Growth and Bone Development in the Horse: When Is a Horse Skeletally Mature?

Within the lay literature, and social media in particular, there is often debate about the age at which a horse should be started and introduced to racing or sport. To optimize the welfare and longevity of horses in racing and sport, it is important to match exercise with musculoskeletal development and the ability of the musculoskeletal system to respond to loading. The justification for not exercising horses at a certain age is often in contrast to the scientific literature and framed, with incorrect generalizations, with human growth. This review provides a relative comparison of the growth and development of the horse to the descriptors used to define growth and development in humans. Measures of physeal closure and somatic growth demonstrate that the horse completes the equivalent of rapid infant growth by weaning (4–6 months old). At approximately 11 months old, the horse completes the equivalent of the childhood phase of growth and enters puberty. At 2 years old, the horse has achieved most measures of maturity used within the human literature, including the plateauing of vertical height, closure of growth plates, and adult ratios of back length:wither height and limb length:wither height. These data support the hypothesis that the horse evolved to be a precocious cursorial grazer and is capable of athletic activity, and use in sport, relatively early in life.

High Return to Sport in Patients Over 45 Years of Age Undergoing Osteochondral Allograft Transplantation for Isolated Chondral Defects in the Knee

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of osteochondral allograft (OCA) in patients older than 45 years of age, particularly with respect to return to sport. Design: A retrospective review was performed to evaluate patients greater than 45 who underwent an OCA for a symptomatic osteochondral defect of the knee between June 2011 and January 2019. Results: Overall, there were 18 patients (76% male) that met our inclusion and exclusion criteria. Follow-up was attained in 14 of these patients (78%). The mean age of patients included was 52.6 years (48-57) with a mean of 37 months of follow-up (18-60). Visual Analogue Scale scores decreased significantly from the preoperative baseline to final follow-up (7.7 ± 1.7 vs. 2.0 ± 2.0, P < 0.01). Furthermore, the mean Visual Analogue Scale while playing sport was 3.4 ± 3.2, and the mean Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score was 77.5 ± 12.7 at final follow-up. Overall, 11 patients (78.6%) were able to return to their desired sport. No clinical failures were identified during the follow-up period. Conclusion: In our series of patients 45 years and older who were treated with OCA for focal osteochondral injuries of the knee, we found a significant improvement in clinical outcome scores at a midterm follow-up of 37 months with no revision OCA procedures or conversion to any form of knee arthroplasty. In addition, a high percentage of patients were able to return to their preferred level of athletic activity.

Athletic Contests in Contexts of Epic and Other Related Archaic Texts

The ritual ordeal of the athlete re-enacts the ordeals of the warrior, and, like heroic deeds, athletic activity compensates for the athlete’s mortality as the athlete figuratively dies a ritual death in recurrent festivals. The origin of athletics is related both to initiation and to funeral games, and real or symbolic death and rebirth is common to both activities. Epinikian songs refer to those done ‘in compensation for’ (epi) the ordeal involved in winning the victory. Epinician songs also in a sense depict the community’s welfare as being contingent on the reciprocity of aristocratic exchange, and also related to revelry. The non-recurrent agōn occurs in Homeric epic, including gymnic and musikos events (recitation of epics and hymns). Later seasonally recurring festivals became the dominant form. The Panathenaia features the ‘art of the Muses’ among its events, namely rhapsodic contests in the reading of Homer. The apobatēs event in the Panathenaia serves as an evocative link between Homeric heroes in combat and the contestants in armour jumping from chariots in the Athenian games.

Alterations to the gut microbiome after sport-related concussion in a collegiate football players cohort

Concussions, both single and repetitive, during contact sports cause brain and body alterations in athletes. The role of the brain-gut connection and changes in the microbiota have not been well established after a head injury or concussion-related health consequences. We recruited 33 Division I Collegiate football players and collected blood, stool, and saliva samples throughout the athletic season. Analysis of the gut microbiome reveals a decrease in abundance for two bacterial species, Eubacterium rectale and Anaerostipes hadrus, after a diagnosed concussion. No significant differences were found regarding the salivary microbiome. Serum biomarker analysis shows an increase in GFAP blood levels in athletes during athletic activity. Additionally, S100β and SAA blood levels were positively correlated with the abundance of Eubacterium rectale species among athletes exposed to subconcussive impacts. These novel findings provide evidence that detecting changes in the gut microbiome may pave the way for improved concussion diagnosis following head injury.

“Revering religion, you would not approve of relentless running”

The subject of this research is determination of the peculiarities of competitive running in the medieval sociocultural situation. The relevance of this article is substantiated by the importance of cognizing the socio-historical context of desacralization of athleticism (and running as its component), as well as the grounds and manifestations of its transition into the sphere of secular, humanistically oriented bodily practices. The author sets the following tasks: compare the sacred and profane components of running athleticism in the Antiquity and the Middle Ages; identify of the reasons for desacralization of running in this period, as well as new manifestations and trends of transformation of its profane component. The methodological framework is comprised of the laws and principles of dialectics, analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, and analogy. The author reviews competitive running from the perspective of binary opposition sacred/profane. The acquired results can be applied in social philosophy, philosophical anthropology, and philosophy of sports. The novelty of this research lies in identification of causes and consequences of the medieval desacralization of running and absence of institutionalization of running competitions; consideration of the peculiarities of running practices in the elite circles and commoners; examination of specificity of running competitions in the carnival culture; outlining the reasons of the applied use of endurance running in economic activity; as well as indication of the unique for theocentric Middle Ages humanistic orientation of running as a separate type of competition and the basis of athletic activity overall.

The Effects of Educational Applications on the Development of Information in Secondary Schools During A Pandemic

Using instructional apps is one of the responses educators and schools have made in response to the Covid-19 pandemic's circumstances, with the aim of continuing the learning phase even though there is no face-to-face instruction at school. As instructional apps such as google classes, zoom meetings, and others are used, they have a huge effect on students' abilities and skills growth, such as slowing the rate of progress in students' comprehension of information. This is motivated by the fact that teachers and students engage infrequently throughout the teaching and learning period. Numerous student topics need face-to-face time in classes such as athletic activity, lab, and art practice. Certain aspects of these activities are hindered by the absence of direct practice in schools as a result of pandemic conditions that force teachers and students to remain at home and ensure a safe distance. Apart from that, utilizing learning apps enables students to begin accepting topics from their inner instructor, requiring both students and instructors to be more innovative with their teaching and learning processes.

HYPE SOURCE: G Fuel’s Contemporary Gamer Persona and its Navigation of Prestige and Diversity

G Fuel, an energy drink marketed towards gamers, performs a ‘contemporary’ gamer persona to interact with its audience, drawing upon an array of gaming influencers to appeal to fans of these figures. Specifically, this contemporary gamer persona builds upon the ‘geeky’ male gamer identity that has been constructed by marketers and adopted by players, utilising elements of esport such as skilfulness and focus. However, this persona also reimagines the gamer identity in alternative ways, such as gaming as an athletic activity – one that requires much mental and physical energy—and as an activity that connects players to others, and is exciting and glamourous, evocative of the lifestyles of gaming influencers. Thus, the contemporary gamer persona signals that there has been a shift in the popular discourses surrounding the ‘gamer’ identity in specific gaming micro-publics. The energy drink company G-Fuel is aware of this shift and strengthens this persona by forming partnerships with gamer microcelebrities and influencers. In this article, we find that in G Fuel’s construction and maintenance of the contemporary gamer persona, they seek to appeal to the wider gaming audience, but must constantly negotiate a balance between popular but controversial influencers and a commitment to diversity learner personas playful identity performance game-based learning game-making live action roleplay

The Emergence of Kleptomania in Children and How to Cope with Therapy

kleptomania in children, signs and triggers of kleptomania in children, and Overcoming Kleptomania in Children. Since committing fraud, the kid would, on the whole, feel satisfied. Kleptomania is often linked to depression or obsessive-compulsive behavior. Kleptomaniacs steal on the spur of the moment, with little prior planning. Kleptomania is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain that occurs during a head injury. Several approaches to overcoming kleptomania in children can be used, including parental approaches, Islamic approaches, talking to a psychiatrist, giving the child love and encouragement, including the child in athletic activity, psychotherapy and Rational Emotive Counseling, and opioid rehab against the child to discourage the offender from being more serious.

Clinical Recovery Timelines following Sport-Related Concussion in Men's and Women's Collegiate Sports

Context: Past work has identified sex differences in sport-related concussion (SRC) incidence and recovery time; however, few have examined sex differences in specific recovery trajectories: time to symptom resolution, return-to-academics, and return-to-athletic activity across collegiate sports. Objective: To examine sex differences in SRC recovery trajectories across a number of varsity sports with differing levels of contact. Design: Descriptive Epidemiology Study. Setting: College varsity and club sports. Patients or Other Participants: SRCs sustained by student-athletes (N=1,974; 38.7% female) participating in Ivy League sports were tracked from 2013/14-2018/19. Intervention(s): Athletic trainers collected concussive injury and recovery characteristics as part of the Ivy League-Big Ten Epidemiology of Concussion Study's surveillance system. Main Outcome Measure(s): Time to symptom resolution, return-to-academics, and return-to-limited and full athletic activity were collected. Survival analyses determined time from injury to each recovery outcome for males and females by sport. Peto tests compared recovery outcomes between males and female athletes and by sport. Results: The median time to symptom resolution overall was 9 days [IQR:4,18], return-to-academics was 8 days [IQR:3,15], return-to-limited activity was 12 days [IQR:8,23], and return-to-full activity was 16 days [IQR:10,29]. There were significant differences overall between sexes for median time to symptom resolution (males: 8 days [IQR:4,17], females: 9 days [IQR:5,20], p=0.029) and return-to-academics (males: 7 days [IQR:3,14], females: 9 days [IQR:4,17], p&lt;.001), but not return to athletics (limited activity, p=0.107; full activity, p=0.578). Within-sport comparisons found that female lacrosse athletes had longer symptom resolution (p=0.030) and return to academics (p=0.035) compared to males, while male volleyball athletes took longer to return to limited (p=0.020) and full (p=0.049) athletic activity compared to females. Conclusion: There were significant differences in recovery timelines between sexes. Females experienced longer symptom duration and time to return-to-academics compared to male athletes, but females and males presented similar timelines for return-to-athletics.

The Effect of Caffeine on Athletic Performance

Hypothesis:The intake of caffeine can increase physical performance during athletic activity Methods:A search for primary sources was done using PubMed with MeSH terms. The search was limited to randomized controlled trials that were published between 2015 and 2020. After application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, seven articles were selected for this literature review. Results:Of the seven randomized controlled trials selected, six demonstrated caffeine ingestion led to a statistically significant increase in physical performance. One of the randomized controlled trials found no statistically significant relationship between caffeine and run timings. The level set for statistical significance for this literature review was set to p < 0.05.Conclusion: With regards to the results of the selected studies, caffeine was shown to have ergogenic activity and was able to increase physical performance during exercise and sporting competition through multiple mechanisms. Further research should be done with greater sample sizes to determine the effect of rate of metabolism on caffeine activity and to compare caffeine responders and non-responders.