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A comparison of weight loss diets with and without exercise shows that a weight-loss diet with aerobic and resistance exercise prevents the normal decline in fat-free mass and muscular power and augments body composition, maximum oxygen consumption and maximal strength when compared with weight-loss induced by diet alone.

Adrenal medullary neurohormones apparently respond to acute stress from resistance exercise. Researchers measured plasma lactate, epinephrine, plasma peptide F, and norepinephrine before and after the exercise session. Ten strength-trained men participated in two types of resistance training. There was a significant increase in epinephrine up to hours after exercising. Remarkably, peptide F concentrations remained 80% above pre-exercise measurements.

The physiological and performance adaptations are compared between periodized and nonperiodized resistance training in women collegiate tennis athletes. The data demonstrated that periodization of resistance training over nine months is superior for enhancing strength and motor performance in collegiate women tennis players.

The SuperWASP project is an ultra-wide angle search for extra solar planetary transits. However, it can also serendipitously detect solar system objects, such as asteroids and comets. Each SuperWASP instrument consists of up to eight cameras, combined with high-quality peltier-cooled CCDs, which photometrically survey large numbers of stars in the magnitude range 7–15. Each camera covers a 7.8 × 7.8 degree field of view. Located on La Palma, the SuperWASP-I instrument has been observing the Northern Hemisphere with five cameras since its inauguration in April 2004.

Changing students alcohol-related behaviours through classroom lessons in Western Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A person with an upper-extremity amputation who uses prosthesis often engages in prehension activities that require the grasping and manipulation of objects. As a result of the amputation, such prehension activities are clearly performed with a significant loss of proprioceptive information. It has been shown in the psychophysical literature that losses in proprioceptive information impair both perceptual judgments (such as weight discrimination) and motor function in nonamputee participants. It is not known whether similar impairments occur with users of upper-extremity prosthetic devices, therefore two experiments were performed to investigate the ability of individuals using an upper-extremity prosthesis to discriminate weight of hand-held objects. In the first experiment, we compared weight discrimination of nonamputees using either their anatomical limb or a simulated upper-extremity prosthesis. In addition, we included a person with a congenital limb deficiency who was an experienced prosthetic user. The results revealed that weight discrimination was poorer with the simulated prosthesis than with the anatomical hand. Surprisingly, there were no significant differences between the anatomical hand condition of this group of participants and the person with a congenital limb deficiency. In the second experiment, we found that withdrawing visual information from the same person with a congenital limb deficiency did not degrade the ability to discriminate weight. These results suggest that experience using a prosthesis may overcome the initial difficulties in discriminating weight. Discrimination may improve because the experienced prosthetic user learns to rely on other sources of proprioceptive information in making perceptual judgments and/or because the user develops greater control over the prosthesis.

Prior to the retrieval in 1993 from low Earth orbit (LEO), the "--V2" Solar Array wing of the Hubble Space Telescope was exposed to hypervelocity impacts (micrometre to millimetre scale) from both micrometeoroids and space debris. The initial survey of the damage (100-3500μm diameter sized craters) identified that micrometeoroid remnants dominated the flux in the 100-1000μm size regime, with debris dominating >1000μm. These residues were composed of remnants of silicate minerals, calcite, metal sulfides and metals that often appeared as complex poly-mineralic melts within melt pits. A further survey of 10-100μm diameter craters identified that the most common chemistry was space debris with the crossover from meteoroids to debris being at around 30μm D CO . Residues include remnants of specialised steels and paint fragments but the dominant type is aluminium and aluminium oxide, which are almost certainly remnants of solid rocket motor operations. It is found that the relative contribution of debris as a function of size, agrees remarkably with a prediction derived using flux data from Long Duration Exposure Facility and a meteoroid model.

A postal questionnaire on ‘sterilization and disinfection’ was sent to all 144 nurse members of the British Association of Health Services in Higher Education (BAHSHE). Forty-nine (34%) completed valid questionnaires were returned. Despite the majority of practices performing minor surgical procedures such as cervical cytology (N= 40, 82%), ear syringing (N= 44, 90%) and wound dressing (N= 49, 100%), only 11 (22%) had access to a sterile supply department (SSD), and the definitions of sterilization and disinfection were only identified by 23 (52%) and 14 (32%) of the respondents, respectively. Forty-one (84%) respondents had a benchtop sterilizer (30 had a benchtop sterilizer, 11 a vacuum sterilizer and two had both), although there was considerable confusion on their appropriate use and maintenance. Just over half had written procedures for sterilizer use, no practice changed the sterilizer water on a daily basis as recommended by the Medical Devices Agency (MDA), few kept a sterilizer logbook and even fewer had read the MDA Device Bulletin on benchtop sterilizers. The majority of respondents voiced an interest in attending a workshop on sterilization and disinfection. We conclude that despite the location of the general practices within an academic environment, the concept of infection control is clearly not understood by university health service staff. As the implications of a failure to implement proper infection control procedures are potentially serious, the need for adequate education and training of staff is of critical importance.

There remains uncertainty as to the effect of radioactive iodine (131I) therapy on the associated ophthalmopathy (GO). Twenty newly diagnosed patients with Graves' hyperthyroidism treated with 131I (median dose, 15.5 mCi) were followed with ophthalmologic evaluations (OE) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at baseline, 2, and 6 months, and with OE alone at 3 years. For MRI, the superior, inferior, and medial rectus muscle volumes and total muscle volumes (TMV) were measured. Replacement levothyroxine was initiated as low thyroxine (T4) levels were noted. At baseline, 10 patients (50%) showed evidence of mild GO by OE and/or MRI. There was a significant difference in TMV between the 20 patients with Graves' hyperthyroidism and 10 controls (mean ± standard error [SE]; 2,652 ± 118 vs. 2,046 ± 96 mm3; P= 0.002) and between the 10 patients with and 10 without GO (3,006 ± 96 vs. 2,298 ± 61 mm3; P= 0.001). TMV correlated with the Hertel score (r= 0.56, P= 0.01). TMV showed no significant change at 2 or 6 months posttreatment. The inferior rectus volume increased slightly at 2 months posttreatment (P= 0.03) but remained stable at 6 months. Furthermore, no significant changes occurred in Hertel scores or in clinical assessments up to 3 years posttreatment and none showed worsening or new development of GO. In conclusion, our results show no significant risk for radioiodine-induced initiation or progression of mild GO.

This paper considers impact effects such as penetration damage and plasma generation on satellites in Low Earth and Geostationary orbits. We characterise the spacecraft impact damage for the normal sporadic background and the annual meteoroid showers, and, especially consider the quantitative effects which would occur should the 1999 apparition of the Leonids reach storm conditions. In this case, the meteoroid shower has the damage potential which could exceed the sporadic meteoroid background by several orders of magnitude at peak. Impact velocities are considered and formulae for penetration, or, plasma charge production are presented. It is found that the Leonids exceed any other stream in terms of plasma current generation even under normal quiescent conditions. Due to the flux enhancement associated with a storm condition, spacecraft could suffer up to one years worth of normal impact damage, with a few spacecraft suffering potentially catastrophic plasma discharge events, and with the largest likely impact being able to penetrate of order 1 cm of solid aluminium.

Influence of exercise training on physiological and performance changes with weight loss in men. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc.,Vol. 31, No. 9, pp. 1320-1329, 1999.

Kraemer, William J., Jeff S. Volek, Kristine L. Clark, Scott E. Gordon, Thomas Incledon, Susan M. Puhl, N. Travis Triplett-McBride, Jeffrey M. McBride, Margot Putukian, and Wayne J. Sebastianelli.Physiological adaptations to a weight-loss dietary regimen and exercise programs in women. J. Appl. Physiol.83(1): 270–279, 1997.—Thirty-one women (mean age 35.4 ± 8.5 yr) who were overweight were matched and randomly placed into either a control group (Con;n= 6), a diet-only group (D;n= 8), a diet+aerobic endurance exercise training group (DE; n= 9), or a diet+aerobic endurance exercise training+strength training group (DES; n= 8). After 12 wk, the three dietary groups demonstrated a significant (P≤ 0.05) reduction in body mass, %body fat, and fat mass. No differences were observed in the magnitude of loss among groups, in fat-free mass, or in resting metabolic rate. The DE and DES groups increased maximal oxygen consumption, and the DES group demonstrated increases in maximal strength. Weight loss resulted in a similar reduction in total serum cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol among dietary groups. These data indicate that weight loss during moderate caloric restriction is not altered by inclusion of aerobic or aerobic+resistance exercise, but diet in conjunction with training can induce remarkable adaptations in aerobic capacity and muscular strength despite significant reductions in body mass.

RNA excess hybridization with radioactively labelled complementary DNA (cDNA) was used to reveal the complexity of poly(A)+ RNA from Chlorellafusca var. vacuolata. RNA was tested from cells during photosynthetic exponential growth and during adaptation to heterotrophic growth in the dark on acetate. Both RNA populations were resolved into abundant, intermediate and rare sequence classes. Abundant sequences (200—400 copies per cell) constituted a significantly larger proportion of total poly(A)+ RNA in acetate-adapting cells than in exponentially growing autotrophic cells. Both types of RNA contained a rare sequence class of complexity consistent with a composition of about 20 000 different sequences. This indicated a substantially greater complexity of genes expressed in this alga and Euglena than in fungi and slime moulds. Heterologous hybridization, and hybridization with fractionated cDNA, showed that the majority of differences between RNA populations from exponentially growing and adapting cells were changes in relative abundance of groups of sequences, rather than presence of different sets of sequences in the two populations.

To explain the observed abundances of CO2in Titan's atmosphere, a relatively high water deposition into the atmosphere needs to be invoked due to the importance of H2O photolysis in CO2production. A likely source of H2O is icy dust particles from space. This paper considers the direct dust input to Titan's atmosphere from the interplanetary environment, and also ejecta particles from micrometeoroid impacts with the icy satellites Hyperion, Iapetus and Phoebe. It is found that the likely mass influx to Titan is 10−16to 10−15kg m−2s−1. This mass influx is an order of magnitude too low to explain the observed levels of CO2in Titan's atmosphere in the context of a recent photochemical model. This leads one to speculate as to the likelihood of one large impact to Titan in the recent past;i.e., that the atmosphere is not in equilibrium but is cnrrently losing CO2.