Finest Athletes Research Articles

Alastair James Watt

Alastair James Watt was born in Chingola, Zambia. He excelled at sport and played rugby for Norwich, Barts, University of London, and Saracens. He was a fine athlete, competing for...

Edward Walter Leslie Fletcher

Edward Walter Leslie Fletcher—known to friends and colleagues as “Wattie”—was a kind, considerate, and mild mannered man. Although he was ambitious and driven for causes close to his heart, he...

Alafia Samuels: fast-food watchdog in the Caribbean

By recommending higher taxes on unhealthy foods and speaking out against a major fast food company, T Alafia Samuels has emerged as a leading figure in the fight against obesity in the Caribbean. Despite producing a disproportionately high number of the world's finest athletes—as seen most recently at the 2016 summer Olympic Games—the region also has some of the world's highest obesity rates. Samuels, who was recently appointed director of the Chronic Disease Research Centre (CDRC) at the University of the West Indies in Barbados, has a prime platform from which to appraise and tackle the issue.

Management of spondylolysis and low-grade spondylolisthesis in fine athletes. A comprehensive review.

To provide evidence-based data about the aetiology, incidence, diagnosis and treatment of isthmic lumbar spondylolysis and low-grade spondylolisthesis and return to athletic activities in fine athlete. This is a comprehensive literature review. A thorough MEDLINE search in the period from 1973 to 2014 with the keywords: athlete, spondylolysis, low-grade spondylolisthesis, treatment and return to athletic activities was conducted. A total of 228 articles were initially enrolled from the search, and 74 case series and reviews were finally included because they referred to incidence, diagnosis, treatment and return to play in fine athletes with symptomatic isthmic spondylolysis and low-grade (Meyerding I and II) spondylolisthesis. There were 13 studies reporting surgical treatment (194 patients of average age 19 years) and 14 studies with conservative treatment (589 patients of average age 15.7). The percentage of athletes who were successfully treated with conservative or operative treatment was 85 and 87.8%, respectively. Conservative treatment including physiotherapy and bracing is the mainstay in the treatment of symptomatic spondylolysis and low-grade isthmic spondylolisthesis in fine athletes. If consequent treatment fails, the operative treatment (pars repair and short fusion) is decided. Return to play following surgery varies from 6 to 12 months with prohibition in collision sports. Return to play is mostly depended on specific sport activity.

In Memoriam: Welsh S. White

Welsh White died of lung cancer at the age of 65 on the last day of 2005. He was a fine athlete who never smoked, stayed in terrific shape, and ran tenminute miles and played great tennis until his diagnosis in August. The months after August were grueling and discouraging, but Welsh had only one complaint. He missed teaching.

Special Considerations In The Medical Management Of Professional Basketball Players

The NBA basketball players are among the finest athletes in the world. That along with the increased popularity of the NBA has put a premium on the health of the players. The course of the season puts tremendous stress and strain on players. As medical illnesses occur, the physician may feel increased pressure to put the ill player back into the line-up. One cannot let the pressure for the player to return to activity interfere with good medical practice. At times, it is difficult to allow for the natural course of an illness, however, as discussed in this article, sometimes this is exactly what needs to be done. The temptation to overtreat is also seen in some team physicians. This too must be avoided. Along with proper treatment, there is the need for education of the athletes both in social interactions and in diet and life-style. Then we, as team physicians, can sit back and enjoy the performance on the court.

Can East German Athletes Hold Their Competitive Edge?

East Germany has a long-established reputation for producing some of the world's finest athletes. But now that the reunification of Germany is becoming more likely, many people wonder whether the winning tradition will be lost.

In Memoriam: Constantine Walter Benson, O.B.E.

Constantine Walter Benson, known to all as Con, died in Cambridge, England on 21 September 1982. He was the last and perhaps the greatest of a long line of British Colonial officials who made major contributions to the ornithology of (former) British possessions; on his death an era of African ornithology came to an end. Born (1909) and educated in England, he was a fine athlete and a track star at Cambridge. He was completely tireless when tramping through the African bush, as this writer can attest; on safari with him in in 1965, I wondered why I had trouble keeping up with the old man over 20 years my senior disappearing down the track ahead of me. Throughout his career in the Colonial Service he left a trail of solid ornithological accomplishment. His 20 years in (now Malawi), 1932-1952, resulted in List of the of Nyasaland (1953), in addition to numerous papers. This was followed later by the revised and expanded Birds of Malawi (1977), coauthored by his wife Molly. A wartime stint in Ethiopia, 1941-1942, produced a large collection of birds, later written up in Ibis. It is said that his collecting gun was fired so often that the Italians refrained from attacking what they considered must be a large force. During his time in (formerly Northern Rhodesia) he published (with C. M. N. White) Check List of the of Northern Rhodesia (1957), and later The of Zambia (1971) with R. K. Brooke, R. J. Dowsett, and M. P. S. Irwin. He led the B.O.U. Centenary Expedition to the Comoros in 1958, and later published The birds of the Comoro Islands in Ibis (1960). After his retirement to Cambridge he reorganized and published on the bird collection in the University's Museum of Zoology. At his death he had almost completed (with his wife as coauthor) his manuscript on the Psittacidae for The of Africa. Constantly exploring and collecting in little-known areas, he discovered 7 species new to science and described numerous races. number of titles to his credit is close to 400. On his retirement from the Colonial Service in 1965 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire. Writing to congratulate him, I said I hoped he was being honored for his contributions to African ornithology, but supposed it was for his administrative work. He replied that the British Government took an enlightened view of the value of ornithology and had included his bird work in the citation. Of the many personal attributes that caused him to be loved and admired by so many, the one that impressed me most was his tremendous spirit of cooperation with everyone working in his field. He was in the purest sense a seeker after the truth. In a profession where many workers vigorously defend territories, he stood out as being the most unterritorial ornithologist I've ever known. He paid scrupulous attention to the acknowledgments sections in his papers, being careful to thank everyone even remotely connected with the project. Such selflessness is the mark of a great man. Con was buried in the village of Grantchester, near Cambridge, close to his favorite aunt Mary Hughes, who kindled his interest in birds as a child and always encouraged his ornithological work. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Factors influencing assignment of pronoun antecedents

In two experiments a group of adult subjects and a group of 10 – 13 year old subjects completed sentences of the format NP1 V NP2 because Pro… The fragment, John telephoned Bill because he…, elicited completions such as had good news, which locate the impetus for telephoning in NP1 (John). The fragment, John admired Bill because he…, elicited completions such as was a fine athlete, which locate the impetus for admiring in NP2 (Bill). The assignment of the subject pronoun of the second clause as coreferential with NP1 or NP2 shows that this choice depends on a factor, direction of causality, which may be assigned to verb roots. This factor was isolated from interacting semantic and syntactic features of sentences in which the verbs occurred. Manipulation of these features resulted in greater or lesser salience of the direction of causality factor. The potential of this technique for investigation of verb semantics and for interaction of semantic, pragmatic and syntactic features in the psychological study of comprehension is discussed.