PHYSICAL PREDICTORS OF SUCCESS IN BEGINNING ROCK CLIMBERS

INTRODUCTION: Rock climbing is becoming an increasingly popular sport in many areas, especially since the arrival of indoor climbing surfaces. As in popularity increases there are more novice climbers and climbing students. While studies have been done to establish the relationship between selected physical characteristics and success in elite climbers (Watts, Martin and Durtschi, 1993; Cutts and Bollen, 1993; Grant, Hynes, Whittaker and Aitchison, 1996), no studies have looked at those physical characteristics that relate to success in the novice climber. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the variables of height/weight, grip strength, upper body strength and muscular endurance, leg strength, leg span, or maximum thigh abduction angle can predict success in novice rock climbing students

Radiocarbon dates from the Highland Jar and Coffin burial site of Phnom Khnang Peung, Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia

The Cardamom Mountain Jar and Coffin burial site of Phnom Khnang Peung is the most extensive example of the distinctive burial ritual first reported by Beavan et al. (2012a). The 40 intact Mae Nam Noi and late Angkorian-era ceramic jars used as burial vessels held a total of up to 152 individuals, representing the largest corpus of skeletal remains of any of the 10 known Jar and Coffin burial sites that have been discovered in the eastern ranges of the Cardamom Mountains of Cambodia. We report here on the radiocarbon dating of this site and notable burial phenomena, using a Bayesian approach to model the start and end date of activity as well as its overall span. The results of the dating and Bayesian analyses indicate that the Phnom Khnang Peung site’s earliest burials began cal AD 1420–1440 (95% probability). Interestingly, the concen- tration of burial activity spans only 15–45 years (95% probability), despite the large number of inhumations at the site. The 14C chronology presented for the site places the Highland burial ritual coincident with a period of economic, political, and societal transformations in the lowland Angkorian polity, but the unique burial practice and trade relationships evidenced by the burial goods and maritime trade ware ceramics employed in the burial ritual suggest these Highland people were a culture apart from Angkorian cultural influences

From Dropout to Doctorate: A Phenomenology of the Self-Determination of Individuals who Persisted to Completion

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the lived experiences of former high school dropouts in the Continental United States who self-determined to persist to doctoral degree attainment. The theory that guided this study was the self-determination theory with support from the self-efficacy theory and adult learning theory. These three theories framed this study, which sought to discover the motivating factors, life influences, and perseverance required of former high school dropouts who determined to re-enter academia and pursue an education to the doctoral level. The problem this study sought to address was the need to discover the ongoing and necessary motivation, self-determination, and perseverance of high school dropouts who have returned to school to pursue graduate studies to the doctoral level. The participants’ lived experiences were gathered through a demographic survey, personal interviews, open-ended questions, journals, observations, and letter writing. The study was undertaken within an interpretive framework through the social constructivism worldview. Data analysis was achieved by bracketing, categorization into significant concepts and themes, and textural and structural descriptions. The participants’ lived experiences were investigated to discover their essential universal experience. The essence of the phenomenon was the discovery of the necessary self-motivation and persistence of individuals who graduate with a doctorate degree as former high school dropouts despite the many obstacles. Core themes were (a) personal suffering increased self-determination, (b) overcoming negative childhood experiences motivated academic accomplishment, and (c) the pursuit and attainment of a doctoral degree was life-changing and accomplished through faith

The Distribution of Error Terms of Smoothed Summatory Totient Functions

We consider the summatory function of the totient function after applications of a suitable smoothing operator and study the limiting behavior of the associated error term. Under several conditional assumptions, we show that the smoothed error term possesses a limiting logarithmic distribution through a framework consolidated by Akbary--Ng--Shahabi. To obtain this result, we prove a truncated version of Perron's inversion formula for arbitrary Riesz typical means. We conclude with a conditional proof that at least two applications of the smoothing operator are necessary and sufficient to bound the growth of the error term by $\sqrt{x}$.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

Interactive Effects of Working Memory Self-Regulatory Ability and Relevance Instructions on Text Processing

Reading is a process that requires the enactment of many cognitive processes. Each of these processes uses a certain amount of working memory resources, which are severely constrained by biology. More efficiency in the function of working memory may mediate the biological limits of same. Reading relevancy instructions may be one such method to assist readers in utilizing working memory resources more efficiently. This study examines the relationship between perspective relevance instructions and participants\u27 ability to regulate their working memory resources. In a 3 x 2 x 2 design the study extended the literature by utilizing a measure of fluid intelligence in order to gain a more accurate understanding of the working memory central executive mechanism at work when a reader is given perspective relevance instructions. Results showed self-regulation had no effect on relevancy instruction. The treatment group took less time to read relevant information than non relevant and recalled more relevant information than non relevant information. These findings highlight the robustness of the relevancy effect

Toward a Latinx Stratification Economics

This paper describes Latinx stratification economics (LSE) as a scholarly approach to studying the economic status of Latinas/os/es/xs primarily in the United States. We coin the term LSE to refer to work that draws on and is in conversation with both the emergent, interdisciplinary subfield of stratification economics (SE) and the interdisciplinary field of Latinx studies (LS). SE and LS have distinct intellectual traditions and drawing on both leads to strong theoretical and empirical scholarship on Latinxs, on the operation of race across space and historical time, and on the intersection of race with other systems of domination. We discuss how, based on these perspectives, it is misguided to expect racial/ethnic categories like Hispanic to be consistent over time and space and to correspond reliably with phenotypical characteristics or culture. We argue that a good faith reading of the LS literature would result in the recommendation to subordinate models of migration to models of colonialism and imperialism. We discuss the significance of normative goals and social justice to complement “gap analysis” comparisons to non-Hispanic whites. Lastly, we discuss deficiencies of the dominant models of discrimination and, as an alternative, we highlight rational models of racism that involve strategic identifications with whiteness, blackness, and mestizaje, including by members who identify as Latinx or those with Hispanic ancestry

Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus Science Insert - 03

Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus Science Insert - 03 (CSI-03) is the third set of investigations in the CSI program series. The CSI program provides the K-12 community opportunities to utilize the unique microgravity environment of the International Space Station as part of the regular classroom to encourage learning and interest in science, technology, engineering and math. CSI-03 will examine the complete life cycle of the painted lady butterfly and the ability of an orb weaving spider to spin a web, eat and remain healthy in space

Low nutritive quality as defense against herbivores

Contrary to a widespread assumption in the literature on plant-herbivore interactions, individual plants do not necessarily benefit by possessing traits which lower herbivore fitness. In particular, genes conferring lowered nutritive quality could even increase herbivore damage under certain circumstances. Three special sets of conditions are outlined in which low nutritive quality would lower herbivore-induced damage to an individual plant. These sets are far from exhaustive. It is concluded that the adaptiveness of lowered nutritive quality in herbivore defense is widely possible but in no case demonstrated.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23144/1/0000068.pd

Comparison of the ramp versus standard exercise protocols

To compare the hemodynamic and gas exchange responses of ramp treadmill and cycle ergometer tests with standard exercise protocols used clinically, 10 patients with chronic heart failure, 10 with coronary artery disease who were asymptomatic during exercise, 11 with coronary artery disease who were limited by angina during exercise and 10 age-matched normal subjects performed maximal exercise using six different exercise protocols. Gas exchange data were collected continuously during each of the following protocols, performed on separate days in randomized order: Bruce, Balke and an individualized ramp treadmill; 25 W/stage, 50 W/stage and an individualized ramp cycle ergometer test.Maximal oxygen uptake was 16% greater on the treadmill protocols combined (21.4 ± 8 ml/kg per min) versus the cycle ergometer protocols combined (18.1 ± 7 ml/kg per min) (< 0.01), although no differences were observed in maximal heart rate (131 ± 24 versus 126 ± 24 beats/min for the treadmill and cycle ergometer protocols, respectively). No major differences were observed in maximal heart rate or maximal oxygen uptake among the various treadmill protocols or among the various cycle ergometer protocols. The ratio of oxygen uptake to work rate, expressed as a slope, was highest for the ramp tests (slope ± SEE ml/kg per min = 0.80 ± 2.5 and 0.78 ±1.7 for ramp treadmill and ramp cycle ergometer, respectively). The slopes were poorest for the tests with the largest increments in work (0.62 ± 4.0 and 0.59 ± 2.8 for the Bruce treadmill and 50 W/stage cycle ergometer, respectively).Normal subjects demonstrated a greater slope (0.71 ± 4.2) than did patients with chronic heart failure (0.53 ± 2.8), coronary artery disease (0.51 ± 2.6) and angina (0.53 ± 3.1) (< 0.001). The difference between measured and predicted maximal oxygen uptake was greatest for the tests with the largest increments between stages (>1 metabolic equivalent (MET) for the Bruce treadmill and 50 W/stage cycle ergometer) and least for the tests with the smallest increments between stages (ramp tests and 25 W/stage cycle ergometer). These findings suggest that the exercise protocol, even when the same mode is used, can result in marked variations in maximal oxygen uptake and the dynamics of gas exchange during exercise testing