7,854 research outputs found
Effects of creatine monohydrate supplementation on simulated soccer performance
Purpose: To determine the effects of acute short-term creatine (Cr) supplementation on physical performance during a 90-min soccer-specific performance test. Methods: A double-blind, placebo-controlled experimental design was adopted during which 16 male amateur soccer players were required to consume 20 g/d Cr for 7 d or a placebo. A Ball-Sport Endurance and Speed Test (BEAST) comprising measures of aerobic (circuit time), speed (12- and 20-m sprint), and explosive-power (vertical jump) abilities performed over 90 min was performed presupplementation and postsupplementation. Results: Performance measures during the BEAST deteriorated during the second half relative to the first for both Cr (1.2–2.3%) and placebo (1.0–2.2%) groups, indicating a fatigue effect associated with the BEAST. However, no significant differences existed between groups, suggesting that Cr had no performance-enhancing effect or ability to offset fatigue. When effect sizes were considered, some measures (12-m sprint, –0.53 ± 0.69; 20-m sprint, –0.39 ± 0.59) showed a negative tendency, indicating chances of harm were greater than chances of benefit. Conclusions: Acute short-term Cr supplementation has no beneficial effect on physical measures obtained during a 90-min soccer-simulation test, thus bringing into question its potential as an effective ergogenic aid for soccer players
Changing patterns of religious affiliation, church attendance and marriage across five areas of Europe since the early 1980s: trends and associations
This study draws on three waves of the European Values Survey (conducted between 1981 and 1984, between 1989 and 1993, and between 1999 and 2004) across five countries for which full data are available (Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Spain, and Sweden) in order to address five research questions. Question one examined changes in religious affiliation. Across all five countries, the proportions of the non-affiliated increased. Question two examined changes in church attendance. Across all five countries, the proportions of the non-attenders increased. Question three examined changes in marital status. Across all five countries the proportions of the population checking the category 'married' declined, although in Spain the decline was marginal. Question four examined the association between religious affiliation and being married. The religious affiliated were more likely to be married than the non-affiliated. Question five examined the association between church attendance and being married. Weekly attenders were more likely to be married than the non-attenders. Overall these data support the close association between religion and marriage across five European countries (where there are very different religious climates) and support the hypothesis that changing religious values and changing family values go hand-in-hand
Tissue-specific regulation of sirtuin and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide biosynthetic pathways identified in C57Bl/6 mice in response to high-fat feeding
Funding: The Scottish Government's Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division.Peer reviewedPostprin
The human fear-circuitry and fear-induced fainting in healthy individuals The paleolithic-threat hypothesis
The Paleolithic-Threat
hypothesis reviewed here posits
that habitual efferent fainting can
be traced back to fear-induced
allelic polymorphisms that were
selected into some genomes of
anatomically, mitochondrially, and
neurally modern humans (Homo
sapiens sapiens) in the Mid-Paleolithic because of the survival
advantage they conferred during
periods of inescapable threat. We
posit that during Mid-Paleolithic
warfare an encounter with “a
stranger holding a sharp object”
was consistently associated with
threat to life. A heritable hard-
wired or firm-wired (prepotentiated) predisposition to abruptly
increase vagal tone and collapse
flaccidly rather than freeze or
attempt to flee or fight in response
to an approaching sharp object, a
minor injury, or the sight of blood,
polymorphism for the hemodynamically “paradoxical” flaccid-
immobility in response to these
stimuli may have increased some
non-combatants’ chances of survival. This is consistent with the
unusual age and sex pattern of
fear-induced fainting. The Paleolithic-Threat hypothesis also predicts a link to various hypo-androgenic states (e.g. low dehydroxyepiandrosterone-sulfate. We offer
five predictions testable via epidemiological, clinical, and ethological/primatological methods. The
Paleolithic-Threat hypothesis has
implications for research in the
aftermath of man-made disasters,
such as terrorism against civilians,
a traumatic event in which this
hypothesis predicts epidemics of
fear-induced faintin
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