1,721,000 research outputs found
Standing Up To Words: Writing and Resistance in Toni Morrison s A Mercy
Full text linkIn Toni Morrison s A Mercy, the protagonist represents both the historical and the contemporary African American author. As Mueller argues, her act of carving words into walls can be read as an act of resistance against the historical silencing of the black voice as well as politically against symbolic violence exercised through language
Neuromuscular performance after rapid weight loss in Olympic-style boxers
No full textThe present study investigated the effect of a 3% rapid weight loss (RWL) procedure on neuromuscular performance in elite, Olympic-style boxers. Nine boxers were randomly assigned to two experimental procedures (RWL and control, in a randomized counter-balance order) to perform 5-s maximum isometric voluntary contractions (MVC) of the dominant leg knee extensors prior to (MVC1), and following (MVC2), a sustained, isometric contraction at 70% MVC until exhaustion. The voluntary activation (VA) was determined using percutaneous muscle stimulation and interpolated twitch technique. High (at 80 Hz) and low (at 20 Hz) frequency tetanic impulses were also delivered before and after the sustained 70% MVC to assess peripheral fatigue. Hydration status, hemodynamic parameters, and lactate concentration were assessed throughout the study. Body-mass was reduced by ∼3% (during RWL) compared to control (p =.001). As a result of the RWL protocol, MVC1 force output was 12% lower and VA deficits of 7% were observed after the fatigue protocol compared to control (p =.001). Following RWL, time to exhaustion for the sustained 70% MVC was 69 ± 20 s compared to 86 ± 34 s for control (p =.020). Peak lactate production was 53% lower in RWL compared to control (p =.001). In conclusion, the 3% RWL procedure translated into significant decline in neuromuscular performance for both brief and sustained contractions in competitive boxers
Up in the air: Evidence of dehydration risk and long-haul flight on athletic performance
Full text linkThe microclimate of an airline cabin consists of dry, recirculated, and cool air, which is maintained at lower pressure than that found at sea level. Being exposed to this distinctive, encapsulated environment for prolonged durations, together with the short-term chair-rest immobilization that occurs during long-haul flights, can trigger distinct and detrimental reactions to the human body. There is evidence that long-haul flights promote fluid shifts to the lower extremity and induce changes in blood viscosity which may accelerate dehydration, possibly compromising an athlete’s potential for success upon arrival at their destination. Surprisingly, and despite several recent systematic reviews investigating the effects of jet lag and transmeridian travel on human physiology, there has been no systematic effort to address to what extent hypohydration is a (health, performance) risk to travelers embarking on long journeys. This narrative review summarizes the rationale and evidence for why the combination of fluid balance and long-haul flight remains a critically overlooked issue for traveling persons, be it for health, leisure, business, or in a sporting context. Upon review, there are few studies which have been conducted on actual traveling athletes, and those that have provide no real evidence of how the incidence rate, magnitude, or duration of acute dehydration may affect the general health or performance of elite athletes
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Marine survival in the Mediterranean
Full text linkBackground and Aim: The Mediterranean is one of the major gateways of human migratory fluxes from Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia to Europe. Sea accidents have become an urgent humanitarian crisis due to the high number of migrants on the move, but data on the physiological effects to sudden cool water immersion are not as extensive as cold-water studies. We wanted to evaluate to what extent cool water immersion (~18 °C) may detrimentally affect cognitive ability and cardiorespiratory strain compared to the more prevalent cold-water (<10–15 °C) studies. Methods: In this case, 10 active, healthy men participated in this study which consisted of completing one familiarization trial, and then a control (CON) or experimental (EXP) trial in a randomized, repeated-measures, cross-over fashion, separated by at least 7-days. Cognitive function was assessed via the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), a code substitution test, performed at baseline, then repeated in either a thermoneutral (~25 °C room air) dry environment, or when immersed to the neck in 18 °C water. Testing consisted of six “Step” time-blocks 45-s each, with a 5-s pause between each Step. Cardiorespiratory measures, continuously recorded, included heart rate (beats per minute), minute ventilation (, L·min), oxygen consumption (O, L·min), and respiratory frequency (fR, count·min). Results: Initial responses to cool water (<2 min) found that participants performed ~11% worse on the code substitution test (p = 0.025), consumed 149% greater amounts of oxygen (CI: 5.1 to 9.1 L·min, p < 0.0001) and experienced higher cardiovascular strain (HR CI: 13 to 38 beats per minute, p = 0.001) than during the control trial. Physiological strain was in-line to those observed in much colder water temperature. Conclusion: Sudden, cool water immersion also negatively affects cognitive function and cardiorespiratory strain, especially during the first two minutes of exposure. The magnitude increase in heart rate is strongly associated with poorer cognitive function, even in (relatively) warmer water consistent with temperatures found in the Mediterranean Sea environment
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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