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The Lance: School Year 1988-1989: Summer Lance 1989
No full textSummer Lance 1989 Vol. 3: no. 1 (1989: June 15) 8p.Vol. 3: no. 2 (1989: June 29) 8p.Vol. 3: no. 3 (1989: July 20) 8p
PPISHES —an enhanced physicochemical approach for predicting protein interaction sites using graph neural networks
No full textAccurate prediction of protein interaction sites is crucial for understanding biological processes. Many existing methods capture structural, evolutionary, and sequence features; however, they overlook important physicochemical properties, limiting their performance. We propose Prediction of protein interaction sites based on solvent accessible surface area, hydrogen‐bonding propensity, and electrostatic potential sites, an enhanced model that incorporates the three physicochemical features to improve site prediction for both obligate and non‐obligate complexes. Feature ablation and other analyses identified key features to improve model performance. The model achieved up to 42.8% and 29.3% improvements in Area Under the Precision‐Recall Curve for Test_315 and Test_71, respectively. The model also outperforms current state‐of‐the‐art methods across other key metrics, such as Recall, Area Under the Curve, and Matthews Correlation Coefficient.Vector InstituteNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Award: RGPIN‐2019‐04696
A qualitative analysis of female sport experiences in soccer
No full textRelative Age Effects (RAEs) have the potential to be counterproductive to sport participation rates given the associated selection (dis)advantages and inequitable access to development opportunities for individuals of varying relative age. Previous work has predominantly been quantitative in nature and focused on male athletes, with only a few qualitative studies in the published literature. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine relative age and sport engagement and dropout issues by conducting a qualitative analysis of post-adolescent, female athletes' experiences. An invitation to participate in a semi-structured interview (via phone) or online questionnaire (via Qualtrics) was distributed to a targeted sample of post-adolescent (18–19 years of age), current and past female soccer participants from Ontario, Canada (N = 15). Questions focused on reasons for participation and dropout, aspects of programs and relationships that facilitated or discouraged participation, player recommendations for encouraging future participation or reuptake of the activity, perception of abilities at various stages, involvement in other sports, location considerations, and age issues. The three stages of Côté's Developmental Model of Sport Participation were used to structure the questions in order to explore experiences occurring during specific stages of the athlete's developmental years. Hierarchical content analysis was used to identify raw data themes, which were grouped into higher order sub-themes and categories. Half year comparisons (H1 vs. H2) revealed similar themes reported by relatively older and younger participants, suggesting relative age was not the most important factor with respect to the players' experiences and decisions to continue in the sport when examined from a qualitative lens, although study design may have been a contributing factor. Engaged athletes reported a greater number of themes related to specialization in sport, and dropout athletes reported more negative sport experiences. Sport sampling at young ages (<12 years of age) was associated with ongoing sport participation into the post-adolescent years, with engaged athletes reporting involvement in a greater number of additional sports (beyond soccer), vs. the dropouts. Community size/characteristics reportedly impacted sport experiences, although no clear trends were ascertained. General recommendations for sport practitioners and recommendations for future research are discussed
Introduction
No full textIntroduction to collection of essays that "seeks to reflect and ignite critical conversations about the centrality of public law and its institutions, broadly defined and deeply contested, to the (re)production of current inequities."
Non-invasive ultrasound measurements for determination of hepato-somatic index in Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides)
No full textHepato-somatic index (HSI) is widely used to indicate fish body condition and level of energy reserves related to feeding/physiology and reproduction. HSI is traditionally obtained by dissection and measurement of liver mass versus body mass, but ultrasound technology may provide a minor invasive method to obtain liver dimensions to estimate the HSI of live fish. Images of Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) livers (n = 37) were obtained using ultrasonography, then subsequently dissected, weighed and measured using conventional methods. Four liver measurements (width n = 1 and depth n = 3) were obtained from ultrasound images and compared with corresponding physical width/depth measurements. The relationship between the derived ultrasound width/depth metrics and liver mass was then used to estimate total liver mass (LMU) and LMU values divided by the total body weight of each fish to derive the HSI values (HSIU). The LMU and HSIU values were not significantly different from the original liver mass and associated HSI values. Ultrasound liver depth was the most accurate metric for estimating HSIU values, but a degree of variability was observed. Derived HSIU values varied between maturity stages, matching predictions, but did not vary by sex or capture location. This non-invasive method can be conducted quickly with minimal stress to fish, with applications to studies measuring HSI in commercially important to endangered species. The framework presented for measuring and estimating ultrasound-derived HSI in live fish provides a baseline that can be improved with further validation work
Microelectrode recordings from the human cervical vagus nerve during maximal breath-holds
No full textVoluntary breath-holds can be sustained for a long time following training, but ultimately, regardless of duration, the asphyxic break-point is reached and the apnoea terminated. The physiological changes occurring during the apnoea include a marked increase in sympathetically-mediated vasoconstriction in non-essential organs, such as skeletal muscle, spleen and kidney, while the brain is protected by a marked increase in perfusion. What is not understood is what happens to cardiac vagal activity. Here, we performed microelectrode recordings from the right cervical vagus nerve in healthy participants [both trained breath-hold divers (n = 10) and untrained controls (n = 10)] during tidal breathing, slow-deep breathing, an inspiratory-capacity apnoea and an end-expiratory apnoea. Using cross-correlation analysis of multi-unit neural activity, we tested the hypothesis that breath-hold divers would have greater cardiac modulation of vagal activity, which primarily reflects the discharge of cardiac afferents, particularly during a maximal apnoea. We showed that there were no differences in cardiac modulation of vagus nerve activity either during tidal breathing or during any of the respiratory manoeuvres, nor was there a difference in cardiac modulation during the static phase of a maximal apnoea or when involuntary breathing movements occurred before reaching the asphyxic break-point. We conclude that changes in vagal sensory inputs from the heart are not responsible for the marked tolerance to asphyxia shown by breath-hold divers
