2,303 research outputs found
Kava (Piper methysticum) in the South Pacific: its importance, methods of cultivation, cultivars, diseases and pests
Crop Production/Industries,
Muscle Oxygen Demands of the Vastus Lateralis in Back and Front Squats
International Journal of Exercise Science 13(6): 734-743, 2020. In resistance training squats are often used to strengthen the muscles of the lower extremities and core muscles. There are two common forms of squats that use a barbell for loading, the back squat and the front squat. The technique and loading of each squat differ markedly. However, the energetic demands on the muscle between the two forms are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the difference in energy demands between front and back squats by measuring the change in skeletal muscle oxygen saturation (SmO2) through the use of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Methods: Eleven resistance trained individuals, (5 female, 6 male) with an average age of 23.7 ± 1.4, completed 3 sets of 15 repetitions at 70% of their 1-RM weight for both back and front squats. Skeletal muscle oxygen saturation (SmO2) of the vastus lateralis was measured using a wireless NIRS device. Results: The ΔSmO2 was not significantly different between back and front squats but was different between sets 1-3 (44.76 ± 3.24% vs. 55.19 ± 2.75% vs. 56.30 ± 2.63%), main effect p ≤ 0.0001 . The recovery of SmO2 was significantly different between back (42.5 ± 3.4 sec) and front squats (30.9 ± 2.8 sec), main effect p ≤ 0.05. Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that the energetic demands placed on the vastus lateralis during both front and back squats are similar with a slower recovery of energetics in the back squat
Southward expansion: The myth of the West in the promotion of Florida, 1876–1900
This article examines the ways in which promoters and developers of Florida, in the decades after Reconstruction, engaged with a popular myth of the West as a means of recasting and selling their state to prospective settlers in the North and Midwest. The myth envisaged a cherished region to the west where worthy Americans could migrate and achieve social and economic independence away from the crowded confines of the East, or Europe. According to state immigration agents, land-promoters and other booster writers, Florida, although a Southern ex-Confederate state, offered precisely these 'western' opportunities for those hard-working Northerners seeking land and an opening for agrarian prosperity. However, the myth, which posited that, in the west, an individual's labour and thrift were rewarded with social and economic improvement, meshed awkwardly with the contemporary emergence of Florida as a popular winter destination for wealthy tourists and invalids seeking leisure and healthfulness away from the North. Yet it also reflected and reinforced promotional notions of racial improvement which would occur with an influx of enterprising Anglo-Americans, who would effectively displace the state's large African American population. In Florida, the myth of the West supported the linked post-Reconstruction processes of state development and racial subjugation
A Closed Class of Hydrodynamical Solutions for the Collective Excitations of a Bose-Einstein Condensate
A trajectory approach is taken to the hydrodynamical treatment of collective
excitations of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a harmonic trap. The excitations
induced by linear deformations of the trap are shown to constitute a broad
class of solutions that can be fully described by a simple nonlinear matrix
equation. An exact closed-form expression is obtained for the solution
describing the mode {n=0, m=2} in a cylindrically symmetric trap, and the
calculated amplitude-dependent frequency shift shows good agreement with the
experimental results of the JILA group.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 1 eps figure, identical to the published versio
Brane Universes with Gauss-Bonnet-Induced-Gravity
The DGP brane world model allows us to get the observed late time
acceleration via modified gravity, without the need for a ``dark energy''
field. This can then be generalised by the inclusion of high energy terms, in
the form of a Gauss-Bonnet bulk. This is the basis of the
Gauss-Bonnet-Induced-Gravity (GBIG) model explored here with both early and
late time modifications to the cosmological evolution. Recently the simplest
GBIG models (Minkowski bulk and no brane tension) have been analysed. Two of
the three possible branches in these models start with a finite density
``Big-Bang'' and with late time acceleration. Here we present a comprehensive
analysis of more general models where we include a bulk cosmological constant
and brane tension. We show that by including these factors it is possible to
have late time phantom behaviour.Comment: 12 pages, 19 figures. Minor modifications to text, comments on
phantom behaviour added. References added. As submitted to JCA
Weak force detection using a double Bose-Einstein condensate
A Bose-Einstein condensate may be used to make precise measurements of weak
forces, utilizing the macroscopic occupation of a single quantum state. We
present a scheme which uses a condensate in a double well potential to do this.
The required initial state of the condensate is discussed, and the limitations
on the sensitivity due to atom collisions and external coupling are analyzed.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, Eq.(41) has been correcte
Tests of Modified Gravity with Dwarf Galaxies
In modified gravity theories that seek to explain cosmic acceleration, dwarf
galaxies in low density environments can be subject to enhanced forces. The
class of scalar-tensor theories, which includes f(R) gravity, predict such a
force enhancement (massive galaxies like the Milky Way can evade it through a
screening mechanism that protects the interior of the galaxy from this "fifth"
force). We study observable deviations from GR in the disks of late-type dwarf
galaxies moving under gravity. The fifth-force acts on the dark matter and HI
gas disk, but not on the stellar disk owing to the self-screening of main
sequence stars. We find four distinct observable effects in such disk galaxies:
1. A displacement of the stellar disk from the HI disk. 2. Warping of the
stellar disk along the direction of the external force. 3. Enhancement of the
rotation curve measured from the HI gas compared to that of the stellar disk.
4. Asymmetry in the rotation curve of the stellar disk. We estimate that the
spatial effects can be up to 1 kpc and the rotation velocity effects about 10
km/s in infalling dwarf galaxies. Such deviations are measurable: we expect
that with a careful analysis of a sample of nearby dwarf galaxies one can
improve astrophysical constraints on gravity theories by over three orders of
magnitude, and even solar system constraints by one order of magnitude. Thus
effective tests of gravity along the lines suggested by Hui et al (2009) and
Jain (2011) can be carried out with low-redshift galaxies, though care must be
exercised in understanding possible complications from astrophysical effects.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figure
Black Hole Spin via Continuum Fitting and the Role of Spin in Powering Transient Jets
The spins of ten stellar black holes have been measured using the
continuum-fitting method. These black holes are located in two distinct classes
of X-ray binary systems, one that is persistently X-ray bright and another that
is transient. Both the persistent and transient black holes remain for long
periods in a state where their spectra are dominated by a thermal accretion
disk component. The spin of a black hole of known mass and distance can be
measured by fitting this thermal continuum spectrum to the thin-disk model of
Novikov and Thorne; the key fit parameter is the radius of the inner edge of
the black hole's accretion disk. Strong observational and theoretical evidence
links the inner-disk radius to the radius of the innermost stable circular
orbit, which is trivially related to the dimensionless spin parameter a_* of
the black hole (|a_*| < 1). The ten spins that have so far been measured by
this continuum-fitting method range widely from a_* \approx 0 to a_* > 0.95.
The robustness of the method is demonstrated by the dozens or hundreds of
independent and consistent measurements of spin that have been obtained for
several black holes, and through careful consideration of many sources of
systematic error. Among the results discussed is a dichotomy between the
transient and persistent black holes; the latter have higher spins and larger
masses. Also discussed is recently discovered evidence in the transient sources
for a correlation between the power of ballistic jets and black hole spin.Comment: 30 pages. Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Also to
appear in hard cover in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI "The Physics of
Accretion onto Black Holes" (Springer Publisher). Changes to Sections 5.2,
6.1 and 7.4. Section 7.4 responds to Russell et al. 2013 (MNRAS, 431, 405)
who find no evidence for a correlation between the power of ballistic jets
and black hole spi
Functional and molecular analysis of proprioceptive sensory neuron excitability in mice
Neurons located in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) are crucial for transmitting peripheral sensations such as proprioception, touch, temperature, and nociception to the spinal cord before propagating these signals to higher brain structures. To date, difficulty in identifying modality-specific DRG neurons has limited our ability to study specific populations in detail. As the calcium-binding protein parvalbumin (PV) is a neurochemical marker for proprioceptive DRG cells we used a transgenic mouse line expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) in PV positive DRGs, to study the functional and molecular properties of putative proprioceptive neurons. Immunolabeled DRGs showed a 100% overlap between GFP positive (GFP+) and PV positive cells, confirming the PVeGFP mouse accurately labeled PV neurons. Targeted patch-clamp recording from isolated GFP+ and GFP negative (GFP−) neurons showed the passive membrane properties of the two groups were similar, however, their active properties differed markedly. All GFP+ neurons fired a single spike in response to sustained current injection and their action potentials (APs) had faster rise times, lower thresholds and shorter half widths. A hyperpolarization-activated current (Ih) was observed in all GFP+ neurons but was infrequently noted in the GFP− population (100% vs. 11%). For GFP+ neurons, Ih activation rates varied markedly, suggesting differences in the underlying hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel (HCN) subunit expression responsible for the current kinetics. Furthermore, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) showed the HCN subunits 2, 1, and 4 mRNA (in that order) was more abundant in GFP+ neurons, while HCN 3 was more highly expressed in GFP− neurons. Likewise, immunolabeling confirmed HCN 1, 2, and 4 protein expression in GFP+ neurons. In summary, certain functional properties of GFP+ and GFP− cells differ markedly, providing evidence for modality-specific signaling between the two groups. However, the GFP+ DRG population demonstrates considerable internal heterogeneity when hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel (HCN channel) properties and subunit expression are considered. We propose this heterogeneity reflects the existence of different peripheral receptors such as tendon organs, muscle spindles or mechanoreceptors in the putative proprioceptive neuron population
The VLBA Imaging and Polarimetry Survey at 5 GHz
We present the first results of the VLBA Imaging and Polarimetry Survey
(VIPS), a 5 GHz VLBI survey of 1,127 sources with flat radio spectra. Through
automated data reduction and imaging routines, we have produced publicly
available I, Q, and U images and have detected polarized flux density from 37%
of the sources. We have also developed an algorithm to use each source's I
image to automatically classify it as a point-like source, a core-jet, a
compact symmetric object (CSO) candidate, or a complex source. The mean ratio
of the polarized to total 5 GHz flux density for VIPS sources with detected
polarized flux density ranges from 1% to 20% with a median value of about 5%.
We have also found significant evidence that the directions of the jets in
core-jet systems tend to be perpendicular to the electric vector position
angles (EVPAs). The data is consistent with a scenario in which ~24% of the
polarized core-jets have EVPAs that are anti-aligned with the directions of
their jet components and which have a substantial amount of Faraday rotation.
In addition to these initial results, plans for future follow-up observations
are discussed.Comment: 36 pages, 3 tables, 13 figures; accepted for publication in Ap
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