The effect of high carbohydrate meals with different glycemic indices on recovery of performance during prolonged intermittent high intensity shuttle running

This study examined the effect of high carbohydrate meals with different glycemic indices (GI) on recovery of performance during prolonged intermittent high-intensity shuttle running. Seven male semi-professional soccer players (age 23 ± 2 y, body mass [BM] 73.7 ± 9.0 kg and maximal oxygen uptake 58 ± 1.0 mL · kg-1 · min-1) participated in two trials in a randomized cross-over design. On day 1, the subjects performed 90 min of an intermittent high-intensity shuttle running protocol [Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test (LIST)]. They then consumed a mixed high carbohydrate recovery diet (8 g/kg BM) consisting of either high (HGI) (GI: 70) or low (LGI) (GI: 35) GI foods. Twenty-two hours later (day 2) the subjects completed 75 min of the LIST (part A) followed by alternate sprinting and jogging to fatigue (part B). No differences were found between trials in time to fatigue (HGI 25.3 ± 4.0 min vs. LGI 22.9 ± 5.6 min, P = 0.649). Similarly, no differences were found between trials for sprint performance and distance covered during part B of the LIST. In conclusion, the GI of the diet during the 22 h recovery did not affect sprint and endurance performance the following day

A Prediction for the 4-Loop \beta Function

We predict that the four-loop contribution \beta_3 to the QCD \beta function in the MS-bar prescription is given by \beta_3\simeq 23,600(900) - 6,400(200) N_f + 350(70) N_f^2 + 1.5 N_f^3, where N_f is the number of flavours and the coefficient of N_f^3 is an exact result from large-N_f expansion. In the phenomenologically-interesting case N_f=3, we estimate \beta_3 = (7.6 \pm 0.1) x 10^3. We discuss our estimates of the errors in these QCD predictions, basing them on the demonstrated accuracy of our method in test applications to the O(N) \Phi^4 theory, and on variations in the details of our estimation method, which goes beyond conventional Pade approximants by estimating and correcting for subasymptotic deviations from exact results.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, including 2 figures in 3 ps files; requires epsfig.sty; added comparison with recent exact result

Application of Pade Approximants to Determination of alpha_s(M_Z^2) from Hadronic Event Shape Observables in e+e- Annihilation

We have applied Pade approximants to perturbative QCD calculations of event shape observables in e+e- --> hadrons. We used the exact O(alpha_s^2) prediction and the [0/1] Pade approximant to estimate the O(alpha_s^3) term for 15 observables, and in each case determined alpha_s(M_Z^2) from comparison with hadronic Z^0 decay data from the SLD experiment. We found the scatter among the alpha_s(M_Z^2) values to be significantly reduced compared with the standard O(alpha_s^2) determination, implying that the Pade method provides at least a partial approximation of higher-order perturbative contributions to event shape observables.Comment: 15 pages, 1 EPS figure, Submitted to Physics Letters

Traditional and non-traditional tobacco use among First Nations Persons living on reserve in Canada: distinctions, emotions, and visions of best-case future realities

This thesis presents a qualitative study on traditional and non-traditional tobacco use in Fort William First Nation, a First Nation community adjacent to the City of Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada. This study inquired about whether a concept of traditional and non-traditional tobacco use exists among members Fort William First Nation; how members distinguish between traditional and non-traditional uses of tobacco; tobacco’s roles in the community; emotions that members experience in relation to tobacco; and members’ visions of best-case, future realities of tobacco use in their community. Through five focus group discussions with youth, young caregivers, members of a 55+ Group, health service providers, and persons in senior leadership positions (N = 19), this study found that a concept of traditional and non-traditional tobacco use exists among members of Fort William First Nation. It appears that one distinction between traditional and non-traditional tobacco use is that traditional use has a cultural purpose whereas non-traditional use does not have a cultural purpose. Tobacco plays many cultural, health, and economic roles in Fort William First Nation; members experience a variety of emotions in relation to tobacco; and the predominant best-case, future reality of tobacco use envisioned for the community was no cigarette smoking and tobacco being used only in traditional ways. This study also found that traditional uses of tobacco facilitate well-being at the personal, family, and community levels; cigarette smoking appears to be unnecessary for engaging in Pow Wows and Sacred Fires; and cigarettes can interfere with traditional uses of tobacco and thereby inadvertently encourage cigarette smoking. A future where Fort William First Nation returns to using only leaf tobacco for traditional purposes was seen as a remedy to the interference posed by cigarettes. Also envisioned was nicotine- and carcinogen-free tobacco for traditional use

Tissue-selective expression of a conditionally-active ROCK2-estrogen receptor fusion protein

The serine/threonine kinases ROCK1 and ROCK2 are central mediators of actomyosin contractile force generation that act downstream of the RhoA small GTP-binding protein. As a result, they have key roles in regulating cell morphology and proliferation, and have been implicated in numerous pathological conditions and diseases including hypertension and cancer. Here we describe the generation of a gene-targeted mouse line that enables CRE-inducible expression of a conditionally-active fusion between the ROCK2 kinase domain and the hormone-binding domain of a mutated estrogen receptor (ROCK2:ER). This two-stage system of regulation allows for tissue-selective expression of the ROCK2:ER fusion protein, which then requires administration of estrogen analogues such as tamoxifen or 4-hydroxytamoxifen to elicit kinase activity. This conditional gain-of-function system was validated in multiple tissues by crossing with mice expressing CRE recombinase under the transcriptional control of cytokeratin14 (K14), murine mammary tumor virus (MMTV) or cytochrome P450 Cyp1A1 (Ah) promoters, driving appropriate expression in the epidermis, mammary or intestinal epithelia respectively. Given the interest in ROCK signaling in normal physiology and disease, this mouse line will facilitate research into the consequences of ROCK activation that could be used to complement conditional knockout models

Superconducting Films for Absorber-Coupled MKID Detectors for Sub-Millimeter and Far-Infrared Astronomy

We describe measurements of the properties, at dc, gigahertz, and terahertz frequencies, of thin (10 nm) aluminum films with 10 ohm/{rm square}$ normal state sheet resistance. Such films can be applied to construct microwave kinetic inductance detector arrays for submillimeter and far-infrared astronomical applications in which incident power excites quasiparticles directly in a superconducting resonator that is configured to present a matched-impedance to the high frequency radiation being detected. For films 10 nm thick, we report normal state sheet resistance, resistance-temperature curves for the superconducting transition, quality factor and kinetic inductance fraction for microwave resonators made from patterned films, and terahertz measurements of sheet impedance measured with a Fourier Transform Spectrometer. We compare properties with similar resonators made from niobium 600 nm thick

Experimental investigations of lip motion in brass instrument playing

The precise nature of the motion of the lips of the musician is critically important to the sound of the brass wind instrument. The player must match the oscillation of the lips to the acoustical properties of the instrument and it can take many years of practice to master the techniques involved. Visualisation techniques for capturing the motion of the lips during performance are described and the behaviour of the lips quantitatively analysed using digital image analysis. The concept of an artificial mouth for the sounding of brass wind instruments is discussed and the motion of the artificial lips is compared to that of human musicians. When a brass instrument is played loudly the energy of the higher harmonics increases, creating a distinctive ‘brassy’ timbre. It has been suggested that saturation or constraint of the lips of the musician during extremely loud playing is responsible for this change in sound. Measurements of the motion of the lips of a number of different musicians on different instruments suggest that the lips are not significantly constrained at any playing dynamic, and that it is the phenomena of nonlinear propagation and shockwave generation that is responsible for the increase in energy of the higher harmonics. It is widely accepted that the starting transient of a musical instrument is of great importance to both listener and musician. Previous studies of brass instruments have focused on the steady-state behaviour of the lip-instrument interaction. Measurements of the motion of the lips have been synchronised with the pressure in the mouthpiece of the instrument and the sound radiated from the bell in order to investigate the transient behaviour of the system during both the starting transient and slurs between notes. Thiswork has been extended to include measurements of the pressure in the mouth of the player during the starting transient, and this information used to recreate realistic transients using an artificial mouth. The transient behaviour of the system is clearly affected by the time delay between the start of the note and the acoustical feedback from the instrument beginning. The information obtained can be used to aid in the creation of accurate computational and physical models of brass wind instruments

Generating Paths through Cultural Heritage Collections

Cultural heritage collections usually organise sets of items into exhibitions or guided tours. These items are often accompanied by text that describes the theme and topic of the exhibition and provides background context and details of connections with other items. The PATHS project brings the idea of guided tours to digital library collections where a tool to create virtual paths are used to assist with navigation and provide guides on particular subjects and topics. In this paper we characterise and analyse paths of items created by users of our online system. The analysis highlights that most users spend time selecting items relevant to their chosen topic, but few users took time to add background information to the paths. In order to address this, we conducted preliminary investigations to test whether Wikipedia can be used to automatically add background text for sequences of items. In the future we would like to explore the automatic creation of full paths

Comparing taxonomies for organising collections of documents

There is a demand for taxonomies to organise large collections of documents into categories for browsing and exploration. This paper examines four existing taxonomies that have been manually created, along with two methods for deriving taxonomies automatically from data items. We use these taxonomies to organise items from a large online cultural heritage collection. We then present two human evaluations of the taxonomies. The first measures the cohesion of the taxonomies to determine how well they group together similar items under the same concept node. The second analyses the concept relations in the taxonomies. The results show that the manual taxonomies have high quality well defined relations. However the novel automatic method is found to generate very high cohesion