The effects of static stretching sets in warm-up on maximum vertical jump performance

The purpose of the study was to determine whether changing the number of static stretching sets during the warm-up changes maximum vertical jump (MVJ) performance. Twenty-five healthy male and female subjects between the ages of 18--40 volunteered to be in the study. The data was statistically treated using a two (pre-test, post-test) by three (NS, 1SS, and 3SS) ANOVA with repeated measures. The dependent variable was MVJ. The independent variables were test and static stretching sets. The analysis revealed that there were no significant differences between pre-test MVJ scores, but a significant difference between post-test scores for all treatments. MVJ was significantly lower when comparing MVJ scores from 3SS to NS and from 3SS to 1SS. By increasing the number of static stretching sets performance was significantly effected. Possible explanations of the mechanisms to explain the effects of acute stretching on performance are changes in musculotendinous stiffness and neuromuscular suppression

Heart rate variability and erectile function in younger men: A pilot study

Erectile dysfunction (ED) in younger men is an increasing concern. In middle aged and older men, ED was related to lower resting heart rate variability (HRV), but research in younger men is lacking. The present study examined, in a nonclinical sample of 105 men between 18 and 39 years, the association of ED with several parameters of resting HRV. Scores of the 5-item version of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) below 22 were considered as indicating ED. Eighteen men (17.1%) reported ED (mild in 16, mild to moderate in 2). Welch's tests revealed that ED was associated with lower low-frequency power (LF), lower high-frequency power (HF), lower standard deviation of interbeat intervals, and lower standard deviation of the heart rate, which is influenced by both sympathetic and parasympathetic activity. After removing outliers, ED was unrelated to HF. In younger men, erections might be facilitated by a combination of higher parasympathetic tone and relatively higher sympathetic tone in the heart, as indicated by LF and greater standard deviation of the heart rate, a largely overlooked parameter in HRV research.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Desenvolupament del portal web del Museu de la Matemàtica de Catalunya

Treballs Finals de Grau d'Enginyeria Informàtica, Facultat de Matemàtiques, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2016, Director: Eloi Puertas i Prats i Anna Puig i PuigMathematics Museum of Catalonia aims at dissemination of local heritage and actions in conservation and restoration of this heritage. MMACA association manages the museum. It is also responsible for the restoration and inventory Fine background of the city , especially disseminated and promoted as a cultural facility the "Castell de Cornellà" through visits, public events, etc. On the other hand it is responsible for the provision of public spaces for reading and study, provides material to libraries and organizes activities to promote reading. For some time the museum had been thinking about changing its management on its website. I wanted to start a new project to have documented all modules from their needs

Perspetiva atual e futura da nova regulamentação da investigação clínica

Mestrado em Biomedicina FarmacêuticaA investigação clínica na Europa, e em particular em Portugal, tem vindo a perder competitividade, uma situação preocupante face aos benefícios que a investigação representa para os doentes, instituições, profissionais de saúde e comunidade científica. O quadro regulamentar da investigação clínica em Portugal sofreu alterações significativas em 2014 com a implementação da Lei n.º 21/2014. Adicionalmente, o Regulamento UE n.º 536/2014, publicado no mesmo ano, será implementado a partir de maio de 2016, entrando diretamente em vigor nos países membros. Esta nova regulamentação contribuiu positivamente para o desenvolvimento da investigação clínica em Portugal. No entanto é fundamental colocar em prática todas a medidas promulgadas para que haja um crescimento sustentado do número de estudos clínicos em Portugal.The clinical research in Europe, particularly in Portugal has been losing competitiveness, a concerning situation considering the benefits that clinical research brings for patients, institutions, healthcare professionals and the scientific community. The clinical research regulatory framework in Portugal has changed significantly in 2014 with the implementation of Law n. 21/2014. In addition, the EU Regulation n. 536/2014 published the same year will be implemented from May 2016, entering directly into force in all the member countries. This new regulation contributed positively for the development of the clinical research in Portugal. However, it is crucial to put in place all the measures promulgated to get a sustained increase in the number of clinical studies in Portugal

Responses of “Newhall" orange trees to iron deficiency in hydroponics: effects on leaf chlorophyll, photosynthetic efficiency, and root ferric chelate reductase activity

Orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osb. cv. ‘Newhall’) plants grafted on Citrange troyer rootstock were grown in nutrient solution with 0, 5, 10 or 20 M Fe, with and without calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate was added in order to mimic the natural conditions in calcareous soils. Leaf chlorophyll concentration was estimated every 3–4 days using the portable instrument SPAD-502 meter. Chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, photosynthetic capacity estimated from oxygen 2 evolution, leaf Fe concentrations, and root tip ferric chelate reductase activity were measured at the end of the experiment. Plants from the 0 and 5 μM Fe treatments showed leaf chlorosis and had decreased leaf chlorophyll concentrations. Leaves of plants grown in the absence of Fe in the solution had smaller rates of oxygen evolution both in the presence and absence of calcium carbonate, compared with plants grown in the presence of 10 M Fe. In the absence of calcium carbonate the photosystem II efficiency, estimated from fluorescence parameters, was similar in all treatments. A slight decrease in photosystem II efficiency was observed in plants grown without Fe and in the presence of calcium carbonate. A 2.5-fold increase in root tip ferric chelate reductase activity over the control values was found only when plants were grown with low levels of Fe and in the presence of calcium carbonate

Fast multipole preconditioners for sparse matrices arising from elliptic equations

Among optimal hierarchical algorithms for the computational solution of elliptic problems, the Fast Multipole Method (FMM) stands out for its adaptability to emerging architectures, having high arithmetic intensity, tunable accuracy, and relaxable global synchronization requirements. We demonstrate that, beyond its traditional use as a solver in problems for which explicit free-space kernel representations are available, the FMM has applicability as a preconditioner in finite domain elliptic boundary value problems, by equipping it with boundary integral capability for satisfying conditions at finite boundaries and by wrapping it in a Krylov method for extensibility to more general operators. Here, we do not discuss the well developed applications of FMM to implement matrix-vector multiplications within Krylov solvers of boundary element methods. Instead, we propose using FMM for the volume-to-volume contribution of inhomogeneous Poisson-like problems, where the boundary integral is a small part of the overall computation. Our method may be used to precondition sparse matrices arising from finite difference/element discretizations, and can handle a broader range of scientific applications. It is capable of algebraic convergence rates down to the truncation error of the discretized PDE comparable to those of multigrid methods, and it offers potentially superior multicore and distributed memory scalability properties on commodity architecture supercomputers. Compared with other methods exploiting the low-rank character of off-diagonal blocks of the dense resolvent operator, FMM-preconditioned Krylov iteration may reduce the amount of communication because it is matrix-free and exploits the tree structure of FMM. We describe our tests in reproducible detail with freely available codes and outline directions for further extensibility

Subjective sleep quality, unstimulated sexual arousal, and sexual frequency

Introduction: REM sleep deprivation increases unstimulated erections in rats, and total sleep deprivation increases erections during audiovisual sexual stimulation in men, but the effects of sleep problems on human unstimulated sexual arousal are unknown. Objective: We examined the associations of subjective sleep quality with unstimulated sexual arousal, satisfaction with sex life, and sexual frequency and desire over the past month. Methods: 275 Portuguese (169 women) reported their anxiety, sexual arousal and sexual desire during a resting state, and completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the sexual satisfaction subscale of the LiSat scale, the Desire dimensions of the Female Sexual Function Index (women only) and International Index of Erectile Function (men only). They additionally reported how many days in the past month they engaged in penile-vaginal intercourse, noncoital sex, and masturbation. Salivary testosterone (T) was assayed by luminescence immunoassays. Results: Poorer sleep quality correlated with greater unstimulated sexual arousal in men with higher T levels and in women with higher T levels not taking oral contraceptives. In women with lower T, poorer subjective sleep quality correlated with greater sexual dissatisfaction. In both sexes, sleep quality was uncorrelated with sexual desire and sexual frequency over the past month. Discussion: Consistently with other studies in humans and animals, the findings are congruent with the notion that lack of sleep can increase sexual arousal, but not sexual frequency. T might play a role in the sexual arousal caused by lack of appropriate sleep.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio