The effects of resistance training on well-being and memory in elderly volunteers

Objective: to determine the short- and long-term effects of resistance training on muscle strength, psychological well-being, control-beliefs, cognitive speed and memory in normally active elderly people. Methods: 46 elderly people (mean age 73.2 years; 18 women and 28 men), were randomly assigned to training and control groups (n = 23 each). Pre- and post-tests were administered 1 week before and 1 week after the 8-week training intervention. The training sessions, performed once a week, consisted of a 10 min warm-up phase and eight resistance exercises on machines. Results: there was a significant increase in maximum dynamic strength in the training group. This training effect was associated with a significant decrease in self-attentiveness, which is known to enhance psychological well-being. No significant changes could be observed in control-beliefs. Modest effects on cognitive functioning occurred with the training procedure: although there were no changes in cognitive speed, significant pre/post-changes could be shown in free recall and recognition in the experimental group. A post-test comparison between the experimental group and control group showed a weak effect for recognition but no significant differences in free recall. Significant long-term effects were found in the training group for muscular strength and memory performance (free recall) 1 year later. Conclusion: an 8-week programme of resistance training lessens anxiety and self-attentiveness and improves muscle strengt

Bursty egocentric network evolution in Skype

In this study we analyze the dynamics of the contact list evolution of millions of users of the Skype communication network. We find that egocentric networks evolve heterogeneously in time as events of edge additions and deletions of individuals are grouped in long bursty clusters, which are separated by long inactive periods. We classify users by their link creation dynamics and show that bursty peaks of contact additions are likely to appear shortly after user account creation. We also study possible relations between bursty contact addition activity and other user-initiated actions like free and paid service adoption events. We show that bursts of contact additions are associated with increases in activity and adoption - an observation that can inform the design of targeted marketing tactics.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Social Network Analysis and Mining (2013