INTERACTION BETWEEN THE POLE AND THE HUMAN BODY AND ITS EFFECT ON THE POLE VAULTING PERFORMANCE

The purposes of this study were: (a) to examine the utilization of pole elasticity by the athletes through muscular work and to develope performance criteria throughout the pole vault and (b) to examine the reproducibility and the athlete's specificity of the developed criteria. In the study, 6 athletes performed from 4 to 11 trials each, at 90% of their respective personal best performance. All trials were recorded using four synchronized, genlocked video cameras operating at 50 Hz. The ground reaction forces exerted on the bottom of the pole were measured using a planting box fixed on a kistler force plate (1000 Hz). The interaction between athlete and pole may be split into two parts. During the first part of the interaction, energy is transferred into the pole and the total energy of the athlete decreases. The difference between the energy decrease of the athlete and the pole energy indicates if the athletes are producing additional energy by means of muscular work (criterion 1). In the second part of the interaction, energy is transferred back to the athlete and the total energy of the athlete increases. The difference between the returned pole energy and the amount of energy increase of the athlete defines criterion 2. The criteria are reproducible, specific to each athlete, capable of identifying deficits or strengths of the athlete's performance during his interaction with the pole; they can therefore estimate the quality of the technique during each of the phases of the interaction athlete-pole

Infrared study of the charge-ordered multiferroic LuFe(2)O(4)

The reflectivity of a large LuFe(2)O(4) single crystal has been measured with the radiation field either perpendicular or parallel to the c axis of its rhombohedral structure, from 10 to 500K, and from 7 to 16000 cm-1. The transition between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional charge order at T_(CO) = 320 K is found to change dramatically the phonon spectrum in both polarizations. The number of the observed modes above and below T_(CO), according to a factor-group analysis, is in good agreement with a transition from the rhombohedral space group R{bar 3}m to the monoclinic C2/m. In the sub-THz region a peak becomes evident at low temperature, whose origin is discussed in relation with previous experiments.Comment: Physical Review B in pres

MEN'S AND WOMEN'S POLE VAULT AT THE SYDNEY 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES WITH RESPECT TO MECHANICAL ENERGY AND ANGULAR MOMENTUM

The purpose of this study was to identify differences between male and female pole vaulters with regard to the athlete's mechanical energy and angular momentum on elite level. On the basis of 3-D kinematic data of the pole vault finals at the Sydney Olympic Games the athlete's mechanical energy and angular momentum have been calculated. The development of the total, kinetic and potential energy shows similar characteristics for men and women. The initial energy of the vault, the energy at maximum pole bend position and the final energy are significantly higher for male athletes, while the energy gain produced by the athletes during the vault shows no significant differences. The angular momentum is higher for the female vaulters during the initial pole bend and the bar clearance

The Gravitational Lens CFRS03.1077

An exquisite gravitational arc with a radius of 2.1" has been discovered around the z = 0.938 field elliptical galaxy CFRS03.1077 during HST observations of Canada-France Redshift Survey (CFRS) fields. Spectroscopic observations of the arc show that the redshift of the resolved lensed galaxy is z = 2.941. This gravitational lens-source system is well-fitted using the position angle and ellipticity derived from the visible matter distribution and an isothermal mass profile with a mass corresponding to sigma =387+-5 km/s. Surprisingly, given the evidence for passive evolution of elliptical galaxies, this is in good agreement with an estimate based on the fundamental plane for z = 0 ellipticals. This, perhaps, indicates that this galaxy has not shared in the significant evolution observed for average elliptical galaxies at z ~ 1. A second elliptical galaxy with similar luminosity from the CFRS survey, CFRS 14.1311 at z=0.807, is also a lens but in this case the lens model gives a much smaller mass-to-light ratio, i.e., it appears to confirm the expected evolution. This suggests that this pair of field elliptical galaxies may have very different evolutionary histories, a significant result if confirmed. Clearly, CFRS03.1077 demonstrates that these "Einstein rings" are powerful probes of high redshift galaxies.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Ap.

Infrared and transport properties of LuFe2O4 under electric fields

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Half adder capabilities of a coupled quantum dot device

We gratefully acknowledge nancial support from the European Union (FPVII, 2007- 2013) under grant agreement no 256959 NANOPOWER and grant agreement no 318287 LANDAUER as well as from the state of Bavaria.In this paper we demonstrate two realizations of a half adder based on a voltage-rectifying mechanism involving two Coulomb-coupled quantum dots. First, we examine the ranges of operation of the half adder's individual elements, the AND and XOR gates, for a single rectifying device. It allows a switching between the two gates by a control voltage and thus enables a clocked half adder operation. The logic gates are shown to be reliably operative in a broad noise amplitude range with negligible error probabilities. Subsequently, we study the implementation of the half adder in a combined double-device consisting of two individually tunable rectifiers. We show that this double device allows a simultaneous operation of both relevant gates at once. The presented devices draw their power solely from electronic fluctuations and are therefore an advancement in the field of energy efficient and autonomous electronics.PostprintPeer reviewe

Direct Catalytic Route to Biomass-Derived 2,5-Furandicarboxylic Acid and Its Use as Monomer in a Multicomponent Polymerization

Efficient synthesis of valuable platform chemicals from renewable feedstock is a challenging, yet essential strategy for developing technologies that are both economical and sustainable. In the present study, we investigated the synthesis of 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) in a two-step catalytic process starting from sucrose as largely available biomass feedstock. In the first step, 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF) was synthesized by hydrolysis and dehydration of sucrose using sulfuric acid in a continuous reactor in 34% yield. In a second step, the resulting reaction solution was directly oxidized to FDCA without further purification over a Au/ZrO$_{2}$ catalyst with 84% yield (87% selectivity, batch process), corresponding to 29% overall yield with respect to sucrose. This two-step process could afford the production of pure FDCA after the respective extraction/crystallization despite the impure intermediate HMF solution. To demonstrate the direct application of the biomass-derived FDCA as monomer, the isolated product was used for Ugi-multicomponent polymerizations, establishing a new application possibility for FDCA. In the future, this efficient two-step process strategy toward FDCA should be extended to further renewable feedstock

A major electronics upgrade for the H.E.S.S. Cherenkov telescopes 1-4

The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) is an array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) located in the Khomas Highland in Namibia. It consists of four 12-m telescopes (CT1-4), which started operations in 2003, and a 28-m diameter one (CT5), which was brought online in 2012. It is the only IACT system featuring telescopes of different sizes, which provides sensitivity for gamma rays across a very wide energy range, from ~30 GeV up to ~100 TeV. Since the camera electronics of CT1-4 are much older than the one of CT5, an upgrade is being carried out; first deployment was in 2015, full operation is planned for 2016. The goals of this upgrade are threefold: reducing the dead time of the cameras, improving the overall performance of the array and reducing the system failure rate related to aging. Upon completion, the upgrade will assure the continuous operation of H.E.S.S. at its full sensitivity until and possibly beyond the advent of CTA. In the design of the new components, several CTA concepts and technologies were used and are thus being evaluated in the field: The upgraded read-out electronics is based on the NECTAR readout chips; the new camera front- and back-end control subsystems are based on an FPGA and an embedded ARM computer; the communication between subsystems is based on standard Ethernet technologies. These hardware solutions offer good performance, robustness and flexibility. The design of the new cameras is reported here.Comment: Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, 30 July- 6 August, 2015, The Hague, The Netherland