ENTRAINMENT DURING BICYCLE ERGOMETRY IN ELITE CYCLISTS

While it is widely accepted that ventilation increases abruptly at the onset of muscular exercise (D'Angelo and Torelli, 1971; Jensen, Vejby-Christensen and Petersen, 1972; Krogh and Lin~~ard, 1913) the control of the respiratory pattern, i.e., the relationship between ventilation (V', Vi', Ve'), tidal volume (Vt), and respiratory frequency (fR) or respiratory cycle times (Tt, Ti, Te) is not clearly understood (Wasserman, 1978). There are a number of factors, which may be classified as humoral, neurogenic, or neurohumoral, involved in respiratory regulation (Dejours, 1960), but the importance of any single factor is difficult to determine because of the associated problems of controlling for the other variables involved in the total response. One such factor is the coordination of the respiratory pattern to the movement pattern referred to as entrainment. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between the variables that control the respiratory pattern and to test the hypothesis that entrainment would be more prevalent in athletes who were highly trained for a particular mode of exercise, based on a work minimization theory (Priban and Fincham, 1965; Yamashiro and Grodins, 1973; Cherniack, 1980), than in non-athletes unaccustomed to the exercise

Acute Pulmonary Function Response to Ozone in Young Adults As a Function of Body Mass Index

Recent studies have shown enhanced responsiveness to ozone in obese mice. Adiposity has not been examined as a possible modulator of ozone response in humans. We therefore examined the relationship between body mass index and the acute spirometric response to ozone (O3) exposure among 197 non-asthmatic young adults (aged 18-35) studied in our human exposure facility from 1992-1998. Each subject had been exposed to 0.42 ppm O3 for 1.5 h with intermittent exercise designed to produce a minute ventilation of 20 l/min / m2 body surface area (BSA). Spirometry (pulmonary function) was measured pre- and immediately post- exposure to determine acute ozone-induced changes. The decrement in forced expiratory volume in 1s (Δ FEV1) in % of baseline was significantly correlated with BMI, r = −0.16, p = 0.03 with a slightly stronger correlation in women (n=75), r = −0.22, p = 0.05, and no significant correlation in men. BMI had a greater range in women than in men in our study. In women greater ozone-induced decrements were seen in overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m2) than in normal weight (BMI 18.5 to 25 kg/m2), and in normal weight than in underweight (BMI < 18.5 kg/m2) for all spirometric variables considered (P trend ≤ 0.022). Although our population studied was predominantly normal weight, we found that higher body mass index may be a modest risk factor for adverse pulmonary effects associated with ozone exposure, especially for women

Learning accountability literacies in educational workplaces:situated learning and processes of commodification

Literacies are always learned in particular social places and spaces, and the nature of a site shapes the experiences people have of learning literacies there. This paper considers the experiences of staff in two contrasting workplaces: an early years centre, and an adult education college. Both are educational workplaces, and staff are engaged in extensive literacy practices relating to recording and accountability, which they colloquially term ‘the paperwork’. In both sites, this paperwork is a source of struggle. However, closer analysis based on interviews and observations showed that there were significant differences between people’s experiences of learning accountability paperwork practices in the two sites. The paper identifies the key characteristics of these sites which seemed to foster or discourage the development of ‘mastery’ or ‘skilled knowledgeability’, drawing on situated learning theory. These site-specific characteristics are related to the broader processes of commodification of education within which the sites are situated