drastic decline of European populations, is the coherent systematic classification of this threatened species. Here we present results obtained by coupling mtDNA and genome analysis suggestive of a novel evolutionary framework to explain the relationships among phylogenetic lineages of A.

3-hydroxy 3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase: a new biomarker of fish exposure to water pollution.

The aim of this study was to identify a new putative biomarker in Salmo trutta exposed to water pollution. Variations in the levels of hepatic 3-hydroxy 3-methylglutaryl Coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoAR), the rate-limiting enzyme of cholesterol biosynthesis, were compared to heat shock protein 70 and hypoxia inducible factor α, biomarkers of pollution exposure and lowered O₂, respectively. The results confirm that HMG-CoAR levels increase in polluted water irrespective of water temperature or O₂ content, indicating that HMG-CoAR could be used as a specific biomarker for water pollution.