Training for muscular power adaptations : the role of contraction type and velocity

Muscular power, an integral component in most sport, is the product of force and velocity. Power is often viewed as synonymous, yet incorrectly, with strength. Where power has an inherent speed component, strength is independent of movement velocity, and is a measure of a muscle’s ability to produce a maximal force. In a majority of athletic events power is requisite to success, and is often more decisive in performance outcomes than strength alone. Currently, results from existing research examining the effectiveness of differing velocities of contraction in improving maximal power are mixed. Common methodologies used in research settings to study muscular power changes are isotonic training, isokinetic training, isometric training, and plyometric training. However, little research has been done examining the potential efficacy of training using inertial loading. This report examines existing research on movement velocities and loads, compares the effects of training velocities for increasing maximal power, identifies shortfalls and information gaps, and recommends future research in training for muscular power adaptations and improved athletic performance. This report also provides a detailed description of inertial load training and establishes a theoretical study design, hypothesis, and reasoning outlining why and how inertial load training may elicit muscular power increases and improved athletic performance.Kinesiology and Health Educatio

Astronomical, physical, and meteorological parameters for planetary atmospheres

A newly compiled table of astronomical, physical, and meteorological parameters for planetary atmospheres is presented. Formulae and explanatory notes for their application and a complete listing of sources are also given

Characterizing Strategic Cascades on Networks

Transmission of disease, spread of information and rumors, adoption of new products, and many other network phenomena can be fruitfully modeled as cascading processes, where actions chosen by nodes influence the subsequent behavior of neighbors in the network graph. Current literature on cascades tends to assume nodes choose myopically based on the state of choices already taken by other nodes. We examine the possibility of strategic choice, where agents representing nodes anticipate the choices of others who have not yet decided, and take into account their own influence on such choices. Our study employs the framework of Chierichetti et al. [2012], who (under assumption of myopic node behavior) investigate the scheduling of node decisions to promote cascades of product adoptions preferred by the scheduler. We show that when nodes behave strategically, outcomes can be extremely different. We exhibit cases where in the strategic setting 100% of agents adopt, but in the myopic setting only an arbitrarily small epsilon % do. Conversely, we present cases where in the strategic setting 0% of agents adopt, but in the myopic setting (100-epsilon)% do, for any constant epsilon > 0. Additionally, we prove some properties of cascade processes with strategic agents, both in general and for particular classes of graphs.Comment: To appear in EC 201

Spinodal Decomposition in High Temperature Gauge Theories

After a rapid increase in temperature across the deconfinement temperature $T_{d}$, pure gauge theories exhibit unstable long wavelength fluctuations in the approach to equilibrium. This phenomenon is analogous to spinodal decomposition observed in condensed matter physics, and also seen in models of disordered chiral condensate formation. At high temperature, the unstable modes occur only in the range $0\leq k$ $\leq k_{c}$, where $k_{c}$ is on the order of the Debye screening mass $m_D$. Equilibration always occurs via spinodal decomposition for $SU(2)$at temperatures $T>T_{d}$ and for SU(3) for $T\gg T_{d}$. For SU(3) at temperatures $T\gtrsim T_{d}$, nucleation may replace spinodal decomposition as the dominant equilibration mechanism. Monte Carlo simulations of SU(2) lattice gauge theory exhibit the predicted phenomena. The observed value of $k_c$ is in reasonable agreement with a value predicted from previous lattice measurements of $m_D$.Comment: minor revisions, 16 pages, 6 figures, RevTe

Improving the phase stability and oxidation resistance of β-NiAl

This thesis is written in an alternate format. The thesis is composed of a general introduction, four original manuscripts, and a general conclusion. References cited within each chapter are located immediately after that section. In addition, figures and tables are numbered independently within each chapter. The general introduction focuses on the driving force behind this research, and gives an overview of previous work done on nickel-based superalloys. Chapter 2 describes the preliminary experiments and how those experiments guided the rest of the thesis work. Chapter 3 deals specifically with the oxidation performance of platinum group metal (PGM) and hafnium modifications to β-NiAl intermetallic. Chapter 4 investigates the role of grain size on the oxidation resistance of NiAl based alloys. Chapter 5 focuses on the role of melting temperature on the oxidation resistance of NiAl based alloys. Chapter 6 summarizes the important results of this study

Characterizing the transcriptional regulation of crassulacean acid metabolism in Kalanchoe

Due to the agricultural challenges posed by the prospect of a hotter drier climate understanding the molecular basis of plant water-use efficiency is of increasing importance. Species performing crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) photosynthesis have evolved to be naturally water-use efficient primarily through shifting their carbon uptake to night to minimize water-loss. Relative to C3 and C4 photosynthesis species, CAM plants are enriched for rhythmic circadian clock-dependent regulation of metabolic processes. However, the transcriptional regulation of CAM remains largely uncharacterized. Using Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi, in which CAM develops along a leaf developmental gradient, candidate transcription factors with possible CAM-related functions were identified. The mRNA abundance of these transcription factors increases upon the transition from C3 photosynthesis to CAM and they appear to exhibit a circadian phase-dependent pattern of regulation. To better characterize the transcriptional control circuits underlying CAM, three such of these transcription factors, KfNF-YB3, KfHomeodomain-like, and KfMYB59 were selected for chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing (ChIP-seq). However, these experiments failed to identify enriched target genomic loci possibly as a consequence of the unique challenges of adapting experimental protocols designed for model C3 photosynthesis plant species to a succulent plant such as Kalanchoe. Additionally, this work focuses on elucidating the cis-regulatory elements and the trans-acting factors governing the transcriptional control of the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase gene (Ppc1) in Kalanchoe. Despite this enzyme’s importance in catalyzing the primary nocturnal fixation of CO2 in CAM species, the complex regulatory mechanisms underlying its expression are not well-studied. We examined the Kalanchoe Ppc1 promoter and identified numerous cis-regulatory elements on the basis of their sequence conservation with known regulatory modules. These individual elements along with two-hundred base pair region segments of the Kalanchoe Ppc1 promoter were used at bait probes in yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) assays. From this analysis, several high-confidence interacting transcriptional regulators were identified including ERF9, ERF106, TCP4, and PIF1. In silico examination of the Ppc1 promoter revealed likely binding sites for these factors based on homology to validated preferred binding sequences in Arabidopsis. The specific transcription factors identified through this work can now serve as the basis for further experiments to confirm interaction with the Ppc1 promoter and elucidate the nature of their regulatory effects. Overall, the work presented in this dissertation attempts to investigate the transcriptional control of crassulacean acid metabolism using the developmental CAM model Kalanchoe

Controlling microbial community dynamics through engineered metabolic dependencies

Metabolic cross-feeding is an important process that can broadly shape microbial communities. Comparative genomic analysis of >6000 sequenced bacteria from diverse environments provides evidence to suggesting that amino acid biosynthesis has been broadly optimized to reduce individual metabolic burden in favor of enhanced cross-feeding to support synergistic growth across the biosphere. Still, little is known about specific cross-feeding principles that drive the formation and maintenance of individuals within a mixed population. Here, we devised a series of synthetic syntrophic communities to probe the complex interactions underlying metabolic exchange of amino acids. We experimentally analyzed multi-member, multi-dimensional communities of Escherichia coli of increasing sophistication to assess the outcomes of synergistic cross-feeding. We find that biosynthetically costly amino acids including methionine, lysine, isoleucine, arginine and aromatics, tend to promote stronger cooperative interactions than amino acids that are cheaper to produce. Furthermore, cells that share common intermediates along branching pathways yielded more synergistic growth, but exhibited many instances of both positive and negative epistasis when these interactions scaled to higher-dimensions. This system enabled the identification of synergistic pairings and optimal expression levels of amino acid exporters of arginine, threonine and aromatics towards drastic improvements of ecosystem productivity. Tradeoffs identified in these mutualistic systems between secretion, relative abundance and absolute community productivity have implication in the evolution of cooperative behaviors. Long-term evolution of these synthetic communities highlight transporter over-expression, amino acid pool redistribution, and perturbations to nitrogen regulation as strategies to circumvent imposed metabolic dependencies. To address this potentially problematic genomic plasticity, a genetically reassigned organism is leveraged to investigate synthetic metabolic dependencies showing improved biocontainment and potential for microbial consortia control. These results improve our basic understanding of microbial syntrophy while also highlighting the utility and limitations of current approaches to modeling and controlling the dynamic complexities of microbial ecosystems. This work sets a foundation for future endeavors in microbial ecology and evolution, and presents a platform to develop better and more robust engineered synthetic communities for industrial biotechnology

A high performance neural network javascript library

Master's Project (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015This report covers Intellect.js, a new high-performance Artificial Neural Network (ANN) library written in JavaScript and intended for use within a web browser. The library is designed to be easy to use, whilst remaining highly customizable and flexible. A brief history of JavaScript and ANNs is presented, along with decisions made while developing Intellectjs. Lastly, performance benchmarks are provided, including comparisons with existing ANN libraries written in JavaScript. Appendices include a code listing, usage examples, and complete performance data. Intellect.js is available on GitHub under the MIT License. https://github.com/sutekidayo/intellect.j