REPEATABILlTY OF INTRAMUSCULAR ELECTROMYOGRAPHIC RECORDINGS DURING CYCLING

Fine-wire electromyographic (fEMG) techniques are indicated for the study of distal lower limb muscle recruitment during cycling, but evidence to support the repeatability of fEMG recordings is contradictory. This study investigated the repeatability of fEMG recordings from tibialis anterior (TA), tibialis posterior (TP), peroneus longus (PL), gastrocnemius lateralis (GL) and soleus (SOL) during cycling. The repeatability of fEMG recordings normalised to maximum measured EMG amplitude was high, with mean coefficients of multiple correlation (CMC) ranging from .82 .15 (GL) to .89 .09 (TA). The repeatability of fEMG recordings increased with greater test-retest intervals (p < .008). Data normalised to maximal or submaximal contractions were less repeatable (p < .001). These findings support the use of fEMG techniques to investigate distal lower limb muscle recruitment during cycling

MULTIDISCIPLlNE TRAINING DEMANDS MAY IMPAIR ADAPTATION OF THE NEUROMUSCULAR SYSTEM IN TRIATHLETES

Muscle recruitment during cycling is highly consistent and constrained in trained cyclists relative to novice cyclists (Chapman et aI., 2004). This is consistent with previous evidence that adaptation of the neuromuscular system occurs with repeated performance of a motor task. Muscle recruitment in triathletes has not been investigated. Triathletes undertake similar cycling training loads to specialist cyclists, but must also undertake very high running and swimming training loads. The influence of these multidiscipline training demands on muscle recruitment remains unknown. This study compared patterns of distal lower limb muscle recruitment during cycling in triathletes, trained cyclists and novice cyclists

Social Structure Facilitated the Evolution of Care-giving as a Strategy for Disease Control in the Human Lineage

Humans are the only species to have evolved cooperative care-giving as a strategy for disease control. A synthesis of evidence from the fossil record, paleogenomics, human ecology, and disease transmission models, suggests that care-giving for the diseased evolved as part of the unique suite of cognitive and socio-cultural specializations that are attributed to the genus Homo. Here we demonstrate that the evolution of hominin social structure enabled the evolution of care-giving for the diseased. Using agent-based modeling, we simulate the evolution of care-giving in hominin networks derived from a basal primate social system and the three leading hypotheses of ancestral human social organization, each of which would have had to deal with the elevated disease spread associated with care-giving. We show that (1) care-giving is an evolutionarily stable strategy in kin-based cooperatively breeding groups, (2) care-giving can become established in small, low density groups, similar to communities that existed before the increases in community size and density that are associated with the advent of agriculture in the Neolithic, and (3) once established, care-giving became a successful method of disease control across social systems, even as community sizes and densities increased. We conclude that care-giving enabled hominins to suppress disease spread as social complexity, and thus socially-transmitted disease risk, increased

Rights and Power: The Challenge for International Development Agencies

Rights-based approaches are increasingly part of the policy and practice of international development agencies.But how can these agencies support people’s own efforts to turn rights into reality?While som