Annals of Applied Sport Science
Volume:1 Issue: 4, Winter 2013

Apolipoprotein M (Apo-M) is a human novel protein of apolipoprotein classes and highly expressed in liver and kidney tissues. ApoM is mainly associated with high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and act as a chaperone for sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), promotes mobilization of cellular cholesterol, formation of larger-size of pre β-HDL, and a new biomarker in sepsis. The level of apoM in plasma/serum is affected by several factors such as pregnancy, hyperglycemia, plasma leptin concentration, obesity, diabetes, insulin concentration and physical exercise. It has been shown that the level of plasma ApoM was significantly lower in strenuous exercise group when compared with the non-exercise group. In the present study a reduction was observed after the 4 weeks of circuit resistance training program. This reduction might be due to a decrease in ApoM expression in liver and kidney or an increase in ApoM clearance, degradation and excretion in urine.

Sport and more specifically football is an important asset in youth lives. It is widely considered that biological maturity influences physical performance. Relationships between body size and performance are partly confounded by age. In fact, age is positively associated to strength and motor performance, even when height and weight are controlled. Studies on young footballer have been started to consider the potential impact of variation on growth and biological maturity status upon sport-specific football skills. Some authors suggest that physical training should have a low priority until the late puberty and then the time could be devoted to other types of training such as focusing on technical aspects. However, the question remains that is this due to low trainability or inadequacies of training programs? A brief review of the literature was conducted with three specific exclusion criteria including the age of footballers, relation of age with performance, and studies on football. There are critical periods in the life of a young person, in which the effects of training can be maximized. Thus, a special attention should be paid to developing football skills by regarding the performance and full respect to youth development. Many papers have been published on functional capacities and dimensions in pre-adolescence and adolescence, but less information are available concerning the ages between 6 and 10. Hence, this paper aims to highlight some aspects of this age period and provide an understanding of important aspects of growth, development, and maturation is particularly important, as a youngster’s football performance may depend heavily on gender and biological age and state.

It is reported that resistance exercise causes an elevation of white blood cells (WBC) and some of its parameters such as neutrophils (NUT) and lymphocytes (LYM) but there isn’t enough study about eccentric exercise (ECC). So, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a single session of eccentric resistance exercise on some parameters of white blood cells. Twelve volunteer male sedentary students were selected to participate in this study. Participants were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Experimental group performed an eccentric elbow extension (80% of one maximum repetition, 6 sets, 8-10 replicates/sets). Blood sampling implemented at 30 min before the exercise, immediately after the exercise, 2 hours after the exercise, and 24 hours after the exercise. Cell differentiation of WBC for neutrophils (NUT), lymphocytes (LYM), eosinophils (EOS), and monocytes (MON) performed using automated hematology analyzer system [Sysmex (kx-21)]. NUT:LYM ratio was also calculated. It was observed that WBC (F = 9.611, p = 0.001), NUT (F = 9.6, p < 0.001), and LYM (F = 3.28, p < 0.001) increased significantly in response to eccentric exercise, and this elevation continued by 2 hours after the test, while NUT recovered to the initial levels by 24 hours after the exercise, and WBC and LYM remained at a high level at this time. In conclusion, the elevation of WBC immediately after the test is likely due to neutrocytosis and lymphocytosis, but in the recovery period and 24 hours after the exercise is due to lymphocytosis.

The aim of this study is to determine the impact of imagery on self-efficiency and spike implementation of girl volleyball players in Tafresh, considering the mediating role of positive self-talk. For this purpose, in a non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group design, 45 female football players aged 17-25 with sports record of 6 months to 2 years were selected out of high schools and universities in Tafresh. They were distributed in 3 groups on the basis of spike skill level, imagery ability and the level of Self-efficiency. The first group imagery and physical practices program, the second group imagery and positive self-talk and physical practices and the third group without any programs took part in an experimental course three days a week for 12 sessions. For data collection, sports imagery questionnaire (Hall et al., 1998), feeling of sufficiency scale (Bandura, 1994) and volleyball spike standardized test (AAHPERD) were used. Data analysis was done at a meaningful level of 0.05 through variance analysis with repeated measurements and Tukey posthoc (HSD) test. The results of the research showed that imagery along with physical practice leads to spike improvement and self-efficiency but if imagery is associated with positive self-talk, effectiveness rate of imagery will be increased.

The purpose of this survey is to study the change-oriented, pragmatic, and neutered leadership styles of the heads of physical education departments in the province of Ardebil. 180 heads of sports commissions answered a multi-factor leadership questionnaire (MLQ). The multi-factor leadership questionnaire includes 41 questions covering three leadership styles of change-oriented, pragmatic, and neutered. The validity of questionnaire has been studied and verified through the corrective feedbacks by the management and programming teachers of physical education, and the stability of questionnaire was determined 86% using Cronbach's alpha. In order to analyze the data, the statistical tests of chi-square and Friedman and Bonferroni post hoc test were used at a significant level (P ≤ 0 / 05). The Results showed that there was a significant difference between the pragmatic, change-oriented, and neutered leadership styles of the heads of physical education departments. Also, there was a significant difference among the priorities of the leadership styles of heads of physical education department. And, the change-oriented leadership style was placed as the first priority, while the pragmatic and neutered styles were considered as next priorities. There are significant differences among the subscales of the change-oriented and pragmatic leadership styles of physical education administrators.

The present study aimed at investigating the relationship between organizational trust and organizational commitment in staff. Eighty-four persons from 101 staff of department of Sports and Youth in the province of Mazandaran responded to two questionnaires of “Organizational Trust Inventory (OTI)” developed by Shockley-Zalaba, Ellis, and Winograd (2000) and “Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ)” developed by Allen and Meyer (1990). The reliability analysis of questionnaires for OTI, and OCQ were reported ɑ = 0.92 and ɑ = 0.82, respectively based on Cronbach's alpha measure. Results revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between organizational trust and organizational commitment (r = 0.573, p = 0.001), affective commitment (r = 0.54, p = 0.001), task commitment is (r = 0.345, p = 0.001). But the positive relationship between organizational trust and continuous commitment (r = 0.202) wasn’t significant (p = 0.066). In conclusion, it is suggested that managers should create trust of staff in order to increase its organizational commitment.

The purpose of this research was to analyze municipality’s actions and steps towards planning leisure time of the citizenries, with an emphasis on recreational activities. 384 people from 1.269.810 (citizenries over 15 years of age, municipality managers and authorities and physical education authorities of city of Isfahan) were selected as samples by using Cochran formula. The data is collected by using a deformed shape of Michalopoulous et al. (1998) Questionnaire in consideration form. The results show that the viewpoints about municipality activities, executing the plans, instruction quality and accessibility to recreational areas are above average and the viewpoints about the municipality services are lower than average. The satisfaction with physical education authorities and citizenries about the municipality activities is about average, but the satisfaction with municipality authorities is above average. It indicates that the municipality managers and authorities are satisfied with their own actions. The satisfaction of municipality activities was not adequate in different fields. Municipality should use trainers with sufficient skills for higher satisfaction, improve the quality of relevant equipment, and should develop and expand sportive areas and places. Also, it should inform the citizenries about the activities through adequate propaganda in order to provide higher motivation for participation of people in recreational activities in their leisure time.