In many communities there is an elite, a relatively small group of participants that is well connected and highly influential. In order to understand the whole community and the underlying mechanisms it is hence very helpful to study the characteristics and the emergence of the elite. In the past it has been shown that various social networks exhibit surprisingly similar properties, like power ...

Highest degree nodes in Online Social Networks (OSNs) such as Twitter can be viewed as “social elites” or “connectivity hubs” as they are followed by many users and therefore can influence them. All these elites along with their pairwise connections form a structure that is known as the elite network. The elite network serves as the backbone of the OSN structure and thus its characteristics off...

To determine the relationship between multidimensional performance characteristics and level of performance in talented youth field hockey players, elite youth players (n = 38, mean age 13.2 years, s = 1.26) were compared with sub-elite youth players (n = 88, mean age 14.2 years, s = 1.26) on anthropometric, physiological, technical, tactical and psychological characteristics. Multivariate anal...

In this study, we compared the growth, maturity status, functional capacity, sport-specific skill, and goal orientation of 159 male soccer players, aged 11-12 (n = 87) and 13-14 years (n = 72) years, who at follow-up 2 years later discontinued participation (dropout), continued at the same standard (club) or moved to a higher level (elite). Age group-specific multivariate analysis of variance w...

OBJECTIVE Evaluate, in vitro, the microtensile bond strength (µTBS) of RelyX ARC conventional resin cement and RelyX Unicem and Maxcem self-adhesive resin cements to dentin, and the influence of polyacrylic acid pretreatment on the µTBS. MATERIAL AND METHODS Flat dentin surfaces were obtained in 15 third molars which were randomly divided into 5 groups: Group 1 - RelyX ARC (control); Group 2 ...

In this video Q&A, Mr Mike Carmont answers questions about state-of-the-art treatments for elite athletes, and the progress and challenges behind translating these into successful therapies for the non-elite athlete.

Dry-land strength training is a fundamental component for elite kayak performance. The aims of this research were 3-fold: 1st, to determine the relationship between performance time and strength scores for elite kayakers; 2nd, to identify how strength changes (gains or losses) over 3 training y relate with changes in performance time for elite kayakers; and 3rd, to compare the progression in pe...

The aim of this study was to examine whether the intracyclic velocity variation (IVV) was lower in elite swimmers than in beginner swimmers at various velocities, and whether differences may be related to arm coordination. Seven elite and nine beginner male swimmers swam front crawl at four different swimming velocities (maximal velocity, 75%, 85%, and 95% of maximal swimming velocity). The ind...

This paper tests Caldwell’s mass schooling hypothesis in the context of rural Pakistan. His hypothesis was that the onset of the fertility transition is closely linked to the achievement of “mass formal schooling” of boys and girls. Punjab and Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) were selected for this study because they appear to be on the leading edge of the demographic transition—a transition ...

The historiographies of Mexico and Brazil have implicitly stated that business networks were crucial for the initial industrialization of these two countries. Recently, differing visions on the importance of business networks have arisen. In the case of Mexico, the literature argues that entrepreneurs relied heavily on an informal institutional structure to obtain necessary resources and inform...