The goal of the current study was to investigate the relationship between sport expertise and perceptual and cognitive skills, as measured by the component skills approach. We hypothesized that athletes would outperform non-athlete controls in a number of perceptual and cognitive domains and that sport expertise would minimize gender differences. A total of 154 individuals (87 professional voll...

BACKGROUND Klotho is an anti-aging protein that is predominantly secreted by the kidneys. OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to measure and compare the circulating Klotho levels in the serum of trained athletes and in healthy, non-athlete controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty trained football players were enrolled and their serum Klotho levels were measured the morning after their last ev...

Although viewed as paragons of fitness and health, many female athletes struggle with eating disorders. Athletes participating in sports that emphasize aesthetics or a thin-build, such as gymnastics, figure skating, and endurance running, are at particular risk for the development of eating disorders. While Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa affect an athlete’s emotional and psychological wel...

The objective of the present study was to examine the associations between eleven putative predisposing single nucleotide polymorphisms (COL9A3, COL11A2, IL1A, IL1B, IL6 and VDR) and early disc degeneration (DD). The population consisted of 12 to 14-year-old Danish children (N=352). DD was evaluated from magnetic resonance images (MRI). We analysed the association between DD and single nucleoti...

Perfectionism in sports has been shown to be associated with burnout in athletes. Whether perfectionism predicts longitudinal changes in athlete burnout, however, is still unclear. Using a two-wave cross-lagged panel design, the current study examined perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns, and athlete burnout in 101 junior athletes (mean age 17.7 years) over 3 months of active tra...

In this study, we examined the utility of self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2002) as a framework for understanding the antecedents of athlete burnout in elite New Zealand rugby union players (n=133). Perceptions of competence, autonomy, and relatedness (i.e. basic psychological needs) were hypothesized to be negatively related to burnout scores, while players classified as "high-burnouts"...

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency and severity of Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) in medical college students, evaluate the impact of the condition on the quality of life and find out the associated risk factors. STUDY DESIGN An observational study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Isra University Hospital, Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan, from August to December 2006. METHODOLOGY Unmarried medical ...

Population norms for Health Related Quality of Life using SF-36 are described. A national sample was canvassed in 2000 using a self-administered SF-36 in Bahasa Malaysia and English. Response rate was 30.6%, with 3072 usable data. Male: Female ratio was 1.04 and mean age was 39.8 years. Quality of life was affected by age and sex. Older population and women had a poorer quality of life. Populat...

We have developed a new operator interface system for high-DoF articulated robots based on the idea of allowing the operator to extend the robot’s actual kinematics with virtual articulations. These virtual links and joints can model both primary task DoF and constraints on whole-robot coordinated motion. Unlike other methods, our approach can be applied to robots and tasks of arbitrary kinemat...