Preliminary Observations Examining the Acute Effect of Range of Motion Barbell-Bench Press Exercises on Markers of Electromyography, Muscle Oxygen Saturation, and Post-exercise Hyperemia of the Pectoralis Major

Full range of motion (fROM) exercises are the traditional method of improving muscular strength and hypertrophy during resistance training (RT), but partial range of motion (pROM) exercises have been used in rehabilitative and resistance training settings, and some recent studies have shown a positive benefit on how it may influence regional muscle growth. However, there is limited evidence examining potential mechanisms of how pROM may stimulate regional muscle growth. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate regional or local differences in post-exercise hyperemia (US) of the pectoralis major (PM), PM oxygen saturation (SmO2), and synergist myoelectrical activity (sEMG) during flat (FB) and incline (IB) barbell bench press exercise bouts. METHODS: Two male and female subjects (Age: 22.2 ±0.9 y; Height: 170.0±3.4 cm; Weight: 71.3±7.1 kg; Body Fat: 17.60±4.2 %) were sequentially randomized to fROM and pROM during FB and IB (45° inclination) bench pressing exercises utilizing a Smith Machine (SM) barbell bench press (BP). The SM barbell was fitted with an EliteFTS™ shoulder saver pad during pROM bouts, and individuals were instructed to touch the pad to their chests and not to lockout, their elbows. The ROM was measured using an elbow electric joint goniometer (DTS2D-Noraxon) and GymAware for distance (cm). 7-days prior to each ROM bout, strength testing (1RM) was completed to determine 75-80% intensity for ROM bouts. Pre-bout (Pre), immediate post-bout (IP), and 24 h post-ROM bout measures of reactive hyperemia in the regional areas of the right-side PM were collected at 10%, 25%, 40%, 50%, and 60 % distal the suprasternal notch in males and 10% and 25% were used for the females. Ultrasound (US; GE Logiq E9) measures cross-sectional area (CSA) using panoramic capability (LOGIQView®). Surface electromyography (sEMG) analysis was performed on each participant\u27s right side for the following muscle groups: pectoralis major-clavicular head (PMC), pectoralis major-sternal head (PMS), anterior deltoid (AD), triceps-medial (TMB), and triceps-lateral brachii (TLB). To measure PM-O2 saturation, a Moxy Muscle Oxygen monitor was inserted on the subject\u27s left side, 25% distal to the suprasternal notch. When necessary, MANOVAs were utilized to assess any preliminary differences. RESULTS: Our preliminary results show that ROM had no impact on IP-CSA measures in males and females at 10 (p=.17; n=4) and 25% (p= .18; n=4); variation was found in averaged peak amplitude for each participant’s primary muscle groups used during 1RM testing compared to the ROM bout (n=3); SmO2 was observed to be lowest during the pROM-IB condition (n=1). DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Currently, there is no effect of ROM nor BP on regional hyperemia (CSA) at 10 and 25%, there seems to be variation between average peak amplitude between 1RM and ROM bouts, and the pROM-IB condition measured the lowest PM-O2 saturation found during the bout

Encoding & Decoding: Artfully Modeling Communication

Drawing objects and concepts, such as cats, trees, love, democracy, and family, is probably the last activity students expect to do in a communication course. Although this sounds like an introductory art activity, creating visual representations provides a nuanced understanding of the encoding and decoding processes. Encoding and decoding are the most hidden and often the most unfamiliar and complex fundamental components of communication for students to comprehend. By engaging in this activity, students translate their decoding process into drawings, which serve as personal artifacts representative of their encoding and decoding. Students come to better conceptualize this cognitive process with these concrete examples and a directed discussion. This activity is applicable across the full spectrum of communication courses

Autophagy in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastating disease with an extremely poor life expectancy and no effective treatment. Autophagy is a process of degradation of cytoplasmic component capable of recycling cellular components or eliminate specific targets. The presence of autophagy in PDAC has been demonstrated. However, the implicated cellular pathways are not fully understood and, more importantly, the role of autophagy in PDAC is matter of intensive debate. This review summarizes recently published data in an attempt to clarify the importance of autophagy in this disease and try to reconcile apparently contradictory results

Beliefs and Attitude Changes Towards Virtual Reality Usefulness After Disabilities Simulation

ABSTRACT Virtual Reality (VR) has been utilized often as a potential recreational tool for enjoyment by generating false realities to interact with, but in regards to a potential tool to introduce understanding in cultures and empathetic responses it has seen little use. Stereotypical beliefs seem to exist that disabled people are unable to care for themselves (Burgstahler & Doe, 2004). Furthermore, individuals without disabilities may not fully understand how a person with disabilities is able to even function in daily life (McKenny, 2018). Leo and Goodwin (2016) emphasized the value of simulation exercises to change individual attitudes and perspectives towards those who live with disabilities. PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to assess people’s attitudes and belief changes towards the use of VR after participating in disability simulations. METHODS: Implemented in a class about motor movement in special populations, subjects were college students(n=44) who were administered a Likert scale pre-survey. The survey emphasized subject’s beliefs around the use of VR for gaming, education, work preparation, therapy, use for individuals with disabilities, and those developing empathy towards individuals with disabilities. Subjects then participated in a VR training session, an autism emotional disturbance simulation, and a simulation of what a blind person’s imagination goes through while handling sounds and touch sensations around them. A Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used in SPSS software to analyze the nonparametric data for two nominal variables comparing pre and post beliefs and attitudes. RESULTS: Overall, most questions posed to the subjects were not found to be statistically significant with the error rate used throughout the entirety of the study (α = 0.05). However, when asked about the ability for VR simulations to create or increase empathy in the subjects towards those with disabilities there was a statistical significance (Z = -2.02, p = 0.042.) Additionally, positive trends were found in the aggregated mean scores when comparing the pre and post surveys with subjects across all variables in the survey. CONCLUSION: While more categories were expected to have a significant change, only empathy showed statistical significant. This result encourages the ability of VR simulations to assist in understanding and sharing comprehension with another individual who has disabilities or in a restricted perceptual motor/behavioral state. Further research on the topic may also reveal that the positive trends found in this study may have statistical significance if used in larger sample sizes

On the Suppression and Distortion of Non-Equilibrium Fluctuations by Transpiration

A fluid in a non-equilibrium state exhibits long-ranged correlations of its hydrodynamic fluctuations. In this article, we examine the effect of a transpiration interface on these correlations -- specifically, we consider a dilute gas in a domain bisected by the interface. The system is held in a non-equilibrium steady state by using isothermal walls to impose a temperature gradient. The gas is simulated using both direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) and fluctuating hydrodynamics (FHD). For the FHD simulations two models are developed for the interface based on master equation and Langevin approaches. For appropriate simulation parameters, good agreement is observed between DSMC and FHD results with the latter showing a significant advantage in computational speed. For each approach we quantify the effects of transpiration on long-ranged correlations in the hydrodynamic variables

Assessing the Gene Content of the Megagenome: Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana).

Sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana Douglas) is within the subgenus Strobus with an estimated genome size of 31 Gbp. Transcriptomic resources are of particular interest in conifers due to the challenges presented in their megagenomes for gene identification. In this study, we present the first comprehensive survey of the P. lambertiana transcriptome through deep sequencing of a variety of tissue types to generate more than 2.5 billion short reads. Third generation, long reads generated through PacBio Iso-Seq have been included for the first time in conifers to combat the challenges associated with de novo transcriptome assembly. A technology comparison is provided here to contribute to the otherwise scarce comparisons of second and third generation transcriptome sequencing approaches in plant species. In addition, the transcriptome reference was essential for gene model identification and quality assessment in the parallel project responsible for sequencing and assembly of the entire genome. In this study, the transcriptomic data were also used to address questions surrounding lineage-specific Dicer-like proteins in conifers. These proteins play a role in the control of transposable element proliferation and the related genome expansion in conifers

Extrapolations of the fusion performance in JET

n preparation of the forthcoming high power campaign with the reactor-relevant deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel mixture in the Joint European Torus (JET), significant efforts are being devoted to DT scenario extrapolation using computer modelling. We report on simulations aimed at optimizing external heating using neutral beam injection (NBI) and radiofrequency waves in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) for high DT fusion yield. Our results show that by increasing external heating power to the maximum power available, the fusion neutron rate can be enhanced by a factor of 4-5 with respect to the recent record values. The comparison of two ICRF schemes using different resonant ion species, i.e. 3He and H minority ions, shows that the 3He minority heating scenario achieves a higher fuel ion temperature but not necessarily a better fusion performance. Finally, we study the dependence of the performance of external heating on key experimental parameters

Acoustic allometry revisited: morphological determinants of fundamental frequency in primate vocal production

A fundamental issue in the evolution of communication is the degree to which signals convey accurate (“honest”) information about the signaler. In bioacoustics, the assumption that fundamental frequency (fo) should correlate with the body size of the caller is widespread, but this belief has been challenged by various studies, possibly because larynx size and body size can vary independently. In the present comparative study, we conducted excised larynx experiments to investigate this hypothesis rigorously and explore the determinants of fo. Using specimens from eleven primate species, we carried out an inter-specific investigation, examining correlations between the minimum fo produced by the sound source, body size and vocal fold length (VFL). We found that, across species, VFL predicted minimum fo much better than body size, clearly demonstrating the potential for decoupling between larynx size and body size in primates. These findings shed new light on the diversity of primate vocalizations and vocal morphology, highlighting the importance of vocal physiology in understanding the evolution of mammal vocal communication

A Staggered Scheme for the Compressible Fluctuating Hydrodynamics of Multispecies Fluid Mixtures

We present a numerical formulation for the solution of non-isothermal, compressible, Navier-Stokes equations with thermal fluctuations to describe mesoscale transport phenomena in multispecies fluid mixtures. The novelty of our numerical method is the use of staggered grid momenta along with a finite volume discretization of the thermodynamic variables to solve the resulting stochastic partial differential equations. The key advantages of the numerical scheme are significantly simplified and compact discretization of the diffusive and stochastic momentum fluxes, and an unambiguous prescription of boundary conditions involving pressure. The staggered grid scheme more accurately reproduces the equilibrium static structure factor of hydrodynamic fluctuations in gas mixtures compared to a collocated scheme described previously in Balakrishnan et al., Phys. Rev. E 89:013017, 2014. The numerical method is tested for ideal noble gases mixtures under various nonequilibrium conditions, such as applied thermal and concentration gradients, to assess the role of cross-diffusion effects, such as Soret and Dufour, on the long-ranged correlations of hydrodynamic fluctuations, which are also more accurately reproduced compared to the collocated scheme. We numerically study giant nonequilibrium fluctuations driven by concentration gradients, and fluctuation-driven Rayleigh-Taylor instability in gas mixtures. Wherever applicable, excellent agreement is observed with theory and measurements from the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, 9 pages supplementary materia