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Considering the importance of body composition and lower-body strength and power for basketball players' on-court performance, as well as a lack of sports science research focused on female athletes, the purpose of the present investigation was to record the anthropometric and countermovement vertical jump (CMJ) characteristics of top-tier U16 and U18 female basketball players and examine between-group differences in the aforementioned tests. Thirty-two athletes who were a part of the national basketball academy volunteered to participate in the present investigation. Following the body composition assessment conducted via a segmental multifrequency bioimpedance analyzer, athletes performed three CMJs while standing on a force plate system sampling at 1000 Hz. Independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test were used to examine between-group differences. The findings reveal significant differences in body composition and lower-body neuromuscular performance characteristics between female basketball players ages 16 and 18. Although no differences were observed in muscle and body fat percentages, the U18 group had significantly greater height, overall body mass (both muscle and fat mass), as well as greater segmental fat-free mass (trunk, both legs and arms), intracellular and extracellular water, and body mass index when compared to their U16 counterparts. On the other hand, the U18 group demonstrated longer eccentric, concentric, and braking phase duration, as well as overall contraction time when compared to the U16 players. In addition, the U18 athletes exhibited higher eccentric mean force and power, concentric impulse, peak power, and mean and peak force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endurance training-induced changes in left ventricular diastolic function and right ventricular parameters have been investigated extensively in adolescent athletes. Our aim was to examine the parameters for adolescent athletes (n=121, 15.1±1.6 years) compared to adult athletes and age-matched non-athletes. We explored the effects of influencing factors on the echocardiographic parameters. Significantly higher E/A (p<0.05) and e' values (p<0.001) were detected in adolescent athletes compared to age-matched non-athletes' and also adult athletes' parameters. Significantly lower structural and functional right ventricular parameters (p<0.05) were detected in adult athletes. In adolescent athletes significantly higher right ventricular diameters, tricuspid S wave, right ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic area values (p<0.05) were found compared to the matching parameters of non-athletes. We found significantly higher corrected tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion values (p<0.001) in athletes compared to the non-athletes. Based on multivariate analysis lean body mass, body surface area, age and cumulative training time were proved as strong predictive factors of both left ventricular diastolic and right ventricular parameters. Supernormal left ventricular diastolic function and significantly higher right ventricular parameters are indicative of cardiac adaptation. Well-defined cut-off values should be applied to discriminate pathological conditions in the relation of the influencing factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The shortage of pathologists in Germany, coupled with an aging workforce, requires innovative approaches to attract medical students to the field. Medical education must address different learning styles to ensure that all students are successful., Methods: The pilot project "Practical Pathology" aims to enhance students' understanding of pathology by providing hands-on experience in macroscopic gross analysis through the use of tumor dummies built from scratch., Results: An evaluation survey, completed by 63 participating students provided positive feedback on the course methodology, its relevance to understanding the pathology workflow, and its improvement over traditional teaching methods. The majority of students recognized the importance of hands-on training in medical education. Students with previous work experience rated the impact of the course on knowledge acquisition even more positively., Conclusion: The course improved students' understanding of pathological processes and potential sources of clinical-pathological misunderstanding. An increase in motivation for a potential career in the field of pathology was observed in a minority of students, although this exceeded the percentage of pathologists in the total medical workforce., (© 2024. The Author(s).)