BACKGROUND Studies involving chronic creatine supplementation in elite soccer players are scarce. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of creatine monohydrate supplementation on lower-limb muscle power in Brazilian elite soccer players (n = 14 males) during pre-season training. FINDINGS This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel-group study. Brazil...

Humans utilise elastic tendons of lower limb muscles to store and return energy during walking, running and jumping. Anuran and insect species use skeletal structures and/or dynamics in conjunction with similarly compliant structures to amplify muscle power output during jumping. We sought to examine whether human jumpers use similar mechanisms to aid elastic energy usage in the plantar flexor ...

We present a novel computational method, the skewed-momenta method (Skew'M), which applies a bias to the Maxwell distribution of initial momenta used to generate ensembles of trajectories. As a result, conformational transitions are accentuated and kinetic properties are calculated more effectively. The connection to the related puddle jumping method is discussed. A reweighting scheme permits t...

A Jumping Petri Net ((18], 12]), JP T N for short, is deened as a classical net which can spontaneously jump from a marking to another one. In 18] it has been shown that the reachability problem for JP T N 's is undecidable, but it is decidable for nite JP T N 's (FJPTN). In this paper we establish some speciic properties and investigate the computational power of such nets, via the interleavin...

Although a relation between diminished human immunity and stress is well recognized both within the general public and the scientific literature, the molecular mechanisms by which stress alters immunity remain poorly understood. We explored a novel model for acute human stress involving volunteers performing a first-time bungee jump from an altitude of 60 m and exploited this model to character...

The aim of this study was to compare the pattern of force production and center of mass kinematics in maximal vertical jump performance between power athletes, recreational bodybuilders, and physically active subjects. Twenty-seven healthy male subjects (age: 24.5 +/- 4.3 years, height: 178.7 +/- 15.2 cm, and weight: 81.9 +/- 12.7 kg) with distinct training backgrounds were divided into 3 group...

Differential jumping performance in newly metamorphosed Blanchard’s cricket frogs Acris blanchardi (Anura: Hylidae) from fishand invertebrate-dominated ponds. Organisms that adopt phenotypically plastic anti-predator strategies during larval stages may incur fitness costs later in development. These costs are typically difficult to define in many species. The difficulty of identifying ecologica...

An association of a 'jumping to conclusions' (JTC) reasoning style and delusions has been repeatedly found. The data-gathering bias has been particularly implicated with higher levels of delusional conviction in schizophrenia. For the first time the symptom, psychological and social correlates of jumping to conclusions are examined in a large general population sample. This is based upon the re...

Many male jumping spiders display vibrant colors that are used in visual communication. A recent microscopic study on a jumping spider from Singapore shows that three-layered 'scale sandwiches' of chitin and air are responsible for producing their brilliant iridescent body coloration.