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Arm Length (arm + length)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	18%

Selected Abstracts

Does arm length indicate cognitive and functional reserve?

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 5 2005
Seul-Ki Jeong
Abstract Background This study aimed to examine whether arm length and height were associated with cognitive and functional abilities. Methods Screening interviews were conducted in 235 community dwelling individuals aged 65 and over. The assessment scales included the Korean version of modified Mini-Mental State Examination (K-mMMSE) for cognition, and the Korean Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (K-IADL) for functional ability. All the participants were examined clinically and a diagnosis of dementia was ascertained. Anthropometric measurements included total arm span and height. Results Both arm length and height correlated significantly with the cognitive and functional scales. In the multivariate regression models, their associations were significant, independent of age, sex, education, and other variables. Shorter arm length was also significantly associated with dementia; while, height lost significance after an adjustment for the potential confounders. Conclusions Arm length and height could indicate cognitive and functional ability. Arm length, which was known to be less prone to degenerative processes, might be more stable as an indicator for cognitive and functional reserve capacity than height. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Resistance training increases in vivo quadriceps femoris muscle specific tension in young men

ACTA PHYSIOLOGICA, Issue 1 2010
R. M. Erskine
Abstract Aim:, The present study investigated whether in vivo human quadriceps femoris (QF) muscle specific tension changed following strength training by systematically determining QF maximal force and physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA). Methods:, Seventeen untrained men (20 ± 2 years) performed high-intensity leg-extension training three times a week for 9 weeks. Maximum tendon force (Ft) was calculated from maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) torque, corrected for agonist and antagonist muscle activation, and moment arm length (dPT) before and after training. QF PCSA was calculated as the sum of the four component muscle volumes, each divided by its fascicle length. Dividing Ft by the sum of the component muscle PCSAs, each multiplied by the cosine of the respective fascicle pennation angle, provided QF specific tension. Results:, MVC torque and QF activation increased by 31% (P < 0.01) and 3% (P < 0.05), respectively, but there was no change in antagonist co-activation or dPT. Subsequently, Ft increased by 27% (P < 0.01). QF volume increased by 6% but fascicle length did not change in any of the component muscles, leading to a 6% increase in QF PCSA (P < 0.05). Fascicle pennation angle increased by 5% (P < 0.01) but only in the vastus lateralis muscle. Consequently, QF specific tension increased by 20% (P < 0.01). Conclusion:, An increase in human muscle specific tension appears to be a real consequence of resistance training rather than being an artefact of measuring errors but the underlying cause of this phenomenon remains to be determined. [source]

Does arm length indicate cognitive and functional reserve?

Synthesis, Sequential Crystallization and Morphological Evolution of Well-Defined Star-Shaped Poly(, -caprolactone)- b -poly(L -lactide) Block Copolymer,

MACROMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS, Issue 5 2006
Jing-Liang Wang
Abstract Summary: Well-defined star-shaped poly(, -caprolactone)- b -poly(L -lactide) copolymers (PCL- b -PLLA) were synthesized via sequential block copolymerization, and their molecular weights and arm length ratio could be accurately controlled. Both differential scanning calorimetry and wide angle X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the crystallization of both the PLLA and PCL blocks within the star-shaped PCL- b -PLLA copolymer could be adjusted from the arm length of each block, and both blocks mutually influenced each other. The sequential isothermal crystallization process of both the PLLA and PCL blocks within the PCL- b -PLLA copolymers was directly observed with a polarized optical microscope, and the isothermal crystallization of the PCL segments was mainly templated by the existing spherulites of PLLA. Moreover, the PLLA blocks within the star-shaped PCL- b -PLLA copolymer progressively changed from ordinary spherulites to banded spherulites when the arm length ratio of PCL to PLLA was increased while concentric spherulites were observed for the linear analog. Significantly, these novel spherulites with concentric or banded textures and the morphological evolution of the spherulites have been observed for the first time in the PCL- b -PLLA block copolymers. [source]

Synthesis of lauryl methacrylate star-like polymers via ATRP

ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Issue 5 2009
Lei Qiu
Abstract Lauryl methacrylate (LMA) star-like polymers were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) using the ,arm-first' method. Linear poly lauryl methacrylate (PLMA) precursors were firstly prepared with ethyl ,-bromoisobutyrate (EBriB) as initiator and cuprous chloride (CuCl)/N,N,N,,N,,N,-pentamethyldiethylenetriamine (PMDETA) as catalyst in cyclohexanone via ATRP, and subsequently used as macromolecule initiator(MI) to synthesize star polymers in the presence of cross-linker ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA). Several experimental parameters, such as the PLMA arm length, the ratio of MI to cross-linker, the addition amount and moment of cross-linker and the reaction time for the star formation were systematically investigated. The samples were removed at regular intervals and analyzed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) to track Mn and Mw/Mn of star-like polymer, by which the influence of the experimental parameters on the structures of the star-like polymers was studied. Employing shorter arm lengths and more cross-linker could produce star-like polymers with higher molecular weight and more arms per star. Copyright © 2009 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Karyotype analysis and physical mapping of 45S rRNA genes in Hydrangea species by fluorescence in situ hybridization

PLANT BREEDING, Issue 3 2008
K. Van Laere
Abstract Detailed karyotypes of Hydrangea macrophylla, Hydrangea paniculata and Hydrangea quercifolia were constructed on the basis of arm lengths and centromeric index, together with 45S rDNA fluorescence in situ hybridization. Although the chromosomes were small, they were well distinguishable for all species. Chromosome morphology and karyotypes were different for the three species. H. macrophylla had six metacentric (M), eight submetacentric (SM) and four subtelocentric (ST) chromosomes. The karyotype of H. paniculata contained seven M, 10 SM and one ST chromosomes and H. quercifolia had six M, 10 SM and two ST chromosomes. The variability among three species also was expressed by 45S rDNA signals. H. macrophylla had a nucleolar organizing region on chromosome 2, H. paniculata had 45S rDNA signals on chromosomes 2, 5 and 11 and H. quercifolia on chromosomes 3 and 8. Hybridization signal always was distally on the short arm but the strength of the signals was different for the three species. The chromosome portraits made in this study will be used to trace chromosome behaviour in interspecific hybrids resulting from breeding work between the three species. [source]

Synthesis of lauryl methacrylate star-like polymers via ATRP

Fiscal Federalism in Australia

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2004
Iain McLean
Australia displays high vertical fiscal imbalance (VFI) for historical and constitutional reasons. It also attempts to achieve the highest degree of horizontal fiscal equalization (HFE) to be found in any democratic federation. The Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC), a non-partisan body at arm's length from politicians, oversees the regime. A recent report claims that equity, efficiency and transparency would all improve if the regime were abolished. Such a change is politically unachievable, but it raises interesting issues in public finance and public administration, which carry over to other federations and union states. An economically efficient system would: minimize perverse incentives, especially incentives to seek rent; encourage states to grow; discourage suboptimal location decisions; minimize transaction costs. An equitable system would maximize equity between relevantly similar individuals. Aspects of the Australian system that should be copied include the non-partisan agency and the target of HFE between component parts of the country. Aspects that should be discussed and perhaps copied include the very extensive equalization, including the feature of equalizing away the effects of grants for special purposes. Aspects that should probably not be copied include the cumbersome formulae and some of the perverse methods of calculating for ,needs'. All abbreviations and acronyms are spelt out in the Appendix on page 37. [source]

Front and Back Covers, Volume 24, Number 5.

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 5 2008
June 200
Front & Back cover caption, volume 24 issue 5 Iron Mike (see back cover) represents a generic soldier at Fort Bragg, one of the world's largest military bases, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Here he appears to patrol streets under martial law, empty and grey. The Pawn Shop Target Practice (see front cover) is also in Fayetteville. At the back of the shop you can buy guns, bullets, jewellery and more, and also take aim at various targets , images of a woman in a bikini, an anonymous silhouette, a deer. Violence is found in Fayetteville as a symbol of protection, as entertainment, and certainly as a commodity. The absence of living people in these photographs underscores a clinical attitude cultivated in the military towards the largely dehumanized adversary other , a long way from the kind of engagement anthropologists seek through participant-observation. It may well be that the military would benefit from being ,anthropologized'. However, given Keenan's and Besteman's experiences in Africa, as described in this issue, what is the guarantee that the African peoples will actually benefit from militarization at this time of US military expansion? MILITARIZING THE DISCIPLINE? US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates approvingly cites Montgomery McFate: ,I'm frequently accused of militarizing anthropology. But we're really anthropologizing the military'.* This issue of ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY draws attention to the launch of two initiatives in October this year, both of which will have an impact on the peoples we work with and on anthropology as a discipline. The first is the launch of Minerva, a new Pentagon initiative to recruit social scientists for research, for which proposals are due this month. As Catherine Lutz argues in her editorial, this programme may soon outspend civilian funds within our discipline, and will thus undoubtedly influence our research agenda and restrict the public sphere in which we work. If the Pentagon wants high-quality research, why not commission this from reputable and experienced civilian research agencies, who should be able to manage peer review at arm's length from the Pentagon? The second initiative is AFRICOM, the newly unified regional US command for Africa. Although presented benignly as supporting development in Africa, it was originally cast in the security discourse of the global ,war on terror', with the aim of securing North America's oil supplies in Africa. In this issue, Africanist anthropologists Jeremy Keenan and Catherine Besteman criticize AFRICOM's destabilizing and militarizing effect on the regions in which they work, which collapses development into military security. Once deployed to the ends of military securitization, can anthropology remain non-partisan? Alf Hornborg, in his editorial, asks if we can continue to rely on the cornucopia of cheap energy, arguing that military intervention to securitize oil supplies, and academic discourse that mystifies the logic of the global system, benefit only a small minority of the world's population. In the light of developments such as Minerva and AFRICOM, can anthropology continue to offer an independent reflexive ,cultural critique' of the socio-political system from which our discipline has sprung? *Montgomery McFate, quoted by Robert M. Gates (,Nonmilitary work essential for long-term peace, Secretary of Defense says'. Manhattan, Kansas State University, Landon Lecture, 26.11.2007), as cited in Rohde, David, ,Army enlists anthropology in war zones' (New York Times, 05.10.2007). [source]