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The centre of pressure (COP) is an instantaneous point location of the ground reaction force. COP trajectory can provide useful information to characterize movement patterns or detect changes in fo...

Transgenic potato plants (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Superior) with the ability to synthesize glycinebetaine (GB) in chloroplasts (referred to as SC plants) were developed via the introduction of the bacterial choline oxidase (codA) gene under the control of an oxidative stress-inducible SWPA2 promoter. SC1 and SC2 plants were selected via the evaluation of methyl viologen (MV)-mediated oxidative stress tolerance, using leaf discs for further characterization. The GB contents in the leaves of SC1 and SC2 plants following MV treatment were found to be 0.9 and 1.43 micromol/g fresh weight by HPLC analysis, respectively. In addition to reduced membrane damage after oxidative stress, the SC plants evidenced enhanced tolerance to NaCl and drought stress on the whole plant level. When the SC plants were subjected to two weeks of 150 mM NaCl stress, the photosynthetic activity of the SC1 and SC2 plants was attenuated by 38 and 27%, respectively, whereas that of non-transgenic (NT) plants was decreased by 58%. Under drought stress conditions, the SC plants maintained higher water contents and accumulated higher levels of vegetative biomass than was observed in the NT plants. These results indicate that stress-induced GB production in the chloroplasts of GB non-accumulating plants may prove useful in the development of industrial transgenic plants with increased tolerance to a variety of environmental stresses for sustainable agriculture applications.

This study was conducted in order to identify the level of participation in and attitude toward school physical education, as well as the relationship with physical self-concept, by targeting 708 high school students. The following results were obtained. First, positive correlations were found among participation and attitude toward school physical education, sports competence, appearance, physical activity, self-esteem, flexibility, endurance, strength and overall body; however, negative correlations were found with body fat (obesity) and health. Second, sports competence, appearance, physical activity, endurance, strength and overall body displayed significant differences according to clusters, with cluster 3 having a high level of participation and positive attitude toward school physical education. Third, there were significant differences in flexibility according to the clusters, with higher scores in cluster 3 and 2 than in cluster 1. Fourth, there were no differences in body fat, health and self-esteem according to the clusters.