No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

A gender difference in absolute muscle strength is well documented. The extent to which quantitative (fiber area and number) and qualitative (specific tension) differences in muscle contribute to this is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to examine a variety of muscle characteristics in the biceps brachii and vastus lateralis in a sample of males (n=8) and females (n=8) with a wide range of training histories. Measurements included motor unit number, size and activation, and voluntary strength of the elbow flexors and knee extensors. Fiber characteristics were determined from needle biopsies and muscle areas by computerized tomographical scanning. Females were approximately 52% and 66% as strong as the males in the upper and lower body respectively. A significant (p ≤ .05) correlation was found between strength and muscle cross-sectional area. Females had 45, 41, 30 and 25% smaller muscle cross-sectional areas for the biceps brachii, total elbow flexors, vastus lateralis and total knee extensors respectively (p ≤ .01). No significant gender difference was found in the strength to cross-sectional area ratio for elbow flexion and knee extension. Males had significantly larger type I fiber areas (4597 vs. 3483 um² ) and mean fiber areas (6632 vs. 3963 um² ) than females in biceps brachii (p ≤ .05) and significantly larger type II fiber areas (7700 vs. 4040 um²) and mean fiber areas (7070 vs. 4290 um²) in the vastus lateralis (p ≤ .05). The difference in type II fiber area in the biceps brachii was not statistically significant despite the fact that these fibers were almost twice as large in the males as in the females (8207 vs. 4306 um²). No significant gender difference was found in biceps fiber number (180,620 vs. 156,872) or muscle area to fiber area ratio in the vastus lateralis (451,468 vs. 465,007). No significant gender differences were found in any of the motor unit characteristics. The results indicate that the primary determinant of the greater muscle strength of males is their larger mean fiber areas which results in greater muscle cross-sectional areas. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

N/A / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

No description available.

No description available.

Strength and conditioning professionals spend a great deal of time and effort trying to improve athletic performance. Even as coaches evaluate each athlete by using the results of a vast battery of tests, there has been considerable speculation and discussion about the physical attributes of Division I football players and their playing status. The purpose of this study was to determine what influence strength, power, and performance tests scores have on an individual's playing status. The Skill group results indicate that power is the most important factor differentiating between starters and non-starters. Simultaneously, the Combo group results indicate that speed is the most important factor differentiating between starters and non-starters. Also, the L.O.S. group results indicate that bodyweight is the most important factor differentiating between starters and non-starters. / Ph. D.

This research proposes that consumers often selectively communicate their product knowledge with one another in order to achieve different interpersonal goals or to meet situational demands; as a consequence of this selective message construction process, the communicators' recollections of the product knowledge tend to be realigned with the contents of the communicated messages. To provide empirical support for this proposition, I employed a two-step, memory-based experiment procedure and used interpersonal relationship strength as the key investigating variable to examine communicators' selective message construction behavior and its evaluative consequences. Results showed that participants communicated more negative product information to a strong relation audience and more positive information to a weak relation audience; they were also more likely to negatively interpret ambiguous information to a strong relation audience. After the communication, participants in the strong relation condition showed significantly decreased product evaluations. / Ph. D.