PURPOSE This study examined the ability of 10 young (25.3 +/- 2.8 yr) healthy individuals to control knee-extension force during several discrete concentric and eccentric contractions. METHODS Subjects performed maximal and submaximal tasks on a KIN-COM isokinetic dynamometer. The submaximal tasks were to match a force-time parabola with a time to peak force of 200 ms at five target-forces (5...

Agricultural production systems face increasing threats from more frequent and extreme weather fluctuations associated with global climate change. While there is mounting evidence that increased plant community diversity can reduce the variability of ecosystem functions (such as primary productivity) in the face of environmental fluctuation, there has been little work testing whether this is tr...

PURPOSE Two studies involving 122 handball players were conducted to assess the reliability, usefulness, and validity of a repeated shuttle-sprint and jump ability (RSSJA) test. The test consisted of 6x(2x12.5-m) sprints departing on 25 s, with a countermovement jump performed during recovery between sprints. METHODS For the reliability and usefulness study, 14 well-trained male handball play...

The reliability of power in tests of physical performance affects the precision of assessment of athletes, patients, clients and study participants. In this meta-analytic review we identify the most reliable measures of power and the factors affecting reliability. Our measures of reliability were the typical (standard) error of measurement expressed as a coefficient of variation (CV) and the pe...

The goals of the present study were to determine the factors affecting saccadic latency in persons with mental retardation from the viewpoints of intellectual function and ability of behavioral regulation, and to clarify the relationship among the factors. Participants were 44 persons with mental retardation aged between 13 and 57 years whose IQ was between 14 and 70. The ability of behavioral ...

We present a novel microfluidic concept to enable a fast colorimetric alcohol assay from a single droplet of whole blood. The reduced turn-around time of 150 seconds is, on the one hand, achieved by a full process integration including metering, mixing with reagents, and sedimentation of cellular constituents. On the other hand, our novel total internal reflection (TIR) scheme allows to monitor...

This paper describes the development and evaluation of an on-road procedure, the Driving Observation Schedule (DOS), for monitoring individual driving behavior. DOS was developed for use in the Candrive/Ozcandrive five-year prospective study of older drivers. Key features included observations in drivers' own vehicles, in familiar environments chosen by the driver, with start/end points at thei...

The relationships between 6 measures of substratum topography or vertical relief and a tropical fish assemblage were evaluated and the merits of the various measures were assessed. A method of quantifying surface topography in the field using a profile gauge is introduced and found to be rapid and to generate concise summary statistics. Of the 6 measures of substratum topography compared, 1 was...