29,783 research outputs found
Mechanical properties of rectus femoris muscle in professional footballers from start to mid-season
No full textQuadriceps’ strain is the second most common injury in football players, accounting for 5% of all injuries (Ekstrand et al., 2011). Musculoskeletal screening tests are important to help avoid overtraining and injury (Gabbe et al., 2004). However, measurements of muscle are often made using subjective palpation and observational techniques. Novel technology enables objective measurement of tone and mechanical properties of muscle using a hand-held device (MyotonPRO), and has recently been used to examine thigh muscles in young males (Mullix et al., 2012). The present study aimed to quantify the stability of mechanical properties of the rectus femoris (RF) muscle in professional football players from start to mid-season. Nine English Premier League male football players (aged 22-30 years) were studied at the start and mid-way through the season. The MyotonPRO device (Myoton Ltd, London) applied brief mechanical impulses to the resting RF muscle belly on the dominant side, eliciting damped oscillations, which were recorded via the device’s accelerometer. Parameters of non-neural tone (frequency), elasticity (logarithmic decrement) and stiffness (N/m) were calculated automatically. None of the participants suffered an injury during the study period. A paired-samples T-test assessed for statistical differences between the two testing sessions. There were no significant differences in the mechanical parameters tested between the start and mid-season (p>0.05; tone 15.9±0.6 to 15.6±0.7 Hz; stiffness 277.7±11.4 to 283.3±15.7 N/m; elasticity 1.3±0.1 to 1.3±0.2 decrement). On average there was only a -0.5% change in muscle tone, 3.4% in stiffness, with an 8.3% change in elasticity. These preliminary data suggest that the mechanical properties of the RF muscle remained constant during the first-half of a football season in players that had not suffered an injury. Monitoring changes in these parameters over the course of a season may provide an indication of injury risk. Further studies are warranted to develop large databases of normal reference values in professional footballers and to document abnormal parameters in injured muscles
Testing muscle tone and mechanical properties of rectus femoris and biceps femoris using a novel hand held MyotonPRO device: relative ratios and reliability
No full textPurpose: To use a novel, non-invasive hand held device (MyotonPRO) to quantify ratios of relative non-neural tone and mechanical properties of the rectus femoris (RF) and biceps femoris (BF) muscles, and to assess reliability of a novice user.Relevance: The device offers rapid, objective testing of mechanical parameters of muscle in clinical or sports settings.Participants: 21 healthy males (20-35 years)Methods: Relaxed muscle parameters of RF and BFwere obtained using the MyotonPRO. The device applies a brief mechanical impact, producing muscle oscillations from which tone (state of intrinsic tension, indicated by frequency [Hz]) and mechanical properties of elasticity (logarithmic decrement) and stiffness (N/m) are measured. Data were collected on two days, one week apart. Two series of 10 single measurements on each muscle were used to test within-day reliability. The mean of the two sets was used for between-day reliability. Analysis: The relative parameters between RF and BF were expressed as a ratio. Reliability was assessed using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs).Results: The mean (±SD) RF:BF ratios for resting muscle were: frequency 1:0.96 (±0.05), decrement 1:1.10 (±0.17) and stiffness 1:0.95 (±0.07). Reliability of all three parameters was excellent within-sessions (ICCs 3,2 >0.99) and good between-days (ICCs 3,1 0.72-0.87).Conclusions: The relative resting tone and mechanical properties of RF and BF has been characterised in young males, with ratios close to 1:1. Measures made by a novice user were reliable, indicating that the MyotonPRO has the potential for assessing changes in muscle properties objectively over time. Studies are needed in large healthy cohorts of different ages, activity levels and genders to produce reference data for assessing patients.Implications: The relative tone and mechanical properties of RF and BF could potentially be used as a rapid method for assessing risk of injury is sporting populations and presence of abnormality in musculoskeletal and neurological conditions, once normal values have been established in relevant groups
Engraved portrait of James Nayler (1618–1660)
No full textEngraved portrait of James Nayler (1618-1660) by Robert Grave (1768-1825). Inscribed, 'Born at Ardesloe, near Wakefield, in Yorkshire. Was an Independent and served Quarter Master in ye Parliament Army, about the Year 1641. turn'd Quaker in 1651. Punish'd as a Blasphemer 1656. Author of many Books & Dyed at Holm in Huntingtonshire 1660. Aged 44.
Polyphony and the anxiety of influence in the fiction of Henry James
No full textJames's fiction, especially in the Middle Phase, centres
on the figure of the artist and is characterized by, the two
interrelated aspects which previous criticism has largely
overlooked: the Bakhtinian 'polyphonic' -creation of
'author-thinkers'; and the conflict between ephebes and
precursors, for which Harold-Bloom's concept of 'the-anxiety of
influence' is the most illuminating model. Polyphony is the
narrative mode, and influence is the intra-artistic, theme.
These, as the Introduction to the thesis makes clear, are
rehearsed in James's inaugural novel, Roderick Hudson. Rowland
Mallet is an author-thinker, and his failure is caused by
authorial limitations. His monologism -is impaired by his
mistaking empathy for the authorial sympathy. Likewise,
Hudson's failure does not arise from a mercurial temperament,
but from a polyphonic shortcoming: not possessing the power of
fiction to contain the fiction of power in, his mentor. And the
relationships among the three artists - Gloriani, Hudson and
Singleton - perfectly exemplify the Bloomian-theme. It is these
two concepts, polyphony and influence, which are the major
preoccupation in the Middle Phase; as, the works chosen
demonstrate. These are a novella, a novel, and a number of
short stories all of which have been unjustifiably neglected.
Chapter One, on The Aspern Papers, argues that Tina Bordereau,
far from being, the artless victim seen by many critics,
actually challenges and defeats the narrator by the very form
of her narrative. Her 'realist' discourse undermines his
language of 'romance', and shows up its internal unstability.
Chapter Two is an extensive study of the critical reception of
The Tragic Muse. The most common areas of critical attention
have been its contemporary topicality, its relation to previous
novels on similar themes, and the possible genealogy of Gabriel
Nash. Those have all missed the core of the work. - Chapter Three
demonstrates how polyphony and the anxiety of influence make
the novel what it really is. Influence arises from the
juxtaposition of, and the wrestling between, artistic ephebes
and their precursors (Nick and Nash,, Miriam and Madame Carre).
The dialogic quality defined by Bakhtin is crucial to the
proper, and even-handed, characterization of all, the conflicts
in the novel. And since most of James's tales in the eighties
and nineties -are about 'masters - and acolytes, the anxiety of
influence remains central. Chapter Four is a study of 'The
Author of Beltraffiol' and 'The Lesson of the Master'. Again the
characters' manipulations are a crucial focus in a way that
G6rard Genette's terminology helps to illuminate. The fact that
the ephebe is the author-thinker emphasizes the inextricability
of the Bakhtinian and the Bloomian in James. Just as
polyphony offers a different focus for explicating the poetics
of James's fiction; so the ephebal conflict provides the basis
for a fresh perception of James's own artistic struggle
Dr. James Gillam, Spelman College, September 2011
No full textThis video is a conversation with Dr. James Gillam. Dr. Gillam talks about his book, "Life and Death in the Central Highlands: An American Sergeant in the Vietnam War 1968-1970". Daniel Le, AUC Woodruff Library, is the interviewer
James Bond: international man of gastronomy
No full textThis article is concerned with the representation of food and drink in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. In particular, it examines how the author uses Bond’s culinary knowledge and habits of consumption as an important constituent of his hero’s character. Similarly, the food choices of other characters, notably villains, are shown to be linked, by Fleming, to core aspects of their identity − principally their ethnicity. Bond’s impulse to observe and classify, very much in evidence in the novels’ food sequences, is examined in terms of the texts’ construction of Bond as a skilled identifier of signs
A Tripartite Post-Recession Rebalancing
No full textIn this latest Advance & Rutgers Report, entitled “A Tripartite Post-Recession Rebalancing,” Dean James W. Hughes and Professor Joseph J. Seneca deliver an incisive assessment of the current market conditions and obstacles in the path of our economic recovery. They offer a statistical cautionary tale that the private and public sector need to hear and acknowledge in order for the economy to make continued progress.This report was published as Issue Paper Number 7, November 2011, in Advance & Rutgers Report
Seumas O'Kelly and James Stephens
No full textSO: Ben-Merre, Diana A. (ed.); Murphy, Maureen (ed.). 1989. James Joyce and His Contemporaries. (pp. 155-159). Westport, CT: Greenwood, xii, 188 pp.Source type: Print(0
A critical comparison of William James and Søren Kierkegaard on religious belief
No full textThis thesis is a critical comparison of the accounts of religious belief proposed byWilliam James and Søren Kierkegaard. Both James and Kierkegaard greatly emphasizethe subjective aspects of religious belief. In view of this fact, surprisingly littlecomparative work has been done in this area. I contribute to this literature in two ways.Firstly, I make a brief assessment of what James knew of Kierkegaard’s work.Secondly, I draw four comparisons between Kierkegaard and James. In Chapter One Iexamine the claim that Kierkegaard proposes a pragmatist account of faith of the kindthat James sets out in his essay The Will To Believe. I argue that this claim rests on amisunderstanding of Kierkegaard’s argument that to have faith is to take a risk. In thefollowing chapter I discuss James’s and Kierkegaard’s views on formal proofs for theexistence of God. Both philosophers reject the notion that faith can be based on suchproofs. I distinguish between their positions, and argue in favour of Kierkegaard’s. Inthe third chapter I compare Kierkegaard’s and James’s accounts of religious experience.James views religious experiences as a special kind of evidence for the existence ofGod. For Kierkegaard it is a mistake to view religious experiences as evidence. Suchexperiences should be understood in relation to the concept of religious authority. In thefinal chapter I examine Kierkegaard’s conception of faith as a life-view. I argue that forKierkegaard a life-view is a fundamental perspective on one’s existence. I compare thisconception with James’s concept of philosophical temperament and in relation to hisdiscussion of the sick soul
James on Pure Experience
No full textThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Bloomsbury via http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/understanding-james-understanding-modernism-9781501302756
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