Running-Related Injury Incidence: Does It Correlate with Kinematic Sub-groups of Runners? A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Historically, kinematic measures have been compared across injured and non-injured groups of runners, failing to take into account variability in kinematic patterns that exist independent of injury, and resulting in false positives. Research led by gait patterns and not pre-defined injury status is called for, to better understand running-related injury (RRI) aetiology and within- and between-group variability. OBJECTIVES: Synthesise evidence for the existence of distinct kinematic sub-groups across a population of injured and healthy runners and assess between-group variability in kinematics, demographics and injury incidence. DATA SOURCES: Electronic database search: PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Wiley), Embase, OVID, Scopus. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Original, peer-reviewed, research articles, published from database start to August 2022 and limited to English language were searched for quantitative and mixed-methods full-text studies that clustered injured runners according to kinematic variables. RESULTS: Five studies (n = 690) were included in the review. All studies detected the presence of distinct kinematic sub-groups of runners through cluster analysis. Sub-groups were defined by multiple differences in hip, knee and foot kinematics. Sex, step rate and running speed also varied significantly between groups. Random injury dispersal across sub-groups suggests no strong evidence for an association between kinematic sub-groups and injury type or location. CONCLUSION: Sub-groups containing homogeneous gait patterns exist across healthy and injured populations of runners. It is likely that a single injury may be represented by multiple movement patterns, and therefore kinematics may not predict injury risk. Research to better understand the underlying causes of kinematic variability, and their associations with RRI, is warranted

Thirty Years of Legal Research: An Empirical Analysis of Outputs Submitted to RAE and REF (1990‐2021)

The external assessment of the research activities of universities in the United Kingdom began in 1986. In 1992, for the first time, the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) required institutions to submit books, articles and other ‘outputs’ for peer assessment and ultimately ranking. This exercise was followed by others in 1996, 2001 and 2008, and then by a revised approach, the Research Evaluation Framework (REF), in 2014 and 2021. We have conducted a long‐term longitudinal study of the ‘outputs’ submitted across these exercises for review by the law panels. By analysing these 30,028 outputs, and by using various methods of ranking journals and publishers, we are able to provide insights into the beliefs and prejudices of institutions and individual researchers regarding the publication of legal research over a 30‐year period.</jats:p

Calibration of a soft secondary vertex tagger using proton-proton collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Several processes studied by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider produce low-momentum -flavored hadrons in the final state. This paper describes the calibration of a dedicated tagging algorithm that identifies -flavored hadrons outside of hadronic jets by reconstructing the soft secondary vertices originating from their decays. The calibration is based on a proton-proton collision dataset at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140  fb−1. Scale factors used to correct the algorithm’s performance in simulated events are extracted for the -tagging efficiency and the mistag rate of the algorithm using a data sample enriched in ⁢ ¯ events. Several orthogonal measurement regions are defined, binned as a function of the multiplicities of soft secondary vertices and jets containing a -flavored hadron in the event. The mistag rate scale factors are estimated separately for events with low and high average numbers of interactions per bunch crossing. The results, which are derived from events with low missing transverse momentum, are successfully validated in a phase space characterized by high missing transverse momentum and therefore are applicable to new physics searches carried out in either phase space regime

Exact results for giant graviton four-point correlators

We study the four-point correlator O2O2DD in N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory (SYM) with SU(N) gauge group, where O2 represents the superconformal primary operator with dimension two, while D denotes a determinant operator of dimension N, which is holographically dual to a giant graviton D3-brane extending along S5. We analyse the integrated correlator associated with this observable, obtained after integrating out the spacetime dependence over a supersymmetric invariant measure. Similarly to other classes of integrated correlators in N = 4 SYM, this integrated correlator can be computed through supersymmetric localisation on the four-sphere. Employing matrix-model recursive techniques, we demonstrate that the integrated correlator can be reformulated as an infinite sum of protected three-point functions with known coefficients. This insight allows us to circumvent the complexity associated with the dimension-N determinant operator, significantly streamlining the large-N expansion of the integrated correlator. In the planar limit and beyond, we derive exact results for the integrated correlator valid for all values of the ’t Hooft coupling, and investigate the resurgent properties of their strong coupling expansion. Additionally, in the large-N expansion with fixed (complexified) Yang-Mills coupling, we deduce the SL(2, ℤ) completion of these results in terms of the non-holomorphic Eisenstein series. The proposed modular functions are confirmed by explicit instanton calculations from the matrix model, and agree with expectations from the holographic dual picture of known results in type IIB string theory

The Association between Salivary Metabolites and Gingival Bleeding Score in Healthy Subjects: A Pilot Study.

Periodontal diseases, including gingivitis and periodontitis, are among the most prevalent diseases in humans. Gingivitis is the mildest form of periodontal disease, characterized by inflammation of the gingiva caused by the accumulation of dental plaque. Salivary diagnostics are becoming increasingly popular due to the variation in saliva composition in response to pathological processes. We used a metabolomics approach to investigate whether a specific saliva metabolic composition could indicate preclinical stage of gingivitis. 1H-NMR spectroscopy was used to obtain the salivary metabolite profiles of 20 healthy subjects. Univariate/multivariate statistical analysis evaluated the whole saliva metabolite composition, and the Full-Mouth Bleeding Score (FMBS) was employed as a classification parameter. Identifying a signature of specific salivary metabolites could distinguish the subjects with high FMBS scores but still within the normal range. This set of metabolites may be due to the enzymatic activities of oral bacteria and be associated with the early stages of gingival inflammation. Although this analysis is to be considered exploratory, it seems feasible to establish an FMBS threshold that distinguishes between the absence and presence of early inflammatory alterations at the salivary level

Metrology for sub-THz Measurement of Dielectric and Chiral Matter

An advanced technique for waveguide sensing has been developed, designed, fabricated, and experimentally validated. It is based on the study of WR10 (75-110 GHz) rectangular waveguide with a non-radiating slot to place a microfluidic sample holder inside. This enables complex permittivity sensing of nanolitre (≈400 ) volumes of fluids. A microfluidic sample holder has been designed and simulated to assess how the pipe configuration, diameter, and depth inside the rectangular waveguide influence the ability to sense changes in complex permittivity. The key finding in the simulation was the ability to see distinct changes in the frequency shift of |11| resonance, and the transmission magnitude shift of |21| in response to varying ∗ of the sample under test (SUT). The changes to the pipe parameters show that the larger the volume of liquid inside the waveguide, these shifts become more amplified. The simulated design was then 3D printed and measured using a vector network analyser. The simulated model was then altered to better match the manufactured model. The measurements closely matched the simulations for the empty sample holder, and the isopropyl alcohol SUT, which had an error of 12.2% for ′ and 1.5% for ′′. However, for higher ′ and higher loss tangent SUT the simulations were unable to predict the measurements. This is attributed to the simulation model being unable to account for intricate details and imperfections in the manufactured model. Furthermore, a novel metrologically based methodology to characterise dielectric chiral matter has been proposed in the presented work. Fundamentally, it is based on a critical revisiting of existing methods using Jones’ matrices. Firstly, the methodology has been performed on a recent circular dichroism (CD) spectrometer design created in collaboration with Dr Jhih-Hong Cheng. It was deemed to have previously unappreciated drawbacks due to the Faraday rotation angle of the strontium hexaferrite plate (FP) component deviating significantly from the initially expected =45°. Therefore, two new, novel methods have been developed and experimentally validated. These utilise only wire grid polariser (WGP) elements, to extract the four Jones’ matrix components of the SUT. During the creation of these methods, it was assumed that the WGP were ideal components. This assumption was then removed and the viability of the two methods was assessed. Both methodologies were viable, however only the second of which was used for measurement due to the lack of the WGP necessary to do so. The WGP were characterised, and Jones’ matrix analysis with the characterised components was then performed, this enabled the inspection of the purity of the measurements. This analysis highlighted that the extracted Jones’ matrix components of the SUT will have impurities. These impurities will cause an achiral sample to seemingly possess chirality. Measurement was then carried out for four samples, the FP, achiral Perspex, and Perspex substrates with two variants of chiral ligands (L-Cysteine and D-Cysteine) attached to gold nanoparticles with Ø=4 . The FP, which possessed gyrotropic properties, has an apparent chirality which fluctuates between left and right-handed, however through further analysis this was found to be caused by the strong Fabry-Pérot reflections in the FP. The achiral SUT seemingly was a chiral SUT, as expected from the previous Jones’ matrix analysis, highlighting the uncertainty of this measurement scheme if used without first characterising the system. The two chiral enantiomer SUT were measured, both showed an increase in chirality, but these SUT did not show chirality of opposite handedness. Finally, two SUT were measured as a standard test SUT, these were two helix arrays with differing spacing between the helices. The results for this showed that the proposed methodology was able to measure a difference in the transmission of left-handed circular polarisation (LHCP) and right-handed circular polarisation (RHCP) as would be expected. When measuring with the original methodology by Dr Jhih-Hong Cheng, it was found that it was unable to measure this difference, highlighting the necessity in extraction of the SUT Jones’ matrix coefficients individually. The designed method could be utilised in the measurement of various organic and inorganic matter and devices, namely: proteins, peptides, and other biological matter exhibiting chiral properties; artificial materials with designed chirality; quasi-optical circuitry, and circularly polarised antennas