Acute effects of the different relaxation periods during passive intermittent static stretching on arterial stiffness

To clarify whether the relaxation period during stretching affects the degree of elevated shear rate and the degree of reduction of arterial stiffness, we examined relaxation duration to build an adequate stretching protocol. In Experiment 1, the changes in cardiac output, the shear rate in the posterior tibial artery, and blood volume in the calf muscle were measured during recovery (0–60 s) from a single bout of one-legged passive calf stretching in 12 healthy young men. In Experiment 2, the effects of different relaxation periods (5-, 10-, 20-, and 60-s) of passive one-legged intermittent calf stretching (30-s × 6 sets) on the femoral-ankle pulse wave velocity (faPWV) as an index of peripheral arterial stiffness were identified in 17 healthy young men. As a result, the stretched leg’s shear rate significantly increased from 0 to 10th s after stretching. The muscle blood volume in the stretched leg significantly reduced during stretching, and then significantly increased during the recovery period after stretching; however, cardiac output remained unchanged during stretching and recovery. Additionally, the reduction in faPWV from the pre-stretching value in the stretched leg was significantly larger in the protocol with 10-s and 20-s relaxation periods than that in the non-stretched leg, but this did not differ in the 5-s and 60-s relaxation periods. These findings suggest that the relaxation periods of intermittent static stretching that cause a high transient increase in shear rate (via reperfusion after microvascular compression by the stretched calf muscles) are effective to reduce arterial stiffness.

CLINICAL PROFILE OF OUTPATIENTS ATTENDING DERMATOLOGY DEPARTMENT DURING COVID-19 LOCKDOWN RELAXATION PERIOD IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE IN SOUTH INDIA – A CROSS-SECTIONAL ANALYTICAL STUDY

Background - The cutaneous manifestations of the novel coronavirus have been well documented. However, there are few studies that relate to the clinical prole of regular dermatology outpatients seeking treatment during the lockdown relaxation period braving the pandemic. With the Aim - view to determine the changes seen in dermatology outpatient practice, this study analysed the clinical prole of new patients attending the Dermatology Outpatient Department (OPD) during the COVID-19 lockdown relaxation period in a tertiary care centre in a metropolitan suburb in South India. New dermatology outpatients during the months of May, June, July and August Method - 2020 were included in the study. Outpatient data for this period was analysed and compared with corresponding data for the same period in the previous two years. There was a Result – decrease in the OP census, number of patients in the extremes of life as well as those with asymptomatic dermatoses. There was an increase in the number of patients with infections, particularly dermatophytosis. There was also a noteworthy absence of dermatological emergencies. Conclusion - In essence, our study shows the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the routine dermatology outpatient services with signicant changes in the clinical prole of outpatient practice following lockdown relaxation.

Spontaneous myogenic fasciculation associated with the lengthening of cardiac muscle in response to static preloading

Force enhancement is one kind of myogenic spontaneous fasciculation in lengthening preload striated muscles. In cardiac muscle, the role of this biomechanical event is not well established. The physiological passive property is an essential part for maintaining normal diastole in the heart. In excessive preload heart, force enhancement relative erratic passive properties may cause muscle decompensating, implicate in the development of diastolic dysfunction. In this study, the force enhancement occurrence in mouse cardiac papillary muscle was evaluated by a microstepping stretch method. The intracellular Ca2+ redistribution during occurrence of force enhancement was monitored in real-time by a Flou-3 (2 mM) indicator. The force enhancement amplitude, the enhancement of the prolongation time, and the tension–time integral were analyzed by myography. The results indicated that the force enhancement occurred immediately after active stretching and was rapidly enhanced during sustained static stretch. The presence of the force and the increase in the amplitude synchronized with the acquisition and immediate transfer of Ca2+ to adjacent fibres. In highly preloaded fibres, the enhancement exceeded the maximum passive tension (from 4.49 ± 0.43 N/mm2 to 6.20 ± 0.51 N/mm2). The occurrence of force enhancement were unstable in each static stretch. The increased enhancement amplitude combined with the reduced prolongation time to induce a reduction in the tension–time integral. We concluded that intracellular Ca2+-synchronized force enhancement is one kind of interruption event in excessive preload cardiac muscle. During the cardiac muscle in its passive relaxation period, the occurrence of this interruption affected the rhythmic stability of the cardiac relaxation cycle.

Penerapan Protokol Kesehatan Hotel sebagai Langkah Preventif pada Masa Pandemi

Hotel is one of the places to stay for tourists while on their tour. During the Covid-19 pandemic, hotel operations still running but with limited activities. Due to the relaxation period, the number of usable rooms increase along with the implementation of the Health Protocol as a preventive way in every hotel facility. This study aims to determine the application of hotel Health Protocols in Bandung. The method used is descriptive quantitative in assessing the importance of Health Protocols in each hotel services in providing safety and comfort for tourists during their stay. The results showed that the flow of hotel Health Protocol application was socialized and implemented for both employees and visitors. The number of hotels visited during the second quarter of 2020 along relaxation is 225 facilities or 56% of all hotels in Bandung City. Adherence to the implementation of the Health Protocol in the first 2 weeks was 76% and increased to 100% at the second 2 weeks or there was an increase in adherence by 25%. The total increase in compliance with hotel Health Protocol implementation is 25%. The conclusion of this study is that the implementation of the hotel Health Protocol has increased, which is one of the guarantees of tourist safety and preventive steps to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission in hotels.

DTA/TG analysis of mechanochemicaly activated sodium carbonate

Sodium carbonate is a material that is very good sorbent of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and it is a reason of it is increasing importance in environmental protection. In order to improve it is sorption characteristics, activation of Na2CO3 was performed by mechanochemical procedure and monitoring of changes during the relaxation time. This research is based on differential thermal analysis with thermogravimetry, in order to determine the changes that occurred on the activated samples during the relaxation period under controlled conditions. Sodium carbonate was activated for 2 and 7 minutes in a vibro mill, and then the activated samples were deposited in at room temperature and atmosphere of carbon dioxide at a humidity of 95% for 96h.

The Patterns of Stationary Activities during COVID-19 Distancing Relaxation: The elevated pedestrian network of Mong Kok, Hong Kong

COVID-19 is expected to impact the low-income groups' use of public space and related quality of life beyond the current pandemic outbreak. To what extent may the current pandemic affect the use of public space once some restrictions will be lifted? This study focuses on the migrant domestic workers’ spatio-temporal changes in the patterns of public space use during social distancing relaxation period in Hong Kong. The findings highlight increase of individual leisure activities, decrease of density around informal food-production and of gathering group, comparatively to the pre-pandemic situation. Keywords: Covid-19, public space, migrant domestic workers, behavioural mapping eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5i15.2461.

A new aerobic fitness score based on lactate sensing during submaximal exercise

Given the known clinical utility of cardiorespiratory fitness, measurement of physiological responses to submaximal exercise may be a feasible approach well suited for diagnostic and prognostic purposes in non-athletes and the chronically ill. Lactate levels and watt output during a short submaximal exercise and a subsequent relaxation period yield an aerobic score that is consistent with cardiorespiratory fitness grades in non-athletes and that may be used as a marker in such approaches. In this study, 28 females (23 ± 3 years) were submitted to a 15 min submaximal recumbent bike session, and their capillary and saliva lactate concentrations were recorded and plotted against time. An individual aerobic score was calculated from this curve, using watt output during equal relative percentiles of maximum heart-rate benchmarks. The scores were compared with respective results in a V̇O2max test and with a similar scoring system in 14 older (51 ± 9 years) females; they correlated with the 6 categories of the V̇O2max test results and classified into 3 categories of V̇O2max grades (very poor/poor; fair/good; excellent/superior) with a combined accuracy of 80.95%. More studies are required to validate the potential utility of this submaximal test as an additional risk factor for diagnostic purposes in non-athletes. Novelty points: A novel method for estimating cardiorespiratory fitness during submaximal exercise consistent with V̇O2max performance. The method yields an aerobic score that may be used as a marker for diagnostic and prognostic purposes.

Research on the mechanical behavior of the biomass densification process based on a thick-walled cylinder

The mechanical behavior of the biomass densification process has noticeable influences on energy consumption and pellet quality. In the authors’ previous work, a method was proposed to determine the inner pressure by testing the circumferential strain of the outer die wall. Based on this method, a device was developed with strain gauges in the form of a single pellet unit. With this device, experiments were conducted with wood shavings, rice straw, and wheat straw under different levels of particle size, compression rate, and moisture content. The effects of these factors on the inner pressure were analyzed. The relationships among the inner pressure, pellet density, and specific energy consumption were obtained. Results showed that the pressure ratio increased linearly and then decreased and became constant during the relaxation period. The pressure change during the relaxation period was isotropic. The results could provide mechanical explanations for the phenomena in biomass densification processes.

The Coupling-Transplantation Effect (CTE) and Differential Analytical-Physics-Topology Principle (DAPTP) in Ionospheric-Atmospheric-Oceonagraphic-Climatic-Seismic Processes Complex (IAOCSPC) with Observations in Specific Istanbul Domain Topology (SIDT)

<p>If A and B are physical events at t=t<sub>1</sub> and t=t<sub>2</sub>, respectively, in the same differential topological domain where t<sub>1</sub><t<sub>2</sub> then A and B may attract each other through bidirectional communication-like information even if A and B are not in the same physical cathegory. This fact comes from the similarity effect of physical events those obey always to a 2nd order partial differential equation, PDE at specific boundary conditions, SBCs. The coefficients in the operator part and the source function part of the PDE and propagation factors of the eigenfunctions in the solution and SBCs differ from an event cathegory to other event cathegory; however stochastic interpretations of these coefficients, source functions, eigenfunctions, and SBCs bring a unique and compact boundary value problem, BVP. We call network BVP this type of extended BVPs. The common parts of different types of events A and B in the same BVP scheme are topology and boundary surfaces of the same domain. The relationship between event A and event B is based on inversely transferring of boundary values, source functions, and coefficients between each other of the events through topological transformations, TTs. These TTs establish the bidirectional information communication between both climatic and seismic processes. All the natural events and hazards involving disasters are the self-control mechanism of the Completely Compact Earth Network, CCEN. The sea is a way and transfer medium for waves by Pascal’s rule.</p><p>The constrainers of Present Natural Hazards, PrNHs, are the Future Natural Hazards, FuNHs. The Past and/or Backward NHs (PaNHs, BwNHs) completed their results and could not effect to the PrNHs.</p><p>The results obtained with the methods of classical geophysics built on the classical Newton’s mechanics does not reflect the real processes, RPs for the magnitudes more than 5.9 Richter. The approaches built on Einstein’s relativity can not generate RPs for the interwall of over 6.9 Richter; i.e., a temporal transportation occurs in the last domain: Kocaeli-Mediterranean Sea EQ in 1999 is a result of both backward majorant propagation effect, BMaPE of Hector Mine EQ occured after itself and forward majorant propagation effect, FoMaPE of the seismicity to Future İstanbul Earthquake, sFIEQ. This means the raising period of FIEQ is released.The constrainer of 1999 Taiwan EQ is a result of BMaPE of Duzce EQ occured after itself. The constrainers of 2019 Silivri, Albania, and Athens EQs are the FIEQ desired in demand for future but never come. 1999 Avcilar EQ is a result of backward minorized propagation effect, BMiPE of the sFIEQ. This means the waiting/relaxation period of FIEQ is suspended. These  are figured from the specific records of these events observed during 1999-2004 and 2018-2020. The couplings among ionospheric, atmospheric, oceanographic, climatic, and/or seismic processes provide the communication among the events of different cathegories in here. We define this principle as the spati-o-temporal transplantation effect in EQ processes.</p><p>The SIDT is the most safe region on the Earth for the majorant earthquakes and preserves this property iff unconvenient/unnatural buildings and major excavations are excluded from this topology.</p>

Improved Nylon 6,6 Nanofiber Membrane in A Tilted Panel Filtration System for Fouling Control in Microalgae Harvesting

The competitiveness of algae as biofuel feedstock leads to the growth of membrane filtration as one of promising technologies for algae harvesting. Nanofiber membrane (NFM) was found to be efficient for microalgae harvesting via membrane filtration, but it is highly limited by its weak mechanical strength. The main objective of this study is to enhance the applicability of nylon 6,6 NFM for microalgae filtration by optimizing the operational parameters and applying solvent vapor treatment to improve its mechanical strength. The relaxation period and filtration cycle could be optimized to improve the hydraulic performance. For a cycle of 5 min., relaxation period of ≤2 min shows the highest steady-state permeability of 365 ± 14.14 L m−2 h−1 bar−1, while for 10 min cycle, 3 min. of relaxation period was found optimum that yields permeability of 402 ± 34.47 L m−2 h−1 bar−1. The treated nylon 6,6 NFM was also used to study the effect of aeration rate. It is confirmed that the aeration rate enhances the steady-state performance for both intermittent and continuous mode of aeration. Remarkably, intermittent aeration shows 7% better permeability than the full aeration for all tested condition, which is beneficial for reducing the total energy consumption.