Adult Amateur Research Articles

Creatine Kinase and Neuron-Specific Enolase

Creatine kinase (CK) isoenzymes, brain specific (CK-BB) and cardiac muscle specific (CK-MB), have been used as serum markers for brain and cardiac injury. CK-BB is found in high concentrations in the brain where it is produced by astrocytes. Previous radioimmunoassay procedures for CK-BB and CK-MB involved polyclonal antisera that recognised the B subunit with a resultant degree of cross-reaction between the two species. In this study, CK-BB and -MB isoenzymes were detected using enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay techniques employing monoclonal antibodies. No detectable cross-reactivity occurred in the measuring range 0–1,000 μg/l and the detection limit was 0.01 μg/l. Neuron-specific enolase (γγ-enolase; NSE) is a specific isoenzyme of the glycolytic enzyme enolase, which is characterised by its consistent occurrence in the cytoplasm of mature neurons. It was detected using a double antibody radioimmunoassay with measuring range and detection limit of 2.0–200 μg/l and 2.0 μg/l, respectively. Blood samples were obtained with informed consent from adult amateur oarsmen before and after a rowing ergometer test and from adult amateur boxers before and after a bout. No significant changes were found between the pre- and postexercise serum levels of CK-BB, CK-MB, or NSE in the oarsmen, providing no evidence of neuronal damage, even at maximal exercise. Both CK-MB levels unchanged. These serum markers indicate damage to both astrocytes and mature neurons with leakage of these intracellular enzymes into the circulation and identify boxing as a cause of acute brain injury.

The Adult Amateur String Player

The Adult Amateur String Player

Sport activity and cigarette smoking among young and adult athletes from the northeastern part of Italy.

Between November 1985 and October 1986, attitudes and habits towards smoking were investigated among young and adult amateur athletes of the province of Pordenone, in the northeastern part of Italy. Seventy-five percent of the athletes had never smoked and 21% were current smokers. Compared with the general population, smokers were 1/3 fewer among males and 1/5 more among females; a higher number of ex-smokers was found in both sexes. The major determinants of smoking were the kind of sport in which the athletes were engaged (percentages of current smokers among athletes of endurance sports, football and other, less exhaustive, sports were respectively 3%, 23% and 20%) and having both parents who were themselves smokers. The detrimental effects of smoking on health were underestimated by the great majority of interviewed subjects. The present study supports the view that regular physical activity not only prevents youths from starting to smoke but also provides an incentive for stopping.

Adult Amateur Experiences in Entomology: Breaking the Stereotypes

In The Pleasures of Entomology , Howard Evans (1985, p. 27) concludes his first chapter by musing that Entomologists, after all, do have to earn their keep … no one will pay them for enjoying themselves. The day of the amateur, defined as one who has other means of support and studies insects just for sport, is largely past.

Which way the future?

Just as the principle of uniformitarianism is a fundamental tenet of science, the past experiences of the Field Studies Council provide an insight, and possibly a signpost, to the future. During the last thirty years, there have been significant changes in the numbers and categories of visitor attending the residential Centres. Expansion between 1956 and 1976 was almost entirely due to A-level courses in biology and geography but in the last ten years there has been considerable diversification. Adult amateur naturalists and younger, pre-A-level, school pupils are the obvious growth categories now. In the GCSE examination syllabuses, more than ever before, there is a commitment to ecology and to fieldwork (with the latter compulsory in all Geography syllabuses). Against such a background one might expect an optimistic prediction for the FSC's future. Unfortunately, and for a variety of reasons, many educationalists promote the view that ecology can be taught in the classroom and that first-hand observations of animals and plants in an aquarium provide sufficient practical work. There is a growing need for those who believe in the necessity for genuine field observation of the environment, in the environment, to voice their concern at the acceptance of any such alternatives/substitutes. Although environmental awareness has been heightened in recent years one might question whether there has been a concommitant raising of environmental understanding. It is increasingly important that, as the scale and scope of decisions about the environment expand, the level of understanding of those who make decisions (and of those who elect them) should also be raised. It is no longer politic nor wise to accept Montaigne's assertion, “that men are most apt to believe what they least understand”. I suggest that our target for the future be “Breadth with Excellence”. If the FSC can move toward that goal it can face the daunting task of trying to achieve “Environmental Understanding for AH”.

TLC for the Adult Amateur

Elizabeth R. MacGill is an editor with expertise in the history of medicine and particular interest in the sixteenth century. An amateur violinist/violist for 30 years, she still takes weekly lessons and plays regularly in a piano trio and community orchestra. She has recently added the classical Irish Folk Harp to her study schedule.

Response time comparisons among four base running starting techniques in slow pitch softball.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to compare response times among four starting techniques—cross-over step, jab-step, standing sprinter's start, and the momentum start—to determine the fastest start for optimum speed in base running in slow pitch softball. The subjects were 30 adult male amateur softball players. Response time was recorded to the nearest 1/100 second using a Dekan Automatic Performance Analyzer arranged with two starting lights and a stop gate. A one way repeated measures ANOVA indicated that the momentum start was significantly (p < .01) faster than the other starts compared while there were no significant differences among the other starts. Reliability coefficients ranging from .90 to .95, obtained using the intraclass correlation coefficient for multiple trial data, signified no trends among trials and high reliability of the testing procedures and equipment. The results suggested that the momentum start was the fastest starting technique for optimum speed for running bases in slo...

Recommended Reading

Insects can be fun by Alvah Peterson appears in Nature Magazine Vol. 51 (4): 208–211, April, 1958. Dr. Peterson emphasizes the fact that the study of birds in the United States has enjoyed a large following among people from all walks of life whereas a corresponding enthusiasm on the part of adult amateur naturalists for the study of insects has never materialized in this country although in many other countries thousands of men and women from all walks of life and of all ages are insect enthusiasts Amateur entomologists in foreign countries find it hard to understand why there are so few nonprofessional adults in the United States who are enthusiastic about insects which in total number of species exceeds greatly the combined species of all other animals.

Garrick and the Private Theatres: With a List of Amateur Performances in the Eighteenth Century

No one has as yet written that chapter in the history of the eighteenth century theatre which will record and study the immense vogue of the amateur gentleman actor and the private theatre, a special feature, as Professor Nicoll has remarked, of considerable influence upon the drama of the time.1 The eighteenth century's equivalent of what we now call the little theatre manifested itself, like its predecessor of Tudor and Stuart times, in the activities at schools and colleges as well as in the private productions of aristocratic adults wvho, for the most part, had developed a taste for theatricals at school or the university. It could not be expected that the principal actor-manager of the professional theatre could or would be indifferent to such a movement; but Garrick's several biographers do not give us much help in determining his connection with the amateurs. This paper will attempt, in a general way, to relate Garrick to the aristocratic private actors, to the drama in the schools, and to his amateur playwright friend, James Townley. The influence which the adult amateur movement exerted upon the professional stage in the eighteenth century was not comparable to the healthy competition of Tudor times, when professionalism was just emerging from the amateur state, and when the amateurs produced their fair share of innovations, inventions, original writers and talented actors. Rather in the eighteenth century did the amateurs supply realistic models for behavior to theatres which wished to serve the upper-class without being of it. In an era of manners, the aristocratic amateurs set the fashions for an actor class which had not yet even begun to be socially acceptable. Late in the century when the amateur vogue had reached its