The purpose was to test the effect of eccentric strength training and flexibility training on the incidence of hamstring strains in soccer. Hamstring strains and player exposure were registered prospectively during four consecutive soccer seasons (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002) for 17-30 elite soccer teams from Iceland and Norway. The first two seasons were used as baseline, while intervention programs consisting of warm-up stretching, flexibility and/or eccentric strength training were introduced during the 2001 and 2002 seasons. During the intervention seasons, 48% of the teams selected to use the intervention programs. There was no difference in the incidence of hamstring strains between teams that used the flexibility training program and those who did not [relative risk (RR) 5 1.53, P 5 0.22], nor was there a difference compared with the baseline data (RR 5 0.89, P 5 0.75). The incidence of hamstring strains was lower in teams who used the eccentric training program compared with teams that did not use the program (RR 5 0.43, P 5 0.01), as well as compared with baseline data for the same intervention teams (RR 5 0.42, P 5 0.009). Eccentric strength training with Nordic hamstring lowers combined with warm-up stretching appears to reduce the risk of hamstring strains, while no effect was detected from flexibility training alone. These results should be verified in randomized clinical trials.Hamstring strains are common injuries in sports characterized by maximal sprinting, kicking and sudden accelerations like sprinting

Formation of the secondary palate is a complex step during craniofacial development. Disturbance of the events affecting palatogenesis results in a failure of the palate to close. As a consequence of deformity, an affected child will have problems with feeding, speech, hearing, dentition and psychological development. Cleft palate occurs frequently, affecting approximately 1 in 1,500 births; it is usually considered a sporadic occurrence resulting from an interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Although several susceptibility loci have been implicated, attempts to link genetic variation to functional effects have met with little success. Cleft palate with ankyloglossia (CPX; MIM 303400) is inherited as a semidominant X-linked disorder previously described in several large families of different ethnic origins and has been the subject of several studies that localized the causative gene to Xq21 (refs. 10-13). Here we show that CPX is caused by mutations in the gene encoding the recently described T-box transcription factor TBX22 (ref. 14). Members of the T-box gene family are known to play essential roles in early vertebrate development, especially in mesoderm specification. We demonstrate that TBX22 is a major gene determinant crucial to human palatogenesis. The spectrum of nonsense, splice-site, frameshift and missense mutations we have identified in this study indicates that the cleft phenotype results from a complete loss of TBX22 function.

Based on empirical research in case study areas in six European countries, this paper examines the roles of social capital and identity in contemporary rural development. We argue that a focus on networks of social relationships can help us understand the dynamics of and relationships between social capital and identity. Comparing the case study areas, we draw attention to the position of identity in rural development and focus in particular on area‐branding initiatives. Other non‐agricultural networks are then presented, prefaced by a brief discussion of the role of governance. We argue that development emerges from a dialectic of existing networking practices and networks that are instigated for the purposes of development. Our research underlines the importance of social process in rural development, particularly in regard to the relationship between continuity and change.

Between 1983 and 1996 a total of 1386 samples of serum were taken from four species of seal and three species of whale in the waters west of Iceland, the area of pack-ice north-west of Jan Mayen, the northern coast of Norway and the Kola Peninsula, the waters west of Svalbard, and the Barents Sea; they were tested for the presence of anti-Brucella antibodies with an indirect ELISA (protein G conjugate). The positive sera were re-tested with classical brucellosis serological tests, such as the serum agglutination test, the EDTA-modified serum agglutination test, the Rose Bengal test, and the complement fixation test, as well as an anti-complement ELISA. Anti-Brucella antibodies were detected in all the species investigated, except for the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus), with the following prevalences: hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) 35 per cent; harp seals (Phoca groenlandica) 2 per cent; ringed seals (Phoca hispida) 10 per cent; minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) 8 per cent; fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) 11 per cent; and sei whales (Balaenoptera borealis) 14 per cent. An isolate belonging to the genus Brucella was obtained from the liver and spleen of one of the seropositive minke whales. The findings suggest that antibodies against the surface lipopolysaccharide of Brucella species are widely distributed among marine mammals in the North Atlantic Ocean.