Effects of Resistance Exercise Timing on Sleep Architecture

Short sleep duration and poor sleep quality have been associated with numerous health risks. Prior research has suggested that regular aerobic exercise improves sleep quality; however, less is known regarding how resistance exercise (RE) may affect sleep. The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effects of timing of RE on sleep architecture. Subjects engaged in five laboratory visits. Visits 1 (C) and 2 provided a non-RE control day and established the 10-repetition maximum (10RM) on nine RE machines. Subjects then reported at 7 a.m. (7A), 1 p.m. (1P), and 7 p.m. (7P) in a randomized order to perform 30 minutes of RE. A sleep-monitoring headband was worn during sleep following C, 7A, 1P, and 7P. Time to sleep was significantly different between 7A and 1P and between 7A and 7P. All exercise conditions exhibited fewer wakes than the non-RE control day, with 7P resulting in less time awake after initially falling asleep as compared to C. While timing of RE does not appear to impact sleep stages, engaging in RE at any time of day may improve quality of sleep and may offer additional benefits regarding the ability to fall asleep and stay asleep to certain populations

The development of muscular endurance in women physical education majors with diverse initial muscular endurance scores

It was the purpose of this study to determine if groups of female subjects with diverse initial muscular endurance levels differed in amount and rate of muscular endurance development, and to determine the relationship between the initial level of muscular endurance and the amount of muscular endurance development during a four-week conditioning program. Twenty-seven women from the freshman physical education major class at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro participated in the four-week conditioning program on the bicycle ergometer. The subjects were divided into three groups (high, medium, low) based on their initial riding time. Analyses of variance were used to determine if there were any significant differences between the mean changes in pedaling time of the three groups for each week. Also, for each group of subjects, t-tests were calculated using the initial pedaling time scores and the fourth week mean pedaling time scores to determine if there were significant changes in pedaling time during the four-week training program. Correlation coefficients were calculated using the initial pedaling time scores and the difference between the initial pedaling time scores and the mean scores of each week for the entire group of subjects to see if there were any relationships between the initial scores and the improvement scores for each week

Fashion : a reflection of an age

Fashion is one of the greatest influences in life, pervading every field and reaching every class. From the standpoint of costume, it is the expositor of habits, social relations, in fact, of everything pertaining to the era in which each fashion exists. It is a thermometer of the infinitely various tastes of the day, reflecting the influence of external circumstances. It is said that fashion is a short custom whereas, in reverse, custom is merely a long fashion, for fashion affects an exceedingly wide range of human activity, undergoing continuous modification. Fashion in dress and adornment is more than the prevailing style of milady's attire; it is a form of human behavior through which people constantly seek to improve their appearance or their social adjustments with their associates. In imitating a given example, people satisfy their demand for social adaptation. Fashion, however, satisfies a need for differentiation as well as similarity. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said in his "Letters and Social Aims," "The sense of being perfectly well dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquility which religion is powerless to bestow.”

Modeling Transmission Dynamics and Control of Vector-Borne Neglected Tropical Diseases

Neglected tropical diseases affect more than one billion people worldwide. The populations most impacted by such diseases are typically the most resource-limited. Mathematical modeling of disease transmission and cost-effectiveness analyses can play a central role in maximizing the utility of limited resources for neglected tropical diseases. We review the contributions that mathematical modeling has made to optimizing intervention strategies of vector-borne neglected diseases. We propose directions forward in the modeling of these diseases, including integrating new knowledge of vector and pathogen ecology, incorporating evolutionary responses to interventions, and expanding the scope of sensitivity analysis in order to achieve robust results

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion