Monday, November 24, 2014

Protein Supplements Are More Convenient to Use for Post-Workout Recovery, but Are Not Much Different from What You Get in Your Diet

Many athletes take a protein supplement in the form of a powder, liquid, or bar after their workout in the hopes of building muscle.

Protein supplements are a good option for post-workout recovery, but they do not increase your muscle mass more than regular foods. 

This would mean that if your diet contains enough protein, you do not necessarily need protein supplements as you can receive the same muscle gain benefit from eating regular foods. 

It is best to take your protein supplement right after exercising to speed up muscle recovery

The most popular form of protein supplement used is the powder form, as it can be readily mixed with water, milk, or even juice. With powder protein supplements, many variants exist, which include but are not limited to:
  • Whey (most commonly used)
  • Soy (commonly used by vegans)
  • Casein (slower digesting than whey)
To understand how taking protein immediately after working out increases your muscle recovery rate, it is beneficial to understand the research about what happens to your muscles after a workout.

Let's say that you are performing a bicep curl (shown left). This is an unusual motion for your muscle that causes small microscopic tears in your muscle.

To repair the damage done to your muscle done by exercise, your body needs protein, which is the reason people eat protein after working out. 

Immediately after a workout, your body's natural response is to both create protein and breakdown protein, to allow for proper delivery of nutrients. 

However, the problem is that the balance is shifted towards protein breakdown, which would slow down muscle recovery because this mechanism is not being geared towards muscle recovery. 

This problem can be remedied by eating a source of protein such as protein supplements, as it shifts the balance towards building protein, thereby giving muscles what they need to grow and recover.

It is important to fix this imbalance quickly for maximum recovery rate, so you should take your protein supplement as soon as possible after working out. 

Although the sooner you take your protein supplement the better, you generally have up to 4 hours after your workout to increase your muscle recovery speed

Hydrolysate is another form of whey supplement where the proteins are partially broken down, thereby allowing for faster transmission of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, to muscles. The body can then use these amino acids to build more proteins, which can be used to repair muscle damage.

Because of this accelerated delivery, muscle recovery is expedited with the use of this type of protein supplement. 

Dr. Marc Rogers, associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Maryland, clarifies the difference of effect between whey hydrolysate and the amino acids found in normal food.

                                                


Companies advertise their protein supplements as having unique types of proteins, but in reality you can also find them in food 

The composition of amino acids in protein supplements is not different than those found in whole foods. 

Some athletes believe that protein supplements contain something extra that regular food doesn't have, thereby leading to greater benefits. 


This is a reasonable belief for athletes to have as many of these supplements advertise special characteristics about their product such as having branched chain amino acids (BCAA's). 


BCAA's are part of the nine essential amino acids that are needed for proper bodily function and survival. These type of amino acids can only be obtained through outside sources, as our body does not produce them. 


An example of a BCAA is leucine. The chemical structure of leucine is shown on the right. Notice the branch that is contained within the box. 

A branch in the structure such as the one seen in leucine is what classifies an amino acid as being a BCAA.



BCAA's are highly sought by athletes because research suggests they help maintain nitrogen balances in the body, which is thought to enhance muscle recovery.

It is beneficial for these supplements to have BCAA's, but it's not necessarily a special characteristic as you can obtain them by eating foods such as chicken breast, salmon, and eggs. 


Advertising that the product contains BCAA's or some other special facet is generally a marketing tactic used by nutritional companies to persuade you to buy the product. They want to make you feel as if it is worth your money, as some of these protein supplements are quite expensive.


Dylan Hernandez, kinesiology student and president of the running club team at the university, discusses how he usually plans a balanced meal, so as to achieve maximum recovery after his running workouts.

                                             

However, these foods are may not always be readily accessible to you after a workout. According to Dr. Rogers, in cases where the individual may not be able to eat for several hours, protein supplements can provide quick access to nutrients that are needed to start and maintain the muscle recovery process.



Tuesday, November 18, 2014

University of Maryland Student Says Orange is his Favorite Color

Physics Major Jerry reports that his favorite color is orange.


                                             

Sunday, November 2, 2014

The Iraqi Kurds, backed by U.S. airstrikes and other Kurds, attempt to defend the Syrian border town of Kobani from the Islamic State

According to a Reuters article written by Mariam Karouny in November, 2014, the Iraqi Kurds have recently began to assist the United States and other Kurdish tribes in a battle against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Kobani, Syria. Kobani is an important border town that is adjacent to Turkey, and therefore must be defended to prevent ISIS from gaining further traction in the Middle East. The Iraqi Kurds will attempt to burgeon the onslaught against ISIS by providing long-range artillery.

The weapons utilized by the Iraqi Kurds are an improvement to the arsenal used by the Syrian Kurds, according to Idriss Nassan, deputy minister for foreign affairs in the Kobani district. However, even with the improved weapons, it is still unclear whether or not progress is being made against the terrorist group as both sides have lost forces, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an overseer of the ongoing Syrian conflict.

Additionally, while U.S. airstrikes have been effective in some aspects of the war, ISIS is advancing in other locations such as Western Iraq, where they have killed several Sunni rebels. Moreover, the Kurds and other groups have been able to push back the terrorist group in some respects, yet ISIS has had several victories, including the acquisition of an important stronghold from Albu Nimr, a Sunni group.

ISIS seeks to eliminate Shi'ites as they are proclaimed infidels for adhering to different Islamic principles. The terrorist group recruits many volunteers, and is thus able to maintain a presence in the Middle East, despite being opposed by many other Islamic groups.

This article and website demonstrate utilization of three of the four aspects regarding the P-I-C-K model of digital journalism. By using this model, the journalist is able to effectively communicate the issue to the general public in a clear and concise manner.

Personalizing the website based on country selected enables users to engage in relevant, local news

The website has a drop down list at the top of the page to customize the edition of the news based on the country. For example, if I was interested in news pertaining to Africa, I can select "Africa" from the drop down list, and receive the most important news stories in that country. This personalizes the website for the user as it facilitates navigation for news that is relevant to them, thereby allowing the user to more deeply engage with the content presented in front of them.


Because I live in the United States, news relating to this country is most important and personal for me, so I selected "U.S." as my edition. This particular article regarding ISIS was one of the top stories on the front page of the U.S. edition, which is reasonable due to the involvement of the U.S. and its airstrikes in ISIS affairs, thereby demonstrating the usefulness and accuracy of personalization employed by Reuters.

Slideshows, user comments, social media sharing, and new page requests provide users with website interactivity

Interactivity is a measure of the user's engagement with content. In many articles, there is a slideshow with captions for each picture at the beginning, thereby allowing members of all audiences to gain a quick overview regarding the topic of the respective story.


At the end of each article, there is an option for users to submit comments about the article they have just read. Moreover, users have the option to share the article with others through social media, which can facilitate the transfer of information to others. These two modes of interactivity enable readers to start or participate in a discussion, thereby increasing engagement with the content presented.



Lastly, users can interact with the content by making requests for articles on new topics, or by requesting corrections for specific articles. This is an example of becoming an active part of the website's community, thereby increasing engagement not only with the website itself, but also with the news provided.



The author should have added relevant narration, videos, and pictures within the article to improve contiguity

Contiguity is a measure of coherence between text and graphics. Unfortunately, the author does not maximize this coherence as the pictures relating to the article are contained within the slideshow at the top of the page. A suggestion for the author would be to embed an interactive world map of ISIS activity in Syria and surrounding areas within the article. Another idea to improve contiguity is by adding a video or some other form of narration within the article. Although the pictures and captions are descriptive and relatable to the topic of the article, they are not as effective when placed at the top of the page. While the slideshow does provide good interactivity, it might be best to also add independent photos throughout the article to increase the user's engagement with the text. Without this contiguity, it can cause filter failure in the user and decrease engagement with the content of the article.

Kick outs are minimized by avoiding advertisements, popups, and keeping related links to the side of the page

A kick out is anything that causes disengagement between the reader and the content. With regards to this article, kick outs are usually avoided as there are no intrusive advertisements such as popups that randomly appear when scrolling down the page, which reduces frustration and allows users to comfortably read the article. Moreover, reading through the page is easy as there seems to be a lot of space due to lack of advertisements or extraneous links. This is also maintained by fixing related links and news stories to the side of the page at a small size, so that it does not pull the reader away from the article. Another benefit to this is that because it is locked to the side of the page, these links and stories will not drag down as the reader scrolls, which can cause frustration on other websites and can lead to the user leaving that website. As I was reading through some articles on this website, I never felt frustrated by the interface, as it enabled me to read the article at my pace and then choose my destination afterwards without any coercion from advertisements.



Friday, October 17, 2014

According to research conducted by WHO, fever and fatigue are the most common symptoms of confirmed and probable male Ebola patients in selected African Countries

The latest research by the World Health Organization (WHO) on October 17th of this year provides an analysis of the most common medical ailments that accompany confirmed and likely male Ebola patients in the African countries of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. The research was conducted through surveillance of suspected cases of Ebola, which included reference to previously established diagnostic standards by WHO in various districts of these countries. A graph of the most common symptoms for these particular Ebola patients is shown below:



One can conclude from this research that the most prevalent symptom of Ebola is fever (abnormal elevation of body temperature), which was present in 1002 individuals out of the 1151 confirmed or probable male Ebola patients (87.1%). The second most common symptom associated with Ebola is fatigue, which affected 866 individuals out of 1133 patients (76.4%).

This information is paramount for future research, as it offers a comparison between the current Ebola epidemic and previous outbreaks, which can elucidate the factors that have contributed to the current outbreak of the virus.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Sharing News on Social Media has Influenced the Growth of Virtual Journalism - By Zach39 and Ramiz4

Sharing news over social media has exploded
Over the last decade, social networking sites have become a prominent aspect of the online culture. As more and more people set up accounts on these sites, they've become a fantastic medium for sharing and spreading news. In the Reuters Institute Digital News Report for 2014, researchers were able to determine what percentage of various nations share news over social media and email. At 54%, the Brazilian population blows away the rest world. Italy, where 44% of its population shares news online, is second, followed closely by Spain at 40%. The United States and Finland round out the top five at 35% and 24% respectively.

Facebook dominates the social media market, but the popularity of other networks differs from country to country
Facebook is the clear front runner in the social media world. Researchers found that 60% of those
surveyed use the site, while over half of them (35%) use the medium for sharing and spreading news. YouTube also has a prevalent audience, sitting comfortably at 52% aggregate use. However, only 15% of YouTube users use the site for spreading news, far less than those on Facebook. Twitter is next on the list at 19% aggregate use and 9% use for news. While worldwide overviews paint a clear picture, the social media world is actually far more diverse. For example, Facebook and YouTube users in the United States use the mediums for news a bit more than the international average at 37% and 17% respectively. Similarly, Twitter users in Spain and the United Kingdom share news far more than anywhere else. 21% of Spanish and 12% of British Twitter users reported using the medium to spread news.
The rise of social media has coincided with the rise of virtual journalism
An analysis of multiple countries has shown that online journalism has burgeoned in the past several years. For example, according to research conducted, countries such as Finland (80%) and Italy (84%) consume news in the formats of lists and stories. This category appears to be the most popular method of news consumption as countries such as Brazil and Japan have over 80% of their population utilizing this format. It can also be reasonably inferred that the use of social media for news, as discussed previously, has nurtured the growth of online journalism as many of these social media utilize the format of displaying news with lists and stories. One interesting note from this research is that for all countries surveyed, news in the form of text by far dominates news in the form of audio, videos, or live pages. However, this difference can be partly attributed to the screen size of the mobile device.

Growth of Virtual Journalism and Social Media in Graphics: