BIOMEDICINE ON HORMONE MEDIATION OF SPORTS IN ADOLESCENT HEIGHT DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT Introduction: Physical exercise is an important factor in regulating energy balance and body composition. Exercise itself is a kind of body stress. It involves the central nervous system, cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, and other systems. Sports have various effects on the hormones in adolescent height development. Objective: This article analyzes the effects of different time and load exercise training on the levels of serum testosterone, free testosterone, and cortisol in young athletes. Methods: The athletes’ blood samples were collected at the quiet time in the morning before each experiment, immediately after exercise, and at three time intervals the next morning. Then blood testosterone (T), free testosterone (FT), and corticosteroids (C) were measured. Results: One-time and one-day high-volume training can cause a decrease in serum testosterone and free testosterone levels and an increase in cortisol hormones in young athletes. The testosterone level of young athletes rises immediately after exercise. Conclusion: Hormonal changes after physical exercise provide a scientific basis for athlete exercise load prediction and exercise plan formulation. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies - investigation of treatment results.

The Feature of Ionospheric Mid-Latitude Trough during Geomagnetic Storms Derived from GPS Total Electron Content (TEC) Data

This study aims to investigate the features of the ionospheric mid-latitude trough over North America by using the MIT total electron content data obtained during three geomagnetic storms that occurred in August 2018, September 2017, and March 2015. The mid-latitude trough position sharply moves equatorward from the quiet-time subauroral latitude to mid-latitude with the decrease in SYM-H during geomagnetic storms. We find that the ionospheric behavior of TEC around the mid-latitude trough position displays three kinds of ionospheric storm effect: negative ionospheric storm effect, unchanged ionospheric behavior, and positive ionospheric storm effect. These ionospheric storm effects around the mid-latitude trough position are not always produced by the mid-latitude trough. The ionospheric storm effects produced by the mid-latitude trough are limited in the narrow mid-latitude trough regions, and are transmitted to other regions with the movement of the mid-latitude trough.

Long-Term Observation of the Quasi-3-Hour Large-Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances by the Oblique-Incidence Ionosonde Network in North China

The oblique-incidence ionosonde network in North China is a very unique system for regional ionospheric observation. It contains 5 transmitters and 20 receivers, and it has 99 ionospheric observation points between 22.40° N and 33.19° N geomagnetic latitudes. The data of the ionosonde network were used to investigate the statistical characteristics of the quasi-3-h large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (LSTIDs). From September 2009 to August 2011, 157 cases of the quiet-time LSTIDs were recorded; 110 cases traveled southward, 46 cases traveled southwestward and only 1 case traveled southeastward. The LSTIDs mainly appeared between 10:00 and 19:00 LT in the months from September to the following May. We compared the data of the Beijing, Mohe and Yakutsk digisondes and found that the LSTIDs are most likely to come from the northern auroral region. These LSTIDs may be induced by the atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) and presented obvious seasonal and diurnal varying features, indicating that the thermospheric wind field has played an important role.

Assessment of a Nurse Led Energy Behavior Change Intervention in an NHS Community Hospital Ward

This paper investigates a nurse led, energy conservation behavioral intervention, in hospital wards of an NHS (National Health Service) community hospital (Trust). The information based intervention was adapted from “Operation TLC”, developed by environmental behavioral change charity Global Action Plan, and St Bartholomew’s Health NHS Trust, London. For this study, three identical older persons’ acute-care wards in terms of patient type, nursing levels, layout, electrical fittings (lighting & small power), elevation and orientation (one control ward and two intervention wards) were evaluated over a nine-month period. The paper demonstrates a co-dependent relationship between the quantitative data from the electricity and light monitors on the wards with the qualitative data gathered from staff comfort surveys and focus groups, and Trust policies. Our results show a 13% reduction in electricity consumption, primarily from preventing nursing staff in the intervention group from using prohibited secondary space heaters at night during the heating season and the introduction of a “quiet time” in the intervention group. During quiet time lights in the intervention group were turned off for an hour after lunch to encourage rest for patients to provide time for nursing staff to complete administrative tasks. Electricity reductions achieved during the intervention period were observed to continue into the 3-month post intervention period but at a reduced level.

Reproducibility of the Geomagnetically Induced Currents at Middle Latitudes During Space Weather Disturbances

Watari et al. (Space Weather, 2009, 7) found that the geomagnetically induced current (GIC) in Hokkaido, Japan (35.7° geomagnetic latitude (GML)), is well correlated with the y-component magnetic field (By) (correlation coefficients >0.8) and poorly correlated with Bx,z and dBx,y,z/dt. The linear correlation with By would help predict the GIC, if we have capabilities of reproducing the magnetosphere–ionosphere currents during space weather disturbances. To validate the linear correlation with By for any periods (T) of disturbances, we made correlation analyses for the geomagnetic sudden commencements and pulsations (T = 1–10 min), quasi-periodic DP2 fluctuations (30 min), substorm positive bays (60 min), geomagnetic storms (1–20 h), and quiet-time diurnal variations (8 h). The linear correlation is found to be valid for short periods (cc > 0.8 for T < 1 h) but not for long periods (cc < 0.3 for T > 6 h). To reproduce the GIC with any periods, we constructed one-layer model with uniform conductor and calculated the electric field (IEF) induced by By using the convolution of dBy/dt and the step response of the conductor. The IEF is found to be correlated with the GIC for long periods (cc > 0.9), while the GIC-By correlation remains better for short periods. To improve the model, we constructed a two-layer model with highly conductive upper and less conductive lower layers. The IEF is shown to reproduce the GIC with cc > 0.9 for periods ranging from 1 min to 24 h. The model is applied to the GIC measured at lower latitudes in Japan (25.3° GML) with strong By dependence. The mechanism of the strong By dependence of the GIC remains an issue, but a possible mechanism for the daytime GIC is due to the zeroth-order transverse magnetic (TM0) mode in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide, by which the ionospheric currents are transmitted from the polar to equatorial ionosphere.

The Seismic Hazard Implications of Declustering and Poisson Assumptions Inferred from a Fully Time-Dependent Model

ABSTRACT We use the Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF3) epidemic-type aftershock sequence (ETAS) model (UCERF3-ETAS) to evaluate the effects of declustering and Poisson assumptions on seismic hazard estimates. Although declustering is necessary to infer the long-term spatial distribution of earthquake rates, the question is whether it is also necessary to honor the Poisson assumption in classic probabilistic seismic hazard assessment. We use 500,000 yr, M ≥ 2.5 synthetic catalogs to address this question, for which UCERF3-ETAS exhibits realistic spatiotemporal clustering effects (e.g., aftershocks). We find that Gardner and Knopoff (1974) declustering, used in the U.S. Geological Survey seismic hazard models, lowers 2% in 50 yr and risk-targeted ground-motion hazard metrics by about 4% on average (compared with the full time-dependent [TD] model), with the reduction being 5% at 40% in 50 yr ground motions. Keeping all earthquakes and treating them as a Poisson process increases these same hazard metrics by about 3%–12%, on average, due to the removal of relatively quiet time periods in the full TD model. In the interest of model simplification, bias minimization, and consideration of the probabilities of multiple exceedances, we agree with others (Marzocchi and Taroni, 2014) that we are better off keeping aftershocks and treating them as a Poisson process rather than removing them from hazard consideration via declustering. Honoring the true time dependence, however, will likely be important for other hazard and risk metrics, and this study further exemplifies how this can now be evaluated more extensively.

“Feeling in Control”: Optimal Busyness and the Temporality of Organizational Controls

This study extends prior research seeking to understand the reproduction and persistence of excessive busyness in professional settings by addressing the relationship between organizational controls and temporal experiences. Drawing on 146 interviews and more than 300 weekly diaries in two professional service firms, we develop a framework centered on the emerging concept of optimal busyness, an attractive, short-lived temporal experience that people try to reproduce/prolong because it makes them feel energized and productive as well as in control of their time. Our findings show that individuals continuously navigate between different temporal experiences separated by a fine line, quiet time, optimal busyness, and excessive busyness, and that optimal busyness that they strive for is a fragile and fleeting state difficult to achieve and maintain. We show that these temporal experiences are the effect of the temporality of controls—that is, the ability of controls to shape professionals’ temporal experience through structuring, rarefying, and synchronizing temporality. Moreover, we find that professionals who regularly face high temporal pressures seek to cope with these by attempting to construct/prolong optimal busyness through manipulating the pace, focus, and length of their temporal experiences, a process we call control of temporality. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the reproduction of busyness by explaining why professionals in their attempts to feel in control of their time routinely end up overworking.

Thermospheric Neutral Winds as the Cause of Drift Shell Distortion in Earth’s Inner Radiation Belt

Recent analysis of energetic electron measurements from the Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer instruments onboard the Van Allen Probes showed a local time variation of the equatorial electron intensity in the Earth’s inner radiation belt. The local time asymmetry was interpreted as evidence of drift shell distortion by a large-scale electric field. It was also demonstrated that the inclusion of a simple dawn-to-dusk electric field model improved the agreement between observations and theoretical expectations. Yet, exactly what drives this electric field was left unexplained. We combine in-situ field and particle observations, together with a physics-based coupled model, the Rice Convection Model (RCM) Coupled Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Plasmasphere-electrodynamics (CTIPe), to revisit the local time asymmetry of the equatorial electron intensity observed in the innermost radiation belt. The study is based on the dawn-dusk difference in equatorial electron intensity measured at L = 1.30 during the first 60 days of the year 2014. Analysis of measured equatorial electron intensity in the 150–400 keV energy range, in-situ DC electric field measurements and wind dynamo modeling outputs provide consistent estimates of the order of 6–8 kV for the average dawn-to-dusk electric potential variation. This suggests that the dynamo electric fields produced by tidal motion of upper atmospheric winds flowing across Earth’s magnetic field lines - the quiet time ionospheric wind dynamo - are the main drivers of the drift shell distortion in the Earth’s inner radiation belt.