Maintenance of artificial turf-putting research into practice

© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Artificial turf is successfully utilized around the world for many sports and many levels of performance and competition requirement. Quality assurance systems for elite and community level demand effective maintenance programmes to ensure adequate play performance, with increasing regulation and auditing in the UK. Past research is, however, very limited in this important aspect of artificial turf science. Practical experience is relied upon to plan for and deliver a range of maintenance techniques to sweep, clean, decompact, replace and repair artificial turf carpets and infills. Validation of these techniques has yet to be comprehensively undertaken and reported. The authors have collaborated with an industry maintenance provider over a 4 year period focussed on measuring the effectiveness of common maintenance practice. This paper aims to present an overview of the data and outcomes of detailed studies into power-sweeping, decompaction, and decontamination, in light of temporal pitch monitoring of changes in play performance. The field data provide a unique insight into the short-term and long-term benefits of these intervention processes. The data permit quantitative analysis of key issues such as: the build-up of contamination that clogs infill and can lead to surface flooding; compaction of infill under player loading and how this affects the system hardness; and how loss of fibre resilience influences ball roll behaviour. The results demonstrate that, for example, the monthly power-brushing of a surface may effectively reduce the rate of build-up of contamination by more than 1% per year. This alone can potentially add several years' playing life to a sand-filled pitch before costly deep cleaning or removal of the contaminated infill is required

Maintenance of artificial turf-putting research into practice

© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Artificial turf is successfully utilized around the world for many sports and many levels of performance and competition requirement. Quality assurance systems for elite and community level demand effective maintenance programmes to ensure adequate play performance, with increasing regulation and auditing in the UK. Past research is, however, very limited in this important aspect of artificial turf science. Practical experience is relied upon to plan for and deliver a range of maintenance techniques to sweep, clean, decompact, replace and repair artificial turf carpets and infills. Validation of these techniques has yet to be comprehensively undertaken and reported. The authors have collaborated with an industry maintenance provider over a 4 year period focussed on measuring the effectiveness of common maintenance practice. This paper aims to present an overview of the data and outcomes of detailed studies into power-sweeping, decompaction, and decontamination, in light of temporal pitch monitoring of changes in play performance. The field data provide a unique insight into the short-term and long-term benefits of these intervention processes. The data permit quantitative analysis of key issues such as: the build-up of contamination that clogs infill and can lead to surface flooding; compaction of infill under player loading and how this affects the system hardness; and how loss of fibre resilience influences ball roll behaviour. The results demonstrate that, for example, the monthly power-brushing of a surface may effectively reduce the rate of build-up of contamination by more than 1% per year. This alone can potentially add several years' playing life to a sand-filled pitch before costly deep cleaning or removal of the contaminated infill is required

sj-pdf-1-gut-10.1177_26345161231173643 – Supplemental material for Symptom Profile, Proton Pump Inhibitor Therapy, and Diagnostic Testing in Patients With Persistent Reflux-Like Symptoms: Results From a Population-Based Survey

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-gut-10.1177_26345161231173643 for Symptom Profile, Proton Pump Inhibitor Therapy, and Diagnostic Testing in Patients With Persistent Reflux-Like Symptoms: Results From a Population-Based Survey by David Armstrong, Sachin Srinivasan, Ceciel Rooker, Paul Sinclair, Emily Taylor and Prateek Sharma in Foregut: The Journal of the American Foregut Society</p

sj-pptx-2-gut-10.1177_26345161231173643 – Supplemental material for Symptom Profile, Proton Pump Inhibitor Therapy, and Diagnostic Testing in Patients With Persistent Reflux-Like Symptoms: Results From a Population-Based Survey

Supplemental material, sj-pptx-2-gut-10.1177_26345161231173643 for Symptom Profile, Proton Pump Inhibitor Therapy, and Diagnostic Testing in Patients With Persistent Reflux-Like Symptoms: Results From a Population-Based Survey by David Armstrong, Sachin Srinivasan, Ceciel Rooker, Paul Sinclair, Emily Taylor and Prateek Sharma in Foregut</p

Temperature-Dependent Electric Field-Induced Optical Transitions of 2D Molybdenum Disulfide (MoS₂) Thin Films: Temperature-Dependent Electroabsorption and Absorption

Two-dimensional (2D) layered MoS2 nanosheets (NSs) possess many unique properties and hold great potential for various applications. Herein, MoS2 NSs were synthesized by a hydrothermal method. The as-synthesized MoS2 NSs are crystalline and layered. Absorption and electroabsorption (E-A) spectra of MoS2 doped in a poly­(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) thin film were measured at different temperatures (290–40 K). The E-A spectra detected at the second harmonic of the modulation frequency of the applied electric field were analyzed using an integral method by considering the Stark effect as a dominant feature. The absorption spectra consist of seven transitions, among which five transitions are contributed to the E-A spectra. It is found that the changes in the electric dipole moment and polarizability of each transition determined at different temperatures increase substantially with decreasing temperature. Electronic resonance states identified for low-energy excitonic bands of MoS2 NSs showed prominence E-A signals. The study is essential to understand the electronic structure in the photoexcited state, which is important for applications of MoS2 NSs to optoelectronic devices

The <i>estA2</i> promoter is repressed by H-NS.

<p>A) The panel shows different P<i>estA2::lacZ</i> fusions. The <i>lacZ</i> gene is shown as a red arrow and the <i>estA2</i> gene is shown as a blue arrow. P<i>estA2</i> is illustrated using a bent arrow and the CRP binding site is shown as an orange box. B) H-NS binds to P<i>estA2</i> only in the presence of flanking DNA. ChIP-PCR was used to measure binding of H-NS to the different P<i>estA2</i> derivatives cloned in pRW50. PCR products were generated using primers that could detect P<i>estA2</i> in the context of both the 93 bp fragment and the longer 460 bp fragment. C) The values are β-galactsidase activity values for lysates of M182, or M182Δ<i>hns</i>, carrying the different P<i>estA2</i> derivatives. Assays were done in LB medium.</p

An osmo-metabolic gene regulatory circuit comprised of CRP and H-NS controls expression of LT and ST.

<p>The diagram illustrates the regulatory effects of salt, cAMP and glucose on transcription from the various ST and LT promoter regions.</p

The <i>estA2</i> promoter is activated by a Class I CRP dependent mechanism.

<p>A) Sequence of the <i>estA2</i> gene regulatory region. The CRP binding site is shown in orange, the UP element is blue and the promoter -10 and -35 elements are shown in purple. The different promoter positions are numbered relative to the transcription start site (+1). B) Location of the P<i>estA2</i> transcription start site. The gel shows the product of an mRNA primer extension analysis to determine the <i>estA2</i> transcription start site (Lane 5). The gel was calibrated using arbitrary size standards (A, C, G and T in Lanes 1–4). C) Binding of CRP to P<i>estA2</i>. The panel shows the result of a DNAse I footprint to monitor binding of CRP to the 93 bp P<i>estA2</i> DNA fragment. The gel is calibrated with a Maxim-Gilbert DNA sequencing reaction. CRP was added at concentrations of 0.35–2.1 µM. D) CRP is required for transcription from P<i>estA2 in vivo</i>. The panel shows a cartoon representation of the 93 bp P<i>estA2::lacZ</i> fusion and a bar chart illustrates LacZ activity in lysates of cells carrying this fusion. Assays were done in LB medium. E) i) Stimulation of P<i>estA2</i> by CRP <i>in vitro</i>. The figure shows the results of an <i>in vitro</i> transcription reaction. The 112 nt transcript initiates from P<i>estA2</i> and the 108 nt RNAI transcript is an internal control. CRP was added at a concentration of 350 nM and RNA polymerase was added at a concentration of 400 nM. ii) quantification of band intensities from the <i>in vitro</i> transcription analysis.</p

Unoccupied CRP sites on p666 and p948 align with H-NS bound regions.

<p>A) A histogram showing the number of putative CRP binding sites in each of 7 discrete bins. Each bin is delineated by the “score” of the putative CRP site. A high score indicates a better match to the Position Weight Matrix that represents the consensus for CRP binding. B) The graph illustrates binding of CRP to a target from each of the bins shown in Panel A. CRP was used at concentrations of 0, 175, 350 or 700 nM. C) ChIP-seq data for CRP and H-NS binding at five regions of plasmids p666 and p948 that contain unoccupied CRP targets bound by CRP <i>in vitro</i>. The CRP and H-NS binding profiles are plots of sequence read counts at each position of the genome on both the top (above the central line) and bottom (below the central line) strand of the DNA. The y-axis scale is the same in each panel. The scale for H-NS binding is 1,785 reads on each strand and for CRP binding is 14,000 reads on each strand.</p

Modulation of <i>estA2</i> and <i>eltA</i> transcription during attachment of ETEC E24377A to gut epithelial cells.

<p>A) The figure shows β-galactosidase activity measurements for lysates obtained from cultures of M182 or the Δ<i>hns</i> and Δ<i>crp</i> derivatives containing P<i>estA2</i> (460 bp fragment) or P<i>eltAB</i> (1126 bp fragment) from ETEC 24377A fused to <i>lacZ</i> in plasmid pRW50. B) The panel shows log₂ fold changes in the transcription of <i>crp</i>, <i>hns</i>, <i>eltA</i> and <i>estA</i> in ETEC E24377A cells over a two hour incubation with a Caco-2 intestinal epithelial cell culture (29). The log₂ values represent the fold change in transcription between ETEC cells attached and unattached to Caco-2 cells at each time point. C) The panel shows a scatter plot of absolute <i>crp</i> and <i>estA2</i> mRNA levels in ETEC E24377A attached to Caco-2 intestinal epithelial cells. Each data point represents a different biological replicate. For each data point the absolute level of <i>hns</i> mRNA is shown in parenthesis. D) The panel shows the survival rate of BALB/C mice (n = 30) after intranasal inoculation with wild type ETEC H10407 or the Δ<i>crp</i> derivative.</p