Comparison of balance ability and physical fitness according to the growth period in taekwondo players.

The purpose of this study was to investigate and evaluate balance ability, isokinetic moments, and physical fitness according to the growth period from middle school to university in male taekwondo players. Thirty-five taekwondo players (middle school, n=11; high school, n=15; university, n=9) participated in this study. The anteriorposterior and medial-lateral CoP displacement at balance ability was better in university players than in high school and middle school players. The isokinetic knee joint muscle strength of the right extension and flexion % body weight (BW) at 60°/s was higher in university players than in high school players. The average power of right flexion BW at 180°/sec was higher in middle school players than in high school players. Back strength was higher in university players than in middle and high school players. The repeated jump was higher in high school players than in middle school players. The standing broad jump was higher in university players than in middle school players. The side-step was higher in university players than in high school players. The average power and total energy of anaerobic power were higher in university and high school players than in middle school players. The peak drop in anaerobic power was higher in middle school players than in high school players. Based on the results of the present study, the growth period should be considered when applying training such as balance, isokinetic moments, and physical fitness to male taekwondo players.

Modulating Effects of Whole-body Vibration on Cortical Activity and Gait Function in Chronic Stroke Patients.

Whole-body vibration exercise (WBVe) can provide proper somatosensory stimulation and improve muscle strength in stroke patients. This study investigated the effects of WBVe on gait function and cortical activity in patients with chronic stroke. Thirty stroke patients were randomly assigned to either the WBVe or the control group. The WBVe group received the vibration in a half-squat position for 5 minutes at an intensity of 20 Hz. The control group kept the same posture but did not receive the vibration. Cortical activity was investigated using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Gait function was assessed by a 10-m walk test (10MWT), a timed up and go (TUG) test, a Fugl-Meyer Assessment, and a Tinetti Performance-Oriented Mobility Assessment (TPOMA). In group analysis of the fNIRS data, oxygenated hemoglobin concentration was significantly increased in the ipsilesional supplementary motor area, bilateral sensorimotor cortex, and contralesional prefrontal cortex in the WBVe group compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Functional assessment demonstrated a significant interaction between time and group for the 10MWT and TUG test, suggesting that the WBVe group demonstrated meaningful improvement after intervention (p < 0.05). These results suggested that WBVe modulated the cerebral cortical activities and resulted in improvement of gait function in chronic stroke patients. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03375346.

Intact Crystalline Semiconducting Graphene Nanoribbons from Unzipping Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes.

Unzipping carbon nanotubes (CNTs) may offer a valuable route to synthesize graphene nanoribbon (GNR) structures with semiconducting properties. Unfortunately, currently available unzipping methods commonly rely on a random harsh chemical reaction and thereby cause significant degradation of the crystalline structure and electrical properties of GNRs. Herein, crystalline semiconducting GNRs are achieved by a synergistic, judiciously designed two-step unzipping method for N-doped CNTs (NCNTs). NCNTs are effectively unzipped by damage-minimized, dopant-specific electrochemical unzipping and subsequent sonochemical treatment into long ribbon-like nanostructures with crystalline basal planes. Owing to the nanoscale dimension originating from the dense nucleation of the unzipping reaction at highly NCNTs, the resultant GNRs demonstrate semiconducting properties, which can be exploited for chemiresistor-type gas-sensing devices and many other applications.

Modulation of Cortical Activity by High-Frequency Whole-Body Vibration Exercise: An fNIRS Study.

CONTEXT: Whole-body vibration (WBV) has shown many positive effects on the human body in rehabilitation and clinical settings in which vibration has been used to elicit muscle contractions in spastic and paretic muscles. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether WBV exercise (WBVe) differently modulates the cortical activity associated with motor and prefrontal function based on its frequency. METHODS: A total of 18 healthy male adults (mean age: 25.3 [2.4] y) participated in this study and performed WBVe (Galileo Advanced plus; Novotec Medical, Pforzheim, Germany) under 3 different vibration frequency conditions (4-mm amplitude with 10-, 20-, and 27-Hz frequencies) and a control condition (0-mm amplitude with 0-Hz frequency). Each condition consisted of 2 alternating tasks (squatting and standing) every 30 seconds for 5 repetitions. All subjects performed the 4 conditions in a randomized order. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Cortical activation during WBVe was measured by relative changes in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration over the primary motor cortex, premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, and prefrontal and somatosensory cortices using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. RESULTS: Oxygenated hemoglobin concentration was higher during the 27-Hz vibration condition than the control and 10-Hz vibration conditions. Specifically, these changes were pronounced in the bilateral primary motor cortex (P < .05) and right prefrontal cortex (P < .05). In contrast, no significant changes in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration were observed in any of the cortical areas during the 10-Hz vibration condition compared with the control condition. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence that the motor network and prefrontal cortical areas of healthy adult males can be activated by 27-Hz WBVe. However, WBVe at lower frequencies did not induce significant changes in cortical activation.

Ultrastable Graphene-Encapsulated 3 nm Nanoparticles by In Situ Chemical Vapor Deposition.

Nanoscale materials offer enormous opportunities for catalysis, sensing, energy storage, and so on, along with their superior surface activity and extremely large surface area. Unfortunately, their strong reactivity causes severe degradation and oxidation even under ambient conditions and thereby deteriorates long-term usability. Here superlative stable graphene-encapsulated nanoparticles with a narrow diameter distribution prepared via in situ chemical vapor deposition (CVD) are presented. The judiciously designed CVD protocol generates 3 nm size metal and ceramic nanoparticles intimately encapsulated by few-layer graphene shells. Significantly, graphene-encapsulated Co3 O4 nanoparticles exhibit outstanding structural and functional integrity over 2000 cycles of lithiation/delithiation for Li-ion battery anode application, accompanied by 200% reversible volume change of the inner core particles. The insight obtained from this approach offers guidance for utilizing high-capacity electrode materials for Li-ion batteries. Furthermore, this in situ CVD synthesis is compatible with many different metal precursors and postsynthetic treatments, including oxidation, phosphidation, and sulfidation, and thus offers a versatile platform for reliable high-performance catalysis and energy storage/conversion with nanomaterials.

Omnidirectional Deformable Energy Textile for Human Joint Movement Compatible Energy Storage.

Omnidirectional deformability is an unavoidable basic requirement for wearable devices to accommodate human daily motion particularly at human joints. We demonstrate omnidirectionally bendable and stretchable textile-based electrochemical capacitor that retains high power performance under complex mechanical deformation. Judicious synergistic hybrid structure of woven elastic polymer yarns with carbon nanotubes and conductive polymers offers reliable electrical and electrochemical activity even under repeated cycles of severe complex deformation modes. The textile-based electrochemical capacitors exhibit omnidirectional stretchability with 93% of capacitance retention under repeated 50% omnidirectional stretching condition while demonstrating excellent specific capacitance (412 mF cm-2) and cycle stability (>2000 stretch). The wearable power source stably powers red LED under omnidirectional stretching that accompanies human elbow joint motion.

Asynchronous Alterations of Muscle Force and Tendon Stiffness Following 8 Weeks of Resistance Exercise with Whole-Body Vibration in Older Women.

This study aimed to examine whether muscle force and tendon stiffness in a muscle-tendon complex alter synchronously following 8-week whole-body vibration (WBV) training in older people. Forty older women aged 65 years and older were randomly assigned into control (CON, n = 15) and whole-body vibration (WBV) training groups (exposure time, n = 13; vibration intensity, n = 12). For the training groups, a 4-week detraining period was completed following the training period. Throughout the training/detraining period, force of the medial gastrocnemius (MG) muscle and stiffness of the Achilles tendon were assessed four times (0, 4, 8, and 12 weeks) using a combined system of dynamometer and ultrasonography. While muscle force gradually increased throughout the training period (p < .05), a significant increase in tendon stiffness was observed after 8 weeks (p < .05). These findings indicated that, during the early phase of WBV training, muscle force and tendon stiffness changed asynchronously, which might be a factor in possible musculotendinous injuries.

Ultrafast Interfacial Self-Assembly of 2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenides Monolayer Films and Their Vertical and In-Plane Heterostructures.

Cost effective scalable method for uniform film formation is highly demanded for the emerging applications of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). We demonstrate a reliable and fast interfacial self-assembly of TMD thin films and their heterostructures. Large-area 2D TMD monolayer films are assembled at air-water interface in a few minutes by simple addition of ethyl acetate (EA) onto dilute aqueous dispersions of TMDs. Assembled TMD films can be directly transferred onto arbitrary nonplanar and flexible substrates. Precise thickness controllability of TMD thin films, which is essential for thickness-dependent applications, can be readily obtained by the number of film stacking. Most importantly, complex structures such as laterally assembled 2D heterostructures of TMDs can be assembled from mixture solution dispersions of two or more different TMDs. This unusually fast interfacial self-assembly could open up a novel applications of 2D TMD materials with precise tunability of layer number and film structures.

Low-Temperature Chemical Vapor Deposition Synthesis of Pt-Co Alloyed Nanoparticles with Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Reaction Catalysis.

Novel Pt-Co alloyed nanocatalysts are generated via chemical vapor deposition-assisted facile one-pot synthesis. The method guarantees highly monodisperse Pt-Co alloy nanoparticles with precise control of metallic compositions within 1 at%. A significant features is that a perfectly alloyed single-crystal structure is obtained at temperatures as low as 500 °C, which is much lower than conventional alloying temperatures.

Dopant-specific unzipping of carbon nanotubes for intact crystalline graphene nanostructures.

Atomic level engineering of graphene-based materials is in high demand to enable customize structures and properties for different applications. Unzipping of the graphene plane is a potential means to this end, but uncontrollable damage of the two-dimensional crystalline framework during harsh unzipping reaction has remained a key challenge. Here we present heteroatom dopant-specific unzipping of carbon nanotubes as a reliable and controllable route to customized intact crystalline graphene-based nanostructures. Substitutional pyridinic nitrogen dopant sites at carbon nanotubes can selectively initiate the unzipping of graphene side walls at a relatively low electrochemical potential (0.6 V). The resultant nanostructures consisting of unzipped graphene nanoribbons wrapping around carbon nanotube cores maintain the intact two-dimensional crystallinity with well-defined atomic configuration at the unzipped edges. Large surface area and robust electrical connectivity of the synergistic nanostructure demonstrate ultrahigh-power supercapacitor performance, which can serve for AC filtering with the record high rate capability of -85° of phase angle at 120 Hz.

3D Tailored Crumpling of Block-Copolymer Lithography on Chemically Modified Graphene.

Novel 3D self-assembled nanopatterning is presented via tailored crumpling of chemically modified graphene. Block-copolymer self-assembly formed on a layer of chemically modified graphene provides highly dense and uniform 2D nanopatterns, and the controlled crumpling of the chemically modified graphene by mechanical instabilities realizes the controlled 3D transformation of the self-assembled nanopatterns.

Acute effect of heel-drop exercise with varying ranges of motion on the gastrocnemius aponeurosis-tendon's mechanical properties.

The objectives of this study was to investigate the acute effects of various magnitudes of tendon strain on the mechanical properties of the human medial gastrocnemius (MG) in vivo during controlled heel-drop exercises. Seven male and seven female volunteers performed two different exercises executed one month apart: one was a heel-drop exercise on a block (HDB), and the other was a heel-drop exercise on level floor (HDL). In each regimen, the subjects completed a session of 150 heel-drop exercises (15 repetitions×10 sets; with a 30 s rest following each set). Before and immediately after the heel-drop exercise, the ankle plantar flexor torque and elongation of the MG were measured using a combined measurement system of dynamometry and ultrasonography and then the MG tendon strain and stiffness were evaluated in each subject. The tendon stiffness measured prior to the exercises was not significantly different between the two groups 23.7±10.6N/mm and 24.1±10.0N/mm for the HDB and HDL, respectively (p>.05). During the heel-drop exercise, it was found that the tendon strain during the heel-drop exercise on a block (8.4±3.7%) was significantly higher than the strain measured on the level floor (5.4±3.8%) (p<.05). In addition, the tendon stiffness following the heel-drop exercise on a block (32.3±12.2N/mm) was significantly greater than the tendon stiffness measured following the heel-drop exercise on the level floor (25.4±11.4N/mm) (p<.05). The results of this study suggest that tendon stiffness immediately following a heel-drop exercise depends on the magnitude of tendon strain.

Molybdenum sulfide/N-doped CNT forest hybrid catalysts for high-performance hydrogen evolution reaction.

Cost effective hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalyst without using precious metallic elements is a crucial demand for environment-benign energy production. Molybdenum sulfide is one of the promising candidates for such purpose, particularly in acidic condition, but its catalytic performance is inherently limited by the sparse catalytic edge sites and poor electrical conductivity. We report synthesis and HER catalysis of hybrid catalysts composed of amorphous molybdenum sulfide (MoSx) layer directly bound at vertical N-doped carbon nanotube (NCNT) forest surface. Owing to the high wettability of N-doped graphitic surface and electrostatic attraction between thiomolybdate precursor anion and N-doped sites, ∼2 nm scale thick amorphous MoSx layers are specifically deposited at NCNT surface under low-temperature wet chemical process. The synergistic effect from the dense catalytic sites at amorphous MoSx surface and fluent charge transport along NCNT forest attains the excellent HER catalysis with onset overpotential as low as ∼75 mV and small potential of 110 mV for 10 mA/cm(2) current density, which is the highest HER activity of molybdenum sulfide-based catalyst ever reported thus far.

Monodisperse pattern nanoalloying for synergistic intermetallic catalysis.

Nanoscale alloys attract enormous research attentions in catalysis, magnetics, plasmonics and so on. Along with multicomponent synergy, quantum confinement and extreme large surface area of nanoalloys offer novel material properties, precisely and broadly tunable with chemical composition and nanoscale dimension. Despite substantial progress of nanoalloy synthesis, the randomized positional arrangement and dimensional/compositional inhomogeneity of nanoalloys remain significant technological challenges for advanced applications. Here we present a generalized route to synthesize single-crystalline intermetallic nanoalloy arrays with dimensional and compositional uniformity via self-assembly. Specific electrostatic association of multiple ionic metal complexes within self-assembled nanodomains of block copolymers generated patterned monodisperse bimetallic/trimetallic nanoalloy arrays consisting of various elements, including Au, Co, Fe, Pd, and Pt. The precise controllability of size, composition, and intermetallic crystalline structure of nanoalloys facilitated tailored synergistic properties, such as accelerated catalytic growth of vertical carbon nanotubes from Fe-Co nanoalloy arrays.

Workfunction-tunable, N-doped reduced graphene transparent electrodes for high-performance polymer light-emitting diodes.

Graphene is a promising candidate to complement brittle and expensive transparent conducting oxides. Nevertheless, previous research efforts have paid little attention to reduced graphene, which can be of great benefit due to low-cost solution processing without substrate transfer. Here we demonstrate workfunction-tunable, highly conductive, N-doped reduced graphene film, which is obtainable from the spin-casting of graphene oxide dispersion and can be successfully employed as a transparent cathode for high-performance polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) as an alternative to fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO). The sheet resistance of N-doped reduced graphene attained 300 Ω/□ at 80% transmittance, one of the lowest values ever reported from the reduction of graphene oxide films. The optimal doping of quaternary nitrogen and the effective removal of oxygen functionalities via sequential hydrazine treatment and thermal reduction accomplished the low resistance. The PLEDs employing N-doped reduced graphene cathodes exhibited a maximum electroluminescence efficiency higher than those of FTO-based devices (4.0 cd/A for FTO and 7.0 cd/A for N-doped graphene at 17,000 cd/m(2)). The reduced barrier for electron injection from a workfunction-tunable, N-doped reduced graphene cathode offered this remarkable device performance.