Less Is More: The Physiological Basis for Tapering in Endurance, Strength, and Power Athletes

Taper, or reduced-volume training, improves competition performance across a broad spectrum of exercise modes and populations. This article aims to highlight the physiological mechanisms, namely in skeletal muscle, by which taper improves performance and provide a practical literature-based rationale for implementing taper in varied athletic disciplines. Special attention will be paid to strength- and power-oriented athletes as taper is under-studied and often overlooked in these populations. Tapering can best be summarized by the adage “less is more” because maintained intensity and reduced volume prior to competition yields significant performance benefits

College Major Area and Career Commitment: Rethinking STEAM in Educational- Vocational Guidance

Objective: The exigency for higher education to exhibit outcomes aligning with career competencies has intensified, driven by external pressures favoring job-specific training. Amidst shifting career tendencies of Generations Y and Z and the advent of artificial intelligence-led automation, the valuation of different college majors has come under scrutiny. This study aims to dissect the prevailing assumptions and explore the satisfaction and career commitment levels among individuals with career-focused degrees. Methods: Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the study delves into the relationships among areas of study, career commitment, self-esteem, and self-efficacy among alumni from a private Midwestern liberal arts college. Instruments like Core Self-Evaluations, Career Commitment, and Career Reconsiderations facilitated data collection from graduates over the past three decades. Results: Findings underscore higher career connectedness for Arts and Humanities and Physical and Social Sciences graduates compared to Business majors. Conversely, Business majors exhibited a significant surge in career reconsideration, suggesting a potential disconnect or regret among this cohort, possibly owing to the dynamic nature of the business field. Conclusion: The data advocates for a recalibrated approach in vocational guidance aligning with educational majors, promoting data-informed decision-making among stakeholders. The variation in career connectedness and reconsideration across different study fields necessitates a nuanced approach in educational and vocational counseling to enhance alignment with long-term career satisfaction and commitment, preparing students aptly for the evolving job market landscape

Optimized reprocessing of documents using stored processor state

Variable Data Printing (VDP) allows customised versions of material such as advertising flyers to be readily produced. However, VDP is often extremely demanding of computing resources because, even when much of the material stays invariant from one document instance to the next, it is often simpler to re-evaluate the page completely rather than identifying just the portions that vary. In this paper we explore, in an XML/XSLT/SVG workflow and in an editing context, the reduction of the processing burden that can be realised by selectively reprocessing only the variant parts of the document. We introduce a method of partial re-evaluation that relies on re-engineering an existing XSLT parser to handle, at each XML tree node, both the storage and restoration of state for the underlying document processing framework. Quantitative results are presented for the magnitude of the speed-ups that can be achieved. We also consider how changes made through an appearance-based interactive editing scheme for VDP documents can be automatically reflected in the document view via optimised XSLT re-evaluation of sub-trees that are affected either by the changed script or by altered data

Tracking sub-page components in document workflows

Documents go through numerous transformations and intermediate formats as they are processed from abstract markup into final printable form. This notion of a document workflow is well established but it is common to find that ideas about document components, which might exist in the source code for the document, become completely lost within an amorphous, unstructured, page of PDF prior to being rendered. Given the importance of a component-based approach in Variable Data Printing (VDP) we have developed a collection of tools that allow information about the various transformations to be embedded at each stage in the workflow, together with a visualization tool that uses this embedded information to display the relationships between the various intermediate documents. In this paper, we demonstrate these tools in the context of an example document workflow but the techniques described are widely applicable and would be easily adaptable to other workflows and for use in teaching tools to illustrate document component and VDP concepts

Examination of Organic Acid Tolerance in Non-Conventional Yeasts

Metabolic engineering of yeasts has proven an effective strategy for producing compounds ranging from commodity chemicals to biologics. However, in the case of certain organic acids, there is a toxicity barrier, which prevents commercial production from being viable. To address this problem, we developed a strategy to characterize non-conventional yeasts and used it to search fungal repositories for desirable phenotypes, in our case tolerance to adipic acid, a nylon 6,6 precursor. From publicly accessible yeast collections we selected and screened a collection of 122 strains of yeasts. After finding strains that were tolerant to high concentrations of adipic acid at an industrially relevant pH, suitable antibiotic markers were found and whole genome sequencing and annotation was performed to enable future metabolic engineering efforts in these strains. Annotated strains were examined for evidence of gene expansion in families commonly associated with organic acid tolerance and candidate genes were identified for further researc

Optimized reprocessing of documents using stored processor state

Variable Data Printing (VDP) allows customised versions of material such as advertising flyers to be readily produced. However, VDP is often extremely demanding of computing resources because, even when much of the material stays invariant from one document instance to the next, it is often simpler to re-evaluate the page completely rather than identifying just the portions that vary. In this paper we explore, in an XML/XSLT/SVG workflow and in an editing context, the reduction of the processing burden that can be realised by selectively reprocessing only the variant parts of the document. We introduce a method of partial re-evaluation that relies on re-engineering an existing XSLT parser to handle, at each XML tree node, both the storage and restoration of state for the underlying document processing framework. Quantitative results are presented for the magnitude of the speed-ups that can be achieved. We also consider how changes made through an appearance-based interactive editing scheme for VDP documents can be automatically reflected in the document view via optimised XSLT re-evaluation of sub-trees that are affected either by the changed script or by altered data

Mineralized Springs in Utah and Their Effect on Manageable Water Supplies

Need and Importance of Study Water demands in Utah are continuously increasing. It is essential that these demands be me to insure the continued enhancement of the social and economic well-being of all sectors of our society. Since water needs must be met from a relatively fixed water supply it is imperative that supplies be managed for complete utilization in such a way that all legitimate requirement scan be satisfied. As our available water supplies are used more completely by making a given supply satisfy more than one use, water quality problems become more pronounced. The multiplicity of uses to which water may be put as it moved through a hydrologic system is limited only as its quality is reduced below acceptable standards of particular users, or as its quantity is reduced through evapotranspiration. Thus, a water supply may be reduced just as effectively by lowering its quality as if it is consumed or otherwise transported from a region. In several areas of Utah, water quality problems are aggravated by contributions of highly mineralized springs. These feed into regular water supplies, thus impairing or completely destroying their usefulness – especially during periods of low streamflow. An inventory of sources of such mineralized springs, their quantities and qualities, along with an evaluation of their effects on natural waters, might suggest possible management and control measurements which could materially extend the usefulness of certain water supplies in the state. Specifically, the major objectives of this investigation were: 1. To obtain an inventory of mineralized spring waters with respect to location, hydrologic and geologic setting, and quantity and quality of water. 2. To make an appraisal of current and potential effects of these springs on important usable supplies. 3. To evaluate possible management and control measures aimed at extending the usefulness of principal water supplies

Spotted Locoweed on the Henry Mountains

Spotted locoweed (Astragalus lentlginosus, var. wahweapens) also known as freckled or Wahweap Milkvetch is characterized by blue leguminous flowers, purple speckled seed pods, and leaves resembling those of garden pea. The plant is poisonous to cattle, sheep and horses. It grows on gravely clay loam semi-desert benches and swales supporting desert shrubs and sparse stands of juniper