title: Updated reliability and normative values for the standing heel-rise test in healthy adults

authors: Hébert-Losier, Kim

subjects: Lower extremity

abstract: Objectives

The heel-rise test is used to assess the strength and endurance of the plantar flexors in everyday clinical practice. However, several factors may affect outcomes, including sex, age, body mass index and activity level. The aims of this study were to revisit the reliability and normative values of this test, and establish normative equations accounting for several factors.

Design

Cross-sectional observational study with test–retest.

Setting

Community.

Participants

Volunteers (n = 566, age 20 to 81 years).

Interventions

Subjects performed single-legged heel rises to fatigue, standing on a 10° incline, once on each leg. A subset of subjects (n = 32) repeated the test 1 week later. Reliability was quantified using intraclass (ICC) correlation coefficients and Bland–Altman plots {mean difference [95% limits of agreement (LOA)]}, whereas the impact of sex, age, body mass index and activity level on the number of heel rises was determined using non-parametric regression models.

Results

The test showed excellent reliability (ICC = 1.0 right leg, 1.0 left leg), with mean between-day differences in the total number of heel-rise repetitions of 0.2 (95% LOA −6.2 to 6.5) and 0.1 (95% LOA −6.1 to 6.2) for right and left legs, respectively. Overall, males completed more repetitions than females (median 24 vs 21). However, older females (age >60 years) outperformed older males. According to the model, younger males with higher activity levels can complete the most heel rises.

Conclusions

The heel-rise test is highly reliable. The regression models herein can be employed by clinicians to evaluate the outcomes of heel-rise tests of individuals against a comparable normative population.

text: Updated reliability and normative values for the standing heel-rise test in healthy adults Objectives

The heel-rise test is used to assess the strength and endurance of the plantar flexors in everyday clinical practice. However, several factors may affect outcomes, including sex, age, body mass index and activity level. The aims of this study were to revisit the reliability and normative values of this test, and establish normative equations accounting for several factors.

Design

Cross-sectional observational study with test–retest.

Setting

Community.

Participants

Volunteers (n = 566, age 20 to 81 years).

Interventions

Subjects performed single-legged heel rises to fatigue, standing on a 10° incline, once on each leg. A subset of subjects (n = 32) repeated the test 1 week later. Reliability was quantified using intraclass (ICC) correlation coefficients and Bland–Altman plots {mean difference [95% limits of agreement (LOA)]}, whereas the impact of sex, age, body mass index and activity level on the number of heel rises was determined using non-parametric regression models.

Results

The test showed excellent reliability (ICC = 1.0 right leg, 1.0 left leg), with mean between-day differences in the total number of heel-rise repetitions of 0.2 (95% LOA −6.2 to 6.5) and 0.1 (95% LOA −6.1 to 6.2) for right and left legs, respectively. Overall, males completed more repetitions than females (median 24 vs 21). However, older females (age >60 years) outperformed older males. According to the model, younger males with higher activity levels can complete the most heel rises.

Conclusions

The heel-rise test is highly reliable. The regression models herein can be employed by clinicians to evaluate the outcomes of heel-rise tests of individuals against a comparable normative population.

year: 2017

title: Isolation from Rhizobium of factors which transfer electrons to soybean nitrogenase

authors: Phillips, D.A.

subjects: Rhizobium japonicum

abstract: Rhizobium japonicum grown anaerobically with nitrate produced several factors capable of transferring electrons from spinach chloroplasts lacking photosystem II to soybean root nodule nitrogenase. The same organism grown aerobically produced no factors with detectable activity. It is concluded that the bacterium is potentially capable of producing these proteins in the low oxygen conditions of the leguminous root nodule.

text: Isolation from Rhizobium of factors which transfer electrons to soybean nitrogenase Rhizobium japonicum grown anaerobically with nitrate produced several factors capable of transferring electrons from spinach chloroplasts lacking photosystem II to soybean root nodule nitrogenase. The same organism grown aerobically produced no factors with detectable activity. It is concluded that the bacterium is potentially capable of producing these proteins in the low oxygen conditions of the leguminous root nodule.

year: 1973-01

title: Ngā Tuakiri o te Tangata: Being Māori in Early Childhood Education

authors: Rameka, Lesley Kay

abstract: Before the arrival of Europeans in Aotearoa, New Zealand and their subsequent settlement in the 1800s, there was no concept of a Māori identity. Over time, however, as a result of rapid colonisation, Māori became a minority population in New Zealand. Consequently, the term Māori as normal or usual, began to lose its meaning (Webber, 2008), and another meaning began to emerge based on contrasts with the Pākehā settler population. This paper explores the complex and increasingly diverse nature of Māori identities in contemporary Aotearoa/New Zealand, including contemporary early childhood contexts. It discusses the importance of negotiating the terrains of cultural knowledge, values and understandings in order to define what ‘being Māori’ means for teachers and children in an increasingly diverse and complex settings.

text: Ngā Tuakiri o te Tangata: Being Māori in Early Childhood Education Before the arrival of Europeans in Aotearoa, New Zealand and their subsequent settlement in the 1800s, there was no concept of a Māori identity. Over time, however, as a result of rapid colonisation, Māori became a minority population in New Zealand. Consequently, the term Māori as normal or usual, began to lose its meaning (Webber, 2008), and another meaning began to emerge based on contrasts with the Pākehā settler population. This paper explores the complex and increasingly diverse nature of Māori identities in contemporary Aotearoa/New Zealand, including contemporary early childhood contexts. It discusses the importance of negotiating the terrains of cultural knowledge, values and understandings in order to define what ‘being Māori’ means for teachers and children in an increasingly diverse and complex settings.

year: 2016