Static Strength Increase and Its Effect upon Triceps Surae Reflex Time

Abstract

This study was to investigate the effect of increased muscle strength on the duration of the triceps surae reflex time. Subjects were 60 students within the age range of 18 to 20 years. The subjects were divided into two groups of equal size—a control and an experimental group. The experimental group performed isometric and isotonic plantar flexor muscle resistance exercises for 40 min. twice a week for a period of 6 weeks. The subjects were tested for plantar flexor static strength and triceps surae reflex time at approximately the same time of day prior to, and at the termination of, the training period. For the experimental group, the statistical analysis revealed a significant decrease in the triceps surae reflex time following strength training. The results of this study appear to warrant the conclusion that an increase in static strength through training has a significant shortening effect upon the triceps surae reflex time.     

Neighborhoods Matter: The Role of Universities in the School Reform Neighborhood Development Movement

Where you find distressed neighborhoods, you will also find poorly performing public schools. Yet many contemporary school reform efforts ignore neighborhood-level factors that undeniably impact school performance. The purpose of this study is to use a case study approach with social institutional and urban school reform regime frameworks to demonstrate why school reform and the re-creation and redevelopment of distressed neighborhoods should occur simultaneously. At the same time, researchers will examine the role of higher education in catalyzing partnerships with so-called anchor institutions for the explicit purposes of simultaneously improving neighborhoods and reforming schools. By focusing on a federal Choice neighborhood initiative, the study will not only make the case for connecting school reform and neighborhood development but also present a model that demonstrates how this can happen. The study will also make a strong case for the university's unique role in fostering neo-collaborative structures fit to take on wicked problems of neighborhood distress and urban decline.     

Product design engineering – a global education trend in multidisciplinary training for creative product design

Product design is the convergence point for engineering and design thinking and practices. Until recently, product design has been taught either as a component of mechanical engineering or as a subject within design schools but increasingly there is global recognition of the need for greater synergies between industrial design and engineering training. Product design engineering (PDE) is a new interdisciplinary programme combining the strengths of the industrial design and engineering. This paper examines the emergence of PDE in an environment of critique of conventional engineering education and exemplifies the current spread of programmes endorsing a hybrid programme of design and engineering skills. The paper exemplifies PDE with the analysis of the programme offered at Swinburne University of Technology (Australia), showing how the teaching of ‘designerly’ thinking to engineers produces a new graduate particularly suited to the current and future environment of produce design practice. The paper concludes with reflections on the significance of this innovative curriculum model for the field of product design and for engineering design in general.     

Tests of alignment among assessment,standards, and instruction using generalized linear model regression

An essential component in school accountability efforts is for assessments to be well-aligned with the standards or curriculum they are intended to measure. However, relatively little prior research has explored methods to determine statistical significance of alignment or misalignment. This study explores analyses of alignment as a special case of the generalized linear model (GLM). A general approach for such analyses is suggested, and examples are given for analyses with traditional alignment and GLM regression using data from two previously published studies. Results from the GLM are compared with ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Findings show that the GLM method allows more informative analysis of differences between source documents than alignment indices alone, including determination of whether marginal discrepancies are statistically significant or not.     

Do Tiers Affect Student Transfer? Examining the Student Admission Ratio

This study considers whether formally segmenting 4-year institutions by admissions selectivity affects the admission of transfer students. It develops a new measure, the student admission ratio, to compare the admission of transfer students in formally and highly segmented systems, informally and less segmented systems, and in formally unified systems. The study finds that the segmentation of systems by admissions selectivity does not adversely affect transfer admissions. The study concludes by positing that the formal structure of a system is not so important for student transfer as the processes for implementing transfer policy, and it considers the implications of this for practice.     

Lactate accumulation following isometric exercise training and its relationship with reduced resting blood pressure

Abstract

The purpose of this study was (a) to assess lactate accumulation during isometric exercise, and to quantify the shifts in accumulation following isometric training; and (b) to relate any training-induced changes in lactate accumulation to reductions in resting blood pressure. Eleven male participants undertook isometric training for a 4-week period using bilateral-leg exercise. Training caused reductions in systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial resting blood pressure (of ?4.9 ± 6.3 mmHg, P = 0.01; ?2.6 ± 3.0 mmHg, P = 0.01; and ?2.6 ± 2.3 mmHg, P = 0.001 respectively; mean ± s). These were accompanied by changes in muscle activity, taken as electromyographic activity to reach a given lactate concentration (from 114 ± 22 to 131 ± 27 mV and from 136 ± 25 to 155 ± 34 mV for 3 and 4 mmol · L^?1 respectively. Training intensity expressed relative to peak lactate was correlated with reduced resting systolic and mean arterial blood pressure. Training caused significant shifts in lactate accumulation, and reductions in resting blood pressure are strongly related to training intensity, when expressed relative to pre-training peak lactate. This suggests that higher levels of local muscle anaerobiosis may promote the training-induced reductions in resting blood pressure.