Effects of Plyometric Vs. Combined Plyometric Training on Vertical Jump Biomechanics in Female Basketball Players.

The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the effects of plyometric training and combined training programs on vertical jump kinematics and kinetics of female basketball players. Thirty-six female basketball players were included in the study and further divided into three groups: plyometric training, n = 11; combined training n =13; and a control group, n =12. Combined training comprised full squat exercise with low resistance (50-65% 1RM) and low volume (3-6 repetitions/set) combined with repeated jumps.

Loss of Adenylyl Cyclase 6 in Leptin Receptor-Expressing Stromal Cells Attenuates Loading-Induced Endosteal Bone Formation.

Bone marrow stromal/stem cells represent a quiescent cell population that replenish the osteoblast bone-forming cell pool with age and in response to injury, maintaining bone mass and repair. A potent mediator of stromal/stem cell differentiation in vitro and bone formation in vivo is physical loading, yet it still remains unclear whether loading-induced bone formation requires the osteogenic differentiation of these resident stromal/stem cells. Therefore, in this study, we utilized the leptin receptor (LepR) to identify and trace the contribution of bone marrow stromal cells to mechanoadaptation of bone in vivo.

Benefits of heroes to coping with mortality threats by providing perceptions of personal power and reducing unhealthy compensatory consumption.

Mortality threats are among the strongest psychological threats that an individual can encounter. Previous research shows that mortality threats lead people to engage in unhealthy compensatory consumption (i.e.

Symmetric accelerating beam generation all-dielectric metasurfaces.

Traditionally, symmetric accelerating beam (SAB) generation requires bulky optical components, which hinder the miniaturization of optical systems. Recently, metasurfaces, which are composed of sub-wavelength features, have provided a captivating boulevard for the realization of ultra-thin and flat optical devices. Therefore, for the first time, we design and simulate all-dielectric metasurfaces based on an optical caustic approach to generate highly efficient SABs by tailoring the phase of an incident wave.

Ferroelectric Domain Wall Memristor.

A domain wall-enabled memristor is created, in thin film lithium niobate capacitors, which shows up to twelve orders of magnitude variation in resistance. Such dramatic changes are caused by the injection of strongly inclined conducting ferroelectric domain walls, which provide conduits for current flow between electrodes. Varying the magnitude of the applied electric-field pulse, used to induce switching, alters the extent to which polarization reversal occurs; this systematically changes the density of the injected conducting domain walls in the ferroelectric layer and hence the resistivity of the capacitor structure as a whole.

Bioprosthetic Aortic Valve Fracture During Valve-in-valve Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation.

The limited durability of surgical bioprostheses, combined with an ageing population, has led to an increasing demand for replacing degenerated bioprosthetic surgical heart valves, which is projected to increase. Valve-in-valve transcatheter aortic valve implantation involves implanting a transcatheter heart valve within a degenerated bioprosthetic surgical heart valve. A significant minority of patients, however, are left with a suboptimal haemodynamic result with high residual gradients.

The effect of oral essential amino acids on incretin hormone production in youth and ageing.

Background: The effect of substantive doses of essential amino acids (EAA) on incretin and insulin production, and the impact of age upon this effect, is ill-defined.

Methods: A 15-g oral EAA drink was administered to young (N = 8; 26 ± 4.4 years) and older (N = 8; 69 ± 3.

A guidance framework to aid in the selection of nursing and midwifery care process metrics and indicators.

Aim: To describe the development of a guidance framework to assist nurses and midwives in selecting nursing and midwifery care process metrics and indicators for use in practice.

Background: Process metrics are measures of care provision activities by nurses and midwives.

Methods: Phase 1 was a rapid review assessment of the literature conducted to identify an initial framework.

The Vexed Question of the Voluntary Patient.

The current statutory framework in Ireland provides certain key safeguards for people who are admitted involuntarily for mental health treatment and care; the same legislation makes scant reference to the person who seeks treatment and care on a voluntary basis. This has led to concerns in relation to deprivation of liberty and to non-consensual medical treatment for these patients. This article seeks to examine the development of the law in relation to voluntary patients in Ireland and to assess in light of recent developments where Ireland now stands in terms of protecting the right of the voluntary patient to liberty.

Tar yield and composition from poultry litter gasification in a fluidised bed reactor: effects of equivalence ratio, temperature and limestone addition.

Air gasification of poultry litter was experimentally investigated in a laboratory scale bubbling fluidised bed gasifier. Gasification tests were conducted at atmospheric pressure using silica sand as the bed material. This paper examines the effect of the equivalence ratio (ER) in the range of 0.

Reversible temperature-dependent high- to low-spin transition in the heme Fe-Cu binuclear center of cytochrome oxidase.

A reversible temperature-dependent high-spin to low-spin transition with = -60 °C has been observed in the resonance Raman spectra of the equilibrium reduced and photoreduced heme of the thermophilic heme-copper oxidoreductase. The transition is based on the frequency shifts of the spin-state marker bands (CC) and (CC) and is attributed to the displacement of the heme iron along the heme normal as a consequence of the Fe-Np repulsion at temperature below -40 °C which will increase the ligand field strength forcing the pairing of d electrons into the lower energy orbitals.

Effect of exercise modality on markers of insulin sensitivity and blood glucose control in pregnancies complicated with gestational diabetes mellitus: a systematic review.

Background/aim: Exercise can be used as a strategy to attenuate hyperglycaemia experienced during gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). To maximize its use for clinical management, the most effective modality should be identified. The purpose of this review is to elucidate the most effective modality of exercise on insulin sensitivity and blood glucose control in pregnant women with or at risk of GDM.

Re-using bauxite residues: benefits beyond (critical raw) material recovery.

Since the world economy has been confronted with an increasing risk of supply shortages of critical raw materials (CRMs), there has been a major interest in identifying alternative secondary sources of CRMs. Bauxite residues from alumina production are available at a multi-million tonnes scale worldwide. So far, attempts have been made to find alternative re-use applications for bauxite residues, for instance in cement / pig iron production.

Application of the principal component waveform analysis to identify improvements in vertical jump performance.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of training on the force-, velocity-, and displacement-time curves using principal component analysis (PCA) to examine the pre to post intervention changes. Thirty-four trained women basketball players were randomly divided into training and control groups. The training intervention consisted of full squats combined with repeated jumps.

Motivation Measures in Sport: A Critical Review and Bibliometric Analysis.

Motivation is widely-researched, in both sport psychology and other fields. As rigorous measurement is essential to understanding this latent construct, a critical appraisal of measurement instruments is needed. Thus, the purpose of this review was to evaluate the six most highly cited motivation measures in sport.

Personality Development during Teacher Preparation.

The purpose of this 3-year longitudinal study was to examine pre-service teachers' personality trajectories as measured by the IPIP Big-Five factor markers during teacher preparation. The relationship between students' personality traits, social desirability, and prior academic attainment was also examined. This 3-year longitudinal study invited participants from the first year of a 4-year undergraduate (UG) pre-service teacher education program, the class of 2017.

Environmental Influences on Elite Sport Athletes Well Being: From Gold, Silver, and Bronze to Blue Green and Gold.

This paper considers the environmental impact on well-being and performance in elite athletes during Olympic competition. The benefits of exercising in natural environments are recognized, but less is known about the effects on performance and health in elite athletes. Although some Olympic events take place in natural environments, the majority occur in the host city, usually a large densely populated area where low exposure to natural environments is compounded by exposure to high levels of air, water, and noise pollution in the ambient environment.

The Experience of Depression during the Careers of Elite Male Athletes.

The topic of depression during the career of elite male athletes has been the subject of much public interest and attention in recent years. Despite numerous debates and personal disclosures within the media, there is a dearth of published research directly exploring the phenomenon. This study sought to explore how elite male athletes experience depression during their sporting careers.

SXT/R391 Integrative and Conjugative Elements (ICEs) Encode a Novel 'Trap-Door' Strategy for Mobile Element Escape.

Integrative conjugative elements (ICEs) are a class of bacterial mobile elements that have the ability to mediate their own integration, excision, and transfer from one host genome to another by a mechanism of site-specific recombination, self-circularisation, and conjugative transfer. Members of the SXT/R391 ICE family of enterobacterial mobile genetic elements display an unusual UV-inducible sensitization function which results in stress induced killing of bacterial cells harboring the ICE. This sensitization has been shown to be associated with a stress induced overexpression of a mobile element encoded conjugative transfer gene, orf43, a traV homolog.

Sampling Participants' Experience in Laboratory Experiments: Complementary Challenges for More Complete Data Collection.

Speelman and McGann's (2013) examination of the uncritical way in which the mean is often used in psychological research raises questions both about the average's reliability and its validity. In the present paper, we argue that interrogating the validity of the mean involves, amongst other things, a better understanding of the person's experiences, the meaning of their actions, at the time that the behavior of interest is carried out. Recently emerging approaches within Psychology and Cognitive Science have argued strongly that experience should play a more central role in our examination of behavioral data, but the relationship between experience and behavior remains very poorly understood.

Thinking and Action: A Cognitive Perspective on Self-Regulation during Endurance Performance.

Self-regulation reflects an individual's efforts to bring behavior and thinking into line with often consciously desired goals. During endurance activity, self-regulation requires an athlete to balance their speed or power output appropriately to achieve an optimal level of performance. Considering that both behavior and thinking are core elements of self-regulation, this article provides a cognitive perspective on the processes required for effective pace-regulation during endurance performance.

Why do clinicians choose the therapies and techniques they do? Exploring clinical decision-making via treatment selections in dysphagia practice.

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are assumed to use evidence-based practice to inform treatment decisions. However, the reasoning underpinning treatment selections is not well known. Understanding why SLPs choose the treatments they do may be clarified by exploring the reasoning tied to specific treatments such as dysphagia interventions.