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This article reassesses the Académie celtique (1805–13), an antiquarian society concerned with investigating the origins of the French nation, and the progenitor of the current Société nationale des antiquaires de France. While most prior scholarship has focused on the Académie as an innovator in the field of French folklore studies, it is argued here that the Académie's main scholarly concern was with language, specifically the use of historical linguistic research for tracing the origins of European nations. Underpinning the Académie's research programme was a belief that the ancient Celts—based in Gaul—once dominated Europe and spoke a language from which most European tongues descended, and was perhaps preserved in modern Breton. The article therefore also presents a coherent view of the importance of Celtic ancestry for the developing French nation in the early nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Objectives This study evaluated the heat strain experienced by armored vehicle officers (AVOs) wearing personal body armor (PBA) in a sub-tropical climate. Methods Twelve male AVOs, aged 35-58 years, undertook an eight hour shift while wearing PBA. Heart rate and core temperature were monitored continuously. Urine specific gravity (USG) was measured before and after, and with any urination during the shift. Results Heart rate indicated an intermittent and low-intensity nature of the work. USG revealed six AVOs were dehydrated from pre through post shift, and two others became dehydrated. Core temperature averaged 37.4 ± 0.3°C, with maximum's of 37.7 ± 0.2°C. Conclusions Despite increased age, body mass, and poor hydration practices, and Wet-Bulb Globe Temperatures in excess of 30°C; the intermittent nature and low intensity of the work prevented excessive heat strain from developing.

Abstract Background The mining industry has one of the highest occupational rates of serious injury and fatality. Mine staff involved with rescue operations are often required to respond to physically challenging situations. This paper describes the physical attributes of mining rescue personnel. Methods 91 rescue personnel (34 ± 8.6 yrs, 1.79 ± 0.07 m, 90 ± 15.0 kg) participating in the Queensland Mines Rescue Challenge completed a series of health-related and rescue-related fitness tasks. Health-related tasks comprised measurements of aerobic capacity (VO2max), abdominal endurance, abdominal strength, flexibility, lower back strength, leg strength, elbow flexion strength, shoulder strength, lower back endurance, and leg endurance. Rescue-related tasks comprised an incremental carry (IC), coal shovel (CS), and a hose drag (HD), completed in this order. Results Cardiovascular (VO2max) and muscular endurance was average or below average compared with the general population. Isometric strength did not decline with age. The rescue-related tasks were all extremely demanding with heart rate responses averaging greater than 88% of age predicted maximal heart rates. Heart rate recovery responses were more discriminating than heart rates recorded during the tasks, indicating the hose drag as the most physically demanding of the tasks. Conclusion Relying on actual rescues or mining related work to provide adequate training is generally insufficient to maintain, let alone increase, physical fitness. It is therefore recommended that standards of required physical fitness be developed and mines rescue personnel undergo regularly training (and assessment) in order to maintain these standards.

Abstract This study examined the capabilities of an ultraendurance athlete to self-regulate their diet during an attempt on the record for the longest period of stationary cycling. The attempt required the athlete to complete at least 20 km/hr, with a 15 minute break allowed every eight hours. Laboratory tests determined a heart rate-oxygen consumption regression equation enabling calculation of energy expenditure from heart rate during the attempt. Energy intake was determined by a non-weighed dietary record collected at the time of consumption. The athlete completed 46.7 hours, covering 1126 km, at a speed of 24 ± 1.6 km/hr. He expended 14486 kcal and consumed 11098 kcal resulting in an energy deficit (-3290 kcal) and a weight loss (-0.55 kg). The carbohydrate (42 ± 32 g/hr), water (422 ± 441 ml/hr), and sodium (306 ± 465 mg/hr) intake were all below current recommendations. The athlete was unable to self-regulate his diet or exercise intensity to prevent a negative energy balance.

Scholars of the nineteenth-century race sciences have tended to identify the period from c. 1820– c. 1850 as a phase of transition from philologically to physically focused study. In France, the physiologist William Frédéric Edwards (1776–1842) is normally placed near the center of this transformation. A reconsideration of Edwards' oeuvre in the context of his larger biography shows that it is impossible to see a clear-cut philological to physical "paradigm shift." Although he has been remembered almost solely for his principle of the permanency of physical "types," Edwards was also committed to what he recognized as the new science of " linguistique " and proposed a new branch of comparative philology based on pronunciation. Bearing Edwards' attention to linguistics in mind, this article reconstructs his racial theories in their intellectual contexts and suggests that at a time of emergent disciplinary specialization, Edwards tried to hold discrete fields together and mold them into a new "natural history of man." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muscle damage and soreness associated with increased exercise training loads or unaccustomed activity can be debilitating and impact the quality of subsequent activity/performance. Current techniques to assess muscle soreness are either time consuming, invasive or subjective. Infrared thermography has been identified as a quick, non-invasive, portable and athlete friendly method of assessing skin temperature. This study assessed the capability of thermal infrared imaging to detect skin temperature changes that may accompany the inflammatory response associated with delayed onset muscular soreness (DOMS). Eight recreationally trained participants (age 25 ± 3 years, mass 74.9 ± 13.6 kg, training minutes 296 ± 175 min⋅wk-1) completed 6 sets of 25 maximal concentric/eccentric contractions of the right knee flexors/extensors on a dynamometer to induce muscle damage and DOMS. The left knee extensors acted as a non-exercise control. Neuromuscular performance, subjective pain assessment and infrared thermography were undertaken at baseline, 24 and 48 hr post the DOMS-inducing exercise protocol. Data were analysed using Bayesian hierarchical regression and Cohen's d was also calculated. Maximal voluntary contraction torque was statistically lower at 24 hr (d = -0.70) and 48 hr (d = -0.52) compared to baseline, after the DOMS-inducing exercise protocol. These neuromuscular impairments coincided with statistically higher ratings of muscle soreness at 24 hr (d = 0.96) and 48 hr (d = 0.48). After adjusting for ambient temperature, anterior thigh skin temperature was statistically elevated at 24 hr, but not 48 hr, compared with baseline, in both the exercised and non-exercised leg. Thigh temperature was not different statistically between legs at these time points. Infrared imaging was able to detect elevations in skin temperature, at 24 hrs after the DOMS inducing exercise protocol, in both the exercised and non-exercised thigh. Elevations in the skin temperature of both thighs, potentially identifies a systemic inflammatory response occurring at 24 hr after the DOMS-inducing exercise protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts to improve aerobic exercise capacity by preventing oxyhemoglobin desaturation in patients with cystic fibrosis. Increase in exercise capacity in patients with severe congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease following inhalation of nitric oxide; Evidence that nitric oxide failed to improve exercising arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation.

Scholars have long assumed that the modern popularity of the Celts stems from an eighteenth-century 'Celtic Revival' linked to the poems of Ossian and associated with the first stirrings of the Romantic movement. This article challenges this explanation by considering the study of linguistic texts and ideas of the ancient Celtic language in the broad field of antiquarianism from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Instead, a new narrative arc for the Celts is proposed: rather than experiencing a revival in the eighteenth century, ideas about the Celts were actually in a long-term pattern of decline relative to their earlier pan-European popularity. Historicising early-modern ideas of the ancient Celtic language and its modern derivatives also helps to illustrate that the study of languages was primarily a tool for historical investigation into the origins of Europe and its different nations: antiquarianism was philological as much as it was archaeological. As such, 'linguistic antiquarianism' was the key driver of research into the ancient Celts and was the base on top of which eighteenth-century literary interest in the Celts developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]