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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

The Consequences Of Speed: Studies Of Cavitation During The Mantis Shrimp Strike And The Control Of Rapid Deceleration During Toad Landing, Suzanne M. Cox Nov 2016

The Consequences Of Speed: Studies Of Cavitation During The Mantis Shrimp Strike And The Control Of Rapid Deceleration During Toad Landing, Suzanne M. Cox

Doctoral Dissertations

There are consequences of moving quickly in this world. Here we investigate how two very different species, mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus) and cane toads (Bufo marinus), negotiate forces that result from moving rapidly in different environments. To study the mechanical principles and fluid dynamics of ultrafast power-amplified systems, we built Ninjabot, a physical model of the extremely fast mantis shrimp. While mantis shrimp produce damaging cavitation upon impact with their prey, they do not cavitate during the forward portion of their strike despite extreme speeds. In order to study cavitation onset in non-linear flows common during …


Feasibility Of A Combined Physical Activity And Sleep Education Intervention For Girls Living In A Low Socioeconomic Status Urban Community, Cory J. Greever Jul 2016

Feasibility Of A Combined Physical Activity And Sleep Education Intervention For Girls Living In A Low Socioeconomic Status Urban Community, Cory J. Greever

Doctoral Dissertations

Declining sleep duration and poor sleep quality is a public health epidemic disproportionately effecting elementary age girls living in low socioeconomic status urban communities. The Girls Dancing and Sleeping for Health (Girls DASH) program was designed to test the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of a combined physical activity and sleep education program in this population. In combination with baseline data from a previously conducted intervention in elementary age urban girls living in a low SES community in Springfield, MA, results from a cross-sectional analysis indicated that greater screen time was positively associated with parental reports of child’s sleep quality. Additionally, …


Mechanisms Of Slowed Foot Tap Speed In Older Adults, Erica L. Hartman Jul 2016

Mechanisms Of Slowed Foot Tap Speed In Older Adults, Erica L. Hartman

Masters Theses

Rapid repetitive tapping, like the Foot Tap Test (FTT), slows with age, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Purpose: 1. Test the hypotheses that greater performance variability, increased muscle coactivation, and slowed muscle contractile speeds are related to lower foot tap count (FTC) in older adults; 2. Examine the relationship between FTC and physical function in older adults, using the advanced SPPB-A. Methods: 18 (25.0±3.1years, 9F, mean±SD), and 28 (73.4±4.9, 14F) adults were recruited; the later were divided into Higher (HFO) and Lower (LFO) Functioning based on SPPB-A score. Participants performed 10s of rapid tapping (FTT) while seated. A MATLAB …


The Influence Of Musculoskeletal Geometry On The Metabolic Cost Of Pedaling, Lex Gidley Mar 2016

The Influence Of Musculoskeletal Geometry On The Metabolic Cost Of Pedaling, Lex Gidley

Doctoral Dissertations

The human musculoskeletal system consists of several muscles crossing each joint. In the human lower limb, most major muscles cross either one or two joints; labeled as uniarticular or biarticular muscles, respectively. The major biarticular muscles of the leg are the rectus femoris, hamstrings, and gastrocnemius. Several suggestions have been proposed as to how biarticular muscles may reduce the metabolic cost of human movement. Using experimental protocols, it is difficult to address the energetic effects of biarticular muscles, as individual muscle contributions to human movement cannot be measured and there is no way to determine what the effect might be …


Glucose And Acute Exercise Influence Factors Secreted By Circulating Angiogenic Cells In Vitro, Sarah Witkowski, Gayatri Guhanarayan, Rachel Burgess Jan 2016

Glucose And Acute Exercise Influence Factors Secreted By Circulating Angiogenic Cells In Vitro, Sarah Witkowski, Gayatri Guhanarayan, Rachel Burgess

Kinesiology Department Faculty Publication Series

Circulating angiogenic cells (CAC) influence vascular repair through the secretion of proangiogenic factors and cytokines. While CAC are deficient in patients with diabetes and exercise has a beneficial effect on CACs, the impact of these factors on paracrine secretion from CAC is unknown. We aimed to determine whether the in vitro secretion of selected cytokines and nitric oxide (NO) from CAC is influenced by hyperglycemia and acute exercise. Colony-forming unit CAC (CFU-CAC) were cultured from young active men (n = 9, 24 ± 2 years) at rest and after exercise under normal (5 mmol/L) and elevated (15 mmol/L) glucose. …