American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 2016
Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine what factors account for the selection of athle... more Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine what factors account for the selection of athletes to represent Jamaica in track and field events at the Olympics and World Championships. Methods and materials: One hundred and twenty athletes who represented Jamaica between 1948-2015 in track and field events were interviewed. The athletes were classified based on athletic disciplines: Sprinter (S:100– 400m, n =80), jumper, hurdler and thrower (JHT, n = 23), and middle distance runners (Mdr: 800–3000m, n =17). The athletes were further sub-divided into athletes who represented Jamaica at the Olympic Games and the World Championships (highest level games) and those who represented Jamaica at the Pan-American, Commonwealth, World Junior Championships, World Youth Olympics, World University Games and the CARIFTA Games (other games). Each athlete was administered a questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed based on models used in studies elite athletes from Ethiopia Kenya and Jamai...
Against the current background of successes it is sometimes forgotten that already more than 50 y... more Against the current background of successes it is sometimes forgotten that already more than 50 years ago there were Jamaican athletes who captured the attention of sports fans worldwide. The sparkle started at a time when Jamaica was not even an independent nation but still a colony of Britain. At the 1948 Olympics in London, Arthur Wint won Jamaica’s first gold medal in the 400m. Four years later at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, the quartet of Leslie Laing, Wint, Herb McKenley and George Rhoden edged out the favourite US team in the 4 x 400m relay by a tenth of a second and set a new world record of 3:03.9 seconds. In 1962 Jamaica became independent, and since then its presence at the Olympics under the black, green and gold flag has been remarkable: In 1968, Lennox Miller won silver in the 100m in Mexico City, in 1976, Donald Quarrie joined him in the rank of medallists, winning gold in the 200m and silver in the 100m, Merlene Ottey took the Jamaican women close to the pinnacle ...
American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 2018
Psychophysiological stress appears to be a significant parameter in youth competitive sport parti... more Psychophysiological stress appears to be a significant parameter in youth competitive sport participation. Primarily because adolescent athletes are faced with the extreme pressurized scenarios, youth competitive sport offers. Numerous youth sport performers have not learned adaptive coping skills to ameliorate the effects of an inherently stressful environment. This oftentimes results in the elicitation of stress responses, which when prolonged cause an overproduction of hormones which can have severe negative psychological and physiological implications. The implications include a disruption of metabolism and cognitive functioning, as well as cell production in the immune system which may influence the course of chronic diseases and disorders. A detailed understanding of the molecular and genetic events underlying the association of stressors with the psychophysiological pathways is crucial for the design of psychological interventions tailored specifically for athletes so as to i...
Research has shown that basal lactate increases with body fat in males of West Indian descent. Th... more Research has shown that basal lactate increases with body fat in males of West Indian descent. The relationship in females of West Indian descent has however not been clearly elucidated. Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatinine (CK) are associated with energy metabolism and are involved in fat storage. Since basal lactate increases with adiposity, these enzymes may impact the regulation of basal lactate more significantly than fat. The study seeks to establish the relationship between adiposity and fasting or resting serum lactate (basal lactate) in male and female athletes and to ascertain if the concentrations of these enzymes contribute to the level of basal lactate. In this study of 23 male and 10 female athletes and 19 males and 17 female non-athletes, fasting or resting basal lactate, body fat percentage and concentration of CK and LDH were evaluated. Basal lactate was determined using a handheld lactate analyser and body fat percentage was determined using ultrasound techno...
Introduction: Caribbean masculine culturization, which is a byproduct and legacy of European patr... more Introduction: Caribbean masculine culturization, which is a byproduct and legacy of European patriarchal epistemology, is responsible for the reluctance of males reporting been abused, especially sexual assaults. This seems to the rationale for the silence of male-child rape as well as lack of examination the phenomenon by researchers. Objective: This study seeks to evaluate various typologies of abuse occurring with male children and the interrelationship among the types of abuse and the macroeconomic indicators such as poverty rate, real GDP growth, unemployment and exchange rates. Materials and methods: Data were recorded, stored and retrieved using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, Version 21.0. The level of significance that is used to determine statistical significance is less than 5% (0.05) at the 2tailed level. Frequency, per cent change, rates, and probabilities were computed on an annual basis for the typologies of childhood abuse as well...
1 Table of Contents 2 Preface 3 Acknowledgments Part 4 I. Foundations Chapter 5 1. Anthropology R... more 1 Table of Contents 2 Preface 3 Acknowledgments Part 4 I. Foundations Chapter 5 1. Anthropology Revisits Sport through Human Movement Chapter 6 2. Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man Chapter 7 3. From Landscapes to Playscapes: The Evolution of Play in Humans and Other Animals Part 8 II. Evolution of Human Running The Precursor to Sport Chapter 9 4. Endurance Predator Chapter 10 5. Thermoregulation and Hydrating Strategies in Human Evolution Chapter 11 6. Homo cursor: Running into the Pleistocene Part 12 III. Culture, Genes, Race, and Performance Chapter 13 7. Traditional and Modern Running Culture among the Kalenjin of Kenya: a Historical and Anthropological Perspective Chapter 14 8. Black Like Me The Shared Origins of Humanity and Why We Are Different Chapter 15 9. 'White' Men Can't Run: Where is the Scientific Evidence? Part 16 IV. Past, Present, and Future Chapter 17 10. The Paleolithic Athlete: The Original Cross Trainer Chapter 18 11. When Pain = Strain = No Gain: The 'Physiology of Strain' and Exercise Intensity, c.1850-1920. Chapter 19 12. Throwing Like a Brazilian: On Ineptness and a Skill-shaped Body Chapter 20 13. The DREAM Gene for the Posthuman Athlete: Reducing Exercise-Induced Pain Sensations Using Gene Transfer 21 Index
International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience, 2015
Introduction: The homicide pandemic has continued unabated and no empirical enquiry has emerged i... more Introduction: The homicide pandemic has continued unabated and no empirical enquiry has emerged in criminology, sociology, psychology or public health in Caribbean literature which evaluates whether or not divorce has any effect on homicide. Objectives: The aims of this study are to 1) evaluate factors that explain the interplay between homicide and divorce and marriages in Jamaica; and 2) provide theories for the uxoricides. Materials and methods: The data for this study was obtained from various Jamaica Government Publications. The period for this work was from 1950 through 2013. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression analyses and curve estimations were used to determine models and best fitted models. Results: The factors of divorce were homicide, population and GDP per capita, with those variables explaining 77.5% of the variance in divorce. A strong correlation between homicides and divorce still emerged after controlling for GDP per capita (or income; rxy = 0.843, P<0.0001). Poverty rate and the exchange rate accounted for 83.8% of the variance in homicides. Of the seven selected variables used at once in the OLS, three emerged as factors for divorce rate (exchange rate, mortality rate and poverty rate). Both factors determined 61.4% of the variance in the divorce rate. Poverty accounted for 47.0% of the variability in the marriage rate and was inversely related to the marriage rate. Hence, lower rates of poverty mean greater number of marriages and vice versa. Conclusion: Divorce produces issues, which are sometimes not fully captured in the data. Further studies on the psychology of divorce are needed from a qualitative perspective to unearth real meaning behind the behaviour of depressed adults and psychological deficient children following romantic relationship separation. We are therefore proposing that poverty and divorce as well as separation from sexual partner should be treated with the same degree of urgency and significance as non-communicable diseases. The destruction of families from divorce is such that we are forwarding it to be a psychosocial disease likened to an infectious disease that can cause a pandemic if not probably cauterized.
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2010
The angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and the >-actinin-3 (ACTN3) genes are two of the most stu... more The angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and the >-actinin-3 (ACTN3) genes are two of the most studied ''performance genes'' and both have been associated with sprint/power phenotypes and elite performance. Purpose: To investigate the association between the ACE and the ACTN3 genotypes and sprint athlete status in elite Jamaican and US African American sprinters. Methods: The ACTN3 R577X and the ACE I/D and A22982G (rs4363) genotype distributions of elite Jamaican (J-A; N = 116) and US sprinters (US-A; N = 114) were compared with controls from the Jamaican (J-C; N = 311) and US African American (US-C; N = 191) populations. Frequency differences between groups were assessed by exact test. Results: For ACTN3, the XX genotype was found to be at very low frequency in both athlete and control cohorts (J-C = 2%, J-A = 3%, US-C = 4%, US-A = 2%). Athletes did not differ from controls in ACTN3 genotype distribution (J, P = 0.87; US, P = 0.58). Similarly, neither US nor Jamaican athletes differed from controls in genotype at ACE I/D (J, P = 0.44; US, P = 0.37). Jamaican athletes did not differ from controls for A22982G genotype (P = 0.28), although US sprinters did (P = 0.029), displaying an excess of heterozygotes relative to controls but no excess of GG homozygotes (US-C = 22%, US-A = 18%). Conclusions: Given that ACTN3 XX genotype is negatively associated with elite sprint athlete status, the underlying low frequency in these populations eliminates the possibility of replicating this association in Jamaican and US African American sprinters. The finding of no excess in ACE DD or GG genotypes in elite sprint athletes relative to controls suggests that ACE genotype is not a determinant of elite sprint athlete status.
... Yannis P. Pitsiladis, Rachael Irving, Vilma Charlton, and Robert Scott A look at the final me... more ... Yannis P. Pitsiladis, Rachael Irving, Vilma Charlton, and Robert Scott A look at the final medal tally ... Kivisild, T., M. Reidla, E. Metspalu, A. Rosa, A. Brehm, E. Pennarun, J. Parik, T. Geber ... Maca-Meyer, N., AM Gonzalez, JM Larruga, C. Flores and and VM Cabrera.Major Genomic ...
American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 2016
Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine what factors account for the selection of athle... more Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine what factors account for the selection of athletes to represent Jamaica in track and field events at the Olympics and World Championships. Methods and materials: One hundred and twenty athletes who represented Jamaica between 1948-2015 in track and field events were interviewed. The athletes were classified based on athletic disciplines: Sprinter (S:100– 400m, n =80), jumper, hurdler and thrower (JHT, n = 23), and middle distance runners (Mdr: 800–3000m, n =17). The athletes were further sub-divided into athletes who represented Jamaica at the Olympic Games and the World Championships (highest level games) and those who represented Jamaica at the Pan-American, Commonwealth, World Junior Championships, World Youth Olympics, World University Games and the CARIFTA Games (other games). Each athlete was administered a questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed based on models used in studies elite athletes from Ethiopia Kenya and Jamai...
Against the current background of successes it is sometimes forgotten that already more than 50 y... more Against the current background of successes it is sometimes forgotten that already more than 50 years ago there were Jamaican athletes who captured the attention of sports fans worldwide. The sparkle started at a time when Jamaica was not even an independent nation but still a colony of Britain. At the 1948 Olympics in London, Arthur Wint won Jamaica’s first gold medal in the 400m. Four years later at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, the quartet of Leslie Laing, Wint, Herb McKenley and George Rhoden edged out the favourite US team in the 4 x 400m relay by a tenth of a second and set a new world record of 3:03.9 seconds. In 1962 Jamaica became independent, and since then its presence at the Olympics under the black, green and gold flag has been remarkable: In 1968, Lennox Miller won silver in the 100m in Mexico City, in 1976, Donald Quarrie joined him in the rank of medallists, winning gold in the 200m and silver in the 100m, Merlene Ottey took the Jamaican women close to the pinnacle ...
American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 2018
Psychophysiological stress appears to be a significant parameter in youth competitive sport parti... more Psychophysiological stress appears to be a significant parameter in youth competitive sport participation. Primarily because adolescent athletes are faced with the extreme pressurized scenarios, youth competitive sport offers. Numerous youth sport performers have not learned adaptive coping skills to ameliorate the effects of an inherently stressful environment. This oftentimes results in the elicitation of stress responses, which when prolonged cause an overproduction of hormones which can have severe negative psychological and physiological implications. The implications include a disruption of metabolism and cognitive functioning, as well as cell production in the immune system which may influence the course of chronic diseases and disorders. A detailed understanding of the molecular and genetic events underlying the association of stressors with the psychophysiological pathways is crucial for the design of psychological interventions tailored specifically for athletes so as to i...
Research has shown that basal lactate increases with body fat in males of West Indian descent. Th... more Research has shown that basal lactate increases with body fat in males of West Indian descent. The relationship in females of West Indian descent has however not been clearly elucidated. Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatinine (CK) are associated with energy metabolism and are involved in fat storage. Since basal lactate increases with adiposity, these enzymes may impact the regulation of basal lactate more significantly than fat. The study seeks to establish the relationship between adiposity and fasting or resting serum lactate (basal lactate) in male and female athletes and to ascertain if the concentrations of these enzymes contribute to the level of basal lactate. In this study of 23 male and 10 female athletes and 19 males and 17 female non-athletes, fasting or resting basal lactate, body fat percentage and concentration of CK and LDH were evaluated. Basal lactate was determined using a handheld lactate analyser and body fat percentage was determined using ultrasound techno...
Introduction: Caribbean masculine culturization, which is a byproduct and legacy of European patr... more Introduction: Caribbean masculine culturization, which is a byproduct and legacy of European patriarchal epistemology, is responsible for the reluctance of males reporting been abused, especially sexual assaults. This seems to the rationale for the silence of male-child rape as well as lack of examination the phenomenon by researchers. Objective: This study seeks to evaluate various typologies of abuse occurring with male children and the interrelationship among the types of abuse and the macroeconomic indicators such as poverty rate, real GDP growth, unemployment and exchange rates. Materials and methods: Data were recorded, stored and retrieved using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, Version 21.0. The level of significance that is used to determine statistical significance is less than 5% (0.05) at the 2tailed level. Frequency, per cent change, rates, and probabilities were computed on an annual basis for the typologies of childhood abuse as well...
1 Table of Contents 2 Preface 3 Acknowledgments Part 4 I. Foundations Chapter 5 1. Anthropology R... more 1 Table of Contents 2 Preface 3 Acknowledgments Part 4 I. Foundations Chapter 5 1. Anthropology Revisits Sport through Human Movement Chapter 6 2. Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man Chapter 7 3. From Landscapes to Playscapes: The Evolution of Play in Humans and Other Animals Part 8 II. Evolution of Human Running The Precursor to Sport Chapter 9 4. Endurance Predator Chapter 10 5. Thermoregulation and Hydrating Strategies in Human Evolution Chapter 11 6. Homo cursor: Running into the Pleistocene Part 12 III. Culture, Genes, Race, and Performance Chapter 13 7. Traditional and Modern Running Culture among the Kalenjin of Kenya: a Historical and Anthropological Perspective Chapter 14 8. Black Like Me The Shared Origins of Humanity and Why We Are Different Chapter 15 9. 'White' Men Can't Run: Where is the Scientific Evidence? Part 16 IV. Past, Present, and Future Chapter 17 10. The Paleolithic Athlete: The Original Cross Trainer Chapter 18 11. When Pain = Strain = No Gain: The 'Physiology of Strain' and Exercise Intensity, c.1850-1920. Chapter 19 12. Throwing Like a Brazilian: On Ineptness and a Skill-shaped Body Chapter 20 13. The DREAM Gene for the Posthuman Athlete: Reducing Exercise-Induced Pain Sensations Using Gene Transfer 21 Index
International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience, 2015
Introduction: The homicide pandemic has continued unabated and no empirical enquiry has emerged i... more Introduction: The homicide pandemic has continued unabated and no empirical enquiry has emerged in criminology, sociology, psychology or public health in Caribbean literature which evaluates whether or not divorce has any effect on homicide. Objectives: The aims of this study are to 1) evaluate factors that explain the interplay between homicide and divorce and marriages in Jamaica; and 2) provide theories for the uxoricides. Materials and methods: The data for this study was obtained from various Jamaica Government Publications. The period for this work was from 1950 through 2013. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression analyses and curve estimations were used to determine models and best fitted models. Results: The factors of divorce were homicide, population and GDP per capita, with those variables explaining 77.5% of the variance in divorce. A strong correlation between homicides and divorce still emerged after controlling for GDP per capita (or income; rxy = 0.843, P<0.0001). Poverty rate and the exchange rate accounted for 83.8% of the variance in homicides. Of the seven selected variables used at once in the OLS, three emerged as factors for divorce rate (exchange rate, mortality rate and poverty rate). Both factors determined 61.4% of the variance in the divorce rate. Poverty accounted for 47.0% of the variability in the marriage rate and was inversely related to the marriage rate. Hence, lower rates of poverty mean greater number of marriages and vice versa. Conclusion: Divorce produces issues, which are sometimes not fully captured in the data. Further studies on the psychology of divorce are needed from a qualitative perspective to unearth real meaning behind the behaviour of depressed adults and psychological deficient children following romantic relationship separation. We are therefore proposing that poverty and divorce as well as separation from sexual partner should be treated with the same degree of urgency and significance as non-communicable diseases. The destruction of families from divorce is such that we are forwarding it to be a psychosocial disease likened to an infectious disease that can cause a pandemic if not probably cauterized.
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2010
The angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and the >-actinin-3 (ACTN3) genes are two of the most stu... more The angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and the >-actinin-3 (ACTN3) genes are two of the most studied ''performance genes'' and both have been associated with sprint/power phenotypes and elite performance. Purpose: To investigate the association between the ACE and the ACTN3 genotypes and sprint athlete status in elite Jamaican and US African American sprinters. Methods: The ACTN3 R577X and the ACE I/D and A22982G (rs4363) genotype distributions of elite Jamaican (J-A; N = 116) and US sprinters (US-A; N = 114) were compared with controls from the Jamaican (J-C; N = 311) and US African American (US-C; N = 191) populations. Frequency differences between groups were assessed by exact test. Results: For ACTN3, the XX genotype was found to be at very low frequency in both athlete and control cohorts (J-C = 2%, J-A = 3%, US-C = 4%, US-A = 2%). Athletes did not differ from controls in ACTN3 genotype distribution (J, P = 0.87; US, P = 0.58). Similarly, neither US nor Jamaican athletes differed from controls in genotype at ACE I/D (J, P = 0.44; US, P = 0.37). Jamaican athletes did not differ from controls for A22982G genotype (P = 0.28), although US sprinters did (P = 0.029), displaying an excess of heterozygotes relative to controls but no excess of GG homozygotes (US-C = 22%, US-A = 18%). Conclusions: Given that ACTN3 XX genotype is negatively associated with elite sprint athlete status, the underlying low frequency in these populations eliminates the possibility of replicating this association in Jamaican and US African American sprinters. The finding of no excess in ACE DD or GG genotypes in elite sprint athletes relative to controls suggests that ACE genotype is not a determinant of elite sprint athlete status.
... Yannis P. Pitsiladis, Rachael Irving, Vilma Charlton, and Robert Scott A look at the final me... more ... Yannis P. Pitsiladis, Rachael Irving, Vilma Charlton, and Robert Scott A look at the final medal tally ... Kivisild, T., M. Reidla, E. Metspalu, A. Rosa, A. Brehm, E. Pennarun, J. Parik, T. Geber ... Maca-Meyer, N., AM Gonzalez, JM Larruga, C. Flores and and VM Cabrera.Major Genomic ...
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