The Effect of a Barefoot Training Program on Running Economy and Performance

Barefoot (BF) running has developed into a recent training technique for elite and sub-elite endurance runners. BF running is a recent type of training that may improve a runner’s Running Economy (RE) and, ultimately performance, by allowing for an enhancement of the foot and lower leg musculature, which, in turn, could improve running biomechanics by allowing the runner to land on the mid- or fore-foot. In spite of the many anecdotal statements that have been raised suggesting the benefits of BF running, there has been limited research evaluating a systematic training program designed to teach this skill and then test the outcome of this training on a runner’s economy and race performance. PURPOSE: To determine if the use of a systematic barefoot running training program would result in an improved running economy and race performance. HYPOTHESIS: That this 10-week BF training program would yield an improvement in running economy as well as 5K race performance. METHODS: To date, 3 adult males who were habitual shoe-wearing runners (SHOD) have completed all testing. Each participant reported to the laboratory four times. On Day 1, informed consent was completed and subject characteristics were determined including height, body mass, and body composition followed by a VO2max test on a treadmill using a Cosmed K4b2 portable telemetric gas analysis system. Four to seven days later (Day 2), subject’s underwent RE tests on a treadmill in three conditions (flat (4 ms -1 ), decline (4.5 ms -1 at -5% grade), and incline (3 ms -1 at 5% grade)) and a 5k time trial performed on an indoor track. All tests were conducted in the SHOD condition. Following testing, subjects were allotted a one week break-in period prior to embarking on the 10-week systematic barefoot training program. This BF training program was a gentle and progressive program designed to minimize injury while learning the BF running skill. After ten weeks of barefoot running, Day 1 and 2 testing were repeated in the BF condition. RESULTS: Following the 10-week BF training program and compared to the SHOD condition, VO2max did not change, while RE improved 4.0% (flat), 3.3% (incline), and 0.1% (decline) in the BF condition. The 5k race time decreased ~1.0% post-training with mile split improvements observed mostly at mile 3. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary findings suggest that a progressive, 10-week barefoot running training program may result in improved RE that, in turn, yields a faster race performanc

Planning for the blind in Lebanon.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Evaluation of rapid electric battery charging techniques

Battery powered electric vehicles are gaining popularity worldwide. This is trend is driven by several factors including the need to reduce air and noise pollution, and dependence on fossil fuels. The main drawback of today\u27s electric vehicle is its limited range, and the long time duration that is required to charge the electric batteries. This thesis addresses the latter problem. In recent years, significant progress (through research and development) has been made to accelerate the charging time of the electric vehicle batteries through pulse charging rather than supplying continuous current and/or voltage. Some patented fast charging techniques demonstrated reduced charging times from 8 hours down to 45 minutes, and the current goal is to reduce this to the 10-minute range. This thesis will evaluate the published fast charging techniques in terms of their efficiency, accuracy of state of charge, threat of overcharge and impact of life cycle. The merits of the various battery interrogation techniques will be analyzed through modeling and computer simulation

Curricular approaches to connecting subtraction to addition and fostering fluency with basic differences in grade 1

Six widely used US Grade 1 curricula do not adequately address the following three developmental prerequisites identified by a proposed learning trajectory for the meaningful learning of the subtraction-as-addition strategy (e.g., for 13 – 8 think “what + 8 = 13?”): (a) reverse operations (adding 8 is undone by subtracting 8); (b) common part-whole relations (5 + 8 and 13 – 8 share the same whole 13 and parts 5 and 8); and (c) the complement principle in terms of part-whole relations (if parts 5 and 8 make the whole 13, then subtracting one part from the whole leaves the other part)

Number-space associations in synaesthesia are not influenced by finger-counting habits

In many cultures, one of the earliest representations of number to be learned is a finger-counting system. Although most children stop using their fingers to count as they grow more confident with number, traces of this system can still be seen in adulthood. For example, an individual's finger-counting habits appear to affect the ways in which numbers are implicitly associated with certain areas of space, as inferred from the spatial–numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect. In this study, we questioned the finger-counting habits of 98 participants who make explicit, idiosyncratic associations between number and space, known as number-space synaesthesia. Unexpectedly, neither handedness nor finger-counting direction (left-to-right or right-to-left) was associated with the relative positions of 1 and 10 in an individual's number-space synaesthesia. This lack of association between finger-counting styles and number-space synaesthesia layout may result from habitual use of synaesthetic space rather than fingers when learning to count; we offer some testable hypotheses that could assess whether this is the case

Adrenergic regulation of insulin secretion in the cold acclimated rat.

This investigation was based on the hypothesis that long term cold exposure (cold-acclimation) reduces the overall amounts of insulin secreted by the pancreatic islets of Langerhans of the rat and possibly also reduces insulin synthesis. Evidence was obtained indicating that this effect was mediated through the sympathetic postganglionic terminals at the pancreatic beta-cells. The study was made on isolated perfused pancreases in a purpose-built perfusion system, and an artificial perfusion medium with a fluorocarbon as oxygen carrier were used. It was confirmed that insulin secretion from the isolated perfused pancreas, in response to glucose stimulation follows a biphasic secretion pattern. Cold-acclimation reduces insulin secretion as a result of alpha-adrenergic activity. This effect was reversed by the action of the alpha-adrenergic antagonist phento-lamine. A similar inhibitory effect on insulin release was achieved by perfusion with noradrenaline (40 ng/100 ml), although not to the same extent of inhibition which prevailed during cold-acclimation. The results suggested that the demonstrated alpha-adrenergic inhibition is directly effected by the pancreatic sympathetic fibres rather than by adrenal medullary secretion of catecholamines. Insulin output was measured by radioimmunoassay and the results were statistically analysed and discussed. It was concluded that during cold-acclimation, inhibition of insulin secretion and enhancement of catecholamine secretion enabled the cold-acclimated rat to maintain an adequate supply of thermogenic substrates for peripheral metabolism