Statin use and self-reported swimming performance in US masters swimmers

Exercise and treating hyperlipidaemia with statins are two integral components of the American Heart Association guidelines to reduce cardiovascular risk in adults. Since statins can cause myalgias and myopathies, they could affect the duration or intensity of an exercise regimen. To determine the impact of statin use in adult masters swimmers, a survey was distributed to examine the association between swimming performance and statin usage in adult swimmers (≥35 years). After excluding those with chronic diseases or taking drugs that reduce physical capacity, 749 swimmers (118 taking statins, 73 not taking statins to control elevated cholesterol and 558 controls) were included in a regression model to determine the factors significantly affecting the duration and intensity of swimming workouts. Age and gender were significantly (P ≤ 0.001) associated with the distance swam per 60 min. Younger, male swimmers completed more yards per 60-min workout. Use of statins was not significantly associated with yards swam per 60-min workout. Nor did statin usage affect the number of swim sessions per month or the length of swim session. Evidently, statins do not cause enough fatigue or pain in masters swimmers to require a decrease in the duration or intensity of workouts.     

Struggling with Science and Status: Physiotherapy – Including Radiology and Cancer Treatment – and Physical Education at the State University in Ghent,Belgium, 1906–1936

The establishment of new academic specialties is an intriguing research topic from a social history of science perspective. In this article we focus on the ‘scientific migration’ within the Higher Institute of Physical Education (HIPE) and the Faculty of Medicine at the State University in Ghent, Belgium. The HIPE was ‘attached’ to the Faculty of Medicine in 1908, a world first that led to an interesting triangular relationship between physical education, physiotherapy, and medicine. The physiatrists (physicians-physiotherapists) who were appointed at the HIPE had to struggle with inferior status with respect to their colleagues within the Faculty of Medicine itself. Territorial power struggles arose on several levels. In 1936, after the first generation of physicians-physiotherapists had retired, physiotherapy was integrated fully into the Faculty of Medicine, and radiology and cancer treatment – which had been considered subsectors of physiotherapy – became autonomous specialties. Physical education, however, retained its inferior academic status.     

Risk of venous thromboembolic disease in postmenopausal women taking oral or transdermal hormone replacement therapy

Objective  

The influence of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on hemostasis processes depends on the type of hormone, the combination of doses, the time of taking HRT, and the route of administration (oral, transdermal, implanted). The aim of the current study was to assess some parameters of coagulation, especially tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) and tissue factor (TF) in postmenopausal women using oral or transdermal HRT.     

Polyethylenimine-cyclodextrin-tegafur conjugate shows anti-cancer activity and a potential for gene delivery

Polyethylenimine-cyclodextrin-tegafur (PEI-CyD-tegafur) conjugate was synthesized as a novel multifunctional prodrug of tegafur for co-delivery of chemotherapeutic agent tegafur and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) reporter plasmid DNA. Conjugation of tegafur to PEI-CyD via chemical linkage was characterized by ¹H NMR spectrometry and ultraviolet (UV) spectrometry. PEI-CyD-tegafur was able to condense plasmid DNA into complexes of around 150 nm with positive charge at the N/P ratio of 25, in accordance with electron microscopy observation of compact and monodisperse nanoparticles. The results of in vitro experiments showed enhanced cytotoxicity and considerable transfection efficiency in B16F10 cell line. Therefore, PEI-CyD-tegafur may have great potential as a co-delivery system with anti-cancer activity and potential for gene delivery.     

高职英语对话教学几种要领

针对高职英语知识输入依然重于应用能力培养的教学现状,根据教育部关于高职高专英语教学的基本要求,通过课堂观察、观摩教学及访谈,提出了高职英语对话教学可操作的五个实施要领,激发学生习得语言的积极性,增进师生、生生之间的对话,活跃英语课堂教学。     

‘Twilight or Middlemarch?’ A Teacher’s Refusal to Choose

What should children and young adolescents read? Recent changes in the English curriculum have once again shifted the focus towards more canonical texts, but does featuring such texts on the course necessarily equate to rigorous teaching and in-depth learning? Through a self-examination of her own reading history, the author argues for a dialogic approach to reading and text selection instead, so that students may negotiate better understandings of themselves and their own socio-cultural contexts.     

Using sexually explicit material in a therapeutic context

For most of us, sex is a subjective, lived experience that is as unique as our genetic make-up, our upbringing, our thoughts, values, feelings, beliefs and ideas. It is through our erotic interactions, or the absence thereof, that we form aspects of our fluid and mutable erotic paths and identities. Despite the proliferation of sexual imagery throughout our culture, many of us still struggle with what sex means to us, what we do, how we experience it and what that says about who we are as people. Some who struggle with this may seek the services of a psychosexual sex therapist. This paper aims to explain how such services function, why they are necessary and how the use of sexually explicit material, in some psychosexual therapeutic contexts, can help unravel the mixed responses we have to sex and our social conditioning, and enhance our overall relationship to eroticism, pleasure and general well-being.     

Development and implementation of a three-dimensional (3D) printing elective course for health science students

Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has become more affordable, accessible, and relevant in healthcare, however, the knowledge of transforming medical images to physical prints still requires some level of training. Anatomy educators can play a pivotal role in introducing learners to 3D printing due to the spatial context inherent to learning anatomy. To bridge this knowledge gap and decrease the intimidation associated with learning 3D printing technology, an elective was developed through a collaboration between the Department of Anatomy and the Makers Lab at the University of California, San Francisco. A self-directed digital resource was created for the elective to guide learners through the 3D printing workflow, which begins with a patient's computed tomography digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) file to a physical 3D printed model. In addition to practicing the 3D printing workflow during the elective, a series of guest speakers presented on 3D printing applications they utilize in their clinical practice and/or research laboratories. Student evaluations indicated that their intimidation associated with 3D printing decreased, the clinical and research topics were directly applicable to their intended careers, and they enjoyed the autonomy associated with the elective format. The elective and the associated digital resource provided students with the foundational knowledge of 3D printing, including the ability to extract, edit, manipulate, and 3D print from DICOM files, making 3D printing more accessible. The aim of disseminating this work is to help other anatomy educators adopt this curriculum at their institution.     

论证研究中的论辩性维度

通过分别对非形式逻辑理论、形式论辩术理论和语用论辩术理论中的论辩性维度进行分析,文章从整体上勾勒了当下论辩性研究的基本概貌与大致趋势,并由此揭示了将主体性因素纳入论证研究的几种可能进路。