Muscle thickness and pennation angle in overweight persons with moderate haemophilia A after resistance and combined training: A randomized controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: Muscular atrophy and overweightness develop arthropathy in persons with haemophilia (PWH), and exercise increases their muscle strength and decreases their body weight. Musculoskeletal ultrasonography may be a non-invasive, safe, valid, and reliable tool to investigate muscle thickness (MT) and pennation angle (PA) after exercise training. OBJECTIVES: The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of 6 weeks of resistance training (RT) and combined resistance and aerobic training (CT) on MT and PA in overweight persons with moderate haemophilia A. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-two persons with moderate haemophilia A with a mean age of 35-55 years and a BMI of 25-30 kg/m2 were randomly assigned to three groups of 14, namely RT, CT, and control. The RT group performed 40 minutes of RT, and the CT group performed 20 min of RT and 20 min of aerobic training. The PA and MT of the biceps brachii (BB), triceps brachii (TB), vastus medialis (VM), vastus lateralis (VL), and medial gastrocnemius (MG) were measured before and after the intervention using B-mode ultrasonography. RESULTS: Significant increases were observed in the MT of VM, VL, MG, BB, and TB and PA of VM, VL, and MG in the RT and CT groups compared to the control group (p < .001). No significant differences were observed between the intervention groups. CONCLUSION: Both RT and CT were effective in enhancing MT and PA in overweight persons with moderate haemophilia A.

Central composite design optimization of pilot plant fluidized-bed heterogeneous Fenton process for degradation of an azo dye.

Optimization of Acid Yellow 36 (AY36) degradation by heterogeneous Fenton process in a recirculated fluidized-bed reactor was studied using central composite design (CCD). Natural pyrite was applied as the catalyst characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The CCD model was developed for the estimation of degradation efficiency as a function of independent operational parameters including hydrogen peroxide concentration (0.5-2.5 mmol/L), initial AY36 concentration (5-25 mg/L), pH (3-9) and catalyst dosage (0.4-1.2 mg/L). The obtained data from the model are in good agreement with the experimental data (R(2 )= 0.964). Moreover, this model is applicable not only to determine the optimized experimental conditions for maximum AY36 degradation, but also to find individual and interactive effects of the mentioned parameters. Finally, gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) was utilized for the identification of some degradation intermediates and a plausible degradation pathway was proposed.