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Title: Confronting two-tiered community recreation and poor women's exclusion: Promoting inclusion, health and social justice
Author(s): Colleen Reid (author), Wendy Frisby (author), Pamela Ponic (author)
Date: 2002
Abstract: The social, psychological, and physical health benefits of participation in physical activity and other forms of recreation are well documented (Frankish, Milligan and Reid; Sallis and Owen; Reid and Dyck), and evidence suggests that low-income women view access to community recreation as an important dimension of their health and their communities (Weber; Frisby and Hoeber). Although many community recreation departments in Canada have a social mandate of providing services to all citizens to promote health and well being, consistent barriers to regular involvement persist for those who live on the margins and are unable to conform to dominant expectations inherent in modern forms of public recreation (Frisby, Crawford and Dorer; Lyons and Langille;Harvey). With its individualist ideology, classist notions of self-responsibility, and fees for service, we argue that community recreation has become a two-tiered system where only those with sufficient social, cultural, and financial resources can participate (Kidd). Consequently, insufficient subsidies, policies requiring "proof of poverty," and discrimina- tory practices exclude poor women from being actively involved in health-promoting forms of community recreation. The purposes of this paper are: i) to examine how low-income women see involvement in community recreation contributing to their health, and ii) to examine low-income women's experiences with exclusionary community recreation policies and practices. Hearing the voices of those who are marginalized from the knowledge production and policy development process is important when considering how public sector programs, policies, and practices can become more inclusive (Lord and Hutchison; Frisby and Hoeber). Through fostering inclusion rather than classist forms of service delivery, the community development and social justice mandates of many community recreation departments is advanced thus providing health-promoting resources for those living on the margins.
Department: Therapeutic Recreation

Title: Inferring sexually deviant behavior from corresponding fantasies: The role of personality and pornography consumption
Author(s): Kevin M. Williams (author), Barry S. Cooper (author), Teresa M. Howell (author), John C. Yuille (author), Delroy L. Paulhus (author)
Date: 2009
Abstract: There is widespread concern that deviant sexual fantasies promote corresponding behaviors. The authors investigated whether that concern is valid in nonoffender samples. Self-reports of nine deviant sexual fantasies and behaviors were compared in two samples of male undergraduates. In Study 1, 95% of respondents reported experiencing at least one sexually deviant fantasy, and 74% reported engaging in at least one sexually deviant behavior. The correlations were all positive and averaged .44. However, only 38% of the high-fantasy group reported acting out fantasies. The effect of pornography use on deviant behaviors was partially mediated by increases in deviant fantasies. Study 2 investigated possible moderators, including eight personality variables. The fantasy-behavior association held only for those high in self-reported psychopathy. In addition, the association between pornography use and deviant sexual behavior held only for participants high in psychopathy. Overall, theoretically relevant individual difference variables moderated the relation between sexually deviant fantasies and behaviors and between pornography use and deviant behaviors.
Subject(s): Paraphilias, Sexual fantasies, Pornography, Pornography--Psychological aspects, Psychopaths--Sexual behavior, Antisocial personality disorders
Department: Psychology, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Does this feel empowering? Using métissage to explore the effects of critical pedagogy
Author(s): Rebecca D. Cox (author), Meaghan Dougherty (author), Sue L. Hampton (author), Christina Neigel (author), Kim Nickel (author)
Date: 2017
Abstract: The extent to which critical pedagogy disrupts the relations of dominance inside postsecondary classrooms, or empowers students to take socially just action beyond the classroom has been debated and challenged for decades. Through the use of métissage, an interpretive inquiry method that affords collaborative interrogation of individual autoethnographic writings, we five participants in the same critical pedagogy course conducted a post-course inquiry project in order to explore what we had learned through the course. Through this inquiry project, we have come to a deeper understanding of critical pedagogy praxis. Ultimately, what we learned through the use of this inquiry method maintains important implications for postsecondary educators.
Subject(s): Critical pedagogy, Transformative learning, Postsecondary education
Department: Child and Youth Care, Child, Family and Community Studies

Title: Challenges of using progress monitoring measures: insights from practicing clinicians
Author(s): Gabriela Ionita (author), Marilyn Fitzpatrick (author), Jann Tomaro (author), Vivian V. Chen (author), Louise Overington (author)
Date: 2016
Abstract: Although integrating progress monitoring (PM) measures into psychotherapy practice can provide numerous benefits, including improved client outcomes, relatively few clinicians use these measures (e.g., Ionita & Fitzpatrick, 2014). To better understand the reasons for clinicians’ reluctance, consensual qualitative research methodology was used to examine the challenges faced by clinicians currently using PM measures. Open-ended, semistructured interviews, with 25 clinicians who chose to use PM measures, revealed that clinicians tended to face challenges involving technical concerns, negative responses from others, and personal barriers such as anxiety. The majority of participants discussed ways to overcome the challenges they experienced, including ensuring the fit of the PM measure, explaining measures to others to help engender a positive response, adapting their own perspective, and increasing their own and others’ knowledge of the measures. Implications for practicing psychologists and for knowledge translation efforts are discussed.
Subject(s): Evidence-based psychotherapy, Psychotherapy--Outcome assessment, Psychotherapy--Evaluation, Psychotherapy patients--Rehabilitation--Evaluation, Qualitative research
Department: Psychology, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Synaptic plasticity is impaired in rats with a low glutathione content
Author(s): W. Almaguer-Melian (author), Reyniel Cruz-Aguado (author), J.A. Bergado (author)
Date: 2000
Abstract: Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a sustained increase in the efficacy of synaptic transmission, based on functional changes involving pre- and postsynaptic mechanisms, and has been considered a cellular model for learning and memory. The sulphurated tripeptide glutathione acts as a powerful antioxidant agent within the nervous system. Recent in vitro studies suggest that the cellular redox status might influence the mechanisms involved in synaptic plasticity. It is not known, however, how glutathione depletion might affect LTP. In the present study, we evaluated the input-output relationships, LTP, and paired-pulse interactions in rats with low glutathione levels induced by systemic injection of diethylmaleate. Our results in anesthetized rats show that the basic synaptic transmission between the perforant pathway and the dentate gyrus granule cells was not affected by glutathione depletion. However, in the same synapses it was not possible to induce prolonged changes in synaptic efficacy (LTP). Paired-pulse facilitation was also absent in the treated animals, suggesting an impairment of short-term synaptic interactions. These findings indicate that low content of glutathione can impair short-term and long-term mechanisms of synaptic plasticity and stress the importance of the redox balance in the normal function of brain circuitry.
Department: Biology

Title: Partial loss of Ascl2 function affects all three layers of the mature placenta and causes intrauterine growth restriction
Author(s): Rosemary Oh-McGinnis (author), Aaron B.Bogutz (author), Louis Lefebvre (author)
Date: 2011
Abstract: Several imprinted genes have been implicated in the regulation of placental function and embryonic growth. On distal mouse chromosome 7, two clusters of imprinted genes, each regulated by its own imprinting center (IC), are separated by a poorly characterized region of 280 kb (the IC1–IC2 interval). We previously generated a mouse line in which this IC1–IC2 interval has been deleted (Del7AI allele) and found that maternal inheritance of this allele results in low birth weights in newborns. Here we report that Del7AI causes a partial loss of Ascl2, a maternally expressed gene in the IC2 cluster, which when knocked out leads to embryonic lethality at midgestation due to a lack of spongiotrophoblast formation. The hypomorphic Ascl2 allele causes embryonic growth restriction and an associated placental phenotype characterized by a reduction in placental weight, reduced spongiotrophoblast population, absence of glycogen cells, and an expanded trophoblast giant cell layer. We also uncovered severe defects in the labyrinth layer of maternal mutants including increased production of the trilaminar labyrinth trophoblast cell types and a disorganized labyrinthine vasculature. Our results have important implications for our understanding of the role played by the spongiotrophoblast layer during placentation and show that regulation of the dosage of the imprinted gene Ascl2 can affect all three layers of the chorio-allantoic placenta.
Department: Biology

Title: Marbled murrelets select distinctive nest trees within old-growth forest patches
Author(s): Michael P. Silvergieter (author), David B. Lank (author)
Date: 2011
Abstract: The coastal old-growth forests of North America’s Pacific Coast are renowned both for their commercial and ecological value. This study adds to growing evidence that selective harvesting of the largest trees may have a disproportionate ecological impact. Marbled Murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus), a threatened species, nest almost exclusively in these old-growth forests. Detailed knowledge of nesting habitat selection provides guidance for habitat management and conservation. Habitat selection for this species has been studied at a variety of scales using ground and remote methods. However, because Marbled Murrelet nesting activity is limited to a single mossy platform on a single tree, we investigated nest tree selection within old-growth forest patches, using a set of 59 forest patches containing active nests. Nest trees were usually distinctive compared with neighboring trees in the surrounding 25 m radius patch. They averaged 15 to 20% taller than neighboring trees depending on region, had significantly larger stem diameters, more potential nesting platforms, and more moss. They had the most extreme values of height and width about three times as often as expected by chance. An analysis of moss platform use as a function of number of platforms per platform tree suggests that murrelets select individual platforms, rather than platform trees per se. Nonetheless, highly selective logging practices that remove high-value trees from stands may also remove trees most likely to be selected by nesting murrelets.
Department: Biology

Title: An application of fuzzy BWM for risk assessment in offshore oil projects
Author(s): Reza Ketabchi (author), Mohammad R. Ghaeli (author)
Date: 2019
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine the existing risks for the offshore project and risk weighting using the fuzzy best worst method (FBWM). In offshore oil projects, we face six major risks. Each of these risks is divided into smaller risks leaving us to have a total of 34 risks. Some of these risks are internal and some are external risks. In this method, first, the experts of this field determined the best and the worst type of risk. Then, using the experts’ opinions, the study compared the remaining risks with the two selected risks and the other weights are determined. In our survey, “Technical Risk and Project Execution” is the most important risk factor followed by “Political Risk and Sanctions”, “Market risk”, “Management risk”, “Financial risk and currency fluctuations” and “Environmental risk”.
Subject(s): Offshore oil industry--Risk assessment, Offshore oil industry--Risk management, Offshore oil well drilling--Risk assessment, Project management, Risk assessment, Risk management
Department: Commerce and Business Administration, Computing Studies and Information Systems

Title: The effect of low and high-intensity cycling in diesel exhaust on flow-mediated dilation, circulating NOx, endothelin-1 and blood pressure
Author(s): Luisa V. Giles (author), Scott J. Tebbutt (author), Christopher Carlsten (author), Michael S. Koehle (author)
Date: 2018
Abstract: INTRODUCTION: Exposure to air pollution impairs aspects of endothelial function such as flow-mediated dilation (FMD). Outdoor exercisers are frequently exposed to air pollution, but how exercising in air pollution affects endothelial function and how these effects are modified by exercise intensity are poorly understood. OBJECTIVES: Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of low-intensity and high-intensity cycling with diesel exhaust (DE) exposure on FMD, blood pressure, plasma nitrite and nitrate (NOx) and endothelin-1. METHODS: Eighteen males performed 30-minute trials of low or high-intensity cycling (30% and 60% of power at VO2peak) or a resting control condition. For each subject, each trial was performed once while breathing filtered air (FA) and once while breathing DE (300ug/m3 of PM2.5, six trials in total). Preceding exposure, immediately post-exposure, 1 hour and 2 hours post-exposure, FMD, blood pressure and plasma endothelin-1 and NOx concentrations were measured. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA and linear mixed model. RESULTS: Following exercise in DE, plasma NOx significantly increased and was significantly greater than FA (p<0.05). Two hours following DE exposure, endothelin-1 was significantly less than FA (p = 0.037) but exercise intensity did not modify this response. DE exposure did not affect FMD or blood pressure. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that exercising in DE did not adversely affect plasma NOX, endothelin-1, FMD and blood pressure. Therefore, recommendations for healthy individuals to moderate or avoid exercise during bouts of high pollution appear to have no acute protective effect.
Subject(s): Cycling, Blood pressure, Diesel exhaust emissions, Air--Pollution, Arteries, Blood plasma, Nitrous oxide, Nitrates, Exercise
Department: Sport Science

Title: Culturing rate and the surveillance of bloodstream infections: a population-based assessment
Author(s): Kevin B. Laupland (author), Daniel J. Niven (author), Kelsey Pasquill (author), Elizabeth C. Parfitt (author), Lisa Steele (author)
Date: 2018
Abstract: Objectives Diagnosis of a bloodstream infection (BSI) requires a positive blood culture. However, low culturing rates will underestimate the true incidence of BSI and high rates may increase the risk of false-positive results. We sought to investigate the relationship between culturing rates and the incidence of BSI at the population level. Methods Population-based surveillance was conducted in the western interior of British Columbia, Canada, between 1 April 2010 and 31 March 2017. Results Among 60 243 blood culture sets drawn, 5591 isolates were obtained, of which 2303 were incident, 1929 were repeat positive and 1359 were contaminants. Overall annual rates of culturing, incident, repeat positive and contaminant isolates were 4832, 185, 155 and 109 per 100 000 population, respectively. During the 84-month study, there was an increase in the culturing rate that reached a plateau at 48 months (5403 cultures per 100 000 per year). The rate of both repeat isolates and contaminants increased linearly with an increasing culturing rate. However, the incident isolate rate reached an inflection point at a rate of approximately 5550 per 100 000 annually, at which point the increase in incident isolates per culture sample was diminished. At a culturing rate above 6123 per 100 000 per year, the number of repeat isolates exceeded that of incident isolates. Conclusions The determined incidence of BSI will increase with increased culturing in a population. Further studies are needed to explore optimal BSI culturing rates in other populations.
Department: Nursing

Title: The physiology of rock climbing
Author(s): Luisa V. Giles (author), Edward C. Rhodes (author), Jack E. Taunton (author)
Date: 2012
Abstract: In general, elite climbers have been characterised as small in stature, with low percentage body fat and body mass. Currently, there are mixed conclusions surrounding body mass and composition, potentially because of variable subject ability, method of assessment and calculation. Muscular strength and endurance in rock climbers have been primarily measured on the forearm, hand and fingers via dynamometry. When absolute hand strength was assessed, there was little difference between climbers and the general population. When expressed in relation to body mass, elite-level climbers scored significantly higher, highlighting the potential importance of low body mass. Rock climbing is characterised by repeated bouts of isometric contractions. Hand grip endurance has been measured by both repeated isometric contractions and sustained contractions, at a percentage of maximum voluntary contraction. Exercise times to fatigue during repeated isometric contractions have been found to be significantly better in climbers when compared with sedentary individuals. However, during sustained contractions until exhaustion, climbers did not differ from the normal population, emphasising the importance of the ability to perform repeated isometric forearm contractions without fatigue becoming detrimental to performance. A decrease in handgrip strength and endurance has been related to an increase in blood lactate, with lactate levels increasing with the angle of climbing. Active recovery has been shown to provide a better rate of recovery and allows the body to return to its pre-exercised state quicker. It could be suggested that an increased ability to tolerate and remove lactic acid during climbing may be beneficial. Because of increased demand placed upon the upper body during climbing of increased difficulty, possessing greater strength and endurance in the arms and shoulders could be advantageous. Flexibility has not been identified as a necessary determinant of climbing success, although climbing-specific flexibility could be valuable to climbing performance. As the difficulty of climbing increases, so does oxygen uptake (V̇O2), energy expenditure and heart rate per metre of climb, with a disproportionate rise in heart rate compared with V̇O2. It was suggested that these may be due to a metaboreflex causing a sympathetically mediated pressor response. In addition, climbers had an attenuated blood pressure response to isometric handgrip exercises when compared with non-climbers, potentially because of reduced metabolite build-up causing less stimulation of the muscle metaboreflex. Training has been emphasised as an important component in climbing success, although there is little literature reviewing the influence of specific training components upon climbing performance. In summary, it appears that success in climbing is not related to individual physiological variables but is the result of a complex interaction of physiological and psychological factors.
Department: Sport Science

Title: Exploring the promises of intersectionality for advancing women's health research
Author(s): Olena Hankivsky (author), Colleen Reid (author), Renee Cormier (author), Colleen Varcoe (author), Natalie Clark (author), Cecilia Benoit (author), Shari Brotman (author)
Date: 2010
Abstract: Women's health research strives to make change. It seeks to produce knowledge that promotes action on the variety of factors that affect women's lives and their health. As part of this general movement, important strides have been made to raise awareness of the health effects of sex and gender. The resultant base of knowledge has been used to inform health research, policy, and practice. Increasingly, however, the need to pay better attention to the inequities among women that are caused by racism, colonialism, ethnocentrism, heterosexism, and able-bodism, is confronting feminist health researchers and activists. Researchers are seeking new conceptual frameworks that can transform the design of research to produce knowledge that captures how systems of discrimination or subordination overlap and "articulate" with one another. An emerging paradigm for women's health research is intersectionality. Intersectionality places an explicit focus on differences among groups and seeks to illuminate various interacting social factors that affect human lives, including social locations, health status, and quality of life. This paper will draw on recently emerging intersectionality research in the Canadian women's health context in order to explore the promises and practical challenges of the processes involved in applying an intersectionality paradigm. We begin with a brief overview of why the need for an intersectionality approach has emerged within the context of women's health research and introduce current thinking about how intersectionality can inform and transform health research more broadly. We then highlight novel Canadian research that is grappling with the challenges in addressing issues of difference and diversity. In the analysis of these examples, we focus on a largely uninvestigated aspect of intersectionality research - the challenges involved in the process of initiating and developing such projects and, in particular, the meaning and significance of social locations for researchers and participants who utilize an intersectionality approach. The examples highlighted in the paper represent important shifts in the health field, demonstrating the potential of intersectionality for examining the social context of women's lives, as well as developing methods which elucidate power, create new knowledge, and have the potential to inform appropriate action to bring about positive social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Subject(s): Women--Health and hygiene--Research, Women--Health and hygiene--Sociological aspects, Health education of women, Sex discrimination against women, Intersectionality (Sociology), Differentiation (Sociology)
Department: Therapeutic Recreation

Title: Detection of muoniated organic free radicals in supercritical water
Author(s): Paul W Percival (author), Khashayar Ghandi (author), Jean-Claude Brodovitch (author), Brenda Addison-Jones (author), Iain McKenzie (author)
Date: 2000
Abstract: Muoniated free radicals have been detected in muon-irradiated aqueous solutions at high temperatures and pressures. Results are presented for the cyclohexadienyl radical, formed by muonium addition to benzene, and for tert-butyl, formed by reaction of muonium with isobutene, itself formed in situ from the dehydration of the starting material, tert-butanol. This is the first report of the direct identification of organic free radicals in near critical and supercritical water.
Department: Chemistry, Science and Technology

Title: Inhospital death is a biased measure of fatal outcome from bloodstream infection
Author(s): Kevin B. Laupland (author), Kelsey Pasquill (author), Elizabeth C. Parfitt (author), Gabrielle Dagasso (author), Kaveri Gupta (author), Lisa Steele (author)
Date: 2019
Abstract: Purpose: Inhospital death is commonly used as an outcome measure. However, it may be a biased measure of overall fatal outcome. The objective of this study was to evaluate inhospital death as a measure of all-cause 30-day case fatality in patients with bloodstream infection (BSI).Patients and methods: A population-based surveillance cohort study was conducted, and patients who died in hospital within 30 days (30-day inhospital death) were compared with those who died in any location by day 30 post BSI diagnosis (30-day all-cause case fatality).Results: A total of 1,773 residents had first incident episodes of BSI. Overall, 299 patients died for a 30-day all-cause case fatality rate of 16.9%. Most (1,587; 89.5%) of the patients were admitted to hospital, and ten (5.4%) of the 186 patients not admitted to hospital died. Of the 1,587 admitted patients, 242 died for a 30-day inhospital death rate of 15.2%. A further 47 patients admitted to hospital died after discharge but within 30 days of BSI diagnosis for a 30-day case fatality rate among admitted patients of 18.2%. Patients who died following discharge within 30 days were older and more likely to have dementia.Conclusion: The use of inhospital death is a biased measure of true case fatality.
Department: Nursing

Title: The influence of oviposition experience on response to host pheromone in Trichogramma sibericum (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae)
Author(s): Robert McGregor (author), Deborah Henderson (author)
Date: 1998
Abstract: Searching times and residence times of Trichogramma sibericum Sorokina were measured in the laboratory on individual cranberry leaves that had been treated with the sex pheromone of blackheaded fireworm [Rhopobota naevana (Hübner)] and on leaves that were left untreated. Mean searching time was higher on leaves treated by passive diffusion with either 50 or 100 μg of the main component of fireworm pheromone, (Z)-11-tetradecen-1-ol acetate (Z11-14: Ac), than on control leaves. Mean residence times were also higher on leaves treated by passive diffusion with 50 μg of Z11-14: Ac than on leaves untreated with pheromone. Pretrial oviposition experience in either the presence or the absence of host pheromone did not influence variation in searching time or residence time. This indicates that neither associative learning of the odor of host pheromone nor a more generalized increase in response to chemical stimuli after oviposition (priming) affects retention responses of T. sibericum to pheromone. Results are discussed in the context of current theories on the evolution of learning in insect parasitoids and as they relate to the concurrent use of pheromone-based mating disruption and releases of T. sibericum for pest management of the blackheaded fireworm.
Department: Biology

Title: A review of relationships between active living and determinants of health
Author(s): C. James Frankish (author), C. Dawne Milligan (author), Colleen Reid (author)
Date: 1998
Abstract: Identifies approaches to the conceptualization of 'determinants of health,' 'leisure activities,' and 'active living.' Relationships between determinants of health (gender, age, education, race, social support, place of residence, socioeconomic factors, occupation, health behaviors, activity choices and leisure constraints) and levels and patterns of active living are reviewed. Relationships between determinants of health and active living are summarized within the context of an integrative framework: the precede-proceed model of health promotion planning and evaluation. The model's use highlights the need to link the historically individual-focused literature on physical activity/active living with the emerging recognition that sociocultural and structural determinants play a key role in influencing a wide range of activities in daily life.
Subject(s): Health behavior, Health attitudes, Health promotion, Exercise, Recreation, Leisure
Department: Therapeutic Recreation

Title: The time lag between a carbon dioxide emission and maximum warming increases with the size of the emission
Author(s): Kirsten Zickfeld (author), Tyler Herrington (author)
Date: 2015
Abstract: In a recent letter, Ricke and Caldeira (2014 Environ. Res. Lett. 9 124002) estimated that the timing between an emission and the maximum temperature response is a decade on average. In their analysis, they took into account uncertainties about the carbon cycle, the rate of ocean heat uptake and the climate sensitivity but did not consider one important uncertainty: the size of the emission. Using simulations with an Earth System Model we show that the time lag between a carbon dioxide (CO2) emission pulse and the maximum warming increases for larger pulses. Our results suggest that as CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere, the full warming effect of an emission may not be felt for several decades, if not centuries. Most of the warming, however, will emerge relatively quickly, implying that CO2 emission cuts will not only benefit subsequent generations but also the generation implementing those cuts. [Publisher Abstract]
Subject(s): Carbon dioxide emissions, Warming commitment, Ocean Thermal Inertia, Earth System Modelling
Department: Geography and the Environment, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Ethical challenges in contemporary FASD research and practice: a global health perspective
Author(s): Nina Di Pietro (author), Jantina De Vries (author), Angelina Paolozza (author), Dorothy Reid (author), James N. Reynolds (author), Amy Salmon (author), Marsha Wilson (author), Dan J. Stein (author), Judy Illes (author)
Date: 2016
Abstract: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is increasingly recognized as a growing public health issue worldwide. Although more research is needed on both the diagnosis and treatment of FASD, and a broader and more culturally diverse range of services are needed to support those who suffer from FASD and their families, both research and practice for FASD raise significant ethical issues. In response, from the point of view of both research and clinical neuroethics, we provide a framework that emphasizes the need to maximize benefits and minimize harm, promote justice, and foster respect for persons within a global context.
Subject(s): Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, Children of prenatal alcohol abuse--Services for, Neurosciences, Medical ethics, World health, Public health
Department: Psychology, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Maintenance of EMG activity and loss of force output with instability
Author(s): Kenneth G. Anderson (author), David G. Behm (author)
Date: 2004
Abstract: Swiss Balls used as a platform for training provide an unstable environment for force production. The objective of this study was to measure differences in force output and electromyographic (EMG) activity of the pectoralis major, anterior deltoid, triceps, latissimus dorsi, and rectus abdominus for isometric and dynamic contractions under stable and unstable conditions. Ten healthy male subjects performed a chest press while supported on a bench or a ball. Unstable isometric maximum force output was 59.6% less than under stable conditions. However, there were no significant differences in overall EMG activity between the stable and unstable protocols. Greater EMG activity was detected with concentric vs. eccentric or isometric contractions. The decreased balance associated with resistance training on an unstable surface may force limb musculature to play a greater role in joint stability. The diminished force output suggests that the overload stresses required for strength training necessitate the inclusion of resistance training on stable surfaces. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR
Department: Sport Science

Title: Flora de la región ultramáfica (serpentinícola) de Guamuhaya
Author(s): Alenna V. Glaría (author), Luis R. González-Torres (author), Rosalina B. Iturralde (author), Eldis B. Granados (author)
Date: 2006
Abstract: The ultramafic (serpentine) outcrops of Cuba represent the 7% of Cuban surface and are the largest one of the Caribbean region. Ultramafic soils usually have low levels of nutrients, and toxic levels of Mg and heavy metals. In this paper, we characterize the flora of the Guamuhaya ultramafic region and analyze its possible origin and phytogeographical relationships. This region contains 233 species, 55 of them are Cuban endemism and one (Rondeletia bicolor) is restricted to this region. This flora is mostly composed by Antillean, Neotropical and Central-west Cuban species.
Department: Biology