The Relevance of Sex Differences in Performance Fatigability

Performance fatigability differs between men and women for a range of fatiguing tasks. Women are usually less fatigable than men, and this is most widely described for isometric fatiguing contractions and some dynamic tasks. The sex difference in fatigability is specific to the task demands so that one mechanism is not universal, including any sex differences in skeletal muscle physiology, muscle perfusion, and voluntary activation. However, there are substantial knowledge gaps about the task dependency of the sex differences in fatigability, the involved mechanisms, and the relevance to clinical populations and with advanced age. The knowledge gaps are in part due to the significant deficits in the number of women included in performance fatigability studies despite a gradual increase in the inclusion of women for the last 20 yr. Therefore, this review 1) provides a rationale for the limited knowledge about sex differences in performance fatigability, 2) summarizes the current knowledge on sex differences in fatigability and the potential mechanisms across a range of tasks, 3) highlights emerging areas of opportunity in clinical populations, and 4) suggests strategies to close the knowledge gap and understanding the relevance of sex differences in performance fatigability. The limited understanding about sex differences in fatigability in healthy and clinical populations presents as a field ripe with opportunity for high-impact studies. Such studies will inform on the limitations of men and women during athletic endeavors, ergonomic tasks, and daily activities. Because fatigability is required for effective neuromuscular adaptation, sex differences in fatigability studies will also inform on optimal strategies for training and rehabilitation in both men and women

Performance Fatigability: Mechanisms and Task Specificity

Performance fatigability is characterized as an acute decline in motor performance caused by an exercise-induced reduction in force or power of the involved muscles. Multiple mechanisms contribute to performance fatigability and originate from neural and muscular processes, with the task demands dictating the mechanisms. This review highlights that (1) inadequate activation of the motoneuron pool can contribute to performance fatigability, and (2) the demands of the task and the physiological characteristics of the population assessed, dictate fatigability and the involved mechanisms. Examples of task and population differences in fatigability highlighted in this review include contraction intensity and velocity, stability and support provided to the fatiguing limb, sex differences, and aging. A future challenge is to define specific mechanisms of fatigability and to translate these findings to real-world performance and exercise training in healthy and clinical populations across the life span

Short-Time Existence for Scale-Invariant Hamiltonian Waves

We prove short-time existence of smooth solutions for a class of nonlinear, and in general spatially nonlocal, Hamiltonian evolution equations that describe the self-interaction of weakly nonlinear scale-invariant waves. These equations include ones that describe weakly nonlinear hyperbolic surface waves, such as nonlinear Rayleigh wave

Sex Differences in Fatigability of Dynamic Contractions

Women are usually less fatigable than men during single-limb isometric contractions, primarily because of sex-related differences in contractile mechanisms. It is less clear whether these sex differences in muscle fatigue occur for dynamic fatiguing tasks. This review highlights new findings that the sex difference in fatigability for dynamic shortening contractions with a single limb is dependent on the contraction velocity and the muscle group involved. Recent studies demonstrate that women are less fatigable than men for a dynamic task as follows: (i) the elbow-flexor muscles at slow- but not high-velocity contractions; and (ii) the knee-extensor muscles when muscle fatigue was quantified as a reduction in the maximal voluntary isometric contraction force after the dynamic fatiguing task. Contractile mechanisms are responsible for the sex difference in muscle fatigue of the dynamic contractions, with no evidence for a sex difference in the reduction in voluntary activation (i.e. central fatigue). Thus, these findings indicate that the sex difference in muscle fatigue of dynamic contractions is task specific. These data also challenge the assumption that men and women respond in a similar manner to training and rehabilitation that involve fatiguing contractions to overload the neuromuscular system. There is, however, a tremendous opportunity for conducting high-impact studies to gain insight into those factors that define the sex-based differences in muscle fatigue during dynamic tasks. Such studies can define the boundaries to human performance in both men and women during athletic endeavours, ergonomic tasks and rehabilitation

Sex Differences and Mechanisms of Task-Specific Muscle Fatigue

Women can be less fatigable than men due to sex-related differences within the neuromuscular system that impact physiological adjustments during a fatiguing task. The involved mechanism(s) for the sex difference, however, is task specific. This review explores the novel hypothesis that variation of the task will alter the magnitude of the sex-difference in muscle fatigue and the contribution of involved mechanisms

Orientation Waves in a Director Field With Rotational Inertia

We study the propagation of orientation waves in a director field with rotational inertia and potential energy given by the Oseen-Frank energy functional from the continuum theory of nematic liquid crystals. There are two types of waves, which we call splay and twist waves. Weakly nonlinear splay waves are described by the quadratically nonlinear Hunter-Saxton equation. Here, we show that weakly nonlinear twist waves are described by a new cubically nonlinear, completely integrable asymptotic equation. This equation provides a surprising representation of the Hunter-Saxton equation as an advection equation. There is an analogous representation of the Camassa-Holm equation. We use the asymptotic equation to analyze a one-dimensional initial value problem for the director-field equations with twist-wave initial data

Diffractive Nonlinear Geometrical Optics for Variational Wave Equations and the Einstein Equations

We derive an asymptotic solution of the vacuum Einstein equations that describes the propagation and diffraction of a localized, large-amplitude, rapidly-varying gravitational wave. We compare and contrast the resulting theory of strongly nonlinear geometrical optics for the Einstein equations with nonlinear geometrical optics theories for variational wave equations

Large amplitude gravitational waves

We derive an asymptotic solution of the Einstein field equations which describes the propagation of a thin, large amplitude gravitational wave into a curved space-time. The resulting equations have the same form as the colliding plane wave equations without one of the usual constraint equations

Genetic algorithm design of neural network and fuzzy logic controllers

Genetic algorithm design of neural network and fuzzy logic controller