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Background and Purpose: Poor balance confidence and functional balance can lead to falls in community‐dwelling older adults. Exercises utilising slow movements have been shown to improve balance in this population. It is hypothesised that by superimposing the use of slow movements onto Taekwondo Poomsae, there could be similar benefits in improving balance confidence and functional balance in older adults. Methods: This was a pre ‐ experimental study. Fifteen community‐dwelling older adults received 11 weeks of Slow Poomsae (SP) training using a proposed 50‐min protocol. Pre‐ and post‐intervention scores of the Activities‐Specific Balance Confidence Simplified Scale (ABC‐S), Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Dynamic Gait Index (DGI), and 'Timed Up and Go' test (TUG) assessments were recorded and compared. Results: Fifteen eligible participants with mean and standard deviation (SD) of age 73.8 (6.05) years completed the study. Significant improvements (p < 0.05) were seen in the pre‐post differences between ABC‐S, BBS, DGI, and TUG, with median score changes of 15 points (Z = −3.408), 3 points (Z = −3.306), 3 points (Z = −2.852), and 3.5 s (Z = −3.296) respectively. Conclusion: The preliminary findings support the efficacy of SP as a potential balance training programme that is safe for healthy older adults to improve their balance confidence and functional balance. More research is required on this topic that leans towards a large population blinded randomised controlled trial with a longer intervention period and inclusion of a follow‐up to further elucidate the effects of long‐term practice and novelty of SP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of a dispersion-compensated acousto-optic deflector (AOD) for steering femtosecond laser pulses was examined with the prism located before or after the AOD, which is regarded as prism-AOD and AOD-prism, respectively. Comparisons are made over parameters including the spot spatial pattern, output pulse width, scanning linearity, the field of view, and the transmission rate. Fluorescence images of 170 nm diameter beads and cells were measured to provide an overall evaluation for these femtosecond laser beam scanning configurations. On the basis of these experiments, the prism-AOD configuration is concluded to be more advantageous for the purpose of simultaneous compensation for the spatial and temporal dispersion.

Background: Mountains have not only provided refuge for species, but also offered dispersal corridors during the Neogene and Quaternary global climate changes. Compared with a plethora of studies on the refuge role of China’s mountain ranges, their dispersal corridor role has received little attention in plant phylogeographic studies. Using phylogeographic data of Eomecon chionantha Hance (Papaveraceae), this study explicitly tested whether the Nanling Mountains, which spans from west to east for more than 1000 km in subtropical China, could have functioned as a dispersal corridor during the late Quaternary in addition to a glacial refugium. Results: Our analyses revealed a range-wide lack of phylogeographic structure in E. chionantha across three kinds of molecular markers [two chloroplast intergenic spacers, nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (nrITS), and six nuclear microsatellite loci]. Demographic inferences based on chloroplast and nrITS sequences indicated that E. chionantha could have experienced a strong postglacial range expansion between 6000 and 1000 years ago. Species distribution modelling showed that the Nanling Mountains and the eastern Yungui Plateau were the glacial refugia of E. chionantha. Reconstruction of dispersal corridors indicated that the Nanling Mountains also have acted as a corridor of population connectivity for E. chionantha during the late Quaternary. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the Nanling Mountains may acted dual roles as a dispersal corridor in east-west direction and as a glacial refugium in subtropical China during the late Quaternary. The population connectivity mediated by the mountain range and a strong postglacial range expansion are the most likely reasons for the lack of phylogeographic structure in E. chionantha. The hypothesis of dual roles of the mountain range presented here sheds new insights into the phylogeographic patterns of organisms in subtropical China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The complete absence of the azoospermia factor A (AZFa) region typically results in nonobstructive azoospermia. Partial deletions of the AZFa region are particularly noteworthy due to the limited and enigmatic reports of partial deletions in the AZFa region. Here, we present a rare case report of partial deletion of sY84 in the AZFa region but exhibiting normal sperm quality. The aim of this case report is to gain a deeper insight into the impact of AZFa region deletion on male fertility and to guide future clinical decisions and treatment strategies., Methods and Results: A 25-year-old man presented to the hospital with his 25-year-old wife due to recurrent spontaneous abortions. Routine semen analysis, sperm morphology analysis, acrosomal enzyme analysis, sperm DNA fragmentation indexed, and peripheral blood karyotype analysis revealed no abnormalities. Y chromosome microdeletion was detected by real-time fluorescence polymerase chain reaction, which showed that sY84 could not be amplified and sY86 was amplified nonspecifically. The man was diagnosed with partial deletions in the AZFa region. The wife underwent in vitro fertilization treatment for tubal infertility and recurrent spontaneous abortions. The couple successfully delivered a healthy daughter weighing 2.7 kg at 39 weeks of gestation, following 2 assisted reproductive pregnancies., Conclusion: Our findings contribute to expanding our knowledge of the AZFa region. A sY84 deficiency in the AZFa region may not lead to spermatogenesis failure and may potentially be one of the factors causing recurrent miscarriages, which needs to be confirmed by further data., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)