Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a key event in cancer metastasis, which confers cancer cells with increased motility and invasiveness, and EMT is characterized by loss of epithelial marker E-cadherin and gain of mesenchymal marker N-cadherin. Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling is a crucial inducer of EMT in various types of cancer. Ski is an important negative regulator o...

BACKGROUND Alpine skiing is one of the most popular winter sports in the world. Nevertheless, it has always been associated with a high risk of injury. There are however, only a few studies that have examined the risk of injury of competitive skiers, especially of the junior ski racers. METHODS The inclusion criterion was an injury in alpine skiing resulting in a pause in training longer than...

OBJECT To date, there has been no published study in which the focus was on the mechanisms of head injuries associated with snowboarding. The purpose of this study was to identify these mechanisms. METHODS The patient population consisted of 38 consecutive patients with snowboarding-related major head injuries who were treated at two hospitals in Japan, where for years many winter sports inju...

BACKGROUND Hepcidin, a peptide that is released into the blood in response to inflammation, prevents cellular iron export and results in declines in iron status. Elevated serum and urinary levels of hepcidin have been observed in athletes following exercise, and declines in iron status have been reported following prolonged periods of training. The objective of this observational study was to c...

Looking at the current technology of water skiing equipment, it isn’t hard to trace its roots. Ralph Samuelson successfully skied on Lake Pepin in Lake City, MN in 1922. He was the first recorded person to water ski. His skis consisted of two pine boards with leather bindings (Winkler, 2009). From this modest beginning came the old style flat bottomed and square tailed skis that were standard f...

White belts of snow clad mountains all over the world each winter. Even if there is no snow, the tourism industry is able to produce the white finery at the push of the button, thereby consuming large amounts of water. Studying Damüls, a well-known ski resort in Austria's westernmost province Vorarlberg, we can show that the development of a service sector within agro-pastoral landscapes was co...

OBJECTIVE To determine factors associated with adult squash players' protective eyewear behaviours. METHODS A survey of 303 players (aged >or =18 years) was conducted at three squash venues in Melbourne, Australia over a three week period in June 2000 to obtain information about protective eyewear use. RESULTS Of 303 participants the response rate was 98.1%; 66.1% were males, with a mean ag...

The popularity of skiing and snowboarding has increased tremendously over the past few decades. Whereas skiing has been an established winter sport for some time, snowboarding was created only in the 1960s. The great surge in popularity of snowboarding was sparked by its inclusion in the 1998 Winter Olympics. With increased participation in these winter activities has come a tremendous rise in ...

Using a unique database of 85 ski resorts and 1,524 lifts and cable cars in Austria, we investigate the relationship between lift ticket prices for the 2005-2006 season and factors that influence the quality of ski resorts. We estimate a hedonic price function using OLS and robust regression techniques on length of ski runs, transport capacity (measured as vertical transport metres per hour), s...

Ski, the transforming protein of the avian Sloan-Kettering retrovirus, inhibits transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)/Smad signaling and displays both pro-oncogenic and anti-oncogenic activities in human cancer. Inhibition of TGF-β signaling is likely responsible for the pro-oncogenic activity of Ski. We investigated the mechanism(s) underlying the tumor suppressor activity of Ski and found that...