Front crawl swimming performance and bi-lateral force asymmetry during land-based and tethered swimming tests

©Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. The aims of this study were to investigate whether land-based and tethered swimming strength tests can explain swimming performance in 200-meter front crawl and, whether these tests were able to identify bilateral symmetry in force production. In the first session, eighteen swimmers completed a maximum effort 200 m front crawl swim (swimming performance) and 15 seconds maximal effort tethered front crawl swim. In the second session, participants performed the upper extremity isometric strength test. Peak force production of tethered swimming and isometric strength tests were significantly correlated for the strongest and weakest sides (r = 0.58 and r = 0.63, respectively; p < 0.05), but only peak force production during tethered swimming correlated with 200 m swimming performance time (r = -0.55, p < 0.05). Bilateral asymmetries in peak force and rate of force development were similar between the tethered swimming and isometric strength tests (peak force: 13%, p = 0.24; rate of force development: 15%, p = 0.88) However, both tests detected significant difference of peak force and rate of force development between body sides. The tethered swimming test can partially explain the 200 m front crawl swimming performance. In addition, the land-based and tethered swimming tests may be used to identify bilateral asymmetry of swimming

Structural change and foreign direct investment : globalization and regional economic integration

This paper investigates flows of inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI) and FDI-to-GDP ratios in a sample of 62 countries over a 30 year time span. Using several endogenous structural break procedures (allowing for one and two break points), we find that: (1) the great majority of the series have structural breaks in the last 15 years, (2) post-break FDI and FDI/GDP ratios are substantially higher than the pre-break values, and (3) most breaks seem to be related to globalization, regional economic integration, economic growth, or political instability. Static and dynamic panel-data analy- ses accounting for and/or addressing endogeneity, simultaneity, nonstationar- ity, heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence show that FDI is negatively related to exchange rate volatility and GDP per capita, but positively related to some regional integration agreements, trade openness, GDP, and GDP growth. Most notably, the European Union is the only regional economic integration unit found to consistently have significant and positive effects on FDI.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Functional imaging using fluorine ((19)F) MR methods: basic concepts

Kidney-associated pathologies would greatly benefit from noninvasive and robust methods that can objectively quantify changes in renal function. In the past years there has been a growing incentive to develop new applications for fluorine ((19)F) MRI in biomedical research to study functional changes during disease states. (19)F MRI represents an instrumental tool for the quantification of exogenous (19)F substances in vivo. One of the major benefits of (19)F MRI is that fluorine in its organic form is absent in eukaryotic cells. Therefore, the introduction of exogenous (19)F signals in vivo will yield background-free images, thus providing highly selective detection with absolute specificity in vivo. Here we introduce the concept of (19)F MRI, describe existing challenges, especially those pertaining to signal sensitivity, and give an overview of preclinical applications to illustrate the utility and applicability of this technique for measuring renal function in animal models. This chapter is based upon work from the COST Action PARENCHIMA, a community-driven network funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) program of the European Union, which aims to improve the reproducibility and standardization of renal MRI biomarkers. This introduction chapter is complemented by two separate chapters describing the experimental procedure and data analysis

The relationship between regional value-added and public capital in Finland: what do the new panel econometric techniques tell us?

Production function, Public capital, Panel unit root tests, Panel DOLS, Panel DSUR, C23, H11, H54,