5,850 research outputs found
Low strength is related to diminished ground reaction forces and walking performance in older women
The purpose of this study was to determine how lower-limb strength in older women affected gait speed, supportive forces, spatial, and temporal aspects of walking gait. Twenty-four women between 65 â 80 yr performed maximal voluntary isometric contractions for the knee extensors (KE), knee flexors (KF), ankle plantarflexors (PF) and ankle dorsiflexors (DF) and were separated into low strength and normal strength groups using a KE torque threshold of 1.5 Nm kgâ1 . They walked at both a standard speed of 0.8 m sâ1 and at a self-selected maximal speed on an instrumented treadmill that recorded vertical ground reaction forces (vGRF) and spatiotemporal gait measures. Older women with low strength had 30% lower KE maximal torque, 36% lower PF maximal torque, 34% lower KE rate of torque development (RTD) and 30% lower KF RTD. Low strength women demonstrated slower maximal walking speeds (1.26 ± 0.20 vs. 1.56 ± 0.20 m sâ1 ), lower vGRF during weight acceptance (1.15 ± 0.10 vs. 1.27 ± 0.13 BW), lower weight acceptance rates (11.3 ± 0.5 vs. 17.0 ± 5.5 BW sâ1 ), slower stride rates, shorter stride lengths, and longer footground and double-limb support times (all P \u3c 0.05). Maximal gait speed was strongly correlated to peak vGRF and rate (r = 0.60 â 0.85, P \u3c 0.01) and moderately related to lower-limb strength (r = 0.42 â 0.60, P \u3c 0.05). In older women with low strength, diminished peak vGRFs were associated with slower walking speeds putting them at risk for mobility limitation, disability, poor health, and loss of independence
Spin-Peierls transition with strong structural fluctuations in the vanadium oxide VOSbO
We report on the magnetic susceptibility and electron spin resonance
measurements on polycrystalline samples of the vanadium oxide
VOSbO, a quasi-one dimensional S=1/2 Heisenberg system. We show
that the susceptibility vanishes at zero temperature, as in a gapped system,
and we argue that this is due to a spin-Peierls transition with strong
structural fluctuations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Frustration driven structural distortion in VOMoO4
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR),
magnetization measurements and electronic structure calculations in VOMoO4 are
presented. It is found that VOMoO4 is a frustrated two-dimensional
antiferromagnet on a square lattice with competing exchange interactions along
the side J1 and the diagonal J2 of the square. From magnetization measurements
J1+J2 is estimated around 155 K, in satisfactory agreement with the values
derived from electronic structure calculations. Around 100 K a structural
distortion, possibly driven by the frustration, is evidenced. This distortion
induces significant modifications in the NMR and EPR spectra which can be
accounted for by valence fluctuations. The analysis of the spectra suggests
that the size of the domains where the lattice is distorted progressively grows
as the temperature approaches the transition to the magnetic ground state at
Tc=42 K
Ground state of the Kagome-like S=1/2 antiferromagnet, Volborthite Cu3V2O7(OH)2.2H2O
Volborthite compound is one of the very few realizations of S=1/2 quantum
spins on a highly frustrated kagome-like lattice. Low-T SQUID measurements
reveal a broad magnetic transition below 2K which is further confirmed by a
peak in the 51V nuclear spin relaxation rate (1/T1) at 1.4K0.2K. Through
51V NMR, the ground state (GS) appears to be a mixture of different spin
configurations, among which 20% correspond to a well defined short range order,
possibly of the type. While the freezing involve all
the Cu spins, only 40% of the copper moment is actually frozen which
suggests that quantum fluctuations strongly renormalize the GS.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in PR
Evidence for an unconventional magnetic instability in the spin-tetrahedra system Cu_2Te_2O_5Br_2
Thermodynamic experiments as well as Raman scattering have been used to study
the magnetic instabilities in the spin-tetrahedra systems Cu_2Te_2O_5X_2, X=Cl
and Br. While the phase transition observed in the Cl system at T_o=18.2 K is
consistent with 3D AF ordering, the phase transition at T_o=11.3 K in the Br
system has several unusual features. We propose an explanation in terms of
weakly coupled tetrahedra with a singlet-triplet gap and low lying singlets.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Unusual magnetic properties of the low-dimensional quantum magnet Na2V3O7
We report the results of low-temperature measurements of the specific heat
Cp(T), ac susceptibility chi(T) and 23Na nuclear magnetic resonance NMR of
Na2V3O7. At liquid He temperatures Cp(T)/T exhibits broad field-dependent
maxima, which shift to higher temperatures upon increasing the applied magnetic
field H. Below 1.5 K the ac magnetic susceptibility chi(T) follows a
Curie-Weiss law and exhibits a cusp at 0.086 mK which indicates a phase
transition at very low temperatures. These results support the previous
conjecture that Na2V3O7 is close to a quantum critical point (QCP) at mu_{0}H =
0 T. The entire data set, including results of measurements of the NMR
spin-lattice relaxation 1/T1(T), reveals a complex magnetic behavior at low
temperatures. We argue that it is due to a distribution of singlet-triplet
energy gaps of dimerized V moments. The dimerization process evolves over a
rather broad temperature range around and below 100 K. At the lowest
temperatures the magnetic properties are dominated by the response of only a
minor fraction of the V moments.Comment: 10.5 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
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