Sun in Eponymous Glasses: Two Poems

Scintillating nature imagery captured in nouns

Water Street

Water Street is a collection of poems exploring the significance of family, belonging, legitimacy and home. The poems focus on Sydney's relationship with her family, the importance of which she renegotiates in solitude after leaving home to go to school. The poems which range from dramatic monologue to lyric to narrative explore her anxiety about her relationships weakening as she changed in her new environment. The manuscript is divided into three sections: first, "Dramatis Personae," in which the main characters are introduced, sometimes in Sydney's voice, sometimes in the characters' own voices. Second, "Departure" in which Sydney questions what it means to be at home, resists adjusting to her new town and is nostalgic. Finally, in "Gathering me, you gather Yourself", Sydney tries to define the lines between herself and her loved ones and get a sense of who her loved ones are in order to get a sense of who she is. Sydney longs for her childhood home but reminds herself that it is not what it once was, she longs for a different kind of father than she had, and for her granddad, who died before she was born. The poems constitute an exploration of self, place, family and a journey towards adjusting to the circumstances of one's life and letting go of a fear of loss

The effect of a 12 week core training regimen on electromyographic activation in national-level junior swimmers

Knowledge of muscle activation during core training exercises over the duration of a training program would enhance our understanding of the physiological responses to training. The purpose of this study was to quantify the effect of a 12-week core training regimen on neuromuscular activation in swimmers. Ten national-level junior swimmers performed a core exercise regimen three times a week over a 12-week training period. Surface electromyographic (EMG) measurements from 6 core muscles were taken pre- (0 weeks), mid- (6 weeks) and post training (12 weeks). Analysis was carried out on the EMG activity during maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVCs) and on the normalized and non-normalized EMG values during the core exercises. MVC EMG activity increased with the intervention in all muscles. The magnitudes of changes in MVC EMG activity were greater during the initial phase (effect sizes - standardized mean differences 0.32 to 1.01) compared to the second phase (effect sizes -0.20 to 1.04). Substantial reductions were observed in the normalized EMG data, with these effects being greater during the initial phase (effect sizes -1.54 to -0.28) compared to the second phase (effects sizes -1.12 to -0.22). There were also substantial reductions in non-normalized absolute EMG activity in both the initial (effect sizes -2.73 to -0.27) and second (effects sizes -1.27 to -0.20) phases. Over the 12 week training program substantial neuromuscular adaptations occurred in the core muscles; activation during the core exercises reduced, whilst activation during the MVCs increased. These adaptations are indicative of improvements in neuromuscular strength and efficiency. Changes in EMG data provide objective measures of neuromuscular adaptation which can inform future iterations of training regimens for athletic populations

Phasic-to-tonic shift in trunk muscle activity relative to walking during low-impact weight bearing exercise

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of an exercise device, designed to improve the function of lumbopelvic muscles via low-impact weight-bearing exercise, on electromyographic (EMG) activity of lumbopelvic, including abdominal muscles. Surface EMG activity was collected from lumbar multifidus (LM), erector spinae (ES), internal oblique (IO), external oblique (EO) and rectus abdominis (RA) during overground walking (OW) and exercise device (EX) conditions. During walking, most muscles showed peaks in activity which were not seen during EX. Spinal extensors (LM, ES) were more active in EX. Internal oblique and RA were less active in EX. In EX, LM and ES were active for longer than during OW. Conversely, EO and RA were active for a shorter duration in EX than OW. The exercise device showed a phasic-to-tonic shift in activation of both local and global lumbopelvic muscles and promoted increased activation of spinal extensors in relation to walking. These features could make the exercise device a useful rehabilitative tool for populations with lumbopelvic muscle atrophy and dysfunction, including those recovering from deconditioning due to long-term bed rest and microgravity in astronauts

Ebola: translational science considerations

We are currently in the midst of the most aggressive and fulminating outbreak of Ebola-related disease, commonly referred to as “Ebola”, ever recorded. In less than a year, the Ebola virus (EBOV, Zaire ebolavirus species) has infected over 10,000 people, indiscriminately of gender or age, with a fatality rate of about 50%. Whereas at its onset this Ebola outbreak was limited to three countries in West Africa (Guinea, where it was first reported in late March 2014, Liberia, where it has been most rampant in its capital city, Monrovia and other metropolitan cities, and Sierra Leone), cases were later reported in Nigeria, Mali and Senegal, as well as in Western Europe (i.e., Madrid, Spain) and the US (i.e., Dallas, Texas; New York City) by late October 2014. World and US health agencies declared that the current Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak has a strong likelihood of growing exponentially across the world before an effective vaccine, treatment or cure can be developed, tested, validated and distributed widely. In the meantime, the spread of the disease may rapidly evolve from an epidemics to a full-blown pandemic. The scientific and healthcare communities actively research and define an emerging kaleidoscope of knowledge about critical translational research parameters, including the virology of EBOV, the molecular biomarkers of the pathological manifestations of EVD, putative central nervous system involvement in EVD, and the cellular immune surveillance to EBOV, patient-centered anthropological and societal parameters of EVD, as well as translational effectiveness about novel putative patient-targeted vaccine and pharmaceutical interventions, which hold strong promise, if not hope, to curb this and future Ebola outbreaks. This work reviews and discusses the principal known facts about EBOV and EVD, and certain among the most interesting ongoing or future avenues of research in the field, including vaccination programs for the wild animal vectors of the virus and the disease from global translational science perspective

Sprint Starts and the minimum auditory reaction time

The simple auditory reaction time is one of the fastest reaction times and is thought to be rarely less than 100 ms. The current false start criterion in a sprint used by the International Association of Athletics Federations is based on this assumed auditory reaction time of 100 ms. However, there is evidence, both anecdotal and from reflex research, that simple auditory reaction times of less than 100 ms can be achieved. Reaction time in nine athletes performing sprint starts in four conditions was measured using starting blocks instrumented with piezoelectric force transducers in each footplate that were synchronized with the starting signal. Only three conditions were used to calculate reaction times. The pre-motor and pseudo-motor time for two athletes were also measured across 13 muscles using surface electromyography (EMG) synchronized with the rest of the system. Five of the athletes had mean reaction times of less than 100 ms in at least one condition and 20% of all starts in the first two conditions had a reaction time of less than 100 ms. The results demonstrate that the neuromuscular-physiological component of simple auditory reaction times can be under 85 ms and that EMG latencies can be under 60 ms