PHYSICAL FITNESS

Physical fitness is a popular topic today. and its popularity has been a major factor in motivating college students to pursue careers in physical edu-cation, physiology of exercise, health education, nutrition, physical therapy, and medicine. The Public Health Service listed "physical fitness and exercise- as one of fifteen areas of concern related to improving the country's overall health (N).

While this might appear to be an unprecedented event. similar interests and concerns about physical fit-ness existed in this country over one hundred years ago. Between the Civil War and the First World War (WW 1), physical education was primarily concerned with the development and maintenance of fitness, and many of the leaders in physical education were trained in medicine For example, Dr. Dudley Sargent, hired by Harvard University in 1879, set up a physical training program with individual exercise prescriptions to improve a person's structure and function to achieve "that prime physical condition called fitness fitness for work, fitness for play, fitness for anything a man may be called upon to do.. Sargent was clearly ahead of his time in promoting healthrelated fitness. Later, war became a primary force driving this country's interest in physical fitness.

Concerns about health and fitness were raised during int WW I and WW H when large numbers of draftees failed the induction exams due to mental and physical defects . These concerns influenced the )gy type of physical education programs in the schools of during these years, making them resemble premilitary training programs .

The present interest in physical activity and health was stimulated in the early 1950s by two major find-, A ings: autopsies of young soldiers killed during the to Korean War showed that significant coronary artery :ed disease had already developed, and Hans Kraus his showed that American children performed poorly on a )ne minimal muscular fitness test compared to European the children . Due to the latter finding, Presi-dent Eisenhower initiated a conference in 1955 that resulted in the formation of the President's Council on Youth Fitness. The American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (AAHPER) sup-ported these activities and in 1957 developed the AAHPER Youth Fitness Test with national norms to be used in physical education programs throughout the country.

Before he was inaugurated, President Kennedy expressed his concerns about the nation's at fitness in an article published in Sports Illustrated, called "The Soft American" : For the physical vigor of our citizens is one of America's most precious resources. If we waste and neglect this resource, if we allow it to dwindle and grow soft, then we will destroy much of our ability to meet the great and vital challenges its which confront our people.

We will be unable to iing realize our full potential as a nation. du-ion, During Kennedy's term the council's name was )80, changed to the "President's Council on Physical and Fitness" to highlight the concern for fitness. The ited name was changed again in the Nixon administra-hile tion to the current "President's Council on Physical ent, Fitness and Sports," which supports fitness not only fit in schools but in business, industry, and for the genears eral public .

Items in the War Youth Fitness Test were changed over the years, and ned in 1980 the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD) published a separate Health-Related Physical Fitness Test Manual to distinguish between "performance testing" (e.g., 50 yard dash) and "fitness testing" (e.g., skinfold thickness). This health-related test battery is consistent with the direction of lifetime fitness programs, being concerned with obesity, cardiorespiratory fitness, and low-back function. For those readers interested in the history of fitness testing in schools, we recommend Park's monograph in the Suggested Readings.

Paralleling this interest in the physical fitness of youth was the rising concern about the death rate from coronary heart disease in the middle-aged American

Comments

Reproduction of Deuteromycetes

F ungi that reproduce asexually (anamorphic fungi ) are either yeasts or Deu-teromycetes. The term "yeast" is descriptive and stands for any fungus that reproduces by budding. Deuteromycetes (Fungi imperfecti, colloquially: molds) is an artificial as-semblage of fungi that reproduce asexually by conidia (conidiospores), either as the only form for propagation (imperfect fungi) or additionally (anamorph) to a sexual reproduction (teleomorph). When both the anamorph and the teleo-morph are known, the fungus is called a holomorph (the whole fungus). The teleomorph may have one (mono-anamorphic) or many (pleo-anamorphic) asexual stages. In other words: Deuteromycetes are the conidia-producing forms of a fungus and may or may not be associated with a teleomorph. Many Deuteromycetes are supposed to have a teleomorph in the Ascomycetes, but they may also have basidiomycetous affinity. Also in the wood-inhabiting Deuteromycetes, the teleomorph often is of ascomycetous a

What shapes the peer review landscape in ecology?

It was great to be discussing the future of peer review with researchers at the recent peer review panel discussion organised by the British Ecological Society (BES) at their annual conference in Liverpool last week. Jane Hill (Professor of Ecology at the University of York and Chair of BES Publications Committee) chaired the debate, and we heard from Allen Moore (Editor-in-Chief, Ecology and Evolution), Patricia Morse (Managing Editor, American Naturalist ), Nate Sanders (Senior Editor, Journal of Animal Ecology ), Andy Robertson (Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Society Services, Wiley) and me. We started with a discussion of ways in which the publishing process could be opened up, with Allen advocating open science principles and pre-registration of research. Nate also shared his experience in the value of “opening up” research online to get people talking and to generate new ideas. Andy Robertson suggested that partnering with services such as Overlea

Islands

H ow often have you seen those wonderful advertisements inviting you to have a holiday on a tropical island ( Fig. )What is it about islands, whether in the tropics or polar regions, that suggests romance, excitement and adventure? Is it because of a sense of escape from the pressures and stress of a bustling way of life, or the opportunity to savour sun-soaked beaches, or the adventure of rocky unexplored shores, or perhaps the chance of seeing unique island wildlife? It is for all these reasons that there is a growing tourist industry for many islands around the world. The wildlife of islands, especially oceanic islands , has long been of special significance in biology , ecology , conservation and biogeography. Studies of island species have also been of historical significance for evolutionary biology. Many of the world's islands have high levels of endemic flora and fauna; that is, taxa found only on a particular island and no other place. Island biota has o

Red Streaking

Red Streaking Red-streaking discoloration (known as "Rotstreifigkeit" in Germany) is one of the most common and important damage in seasoning logs and sawn lumber, occurring only in conifers (spruce, pine, fir) and recognized as a distinct con-dition in continental Europe. The stripe-shaped to spotted yellow to reddish-brown discoloration extends in logs from both their bark-covered faces and from their cut ends (Butin 1995; Baum and Bariska 2002) . Stems that are not debarked show a rather flat discoloration and debarked stems exhibit a streakier staining (v. Pechmann et al. 1967). Causal agents are several white-rot Basidiomycetes, in spruce particularly Stereum sanguinolentum (Kleist and Seehann 1997) and Amylostereum areola-turn. In south Germany, Amylostereum chailettii is common (Zycha and Knopf 1963; v. Pechmann et al. 1967). In pine, red streaking is mainly due to Trichap-turn abietinum (Butin 1995). According to Kreisel (1961), S. sanguinolentum and T

Ecosia ; Ecology Search

https://www.ecosia.org/ How it works You search the web with Ecosia. Ads Search ads generate income for Ecosia. Ecosia uses this income to plant trees. httpecologicaljournal.blogspot.com Ecosia about video

Bioenergetics

T housands of chemical reactions occur throughout the body during each minute of the day. Collec-tively, these reactions are called metabolism. Metab-olism includes chemical pathways that result in the synthesis of molecules (anabolic reactions) as well as the breakdown of molecules (catabolic reactions). Since energy is required by all cells, it is not sur-prising that cells possess chemical pathways that are capable of converting foodstuffs (i.e., fats, proteins, carbohydrates) into a biologically usable form of energy . This metabolic process is termed bioenergetics. In order for you to run, jump, or swim, skeletal muscle cells must be able to continuously extract energy from food nutrients. In fact, the inability to transform energy contained in foodstuffs into usable biological energy would limit performance in endurance activities. The explanation for this is simple. To continue to contract, muscle cells must have a continuous source of energy. When energy is not rea

White Rot

W hite-rot research has been reviewed by Ericksson et al. (1990) and Mess-ner et al. (2003). White rot means the degradation of cellulose, hemicellu-loses, and lignin usually by Basidiomycetes and rarely by Ascomycetes, e.g., Kretzschmaria deusta and Xylaria hypoxylon. White rot has been classified by macroscopic characteristics into white-pocket, white-mottled, and white-stringy, the different types being affected by the fungal species, wood species, and ecological conditions. From microscopic and ultrastructural investiga-tions, two main types of white rot have been distinguished (Liese 1970). In the simultaneous white rot ("corrosion rot"), carbohydrates and lignin are almost uniformly degraded at the same time and at a similar rate during all decay stages. Typical fungi with simultaneous white rot are Fomes fomentar-ws, Phellinus igniarius, Phellinus robustus, and Trametes versicolor in standing trees and stored hardwoods (Blanchette 1984a). Wood decay

Soft Rot

The term " soft rot " was originally used by Findlay and Savory (1954) to describe a specific type of wood decay caused by Ascomycetes and Deuteromycetes which typically produce chains of cavities within the S2 layer of soft- and hardwoods in terrestrial and aquatic environments (Liese 1955), for example when the wood-fill in cooling towers became destroyed despite water saturation, and when poles broke, although they were protected against Basidiomvcetes. About 300 species (Seehann et al. 1975) to some 1,600 examples of ascomvcete and deuteromvcete fungi (Eaton and Hale 1993) cause soft rot, e.g., Chaeromium globosurn (Takahashi 1978), Hurnicola spp., Lecythophora hoffrnannii, Monodictys putredinis, Paecilornyces spp., and Thielavia terrestris. Soft-rot fungi differ from brown-rot and white-rot Basidiomycetes by grow-ing mainly inside the woody cell wall trate, starting from the tracheidal lumina., by means of thin perforation hyphae of less than 0.5 pm thickne

Antagonists, Synergists, and Succession

Interactions (reciprocal effects) between wood fungi have been early investi-gated e.g., by Oppermann (1951) and Leslie et al. (1976), and were described in detail by Rayner and Boddy (1988). Antagonism (competitive reciprocal effect), the mutual inhibition and in a broader sense the inhibition of one organism by others, is based on the pro-duction of toxic metabolites, on mycoparasitism, and on nutrient competition. Antagonisms are investigated as alternative to the chemical protection against tree fungi ("biological forest protection") and against fungi on wood in service ("biological wood protection") (Walchli 1982; Bruce 1992; Holdenrieder and Greig 1998; Phillips-Laing et al. 2003). As early as 1934, Weindling showed the inhibiting effect of Trichoderma species on several fungi. Bjerkandera adusta and Ganoderma species were antagonistic against the causing agent of Plane canker stain disease (Grosclaude et al. 1990). Also, v. Aufseg (197

Growth and Spreading

Vegetative Growth Simplistically, wood fungi live through two functionally different phases: the vegetative stage for mycelial spread and the reproductive stage for the elab-oration of spore-producing structures. Rayner et al. (1985) extended the development of a fungus in arrival, establishment, exploitation, and exit. The vegetative, asexual stage consists in wood fungi of vegetative hyphae with some specialized forms. The reproductive stage can both occur asexually or sexually (Schwantes 1996). Functional specialization of the mycelium occurs during the vegetative stage: germination, infection, spread, and survival. These functions are correlated with different "fungal organs". Spores (conidia, chlamydospores, also the sex-ually derived asco- and basidiospores) germinate under suitable conditions (moisture, temperature). The young germ hypha first shows some nuclei be-fore the young mycelium grows with septation in the monokaryotic condi( ion. N1ycelial growth takes

Ecological world

Search This Blog