Nutritional Practices of National Female Soccer Players: Analysis and Recommendations.

The aim of the study was to establish the nutritional practices and activity patterns of elite female soccer players. The nutritional intake of 16 female England Soccer players was self-reported over a seven-day period. Participants were provided with written and verbal guidelines for the completion of the diaries. Training details were also recorded, and used in combination with BMR predictions to calculate daily energy expenditure. Energy, macronutrient and micronutrient intakes were determined using DietMaster 4.0 software. Results suggest that energy intake was low (1904 ± 366.3 kcal) in relation to previous recommendations for soccer players. Energy expenditure (2153.5 ± 596.2 kcal) was not significantly different (p > 0.05) from intake, suggesting energy balance was achieved. Carbohydrate (53.8 ± 6.8%), protein (16.8 ± 2.1%) and fat (28.8 ± 6.6%) intakes were in line with recommendations. Fluid intake (2466 ± 1350.5ml·day-1) was sufficient to meet baseline recommendations, but would need to be higher to meet the additional requirement of training and competition. With the exception of vitamin A and iron, all micronutrient intakes were higher than the DRI. In conclusion, recommendations for female soccer players are to encourage consumption of carbohydrate-electrolyte beverages to enhance carbohydrate intake and increase fluid intake, and ensure sufficient iron rich foods are included in the diet to meet the DRI

Capillary Waves at Liquid/Vapor Interfaces: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Evidence for capillary waves at a liquid/vapor interface are presented from extensive molecular dynamics simulations of a system containing up to 1.24 million Lennard-Jones particles. Careful measurements show that the total interfacial width depends logarithmically on $L_\parallel$, the length of the simulation cell parallel to the interface, as predicted theoretically. The strength of the divergence of the interfacial width on $L_\parallel$ depends inversely on the surface tension $\gamma$. This allows us to measure $\gamma$ two ways since $\gamma$ can also be obtained from the difference in the pressure parallel and perpendicular to the interface. These two independent measures of $\gamma$ agree provided that the interfacial order parameter profile is fit to an error function and not a hyperbolic tangent, as often assumed. We explore why these two common fitting functions give different results for $\gamma$

Compactness of the space of causal curves

We prove that the space of causal curves between compact subsets of a separable globally hyperbolic poset is itself compact in the Vietoris topology. Although this result implies the usual result in general relativity, its proof does not require the use of geometry or differentiable structure.Comment: 15 page

Second Harmonic Generation from Phononic Epsilon-Near-Zero Berreman Modes in Ultrathin Polar Crystal Films

Immense optical field enhancement was predicted to occur for the Berreman mode in ultrathin films at frequencies in the vicinity of epsilon near zero (ENZ). Here, we report the first experimental proof of this prediction in the mid-infrared by probing the resonantly enhanced second harmonic generation (SHG) at the longitudinal optic phonon frequency from a deeply subwavelength-thin aluminum nitride (AlN) film. Employing a transfer matrix formalism, we show that the field enhancement is completely localized inside the AlN layer, revealing that the observed SHG signal of the Berreman mode is solely generated in the AlN film. Our results demonstrate that ENZ Berreman modes in intrinsically low-loss polar dielectric crystals constitute a promising platform for nonlinear nanophotonic applications

Design of a microwave radiometer for monitoring high voltage insulator contamination level

Microwave radiometry is a novel method for monitoring contamination levels on high voltage insulators. The microwave radiometer described measures energy emitted from the contamination layer and could provide a safe, reliable, contactless monitoring method that is effective under dry conditions. The design of the system has focused on optimizing accuracy, stability and sensitivity using a relatively low cost architecture. Experimental results demonstrate that the output from the radiometer is able to clearly distinguish between samples with different contamination levels under dry conditions. This contamination monitoring method could potentially provide advance warning of the future failure of wet insulators in climates where insulators can experience dry conditions for extended periods

The Education System in Mexico

Over the last three decades, a significant amount of research has sought to relate educational institutions, policies, practices and reforms to social structures and agencies. A number of models have been developed that have become the basis for attempting to understand the complex relation between education and society. At the same time, national and international bodies tasked with improving educational performances seem to be writing in a void, in that there is no rigorous theory guiding their work, and their documents exhibit few references to groups, institutions and forces that can impede or promote their programmes and projects. As a result, the recommendations these bodies provide to their clients display little to no comprehension of how and under what conditions the recommendations can be put into effect. The Education System in Mexico directly addresses this problem. By combining abstract insights with the practicalities of educational reforms, policies, practices and their social antecedents, it offers a long overdue reflection of the history, effects and significance of the Mexican educational system, as well as presenting a more cogent understanding of the relationship between educational institutions and social forces in Mexico and around the world

Second Messengers

Second messengers are small molecules and ions that relay signals received by cell-surface receptors to effector proteins. They include a wide variety of chemical species and have diverse properties that allow them to signal within membranes (e.g., hydrophobic molecules such as lipids and lipid derivatives), within the cytosol (e.g., polar molecules such as nucleotides and ions), or between the two (e.g., gases and free radicals). Second messengers are typically present at low concentrations in resting cells and can be rapidly produced or released when cells are stimulated. The levels of second messengers are exquisitely controlled temporally and spatially, and, during signaling, enzymatic reactions or opening of ion channels ensure that they are highly amplified. These messengers then diffuse rapidly from the source and bind to target proteins to alter their properties (activity, localization, stability, etc.) to propagate signaling

DIRECT ESTIMATION OF ABOVEGROUND FOREST PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH HYPERSPECTRAL REMOTE SENSING OF CANOPY NITROGEN

The concentration of nitrogen in foliage has been related to rates of net photosynthesis across a wide range of plant species and functional groups and thus represents a simple and biologically meaningful link between terrestrial cycles of carbon and nitrogen. Although foliar N is used by ecosystem models to predict rates of leaf‐level photosynthesis, it has rarely been examined as a direct scalar to stand‐level carbon gain. Establishment of such relationships would greatly simplify the nature of forest C and N linkages, enhancing our ability to derive estimates of forest productivity at landscape to regional scales. Here, we report on a highly predictive relationship between whole‐canopy nitrogen concentration and aboveground forest productivity in diverse forested stands of varying age and species composition across the 360 000‐ha White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire, USA. We also demonstrate that hyperspectral remote sensing can be used to estimate foliar N concentration, and hence forest production across a large number of contiguous images. Together these data suggest that canopy‐level N concentration is an important correlate of productivity in these forested systems, and that imaging spectrometry of canopy N can provide direct estimates of forest productivity across large landscapes