Changes in mechanical properties of sprinting during repeated sprint in elite rugby sevens athletes

This study aimed to analyse fatigue-induced changes in mechanical sprinting properties during a specific repeated-sprint test in elite rugby sevens athletes. Twenty elite rugby sevens players performed ten 40?m sprints on a 30?s cycle with participant’s running back and forth in a marked lane. Radar was used to assess maximal overground sprint performance over each 40?m. Macroscopic mechanical properties (maximal horizontal force (F₀), maximal horizontal power (P_max), maximal ratio of horizontal force (RF_peak), decrease in the ratio of horizontal-to-total force (D_RF), total force and maximal sprinting velocity (v₀)) were drawn from horizontal force velocity relationships, using a validated method applied to the speed–time data. Fatigue-induced changes were analysed comparing the first sprint to an average of 2^nd-4^th, 5^th-7^th and 8^th-10^th. Repeated-sprint ability (RSA) testing induced substantial changes in the maximal velocity component, with a decrease (–15%) in v₀ (effect size (ES)?=?–2.46 to –4.98), and to a lower extent (–5.9%) in the maximal force component F₀ (ES?=?–0.59). D_RF moderately decreased (14%; ES=–0.76–1.11), and RF_peak largely decreased in the later sprints (ES?=?–0.32 to –1.27). Fatigue observed in this RSA test appeared to have a greater effect on the technical ability to produce horizontal force at high velocities, likely due to an alteration in the ability to maintain horizontally oriented force application when velocity increases rather than during the initial acceleration phase, but also the overall force production capacity. The ability to maintain forward-oriented force at high velocities is of central importance for identifying fatigue and monitoring load.     

Building a miniMEDLINE database: which journals to choose?

Scott Memorial Library (SML) at Thomas Jefferson University has installed the Library Information System (LIS) developed by Georgetown University Medical Center Library. One component of the system is miniMEDLINE, a system for searching an inhouse database derived from NLM MEDLINE tapes. This paper describes the process involved in determining which journals should be included in SML's miniMEDLINE file; the number of titles and years covered; the balance between research and clinical titles; the representation of allied health fields; and the level of faculty involvement.     

Foreign correspondence: journalism in the Germaine Greer Archive

Germaine Greer’s print journalism forms a significant portion of her archive. It needs to be reassessed and recognised as having equal value to her other types of writing. Greer’s journalism powers much of this major archive and it is important to acknowledge that this archive is as much a journalist’s one as it is the archive of a feminist, a performer or a literary scholar. Greer’s own methodical creation and re-creation of her print journalism legacy into a series of records in the Greer Archive is also an implicit argument for the value of her ‘smalls’. As a recordkeeper, she has gathered up ‘the madwoman’s underclothes’, the hundreds of articles published around the world.