The dose-response of the nordic hamstring exercise on biceps femoris architecture and eccentric knee flexor strength : A randomized interventional trial

Purpose: To examine the dose–response of the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) on biceps femoris long head (BFlh) architecture and eccentric knee flexor strength. Design: Randomized interventional trial. Methods: Forty recreationally active males completed a 6-week NHE training program consisting of either intermittent low volumes (group 1; n = 10), low volumes (group 2; n = 10), initial high volumes followed by low volumes (group 3; n = 10), or progressively increasing volumes (group 4; n = 10). A 4-week detraining period followed each program. Muscle architecture was assessed weekly during training and after 2 and 4 weeks of detraining. Eccentric knee flexor strength was assessed preintervention and postintervention and after 2 and 4 weeks of detraining. Results: Following 6 weeks of training, BFlh fascicle length (FL) increased in group 3 (mean difference = 0.83 cm, d = 0.45, P = .027, +7%) and group 4 (mean difference = 1.48 cm, d = 0.94, P = .004, +14%). FL returned to baseline following detraining in groups 3 and 4. Strength increased in group 2 (mean difference = 53.6 N, d = 0.55, P = .002, +14%), group 3 (mean difference = 63.4 N, d = 0.72, P = .027, +17%), and group 4 (mean difference = 74.7, d = 0.83, P = .006, +19%) following training. Strength returned to baseline following detraining in groups 2 and 3 but not in group 4. Conclusions: Initial high volumes of the NHE followed by lower volumes, as well as progressively increasing volumes, can elicit increases in BFlh FL and eccentric knee flexor strength. Low volumes of the NHE were insufficient to increase FL, although as few as 48 repetitions in 6 weeks did increase strength

Tropical Herbivorous Phasmids, but Not Litter Snails, Alter Decomposition Rates By Modifying Litter Bacteria

Consumers can alter decomposition rates through both feces and selective feeding in many ecosystems, but these combined effects have seldom been examined in tropical ecosystems. Members of the detrital food web (litter-feeders or microbivores) should presumably have greater effects on decomposition than herbivores, members of the green food web. Using litterbag experiments within a field enclosure experiment, we determined the relative effects of common litter snails (Megalomastoma croceum) and herbivorous walking sticks (Lamponius portoricensis) on litter composition, decomposition rates, and microbes in a Puerto Rican rainforest, and whether consumer effects were altered by canopy cover presence. Although canopy presence did not alter consumers’ effects, focal organisms had unexpected influences on decomposition. Decomposition was not altered by litter snails, but herbivorous walking sticks reduced leaf decomposition by about 50% through reductions in high quality litter abundance and, consequently, lower bacterial richness and abundance. This relatively unexplored but potentially important link between tropical herbivores, detritus, and litter microbes in this forest demonstrates the need to consider autotrophic influences when examining rainforest ecosystem processes

On non-supersymmetric conformal manifolds: field theory and holography

We discuss the constraints that a conformal field theory should enjoy to admit exactly marginal deformations, i.e. to be part of a conformal manifold. In particular, using tools from conformal perturbation theory, we derive a sum rule from which one can extract restrictions on the spectrum of low spin operators and on the behavior of OPE coefficients involving nearly marginal operators. We then consider conformal field theories admitting a gravity dual description, and as such a large-$N$ expansion. We discuss the relation between conformal perturbation theory and loop expansion in the bulk, and show how such connection could help in the search for conformal manifolds beyond the planar limit. Our results do not rely on supersymmetry, and therefore apply also outside the realm of superconformal field theories

Proceedings of the 3rd BEAT-PCD Conference and 4th PCD Training School

Abstract Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a chronic suppurative airways disease that is usually recessively inherited and has marked clinical phenotypic heterogeneity. Classic symptoms include neonatal respiratory distress, chronic rhinitis since early childhood, chronic otitis media, recurrent airway infections leading to bronchiectasis, chronic sinusitis, laterality defects with and without congenital heart disease including abnormal situs in approximately 50% of the cases, and male infertility. Lung function deteriorates progressively from childhood throughout life. ‘Better Experimental Approaches to Treat Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia’ (BEAT-PCD) is a network of scientists and clinicians coordinating research from basic science through to clinical care with the intention of developing treatments and diagnostics that lead to improved long-term outcomes for patients. BEAT-PCD activities are supported by EU funded COST Action (BM1407). The third BEAT-PCD conference and fourth PCD training school were held jointly in February 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal. Presentations and workshops focussed on advancing the knowledge and skills relating to PCD in: basic science, epidemiology, diagnostic testing, clinical management and clinical trials. The multidisciplinary conference provided an interactive platform for exchanging ideas through a program of lectures, poster presentations, breakout sessions and workshops. Three working groups met to plan consensus statements. Progress with BEAT-PCD projects was shared and new collaborations were fostered. In this report, we summarize the meeting, highlighting developments made during the meeting

An oribatid mite (Arachnida: Acari) from the Oxford Clay (Jurassic: Upper Callovian) of South Cave Station Quarry, Yorkshire, UK

A single specimen of a new species of oribatid mite belonging to the genus Jureremus Krivolutsky, in Krivolutsky and Krassilov 1977, previously described from the Upper Jurassic of the Russian Far East, is described as J. phippsi sp. nov. The mite is preserved by iron pyrite replacement, and was recovered by sieving from the Oxford Clay Formation (Jurassic: Upper Callovian) of South Cave, Yorkshire. It is the first record of a pre-Pleistocene mite, and the second species record of the family Cymbaeremaeidae, from the British Isles; also, it is only the third record of Acari from the Jurassic Period. The presence of a terrestrial mite in a sedimentary sequence of open marine origin is noteworthy, and suggestions for its mode of transport to the site of deposition are discussed

Participatory Workshops are Not Enough to Prevent Policy Implementation Failures: An Example of a Policy Development Process Concerning the Drug Interferon-beta for Multiple Sclerosis

A possible explanation for policy implementation failure is that the views of the policy’s target groups are insufficiently taken into account during policy development. It has been argued that involving these groups in an interactive process of policy development could improve this. We analysed a project in which several target populations participated in workshops aimed to optimise the utilisation of an expensive novel drug (interferon beta) for patients with Multiple Sclerosis. All participants seemed to agree on the appropriateness of establishing a central registry of Multiple Sclerosis patients and developing guidelines. Nevertheless, these policy measures were not implemented. Possible explanations include (1) the subject no longer had high priority when the costs appeared lower than expected, (2) the organisers had paid insufficient attention to the perceived problems of parties involved, and (3) changes within the socio-political context. The workshops in which representatives of the policy’s target populations participated did not provide enough interactivity to prevent policy implementation failure

Oribatid communities and heavy metal bioaccumulation in selected species associated with lichens in a heavily contaminated habitat

The study examines oribatid communities and heavy metal bioaccumulation in selected species associated with different microhabitats of a post-smelting dump, i.e. three lichen species of Cladonia with various growth forms and the slag substrate. The abundance of oribatids collected from the substrate was significantly lower than observed in lichen thalli. The morphology and chemical properties of lichens, and to some extent varying concentrations of heavy metals in thalli, are probably responsible for significant differences in oribatid communities inhabiting different Cladonia species. Some oribatids demonstrate the ability to accumulate zinc and cadmium with unusual efficiency, whereas lead is the most effectively regulated element by all species. A positive correlation was found between Zn content in all studied oribatids and their microhabitats. Oribatids exploring different food resources, i.e. fungivorous and non-fungivorous grazers, show considerable differences in bioconcentrations of certain elements

Deconstructing Conformal Blocks in 4D CFT

We show how conformal partial waves (or conformal blocks) of spinor/tensor correlators can be related to each other by means of differential operators in four dimensional conformal field theories. We explicitly construct such differential operators for all possible conformal partial waves associated to four-point functions of arbitrary traceless symmetric operators. Our method allows any conformal partial wave to be extracted from a few \u201cseed\u201d correlators, simplifying dramatically the computation needed to bootstrap tensor correlators. \ua9 2015, The Author(s)

Historical literacy and consciousness

A ideia de literacia histórica - enquanto conjunto de competências de interpretação e compreensão do passado - surge associada à proposta de desenvolvimento da consciência histórica, tal como defende Peter Lee. Esta necessidade de orientação temporal exige identificações múltiplas, a várias escalas (do local ao global), e a consideração de pontos de vista diversificados, apresentados quer por historiadores quer por outras fontes para a História. Assumindo a relevância desta problemática para a formação da consciência histórica, é pertinente interrogarmo-nos acerca de como desenvolvem os alunos universitários (futuros professores de História) as suas competências de literacia histórica. No âmbito da disciplina de Metodologia do Ensino da História, no 4º ano da Licenciatura em Ensino de História (Universidade do Minho), explorararam-se as seguintes questões de investigação: 1) Que critérios utilizam os futuros professores de História quando decidem entre versões históricas diferentes? 2) Como é que estes futuros professores fundamentam os seus argumentos a favor ou contra uma determinada versão? Aos dezoito alunos do curso participantes neste estudo, foi proposta uma tarefa de avaliação de dois textos históricos, um de Luís de Albuquerque, historiador português, outro de Sanjay Subrahmanyam, historiador indiano, sobre a primeira viagem marítima dos portugueses à Índia (com suporte em várias fontes, nomeadamente um excerto do diário de viagem de Gama). Conjugando-se as dimensões de interpretação substantiva das mensagens com a de uso de critérios históricos, os dados sugeriram uma categorização global constituída por cinco níveis de ideias. Os padrões mais observados ligam-se a noções de viés (a validade histórica depende de uma maior ou menor neutralidade) ou de influência do contexto de produção nos historiadores. A aceitação da validade de versões diferentes, enquanto algo genuíno no conhecimento histórico, emergiu entre alguns poucos alunos universitários. Esta tipologia coincide com os níveis de idéias observados em adolescentes e crianças portuguesas, em estudos anteriores, embora os níveis mais elaborados apareçam mais frequentemente entre os alunos universitários.The idea of historical literacy - as a set of competences of historical interpretation and understanding - is emerging as linked to the proposal of developing historical consciousness, as Peter Lee argues. This need for temporal orientation demands multiple identifications at several scales (from the local up to the global scale) as well as the consideration of diversified points of view, given either by historians or many other sources of history. Assuming the relevance of this issue, it is pertinent to question about the way university students (preservice history teachers) are developing their own competences of historical literacy. In the context of the Methodology of History Teaching subject, at year 4 of the Teaching of History Graduate Course (University of Minho), the following research questions were explored: 1) What criteria do the preservice history teachers employ when deciding about different historical versions? 2) How those preservice history teachers support their arguments for or against a given version? An assessment task of two historical texts, one written by Luís de Albuquerque, Portuguese historian, another by Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Indian historian, was accomplished by the 18 participants of this study. The historical texts focussed on the first Portuguese maritime voyage to India (and they were grounded on several evidence, namely an excerpt of the Gama trip log). Combining the dimensions of substantive interpretation of messages and use of historical criteria, data suggested a global categorization with five levels of ideas. The most observed patterns are related to notions of bias (historical validity depends on neutrality) or notions of influence of the historical production context). The recognition of validity of different versions as a genuine element of the historical knowledge emerged just among a few university students. Such a tipology matches with the levels of ideas observed among Portuguese children and adolescents in former studies, although the most elaborate levels appear more frequently among the university students