Fatigue and Recovery from Dynamic Contractions in Men and Women Differ for Arm and Leg Muscles

Introduction: Whether there is a gender difference in fatigue and recovery from maximal velocity fatiguing contractions and across muscles is not understood. Methods: Sixteen men and 19 women performed 90 isotonic contractions at maximal voluntary shortening velocity (maximal velocity concentric contractions, MVCC) with the elbow flexor and knee extensor muscles (separate days) at a load equivalent to 20% maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC). Results: Power (from MVCCs) decreased similarly for men and women for both muscles (P \u3e 0.05). Men and women had similar declines in MVIC of elbow flexors, but men had greater reductions in knee extensor MVIC force and MVIC electromyogram activity than women (P \u3c 0.05). The decline in MVIC and power was greater, and force recovery was slower for the elbow flexors compared with knee extensors. Conclusions: The gender difference in muscle fatigue often observed during isometric tasks was diminished during fast dynamic contractions for upper and lower limb muscles

NHEP Overview

The NHEP is part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) National Estuary Program, which is a collaborative local/state/federal program established under the Clean Water Act with the goal of promoting the protection and enhancement of nationally significant estuarine resources. The NHEP receives its funding from the EPA and is administered by the University of New Hampshire. The mission of the NHEP is to protect, enhance, and monitor the environmental quality of the state’s estuaries

Review of: Preventing and Controlling Cancer in North America: A Cross- Cultural Perspective (Diane Weiner, ed.)

Review of the book: Preventing and Controlling Cancer in North America: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Diane Weiner, ed., Praeger Publishers 1999). Illustrations, Introduction, Concluding Remarks, Bibliography, Index, About the Contributors. ISBN 0-275-96180-X [245 pp. $72.50 Hardbound, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881.

Making global connections through dance film

Dance film communicates on a most basic level, eliminating barriers of language and geography. Through this accessible art form, one is able to experience a variety of global perspectives that tend to crystalize aspects of the universal human experience, promoting our sense of belonging to a global family

A critical analysis of approaches to the concept of social identity in social policy

This article seeks both to highlight a current imbalance in approaches to social identity in social policy, and to make suggestions as to how this might be redressed in future work employing the concept. The concept of identity and specifically social identity is increasingly employed in the discipline of social policy as a theoretical device with which to bridge the individual/social divide. The argument presented here suggests that the concept is however, unevenly deployed in policy analysis and, therefore lacks the force of impact it might otherwise have had. The predominant focus of current analysis lies in policy change precipitated by groups of ‘new,’ active welfare constituents organised around differentiated and fragmented social identities, whereas the identities of welfare professionals also involved in policy making process have disappeared from analytical view. The current emphasis on the discursive context for policy formulation, perpetuates an unacknowledged misconception concerning the asociality of those involved in policy making, where their principal role is perceived as the maintenance of the status quo in terms of social policy responses to welfare constituents needs. Redressing this false dichotomy between those developing and those using welfare services might be avoided by further exploring the concept of relational identity

Using Multiobjective Genetic Programming to Infer Logistic Polynomial Regression Models [and] Experimental Supplement

Abstract. In designing non-linear classifiers, there are important trade-offs to be made between predictive accuracy and model comprehensibility or complexity. We introduce the use of Genetic Programming to generate logistic polynomial models, a relatively comprehensible non-linear parametric model; describe an efficient twostage algorithm consisting of GP structure design and Quasi-Newton coefficient setting; demonstrate that Niched Pareto Multiobjective Genetic Programming can be used to discover a range of classifiers with different complexity versus “performance” trade-offs; introduce a technique to integrate a new “ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) dominance” concept into the multiobjective setting; and suggest some modifications to the Niched Pareto GA for use in Genetic Programming. The technique successfully generates classifiers with diverse complexity and performance characteristics

Report. Robert Boyle for the twenty-first century

In recent years, major steps have been taken in terms of understanding and exploiting the vast archive of Robert Boyle (1627-91), which was presented to The Royal Society in 1769. The collection was first catalogued in the 1980s; since then, it has been extensively used in preparing the definitive editions of Boyle's Works (14 vols, 1999-2000) and Correspondence (6 vols, 2001), both published by Pickering & Chatto, and the edition of his 'workdiaries', which has been available online since 2001. Now, thanks to a generous grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, various steps have been taken to enhance access to the archive--particularly by electronic means, and especially through the provision of high-quality digitized images of its key components--and thus to increase understanding of Boyle and his significance for the origins of modern science. The project, entitled 'Robert Boyle for the twenty-first century', is a joint initiative between Birkbeck (University of London), The Royal Society and Access to Archives. It has three main components: first, the revision of the catalogue of the Boyle archive and its presentation in online, searchable form; second, the creation of digitized images of the entire content of the core volumes of the Boyle Papers and the publication of these on the World Wide Web, some as illustrations to an updated edition of the workdiaries; and third, the provision of introductory material on Boyle aimed at schools on the Boyle website at Birkbeck