Sex Differences with Aging in the Fatigability of Dynamic Contractions

This study determined the sex difference with aging in fatigability of the elbow flexor muscles during a dynamic fatiguing task, and explored the associated mechanisms. We compared fatigability of the elbow flexor muscles in 18 young (20.2 ± 1 years: 9 men) and 36 old adults (73.5 ± 1 years: 16 men) during and in recovery from repeated dynamic contractions (~ 60°/s) with a load equivalent to 20% of maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) torque until failure. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to assess supraspinal fatigue (an increase in the superimposed twitch, SIT) and the peak rate of muscle relaxation. Time to failure was briefer for the men than the women (6.1 ± 2.1 vs. 9.7 ± 5.5 min, respectively; P = 0.02) with no difference between young and old adults (7.2 ± 2.9 vs. 8.4 ± 5.2 min, respectively, P = 0.45) and no interaction (P \u3e 0.05). The relative decline in peak relaxation rate with fatigability was similar for young and old adults (P = 0.11), but greater for men than women (P = 0.046). Supraspinal fatigue increased for all groups and was associated with the time to failure (P \u3c 0.05). Regression analysis however, indicated that the time to failure was best predicted by the peak relaxation rate (baseline values and slowing with fatigability) (r2 = 0.55). Rate-limiting contractile mechanisms (e.g. excitation–contraction coupling) were responsible for the increased fatigability of the elbow flexors of men compared with women for a dynamic fatiguing task of slow angular velocity, and this sex difference was maintained with aging. The age difference in fatigability for the dynamic task was diminished for both sexes relative to what is typically observed with isometric fatiguing contractions

Academic Interests, Career Choices and Job Opportunities

This assignment is designed for students in First Year Seminar for Engineering and Computer Science. The main goal of the assignment is to introduce students to their major and stimulating their interests related to career choices and academics. This will give students a chance to develop integrative learning skills by making connections between their major and respective career opportunities. This assignment will use new features of ePortfolio to enhance student’s creativity by customizing everything from background, photos, fonts, text, portfolio content etc. Instead of a uniform profile, each students’ page will reflect the distinct visual representation of their personality, brand, major, and career. Students will review their peers’ ePortfolios to provide constructive feedback. The ePortfolio page will later be deposited once approved by the faculty

Menopausal Problems Among Rural and Urban Women From Eastern India

The present study sought to examine variations in menopausal characteristics between rural and urban women and the ways in which these characteristics could be predicted from differential sociodemographic variables related to the residential status. Data on sociodemographic variables, reproductive history, and menopausal symptoms were collected from 180 postmenopausal women (rural 110; urban 70) belonging to the Bengali-speaking Hindu ethnic group of eastern India. Bivariate analyses confirmed rural-urban differences in menopausal age and in the reporting of menopausal problems (e.g., vasomotor, psychosomatic, psychological, and urinary problems). Multivariate analyses revealed that rural-urban residential status and duration of breastfeeding of child were significant predictors of age at menopause. Residential and literacy status, duration of breast feeding of child, and husband’s awareness about the menopausal status of spouse were significant predictors of some of the menopausal symptoms

Gender perception in a game of chicken

The tough vs. weak strategy choice in a game of chicken provides the setting to gauge the impact of gender perception on strategic decision-making. Through the use of survey, this study finds that the indicated opponent gender did not have a significant impact on strategy choice, except in the case where male respondents were matched with a male survey. In this situation, male respondents were statistically significantly less likely to choose the more aggressive, competitive strategy. We attribute these results to wide intra-gender variation in strategy choice, as well as the strong dictates of masculinity in society

Analysis of the Ministerial Emphasis Survey Quantifying the Call of the Church

The expectations of a church for its minister are broad and difficult to define. These expectations are perhaps most intently examined when the church is seeking to replace a minister. It is during this time that the church may attempt to measure in some way the expectations of the congregation. These expectations may be studied from different perspectives, ranging from the effectiveness of the minister to the leadership style of the minister. This research examined the Ministerial Emphasis Survey which was used by a mainline, Protestant denomination during an actual minister search. The study included participants from the congregation, the applicants, and the persons who were used as references by the applicants. The survey was examined for internal consistency as measured by coefficient alpha and factor arrangement by a principle components exploratory factor analysis. Although the instrument did not yield satisfactory consistency or factor structure, similarities and differences across the three groups of participants provide information helpful to churches involved in a ministerial search. Items were also examined with suggestions for future modifications to the instrument

Privacy preserving algorithms for newly emergent computing environments

Privacy preserving data usage ensures appropriate usage of data without compromising sensitive information. Data privacy is a primary requirement since customers' data is an asset to any organization and it contains customers' private information. Data seclusion cannot be a solution to keep data private. Data sharing as well as keeping data private is important for different purposes, e.g., company welfare, research, business etc. A broad range of industries where data privacy is mandatory includes healthcare, aviation industry, education system, federal law enforcement, etc.In this thesis dissertation we focus on data privacy schemes in emerging fields of computer science, namely, health informatics, data mining, distributed cloud, biometrics, and mobile payments. Linking and mining medical records across different medical service providers are important to the enhancement of health care quality. Under HIPAA regulation keeping medical records private is important. In real-world health care databases, records may well contain errors. Linking the error-prone data and preserving data privacy at the same time is very difficult. We introduce a privacy preserving Error-Tolerant Linking Algorithm to enable medical records linkage for error-prone medical records. Mining frequent sequential patterns such as, patient path, treatment pattern, etc., across multiple medical sites helps to improve health care quality and research. We propose a privacy preserving sequential pattern mining scheme across multiple medical sites. In a distributed cloud environment resources are provided by users who are geographically distributed over a large area. Since resources are provided by regular users, data privacy and security are main concerns. We propose a privacy preserving data storage mechanism among different users in a distributed cloud. Managing secret key for encryption is difficult in a distributed cloud. To protect secret key in a distributed cloud we propose a multilevel threshold secret sharing mechanism. Biometric authentication ensures user identity by means of user's biometric traits. Any individual's biometrics should be protected since biometrics are unique and can be stolen or misused by an adversary. We present a secure and privacy preserving biometric authentication scheme using watermarking technique. Mobile payments have become popular with the extensive use of mobile devices. Mobile applications for payments needs to be very secure to perform transactions and at the same time needs to be efficient. We design and develop a mobile application for secure mobile payments. To secure mobile payments we focus on user's biometric authentication as well as secure bank transaction. We propose a novel privacy preserving biometric authentication algorithm for secure mobile payments