Comparison between multiple sets and half-pyramid resistance exercise bouts for muscle damage profile

The present study compared the changes in markers of muscle damage after bouts of resistance exercise employing the Multiple-sets (MS) and Half-pyramid (HP) training systems. Ten healthy men (26.1 +/- 6.3 years), who had been involved in regular resistance training, performed MS and HP bouts, 14 days apart, in a randomised, counter-balanced manner. For the MS bout, participants performed three sets of maximum repetitions at 75%-1RM (i.e. 75% of a One Repetition Maximum) for the three exercises, starting with the bench press, followed by pec deck and decline bench press. For the HP bout, the participants performed three sets of maximum repetitions with 67%-1RM, 74%-1RM and 80%-1RM for the first, second and third sets, respectively, for the same three exercise sequences as the MS bout. The total volume of load lifted was equated between both bouts. Muscle soreness, plasma creatine kinase (CK) activity, myoglobin (Mb) and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations were assessed before and for three days after each exercise bout, and the changes over time were compared between MS and HP using two-way repeated measures ANOVA. Muscle soreness developed significantly (P<0.01) after both bouts, but no significant difference was observed between MS and HP. Plasma CK activity and Mb concentration increased significantly (P<0.01) without significant differences between bouts, and CRP concentration did not change significantly after either bout. These results suggest that the muscle damage profile is similar for MS and HP, probably due to the similar total volume of load lifted.

TRANSITIVITY AND ROTATION SETS WITH NONEMPTY INTERIOR FOR HOMEOMORPHISMS OF THE 2-TORUS

We show that if f is a homeomorphism of the 2-torus isotopic to the identity and its lift (f) over tilde is transitive, or even if it is transitive outside the lift of the elliptic islands, then (0,0) is in the interior of the rotation set of (f) over tilde. This proves a particular case of Boyland's conjecture.

Remarks on the classification of a pair of commuting semilinear operators

Gelfand and Ponomarev [I.M. Gelfand, V.A. Ponomarev, Remarks on the classification of a pair of commuting linear transformations in a finite dimensional vector space, Funct. Anal. Appl. 3 (1969) 325-326] proved that the problem of classifying pairs of commuting linear operators contains the problem of classifying k-tuples of linear operators for any k. We prove an analogous statement for semilinear operators. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tests of one Brazilian facial reconstruction method using three soft tissue depth sets and familiar assessors

Facial reconstruction is a method that seeks to recreate a person's facial appearance from his/her skull. This technique can be the last resource used in a forensic investigation, when identification techniques such as DNA analysis, dental records, fingerprints and radiographic comparison cannot be used to identify a body or skeletal remains. To perform facial reconstruction, the data of facial soft tissue thickness are necessary. Scientific literature has described differences in the thickness of facial soft tissue between ethnic groups. There are different databases of soft tissue thickness published in the scientific literature. There are no literature records of facial reconstruction works carried out with data of soft tissues obtained from samples of Brazilian subjects. There are also no reports of digital forensic facial reconstruction performed in Brazil. There are two databases of soft tissue thickness published for the Brazilian population: one obtained from measurements performed in fresh cadavers (fresh cadavers' pattern), and another from measurements using magnetic resonance imaging (Magnetic Resonance pattern). This study aims to perform three different characterized digital forensic facial reconstructions (with hair, eyelashes and eyebrows) of a Brazilian subject (based on an international pattern and two Brazilian patterns for soft facial tissue thickness), and evaluate the digital forensic facial reconstructions comparing them to photos of the individual and other nine subjects. The DICOM data of the Computed Tomography (CT) donated by a volunteer were converted into stereolitography (STL) files and used for the creation of the digital facial reconstructions. Once the three reconstructions were performed, they were compared to photographs of the subject who had the face reconstructed and nine other subjects. Thirty examiners participated in this recognition process. The target subject was recognized by 26.67% of the examiners in the reconstruction performed with the Brazilian Magnetic Resonance Pattern, 23.33% in the reconstruction performed with the Brazilian Fresh Cadavers Pattern and 20.00% in the reconstruction performed with the International Pattern, in which the target-subject was the most recognized subject in the first two patterns. The rate of correct recognitions of the target subject indicate that the digital forensic facial reconstruction, conducted with parameters used in this study, may be a useful tool. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sets of probability distributions, independence, and convexity

This paper analyzes concepts of independence and assumptions of convexity in the theory of sets of probability distributions. The starting point is Kyburg and Pittarelli's discussion of "convex Bayesianism" (in particular their proposals concerning E-admissibility, independence, and convexity). The paper offers an organized review of the literature on independence for sets of probability distributions; new results on graphoid properties and on the justification of "strong independence" (using exchangeability) are presented. Finally, the connection between Kyburg and Pittarelli's results and recent developments on the axiomatization of non-binary preferences, and its impact on "complete" independence, are described.

Semilinear functional difference equations with infinite delay

We obtain boundedness and asymptotic behavior of solutions for semilinear functional difference equations with infinite delay. Applications to Volterra difference equations with infinite delay are shown. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modeling and measuring the spatial relation "along": Regions, contours and fuzzy sets

The analysis of spatial relations among objects in an image is an important vision problem that involves both shape analysis and structural pattern recognition. In this paper, we propose a new approach to characterize the spatial relation along, an important feature of spatial configurations in space that has been overlooked in the literature up to now. We propose a mathematical definition of the degree to which an object A is along an object B, based on the region between A and B and a degree of elongatedness of this region. In order to better fit the perceptual meaning of the relation, distance information is included as well. In order to cover a more wide range of potential applications, both the crisp and fuzzy cases are considered. In the crisp case, the objects are represented in terms of 2D regions or ID contours, and the definition of the alongness between them is derived from a visibility notion and from the region between the objects. However, the computational complexity of this approach leads us to the proposition of a new model to calculate the between region using the convex hull of the contours. On the fuzzy side, the region-based approach is extended. Experimental results obtained using synthetic shapes and brain structures in medical imaging corroborate the proposed model and the derived measures of alongness, thus showing that they agree with the common sense. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.