The acute testosterone,growth hormone,cortisol and interleukin-6 response to 164-km road cycling in a hot environment

This study investigated the acute endocrine responses to a 164-km road cycling event in a hot environment. Thirty-four male experienced cyclists (49.1 ± 8.3 years, 86.8 ± 12.5 kg, 178.1 ± 5.1 cm) participating in a 164-km road cycling event were recruited. Blood samples were collected within 0.3–2.0 h before the start (PRE: ~0500–0700 h) and immediately following the ride (POST). Samples were analysed for testosterone, growth hormone (GH), cortisol and interleukin-6 (IL-6). The temperature and humidity during the event were 35.3 ± 4.9°C and 47.2 ± 14.0%, respectively. Based on the finishing time, results for the fastest (FAST, 305 ± 10 min) and the slowest (SLOW, 467 ± 31 min) quartiles were compared. At POST, testosterone concentration was significantly (P < 0.05) lower (PRE, 20.8 ± 8.6; POST, 18.2 ± 6.7 nmol · L^?1), while GH (PRE, 0.3 ± 0.1; POST, 2.3 ± 0.3 µg · L^?1), cortisol (PRE, 661 ± 165; POST, 1073 ± 260 nmol · L^?1) and IL-6 (PRE, 4.0 ± 3.4; POST, 22.4 ± 15.2 pg · mL^?1) concentrations were significantly higher than those at PRE. At POST, GH and cortisol were significantly higher for the FAST group than for the SLOW group (GH, 3.6 ± 2.0 and 1.0 ± 0.8 µg · L^?1; cortisol, 1187 ± 209 and 867 ± 215 nmol · L^?1). Participation in an ultra-endurance road cycling event in a hot environment induced significant acute changes in concentrations of circulating hormones, with a greater augmentation of GH and cortisol in those completing the ride fastest.     

Balancing act: Government roles in an energy conservation network

Government-led interorganizational alliance networks present a sensible opportunity to overcome many societal challenges through collaborative governance. In particular, few researchers have studied alliance networks in the field of energy conservation in commercial buildings—a sector with unique barriers to greater diffusion of innovative cost-saving strategies. We applied an analytic inductive case-based method and social network analysis to study one particular alliance network: the United States Commercial Building Energy Alliances representing interests from retail, commercial real estate, and healthcare sectors. This alliance network was initiated by the United States Department of Energy, with assistance from several federally funded research laboratories in the United States, to promote the diffusion of knowledge and ultimately encourage greater deployment of energy efficiency and clean energy strategies in commercial buildings. We draw upon interview data from 28 cases of private, non-profit, and governmental organizations and complete network data from the alliance participants. We honed in on eight focal cases of governmental organizations to provide insight on how the four forms of energy and environmental data, information, and knowledge shared within an alliance network address the challenge of a vastly underutilized energy resource, namely conservation. Further, we identify and discuss the public's four roles—Commissioner, Interpreter, Marketer, and User—in providing balance to the diffusion of both private and public goods in a network.     

Executive functioning during prolonged exercise: a fatigue-based neurocognitive perspective

ABSTRACT

Despite emotional, technical and endurance implications for athletes’ performance, a consensus has yet to be reached to explain the impairment of executive functioning during exercise. In particular, recent research challenges the original assumption of a linear dose–response effect of exercise intensity on cerebral physiology and executive functioning. We propose a fatigue-based neurocognitive perspective of executive functioning during prolonged exercise, suggesting that top-down (cognitive and physical efforts) and bottom-up processes (body sensations) act in parallel of arousing mechanisms to determine cognitive outcomes. In this perspective, executive functioning during prolonged exercise would be dynamical rather than steady (i.e. positively then negatively impacted by exercise) and would be to analyse in regards of exercise termination rather than of exercise intensity.     

The New Left,the new class and socialism [1]

The New Left of the sixties has been eulogized in the mass media in recent years. Former activists have entered specific employment areas associated with the public sector, although many have retained a political commitment consonant with their previous activities and beliefs. Using interview data gathered in Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States in 1977 and 1978, the author analyzes the nature and trajectory of the New Left. He finds that the ambivalent character of the movement was an expression of the relations of a specific generation of learners to the deterioration of the condition of intellectual labor in society.The author wishes to thank the Canada Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for generously supporting the research.     

Scholastic achievement, academic self-schemata, and normative clearsightedness

This study based directly on Markus’s (1977) paradigm demonstrates the greater prevalence of an academic success self-schema in high academic achievers and of an academic failure self-schema in low academic achievers. The results also suggest that this achievementbased schema is modulated by clearsightedness (Py & Somat, 1991) in both good and poor students. Because more clearsighted individuals are probably better able to assess the arbitrariness of the reinforcement systems applied to their performance, they do not build the same schemata as less clearsighted individuals do.