Biomechanical evaluation of the push-up exercise of the upper extremities from various starting points

The purpose of the present research was to evaluate the push-up exercise of the upper extremities in respect of biomechanics, to compare the muscle function, while changing the position of performance and to examine the torso's inclination during the exercise. The result is that the activation of the muscles, apart from the triceps brachii muscle, does not differentiate significantly in any of the positions. Moreover, the elevating the hands above the feet position is not recommended in protocols where the aim is to improve the muscle force because it displays the lowest mean value of vertical force and a low RFD. On the other hand, the standard push-up position is considered to be the most appropriate when the aim is to improve the triceps brachii muscle's force because it displays the highest RFD and the highest activation of this muscle. Finally, the correct body position during this exercise prevents from incorrect and damaging inclinations of the torso. © JPES

Beyond "It Gets Better:" utilizing seminary student affairs professionals to support millennial seminarians through crises of faith

Seminarians’ existential crises of faith are often-experienced but little-studied. Through surveys of Millennial MDiv students (n=30) and seminary Student Affairs and Student Services Professionals (SASSPs) (n=44), this study suggests crises of faith are fundamental to MDiv students’ spiritual formation, mirroring the pattern of Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory model (TLT). TLT also undergirds secular Student Affairs, where SASSPs regularly provide co-curricular “student learning” support. This study recommends training seminary SASSPs to be similarly-utilized within theological education, which would require resources for professional development from both their institutions and the Association of Theological Schools. Implications for multi-cultural theological education are also discussed

Cancer cell lines show high heritability for motility but not generation time

Tumour evolution depends on heritable differences between cells in traits affecting cell survival or replication. It is well established that cancer cells are genetically and phenotypically heterogeneous; however, the extent to which this phenotypic variation is heritable is far less well explored. Here, we estimate the broad-sense heritability (H2) of two cell traits related to cancer hallmarks––cell motility and generation time––within populations of four cancer cell lines in vitro and find that motility is strongly heritable. This heritability is stable across multiple cell generations, with heritability values at the high end of those measured for a range of traits in natural populations of animals or plants. These findings confirm a central assumption of cancer evolution, provide a first quantification of the evolvability of key traits in cancer cells and indicate that there is ample raw material for experimental evolution in cancer cell lines. Generation time, a trait directly affecting cell fitness, shows substantially lower values of heritability than cell speed, consistent with its having been under directional selection removing heritable variation

Four-Loop Cusp Anomalous Dimension From Obstructions

We introduce a method for extracting the cusp anomalous dimension at L loops from four-gluon amplitudes in N=4 Yang-Mills without evaluating any integrals that depend on the kinematical invariants. We show that the anomalous dimension only receives contributions from the obstructions introduced in hep-th/0601031. We illustrate this method by extracting the two- and three-loop anomalous dimensions analytically and the four-loop one numerically. The four-loop result was recently guessed to be f^4 = - (4\zeta^3_2+24\zeta_2\zeta_4+50\zeta_6- 4(1+r)\zeta_3^2) with r=-2 using integrability and string theory arguments in hep-th/0610251. Simultaneously, f^4 was computed numerically in hep-th/0610248 from the four-loop amplitude obtaining, with best precision at the symmetric point s=t, r=-2.028(36). Our computation is manifestly s/t independent and improves the precision to r=-2.00002(3), providing strong evidence in favor of the conjecture. The improvement is possible due to a large reduction in the number of contributing terms, as well as a reduction in the number of integration variables in each term.Comment: 23 pages, revtex; v2,v3: minor typos fixed and references adde

Computer program developed for flowsheet calculations and process data reduction

Computer program PACER-65, is used for flowsheet calculations and easily adapted to process data reduction. Each unit, vessel, meter, and processing operation in the overall flowsheet is represented by a separate subroutine, which the program calls in the order required to complete an overall flowsheet calculation

Forever young: Mechanisms of natural anoxia tolerance and potential links to longevity

While mammals cannot survive oxygen deprivation for more than a few minutes without sustaining severe organ damage, some animals have mastered anaerobic life. Freshwater turtles belonging to the Trachemys and Chrysemys genera are the champion facultative anaerobes of the vertebrate world, often surviving without oxygen for many weeks at a time. The physiological and biochemical mechanisms that underlie anoxia tolerance in turtles include profound metabolic rate depression, post-translational modification of proteins, strong antioxidant defenses, activation of specific stress-responsive transcription factors, and enhanced expression of cyto-protective proteins. Turtles are also known for their incredible longevity and display characteristics of “negligible senescence.” We propose that the robust stress-tolerance mechanisms that permit long term anaerobiosis by turtles may also support the longevity of these animals. Many of the mechanisms involved in natural anoxia tolerance, such as hypometabolism or the induction of various protective proteins/pathways, have been shown to play important roles in mammalian oxygen-related diseases and improved understanding of how cells survive without oxygen could aid in the understanding and treatment of various pathological conditions that involve hypoxia or oxidative stress. In the present review we discuss the recent advances made in understanding the molecular nature of anoxia tolerance in turtles and the potential links between this tolerance and longevity