The Difference in Efficiency and Pulmonary Function While Performing Cycle Ergometry on Land and in Water

The purpose of this study was to quantify the difference in net efficiency and pulmonary function while performing cycle ergometry on land in water. Thirty healthy adults (mean ± SD, age, 20 ± 2 y; stature, 165 ± 10 cm; mass, 70 ± 5 kg) participated in one day of testing consisting of both land and water conditions. Heart rate, O2 consumption, CO2 production, rated perceived exertion, and minute ventilation were measured for both conditions at rest, pedaling at no resistance, 50, and 100 W for two minutes. A repeated measures two-way ANOVA with post hoc tests was used to analyzed the data. The magnitude of physiological functions (rated perceived exertion, minute ventilation, energy expenditure, & heart rate) increased at higher resistance levels (50 and 100W) in water as compared to land. Efficiency decreased at 50 and 100W in water. Energy expenditure and minute ventilation both increase while cycling in water, resulting in a decrease of efficiency by 4.61%. This is due to the drag forces associated with fluid dynamics. This study and its results add to the understanding of water exercise and are beneficial to the rehabilitation and the general well-being and health of the population.Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Shawn Henr

Appropriating Value From CRS Ownership in the Airline Industry

It is difficult for the firm competing through information technology (IT) resources to gain a sustainable advantage because systems are easy to imitate and often substitute resources are available to competitors. The innovator may be unable to appropriate all of the benefits from IT investments. Airlines have installed computerized reservations systems (CRSs) in travel agencies in order to appropriate the returns from their investments in information technology. The airlines expected to obtain a number of benefits from this strategy including increased efficiency, possible bias in favor of the CRS owner on the part of the travel agent, and fees from other airlines for making reservations for them. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the appropriation of value by CRS owners from deploying systems in travel agencies. These benefits, beyond fees from travel agents, should be seen in the vendor airline's market share between cities and in the overall performance of the airline at an industry level. This paper models airline performance as a function of CRS ownership at two levels: for selected city-pairs and at the overall level of the firm. The city-pair analysis employs a multinomial logit (MNL) market share model that analyzes five years of data on 72 city-pair routes. The industry model uses longitudinal data for a panel of ten airlines for twelve years. The results of both analyses support hypotheses that CRS ownership is positively related to airline performance. It appears that strong airlines have appropriated the benefits of their CRSs, turning them into highly specialized assets for further travel-related innovation. This work offers useful theoretical extensions and methodological approaches for the study of similar kinds of network technology innovations that are currently being deployed in association with electronic commerce on the Internet.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

APPROPRIABILITY AND THE INDIRECT VALUE OF CRS OWNERSHIP IN THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY

It is difficult for the firm investing in information technology (IT) to appropriate a1 of the benefits from its investment for itself- it is very easy to imitate innovations in IT. Airlines have installed computerized reservations systems (CRSs) in travel agencies in order to appropriate the returns from their investments in information technology. The airlines expected to obtain a number of benefits from this strategy including increased efficiency, possible bias in favor of the CRS owner on the part of the travel agent, and fees from other airlines for making reservations for them. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the indirect (non-fee) benefits to CRS owners from deploying systems in travel agencies. These indirect benefits should be seen in the vendor airline's market share between cities and in the overall performance of the airline at an industry level. This paper models airline performance as a function of CRS ownership at two levels: for selected city-pairs and at the overall level of the firm. The city-pair analysis employs a multinomial logit market share model using five years of data on 72 routes. The industry model uses longitudinal data for a panel of ten airlines for twelve years. The results of both analyses support hypotheses that CRS ownership is positively related to airline performance, It appears that strong airlines have appropriated the indirect benefits of their CRSs, turning them into highly specialized assets for further travel-related innovation.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

The Difference in Efficiency and Pulmonary Function While Performing Cycle Ergometry on Land and in Water

The purpose of this study was to quantify the difference in net efficiency and pulmonary function while performing cycle ergometry on land in water. Thirty healthy adults (mean ± SD, age, 20 ± 2 y; stature, 165 ± 10 cm; mass, 70 ± 5 kg) participated in one day of testing consisting of both land and water conditions. Heart rate, O2 consumption, CO2 production, rated perceived exertion, and minute ventilation were measured for both conditions at rest, pedaling at no resistance, 50, and 100 W for two minutes. A repeated measures two-way ANOVA with post hoc tests was used to analyzed the data. The magnitude of physiological functions (rated perceived exertion, minute ventilation, energy expenditure, & heart rate) increased at higher resistance levels (50 and 100W) in water as compared to land. Efficiency decreased at 50 and 100W in water. Energy expenditure and minute ventilation both increase while cycling in water, resulting in a decrease of efficiency by 4.61%. This is due to the drag forces associated with fluid dynamics. This study and its results add to the understanding of water exercise and are beneficial to the rehabilitation and the general well-being and health of the population

Carbon cycling in the deep eastern North Pacific benthic food web: Investigating the effect of organic carbon input

The deep ocean benthic environment plays a role in long-term carbon sequestration. Understanding carbon cycling in the deep ocean floor is critical to evaluate the impact of changing climate on the oceanic systems. Linear inverse modeling was used to quantify carbon transfer between compartments in the benthic food web at a long time-series study site in the abyssal northeastern Pacific (Station M). Linear inverse food web models were constructed for three separate years in the time-series when particulate organic carbon (POC) flux was relatively high (1990: 0.63 mean mmol C m?2 d?1), intermediate (1995: 0.24) and low (1996: 0.12). Carbon cycling in all years was dominated by the flows involved in the microbial loop; dissolved organic carbon uptake by microbes (0.80–0.95 mean mmol C m?2 d?1), microbial respiration (0.52–0.61), microbial biomass dissolution (0.09–0.18) and the dissolution of refractory detritus (0.46–0.65). Moreover, the magnitude of carbon flows involved in the microbial loop changed in relation to POC input, with a decline in contribution during the high POC influxes, such as those recently experienced at Station M. Results indicate that during high POC episodic pulses the role of faunal mediated carbon cycling would increase. Semi-labile detritus dominates benthic faunal diets and the role of labile detritus declined with increased total POC input. Linear inverse modeling represents an effective framework to analyze high-resolution time-series data and demonstrate the impact of climate change on the deep ocean carbon cycle in a coastal upwelling system

Diets of European polecat Mustela putorius in Great Britain during fifty years of population recovery

Following nineteenth-century declines, polecats Mustela putorius are recolonising Great Britain. Polecat diet relates to two potential risks to recovery. First, rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus, which are important prey for polecats, have experienced extreme population fluctuations, with near extirpation due to myxomatosis in the 1950s, recovery in 1960s–1990s and declines in 1990s–2010s. Second, polecats are secondarily exposed to anticoagulant rodenticides by eating contaminated rodents, and the frequency of polecat exposure to rodenticides is increasing. We analysed stomach contents from 99 polecats collected in 2012–2016 and compared results with earlier studies. Lagomorphs were the most abundant prey (66% frequency of occurrence, 95% confidence interval 53–74%), followed by other mammals (12%, 4–18%), amphibians (10%, 3–16%) and birds (7%, 1–13%). Diet varied seasonally; lagomorph occurrence was highest in spring and summer and lowest in autumn. Dietary niche breadth was greater in the 1960s, when rabbits were scarce, than in other decades, but did not differ between the 1990s and 2010s, indicating that diets have not diversified with recent rabbit declines. This may be because rabbit abundance is not yet low enough to cause dietary diversification or because polecats were collected in areas where rabbits were still abundant. Rodents did not increase in diet between the 1990s and 2010s and still occur with < 10% frequency, indicating that rodents need not contribute much to diet to expose polecats to rodenticides. This potentially limits the effectiveness of management actions designed to minimise polecat exposure to contaminated rodent prey

What Are the Roles and Responsibilities of the Media in Disseminating Health Information?

Background to the debate: In December 2004 three news stories in the popular press suggested that the side effects of single-dose nevirapine, which has been proven to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, had been covered up. Many HIV experts believed that the stories were unwarranted and that they would undermine use of the drug, leading to a rise in neonatal HIV infection. The controversy surrounding these stories prompted the PLoS Medicine editors to ask health journalists, and others with an interest in media reporting of health, to share their views on the roles and responsibilities of the media in disseminating health information